"You're coming home?"

"We'll be back by tomorrow"

The excitement on the other end of the phone could be heard pretty obviously by all the shuffling around and chatter.

"What time will you be here?" Matt asked.

"About midday England time. Look I'd love to talk more but we have a flight to catch, and remember news kids are coming with us" you replied.

"Ok! We can't wait to see you guys again" Mello added.

"Drive back from the airport as fast as legally possible!" Near jumped in.

You snickered at their adorable excitement.

"Alright, alright. See you tomorrow"

With a series of goodbyes, you hung up and stuffed your phone in your pocket. When you turned back to the main room you were met with the rush to make sure everything was packed and ready to go. L stuffing his multiple white shirts into suitcases, Watari packing up laptops and the kids zipping up their backpacks of the few things they had. You were smart and packed your stuff last night for the sole purpose of avoiding this rush.

"Move it people we have a plane to catch" you teased.

"Yeah, yeah. At least this one won't crash into the airport full of infected passengers" L replied.

You walked up to Maki, who sat on the floor tying her shoes.

"You feeling ok?" You asked.

"Yeah. I'm still kind of sore" she replied.

After a few weeks in recovery she was still a bit drowsy and achy from the medication and getting over a deadly virus, but she was alive and vaccinated. A few bandaids up her arms from needles and IV drips and some scars from the rashes but other than that, she was ok.

"You'll be already in a few weeks, the worst of it is over" you replied.

"I'm covered in scars now. I bet I'll get picked on..."

"Don't worry. I'm covered in scars too. And you won't get picked on at wammys for scars, a lot of the kids have them from various situations" L jumped in, dragging his suitcase to the pile of bags by the door.

Maki gave him a slight smile, happy to know she wasn't alone with all these scars. Once all the bags were packed and in the car on the way to the airport, you had to rush there so you wouldn't miss your flight. But in the backseat of the car on the way you had another thing to add to the kids. Boy was getting better at English, hopefully he'd understand at least some of this.

"The first few weeks at wammys you'll just be settling in and getting used to things. But after that you'll both be starting classes with the others, and because of this rather traumatic situation you were both in, after classes you'll have a a therapy session. The current successors will help you out with anything you need, and if they can't help come find us ok?" You explained.

"Ok, I can't wait to start school so life will at least seem somewhat normal again" Maki replied.

"I do English lesson?" Boy asked.

"You'll have some extra English lesson yes. You're already learning very well so I think you'll be good at it" you replied.

"Playtime?"

"You'll get playtime at recess and lunch and on weekends"

He seemed pleased with that, when she wasn't doing math he was taking things apart and putting them back together. You had the feeling he and Near will get along well.

"We still need a name for him" L added.

"A asked the boys to come up with one. By tomorrow he'll have a proper name" you replied.

Boy lit up, now that he was understanding english better he seemed more emotional.

"I have name tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yes you'll have a name tomorrow" you replied.

He kicked his feet in excitement, he'd been waiting for a proper name this whole case. You just knew that the boys would take in these two new kids as siblings, there was a connection between boy, Maki and the successors and that was you and L. You and L had taken care of all of them, in a way you were the parents and they were the siblings. And Maki being the only girl out of all of them made you wonder if the boys would go protective older brother on her. The boys were also friends with Linda the resident art kid at wammys, and you were sure Maki would end up friends with her as well.

Soon enough you made it to the airport and luckily you were a little early. So you had some time to sit outside the boarding gate and wait, last minute organising of carry on and stuff. Maki took her teddy with a recoding off her mother's voice inside it as carry on, it was quite the comfort item. Boy seemed occupied with a rubix cube he wanted to solve. L had his laptop and you had your bag of essentials. Watari insisted he didn't need a carry on, but you knew him he probably had everything he needed in his many suit pockets. You and L wondered if those pockets were bottomless as kids since he always seemed to have exactly what he needed.

The screen by the gate read ten minutes till boarding. You were ready for this long boring flight to be over...

You were snapped from your daze reading the screen by the sound of your phone ringing. You half expected it to be the boys again asking if you got them presents from Japan, but when you picked it up it was a number you didn't recognise.

"Baby" you said.

"Yeah?" L replied.

"You know this number?"

"Nope. Maybe it's the FBI wanting some extra case details?"

You shrugged, answering it and holding the phone to your ear.

"Hey this is (f/i)" you said.

"I saw the news, are you guys ok?"

That voice... you knew it.

"B?!" You exclaimed.

L snapped his head to look at you, shocked to hear it was his previous rather unhinged successor from prison.

"Yeah. I'm using one of my phone call privileged I've saved, I saw the news about blue ship. You guys ok?" He asked.

"Uh... yeah we're fine. It was a bit of a messy case but were alright" you replied.

You weren't expecting a call from B, you weren't sure how to feel. Last time you saw him was before his trial when he was arrested and he seemed to have mixed feelings on you and L. He did care for you since you'd grown up together, but his problems were really waging war in his mind. There's no way to understand the mind of a serial killer, especially one with magic eyes that saw names and knew his love was going to die...

"What about those kids?" He asked.

"They're alright. They're coming back to wammys with us, they ended up orphaned" you said.

"Ah... poor things. Look I know I've done horrible things but we were all orphaned children at one point... I feel bad for the kids. They're gonna be scared from all this I'm sure. Is the infected girl healthy?"

"She is now. She won't have any life threatening problems and the virus is gone but it's given her life long respiratory issues. She'll need an inhaler and can't do too much exercise or she'll potentially suffocate"

"Ouch- that virus was that bad? I mean it was life threatening so... well at least she's alive. There was another kid right? A boy?" B asked.

"Yeah, he's crazy smart for his age and is learning English fine. Everyone is ok and these kids are going into therapy for all this, dong worry about them they're gonna be ok" you replied.

L listened in a bit confused. He was under the impression that B didn't want anything to do with him or wammys after all that happened. But, he was known for having a soft spot for the new kids. If he saw the case on the news it'd make sense he wanted to know if the kids were safe. You and L never did find out what happened to B for him to end up at wammys, but the way he was soft for the smaller kids made you both think maybe something happened to him when he was very young that made h empathetic for them.

B had always baffled you after his case. You didn't understand how someone who was your best friend and so nice and helpful could kill three people on cold blood. But some killers are just never going to be understood. All you knew was that what happened to A... that was probably the straw that broke the camels back.

"I'm glad they're ok. I'm glad you're ok. I miss you Nanami I really do. I know you'll probably never forgive me for what I did, I'm still trying to make sense of it myself. I guess I just wanted to know if you guys were still healthy since that case was such a close brush with death you know? And last time I read your lifespans they were long. I guess I just wanted to know if they'd stayed the same or if that case shortened them. Seems like they're still long since you survived" he explained, using your alias from back in the day since the prison was probably recording everything.

"You baffle me sometimes B. Even though I can't overlook what you did... I'm glad you're at least still worried about the new kids" you replied.

"I know, I wouldn't forgive me either. Just take care of things kids ok?"

"Believe me I will, I'm protecting them with my life"

There was a pause for a moment, like he was contemplating his response.

"Can you... give the phone to Ryuzaki?"

That definitely caught you off guard. L and B hadn't exactly been in good terms after the case... maybe he was finally going to confess something? You had no idea.

"Alright... I'll talk to you again some other time ok?" You replied.

"Thank you, Nanami"

You held the phone out for L who looked at you confused.

"He wants to talk to you" you said.

"What? Why?" L asked, taken aback.

"No idea" you replied.

L took the phone hesitantly and put it to his ear, getting up and moving slightly away to have this surprise conversation away from the kids just in case language got colourful.

You had... no idea what to think about this. On one hand you were glad your childhood friend was still thinking of you and worried about the new kids. On the other hand it was chilling a serial killer was thinking about you and the new kids. You'd always have complicated feelings about B...

There were five minutes left till boarding, hopefully that conversation wouldn't take too long. You wondered what B wanted to say to L.

"Did I hear that right? B was calling?" Watari asked.

"Yep. Wasn't expecting that"

"What'd he say?"

"Not much honestly... he just wanted to know if we were ok after seeing the case on the news and wanted to know if the kids were alright. It was like a conversation you have with and old high school friend you haven't seen in a while. Not sure how to feel about it really... you explained.

"That man is... a strange one that's for sure" Watari replied.

The kids seemed confused, not knowing what the conversation was about.

"Who's B?" Boy asked.

"Do you guys know all of the alphabet or something?" Maki joked.

You glanced over at L who was still on the phone. He looked rather confused, and slightly spaced out. What on earth was B saying to him? You'd have to ask when you got back to wammys and were away from the kids.

"B is... a story for when you're a bit older..."