A House Divided
Chapter One: Broken
"What the hell are you doing?" I heard Mello say behind me. I whipped around, effectively splattering chocolate batter everywhere.
"Making brownies…" I said meekly, knowing I was caught.
"Obviously, but why?" he asked, walking over to me. He dipped his finger into the batter and licked it off. I fumbled for an answer.
"Well," I started, trying not to focus on the way his tongue caressed his finger. "We met exactly a year ago today…"
"Hm," was all he responded, dipping his finger into the batter again. I caught his wrist as it made its way towards Mello's mouth. I leaned forward and enveloped the tip of his finger in my mouth, licking the chocolate clean.
"You're contaminating my batter," I said lamely, as if that justified what I just did. I turned my back to him so he couldn't see the blush taking over my face. I'm not completely sure what his reaction was anyway because I couldn't even bring myself to look him in eyes after a stunt like that. There was a long silence, though. I would have thought that he had left, but I could feel his presence behind me. I awkwardly stirred the already-mixed chocolate batter until he finally cleared his throat and spoke.
"So, a yeah huh?" he said casually. I nodded as I poured the batter into a pan and slid it into the oven. "You kept track?"
"Well, it's not every day that I meet someone like you, Mells," I said off-handedly. Mello snorted as if it were the most insane thing he had ever heard.
"Right!" he said sarcastically, hoisting himself up on the counter. I walked over to him and wrapped him in a hug, never mind the fact that I was between his legs.
"I'm serious, Mells. You're my best friend."
"You're my best friend too, Matty," he whispered quietly as he hugged me back. We stayed like that for a while.
It was pretty obvious that we both had feelings for each other that was more than friendship, but neither of us would ever admit it out loud or do anything about it. It was complicated-being the world's best assassins, I mean. It's hard to get close to someone without them getting hurt. Mello and I have been partners in crime since we were both assigned the same mission by two separate mafia bosses. When I got to the base, I was outnumbered and so was he. We decided that it would be a lot easier to attack together, so we did and we've been best friends since.
We live in a two-bedroom apartment now and we have been for a little over eight months. Most days are quiet unless one of us has a mission. We hardly ever do missions together anymore because we don't want some angry mafia boss targeting the other to hurt one of us. We can't any of the mafia's or gangs know that we work together…which is tough.
"Matt," Mello whispered. I looked up to meet his gaze. He gave me a short smile before pressing his lips to mine. But before I could even respond, he was away from my face with a blush on his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. I shook my head.
"I'm not," I murmured right before I brought his mouth to mine once more. He tasted like chocolate. Mello responded quickly, tangling his fingers in my hair. He was at an advantage because the counter he was sitting on made him taller than me. I gave all the love and passion that had been built up into that kiss. Before I could deepen the kiss even further, he pulled back. His cheeks were flushed as he and he tried to avoid my eye contact.
"Matt," he said forcefully. "Matt!" he said again, but louder this time. I felt myself suffocate as he plugged my nose.
I woke with a start, finding Mello straddling me with his hand over my mouth and nose. He unplugged my nose as I glared at him.
"Oh good, you're up," he said casually.
"What the hell are you doing, Mells?" I grumbled through his hand. I was only slightly upset that he had interrupted my dream seeing as how we was now currently on top of me in my bed...
"Do you know what today is?" he asked eagerly, avoiding the question. I would have asked him my question again if it weren't for the fact that I was completely shocked that he had remembered the anniversary of the first day we met.
"You remembered?" I asked in a daze, still remember my dream. I wanted nothing more than for that to come true. Maybe today would be the right day to tell him how I really feel.
"Of course! It's not every day that your assassin contract expires!" he said joyously. He shook my shoulders happily and leapt off my bed. My face fell. He hadn't remembered after all. "C'mon, get dressed!"
"Mello!" I snapped as he started throwing clothes onto my bed. He stopped mid-throw and gave me a look that could killed. No one—and I mean, NO ONE—snapped at Mello…not even me. I ignored the look and continued with, "Does anything else come to mind for the date today?" I asked through my teeth.
"What are you talking about?" he said impatiently, making his way to the door. I sighed, throwing my blankets off of myself.
"Just forget it. It's obviously not important to you." I got up and shut the door on his confused face and locked it.
"Matt! What the hell?!" I heard him yell through the door. I ignored him pounding on my door until I heard a gunshot. I looked up in time to see a doorknob coming flying at my face and dodged it at the last second. Mello kicked in the door with a furious look on his face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" we both yelled at the same time—though I'm sure mine was more justified. I mean, he just shot my door open. He walked straight up to me and pointed his gun at my head.
"Go ahead," I said, taking a step forward so the gun came into contact with my skin.
"Just tell me what the hell is going on!" he snapped, lowering his gun. "Your pissy mood is ruining a special day for me."
"God! You are the most self-centered person I know! You're so selfish that you didn't even thank me for the brownies I left on the counter for you!"
"You didn't even give me a chance!" he yelled back. "What are they even for anyway? You know it's not my birthday."
"Figure it out yourself, you selfish bastard," I retorted. I grabbed a handful of my clothes stuffed them into my bag. "I'll be back for the rest of my stuff later." I put my shoes on and shoved past Mello as I made my way to the half-blown off door.
"Don't you dare walk away from me!" he yelled. I shook my head in anger as I placed my hand on the door, ready to open it. I heard another gunshot as I felt my goggles fly from my face and shatter against the wall. The immediate pain I felt was unbearable. Seeing my goggles in ruins almost ruined me. I stopped short and sank to the floor next to them.
Mello had given me those goggles on the first day that we had met. The mission may have seemed as though it was really the first day we met, but we had met each other way before that. When we were kids, our mothers were best friends. My mom had dragged me out of bed that morning to take me to the birthday party of a kid I had never met. She handed me a wrapped present when we got there and kindly instructed me to give it to a little blonde boy who was building a sand castle in the sand box. Mello opened them and exclaimed about how cool they were and then looked at me with a sad look on his face. He ran up to his mom and asked her something and then ran back. He handed the goggles to me, asking me if I would be his best friend…and I've had them since, wearing them every day.
Honestly, the only reason we hadn't blown each other to pieces at the mission is because he recognize the goggles and I recognized those bright blue eyes and bright yellow hair. And now the goggles laid on the ground broken into a thousand pieces.
My eyes stung as I gingerly picked up the black frames. Pieces of orange lenses fell from their original place. I heard a distant strangled cry, not realizing it was me until after the fact.
"Get out," I snarled at Mello. He didn't move. I looked up to glare at him only to see him just as bent out of shape as I was.
"Matty…" he started.
"I said get the hell out, Mello!" I yelled back. Mello walked up to me and dropped down next to me. Tears were starting to force their way into my eyes as I stared at the broken sentiment.
"Matt, I'm so sorry…" he whispered, wrapping his arm around me. I shrugged it off hatefully.
"Do you have any idea what these mean to me, Mello?! Or are you too selfish to get that?"
"Selfish?" he replied angrily. "I'm pretty sure I gave you those in the first place!"
"Just leave!" I shouted back.
"No!"
"Fine," I said. I placed the frames back down on the ground, taking one last, sad look at them and grabbed my bag off the bed.
"Matty, don't!" was all I heard as I ran out of our apartment.
As soon as I exited the building, I fished out my pack and lit a cigarette. I took a long drag and it automatically cooled my down by about ten degrees. I didn't even make it halfway through the parking lot before I heard Mello burst out of the building's door. I heard him yell after me a couple times before I finally decided to stop and turn to face him.
"What do you want, Mello?" I asked impatiently, taking another long drag of my cigarette. He caught his breath for a second before answering.
"Here," he said as he handed me his rosary. I blinked in shock. I had given him that on my birthday to pay him back for the goggles. "Take it. Please."
He was serious…absolutely serious. He was willing to give me his most prized possession just to make me feel better.
"Mells—" I started to object, but he interrupted me.
"It's been a year since the mission—a year since we reunited. I wouldn't forget about that for the world. I had the whole day planned out and I was going to take you to the place that we took over. They turned the building into a pizzeria and I know how much you love your pizza. I could care less about my contract expiring. That was just a decoy to get you out of the house and surprise you with the real reason…"
I blinked at all the information that Mello had just thrown at me. So many feelings rushed through me. Aggravation, guilt, happiness…love…
"The brownies were great," he mumbled as he slipped the rosary over my head. I looked down at it through foggy eyes. I gently took the cross in my hand and examined it.
"I'm not going to take this back. I gave it to you and it was a gift." I quickly took off the rosary and gently slipped it back over his head, where it belonged. Mello reached up and held my arms where they were around his neck. My breath caught, remembering my dream. Then he said two words that almost made me pass out.
"Kiss me," he whispered. I looked down, my cheek instantly red. Mello took a brave step forward, pressing our bodies together. He let go of the grip on my wrist and secured his arms around my waist.
"Kiss you?" I repeated. He nodded and brought his face closer to mine. I took a short, nervous breath and closed the gap between us and quickly pressed our lips together.
Mello's grip tightened around my waist as I ran my fingers through his soft, yellow hair. The kiss was more than I had ever expected it to be. His lips were softer and his taste was sweeter than any dream I could ever make up on my own. But before I knew it, it was over and Mello's face was flushed.
"I'm sorry," he whispered against my cheek. "I don't know what I—"
"Mells, don't ever be sorry for that," I tried to say, but I couldn't hear my own voice over the sound of my heart. It must have come out right because Mello's grip tightened on me for a quick second before he pulled away.
"Let's go back inside," he suggested as he stomped out my forgotten cigarette. I followed him back to our apartment building in a daze.
I had just kissed Mello, and he kissed me back…in real life. I couldn't even wrap my mind around it. I was smiling like a goofy idiot and I knew it but I couldn't stop, even as he turned around to look at my with a horrified expression on his face. Everything started to move in slow motion as I saw his eyes fill with tears. My vision become blurry as I felt my knees forcefully come into contact with the ground. I took one more look at Mello before I felt my body fall to the side and everything went black.
