A/N: I finally finished this...stayed up ridiculously late to write the last chapter and proof-read the enitre fic, so I really hope it's good. Even if it's not very long...
I absolutely adore M/M, so I just had to write a fic for them! This is dedicated to Rainbow Fruit Loop, cause she's cool and got me hooked on these two. Love ya! x
This story's a bit bipolar. Meaning there're some chapters with crack and then some with depressing angst (although, I'm not very good with depressing stuff, so...not so depressing angst?). And then you get all that in ONE chapter! Then again, my take on Mello's a bit bipolar, so s'all good!
Warnings for the fic: yaoi (duh), language, mild innuendo (if you can find them), some violence, some gore (not much. I'm squeamish) and much, much British speak! I'm English and so are Mello and Matt, so yeah. Just tell me if you don't understand something, you non-Brit peoples out there! (Or even some of the Brits. I have a bad habit of making up words and thinking they're real)
Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, or Mello, or Matt, or Near. Just imagine what'd happen if I did... *creepy creepy smile*
Chapter 1
Mello blinked.
He was sitting in his apartment, opposite Matt, with a half-eaten chocolate bar in front of him. Nothing strange about that.
Except there was.
Matt conveniently voiced all of Mello's confusion in one sentence, "…I could've sworn I died just now."
Mello said nothing, only frowning as he remembered that Matt had indeed died, through his, Mello's, fault. And then the blond had died straight after as well, everything going according to his plan, so as to allow Kira to finally be defeated.
"Mels? Are you alright?" Matt asked, concerned.
Mello jolted out of his reverie, setting his mind to the task of figuring out exactly how in all of Hell they were here. Unless, of course, 'here' was Hell.
Thinking out loud, he said, "I clearly remember dying. Every detail, and none of it's blurry as it is when you try to remember a dream."
Matt looked at him. "You died too?"
"Yep."
"How?"
"Heart attack."
Matt was silent.
"So anyway, we weren't dreaming. I died, and then immediately…well, I don't want to say 'appeared'. That would make it sound like it was something physical. I didn't 'wake up', either. It was more like…"
"Just being here?" Matt suggested.
"Yeah, I was just here. Is it the same day as it was when we were last here, getting ready to kidnap Takada Kiyomi? Have we gone back in time or something?" Mello asked, answering himself by jumping up and grabbing a newspaper that was halfway shoved through the letterbox. "Nope. It's the 30th of January. Four days after we died. And even if we didn't actually die, that ain't long enough for any hospital to fix the injuries we remember. So we didn't get carted off to hospital and get amnesia."
"If we had amnesia, surely we wouldn't remember getting the injuries in the first place," Matt stated, lifting his goggles up off his eyes and rubbing them tiredly.
"More reason to believe that we actually did die and that this is the work of some supernatural bastard," Mello spat.
"What makes you think it was a conscious being? Maybe it just happened," Matt reasoned, forever the one to be all for letting sleeping lions lie.
"Things don't 'just happen', Matt! Surely working on the Kira case taught you that much?" Mello exclaimed, exasperated.
"Well, can't we just let them be for now? You can try to figure out the answers to life, the universe and everything tomorrow, but right now I'm dog tired and I want to sleep and I keep on thinking I'm supposed to have a heap of bullet wounds and when I remember I don't, it just gives me a headache!"
Mello looked at him gently. "Okay. Fine, we'll do that. You're right, I'm being too active. But are you sure you want to sleep now? It looks like it's mid-morning and you'll get the paranormal version of jet lag if you start sleeping the day away," Mello warned him, trying to lighten the atmosphere a bit. Matt looked like he was going to snap from weeks of pent-up stress.
Matt looked at the clock and groaned. "You're kidding! I wanna sleep…but yeah, you're right. I don't want to feel like crap for the rest of the week."
Mello smiled, and picked up the paper to flick through it, purely from habit. "Good. We'll take it easy for today, and then we can—" He froze.
"Mels? Mello? What's wrong?" Matt queried anxiously, standing up and going to crouch in front of where his friend sat, staring at an article in the newspaper. "Mello? What is it?"
Mello sighed and handed him the paper. "Looks like our plan might have worked," he said softly.
Matt read the article avidly.
Mysterious Halt in the Kira Killings
Ever since late in the night of January 28th, 2010, there has been an abrupt halt in the Kira killings. Although this is not unheard of, some speculate that Kira may have finally been brought down. Following that, many people believe the elusive detective L is behind this. The last deaths caused by Kira were on the 26th of January, when television star Takada Kiyomi was found dead in a razed building, along with an unidentified male. The analysts reported that Miss Takada set fire to the building before committing suicide. However, police specialists say this correlates to certain other Kira strikes, where the victims did not perish from heart attacks. Miss Takada had not before shown any signs of being suicidal, and even so, there would have been no reason for her to set the building on fire.
The yet-to-be-identified body found with Miss Takada's seems to be that of a young man, in his late teens or early twenties. Reports state his cause of death has been proven to be cardiac arrest, though the corpse was heavily burned and beyond recognition when the police found it. The man was healthy, and would not normally have suffered a heart attack of such gravity. This proves Kira's involvement, and makes it all the more surprising that there has not been an increase in the amount of deaths in the past few days.
Despite this, the jury remains out on whether Kira is vanquished or not. "It seems that only time will tell," says Detective Inspector Kimoya, the leader of the Kira Investigation in the Japanese Police Force, "If there have been no suspicious deaths in two months from now, Kira will be officially proclaimed either dead, imprisoned or retired."
Matt looked up slowly, seeing Mello scowling at the floor and picking at his gloves, in the way he only did when he was troubled.
"What's up, Mels? The plan worked. Kira's been defeated," Matt said, sitting down beside his friend and putting the newspaper back on the table.
"That's not definite. Obviously no one apart from the SPK and the second L's team know the full facts. Including us. Kira could just be lying low for a bit. For all we know, he could have escaped and gone into hiding somewhere, waiting for the perfect time to strike," Mello obsessed, his brow crumpling into a worried furrow.
"Well, there's an easy way to see whether that's true or not!" Matt jumped up and grabbed his laptop, typing furiously.
"Matt, what are you doing?" Mello asked wearily, pushing his hair back from his face.
"Phoning Near."
"What? Are you nuts? He thinks we're dead!" Mello yelled, trying and failing to snatch the computer away from the redhead.
"Maybe we are dead. Who cares, Mello, it hardly affects us now."
"How does it not affect us?" Mello screeched, getting overly-frustrated.
"Ssh, quiet Mels, the connection's just clicked," Matt hushed him, waving him over to sit next to him. "The camera's on, so he knows it's actually us, and not some random person hacking into his system," he explained.
"Great…" Mello muttered, looking thunderous.
Suddenly, there was a short burst of static from Matt's laptop, and then Near's face appeared, surprisingly alone, rather than accompanied by Halle, Gevanni and Rester.
"Hey Near! Long time no see!" Matt waved idiotically.
Mello just shifted further out of the camera's view, so the sheep couldn't see him.
"M-Matt?" Near stuttered, looking stunned, which was a large achievement for him.
"The one and only," Matt confirmed.
"How…how did Matt escape?" Near asked incredulously. "I was one hundred percent certain he was dead."
"So was I. We dunno what happened, but somehow we're here again, like we never left. Weird, huh?"
"We?" Near asked, raising a pale eyebrow.
"Yeah! Hey, come on, Mels, get over here!" Matt grabbed Mello and dragged him into the camera's field of vision. "See? Mello's here too."
Near blinked. "I don't understand," he said honestly.
"Neither do we, yet. But give it time!" Matt grinned, cheerful and somewhat exhilarated as a consequence of the belated relief that had set in on him.
Near gave up. "Why are Mello and Matt contacting me? I am almost certain it is not to socialise or inform me of their living status."
"Too right it isn't, Sheepy." Mello decided to make a contribution to the conversation. "What happened? Where's Kira?"
"Kira is deceased, as of January the twenty-eighth," Near stated calmly.
Mello huffed and almost inaudible sigh of relief. "Right. Are you going to tell the public?"
"No. I see no need, they will figure it out for themselves soon enough."
"Okay. Well, that's all we needed to know, bye!" Mello tried to terminate the connection, but Matt grabbed his wrist before he could click the 'End Call' button.
"Hang on a sec, Mels. I'm sure Near would like to know what happened. As to how we're here and all. Right, Near?"
"That would be most helpful," Near agreed.
"Too bad, he can live with it. I want to sleep," Mello argued.
Matt laughed. "Oh, so you think sleep's a good idea now, huh? Fine, fine. Near, we'll meet you in person some other time, okay? Call to confirm dates or whatever."
"Very well." Near's face blurred, before the screen went black.
Mello glared at Matt for a good minute. "I hate you," he declared eventually.
Matt feigned hurt. "What? What have I done now?"
"You know I hate contacting Near! That was bad enough, but oh no, you just had to say we'll meet him in fucking person! There's no way I'm doing that!" Mello shouted, heaving himself off the sofa and making to leave the room in a huff.
Matt grasped his hand, surprising Mello to a stop. "Don't go, Mels," he pleaded quietly, his fingers twining their way through the blond's and pressing their palms together. "Please don't."
Mello looked at him, shocked and worried. Matt didn't often get clingy, and when he did, there was usually a good reason. Like the day he figured out 'Mello's Master Plan to End Kira' involved the ex-Mafioso dying a horrible death. He hadn't let go of the blond for three hours.
Sighing, Mello sat down again, keeping his hand intertwined with his friend's. "What is it, Matty?" he asked gently, reaching out to take the redhead's other hand and run his thumb over its back.
Matt bit his lip. "I don't want you to leave me again. It's just…I knew you were going to die, if the plan went okay, but I planned to get myself killed before that, so I wouldn't have to go through the pai—" Matt broke off as Mello crushed his hands violently in his own.
"You did what?" Mello growled, absolutely livid.
Matt was stubbornly silent until Mello tightened his grip. He let out a yelp. "Ow! You didn't expect me to just live without you, right?" he cried, trying to pull his hands out of Mello's grasp.
Mello held on. "Of course I did! You promised you wouldn't do anything stupid on purpose; you gave me your word!" he screamed furiously, shaking from the potency of his anger.
Matt cringed away. "I know I did, don't make me feel worse than I already do! But you broke your word too: you promised you'd stay with me forever in Wammy's, and then you up and fucking left! You left me behind, and it took me three bloody years to find you again!"
Mello winced, his anger diminishing slightly. "I'm sorry about that, Matt, I really am. We've been through this before. But did you really think that me leaving you was reason enough for you to fucking kill yourself in revenge?" Mello was disbelieving.
"It wasn't revenge!" Matt denied, "I wouldn't have been able to handle you not being there! You're the most important person in the world to me, Mello, I wouldn't have been able to cope!"
"So you thought you'd just conveniently die and leave me to cope with it all, even if it wasn't for very long?" Mello spat venomously, shoving his face right into Matt's. "You thought that I'd be able to cope? And not only cope with the fact that you were dead, but the fact that it was my fault?"
Matt's eyes widened. "You…you blamed yourself?"
"Obviously." Mello abruptly let go of Matt's hands and pulled back sharply.
"It wasn't your fault!" Matt cried, desperate.
Mello scoffed. "I know that now! Do you have any idea how much it hurt at the time, Matt? That pain you avoided so much? That pain doubled, even?" He clenched his fists.
"I'm sorry," Matt whispered hoarsely, tears finally streaming down his face, "Oh God, Mello, I'm so sorry…"
Mello's expression immediately softened, and he hesitantly brought his hand up to wipe away his friend's tears. "I'm sorry too, Matty. I shouldn't have yelled like that, I just…"
Matt wound his arms around the blond's waist and drew him close, burrowing his face into Mello's chest. He didn't cry long, but Mello stroked his back soothingly the entire time.
"I love you," Matt said thickly, after the tears were long gone, but his eyes were still swollen.
Mello stiffened in shock, and he pulled back to look at Matt incredulously, his arms still looped gently around the redhead's middle.
"Matty?" he whispered, not daring to believe it.
Matt's mouth curved into a rather watery smile, and he continued, "You're my best friend ever, Mello, I love you more than I could love any brother. I wouldn't be able to live without you. I really, really love you." He buried his head in the crook of Mello's neck again. "I didn't get to tell you that before we left, and…I regretted it. A lot."
Mello was still, sadness, happiness, disappointment and leftover shock warring in his mind. He shook them all off and simply settled with a tender smile. "I love you too, Matt," he said.
But he knew the words would always mean something different for him than for Matt.
A church is burning.
The flames rise higher.
Like hands that are praying,
Aglow in the sky.
Like hands that are praying,
The fire is saying,
"You can burn down my churches,
But I shall be free."
A/N: So there you have it. And no, I didn't have to look up swearwords on Google for the Alphabet Insult Game...(much)
The song is an ANCIENT one by Simon and Garfunkel that I thought kinda fitted Mello's...uh...iunno the word. I'm tired. Well, it could be about Matt, like Matt's Mello's sacred thingy (his church) and then Matt died, but he still has Matt... *confuses herself*
OR, it could be Mello saying "Screw you, go burn in Hell!" to the Catholic Church's belief that homosexual activity shouldn't be condoned. Think what you want, but no flaming saying I'm dissing Catholics with that last comment. I AM Catholic.
I'll update this fic every Saturday, as normal! (Even if this is...Wednesday? Yes, Bleach came out today. That's how I keep track of the days)