The early day sun trickled in through the broken blinds of room 14 in the East Wing of Wammy's House for Extraordinary Children. Thirteen minutes past six o'clock on this cold December morning seemed to come by so quickly, that most children just tucked themselves farther into their rough cotton sheets and drift back to sleep for another two or five hours, depending on the child.

Not one certain red headed boy, however. He had been awake for nearly three quarters of an hour, pacing around his room deep in thought. Matt was frantically trying to decide what to get his best friend, Mello, for his tenth birthday. It has been officially 3,652.42199 days since the blonde ball of energy was born, and Matt was not going to mess up this most special of days with a measly chocolate bar. Gosh knows that everyone got him one every year.

But could Mello truly ever tire of his favorite treat? The third brightest child that resided in the orphanage knew that he did when he saw the once flawlessly bright face dim a shade or two after receiving such a stereotypical gift from his role model: L. Though Mello never said anything negative towards him, Matt knew that he wished that L would present him with a more meaningful gift.

While Mello accepted it with a smile and a hug, he knew deep down that the blonde only craved for L's affection, not his silly gifts. But alas, the famous detective could never stay long enough to give Mello what he wanted –or more accurately, needed- because of his many overlapping case files shoved around on his messy desk.

So what could Matt do to make his only friend happy on his only tenth birthday? They weren't given an allowance here because there were no chores to be done, and even if the children did receive any, no one under the age of fifteen was permitted to leave the premises so buying anything was virtually impossible. It had to be something that he already owned…

Ah hah!

Finally the freckled boy thought of the perfect gift and scrambled to ready it before Mello's alarm sounded in about fifteen more minutes. He stuffed it inside of the gift bag that had been passed between everyone on their birthday and pushed the same, overused white tissue paper over top of it. 'Mello is going to love it!' The young boy in his striped, button up, footed pajamas thought with glee.

Once Matt was finished and overly excited for Mello's morning visit in only a few more minutes, he turned on his favorite Mario game and sat on the edge of his bed tapping away with his tongue stuck out in concentration. One more hit to the boss and he could move on to the next world!

Knock knock knock.

At the three loud raps (more like forceful kicks with a steel toed boot) to his wooden door, he dropped his handheld and groaned in frustration at the words "GAME OVER" in bright red over the black screen. Those two words never failed to make him furious, but the thought of his best friend waiting for him made the angry feeling dissipate.

"Coming!" He shouted to the door as the memory of Mello's birthday came flooding back into his mind. He grabbed his goggles and forcefully pulled them over his eyes before opening the door a little too excitedly and fixing the hem on the back of his black and white striped pajama leg.

The effeminate boy waiting on the other side just pushed past Matt and strutted into the room to flop down on the overstuffed bean bag in front of the television. He was wearing his usual plain black button down night-wear (as he refused to use the term 'pajamas' because it sounded too immature) and white socks that he had come to hate ever since the newest arrival, Near, had beaten him in the rankings a few weeks ago.

"I am officially ten years old, practically an adult! Which means you have to do what I tell you," Mello said to the gamer with a look of glee in his eyes as he stared dreamily up at the slightly cracked, white ceiling. "You have a gift for me, I assume," the Slovak exclaimed and held out his hand and closed his eyes in anticipation.

Mello was always so blunt.

"Huh? Oh yeah!" Matt grinned, racing over to the other end of the bed and picking up the tattered gift bag and thrusting it into Mello's waiting arms. The black wearing boy ripped open the tissue paper and gazed into the plain blue bag with a look of confusion etched on his face.

"But Matt… this is your teddy bear…" Mello said incredulously while cradling the fluffy, brown haired mass like a newborn. It was surprising that the red head had so willingly parted with a gift from his mother. Mello knew for a fact that Matt slept with the bear every night and it practically broke the younger boy's heart to leave 'Madeline' (in honor of his deceased mother) alone during school hours.

"Yeah, but I want you to have her. 'Long as I'm allowed to visit her any time I want!" Matt added in the last part quickly with an almost scared look on his face. He didn't think of the consequences of parting with his mother's last gift until now. What if he was never able to see her again? Would his mother resent him from the cloud she was sitting on in heaven for thinking so little of her?

"Well duh!" Mello giggled and pulled his best friend into a warm hug that made Matt feel like there were goose pimples on his whole body and his tummy felt warm and jumpy. It was surprisingly a nice, warm feeling, though it was kind of strange considering that this was their first hug in the six years of knowing each other.

"Let's go get breakfast before it gets cold!" Mello shouted louder than necessary and dragged Matt along by the elbow, Madeline still clutched in his tiny hands.

"Wait Mello!" Matt all but cried as they were almost to the closed door; his heels digging into the carpet in attempt to slow them down and making a strange 'chhhh' sound.

"What?" Mello asked in a snappier tone than he intended; in his defense, he was very hungry because he skipped last night's supper. The only table open was Near's and one meal was certainly not worth the cold glances and awkward silences that would have surely ensued.

"I never wished you a happy birthday yet!" Matt pouted at his friend's tone of voice but quickly got over it. "So happy birthday!" The auburn-haired boy exclaimed and pulled the front of Mello's shirt to him, standing on tip toes to reach the birthday boy's lips with his own for a chaste kiss. It wasn't anything special for a first kiss; only the odd feeling of noses rubbing, lips being pushed against rather hard, and the sudden urge to curl their toes. The golden haired boy could only stare at the younger with a baffled look on his face before his eyes lashes fluttered together.

"What… Did you just do what I think you did?" Mello asked with a heavy blush painted across his face when they broke apart from the lack of air. While Mello knew it was wrong to kiss boys, it somehow felt nice.

"I think I did." Matt said a bit quietly and unsurely to his feet; he was too scared of being hit to look the older boy –or should he be called a man now?- in his deep blue eyes. Would Mello think of his best friend as some sort of… sin? Or possibly a crime against nature itself. What if the blonde rejected his birthday wish?

"Do it again," Mello demanded with his tiny hands balled into fists, and Matt was only too happy to comply.

Because who could deny something from Mello's wishlist on his oh-so-special day?

….

A/N: Wow, you can't believe how much fun it was to write this! I can't understand how I went from my first oneshot to…this. IT'S SO CUTESY. Oh, and I'm sorry if you found any mistakes, for my beta is M.I.A. at the moment so I re-read it a few times for you.

I'm going to go throw up now.

Review and I shall refrain from eating your future/present children.

V