Heya all~ I know; you all probably think I've been eaten by some ten-legged monster and I'm happy to report that I am not! My computer has been broken for the past month until I got a new one! Yay~ And I've also been a little lazy *coughs*. So here you go, a little something done in about two-ish days, maybe? By the way, I'm a little iffy about the whole present tense thing (it's my first time writing a long thing in that tense plus I absolutely suck at tenses XP) and I have English next semester so oh wells!
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note and/or any of its characters~ (sucks)
30 More Seconds
Matt didn't talk and that's a bad sign. He always had some sarcastic comment to say, just begging Mello to give him a punch.
But this time, Matt just sat there; his head staring down at his hands in his lap.
"I'm not asking you to do it," Mello's voice broke the silence after a while. He tugged at a strand of blonde out of his eye. "You don't have to—"
"But you know I'm going to do it anyway," Matt said suddenly. He lifted his head and Mello realised that his goggles were off. They weren't even around his neck, where he usually kept them when he wasn't wearing them, and that worried Mello.
"No," Mello said slowly, his eyes concentrating on every little movement the redhead made. "I don't know that. I told you that you don't have to do it."
Matt bit his bottom lip and threaded his hands into his hair that was the colour of cherries. Mello had always liked cherries.
"I have things I want to do," Matt swallowed hard. "But my biggest regret would be not doing this with you."
Mello didn't even bother hiding his staring.
Then Matt laughed.
"Close your mouth," He snickered at the blonde. "Flies will go in it."
It's been twenty-six and a half hours since they had that conversation.
Matt was nineteen.
Mello was twenty.
They had bought a bottle of red wine, for celebration after the mission. It would be their first time drinking.
They never got to taste it.
It's not like they didn't know they would die that night. They knew.
And they just didn't care because death was unavoidable and it wasn't like they weren't going to die soon anyway.
Mello didn't expect himself to go to heaven. Hell (pun not intended), he had thought even the fiery pits were too good for him.
He just didn't want that for Matt and when Mello sees the redhead in the room that looks exactly like the apartment they left behind, he can't exactly say he's relieved.
Matt is even smoking a cigarette, goddamn it!
"Hey Mello,"
That's it. Mello is fuming.
They died and now they're together again and that's all Matt can say, 'Hey Mello'. And not even with an exclamation mark!
"We're dead," Mello snaps. One of Matt's eyebrows rose up as he blows out a stream of smoke.
"I know," His eyes slide lazily to the television that Mello hadn't seen. The blonde stomps in angrily and his own eyes widen as the black box continues to replay the news broadcast about both their deaths.
It's almost surreal to look at the burning church and the horrid blackened corpses of himself and Takada. He is suddenly glad that he had died before the fire.
Then he sees Matt's body, known as the 'unknown accomplice of Takada's kidnapper', bloody and holey.
He had seen this right before he himself had died but seeing it again and again doesn't make it any better.
"It's not your fault, you know," Matt's voice sounds so off and his stomach flips. He wants to throw up because it was his fault.
"No offence," Matt says jokingly though Mello could still hear the nervousness in his voice. "But you probably couldn't have done this thing without me."
Mello didn't answer. Every time he tries, the words jams in his throat and he can only shut his mouth so he wouldn't look so stupid.
"But then again," Matt continues, biting down on his lip. "I wouldn't have not done it either so…" He trails off then holds out his cigarette, tapping ash onto the burnt carpet beneath their feet. "Smoke?"
Mello can only laugh at the normality of this situation. It could have been any other day, Matt asking Mello if he wanted to try one only because Mello had been bitching at him about the entire apartment smelling like a strip club and Matt responding, 'At least it doesn't look like one. Smoke?'.
It could have been any other day if they weren't dead and stuck inside something that looks like their apartment but could fairly well be nestled in some dark forest, monsters just waiting for them to step out and gobble them alive.
It could have been but it isn't like a normal day at all.
Mello grins then reaches over to pluck the still burning cigarette from Matt's fingers, taking a seat beside the redhead.
"Yeah," He says, staring at the ember sparks at the end. "I think I will have one."
Matt rolls his eyes.
"Than at least have a new one," He says in exasperation, taking back his own and fumbling for the crushed pack that was always in his back pocket. "Here." He hands a slightly wrinkly stick to Mello who places it between his lips.
"Let me light it for you," Matt whispers and Mello can swear Matt purposely brushes his arm against Mello's crotch to get his lighter.
Matt has to flick the lighter a couple of times to get it to fuse but when he does, he leans over Mello and lights his cigarette, letting the small fire to illuminate their faces.
Mello had never realised how pretty Matt looks when his features glows with the fire, his hair just as red as ever.
And Mello slaps himself because this was not the time to be having these thoughts about his best friend because they were dead, for Christ's sake, if there ever was one.
"You okay?" Matt asks and Mello realises that the cigarette is just burning down to nothing and he quickly inhales. He immediately chokes and drops the cigarette.
"Damn Mello," Matt exclaims, stomping on the stick and making a black spot where he had destroyed it. "Don't burn the house down and kill us."
As soon as those words left the redhead's mouth, they both knew that it wasn't the right ones to have been said.
"I'm sorry," Matt says after a pause. They both stare at the burnt spot on the dirty carpet, looking right at home amongst all the other black patches. Mello vaguely wonders if everyone that died came here and somehow burnt the carpet every time.
"We're dead," Mello says.
"I know," The looping video on the television keeps reminding them of that.
They have nothing to say and throughout the years they've been together, there were silences but none that were this awkward.
Matt keeps smoking one after another until a pile of ash is starting to form beside his foot.
Mello fingers his rosary and finds himself sneaking glances at the redhead. He can't stop himself.
"Do you really think we're dead?" Matt whispers and Mello is so very tempted to hug him but he restrains himself and swallow hard.
"Of course," Mello declares, making sure to be sure of himself. "Those news reports show our deaths. Unless Near is planning to screw with our heads. But then again, I don't think he'd go through all that trouble to fake the videos." He is more than aware that he is babbling now.
"So we're dead," Matt says with a hint of sadness that only Mello could identify after over a decade of knowing the gamer.
"Yep," Mello popped his 'p' like Matt would have.
Then there was that silence again.
"Do you regret dying?" Mello prompts suddenly, his ever-present scowl off his face for a change.
Matt snaps his head up to look at his companion, the person he's been following since the beginning of time.
"Of course not," Matt looks a bit offended as if Mello had just accused him of cheating on one of his video games. "We died trying, didn't we? We helped Near catch that bastard Kira, didn't we?" Mello had never in all their time together, seen Matt this furious. But maybe he isn't mad. "Didn't we?" And this time, it was less of a demand than it was of a plead.
"We did," Mello says softly and stares at Matt who looks as if he'll start bawling any time now. "Near won't forget anytime soon and everybody either."
"Good," Matt nods slightly like he was trying to convince himself. "Then I don't regret anything."
Suddenly something pops into Mello's mind and curiosity got the better of him.
"Remember yesterday?" Mello asks. Matt looks thoughtful for a moment then shrugs. "Our conversation." The blonde clarifies so the redhead nods. "You said you had things you wanted to do. What are they?"
Matt gapes then his cheeks redden alarmingly that Mello is afraid he got sick or something.
"Come on," Mello pokes him on his knee. Matt shakes his head then swats the blonde's fingers away.
"Nothing," He replies then takes a drag. "I've done all I ever want to."
Mello sighs and flicks his ear.
"You're lying," Matt rolls his eyes.
"So what?"
"It's our dying moment, Matt!" Mello throws up his arms, accidentally-on-purpose cuffing Matt in cheek. "You might not ever see me again if we walk out of here!"
The redhead's eyes widen at those words.
"Then let's not ever walk out of here," Matt whispers staring right at the television screen, his own bloody body reflecting in his irises. "We'll stay here forever."
Mello shakes his head.
"I can't," The blonde says in a completely serious tone though he knew Matt knew that he was kidding. "There's no chocolate here. Plus, you'll run out of cigarettes by the rate you're smoking them up. And there's no video games here or anything."
Matt blinks. Obviously he had not thought about all that.
"Okay, how about this," Mello says, trying to snap Matt out of his depressing mood. "If you had thirty more seconds to live, what would you do?"
Matt raises an eyebrow at him. Something flashes in his eyes.
"Thirty seconds only?"
Mello nods.
"Only,"
Matt leans back, his head flops over the top of the couch, closing his eyes.
Mello was never patient and it only takes a couple of minutes for him to start fidgeting. He was on tracing the veins on the back of Matt's hand when said redhead sits up rather abruptly.
"I'd scream out for anyone within hearing distance to hear, 'I love you, Mello' at the top of my lungs," He proclaims, a goofy smile on his face.
Mello is too shocked to speak.
"You?" Matt asks expectantly.
Mello chokes.
"Um," He stammers. "I'd do this."
Then Mello leans over and kisses Matt firmly on the lips.
"That was barely for a second," Matt protests as he pulls away. Mello rolls his eyes at his dead lover. "We have thirty seconds."
Mello laughs.
"True,"
Then leans in for another kiss because they have more than thirty seconds to live again.