Christmas

Regular POV:

Matt sat looking in the mirror in his bathroom. He was wearing a suit, trying to flatten his unruly auburn shags of hair. His suit was a little small, since the last time he wore it was eight months ago at his parents funeral. Tonight was a nice night, since the top five were being taken out to dinner tonight.

Matt had not seen Mello since the results were posted two days ago, although he heard him. There was a lot of screaming and breaking things, which Matt stayed clear of. He heard movement in the bedroom, and assumed Mello was finally getting ready. He took a deep breath and stepped out to see Mello wearing black dress pants with a big black button up shirt that looked borrowed. Getting a good look at his eyes, Matt saw that the light blue orbs were red and puffy.

"Are you ready to go." Mello jumped, startled by Matt's sudden appearance.

After not responding, Matt continued. "Can I still sit by you?"

"You sit in order, so you will be in between me and Cassidy, unlike me who has to be next to the two people I hate most." His words were full of venom.

"Do you really hate me?" Matt was hoping desperately that he didn't.

"Yes, you got third, after barely studying, and you get to sit by Cassidy. I worked my butt of for these last few months, and I am only in second. If you really studied you could beat me, and maybe even Near. So yes, I do hate you."

"That sounds more like jealousy." Mello didn't respond, so they walked in silence to the main hall, where Matt met the other kids. Everyone was in Matt's year except Cassidy. Cassidy was a gorgeous 14 year old. She had long black hair, along with long dark eyelashes. Her eyes were a breathtaking blue, almost like matt's but a little darker. (A/N: Official Matt websites say his eyes are dark blue, so I'm going with that :P) No one would know that though since no one has seen his real eyes. He almost didn't wear his goggles tonight, but decided against it at the last minute. Cassidy obviously inherited a lot of money, because she had on a nice pair of heels with Gucci written on them. Also she wore an expensive looking dress. Matt could see why Mello wanted to sit next to her, but he didn't really have an interest in pretty girls yet.

Matt said hello to Near, who said hello back. Near was wearing an outfit almost identical to Mello's, except all white. Near was just staring around, but was civil enough to say hello to everyone. He was completely ignored by Mello though.

"Hi I'm Linda, and I'm guessing you are Matt?" Linda introduced herself. She was a strawberry-blonde haired girl. She was wearing a sweater with a mismatched skirt, and had her hair in pigtails.

"Yea, I am, uh nice to meet you."

Watari came into the hall, and took the children out to a nice car. They all rode in silence to the city. The car pulled up to a high-end restaurant, so all the children and Watari filed out of the car into fancy place.

"Whoa, this is the nicest place I've ever been to." Matt was looking around in awe. They all walked to a nice table booth and sat in order. Watari was at one end of the round table, and next to him was Near, followed by Mello, Matt, Cassidy, and then Linda. During the dinner, Matt ordered and ate his first steak ever. He chattered excited to Cassidy, while Mello sulked, Near played with his food, and Linda joined Matt's and Cassidy's conversation.

"I want to be an artist when I grow up. What about you guys?" Linda asked after going on and on about art after a brief conversation on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"I want to be a doctor." Cassidy gave the typical answer, although she really did seem like the doctor type. Matt though about his answer. "I really don't know what I want to be." He said honestly.

"Well what are you good at?" Linda asked

"Video games." They all laughed. "How about you Mello, what do you want to be?" Matt asked, hoping he wouldn't avoid the question now that other people were around.

"A detective, a top class, famous detective." Near answered for him. "Unless it changed since last time." Mello just glared at Near, and then at Matt. The rest of the dinner was fun, afterwards Linda and Matt begged Watari to let them walk around the city a little bit, and he agreed.

-line-

Matt POV:

"So do you like Cassidy?" I tried for the third time tonight to start a conversation. I already knew the answer anyway just from the way Mello acted. She was the only one he didn't treat like dirt, and almost acted shy around her. He also held the door open for her, but the second he walked through, the door slammed into my face.

"Better than all the other idiot girls at Wammy's." YES! He actually responded. I was happy to have a conversation almost going.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Because she is smarter, and doesn't act like a complete fool all the time. Plus she isn't fake like most the other girls." In my opinion, Cassidy was the most shallow. She was nice and all, but you could tell she liked that she had money.

Watari went to buy us hot chocolate before we returned for the night, so the five of us sat or stood around benches. Near was on one corner of the bench, while the girls were on the other side. Me and Mello stood under the light post. I noticed Linda looking around. She looked up, and then had the biggest grin on her face.

"Oooh, guess what you and Mello are under." I looked up, and noticed there was mistletoe. Oh no! Mello looked up too, but acted unaffected, as usual. "You have to kiss him Matt." I was gonna kill that girl.

But then I had an idea. "I would love to." I watched as Mello's face turned slightly horrified. "But... I think I might be catching a cold, and wouldn't want Mello to get sick, so I'll have Cassidy take my place." Mello's look of horror turned to some emotion I couldn't even name.

I stepped back as Cassidy stepped forward. She leaned down and kissed Mello on the cheek. He turned bright red, and for once was left speechless. I laughed inwardly as Watari returned with our hot chocolate.

We arrived back around ten, so everyone was already in their rooms. Me and Mello returned to our room and got ready for bed.

"Thanks Matt, I guess..." That was the second time Mello thanked me. I was even more shocked when I heard "I guess I don't hate you as much as everyone else." I went to sleep smiling

-line-

Regular POV:

It was December 24th, AKA Christmas Eve. Everyone was cheerful and was exchanging gifts, except Mello who stayed in his room to study the night. Matt barged into the room, or at least attempted to. Something was blocking the door to get in.

"Mello? Mello are you in there?" There was no response.

"Mello?" Matt thought he heard something, like sudden intakes of breath, almost like...

Matt pushed and pushed and kicked and pushed some more at the door until it finally opened. When he came into the room, what he saw shocked him. Everything of Mello's was thrown on the floor. Books were scattered, and a box lay spilt and open. Matt resisted the urge to look into the box because he heard Mello in the bathroom. Walking over to the bathroom door, he was not surprised to find it was locked.

"Mello, you have to let me in." Matt sounded unsure. He didn't know how to comfort people or help at all, but one thing Matt knew was that Mello needed some kind of solace. Or so he thought anyway.

The door remained locked and Matt was now sure he heard crying. It was a foreign thought that Mello would be crying. In the short time Matt knew Mello, he knew that Mello was strong, independent, and definitely not a crier.

"You should leave him alone." An ominous voice sounded from behind Matt. He jumped and turned around quickly to see Near standing in the door way.

"What are you doing here?" Matt spoke in his harshest tone. He didn't know why, but Near seriously made hime angry. Maybe it was the creepy way the kid floated about, or how he always seemed to know everything, but either way, his prescence always set Matt into a bad mood.

"I'm here to do what you cannot. You will never understand what is going on. You will never be able to help like I can. You will never know the secrets of Mello's past like I do, and you shouldn't even try. I know you will, but you will fail, because I am the only one. I think you should leave now Matt, and come back in a couple hours, maybe even sleep in a friends room. Now leave." Near turned away, leaving Matt in an even greater shock, the worst part is he spoke it all in monotone, so uncaring, except when he said never. Never will he be able to get close to Mello. Matt sensed Near and Mello had history, or something else strange.

Matt walked down to the Christmas tree in the main hall and sat down for a while, watching others exchange gifts and have a good time. He only went back when Rodger came by to make sure everyone was in their room by curfew.

Matt decided to try the door and see if it would open, it did. An even more shocking sight greeted Matt. Everything was clean and in place, including Mello whom sat on his bed reading a book, so nonchalantly Matt started questioning if it really happened.

On his bed he noticed a slip of paper; it read:

Don't mention a thing, it's not your place to do so

~N

Matt glanced at Mello, who was still engrossed in his book, but he noticed his eyes were still a little puffy. Matt decided to leave it alone and went to bed.

-line-

Mello POV:

I woke up the next morning bright and early. It was Christmas day, and I was hoping to sneak away from the room before Matt found me. I was praying he wouldn't bring up yesterday's event, but I figured he wouldn't if Near scared him enough. Which he most likely did.

I got out of bed to find Matt already awake, and wrapping a gift of some sort. This was going to be harder than I thought to escape him.

"Who's that for?" I questioned.

He jumped at the sound of my voice. "Uh, actually its for you..." He looked sheepish.

"Oh."

"Yea."

"..."

"Um Mello?"

"What?" I knew he'd talk about it. Dammit.

"I know whatever happened yesterday is none of my business, but if, uh if... If you are ever feeling bad, or lonely or sad or anything, I am here for you. I mean I know Near is, but, having two friends can't hurt ya know."

"Near is not my friend." Which is completely true. I wished he'd stop talking already.

"Oh okay, well Merry Christmas Mello." He handed me the box he just wrapped up and got up to leave. "I'm going to Christmas breakfast now, see you later." And he left.

The incident was never brought up again, until many years later.

A/N: Well that took forever, I'm so sorry guys. This chapter was pretty long. Wanted to make it longer, but I felt like I made you wait long enough. And look at that cliffhanger. Sorry if you guys hate me for having Mello get kissed by someone else. There are a lot of thongs in this story I'm trying to work out. I am like bursting with ideas, just don't have a lot of time.

And remember they are eight right now... The writing will become more mature as they do.

Question: Favorite band(s) that have songs with meaning, I need to update my ipod again soon XD

Again, sorry for the wait, love all you guys *throws hearts all around.