pre-story notes, yo. Mello! Yeah. That's what's up. Enjoy, please.


"Okay, Mihael, come in here with me---"

"Don't touch me!"

Stephen let out a slight yelp as his left shin received a swift kick.

"Mihael, please!" he pleaded, showing a bit of weakness that the enraged child took advantage of.

"No!" the tiny mass of blonde hair and anger yelled, dashing down the corridors of the orphanage and out of Stephen's sight.

"Dammit!" Stephen groaned, hitting the door to Mr. Wilson's office three times. "Will one of you come out here and help me?" Though he was normally a very calm person, he was slowly losing his temper.

"Something wrong?" Katie asked, opening the door. She was smirking slightly.

"The boy ran off. I don't know where he went, but he's somewhere around the orphanage. He's so angry... You all are going to have one helluva time with this one." Stephen said, ignoring the pain in his shin. He limped into the office. "I don't really think chasing him down is going to do much good. Check the cameras and give him a little bit of time to calm down."

"Is it this little blonde child?" Katie asked, looking at one of the moniters. "He just went in Matt's room."

"Jesus Christ..." Mr. Wilson muttered. "Jesus H. Christ."


"Uh, who are you?" Matt asked, clicking his Gameboy off.

"None of your business."

"Well, you're in my room."

The intrusive boy gave Matt a curious sort of look, one that seemed to say I would very much enjoy punching your face in right about now. Stop talking. "... My name is Mihael. They want me to stay here. I ran away from my other orphanage. Some cops found me. "

"Why?"

"Because I didn't like it there. I've been to six orphanages in the last month."

"How come?"

"Because they always say that I'm too much trouble and send me somewhere else. I fight a lot."

"Do you always win?"

"Yeah. Always."

"What kind of a name is Mihael?"

Mihael just shrugged. "I don't know. My parents liked it, I guess. What's your name?"

"Matt."

"Pssht. What a stupid name. It's boring."

Feeling rather defensive at this point, Matt said, "Whatever. It's not my real name. They renamed me because my real name was too weird for them. They probably won't rename you."

Mihael sat down on the floor and hugged his knees to his chest. "What's your real name, then?" he asked.

"I'm not telling you."

"I want them to rename me."

Matt decided to join Mihael on the floor. "Maybe they will, if you ask them nicely. Maybe they'll think your name sounds too foreign or something. Where are you from?"

"My family was Russian. You kind of have a British accent. Was your family from England?"

"Yeah. They were."

The door opened abruptly, hitting the two boys on the back. "Mihael, why did you run away from me?" It was Stephen. He looked very angry.

"Stephen!" Matt cried, giving the man a quick hug.

"Hey, Matt. I see you've already met your new roommate." Stephen said, giving Matt's shoulder a soft pat. "It looks like you two were getting along alright before I came in here, I guess. Mihael, Mr. Wilson would like to meet with you. Will you please just come with me for a few minutes?"

Mihael shrugged and gave Matt a quick grin before departing. Stephen gave Matt another pat on the shoulder. "I'll see you later, kid."

"Are you going to stop by during lunch today?"

"Yeah, if I ca---"

"Hello! I'm waiting!" Mihael hollered from down the corridor.

Stephen sighed. "I gotta go tend to that one. Bye, Matt."

Matt gave Stephen a small wave and decided to head over to Misa's room to see what she was up to. It was almost time for breakfast, so he was shocked that she wasn't already banging on his door and screaming her lungs out. "Misa?" he asked, giving her door a light knock. "Misa, you awake?"

"Yeah, I'm awake... Come on in, Matty..."

Matt opened the door slowly and took a few cautious steps inside. "Everything alright? Why's it so dark in here?"

"I don't know... Turn on the light if you want to."

Misa was still in bed, a pillow covering her face. Matt could tell that she was curled up in a fetal position by the way the covers were crumpling around her body. "Allison was adopted yesterday," she said, her words coming out a slow, careful pace.

"I know." Matt said, sitting on the bed that Allison once occupied. "I know, I saw her leave."

"They say it's so rare... for people to want a teenager. But that couple did want a teenager. But they didn't want me. I think I'm nice, you know? I think I'm the kind of daughter that someone would want. Allison's not, but she's so pretty. Maybe that's why they picked her."

"You're prettier than Allison." Matt said off-handedly. "... You should stop thinking about it. I don't think about my parents anymore, so I don't get upset."

"Matt, you're eight. You're a little too young to be thinking like that."

"And you're fourteen. You're a little too old to be hiding in your room, crying."

There was an awkward, hungry silence. "... That was really mean, Matt." Misa said, finally. "Really mean."

Matt decided it would be appropriate to change the subject at this point: "I have a new roommate. He's a problem child."

"You are, too. What's his problem?" Misa's head emerged from the mass of blankets, sheets, and pillows. Her eyes were red from a repetitive cycle of crying and wiping the tears away.

"He fights a lot, he told me. He ran away from Stephen. ... Can I tell you something, Misa?"

"Sure." Misa was sitting up at this point. She pointed to the vacant side of the bed, indicating that she wanted Matt to sit down beside her. He did, and the two of them leaned back against the headboard. "What do you want to tell me?"

"I... well, it's stupid, I guess, but..."

"Come on, tell me!"

"... I want Stephen to be my dad." Matt admitted, letting out a nervous chuckle. "I really do. I wish he would adopt me."

Misa gave Matt a warm smile. "I think he would like to be your dad." she said, running her fingers through Matt's messy hair. "But he's really young, you know? And he's not married. Maybe he wouldn't be able to handle it."

"Yeah... Well. I just... I don't know. I guess I shouldn't think about it. I shouldn't get my hopes up or anything."

"Sometimes getting your hopes up is okay. Just as long as you can handle the disappointment you feel afterwards."

Matt rested his head on Misa's shoulder. "I should go back to my room. I need to help get Mihael settled, I guess. Feel better soon, okay?"


It was near midnight and the two boys weren't even considering going to sleep. Instead, they were taking turns at fighting a particularly difficult gym leader in Pokemon Red.

"Dammit! Charizard fainted!" Mihael cursed. Matt's eyes widened in shock; Mihael was only nine, but he was using words that his parents rarely ever resorted to. "Aw, don't be such a pansy. Everyone ends up talking like that anyway. I just got a head start. ... You know, I am still entirely pissed that they didn't want to rename me. I want a new name..."

"I can think you up a new name," Matt offered.

"Okay. Nothing stupid, though. Or boring. Like your name."

Matt shot Mihael a mean look before brainstorming.

"You sure are taking long enough." Mihael complained, engaging in battle once again. "Okay, forget about the stupid name. I'm bored. Talk to me. Ask me questions."

"How old are you?"

"Nine. You're eight. I snooped through your files when Mr. Wilson wasn't looking. Your real name is Mail."

Matt was pretty impressed. He took the Gameboy from Mihael and managed to defeat the stupid gym leader that had been torturing their souls for the past thirty minutes. "I kind of liked my name. Mr. Wilson didn't."

"Well. I don't like my name. It was my dad's middle name. Nikolas Mihael Keehl. My name's Mihael Nikolas Keehl. It's stupid. My dad was stupid."

"You didn't like your dad?" Matt asked, saving his game and shutting the Gameboy off.

"No. I hated him. I liked my mom enough, I guess. I had a little brother, too... He..." Mihael stopped talking. There were tears framing his eyes. He wiped them away quickly. "I don't want to talk about about it anymore." he said abruptly.

"You don't have to talk about anything." Matt said, shrugging. "We can go to bed."

"Yeah. I want to go bed." Mihael turned down his blankets and jumped under them.

"You're such a spaz."

"Whatever."

"Can I call you... Mello?"

"Mello? As in... calm? Chill? Is that your idea of a joke?"

"Yeah. I guess it is."

"... Yeah. Yeah, Matt. You can call me Mello. Heh.Isn't that cool? It's kind of like our first inside joke."

Matt turned off the light and climbed into his bed. He smiled; he'd never had an inside joke with anyone before.


Notes and stuff: XD I totally rewrote Mello's introduction, so, yeah. I plan on bringing Linda back into the story sometime soon. If things go as planned, then she's going to have lovecrushes on Mello there for a while. This will not turn in Linda x Mello, however. But, if any of you have any suggestions as far as couples and/or one-time fluffy pairings you would like to see, I will take them into consideration. As long as they're... you know, not weird. Yay. Thanks for reading, guys.