AN: Inspired by my wonderful experiences on vacation. It's the last night of vacation before we leave the next day (at 3 PM, but originally we were staying another night). Anyway I end up twisting my ankle. Seriously, terrible, awful pain. I couldn't even walk to my room. Next day I took medicine so I could finish the vacation but now it hurts again. So I'll make Matty suffer. xD
Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own Death Note. If I did it wouldn't be very good haha. But then again, I could make a Whammy days spinoff. Seriously someone has to make that!
/…/…/…/…/
It had been a total accident.
Granted, Mello was somewhat at fault but still, he hadn't wanted Matt to get hurt.
Thirteen year old Matt and Mello had been spending the first warm day of the year outside of Whammy's when the incident occurred. It was sunny and warm, and for the first time Matt could remember Mello had agreed to ditch their last class of the day to get some time outside before the other children did.
"I know it all anyway, it's an easy class," Mello remarked at Matt's shock. "Besides I have a couple lessons built up ahead from when Near was sick with the flu. I don't get sick with the flu, that's why I'm better than him."
"Shouldn't you use those extra lessons to stay ahead of him so he can't catch up and you don't fall behind?"
Mello glared. "What? You don't think I can beat him if I miss one class?!"
Matt sighed. "That's not what I meant Mello."
"Well I can! And I'll prove it! By missing class today, got it?!" he asked giving Matt a small shove to prove his point.
Unfortunately for Matt, the two boys were just starting down a hill at this particular moment. Matt stumbled slightly and unconsciously twisted his foot to get his balance. Instead of just finding sloping grass, his foot nicked a rock. His ankle twisted painfully beneath him and without thinking about it he pushed his weight forward to stop himself from falling. This only succeeded in pushing the top of his foot to the earth and causing it to twist painfully in response. Before he knew what was happening he had fallen and landed in a rather undignified manner at the bottom of the hill.
Mello hadn't called out to see if he was alright, but he was at least moving down the hill at a moderate pace. Matt noticed this before he felt the pain strike his ankle.
It was throbbing, causing Matt to wince as he shifted it slightly. He couldn't believe he had just hurt his ankle on a hill.
"You alright?" Mello asked, about halfway down the hill with a somewhat concerned expression on his face.
"I'm fine," Matt said, trying to stand. He put his weight on his left ankle and the pain seared up intensely, causing him to cringe and lift it off the ground in response, hissing due to the increased pain.
"What's wrong?"
"Just…my ankle," Matt muttered.
"You're ankle?" Mello asked incredulously. "What kind of boy gets a girly injury like that?!"
Matt just glared at Mello as the blond stopped by his side, observing how Matt was keeping his weight off it. "Is it broken?" When Matt shrugged Mello rolled his eyes. "Bend it. I don't care if it hurts; just make sure you can bend it." Matt complied, cringing as he slowly twisted the ankle just enough to satisfy Mello. "Well it's not broken so it's fine. Can you walk?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." It was bad enough he had hurt his ankle of all things, he wasn't going to show that much weakness I front of Mello. Unfortunately pride couldn't win out over pain, because as Matt took his first step towards the hill his ankle rolled and agony ripped through it. Mello caught him halfway to the ground.
"Alright how about you just sit down a few minutes until the shock of it wears off," Mello suggested, lowering Matt to sit on the ground. The redhead nodded and the boys sat in silence a few minutes.
Finally Mello stood and broke the silence. "Let's go. Can you still not walk? I better take you to the infirmary."
Matt managed to gain his feet on his own. "No I don't need the infirmary. I'll be fine just keeping off it, no problem."
Mello gave him a hard look. "You can't walk Matt. It could be a grade two or three sprain!"
"Then just take me to our room for a couple hours. If I swell up a lot you can take me, okay?"
Mello grumbled to himself but agreed, pulling one of Matt's arms around his shoulders and starting them up the hill. It wasn't an easy climb, despite the hill not being very large. Matt could put a small amount of weight on his left leg, but not much, and Mello found himself supporting Matt more than he would have liked. An almost guilty expression gleamed through his eyes as he glanced at Matt. If he hadn't pushed him Matt would be fine. As girly as hurting his ankle was, he still couldn't walk.
The pair was only halfway up when Matt stumbled again. "Oh for goodness sake," Mello muttered before unwrapping himself from Matt and moving to stand in front of him. "Come on. I'll carry you until we get to the top of the hill."
Matt didn't do anything for a moment, but when Mello made an impatient growling noise he complied, putting his arms around Mello's neck and his left leg around Mello's waist, quickly followed by his right one. Mello took a moment to adjust to the extra weight before he quickly made his way up the hill.
Matt's face had turned slightly red at the new contact, but he tried to dismiss it, instead focusing on the spasms of pain still coming from his left ankle. When they reached the top, Mello let him down without a word and then took up his previous position by Matt's side, the going much easier on flat ground.
"You probably sprained it," Mello remarked. "We'll have a better idea of how bad once we see how much it swells." Matt just nodded.
"So you should walk as little as possible. You need ice too, and you need to elevate it," Mello ranted, going into his 'Whammy data base' mode.
Not long after Matt found himself lying on his bed, his foot elevated on two pillows, with ice wrapped around it, all courtesy of Mello. It was rather thoughtful and kind, which worried him slightly. The blond was more likely to laugh when Matt got hurt, not help him out.
But then again, Matt had fallen because Mello pushed him, even if it hadn't been hard.
Mello sat at his desk studying in silence while Matt rested, closing his eyes and sighing with pleasure as the ice did its job. Soon the fire in his ankle cooled to a dull throbbing, and he drifted off for a few minutes before blinking blearily when he noticed something annoying. He really needed to use the bathroom.
The bathroom was just a couple of rooms down, not a far walk. He was sure he could make it. After all it had been over an hour and there was just a small bit of swelling, nothing to worry over. So with a small sense of dread Matt sat up, removed the ice, and put his foot on the floor.
Ouch.
Not unbearable, but not pleasant either. He could manage though. Mello was watching him as he stood, determinedly keeping a straight face as he headed towards the door. "Bathroom," he said, because he knew Mello would ask anyway.
The walk to the bathroom started as a dull throbbing and escalated to spasms of pain. By the time he reached the bathroom each quick step set a sharp pang of agony through his ankle. All that work the ice did had just been undone. Barely managing to stand long enough to finish his business, Matt found himself stumbling out the door, having to put a hand on the wall to support himself on one leg.
But he wouldn't be forced to hobble alone back to his room, because Mello was there, the not rare 'you're such an idiot' look on his face as he guided Matt back to their room.
Once Mello had gotten Matt situated on his bed once more, he left to get fresh ice for the injury. Despite his earlier comments about the injury, he was starting to get kind of worried. If Matt couldn't walk he could have fractured something, even if his ankle wasn't broken.
It's not my fault! Matt shouldn't have said that about me! He should have better balance! Mello tried to convince himself of his but for once he was having a hard time doing that. It wasn't often that he actually felt bad about his friend being hurt, but then again his friend had always been able to walk.
When Mello reached their room Matt was propped up on his elbows, gazing longingly across the room. Mello rolled his eyes and deposited the ice on Matt's slightly swollen ankle before grabbing his friends Gameboy and handing it to him. Matt smiled softly in response, opening his mouth as if to say something but changing his mind.
Mello somehow sensed Matt didn't just want to say 'thank you.' "What is it?"
Matt shifted, uncomfortable. "I kind of want to play…Pokemon Red. It's on the desk…" he trailed off uncertainly.
Mello's face hardened slightly and he didn't move, but when Matt shifted his resolve crumbled and he grabbed the game before his friend could make the pain worse. Wordlessly he handed it to Matt.
"Thank you Mello."
The compassion leaking from his tone made Mello smile, and he allowed himself to trace a hand through Matt's hair before going back to his studying.
Matt's smile widened and he settled in to play his game. Maybe spraining his ankle wasn't so bad.
/…/…./…/
The next day the swelling had gone down and Matt could walk, the pain down to a low throb. He was limping when he walked, but he could still make it around if it wasn't for long periods of time. By the end of the day though the redhead was exhausted, and he gratefully allowed himself to sink to his bed and elevate his ankle to help the throbbing. "Not being able to walk well sucks," he told Mello.
"I would imagine," he replied blandly, dropping his books on his desk and tossing Matt his Gameboy.
Matt made that cute smile again and Mello glanced away quickly, and soon the familiar sounds of Mario filled the air. Both were silent for a few minutes before Mello finally made his way to his friends' bedside. Matt didn't look up for a second, and Mello was not about to say this if the gamer wasn't going to give him the attention he deserved. "Matt."
Recognizing the tone of voice, Matt paused the game and looked up to see a bar of Mello's favorite chocolate in front of him. "Mello?" he asked, uncertain.
Mello said nothing, just leaned the chocolate bar a little closer. Matt wasn't particularly fond of chocolate, Mello liked it enough for both of them (enough in fact for probably the entire population of England). However he did recognize it for what it was…an apology.
Matt smiled again and took the chocolate bar, and Mello quickly looked away and scurried back to his desk. Neither said anything for a moment, and when Matt's game didn't start back up Mello glanced at him. "What?" he asked sharply.
"It's okay. I forgive you," Matt said.
Mello huffed. "I didn't apologies! It wasn't my fault!" But the blond did send him a grateful look in response. Matt just smiled again and un-paused his game. As he returned to his game, Mello secretly sent him another rare, fond smile.
Thanks for forgiving me Matty.
/…/…/…/…/
AN: Wow, how did that get so long? xD Nothing really to say, I feel the need to make my favorite characters suffer when I'm in pain…only I hurt my ankle on a rug in my cabin…I'm not very…yeah. I'm clumsy haha. Anyway please review and tell me what you thought! I love these boys, the ideas just keep coming!