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"Oh? Did you?" Next asked him, tilting his head and hugging his maroon jacket around himself.

For a moment he watched Mello, before he looked across the grave yard - reading all of the different letters and names on the tombstones.

"...Beyond comes every year...at the same time...to put a new straw doll on A's grave." Mello murmured. "Every year at the same time...was it his birthday? The day they first met? The last day he saw him or the day he died?"

"I can't tell you," Next whispered. "A was before my time at Wammys... Before Matt's and N-"

He cut himself off, shaking his head.

"I guess they were close," He whispered. "Its kind of sad... there are so many names here I don't know..."

"These aren't even their real names." Mello said darkly. "Those are long gone...oblivion, Next...gone and forgotten. Did they deserve that?"

"No," Next sighed. "Just as they didn't deserve to die the way that they did... but you and I both know that they had a choice, Mello. That anyone can leave Wammy's and start over..."

He paused and slowly moved over to the grave that he had found Near in front of only hours ago.

"...Well, some of them had a choice," He whispered.

"...What if he really didn't?" Mello asked. "What if he wasn't staying because he wanted to...but because he thought he had to?"

"Because he didn't want to leave his brother..." Next whispered, before he frowned and turned to Mello. "Or... maybe it wasn't his brother that he didn't want to leave...?"

"I know, you want to say it." Mello said- not taking his eyes of Naveen's grave. "Near...he didn't understand...I couldn't say it right."

Next stared at him for a moment, before he turned back toward the grave. "Probably because his heart keeps telling him that he's Naveen, but his mind, body, and soul are still his own..."

He slowly turned back toward Mello, wrapping his coat tighter.

"I wont start bursting into sobs," He informed. "You are welcome to explain yourself to me. I promise not to be bias."

"Why not?" Mello turned to look at the smaller boy. "I might as well have done it myself, right?"

"Done what?" Next asked, frowning at the blonde.

"...That night...when I..." Mello closed his eyes. "When Near came to me...and it came...the rings and the idea...like L had probably predicted it, but if that was the case...I thought M and N were falling for each other...Naveen didn't seem badly hurt."

Next shifted a bit, his breath coming out in small puffs of smoke. After a moment he prompted Mello to go on.

"...I was sure he understood when I told him...I was marrying his brother." Mello said. "I could tell it hurt, but he didn't seem destroyed."

"So then... why do you blame yourself?" Next asked after another short silence, not wanting Mello to slip into a quiet, self-hating mode.

"...But then M showed up...and I thought he knew about me and Naveen and I just started talking." Mello frowned. "I thought he was there to talk to me about...Naveen and me."