Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.

Warnings: Mello's potty mouth

Words: 414

A/N: I wrote this a while ago while I was still in the short time of my Death Note re-obsession. I originally wrote this as a poem in the present tense, but I just used the backspace key, changed up the tense of a few verbs, and turned it into a story.

All spelling and grammar mistakes are my own. If you find any, let me know and I'll correct them ASAP. Constructive criticism is wanted, so don't be shy or hold back.

Beginnings

There was a rumor, a myth (or something like that) going around at Wammy's. They said there was a snow-white little boy, but no one had seen him.

"That's a load of shit." The new kid, Mello, muttered, crunching on a chocolate bar.

How can they say that someone (especially like that) exists if no one has ever seen him? Mello wondered. In response, he received possible glimpses and close encounters of the nth kind.

Scoffing, Mello thought it's no wonder the kid goes out of his way to avoid these dolts because from the sound of it, they're talking about some cryptic creature (like Nessie or Bigfoot) and not a human being.

Then someone offered, "There's a Near. He's always getting the highest scores and the best grades, but I don't think I've ever seen 'im."

And Jason would know. He kept track of everyone (for what purpose, nobody had a clue; they assumed he was looking for someone).

Mello entertained the idea; there weren't that many kids at Wammy's, but…The orphanage was fairly large. One couldn't blend in unnoticed but they could certainly hide.

And that settled things.

For the next few days Mello skipped class and searched every single little space in the buildings. When teachers reprimanded him he responded very naturally that he was all set to return to class.

He narrowed it down to one hallway, an odd sort of hall, accessible through a door at the end of another hallway that rarely got used (full of extra bedrooms).

Most of what Mello found behind the doors was tons of random crap, a miscellany that gathered more spiders' webs and dust than could fit in the storage rooms. Finally, the he opened a door that did not release a giant cloud of dust particles (much to his relief). What stared back at him was a large empty room, plain, without a centimeter of color anywhere. Sitting in the middle was a small boy crouched over a white puzzle, just as colorless as every other aspect of the room.

Mello stood in the doorway, completely stunned. He had not actually planned on finding anything.

The albino child's small fingers stopped working mechanically at his puzzle and he looked right up at the blond frozen between his room and the hall.

"Hello." The boy said without blinking or any other sign of emotion, his voice deadpan as if he had been expecting Mello for a while and he had arrived late.