After Mello's death, Near's sister, Jell(Jean River), sank into sorrow for over a year--until one day she received an anonymous parcel…
I don't own any of these characters in Death Note except Jell.
Over the past year or so, I have started to understand Mello more and more, and with that, admittedly my dislike for Near has grown.
From the very start, Mello is the hard-working one, the one who gives it his all. Meanwhile Near is blessed with natural talent. It feels like Mello is working a thousand times harder than Near, both before and during the Kira case. During the race to catch Kira, he lacks the privileges Near has(Though admittedly it's his own fault for running away) and has gained his power by taking it on his own, while Near's assets were simply given to him. Personally, it would have felt so satisfying to see Mello win after all the blood, sweat and tears he poured into everything. Near's, in comparison, felt, well... Cheap. Undeserved.
Mello was the one who deserved to stay alive, and it hurts me deeply that the authors did him fucking dirty.
(The character in the left corner is my original character. The artwork is to be finished, but I don’t want to be late for Mello’s birthday. I will edit this post and reupload this artwork after I finish it.)
"I'm sorry I'm late." You huff out breathlessly, running all the way from your apartment to the park was more tiring than you thought it would be. The boy dressed in all black gave you a cold glare in response. He pulled the hood of his shirt over his head and proceeded to jog out the gazebo.
You sigh, following his fast footsteps to keep up with him. You didn't even get a second of catch your breath. But could you even complain? But It was a pleasant surprise that he actually waited for you. You thought Johan would continue with his regular schedule irrelevant to whether you were present or no.
It had been almost three weeks that you had moved here. Also meaning, three weeks of morning runs and breakfast with Johan. You would be surprised with how quite he can stay, three weeks and y'all both barely exchanged 3 proper sentences. It isn't even an exaggeration.
Johan mostly just replied with 'none of your buisness' or 'you don't need to know' or 'hmm'. He would still be slightly on edge with everything you did. But grew accustomed to you, though, he still found it weird with how persistent you were with him. He treated you nothing more than a stranger but that wasn't enough to shoo you away.
Your legs started to grow tired and your lungs burned with the low oxygen. You were barely holding on to the will of keeping up with the boy. It was easier said than done.
But Johan noticed, he looked at you through the corner of his eye, your short deep breaths were enough to tell him you needed to catch your breath.
So he stopped in his tracks and bend down on one of his knee. He stealthily undid the laces on his boots and took his own time to tie them back. He secretly took small glances to see if you were energised enough to continue on the run.
Taking advantage of Johan stopping, you immediately leaned on your knees taking deep breaths to make up for the lost air in your lungs and calm your heart down.
"Let's go, we're already late." His spoke in a cold monotone voice and resumed his run without sparing you a glance.
You both warmed up to eachother even with how reticent Johan was. He wasn't a person of many words, or atleast he pretended not to be.
But you noticed how he slowly started to choose to run on the outer side of the road, how he sometimes slowed down his steps for you to catch up, how his glares weren't as cold as they used to be, how he wasn't bothered anymore by the fact that Eden always huddled near your feet. It was small nothings, but it showed he was accepting your presence.
Words were still scarce but atleast the atmosphere wasn't awkward anymore.
The new school year started and you got a part time at a convenience store near your house, it caused your days to get busy, it didn't interrupt with the morning runs but it definitely did exhaust you out. But you pulled through without anyone noticing your struggles.
It got you wondering whether Johan had a normal student life too, the answer leaned more towards a 'no' .But one could still hope for the best.
"Mira and Zack are in my class." You could sense Johan freeze up. "I don't think they know you're here though." The closed off Johan made its comeback, his emotionless eyes and blank expression plaster themselves on his face. "And it should remain that way." He threatens.
His voice and words were enough to let you know that he didn't want them to be aware of his presence, but you wanted to know why. They used to be so important to him. Your eyes travelled down to his wrist, the two wish bracelets tied on. You knew exactly who they were for.
But you just nod deciding not to pry anymore. You bend down and placed a few treats for Eden. Johan used to tie up the dog in the gazebo during runs and Eden being the good boy he is, never moved from his spot, he deserved the reward.
You didn't think anyone would even dare touch Eden, main reason being- because of his owner. Johan had a 'dont mess with me' vibe which caused people to distance themselves from him. The boy didn't care though, he embraced the loneliness.
-----
With how occupied your days were, you never had enough free time to do your homework. You couldn't afford to fall behind in class and your authoritative employer didn't allow any slacking off during work hours.
So you had no choice other than to complete your work during breakfasts after the runs. It was the only free time of the day you had. Another pro, it was two hours before school started so you had enough time to get stuff done.
You also received a good amount of questionable stares from Johan, he didn't say anything but he always curiously peeked at what you were doing. The normal teenage life amused him.
You were currently doing your art homework which happened to be 30% of your grades this semester, who the hell even gives art homework nowadays?
They gave a week to submit in 15-20 sheets. One week!! You struggled to get done with barely 2 in a day. This was giving you a headache, it was absolutely disgraceful.
You noticed Johans eyes linger on your multiple scattered sheets. "Do you wanna try?" You push a blank sheet of paper and a few stationary items towards him. "Just sketch whatever you want." You urge him to draw something, it wasn't ideal to use him for your work, but you really didn't have a choice. Drastic situations call for drastic measures.
Fortunately for you, Johan had a curious mind so he picked the pencil and moved it along the piece of paper. Atleast you'll get done with one more sheet.
"wow, maybe drawing really isn't your thing." You comment looking at his drawing, the shaky unstable lines looked like those of a kid, he tried to draw the gazebo y'all were seated in. But frankly, quantity mattered more than quality at this point so you would accept anything as long as it was considered a drawing.
Yes, you were that desperate.
"Burn it if you don't need it." He threw you an offended look. "No, I appreciate it. I'll get you a meat sandwich tomorrow as a thanks." You didn't miss the small glint in his eyes when you spoke. Free food is really all you need to make him listen. What a simple boy.
---the next day---
You sigh as you apply a bandaid on his knuckles, you didn't know how it progressed from him shoving the bandaids in his pockets to him occasionally using them to you putting them on his hands. It was a gradual process which took around a month, it was slow but it was still progress. "Why are your hands always injured?" "You don't need to know."
You slid a paper and pencil on his side and hoped he would draw something today too. And he did. "what the hell? When did you get this good? Did you practice or something?" He just shook his head no.
He drew Eden and it low-key looked better than anything you had drawn so far. The shading of the fur, the symmetry of his face, the emotion in the eyes, everything was amazing, the perspective was a little off but the rest looked good.
You couldn't believe there was only a day difference between a wonky gazebo and an almost perfectly drawn dog. Lucky for you, you'd atleast get a B as the average grade. All thanks to Johan.
---the next day---
Your heart skipped a beat when you saw his drawing, at both, how beautiful it was and at what he actually drew.
A hand with bruised knuckles and another pair of hands placing a bandaid over the injury...
It gave you a weird sense of comfort.
"How is it?" His head leaned on the table and a pencil laid in his grasp as he looked up to you. "It's really good." You whispered. The long roughed up hand with veins prodding the skin and the other pair drawn almost delicately. It looked too good, you nearly decided to keep it for yourself rather than submit it as homework.
Also, what the hell is up with his growth rate. It took him three days to reach a whole professional level. "How did you get so good so fast?" "You could say I have a thing for picking stuff up quickly." He shrugs.
---few weeks later---
You got an A in art, thank you Johan!
You really, really didn't want to do this, but math was being an absolute bitch. So you had no choice.
You slide a worksheet across the table, "what's this?" He asks eyeing the paper. "math."
He quitely slides the paper back on your side. "I don't do math." Your face immediately fell "what? Why?"
"I don't know math."
"Well neither do I but atleast I'm trying, you said so yourself that you're good at picking stuff up maybe you'll get good at math too." You were practically pleading him.
"nope."
"I'll fail math if I don't get this done."
"I don't really care."
"I'll get you ramen for breakfast."
"...fine."
It was easier said than done. Neither of us had any idea of what was going on.
"how did you get the answer as 5?" He asks
"I don't know..? It just looks like a question which would have 5 as the answer."
"I don't even go to school but I can tell that's not how you do math."
"I was kinda hoping that you would be a math genius or something."
"burn it, it makes no sense. Nothing makes sense." You could sense that he was holding on to his last thread of patience.
Well, you didn't get math done, probably will have to fail that class. But atleast as a plus point, Johan got a lot more talkative now.
