"Matt!"

"..."

"MATT!"

"What!"

"Get up we're gonna go play!"

Matt opened his eyes reluctantly. He did NOT feel up to Mello's pranking this early in the morning. 'What time is it anyway' he wondered.

He pulled his goggles down off his face and looked over to his shabby alarm clock.

5:12 A.M.

"Mello! Why did you make me up so early, it's still 5 A.M." Matt was never an early riser. He would always stay up until he beat the day's video game, and Mello knew that yesterday's game was one of the longer games. This wasn't the mourning.

"Just shut yer yap and get dressed in your winter stuff!" He said. He pulled on his black boots and his jacket. He was clearly excited about something but Matt couldn't figure out what.

It was too early in the mourning for thinking. He got up and straightened out his black and white striped shirt. He looked around his and Mello's messy room and found some pants to put on.

He then stuffed his feet into his boots and pulled on his winter jacket. Mello stood by the door impatiently tapping his foot the entire time.

"C'mon! let's go!"

"Calm down ya Chocoholic."

"I'm no Chocoholic, I can stop whenever I want!"

"Right."

Mello bit into his chocolate bar and ran down the hall. "Hurry up!" He yelled back to Matt. Matt laughed, he just completely contradicted himself. What 12 year old in their right mind would carry at least 3 chocolate bars on them at a time?

Matt put his hands in his jean pockets and walked lazily down the hall after him. Wammy's House was still very quiet because most of the kids had normal sleeping patterns, unlike the head panda, and were still asleep.

He turned the corner Mello went down and stopped when he heard a thump.

Mello was on the floor, probably because he knocked into a baggy pair of jeans that were in front of him. Matt heard the faint sounds of someone sucking on a lollipop.

"What are you two doing out of your room?" L asked. The disheveled looking detective questioned them. Mello looked awe struck, no one got to see L that often, and seeing as Mello admired him to no end, he must have been surprised more than he let on.

"uh, we were gonna go outside! Yeah, It's snowing out and we wanted to go play in the snow." Mello explained.

"We? what do you mean WE? I wanted to stay in bed but you hadta wake me." Matt objected. Mello got up and pointed an accusing finger at him.

"But you came anyway! That means you wanted to go play too." He shot back.

"Enough. You say you wanted to go outside in the snow?..mh..I guess I could accompany you while you play, so you don't get injured." L stated. He turned and started heading down the hallway, Mello and Matt followed.

"Sweet! We get to hang out with L! Isn't this awesome Matt?" Mello shouted.

"Yeah..but I'm not sure if that's exactly what he meant." "Oh whatever, We're hangin' out with L!"

'Your such a dunce sometimes Mello.' Matt thought. L opened the front doors of Wammy's and stepped onto the front steps.

"Go ahead you two." He said. Mello sprinted past him and jumped into the snow. The whole front yard was covered in a foot of snow, and it was still calmly fluttering down. The wind was at a standstill so it felt like the world had stopped. It reminded L of the day Watari first brought him to Wammy's House. He began to space out as he remembered how cold and numb he felt. In reality, He never thawed out from that day onward. He was as frozen in emotion as he was after that day.

"Hey Matt!"

Matt looked only to come face to face with a snowball. He fell over into the snow. "Oh your gonna get it!" He fired one back. Soon it became an all out snowball war. Matt and Mello half way through had built their own forts and were laughing away as they launched snowball after snowball at each-other.

L stood there watching them have their fun. He never really had fun like that, he wasn't sure if it was as much fun to him as it seemed to be for them. Matt threw another snowball at Mello and then tackled him. They wrestled in the snow for a good few minutes. they then laid on their backs out of breath.

"Hey Mello."

"What?"

"I say we get'em."

"YEAH!"-"Shh! C'mon!" "Oh, right, right. Let's go!" They ran off in opposite directions. L watched Matt run across the snow covered lawn. 'He's opened up more since he came here, hasn't he. He used to lock himself in his room constantly. Now he at least does that with someone else with him, and not all day.' He would smile at the thought, but he never did smile. He always wore his still mask. Never showing any emotions, unless he did so for provoking suspects, or rarely for Watari. He barley ever showed such facial emotions when he was by himself, which in his specific way of work, was quite often.

L looked around, He lost track of them while he was thinking. He walked off of the front steps and looked around. 'Where'd they go? They couldn't have gone that far..'

"Ahh!" Before he knew it Snow was dumped on his head and snow fell down the back of his shirt. It was incredibly cold. He turned around to find the two pranksters laughing their heads off.

"We gottya L! Ahahaha!" Mello managed to get out.

"Oh my god that was awesome! Ahaha!" Matt added.

When they finally calmed down they both noticed L was gone. "Hey where'd he go!" Mello shouted. "Maybe he went inside?" "Mayb"- a snowball was thrown in Mello's face before he could finish. "What'd you do that for Matt!"

"I didn't do it" "yes you did!"

"No I did"- Splat.

"Hey!" Matt Glared at Mello. "What? I didn't do nothing'!"

"Your both hopeless." They looked to find L standing a few feet away with a big snowball in his hand. "YOU!" Mello pointed at him. L just threw another snowball in his face.

"You're going to get it now L!" Mello and Matt started flinging snowballs at him, and the war continued, now with L included. It went on for quite a while, Matt and Mello had a number advantage but L had great accuracy, he barely ever missed hitting them. By the time it ended they were all covered in snow.

"L, I'm cold. Achoo! call it truce?" Mello finally said, holding out his hand, in the usual handshake signaling a truce.

"..Mhh..I don't know." He said. "What? Why not!" Splat. Mello wiped the snow off his face. "No we can call it a truce." L shook Mello's hand. He then lead him and Matt inside and helped them get their soaked coats off.

"L, can we have some hot Cocoa?" "Yeah can we?"

"Alright, Go sit by the fireplace, I think a fire is still burning. I'll go make some."

"Alright!" Mello and Matt ran off to the fireplace while L headed to the kitchen to make the hot cocoa. After he made some, he put some marshmallows in his and Matt's, he knew Mello wouldn't want anything to taint his Hot cocoa's chocolate taste. He made his way to the fireplace where Matt and Mello were warming up and handed them their cocoa. "Thank, L" Matt said "Yeah Thanks!" Mello sipped his, while Matt wanted to let his cool a little. L started to leave when Matt grabbed his shirt.

"Here where ya goin'? " "Back to my room so I can finish up some case files."

"It can wait can't it?" "Yeah stay and warm up with us!" Mello added.

"..Alright, I suppose." He sat down on the couch next to Matt. Mello was sitting on the floor with his back against the bottom of the couch. They sat there warming up by the fire. Mello fell asleep after finishing his hot cocoa. and Matt grabbed a blanket and wrapped himself up in it. L looked at him.

"Matt, do you like it here now?"

"Yeah, it feels a lot more like a home than it used to be." "That's good." He said. Silence set in. L thought Matt had fallen asleep because his head went limp and was down a bit. He started to get up when..

"L, can we do this again next time it snows?" Matt asked drowsily.

"..Yeah, next time it snows." He smiled with a warm smile.