Author's note: so inspiration came. Here's a romance (w/ a load of comedy and angst, so a bit of everything really) using two original characters taking place at Wammy's House. (i couldve made it any old orphanage for smarties and posted it on fictionpress, but where's the fun in that?) so, writing in a guy's perspective is tricky, but easy because all i do is write exactly what comes to mind without thinking! teehee. might only update this w/ a lot of inspiration (which will last through the next two chapters i think, for i have a few insidences i wanna write about) 'cause i still have my twilight fanfic, my Death Note story quiz on quizilla, and Death's Soul on my fictionpress account.

Disclaimer: i do not own Death Note, any of the bands or music mentioned (and have never listened to Slipknot), or any of the books mentioned (although i have read every single one and that is why i know so many). Also, the computer mentioned is completely based after mine. i guess i have no originality when it comes to basing a character after myself...lol

Chapter 1 - First Impressions are Everything...I Think

"Here we are, Thanos," Roger said as we reached our destination. We were in a hall of Wammy's House's dormitories which I later learned was given the nickname "The Loony Ward." I also later learned that most rooms in this hall were soundproof and one even had a security camera in it. However, there was only one room left for me to stay in and it was in this hallway, the one for all the craziest geniuses.

You see, I was an orphan. My mother had died giving birth to me—sad, I know, but at least I never got to know her. However, my older brother did. And he had some mental problems. So when my mother—our mother—died, he blamed me, for he was extremely close to her. She was the only one who understood him. He spent most of his time in his room, rarely coming out. My father disliked me as well, for he loved his wife. Then, about a month ago, when my brother had finally come to the kitchen to eat, my father said something about our mother and my brother just snapped. It had something to do with using her name in vain or something—although I think that really only applies to G-d, now don't you think?

So, my brother murdered our father and was sent to the loony bin. I was sent to a hospital—something about being emotionally scarred or something. Anyway, I was tested constantly, my brain, my body, my mental state. They stuck needles in me several times. And all the while, I was stuck in a plain white, boring room with nothing to do but eat, shit, and sleep. Finally they sent me off to Wammy's House, home for gifted orphans or something like that. And here I was, about to meet my roommate.

I looked up at the door to see I had number 77. Oh, shit, just great. The room I get is the one with the most…sexual…meaning. And fuck, I had to share the room with another guy. That's gotta be awkward. Not that I have anything against gay people; I just wasn't. And I'm pretty sure I'm not bi either. Nope, straight as a rainbow, as one of my old friends would say. Nah, I'm kidding. I was straight as a pole. But seriously, no offense to gay people. I am not a homophobe, don't worry!

Roger opened the door to my new room and the first thought that went through my head was "Black." The walls were black, the bedding was black, everything was black—well, except the bedding on the second bed (white), the second desk and second dresser (both a nice wood color). The walls were covered in posters of strange bands: Slipknot, Evanescence, Flyleaf, Linkin Park; there was a dream-catcher above my roommate's bed. And there was "screamo" music blasting from the computer lying on my roommate's stomach as she—yes, she—lied on her bed.

Yeah, that's right; I had a girl for a roommate. Well, this wasn't gonna be awkward in the slightest. Well, she noticed us as soon as the door opened and sat up, placing the laptop on the bed. I noticed then that she stealthily put her hands behind her back and the next time I saw them, they were wearing black fingerless gloves. Weird. Anyways, back to the story.

So, Roger then said as soon as he knew he had the girl's full attention, "Joss, I'd like you to meet your new roommate."

The girl, Joss, was shocked by this news. Apparently she didn't know about me yet. "Roommate?!" she screeched as she jumped from her bed. "What the hell?! I did NOT ask for a roommate!" Someone had anger management issues.

I was hiding behind Roger at the moment—yeah, I know, babyish for a fourteen-year-old guy, but this girl really freaked me out. Well, he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me in front of him. That's when I got my first full view of Joss. And I liked what I saw.

She was just a few inches shorter than me, but made up for it with her prominent attitude. She had the perfect hourglass shape that any guy was just dying to put his arms around. Of course, she was wearing all black, which took away from her amazing chest. Most girls I knew from my old school who had big boobs had a big stomach as well. This girl didn't, though. Her hair was definitely died, for it was black with red and blue streaks and fell down to the small of her back. She had several piercings—her ears and her nose. I had a feeling she had a tattoo somewhere on her body. Her eyes were so dark, they were almost black, surrounded by black make-up. Her lips were nice and red though, without the use of gloss or lipstick. All in all, she was not a girl to be messed with.

Well, as I got my look at her, she got her look at me. I didn't think of myself as much, and I had a feeling I was not her taste. My blond hair fell down to my shoulders, some half-covering my right eye. My eyes were a baby blue color. I wasn't the tallest guy around, but still pretty tall. I guess if she was seeing me without my stupid quote shirt, she would see I was pretty toned—not buff, but toned. Anyways, I seemed too…I don't know, but definitely not her type.

After our few seconds of appraising, Roger left us to get to know each other. Great, I was alone with a girl who freaked the hell out of me. I took a tentative step towards Joss, whose hands were on her hips, anger emanating from every one of her pores.

"M-my name's Thanos," I offered. Better be nice to her, so she won't hurt me, which seemed to be the thought in the front of her mind at the moment.

She glared at me with even more malice. "Do you even have any idea what Thanos means?" she demanded. I shook my head "no". After all, I had chosen it randomly as my new name; it sounded cool. "It means death in Greek. Thanos comes from Thanatos, the Greek god of death. Obviously, he was overshadowed by Hades, god of the Underworld. You really need to brush up on your Greek Mythology, Thanos, if you wanna wield that name around." Okay, that was a shitload of info I really didn't need.

"How do you know so much about mythology then?" I questioned. I didn't know that was one of the classes we took here. She nodded her head towards a bookshelf overflowing with books. The middle shelf seemed to be the most organized. I walked over to it and read off the names of the books—most of them were from series.

Vampire Kisses, Blue Bloods, Twilight saga, Companions of the Night, the Silver Kiss, Vampire High, the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Harry Potter, The Otherworldlies, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The last one was about Greek Mythology, I knew that. Some of my old friends had recommended the series to me before I had to leave. Then I realized it: every single book besides the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter series was a vampire book. This girl was obsessed.

Well, at least I understood the Greek Mythology thing about her. I turned around again to see she was tapping her foot impatiently. What did she want from me?

I took a deep breath and started, "Well, the Percy Jackson series…my friends recommended it to me…before…before my…my dad…"

She cut me off, "Save the sob story, Princess." Great, now I had a nickname and a new name, neither of which really fit me.

"Well what about you?" I tried. "Why are you here?"

She put of a defensive shield. I could tell. Her stance tightened, she stopped tapping her foot in its combat boot. Her eyes widened just slightly, and her retort was unlike the other words she said to me. "None of your beeswax, dipshit." Then she stormed out of the room, grabbing a case on her nightstand before slamming the door behind her.

That was so weird. So now I have a girl for a roommate, but not just a girl, a freaky, gothic, vampire-obsessed girl who looked like she had way too much free time on her hands.

Oh, but lucky, lucky me! She left her computer open, on, on her bed. I snuck over to it and saw it was open to the internet, a Fanfiction story up. Twilight, great. You see, a year or two back, my old friends dared me to read the Twilight saga. I had to, or the whole school will find out that I had kissed another guy full on the lips—as another dare of course, but still. Sadly, the school was full of homophobes and I was one of the popular guys, no matter how messed up things were at home. And I did not want my reputation ruined.

So I read the series…and got hooked. I'd heard of other guys reading the series, but still, it was humiliating, especially since I liked it so much. I ended up sneaking in to see the movie. Definitely did not live up to the book, but the girls were pretty hot and some of the lines were pretty funny.

Back to the story. I quickly minimized the window and noticed a Word document open. It was a story Joss must've been writing. And trust me, it was good. Like, really good. So good, it should be published. I searched around on her computer until I found her other stories—she had a weird organized folder in folder in folder thing going on—and read the longer, most recently changed ones, for those seemed like the ones she was working on at the moment and liked. Wow, she was an amazing writer. I loved every word I read.

Searching through her pictures—yeah, you get it by now: I'm naturally curious and tend to not know when to keep my nose outta other people's personal stuff—I noticed a folder entitled "Deviant Art." I knew that was a website where people shared artwork. I took a look inside the folder and found amazing drawings scanned into the computer along with some drawings done on the computer. She was amazing at anything she did it seemed like.

I then looked through her opened iTunes and discovered Joss had really weird taste in music. Mixed with her obvious metal and rock music was some jazz—saxophone to be precise. This girl was just getting more and more confusing. Oddly enough, one of her most listened to songs was a strange soothing one entitled "Kiss from a Rose."

The song was almost over when Joss came banging back into the room. Oh, damn, I was caught.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" she yelled at me as she stormed across our room to her bed, where I was sitting cross-legged in front of her laptop. She grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me up so I was at eye-level with her. That's when I noticed her nails were also black, with red blood painted at the tips. And that the glove of the hand she was holding my shirt with was hitched up a little, to reveal her wrist.

"You cut yourself!" I exclaimed. Her eyes widened immensely. That was probably why she wore the gloves, not wanting anyone to see.

"Used to cut myself," she corrected. I was about to protest that the wounds looked quite new when she tilted her head ever so slightly to her left. I snuck a peek at the corner of the ceiling and noticed a security camera. Oh, so she used to cut her wrists in here until they installed the camera, which is when she must've found another place.

"Why?" I asked. Like I said before, I was insanely curious and didn't know when to shut up and leave others alone.

Joss dropped my shirt and I dropped to the floor. A small smirk twisted her mouth as she said, "None of your business, Thanos."

I didn't continue on the subject, but I had a feeling it had to do with her past. One of my many amazing traits—yeah, I like to flatter myself; it keeps my self esteem up (especially when this girl kept knocking it down)—was that I understood the human mind to a great extent. It could have to do with living with my brother for fourteen years, but who knows? I remembered she left the room right after I asked why she was at Wammy's House. And when she came back a long while later, she had fresh cut marks. It only made sense.

We each stayed on our own sides of the room the rest of the day. She worked on her computer; I read The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson series—Joss let me borrow it. The book was actually really good. The chapter titles made me laugh out loud and so did much of the story itself. Apparently Joss knew this was going to happen, for she didn't question my craziness.

When the dinner bell went off, I followed Joss to the dining hall. There, she sat in a corner by herself. I had the urge to go sit with her, but didn't. I sat alone as well, contemplating the girl. She was very interesting, I can tell you that. I tried to figure out why she cut herself, but couldn't. I never understood why anyone would do that. I read in some stories that it felt good, let the pain in the heart or mind out through physical pain. But seriously, couldn't she talk about it? And what was with her taste in music? I understood the metal and rock, but not the jazz. She even had some Hilary Duff! Of course, some of the most listened to of that was pretty sad. A lot of her Top 25 Most Played playlist were depressing.

At least now I understood why she was in the hallway her room was in. But I still didn't understand why I had to room with her, of all the orphans here. And I was a guy! I didn't think they even allowed that! Of course, there was a chance she was lesbian, but I didn't want to think about what a loss that would be. Instead, I thought about what I could say to her so she would consider me an ally, not an enemy. I wanted to be Joss's friend, although I couldn't figure out why.

Author's note: i really hope you liked the first chapter! took a while to write (and it's now...2:45 am...) and...well, don't kill me for using Thanos as a name. I know i'm using it in Death's Soul, but i just love the name too much! btw, just so you know, Joss is a unisex name meaning Little Goth. i thought it fit and i like the name. (a character in the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod was named Joss...he was a boy). PLEASE REVIEW!!

Also, "Kiss from a Rose" is my absolute fave song in the WORLD! ...and yes, i do like Evanescence, Flyleaf, and Linkin Park. I could've also mentioned Within Temptation and Paramore, but i think i had enough names. You got the picture....And yes, i also do own Hilary Duff songs...(some are really good and really depressing and some fit w/ Twilight so well, it's scary)

I made the guy like Twilight, you gotta problem w/ that?! i happen to know several guys who like Twilight! and one of them is obsessed w/ The Nightmare Before Christmas and Slipknot (which is how i came upon the band to put in the story...)

Oh, and Percy Jackson and the Olympions has gotta be one of my fave books series EVA! (And i already knew Thanos was Greek, meaning death, and that there was a god of death that the name comes from, but i had to do a little...research...)