Watari Pt 2: Wammy's House

"They\'re here! They\'re here!" Pwyll raced along the corridor, trailing Holiday after him.



"Boys!" Ann warned, clutching the hand of Kato. The girl squeezed hers in return, contriving to both walk and hide behind the housekeeper. "No running indoors please!" Neither of them took a blind bit of notice of her, careering around the corner into the reception area to catch sight of the Wammy House celebrities. The buzz of excitement had been steadily growing since news leaked, three days before, that they would be visiting. "Kato, I\'m going to meet Mello and Matt now. Are you coming with me or staying back here?"



The child slipped her hand out of Ann\'s and walked back the way they had come. Ann sighed. Kato\'s encounters with Mello had not been in the best circumstances, but little could be done about that. She resolved to request that Mello sit down with herself and Kato later on and maybe see if his good side could be revealed to the girl. Ann knew that he had one. She had practically raised him. It was Mello she could hear speaking now, as she neared the corner. "Yes, we had a long journey here. A very long journey here."



"By car or by plane?" Pwyll was probing.



Ann entered the reception in time to see Mello smiling. He wasn\'t about to answer the question, which was wise considering how quickly these children picked up on clues to locate people. It was what they were trained to do and Pwyll was one of the brightest minds currently in the House. Ann quickly took note of how relaxed Mello seemed and, beside him, how aloof and silent Matt was. It was an act with both of them, though Mello had always had several defence mechanisms to choose from. This was him at his most charming and pleasant. Child-friendly, in contrast to his other recent moods upon visiting the orphanage. "Mello! Matt! How are you both, my darlings?"



"Afternoon, Ann." Mello nodded to her, pushing his sunglasses higher onto the scarred bridge of his nose.



Ann opened her arms though, predictably, it was only Mello who stepped forward for a quick hug. She hadn\'t got a hug out of Matt when he was three, so knew it was never going to happen now he was in his twenties. Nevertheless, Ann reached past Mello to pat the redhead\'s arm. She was rewarded with a glance in her direction from behind those orange goggles. She turned to survey her charges. Children had happened from each entrance to cluster in the large hallway; some of them were loitering on the stairs, which wasn\'t allowed. "Ok everyone, you\'ve seen them now. Back to your studies please. I\'m sure that you\'ve all got homework that you should be doing. You two, come this way. We\'ve rearranged a classroom for your meeting."



She began leading the way forward. Mello fell away from her, reaching back to take Matt\'s hand before they followed her. The fact of two men holding hands caused intrigue amongst the onlookers, but neither of them reacted to it. "Roger\'s still around." Mello spoke like it was a statement, rather than a question. "Has anyone else said that they\'re coming?"



"Not in so many words." Ann replied. "But there is still a good hour before it begins. We have the laptops set up in there in readiness, as you directed."



"Thank you."



She led them through a door into what was fundamentally a classroom. Wammy\'s House had never needed a meeting room before and, depending on the outcome of the day, might not need one again. "Here you go. The refreshments are not out yet, because Mrs Carnagie is making them fresh."



Mello grinned. "This room smells like double maths." His head turned to gaze at the spot where his desk had been. It was gone now, replaced with long tables and boardroom style chairs. "I\'m getting the urge to do find successive approximations of zeros using the Newton-Raphson Method."



"Well don\'t." Matt spoke for the first time, as Ann closed the door, to the chagrin of the children outside. "Help me load these files instead."



"I thought you were going to network them."



"No." Matt threw a memory stick to his husband and set about taking his own laptop from his bag in order to wire it into the whiteboard.



Mello shrugged. He pointed to a spot slightly closer to the board. "Near sat there and I was there. He was right in range." His gaze slid back towards Ann. "But I never chucked anything."



"Of course you didn\'t, Mello." Ann smiled at him fondly, though her tone was stern. He smirked as he leaned over the first laptop and began copying the folder from the stick onto its desktop. The housekeeper moved to the front of the room. She found it more curious that she was more nervous of the mostly inoffensive redhead than his historically more dangerous partner. "Matt, your e-mail asked that I be present at this meeting. May I ask why?"



Matt did not look up. He busied himself connecting electronic equipment together and it occurred to Ann that allowing him access to Wammy\'s House portals may not be entirely wise. He responded evenly, "You are present because you more than Roger is the parental figure in this house. You are the closest thing to a mother that I, for one, have ever known and that is going to be one of the items on the agenda."



Ann stared. "Should I be concerned?" He just shrugged and she found his detachment irksome. "Am I potentially being sacked?" He sat back, peering up at her though his eyes were unreadable behind the twin shields of hair and goggles, then smirked. "Matt..." She began, but couldn\'t think how to end the sentence.



"Mail is feeling pretty let down by Wammy\'s House at the moment." Mello supplied from the back of the room, his focus apparently on another of the laptops. "You went to see to Roger the night it all blew with the Mario Clause and you\'re yet to check on him. On Mail, I mean. That\'s why he\'s being an arse to you."



The housekeeper felt her mouth become dry. She frowned at Mello, then drew her attention back to her other boy. Matt was watching her like she was a specimum from the pond. "Matt, if I bent all the way down there and hugged you, like I want to, you would freeze up on me and do everything you could to get away. Only three times, in your entire life, have you allowed me to get within two feet of you in any manner that could be called maternal. You don\'t do affection and you clam up if anyone so much as asks how you are today." She sighed, leaning up against the back of a chair. "And if I had contacted you, what would you have done? Given me non-committal grunts until I shut up and went away."



She was overtaken by Mello striding between them. He reached a hand down to pull Matt to his feet and the two of them met in a fierce bearhug in front of her. "You nervous about this, baby?"



"Bit." Matt shrugged but didn\'t pull away. "But I\'ve handled worse. No response is carte blanche for me to go ahead and do whatever I want to do."



Mello nodded and pulled away. He placed a peak of a kiss on Ann\'s cheek as he passed by again. "Maybe you didn\'t try hard enough."



Ann sighed and pushed herself away from the chair. It squeaked against its hinges in protest. "Matt." She opened her arms and he turned away. "Oh no you don\'t. Not after that little display. You can\'t make a point and then..."



"Mail!" Mello warned sharply.



"Mail." Ann caught his arm and moved into an embrace. The redhead remained wooden, suspicion icing his features. "If I let the children in this institution upset me, I would never stop crying. So many of you coming in here with such terrible stories and then working so very hard. But you," Ann held him more tightly, despite his lack of response, "I cried over you, Mail." There was a shifting, barely perceptible, but she felt it. "Should I have forced the issue when you were little? You fought like an alley-cat the first time I tried to pick you up and cuddle you. You were so frightened, my darling. This tiny mite, stick thin and covered in sores, looking more like a two year old than three, and you still managed to claw scratches down my face. You wriggled so much that I had to put you down or risk dropping you. I tried. I put a blanket around you to cocoon you like a wild animal, but you tried to headbutt me." He bowed his head, facing away. "Then you learned how to ignore people. I kept you healthy, fed and sheltered and that in itself was a long, slow, hard won process. Seventeen years later and you still freeze when I hug you. How can I know that I\'m not causing you more distress than comfort?"



Mello appeared at their side again, wrapping leather-clad arms around the pair of them. At his touch, Matt\'s arms finally reached around Ann\'s back and returned the cuddle. She smiled and kissed the back of his head, as he laid it half on her shoulder and half on Mello\'s. Above it, Mello winked at the housekeeper. "What qualifications do you have, Ann?"



"How do you mean?"



"You are being asked to play mother to traumatised children. What training have you had to do so?"



Ann bristled and would have stepped away, but for the momentus significance of having Matt still holding onto her. "I\'ve had nearly thirty years experience in this institution and more in the other houses beforehand."



"So none then." Mello pursed his lips. "You were thrown in the deep end and overwhelmed. I\'m not saying that you didn\'t do your best or that you didn\'t do a great job in the circumstances, but you were hardly prepared for what they asked of you."



"Mello, I am the housekeeper. My job is to ensure that all the linen is laundered; that your clothes were in good repair; and that the practical organisation of the house continued in good order. I\'ll sit with you when you are ill, but I did that off my own back. My job description is more for the nuts and bolts than attempting to mother the likes of you pair." She sighed. "I apologise if that sounds harsh, but the cuddles came free."



Before either could respond, the door opened again and Fenian walked through, closely followed by Century. Mello grinned widely and surreptiously rubbed Matt\'s back. The blond laughed as he broke away, "Mother of God! The Celts have invaded!" Behind him, Ann stroked Matt\'s hair and smiled at him as he glanced back at her. "Thank you both for coming."



"I thought this was the Matt Show." Fenian accused. "Didn\'t I have enough of you in a cave last week?"



Mello pouted, "Stuck in the dark with me, Fenian, you loved it."



Fenian stared, "You had better not be flirting with me, man. With a fucking rosary around your neck!"



"But you like it!" Mello protested, but the hand he extended slapped Fenian\'s back, then moved to do the same to Century\'s. "Did you even make it back to Eire?"



"No, I didn\'t." Fenian side-stepped him to greet the housekeeper. "Ann! Can you put Mello in detention or something? Get him out of my face."



Ann laughed, clutching the Irishman to herself briefly. "I doubt I have a room secure enough to hold him these days." She moved on to Century. "How are you getting on?" He was still young enough that he should be at Wammy\'s House, but he did look healthier now that he wasn\'t.



"Fine." Century replied cautiously, then broke away to approach Matt. "I\'m representing Chris and Sal as well. They\'ll be here via link-up, but Chrissie\'s due any day now with the baby and so they\'re not coming."



Matt nodded, "\'kay. But they\'re willing to be on the board?"



"They\'re willing to hear you out."



Ann stood by the door, her hand on the handle, watching the four of them interacting. There was a fledging, cautious ease which would not have seemed possible a few years before, though they were all still watchful. "I\'m going to check on the progress of the food." She called, but was followed out by Matt. "Yes?"



"Going for a cigarette." He smiled and headed in the opposite direction, apparently oblivious to the children hanging around in the corridor.



"Matt..." She began and he turned, but she was interupted by Mello\'s appearance. It heightened the ripple of excitement amongst the children by several levels.



"Where are you going?" He barked.



"Cigarette." Matt waved the packet in the air and carried on walking.



Mello raced after him. "I\'m coming too."



"Scared I\'m going to shoot Roger?" Matt asked irritably. Ann gasped and turned around. There were eight children between herself and the wayward alumni. They were all watching, with something akin to hero worship, as Mello caught up with the redhead.



Mello grabbed his hand. "He\'s joking, boys and girls. Ignore him." But the look which Mello gave Matt told Ann that the threat might not be as idle as he was trying to make out. "Matt, tell them..."



"I told you not to fucking call me that name in here." He was striding on, practically dragging Mello alongside him.



It occurred to Ann that neither of them had been frisked for weapons, when they had arrived. That could well be a very costly oversight on her part. The couple had nearly reached the corner, far closer to Roger\'s office than she was. She watched them collide with a whole group of their peers. Linda, Deontic, Luigi and Lamond had arrived. Watching on, over-excitement was reaching fever pitch amongst the children. Indecision wracked her conscience, aware that still rivers ran deep in Mail Jeevas, always had and probably always would, and the only person seemingly in a position to stop him was Mello. The same boy who, last time he had been in this institution, had been the one threatening Roger\'s life. Her hand gripped the mobile telephone in her pocket, as she tried to ascertain just how dire a situation this might be. But distrusting Matt now, after he had just deigned to allow her to cuddle him, might undo that trust forever. Unless that had been a ruse.



"Mail!" Ann screamed down the corridor and all of the children, young and old, froze at the tone of voice.



The redhead turned, as did everyone else, but instead of staying where he was, as she had expected, he turned on his heels and walked back towards her. An unlit cigarette dangled from his mouth, as he sauntered on past the children again, stopping a few feet away. Gloved hands were upturned in innocence. "I wasn\'t even there. No picture, no proof."



Ann blinked. She noticed Mello still standing at the corner, looking back with a smirk. "Pardon?" Just in front of her, the meeting room door opened. Fenian and Century stood in it watching the show.



"Whatever you think I\'ve done." Matt explained patiently. "I wasn\'t even there. It was probably Mello."



Mello\'s expression dropped into mock outrage. "You grass!" He called back. "It wasn\'t me either, Ann." He paused and a couple of the children laughed. "Obviously it depends on what it is. Thinking about it, it might have been me."



"Yeah." Matt nodded. "But it definitely wasn\'t me. I\'d have remembered."



Ann sighed. "Please come into my office, Mail." There was a chorus of \'oooh\' from his peers, while the younger ones were mostly giggling behind their hands. "Just a quiet word please."



Matt held his cigarette between his fingers, a pained expression on his face. "It wasn\'t me! There\'s no proof!"



The door was held open. "Mail! Inside please." She frowned as she watched Mello racing up the corridor to join them. "He doesn\'t need you holding his hand."



"He does." Mello responded, taking one of Matt\'s hands in his own. "He wanders off else."



Matt nodded. "I do. Though I wasn\'t there." He smirked at her confusion. "Wherever the trouble was that you think I did. I wasn\'t even in the vicinity."



Ann closed her eyes, aware that she was being made to look very foolish in front of an ever-increasing crowd of juvenile geniuses. Worse, Mello and Matt were teaching the younger children how to do it. "There are times when I really wish that Mr Wammy had allowed me to give you lot a bloody good hiding." She pointed through the open door and raised her voice. "Get into my office, Matt!"



The couple exchanged glances. Mello looked apologetic. "She called it you, not me." He took a step forward. "Come on, Mail, it\'ll be just like old times. A nostalgic rollicking in Ann\'s office. Fun."



A moment later, they were both standing on her rug. Mello watched as she closed the door, while Matt stared fixedly at a neutral point straight ahead. Ann inspected them, carefully noting the guilt written, almost as an automatic response, on both of their countenances. She had planned to discuss this with them as adults, but the temptation was very great to treat them as if they were both ten years old again. But for the fact that they were holding hands, both stances could easily have been present a decade ago. "I do not want you to even joke about committing murder on these premises. Is that understood, Mail?"



"Yes, Ann."



"I don\'t think either of you quite realise how much those children out there look up to you." She moved around to face them and leaned up against the detergents\' cupboard. "Do you recall how much you idolised L, when you were their age?" There were two sharp nods. "L is dead. The heroes of this generation are you two and Near! You were as distant as L for years, but we\'ve seen more of you these past few months. Every single time you\'ve stepped foot into this institution, it has been a catalogue of indiscretions. Threatening children with guns; threatening Roger, verbally and physically; and what precisely were you doing in the library, the time before last, for a child to come and ask me if two men can be boyfriends?"



Matt froze, but Mello couldn\'t stop a smirk rising on his features. "We weren\'t, like, naked or anything. It was more... well, it was mostly in Spanish and Croatian anyway. Though obviously we didn\'t know that there was a linguistics genius listening in at the time." Mello petered off, bowing his head. Then appeared to remember who he was. "But the rest was contributory negligence and, well, neither of us are armed this time. I didn\'t bring anything and I practically strip-searched Mail on the way down. He\'s clean."



"That was a strip-search?" Matt frowned.



"It was an effective way of frisking you, yes." Mello replied, neutrally. "And... other things."



Matt glared at him. "Mello, please shut up."



Mello grinned. "What I\'m saying here is that Roger is safe. We\'re here for a meeting, that\'s all. He doesn\'t need to clip the erm... man, in order to have his revenge."



"So you are planning revenge." Ann interjected.



Matt sighed. "Mello, what precisely is your IQ these days? Because I\'m hazarding a guess at around 75."



"I don\'t know. I never trust the methodology on those tests anyway. They are too proscriptive and focus on arbitary disciplines." He shrugged. "That\'s my humble opinion anyway. Speaking as a dribbling idiot, of course."



Their eyes met. Mello chuckled and Matt scowled. The redhead turned back to face Ann. "So you see, it was all Mello\'s fault. Can I go and have my cigarette now please? Else the meeting is going to start and I\'m not going to get one."



Ann stood and placed her hands onto each of Matt\'s shoulders. "Mail, do I have your word that no-one is going to get killed or threatened with being killed in this institution today?"



Matt tensed. "That depends greatly on whether or not I get a cigarette in the next five minutes."



"Translated," Mello spoke quickly, "he\'s not going to touch a fly. He\'s going to have a cigarette, chair his meeting and then we\'re going home." He smiled winsomely at the housekeeper. "I give you our oath." Mello lifted and kissed the crucifix on his rosary. "I promise."



"Mail?"



"Mello has given you our oath." Matt stared back at her and Ann didn\'t know what to read in those eyes. It touched a part of him that had grown up after leaving her care. "Please may I go and have a cigarette now?"



Ann nodded and released his shoulders. "I\'m trusting you both." She caught both sets of eyes to communicate the depth of that trust and waited until they both nodded. "Ok, go and have your cigarette, son." Matt stared at her, his expression hardening. On a whim, she hugged him close and caught, out of the corner of her eye, a slight smile on Mello\'s face. Matt froze momentarily, but then the embrace was reciprocated and Ann wondered if now she could say things to make it alright. Before she could articulate them though, he pulled away and crossed halfway towards the door in a couple of long strides. Mello, still attached to him by his hand, patted Ann\'s arm and winked, before being led out of the door and out of her sight. Ann stared at the space where they\'d been for several seconds after they had vacated it. Then she sighed. "Oh, boys. Break my heart every day if I let you."