Chapter 2

Mello stopped the motorcycle in front of a house. Matt let go of him and they both rose up off the motorcycle.
Matt took off his helmet and put his goggles back on. He looked at the house and a simple little garden around it and asked: "So this is your place, right?"
"Yup", Mello replied walking to the front door. "C'mon, let's go in."
Matt ran after Mello.
"I'd like to take a shower if you don't mind…" Mello said taking off his helmet and walking to another room from the entry.
"No, not at all", Matt replied. "Do you mind if I smoke a cigarette? I can go outside."
"No, you don't need to", Mello's voice said from another room. "You can do it inside. I don't mind."
Matt took a cigarette packet out of his pocket. He selected one cigarette and put it in between his teeth.
"I'll be right back", Matt heard Mello saying from another room. Soon after that Matt started to hear a sound of streaming water.
While smoking cigarette Matt roamed around the house. He soon found a small living room. He sat onto the couch and took a video game console out of his back bag. He left the bag onto the floor and started to play the game.
After couple of minutes Matt heard Mello coming out of the bathroom. Matt didn't quit playing. Mello didn't mind that. He had gotten used to Matt's hobby. He knew that Matt would listen to him even if he played at the same time.
"How was your flight by the way?" Mello asked. He came into the living room.
"Well… Nothing special about it… I played this game during the whole trip… so it went pretty fast", Matt replied focusing still on his video game.
"If you want to take a shower, you're free to do say", Mello said to him.
Matt nodded and put a pause on his game. He raised his gaze up to Mello. This was the first time Matt really saw Mello's face properly. Before this he had worn the helmet all the time.
Matt just froze to stare at Mello's face. He looked so different and Matt immediately knew why. Mello had an awful, hideous, large scar on his face. The scar was so big that it almost covered the entire left side of his face. Mello had no shirt on so Matt could see that the scar also covered his left shoulder and the left side of his chest. Matt was terrified. That must be painful, he thought. Mello hadn't had that scar last time Matt saw him.
Mello looked upset because of Matt's reaction. He took a towel off his head – where he had kept it to dry his hair – and put it on his shoulders to cover the scar as much as possible. It was so obvious – Matt was staring at the scar.
Matt felt bad about this. He didn't mean to be a jerk. His reaction had been so rude. He had just stared at Mello…
"Mello, I…" he said quietly. He still had the cigarette in his mouth.
Mello walked through the living room barefoot. He had only his leather pants on and the towel was wrapped around his shoulders. He seemed to be going to another room again.
"Mello, wait… We have lots of things to discuss…" Matt said timidly. "Please, come here…"
Mello stopped. He was standing on the floor looking very lonely. He had turned his back on Matt. Matt put his game console away. Then he rose up and walked to Mello. Mello slowly turned towards Matt. Matt saw his face – and the scar – much closer now. He had to admit that the scar still looked bad and painful but he tried to act like it didn't exist. He tried not to stare at it all the time. He tried to concentrate on Mello's blue eyes.
"Mello, please tell me what happened to you", he said.
"It's nothing, Matt… It's nothing…" Mello muttered looking at the floor.
"No, I want to know what has happened to you", Matt said stubbornly. "Who did this to you?"
"No-one did this to me…" Mello replied and still kept looking at the floor. "I… it was… sort of an accident…" Mello snorted bitterly. "Well… actually I caused this to myself."
Matt stared at Mello with an incredulous expression on his face. "Why…?" he whispered.
"I… Someone tried to kill me", Mello explained. He was still avoiding Matt's gaze. "The only way to save myself was to blow up the entire building which we were in."
Matt blinked his eyes. His expression was extremely shocked. Mello had almost been killed and the only way he could save himself had caused this injury to him… And he surely had not hoped that Matt would react like he did when he saw Mello's face.
"I'm sorry… I scared you, Matt…" Mello said now looking straight into Matt's eyes. "I scared you with this story of mine and with… my appearance…"
Mello turned away again. Matt gasped and touched Mello's shoulder with his hand. It was the left shoulder. Matt felt the rough scar with his fingers. He gulped. Mello thought he had scared Matt… No, he hadn't. No, frankly Matt was only shocked because of Mello's story about that someone had tried to kill him. But at first, yes, he had also been shocked when he had seen Mello's scar for the first time.
Mello tried to move away but Matt held him still. He turned Mello around and made him face his gaze.
"Mello, I just… I feel so sorry for you…" he said. Mello could hear sadness and sympathy from his voice. "I… I had no idea that something like that happened to you… I'd have come to help you if I had known…"
"Matt, I neither need nor want your pity", Mello said having some anger in his voice. "This is nothing – just nothing. Don't make such a big deal about this…"
Matt gasped again. "I… I'm sorry, Mello… I didn't mean to." He sounded ashamed. "Please tell me, who tried to kill you – and why. What kind of stuff are you involved in? I'm worried about you, Mello."
"Oh, Matt…" Mello sighed wearily and patted Matt's head gently with his hand.