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Chapter 2: Grey Lines

"Oh, my stuff got here," says Matt with an air of the obvious.

Mello looks up at the impressive stack of boxes. "I can see that." He walks over to his side and flops down on the bed, putting his arms behind his head and looking up at the ceiling for a few moments.

The walls of Mello's side of the room are almost completely covered. Pictures of evidence he'd gotten for forensics homework. Papers with ornate scripts on them, some in a different language. In the spaces between the papers, he's written things; scratched words into the paint, even. It's clear this has been his room for a long time. On the ceiling there's more pictures, these more colourful. Paintings mostly, though are some photographs as well. Landscapes. Animals. Calming things. He's not particularly attached but the counsellor had recommended them to help with his temper. The ceiling had been the only spot left by then. Even though he hadn't had a roommate he'd followed the rules; he knew he could be assigned one at any time.

Matt looks up at the stack of boxes, wondering where to begin. He clears the ones off the desk first, figuring it best to start with the heavy equipment. Reading the labels, he opens one of the larger boxes and pulls out his desktop, the biggest computer by far. After about 15 minutes he's taken out the desktop, two smaller laptops and two monitors that serve as additional screens. It was barely a third of his stuff, but by the time it's set up, the desk is covered. He sets the monitors on the desk's upper shelf and the three computers on the main area. He works on untangling the wires and after another 15 minutes, he's hooked everything up. Thank God he'd brought several power bars; there weren't nearly enough outlets in the room. He tosses the empty boxes into the hallway for the moment, stopping to catch his breath. There's still a lot of boxes; he debates what to tackle next.

Matt glances over at Mello's side; well, at least he wasn't a neat freak. Those were the worst. "What're all those pictures?" He asks curiously.

Mello had gotten out his laptop to do some homework. He'd do an assignment then see if he can find anything else out about Matt. He's lying on his bed with the laptop on his stomach, looking up when Matt asks a question. He looks from him to the wall. "Pictures of evidence from cases I found interesting in class," he tells him. "The written pages are mostly from different philosophers. I like the Greek ones the most. There's a few from novels, or pages of the Bible that stood out to me." He's not ashamed to admit that his studies covered that too. He decides to skip over the thoughts he'd written or scratched into the wall.

"Huh." Matt peers at Mello's side of the room a little more closely; he'll have a better look when the other isn't around sometime. He turns his attention back to his boxes.

After opening two more boxes, Matt's whipped out a PS4, XBox One and old N64, which he sets behind the computers in a row. There's not much room for anything else, so he leaves the games he brought - there were at least 100, a fraction of what he owned - in their box and stuffs it unceremoniously under the desk. He sticks his smaller box of old computer parts under there too. Unpacking is too much work.

There's a small closet and some space under the bed, so he empties the smaller boxes of clothes and dumps them in there without much thought or care for neatness. Then there's his secret stash of American junk food, which thankfully hadn't been confiscated along with his cigarettes; he dumps that in with the clothes under his bed. Finally done, he flings himself onto the bed and emits a loud sigh. He takes a look at his side of his bedroom; between the computers, games, clothes and junk spewing out from under the bed, it was already a huge mess.

It was a start, at least.

Matt rummages out a bag of Cheetos and throws them at Mello. "Where you're from, they got those?" He asks.

Mello had watched Matt unpack from the corner of his eye. He had felt a little consternation at how much Matt owns. How does an orphan afford that much technology? But he keeps it to himself and resumes his search through the internet to find out who he is.

When he looks over again the other side of the room has gone from being a technology center to a huge mess. He raises an eyebrow. Then he's distracted by the Cheetos. He grabs the bag and opens it. He'd had them before, of course; he's not that cut off from the world. He usually only has chocolate though. "Not that uncivilized," he tells Matt. "Besides, I've been in England for several years now." He eats a few of the Cheetos, looking back at his laptop and clicking through a few things. Still no luck finding out about Matt.

After Matt tosses the bag over he leans backwards off the edge of the bed, watching Mello upside down. "So you would know if there're any big cities nearby then," he says. From what he had seen of Winchester, it was a small town, and that didn't suit him at all. If London or another big city was near it'd be a good escape. He was too used to bustling New York.

Matt looks at his own messy set-up and groans. "They'd only let me take a few things," he says mournfully. "How am I supposed to get stuff done with only this?" Still upside down, he reaches for the power button on the desktop and moves the wireless keyboard to his stomach, watching the screen come to life.

"Nope," Mello says instantly and without any hesitation. He can think on his feet. Matt is a criminal. He's here instead of prison. He's not about to tell him anything about the surrounding countryside.

"Well I don't know what you mean by 'stuff' but you're here to learn and to study. You have enough games to occupy yourself in between that. Why are you worried?" He eats a Cheeto and continues looking. He comes across another picture. Another one of porn being played on the Times Square screens. This one is different though and when he clicks on it, the website doesn't load. It's different than before. This one hasn't been taken down; it's just private. He smirks and sits up. Something big like this, seen by so many people, can't be covered up entirely. This was someone who didn't want their internet voice to be silenced and was clever enough to keep their site up. He bends over the computer, set to cracking the website. His skills in this area may pale in comparison to his new roommate's but a few years of training is more than enough for the protections this person had set up around the information they'd posted.

The absolute negative to his question makes the panic Matt felt earlier return. "What's the closest city to here then?" He wanted to know just how far off the radar he was; it makes him feel a little ill.

He logs in to one of the private hacker message boards he's been a member of for years. He'd been on every day since he joined, and he's not surprised that some of the others were wondering if he was dead or had been implicated. Using his handle 'd1g1t', he assures his curious online friends, feeling slightly better about his predicament knowing he was missed. He can see boards up about 'the Times Square incident' but he doesn't look at them - Mello might see. He was sure his handle came up once or twice in there; the internet was full of speculation. There was also a personal message from a prior client, but he didn't look at it just yet.

Still upside down, he leaves the board and starts analyzing the school's security setup. This was very important information to have; he couldn't do anything until he knew what he was dealing with.

Mello pauses and looks at Matt across the room. His laptop is loading the website he'd just broken into.

His eyes are narrowed shrewdly and he gives his roommate a curious look. "Why are you so eager to escape?" He asks bluntly. "Because it's pretty obvious that's why you're asking about the cities. You've just gotten unpacked. You're at an exclusive school specifically designed to educate orphans so that even if they don't get to be the next L they'll still be someone great in the world. It's more than making a living; they can be rich." He glances at the computers. "Though you're already doing pretty well for yourself. But the point is, a lot of boys work really hard to be here. You're talented enough that they brought you here against your will. And you're wanting to run off. I don't think they'll give you another chance to attend this school if you so clearly don't want to be here. If you leave and get caught it'll only be prison for you. So why?"

Matt's taken off-guard by the bombardment of questions. "I never said I wanted to escape," he mumbles. "All my favourite stuff is here now."

He does want out though. He wants to be back in New York, in the big city where he was born and raised. It was where he was meant to be. But...

"A guy like me isn't cut out for a place like this," he says with some hesitation. "I'm a city person. That's where I belong. That's where I work best. And it'd only be prison if I get caught." He didn't seem to be on a good streak with that though.

All this talk of home makes him realize the distance, and he feels an unwanted burning behind his eyes. No; he was tougher than this. He wasn't going to get homesick. He would adapt.

Mello continues to study Matt for a few moments then looks away and starts to peruse the website that had been hidden. "The nearby town is pretty big," he tells Matt. "Not huge, like New York. But it's a pretty bustling place. I already told you we're allowed there on weekends."

It only takes Mello a few moments to find the post connected to that picture. While he reads it he reaches for another Cheeto. He puts it in his mouth and gets to the story under the picture, skimming it...and chokes. He dissolves into a violent coughing fit which then becomes laughter. He falls back on his bed, his eyes closed, and laughs up at the ceiling, shaking.

So there was a town nearby...Matt would have to do some research on it, try to get in touch with people who could get him in touch with smokes. He was feeling crankier than usual, and he suspected it was because he had been four days without one, not since before juvie. The weekend was a long way off, but if he set his sights on his goal, it would come faster, he was sure.

He continues analyzing the school's security system - it wasn't bad, higher than any school he'd ever seen. He'd put it as a high 2, low 3. It was his way of grading the difficulty of infiltrating something. Times Square was a 4. He hadn't yet cracked a 5.

He's distracted by Mello's sudden laughter, then choking. He's surprised to hear such a sound come from such a serious boy. Matt sits upright on the bed, tilting his head in curiosity at the other. "What?" He asks.

Mello just shakes his head and rolls onto his side facing the wall, pressing a hand to his mouth in an attempt to stop the fit. His black-clad shoulders continue to shake and at least a minute passes before he's able to get himself under control. He has more experience controlling his temper than this type of thing.

When he can finally sit up he revolves the laptop so the small article with the picture at the top is visible from the other side of the room. He shakes his head. "I can't believe you did that." His mouth twitches but he doesn't let himself laugh anymore. It'd be just his luck to get the hiccups. Nobody would take him seriously ever again if word of that got out among the other students.

Matt waits for the other to calm down, though laughter is contagious, so he giggles a bit himself. He sees the article along with photo and grins triumphantly. He shrugs it off, though he can't help but be delighted with the recognition. "23 screens, 12 companies, all at the same time," he says proudly. He can't help but brag a little. "It was no big." This was a lie; it had taken two months of preparation and 4 hours of go time just before.

He looks at Mello with a somewhat serious expression. "The police tried to talk to me like it was a bad thing, but even now, I don't regret it." Pleased to receive his recognition, he lies back and stretches out on the bed, making two V's with his fingers for Victory.

This only makes Mello shake his head more. He picks up his laptop and flops back too, putting it on his chest like before and returning to his homework. "It was a terrible thing to do," he says but sounds more amused than reproving.

And inwardly he's calculating what would be required to pull that off. A boy at his age...no wonder Wammy's House had jumped at the chance to bring him here instead of letting him going to rot in some prison.

His good mood fades when he realizes that Matt really is just as good, if not better, than him, and possibly another rival for Near. And Matt had something none of the boys here had gotten: real world experience. Irritated, he closes the laptop and sets it on the bedside table. He folds his hands over his stomach and stares at the 'soothing' images on the ceiling, brooding.

Matt eyes Mello, unsure of what to make of his comment. "Why?" He asks. "It's just sex. Everybody fucks." He chooses to ignore the massive security breach that was the larger problem.

He pulls his two laptops over to his bed and props himself up with a pillow of Link's shield from Legend of Zelda, getting to work. He angles the screens so Mello can't see them. It takes him about half an hour of sorting through maps and codes, but he thinks he's found of way of getting into the school's security system. He smirks triumphantly. There were so many possibilities once he succeeded. He could block off his computer's data, for one, so they couldn't trace what he was doing. He bet he could get into any of the laptops on the system too, which meant he could also use the computers in the lab without actually being in the lab. He explores the system a little more. He sees the sprinkler and fire alarm system are run electronically as well. His smirk widens; this could amuse him for a while.

He glances at Mello; he doesn't seem to be paying attention, which is good. He looks at the other boy's laptop; oh, the possibilities. He couldn't quite help but squirm a little in delight. He follows Mello's line of sight. "Why do you have cool stuff on the walls but really lame stuff on the ceiling? Did your girlfriend decorate that part or somethin'?"

The blonde is just considering getting on more of the homework for Wednesday when Matt speaks again. He's so used to being alone in his room that this grates on him a little.

Turning his head he looks at the other. "Girlfriend?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "Have you seen any girls at this school? That's one distraction we're not allowed."

Mello takes a deep breath and sits up, swinging to his feet. It's getting closer to dinner time but he doesn't feel like doing homework. He'll work on some after dinner and finish it after PE the next day. He gets a book from the overcrowded shelf in the corner. "The guidance counsellor required it after I punched a hole in the wall," he admits. He jerks his thumb at the thin wood of the closet door.

Matt blinks in surprise at this news. He hadn't noticed any women, but he hadn't really been looking either. "That's too bad," he murmurs, though he doesn't mind entirely. Real women were pretty to look at, but his videogame women were way cooler.

His eyes follow the other as he moves, then dart over to the repaired area of the wall. He snorts. "So what pissed you off that badly?" He asks with rapt amusement. Matt closes the screens of his laptops; he'll figure the rest out later. He sets them away and pulls out a gaming system and one of the monitors; he was in the mood for some Mortal Kombat. It would help him vent some of his frustration at his predicament.

Mello shrugs, bringing the book and his laptop over to his desk. He pulls out a notebook and works on some code. He's decided he's going to reinforce the security on his laptop. If Matt is able to pull off that stunt, Mello doubts he can make the security on this little machine good enough to defend against him. At the very least maybe he can make it complex enough that Matt might lose interest? Either way, it will be a challenge.

"Having to work with another student." He taps his finger on the desk, looking at the screen. "A boy I particularly can't stand."

He turns in his chair and looks at Matt. "I thought of something. The L thing is the top goal of the school but a lot of students test out and are accepted at other schools, even universities. Wammy's is one of the top schools in England. Stay a semester or two here and you could apply to almost anywhere and they'd consider you." He shrugs and turns back to his work.

Matt sets up the game, though he keeps the volume low so as not to disturb Mello too much. He selects his favourite player, Reptile. He listens to Mello as he adjusts the settings, and can't help but laugh. "So that's why you didn't have a roommate? Lucky me."

He works through the game, but even the hardest Com players aren't much of a challenge anymore. He connects to his live account to see if anyone good is online.

He laughs good-naturedly at Mello's suggestion. "Maybe. I don't think I'll go to university though. Don't need it. And I got clients already." He only had a few, but if the online community manages to trace his stunt back to his handle, he'll have more.

Matt finds another player online with a high ranking. He requests a fight and waits for the other to accept.

Mello rolls his eyes. "Well I was thinking it would be a way out of here for you, to convince them you'd gone straight. Go to a university, probably with scholarship. And you'd be back in a city of your choosing."

He starts typing but is only partly concentrating on it. "And no, that's not why I didn't have a roommate. There's just not that many students here. It's never been necessary. A lot of students don't have roommates."

He pauses and is silent for several moments, directing more of his attention to his computer and scribbling down a quick equation then typing more. "And I think when it's necessary, the school tries to match students up. Based on skills, personalities..." He trails off, his fingers moving swiftly over the keyboard. He'd realized something. He has contacts in the town. Men who keep tabs on the best students for him so he knows their movements during their weekends. He'd have to contact them about Matt before then. 'Maybe the school knows I'll keep an eye on him?' he wonders. Though if Matt bolts, Mello wouldn't stop him. He might find him if the school demanded it; but not stop him.

Matt shrugs. "Eh, whatever," he says dismissively. It wasn't about convincing them, it was about doing his time. But the match-up theory was interesting. Why would have he been set up with angry Goth Barbie then? He'd have to think about that. He looks at the Mello typing away furiously on his laptop. He'd have to tamper with it sometime, Matt thought mischievously before turning back to his game. He puts on a pair of headphones and turns up the volume; the other had accepted. Within moments he was entirely absorbed in the game. Ah, this was much better. He stifles a yawn, the jet lag starting to catch up to him.

Mello works on his computer until the bell rings for dinner then he closes it and packs it up with some homework to take into the dining hall. Some students just eat quickly and return to their rooms or the library but Mello prefers having work with him during meals. If a student slips behind at this school it's next to impossible to get caught back up.

He pauses at the door. "Coming?" He asks Matt. Then opens it and heads out.

Matt's so absorbed in his game he doesn't hear the dinner bell until Mello is at the door, saying something to him. He can't hear over the headphones. "Gimme a sec, I just gotta kill this guy," he says, his eyes not leaving the screen.

Since there's students of different nationalities at the school the cooks try to do a variety of different things for dinner, which is a larger meal than either breakfast or lunch. Tonight it's Italian. They have soup and bread sticks then lasagna. Dessert is a soft dark cake. The older boys are allowed a little wine with the meal. Like at lunch, the tables are served by students. Saving the clink of tableware, the room is almost as silent as at lunch.

It's about 15 minutes later when Matt figures out where Mello had gone and goes off to find the dining hall. It takes him a little while; it doesn't help that he's looking more at his console than his surroundings. He slouches towards Mello, sitting a couple of seats away but not far. He's just as silent as at the previous meal, though he does notice the wine with some curiosity. "So who do you gotta pay to get some of that?" He asks, gesturing towards a nearby table with the older boys.

The table server gives Matt a slightly irritated look when he sits down and gets up to get him a plate and bowl. Mello is already eating and working on forensics homework. He notices Matt come in but doesn't say anything.

When Matt asks about the wine the table goes, if possible, even quieter than before. Mello breaks the silence since he was the one assigned to showing Matt around, which includes informing him of the rules. "That's only for the upper classmen," he says dismissively. "It's not about paying. And none of the staff take bribes." It doesn't make it impossible to get things in. Students are just required to find outside sources and do the work if there's something they want that badly. Not that it's encouraged, by any means. It's just not spoken aloud at the dinner table.

Matt's too absorbed in his game to notice the dirty look in his direction. Not that he would have cared anyways. But he does notice the table's reaction to his question about the wine. Seems like the others were even more tight-assed than Mello, he thought with some disdain. Some sheltered kids who'd never done anything wrong, never questioned a voice of authority. So. Lame.

He turns his head back to his game, ignoring the stares. "Was just askin'," He mutters irritably, though it was directed at the others more than Mello. He'd have to be careful about hiding his cigarettes once he got them, though it would be tough to withhold the smell from a roommate. He hopes Mello isn't a narc. He spends the rest of the meal fixed on his game.

After dinner when they're walking back to the room, Mello looks around casually to make sure they're by themselves. Most of the students are out by the pool or on the grounds for the last of the daylight. "It's not that we don't break rules," he comments. "We just don't do it openly. And it's considered...to use the English phrase for it, bad form, to ask other students about it. If there's something you want, nobody in the school grounds is going to help you unless you're already collaborating on it. In which case you approach the other student privately, not at the dinner table."

It's certainly interesting to note that the school has an open policy. But still... "Didn't know the others cared so much about social etiquette," Matt says moodily. It wasn't even that he'd wanted the wine; he'd never drank alcohol before. He had just been curious is all.

Mello smirks and opens the bedroom door. "The school doesn't really care. But like a lot of things here, it's an unofficial part of the training."

Mello goes to his bed, crouches down and gets a bottle of vodka and two tumbler glasses out from under it. He offers a sly smile to Matt. "Want some?"