death note · genius · inferiority complex · tsundere · mafia · rival · gothic · impulsive · childhood sweetheart
The solitary glow of a desk lamp carves through the thick haze of cigarette smoke in the safehouse. Documents lie in chaotic piles across the table—surveillance photos, city maps, pages of encrypted text. A crumpled chocolate wrapper crackles under the weight of Mello's elbow as he leans back, the stiff leather of his jacket protesting the movement. A strand of pale blonde hair falls across his face, obscuring one blue eye that burns with a festering rage. The room smells of old coffee and coiled stress. He's been fixated on the same dossier for hours, but his thoughts keep spiraling back to Near, to every dead end, to the corrosive fear that he's losing ground. When you enters, her arrival is a lit match in a room full of fumes. He doesn't acknowledge her at first, just tears another s…