thanks to skywardshadow for beta-ing this.

disclaimer: i do not own death note or any of its characters.

Something wasn't right and Mello knew it; but he was far too cold and tired to care at this point, hurriedly making his way up to the apartment he shared with Matt. The cold December winds howled around him, causing his blond hair to whip him unceremoniously in the face several times. Gritting his teeth he continued, shoulders hunched against the cold. Why did he have to wear leather even at this time of year? Right. Because he looked damn good in leather, that's why. He looked so hot he could probably melt all this stupid snow if he tried. But that was beside the point. He was cold and he hadn't had chocolate in nearly three hours; this was an emergency.

Making his way up the dingy stairwell, Mello let himself relax. It was warmer in here (only by a few degrees, but still), and he allowed himself to slow his pace slightly. But the feeling of imminent doom quickly settled in his stomach again. Sighing heavily, he walked down the dim hallway, stopping outside the door of apartment 617 and digging into the pockets of his leather jacket. Rummaging around and cursing softly for a moment before retrieving a severely abused looking key and shoving it violently into the lock, he opened the door and stopped suddenly, one step into the small apartment.

There stood Matt, Mello's roommate/best friend/lover, draped in two strands of multicolored lights and wearing a ridiculous–and absolutely adorable–Santa hat which sat lopsidedly on his head like some sort of odd crown.

Matt looked up to see Mello standing in the doorway, and a goofy grin appeared on his face at once upon seeing the blonde's expression.

"Hey Mels," he said happily, looking perfectly content and unbothered by the fact that their apartment looked like the entire Christmas section of Wal-Mart had thrown up on it.

"What. The. Hell. Happened. To. My. Apartment?" Mello said flatly, mouth still gaping.

Matt's dorky grin didn't fade in the slightest. "Technically it's our apartment, Mels," he kindly corrected before continuing. "And it's almost Christmas. I figured I'd break out the decorations before you got home; I couldn't wait," he said sheepishly, still smiling.

Mello composed himself quickly. "No. We are not dragging all this crap out just so you can wreck our apartment and make everything smell like gingerbread for the next month!" he protested.

Matt seemed unfazed by this. "Oh come on, Mels, where's your Christmas spirit?" he teased, beginning to wrap one strand of twinkling lights around a small pine tree that had apparently decided to take root in the corner of their already small living room.

"You know I hate Christmas, and…a tree, Matt? Really?" he asked grumpily, still silently fuming. He slipped off his jacket and tossed it onto the couch, glaring at the back of Matt's head.

"Yes, a tree, and gingerbread….. and Christmas carols," Matt replied merrily.

"No. Matt, I am not going to sing any fucking Christmas carols or eat any of that nasty cardboard you call gingerbread–and we are getting rid of that tree," he said firmly, trying very hard not to go on a rampage and destroy the aforementioned tree. All these sparkly, happy, merry things were starting to make him question his roommate's sanity.

Matt turned away from the tree now, putting his hands on his hips–looking oddly Mellolike–and frowning at his glowering roommate. "And to think I made you hot chocolate, ran to the store to buy you those special dark Hershey's kisses that you love so much and cleaned up the kitchen that you've been complaining about for three months. You are such a…a Scrooge sometimes, but fine, have it your way Mels," he said, putting his hands up in mock surrender and turning to the tree to begin removing the newly applied lights.

Mello found himself gapping at his roommate for the second time that night. Did he do all those things for me? he wondered. One glance into the newly sparkling-clean kitchen told him that Matt had, which made him feel like a jerk of epic proportions. Mello never did anything for Matt (other than break Matt's stuff when he was mad). Sighing, he shook his head.

"No, Matt. I'm sorry, you can keep the decoration up," he said.

Though Mello couldn't see it from where he was standing, Matt was smirking; that had worked like a charm.

"Are you sure? I can take them down…." he said, still pouting even though he could tell he'd already won.

Mello shook his head. "No, we're keeping them up," he said firmly, going to Matt's side and wrapping his arms around the other male. "All I ever do is complain, so you can do whatever you want for Christmas Mattie. I know you love it," he said resignedly

"Thanks, Mels," Matt beamed. He sighed happily as he relaxed in Mello's arms, surveying the halfway decorated apartment. "So this means you'll help me finish decorating?" he asked hopefully.

"Don't push your luck," Mello's reply came, slightly muffled by Matt's shirt but nonetheless an audible 'no'.

Matt chuckled. "Sorry," he said, turning in Mello's arms so he was facing his lover/roommate/best friend. "Hey, Mels?"

"Hn?"

"Look up."

Mello–for once–did as he was told and looked up, frowning at the small sprig of green plant that seemed to be taped to the ceiling. "What the hell is that?" he asked, frowning.

Matt grinned. "Mistletoe," he replied shortly before gently pressing his lips to Mello's.

As Mello returned the kiss gladly one thought crossed his mind and caused him to pull away, though not by much.

"You planned this," he said shortly.

Matt shook his head, looking innocent. "Whatever are you talking about?" he asked.

"Shut up," Mello replied before pressing his lips to Matt's again, allowing no further discussion to pass between them till he was good and ready for it.

About an hour later Mello lay lounging across the beat up couch, watching Matt finish the decorating while sipping an extremely satisfying cup of hot chocolate.

"Merry Christmas, Mattie."

"Merry Christmas, Mels," Matt replied, a huge smile spread across his pale features.

Best Christmas ever~ was all Matt could think for the rest of the evening.

random note: this was my first fanfiction ever... so yeah. ^^

i hope you all liked it, happy holidays!