Matt continues working for several hours, switching between surveillance and checking various servers. There's less than nothing happening. He takes several breaks to go out onto the balcony and smoke, mostly because he doesn't want to have Mello snapping at him if he does it indoors.
Things are mostly fine until evening.
Matt realises he can smell Mello from the other room, his heat peaking. It shouldn't affect him, but it's sort of starting to, and he tries to remember if he took suppressants this week. Last time was five or six days ago, he thinks. There's no harm in taking a couple more just to be on the safe side.
He heads into his bedroom, pulling open the drawer of the bedside table. First aid stuff, gun, handcuffs, painkillers. Some other pills. No suppressants.
It's not like he's out, either. The packet's just missing.
"Mel. Where'd you put my suppressants?"
Mello appears in the doorway with a small smirk. He looks pretty rough. "Heat too much for you, Matty?"
"Just tell me where you put them." He doesn't have time for this.
"No." Mello glances him over. "Call it curiosity."
"What?"
His smirk widens. "I've known you for years, Matt. So long as nobody touched your games, you wouldn't argue. You were a complete pushover in any fight. Hell, I'm pretty sure half the reason you clung to me was so hardly anyone dared to start one."
That'd just been an extra perk to their friendship. Not the reason for it. But Matt still doesn't get where Mello's going with this. "So?"
"So I'm curious whether you have it in you to act like the Alpha you apparently are. You ever knotted anyone, Matty?"
Matt remains resolutely silent. He doesn't have to answer that. He shuts the drawer and stands up, moving towards the door.
Mello continues blocking the way. "Ever wanted to?"
"Out of my way, Mello."
"Make me."
Matt shoves past him, a little harder than he intended. Mello's shoulder hits the doorframe. All it gets is a grin. "See, that's more Alpha attitude. Exactly how much were you suppressing, Matt?"
"I'll find where you've put them eventually."
"I don't doubt it. How quickly, though?" Mello grins. "How long since you last took any? Must've been a while, if you're getting flustered this easy."
Matt hates to admit it, but he's right. He's past just noticing the scent lingering around Mello at this point. He's starting to get more aggressive, and he doesn't know if it's hormones kicking in, or Mello riling him up. Probably both.
"What is it you're even trying to do? What happened to 'Alphas can only think with their dicks'? Heat getting you so desperate for a knot that you'd be okay with that, with me shoving you against a wall and making you take mine?" Because Matt sure as hell wouldn't be okay with it. Not in his right mind, anyway.
Mello closes the distance between them, placing his hand on Matt's thigh and smirking as he breathes against his ear, "Don't make promises you can't keep, Matty."
Matt feels his cock twitch.
The scent's starting to cloud his mind a little. He steps back from Mello, trying to remember why shoving him against a wall is such a bad idea after all.
Your best friend, Matt reminds himself. Your very attractive best friend who happens to be flirting with you right now. Because of his heat. That's all. And just happens to seem so desperate for a knot that he'd willingly take yours. No big deal. Just the stuff of most of your fantasies since puberty.
Well. Not exactly. In the fantasies, Mello had always been an Alpha, the one claiming Matt, treating him like a Beta even though he wasn't.
But Matt's brain is perfectly willing to adapt.
And Mello's hand is back on him, this time thumbing at the waistband of his jeans.
Matt pulls away quickly before the scent takes him again, and half runs to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He can jerk off. It's fine.
It's fine.
((-))
He gets a couple of hours peace before Mello comes to find him again, by which time he's taken certain precautions. And he's glad of it, because the scent when Mello walks into the room is overpowering.
Matt's rarely been around anyone in the peak of their heat before, and definitely not at this close a distance. Without suppressants blocking the signal, it's hard to even think straight. Fuck the reasons why he shouldn't, he's horny as hell and Mello's willing and he just wants to slam him against the wall except-
"Handcuffs, Matt? Really?"
Mello still looks off, paler than usual and maybe even a little bit weak from the heat, but he manages to raise a sarcastic eyebrow nonetheless.
Matt scowls. "Not risking it."
"Don't trust yourself around me all of a sudden?" Mello wanders over to the other side of the bedroom, where Matt's chained to the radiator, picking up the key strewn on the floor along the way. He crouches down beside him, smirking as he holds up the key. "What would happen if I released you, Matty?"
"Don't."
"Why not?"
"Anything happens, we'll both regret it." Fuck, even finding the right words is starting to be a struggle. Mello's right there beside him, and Matt could touch him if his wrists weren't pinned to the radiator. His dick's already achingly hard, and Mello's leather isn't doing much to conceal his own erection. If anything, it's framing it. Fuck.
"I wouldn't regret fucking you."
"Not right now, sure. You're in fucking heat, Mel."
"And? I heard you in the bathroom earlier. Groaning my name. You can't pretend you don't want this." Mello's voice drops to what Matt can only describe as a purr. "You want to knot me, Matty? Want to swell inside me and fill me with your come?"
Christ. If ever there were an argument against God, it's this. Matt swallows. "I'm not taking advantage of you." Even with an invite. He's already lost Mello once. He doesn't need him snapping back to his senses post-heat and hating him.
Mello laughs. Actually laughs.
"You think I only want you 'cause I'm in heat? I wasn't last week. Still jacked off thinking about you underneath me."
He…what?
"Ever since we met up again, Matt. The only thing I've wanted other than Kira's head on a plate. That enough reassurance for you?"
Matt nods mutely.
Mello seems to take that as consent enough to kneel, loosening his belt and stripping off his trousers. Apparently boxers aren't something he bothers with. Matt's caught between staring at his freed cock, flushed and curving upright, and the slight dribble of slick making its way down Mello's thigh. His body seems far more interested by the latter.
Mello catches him looking, and grins. "Like how wet I am for you, Matty? Been like this for days, tight little hole just begging for something to fill it."
He leans across and undoes Matt's own belt, tugging his jeans down to his ankles.
"If we're gonna do this, you can uncuff me, y'know." Because it's actually pretty uncomfortable having cold metal pressing against his wrists.
Mello pointedly slides the key across the floor, out of the immediate reach of either of them. "Why would I do that, though? I have you at my mercy like this, Matt. I might be the Beta here, but that doesn't mean you're not my bitch."
Matt's dick decides it quite likes that idea, and throbs just as Mello starts stroking it through his boxers. Matt grinds up against his hand on instinct, groaning.
"Like that, Matt?"
"Fuck. Yes."
"Want me to take your knot?" Mello doesn't wait for an answer. His hands are already pulling Matt's boxers off, leaving both of them naked from the waist down.
He moves closer, kneeling with Matt's legs between him. He kisses him on the jaw, hard and bruising, before biting at the same spot. Matt whimpers.
Mello smirks at him. "Just in case you start getting any ideas, this is me claiming you, not the other way around. I'm just taking what's been mine for years."
And it's stupid, because Matt knows he's right. He's belonged to Mello since they were both kids, since the moment they exchanged names. Alpha or not, Mello's the only one who's ever really had the right to claim him.
Matt watches with nothing short of awe as Mello sinks on top of him, burying his cock in tight wet heat. Fuck. Matt's not a virgin. He's fucked girls before – quite a few of them – but none of them came close to this. Having Mello spread on top of him with a grin, smelling of nothing but sweat and sex and bitch. Nothing could match that.
And then Mello starts to move, and Matt's lost.
He swears and groans and begs, not sure whether he's desperate for release or desperate for it to never end. Mello's not moving up and down on his cock so much as making circular motions with his hips, ensuring that Matt's properly sheathed inside him when he knots.
Matt can already feel his cock starting to swell at the base.
God. He's never done this before. Not inside someone, not like this, feeling everything around him slowly tighten. "Fuck. Mello…"
"Can feel you inside me, Matt. God, you're incredible. Been knotted before, but it never felt… God…" Mello slips off into a moan that Matt swears could have been enough to make him come just by itself.
His knot's not full, though, and he can't come just yet. It's big enough to have locked him inside Mello, but only just.
Mello apparently feels it's secure enough for him to start thrusting, at any rate. He arches against Matt with another moan, and Matt can only assume he just managed to rub against his prostate, because Mello keeps trying to match the same angle.
They only manage a few more thrusts between them before Mello bites down hard on his shoulder, laying another mark of claim as he comes with a muffled yell.
He inadvertently ends up clenching around Matt's already swollen cock.
It's enough to push Matt over the edge as well, and he feels himself pump the first load of come inside Mello, knot still holding fast.
Mello just came untouched because of him. Christ.
He stays slumped against Matt's shoulder for a minute or two, trying to regain his breath, then picks himself back up again and fucks himself all the harder against Matt's knot.
Which is quite possibly the hottest thing Matt will ever witness.
He can still feel his cock spurting load after load of come into Mello, more than Matt's convinced he's ever managed to produce before. But then, Beta in heat. Of course his body's going all out. He's an Alpha, and without suppressants his body just wants to knot a tight little Beta and mate already.
They keep at it for another half hour. Every time Matt thinks he's done, he produces another spurt of come from God only knows where. Even with his knot still in place, some of it ends up dribbling back out.
Mello seems to find the whole thing amusing. "Too full of your come already, Matty. Nowhere else for it to go." He has his head resting against Matt's shoulder, too tired to sit upright by himself. They're both exhausted.
Matt almost lets out a cry of relief when he finally feels his knot start to lessen. It's another few minutes before he can ease himself out, ignoring the weight of Mello still straddling him. Speaking of which- "Mel?"
There's no answer to the whisper of his name. Matt tries again, louder, but there's still no response. Apparently Mello's reached the point of exhaustion that he's fallen asleep. Matt can't really blame him. He'd put him on the bed, at least, but he doubts his legs could support Mello's weight right now even if they wanted to. Not to mention the key for the handcuffs is out of reach.
They'll just have to stay where they are for the time being. Mello's heavy, and Matt's uncomfortable, and they're both sweaty and sticky messes, but he's a little too tired to care. Not right now.
In the morning, he'll wake up to find the handcuffs gone, and Mello already dressed in the other room. Matt will stumble in, unsure how to act, and find nothing's really changed between them. He'll still be Mello's bitch, and they'll still have Kira to bring down.
Matt won't waste too much time in finding certain pills, and Mello won't argue about taking them, because neither of them is dumb enough to want to bring a kid into this. It'll be a whole three months down the line before Mello realises the pills didn't work.
Matt never gets to find out. They don't see four months past this.
But they don't know any of that.
For now, they just lie against each other, next to a radiator in a flat in LA, and sleep.
