A hand slipping along his torso, lips brushing lightly against his face. Mello awoke instantly. There was the familiar moment of panic and confusion, a holdover from his Mafia days, but this morning he mastered it without even twitching. He smiled to himself. Another month or two and he might actually get used to waking up with Matt next to him.

He opened his eyes and found himself gazing up into Matt's emerald green ones. "Morning," he said. "What's with you today?" Matt waking before him was quite a rarity.

"Happy birthday," responded Matt.

Mello's eyes widened. "You remembered!" The redhead hadn't said a word about it during recent weeks, and Mello hadn't reminded him. He had weighed the potential awkwardness of insisting that Matt celebrate his birthday properly against his probable level of enjoyment of that celebration, and had decided that it wasn't worth it. What were they going to do, have balloons and birthday cake while Kira hung over their heads? Not likely.

Yet Matt had remembered, against all odds. Mello was surprisingly touched.

"Yeah," agreed Matt wryly. "You didn't think I would? C'mon, give me some credit here. Look, I even woke up."

Mello stared at him in bemusement. "You woke up early for my birthday?"

"Uh huh. So I could give you a birthday blow job first thing in the morning."

"Really?" But Matt had already ducked underneath the covers, and it quickly became apparent that he meant exactly what he said. Mello laughed in delight. He reached down to grab Matt's hair. "Get over here! If this is for my birthday, then we're going to be 69."

"No objections here," said Matt, his tone far more cheerful than Mello had ever heard out of him at this hour of the morning.

Time ticked by. Eventually, Matt rolled off of him with a satisfied sigh. Mello grinned and wrapped his arm around one of Matt's thighs. "You're pretty agreeable today," he said. "I should have birthdays more often."

Matt just laughed and kissed his hip. "If only." Then he sat up to grab a chocolate bar from the night stand and toss it to Mello. "All right. You eat this while I shower, and then you can shower. 'Kay?"

"Sure," agreed Mello easily.

Some thirty minutes later, he emerged from the bathroom, lacing his pants and glaring in irritation as leather stuck on his damp skin. The scent of food hit him immediately. The sound of music registered a second later. The Rolling Stones, Matt's music. Part of Mello was annoyed that Matt wasn't playing hismusic, since it was his birthday, but most of him acknowledged that Matt had no way of knowing what his music was. He hadn't told him what he liked. Now it occurred to him belatedly that he probably should. They were a couple now, after all, and that was the sort of thing that couples did. He resolved to take some time for that later today, and entered the kitchen.

He stopped and stared. Matt was standing in front of the stove with a spatula in his hand, clad only in jeans, smoking a cigarette and humming along with the music absently. It was probably the single most mundane, domestic thing he had ever seen the redhead do.

Mello laughed. He felt a surge of affection for his lover, who could still surprise him even now. He crossed the room and wrapped his arms around Matt's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder. "Oh, Matty, you make such a good little housewife."

Matt made as if to elbow him. "Ass." His tone was accusatory, but he rested his head against Mello's and didn't follow through with the elbow. Mello kissed his neck, then peered curiously over his shoulder at the pan on the stove.

"What's this?"

"It's breakfast, obviously," answered Matt, as if there was nothing unusual about it. "Chocolate chip pancakes. Have a seat, I'll bring them over."

Bemused beyond words, Mello did. He had to admit, he was impressed. He didn't normally eat breakfast. Cooking pancakes meant that Matt had not only gone out and bought the ingredients in advance, but had done some thinking to figure out a breakfast food that would appeal to him. That required planning. He clearly hadn't just recalled Mello's birthday the night before. In fact, it was possible that he'd never forgotten it in the first place.

Minutes later, Matt served them each a plate of pancakes. Mello noted with some amusement that Matt's had blueberries in them rather than chocolate chips. He placed butter, syrup and chocolate sauce on the table. Mello immediately grabbed the chocolate sauce, and Matt eyed him.

"I was afraid you'd go for that," he said disapprovingly.

"What's the problem?"

"You're supposed to eat syrup on pancakes," said Matt, pouring the condiment in question over his. "Not chocolate sauce. That—" he gestured at Mello's plate with his fork. "—is un-American."

Mello swallowed a wince. He wondered what Matt would say if he told him that he had driven the last president to suicide. It probably didn't get any more un-American than that.

He shoved that dark thought determinedly away. He refused to let such things ruin his birthday celebration. Instead, he crammed a huge bite of chocolate-drenched pancake into his mouth while Matt watched. "What are you going to do about it?" he attempted to say, but his mouth was so full that the words were unintelligible.

Matt laughed so hard that he had to cover his face with his hands before he could stop. "How old are you turning, again?" he said when he could speak. "Thirteen?"

Mello swallowed and grinned back. "This is…these are actually really good, Matt."

"Try not to sound so surprised."

He realized belatedly that he had let quite a bit of disbelief creep into his tone. "I just meant…I didn't know you could cook pancakes." Or anything, for that matter.

"Please. Pancakes are incredibly easy to make." He mock-glared at Mello. "Don't insult me."

Mello held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Sorry, sorry. Of course you can cook pancakes. What am I thinking."

"That's right." Matt took two more bites before he softened. "Actually, I did do a test run the other night when you were out."

Mello snorted with laughter. He reached out and laced his fingers through Matt's. "Thank you," he said. "This is delicious. This is…this is the best birthday present I've had in years."

"This isn't your present yet." Matt squeezed his fingers. "I do have some presents for you, though." Mello arched an eyebrow questioningly at him, and he hopped up.

A moment later, he returned with a box in his arms. He made space on the table and plopped it down in front of Mello. Mello quickly opened it and found that it was full of chocolate bars. He smiled. "Oooh, chocolate. How'd you know?"

"But that still isn't your real present." Mello glanced at him in surprise. "I tried to think of what I should get you for your birthday, but…well, I figured that given your…uh, occupation…you've probably had just about every material possession you ever wanted already." He shrugged apologetically. "So I thought about what you really might want most for your birthday and um…" He lowered himself onto Mello's lap, straddling his thighs. "I decided that today I'll do whatever you want, without argument or complaint."

Mello took a moment to process this. Did he really mean…? But yes, the slight blush that was already on his cheeks proved that he did. "Anything?" he repeated coyly.

Matt nodded. "Anything."

"I'm going to tie you down and have my way with you," warned Mello.

"Okay."

"I'm going to gag you and stick a vibrator in you and then just watch you squirm."

Matt didn't even flinch. "Okay."

"I'm going to drag you to a club to dance with me and then fuck you in the bathroom."

"Okay. Look, I said whatever you want, and I mean it." His eyes were earnest, despite the embarrassed flush that had turned his face bright red.

Mello laughed gaily. He would have to choose wisely; he couldn't waste such a singular opportunity. The possibilities that bloomed within his mind were endless. The limiting factor was actually going to be stamina. He dug his fingernails lightly into the skin of Matt's back. "Today is going to be a great day," he said. "You're going to be mine."

"I'm that every day," said Matt softly. He leaned in to kiss him deeply. "Happy birthday, Mihael."