Disclaimer: Same as always. You know it. If not, look on the other chapters.

On a side note, so no confusion ensues, I will soon be changing my penname from Bloodstains to some variation of "Comma." So it's still me. Just with a new penname :)

"L!"

The young detective was run in to by a blond-haired boy clad in all black clothing before his red-haired friend could stop him from doing so. Mello was a bit more frantic than was usual for him, which was saying a lot. What was really strange was that Matt wasn't even playing the handheld game system he had with him, and he wasn't laughing at Mello's anxiousness. He looked just as worried. Mello started babbling incoherently the second L realized that something strange was going on.

"You've got to help us or we're going to be killed– new kid– freaking psycho, threatened to hang us upside down by our intestines – intestines! – not directly I mean, but still, that's not good and–"

"Alright– slow down– and please stop poking me, that's not getting you anywhere– quiet for a moment."

Mello shut his mouth immediately. He opened it again, but only to take a bite of chocolate. L wondered just how much chocolate Mello had ingested that day. It was obviously far too much, judging by how much he was twitching from attempting to stand still. It would probably be best not to ask….

"Matt," L said. "What's he talking about?"

"About a week or a week and a half ago, new girl got put in here. Mello seems to think she's out to get him –"

"She is, you heard what she said about hanging–"

"Yes, I heard it too, now shut up. As I was saying, Mello thinks she's out to get him because her IQ was matched to about the same as Near's." At the mention of such a terrible name, Mello rolled his eyes and gave an annoyed sigh. "Couple days ago, Mello said… er… something that made her really mad and they went to war. Now she is out to get him. They called a truce, but Mello went nuts when she completed 'stage three' of her revenge..." This coaxed a mumble of "tainted chocolate" from the blond, along with an eye-twitch, "and attempted to kill her – lucky she's fast, or she probably would be dead. Because she lied to Roger about what Mello said to start the whole mess and make it seem less serious, they were only sentenced to two weeks of dishwashing. Then Mello went and ate half of his chocolate stash last night. Everyone knows what happens to him when he has that much chocolate in his system. Random planning without any thought about consequences. I'm dead scared to go against him when he's twitching like a homicidal maniac, so I agreed to help him with his plan."

"Which was?" L almost didn't want to know.

"Well, he decided that when she went downstairs before everyone else, we'd sneak into her room and steal her prank stuff. It was in a drawer in her dresser, and he loaded it all into a box, had me take it back into our room. And he then randomly decided that refilling the drawer with socks would be funny. We were looking through the stuff, and it was mostly prank stuff, that's actually all we thought it was, and I helped, but there turned out to be a few other things. More important things. Things that would set any sane person to homicidal-maniac mode. She figured out immediately that it was missing and asked about it through the wall, since her room's right next to ours. I lied and said Mello was asleep and I heard someone in her room but I thought it was her. So then she threatened to kill whoever did it. By hanging them by their own intestines from a window or something like that."

L nodded. "What exactly was in the drawer?"

"Fireworks," Mello said. "Type of shit that could scare Roger into tossing her out of here. Mostly just random things for different sorts of pranks. Then there was a notebook with notes on guitar things – that's what made this place look into her, she's really musically inclined apparently – and it was a journal in the back – which we didn't read," he added quickly. "That wasn't half as interesting as the letter, though, but I was honestly afraid to read that."

"Was weird," Matt agreed, nodding and leaning against the wall in the entrance hall. "Had bloody fingerprints all over it. Probably had to do with what happened for her to get put in here. Probably why she wants to kill us."

"But she doesn't know it's you two who did this?"

"Right," Matt and Mello said at the same time.

"Alright," L said. "First of all, you're both idiots. You don't break into people's rooms and take their things. That's common sense, which you both should have."

"I was afraid of getting my limbs torn off by a chocolate-high maniac!" Matt protested.

"You probably could have talked him out of it." Matt shrugged. "Second," he continued, "where did you hide it?"

"Matt's closet," Mello said. "In a box."

"You could sneak back in and replace the socks with the original contents of that drawer, but f you do it that way, there would still be a very high chance she would catch you. That would make her angrier than if you actually told her."

Mello laughed nervously. "Not me. If I tell her that I did it, I'll probably get my head knocked off with a guitar."

"You? I already lied about it!" Matt said.

"Alright, she's going to kill us both, alright?"

"Okay. Yeah. That makes more sense. So then, who's telling her what we did?"

"You."

"No!"

L listened to the two argue over who was "going to get killed first" for a minute. It was presumable that this was going to be a fun stay at his old "home." After a minute, Matt and Mello had resorted to the first idea that L hadn't really meant to give them.

"Alright, it's settled," Mello said. "We'll sneak back into her room the next time she isn't there and we know it. Then, we'll put all of her stuff back and she'll never have to know what happened."

"Good plan," Matt agreed.

L sighed and decided to leave them to their planning. He already needed coffee after five minutes with those two. He managed to sneak away from them and into the kitchens, only to find that the coffee maker was already in use by someone else. That was somewhat annoying. The situation turned somewhat scary when said someone turned around at the sound of footsteps behind her and pointed a guitar at him like a lethal weapon. After a moment of silent examination, she lowered the guitar, and then turned back to the coffee maker.

"Me disculpo."

Well, at least she had apologized… but in Spanish? She didn't look Spanish. Judging by the guitar, this was most likely the girl that Matt and Mello had been referring to; the one that was going to kill them. It was no wonder Mello was afraid for his life. Granted, she was fairly short and only looked to be about twelve or so years old, but judging by the way he had just had that guitar pointed at him, L assumed it was possible that Mello might actually end up getting his head knocked off by it eventually.

"Está bien," L replied.

"¿Usted es multilingüe?" She poured coffee into a cup and waited for a response. It was amazing she could hold the coffee pot still enough to do so with how her hands were twitching.

"Sí…" The conversation was getting stranger by the second, mostly just do to the fact that it was in a different language than he was used to speaking around the orphanage.

"Veo."

She moved over and set the coffee pot on the counter and reached to a jar labeled with an S. L moved cautiously to the counter near where she had set the coffee pot, not particularly keen on getting a guitar pointed at him like a gun again. She reached into the jar and pulled out a rather large handful of sugar cubes. She examined them for a moment as though to count them, and dropped them all into her cup.

This had to be L. Christie was confident that she had done quite well in scaring the ever-loving crap out of him. Scaring people was fun, after all. What better way to scare a person than randomly conversing in a language that wasn't one's native language? He definitely seemed unnerved. This might not have been because of the whole Spanish-speak thing, though. It could have easily been because of the fact that she had pointed her guitar when she heard someone coming up behind her, which she had only done because she thought it was Mello. That stupid blond chocoholic had made her more paranoid than she had ever been before in her entire life. Granted, the coffee couldn't be helping her much, judging by how much she had started twitching about three cups ago, but she liked coffee. A lot.

"You do speak in English, don't you?" L asked.

She whipped her head back over to his direction, rather than out into space where it had been previously pointed. It had been a little faster than she had intended, as she had felt her neck crack rather painfully when she did so.

"Obviously," she said. "I don't believe that I particularly look like a Maria, and I definitely hope that I don't look like a Carlos. I'm assuming you're L?"

"Yes," he said. "Is there any particular reason you attempted to impale me with your guitar?"

She looked down at the guitar, and then lifted up the cup of coffee to her lips. She drained nearly half the cup in one large gulp, despite the fact that there was still steam billowing off the surface of the liquid. It did burn a bit… okay, maybe a lot, but it was coffee. Coffee was good.

"Do you know Mello?"

"Yes."

"I heard footsteps and thought he was attempting to sneak up on me. You're lucky I hadn't started on this cup yet, or you'd probably have been knocked on the floor by my… er… weapon." She held up her guitar to indicate what she was talking about, even though L probably already knew. "I don't particularly get along with Mr. Inferiority Complex. Or Miss. I'm not sure; the hair kind of puzzles me."

"Then you're the one he thinks is out to get him?"

"That would be me," she said cheerfully. She backed up to the counter behind her, set her guitar against it, and sat on the counter. "Name's Christie. Not my real name, but I'm not s'posed to tell anyone my real name according to Roger. Mello apparently thinks that I somehow cheated on an IQ test that I wasn't even aware I was going to be taken until it was handed to me."

"Mello can be like that," he said, dropping nearly twice as many sugar cubes into his coffee as she had. It was excusable. Judging by the insanely-crazy eye bags, he most likely needed it.

"What, you mean stupid?"

"Not… exactly, no. You can't really be stupid with an IQ over two hundred…"

"Unless your name is 'Mello.'"

Christie decided it would be wise to get along with Mello and Matt for long enough to figure out what Roger needed to so urgently speak with L and Watari, by listening through the door of Roger's office. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. When Roger needed to talk to them 'urgently' about something, it was always an interesting conversation. The last time, it had pertained to the subject of Near locking himself in his room for two weeks after Mello had attempted to kill him. Mello would have bet his entire chocolate stash, and Matt would have similarly bet all of his game systems and videogames, that this had to do with Christie.

"I somehow doubt either of you know what this is about," Roger said with a sigh. "There is a new child here at the orphanage, a girl who has decided to go by Christie. She was looked at first because of her musical aptitude, and the scores of her IQ test were higher than anyone's here, thirteen points above the previous number one here."

Mello made an irritated noise as he listened. Matt elbowed him.

"Quiet!" he whispered. "We're dead if they hear us out here!"

"Both of you shush," Christie whispered, sensing an argument. "Listen."

"That is why it is a regret to say that I believe this orphanage needs to be rid of her." Christie gulped – that didn't sound good. "Mello's rivalry against her is twice as bad as with Near's. This is because Near had enough common sense not to attempt to make any moves against Mello in return. Christie has. The girl has been swiping things from around the orphanage to store away and be used as tools for playing jokes on anyone who bothers her, apparently. It would be a pity to transfer someone as smart, but it doesn't appear she has any friends or acquaintances yet. Mello would refuse to leave unless he was transferred with his friend Matt, and that would be a loss of two of the smartest here, rather than only one."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

"Roger," L said finally, "I believe you aren't taking into account what will happen if she is transferred."

"Oh?"

"Every orphanage in the world like this one will have a child with an attitude similar to Mello's. That is unavoidable. She would continue to be transferred until she was, again, here. Would there be any point served in that?"

"There is no other way to separate her from Mello, L."

"May I remind you that your word isn't the final word?"

"Oh, sick burn," Christie whispered, suppressing a laugh as she imagined the look on Roger's face. She was immediately shushed by Mello, who she elbowed in the stomach in response.

"Watari's decision is final, as he is the owner of this orphanage," L said. "You are only substituting as caretaker in his absence."

"Y-yes, I am aware of that. Watari, sir," Roger said, "what is your opinion?"

"I believe we should consult both Mello and Christie before making any kind of decision of this nature. If they are basically civil, then I will survey them durring my week long stay to see how they act around each other and the other children."

"We already know how Mello acts," Roger said.

"Yes, and we will see if the two of them act any differently towards each other than towards others. Once the week is over, I will give you my decision and further instruction. Is there anything else you needed to discuss?"

"No, sir. That was all."

"They're leaving," Mello said quietly. "Now's the best time to get the hell away before we get caught."

They managed to escape back upstairs before L, Watari, or Roger could figure out they were listening through the door. They all stopped by Christie's door.

"What now?" Matt said, looking from Mello to Christie. "If we don't do something, then someone's going to end up transferred somewhere else."

"There's one of two things going on here," she said, opening her door. "They'll be coming up here in a minute, so hurry up and get in. We've got planning to do."

With an exchanged look of confusion and a shrug, they went in through the opened door. She walked in after them.

"Keep your voices down, you never know who could be listening," she added quietly. "First off – I'm going to ask this directly, and I want an honest answer – do you two have anything to do with the things that went missing out of my room? You won't be hung by your intestines from anywhere if you tell the truth right now."

Mello gulped audibly, but managed to nod. Matt looked at Mello oddly – he'd never seen Mello actually look remotely afraid before. It was kind of funny, but the fact that both of their lives were in danger quickly cut out the hilarity of the situation.

"I said you won't be hung by your intestines, calm down." She sat down in front of her bed. "Sit." They both also sat on the floor. "I'm aware you just thought you were stealing everything I could use against you, so I'm not overly angry. But did you read anything you shouldn't have?"

"No," Mello said.

"Almost, but no."

"Good. I trust you won't in the next week. I'm sure you can guess what will happen if you do."

"W-wait," Mello said, "what do you mean, 'in the next week?' We've got to give it back, so wouldn't it be easier to –"

"Not while we're being monitored," she said. "And keep your voice down. If you're being monitored when you return it, then they'll know you took it in the first place, which will be a mark against both of us. We have to be extremely careful."

"Yeah," Mello agreed.

"That doesn't mean we have to act friendly with each other. You heard what Roger said; this place already knows what you're like. That means they know you have an inferiority complex –"

"I do not!"

"– that you're generally aggressive –"

"No I'm not."

"– and that you contradict everything."

"Do not."

"Yes you do," Matt agreed. "You just disagreed with everything she said."

"That's because she's full of shit!"

"Keep quiet," she said impatiently. "You're going to have to act like you normally would. As no one really knows anything about me, I'll have to act differently. I know for a fact that I'm competitive, so I'll have to not be competitive. I can't be playing any jokes on you, or L and Watari will know that Roger isn't full of shit. We'll want to be basically civil with each other, but with a fairly regular amount of arguing so it seems more realistic, considering you argue with everyone–"

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"Do not!"

"See? You're arguing right now."

"Am not."

"There's a problem with that plan," Matt said suddenly, interrupting the ensuing argument. They both looked at him. "We… er… well, see, L already knows that we were the ones who stole the stuff."

"Shit…. That is a problem."

"I don't think he'll tell Watari or Roger about it – especially not Roger," Mello said. "But Watari's really smart, so there's a chance he could figure everything out himself. A high chance."

"We've still got to keep with our plan. We're going to be interviewed, probably separately, so we've got to make sure we don't say anything incriminating. That includes the fact that any of the three of us were listening outside the door. Of course, if a slight suspicion I have is right, then that won't do any good at all."

"What's that?"

"I think there's a chance they might have known we were going to listen."