AN: This speed of updating is probably only a one-time occurrence, I was stuck in bed with a bad cold today… but writing makes me feel better :) you know what would also make me feel better? Reviews! :D
Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, its characters, or Pac-man. Though wouldn't that be nice…
Warning: Shounen-ai. MattxMello. Don't like, don't read. I DON'T write lemons, so don't ask, and the rating is not going above T (and that's just for swearing). Possibly spoilers for real names in future chapters
For those of you who don't know much about me, there is something very important you must understand. I'm a gamer, and not just a plays-so-much-he-forgets-his-homework gamer, or even a no-one-ever-sees-him-sleep gamer. No, at this point, the only thing you could use to describe the extent of time I spend staring at some screen or another and the ridiculous ability I seem to have to break record scores in a matter of minutes is, well… Matt. That's just me. Oh, and I'm pretty much the best hacker in the world. I figured that once you've gotten far enough into the secret intelligence's mainstream to know what seasoning the president ate on his linguini and that their main tech guy is deathly allergic to peanut oil, you are worthy of the title. And that just happened on the one day that Roger took away my games. Needless to say, he soon learned it was better for everyone involved, not to mention humanity in general, not to let me get bored. He's a slow learner though; it wasn't till about noon, after I had already hacked all of the satellites orbiting earth to make a collision course that I had intended to manipulate in a manner similar to a space age version of Pac-man that he decided my deprivation had gone on long enough. And that was only because the first cherry was over his beach house in Florida. Selfish ass.
Aaaand I'm getting off topic here. What I was getting at is that I spend all my time loving those beautiful little devices, and very little of my time attending the classes offered here. Which is why it was a rare occurrence for me to glance up from my laptop at my buzzing phone and flip out completely, shouting obscenities while simultaneously trying to shove myself into my backpack and my laptop into my clothes, before I realized I had it backward and starting over. I had set my phone alarm so that I wouldn't forget, and I hadn't really, I had just pressed the snooze button… a few too many times. Normally, I couldn't have been bothered to worry myself about being late to a class, even if it was one of my favorites; a class on advanced computer engineering. But today was special. Today, I had to leave a good impression, because today there was a guest speaker. Although this in of itself was a rare occurrence, as Whammy's Orphanage for Gifted Youth was pretty much closed off completely from the outside world, that wasn't why I was so excited. This guest speaker also happened to be one of my idols, since I got my first taste of technology at the tender young age of… actually, you know what I'm not going to even pretend to know when my addiction started, I was practically weaned on the stuff. This guest speaker, this secretive detective, is known only to the world as "L."
Simply put, L is a genius, a genius among geniuses, in fact quite possibly the smartest person alive. Most importantly, he is the only person to know more about technology than me. The only reason I am the best hacker and gamer alive, and not him, is because he has never really tried. L puts all of his genius into solving cases and bringing justice to the world around him. A valiant effort on his part, but his path is not for me. Even though I am considered the third smartest at this orphanage of mini-L's, I have no interest in following his footsteps. After all, that would mean surpassing Mello, who is ranked second, and after seeing how he treats Near, who is ranked first, I definitely don't want to be his rival. I like my position as best friend, thank you very much. Well actually, I could think of a couple things better than that… but that would involve willingness on both parties. Something I know better than to hope for.
Anyways, somehow in the process of getting my limbs in the right holes, (seriously, when did clothing become so freaking complicated?) I forgot to put my laptop in my bag, and ran out of the room with all the grace of a bull rhino, leaving my laptop lying innocently on my bed, quietly humming and emitting a low flash of light every few seconds, indicating that it was simply biding its time until my return, and was in no means as "off" as it should have been.
Which brings me to my current predicament.
About half way to the auditorium, I happened to check my phone to see just how phenomenally late I was going to be only to realize I had set my alarm about 5 hours too early. Sighing with an odd mix of frustration and relief, I halted my crazy dash through the completely empty halls, which was not surprising as it was about 3 am actually, and began the walk back to my dorm room, adjusting my goggles onto my eyes from where they had been swinging haphazardly around my neck during my earlier rush. After giving myself a quick once over and realizing I had put my vest on inside out (no wonder it had been so itchy!), I swung my backpack around to my front and reached into the back cushioned pocket to make sure my laptop hadn't been smashed, and stopped in shock. It was gone. Left alone. In my room. With Mello. Had I even shut it off…?
With that last reassuring thought, I resumed my running, in reverse this time, leaving my backpack thrown against a wall somewhere behind me as it would weigh me down, and I could always come get it later. There was much more at stake this time. If Mello found out… I began to run faster than I think I have ever run in my entire life.