December the Twenty-third:
Wait
Mello couldn't believe what was happening – Matt avoiding him only days until Christmas. He frowned and shot a glare towards Matt's bunk, which suggested that he blamed the bed for not having Matt in it. He got up, it was quite late, but nothing to how long Matt usually was up. Mello scrunched up his eyes, used to get to sleep around 10 PM and was now an hour late for his loving bed, he yawned greatly, but told himself sternly to not go to bed. He had to wait up, to confront Matt. It was even harder not to go to sleep since he had the light switched off, fearing that Matt wouldn't go into the room if he saw the string of light under the door, and that he actually sat in his own bed, as to not wake any superstition when Matt was finally here.
Mello only hoped he would drop in before midnight. He rubbed his eyes and straightened himself up. He had tried to deduce the reason for Matt's distantness since yesterday, when he had seen Matt's red hair disappear around the corner, to never been seen again. He frowned deeply, wondered whatever he might have done to earn such a treatment. But, as he ran through the memories one more time, he only realized he had been exceptionally kind to Matt during the week. Was his kindness the problem now?
As much as he hated Matt sometimes, like at the moment, he knew he wouldn't last a day without him. Mello had accepted Matt to be one of his greatest weaknesses – Not too unalike chocolate, but probably something he would get into more trouble for – he doubted that Matt had understood this fully. He guessed he hadn't. The blond stared into the wall; everything was covered in a thick darkness, and he plunged into his memories head first.
Mello hadn't been liked among in the orphanage, mostly because of his unruly temper which seemed to change whenever it liked without any obvious disturbance from the outside world. They avoided him, not wanting to play with him since they knew that he was unstable and could suddenly hit someone right on the nose. However, Mello was only a child and was as innocent and had, more often than not, doubled the will to be kind. When he wasn't allowed to play football with the others of his age, he often strayed along the corridors without any particular goal. It had been winter when he had noticed the shut door. It had been locked, which surprised Mello. Whammy's House had many locked doors, but he knew that this room hadn't been locked the week before. He frowned, and let it go, guessed that it maybe would be opened the next day.
It wasn't. Not even the day after that. Or the day after that. But, when Mello's birthday arrived, he couldn't help his curiosity anymore. He sneaked up to the room, and picked the lock skillfully. He opened the door and sneaked in. It felt like walking into a wall of a thick scent, and the room was very dark and had only dim lightening. Mello coughed and pried the room with his eyes. The door swung close behind him, and Mello took a step towards the bed in the middle of the room. He rested on the bottom frame of it, gazing at the weak boy with covers enveloped haphazardly around him.
Mello couldn't help but to think that the boy occupying the bed looked… nearly dead. His skin was grey, and his arms very thin. His hair seemed radiant in comparison to his bleak skin. He looked, and smelled, sick. Mello pouted slightly.
"Aren't you going to wish me happy birthday?" He asked, took a step closer and sat down on the bed. The body in the bed stirred, glanced up at him with dead eyes. Mello pouted again, until his features eased out in a slight smile. "I'm turning eight you know." He insisted, and shuffled closer Matt. "Are you sick?" He mumbled, even though he guessed the answer. The redhead seemed to think for a moment, before letting out a slight wheezy breath and managing two very weak nods.
Mello reached forward to push some of the strands of red hair out of Matt's sticky forehead.
"I'll come back tomorrow" Mello promised before exiting the room. And he did, and the day after that, and after that. It took a whole week before he got to hear Matt's weak whisper of a voice.
Matt seemed more colorful as Mello recalled him when he sneaked into the room that Sunday. Mello beamed at him, and sat down close to Matt. He leaned forwards and pulled some strands out of the other's eye. "Are you feeling better today?" Mello asked, and received a nod. The blonde looked at him for a while, and took up his chocolate bar. He cracked it and pulled out a small piece, which he offered to Matt, who shook his head. Mello ate it instead, as he thought of what to say.
"Roger bought a computer yesterday" He said, shrugging. "I haven't tried it yet, it's down on the first floor. Some other children have, and they really enjoyed it. I've never been on a computer before though," He rambled, looking down at his hands before glancing up at Matt. He was surprised to see Matt's alert eyes staring at him, more open than they've ever been in his presence, and with his mouth agape. He closed the mouth and opened it again, not too unalike a fish on land.
"Com…puter?" Matt asked, his voice low and whispery. His throat was probably dry, Mello thought. He smiled broadly. "Yeah! You want to come and try it out?" Mello asked, got up from the bed and offered his hand to Matt.
Mello blinked rapidly, trying to stay awake. He glanced over at the clock, it was ticking closer to midnight. Was he imagining the creak of the doorplanks outside the door or not?