(I do not own Death Note, characters, etc.)

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Chapter 2

The second I got a good look at my room I gasped out loud in disbelief. I looked to Matt, who was smiling gently. Psht, of course, calm as ever. I glanced all around the room, taking everything in, while barely even noticing the pale child sitting on a new third bed.

The door to our room was in the very center of one of the walls, a natural dividing line of the entire room. All my things are on the right side of the door, and Matt's are on the left. Our beds are in the top corner of our respective sides with desks right next to them, between the bed and the door. At the foot of each bed is a dresser, which we store clothes and other little things in. On the wall adjacent of the wall with the door are three windows, all connected and framed with black curtains. That's how our room used to be.

Now, however, there was another bed on the far wall beneath the windows and another dresser at the end of it, between this new bed and Matt's side of the room. There was no new desk, though, and perched on top of the bed was Near, pale and shy as ever, holding his bunny. His bags were tucked under the bed, so he must have already unpacked and gotten settled. When we entered the room he began twirling a lock of icy hair, staring at the floor nervously.

"Hi. I'm Matt," my redheaded friend introduced himself. The other child just continued to look at the carpet, and Matt nudged me to introduce myself as well.

I glared slightly before saying, "I'm Mello." Near still just looked down to the ground, and he gave his blue rabbit a hug.

Of course Matt had to be the nice, helpful roommate.

"Near, if there's anything you need or anything, just ask myself or Mello, okay?" And of course he had to drag me into it. Typical.

The albino boy looked up from the floor to Matt, then away again and nodded. He then lay down, getting under the covers and went to sleep. I just stared at him in a daze, not willing myself to accept that Matt and I had a new roommate, and that everything would change again.

I'm afraid of change, that's something that I can admit. Ever since I lost my parents in the fire, my life has changed and it was really scary at first. But I finally got back on track and my life makes sense again. I have friends and a home and a sort of family, and I'm finally happy again. I don't want to risk it all and change it just because some new kid shows up.

"Mello," Matt whispered loudly, snapping me out of my daze, "Let's go to the game room and let him sleep." I nodded solemnly, would it always be like this? and followed Matt out of our room.

The game room was just a few rooms down from our dorm, so it didn't take us long to walk over to it. As soon as you open the door and look inside, you see an enormous window on the wall opposite, but it's almost always covered with thick dark curtains to keep out the sun. No one wants a glare on the TV after all. If you look to the left after you open the door, you will see a flat-screen TV the size of the wall and in the center of the room is a mess of bean bags, cushions, pillows, blankets, and other comfortable items to sit and relax on. On the far right wall there is a rather large red cotton couch, which was very comfortable but hardly ever put to use due to the fact that it was a little far from the TV.

The moment we got into the game room, which was empty as usual, Matt walked over to the video game systems and began picking through the games, trying to decide what to play. I, on the other hand, just trudged over to the bright couch and collapsed into it, staring at the blank TV, but not really seeing it. Matt must have gotten his game going, for he walked back to where I was sitting, game controller in hand, and sat himself next to me. I didn't even see what he was playing, I was still in some sort of shock. How could my life spin downward like that in no more than fifteen minutes?

As if reading my mind the boy next to me said softly, "It'll all work out, you know, Mello. It'll all be fine. If I didn't think it'd be okay, then I wouldn't have offered to have him live with us, you know that."

I didn't want to admit it, but I knew he was right. I knew Matt would never do that to me if he thought it wouldn't work out. Ugh, this always happened. Matt was always right, and I always got worked up over nothing.

"I guess you're right. Still, it'd have been nice if you'd warned me or something."

He just shrugged indifferently, "I knew you'd talk to Roger and object to the whole thing, so I didn't tell you."

I glared back at him, but he just smirked the slightest bit. I gave up and sighed in defeat, "Matt, why do you always do this to me?"

"Do what?" he asked back.

I just shrugged.

"What do you have against the new kid anyway, dude?"

I narrowed my eyes again, glaring intently at the television screen. In truth I didn't know what I didn't like about this new kid. And besides, it wasn't really the kid himself, it wasn't really this Near person. It was really just the whole concept of there being a new kid at Wammy's House. It just felt so strange, possibly because it had never happened to me before.

Or possibly because I was afraid. Right now I was the absolute smartest person at Wammy's, and no one would even try to deny it. If things kept going the way they were now, I'd be the one to succeed L; I would become the greatest detective someday. And I would take Matt with me. I wouldn't dream of being separated from him now that we'd met, he was my best friend. I had my whole life planned out, but if someone became smarter than me, if someone somehow surpassed me and won the title of L instead…I couldn't bear to think about it, it was just too horrible.

But what if this new kid could do it? What if he was the one who would snatch everything away from me, leaving me behind in the dirt? What if he could do it? This Near.

I shook my head violently from side to side, slouching down and resting my elbows on my knees, while in turn resting my chin in my hands. I honestly didn't think that this little kid could do it, I mean he was only ten years old. But that didn't eliminate this unreasonable fear I had growing and pulsing inside of me, eating away at my thoughts and forcing me to panic.

I realized that I hadn't given Matt an answer to his question and mumbled, "I just don't like change…"

This reaction was obviously what Matt had been expecting because he just nodded with a satisfied grin on his face. Or maybe he was just doing well in his game, I couldn't tell, though I thought it was the former.

"Not much will change though, Mello. Not really. And just think about how much change he's going through. Don't you remember what it was like? All the confusion and sadness…"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied glumly, "But why do you sympathize for him so much? You're a really nice guy and all, Matt, but you seem to be being extra nice to this kid."

"It's because I remember how much that first day here totally sucked, but then I got rescued by you, Mello. Except this Near kid doesn't have his own personal Mello to save him from it all, so I'm trying to make it as easy for him as I can."

This response made me smile. Though I'd never admit it, I always liked it when Matt said things like that, about how we met and about how good of friends we are. I've always been happy that he thinks of me as a good friend the way I think of him as one.

So we'd deal with Near, it wouldn't really be that big of a deal, not really. It would take some getting used to, but in the end it would be okay. I would just have to trust Matt on that, and I did. I completely trusted him.

I let out a long breath of relaxation and nestled further into the plush couch, enjoying watching my best friend as he played his way through levels, killing and dodging things as he went.

After a little while, no more than a couple of hours, Matt and I headed back to our room. With all the fun of the video games and whatnot, I'd almost forgotten that Near even existed, but when I opened the dorm's door my smile immediately vanished and was replaced by my former worry. Matt had to shove me into the room, moving to his bed as he did so. I just stood there like an idiot in the middle of the room, not even remembering to close the door.

Near was sitting up on his bed, leaning against the headboard, reading a rather large book that appeared too big for him to hold properly. The sight of him sitting there like that with his blue stuffed animal leaning against the window almost made me want to vomit.

"So, how are you doing?" Matt asked the little boy.

The pale child looked up from his massive book with wide eyes and reached for his rabbit in response. "What's up with him and that rabbit?" I thought with a mixture of curiosity and disgust.

I then slammed the door shut and moved over to my bed, laying down on my back, and not bothering to acknowledge my new roommate. I felt a sudden craving for chocolate, so I leaned over to my desk to grab a bar, but groaned in misery when I saw that I was completely out. Matt didn't need to look over to see why I was upset; he knew me too well. But Near glanced up to me in wonder.

"What?" I asked a bit more rudely than I had planned.

He just looked back down to his book, blushing slightly with embarrassment. "Heh, serves him right," I thought to myself with a smirk.

"Matt? Do you have any chocolate?"

My goggled friend chucked a king-sized milk chocolate bar to me, never looking up from his game boy. I swear, I don't know why he likes his games so much, it just doesn't make sense to me.

None of us really did anything the rest of the day. We all just pretty much sat on our beds doing our own thing; Near read, Matt played video games (while cussing occasionally when he died), and I just stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought and nibbling on chocolate. Before I knew it, night had come and I was tired enough to fall asleep.

I rolled off my bed lazily and grabbed my pajamas which consisted of a pair of pajama pants and a big T-shirt with the Hershey's sign on it. I then brushed through my blond hair and turned off the light on my side of the room. ""Night, Matt."

His eyes met mine, a look of concern on his face. I knew what he was doing. He was silently asking me if I'd be okay tonight. I still didn't understand what had made him so concerned about last night, but I just nodded with a smile and got under my covers.

I glanced once over at Near, who I thought was still intently reading his enormous book. But just as my eyes met his figure, his eyes fell back to the pages. So, he'd been watching my silent exchange with Matt. I don't know what, but there was something about that that I didn't like.

I rolled over, facing the wall, and closed my eyes sleepily. My last thoughts before I was willed into sleep were of the strange new boy who'd come to live with Matt and I and what tomorrow would be like.

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So here's chapter two. Let me know what you think via reviews. Thanks!

-Bloodmuffins