A/n: Ta-da! Another one you say? Yes : ) This one is another awkward plot bunny that liked to chew on my brain for a few days before I started to type this up. By the way: MAIL (Matt's name) is pronounced MILE. Just thought that I would clear that up. It's in an AU. Enjoy ~

Chapter 1:

"Hello?"

A young man answered his phone in the early hours of the morning.

"Hey! Is this Nate?"

"Ah huh."

Nate shielded his eyes from the thin rays of bright sun that penetrated his small room.

"Oh. Good! It's Matt. I just wanted to ask you how your search for a new apartment is going."

A rough voice coughed loudly through the earpiece of Nate's mobile. The white haired teen held the phone away from his ear as if it had a disease.

"Wait. Who did you say this was?" Nate asked sleepily as he rubbed his eyes. An exasperated sigh came over the line.

"I said it's Matt. I'm just calling about the apar-"

"I never asked any 'Matt' for an apartment did I?" Nate opened his blinds to be welcomed with the sight of another apartment.

Ah the beautiful city life.

"Fine. I'm Mail. Mail Jeevas. Remember? You called the other day about the spare room in my place."

"Oh! Mail! Why didn't you say so? So is the room still free?"

He listened for a few moments until the line went dead. With sudden panic he shook the phone with panic. He flicked it open to find that it was still perfectly fine. Mail's line must have gone dead. Not his. He let out a sigh of relief. At least he couldn't be blamed for losing the apartment because he hung up. Crap. He really did need that room though. A loud knock on the door made him jump. He creaked the door open slowly to see a tall good looking redhead grinning at him.

"Ey. Is this River's place?" The man pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

"Yeah. It's Nate right here. What's going on Mail?"

Nate was in awe of this man in front of him. He knew that Mail was hardly older than he was, not even a month over nineteen. But Mail looked like a supermodel, and at least twenty-two at the youngest. Another wide grin split the red-heads clean shaven face.

"You got the room. Pack up your shit and get yourself moved in by-' he checked his watch 'Ten O'clock tonight. I'll give you the key then. Any later and you'll miss me cause I'll be at work and you'll have to sleep in the hall. Got it? You should remember the address, right?"

Nate nodded slowly.

"Goodie! See ya then."

Nate was left with nothing but a wave and the smell of Mail's smoke.

With a duffle bag slung over his shoulder and a milk crate dragging behind him, eighteen year old Nate Rivers was an out-of-home, out-of-luck, out of, well everything. Once his parents kicked him out a year beforehand, everything had gone to hell for him. After he had asked for money to get into university his father threw him out on the streets.

"Men go to school to learn how to build! Not to keep no-good-nicks out of court!"

Were the last words his idiot father had said to him. And that was two hours after being asked to go from his second last year of high school fast tracked to higher studies. So within the week Nate Rivers was in an empty house until it turned out that a nice couple had bought it and had decided to move in and find a snoring teenager on their floor. They called the police within moments, so he was right back on the street.

Mail's apartment was in a nice clean building in the centre of the city. As Nate dragged his luggage up the stairs (Thanks to a broken elevator) he noticed that the door was open to Mail's place.

What the hell?

"Hey? Are you there?"

A mop of red hair popped out of the door frame, his permanent grin still plastered on his face.

"Nate! You made it here!" Mail whooped and grabbed Nate's pale white hand firmly between his.

"Oh. Yeah I did make it here. Do you want me to put my things in the room?"

"Go 'head. It's your place now" Matt turned away and walked backed inside.

Nate sighed and followed the older man inside.

It seemed that Mail had re-decorated since he had last had anybody check out the spare room for rent. Clothes were strewn on the floor, furniture and even the windowsill. Nate watched in horror as Mail walked out of what he assumed was the other males' bedroom completely naked. The (naked) red-head looked in the blushing albino's direction and upon realising what seemed to be embarrassing him, laughed.

"What are you blushing for? You have a dick too dontcha?"

This comment seemed to make Nate redden even more.

"Of course I do! But I'm just not -ah- used to..."

"Seeing another man's? Wow you sure are reserved." Mail giggled like a little girl and wiggled his completely exposed buttocks in the other teen's direction.

Nate nearly died of mortification.

It didn't take him long to move his things in and set them up. It's not like he had much in the first place. A few changes of clothes, mainly oversized white shirts he had borrowed from a friend who had let him crash for a few weeks who had told him to keep them. His two pairs of loose pants bottoms were old and looked like pyjamas. Not very fashionable, not that he cared. Not after making a nice little space that he could tolerate for the time being. At least until he remembered another pressing matter that came to mind.

"Ahm. Mail?" Her chirped nervously to Mail who was now shaving his already silky smooth face.

"Yup?"

"Um. I have a problem about the room..."

"Oh shi- you didn't find anything...personal did you?"

"Personal?"

"Like a spare condo-"

"No! No! Nothing like that!"

"Then what?" Mail rubbed his jaw line clearly happy that he had gotten rid of already non-existent stubble.

"I can't pay rent."

"...What do you mean you can't pay the rent?"

"I can't pay." Nate replied simply.

"Well smartass can I ask why?" Mail was visibly frustrated. He wasn't smiling anymore.

"I don't have a job. Not anymore."

"Oh that's all? Aw easy fixed I say! I can put a good word in for you at my work tonight! See? Easy fixed!"

"T-thank you! Do I need a resume?"

"No but you will need to try out. You are fit aren't you?"

"Reasonably. Why? "

"That is all. Goodbye."

And with that Mail pushed the confused teen out of the bathroom.

The street was dimly lit by broken street lights and sleazy neon signs as Mail's sleek car drove through the back alleys of the city. Nate's head was pressed firmly against the cold frosted glass as he fogged up the window and drew on it.

"You would think that you'd never ridden in a nice car like this before kiddo."

Nate's head snapped off the glass quickly

"I'm only a year younger than you! Don't call me kiddo!"

"Fine. So if it's not too much to ask," Mail began as he bit on a chocolate bar thoughtfully

"If you can't pay rent now, how could you afford to live before?"

A sly grin spread over the younger boys face which was highlighted by a dull blue glow.

"I was supposed to be fast tracked into university last year."

"Oh yeah? What happened?"

"Didn't have the money. So I was told by my dad anyway. Turns out he had quite a stash of money in his savings account didn't he?"

"How'd you find that out?"

Nate chuckled softly.

"I did advanced computer studies. It was not that hard to get in my dad's bank. Just took a couple thousand until the account was suddenly closed."

Matt's permanent grin widened.

"I could do that in my sleep. Not that hard. I'm just lucky that I have a well paying job."

Mail's car swerved around an intersection into another road littered with flashy signs. As they turned into a carpark around the back of a very bright and very alive building, Nate scooted away from the redhead who had begun to unbutton his tight shirt.

"Woah! Put your shirt back on!"

"I'm getting ready for work."

"Aren't you a bouncer or something?"Nate looked away respectfully.

Mail laughed roughly

"I ain't tank enough to be a body guard or a bouncer. I'm to lean. All of my strength is in my abbs."

"Oh."

Mail opened the car door and slammed it behind him loudly. Nate followed suit and coughed as the smell of stale smoke attacked his senses.

"Get used to it kid. This is where you are gonna work if you get the job."

"A nightclub?"

"Yeah. A nightclub."

Matt pushed the door marked 'employees only' and zipped up a fur vest right under his clean shaven chin. The other men who stood in the hallway inside looked at the white haired boy who trailed behind inconspicuously as he smiled weakly at the people who did pay attention. Mail banged on the door marked 'Manager' loudly.

"Hey Linda open the door. I gotta new applicant."

"Matt you ass! You know that I don't anybody new working the bars! Tell him to piss off!"

Mail rolled his eyes and mouthed the word 'bitch' to Nate who replied with the ghost of a smile.

"He's pretty decent looking. Probably has a firm set too."

A frustrated grunt was muffled through the door as a woman swung the door open to be greeted with the grinning crimson haired man. She brushed her blonde bangs out of her eyes and looked Nate up and down thoughtfully.

"He's a bit on the small side."

"He's been livin' on the streets, so he would be pretty fit. C'mon give the kid a chance. He has to pay me rent y'know. Don't want to see a pretty looking boy like him knee-capped now would you? "

The blonde rubbed her temples and gave Nate the once-over again.

"Fine. Get him on the bars. Chop chop."

Mail brushed his hands along the woman's cheek and kissed it softly.

"Thanks babe, ya wont regret it."

"Leave me alone you whore." She mumbled as she closed her door.

"Why did she call you Matt?"

"Cause that me name here."

"I don't have a bartending licence. I can't work on a bar here legally."

Mail gave him a strange look and then laughed loudly.

"Not that sorta bar I promise mate. You are really eighteen right?"

Nate nodded in reply as he watched the smoke get thicker and the music suddenly get a lot louder. As they pushed the door in front of them open the fog blinded him. The music was so ridiculously loud that he thought that his ears were going to fall off.

"Mail!" He tried to yell over the deafening noise that rumbled over everything.

"Call me Matt at work!"

"Matt! Where am I supposed to work I can't see a damn thing!"

A sudden force grasped him around the waist and he was pulled into a clearer spot, almost like a catwalk. He listened to the racket around him trying to decipher who was making it.

A very large amount of women he guessed.

"Mai-Matt? Is it ladies night?"

"It's always ladies night here! Now listen to me. I'm going to introduce you to the crowd as a new member so not to go to hard on you okay?"

Nate nodded.

"And you are going to be working the bar over there. Next to him."

"Who?"

"I'll call him over. Oi Mello! Come and show the new kid how to use the bars." Mail waved a very well-built and sweaty man over to him. The only thing that Nate had noticed was that everybody here except for most of the women, that they seemed to be shirtless. And oiled. Things were slowly beginning to click in Nate's brain as Mello grabbed his hand and shook it.

"You better not fuck this up for me. I'll show you how to swing. Hurry up." The man Mello might have looked like an alright guy from your first look at him, but it didn't take long for you to figure out that this guy was the sort of guy who kicks puppies and eats babies. On a good day. He was dragged through a velvet curtain to the screams of many women.

"Now." Mello looked him at him swiftly. "Your name is now Near. 'Cause your near perfect bodywise. This is your stage." He pointed to the catwalk and Nate's eye's followed. "And that is your tool." He lifted his finger up to a metal pole that stood in the middle of the strip. Nate-no-Near gasped. This wasn't a job on 'the bar.'

It was literal.

He was working on a bar alright.

In the middle of a strip club.

Nate gulped.

He didn't think that he was this desperate for money.

Ta-ta till next chapter :D

ambie-lee-smiley-chanX3