Author's Note-To be brutally honest, there is really no reason to this story. This is just the product of me wanting to write something, and having finished Poisoned, I really felt like writing something Wammy-esque. Wammy-esque. Tres chic no? . I love Matt. Long live Matt. With black hair.

No yaoi, implied or otherwise. No really. Just friendship.

Disclaimer- I dream of the day when I can own Mello and Matt. Till then, all characters mentioned here belong to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

If you cannot win at the game, if you cannot solve the puzzle, you are just another loser.

A hand crashed down onto the table, making some of the stacked up books wobble and crash down. A girl sitting at a table to his left jumped and stared round, obviously intent on giving whoever it was that had disturbed her hell. When she turned and caught sight of who it had been that had made the sound, she bit her lip, and turned back to her studying.

Had it been any other time, Mello would have smirked. But right now his mind was pre occupied with one thing, and one thing only.

"Damn him!" he hissed through gritted teeth. He pinched the bridge of his nose, and let his bag fall slowly to the floor. Before him, Matt was sitting in front of an open manual, dismantling something. No one could have really figured out what it was. The gamer hadn't even batted an eyelid when Mello entered the library, stormed over and slammed his hands down on the table.

Ignoring the glaring librarian, Mello took a seat next to his friend and fished a chocolate bar out of his pocket.

After a few seconds of silence, Matt looked up, eyes red, and squinted at Mello.

"Hey. What's up?"

Mello wordlessly showed him a two centimeter thick stack of stapled papers. Matt shrugged.

"Isn't that the report on the use of fire arms during interrogation you were working on last night?" Matt thumbed through the pages and a piece of paper with red ink scrawled over it fell out. He picked it up and began to read.

"Extremely good work … could not have hoped for better … you argued your point brilliantly… a ninety-seven percent." Matt kept staring at the paper.

"You got a freaking ninety-seven percent with Mr. Thomas? Dude, awesome!"

"No it isn't."

"Mello, no one, and I repeat, NO ONE, gets anything higher than eighty percent in his class. You yourself said that you had to bust your ass to get over that with him. And you don't think getting a ninety-five us awesome? Stop eating that chocolate man, its harming your oh so godly intelligence."

"Near got a ninety-nine."

Matt slowly put the paper back into the report. He crossed his arms and looked at Mello.

"So?"

"So? So again, this puts him at rank number 1." Mello angrily shoved the report back in his bag. "I was counting on this assignment to finally beat the bastard. Near's never been good at interrogation. You know how long it took me to finalize this!"

Matt rolled his eyes. "And all the chocolate I had to get you."

Mello went on with his rant. "I can't understand how he managed to pull this one over me. How in God's name could Thomas ever have given Near a better mark than me? It's insane."

"Mello you did your best. Ninety-five is way over the top. Be happy."

If it had been any other person, Mello would have tackled him there and then. But Matt was Matt, although he really was trying his patience right now.

"Matt the final Winter rankings come out in two days. Near and I are equal." Mello paused. "Were equal. This test was really important. I got screwed over."

Matt shook his head.

"Don't let it get to you Mello. There's Spring's rankings next."

Mello inhaled sharply, annoyed.

"You don't get it, do you Matt? I have to beat Near. Every time, I almost do it, but at the last minute, he steals my victory away from me." Mello looked at the gamer from the corner of his eyes.

"How could I expect you to understand? You've always been third, and always will be. There's miles separating you and rank four. Your position is easy."

At this, Matt stopped tinkering with the game and put it down.

"Is that what you think?" he asked quietly.

Mello shrugged. "Please. You epitomize the theory of least effort."

Matt looked at Mello.

"And why do you think I don't try to make the effort? "

"How should I know what's going on in that brain of yours?"

Matt leant back and fiddled with his goggles. At that point he would have liked to take out a cigarette to roll between his lips, but this wasn't exactly the place to do that.

"I don't try to beat you, because I don't want to beat you. What would be the point? So that then, I could beat myself up over trying to beat Near, just like you do? Yeah, right. Mello, I study what I enjoy, and enjoy what I study. If I do something, its because I want to to it, not because I have to do it, to reach an expectation that someone else has imposed on me." He leant forward, letting his head rest on his arms.

"You're going about your life all wrong Mello. You're allowing Near to control you. From the way I see it, there's no point in your trying to beat Near anymore, he's already won."

"I don't need to hear this shit," said Mello, and he stood up suddenly, knocking over another stack of books. One of them landed on Matt's head, and he yelped. Both boys looked at one another, then a hand was gripping each of them by the collar.

"Out!" cried the librarian, and she half-dragged, half-carried both of them to the door.

"Wait!" wailed Matt, "I left my DS there!"

"Tough luck," said the librarian, and closed the door in their faces. Matt swore, kicked the door, then turned to Mello.

"This is all your fault!"

"My fault? You were the one who was bitching about life and shit like some god damn agony aunt!"

"ME? You're the one who keeps pmsing over some white haired freak!" Matt's voice changed tone as he began to imitate Mello.

"Oh poor me, I came second again, I got ninety-eight, I got an A but Near got an A plus, I'm so desperate to become number one it's as if I-OOF"

He was cut off by Mello's fist. The blonde retracted his hand, and swore, rubbing the knuckles that were now red. He had sent the gamer flying. On the ground Matt blinked, shaking his head to clear his head. When the dizziness stopped, anger took over.

"You little!"

Matt flung himself at Mello, and they both went down in a sea of kicks, arms and teeth. At one point, Mello had the advantage, and was tugging at Matt's hair trying to detach it from his scalp, when a soft voice stopped him, and made him go quiet.

"Mello. Matt."

From his position beneath Mello, Matt let go of his friend's ankle, and smirked.

"Near."

The boy in pygamas stared emotionlessly at them, as Mello and Matt untangled themselves from each other and stood up. It puzzled Matt to no end, to see the reaction Near had on Mello, even though the blonde towered over the smaller boy. His friend suddenly became withdrawn, but dangerously so, like a cat, haunches lifted and spitting, ready to run or scratch the living hell out of the nearest threat.

Which happened to be Near.

"What do you want?" said Matt. Near twirled a lock of his hair around his fingers and tugged it down.

"I was hoping to access the library. I hope you will allow me to pass."

Matt and Mello turned, and realised that they had started fighting right in front of the door to the library. It was a testamanet to how many times this had happened that the librarian had not come outside to stop them.

"Sure thing," said Matt and he stepped towards Mello, pushing him down the corridor as he went. As Near took the handle in his hands, he turned back to the two.

"Mello?"

Mello stopped and turned to Near.

"What?"

"Good luck for the Mr. Thomas' final test tomorrow."

Mello nodded then turned, grabbed Matt, and pulled him down the corridor.

"Wait," said the gamer "you have a test with Thomas tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"I thought that assignment determined your ranking!"

Mello smirked.

"Matt, I never said that. Now come on. I have a test I have to ace."

"Bastard," muttered Matt, as he allowed Mello to drag him towards the Common Room, where Mello would scare off the little kids, and they would spend an evening next to the heaters, Mello thumbing through notes and books, and Matt figuring out how to beat the Boss on Level 5 of the new game Roger had presented him with earlier that morning. Mello smiled, and kept walking. He felt better, there was no more anger inside of him at the moment, and he was sure that he was going to beat Near this time. There was no denying it. He would become number 1.

Roger sighed, almost wistfully as he looked at the white screen. The black numbers showed up starkly against their background, almost as if they were mocking him.

'Here we go,' he thought to himself.

20d 18h 31m 31s

~Seken