-:- My Autistic Brother -:-
Author: deunan4eva
Summary: At his young age, Nate River was mis-diagnosed. Bored, Mihael Keehl wants nothing to do with the boy who screams and bangs his head on the wall. But slowly, through a poetry journal Roger forces him to keep, Mello begins to see that Near may need more help then he lets on…
BeforeNote:
Okay, I'm going to try to keep these Authors Notes short – so I'll just quickly explain how the idea for this story came about: it being the school holidays, my English teacher set us homework; that is, reading the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon – the story of a 15 yr old autistic boy writing a murder mystery about his neighbours dead dog. It'll probably take the rest of my class all holidays – I had it finished a week ago. But today I read another story about a little girl who was autistic, and I thought "coincidence, much," but then I went back and looked at Near's character, and a question came to my head: What if Near is actually autistic? So I did some research, and I got this idea – since Mello and Near were stuck in the Wammy House together, why not write a short story about them? Well, I've decided to go with a sort of poetry/diary form of story – so here goes…
Mercy
PS – so much for a short Authors Note! ^_^ haha – please enjoy. Thanks go to hamaell (who's incredibly awesome at writing Death Note fics), Ratt9 (you were my first reviewer for my other Death Note fic!^_^)and to COBRASTEVE (because hey – anime and manga is for all ages!)
Mello's Journal Entry #1
4/3/97 (April 3rd, 1997)
-:-
I don't want to be writing this. I have better things to be doing – studying for our next test, for example. But my latest assignment (via Roger – who else?) is to observe someone else here and write poetry about them. Excuse me? Poetry? Roger's got to be off his wick to think I'm going to be any good at this. I'll bet Near is, though – he's always so good at everything, it makes me want to hit him so hard his buggy little eyes fall out. THEN let's see him solve a Rubik's cube in under a minute. That'd teach him. I don't get how he can't go outside – I don't go out with the other kids often, but I do out sometimes – he just sits inside and plays with his puzzles all day. He never talks to the other kids, he hardly listens when our tutor is talking and yet he always gets top marks and scores in everything. It's so unfair! I think Roger favours him, just because he doesn't make any trouble. God, I hate Near so much…all I want is to show him that being a hot-shot isn't a cool thing, and that he should stand on his own two feet for once! Jesus – he relies on everyone else to do stuff for him, and never lifts a finger to help.
Urgh…I think I should actually use this journal for what it's meant to be used for, though. I guess Roger doesn't want to read about how much I can't stand the white-haired little twerp. So I've got to pick someone to write poems about. They've got to be someone who changes the sort of things they do on a regular basis, Roger said, so picking someone like Lily or Nigel is out of the question – they're always either playing with their dolls or trucks. And besides – who would want me using them as an assignment? No one, that's who. They'd all be like, "Geez, Mello – what's your problem?" usually I'd hit them or something, but Roger says I really should stop that.
He says I don't have to write any poetry today. I should just talk about anything – myself even, if I'm out of ideas. So here goes nothing.
I'm Mello. My real name is Mihael Keehl, but I don't go by that name anymore. It's my old name – a memory of my dead parents and Mello is the name Roger, Watari and L helped me to take when I stepped into my new life here in the Wammy House. Um…I'm eight years old, I have shoulder-length blonde hair, and lots of people think I'm a girl. Psh. Roger says we could get my hair cut if it bothers me, but I don't to – I like my hair just fine. Uh…I don't have lots of friends here in the Wammy House, but everyone is pretty much friends with everyone else, although we kind of have our own 'groups' as I heard one of the staff say once. There's this kid, a year younger than me, his name's Matt – and we usually sit together during lunchtime. We're all still in the junior wing, so it's pretty easy getting in and out of each others dorms without any of the on-duty staff noticing. I like to kick the soccer ball around with the other kids, and I like to be the best. I guess this is why I hate Near so much.
So, uh…that's pretty much it. I don't know when I'm going to give this poetry stuff a go, but I'd probably better get started soon, otherwise I'm going to have to hand this in to Roger and watch him read all this stuff and get marked as a fail. I don't want to fail – I never do – I'm always second best, just behind Near. I can't believe it – two years younger than me and smarter, better, at just about everything but his social skills. That's what he lacks – and that's the only thing I'm better at than him.
Aw, no – I'm sitting in my dorm, and I can hear him banging his head on the wall again. His dorm is right next to the one I share with Nigel, and night after night all I hear is thump, thump, thump, as he knocks his conk against the plasterboard. It hardly stops, and while Nigel can go to sleep like a switch is turned off inside him, I have to lie awake and listen to Near mumbling to himself through the wall between the banging. I can hear him counting all the prime numbers up to…well, whatever he gets up to before I think he falls asleep out of exhaustion.
Why the heck am I still writing about Near? I'm going to try covering my ears with a pillow tonight, so I might be able to get some sleep. I'm also going to try to think of someone to keep a poetry journal on.
Well, goodnight for now –
Mello.
AfterNote:
Woot! Chapter One is Done! And yes, that was a PURPOSEFUL RHYME – but I said I'd keep these Notes short, didn't I? Oh well – I hope you liked it, and will continue to read this story. And just so you guys know – I'll probably have this story finished before my other Death Note fic: Shinigami of the Past, so please don't hold it against me that I can get out a Mello and Near story faster than I can get out an L story…^_^
Stay safe, stay happy -
– Mercy