Not that L was keeping score, but he'd always had a head for numbers, similar to Near's aptitude. There were so few things to count these days, now that he'd mastered the new routine at Shady Graves, and his boredom manifested in keeping track of patterns to an extreme, even insane, degree. Though most would agree that it was depressingly appropriate, given his surroundings and his reasons for being there.
"Don't apologize." He cut off his successor in a quiet, clipped voice. They both knew Mello's reasons and non-reasons. There was grieving, and then there was an unhealthy inability to let go of the past, much like the one that had driven L to the state he was in.
When Mello delivered the good news, he blinked, clearly surprised, but it was more difficult than usual to decipher his expression. Perhaps it was most like a strained kind of happiness; L hadn't been so far from Deathscythe, before everything had fallen apart. Certainly not so close as one soul... but with both Gamzee and Light helping him at different points, one as his official Meister and the other as a sort of illicit affair, he had made short work of a large portion of the other souls he'd been required to collect.
Was it 12 he had left? 13? Only 4? While he was adept at counting the distance between his friends' visits and the tiny skulls on the nurse's scrubs, he'd lost track of what really seemed to matter, in the long run. But he couldn't dwell on it; it was better to focus on the fact that, as part of his legacy, Mello and Near's success was his success, and it was therefore cause for celebration.
"Is that so? Congratulations... I always knew that you could," he said, a smile lighting up his pale, tired face like a voltage too high for the bulb containing it. "I... suppose that was the goal, eventually. I'm glad that you could reach it together, in this world, since you didn't have the opportunity in the last one. But since we're looking forward, and not back... what's next, for you and Near?"
no subject
"Don't apologize." He cut off his successor in a quiet, clipped voice. They both knew Mello's reasons and non-reasons. There was grieving, and then there was an unhealthy inability to let go of the past, much like the one that had driven L to the state he was in.
When Mello delivered the good news, he blinked, clearly surprised, but it was more difficult than usual to decipher his expression. Perhaps it was most like a strained kind of happiness; L hadn't been so far from Deathscythe, before everything had fallen apart. Certainly not so close as one soul... but with both Gamzee and Light helping him at different points, one as his official Meister and the other as a sort of illicit affair, he had made short work of a large portion of the other souls he'd been required to collect.
Was it 12 he had left? 13? Only 4? While he was adept at counting the distance between his friends' visits and the tiny skulls on the nurse's scrubs, he'd lost track of what really seemed to matter, in the long run. But he couldn't dwell on it; it was better to focus on the fact that, as part of his legacy, Mello and Near's success was his success, and it was therefore cause for celebration.
"Is that so? Congratulations... I always knew that you could," he said, a smile lighting up his pale, tired face like a voltage too high for the bulb containing it. "I... suppose that was the goal, eventually. I'm glad that you could reach it together, in this world, since you didn't have the opportunity in the last one. But since we're looking forward, and not back... what's next, for you and Near?"