A/N: Okay, new fic. This one is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Xigbar from Kingdom Hearts.
As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.
Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #2) a little shiny white mp3 player with hellogoodbye on it (among other things) called Yokobue, #6) a big staircase, and one of my personal favourites #17) a tv with a broom handle imbedded in the screen.
Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart and Touchdown Turnaround (Don't Give Up On Me) by Hellogoodbye. And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go an look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.
Rated for language and very very slight angst.
Chapter One: "Matt"
Mail Jeevas sat in the back of the small, unremarkable car that had taken him from the orphanage he had lived in since his mum had died; six months ago to the day. His vision was fixed on the small screens of his Nintendo DS, two small earphones drowning out any outside noise.
The eight year old stifled a giggle as he made Lego Batman walk up yet another ladder so that he could watch his butt wiggle in that ridiculous way of his and reached down to change the song on his small white MP3 player who he fondly called "Yokobue".
~"You be my princess and I'll be your toad"~ Mail winced and quickly pressed the 'next' button on Yokobue. There was no way he could listen to that particular song, no matter how many times he had allowed it to lull him to sleep in the past.
~"Every night I see you standing on the corner"~ Mail sighed, this was better. He did not need that song floating around his head as it was prone to do; while he was trying to make a new start away from the people who still laughed at him for the time he had burst into tears after listening to that song for the first time since she died.
Turning back to his game, he was just about to make Lego Batman climb the ladder for the tenth time in a row when the car slid to a halt outside massive iron gates.
Pushing up his goggles to get a better view, Mail absently saved his game and turned off the DS, shoving it unceremoniously into the small backpack which held everything he'd wanted from the orphanage and wound down his window to peek his head out.
As the car began to move again, through the now opened gates, 'When did that happen?' Mail wondered distantly, more focused on the view now available to him, which made him gape.
There, in the middle of what seemed to Mail like a sea of green grass with a ring of trees catching his eye on the edges of the sprawling lawns, was what the small boy could only describe as a huge castle. Although, mansion might be more appropriate.
The car pulled slowly to a halt outside the gigantic front doors and Mail fumbled for the door handle before stumbling out and grabbing his shabby bag, stuffing his beloved Yokobue into a side pocket of the bag.
For what seemed to Mail like an eternity (although in reality, was only a few minutes whilst the driver parked the car properly, got out and rang the doorbell which echoed impressively through the currently deserted grounds, and waited for someone to come answer the door), all he could to was stand and stare around him at everything.
"Matt is it?" a voice broke into Mail's blatant gawking and the eight year old spun around quickly to see an old man standing by the open front doors, the car and its driver were nowhere in sight and Mail realised the old man must have been talking to him.
"Uhh, my name's Mail." he corrected the man.
The old man smiled sadly, "Not any more, it isn't" he replied quietly, "From this day forth you shall be known only as Matt. You'll get used to it soon enough, this way now, I'll show you to your new room... and your new room-mate."
The old man steered Mail, no, Matt now, into the mansion, firmly closing the door behind them and leading him up the stairs.
"You may call me Roger."
--
"Mello, why is there a broom handle protruding from your television screen?" a voice asked from the doorway of the twin room Mello shared with no one…yet.
"Some bitch in Japan insulted L on the news earlier" the blond boy muttered rebelliously.
"And so you took your frustrations out on the television?" Roger's voice didn't sound accusing.
"Better then Linda's face again" the blond quipped under his breath.
"Anyway, that's not why I stopped by this evening, Mello, this is Matt, he shall be your new room-mate. I trust you will make him feel at home."
Mello froze, then turned slowly to look at the new kid.
He was short and scrawny with red hair and green eyes and golden tinted goggles pulled down around his neck and was half hiding behind Roger as if frightened of Mello.
"I'm Mello" the blond broke the silence, sticking out a hand for the kid to shake.
"Ma-Matt" the red haired boy said, shooting a fearful glance at Roger before extending a shaking hand to shake Mello's.
"Well come in and excuse the mess, but you'll just have to get used to it" the blond grinned, turning his back on Roger, "is that all you brought? Never mind, I'm sure Roger can find some more stuff for you. This'll be your bed and that one's mine. Oh, and never ever touch my chocolate okay? Seriously, you do not want to find out what happens when someone touches my chocolate."
Matt threw a glance over his shoulder to see a gently smiling Roger close the door softly to let the two boys get acquainted without interruption, plenty of time to make sure Matt understood everything and show him around in the morning.
--
As Roger had predicted, Matt soon got used to his new name. Everyone here never used their real names, not even Roger. Mello had explained this after hearing Matt stumbling over his new name.
"No one here knows your old name," Mello had explained, "not even Roger. Its for our own good see, if no one knows who we really are, no one can know anything about who we were before. Its a new start, a chance to make something of ourselves when before there would be nothing."
"So...who does that make me now?" Matt had asked.
"It makes you Matt, a little boy deemed intelligent enough to be allowed the honour of trying for the position of the successor of L."
"Who's L?" Matt asked innocently.
"L is the reason we're all here." Mello explained, reminding himself forcefully that Matt was new and not everyone in the world had heard of the brilliant detective. Sure most of those people lived under rocks, but there were still a few out there. "He is the most well renown detective since Sherlock Holmes, but better because he's not a figment of Sir Arthur Doyle's imagination"
"He's also not an arse hole." a small red haired girl called Annie piped in.
"That too" Mello said with a smirk.
"So we're all going to be detectives?" Matt asked, his small face confused.
Mello shook his head, "Not necessarily" the blond said, "Some will, of course, but others will choose different fields, after all, we have the best learning facilities available, and a few that aren't, and they let us study whatever extra stuff we want just so long as we still do well on the standard tests we get every Monday."
"So…I don't have to become a detective?" Matt asked, still looking confused.
"Well…that depends on what ranking you get, if you're in the top five you're not allowed to make any outside commitments until the successor is chosen properly"
"Oh." Matt said, looking the tiniest bit less confused. Then, "What ranking are you?"
"First." Mello replied, smirking smugly.
"Oh..." Matt said again.
--
Matt quickly settled into life at Wammy's.
He had quickly become fast friends with Mello despite the blonde's seemingly bipolar behaviour, a feat that, surprising to Matt, seemed to be a difficult one to the rest of the population at Wammy's. Mello said it was in awe of his ranking, but Matt thought that it may have had something to do with the girl Linda who had come back from the hospital the day after Matt had arrived at Wammy's, her face covered in bruises, and who seemed terrified of Mello, often going well out of her way to avoid the blond boy. Many others had begun to follow her example, albeit to a lesser degree.
The big shock however, came not even a week after his arrival at the orphanage. It was Monday evening, dinner had just finished and Mello had half dragged Matt out into the hallway by the gigantic staircase just inside the front doors where the rankings list had been posted sometime while everyone had been at dinner.
Mello quickly moved to the top of the list to make sure he was still number one, and, after checking his place, turned back to help Matt start to look for his name before the crowds arrived, but as he was turning away, something caught his eye.
Blinking and rubbing at his eyes, he peered back at the place for number two and saw, much to his evident astonishment, Matt's name staring back at him proudly.
"Matt" he croaked hoarsely, then "Matt" he said, louder this time, "I found you."
"Huh?" Matt hurried to where Mello was standing and followed the direction his friend's shaking finger was pointed to see his name beside the number 2. "I'm…second?"
"It would appear so." Roger's voice spoke from behind them, "It would seem that congratulations are in order, welcome, Matt, to Wammy's House. We shall expect great things of you"
Matt gulped and stared from the list to Mello to Roger and back to the list again.
Maybe Wammy's wouldn't be such a breeze after all.
--
A/N: Okay, first chapter down and Xigbar saved!!
Next chapter is for Itachi from Naruto.
You will find out the significance of the first song (Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart) in the next chapter and there will be more fluff, along with Near!
Oh and for anyone who knows me: Wow, something by Suzie that's not completely dark and angsty! Are you proud of me? Or just plain freaked out?
Reviews = love. love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter (except for the last one which is Matt and Mello) and will only save character I believe should be saved. if you request someone who is a) already granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via PM.)
Thanks for reading!
Suzette