DISCLAIMER: Kitten Love will be put on hold. Instead, I'm starting this story. It will consist of Mello and Matt at Whammy's and a buttload of flashbacks. They may or may not follow each other. :3 I do not own Brain Age, Mello, or Matt. ALSO. I would like to thank lightluver again for being a great person and helping me figure this out. Hope you like this one as much as you liked Kitten Love.

A young boy of six sprinted across the field of snow, his auburn hair bouncing up and down like a beacon of light in the cold winter. In his gloved hands was a tiny parcel, hand made and every piece of tape laid out with love. It had a bright yellow bow, something the young boy thought his blond haired friend would find amusing. The wrapping paper itself was only cheap blue and purple construction paper he went to many great lengths to steal. It wasn't easy getting past the nannies that crawled around every inch of Whammy's Orphanage for Gifted Children. On the small tag half-hazardly thrown onto the package was a small birthday greeting.

'To: My best friend Mello'

'From: Your best friend Matt. Happy Birthday'

His breath came out in giant puffs, freezing in mid-air like small ice crystals before falling back to the earth. His cheeks were a dark red, from the cold and the exertion he was putting on himself. Mello was a great deal ahead of him, and the snow was not making this any easier. Mello! Wait up! I have something!" The boy named Matt was wrapped in two coats, a giant sweater, three pairs of socks and his faded blue trousers. He looked like a giant snowball, but Mr. Whammy would not let him leave the warm confines of the orphanage without all this warm gear. Matt was a small, thin little boy with barely enough fat to have any insulation at all. He was also very short and a true genius with the special art of computers.

Finally, the small boy caught up to the boy he had been hunting for over an hour.

"Mello! I found you!" He panted, leaning against the gray stone arch of the Whammy's entrance and handing Mello his package. "I made this by hand, you know. And I stole everything from the nannies. Aren't you proud? And happy birthday, Mello." He said all at once with a very short breath of air. His throat burned and his lungs ached.

Cerulean eyes gazed down at the package shoved in his hand and smirked wryly. "You stole it for me? I am proud, Matt." The blond boy replied, sitting down on the snowy ground most likely soaking his black sweatpants before ripping open the wrapping paper Matt oh-so painstakingly taped together. In his hands, amidst the disaster of his paper shredding was a small picture frame and a frozen Swedish chocolate bar. Mello gaped at the present before looking back up at Matt.

The boy in question was fidgeting nervously and wringing his gloved fingers together, rubbing his face with the wool trying his hardest to get some kind of feeling back.

The picture was of the two of them, a few weeks ago actually. Mello was smiling softly and had his arms wrapped around a kneeling Matt who was smiling widely, showing his gap where his two front teeth should have been. It was his fondest memory of Mello, and Matt was rather proud of the fact he had started losing teeth already, getting an old nanny to take a picture of them.

"D-Do you like it, Mello?" Matt whispered, sitting on his knees and staring at the thin boy in front of him. Mello only grinned and leaped at Matt, tackling him into the hard snowy concrete and ruffling the vibrant hair. "Of course you twit. I love it."

Matt smiled warmly, and stuck his pink tongue where his gap was.

"Happy Birthday"

-xXx-

Matt, now a boy of thirteen, was rocking back on the heels of his sneaker clad feet. Matt had changed in seven years. A lot. Sure, he was still the same thin boy he once was. But now…now Matt had grown up. He was taller than most boys, thin, small, with a mess of red hair sticking up in random places. A pair of orange tinted goggles was strapped to his face, keeping his gray green eyes hidden from the horrors of reality. A long black and white jail striped shirt was slapped onto his thin frame, and baggy jeans accompanied his "I don't give a crap" look. In his shaky and cold hands was another small parcel.

A yellow ribbon was tied onto the intricately made package that was wrapped in blue and purple wrapping. A small card was thrown into the bow half-hazardly and Matt ran his fingers over the cold paper. It was just like seven years ago on an even colder December 13. Mello wasn't in the room at the moment, and Matt was sitting on the bottom cot of his bunk bed wringing his fingers around the small package more than likely jostling the contents inside. He hoped this year would be a good birthday too. Matt turned his short attention span to look at the grimy window a few feet from where he sat.

Usually, the window was covered by a thin layer of vines that grew up from the ivy garden below them. During the summer their room was cast in a pale green and white light, giving everything a spiritual glow. It looked like something from a movie almost. But now Matt had put six baby jars filled with colored water on the window sill. He arranged them in the rainbow color order. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet. The sun was bright today; bouncing off the snow and onto his glass jars and inside their room was an array of colors. It looked like the inside of a church and Matt thought Mello would appreciate his attempts at recreating a stained glass window for him. Mello always was a religious fellow. A rosary was hung around his neck pretty much 24/7, and every night, like the good little kid he was, Mello said his prayers and climbed into bed.

Matt didn't. Matt didn't believe in the whole "God" bullshit. But he had a reason. If God had been with him, Matt wouldn't be an orphan; his parents wouldn't have abandoned him. He wouldn't be in this stupid race to be the next L. Matt didn't even know L. Hadn't ever seen the whispered legend. And yet Mello was fawning over him like L was god himself.

Stupid.

Matt lifted a hand to his face and nibble on a hangnail that had been bugging him since this morning when he noticed it. He yanked the annoying piece of nail and looked down as his wound welled up with blood and stuck his finger in his mouth sucking on it. When he was little, Matt remembered some older kids saying how blood tasted like ketchup. Matt didn't think so. It tasted like copper and water. Rather gross, really.

He was jerked out of his thoughts as a rather irate blond came through the door. His blond hair was immaculately kept, and his clothes were neatly pressed. Everything about Mello was clean and well kept. Unlike Matt here…but that was beside the point. "Hey, Mello." Matt greeted with a tiny smile, swiftly hiding the parcel behind his back and crossing his legs not worrying about his dirty sneakers touching his clean bed.

Mello did nothing but throw himself on the bed besides Matt and glower a the white wall ahead of him. "Near beat me."

Ah, that was the reason for his bad attitude.

"Well, that doesn't matter, Mello. Don't get so down. It's your birthday today, right?" Matt grinned for himself and the blond before nudging him in the skinny ribs. Mello only grunted and rolled over onto his stomach and stared up at the red-head grinning at him.

Mello swallowed and suppressed his urge to blush and smother the red-head in kisses. It seemed, nowadays, Matt was the only person Mello could think about. How messy and cute his hair was. How his nose turned up and was sorta small. How his eyes were really pretty when he was actually happy, and how Matt never forgot an important date.

Like today.

"You got me something, Matt?" Mello asked, sitting up and crossing his legs mimicking Matt's movements. The red-head nodded and produced the package from behind his back and gave it to Mello who chuckled.

"This looks like the same present all those years ago." Matt nodded.

"Yeah, it's a special birthday, isn't it? Turning fourteen and all." Matt grinned again and wrung his hands together even more tightly, worried once more about what Mello would think about it. Slowly, the blond thirteen-turning-fourteen boy unraveled the bow and set it beside her. Next, he carefully pulled off the pieces of tape and rolled them all into a large tape ball. Matt found himself wishing Mello would just hurry up and tear off the wrapping paper like he used to do.

Finally, Mello pulled out a small DS cartridge and frowned. "The hell is this?"

"Uh, that's Brain Age, Mello. Because you like to study, ya' know? Now you can play a game and learn at the same time."

Mello blinked and looked at Matt for the longest time.

Matt, on the other hand, thought he as about to be punched in the face. So when Mello moved without warning, Matt gave a small cry and his hands went up to cover his face.

"The hell are you doing?" Mello asked, hovering over the red-head while said boy uncovered his face and blinked up at Mello. "You don't hate it?"

"No, you twit. I love it."

Those were the exact words Mello had said all those years ago. Matt flushed a bright red that could rival his unique hair color as Mello embraced him a sloppy warm embrace

It was perfect. Mello was perfect. This hug was perfect.

Matt sighed to himself in content and secretly snuggled farther into Mello's embrace, wrapping his long arms around Mello's delicate frame.

"Happy Birthday."

Mello smirked as he felt the subtle moving that Matt made as he fixed himself and snuggled tightly into Mello's embrace. So the feeling was mutual.

Mello liked Matt. Matt liked Mello. This caused for a one-sided celebration. With a small smile, Mello bent down and kissed Matt on the forehead before picking up his small DS cartridge and bouncing out of the room.

"Thanks, Matt. Going to 'study'. See you at dinner."

Matt flushed more, if it was possible, hand coming up to rest on the cheek Mello had placed his soft lips. Oh. My. God. Mello had kissed him. Mello had kissed him! He could barely get the whispered words past his gaping mouth before falling backwards onto his bed and smiling like he had won the lotto.

"Happy fourteenth Birthday, Mello."