Chapter Text
Mail Jeevas and Mihael Keehl's worlds tangled together all at once on a slow, rainy, spring morning.
On that morning, Matt had simply been wandering the halls before breakfast with one of his only friends, B, when they almost walked right past the entrance to the orphanage. They would have too, had they not noticed another boy they had never seen before, shivering slightly as one of his hands held tightly onto Watari's much larger one, the man tugging him in the direction of Roger's office. He was a rather small boy, his thin frame only looking thinner what with his clothes sticking to his skin like glue and his blonde hair slicked down by the rain.
It wasn't an odd sight to see, but something about it made the redhead's chest tighten, hands clenching around his sweater sleeves. Though he had never met the boy, everything about him felt so familiar. Their eyes had locked briefly before the blonde had fully entered the office, puffy, lost looking blue orbs meeting confused green ones for only a second.
"He has the same death date above his head as you do, Mail." B muttered, thumb prodding at the corner of his lip lightly, but never entering his mouth, "Looks like you two will be getting close. That...or it's just a coincidence. That rarely happens, though. Especially not in a place like Wammy's."
Matt had learned long ago not to question most of the things that the elder said, especially not when it came to those death dates, but he couldn't help but want to this time. He felt like he needed to.
"What do you mean by that? Why do you think our death dates have any correlation?" He finally asked after a minute of silence, spinning on his heel to face the boy.
"I mean the last time I saw two people with the same death date around here, they committed dual suicide. They had realized being considered a genius in a place like this means basically nothing. I doubt that'll be how you both go, but who knows?" B snickered behind his hand, shrugging at the same time before he turned his back to the younger.
"Now, we should actually get ready for breakfast. We've wandered around enough for today anyways and you've probably got a lot on your mind now, huh?" Matt nodded at the older boy, shrugging back though B couldn't actually see him.
"I guess... See you at breakfast."
B was right in one aspect: they would be getting closer. Though, neither really had a choice in the matter. Matt's last roommate was nearing the age of 16 and as soon as 12 A.M. hit on his birthday, he was knocking on Roger's door, wondering when he could leave. The two had never been close (probably because Matt was nearly six years younger than him at the time), but he had heard him complain about their home countless times before, leaving him unsurprised when he came back from classes later that day to half an empty room.
Because Matt's last roommate had left, his room had an open bed. An open bed could only be open for so long in a place like Wammy’s.
In comes the new kid.
Apparently his name was Mello- well, his alias was Mello. He spoke little English, only short sentences and curses. Instead, he spoke in Russian, trying to convey his points with angry hand gestures. When he made no progress, he gave up on communication and unpacked what little he had.
Matt tried to help however he could for the next few months as the other settled in, their miscommunications slowly turning into more coherent conversations as both of the boys tried to pick up each other's native languages. Mello expressed once how he appreciated not being the only one putting effort into their communication and Matt had never been more driven to learn a language than in that moment.
B often teased Matt about his newly found friendship, nudging A to try and get him to join in. The other always just smiled weakly and shook his head at his boyfriend. A had always been easier on Matt and he often found himself being thankful for that fact. He wasn't sure if he could deal with two B's.
Over these few months the boys did become closer, but nothing huge happened until ranking time came up.
By now, Mello had understood most of the things that happened in Wammy’s, but when Matt attempted to bring up rankings the other looked just as lost as he did the first time the redhead had seen him.
"The fuck are rankings? That's a thing here?" Mello asked, slamming his fist against the cafeteria table. Matt had gotten quite used to the elder's short temper, though it had been a shocking contrast to what Matt assumed the boy would be like when he first saw him.
"Of course it's a thing here. This is an orphanage made to make successors for L, you have to do that somehow. Having everyone know you're the smartest is good motivation for most, but it's also nice knowing that you could be the next L." Matt said, shrugging as he moved around the cereal in his bowl absentmindedly.
"...That does actually make sense, I guess. What are you ranked then?" Mello asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows, eyes shining in curiosity. Matt rolled his eyes at the other, though he had a small smile on his lips.
"Uh, third I think? Last time I checked at least. I don't care about that shit though. I don't want to be L,"
At that Mello's eyes widened dramatically, both his hands slamming down on the table causing some of the milk from Matt's cereal to spill over and onto his sleeve. Sighing, Matt reached for some napkins as he half listened to Mello scream in confusion about him not wanting to be L.
"-How can you even be third if you don't want to be L at all?" Mello screeched, his hair falling over his face as he slammed his hands against the table for the third time that morning. B groaned, picking up his tray before waving at the redhead and muttering something about not wanting to listen to blondey yell any longer.
"The tests are easy for me, I don't even need to try... and it's not like I can just not do it. So, I do the bare minimum, then leave." Shrugging once again, Matt stood with all his things in hand, smiling down at the shorter boy. He was still standing with his palms pressed against the table, glaring at his roommate.
"Anyways, that ranking test is like...next week? So if you're going to shoot for number one, you might want to study a bit."
When the testing was all over, most of the orphanage was on edge, waiting for the results. Despite how uncomfortable it can be for some, the rankings are posted on a bulletin board outside of Roger's office within a day or two of the test.
That left most people to overthink all of their answers, get anxious and not leave their rooms for days because they were studying. Matt had always found that weird, considering they hadn't even seen the scores yet, but that was just typical Wammy's life. His old roommate wasn't one of those people either, so he never had to deal with it. And he sure as hell wouldn't be bothered with it now when he had never been before, especially not when it came to his own scores.
Then again, he had never been roommates with Mello.
It really was just Matt’s luck that the blonde happened to be one of those kids. As soon as he finished the test, he was anxious, overthinking all his answers for hours, trying to remember if he had actually done the problems right. To top it all off, he would then force Matt to help him study because "well you are number three and we're best friends now, the least you could do is help me out!"
By the time the actual results were posted, Mello had probably studied more than what was actually on the test and Matt was fucking exhausted.
That didn’t stop Mello from pulling him out of bed, throwing his DS onto the floor in the process and dragging him all the way to Roger’s office by his wrist. Though he had wanted to protest, he knew it would be futile. Mello never fucking listened and he didn’t expect that to change—not after the amount of studying he had been forced to do.
There was already a crowd around the list when they got there, but Mello didn’t waste a second, pushing kids out of the way with his free hand. He probably didn’t notice, but he had linked hands with Matt while doing so, tugging him further into the crowd.
“Sorry, sorry- Mello!” Matt growled, tugging his hand to try and get his attention. Though some people had already read their ranks, they stayed for some fucking reason, making the space louder and more crowded.
"Fuck- Mels!" Matt shouted, squeezing the blonde's hand as hard as he could. This seemed to get his attention as he whipped his head around immediately, looking mildly concerned. He squeezed the redhead's hand back, stilling in the crowd around them.
Fuck, this is just another reason why he never checked the ranks. Stupid fucking crowds, stupid fucking anxiety—
"Matt!" Mello yelled, grabbing the younger boy's other hand. He squeezed both of them tightly before rubbing his thumbs over the boy's knuckles. Some of the crowd had started to disperse, but he could still feel himself shaking, breathing ragged.
"Shit, c'mon." Mello said, barely loud enough for either of them to hear. He started to back them out of the crowd carefully, shoving people away from his roommate until they were back against the wall opposite the chaos.
It was still too loud, but he could feel his breathing get better as he focused instead on the cold wall, the feeling of Mello's hair brushing his neck as he rested his head on his shoulder, whispering something—he wasn't sure what—rather than the group of people that had been pushing around him seconds ago.
By the time there was only a few lingering bodies around, Matt had calmed down just enough to feel like a total jackass.
Squeezing Mello's hands once again, he cringed at how sweaty they had become, but ignored it, "I'm sorry Mels-"
"Don't fucking apologize, okay? Just...in the future, tell me if you can't do something or if you start feeling like that again. Please." Mello muttered, nuzzling against the boy's neck.
"I know I can be an ass sometimes but...we're friends. Best friends. And I give a shit about you and your feelings." He continued, letting go of the boy's hands to push himself away so their eyes could meet.
Matt nodded slowly, "Okay...Okay," He said, barely above a whisper, smiling down at his shoes, "How about we go check those rankings now, huh?"
Mello beamed, grabbing the redhead's hands once more, "Hell yeah!"