"There are few people in this world that are blessed with creative minds and wonderful skills that enable them to build something out of nothing." an enthusiastic and confident voice filled the living room of a dreary and abandoned apartment hidden among one of the ghetto's of Tokyo. This voice belonged to none other than a leather-clad chocoholic who stood in the middle of the room smiling with a certain hype that could only be gained through his personal drug.
"Are you high on chocolate again Mels?" asked the other figure in the room who was busying himself with his own more toxic drug, currently fumbling around in his various pockets for a lighter. Anyone who heard him would have laughed at his comment taking it as a joke, but Matt was deadly serious. He knew what kind of an effect the rich, melting aphrodisiac had on his more petite blonde friend. His answer was given to him by this said friend literally glomping him and yelling "C'mon Matty! let's do this!" he then moved to pick up a large paintbrush and a bucket of paint and shove it into Matt's arms causing the gamer (who was still recovering from the rib-crushing hug he had just received) to sigh and complain; "Mello we've only just arrived in Japan not 2 hours ago...do you seriously want to start decorating after a 13 hour flight?" Mello pouted and sulked at the other man's mood-killer remark. Personally he was fine after having 13 hours to completely chill out on a nice plane. He had slept most of the way and upon waking just watched the in-flight movies accompanied by an endless supply of chocolate he had in his hand luggage. Yes he loved flying and the excitement of travelling to a new place...his travel companion on the other hand took an opposite view. Matt was a nervous flyer. As soon as he boarded the plane and had taken his seat next to Mello, he wouldn't stop reading the safety procedure leaflet and planning various scenarios in the event of a crash despite Mello's protests that he was embarrassing him as well as making a fool of himself. So after his companion's reassurance that plane crashes were highly unlikely and in all honesty they had been in far more perilous situations together, Matt had finally relaxed a bit. Even so, he still didn't appreciate the fact he would not get to light up a cigarette for 13 hours plus an extra one or two whilst collecting luggage and going through customs, thus he had gone through a constant chain of cigarettes upon arriving out in the bustling open streets of Tokyo and was still continuing this, having just walked through into their new apartment.
"It's just, we're only staying here for about 3 months...4 tops so is it really worth doing up?" Mello huffed in frustration and ran a gloved hand through his hair. It had grown long and got in his eyes an awful lot now and had to keep sweeping it off his face or shaking it around to make sure he could still see properly, not at all resembling the former framed look he had always suited. In his opinion of course it was worth doing up! He didn't know about Matt but personally Mello couldn't stand to live in a place like this, once the peeling wallpaper got torn down and a lick of paint had been put on the walls as well as a good clean of the apartment the place could probably be livable.
He actually missed the mafia hideout that had been completely destroyed in the explosion he caused. Although it looked rough on the outside there were quite a few parts of it that were nicely decorated. After all, Rod Ross had liked the finer things in life and with having the mafia's money at his fingertips he had splashed out on a few leather sofas and a plasma screen TV here and there. But Mello especially missed his room, it had a large double bed and Rod had given him one of the flatscreen TV's as a reward for completing one of his missions. Not to mention he had an ensuite bathroom with a walk-in shower. Damn that stupid task force! If it wasn't for them ambushing him and his mafia associates then he might still have all those things but what's more, he would still have the left side of his beautiful face back instead of the scar he'd gained. But looking from a different perspective, if he hadn't been so badly injured then he wouldn't have had an excuse to call the only person who would ever be willing to come to his aid no matter where or when. Matt had arrived in a wild state of panic after receiving a message from a long lost childhood friend, Mello had sounded half dead on the phone and had only managed to tell Matt that he was seriously injured and where he could be found. He was in the hospital for at least a month being treated for a broken leg, a few cracked ribs and of course the horrific burns he had suffered on the side of his face and shoulder. After those months of agonizing recovery, Mello decided to pick up where he'd left off...no one would stop him from being number one, he'd been to hell and back and survived. If that didn't prove he was worthy then nothing would. Although Matt was worried for his best friend's welfare, he knew how important this was to Mello and how he would never be happy until he reached his goal. So here they were in Japan attempting to persue Kira, however it was evident to Matt that they had become a little...sidetracked.
"Oh don't look at me like that!" said Matt whose rather agitated mood was beginning to falter at the humorous sight of his badass friend attempting to look sad and making puppy-dog eyes at him. "Matty please! It will be good fun and we'll have a laugh, I've always wanted to decorate a place of my own and who better to do it with than you?" Matt now smiled genuinely behind his cigarette, he'd had no idea for as long as he'd known Mello that he was sentimental that way.
In a final attempt Mello gathered the rest of his pride and with a deep breath got to his knees and clasped his hands together. "OH COME ON! Pleaseeee? "He begged hating the degrading feeling of not being in control for once. Matt couldn't hold in his laughter any longer, the sight of Mello begging was one he never thought he'd see...and what a sweet sight it was! "Okay...F..fine!.." Matt managed to gasp out between his laughter as he gripped his sides; this made Mello actually jump for joy despite being laughed at.
After about two hours of non-stop decorating, laughing, and listening to the Japanese radio stations, the place still had a lot of work to be done to make it adequate. "This is harder than I thought it was gonna be I'll admit" Mello thought to himself. He was getting pretty tired now since his stash of chocolate ended an hour ago. Matt was using a chisel to grab the corners of the rotten wallpaper easier, he would then rip a massive strip off relishing the satisfaction it gave him; Mello was busy on a different wall doing the same thing so everything was going pretty well to say the least.
Matt needed another cigarette; his whole body was aching for one. He stood up and glanced over at Mello who had found a ladder in one of the store cupboards and was now tearing the paper down from the upper wall. "It's a shame you're not as tall as me Mels, real men don't use ladders to decorate" he teased, annoying Mello was one of his favorite things to do...especially when it involved his masculinity. "Matt that's literally the dumbest thing you have ever said, of course they do!" just as Mello replied Matt moved to retrieve his box of cigarettes, in the process he walked under the ladder Mello was currently balancing on.
"MATT STOP!" he yelled suddenly giving poor Matt the fright of his life. Clutching his chest and recovering, the redhead glared up at the other man. "What the hell? It's not like I'm gonna push you off that thing y'know!" Mello had an expression of panic on his face, "Matty, it's bad luck to walk under a ladder you idiot! Go back under backwards and undo it!" Matt stared back wide eyed not being able to believe the superstitious crap someone as intelligent as Mello was talking about. "Are you serious? It's just a ladder...don't tell me you actually believe in all that stuff do you?" Mello leaned up straight while still retaining his balance and narrowed his eyes at his friend's ignorance. "Of course I do, it's true! You're going to be cursed with bad luck now!"
Matt turned on his heel and walked towards the table where his box of cigarettes were placed. "Oh my god...that's the biggest load of bull-" before Matt could even finish his sentence the next thing he knew he was face first in the sofa with his head lodged between the cushions and his legs flailing about behind him. Matt appeared to have got his boots caught up in the strips of wallpaper that Mello had ripped off and thrown in a pile and this had caused him to lose his balance and stumble head first into the sofa. Mello actually fell off the ladder laughing; lucky for him it wasn't too high.
Once Matt had pulled his head out of the depths of the dusty sofa he brushed himself off and scoffed with irritation when he saw Mello collapsed in a heap laughing at his expense. "It wasn't THAT funny!" He growled but this only made blonde laugh harder. "I...told...you...so!" Mello said still giggling and put into a newly hyper state. Matt rolled his eyes at his friend "Yeah yeah that was bad luck biting me in the ass right?" Mello nodded wiping a tear of laughter from his eye "damn right it was" he smirked.
Another hour of decorating later and to say that Mello was tired was an understatement. He was utterly exhausted without the aid of his chocolate and he was really feeling his blood sugar plummet. "Hey Matt, I'm just having a little break okay?" he called into the kitchen where gamer was taking his own break and playing his new DS while smoking yet again. Mello didn't even listen for a reply; instead he flopped down on the sofa which he and Matt had spent forever dusting. His eyelids felt like lead as did his limbs so he curled up and succumbed to the world of dreams.
Matt, content with having finished a particularly difficult level of his game stood from the kitchen chair and intended to start painting the newly stripped walls. He was not however expecting to see a very tired-looking Mello fast asleep on the sofa. The gamer watched him for a while as his small chest rose and fell with the even breaths of sleep and his face looked calm and free of worry. It was yet another sight that was rare to see when it came to Mello, who by nature was constantly worried about something, being the burning heap of emotion that he was. Matt chuckled and thought to himself "Guess I'll be finishing this by myself then Mihael?" he picked up a paintbrush and started to smother the wall with paint.
Mello awoke with a start, realizing he had fallen asleep for far longer than he had first intended. He pulled his phone from the pocket of his leather pants and checked the time. It was 8:30am and he'd been asleep for nine hours. He suddenly noticed the room around him and gasped; it had been completely painted, cleaned and actually looked pretty decent. Just as he opened his mouth to call for Matt, the man himself walked through the apartment door with a bag of what looked like groceries. "Hey there sleeping beauty!" He said cheerfully making Mello cringe slightly, feeling awkward for sleeping so long and letting Matt do all the work. "Hey...yeah..about that-" he was cut off by Matt shaking his head "No no you don't need to say anything, I could see how tired you were so I can't really blame you"
Matt placed the bag of groceries beside Mello who immediately spotted a generous sized bar of chocolate and hastily grabbed it, removed the wrapper and bit a large chunk off letting a groan escape him as he savoured the taste, finally getting a fix of his drug, " Mmm my one true love!" He exclaimed now viewing the chocolate bar at arm's length looking at it as if he were admiring his own adorable child. Matt gave him an odd look then smirked "guess he really needed that" he thought to himself. "Well.." Mello started having just devoured the entire bar in a matter of minutes "I guess now that we're done with decorating and we've both had our cravings satisfied we should do something fun before...that time comes" Mello was of course referring to the plan to kidnap Takada which wasn't due to happen for quite a while...he had a score to settle with Near."Okay then what do you suggest?" Matt said with a wide smile. Mello stretched his arms and back with a yawn then said "Lets go explore Japan...I want to see the type of leather they sell here, not to mention sample all the chocolate it has to offer" Matt, amused by the other's obsessions replied "If you want to sample chocolate then we should have taken a trip to Switzerland before coming here" Mello moved his bright blue gaze to meet Matt's orange goggles "That, my dear friend is precisely besides the point!" and before Matt could even react to this strange answer Mello grabbed his coat then seized Matt by the collar of his furry gilet and hauled him out the door of their beautifully decorated apartment in blind excitement, eager to explore what this new and brilliant country had to offer while time was still theirs to play with.