"No. No, don't do this to me!" Matt was completely frantic. "Please, don't die on me now! We've been through so much together! I don't know what I'd do without you! You can't just die after everything we've worked for! Please, I'm begging you-"

"Oh my fucking God, Matt, shut the hell up!" Mello exclaimed from his bedroom. Matt pressed the pause button on his game controller and pouted. "I'm sorry, but I think it's only fare that I mourn over Shadow's death!"

Mello got out of his bedroom with a chocolate hanging from his mouth. He leaned against the threashold, glaring at Matt sitting in his beanbag chair in front of the couch. "Matt, you act like this every time you're facing a difficult boss. I could barely stand you when you kept screaming 'Damn you, Genesis! How dare you destroy my Zacky-kun?' at your PSP. Like, seriously? Don't you have anything better to do?"

Matt rolled his eyes pulled his goggles over his eyes. "Well, at least I don't spend all day stuffing my face with chocolate," he murmured stubbornly. Mello looked at him offensively. "Are you calling me fat?" he demanded. Matt smirked. "I was going more along the lines of 'lazy-ass mo fo', but you can see it however you please," he said, satisfied with the look on Mello's face. The blonde grabbed a pillow that was placed on the chair next to him and threw it at Matt, who dodged it. "I see you still can't aim anything else other than a gun, huh?" he smiled. Mello was about to counter that, but there was a knock on the door. He sighed and went over to and answered.

"What up, blondie?" Beyond Birthday said, letting himself in, follwed by his girlfriend Vivian. "Excuse me, but did I give you permission to enter?" Mello asked. "Pssh, you actually think I care about what you have to say," Beyond said in a humored tone. Vivi sighed. "So, you guys know my cousin, Victor, right?" she asked. Matt nodded. "The one that lives over there in California, right?" he asked.

"Yeah. Well, he invited me to go over there and he suggested that I should bring all of my friends soooooo..." She grinned as she let her voice trail. Matt's face brightened. "Holy crap, are you saying that we get to go to California?" he asked in excitement, dropping his game controller. "Uh huh!" Vivi replied cheerfully. Matt punched the air energetically. "Oh, hell yeah! I haven't been to L.A. in like forever! We have to go, Mells! C'mon, can we? Pleaaaaaasseeeee?"

In all honesty, California was the last place Matt wanted to be. He had to much of a history there and, as he often reminded himsef, history repeats itself. But, on the other hand, he didn't want to disappoint Vivi, who had been like a little sister to him and Mello back at the orphanage. His fake act of excitement was convincing, and Mello sighed.

"I suppose," he said with a hint of a smile. He had past troubles in Los Angeles, what with the mafia and everything. But there were long gone, and he didn't think he'd have to worry about them. Besides, he assumed that Beyond was going as well. Beyond had the worst history there, and of course Mello knew every single detail of it, since having written about it.

"Great!" Vivi smiled. "We're leaving in five days, all right?"

"Awesome," Matt said, returning the smile.

And five days later, they all left, along with Light Yagami and Misa Amane. Totally obvlious to what was going to happen over the next month.