A/N: Closest to how I imagine Patience. Pale with black hair and brown eyes, on the short side. Art by Takeshi Obata, the artist of Death Note.

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Patience

"Patience," said Lidner, "we're going to start in five minutes."

"Okay, thanks," I said. I pulled my cell phone back up to my face and continued with my conversation.

"So are you sure that everything is alright?" May asked.

I sighed. "May, I've been here for years. I'm an adult. I can take care of myself."

"Yes, I am well aware," she said. "I just have a tendency to become nervous."

"I'll be fine," I assured her. "It's been over a year, and the only one you should be worrying about is Allison. For all we know, she's already burned down her apartment complex... twice."

"Oh goodness, don't remind me," May said.

"So," I said, "what about you? Are you going to be okay?"

At first, there was silence, as if she wasn't quite sure as to what I was referring. "Oh," she said, grasping what I meant, "don't worry, love, I'll be fine. The odds he'll find me are slim to none."

"But May," I said, "we know Kira's in Japan. Did you have to move there?"

"Aye, I did," she said, defending herself. "I had to for my job. Anyroad, even if Kira did find me, what reason would he have to kill me?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I admitted.

"Well then," May said, wanting to get back to what we had been talking about before we were so worried with each other's safety, "what about summer?"

"Summer?" I echoed. "I don't know about that. Maybe spring, since summer's too hot. I don't want to have to listen to Allison and Birdie complaining while Joy tells them to shut up for hours."

"I suppose that's true," May said with a laugh.

"Though overall, it's up to you, of course," I reminded her. "Stop asking for others' approval. As Allison would say, do something for yourself for once in your life."

"Aye, she would say that, wouldn't she?" May said with a laugh. "Oh, I'm pulling up now, I have to go. Soz."

"It's fine," I assured her, looking at my watch. "I have to get going, too. Bye."

"Tara, love. Be sure to give me a ring sometime soon," she said before hanging up the phone.

May

May pulled her car over into a crowded parking lot. She hopped out and rushed over to a man dressed much more casually than her. "I'm sorry I'm late, Nakamura-san," she apologized, her Japanese perfectly fluent.

"Thank goodness," he said, "I was starting to get worried."

Luckily for May, she and Nakamura were friends outside of work, so he was somewhat more lenient with her. Nakamura turned his head and noticed another man among the crowd of people scurrying around them.

"Hey, Kinjo-kun!" he shouted.

The man, Kinjo, heard his name being called and walked over towards them. "What do you need?" he asked.

"Get the talent over here," he ordered. "I need to see her before we start, to make sure she's alright."

Kinjo nodded and ran off to find the person in question.

"So you said you'd tell me. What's his name?"

"Eli," May said, "I met him at university."

"What does he do?" the man pressed.

"Geez, Nakamura-san, nosy much?" she said, somewhat annoyed. "He's a doctor."

"That explains it," Nakamura said with a laugh. "Let me see it again."

May sighed, but nonetheless, did as he said. He stared at the ring placed on her left ring finger. It was silver and had one diamond placed in the middle, with two smaller diamonds on either side of it. It wasn't flashy. In fact, it was rather modest, yet even so, it was beautiful. It suited May perfectly.

"Wow," Nakamura said in awe, "so when's the wedding?"

"Sometime next spring, probably," she told him.

Nakamura was about to say something else but was cut off when Kinjo rushed over with the woman Nakamura had wanted to see.

"I've got her right here," Kinjo said.

Nakamura looked the woman up and down, and after about a minute, he said, "Okay, she looks good."

That was an understatement. The beautiful woman wore an elegant dress and had a barrette placed in her carefully combed hair. She didn't wear much makeup; she didn't need it. Her lips were glossed a lovely shade of red, and the mascara she wore made her beautiful eyes stand out like gems.

"Hello, Director, May-chan," she said politely.

"What?" said Nakamura, confused; he turned to look at May. "May-san, you two know each other?"

"Yeah," May said with a laugh. "We met at a café a while back."

"After that, we started hanging out with each other a lot," the woman added.

"What a coincidence," said Nakamura. "Well, May-san here is a big part of this, too. She's doing me a huge favor here; she'll be overseeing finances, among other things."

"Oh, that's great!" said the woman, clapping in delight. "May-chan, we should go out again sometime. I miss spending time with you!"

"Yes," May agreed, "we definitely should do it again. Though it looks like we're about to start soon. You and the others should probably go and finish up here."

"Okay, bye!" the woman said with a wave. Then, she ran off to finish her final preparations for the job.

"Wow," a woman's voice said. May looked over and saw Sasaki looking at the girl who May had just spoken to who was running to get ready. "Is that who I think it is? I didn't know she was going to be working with us."

"Yes," May said with a laugh, "that's her. Amane Misa."

Patience

"Lidner told me to come get you," I heard a voice say.

"Okay, I'm coming," I said. "Sorry, Birdie."

Yes, you heard right: Birdie. That sweet, innocent, adorable girl from earlier in my life was working on the Kira case, but she was no longer sweet nor adorable. Half of the time, she wasn't even innocent. I loved Birdie, but sometimes I wondered if she was evil incarnate.

Birdie had been extremely bored after Allison left and endured about three or four years of boredom until she couldn't take it anymore. Then she asked Roger if she could work on the Kira case. Roger wasn't too happy with the idea, but after Near had said yes (apparently he didn't care who joined the SPK), Roger had no choice but to let her go.

No one had ever told her that I had been working with Near, since it was a secret. Birdie's not too fond of Near, so for her to turn to him for something to pass the time means she must have been extremely bored. When she found out that I was there, she had been delighted.

"Whatever," Birdie replied. "Let's go; McEnroe's about to talk to Takimura."

We walked out of the room that I had been in and entered another one where the other members of the SPK were. The room was filled with bright screens; it was quite amazing. As if on cue, the moment we walked in, McEnroe—who we were listening to through a mic he was wearing—began to speak.

"My name is John McEnroe," he said in Japanese. "I'm an agent with the FBI. Of course, this is just an alias; as my assignment involves Kira, it's a necessary precaution."

"Due to some unforeseen circumstances," said a man, "the director is unavailable. If it is acceptable, you can speak with me instead."

"Very well," said McEnroe. "That's fine. Pardon me, I'll get straight to the point.
"The Japanese police have proven themselves to be unreliable, so in order to solve the Kira case, we want you to hand the notebook over to us."

"So the FBI was behind it!" the man exclaimed. "Where did you take the director?"

"What are you talking about?" McEnroe said.

As the two continued to argue, one person asked, "What does this mean?"

The moment I heard the man ask about the director, I went numb. No one but Birdie seemed to notice how I was reacting to it. Well, I'll tell you. My hands were sweating, and my legs suddenly felt weak. Birdie could tell what I was thinking because she was thinking it too, and I bet Near had realized it as well.

It's Mello, I thought. He was back.

·÷±‡±±‡±÷· ·÷±‡±±‡±÷· ·÷±‡±±‡±÷· ·÷±‡±±‡±÷· ·÷±‡±±‡±÷·

"So what are you going to do?" Birdie asked me.

It was a day later. We were in my room, and I was pacing back and forth as Birdie sat on my bed and watched me.

"I need to find him," I told her.

"But we don't even know if it's really Mello that we're dealing with," Birdie pointed out.

"I know," I said. "It's not like I plan on going to wherever they're keeping the director held hostage. We just need to observe for now. I can't bother telling Allison, though. I don't want to get her hopes up for nothing. I'll only tell her if I'm sure."

"You're planning on going there, aren't you?" Birdie said. "It's not possible."

"I know, Birdie," I said, annoyed by her doubtfulness. "I didn't intend on trying in the first place." One thing that hadn't changed about me over the years was that I still had no patience whatsoever. Oh, the irony.

"Right," she said dubiously. "Riiiiiiiight."

I sighed. This would be harder than I'd thought.

"Still," I said. "I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something."

"Well, actually," Birdie began to say, but she was interrupted by the ringing of my cell phone.

"It's Allison," I said, looking at the caller ID. "I'll put it on speaker. Hello?"

"Hi, Patience!" I heard Allison say. "Say hello," I heard her mumble to someone.

"Hello." It was Joy; she and Allison lived near each other.

"We just wanted to wish you a happy birthday!" Allison said.

Birdie gave me a look. Oh, so that's what I'd been forgetting. I was eighteen now.

"Thanks, guys," I said, pretending that I had already known.

"I'm here, too!" Birdie piped in.

"Birdie!" Allison crowed. "Alright?"

"Alright," Birdie replied. "Same as usual. Check-ins with Marius, following the Kira case and whatnot. May still thinks I'm at Wammy's, though."

Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that bit of information? Well, you see, Joy, Allison, Mr. Weinberg (Birdie's warden), Mr. Roger, and I all knew that Birdie was working on the Kira case, but May was still in the dark about that. Birdie knew May would freak out and make her go back to the orphanage, so it had been kept a secret from May. I still don't know why any of us had agreed to that, and I have absolutely no idea what they told the other children and employees at Wammy's.

"I had figured as much," Allison responded. "Good luck with the case."

"Why are you wishing them luck?" I heard Joy ask.

"Because it's nice," Allison said slowly, as if it would help Joy comprehend her statement more easily. "I know that you're not very familiar with that word, but do you understaaaaaaaand?"

"I know what you mean, you moron," Joy said. "That's not the point. Why would you wish them luck capturing Kira? Kira's made the world a better place; Kira is good."

"Of course, and Satan is simply misunderstood," Allison said in mock understanding.

"Git! Kira kills criminals. They're all not worth a light; better off dead. Now less people are committing crimes."

"Oh really? Well, if Kira kills bad people, then why on earth are you still alive?"

The two began to argue even further until they were in a heated disputed. Again. Don't get me wrong; they cared about each other, but they were really good when it came to getting into a petty arguments. They were essentially an old married couple.

"Allison," I said. "Joy." It was no use; they didn't hear me, so with a sigh, I hung up the phone.

"Patience," Birdie whined, "I was listening to that! It was getting good, too."

I rolled my eyes. This was going to be a lot of work.