A/N: Wow! Here I am again! I want to thank everyone for their amazing support with my last fic. You've encouraged me to write again! So, this was a little kernel of an idea that blossomed into a full on story as I wrote Beyond. The first chapter is a lot of exposition, but believe me, you'll find out everything you need to know by the end of chapter 2.
So, this fic takes place during the three weeks in December when Matt and Mello just seem to disappear from the storyline in the manga. Anything in italics is a flashback.
I've worked quite hard on trying to start this fic. I rewrote the prologue and the first chapter five times and ended up cutting half of the first chapter and rewriting it again. lol. I really do hope you enjoy it. Please read and review! Thank you!
The M rating is for mentions non-con sex, abuse, self-mutilation, graphic sexual material, some gore and violence, and frequent bad language.
So, without further ado, I give you the prologue! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. I only own any non-canon characters that may or may not appear in this story. Ohba and Obata own all the rest. Faulkner owns the quote.

"You're getting to be a man.
You got to learn. You got to learn
to stick to your own blood or you
ain't going to have any blood to stick to you."

- Abner Snopes from William Faulkner's Barn Burning

Prologue - "Appeal"

"She loves me...She loves me not..."

The blond child watched curiously as pale yellow petals drifted slowly to the ground. It was odd enough that the redheaded boy had come outside, made even more odd by the fact that he was performing a ritual usually reserved to love-struck girls. He crouched by the bushes near the brick wall of the dorms, staring blankly ahead as he continued to pluck the petals from the stem.

"What are you doing?" Mello asked, making his way over to crouch down next to the younger child. "You never come outside, Matt." He glanced down at the goggles hanging around the boy's neck; they looked dull and dirty in the shadow of the building behind them.

Slowly, chocolate brown eyes drifted down to the flower in his hands. There were only two petals left clinging to the stem. "My mother..." he murmured. He reached down and plucked another petal off. "She loves me..."

The blond boy tilted his head in curiosity, leaning forward to try and look the redhead in the eye. "What about her?" he asked, not bothering to hide the distaste in his voice. "Does this have something to do with Roger calling you into his office?"

Matt nodded unhurriedly and he plucked the last petal, finally looking up and meeting Mello's gaze. "She loves me not..."

The phone in the old man's office had started ringing that morning; the two boys had been playing on the steps at the time. Matt had finally convinced Mello that his video game action figures weren't just for babies and had been educating him on the backstory behind each character when Roger had interrupted them, requesting that he speak with Matt in private.

"My mother..." he repeated. "She's been declared innocent. But, Roger says there's something called an 'appeal' that she's waiting for."

"It means another trial," Mello instructed proudly. "Kind of like a do over."

"Or an extra life," Matt said with a small smile.

The blond grinned back, leaning back on his hands. "So, what's this got to do with you? Didn't you say they weren't allowed to come and get you?"

"Well..." The smaller child looked away, biting his lip nervously. "They said she was innocent."

"Technically, she would have been declared not guilty. It's not the same thing as innocent," the blond corrected, driven by youthful thoughtlessness. Matt shot him an irritated look and he flushed. "Sorry..."

"She's coming to take me home."

Mello suddenly tensed, eyes wide. "What?"

The redhead looked down at the flower again, his hands beginning to shake."S-she's coming here at the end of the week. She's going to take me back home."

The older boy froze, taken aback by the sudden turn of events. A few moments passed where neither said a thing and time seemed to have stopped between them.

They had only just met, they had only just become friends. And now, his mother was...

"She can't do that!" Mello finally exclaimed. "You said she wasn't allowed!"

Matt pulled his knees to his chin, burying his face against the worn fabric of his pants. "B-but if she's i-innocent-" he hiccuped, suddenly overcome with distress.

Mello threw his arms around the small child. "She's not innocent!" he insisted, trying to hold back the tears that he felt he was too old for. Matt was the baby and Mello was his protector. Ever since the redhead had arrived two months ago, that was how it had been.

Mello was his role model, so grown up, so smart, so in control and composed.

Tiny hands wiped across wet cheeks as Matt looked up through shaggy auburn hair. "Bu-but they s-said-!"

"Who cares about what they say?! They don't know you! They don't care!" He took Matt roughly by the shoulders. "I don't want them to take you away!"

Both of them blushed, though neither really understood why.

"I don't know what to do..." the redhead muttered as Mello pulled away, trying to regain his composure after his unexpected outburst.

"Well, what do you want, then?"

Matt opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Did he want to go back to his mother? Did he want to go back home? Would she stop hurting him if he asked? Would she be kinder now that his father was gone?

He looked down to the flower in his hand for an answer.

But there were no more petals left to pick.