L watched with wide eyes as some forty or so children ascended upon him almost as soon as he'd stepped out of the door. They all looked at him with wide, sparkling eyes and big smiles, and, quite frankly, it was starting to make him nauseous.
"Oh, hello… Please, not so close…" he said nervously, casting glances back to a bemused Wammy.
He began to become a bit angry to see that he was enjoying this, and wondered how long he was going to let them keep at it. He got his answer when he saw him turn to Roger and exchange a few words. He pointed to two of them in frustration, though L was unable to determine which two.
"Alright children, calm down," Wammy chuckled, turning away from his employee. "L will answer any questions you may have once we get to the meeting room to receive your aliases. Now get in two straight lines and Roger here will lead you there."
L let out a sigh of relief as the children broke away from him to begin forming their lines. He couldn't help laughing to himself at the sight of the elderly looking Roger herding the children like cattle with a grumpy look smeared across his wrinkled face.
His adoptive father made a small gesture for him to follow him to the dining room. Upon their arrival L was handed a list with two rows of names on each side—one the child's real names and the other their alias. He figured he'd end up having to do this crap.
"That is names A-N. I'd spent every night the past week coming up with all of them— oh don't you give me that look. Think of this as a way to test to see if those speech classes I gave you have been paying off."
L rolled his eyes at him as he scanned through the list with mild interest. Some of the names both real and fake were very strange, but then again so was his own for that matter.
With a mumble, he took his place at the wooden podium Wammy had purchased for the occasion.
…
Mail and Mihael sat happily in their seats that had been turned forward so they could see L calling out names. They were quite pleased to note that they were not expected to be completely silent for the ceremony, and were at least permitted to keep their voices down to a whisper.
"What do you think your name will be, Mihael?"
"I dunno, but I bet it'll be cool. Maybe… Snake."
His red-headed friend giggled softly.
"Snake?!"
Mihael blushed. He'd probably earned himself a new nickname for life. Even worse, he'd not had enough time to come up with a clever comeback in order to right himself before L called the next series of names.
"Mail Jeevas will now be known as Matt."
Mail and Mihael looked up to L, who was already calling out the next people. They had not noticed he was already past the J's, let alone to their own names.
"Matt?" Mail muttered a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I'd expected something a bit more interesting."
"Nonsense! I think it's an awesome name. I'd be lucky if my name turned out to be half as awesome as—"
"Mihael Keehl's is now known as Mello..."
Matt's eyes widened slightly. "Cool name, Mello!"
The blonde simply beamed, obviously pleased.
"Way better than your sucky one!"
He let out an audible yelp in pain as he felt a hand pop him in the back of the head.
…
L lay in his bed comfortably, looking up at the ceiling. Today had indeed been hectic—especially when Wammy made him answer every one of their questions.
Damn, Wammy… Why was he putting him through all this? He knew that he wasn't thrilled with his decision in the first place, and so he decides to take every chance to force him to come in contact with them? It was like having some creepy ten-year-old fan base hounding him wherever he went.
Now he knew how all those boy bands felt.
Wait a minute…
He'd realized that he hadn't had something sweet since roughly 12:30 PM this afternoon and it was about 9:00 PM now; an all-time record for him thus far.
He now had two choices: Either go the rest of the night without a piece of cake, or risk getting caught to retrieve it.
L furrowed his brow. He wasn't going to let some little kids prevent him from moving around his own home!
He leapt out of his bed and pressed his back against the wall. He'd have to be careful—the kitchen was only one room over from the living room where most of the children were still having their party. He crept down the stairs, checking first to see if he could hear one of them first before poking his head around to get a clear look at the hallway. Everything was good so far.
He skipped the last step and eyed the door that separated him from his cake. L frowned as he tip-toed towards it, his jaw tight, and he felt an immense feeling of achievement as he pulled open the door. He was in the clear…
"L?!"
Oh, crap…
He whirled around to see a blonde-haired little boy with a piece if chocolate clenched in his hands.
"Erm, hello."
…
Mello couldn't believe his luck. No one had gotten a chance to talk to L apart from his little Q&A session earlier today, and his stupid pride wouldn't even allow for him to attempt to ask a question at the risk of sounding stupid in front of everyone.
The two looked up as another kid stormed in, not noticing L at first.
"Mell, do you really need to sneak in here for more chocolate? You're going to barf if you don't cut it out."
Matt followed his friends gaze and saw none other than L, there and in person.
Mello stood there for a moment, wondering what he should say. He needed the perfect thing to say or risk losing his idols respect forever.
"Do you know who the hell you are?!" Matt gawked.
Dammit.
He jumped up immediately and pranced over to him in the most ridiculous way possible. L was even more astounded than Mello at his overly excited behavior.
"Yes, I believe so."
The redhead smiled.
"My name's Matt. This is my friend, Mello."
Matt held out his hand to the older man, forgetting all about his reserved personality. L stared for a moment before finally accepting it, and suddenly felt a rush of warmth for him as they shook hands. It was almost as if some of the affection he was feeling had been rubbed off onto him when their hands connected.
Once again, L couldn't help being slightly unnerved.
"My name's L," he said. "But I'm sure you already knew that."
Mello, not wanting to be outdone, made his way over and offered his hand. L took it, giving him a meek nod.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to be left alone for the rest of the evening. Can you do me a favor by not telling the others I was here?"
The boys were nearly dumbfounded. A chance to help L seemed almost too good to be true.
"Yeah, sure!" Mello said enthusiastically. "We'll make sure no one tries to bother you at all! Right, Matt?"
"Oh..? Y-yeah!"
The older teenager smirked good-naturedly. Had they switched personalities somehow?
As they turned to leave, Mello looked back over his shoulder with a grin.
"Don't worry, L! We've got it covered."
He was then left with a feeling of confusion and amusement. What had he experienced when he had shaken hands with Matt and Mello? He had felt so familiar with them. A feeling of brother ship, perhaps?
No, it was probably nothing. He'd only just met them, after all.
AN: That wasn't really one of my better writings at all, but I needed for L to meet Mello and Matt before I skip forward to introduce Near in the next chapter. Also, I'm sorry for making the characters seem a little OC. Just remember that Mello and Matt are nine and L is around seventeen, so their personalities were probably a little different then.