2. Warmth

Mello was almost a sleep. He couldn't quite get there though. It was most likely because he was feeling stressed about Kira, and about Near, but Mello refused to admit that. Instead, he blamed his insomnia on his roommate, Matt. Though this might not actually be that far from the truth, because Matt generally would not turn in for bed until long after 3am, at the earliest. On top of that, the constant tap, tap, tapping of Matt's fingers on his game's remote was impossible to tune out, and to top it all off, he stank of smoke.

A lot of smoke. In fact, Mello realized as he was lying flat on his back with his eyes clamped shut, he smelled like fresh smoke, which should not be the case, because Mello absolutely forbade Matt from smoking inside their small apartment. Mello opened his eyes, only barely, and looked to the other side of their shared bare mattress which had been dumped messily onto the floor. Sure enough, Matt had a cigarette lodged in his mouth, his eyes glued to the glowing TV set in front of him. Matt was just about to confront this problem when he realized that his best friend was wrapped in his, Mello's blanket.

"That's it!" Mello exclaimed, jumping to a stand. Matt's eyes flashed to his friend for a moment, before flying back to the television set.

Mello marched over to the game console and held down the power button. The TV screen went from flashing to a blank blue.

"M-Mello! What the- MELLO!" Matt yells, grasping for words, his fury evident on his face, and holding his cigarette in his hand.

"Put that out!" Mello demanded.

"Mello, you're such a dick! I was about to go to bed! Now I have to start all -"

"PUT IT OUT!" Mello screamed, but Matt didn't get a chance. Mello snatched the cigarette out of his best friend's hand, dropped it onto the floor, and ground it into the carpet with the toe of his boot. The carpet sizzled slightly, the cheap plastic-y strands melding together and stinking of burnt rubber before the small sparks died.

Matt stared at his friend, his mouth agape, his expression infuriated. "Mel - " he began.

Mello grabbed the edge of his blanket, tore it away from his friend, then lied back down on his side of the mattress. He reached beside himself blindly, fingers wrapping around one of his many chocolate bars. He opened it with his teeth, then popped a piece in his mouth to let it melt.

All through this, Matt remained silent, the TV's timer beeped, and it shut off automatically.

With the chocolate dissolving on his tongue, Mello felt his anger begin to dissolve as well. He breathed deeply, and pulled his blanket up around his chest. It was still warm from when Matt had been using it.

Again, Mello was just about to fall asleep, when Matt interrupted him.

"Mello?"

"What, Matt?" Mello said sharply, trying to keep the hiss out of his voice.

"Night," Matt said quietly. A peace offering.

Mello sighed, unable to keep from grinning in the dark. "Good night."

Since I decided to alternate between characters, I decided to do a Matt/Mello next. This is not exactly romantic, just my idea of what a typical day/night would be with these two. Even though I'm not writing in first person, this is obviously more from Mello's point of view than Matt's.

Mello getting annoyed with Matt is not really an original idea, but it's still fun to think about. This was basically inspired from me remembering nights spent with my brother.