A/N: So here it is, guys, the last chapter! Yay...? O_O

I am sorta sad to see it go...but I finished writing it ages ago, so I got over it! XP I hope y'all who enjoy fluff like the ending. (There's a tiny hint for you)

Btw, I heard about this miracle exfoliant called Cure. Apparently it's the #1 Bestseller in Japan, with 1 sold every 20 seconds. I know, Jesus...

Anyways, I was looking to buy it on the Internet, seeing as I like looking after my face, but I have ridiculously sensitive skin, and other exfoliants make my face really dry, but the cheapest bottle I saw was £43.00. FORTY-THREE? ...No. I may treasure my skin, but not that much. I'm a cheapskate, I know. But seriously. Just thought I'd share that with all of you for no reason! XD

I'm currently working on (very slowly) a ByaRen fic for Bleach, which probably won't interest any of you that much, but I'll almost definitely write another fic for Death Note, so if you lot watch out for that, I will be a very happy bunny!

A sort of okay response to last chapter...nothing to freak out about, either way. Thank you hugely to:

DarkAngelJudas

Rainbow Fruit Loop

7millionduckies

and SilenceShouting! They all reviewed, so pretty good, right! X3

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note. Awww... *puppy pout*

Chapter Seven: Debilitating Misunderstandings

Mello looked at Matt in annoyance. Near looked at Matt in mild confusion. Matt looked at the two and immediately burst into raucous laughter.

"Gah!" Mello screamed in frustration and chucked the nearest robot at his friend's head. "What the fuck is so damn funny? That must be the seventh time you've done that in the last three minutes!"

Matt winced as the hard, cold plastic of the toy collided with his skull, but it did nothing to tame the huge hiccups of laughter still spilling from his lips.

Mello's eyelid twitched; he looked about ready to murder the redhead.

Near, on the other hand, was now marginally suspicious. He shuffled over to where Matt was rolling around on the carpet, and poked the other boy until he stopped guffawing.

When he finally quietened down, Near looked him solidly in the eye and said, "It is not healthy to partake in the consumption of drugs, Matt."

That shocked Matt into silence.

Mello's eyes bugged. "Oh my God! Matt, have you been—?"

"No," Matt denied vehemently, rolling his eyes. "Why the hell would I do that? It's a shitty idea, and I have better things to do with my free time."

"Like playing the trashy video games you're addicted to?" Mello raised his eyebrow.

"They're not trashy! And I'm not addicted!"

"Denial~" Mello sang aggravatingly.

"I am not in denial!" Matt denied.

This time, both Near and Mello raised their eyebrows.

Matt was quiet for a few seconds, and then shook his head. "I dunno when it started, but I really do not enjoy this new hobby of you guys ganging up on me." he grumbled. "Probably began around the same time as you started kissy-facing, actually…" he mused.

Mello nearly fell over in surprise. "What?" he shrieked, praying (like that'd ever helped him before) to God he'd just heard wrong.

"You heard me. It's kinda weird, y'know, seeing as you used to hate the little Sheepy, but hey, it's cute. Most of the orphanage's girls'd flip." Matt shrugged, secretly peeing himself laughing on the inside.

"You—you saw that?" Mello was evidently still clinging to the last straws of hope he had left.

"Yep."

Straws of hope gone.

There was a long silence. Near, who had remained silent for the entirety of the conversation (out of sheer mortification), attempted to retreat into his own body through hunching his shoulders, tortoise-style.

Finally, Mello's mind clicked. Springing to his feet, he dragged Matt over to the door and bodily threw him over the threshold. "And stay out!" he ordered, slamming the door in his face.

Matt sniggered quietly, still on his butt outside Near's room. Mello would probably be pissed with him for a few hours, but seriously, that had been so worth it.

Mello paced the room like a caged lion - back and forth, back and forth - over Near's white fluffy rug.

Near followed him with his eyes until they went all skew-iff and weird, then returned his attention back to his puzzle.

"Aargh!" Mello roared, catching Near's attention again. When the white-haired boy prompted him with an inclination of the head, he continued: "I can't believe Matt saw that! I'll never live it down!"

Near blinked, not showing any emotion to speak of.

"I mean, he might go round telling the entire orphanage! I swear, I'd die of shame! Or kill myself. I'm not sure which would come first."

Still, Near stayed silent.

"I mean, if word ever got out that I…I…k-kis…"

"Kissed me?" Near finally piped up.

Mello shuddered lightly. "Yeah, that. Well, if word ever got out, I'd never be able to show my face again! It'd be awful! And I know Matt's not usually the gossip type, but he's really unpredictable sometimes, and I don't know if he'd—"

"I am ninety eight percent certain that Matt will not speak of Mello's ever-so-closely guarded secret to anyone," Near said, only slightly bitterly.

"But what about that two percent? It's still possible! It'd just be so humiliating, and—Near? What's wrong?" Mello finally picked up on the other boy's mood.

"Nothing Mello needs to concern himself with," Near replied sharply, placing puzzle pieces for dear life.

Mello frowned in confusion and crouched down so he was at eyelevel with the white-haired boy. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm concerned; what's wrong?" he repeated earnestly, reaching out to touch the other's cheek.

Near flinched away.

"Near?" Mello's voice was shrill and panicky.

"Mello does not need to stay in my company any longer," Near said stiffly, scooting back across the floor a few centimetres.

"…Huh?" Mello looked at him with a stricken expression, hurt welling up in his blue eyes.

"If being around me humiliates Mello, then he does not need to stay here any longer," Near clarified, practically spitting out the words. He was clutching a stuffed toy to his chest like it was his only tether to sanity.

"What?" Mello recoiled as if slapped. "You thought I was saying—Oh God, Near…and I just kept on—it wasn't about you, I swear! I just—"

"Wanted to keep what transpired under lock and key?" Near finished for him acidly, "Because Mello was ashamed? Because Mello would never live it down? Because Mello didn't want anyone to know about something he wouldn't have given two hoots about them knowing if it had been with anyone other than myself?"

"No!" Mello yelled almost hysterically. "Nothing like that! I don't want anyone to know because I want it to be private! Just for us! I want it to be only ours…" he trailed off, fighting desperately to keep the tears from spilling over.

Near regarded him coldly. "Then why did Mello say he would be mortified? That he would never be able to show his face again?" he interrogated harshly, still sceptical of Mello's true feelings on the matter.

"Because I didn't want you to know I wanted that! The kiss—it meant nothing to you! But it meant something for me, and I—I wanted to keep it sacred," Mello admitted ashamedly, hanging his head.

Near was silent for an entire, agonising minute.

Then: "Mello thought it meant nothing to me?"

Mello's head snapped up; the sudden movement causing the liquid filling his eyes to spill and run down his cheeks.

Near looked beyond shocked to see the blond crying, and he recoiled slightly, only to edge closer again and gingerly put his arms around the other boy's neck.

Mello's tears quickly dried up in his surprise, but he didn't pull away. In fact, he brought his arms to the boy's back to hold him closer still.

"Mello thought I was unaffected by his kiss?" Near whispered into the other's ear, causing Mello to close his eyes briefly while Near's warm breath ghosted along his neck.

His kiss. It made it seem so much more personal.

"I was affected," Near told him, still quiet enough to be almost inaudible.

Mello turned his head to look into the white-haired boy's eyes in surprise, still keeping him in his arms. "But... afterwards, you said you didn't feel…"

"I know what I said. I did not want Mello to feel any obligation to continue something he evidently had no wish to follow through with."

Mello blinked, face blank.

Near sighed, the barest hint of a smile playing in his eyes. "Mello had earlier admitted to me that he was enamoured with another," he reminded the blond gently.

Mello still looked confused. "Another?" he whispered softly.

Near wondered whether the unfamiliar action of crying had fried Mello's brain beyond repair. "Yes. Mello said he likes 'this guy', did he not?"

"Yeah," Mello affirmed. "But I didn't say, 'I like this guy, and he's definitely not you, oh no, not at all, I'm just going to randomly kiss you for no apparent reason with a really lame excuse that you have, for some reason, fallen for and practically force myself on you only to realise that you don't actually like me back, even though I thought you might, and now I'm going to pretend I don't mind and play Monopoly until curfew', did I?" he asked rhetorically.

"…No, Mello definitely did not say that," Near hedged tentatively, still not quite getting where Mello was headed.

Mello huffed, exasperated. "God, you're really not getting this, are you?" he asked, finally pulling out of Near's hold on him and holding the other boy by his shoulders at arm's length. "There is no 'other'," the blond said slowly, as if speaking to a small child.

Near looked flummoxed. "Mello lied?"

"Aargh!" Mello strangled out for the second time that day, shaking Near not overly gently. "No! There isn't an 'other'! There never was an 'other'! But there is someone!" he yelled.

Near wasn't stupid. It finally clicked. "Mello's…someone…was me?" he breathed disbelievingly, inhaling a shaky breath.

"Is," Mello corrected, staring a hole in a particularly interesting section of flooring to his right.

Near was very quiet for a very long time.

Eventually, Mello released the other boy's shoulders, and retreated slowly. "I'm sorry," he apologised, "I shouldn't have—I'll…just go now." He got up numbly and walked to the door, face stony and blank, his first successful attempt at a poker face.

"Wait," came the order from behind him.

Mello obeyed, freezing in position. He turned around again when he heard padding footsteps approaching him from behind.

"How long?" was all Near said.

Mello sighed, running a hand through his hair. "God, I dunno. Not a short time ago, but not long either. I guess…it's always been there, sort of. Just this little spark that set you apart from the rest in my eyes. It was only a matter of me realising it," he concluded, shrugging in feign nonchalance.

Near considered this. "And when did Mello realise?" he asked quietly, as if scared of breaking the blond in front of him.

"About two seconds after Linda asked you out."

"…I see."

Another long silence.

Mello was just about to turn around and leave again when Near spoke again. "Nate River," he said.

"Excuse me?" Mello was slightly confused.

"My name. Nate River. I trust Mello now," Near revealed simply.

Mello blinked. "I wasn't expecting your name to be Nate," he said stupidly.

Near looked mildly irritated. "Is that the most intelligent thing Mello can think to say?"

"…No," Mello denied. "Mihael Keehl," he told the boy in return, holding out a hand for Near to shake.

The boy took it. "I definitely did not imagine Mello's real name to be Mihael."

"Okay, okay, you've made your point. But what brought all this on?" Mello asked, still significantly nonplussed.

In answer, Near reached up on tiptoes and touched his lips gently to Mello's.

"I trust Mello," he repeated, "Enough now that I can entrust him with my heart."

Mello remained frozen for five complete seconds. Finally, he choked out, "Since when?"

"I do not exactly know. I believe my side of the story is much the same as Mello's, except that it clicked for me as soon as his lips touched mine."

Mello didn't even bother to reply before he grabbed Near's shoulders and crushed their mouths together.

This time, it was Near's hands that made their way to his companion's head, grasping silky locks of hair and pulling gently, causing the owner of the strands to groan into his mouth.

They kissed feverishly for minutes, seconds, hours—they didn't know. All they were conscious of was the sensation of the other's lips on theirs—hot, slick bliss—and the hands belonging to neither of them knew, or cared, who, running up, down and over, leaving trails of fire in their wake.

Eventually, they had to surface for air, and as they stood gasping, still entangled in a mess of arms, legs and warmth, Mello said, "Well, so much for reconciliation. My religion condemns homosexual activity of any sort."

"And does Mello care?" Near huffed out, still panting, face flushed with the palest pink.

Mello thought about it for a second. "Nah, not really. I used to, but I guess I might want to convert to Liberal Christianity instead now." Mello leaned down for another long, lingering kiss.

Matt was rewarded with a poisonous glare when he greeted Mello cheerfully, the blond having just walked into their shared room.

"Don't look at me like that, Mels! It worked, didn't it?" the redhead asked teasingly, leaning back on his arms.

"What worked?" Mello asked venomously, still regarding him with heightened suspicion.

"My lil' matchmaking plan." Matt grinned.

Mello looked floored. "You—plan?" he squeaked (very masculinely, of course).

"Yeppo. Had you completely fooled, didn't I?"

Mello just gaped. After realising how ridiculous he looked and hurriedly closing his mouth, he asked, "Did you tell anyone, just to go along with your little 'plan'?"

"Nah. I wouldn't do that. Not unless you wanted me to, anyway," Matt reassured him. "Do you want me to?" he asked amiably.

Mello shrugged. "Don't really give a shit either way," he said, "But make sure Roger doesn't go all homophobic on us."

"Will do."

Finis.

A/N: IT'S OVER! *fake cries*

I'm not really all that bothered, though, because there's a huge amount of stress being put on me in the form of exams, let alone this! So, sorry, but that's all I can really say. XP

See you next time!

~tii-chan17