A/N: First off:

HOLY JEEVAS THIS WAS A LONG CHAPTER TO WRITE!!!

Yeah, I actually had to write most of this recently. I only had it pre-written up until Mello's shpeel about "Too bad". Sorry it took so long!! Let me know if anything doesn't make sense. I speed wrote a lot of it, then had my 9 year old sister proof read it, so...

Enjoy!!

~~~~One week later~~~~

"Mello, could you please get the mail?" Roger called from another room. Mello nodded.
He picked up the bundle of letters and sorted through them. 'Bills, bills, more bills, something for Roger, something for-' He stopped.
There were two white envelopes with the names 'Near' and 'Mello' written on them. 'Huh. Something for us.'

"Toy Boy! You've got mail!" Mello shouted, running down the hallways. The short, white haired boy looked up from his Legos.
"Really? Who is it from?"
Mello looked down at the white envelope. "It doesn't say." He tore his letter open, Near doing the same, just more carefully and precisely. Mello's envelope fell to the floor as he gasped.

Mello,

I'm not sure when you'll get this – I've never tried to send letters to England from Japan.

My time in this world is limited. There is a 99% chance I will not return from this case.

As one of my top possible successors, I want you to know; I don't want you – Or Near, for that matter - working on this case.

But, as L, one of you will have to.

I want you to know – I love you both. Tell Matt I love him, too.

You two were the only ones who got letters.

Be well, don't kill anyone,

~L

Mello dropped the letter. It didn't hit the ground, though. Near grabbed the paper as it fluttered through the air.

"Mine is quite similar. The first two lines are the same. It replaces your name with mine, and vice versa. And the whole Matt part isn't in there." Near said, clutching his letter to his chest. "It also says 'Be well, make friends' instead of 'Don't kill anyone'."

Mello looked back at his letter, now in Near's arms as well. At the top right corner, it said:

November fourth, 2004

"Day before he died. It took to long to get here."

"That's too bad." Near said, sitting back down to his Legos.

"Too bad? The great L, whom we've been striving to be like, my hero, just died, and all you have to say about it is 'Too bad'?!" Mello said angrily.

"I apologize for my apparent lack of caring. I am genuinely distraught by this unfavorable turn of events."

Ever since the episode the previous week, Near, apparently making up for his huge surge of emotions during the funeral, had been even more articulate and stoic than usual, if that was even possible. Mello fumed, his attempts at remaining calm completely failing.

"I hate it when you do that," Mello said, kneeling down and rather forcefully grasping the arm Near was bringing up to twirl his hair. The boy looked slightly shaken for a moment, then replaced the look with another blank face.

"I do not understand what it is that I'm doing that is upsetting you, Mello."

Mello could feel the boy struggling slightly, almost imperceptibly, against his grip. He smirked.

"Why in L's name do you gotta be this way?!"

"Have to." Near stated. His attempts to reclaim his arm increased.

"You have to be that way? Why?" This was news. At least Mello was getting somewhere this time.

"No, thats not correct. I was simply correcting a minor grammatical error in your way of speech."

Mello took his unoccupied hand, slamming it into his forehead. As if I didn't know that! "Then why, Near? And be honest with me, because I do actually know when you lie to me."

Near opened his mouth as if to say something, then, deciding against it, shut it again. He blinked slowly, and finally opened his mouth again.

"Put simply, it is a precaution created to ensure that I am not harmed emotionally or physically. If I am to become L – which, as Roger has informed me, has a possibility of over seventy-five percent – I can not allow what happened last week to ever happen again. It would be far too compromising." His eyes were slightly downcast, though you could only tell if you really knew him.

"To ensure that you are not harmed? What kind of wussy excuse is that?! Listen," Mello started, calming down as much as he could. Breathe in, breathe out, you are a tall person, remember to breathe. He's only a stupid child, and you're older, so you should... what? Teach him?

Mello sighed again, looking away. "Look. You ever thought that maybe by making yourself all apathetic like that, you're actually compromising yourself more?"

Near raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to the side. "Would Mello mind elaborating?"

"Well, think of it this way," He started, not entirely sure where this was going. "What if, as L, you were working on some minor case where a man murders his wife, and willingly gets caught. I know, this is simple – even Linda coulda figured it out – but bear with me. Pretend it's a difficult case. You find out that he killed her because she was being harassed by some other man, and he'd rather her die than see another man touching her. He lets himself get arrested because he knows full well that what he did was wrong. Does this make sense?" Near nodded, slightly uncertainly.

"Good. But, if I had simply given you the evidence and not spelled it all out for you, would you have been able to figure it out, with you and all your apathy? How could you have known how, when you're in love, you act like an insane person? Or, what if, somebody robbed a bank. Maybe they did it to pay for their daughter's college application?! If you've never known love, what can you do?" Mello stopped, out of breath. Near looked up, left hand at his hair. He pulled his arm from Mello's grip, and this time the blond let it go willingly.

After what seemed like ages of silence, Near finally spoke.

"May Mello please leave now? I need some time to think."

Mello nodded, standing. He began to walk away, collecting his letter and envelope. He paused at the doorway when the boy began to speak again.

"You're incorrect in your assumptions, Mello."

The blond boy turned. "...What?"

Near looked up, eyes locking directly with Mello's.

"I have loved. Do love, will love." The pale boy blinked, seemingly to hold back tears. "No matter what you do, what I do, what happens. I will always love..." He trailed off, yet not dropping his firm gaze. Near stood up, walking slowly over to Mello, who had seemingly gone into some sort of shock. Slowly, he uncertainly wrapped his arms around the older boy's neck, pulling them both together into a very awkward embrace.

"Make..." Mello started, voice soft, muffled against Near's hair. His arms began to slowly make their way around the boy's back. "Make me a promise."

Near pulled back slightly. "What is it?"

"Promise me you'll still love me, no matter what."

"Did I not already make clear that I will?"

Mello shook his head. "Swear it. Right now."

Near buried his face back into Mello's shoulder, lifting it slightly and standing on his tip-toes. "I, Nate River, swear on my life that I will forever and always truly and deeply love Mello-"

"Mihael Keehl." Mello cut in.

"-truly and deeply love Mello, Mihael Keehl, Chocolate Boy, and all his other strange nicknames." Near looked back into Mello's eyes, light-gray meeting green-blue. "Always."

Without hesitating as he had before, Mello very gently leaned closer to the boy, pressing their lips together. Near's eyes widened, then closed, as he pushed himself closer to the blond. When they finally released each other, Mello turned away, walking back toward the door.

"Mello?" Near said quietly. Mello swung his head around. "You dropped your envelope. Do you want it?"

He shook his head. "No thanks. I don't really need it." He took two steps forward, then stopped. "Hey Near?"

"Yes, Mello?"

"Always."

And with that, he was gone.

That was the last time Near saw Mello at the orphanage. There was a note book page on his bed the next morning, and he wondered how he'd slept through the intruder placing it there. The younger assumed that the older had decided that, as Near was now L, there was no longer room for him.

When they finally met again, Mello had apparently completely disregarded L's plea in his letter. He had killed many, many people. And he certainly wasn't well. And when the blond boy, now sporting a scar over the left side of his face, burst into the SPK headquarters that day, many years later, Near had still not broken his promise.

He was beginning to believe that Mello had too, until suddenly, without any warning and only a slight smirk, he strategically placed the word "Always" into the conversation. He could have used several other words, but the fact that he had used that specific one meant that he still did love Near. Through all the blind hatred and rage, he still loved Near.

Near had accepted L's request, however. He had made a friend. And he still kept the envelope with the name "Mello" scrawled across it in perfect handwriting, black ink, in his bedside drawer, beneath a copy of a photo of the boy and the notebook page Near had found. It had a single word printed on it in red Sharpie.

Always.

A/N: Well, there you go, the end!! Hope you liked, and, please, if you read, review!! I don't care if you thought the chapter was shiz, I wanna know what you guys think!!

~Aura