We're just a bunch of kids with ridiculously high IQs

Wammy's House Fluffiness pt. 2

Bandit silently thanked the heavens that L had a private jet with all the movies in the world at her disposal. She was so bored. Mello was glaring at Near again, The albino himself was just playing with his finger puppets in silence. Matt was oblivious to everything around him, content without Mello and Near arguing. Never was watching the Matrix with wide eyes. She was probably having a severe internal conflict and was now convinced that the world they were living in was fake.

Bandit sighed and flipped through the movies for a while, and she happened upon The Dark Knight and decided to entertain herself with speculation on nihilism and the philosophical deep dives of the noble lie and the vulgar truth. She had turned to warn Never that her moral compass would be numbed because of the influence of the joker's nihilistic tendencies, when she saw that Mello had taken one of Near's finger puppets and appeared to be examining it. All interest in conventional and nonconventional morality had been thrown out the window as she stared at them. Mello looked up and their eyes met, he scowled at her and set the toy back down, Near stared at him for a moment, and went back to his finger puppets.

(I watch a shit ton of wisecrack philosophy videos..)

Bandit turned away and began to search through garbage horror for some background noise, it would help her contemplate if she watched something as mind numbing as the stupidity of average teenagers.
She decided on Freddy VS Jason, and stared out the window, occasionally glancing to see if Mells had gone to talk to Near again. No such thing occurred. She opened a pack of mini Oreos, and spelled out a question. 'RIVALS?' She smiled inwardly, now there was a little food for thought.

***

Never's mind was reeling as they exited the air port, to head to their hotel. Her thoughts were so obscured by christ imagery and convoluted dialogue that she almost missed the tension between Bandit and Mello. She tried to shrug it off, there was always tension between the two, but this felt different. Matt seemed to sense it too, as he turned and gave her a look of worry. She shrugged helplessly, she would never understand those two.

She decided to take in their surroundings, through the windows of the car she could see the morning haze and the low glow of street lights. She rolled down the window and snapped a shot. The photo came out a little blurry but you could still make out the buildings and street posts against a dark grey sky. She pulled out a black sharpie, and scribbled something in messy cursive. Je suis fatigué. I'm tired. She giggled to herself.

***

The hotel was pure luxury, and the best part in Never's opinion was the view, or maybe the food. She couldn't choose. The Louvre opened at nine o'clock, and they had the whole place to themselves. To say she was ecstatic was an understatement. She bounced on the couch next to Bandit, who was flipping through channels clearly bored. Near sat, putting together a little town out of dice. Mello was wearing a headset and listening to music while he absently picked at his chipped black nail polish. Matt was on his laptop, probably hacking into the Louvre security system for shits and giggles.

***

"You still up for that race?" Mello turned to Bandit, with a smirk. "You bet your gay ass." She punched him in the shoulder as he glared at her. "Can you two wait until I get pictures of you not collapsed on the ground?" Never gave them both a look. Bandit grinned at her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "You are gonna be my armrest for the time being." Never flipped her arm off. "Or not." Bandit cackled.

The woman that led the tour was clearly passionate about the art, speaking in rapid fire broken English about how vast the collections were and how long it had taken them to acquire such things. "You can speak French, we're all multilingual." Never told her politely. "Merci, chérie." Thanks, Darling. She continued in French, which was much more bearable than her god awful attempt at English. "Now, I have instructions to let you see almost every artwork on your own, but meet me in front of the gallery if you want to see the Mona Lisa." Never was already on the other side of the room, snapping pictures.

The woman blinked, startled. Never ran about the gallery, with a growing stack of pictures in one hand, her Polaroid in her other. The rest of the kids stood in a little line in-front of her, not moving. However one girl was looking at a pocket watch, and snapped it shut before looking up at her. She held up three fingers and steadily counted down. Just as she put down her third finger the other girl cursed. She had run out of film. "I got one more pack but we haven't seen the Pyramid de Louvre yet, or the Mona Lisa." Said the dirty blonde girl to the photographer. "Fiiiinnneeee.." The woman moved along to the Mona Lisa gallery.

***

Never took as many possible pictures of the Mona Lisa as she could, as the woman explained the history behind the famous artwork. They all already knew the stories behind it, but they listened anyway, half out of politeness, half out of pity. The pictures outside at the Pyramid de Louvre were a different story.

Never begged, pleaded, argued, and cried until both Mello and Near agreed to be in the picture. Mello has averted his eyes and put his hood up, trying to obscure his face with shadows. Near had simply tilted his head down and let his curls, covering his eyes, letting his scarf cover his mouth. Bandit had the collar of her trench coat turned up, leaning against Mello, and giving him bunny ears. Matt stood on her other side, not even bothering with hiding his face. Never stood beside Near, with her hood also up but not enough to cover her face like Mello. The woman took the best picture she could, and Never gave her a hug afterwards.

As they made their way back to the hotel, Bandit asked her to let her borrow the photo for a second. Never nodded. She scribbled something on the back and handed it back to her. Never almost giggled at the words. The day the stars aligned, and Mello was so pissed at Never, that he agreed to stand next to Near. Never put the picture into her pocket, smiling.