Don't Go
As soon as Mello stepped in the door, Yuuki knew something had gone wrong.
A half-eaten chocolate bar, latest in a line of identical silky, rich and sweet confections, was clenched in a hand that shook at his side.
His face was still, impassive. Even when one of the men pushed past him in the rush to get inside and, having realized what he just did, leapt away with his hands in front of his face, Mello didn't seem to notice.
Yuuki grabbed Mello's empty hand and pulled him into the living room. After settling in on the sofa and pulling him down beside her, she watched him and waited. He would tell her when he was ready, and no sooner.
Mello stared at nothing for a long time. His chocolate lay on the sofa where it had fallen.
Finally, he glanced at the clock. It ticked its merry pattern, oblivious to Mello's grief.
"Turn on the T.V." His voice was as hoarse as if he'd been crying, though he hadn't even lost the grim blankness.
She reached for the remote. The T.V. flipped on to reveal a local news station. The anchor was reporting on something that had happened earlier that evening. Takada, Kira's spokeswoman, had been kidnapped.
Yuuki's eyes widened.
The female anchor was still missing, but one of the perpetrators had been captured and killed when he pulled a gun on Takada-san's bodyguards.
Then they showed the footage. It was a short clip of someone being gunned down...
Her brain switched off, refusing to consider the reality of the image.
Matt. It was Matt.
Mello's best friend and confidant, her own video gaming partner, was gone. Just like that.
Yuuki looked at Mello, eyes huge, to see his dark ones filling with tears. She blinked back her own tears and pulled him into a hug.
Soon Mello - battle-hardened Mafia leader Mello - shook with the force of the sobs that wracked him.
Yuuki switched off the T.V. and held him closer, stroking his shoulders and murmuring comforting nonsense into his dirty-blond hair. All she wanted was to make it better.
Some time had passed when he finally stopped crying.
Mello looked up at her, eyes red.
His tears gave him a look of such adorable vulnerability that she longed to kiss him. Just once. It would be comforting, wouldn't it?
No. She shoved the justifications away. He needed a friend right now. If she had the chance later on, she would snap at it, but for the moment she would remain just a friend.
Yuuki looked down at Mello, really looked. He was nearly asleep, if his half-closed eyes and dead expression were any guide. She sighed and carefully disentangled herself from him. A sound that could only be called a whimper emerged from the man's throat.
Standing up was quite a task when her legs had been asleep more than half an hour, but she managed, and pulled Mello up after her.
"C'mon, Mello. You need some sleep," she told him softly. He stumbled behind her as she tugged him toward his room.
She tucked him into bed like a small child and turned off the light.
When she stepped through the door, Mello croaked, "Wait."
She stopped and turned, expecting him to thank her. Then she'd head off to her own lonely bed and cry herself to sleep.
"Don't go," Mello said. The words might have been intended as a command, but ended up sounding like a plea.
She looked at his tear-stained face and sighed. Then she went back in, shut the door, and lay down beside him on top of the covers.
He turned to face her. "Don't go," he repeated in a whisper, more emphatically this time.
She kissed his forehead in the dark, and listened to the steady rhythm of his breath as he fell asleep. It was some time before she did the same.