Mello paused, straightening-up his posture just a bit at that revelation, and though his eyes remained firmly locked on combating motorized duckies he thought, privately, that that was a little strangely flirtatious, and not as entirely unpleasant as he thought it damn well should be. Maybe it was because Near wasn't so hateful, and because Near could be rather funny, and because Near, though definitely a brat who he would never think of like that, wasn't terribly un-cute if you looked at him in certain lighting-

"I hope that you don't do anything insidious with those puppets..." He replied flatly, breaching contract without any eloquence whatsoever.