Chapter three: Nearly there

Time Skip: 2 years

MATT

I woke up this morning at ten thirty. A little early, for me, but of course, Mello was already gone to class. I grinned to myself as I hauled my still-sleepig body out of bed: he's such a striver. He spends practically all his daytime in class, eating chocolate, and studying. But of course, after dinner, it's 'Matt time'. Let's just say that that's my favourite part of the day.

Mello's birthday passed a few weeks ago, and he made this big announcement to me that now that he's eleven, it means that he's seriously growing up and he has to be totally cool. Like he wasn't before. I shook my head as I stumbled over to my chair, where I'd slung all my clothes from the day before. I changed quickly, despite still being half-asleep.

Mello's always getting stressed out about silly things. Like a few days ago, he came bursting into our room at eleven-something (it was crazy for him- that's halfway through his favourite class!), shook me violently until I woke up (not my favourite way to arise from slumber), and demanded that I cut his hair, and cut it beautifully. Until the first day he'd asked me to do that, about a month after I'd first met him, I'd never cut anything with scissors other than paper, string, and fabric.

So it was a little stressful, because Mello insisted that he only trusted me with cutting his hair, but also that he'd literally die if it looked bad. I sort of understood: Mello's hair is, in a word, awesome. And he's very serious about it. So serious that he doesn't even trust the hairdresser that comes to the orphanage once a month anywhere near his head. I grinned to myself as I pulled my stripy shirt over my head. Since I'd first got it in the set of clothes that Wammy had given me when I told him I liked stripes, I'd grown into it a little.

'A little', meaning that it was still loose, and the sleeves still went over my hands, but not as much as before. I brushed my teeth furiously (lollipops are worse for your teeth than chocolate) and splashed water in my face to wake myself up. Although we didn't exactly have a bathroom in our room, we'd figured out a way to basically have a sink: there was a tap installed in every room in case you got thirsty in the middle of the night and didn't want to go all the way down the stairs to the kitchens.

So in our first year, Mello had used a bit of his allowance to buy a large dog bowl to go under the tap, and I'd bought a mirror for the wall. So, while it might not look too pretty, it works, and it makes everybody jealous. I ran a brush through my hair quickly before tugging my goggles up from around my neck into position on my eyes, grabbed my ds, a couple lollipops, one of which I stuffed into my mouth, and I was out the door before you could think of saying anything.

Four minutes later found me in one of the few classes I had that wasn't with Mello (one of the low points of the day, I'll admit). I can't exactly remember what it's called (Mello would laugh if I ever told him that), but the ugly teacher goes on and on and on about the difference between police tactics and L's tactics. Basically he drones on and on about how much better L is than the police.

I walked in, glanced at the clock, smirked when I saw that there were only ten minutes of class left, and walked to my usual seat near the back where I stretched out, put my feet on the table, and took out my DS. The teacher merely paused for a moment as I got settled, then continued. He'd given up on lecturing me and yelling at me after the first five tests that I'd gotten almost 100% on. I say almost, because I got behind Mello, who never gets 100%. He always gets 0.5 away from it, or something dumb. It's a touchy subject with him.

As I settled into my game, watching as the START menu came up, along with the theme music, I felt eyes on me. Serious eyes. Creepy eyes. And a presence on my right. Which was odd, seeing as Mello was definately not in this class, and nobody sits next to me normally because I'd just ignore them completely. So this was new.

And a little scary.

I slowly glanced up from under my bangs so they wouldn't know I was looking at them. The first things I saw were two pale, bare feet. One of them was on the chair and the other was hanging off the floor, implying that the person was pretty short. The feet were mostly covered by what looked like the bottoms of white pyjamas. Confused, I looked higher, to see two pale hands playing with a Transformer. Weird. That's the only word I could think of. When I finally got to the face, I jumped: he was looking back at me, his dark eyes fixed on mine and the creepiest little smile on his pale, pasty face.

And his hair was white.

Also weird.

"I'm Near." he said as soon as he made eye contact with me properly. Completely used to weird names by this time, I wasn't totally freaked out, but Near was still pretty...unique.

"Um, hi...I'm Matt...You're new this year, right?" I asked, mostly not caring, but wanting to be somewhat friendly: what if he was lonely? What if he was really shy and being weird was the only way he knew to make people take notice of him? Near smiled and nodded, twirling his hair around a finger enthousiastically.

"That's cool..." I said, not quite sure what else to talk about, so I focused on my game. Near, however, seemed to have the lowest possible amount of social skills, and seemed not to get that I was done talking to him.

"D'you wanna be my best friend?" Near asked quietly. I looked up at him.

"S-sorry?" I stammered, sure I had misheard. Near looked straight at me, reached out a hand, and patted me on the head, ruffling my hair.

"You are cute. Like a puppy. I like you. Would you like to be my best friend?" he asked, just as quite and serious as he had been the first time. "Err..." I was still feeling a bit like I was on glue.

"Well, it's nice of you to ask, but...I already have a best friend!" I said, snatching at my rather pathetic creative inspiration to get me out of this situation: It wasn't that I disliked Near. But, as I said, I already had a best friend.

My confidence swelled as I thought of Mello and what he would have to say to Near: Mello's been getting a little protective of me lately. In a cute, funny kind of way.

For example, I was walking down the hall with him yesterday, and a girl who just came here was looking at me and smiling. I smiled back, to be polite, but Mello wouldn't stand for that. He (believe it or not, it's true) put out his arm, stopping the girl, looked her in the eye and told her to 'keep her unworthy little eyes' off of me. I had a funny feeling that Near, no matter how much he didn't care or understand general social skills, wouldn't stand a chance against Mello's...Melloness. There really isn't a word that sums up exactly what Mello is. He has almost too much initiative, has absolutely no conscious, and doesn't care shit about what other people (besides me, of course) think of him.

He's just too cool for you, I guess.

Anyways, so Near looked a little put-out, but not totally subdued.

"Who cares if you already have a best friend? I bet I'll be a better one." he said, flying his Transformer through the air as the teacher announced we could do homework for the last five minutes of class. Once again, I was speechless.

"Er...er...um..." I said, sucking on my lollipop in an almost panicked way. "Well...well...how about you meet him, and then...and then...and then he can tell you...er..whatever he wants to." I said hastilly, then, for the first time since...ever...I busied myself with homework.

In class.

This might not sound like much to you, but I was freaked out enough that I was willing to do work to avoid talking to Near. Near, finally, seemed to get the hint, that I was not in a chatty mood. Or maybe he got bored with me and thought his toy and his hair were far more interesting after all.

The bell could not ring soon enough for me. As soon as the clock struck eleven-ten, I was out of my seat, my page of notes (half-full) crumpled in my pocket, and I was out the door before anybody else was standing. I almost sprinted down the hall, with only one word occupying my thoughts: Mello.

Now, I'd never ever admit this to him, but Mello's braver than me. I mean, he's not scared of the dark. I am. He's not scared of yelling at people and them yelling back and hitting things with rulers and general noise. I am. Or, I'm bothered by it: I don't really like to argue, unless it's with Mello. He's not scared of spiders. I am. He's not scared of creepy strangers. I am. So there I was, loping speedily down the halls, looking for the familiar head of awesome orangey-blonde hair, cut by me.

Finally I spotted him, a piece of chocolate in his mouth, leaning against a wall, looking around darkly. When he saw me, his eyes lit up, and then he waved casually, looking away. I smirked to myself: Mello could be cute sometimes. Like how he'd always look for me between classes, but whenever he actually found me he'd pretend he hadn't been looking. Anyways.

"Hey Mello!" I said, leaning against the wall next to him before sliding down it to sit on the floor.

"Hey, Matt. You're up early." he teased, snapping off a chunk of his chocolate. I sighed; that sound was so familiar now, it was the most comforting thing to me.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Just had the shittiest class of my life. Some creepy albino kid called Near came along and asked me to be his...oh crap, here he comes. Help me, okay?" I asked quickly, and before Mello had a chance to ask me what the hell I was talking about (I knew that's what he'd say), Near was standing in front of me, looking just as odd as he had before, his Transformer still in his hand, one finger twirling a chunk of his curly, white hair, his crumpled white pjs baggy on his small frame. Now that I thought about it, he looked younger than me.

"Is that him?" Near asked me. I looked up. Near was pointing, quite rudely, at Mello, who was glaring between him and me. I couldn't help but grin as I met Mello's gaze.

"Yeah, that's him." I replied, sucking my lollipop. Near gave Mello a critical, yet bored, once-over.

"You're my competition?" Near asked. Mello crossed his arms.

"For what?" he asked challengingly, and I silently cheered: Mello rules! Yaaaa~y! I mean, I could never think of anything half so cool to say. Near smiled again, the kind of smile you normally find on Joe Boxers happy-face underwear. You know the one I'm talking about. The half-circle one that is physically impossible for most people to make.

"To be Matt's best friend, of course." he said, and Mello almost choked on his chocolate.

"You want to be Matt's best friend?" he asked, and I could have laughed; Mello's confidence had slipped to his ankles momentarily. Probably because Near was so odd.

"Yes. I like him. He's cute. And he's pretty. He has nice hair, and he's going to be my best friend." Near said, stating it as if it were fact. Mello snorted.

"And those are your only reasons? How pathetic. If you seriously want to try and be a better friend to Matt than I am, you're gonna have to work a lot harder. There's a lot more to Matt than just nice hair and cuteness. So, bring it on, Snow White. Get ready to lose." Mello said, snapping off another piece of chocolate in the most dramatic way possible before hauling me to my feet and dragging my down the hall to our room, leaving Near behind. I was actually quite touched that Mello stood up for me like that.

It's nice to know that I'm not all cuteness and nice hair. Self-esteem goes up two points! Actually, since it's Mello that said it, it's more like up thirty points...

Hi! I know this chapter is all Matt, but it was neccisary, 'cuz he's the one that meets Near first. Mello will probably take up all of the next chapter, as he begins to compete with Near in more ways than one! Thanks to everybody who liked, reviewed, faved, subscribed, etc, this fic! We both really really appreciate it!

Please review!

Lots of love, Sailor-Nova X chocoholixanonomous