When Mello first left the Whammy House, Matt had been more than distraught. The other children of the house had not been aware just how much the redhead had relied on the blonde, but it had become overly apparent 2 days after his dramatic departure, for it took that long for anyone to realise that the gamer was yet to leave his room.
The door didn't look any different, the same plain wood door, with the same whiteboard sign reading "Mello + Matt KEEP OUT!"yet the normal sounds of video games was notably absent. When knocked upon, Roger, the head of the institution, and Claire, the resident nurse, received no reply. It took 20 further minutes to unlock the door, with no sounds emerging from the room, but when the two caretakers did enter the room, the site that greeted them, seemed worse then their worst imaginings.
Matt had been seated cross-legged upon Mello's bed. He had lost his customary stripped shirt and orange tinted goggles in favour of one of Mello's oversized baggy shirts. In replace of a video game, Matt was nibbling on a chocolate bar. "Roger. Claire" he greeted, nonplussed at having his room effectively broken into.
He spent the following few weeks dressed as Mello, eating chocolate as Mello had, and generally going about his day, exactly as the blonde had. Claire had assessed that he was trying to fill the void that Mello had left inside the house, and quite possibly in his own head. The other children, all being of extraordinary intelligence, as was the prerequisite for the Whammy House, could clearly see what was wrong with the gamer, and let him well enough alone. Attempting to help him would take a long time, and they still had studies to take care of. Matt was left to Rogers care.
But the weeks went by and it became apparent that Matt's attempts had not been enough for his own mind, and he reverted back to his usual ways, with a few more sodden looks and a few less spoken words. Eventually, Linda, a girl of his age, with a passion for sketching, decided that the lonely redhead needed some attention. One dark evening in December, she, along with her sketchpad and best HB pencil, had knocked on Matt's bedroom door. The sign still read "Mello + Matt".
When Linda received no reply, she considered walking away. He could be sleeping. But images of Matt, curled up on Mello's bed, crying alone filled her mind. Though her logical brain told her that Matt didn't cry, ever, her heart still won out, and she tried the door handle. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. The sight that greeted her was so cruel and heart breaking, Linda dropped her notebook and sobbed harshly before her brain kicked in to tell her to push the emergency button by the door. 3.62 seconds later, Claire and Roger arrived with the necessary tools to steam the bleeding from Matt's wrists.
Word spread quickly in the Whammy House. Being a very exclusive orphanage, it had little more than 40 children living there. Not much interesting happened, and gossip was snatch up like buzzard food. So when people caught wind of Matt's suicide attempt, the natural deduction was made - Mello. And the speculations arose. Why was Matt so upset about Mello? So upset, that he didn't want to live a life without the temperamental blonde? Could it have been that they were actually dating? How absurd. How adorable. How sad. How juicy.
The following year showed Matt in a new light. Near had left a few months after Mello, leaving to take up his post as L, and placing Matt in the number one spot at Whammy's. Having constantly lived under Mello's ominous shadow in the House, suddenly being put in the spotlight had a harsh toll on Matt, and he did the only thing he could. He rebelled. He took up smoking and drinking, and skipped classes every other day. He began sneaking out on Friday and Saturday nights, and hacked the schools' mainframe, wreaking havoc on everything he could get his courser on. There had been a point when it was suggested that Matt receive a new room mate. Matt had kicked up such a fuss, that several noses had been broken, and tailbones bruised. His door still read "Mello + Matt KEEP OUT!"It was then at 16, that he met Kate.
Matt had gone to a nightclub that Friday night. It was a fairly dodgy club, they let him in and served him booze without even asking him for ID. He danced to the music, piss drunk, without a care in the world that could pierce the JD flavoured fog in his mind. Kate had approached him the same way most girls approached guys they had their eyes on. She slinked up to him, her pink spiked bob brushing slightly against his chin as she grinded him. He had given her a smirk, and they had proceeded to dance, fucking with their clothes on, until she had suggested they get out of there.
Expecting to be lead to some back alley or field, he was quite surprised to be lead to a small apartment just 2 streets away. His clouded mind hadn't taken the time to care before he and his girl had fallen onto the bed in the back room, and they moved to the beats of Electro and Punk Rock until early hours.
The next morning found Matt in the same bed he had fallen asleep in, only more sober, and defiantly more hung-over. He decided to observe his surroundings from his position on the bed, to avoid jostling his hypersensitive brain. The room was dark, as the curtains were shut, and he lay over deep blue sheets, now stained. He was naked, save for his orange goggles, still planted firmly on his face, shielding himself from the world behind a sunny orange tint. On the bedside table sat a pink plastic cup, with a PostIt note on the side "Drink this. Hangover cure!" Matt did not need any more prompt, and he consumed it all at once. It tasted disgusting, but within a few minutes, the ache in his head faded to a dull throb that he could easily ignore. From outside the room he could hear the beat of Nish's Sagittarius around the sounds of cooking. Pulling on his jeans, Matt had investigated. The pink haired girl he had spent the night with was placing pancakes and coffee for two on the table, dressed in an oversized teeshirt.
-Do you cook for all you're one night stands?
A grin.
-No
The meal was spent, not in awkward silence, as most random sex ended, but will a gentle flow of conversation.
-I'm Kate.
And Matt hesitated. He naturally couldn't tell his real name, for he had left that boy behind a long time ago. But he discovered, he didn't want to be Matt anymore. Not here, in Kate's home, in the nightclub he snuck out to. He was not Matt, the number one at Whammy's house here.
-I'm... Steve.
And after breakfast, they sat in the dingy living room smoking, and he asked of her
-Why do you do it?
She took a much deeper drag of her cigarette before she replied
-So I know it can be nice. Why do you do it?
A pause.
-To forget.
After their smoke, Matt dressed and went to leave. Kate called out to him.
-Next time you want to forget, find me at the club.
And he did. He forgot 8 more times with her, and the kids at Whammys noted a subtle difference in him, ever so subtle, that put them slightly more at ease in his presence. But after the eighth breakfast, during the eighth cigarette, Kate shook her head.
-I don't think we should do this anymore.
Matt had frowned.
-Why not?
-I like you too much.
And so they stopped fucking, and started getting to know each other. Cinema visits and gaming contests started to happen at the weekend instead. For Matt's 17th birthday, in a daze of alcohol and E, Kate made him a promise.
- I know he left you behind. But I never will.
For her 18th birthday, behind the heroin, he too made a promise.
-I'll take care of you, if you take care of me. My family walked out on me, and yours used you. We'll be each other's family.
So the moment he turned 18, he left Whammy's with the money they gave him, and bought an apartment. The apartment they had been using belonged to her aunt, but she got evicted when the landlord realised that she wasn't living there anymore. Kate moved out of her father's house and into Matt's, where Matt made their money on very illegal hacks to pay for their habits. Kate praised his genius as he praised her creativity. She knew where to get a job, and he knew how to make it happen. Their apartment was always abuzz with drugs and booze and music. They had few visitors, other than her brother and sister, both prostitutes, who occasionally stopped by with a job or in need of some money or first aid.
Their nights were the worst, when Kate woke up screaming at her father, or Matt woke up crying for Mello, but they took care of each other as best they could through their own fucked up minds. And they managed, until they were 19, in the midst of Kira's reign, than a cursed blonde arrived in Manchester.