Matt should be dead right now. It had been a suicide mission- he had known that when Mello first told him about his plan to capture the world-renowned serial killer, Kira. Kidnap Japan's most famous anchorwoman, and Kira's spokesperson… and Matt's all-important part as her bodyguards' distraction. He knew very well that he was going to die, but he followed Mello regardless; he always had, ever since they were children.
Only now Mello was dead, and, by some fluke or fate, Matt wasn't.
He had heard about it from Near, though he certainly could have guessed when he had driven back to their apartment and waited for three days in vain. The sole consolation was that they had been able to arrest Kira... although he had died from a heart attack that same day.
Which roughly brought him back to the present. Leaning against a tree, he looked over to the blonde girl sitting on a park bench a few feet away. Misa Amane, a famous model and upcoming actress, and Kira's fiancé (though she had known him as Light Yagami) - he and Mello had spied on during the investigation, and she had been thought to be Kira's accomplice for a while. In the end, she had known nothing about it, and instead had her most important person in the world ripped from her.
Matt could relate.
He found himself following her again, watching her as she went through the motions of daily life, unable to help himself. Her blonde hair and blue eyes were so like Mello's…
It was wrong. He knew that. You couldn't just make one person a substitute for another, it was impossible. But anything would be better than walking back to that empty apartment, a constant reminder that there was no one else in this world that needed him.
His decision was made. Without giving himself a chance for second thoughts, he walked over to her. Startled from her thoughts at the sudden sound and movement, Misa looked up at him. As he introduced himself as 'Matt', she couldn't help but note that his hair was the same reddish brown as Light's had been… almost the same height… and behind his orange-tinted goggles, his green eyes looked brown…
Before she really understood what she was doing, Misa threw herself into Matt's arms. He wasn't Light, could never be Light; but right now she needed someone to be with, someone to keep her tied to the living.
All they needed was in each other- and as Matt wrapped his arms around the sobbing woman, the substitution was made.