How They Met- Chapter One
Mail ran down the pathway, slipping and sliding on the wet cobblestone. Flames ravaged the sky, and he kept running farther and farther away. They lied. Constantly. There was no one who could tell him differently. Everyone had always lied to him. Said that they didn't know what was wrong with him, that there had to be something wrong with him. Mail simply didn't care. Blood ran down his forehead, surely the new cut would cross another, older scar, and create a new one. Hazel-green eyes were filled with panic. He could hear footsteps following him. He had to get out of here.
Mail, as the only way he could get out of that god-forsaken place, had burned down the orphanage. He didn't care. It was a way out. He darted into an alley.
A month later, Mail sat in the office of Whammy's House. Still wearing sooty clothes, dreadfully thin, and certainly not eager to be there. Whammy's had informed the previous orphanage (which was being rebuilt) that he was dead, and all traces he had ever existed were gone. Roger had even given him a new name. Matt. He was still Mail Jeevas… but not. It was a strange concept for him.
He sat back in the chair and got himself reasonably comfortable. He didn't mind it so much here, particularly since he had his own room, and had been given various electronic games he could play with. His PS2 was already nicely rewired to be more efficient. But… he knew they had only given him these things so that they could tell him a lie, and he would be more likely to believe it. Bargaining. Oh no, he wasn't going to believe any of their lies. He heard the door open and he clenched his eyes shut. A habit he had gotten after the incident of the orphanage. He shut out the lies visually. He heard shuffling footsteps.
But then something was pressed into his hands. Matt's eyes flickered open.
Goggles?
Rimmed in dull silver, the lenses were a warm orange. Some instinct prompted him to put them on, so he did. The room was bathed in a dusky glow from the lenses, and for some reason he couldn't explain, he felt more… secure. As though the goggles were his shield against the lies.
"Ah, so they do help," he heard someone mutter. Matt looked up, and he saw the most peculiar looking young man he had ever seen. Plain white shirt, blue jeans, no shoes, wild unkept black hair, and sunken in dark eyes with deep circles underneath.
Matt swung his legs in the chair, looking around.
"Who're you?" he asked, looking at the men.
"I am L."
"L?" Matt said, cocking his head to the side.
"Yes. Matt, have you ever thought of being a detective?" L asked, a tiny smile lifting the corners of his lips. L always enjoyed these first visits- particularly when the child in question showed prospective.
"A… detective? No, I've just wanted t'get out of the orphanage…" Matt said, his eyes widening.
"Would you like to be one?" L asked.
"E-er, yeah. I think so… maybe."
"This institution can help you if you let it. Also, even if you don't recognize it yet, there are many other children that are like you here. I know that this is not what you would like to hear at this moment in time, but it is the truth," L said. Matt couldn't help but trust him. He didn't know why it was so easy to do it, but he knew he could trust L, if anyone. The only person he trusted. Ever.
"Also, I've ensured that you will have your own room until you feel ready to have a roommate. No one will lie to you if you let them. I am sure that you will be fine," he added.
"Thanks," Matt said, looking up with a grin.
L got up and offered him a cookie before leaving.
Matt liked him.
He ate the cookie rather quickly as he wandered back to his room. Perhaps that now he had the goggles he could go around and see what was in the rest of Whammy's. He hadn't actually wandered around the whole building yet, but with this new feeling of being secure…
"Get out of my way," he heard someone snap and he was shoved into the wall. Matt turned after collecting himself to see a thin lanky blonde storming down the hallway.
And that was how they met.
