It was a beautiful, snowy morning at Wammy's House. It had snowed heavily the last few days so the kids hadn't been allowed outside. But today, the sun was shining, hitting the crisp fresh snow in a way that it sparkled in the morning bright. The young Matt and Mello bounced out of bed joyfully. Ok, that was a lie. But Mello was actually in a good mood for once and got up relatively fast. Matt didn't copy, but he did eventually wakeup and allow himself to be dragged out of bed by the impressively strong blonde.

"Mello, it's our day off, there's no school. Why'd you wake me up so early?" The redhead said, looking at the person in question through tired eyes. "It snowed last night. Roger's finally letting us outside today. I wanna' get out early to play in the snow." The gamer didn't look overly impressed. "Mello, that makes you sound like a child. And that's still no reason to wake me before noon." "You're coming, too," the chocoholic said, giving him a disapproving glance.

"But it's cold out."

"There's a solution for that, it's called a coat."

"You can't get good Wi-Fi signals outside."

"We won't need Wi-Fi."

"…"

"Well?"

"I'll go, but I still don't approve."

After they finished their breakfast- pancakes with a selection of unusual, sweet toppings -the two boys went up stairs to their room to change and grab their winter clothes. On their way back down, Roger stopped them for a second.

"If you're going outside, take Near with you. He could defiantly needs to get outside some time," the old man said, gesturing to the human-shaped, bundled up white object beside him.

"I'll be perfectly fine on my own, Roger. Though, I do not see the point in such an unnecessary activity," the human marshmallow replied. "Nonsense. As much as I may regret this later, I'm putting you two in complete charge of him. Perhaps you'll learn to become more responsible from this." Roger made his way down the hall, back to his office. 'C-complete… c-c-control…' the two older boys thought with dread. If the roles were switched, Matt and Mello- or at least Mello -would use this as a chance to get Near in trouble. Hopefully Near wouldn't do the same. And, well, they weren't exactly the most responsible children in the orphanage. If anything, the exact opposite. Oh, poor little Near.

"We could always put a leash on him…" Matt suggested hopefully. "And how would that help? I'm pretty sure he knows how to get out of one, anyways." sigh "Mello, what color is Near, currently?" "White," Mello answered skeptically. "And what color is the snow?" "White." "And?" "…oh. On second thought, a leash might actually be a good idea," the long haired blonde said, finally understanding. "I don't think a leash would be necessary. Let's just go outside so I can get this over with," said the white blob known as Near, who was both horrified of the thought of being put on a leash, and thought he might be potentially getting heatstroke. Mello scowled, but didn't protest. 'What a horrible way to ruin a good mood.'

The children left the building, looking at all the young, happy- yet unusual –children as they walked around to the opposite side of the orphanage. Or at least Matt and Mello did- Near waddled more than walked, but he made it there no less. It was abandoned as usual- not that Near would know that, he had only ever seen it through the window a few times.

While Near was curiously looking around, Mello was desperately trying to think of a plan to make sure the genius albino child didn't get them in trouble. "Why aren't there any other children out here?" Near asked Matt- who was much perkier now that he was outside -innocently. "Well, this place is actually off-"-What?! You don't know?!" Mello exclaimed, seeing his chance. Matt was a little disoriented, but quickly caught on to what Mello was doing. "I don't know what, Mello?" The chocoholic stared seriously into the white puffball's eyes, carefully thinking over his answer. "You mean you haven't heard the legend?" Near looked puzzled- or at least as puzzled as someone who showed little to no emotion could. "I don't believe in such, but please, continue."

"Well, legend has it that a long time ago, on a clear day in the winter, there were three children who went out to explore this part of the field, despite the rumors of several disappearances happening around it. They went into the forest down the path, ignoring the pleas of the youngest to stay close to the building. The three walked for almost an hour before they finally admitted they were lost. They tried to find their way back, but ended up more lost then they were before. The younger child- tired and cold from walking around –had gone off to rest and wait for help to arrive. He heard a low rumbling in the distance. There are many different rumors of what happened next, but the most reliable ones say a giant pizza cutter appeared beside him."

"A pizza cutter?" Near asked. Matt was too WTF-ed out to ask the same. "A giant pizza cutter. Now let me finish. He was killed instantly, transformed into a villain of snow and ice. By now, the two other children had finally noticed his absence. They called his name in hopes of finding him. The lightest crunch of footsteps could be heard behind them. They turned around slowly, frozen in fear of the sight of what used to be the young child. Police found the older boys' bodies the next day, after getting called that the children never came back for dinner. The younger child's body was never found. Rumors say he's still there, haunting the forest for eternity, looking for children to kill and transform. Wammy's House was built a few years later, after most of the rumors had died out. But people will always talk, and legends and rumors will never officially die out. That's why no one wants to come out here," told the blonde, proud of his fabricated tale.

"You know I don't believe in any of this legend stuff, right?" Near said with obvious disbelief. Or that could have just been from the lack of emotion, it's hard to tell. "Whatever. Let's just get moving before lunch." Mello said, slightly disappointed that Near wasn't visibly shaken.

The three walked down the path, into the thick forest ahead. "Hopefully the brat was just bluffing about not believing my legend. Even if he doesn't, after that he wouldn't dare go off on his own," the blonde thought, buttoning up his long black coat. "Mello, it's cold outside," the gamer complained. The chocolate lover rolled his eyes. "Mello, I am also finding it quite cold out. May we go back inside?" the Near-blob asked. "How can you be cold?" the one in question exclaimed overdramatically- or I suppose normally, considering this is Mello. "You have two coats and at least 4 scarves! You should be worried about overheating!" By now they were deep into the forest.

"Mello, my Sims are going to die if we don't get back soon."

"Then create new ones."

"I don't want new ones."

"Then I guess you should've taken better care of them."

"We can have hot chocolate if we go back."

"…"

"What do you say?"

"Fine. But only if I get extra marshmallows and whip cream."

Matt nodded in response. "They're always fighting. It must be a miracle that they're best friends," the albino child thought. "Ok, so how do we get back?" Mello asked, footprints unreadable from walking in circles. "I thought you knew!" the gaming addict said with a hint of dread. Soon Matt and Mello launched into a fight of who was supposed to remember and it was beginning to irritate the young, white puffball.

Against his better judgment, he started wandering around, looking for familiar surroundings. As he began to get farther away from the others, he tripped and fell on a small patch of ice. He wasn't particularly injured due to his excessive amounts of outerwear, but he did, however, twist his ankle and was finding quite painful. He limped over to a sturdy log not that far ahead to rest for a moment. His mind flashed back to his upperclassmen's story, but he quickly decided that he was being foolish for thinking such.

The boys' argument quickly stopped short after noticing Near's disappearance. "Oh my god! We lost Near!" "That brat, going off without us! We're going to get in so much trouble with Roger if we don't find him," Mello exclaimed angrily. "What if he was killed by a pizza cutter and is coming to destroy us!?" Matt questioned, briefly forgetting it was only made up to scare the younger into not getting them in trouble. "You have no idea how stupid that sounded. And it was a giant pizza cutter." "Ok, I'll admit that it sounded stupid to even me. Anyways, Near couldn't have gotten far. Let's just look around for him," the gamer said confidently. "Whatever."

Near had been sitting down for a while, being all white and stuff, and had decided that it was probably time to head back to the older ones, seeing as they might have been getting worried. He stood up, his ankle practically screaming with pain. "Ouch," he thought, starting to walk back to where they were before.

"Do you think there's a chance your story might have been true?"

"No."

"You sure Near's not going to kill us?"

"Matt, for the last time Near is not going to kill us!" Matt and Mello had gone in a different direction then the bundled blob of white and Mello was starting to get annoyed at Matt's ridiculous questions. Or perhaps he was actually worried about the kid. You can never tell with him. His chocolate was frozen and was getting annoyed with walking in circles. "Let's catch our breath for a moment, ok?" He asked. Matt could only nod in response.

Near looked around for the two boys until he heard yelling. He walked-waddled over from where the sound was coming from until he could understand what they were saying. "Near!" "Agh! Brat!" "Matt… Mello…" he thought. He limped in the direction where the yells were from.

As they rested, they heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. Both boys felt themselves freeze up. As they realized they had no other choice but to turn around and look, both boys turned their heads slowly…

To be completely honest, there are many logical explanations for it. They had indeed gotten up quite early, they hadn't eaten in a while, they were probably getting a cold from staying out too long, losing Near was stressful, the fear from the story, and the angle of the sun. These are all factors that could produce such a reaction. So I can honestly say that screaming and running away in terror at the sight of Near is an understandable reaction.

"Ahhh! Near's going to kill us all!" "Run! Wait…" The gamer and the chocoholic stopped running, turning their attention to the confused stare of the younger. Processing… processing… processing… Their minds slowly understanding what was going on. "Near! We thought we lost you!" They yelled, running back to the bundled white blob. "I apologize if I made you worry. I was going to head straight back, but I slipped and sprained my ankle. I assume we shall continue on our way back," the albino said, limping slightly as he walked. The tired redhead nodded in response. "Yeah. I think we're close to the building. It shouldn't be hard to find our way back from here."

Approximately 20 minutes later, the unusual trio sat on the living room's floor, cold and wet from being outside, covered in blankets and sipping hot chocolate. Their warm, delicious drink was made by Kiwi- a young orphan with a talent for cooking (and maybe, just maybe, a teeny little crush on her blonde upperclassmen). After walking around the forest for a while, Mello had gotten annoyed at Near's slowness (from the limping and injured ankle) and had him carried by Matt and himself. It was quite an adorable sight to see- perfect for blackmail had a camera been there. As it turns out, Matt was correct in his assumption and they found their way back quite easily. As soon as they got back, they took the sheep-like child to the orphanage's nurse, bandaging up his lower leg and foot. Surprisingly, Roger was quite impressed with the older boys' maturity and congratulated them in the form of not punishing them for going in the off-limits section of the yard (Mello was quite pleased with not losing his chocolate for another week this month).

In the end, they all had gotten sick and had to miss all classes for the next week. And if they had looked back as they ran down the icy path, they would have seen a young boy, transformed into a small child of snow and ice, smiling and waving goodbye, whispering the small, unheard words of "Goodbye! Please come visit again soon!"