Author's Note: My second FanFic :D ...After the great response to my last FanFic, I fell so much pressure to make this one awesome too. I hope I can pull this off ;P

As requested it is a prequel to my first story. It's about Jewel and Mello's life before Kira. As it is though, I would like to make this FanFic a love story in its own right, so I am fudging some of the information and dates previously recorded in my other story. I hope you don't mind, and I hope you enjoy this story :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

I wasn't scared... at least that's what I kept telling myself. It wasn't logical to be scared; there was no reason to be scared. I wasn't in any immediate danger, I had no irrational phobias; therefore, I wasn't scared.

I hugged my knees up to my chest in the backseat, being especially careful to keep myself covered with my dress. Dresses were such illogical things. My parents who prided education above all things should have realised the impracticality of dresses and skirts and the like. But then, they hadn't picked this out for me to wear; they wouldn't ever pick my clothes out for me again. I stared stoically out the window.

I could barely see anything out the car window, even with my perfect vision. The window was fogging with my warm breath and the rain was sheeting down. I did manage to make out a wrought iron gate and the sign that hung on the brick wall beside it.

The Wammy's House

I stole a glance to my left and saw my brother looking out his own window. He was in direct contrast to the darkness of the interior of the car; what with his silver hair and albino skin. He was wearing all white and looked more ghost than human. But I didn't believe in ghosts.

They had told us that we were going to a school, but the building looming in front of us looked more like a mansion to me. It was absolutely huge and ornate. It had high archways and dark bricks.

"We're here," came the voice of the driver from the front seat. 'No, really?' I asked myself. I'd never say anything like that aloud though; it was always essential to maintain proper etiquette and decorum.

An older gentleman with greying hair came to the car door with an umbrella. My door opened and I cautiously got out; keeping eye contact with the man in the stiff suit the entire time. I heard two doors open and close behind me and just a moment later my brother and, what was his name, Watari, were standing beside us.

"Follow me," the man said coolly and we all started towards the door.

The door was just as grand as the rest of the building. It was dark, paneled wood, tall and arched. Stained oak I would imagine. We were lead inside.

On the other side of the door we met two more men. The one was tall and in another stuffy suit. He had glasses and a head of grey hair with a receding hair line.

It might've made me believe that everyone at this 'school' was an old grey man, but the appearance of the other male would have quickly changed my mind. He was in his late teens or early twenties at best. I couldn't tell how tall he was because he stood hunched over. He had raven black hair that appeared slightly unkempt and I noticed he wore no shoes. His skin was easily as pale as my brother's and mine; except for right under his eyes where he had dark, violet circles. There was something strangely different about him. He was, oddly fascinating.

The man with the umbrella had disappeared down a hallway and the remaining three men seemed to be discussing something of rather great importance. I took this opportunity to look around; as it was I couldn't be bothered to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The inside was even more monumental than the outside had been. There were vast hallways with dark paneled wood and marble flooring. Eccentric paintings and tapestries hung on the walls, and there were expensive looking vases on pedestals with striking flower arrangements in them.

Some school.

A sweeping staircase off the main hallway caught my eye. My gaze followed the steps up to the second floor where I discovered two boys, maybe a year or two older than I was, watching us.

There was something about the way they were looking at us... at me, that made me want to hide, to disappear; but at the same time, for some inexplicable reason, I was still so curious about them.

The one had reddish hair that almost matched the cherry-stained wood in the halls. He was on his hands and knees with his head between two spindles on the railing; presumably to get a closer look, without alerting the adults to his presence.

The other was leaning casually against the wall, like he couldn't be the least bit interested in the new arrivals. He was, like his friend, watching us though and what a penetrating gaze he had. I could see his steely blue eyes from here; they looked as though they were glowing in the gloomy darkness of the building.

His gaze was so intense, and there was something about him that just seemed to be drawing me in. I looked away quickly and hid behind Watari's leg, but it was too late, I felt myself start to blush. How embarrassing; why should I start to blush? I was probably just unnerved about being here. A new town, a new school, it was enough to make anybody nervous enough to blush, wasn't it?

I took a chance and looked back up to the second floor where the boys had been, but saw no one. They had already left.

"Hello, and you are?" I was pulled from my inner musings and looked over to the person who was now speaking to me. It was the one with the raven hair and the dark eyes. I looked down at my dress and started picking invisible bits of fuzz and loose strings off of it. I knew it was rude to not answer, but I just couldn't seem to find any words.

"I have her records right here L," said an older, rougher voice. I looked up and found Watari handing a folder of legal size paper to the raven haired one.

Was he really L? I mean, thee L? Even as young as my brother and I were, we'd heard about the legendary L. But surely this peculiar fellow couldn't be thee L... Could he?

He held the folder so oddly; like he didn't really want to touch it. This 'L,' scanned the papers quickly and then looked back down to me. "A sweet little jewel, isn't she? I'm sure we can expect great things from this one." He was looking right at me when he said it; he must have been talking about me.

"And here is the boy's file." Watari handed another folder to the one with a bad posture.

"Quite impressive. These two certainly are something." L said again.

"They'll still have to take the required tests," the one with glasses cut in. I sensed that although the other two agreed, they were displeased with the declaration.

"Surely you will allow them to stay the night at least," L said.

Glasses-Man seemed taken aback. "Well, we don't have a whole lot of room at the moment. And the girl's wing is being renovated; there's definitely no room for the girl."

'The girl'? That seemed a little cold. I stared down at my black dress shoes and tried to not think about how they were pinching my feet.

"There are extra rooms on the boy's side no? I'm sure one night won't kill them." No, this couldn't be thee L. Why would thee L be wasting his time arguing with an old man for the sake of two little orphans?

I wondered if I would ever get used to that word. 'Orphans,' would we be categorized like that for the rest of our lives? Before our parent's death it was always 'Twins'; would we just be the 'Orphans' now?

I looked over at my brother, at my twin, to see if I could tell how he felt about all this. But as usual there was nothing. No expression on his face, nothing in his body language. He was completely stoic and I wanted to hit him for it. He was so infuriating! How could he remain so neutral? I tried so hard to be like him, I envied him so much for his ability to always remain unemotional in stressful situations; something that I never seemed to be able to do. I always let my emotions get the better of me.

The grumpy one cleared his throat, catching my attention. "I said, follow me please." Everyone was staring at me like I'd gone batty. I just may have as far as I was concerned. My brother and I followed Grumpy Glasses-Man up to the second floor while Watari went back to the car. Presumably he was getting out belongings; what little my brother and I had left after the fire.

"This will be your room," he said motioning to an open doorway. My brother went in without a word and closed the door behind him. The man looked down at me next. There was something in his eyes that told me he was infinitely displeased with the situation he had been handed. We walked down to the next open doorway. "This will be your room. For now," he sighed.

"Thank you," I said, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone. This man knew nothing about me, but it was like he already didn't like me. Was I that much of an inconvenience to him? It seemed like I was always an inconvenience to everybody.

Glasses-Man turned back down the hallway and I let myself into the room. It wasn't terribly small, but it wasn't anything extra special either. Bed, dresser, end table, desk, closet; plain cream coloured walls, hardwood floors, small window across from the door, it was nice enough.

I went and sat down on the bed. I kept my head down and so I was moderately surprised when a small knock sounded on the door.

"Your things miss." The man who had come to the door with the umbrella brought my suitcase into my room instead of Watari.

"Thank you," I said quietly.

The man nodded and left; I went back to hanging my head.

Out of nowhere a voice came from my open doorway, "Hey." I looked up and found that it was the redhead from the stairs. "I'm Matt. Nice to meet you."

Author's Note: I'm genuinely curious; this is something I would like to know so that I could better improve my story...

Would you prefer:

Longer chapters, but not as many

Or

Shorter chapters, but more of them?

And... What do you think is a good length for chapters in general? For reference, I'll tell you that I tried to keep all my chapters last time around 3,000 words. This chapter was just short of 2,000.