Chapter Text
“What?”
Mello and Halle engaged in a staredown. The room around them was quiet aside from the near-silent hum of the air conditioning coming from the vents in the ceiling and the subtle click of Near’s metallic blocks snapping together as he played mindlessly beside them. Mello gave in first, his eyes sliding to the side of her to watch Near for a moment. He meticulously stacked blocks that resembled magnetic versions of the pieces from Jenga . He stacked them in such a way that Mello couldn’t help but to think of its likeness to Relativity by M. C. Escher.
“I thought I was very thorough in my briefing. Do you need me to go over it again?” Halle asked him, her voice purposefully louder than normal so Mello’s eyes would wander back to her. Mello frowned at her, eyes narrowing minutely.
“I’m not confused by the case, Halle. I’m confused by why we’re taking on this case, of all things,” he clarified as he crossed his arms indignantly across his chest.
Halle simply sighed, her body visibly sagging that she disguised as slouching forward to weave her fingers under her chin. “Mello, I’m not the one who picked the case. That was-”
“Me.” Near finished for her, apparently paying more attention to the conversation than Mello originally thought. He wouldn’t be surprised if he later found out that Halle and Near had gone over all of this before Mello even entered the building this morning.
Mello turned towards Near, ready to start asking him all the questions until he was satisfied or Near became visibly annoyed - whichever came first, it didn’t matter much to him - but that was the same moment that Matt decided to come slinking in. He didn’t seem to notice Mello at first as he nursed something that looked suspiciously like an energy drink. Mello watched as he knocked back the rest of it and then proceeded to crush the can between his palm and hipbone.
That’s about when Matt finally became aware of the world around him and spotted Mello, smiling cheekily as he walked up to the group. “Sup.”
“Hey,” Mello said with a sigh, pulling out a half-eaten bar of chocolate from his coat pocket. Matt fixed him a smirk, shaking his head.
“Getting briefed on the case?” Matt implored, his eyes leaving Mello’s to attempt to connect with Near sitting at the table next to Halle, but Near was still seemingly focused on his blocks.
“Trying to,” Mello conceded.
Matt bobbed his head in a nod, tipping his head in as a greeting to Halle. Halle did the same back, her fingers still woven beneath her chin.
Near finally spoke up after a beat or two of silence, “You have continued to mention that the cases we’ve been taking have either been too low profile or too easy, Mello. So I asked Matt to dig into L’s files and find something more interesting for the both of us.”
“And you chose this?” Mello asked in a disbelieving tone.
“Well,” Matt stepped in, hooking his thumbs into the belt loops of his ill-fitting jeans, “neither Near nor I really chose the case, per se. It was a case that caught my eye - among others - that I sent to him. It’s a cold case that’s made its way into mainstream media recently. Not only that, but some Russian government officials have reached out to L about it recently as well. It chose us, I guess.”
Mello fixed Near with a feverless glare, looking more annoyed than anything. He spoke, “And you didn’t think to ask me about any of this?”
Near looked up, finally, immediately meeting Mello’s gaze and quickly enough to make Mello shift barely, but uncomfortably. “That’s what I am doing right now. You have every right to refuse this case, Mello - there are others,” Near said seamlessly. It sounded almost preconceived and that made Mello want to jump off of a building. This brat thought of just about everything, didn’t he?
Of course, telling Near that no, he’d rather not do this case felt like a lost battle and he hadn’t been willing to admit any sort of defeat with Near since he caved and conceded to finally work with Near as the second half of the L identity after five months of indignant refusal to have anything to do with either Near or L.
Mello blew out a sigh, shifting his weight onto one leg, “Near, if we’re going to work together, then I need you to discuss these sort of things with me first . Not with Halle or Matt. Got it?” Near gave him a nod of understanding. “That being said, I’m not opposed to the case.”
Near stared at him for a long, quiet moment before sliding the file in front of Halle over to Mello, and opening it up. The first thing on top of the relatively small pile was a picture of a man and woman doing a simple couple’s pose for the camera. The photo was obviously professionally done. The man actually bore a great likeness to Mello. Blonde hair, blue eyes, angular facial features. Of course, this man didn’t bear the same scar Mello did, but the resemblance was uncanny. Then, there was the woman. She was small and slight, very pale with blonde lashes and pin straight, dark brown hair. Her eyes were impressively dark and almond-shaped with full, pink lips and a thick, leather choker that bore a long chain that attached to an equally thick, leather band on the man’s wrist.
“Who are these people?” Mello asked, lips quirking down in a slight scowl.
Near reached over and pulled the picture back, revealing what appeared to be profile shots of the duo before an autopsy. In the woman’s picture, Mello could see that the choker had been covering a thick, ugly scar on her neck and that she was wearing a wig in the previous picture. In her autopsy photo, her hair had been buzzed off cleanly probably a few days before her death. The man looked relatively unchanged from the previous picture, if only a bit paler and sunken.
“Their names are Vadim Gilyov and Mi-Cha Nham. They are known as Roy and Sev Vanka. Vadim is a Russian underground leader of a human trafficking ring near Omsk. That’s as far north as this particular ring is known to go. The woman, Mi-Cha, is not only his concubine/wife, but ruled the ring beside him and even worked to help steal more teenagers out of their homes, or helped to somehow force them into the ring. She was supposedly a refugee from North Korea when Vadim found her. They both had a long list of blood following them until this,” Near tapped a finger on the pre-autopsy photos, “when Russian officials captured and executed them in total secrecy. Vadim had been stealing from the government for a long time - he was a very wanted man. He and Mi-Cha, or Sev, had very strong ties to central ring leaders in South Korea.” Near looked up pointedly at Mello, exuding an effortlessness that made Mello want to rip his hair out. Near raised a hidden eyebrow as he asked, “Any questions?”
Mello narrowed his eyes slightly, fighting the urge to clench his jaw. Near’s eyes slid over to Matt, who was watching the exchange with an unsure expression. Matt met Near’s eyes and raised a brow at him. “Did you get the footage?” Near asked.
At this, Matt pinked slightly. “Oh, uh, well yeah… I did. Bu-, I mean, are you sure you want it, Near?”
Near leaned back in his seat, looking moderately considerate. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I mean, they just- they have sex. A lot . And I wouldn’t be weirded out by that because I know that a) you’ve seen people have sex on surveillance a la Yagami and his little pixie, and b) you practically embody the definition of asexual, but-”
Near turned his nose up slightly, looking miffed at the backhanded accusation, “My sexual preference, or lack thereof, does not and will never hinder my ability to watch surveillance footage of any flavor, or apply myself as a competent detective in any sense. L was almost exclusively gay and he did just fine, did he not?”
Matt looked rather deflated after the scolding, fiddling with a cigarette in the pocket of his jacket. “That wasn’t what I was implying, Near. Regardless, even I am disturbed by some of the footage. They have, just- their sex is fucking weird , Near.” Matt lamented.
Near shrugged, “It’s not like I really want to do this in the first place. I figured from the fact that she wears a collar near-constantly that they would be into some kind of BDSM. This isn’t just undercover work, though - I have to portray this girl with-”
“Whoa, wait- you’re going undercover? As a concubine? Are you joking?” Mello almost laughed, but didn’t quite get there.
Near - looking particularly frustrated - spun the first picture Mello had seen of the couple in front of him and stopped a finger just above Vadim’s head. He spoke like he had no patience, “Tell me, Mello, does that face look even slightly familiar?”
Yeah, Mello thought blandly, he looks like me. Mello pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging along the bone as though he were experiencing a sudden and intense headache. Under his breath he groaned, “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
Matt slapped two hands down on his shoulders, jostling him slightly, “‘fraid not. You get to be Mr. Pretty Boy and Near gets to be your bitch.”
“ Matt.” Mello and Near said in unison, both sounding chastising. Even Lidner gave him a sour look.
“Damn, relax, the lot of you. Near is only playing your bitch.” Matt appeased teasingly, raising his hands in a surrender.
“I am playing no such thing, Matt. Keep it up and I promise you won’t find me very fun to tease anymore.” Near threatened, having returned to his game of block stacking.
Matt chuckled, walking around the table to lean over Near, “Oh, what? Are you gonna stare me to death, or something? Gimme a break, Near, you’re like the size of my-” and Matt dropped to the floor. Mello had been more interested in the case notes than in any of the boys’ banter, so he hadn’t seen what exactly happened. All he knew was that Matt was suddenly quiet, and then he was on the floor, groaning and covering his lower pelvic area protectively.
Mello stared at the man on the floor, almost in awe as he asked, “Did he just-?”
“Elbow me in the dick? He sure did… fucker,” Matt hissed.
“I warned you,” Near mumbled, but Mello could see that he was fighting a shit-eating grin.
“When are y- we going undercover?” Mello asked, eager to return to the matter at hand.
Near glanced over at Lidner, then to Mello, and then back down at his blocks, “One month.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s the most I can get us right now. The longer we wait, the bigger risk we run of Vadim and Mi-Cha’s deaths being found out.”
Mello rolled his neck, already feeling exhausted and the day had barely reached a peak yet. “And how the hell do you plan on impersonating a girl? Your balls dropped, genius. You don’t sound like a little girl anymore.” Mello took his turn to tease Near, smirking at him.
Near stared at him for a moment before raising a finger at him and lifting a pair of chunky headphones off of the table that were plugged into a tablet off to the side. Mello thought that maybe Near was taking a call of some kind because he seemed to be listening very intensely, but he didn’t say anything. He listened for a moment and then took the headphones off, letting them slide down and around his neck. “Maybe, but I can certainly try,” Near said. At least, it came out of Near’s mouth but that was definitely not Near’s voice. It was feminine, foreign, and gritty. It almost sounded like he was trying to speak while pushing out as little air as possible.
Mello stared at him, completely at a loss for words.
Halle chuckled, shaking her head. “Near has a gift for mimicry,” she began explaining, “and we’re going to use that to our advantage. Anyone’s appearance can be altered to look a certain way, but not just anyone can mimic another person’s voice - especially not of the opposite sex. Originally, we were going to make Near into a different person entirely - a boy who used to be Vadim’s concubine years ago - but we stuck with Mi-Cha because she’s asian, she’s pale, small, and Near can mimic not only her voice, but her personality and actions. He just needs to be exposed to her regularly.”
Now things were making a bit more sense. Mello cocked a brow at her, then squinted at her as he processed what was being said. “Wouldn’t the male concubine have been easier anyways?”
Halle gave a helpless shrug. “Maybe, but he didn’t have the same value that Mi-Cha did. On top of that, Mi-Cha has never been seen without Vadim and we didn’t want to raise suspicion.”
Mello looked back down at the picture, his thumb brushing over Vadim’s face. “Yeah, well, how do you plan on covering up this?” Mello asked rather bitterly, jabbing a thumb at his own scar.
Halle gave him a sympathetic look, but Near was quick to supply an answer, “Simple: Vadim and Mi-Cha were tortured by the Russian government. That way if the news does get out that they were killed, we can actually fall back on it. Vadim and Mi-Cha escaped, but the government covered it up so that the people would not think that they were more powerful than the government itself, and so no other wanted criminals got the idea that the government was easy to overpower.”
Mello stared at him for a moment, eyes narrowed just barely as though he was trying to make sense of it all. But finally, he cracked a small grin and gave a conceding nod. “This is stupid,” he grumbled half-heartedly and probably only because he felt he had to, “but it might work.”
Near took that much as a win. He gave something that barely constituted as a smile, but whatever. It was the best he was going to give right now. Near slumped back comfortably into his seat and resumed his building. They had plenty of time to go over the details later. Right now, he needed to clear his head.
They only had a month, after all.