Everything Changed

Chapter Two

AN: I am SO sorry it took so long. I lost the notebook this chapter was in and it really disheartened me but I just found it, so here's the next chapter.

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Matt wondered how often Near actually spoke to people and if being alone and not being talked to even bothered him whilst he was eating his breakfast in silence. There were two reasons for this one was that he had enjoyed his and Near conversation and the other was that Mello hadn't spoken to him for five days and was still in a strop that morning which marked the sixth morning they hadn't spoken. This whole not talking thing was really bugging Matt now and it wasn't so much the absence of conversation with Mello but the overwhelming absence of conversation at all.

Once he was done with breakfast Matt walked out of the food hall and realised that he really was totally and utterly bored and also feeling just a bit lonely so he headed for Nears usual haunt; the playroom.

The sun outside was bright and warm so the playroom was, as Matt had predicted, empty save for the one small pyjama-clad figure sat playing scrabble all by himself.

"Hi," Matt said flopping down on to one of the bean bag where Near was sat.

"Hello Matt," Near replied without looking up.

"Is Scrabble actually any fun when you play it alone?" Matt asked somewhat awkward yet curiously.

"Not really," Near responded twirling a piece of his totally white hair around a small pale finger.

"Can I play?" Matt asked sitting himself up on the bean bag and smiling at the small boy.

"You won't win…" Near told him somewhat sadly.

"Psh, I can try," Matt said shrugging, "Besides I can handle losing when it isn't a video game," he added with a grin.

"Okay, if you say so," Near said tipping all of the letter chips into the bag.

"Matt cannot have that word," Near sighed looking at the incredibly vulgar word Matt had just put on the board.

"It's a real word, it's even in the dictionary!" Matt protested waving the dictionary in Nears face. There had been several discussions of this nature now because Matt had a tendency to put some very unsavoury words out.

"It's rude," the smaller boy muttered putting out an altogether nicer word on to the board, "You lose," he added seeing that all of the chips had been used.

"Yeah but I got you to let me have 'bollocks', 'wanker' and 'fucking' so I win at life," The red head laughed leaning back on his bean bag and propping his hands behind his head.

Near sighed shaking his head, "You're the first person to have thought to pull me up on the fact that your horrid words are actually in the dictionary and therefore should be allowed."

Matt flashed a wide toothy grin at the boy opposite him, "See I'm awesome," he said with a chuckle.

"That is a matter of opinion," Near retorted dryly, it was probably the closest the small boy ever actually got to teasing someone.

"So what's your opinion?" Matt countered with a chuckle as he flicked the letter 'F' at Near.

"Hmm, wouldn't you like to know," Was Nears smirking response as the letter fell a few inches short of actually hitting its target.

"Well if you ever want a rematch you know where to find me," Matt said getting up and stretching himself out.

"You'll lose again," Near told him clearing away the scrabble set.

"Maybe I don't care," Matt said with a shrug, "Maybe I just enjoy your company,"

But before Near had a chance to say anything back the redhead had practically skipped out of the playroom.

The rematch didn't happen the next week as Near was taken down to the sick bay with a fever and by the time he got out again the following week Mello and Matt had made up from their fight so the rematch didn't happen.

Near felt rather bad for feeling somewhat saddened by the fact that Matt and Mello were joined at the hip once more. Truth be told he had enjoyed his afternoon playing Scrabble with the redhead, even if Matt did have the balls to stand up to him and prove his words should be allowed, or maybe it was because of that. Well that and the fact that Matt didn't talk to him like he was something wonderfully fragile and smart but like he was a real human being.

Unfortunately of course he had discovered that the two older boys had made up the day he got out and was actively seeking Matt out for the promised rematch. He had found the redhead spread out across Mellos lap playing something on the PSP and pretended not to even notice them instead going to his room and spending the entire day trying and failing to content himself with doing a puzzle and finding that it was actually pretty boring.

A few days later Near made his lonely way down to the playroom to sit and do something all on his own but there was something off about the room. At two in the morning it should have been dark but there was the small coffee table light on, the chair was facing the wrong way.

Normally the room was unoccupied and totally tidy when they shut it at night, but instead there was someone in there and the scrabble board was out in the middle of the floor. Near looked, inspecting it with dark eyes made only darker by the minimal lighting in the room. Those same eyes caught the words placed on the board "Wanna rematch"

Near looked about and his gaze fell on the large armchair facing away from him, "Matt?" he questioned, slightly scared that Matt had told Mello and it was some stupid practical joke the blonde had set up in an attempt to make Near look like an idiot.

"So about that rematch?" The redhead asked standing up and turning around with a smirk on his face. Matt was clad in his Pyjamas and he had his duvet with him.

Near smiled without meaning to, he hadn't expected the rematch to ever happen and yet here Matt was in the dead of night challenging him to one. "You're on, but you won't win," Near said fighting to keep the happiness from showing in his voice.

"Maybe I just felt like spending time with you," Matt said sitting on a beanbag beside the scrabble board, "You seem pleased enough," he added with a smirk.

"Maybe I like spending time with you," Near said with an enigmatic shrug.