NOTE: Hey, all. c: This is Weor and a good friend of mine, and we're co-writing an AU story together. When in italics, it's my friend, M, writing, and when in regular, it's me. So this is me. XD This only applies to Author's Notes, of course. Okay, this chapter was mostly written by the incredibly talented M; I wrote around 20%. :D I'll pull my own weight more for the next chapter. :P
Also, just as a fore-note, Matello and Melatt aren't their real names. ;) We have extensive profiles written out for all their children, and in time, you'll learn their backgrounds/names/etc. Just didn't want you to think those names are their real ones. XD It's just the ones that both their Dads enjoy calling them to piss them off- because Matt and Mello are assholes, yeah? 3
SUMMARY (full): After miraculously surviving the battle against Kira, twenty years later and Mello and Matt are thriving parents with two teenaged sons and a younger daughter. Despite their own preconceived notions that life has slowed down to give them a chance to live what they wish to call "normal," several long-forgotten enemies are slowly beginning to show their faces in a world where the reign of Kira has been forgotten . . .
- w & m
Chapter One
Ducking, Matt narrowly avoided being hit in the head with a pancake; he glanced up, distaste written across his face as he wiped a splodge of syrup from his six-year-old daughter Celia's blonde head. The kitchen around them was brand new- it was being refurbished, much to Matt's exasperation. But he wasn't about to argue with his husband. The blond was still practically dancing on his feet even though he's just turned thirty-eight not even a month ago. One of Mello's pet-peeves had been the size of their home. It was nice, Matt had argued - and it had a certain feel to it. They'd had the damn place for nearly eleven years and just wouldn't feel right to go about and start changing it just because Mello was having a mid-life crisis. (The painting had been half-way finished in the kitchen when Mello had kicked over the pail of this disgusting peachy-colored paint and declared it a failure (blaming it on Matt, no less)).
Now he was into cooking. Breakfast, lunch, dinner; it didn't matter. He could almost always be found in the kitchen nowadays, an apron on (much to the amusement of both Melatt and Matello), and his hair pulled back in a loose pony-tail. Matt sighed, watching Mello looking haughty, daring anyone to say a word as he marched over to where the pancake had flipped off the stove when he'd tried to perform some fancy trick he'd seen on the Food Network. "This is just lovely," Matt droned, knowing his husband too well to not say anything. It was just a much too perfect opportunity to pass up, Mello looking absolutely like a picture-perfect housewife.
"Matt," Mello warned through clenched teeth as be bent over to pick up the pancake. It was dripping with an excessive amount of syrup. Melatt, who was sitting next to both his brother and sister, all four of them impatiently awaiting for their breakfast, sniggered, exchanging a glance with Matt as the redhead grabbed Mello's backside when he leaned down. Mello promptly shot up, nearly banging his head on the kitchen table and irritably swatted at Matt's hand. There was a blush forming on his cheeks.
Matt pulled him towards him. "How long, Mels'?" he quipped. "We've known each other, what- thirty-three, thirty-four years? And I can still make you blush?" He reached forward, kissing his stricken husband before he could regain his composure and push Matt away. As they crushed their lips together, Celia smirked at Matello and Melatt, who were egging her on, and promptly made a gagging noise, sticking a finger in her mouth and mimicking more vomiting sounds.
Mello pulled away from Matt at this, always the one trying his hardest to be the "responsible" father and explain everything that his daughter might be curious about. The other week, it had been something about why "everyone else had a "Mommy" and a "Daddy" but she had "two Daddys." Mello had then initiated a long rant about "the reason why they had moved back to Britain had been to find some tolerance to homosexuals wanting to adopt, and now all they were finding was blahblahblah." Matt had tuned it out then, playing Tetris until Mello had snatched it out of his hands, thus initiating a wrestling match between the two of them. Mello had won, which then resulted in the blond complaining about Matt's lack of physical fitness, and how he was going to develop lung cancer, or God forbid, diabetes in his older age. Well, hadn't that just been ironic. Needless to say, Mello was always controlling this, controlling that, and he apparently thought it his "duty" to clear Celia's young mind of the homophobic taunts that were thrown at her left and right when she attended school. Luckily, Mello had a whole three months to properly cleanse her mind; it was summer.
"Celia, angel, why are you making gagging noises?" Mello questioned kindly, although Matt could hear the flaring anger there. Not at Celia- oh no, in Mello's book, Celia could do nothing wrong. She was his angel, but Matt knew better. She was a manipulative little thing, despite the aura of preconceived naiveté she gave off to most people. She was naive, just not nearly as much as she led on. In her defense, however, this was mostly her brothers' fault.
"Adults kissing is gross!" she exclaimed, waving her arms in a disgusted fashion. Melatt had his arm around her in an instant, ruffling her fluffy blond hair.
"No, no, Dad- she's just scared to admit it, right Ceils? Yeah, but she's actually always asking Matello and I why "two boys would be kissing" each other." He was grinning like mad, trying desperately to hide it. Mello's eyes narrowed at his son's suspicious behavior while Matt watched on, completely and utterly dumb-struck that someone as smart as Mello couldn't see passed his precious children's attempts to get a rise out of him. But he watched on, inwardly feeling rather perky this morning, watching his family interacting. It was nice, honestly, to have such a tight-knit family. Mello had been his everything, and still was, but now they had kids. Imagine it, the two of them with children. It had been a big change, but a welcomed one.
As if on cue, the doorbell rang, and Matt was positive who it would be- the one missing link in their family. Not blood-related, no, but family, nevertheless.
"I'll get it," Melatt said. He tried his hardest to sound nonchalant, but Matt could hear the smile in his voice. His son (closely followed by his daughter) slipped out of the room and returned less than a minute later with a tittering Halle who, Matt noticed, was considerably more preggers than the last time they'd seen each other.
"Halle!" Mello exclaimed. "You're a little earlier than you said you'd be- I haven't even got breakfast ready."
Halle detected the edge in his voice and gave him that warm, winning smile that could make anyone's frosty demeanor simply melt away. It was something she'd developed only after she'd become the mother of his children, and, in a way, him and Matt, too. Mello mumbled something about how it was no big deal, he would live, etcetera, etcetera. He would just have to get her back for this offense later when her defenses weren't at their best.
Matello looked up from the crossword puzzle he was working on (and failing at dismally) upon her entry. "Hey, mum," Matello said. "How's the half-sibling doing?"
"Fine, fine... the ultrasound technician said that we'll be able to find out the gender in another few weeks or so," she gave him an awkward side hug. "And how are you doing, Matthew? Have you been looking into getting a job like I asked you?"
Matello nodded his head yes and tapped the newspaper with his index finger. Matt snorted. "You've done nothing but screw around with puzzles and read the funnies, 'Tello. I've been watching you all morning."
"Mustn't lie to mother," Melatt chided, and Halle fixed him with a what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you look that made Matello blush.
"When we were your age," Mello began, "We'd already solved nearly fifty crimes- including the infamous Kira case. We were pulling in seven figures a year. You can't get by answering questions on ChaCha for spending money and living off us for the rest of your life."
Matello scowled at the bowl of fruit in front of him and then began work on his puzzle once more when he felt that the conversation had been safely dropped. He didn't really like staying at home all day and enduring the seemingly non-stop harassment he received from his over-bearing fathers. He could usually depend on Halle to keep the pressure off of him, but there were these rare, pesky occasions.
Halle bit her lip, looking as if she were about to say something, but Mello put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a look that said to "just leave him alone." Halle couldn't help but smile at Mello's serious face; it seemed like just yesterday Mello was floundering around the house in absolute distress at the idea of being a father. She'd watched Matt calm him down more than enough times to realize that he was the only one to be able to do it; she'd tried, but Matt had a way with the blond. Just the right amount of comfort and just the right amount of tough-love. But Mello had stepped into fatherhood with both his feet planted firmly on the ground, and it had come naturally to him. Sure, he could be a bit over-bearing, but give Mello an inch, and he always took a mile.
Looking away after realizing she'd been staring into Mello's eyes for far too long, she forced the blush from her face, trying to focus on the fetus growing day-by-day inside her. She's been pregnant enough times, but this time, it would be all hers. Hers and Gevanni's, she thought begrudgingly. She liked Gevanni, but she was consistent person, and hadn't been in a serious relationship since her high school days. It was all very new, not to mention the baby . . . it hadn't exactly been on purpose, considering her age. Actually, she was sure the baby had been conceived the night they first met again after the SPK disbanded, a few too many drinks in their system.
"Celia, honey," Halle interrupted her own thoughts, pressing a hand to her biological daughter's cheek. She knew Mello hated it when she took on that maternal instinct she'd grown to posses a step too far, but she couldn't help it, not when Celia had her thick blond hair and pale blue eyes. She was the spitting image of both Mello and her, despite the uncanny resemblance in face-shape to Matt, not to mention the freckles dotting her pale face . . . She supposed she would never know who was truly her father. "Have they been feeding you properly?" She tilted Celia's chin upward with one finger.
"Yes, and we send her down to the cellar every night," Matt chimed in, grinning stupidly. Halle pushed him roughly on his shoulder.
"Oh, shut up! You know what I meant," she scowled, turning back towards Celia, not being able to hold back the smile as she looked into her daughter's ever-happy features.
"I ate two whole slices of cake this big yesterday!" she chirped happily, holding out her hands to form the exaggerated invisible cake in mid-air. Halle's eyes widened and she turned to face Mello with a look of utter horror.
"Oh, come on!" Mello objected ruefully. As he stalked passed Matt, the redhead caught him by the arm and pulled him into his lap. Mello ignored Matt as he began to smooth down his ruffled hair before messing it up again in good humor. Usually, Mello would respond to his affections in turn, but he was too busy with his and Halle's banter. "She's a child, she exaggerates!"
Celia giggled, pulling on Halle's hand as she pushed herself out of her chair and began to march "Aunt Halle" towards the kitchen counter. Mello could see from where he was seated on Matt's lap that Celia was leading Halle to where he hid his secret stash of chocolate sweets. It's tradition, Mello thought, and he was about to say it out-loud, but Matt caught him with a quick kiss.
"Leave her to it, Mels'," he whispered. "You know how much she enjoys the whole "mother" thing. And I mean, she did go through the whole trouble of carrying all three of 'em in her belly for nine months."
Mello opened his mouth once more, but Matello interrupted, "Yeah, well, hopefully she'll cool it once she has one of her own." He grumbled. "ChaCha gives me a - "
"Access to hundreds of different video games and all the cotton-candy you can buy," Melatt supplied helpfully, to which Matello punched him hard in the shoulder. Wincing, Melatt chuckled as Halle stalked back into the room, Celia in tow, grinning as she shoved a cupcake in her mouth. The chocolate paste smeared against her lips, but she was none the deterred, instead stuffing the rest until Mello was sure she would choke herself, and struggled in Matt's grasp to help her.
"I can handle it," Halle murmured, bending down and wiping away the mess Celia had made with a damp napkin. Mello relaxed a bit. "She's six, not two."
"Says the woman who won't let her have a fuc - freaking - cupcake," Mello growled, catching himself at the last minute. Besides figuring out a way to get Mello to the leave house without a firearm secured safely at his waist, one of the hardest obstacles they had faced in the way of raising a child was getting Mello to quit cursing every five seconds. Matt sighed, dipping his onto Mello's shoulder and listening to the vibrations that shook his body as he continued his ranting. "She's six - six-year-olds are supposed to shove chocolate and sweets and candy down their throat."
"Uh-huh," Halle commented absently, chuckling as Celia wiped dirty fingers against her pants.
The sudden beeping startled everyone in the room, Mello included, who usually prided himself on always being a step ahead of everyone else, never being caught off-guard. At the sudden scent of smoke filling everyone's nostrils, all eyes turned towards Matt, who raised his hands in innocence, showing that he didn't have the usual cigarette between his lips. Mello was off Matt's lap in an instant, dashing towards the kitchen, where he promptly planted his face into his palm, cursing himself for his forgetfulness. Wispy smoke was filtering up on the stove-top, bacon and eggs burnt black. Mello turned the oven off, fanning his now-ruined creation with a dish-towel; he didn't want to turn around and see the disapproving look Halle would undoubtedly be shooting in his direction.
However, much to his surprise, when he chanced a glance over his shoulder, Halle was just holding Celia against her hip, turning on the sink and helping move away the cluttered dishes there. Heaving a small sigh, he walked over to scrape the remains of breakfast in the trash. They would clearly be ordering out this morning. Matt stopped him half-way there, helpfully taking it from him with a small, reassuring smile. Quickly pressing a kiss to his lips, Mello turned away and looked around himself, trying to calm down.
His family was unhurt, and life was progressing as normal. Still, something was lurking in the back of his mind as his watched the mundane routine of another Saturday morning play out. It wasn't the people- no, he loved them, cherished their company, would die and kill, in turn, for them- it was something else. A feeling deep inside him that he hadn't felt since the days when Kira was alive, Matt and him recklessly attempting to put an end to his reign of terror.
No, he consoled himself, that was a long a time ago. I have a family now. As he dropped the last of the dishes in the sink, however, he felt the left side of his face bring out an old pain, one he also hadn't felt since the days of Kira, the explosion, Matt, the kidnapping, their miraculous escape from that bitch Takada misspelling his name one too many times in the Death Note. The scar from the explosion so many years ago had mostly faded, and hadn't hurt in so long. What had caused that pain just now? Running a faint hand over his cheek, he forced the thoughts from his mind as Matt began helping with the dishes, Matello and Melatt in toe as Halle brought Celia into the living room to sit down and watch their traditional Saturday-morning cartoons together.
NOTE: R&R and all that jazz. XD
Yes, plz. :3 Reviews are indeed appreciated. Hope you enjoyed; don't worry, this chapter was mostly just focusing on providing insight into their life after Kira. More of the plot is the come in the next few chapters. :D
- w & m