A/N: Hah, yeah, I got into Death Note, and I am in LOVE with Matt. And I'm going to buy his goggles the day after this is published. Mwa ha ha ha. I particially need them because I'm going to cosplay as him, but that's not till October. Ha ha ha... ha. Ha.
I'll shut up.
Disclaimer: Matt, Mello and all related characters are copyrighted to the authors of Death Note, Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba. Rabbit belongs to my mother's boss, Kevin. :D I kept playing with him as I wrote this, to get a feel of how Rabbit would act. Everything the puppy does in this fic is something the real Rabbit did to/would do/with me.
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Puppy Love
..:X:..
Mello was in pain. This was more than a tad obvious, Matt had to admit that to himself, inhaling the crisp winter air.
It was about 9 o'clock in the morning, and most unfortunetly, Matt had run out of chocolate bars. Mello, ever the forceful one, had ordered Matt to get some more (in a most undignified location from the couch) and Matt had reluctantly obliged.
God, he hated when Mello chose to ask him to go out right when he was about to beat the game he was playing.
It didn't help that Matt wasn't that fond of dear old Mother Nature, either.
But when Mello winced after giving the order, Matt gave in and, grabbing his vest, embarked out to the only store in town that sold Mello's favorite brand of chocolate.
Unluckily for Matt, it was a half an hour walk from his apartment.
Ugh.
Matt kicked at a rock on the side of the road. It rebounded off a metal pole and ping!ed against a trash can.
Which then began to whimper.
Matt's eyebrows shot up well past his orange goggles as he stared. The can continued to make pathetic little yelping noises. Wait a minute... Matt recognized those sounds.
He strode over to the can, lifted the top, and peered in. A small, white, and (he hated to admit it) adorable little puppy stared back at him with wide eyes, tongue lolled out and panted happily to see a new friend. Matt guessed it to be a -what were they called?- ah, right, Bijon Frise. It fit the descriptions; coarse, short curly white hair, and slightly wispy. Tiny, with stumpy legs. Big wide eyes. There had been a few of them running around back in America, but he'd never actually owned one.
He could've just left it there. Matt didn't have to help the little puppy.
It gazed up at him lovingly.
Matt scoffed and grabbed the rim of the can and carefully put it down on the ground, then leaned down next to it. The puppy ran out and immediately was all over him, licking his face (as much as the goggles would allow), his neck (as much as his sweater and vest would allow) and his ears (as much as his hair would allow).
"Augh... god dammit, knock it off... that's gross... now I'm all wet...get off..." Matt's muttered protests slowly but surely turned into chuckles as the pup leaped into his lap and continued to happily lick every part of him that was exposed, little paws against his chest. He made a little playful swipe at the puppy, and it yipped happily and began to gnaw at his hand, chewing on the leather, growling. Matt took that moment to check the tag on it's collar with his free hand. It was all in English. "'Rabbit', huh?" he muttered to himself. The puppy looked up at him. "'Kevin's Pet. "Play with me"'." Matt looked back at the puppy, who cocked its head and scratched behind its ear.
"Rabbit. So you're a... she-puppy?" He lifted the dogs back leg, then quickly brought it back down again. "NO you're definitely a he-puppy. Definitely a he-puppy."
The puppy went back to it's previous task of chewing on his hand as Matt scratched it behind the ears, thinking.
Mello didn't like dogs, and would probably eat Matt alive if he brought the puppy back with him. The puppy buried his face in Matt's front, nuzzling his stomach.
Matt grinned.
It was his apartment.
..:X:..
"You bought a dog?" Mello all but screeched.
"No, I didn't buy it, I found it," Matt said, giving the puppy a little nudge with his foot as it bounded into the apartment. It raced over to the couch and placed it's little paws on the edge. Mello eyed it distastefully. "Matt. It's an animal."
"So?"
The puppy put his paws back down on the ground and stared up at Mello with the same patented love-look it'd given Matt before. It gave a little squeal and shook its fur, then continued to gaze up at the teenager with loving eyes.
"See, he likes you," Matt said, with the straightest face in the world.
Mello snorted and pushed the puppy away, noticing the collar on it's neck. "He's lost?"
"I imagine so."
Mello smirked triumphantly, then winced at the pain. "So we make some lost posters and wait till his owners call us and claim him."
Matt walked over, leaned down, and scooped up the puppy. "Take a look at his tag."
Mello grabbed the tag in his unburned hand and stared at it for a second. "English, huh? So they're either British--"
"Like Near."
"Ignoring. Or American--"
"Like me."
"Also ignoring. So the posters have to be in Kanji and English?"
Matt's shoulders sagged slightly. He wasn't that good at Kanji. He could speak Japanese, but reading it? You'd have a better chance of Matt speaking Latin. In all seriousness.
But Matt was not about to admit that. He'd prefer not to.
..:X:..
"Matt."
"Yes?" He scratched the puppy behind it's ears. It flipped upside down in his lap and pawed gently at his incoming hands.
"This says, in the Kanji, "Lost pig. For information reach you Matt."
"Oh. Well."
"Yeah."
..:X:..
"Mello, just watch him for a second, I need to go to the bathroom, and he'll follow me if I leave. Last thing I need is for a dog to follow me to the can."
"But... it's staring at me."
"He likes you."
"Well, I don't like him."
"Just sit on the couch and throw the plastic octopus back and forth. He'll give it back to you."
"Whatever."
Snap. The door to the bathroom closed.
Long pause.
The dog looked at Mello for a few seconds, then squatted.
"DEAR LORD MATT GET YOUR ASS OFF THE TOILET!!!!"
Matt came bursting through the door to the bathroom clad in his red boxers, pants left abandoned in the bathroom. He'd apparently kicked them off instead of attempting to run with them around his ankles or pulling them back up.
"Oh. Crap. Literally."
"YES LITERALLY."
..:X:..
After the fiasco with the... waste products, Matt decided that the puppy would have to be walked every few hours, lest he cleaned up... waste products.
Unfortunately, he needed a leash.
"Use a noose, that'd keep him close."
"Mello..."
"Just a suggestion."
"...you're unbelievable."
"Yes, I know. Don't you love me for it."
"...dream on."
Cue in the sticking out of the tongue.
"Real mature."
"Shut up and walk the dog."
..:X:..
"Well, you're a little bundle of fun, aren't you..." Matt murmured, half comatose as the puppy snuggled up next to him on his bed, yawning. He lifted a weary hand and laid it on the puppy's head. Rabbit lifted his little snout and bit down softly on Matt's now leather-free fingers. Matt chuckled. "Guess you're glad you don't have to taste that stuff anymore, huh, pup."
Rabbit yawned.
..:X:..
When Matt stumbled out of his room like a drunkard to go to the bathroom (having been unable to do so properly earlier in the day) he was startled to find Rabbit sleeping next to the couch, with a snoring Mello's hand resting on his fuzzy white head.
Matt half-grinned, half-smirked.
"Hah. Softy."
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A/N: Yeah, this is a chapter-fic. How many chapters, I have no idea. Probably two or three. Depends on the reviews I get. :D Not that I'm implying anything. No, of course I'm not asking you to please review and not just press that little button if you favorite. I tried out a new layout, too. I like it. :)
And how come my Savin' Me fic has 30 comments, and 22 alerts? I may not be a math genius, but I know that with 6 chapters, that doesn't work out right...