Hello wonderful readers! This is my new story. It is a Matt fic because I didn't get my fill of him from the anime :3

Just so you can get a feel of what this story might be about, the song that inspired me for my character Amalie is Mad World by Gary Jules.

The reason I'm posting this story now is so that I can work on this when I'm stuck on my other story, I do it anyways so I figured why not give my readers something else to keep them entertained?

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Death Note, but if I did I'd be sure that Matt Mello Near and L had English accents 

I hope you like it, please read and review!

Chapter 1

The sun peaked behind the clouds as a car door opened. A little girl stepped out; her arm was in a cast. She wore a simple black dress, her hair was pulled back into a braid with a bow holding back her hair, and in her small arms was an old stuffed cat doll with button eyes. Her own eyes were open wide in curiosity at the building in front of her. There was a fairly large W on a gate which blocked off a building with what looked like a bell tower.

"Amalie," said a man coming up next to her, "Welcome to your new home." The little girl's eyes began to fill with tears at his words but she swallowed them back, and took his hand.

They walked through the gate, and Amalie saw some children over on a swing set. They, however, looked a bit older than her. They stared, but she quickly looked to the ground trying to ignore their intimidating gazes.

When they entered the old building, her plain black shoes clicked on the hardwood floors. The corridors seemed to go on forever, they passed door after door. She could hear children talking and laughing randomly in many of the rooms they walked by. She almost bumped into the elderly man for he had come to a stop in front of a dark wooden door.

"This here is your room, and you share it with other girls around your age." He said. He opened the door to show a room of five beds lined up against the wall; however there was no one inside.

The man walked inside carrying her suitcase and set it on what she assumed was her bed, "Well right now, the other children are in classes. Your roommates should be back soon though." Amalie moved inside and sat on her new bed, "Would you like me to show you around?"

Amalie did not answer, or even move. She sat staring at the floor.

"If you need me I'll only be down the hall." He began to walk out.

"Roger…" came her voice, so soft that Roger had barely heard it. He paused, "Thank you." He nodded and closed the door behind him.

When she heard the door click, the little girl opened her bag. She carefully pulled out a picture of a man, a woman, a young boy and a familiar little girl smiling at the camera. Tears fell onto the picture, and the little girl brought it to her chest. She lay down and curled into a tiny ball weeping into the unfamiliar pillow beneath her head.

When she woke up, there were other girls in the room. Their voices were soft whispers.

"Should we wake her up for dinner?" one girl asked.

"I think we should, otherwise she could be hungry later." Said another who was on the other side of the bed. She sat up, a surprised oh came from the girl next to her, "Hi, my name is Heather." The girl kindly smiled at her. Amalie looked around, at the other girls and smiled kindly.

"That's Kailyn over there," Heather said pointing to a girl with red hair, "Lily, and Amber." a girl with short brown hair waved, and the other with curly dark brown hair smiled.

"Hello…" Amalie said softly.

"So…do you want to come eat with us?" said Amber. Amalie shrugged, and nodded. She didn't have anything else to do.

"Yay! Come on, it started five minutes ago." Heather made her way to the door. Amalie slowly got up, and joined the others who politely waited in the hallway.

As they walked through the main entrance hall, Amalie was being bombarded with questions she really didn't want to answer.

"Where did you used to live?" asked Kailyn.

"London."

"Oooh, before she died, my mom was going to take me there." said Lily.

"So were you an only child?" Amalie shook her head, and spoke.

"I had an older brother, Charlie…he was nine."

"How'd they die?" asked Amber.

Thankfully though, right as she was about to answer, someone pushed through their group shoving them all to the ground and made their way into the cafeteria.

"Hey! Mello, watch it!" yelled Heather. Another boy silently made his way between the already separated girls, "Thanks a lot Matt. Way to be nice to Amalie, I mean come on. She's new here!" She said sarcastically picking herself up.

Hearing his name, Matt looked up, and then behind him at the girls. He had a Game boy in his hand and a sucker in his mouth. He looked surprised to see other people.

His brown eyes stopped on the smallest of the girls looking at the pretty black bow in her amber brown hair.

Amalie stared back at him with her wide green ones. He walked over to her, and held his hand out. Slowly she took it, and the two didn't break eye contact as he helped her up. Letting go of her hand he mumbled sorry, and walked into the cafeteria.

"Don't mind them Amalie. That was just Mello and Matt, they're both really weird." Said Heather as the girls walked into the cafeteria.

"Yeah, Mello is the smartest kid here. He's eight. Matt is the second smartest, and he's our age." added Lily.

"Why does is matter who's smarter?" asked Amalie finally glad the conversation moved off her.

"Didn't they tell you?" Lily asked, "This is an orphanage dedicated to training incredibly gifted children. The smartest ones here…usually the top five are the choices to become L's successor."

"Who's L?" Amalie asked handing her empty plate to a kind looking woman behind the counter. The girls stopped and looked at her like her head was on fire or something.

"Who's L? Who's L?!" repeated Amber, "What do you mean 'who's L'?"

"L is only the smartest student ever to graduate from Wammy's House. He single handedly became the world's greatest detective a few months after leaving." explained Heather. The lady behind the counter handed Amalie her plate back full of mashed potatoes. She mumbled a thank you, and grabbed a chocolate chip cookie.

"Yeah, Mr. Wammy is with him right now. He makes sure that L has everything he needs in order to solve the crimes…I wish I was in line to become the next L." Lily pouted. They walked over to an empty table and sat down.

I wish I could go home…thought Amalie, her chin on her folded arms as she gazed at her fork mixing the mashed potatoes. She felt a pair of eyes on her, and turned her gaze to her right. She saw the red headed boy from earlier turn quickly around almost knocking Mello's chocolate milk over.

The next day she reluctantly sat in a desk in an empty room. In order to officially be allowed to stay here, she had to take the test.

Honestly she didn't care one bit about this test, all she wanted to do was have her family back, but that would never happen.

Roger had set down an answer sheet next to her, and then set down a very thick stapled pile of paper.

"There you are," he said taking out a pocket watch, "you have two hours. Begin!"

Slowly she picked up the pencil deciding that it would be better for her to actually do something with the two hours rather than waste them.

She read question after question, answering them without trouble. Her mind calculated and processed every possible outcome to the problems laid out before her eyes.

Roger watched the little girl at work, watched her turn page after page stifling yawns. This really didn't seem like much work for her.

Her past teachers at her public school sent out her record. She was a very good student, always did her homework perfectly, top of her class, very friendly, and very happy. Her teacher had written him saying that she had a reading level of a high school student, and Amalie was usually seen reading.

When she was brought to Wammy's house, she was only allowed to bring clothes, and a few stray belongings. She had to leave all her books behind to be sold. And although she had only been there for a few days, Roger knew she had spent most of her time in the library.

Tick…tick….tick…

"You have one hour lef-Oh" He looked down at the girl in front of him, she stood there looking at him with her big green eyes, and held the thick packet in front of her.

"I'm finished."

"Are…are you sure?" she nodded, "you checked over everything? Answered every question?"

"I don't know if my teachers told you this, but I'm a fast test taker."

Roger raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound conceited. I checked over my answers, and I trust in my ability that they are sufficient enough."

"If you're sure…" Roger said taking the papers and setting them on the desk, "I'll have the results ready within the day, so now you can go back to your classes if you wish."

"Thank you."

She walked out of the stuffy room, and walked down the empty hall. She had been given her class schedule the day after she arrived, her next class was on the other side of the building. A bit of an inconvenience but she didn't really like sitting in class anyways. Not that the kids in her class were bad, she just didn't know any of them, and she missed her old friends.

She heard clicking of buttons, and muffled techno music as she neared her classroom. As she turned the corner, she was surprised to see the red headed boy from a few days ago. He was sitting casually on the ground playing with his game boy color.

Hearing her shoes click on the floor, he looked over at the small girl standing there staring back at him.

"Hi." He said going back to his game.

"Hi. Shouldn't you be in class?" she asked looking around for teachers.

"Shouldn't you?"

She bit her lip, and walked closer to him. He continued to press the buttons, trying his best not to loose concentration as she approached.

"What are you playing?"

"Super Mario World."

"Oh, my brother loved that game. He made it to level 7 all by himself. How far are you?"

"I've beaten all the levels, now I'm just trying to go for the super high scores."

"I'm-"

"What is going on out here? Matt, I sent you to the bathroom twenty minutes ago." A teacher stood in the doorway, "Matt…please go talk to Roger. Amalie, come on class is still going on."

Matt stood up, and walked past Amalie. She bowed her head, and walked into the classroom.

The metal chains creaked as she moved slowly back and forth as she sat alone on the swings. She had been there for a few weeks, but had yet to make a friend. Her new roommates were nice, but the problem was that Amalie was very shy, and usually very quiet. They had assumed she didn't like them, as though she was too good to be their friend.

The laughter of her fellow peers reached her ears, she could also hear them run by playing small games of tag, or hide and go seek. She wished to join them, but couldn't find the courage to go over there and ask them. Instead she looked down at her shoes.

"Hey! Mr. Wammy is back!" shouted a little boy.

"It's L!" exclaimed another, "L's here too!"

A crowd had started to form around a similar shiny black car that had brought her here. She looked up, and saw an elderly man, who looked very warm and friendly, get out of the car. He walked around and opened the other door, to reveal a very young man.

That must be L she thought to herself. The young man was seated very oddly. His knees were pulled up to his chest on the seat of the car, and his back was crouched giving him terrible posture. His black hair was wild, and untamed. He too proceeded out of the car.

By this time half of the Wammy's house students were out on the front lawn waving hello to the detective, and Mr. Wammy himself. Roger made his way through, and shook Mr. Wammy's hand. He ushered them past the crowd.

She saw Roger whisper something to Mr. Wammy, and then look in her direction. Maybe there was some dead animal nearby that needed to be disposed of, but what ever it was made Mr. Wammy, and even L look over at the little brown haired girl swinging alone.

They kept walking into the building, Roger and Watari continued talking, but L observed the little girl. This was the new Protégé that he and Watari had come back to meet…interview even. He walked inside, following the two men to Roger's office.

--

It was late at night, most of the kids had in fact gone to bed. But a little girl sat on a very soft, very comfy recliner in the reading room. She was reading a book, The Hobbit, actually re-reading it. She loved the idea of a mystical world with Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and even Hobbits. They were her favorite creatures, because they weren't really needed. All they had to in life was relax, and not worry about anything…that would be lovely.

A low grumble filled the emptiness of the room. Her stomach…she hadn't really eaten much for dinner, and now that was something she regretted. Carefully marking her page with a bookmark and setting it down on her chair. The Amalie got up and made her way to the kitchen. There had to be something there.

Maneuvering her way down the corridors, she finally reached the dining hall, and saw the kitchen at the end of it. It was shocking that the kitchen was still open at these hours of the night, but Amalie didn't think much of it.

She walked in, and turned on the lights. Her tiny mouth watered as she observed the mountains of food stored in there. However she didn't really care for vegetables or the chicken they had that night. She looked instead in the freezer, and to her pleasure she pulled out Chocolate ice cream with little peanut butter cups inside. All she needed now was a bowl and a spoon.

A few minutes later, she sat happily down at the counter. The first bite of heaven was about to enter her mouth when the door swung open.

She recognized the wild black hair, the onyx eyes, and the funny slouch. It was L.

"Hello." He said walking over to the fridge.

"Hi." She said back watching the slouched detective pull out a container of strawberries.

"I'm L." he said simply. He put a strawberry in his mouth and walked over to the table in the corner. He pulled the chair out and sat, or rather crouched down awkwardly. His legs were pulled to his chest.

"I know who you are." She said, "My name is Amalie." Finally she took a bite of her ice cream.

"I too know who you are." He ate another strawberry, "Tell me, what are you doing out so late? I thought children were to be in their rooms."

"I'm eating ice cream," she stated simply, "I was reading before," She took another bite, "what are you doing up so late?"

"I'm allowed to be up late," he said, "What do you read?" he asked.

He observed the little girl as she sat there looking up slightly and biting her bottom lip as though she were in deep thought.

"hmm…The Age of Innocence, the Count of Monte Cristo, Pride and Prejudice, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, the Scarlet Letter, and Wuthering Heights, at least…those are some of my favorites," she took another bite, "But my favorite books of all time are the Lord of the Rings trilogy."

"Well, that is quite a reading list you have there, and such difficult books." He said looking at the little girl, "tell me…how old are you?"

"Seven." She mumbled.

"Seven… my my. You certainly are intelligent." There was a slight pause, and the little girl put down her spoon.

"How are old are you?" she asked with slight curiosity.

"Me? I'm 18, but I'll be 19 soon."

"You're still young. How come you don't go here anymore?"

"Because Watari, excuse me, Mr. Wammy knew that I was capable enough to go out into the world to start solving more challenging cases." He sighed, and wrapped his hands around his knees, "I did not have any complaints."

There was a small pause in order for both of them to sit and think about the other, continuing their snack of course.

"How is it that you have come to call this place your home" L asked. Her head bowed forward as she glared into the now half empty ice cream bowl. She took a deep breath.

"I don't have anyone anymore…" she said sadly, "I had no where else to go…"

"Yes, losing loved ones at such a young age is quite traumatizing." He looked over at the counter, "Are you going to finish that?" he said indicating the bowl in front of her.

She turned her glare over to him, and pulled her bowl closer to her.

"Yes."

Another silence filled the room as they finished up their midnight snacks.

"Amalie…" L said as he put the strawberries back.

"Hmm?" she turned on the hot water, and poured dish soap on her dirty bowl.

"I would like to inform you of something that Roger told me about earlier today."

She continued to scrub the bowl with a sponge, but nodded her head to tell him to continue.

"You are to become my third successor." He walked over to her, and took the clean bowl from her small hands, he cautiously dried it, holding it between two of his fingers. Amalie became nervous that he might drop it.

"So, what do I have to do?"

"Nothing, except keep your grades up." When the bowl was dry enough he delicately put it back in the correct cupboard, "However, in order to prepare you to become L I would like to get to know you a bit better. Spend some time with you, converse, do…entertaining activities."

Her bright green eyes met his dark onyx ones, and for the first time since she arrived at the orphanage a smile lit up her face.

--

So there it is, I hope you guys like it, and I swear I'm trying to get better at updating, I just get bed writers block :3

Anyways, I saw the Dark Knight the other day, and it was awesome! I though everyone did an amazing job, and I hope that it gets nominated for lots and lots of Oscars! I'm actually going again tomorrow, and I can't wait :-D