hh_mirror | Books books book... (Open RP in, yes, the library)

"B is more socially competent than A, and far more prone to commit homicide. He shares my features exactly, except that his eyes are red, and he will commit a string of murders in the future to gain my attention. A, on the other hand, committed suicide somewhere along his attempt to become me."

He wraps his arms around himself, feeling the texture of the cloth, and the fit.

"... well, shit." Matt watches L apparently hug himself. "It can't be fun having to deal with stuff like that."

Maybe he should make a t-shirt, or something. With 'I am so fucking grateful that I'm not L' emblazoned across it.

"I have dealt with much more complex problems. But as I said, I will try to remain mostly inconspicuous. I want this one."

He pulls the price tag out of the inside of the sleeve, and wanders in the direction of the cash register.

"Yeah, but you'd probably be able to be a bit more detatched with other problems," Matt muses, following after him. "Hell, it must be weird to have so many people about who even know who you are."

"My detachment is not really an issue."

Whoops, the inner ruthless bastard is showing.

"Although I foresee that it is a question I will need to continue to ask myself. But being this known is most unsettling, you are right."

He grabs a pair of gloves, a scarf and a hat from a rack, (all bright red, but the alternatives are not much better) and offers the cashier the credit card and a faint smile, as she scans the bar at his wrist and gives him scissors to cut the tag off with.

Matt's never seen someone actually go to the cash desk wearing the clothes they want to buy. It makes him smile.

"D'you think B is going to... I dunno, be a problem?" he asks as they leave the shop, wincing a little at how dumb that sounds.

"I do not know." He pulls the hat on, and wraps the scarf around his neck, and puts the gloves on too. They're all thick and woolly, and the outdoors are much more bearable now.

"I would not be surprised if he was. Please be very careful of him. The process involved in becoming L does not produce the most stable of individuals."

"I'd noticed," Matt replies dryly. "But some of the stuff A was saying... we were fourth-generation, right? They must have toned things down a lot."

They walk down the street, past a set of traffic lights, then turn up a pedestrian-only street that's even busier than the others. Matt sighs.

"I will need to discuss matters with Watari when I return."

Slash, scream at him.

"If one thing about it unsettles me, it is that I was not aware it was occurring."

"I thought you were monitoring us. I mean, you know my retinal scan by heart."

"A and B, I mean. I think it was before I was of an age to give helpful input."

So the decision was taken out of his hands.

"Oh, yeah." It's weird to think of L being any younger than this, even if he's only technically a little older than Matt is. "But you'd think if you were old enough - smart enough - to be L, they'd want your input anyway..."

"Watari could not be convinced to let me investigate murder cases until I was eleven, and nearly twelve."

The balance of power has since shifted, but...

"I am not sure what emotional rationalization he had for it, but no doubt there was one."

"Huh. Well, there can be some pretty nasty shit involved in murder cases - probably he wanted to try to shield you a little. Maybe that's why he kept you away from knowing much about A and B, too..."

"That was my line of thinking also. Is this the mall we want?"

Even though he's warmer now, L will be glad to be out of the wost of the crowd.

Matt peers upwards, then nods. "Yep, looks like..."

"There will probably be a map. It will get us on our way with efficiency."

L is completely uninterested in wandering a mall aimlessly.

Which is a relief to Matt. There's a map directly in front of them as they go through the automatic doors, right next to the first in a series of escalators.

"Okay... there's a Dixons -" he recognises the store from his years living in England "- and an Apple Store. For lego, there's a couple of toy stores on the first floor... Might as well go to one of those first."

"Alright. Everywhere is bound to at least have some lego."

It's faintly endearing, that Near is twenty three and still plays with it.

As they step onto the escalator, Matt asks, "Did he specify a certain type or anything? I can see him being very into get specific numbers in specific colours..."

Matt sometimes finds it a little worrying, that none of them seem to have ever grown out of the things they did as kids. It probably Says Something about them.

L just thinks that because of the pseudo isolation they had no one to socialize them out of whatever habits they picked up. He doesn't find it particularly troublesome.

"There were no specifics, no. So I think the answer is as large a set as can be comfortably carried for the rest of the trip. I do not want the inconvenience an overly large parcel."

"Sounds good. I don't mind carrying it, if you like."

There's three toy stores in a row on this level; a teddy bear workshop, a shop selling science and nature themed toys and sets, and a fairly average toy shop. It's this last one Matt heads for.

"So. Sugar, sitting weird, and no shoes. Any other quirks?" He grins at L, making it clear he doesn't need to answer if he doesn't want to.

"I don't like to sleep. But that has not hampered me in making a second friend." He sounds faintly proud of this. Going from zip to two in only a few days is quite the accomplishment, he figures.

The lego isn't hard to spot. There's a wide selection, and L looks for something relatively generic.

"Why did you start smoking?"

"A second? Anyone I know?" Matt's smiling, browsing through the buckets and boxes of lego (castles, ships, space stations, fortresses... or maybe Near would want something he could create anything out of?).

"I thought it looked cool. And I like having to fiddle with, you know? I never know what to do with my hands otherwise."

"He is a major. Major Briggs." L will have to keep it in mind to continue to frequent the sorting room.

"This looks acceptable." It's a simple house-style one. "Do you have any other quirks that should be known?"

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