Author's Note: Dedicated to Dragon-Tsuki. Beta is on vacation, alert me for errors.

Windowsill

When he was taken to Wammy's House for the first time, Mail wasn't quite sure how to feel exactly. Uprooted perhaps was the best word to describe it. He wasn't comfortable here, but that was expected, new experiences were rarely inviting. Besides, it wasn't as if he'd felt at home in the pervious orphanage anyhow. Mail had never been particularly close to any of the children there.

Mail, like many of the other children at Wammy's, had chosen willingly to come here. Wammy's House was not a penalty; it was a privilege that was offered to the talented. Although he could have refused the invitation, Mail had decided to give the new orphanage a try. After all, it wasn't as if he had anything to lose, but that thought proved to be wrong.

Upon becoming a resident at the gifted orphanage, he'd been immediately stripped of his identity. The boy named Mail Jeevas was forgotten and erased from the records until his birth name, birthday, and his very existence to the outside world was nothing more than a mere memory. He'd become a four letter codename, Matt. The old man (Rodger) behind the desk said it was for his protection, but Matt didn't know what to believe.

Aside from the alias, Matt found Wammy's House to be interesting. It was a school, a daycare, and provisional a home all rolled into one. The building was large considering the amount of children it held. It was also in very good condition, not at all shabby or crumbling. Not even close to the quintessential orphanage, because it wasn't a typical home for orphans in the least.

Even an outsider could see how excitingly different the children were here. Each child seemed to posses some sort of notable trait. Whether it was intelligence, musical talent, creativity, charisma, or analytic ability, whatever it may have been, it was defiantly evident. Matt couldn't help but feel alienated; he was a small fish in a large unfamiliar pond.

So far, it had been a trying day. He'd been carted all around the large daunting building and was shown way more of the place than he could remember. Anyway, all he wanted to do was play his GameBoy, which he held tightly in his hands, afraid to set it down. The tour had piloted him to a large circular room, which appeared to be a library. Children, roughly his age and older, were scattered about the large room, all of them on break from their classes.

This is where Rodger had left him, left him to interact with the children by himself without any instruction or guidance. Wammy's House allowed a lot of freedom, but it was up to the child to be responsible for his or her own actions and conducts. So Matt stood all alone, feeling very unconformable.

With his shaggy red hair, he shielded his eyes, using the old 'If I don't see you, you can't see me' tactic. He'd never felt very at ease at around other people, but for the most part the children didn't acknowledge his existence. They continued on with whatever they were doing prior to his coming. Only a few stole glances at the newcomer, the rest ignored him completely.

Matt didn't feel like talking to strange kids, and by the looks of things they didn't want to talk to him either. Instead, clutching his GameBoy tightly, he began to wade his way into the library, looking for a place where he could sit and play undisturbed. He observed some of the children as he walked past them. Some were playing others were doing bookwork.

There was a small boy with what appeared to be white hair crouched off to the side by himself, arranging legos into towers. Another boy was staring off seemingly at nothing, fingers tapping an unknown cadence. Matt paused for a moment, watching as two girls signed too one another. Their tiny hands moving rapidly as they spoke without a sound to each other, they giggled at some unheard joke. Matt veered away from them, heading for the opposite end of the room. What weirdos.

He spied a large glass plane window; its sill was large and carved into the wall. Cushions and pillows lined the window ledge, turning it into a nice seating area. As he walked toward it, he noticed another was already seated there. A child sat, curled up into the one corner, books and papers arranged around them, however, there was still a decent amount of room left on the sill. He walked toward the lone kid.

"Hey, is this seat taken?"

The child looked up from the book they were reading. Their eyes gave Matt a quick once over, sizing him up as it were, before returning to the open novel on their lap. With their golden blonde hair styled the way it was, Matt couldn't tell what gender they were at first.

"No." Their voice was that of a boy's.

Matt took this as a sign that he could sit there, and so he did. For the rest of the break, the two sat in silence, Matt playing his game, while the boy beside him studied. This was their first meeting, simply sitting on that windowsill, and Matt had no idea how much this small exchange would change his life.