A/N: A drabble-like one shot. Sorry for not posting in a while (A WHILE?); Summer homework should be a synonym of the Devil…
Reviews are love (*cough* meaning a must *cough*)
Better Days
Matt's first impression of Mello wasn't good.
He had just turned seven a day ago – and Matt was still parading around with a sense of pride. He was one year older now, after all. He had just gotten a new PC game to play. Linda drew a picture of him with her then amateur skills. It had been the best birthday he's had so far since his parents died when he was 4.
But then Matt felt a moment of pain in his feet and he fell onto his back, the wind knocked out of him. Somebody tripped him! He lifted his head, coughing. And there was the blonde boy standing next him barefoot, his hands fisted. Matt could see the other children on the field staring, somehow scared.
"Look, little kid, stop being a stuck up brat." Mello hissed, swiftly grabbing the collar of Matt's V-neck shirt. "Nobody cares."
Nobody cares. Even though Matt had learned that shortly after his parents died, it still stung him.
"Mello! Stop that!" Matt saw behind Mello one of the attendants for the students at Wammy's House came running to pull Mello away from Matt. "What are you doing?!" She yelled at Mello. He just looked away, his eyebrows knitted in a scowl.
"Say sorry to Matt!" The attendant nearly yelled at him. But Mello just quickly pulled his arm away from her and ran away into the woods behind Wammy's. "Mello! Wait!" She ran after him. Matt watched this whole scene with eyes wide open. One of the boys helped him up then asked Matt if he would like to play soccer with him.
--
At dinnertime, Matt was sitting at one of the round tables in the cafeteria alone, staring at the clear glass ceiling, giving him a view of the star studded dark blue sky. He had just finished his dinner, and he was thinking of going to his room upstairs to play his new game then go to sleep.
"I'm sorry."
Matt looked up to see Mello standing next to him, still with a scowl on his face. Matt took a deep breath and said,
"I'm sorry too."
"Why?" Mello looked surprised.
"I was being selfish and pretentious, parading around like that."
Mello stared at Matt, then sat down next to him at the table. "You know something? That's the first time someone ever said sorry to me."
They were friends ever since. And when Mello left Wammy's House, Matt felt like a part of him had gone missing. Even though Mello often bossed him around through his years at the orphanage, Matt found himself still missing that sound.
Soon after Mello left, Near left also.
Matt never considered himself close with Near. He only knew of Near from Mello, and he was pretty sure that Mello's description of Near was rather biased. "I hate how he thinks he's all-that." Mello once told Matt when they were ten, swatting at lightning bugs with twigs at night outside. "I hate it, I hate it." Mello threw his stick onto the ground in anger, Matt remembered.
And soon after Near left, Matt decided it was time for him to leave too.
--
The next time Matt heard Mello's voice, it was through the phone. There was so much static that Matt could barely hear Mello.
"Hello?"
"-att, I – eed you!"
"What? Mello? Is this you? How did you get my number?"
"-Et over –ere!" the static was becoming so loud now that Matt couldn't even hear Mello, just a faint echo – it sounded like he was running from something.
"-ver!"
Then the line went dead.
A few days later, Matt saw Mello sleeping soundly on his couch when he came home from work. He dropped his DS, and tried to shake him awake. He noticed that there were deep wounds all over Mello's body – including his face. Especially his face.
--
"You're going after Kira?" Matt asked. Mello nodded his head, his gloved fingers intertwining with each other. It was about a few days later. The left side of Mello's face was badly burned, but he refused to have it bandaged.
"I'm going to get him, Matt. I'm going to get him and lock him up. Then I'll finally prove myself to be L's heir."
Matt didn't answer to this. He rolled his eyes, thankful that the goggles were tinted a dark color. He could understand Mello trying to catch Kira, but he just couldn't believe that Mello was still obsessed over being the new L and beating Near.
"Will you help me?"
The question came sudden and unexpected. Matt quickly looked up.
"You're joking." But the look in Mello's stare was dead serious. Just that stare – which Matt remembers so well from his childhood at Wammy's – made Matt make his decision.
"Fine," He sighed. "But don't think about driving my car anywhere. I'm the only one allowed to drive that car, got it?"
"Got it." Mello smiled, and Matt noticed that he had no laugh lines; unlike other persons his age Matt had met. He wondered if Mello was giving Matt his first genuine smile – free of smirking or teasing.
--
Matt became irritated with Mello for the first time. He was tired of Mello being the boss: giving him orders. And when Matt hinted that he was tired, Mello stopped talking, then said "Matt, are you my friend or not? You have to do this for me. Go spy on Amane now."
Matt started becoming sure that Mello did not even think of him as a friend. He's using me, isn't he? He started thinking that repeatedly over the next few days.
Finally, Matt had enough.
--
"What do you mean you quit?!"
"You heard me Mello. Get out of my apartment."
"You're joking."
I'm not, get out."
Some ties needed to be cut.
Mello was fuming angry, throwing insults at Matt as he marched out. Before he slammed the door, Matt heard one more sentence from him,
"Nobody cares about you."
That same insult that stung Matt when he was a little kid somehow hurt him more now.
--
Suddenly, Matt's cell phone rang. It has been days after Mello left.
Matt put down his Playstation controller. He looked at the caller ID.
Restricted Number.
Mello.
Matt sighed and held the phone up to his ear.
"Matt. One more favor."
"Mello, I'm done with the crap. Don't ask any favors from me."
"Matt. You really have to help me on this. Kira will be caught if you help me."
Kira will be caught. Matt wanted nothing else than to have Kira caught by now.
Mello was silent on the other line, knowing what Matt's answer will be.
"What do you need me to do?"
--
Matt slammed the car door behind him as he climbed in. His car smelled like cigarettes (and lately chocolate). It would take him less than 15 minutes to get there. He leaned back into the car seat, taking a deep breath, then turned the key in the ignition.
--
He saw Mello take Takada from that Linder woman and ride away; the mission had succeeded. He quickly stomped his foot on the pedal, zooming away before the smoke disappeared. He saw police cars racing after him in the rear view mirror.
Let's see if I can lose them.
Just as Matt thought that, he laughed. It reminded him of a memory from when he was in Wammy's House. He remembered Mello dragging him by the arm through the woods on a warm summer day. He could hear the teachers and even Roger call and run after them. "Boys, you come back this instant!"
They had just thrown a plateful of salsa sauce at a girl's head on purpose, and Matt remembered that it was one of the most funniest moments in his life.
As the voices of the grownups grew fainter, Mello declared triumphantly, "Well! Looks like we lost them, Matt! They'll never find us to punish us!"
Even though teachers soon ambushed them 5 minutes later, Matt truly felt like nothing will ever harm them.
Those were the days…
As the memory grew dim, the police sirens grew louder.
--
Mello was driving a truck at 88 miles per hour. He didn't care if he swerved off the road now. He kidnapped Kiyomi Takada.
Mello just hoped that in the end, Near would realize that Kira would not be caught if it wasn't for him.
"A man suspected of helping the culprit kidnap Ms. Takada was gunned down just minutes before…" The news screen caught Mello's eye.
Damn it.
Matt... I never thought you'd be killed… Forgive me…
--
There was one more thing Mello said before he hung up just minutes before.
"Matt, one more thing."
"What?"
"…I'm sorry." It seemed to take him less time to say it than the last he said it.
"For what,"
"For everything. For those times that I kicked you in class for getting the answer wrong; for that time that I tripped you; and that comment I made."
"What comment?" Matt had completely forgotten about every time Mello has humiliated him in the whirl of getting ready for the plan.
"That nobody cares about you. It's not true, Matt. Never let anybody tell you that again, 'cause it's not true."