Author's note: Hi guys! Long time no see. English is still not my first language, so that might explain any mistakes that you may find along the story. I hadn't written about Matt and Mello since quite some time. I wrote this one-shot for the MattxMello Day that was organized on Tumblr on July, 8. Make sure to join in next year! Since the goal of this event was mainly to pay homage to the ship and everything it meant to us, I decided to include every one of my friends (plus me) through which I had a connection to Death Note. MissxFuruba convinced me to read it, I met LinneaAncalime on after they reviewed one of my Death Note fanfics, and I met Glitterthorn on too after I reviewed one of her Death Note fanfics. I added all of us as small nameless characters that Matt and Mello will meet along their journey... But without further revealing, onto the story! Thank you for reading it, I hope you enjoy reading it, thank you if you leave a review and happy MattxMello Day to everyone! :)
"Where the fuck are we?"
"Uh... We should be near the Champs-Élysées avenue."
"Right. That's why we're in a dirty little street with Asian shops everywhere."
"I don't understand, according to Google Maps, we should be not even five minutes from there. Wait, lemme check again..."
"Drop it, Matt. We're fucking lost."
Mello ran a hand through his hair, glaring at a loud group of children that passed them by running. One of them bumped into Matt, almost making him drop his phone. Mello sighed. This whole trip had been a totally random idea to begin with.
...
After the end of the Kira case, Mello had told Matt that he was retiring from all illegal activities and most importantly, that he was retiring from all activities concerning L and Near. Cotton-head could work his cases alone. Mello had other things to worry about. Like his boyfriend. The Kira case had almost put an end to both their relationship and their lives, and faking their deaths had not been an easy trick. Mello had realized how close he had been to losing Matt, and how the mere thought of it was devastating. That is why he had decided to quit everything and focus on their relationship. But it had already been severely damaged. Five years of being apart (that was Mello's fault) had deeply hurt Matt's trust in him. So had, when they had met again, several months of only talking about how to catch Kira before Near and only meeting for work and sex. Mello had originally not wanted to drag Matt down with him, hence why he had told him to stay at Wammy's House back then. But the mess he had gotten himself into had just gotten too big and he couldn't handle it alone. And truth be told, after the explosion, he simply thought he wouldn't make it without Matt. The redhead was the only person Mello still trusted, and the only person he knew would come right away as soon as he called him. And of course Matt did. Of course Matt always fucking did. But the gamer himself had changed. Five years of loneliness would change anybody. Deep down he was still Matt, Mello could see him. But those five dark years had turned him into a man, and the blond could see this very darkness into his eyes. He had one in his own. The day of their reunion, he had been scared that Matt wouldn't even recognize him, and not only because of the scar. But it seemed that Matt too had been able to see deep into the soul of the man in which had turned the boy he once had known and loved. Well, that or the redhead is completely blind, entirely too forgiving, and totally stupid.
Mello wanted from the bottom of his heart to fix their relationship, but he didn't know how to gain Matt's trust back. This is why a few weeks after the case was closed and they got back to a calmer life, Mello got the idea of using the money he had leftover from the mafia to go on a trip to France. Travels were a good way to strengthen relationships, right? And to France, the country of love! Admittedly, the way he had presented the idea to Matt must not have made it look like a romantic trip. The blond had just barged in one night in the small, cheap apartment that they rented since the end of the case and had told Matt to pack his bags because they were going to France. The bewildered look on the redhead's face was more than understandable, but he still had done as he was asked. It had taken all of their trip to the airport for Mello to convince him that yes, this travel was only for fun. Their plane had landed in Paris late in the evening and they had gone straight to the classy small hotel in which Mello had already rented a room for them, deciding to just sleep until the next morning. They had woken up around 9 a.m. and after a good breakfast they had decided to start their visit of Paris. Without any preparation beforehand, of course.
...
And now here they were, lost in the Chinatown of Paris, looking for the Champs-Élysées avenue. Maybe Mello should have better prepared this trip instead of just jumping right into it like he usually did with everything.
"Look," sounded Matt's voice behind him, growing louder and clearer he came closer to the blond. "Let's not worry too much about it, we'll just walk until we find either a subway station or something that looks like one of the pics in this." He raised his hand to show the booklet of the 'Twenty places to visit in Paris' that he had got at the hotel, offering a small smile to Mello. The blond chuckled and shaked his head softly.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's go."
...
They had been walking for more than ten minutes now and still hadn't seen any subway station. Well, at least they had left Chinatown. Mello had been considering taking Matt's hand in his own, and had even stretched out his arm toward the other several times, but had given up every time. He knew Matt probably wouldn't reject him, but... He just couldn't work up the courage. Suddenly, the redhead stopped walking and pointed to something ahead of them.
"Look!"
"What?"
Mello stopped too and turned his head to see a group of tourists walking down the street, taking pictures of everything around them. He looked back at Matt and raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, we aren't the only tourists in Paris. So?"
Matt rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"So they have a guide who must perfectly know Paris and who could direct us to the Champs-Élysées."
Mello's eyes widened and he suddenly felt pretty stupid, a rare feeling that he hated.
"Oh, right."
"Yeah, right!"
Matt then took his hand and started to run in the direction of the head of the group. Mello had no other choice but to follow. However, he wasn't looking at where Matt was taking them. Instead, he was staring at their joined hands. And he smiled.
Once they had passed the group, they saw the guide, who seemed to be checking the program of the visits of the day. She looked to be very young, barely in her early twenties, small with shoulder-length blond hair. When the duo approached her, she raised her green eyes to look at them.
"Er, excuse us, miss. Hello." Matt said with a small smile, nervously rubbing his neck as he always did when he had to interact with a stranger. Mello smiled at the woman, who just looked inquiringly at them.
"Sorry to bother you while you're working." Matt continued. "We aren't tourists from your group, but we are visiting Paris and er, we're kinda lost." He chuckled. "We were hoping that maybe you'd be nice enough to give us the direction to the Champs-Élysées avenue?" He then gave his best puppy-eyes face, making Mello smirk as he saw the trick, having been the victim of it way too many times.
The guide frowned slightly and looked down in hesitation. She was supposed to only focus on her group. But as she cast her eyes down, she noticed the joined hands of the two men. A big grin then appeared on her face, making both Matt and Mello raise an eyebrow.
"Of course!" she exclaimed a bit too cheerfully, looking back up at them. She quickly got out a map from her purse, glancing at her group to see that they had stopped and were taking pictures and talking between themselves. She opened up her map and pointed to an area. "That's where we are." She slid her finger across the paper, stopping at another area. "And that's where the Champs-Élysées are. The most simple way to get there is just to take the subway. You go down the street, take a left, and you'll find the station. Then you take line 6. And you'll be there." She smiled at them, glancing once again at their hands.
"Thanks a lot," Mello said, giving her a smile a bit forced and already starting to walk away, tugging on Matt's hand. "Goobye!"
Matt glanced at Mello, surprised by his eagerness to leave, but followed him nonetheless, looking back the guide.
"Thank you, bye!"
She waved excitedly, still grinning.
"You're welcome! Bye! Have fun!"
Matt turned to Mello, shrugging.
"She was nice."
The blond frowned, still walking fast, and tightened his grip on Matt's hand.
"Freakin' yaoi fangirl."
The redhead shrugged and took out his phone, starting to type. "New tweet: French guides are cool! Hashtag: not lost in Paris anymore."
"Matt!"
...
When they got out of the subway, they arrived on a vast square where stood an enormous monument shaped like the letter n. Cars were circling all around it. Matt clapped his hands together.
"I know the name of that thing!"
Mello frowned.
"Yeah, I know it too. It's, er..."
"Uhm..."
"Yeah..."
"Er..."
"That... that thing..."
"Yeah, you know..."
Next to them, a teenager stopped taking pictures of the monument to look at them, raising an eyebrow. Her long brown hair that reached her waist swang behind her back as she turned to them.
"That's the Arch of Triumph," she said in a disbelieving tone.
"Oh. Right." Mello said. He had a feeling he was saying that too many times today.
Matt clapped his hands together once again.
"Of course! That's what I was looking for!"
The girl's eyebrow rose a bit higher.
"Yeah."
Mello turned to Matt.
"But uhm, where's the Champs-Élysées avenue?"
Once again, the girl answered.
"Just behind your backs."
Both men quickly turned around and indeed, there was the never-ending avenue, with its two four-lane roads and its luxury goods stores. Matt adjusted his goggles on his nose.
"Oh. Thanks."
"Sure," the girl said. She eyed them for a few more seconds before turning around and joining her family. Matt and Mello watched her leave before looking back at each other.
"She was American," Matt said.
"Yup."
"She wasn't older than sixteen."
"Yup."
"She knows Paris better than us."
"Yup."
There was a short silence, then Matt took out his phone and quickly took a picture of Mello and himself, making sure you could see the Arch in the background. When he was done, Mello frowned.
"What the hell was that?"
Matt was already typing something.
"Just sending a Snapchat."
"To who?"
"Well, Near."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" The blond rubbed a hand over his face. "You know what? Nevermind."
Matt stared at him.
"Okay."
"Shall we go?" Mello asked, stretching his arm out in the direction of the avenue.
"Fuck yeah," Matt answered, grinning and winking at him.
...
They had been walking down the avenue for more than an hour, observing the stores and just enjoying the atmosphere, when Matt started to complain.
"I'm hungry."
Mello looked around.
"Well there's plenty of places to eat here, but the prices are insanely high... Could you wait half an hour? We'll go somewhere else."
"There's a Starbucks here." Matt pointed to the coffee shop two stores down.
Mello sighed.
"We didn't cross the ocean to get Starbucks."
"Yeah but I'm hungry, so." Matt said as he entered the shop.
They waited a few minutes before ordering their drinks and a slice of cake for Matt, then they waited at the end of the counter for their beverages. A young woman was preparing them. She seemed to be about twenty, was very tall, had olive skin and piercings. She also had red hair, which made Matt smile.
"We must be from the same family", he whispered jokingly to Mello, which in turn made him roll his eyes but smile nonetheless.
The woman started talking to them as she continued preparing their drinks.
"So I heard you guys make your order. Tourists from the US?"
"Heh, good guess," Matt grinned. "It's actually our first time in Paris."
"Really?" The woman grinned back before looking up and down at Matt. Mello frowned.
"Well I hope you'll like the city and want to come back."
"Heh, I think we will. All the French people we've met until now have been very nice."
The woman giggled before biting her lip and looking at Matt from under her lashes. Mello rolled his eyes. Please be more obvious with your cheap flirting game.
"Well that's a good thing. And what about the visits? Do you know what you want to see and try in Paris?" She winked.
Mello sighed loudly. Not your ass.
Matt stroked his chin.
"Well we've accidentally seen Chinatown, then we saw the Arch of Triumph, now we're in the Champs-Élysées avenue and after that we want to go to the Eiffel Tower."
"To which we will arrive a lot faster if we can get our drinks now." Mello interrupted, glaring at the woman.
She raised an eyebrow at him, returning the glare.
"Here you go," she said, sliding the beverages across the counter. Matt watched the exchange with a taken aback look on his face.
"Thanks, bye!" Mello grabbed his drink in one hand and Matt's arm in the other before turning around and heading for the exit, forcing the redhead to follow him.
The girl practically launched herself across the counter.
"I hope you'll come back to tell me more about your trip!"
Matt just waved to her as he was dragged out of the shop and into the sreet. Once they were out again, Mello stopped and let out a big sigh, letting go of the pressure that had been building in him. That's when he heard the redhead letting slip a small "Oh". He turned around to see him holding up his drink and reading something written on it. Mello froze.
"Is that her number?"
"Yup."
Mello growled.
"Oh that's it, Rihanna's getting an earful! Nobody tries to steal my boyfriend!"
The blond ran back into the shop, Matt on his heels, holding up his phone.
"Do it for the Vine, Mels!"
...
"You know, I still think that it sucks. It sucks being banned forever from the Starbucks of the Champs-Élysées avenue. Oh well, at least that Vine is going strong."
"Shut up, Matt."
Mello was rubbing his cheek where a bruise was already forming. The argument had gone from from a verbal fight to a fist fight pretty quickly and they had been thrown out and banned forever from the store. Oh well, at least Rihann-ass got fired. He winced as his fingers pressed a bit too hard on the bruise.
"Hey, you okay?" Matt asked. He came closer to Mello, taking his chin in one hand and barely grazing his cheek with the other as he inspected the bruise. He then let go of the blond, smiling. "She definitely didn't have a weak punch, but it's nothing you haven't seen before."
Mello looked away in shame. Talk about a romantic trip...
"Where are we anyway?" he asked, looking around.
There were in a big park, with the greenest grass he had ever seen, and beautiful tall trees who protected the walkers from the bright rays of the early afternoon sun. In the middle of the park stood a big fountain where the water spurted in tall jets, keeping the air humid. All in all, it was a very pleasant place to lounge in the afternoon.
"Well..." Matt looked over Mello's shoulder. "Looks like we're just in front of the Eiffel Tower."
"What?!" Mello turned around sharply.
There it was. Even bigger that he had imagined. Standing tall and proud. The symbol of Paris. Mesmerized, he ran a few feet with his head up, not watching where he was walking. However, he was quickly brought down to reality by a shout.
"Hé ! Vous avez fait peur à mon oiseau !"
"What?"
Matt quickly joined him, and they both looked down to see a young woman with short dark blond hair and glasses, sitting cross-legged on the grass, in the shadow of a tree. She was wearing dark clothes, and was holding a book in her hands.
"You scared away my bird!" she repeated, this time in English.
"Your bird?" Matt asked.
"Yes! It had been staying with me for the past half-hour and we had become friends. And then you just had to go and run here and scare it!" She gestured to Mello, who blinked.
"Uh...sorry."
"Yeah well, it's gone now." She frowned.
Something broke inside of Mello. Probably his last bit of patience.
"Look, I said I'm sorry about your bird, okay?! I'm just trying to have a good romantic holiday with my boyfriend because he's that close to dumping my ass, so I'm trying to fix our relationship, but I just keep fucking everything up and this trip is goddamn disaster, so yeah, I fucked up again and scared away your bird, I'm sorry but it's not really my top problem at the moment!"
The woman's eyes had become wide by then. Then she frowned.
"Woah, loud," she mumbled before getting up and leaving with her book and her bag.
Mello let out a defeated sigh and dropped his head between his hands. There was a moment of silence before he heard Matt's voice behind him.
"I'm not 'that close to dumping your ass', you know."
Mello let his hands drop down before turning around and looking up at the redhead, who noticed that the other looked very tired. But he continued nevertheless.
"I didn't forgive you. I don't plan on doing it. I can't forget, Mello." He made a pause then. "But I can move forward. I want to move forward. With you." He smiled. "We'll never be the perfect couple, but it worked until now, didn't it?"
Mello smiled softly.
"I guess so."
Matt grinned.
"I'm pretty sure of it, actually. Look, it's simple. I love you, and this is why I'm willing to try again and give us a second chance in a more normal life. All I'm asking from you is to be willing to try too."
Mello chuckled in happiness.
"You can bet that I'm willing to try."
Matt smiled and came closer to the blond, wrapping his arms around his waist.
"Then all is good", he whispered against his lips before kissing him softly. Mello eagerly responded, putting his hands on Matt's shoulders. When they broke the kiss, Matt chuckled.
"I guess even after almost thirteen years of relationship, we still have to wait to be stable before I can propose to you, huh?"
Mello grinned and shrugged.
"Can I already say yes?"
Matt grinned and shrugged.
"I guess you can."
Mello smiled.
"Then yes."
They sealed the deal with a kiss.
...
"Mello?"
"Hmm?"
"Can I change my Facebook status to 'engaged'?"
"You dork."