There was a new kid arriving at Wammy's House today. It was going to be a boy. That much Mello knew since a bed was moved into his room a couple days ago. He was going to have a new roommate unfortunately, and most likely someone annoying with weird habits and an obsession with personal space just like his previous roommate that finally had enough of him and left.

Mello watched out his window as a police car pulled up front, and Watari and Roger appeared to open the door for a boy with bright red hair and wearing goggles. He couldn't really see the boy's face but he seemed to be around his age, seven or eight. The boy was also engrossed in a handheld video game as they walked up the porch and disappeared into the house.

Any minute they'd call for Mello to show his new roommate around, but he wasn't much for waiting so he decided to go down himself, grabbing a chocolate bar for the trip. Just as Roger was exiting his office with the new boy, Mello approached them.

"Ah, there's Mello now," Roger gestured to him. The boy didn't look up, his thumbs moving furiously over what Mello recognized to be a Gameboy.

"Mello, this is Matt," Roger started as Mello took a bite off his chocolate bar with a snap. "He's your new roommate and as I'm pretty busy at the moment, I was wondering if you could show the young man around."

Mello crossed his arms, frowning, obviously unpleased at having to waste his valuable time showing this dork around. "I suppose I have to."

With that, Roger pushed the boy, Matt, towards him and went back into his office. It was then that Matt finally ceased twiddling his fingers and looked up through tinted goggles.

It seemed as if Mello's heart had skipped a beat, and he almost dropped his chocolate as he stared at the beautiful boy. Red hair surrounded that delicate face and small nose. Eyelashes framed his eyes and gave it an envying almond shape. It was just too bad those goggles were in the way of properly gazing into those pretty eyes. Wait! What was he just thinking about? This was his new roommate. Another guy for God's sake!

"Something wrong?" the guy interrupted his thoughts.

Mello shook his head to clear his thoughts. "No, just don't fall behind," he said none too kindly.

It was an uncomfortable silence as they walked the halls leading to the House's main rooms. Mello tried showing then new kid around, but every time they entered a room and he'd explain what it was for, Matt would only grunt in response, face practically glued to his game screen. Finally, Mello decided to cut the tour short and just head to their room instead.

Unfortunately, they had to run into Mello's most hated enemy on the way, the white-haired albino who was currently sitting on the floor of the dorm hallways playing with building blocks, dressed in pale blue pajamas clearly too large for his small frame.

"Having fun, freak?" Mello's voice heavy with sarcasm.

"I'm fine, thank you," Near replied, emotionless, and not bothering to look up. "And how about yourself? Big math test tomorrow, aren't you worried?"

"In fact, I'm not." A lie. "I'm definitely going to beat you this time, Near."

Near stacked a block on his little pyramid. "We'll see. You'll just get second again though."

With that, Mello brought his foot up and swung it against Near's pyramid, sending blocks scattering everywhere.

"Fuck you, you little freak. C'mon, Matt."

With that, Mello walked away, not bothering to look behind to see if his new roommate was following him.

"How come you were so mean to that kid?" Matt asked as soon as they entered their room. The red-head collapsed onto the wrong bed though, but it didn't matter for the moment.

"Because!" Mello started, throwing his hands into the air. "I'm always getting second to him. He beats me at everything and then he never shows any emotions whatsoever, but I can feel that underneath he's laughing at me, taunting me!" He hadn't realized he was stomping around, and stopped right in the center of the room. "I hate him!" he added. He also hadn't realized he had just spilled his guts to some boy he hardly new. That was dangerous. If that ever happened again, it may be about something that could cause trouble for him. He waited for Matt's response silently.

"You're jealous of him," Matt stated simply.

"What? Jealous?" Mello asked incredulously. "Of Near? That emotionless-ablino-freak? All he ever does is twirl his curly hair while playing his creepy finger puppets or stupid blocks in some corner. How could I be jealous of him?"

Matt just shrugged his shoulders and resumed playing his Gameboy.

"Just a thought," he said.

Mello frowned while looking at the red-head and took his familiar stance of crossing his arms to show he was angry. The guy was beautiful no doubt, and the whole day he's been trying to get they boy to look at him, but it wasn't until they ran into Near did Matt finally start seeming interested in something other than his video game. A whole day with Mello versus just a few minutes with that Near-creep! So maybe Mello really was jealous, and it was just too bad he had finally realized that when, without knowing, Near took away the first person he could maybe like.

"Damn, Near!" the blonde yelled aloud before collapsing on his bed beside Matt and finally finishing off his chocolate bar.

"You do know this is my bed," Mello said much more casually.

Matt's fingers stopped.

"Oh. Sorry," he said quietly.

As he crossed the room to his own bed, Mello could've sworn he saw Matt's cheeks color a bit. But Mello was just a kid who's never been in love, and life at Wammy's was so secluded from the outside world, he wasn't sure what that meant. He wasn't even sure what it meant for his own heart to be racing whenever he glanced at his new roommate.

"So where's the rest of your stuff?" Mello asked after a while of studying.

"They said it'd come tomorrow," the red-head answered lying on his own bed, not bothering to look up from his game, slightly annoyed at this Mello snapped off a piece of chocolate with a scowl on his face.

"Tomorrow, huh?" the blonde sat up. "Well," he stretched and gave a fake yawn, "it's about time for bed. They turn out everyone's lights by computer somewhere. You might want to change your clothes, brush your teeth, or go to the bathroom before that happens. You'll regret doing that stuff in the dark."

"I'm fine," Matt only said.

"You're not even going to take off your goggles? The sun is practically gone and I don't even see why you wear it in the first place."

When Matt didn't answer, Mello just shrugged and stripped down to his boxers. He wasn't going to completely change his sleeping habits just for his new roommate, but he did put on a tee shirt.

There wasn't much conversation after that as the lights soon went off at their designated time and the room was plunged into darkness but for the light of Matt's Gameboy. Mello knew he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep with the combination of that light and constant sound of buttons pressing, so after only a few minutes he finally had enough.

"Hey, turn off that thing will you?" he said none too kindly.

"I'm not sleepy," the red-head responded.

"I'm not either, but I'm trying to fall asleep."

"Too bad."

Right now, Mello didn't care that Matt was cute and new. He left his bed and nabbed the red-head's Gameboy right out of his hands.

"Hey!"

"You'll get this back in the morning."

And Mello stuffed it under his pillow before sitting on it.

"Give it back!"

"Get to sleep, roomy."

There was a long silence after that. It was too dark to see if Matt had followed his advice and gone to bed, but Mello had already crawled beneath his covers and closed his eyes. What he did might've been a little mean, he admitted, but he never wanted a roommate in the first place, and he never asked for the guy to be both cute and a geek who likes to ignore people. He finally just decided to forget about it and fall asleep when he heard a whimper come from the other side of the room. He sat up, straining his ears to know he heard right. There it was again.

"Matt?"

No response. A few seconds later, a sniffle.

Mello left his bed, grabbing a flashlight from his drawer. He crossed the room, leaned over, and shone the bright light into his roommate's face. There was just enough time to see Matt's red eyes and tears crawling down his pretty face from behind his goggles before he brought his hands up to shield himself.

A cry baby! That was his new roommate? Yet Mello kind of felt sorry for it being the red-head's first night, and he himself hadn't helped much by yelling at him and taking away the only thing he had from home. He should apologize, yet he was too prideful for that. He'll just try being nicer to the guy – well, at least until Matt got know Wammy a little more.

"You okay?" Mello asked trying to sound sincere.

"I'm fine," Matt muttered from behind his covered face.

That was a big fat lie. But he didn't want the red-head crying so he just decided to give the stupid game back.

"I'll give you back your toy, Matt. So stop crying for Pete's sake!"

As Mello was about to go back to his bed, there a sudden creak and Matt was hugging him, gripping his shirt.

"No it's not that," he hiccupped.

Mello could feel his face get hot, but he ignored it, just like he was ignoring how nice it was to be hugged again and how soft that hair felt against his cheek.

"Then what?" he spat out, he wanted his roommate to stop crying so he could sleep.

"It's strange here and I miss my mother," he answered breaking out in a soft sob. Such an awkward situation and Mello didn't know what he was suppose to do so he simply hugged the red-head back.

"Your mother?" he asked, showing he was listening.

Matt only continued to cry.

Wammy's House was an orphanage. That only meant Matt's mother was dead. Mello's own mother was dead, his father who knows where, but he remembered the sadness and loneliness of finding out that his mother had died and then immediately being whisked away to a strange place full of geniuses with weird quirks just like he had. He imagined it to be scary for Matt, yet he didn't know what to do next or say.

Mello gently pulled himself apart from Matt to get the Gameboy and came back to lay it next to the boy.

"Listen, Matt, this is an orphanage. Everyone here has lost their parents or never even had any to begin with. You're lucky for having your mother even for a short time, so cry for her now but get over it soon because we've got classes tomorrow."

Mello wasn't exactly the comforting type but he did what he could and hopefully his little speech wasn't going to mess up his new roommate too much.

There was a sniffle, and then, "Thanks, Mello."

"Sure."

So not knowing what else he could do, Mello turned off his flashlight, and returned to his bed, willing for sleep to come quickly. There was a math test tomorrow after all and he had to beat Near. Yet instead of formulas running around in his head, it was Matt's smell and the warmth of that small body against him that followed Mello into his dreams.