#digitalgingermthreads

[digital-ginger-m]

Unexpected

Matt hadn’t really expected this job to turn into a full-time deal. He’d been hired online a few weeks earlier to do some less-than-legal work for one of the crime syndicates in LA. As it turned out, they’d liked his work so much (well, he was brilliant) that they asked him to come to their headquarters. He guessed that they were planning to hire him on full-time, seeing as how, for small gigs, they could just contact him online like they did the first time.

When he arrived, he found two large men standing outside the entrance. Clearly bodyguards of some ilk. “Uh, yeah, I’m Mitchell Johnson,” he said, giving them his current pseudonym. “I’ve got…an appointment?” It wasn’t really a question except in that he didn’t know if it was appropriate to call it an “appointment.” The men looked him over before nodding and accompanying him inside. One of them gripped his upper arm tightly, and Matt couldn’t help but think that the unwelcoming tone already set would continue throughout his work here. “The boss wants to see you,” the man not touching him said as he stepped up to the door to unlock it. If Matt was the type to be easily phased, he would have been nervous.

[digital-ginger-m]

To Hide a Killer

Deep breaths, Matt. Stay calm.

Matt walked through the halls of the hospital, a specific location in mind.

You know he's here. You just have to find him. If you stay calm, you'll find him.

Of course, one couldn't simply walk in and find the burnt body of a serial killer, not without somebody accompanying them to guard the patient. Matt hadn't taken infiltration courses at Wammy's House for nothing though. He had traded in his jeans, stripes, and goggles for a set of hospital scrubs and trainers.

This room...no...the next one...no...

Matt checked each room, certain that he would know B when he found him. If asked, he would say that he was simply checking to make sure the patients were sleeping comfortably. It was night time, and there were fewer staff members at the hospital. Fortunately, nobody ran into him and questioned him.

Last room...this has to be it...

Sure enough, it was. Matt walked inside, shutting the door behind him. He drew the curtains around the bed before turning to give the man lying on it a good look.

"Hello, B."

[digital-ginger-m]

Alone and left to die

Matt hadn't expected it when he got in the car to run to the game store a few blocks away. A heavy rain had been pouring, but, having grown up in Winchester, Matt was no stranger to rain, and had no doubt in his ability to drive in it. Unfortunately, he hadn't accounted for the car in the other lane, which hit a particularly large puddle and slid into Matt's lane, colliding with the driver's side. That was how Matt found himself lying in a hospital, unconscious. The wreck had been bad, particularly so since Matt's side of the car had taken the brunt of the damage. He was hooked up to several tubes, all feeding something into him, whether it was medication or oxygen. Everything he had had on him was in a bin that was currently being searched by a nurse. She finally found a phone and opened it up, hoping to find a parent somewhere in the list. As it was, the list only contained one name. She called it, knowing that the patient, who they had absolutely no information on besides the few (fake) IDs in his wallet, probably had family or friends who would need to know what had happened. What she didn't know was that nobody knew Matt was currently living in LA. Nobody knew what the boy did. He had no friends, no family, and nobody (at least, not that he was aware of) who cared.

[digital-ginger-m]

New Beginning

“Starting today, you will no longer go by your birth name.”

Mail Jeevas blinked up at Mr. Wammy and Roger, the two men who he had been in close contact with for the past two days. Since arriving at Wammy’s House, he had been asked to complete numerous tests. He didn’t know what any of them meant, but he did them, all of them, knowing that it was better to just do what the adults wanted then to fight it.

“Do you have an alias you would like? Or shall we pick one for you?

He remembered being told at the beginning of everything that he would be given an alias, but he hadn’t put much thought into it. Mail’s tiny shoulders shrugged, and Mr. Wammy responded by patting his head.

“Well, we had talked about giving you the alias ‘Mild’—“

“No.” Mail spoke up, cutting Roger off mid-sentence. “I…can I just have a normal name?”

Mr. Wammy blinked. It was a strange request. Most children had an alias that was unusual.

“I never liked my name. I don’t mind being called something else, but…can it be normal?”

Mr. Wammy smiled. “Alright,” he said, accepting Mail’s request. “Your new name is Matt.”

Matt was a common name. Mail had known children named Matt. He smiled for the first time since being brought to Wammy’s.

With that, Roger led Matt out of the room. “You’re going to be sharing a room with Mello,” he said, taking the stairs to the second floor and approaching a door. He raised a hand and knocked. “Mello? Are you in there?”

[digital-ginger-m]

Dog in the hands of the Catcher

M,

L wishes to speak with you in person. If you accept his invitation, you will find information about your flight encrypted in this message.

Watari “God-fucking-damnit,” Matt muttered to himself as he finally traced the message. Mr. Wammy—Watari—had contacted him, and that could only mean one thing. After three years of successfully staying in hiding, L had managed to find him. Again. Matt prided himself on being good at staying quiet and hidden, so being caught yet again only served to damage that pride.

He mulled over a response, bringing a lit cigarette to his lips. As angry as he was at being found again, he knew, deep down, that L had cut him some serious slack. The entire organization that he had worked with the last time L found him had gone down a year after he spoke with L, but nothing had linked back to him. Matt knew that was partly due to his skills at deleting everything that could trace back to him; however, he also knew that L was well aware of his involvement. If L had wanted to apprehend him, he would have. He briefly wondered if L wanted to meet with him for the purpose of apprehending him. Sure, it would be a few years late, but it was possible. After all, L never left a case unsolved or a criminal roaming free. Based on L’s definition, Matt was a criminal.

If that was the case though, why go through the trouble of asking Matt to meet with him? He could just as easily send the police, or the F.B.I., or whoever the fuck he wanted to Matt’s apartment to take him in. Something like that would be a small feat for the great L.

With that in mind, Matt wrote up a short response.

Watari,

Tell L I’ll be there in a few days.

M

He sent the encrypted message, and immediately set about making arrangements for the trip. He made it to the flight L had arranged for him, anxious about seeing L in person yet again. It was something he had never planned on letting happen again, and yet here he was, walking straight into the Lion’s Den of his own volition.

[digital-ginger-m]

Hey, Pretty Lady

"So, Mello...I hear you have...different parts." Matt couldn't keep the grin off his face. His eyes wandered down to Mello's chest, which had grown significantly. "Damn...you make a good woman."

[digital-ginger-m]

Taken

Matt groaned a little as he started to wake up, that simple task being difficult. He felt exhausted in a strange way. His entire body was tired and felt heavy. Everything seemed to fit in with all the descriptions of being drugged that Matt had ever read. He realized that he wasn't lying on his normal bed, the place he'd fallen asleep. He didn't know where he was, but he did know it was unfamiliar. He opened his eyes, but couldn't see anything.  "Who's there?" His words slurred together.

[digital-ginger-m]

First Time (AU with oldworldsrunnerup)

Matt parked his car five blocks away from where the supposed brothel was. A bright red refurbished car was bound to attract attention, and that was the last thing he wanted right now. He walked slowly, smoking two cigarettes as he did in an attempt to calm his nerves. He’d never done anything like this before.

Ah…that could apply to so many things.

Of course he’d never actually gone to a brothel before. He had also never slept with anyone before. Twenty years old, and the closest he’d gotten to sex was jacking off while watching porn. As a birthday present to himself, he’d decided he was going to lose his virginity, never mind the way he did it.

The address matched up with the description of the building that he’d been given, a corner store that sold God-knows-what as a front for the illegal business that Matt was seeking out. He put out his cigarette on the bottom of his boot before slipping inside, doing his best to look completely calm. He walked up to the counter and looked the man straight in the eyes.

“I’m, uh, here about…uh…” Well, so much for seeming calm about this. The man laughed.

“Down the stairs,” he said with a jab of his thumb, rolling his eyes at Matt. Normally, Matt would have been annoyed, but right now, he was just glad he hadn’t had to actually say what he was there for. He walked down the stairs and found himself in what looked like a nice sitting room. He wasn’t sure if that put him at ease or not.

A well-dressed, attractive woman, a sharp contrast to the man upstairs, approached him. She didn’t ask what he was there for, assuming their “bouncer” would keep anyone who wasn’t looking to get laid out of the basement.

“Are you interested in a man or a woman?” she asked, the question rolling off her tongue as though she’d asked it a hundred times that day already (Matt suspected that she had).

“Um…either?” He regretted the words as soon as he said them. He should have tried to sound like he knew what he was doing, after all.

She smiled a little, and Matt couldn’t tell if she was making fun of him or not. “Take a seat then. Someone will be with you shortly.” She left, and Matt sat down, his foot bouncing nervously on the floor.

[digital-ginger-m]

Saving Sayu

Matt stuffed his handheld game in the pocket of his vest, sighing as he walked through the airport. He didn't know how he got stuck with this job. After all, he wasn't the one who had suggested kidnapping this girl, and he certainly wasn't the one who suggested sending someone to pick up the police representative who would be coming to pick her up. Yet, somehow, he had been stuck with this, told by Mello that his job would be making sure Light Yagami not only got to the hideout, but didn't bring anyone extra with him in the process.

Matt had been at the airport for hours. It had been a simple matter to hack into the computer system to change the flights around. Sure, the airport would have a lot of angry customers on their hands, but it was better than the alternative of shooting anyone extra who showed up. As it was now, all direct flights from Tokyo to LA would be cancelled very soon, save for the one that Matt was supposed to get Light on.

He spotted the man easily; years of gaming had trained his eyes to spot objectives from a mile away. He walked up behind him on the moving platform, standing closer to him than he would have, had he not been on this mission.

"Light Yagami, I presume? Mello sent me. You're getting on flight 34 with me."

[digital-ginger-m]

Erasing Past Failures

Five years. Five years. Five, long, tense years.

It had been five years since Matt had been left naked and passed out in the forest. Five years since he was forced to call Mello and admit that, not only had he failed to kill Light, but that he had also failed to obtain even one notebook. Mello had been angry, and Matt counted himself lucky that he was given a flight back to LA. For two months, Matt searched the entire world over, trying to find some kind of evidence of Light, trying to find some indication of where he might be. There was nothing though. Light—Kira—had effectively disappeared completely.

Until recently.

Recently, Mello had received a message in the form of three dead mafiosos, all of whom had planted some kind of clue relating to Kira. Kira was alive and well, and was back to his godly mission. The clues were all far too obvious; that much was certain to both Matt and Mello. Matt, however, was the one who figured out the real clue, who watched the killings, who managed to pin down Light’s location.

Of course, there was a strong possibility that Light was watching their movements, so rather than have the mafia descend on Light’s hideout, it was decided that Matt would go alone, while Mello led the others down the path Light intended them to follow. That was how Matt found himself huddled in a closet in an apartment in Metro Manila. Light would be home any second, and Matt was ready.

Matt was ready to finally make up for his failure five years earlier. This was his chance to prove himself, to regain his dignity.

[digital-ginger-m]

Cooperation in Moderation

Matt didn’t struggle as he was arrested. He knew it wouldn’t do him any good to fight this. It irritated him that these nobodies had the power to do this to him, that, even though they weren’t any legitimate kind of law enforcement, no one would argue with their decision to arrest him. He could only hope that he was proving to be enough of a distraction that it would buy Mello time. He was blindfolded and thrown in a car, and had no idea where he was going. He tried at first to keep track of the turns, but soon realized that the driver was purposefully driving in circles to confuse him. By the time they stopped two hours later, he was completely lost. He was taken into a building, and it wasn’t until he had been tied to a chair that he was spoken to. “Kira has personally asked to speak with you,” said one of the nameless bodyguards. “If not for that, we would have killed you already.”

“Fine, send him in,” Matt replied, as cocky as ever. This was good. He had something they wanted. That would keep him alive for a while, perhaps long enough to be rescued.

[digital-ginger-m]

Arrival

Mail Jeevas’ first three days at Wammy’s were hectic, to say the least. Upon arrival, he had been put through several tests, all meant to measure his intelligence in various areas. The tests were difficult, something Mail wasn’t used to, having spent the first five years of his life beings shuffled between orphanages  where the schools were designed to be attended by average children. Those tests had never been a challenge like these tests were.

On his third day he was given a choice of names. None of them particularly appealed to him, to which he was asked “well then, what kind of name do you want?” “A normal one,” Mail had replied. His name had always stuck out as being strange, and he had no desire to take on yet another strange name. Finally, it was settled that he would, from there on out, be called Matt. Mail Jeevas no longer existed, at least as far as documentation was concerned.

With that, Matt was put out with the rest of the children. He didn’t talk to many of them, still too disoriented from being pulled out of the life he had known. He did notice that some of the other children were strange though. One in particular stuck out to him; an older boy with messy black hair and red eyes. The first time Matt had seen him, he had thought he was just seeing things. After all, nobody had red eyes.

Somebody did have red eyes. Matt asked around before finding out that the boy in question was “B.”

“No name?” Matt had asked.

“His name is B. He’s second. There’s A, and there’s B,” the child had explained as though it were obvious. Matt found himself watching B, staring at him in a way that would have made the nuns at the orphanage he used to live at tell him off. He couldn’t help himself though. Red eyes. The boy had red eyes. Matt couldn’t help that he was curious.

[digital-ginger-m]

New Kid

Six year old Matt wandered around Wammy's. He hadn't been there long, but he'd been around long enough to kind of know his way around. Only kind of though. Within an hour or so, he got lost, and found himself wandering corridors, mentally mapping the place out as he went, knowing he would find his way back eventually. At the end of one hall, he spotted a door with a marking carved into it. He walked up to it, and it took him a moment, but he quickly realized it was a gothic-style L. It was interesting, and Matt had always been an easily bored child. Stepping up to it, he raised a hand and knocked, wondering what was inside more than he cared about whether or not he was bothering someone or invading their privacy.

[digital-ginger-m]

Dog of the Mafia

A week in, and Matt was getting settled into his new position. In the past week, he had completely overhauled every computer, making the entire system faster and more secure. What he hadn't expected was that nearly every day was going to involve some kind of battle between him and someone else. He knew that Mello's family was more powerful than the others in the area, but he hadn't expected every other mafia family to try to hack into their security system on a regular basis. As a result, Matt was generally working to either keep people out, or to rebuild parts of the system that had been broken into. He was positive that, within a couple months, nobody would be messing with the system anymore, seeing as how nobody stood a chance of getting in. He hadn't interacted very much with Mello through the week. His orders had been to work on fixing up the system, so that's what he had done. The work was independent, and Matt preferred it like that. He had never particularly liked being given orders, and guess that Mello, knowing this, was doing what he could to leave Matt to his work in peace.

[digital-ginger-m]

Matt grinned as he picked up a shot of straight-up vodka and downed it. At this point, he couldn't even remember how many shots he'd had. All he knew was that he'd had enough to be happy, warm, and drunk.  He didn't normally do this these days, but lately, Melo had been busy with work, and hardly ever came home anymore. Matt was tired of sitting home, waiting for his fiance. He needed to go out. He needed to do things. He needed to be around people. So it was that he found himself sitting at the bar in a club, knocking back drinks as though they had the potency of fruit juice.  It took him a few moments to realize a girl had sat down next to him. She was cute, with long blonde hair that fell in perfect waves over her shoulders. "Hey," she said as she caught his attention. "What's a cute boy like you doing here all alone?" Matt laughed. He hadn't talked like this to anyone in a while. Was he out of practice? It was time to find out. "The fiance hasn't been hanging out with me, so I got bored and came here. I could ask you the same question though. What're you doing here all alone?"  The girl smiled and leaned closer to Matt. "Looking for a little fun, that's all." She raised an eyebrow. "Interested?"

Matt's answer came without a moment of hesitation, hesitation that would have turned into him replying very differently had he not been so drunk. "Might be."

[digital-ginger-m]

New Girl

New arrivals always annoyed Matt. He was expected to be welcoming toward them, to talk to them, to make them feel at home…it was bullshit. He knew nobody would feel truly at home here. On top of that, he was much happier not talking to anyone.

That being said, Roger had warned him that he would be in trouble if he didn’t interact with the new child. Roger had said it was impolite of Matt to ignore new children, that he wouldn’t like it if he was new and the kids treated him like that, and so on and so forth.

Not wanting to get into trouble, Matt approached the new girl the first day he saw her.

“Um, hi. I’m Matt,” he said, feeling awkward. “Um…hope you like it here.” She wouldn’t. At least, he didn’t.