(Chapter Four: Artemis and a surprise)
After cleaning up their toys and things, Near sat down, his heart still racing a bit from that momentary touch, twirling strands of his hair between two fingers. She looked at him, holding Damarecius to her chest tight, watching him when the doors opened suddenly and both turned to look at the man standing there. He seemed frozen for a moment, as if not expecting them to not be playing games as they usually did, but then awoke from this confusion and spoke, “Near the meeting is, um, starting.”
Near nodded, “Alright, we'll be right there.”
The man nodded as well then left, leaving the two alone once more. Near sighed, standing up, “Well, we better go then.”
“Um, Near? Would it be alright if you go on ahead without me? I need to check something on my laptop,” Hanayuki said in a whisper-soft voice but still audible.
“Can't you check it during the meeting?”
She smiled sweetly, “That would be unbelievably rude, near, and I do not wish to be rude.”
He looked at her for a moment, as if contemplating that then sighed before walking towards the doors, “Alright, Yuki, but please hurry.”
She nodded and he left. Hanayuki waited a few minutes, making sure he wasn't going to come back in, and then walked over to where her laptop lay in her bag. She grabbed the whole thing and walked to the least toy-covered spot in the room; the bed. She sat down, setting Damarecius in her lap as she extracted the laptop and placed it before her and Dama. She started it up.
“Name?' spoke the computers voice.
“Tasegare Hanayuki,” Hanayuki replied.
“Accepted. Password?
“A child of winter and spring, born both in the snow and among the flowers.”
“Accepted. Voice print confirmed. Welcome back.”
Her symbol returned to the screen as the background as half a dozen little files and programs appeared as well. She opened two of them; the e-mail program and a mysterious one called the Tasegare Hacker Network.
She had two new mails; one from L/Light, probably asking for her information on Near which she'd ignore for now. Forever maybe. It was the second one that caught her eye, sent from an all-too-familiar name; Artemis. To anyone else that name probably brought up images of a pale dark haired boy genius (1) or the moon or hunting (2), but to her it was much more; it was an old friend.
Hanayuki opened it and read the messages;
“Good afternoon you albino freak! (Hanayuki felt the upbeat, almost melodious tone so it didn't offend her) how are you? Me, I'm currently sitting in the park with a headache strong enough to kill twelve elephants and still have time to kill me. ^^; It's ungodly I do so swear. It's also sunny out here, which to a albino hikikomori probably doesn't matter, but it does to me! My eyes. My beautiful golden eyes! They're burning!
Okay, serious now, I've got a quest for you; could you pretty please send me EVERYTHING you've got on two boys, one named Mello, I call him Willy Wonka, and another named Matt, he smokes but is pretty cute. They told me they were friends with that panda Sabrina was affectionate for, L I think, so you should have a least three quarters of their life stories in your laptop. Send it over the Network though, in that really impossible chance that someone not on our side is reading this mail and thus got past our laptops of ultimate power. I'll be waiting from now, about 11 am, to about 4 pm when I gotta go see the boys in question. Until then little mouse!”
It had no name on the bottom, no need really, just the crescent moon with bow and arrow mark of the hacker named Tasegare Artemis. Hanayuki sighed, and then closed the mail window; she traded it for a new document on Word where she copied and pasted all her information on Mihael “Mello” Keehl and Mail “Matt” Jeevas, second and third respectively successors to the first and true L. She glanced at the doors in cause Near walked in and saw, oh god she couldn't take him seeing her activities, then returned to her monitor, saving the document and closing it. Now for the dangerous part the real thing that would cause trouble if Near saw; logging into the Tasegare Hacking Network. She brought up the window for it and it covered the whole screen, turning it dark blue with two boxes; one for username and the other for password. She typed in both then watched as it now turned a softer blue and asked “Who do you wish to connect to?”
“Connect to Tasegare Artemis,” she commanded softly.
The computer beeped then the whole screen went black, then white, then black again with a white version of Artemis' symbol.
“Hello Artemis,” Hanayuki said.
“Hi Hanayuki, how's my favorite albino?” The voice was female but tomboyish with an underlying melodiousness to it.
Hanayuki smiled, “Good Alexandria. Do you want that information now?”
A sigh. “Don't call me Alexandria, its either Alex or Artemis. And of course I do! Send it along Albino!”
“Hanayuki?” She jumped then turned her head to see Near standing there in the doorway. She blinked, nearly closing her laptop, “N-N-Near.”
“Who are you talking to?” he asked a bit startled by her being startled.
“Just a contact of mine Near; why aren’t you in the meeting?”
“I was worried because you were taking so long.” There was this sadness in his voice that made her heart hurt.
She smiled, hoping he didn't come towards her and see the hacking network still up, “I'll be right there, don't worry.”
He returned the smile meekly then left again, but not before saying “Please hurry; it's boring in there without you.”
She blushed deeply, frozen for a moment then shook herself, waking up. She looked at the monitor, still a bit lost in thought then typed at a remarkable sped, sending the information off to Artemis/Alex/Alexandria. There was silence then a laughing thank you and the screen returned to normal. Hanayuki breathed a sigh of relief and logged off, not even contemplating answering L/Light. She put her laptop away in the bag, grabbed Damarecius in her arms and walked into the meeting room where most of the SPK were. Near sat at one seat, knees to his chest and smiled seeing her, motioning her over to sit in the chair beside him.
She returned the smile happily and walked over to him just as happily until she noticed the others. Almost all of them were watching her with a look that scared her, ones she'd seen only so long ago it made her heart hurt; it made her hold her bunny ever closer and ever tighter. She arrived at Near's side and sat down, looking at the floor like a wounded puppy who didn't know what she'd done; it angered Near quite a bit. He looked at the others with the same emotionless look, thought now it was tinged with irritation, “Well? Continue with your reports on Kira please.”
A few agents stopped their glaring and staring at Hanayuki and spoke one by one, slightly startled by Near's irritation, telling him all sorts of Kira-related information. She kept her gaze down until Near tapped her shoulder and handed her a cup of tea; she looked at him, smiled weakly then took the cup, taking a sip. Now Near watched her though his look was not of contempt; it was more sympathy and worry and something else, something neither quite understood but both felt. Hanayuki glanced over at him again and he looked away quickly, red in face as he blushed; she giggled softly, a smile spread on his face hearing it though, and the meeting went on with her in a much better mood. Their glares couldn't scare her if Near was there by her side.
After about an hour or so the meeting ended and the agents left with new orders; Near stood up as Hanayuki set down her tea then he suddenly grabbed her hand, making her blush as well now. Not that he didn't go even redder when he did that.
“Come on,” he urged softly but stern, pulling her to her feet then impatiently into the computer/toy room.
He let go of her only once inside and Hanayuki watched as Near closed and locked the doors then turned to look at her; once more there was his look, and it made her heart feel a bit light. She tried to speak but he beat her to it, “Hanayuki, I'm sorry.”
“For what, near?” she asked a bit confused.
“For the others, for their glares and coldness; I tried to tell them but they wouldn't believe me,” he said then gave a small but angry laugh, “To think you're a spy, they're ridiculous really.”
Her heart now froze and he continued to walk towards her again, “I mean, you are a bit strange and sure you never let me see your laptop or any of the information you keep there but you're a hacker, one if not the best, trust is something you can't just earn in a week of knowing each other. I know though that you'd never betray me or them or anyone you didn't think totally deserved it. They wouldn't trust me though on this one thing.”
Near looked so sure of his words, as if she was too good, too pure, too kind to do that; it killed her inside. She wanted so much to tell him now, to spill everything to him but she couldn't; he'd stop smiling at her and she didn't want that. Plus she hadn't told Light anything yet anyway; she'd been having too much fun with near. She instead smiled, “Of course Near, you're my friend, my closest friend probably anywhere in this world; I'd never hurt you like that.”
Oh how badly she wanted that to be true. He had watched her as she talked, the way her lips moved the sweetness of her voice, the way her hair seemed to give off a tin glow as she did. Near blinked, staring even as she went on, `they're just trying to protect you, you are-“
“Hana?” She stopped, mostly because he only ever called her Yuki or Hanayuki, and almost immediately when she did he leaned towards her and did something he'd never done, not to her, not to anyone; he kissed her. It was soft and gentle and kind; it was a perfect kiss in so many ways. Her heart sped again and her eyes were wide, her face red, before slowly she closed her eyes and she returned that kiss of innocence, now surprising Near as well. He hadn't expected her to, but it wasn't a bad surprise.
After about a minute or two the two broke apart and both stepped back away from each other; Near looked away with a very deep blush and Hanayuki continued to stare. She tried to speak but all that came out was a softly squeaked “Why?'
“Because I-“ Near didn't get to finish that sentence; once more the computers activated and it would seem L/Light had interrupted yet another interaction with Near and Hanayuki.

(1) Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
(2) The Greek goddess of the moon and the hunt Artemis