A/N: This has been bouncing around in my head (and sitting in my PC) for quite a while now! I finally posted it, too :3 It's not exactly long, or amusing or anything... Just... I like it. So read :) Oh, and if any of you are reading 'Unfaithful', my joint fanfiction with Axcent, it might take a bit longer than usual for updates. Junior year is already stressing me out, and I'm only on the second full week of school! *sigh*It's to be expected with advanced classes.

Mello and I have always been best friends, ever since I first arrived at Wammy's House and was paired up with him in rooming. Mello taught me things from the start, like how to stand up for myself, and all of those things older kids knew about that we weren't supposed to, like fornication and drugs and alcohol. Of course, these life lessons came at a price. Mello said all he wanted was my never-wavering loyalty to him. And like a fool, I gave it to him.

I suppose, as I lay here being subjected to the most intimate and most painful tortures, I should have asked for something in return, like maybe the right to make him stop.

If I had told Mello what I was thinking right now, he would laugh. But as I lay here on my stomach, and he pumps in and out of my sacred place, as he fornicates with me, like he had taught me about years ago, I know he would only be ashamed of me for trying to get out of this.

This was a punishment. For every moment I wasn't with him, for every year I didn't know him, regardless of whether or not I could help it, Mello would make up for it in obscure and creative ways.

We were blood brothers. At least whatever punishment I endured, half the time he did it too. We'd slit our wrists together, count the strawberry gashes to count down the years we were apart. We burned our fingertips so our fingerprints were gone, slowly, one at a time, so that no one else would know(The thumb hurts the worst!). Together we each broke our left leg from jumping out of a tree, and we both broke our noses in a 'fight' between us.

But as time went on, Mello began to punish me for more than just being away from him. I would get punished for not believing in his God, or talking about Near, and sometimes I would get punished if I did something as ridiculous as go to the bathroom without asking him first. I didn't fight back though, because then I would get punished further.

Mello is my best friend - I just dislike the punishments. Especially the one I'm receiving now.

Suddenly, Mello moans out harshly, breathing my real first name into my ear huskily. "Mail," He gasps. I can feel his warm cum fill me, and I resist the urge to squirm. Slowly, Mello stands, and he gets up. "Get dressed, Matt." He commands. "We're going to go shower."

Without a complaint I stand, dead tired, and move to slip on my goggles. "No no, leave those off," Mello said, taking my goggles and putting them on my bedside table. We walk to the showers together, and we wash one another delicately, silently, in the night. We dry each other with the towels, and I dry Mello's hair with a towel, a brush, and a hair dryer. When I'm done it looks perfect, as always, and he inspects it. "Good work, Matty." He says, kissing me chastely on the lips as a reward.

I savor the taste of his lips, clean and just Mello, missing the taste of chocolate due to the shower. We walk back to our room, clad in simply our boxers, and I go to my bed, ready to fall asleep. "Matt, come here." Mello says, his voice seemingly sweet.

"What is it?" I ask, barely speaking as I walk over to his bed and sit on the edge after confirming I could.

"You're allowed to sleep with me tonight. You were such a good boy," Mello said with a smile, tucking a stray curl of my almost-dry hair behind my ear. He then kisses my cheek, and beckons me into bed with him.

I drift off to sleep, content and in my own little world of happy dreams and falsities.

Because really, who needs free will when you have Mello?