"W-wait!" came the cry of a young girl, about eleven or twelve, who was running through the lavish halls of the orphanage. Several children stared at her, squealing in surprise, as she rushed by in a great haste. Some of the squealing children sent her ever shrinking form glares as if she were crazy and infuriating, especially when they turned to see what it was she was chasing. No one would see what it was, however, that had the young girl's attention.

"What a strange one."

"Freak."

"She's almost as strange as him."

"No.. She's stranger. His strangeness can be over looked by his brilliance, at least."

Those were some words that were commonly used to describe the frail and dark-haired child. She was strange. She always seemed to be chasing after something that didn't exist or speaking to nothing but the thin air in hushed whispers. She was strange. Of course, strange was only thrown around when humanity didn't understand what it was that they've been gifted. Or rather, they didn't want to understand.. People were never comfortable around those that were abnormal. They didn't understand her. They weren't comfortable around her. There were few who did understand.. Few were comfortable around her.

However..

There was a few.. A few didn't call her a freak..

Those who did call her strange, they.. Well.. She had learned since she was even younger how to block them out and to not allow herself to waste her tears on them any longer. She learned that they just weren't worth it. She learned that her emotions needed to be contained.

You see.. The girl didn't just chase after nothingness. She wasn't talking to herself in those hushed little tones. Strange. Indeed, she was. In fact, she was, in ways, much stranger than he was.. Or, maybe.. Maybe unique.. Unique may be a much better suited word for her.

After all.. Not many could say they could feel the presence of the other worldly. Not many could say they could see and speak to those who have passed on.. Not truthfully, anyways.

The strange- no, unique- girl was so focused on the shimmering figure of a charred looking woman that she didn't notice a pair of worn and dull looking sneakers, letting out a small "oof!" as she tripped. Her squeal soon became a muffled whine as she face-planted onto the floor and ended up with a mouthful of carpet. She could hear the amused snickers of those who had seen her blunder and squeezed her eyes shut, just laying there for a moment.

Just ignore them, Quinn.., she told herself as she pushed herself onto her knees, spitting out the fibers and hair that ended up in her mouth. "Ptuh-ptuh!" She wiped her mouth to get rid of any saliva and straightened up. She opened her eyes and looked around to the children; several stopped their poorly hidden laughter. Wisps of her messy locks fell into her face and tickled at her lips. She blew at them audibly(though of course, her hair wanted to be rather difficult that day and did as it pleased), staring at the kids with a blank expression.

"Miss Hayes.." came a quiet yet surprisingly deep voice, which brought her attention forward. When she did, the girl let out a small shriek of surprise and, throwing her hands up in the process, fell back. A boy with untamable raven coloured hair that looked as if it had never seen the wonders of a brush and tired, yet always aware, eyes were mere inches from her face. She held her hand over her heart and stared up at the ceiling wide-eyed. He stared at her quietly, looking unamused. Just bored. "Are you done?"

She sat up and moved to her knees, her face mere inches from his. "Do you not know the meaning of personal space, Ryuuzaki?" she said, glaring into his onyx orbs.

He merely shrugged his already strung up shoulders, which made her give him a deadpanned look. His white shirt, which seemed as if it were trying to battle his ivory coloured skin in a race to see which can lack the least freaking colour, looked to be wrinkled and seemed to be slightly too big for his fourteen year old frame. "I was just checking to see if you were okay. That was quite a fall you just took. And I wanted to get my shoes back. If you'd be so kind." He held his hand out for her, as if he wanted her to retrieve his shoes for him. "Would you please hand me my shoes, Miss Hayes? Then you may continue whatever it is that you do around here."

She only stared up at him for a moment before her gaze traced over to the flickering and disappearing form of her mother. She locked eyes with the deceased woman before she couldn't see her any longer. This made the younger girl grumble and smack his hand from her. "You don't even like shoes!" She said, pushing herself up to her feet and folding her arms over her chest. She continued to glare at the boy.

He merely stood up straight. Ha! Whenever that humpbacked panda actually practices good posture and can stand up like a normal person, I'm pretty sure Hell will freeze over! He pressed his thumb to his mouth, pushing at his upper lip. "Miss Hayes?"

"What now?"

"I'm on my way to the kitchen to see if there is any shortcake. I've been really craving it for some time. I'd ask if you'd like to come along, but you seem a little busy." He smirked at her behind his thumb.

It was her turn to smirk up at him. "Is that so? Well, I am a little busy, but I'd love some shortcake." The truth of the matter was there was no more shortcake. In fact, Quinn had eaten the last piece! She knew it was his favorite, besides chocolate of course, sweet to eat. Ha! Take that, L! That's what you get, Mr. Panda! She thought rather smugly. After all, he was keeping her from chasing after her mum. However, to her dismay, when they got to the kitchen, he didn't allow her to leave until she agreed to make him a new cake. They were in the kitchen for quite some time at quite the stalemate.

A/N:Okie dokie. So, I was bored and was watching Death Note, (I finally finally FINALLY got the whole series on DVD. Yay. Squeals. Now I can watch L all I wan... Uhmm.. Hold on.. Becky is ranting) and I wanted to write a DN fanfiction for a while. This has been an idea brewing in my head for a long time and I just now decided to put it on paper. Don't worry, I am still working on my two other stories. Burning Chaos is on hold until I can get Kingdom Hearts 1.5 since I don't have a PS2 any longer, and Hell Comes in Different Colors, I will be updating within the next few days (hopefully). Well. See ya!