For as long as he could remember, Matt had always been alone. He had been alone when his father had left. He was alone in his room, attempting to block out his parent's shouts and screams as they filled their dingy apartment. He was alone after his mother slapped him, wailing that it was his fault. He was alone when his mother went out to drink every night. He was alone for nine full days, after the night she didn't come back. Even when placed in an orphanage with fellow bright eyed children, he remained alone.
At the tender age of seven, he had decided that human interaction was unnecessary and harmful. As long as he had the dancing pixilated images on his screen, he could be content. Mario, Sly, Sonic, Link, Pikachu... these were his friends. After all, none of the other children payed him any attention after the novelty of his arrival had worn off. People didn't care about Matt, so why should he care about them?
It was this mindset that prompted the eight year old gamer to sit in a secluded corner of the eight-ten year old recreation room, focussing his attention on catching a level 60 Voltorb rather than on the children playing around him. Even when the new kid strode in, Matt did not compromise his gaming focus.
"Children!" An elderly man called the genius orphans to attention. "We have a newcomer," Eleven pairs of prying eyes zoned in on the small blonde child at the man's side. "He will go by the name of Mello. I trust you all to be kind and respectful, remember when you were new, and..." the senile englishman trailed off, "Just don't cause any trouble, agreed?" Without waiting for a response, he exited, anxious to leave the child infested room. As expected, the bright young minds of the future wasted no time in commencing psychoanalysis- in the form of cruel taunts and childish insults.
"Hey! He called you a 'he.' I thought you were a girl!"
"Haha, yeah! Is that why your here? Your parents didn't want a pussy for a son!"
"What's with your name? It's totally weird!"
"Mello Yellow! Mello Yellow!"
After sixty seconds of screaming, one broken nose, four black eyes, and seven damaged toys, Mello had established his place in the orphanage. The slim nine year old was not as weak as he appeared. He emanated a message of power, strength and dominance. His powerful fists and blazing eyes spoke for him; screaming fear me. And the children did. Within five minutes of meeting the boy, the other children kept their distance.
During the swift orientation, one boy hadn't participated. He ignored the taunts, the crashes, the cries of pain, and the whimpers in favor of his gameboy. Intent on leveling up his Pikachu, the red head didn't notice when a power high blonde invaded his bubble of solitude.
"Hey kid," The elder growled.
"Hi." The child in question muttered distractedly. New kids had attempted to become acquainted with him before, but Matt ignored them the same way they would eventually ignore him. Mello was frustrated at the lack of response. He felt judgmental eyes burning into his back, and his pride demanded respect. With a feral growl Mello knocked the game to the floor. Matt stared at his empty hands in shock, before calmly retrieving the fallen game. He looked at the screen, and released a sigh of relief when he observed that his game was not lost. Once again, Matt blocked out the outside world, continuing to contentedly punch his gameboy buttons.
Mello was astonished. He was being ignored. "Look at me, you freak!" Not one to cause conflict, Matt suppressed a groan, saved his game and looked up.
He froze. The older boy's eyes seemed to pierce straight through his goggles. They were incredible; scalding him as they burned like a blue flame while chilling him to the core with a beam of ice, radiating confidence and arrogance while flickering with desperate need. The contradictions were captivating, they were beautiful, they were frightening, they were interesting. For the first time in his life, Matt's interest was sparked.
Mello studied the other boy's goggle clad face, clearly stunned by Mello's appearance. While he was glad to have finally elicited a response from the solemn boy, he was not fully satisfied by his wide eyed gaze. Even through his goggles Mello could detect the wonder, the intrigue that the other boy felt, but he saw no fear. Furious, Mello unleashed the full power of his threatening glare and still... not a trace of fear. This boy was different, Mello decided. He was brave, he was superior.
"Mello." He supplied.
"Matt." The red head responded.
"You will be my friend." Mello declared.
Normally, he would have declined, but in that moment, Matt wanted nothing more than to be near the astonishing blonde. Matt nodded in approval, and Mello sat down next to his new friend, forever shattering Matt's omnipresent bubble of solitude.
From that point on a bond began to form. It started as a tenuous string, spun out of curiosity. Slowly it grew, entwining with strings of shared experiences, of laughter, of protection, of comfort, of secrets, of long conversations, and of comfortable silence. It morphed into an indestructible cable of trust and love, simultaneously destroying any remaining strings that tied them to the earth, to their lives, to anything but each other.
Matt had always been alone. By the age of seven he had lost all faith in humanity. But the moment he met Mello's brilliant blue eyes, his inevitable future of solitude was destroyed, replaced by a cable of love.