A/N: This is my first ever fanfic, and the inspiration for it came from me randomly thinking of the (very) odd image of Near bursting into a room and yelling at randoms while eating chocolate (aka, being Mello). I originally thought I'd do a really short one shot about it.. which turned into a long one shot.. to a 3 chapter story… and now I think ill need to write at least 5 chapters to finish it T_T.. still going…

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~How It Happened~

Another day of stupid classes, learning stuff about countries and nations that don't exist now, and haven't existed for hundreds of years- who cares if the Spartan system of government might have inspired communism? Oh well, at least it's better than learning the language, I mean why bother learning a thousand year old DEAD language that no one but you will ever use??

I suppose Mello and Near find it fascinating, since they always get top scores in everything but, no offence to Mello, they are both a bit weird. Who eats that much chocolate, really? It's adorable… but odd.

"Matt, turn your game down! I can't concentrate on my work!" Mello hisses at me from the nest desk. I return his words with puppy eyes… and he glares.

*sigh*

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As we left the classroom, Near brushed passed us, twirling his weird little fringe and staring at nothing, smiling strangely.

"God, what a freak. At least when you smile, you're playing a game or something. He doesn't even have the decency to keep his weirdness to himself" Mello loudly exclaims to me, obviously wanting Near to hear.

"Meeeeellllloooo!!! It's not nice to be mean to Near! He is nice to me and helps me with maths! You're just a meanie and you never help anyone!" a high pitched and slightly squeaky voice suddenly came from the classroom behind me, and I saw Mello's expression darken even more than it had after seeing Near.

Oh, shit. Linda.

"And what do you know miss artist? How did you do on the history test? Didn't I hear it was only 82%, and the second lowest score out of the entire Wammy House? I can't believe Roger lets you stay, you're not even smart enough to get an A on a test!" by the end of his speech, Mello was almost screaming at her.

And fair enough really, she was always popping up everywhere and pushing everyone to be nicer to Near or let him play with us. I don't understand why she is so obsessed, and really, I don't care.

I pull out my new game-boy and slip in my oldest, and favourite, game, pokemon blue. The whole tried and true thing is definitely right for the old classics, although the orphanage recently got one of those new 360's and the graphics on that is shit loads better than my game-boy, but the plotlines of the games- if they have them- are much worse for relying on the look of the game to sell. Good custom content though.

"Mello, what do you wanna do? Play outside, go to the library? How about we test out the new two-player RPG? Pick something and stop screaming, geez, you know you go really high pitched when you get into rant mode?" I glance over at him and quickly back to my game screen- Mello has a seriously evil death glare.

"Fine, let's go outside. I feel like kicking something around. Are they playing Soccer, Rugby, or the Australian one? AFL?" Now that he was not talking (screaming) at Linda or thinking about Near, excitement shone on his face as he considered the best strategies for each separate (though same-named) game.

I look out the hallway window and check what the other students are setting up; netted goals- soccer.

"They're playing soccer- Garden and Vissa are the goalies and current (because I knew that once he began to play, Mello would make one of the others step down) captains and they're just starting to choose teams." I look back down to my game and notice that I have stumbled upon a wild Jigglypuff. Huh. Those things are seriously messed up, what kind of attack is singing? Really?

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They game finished at 7-0, with Mello scoring six goals and letting Garden take one when he left the field to get a drink from the kitchen. I didn't play, but did watch them play- especially Vissa. What? She's cute! A tall, reddish-brown haired girl with tan skin and a really quirky sense o humour who, best of all, loves video games *(heh, Matt would love anyone who gives him a challenge and threatens his Mortal Kombat prowess XD)* and isn't half bad at them, she even beat me on Soul Calibur once!

I suddenly felt something hit my leg and realised that while letting my mind wander (more than usual anyway), had accidentally walked into Mello's path, and he wasn't paying attention 'cos he was talking to Garden about his goal and how he should've timed out the game when Mello left.

"du-whaaaa?!" I watched in slow motion as the normally, if not graceful, then at least agile Mello tripped over my foot.

Only then did I notice that just in front of us was Near, looking slightly alarmed and… standing directly in front of Mello. As I just begun to comprehend what I saw, Mello fell forward on top of Near, knocking them both onto the corner of the hallway Near had just turned.

"Oh shit! Mello are you alright? Sorry I wasn't watching where I was going."

When I leaned down to help him up, only then did I see the lump near his forehead and the small trickle of blood running down his face onto his arm, where it met a similar blood trail coming from the back of Near's head... Nothing like my video games.

"Garden! Help me carry Mello to sick bay! Then we can come back and get Near." I turned and motioned Garden over to Mello and together we lifted Mello by feet and shoulders and carried him to the nurse, Ms. Winterbourne.

She glanced over at us and sighed.

"Another football injury? You boys should really learn to play better together, especially that Mel… Good gracious, it's Mello visiting me, that's a first. How did it happen? Hit with the ball like the others?" she said this slightly sarcastically and gestured behind her at the four children that Mello had hit during the game before. Whoops.

"Uh, no actually, he tripped back inside and hit his head on the corner of the wall after falling against... oh that's right, we need to get Near, he fell with Mello."

At this she looked up in surprise, holding a large roll of bandage in her hand.

"Is Near hurt as much as Mello? Why didn't you bring him here first, you should know that he is much frailer than anyone else here! Where is he? Don't tell me you left him lying on the floor? He'll catch a chill or get pneumonia!" as she was saying this, she wiped off the blood, which revealed a small cut near his temple and a lump, then wrapped a bandage around his forehead. When she finished this she turned and stared at us, "Well, come on! Where did you leave him?" and gestured us out the door.

I sent Garden away to tell everyone else that Mello might not come out for today or tomorrow and et them know that I wouldn't be using the Xbox today (still have my game-boy, and it would be rude to set up the 360 in an infirmary.) Then led Ms. Winterbourne to Near where we saw Roger looking down with a frown on his face.

"Ah, Ms Winterbourne, I was just about to come and get you, Near seems to have passed out and hit his head on the wall, so we'll need to test his blood levels and heart rate again. If his problems start up again, he may not sustain use of his legs, as they already have less blood flow and…" Roger interrupted his long, boring and probably pointless speech of medical jargon when he noticed me, "Why Matt, I didn't see you there, what are you doing with Ms. Winterbourne?"

"Um, we came to get Near. He and Mello fell and I just took Mello to the sick bay, so now we're here to get Near" I said rather distractedly as I battled another stupid team rocket member on some bridge, geez, what kind of stupid setup is this that you cant even move your guy three steps before you…

"Matt, Is that what really happened? I know Mello is your friend and you want to protect him but Near is bleeding and we cannot condone violence." I looked up at Roger again and thought about what he said.

"Why would I protect Mello? He fell over, I don't think his perfect reputation will slide from one trip- he can still kick a- I mean he's still great at sports, and he gets practically perfect scores on everything else." Sometimes old people make absolutely no sense, what violence? Unless he means taking away the MA games...

"It's true Roger, Mello's currently in one of the sick rooms and he had the same injury as Near, just at the front of his head. Looks like he did just fall, too bad he fell on the corner of the wall, or he might not have been so badly hurt- just a headache," she turned to me "now can you help me carry Near to the other sick room? Then I'll wrap his injury and check both their vitals- looks like Mello, has concussion and though Near's hurt less, he is naturally frailer, so it's safe to assume they have similar ailments."

"Concussion?! Mello is concussed and you didn't tell me?" I paused my game to look at the nurse with my kicked puppy expression, "he's my best friend! I should know when he's hurt, especially knocked out!"

"Matt dear, I did tell you, when we were walking over here I said that he was probably concussed and that you should've brought Near as well. If you don't pay attention and play those silly games instead, it's not my fault you don't hear everything!"

Well… that's true enough… I walk over and help her carry Near to the spare sick room, he really must be weak- he weighs less than Mello, who isn't exactly a heavy weight himself- as well as being freaky cold and pale. Can't be healthy.

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The nurse checked both of them and declared them to be fine, just unconscious- they should wake as normal tomorrow and continue with no side effects, maybe minor, headaches, but that's it. So all good. I am playing my video game and sitting propped against the wall in Mello's room, at the suggestion from Ms. Winterbourne that I spend the night near them both to make sure nothing happens, as she is still caring for four others and has to be on call for everyone else.

Ok then, 11: 42 pm. Time for bed. Climbing into my sleeping bag, I shut off my game and think that today's been the most interesting thing to happen for months- since a kid got adopted- and even that wasn't very interesting because he was new and only vaguely clever, he could solve most math problems faster than a calculator and had memorised all those random rules and pi and such, but didn't, or couldn't understand simple lateral thinking problems… reciting them all the time was the quirk I remember him for… like most people remember my games, or Mello's chocolate… even Near's puzzles are remembered by everyone who glimpses into our lives.

3.14159…

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A/N: the random bit at the end is pi… cos matt's randomly being reflective about stuff my Wammy's is loosely based on the Wammy's from the game DN.d Poisoned by Akane- found at her website, cursedmoons. And the random part i said soemwhere about the threes differnet though same-named games, they're all football. The European, American and Australian versions. *random fact dance* yay!

I leave you with these images-

Mello sitting on the floor doing puzzles and twirling his hair, wearing all white.
Near eating chocolate and playing soccer, wearing all black.

until next time, Ms Lawliet signing out =D