Roses
The entire population of Whammy's was excited about one thing. One thing that drove many students further into the their respective rooms in extreme distaste. One that when put in conjunction with the absolutely adorable new girl, made it almost come alive. It was Valentine's Day, and love was seemed to be very much in the air.
It was certainly on the walls of all the classes and the lips of all the classmates. Red and pink advertisements for the Valentine's Dance and the annual Giving of the Rose, the one event where you could give a child a rose of any color, either anonymously or not, and they'd get the whole bunch at the beginning of the dance, or if they didn't want to go, the next day. The buzz was not just over the day, but over the new girl too. It wasn't every day that fresh meat came into Whammy's, let alone near Valentine's Day. It should have been forbidden.
Near sat in the cafeteria, watching the general population swirl around him, all giving or receiving valentines. A few mail calls had even come in bearing treats for the kids with friends outside of the orphanage. Suddenly, a young girl sitting at the table across from him stiffened as someone handed her a small bouquet of black roses from the mail. She didn't take them, instead running from the room as fast as she could.
The black roses lay on the table, as though to protest her absence. Near could see the look in Mello's eyes as the blond-haired bully of the orphanage eyed the abandoned roses purposefully. Not wanting the girl to get further upset when she found out the little twerp had cut the roses to little pieces and quite possibly burned them, he picked them up and followed the trail of confused students she'd left in her wake.
When he reached the door, he realized that she must've been the girl who'd moved into the dorm across the hall from him. He tried desperately to remember her name. What was it again? Something to do with the darkness and horses. Nyx? Equina? Dark Horse? No, he remembered now. Her name was Nightmare.
He knocked on the door hesitantly, feeling awkward about this whole thing. "Nightmare? I know you don't know me, and I don't really know you, but I rescued your flowers from Mello. If they'd been left there, he probably would have absolutely obliterated them, and seeing as someone had taken the time to send them to you, I thought you might want them later."
Only silence greeted his brief speech. After a moment, he tried the door handle, surprised to find it unlocked. He left the black roses on a side table alongside a black leather couch, noticing absently the sole white rose in the midst of all the dark ones. He didn't comment on it or try to speak to her again, just leaving her alone in the room and shutting the door behind him.
She didn't show up in any of her classes for the rest of the day. Near couldn't help wondering about her. Wondering what had hurt the young girl enough to make her despice Valentine's Day with such a fury. Did she have her own life outside of the walls that she lost the day she came here? Did someone or something important to her die on this day? It didn't matter, because she was remained firmly entrenched in her room all day.
Near thought of ways to try and cheer her up. He thought hard, trying to remember some little detail about her to help his crazy escapade. Vaguely, he remembered a flash of metal around her ankle during the gym class on her first day. She had had on a silver anklet with a small ruby studded on it in the back. He even thought he remembered her saying that her favorite color was red.
Making a snap decision and acting upon immediately so as not to give him any time to talk himself out of it, he went to the small rose counter set up for students to have roses put into someone else's vase. "Yes, I'd like to have a rose put into someone's vase, please."
She didn't come. Near stood at the back of the cafeteria area, watching for Nightmare to come and join the festivities. He briefly debated going down to her room and dragging her here, but just when he was about to do so, she strode into the cafeteria. She looked stunning in her billowing white dress, her red hair hanging down her shoulders. She had woven the black roses into a garland she wore around her neck, the single white rose sticking out of her hair from behind her hair like a ghostly lily.
She looked beautiful. Everyone's eyes were on her, and Mello's face was contorted with rage that someone could manage to be better looking than he was without even trying. Everyone could tell she hadn't really wanted to come here; it was obvious by the sorrowful look on her face and the tense set of her body, as though she was ready to throw herself into the laberinth of hallways behind her at a moment's notice.
She blushed at all the attention on her, pointedly ignoring the eyes on her as she went over to look at her vase. It was empty except for one single solitary red rose. She gazed at it for a moment before carefully stripping it of its thorns and winding it around the slender dress strap, situating it perfectly upon her shoulder. Many of the guys were visably regretting not sending her a rose, but she had no problem gliding through the crowd of people asking to dance with her.
For some reason though, she ended up standing over by Near, alone. He turned to her, clearing his throat awkwardly, "So what brought you here?"
"You're Near, right?" she asked, ignoring his question. He nodded uncertainly. "I wanted to thank you for bringing me my grandfather's roses. He sent them to me for a specific reason, one that just made me sort of freak out when I first got them. It was no excuse, but I didn't think I was really ready to handle them, but you made me realize that I had to be, otherwise Grandfather wouldn't have sent them to me.
"You see, my family is all dead, and Grandfather can't take care of me. That's how I ended up here. My parents used to run a flower shop, so I've always had an afficiency for flowers. But the black flowers were in there to remind me not to forget them, but I thought they were there to symbolize their deaths. The white one was for Grandfather, but I thought he was trying to tell me he was dying soon, when really, he was telling me to live life to its fullest. So, I just really want to thank you for making sure my flowers were okay."
"You're welcome." He looked away. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, gently.
"Really. Thanks." She walked away, heading back to her room. Near felt something in his hair, so he gently reached up and pulled that something out of his hair. When his hand came back down, it held a single red rose. No one noticed that Nightmare's own red rose had mysteriously disappeared after her kiss, or that she was already smiling at the thought of her kind deed. Near didn't receive another rose that night, or even stay for the remainder of the dance, but he didn't care. All he could think about was where the rose could have possibly come from.
Author's Note: Yes, I know, this is several days late for Valentine's Day, but please, bear with me. The idea didn't come until the day after, and then I was being really lazy about proof-reading it. I hope it strikes everyone as a gentle sort of Valentine's Day more than a wild "yeah, we're gonna go out and have lots of fun" kind of day. I had planned on giving Mello some more space, but he just didn't end up that way. Oh well. Hopefully for me, he'll be willing to let bygones be bygones and get on with his life.
Thls is a blanket disclaimer in case I never ever put another one on any of my stories: I do NOT own any of the characters I write about other than the ones I have obviously made up, such as Nightmare. I may wish I did, but I don't. So there. Now I think I'll be safe. If not, I'll add this.
The only characters I "own" in my Death Note fanfictions as of 2/18/2010 are Moon (Trickster), the mysterious shinigami in the epilogue of Trickster, Sherlock (Sherlock: A Tale of Two Detectives), and Nightmare. I cannot claim Jicami from Trickster because he was based off of the skeleton shinigami on the spine on the 2nd Death Note in the US. I don't know if it's the same one in any other country, but trust me, I didn't make him up on my own.
The only character I "own" in my Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction as of 2/18/2010 is Sorrow. Everyone else is a real character, though I do not know if any of them would actually do some of the things I had them doing. Can't help it now though.