Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the first chapters of my story and kept reading to chapter 3! As your reward I'd like to let you know that this is where things start heating up :3 Also, before I forget again, None of the characters I use (besides the two or three that I made up for this story) are of my creation as they belong to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, if you didn't already know.

Enjoy~!


You've Seen My Scars, Now Show Me Yours

As promised, I went to the hospital the next day after school. Mello was reading a book when I got to his room, much to my surprise.

"I like reading," was his response. "What, you thought just because I'm a bad kid, I'm stupid too?" I didn't wanna get on Mello's bad side now, of all times, so I just shook my head and asked, "are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," he said, getting up off the bed slowly. He was wearing the usual black leather pants, but his shirt wasn't his usual leather vest and red coat, though. It was a black long-sleeve that looked slightly baggy on him. Probably for the best since anything less would rub up against his back scar and cause discomfort. I must have been staring because in the middle of my thoughts Mello, who was now off the bed and at the door, was waving his hand to get my attention.

"Dude, we can go now."

"Oh, right," I responded, snapping back to what I was doing and who I was talking to. As we walked down the hospital hall and the front desk neared, I had to ask;

"So, uh…are your parents signing you out now or…?" Mello looked away, up at the celling.

"My dad called the hospital earlier, He's not in the country right now, and won't be back till summer, so we can just leave." I wasn't sure whether or not I was to believe his story. I guess that means he doesn't have a mom…? All the same, how is he living alone like that for the whole school year? Needless to say, I got kind of nervous as we got to the exit, half expecting an employee to stop us and scold him for just trying to up and leave, but to my surprise the lady at the front desk just nodded once as we passed her and wrote something down on a piece of paper. So far, so good…

"So, your dad is out of the country? Where do you live, anyway?" I couldn't help but ask the second question because I was afraid Mello might live in the slums or something.

"My dad is…well, he's a detective. Not a very well-known detective, but he's solved more cases than you'd ever take the time to count in your head. And my place isn't far from here. We need to stop at the corner store first though, I need something…"

"A detective, huh?" Needless to say, I didn't believe what he was saying for a second. I was beginning to think he wasn't all there in the head. I wasn't about to start any arguments with him though. Besides, the corner store was a much welcomed idea. I've been meaning to make a stop there myself.

When we got there, I grabbed two packs of Marlboro light and a water and headed for the counter. Mello met me there with…chocolate. As in 4 or 5 bars of it. I kept my poker face while he pulled out his wallet and said, "Let me cover this." He paid for both my smokes and the chocolate and we were on our way again. I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer.

"You have a chocolate addiction or something? Didn't see that coming…"

At this Mello's face gained the slightest pink tint and he retorted, "yeah, and I never would've thought a little goody two-shoes like you would be a smoker!" We both hit the nail on the head, and we both knew it. I smiled to myself. Thinking of how my family and not even my friends knew about two out-of-character habits I had picked up over the past year. This was one of them and now only Mello knew, which didn't bother me enough to deter me from getting some cigarettes when I had none with me.

"You got a lighter at your house?" Mello flinched at the question, but I would've missed it if I had blinked.

"…no, I…lost it. But I have some old matches in the basement. I'll dig 'em up when we get there."

"Alright, cool." I had to keep slowing my pace because Mello couldn't keep up. He'd raise his hand half-way to where his back was burned, but then bring it back down quickly, probably not wanting to give away how much pain he was in at this point. I had to stop and sigh. There was no way we'd get anywhere at this rate.

"Hey, how far is your house now?"

"Um, about two more blocks, why?"

"You're being slow." Mello seemed a little pissed off that I noticed, as if I wasn't going to.

"Well, what do you expect?" I can't really move like this."

"I know," I walked over to him and put his right arm around my shoulders. Whatever amount of Mello's blush from the chocolate comment had left now came back full force.

"N-no! Stop, I can do this myself! I don't need-AGH!" Mello was cut off by his burn, and now he didn't hesitate to bring his free hand up to his neck, pulling on the collar of his shirt. "Whatever, fine! Let's just get to my house already."

"You don't have to tell me twice." At first, Mello was hardly leaning on me at all, but slowly I could feel him relax against my shoulder and together we made it to his house. I noticed I had been smiling that whole time. Why?

Mello moved his arm away to unlock his door, and together we went into his house. It was breathtaking. The floors were wooden and rather shiny; there was a living room with a laptop sitting on a coffee table near a leather (of course) couch facing an impressive flat-screen TV. The kitchen beyond this was nice too. It was even big enough to have a granite-topped island with a sink built in! I wasn't exited over the living conditions alone, though. Mostly I was happy that Mello wasn't living the kind of life I though he was.

I decided to challenge his earlier statement and asked, "So where're your parents?"

Mello just raised a brow at me and walked into the kitchen to put his chocolate down and said, "I already told you, he's out of the Country. I'm not allowed to tell you where he is exactly. He's a detective, after all."

"Uh-huh, and what about your mom?" I asked, skeptically.

"Don't have one. My dad adopted me and he doesn't have time for love."

'Well that kind of sucks,' I thought to myself, "but that leaves the question of…"

"Why did he…um…I mean, how did you two…meet?" The awkward nature of my question must have given away what I really wanted to ask and answered accordingly;

"The reason he adopted me is…because someday he's not gonna be a detective anymore, and I'll be the one to take his place. I'm his successor, so to speak," Mello said, looking quite proud of himself. I could only stare at him. Again, this boy left me without knowing how to respond so I decided I'd just believe him. No pain in that, since I really had no proof against what he was saying. And having a daddy that could afford to go to other parts of the world for so long would explain the nice house.

'Just because it's something my parents would scoff at doesn't mean I have to be the same way…I won't be like them…'

"Hey, Matt, think fast!" I looked up just in time for something small, square, and papery to hit me in the face. I picked the pack of matches off the ground and used one to light a cigarette after I tossed the pack back to Mello. By now, He was chomping away at a chocolate bar in the living room while he typed on the computer with one hand. He swallowed and said, "I'm emailing dad to tell him I got home okay, but fair warning, I'm taking the bandages off when I'm done. If you wanna leave, leave now."

Geez, he must really feel bad about it. I sat down next to him for reassurance and said, "nope, I'm staying."

"Alright," the sophomore said, closing his laptop. He moved his hands to the back of his head and slowly untied and then unraveled his bandages, starting at the top. Once he took enough gauze off for me to see the scar from between his bangs, he looked up at me with one blue, bandaged eye, gauging my reaction.

My god.

I don't know what I expected to see, but just that small reveal was enough to pull something in my heart. The sympathy and shock I had only showed on my face for a second, but it was long enough for Mello to notice. I felt bad then. I couldn't help but compare myself to Linda the last time she looked Mello in the eye.

I wasn't leaving it at that though, I regained composure and scooted closer to Mello, putting a hand on his good shoulder and looking not at his scar, but at him.

"Keep going."

Mello just looked down, still holding the gauze in place. I decided to take matters into my own hands if he was gonna be so stubborn. Again I lessened the distance between us, enough so our legs were touching. He looked back up in time to see me reach over and take the gauze from his hands, ready to finish what he started. I paused, waiting for him to fight back somehow. Then I realized that he couldn't. I was holding the reigns now, so to speak. If Mello moved too much, he'd surely rip whatever flesh that was still attached to the gauze off, not to mention the pain it caused him to move in general. Somehow I couldn't help but like this situation for some reason. All Mello could do was speak.

"Matt…" His voice was pleading, but unsure. I'd never expect someone like him to be like this. Why did he care if I took the bandages off? He was gonna do it anyway. Did he not want me to see it? But again, why should he care? I started unraveling the next row of bandage, not bothering to be slow around the back of the head but stopping at the edge of his face. Mello kept his eye on me, still scanning my face for any change in expression. I wouldn't let that happen again, though, no matter how bad it looked. The gauze didn't stick much with that row, and I could almost see his other eye now. I took a drag from my cigarette to hide the deep strained breath I was taking. Mello didn't seem to realize, so I kept going. This row didn't give me any problems, but I knew the next one would. I stopped again anyway, though, because now I could see Mello's other eye. It was closed, of course. The lid was scarred too, just like the rest of the area, though not as badly. For that I was thankful. Any worse and I'd probably see both Mello's eyes weather the scarred lid was closed or not…Now there's some incentive to not light a cig right before you fall asleep.

"…"

"…"

"Can…can you open it, Mello?"

"…N-no. It kind of hurts…" I could see Mello's eyelid move slightly, but it refused to obey his will.

"It's probably 'cause you haven't used it in the past week. Stupid freaking nurses…well, just leave it alone for the most part. Don't try to open it if it hurts." I said it more softly that I thought I would. Mello kept looking at me but nodded ever so slightly, so I continued to work gingerly at the bandages. They stuck at a few points, but worked with me for the most part. Finally, his face was completely visible and Mello looked at me for another moment before speaking.

"Well…?"

"Well…what?" I knew what Mello was asking. How bad does this look? I couldn't find it in me to tell him, or maybe I just didn't know how to put it into words. I felt pretty bad for him. There's no way he's getting rid of that scar any time soon. It ran from near the middle of his forehead down the left half of his face, just hardly missing his nose but just barely engulfing his left eye. I felt weird looking at it. It was like I was talking to a different person, even. He was visibly timid and even looked different now. Other than the scar, shirt and hair, there was just something missing that screamed "the raging asshole Mello isn't here at the moment, can I take a message?"

…Or was that raging asshole even there to begin with?

Mello wouldn't wait any longer for my response. He got up and walked over to the bathroom and flipped on the light as I followed behind him to throw the gauze and my cigarette away. I watched his reflection as he looked at himself in the mirror. I could see all the emotions he was feeling as his good eye clearly conveyed them. He was shocked at what had become of his face, I could tell. Then his gaze locked with that of his reflections, both giving each other a look that could only be described as "I have to live with this for the rest of my life. This is forever…" Finally, he brought a hand up to his face and gently caressed the area below his eye with three fingers. Then he looked at me as if he didn't realize I was there and quickly looked away, his breathing becoming audible and shaky.

"Matt, please leave me now." He said. His voice sounded even more strained and broken than when I first heard him in the hospital. He just asked me to leave him? Now? While he's like this? Don't get me wrong, I know people need their space when bad things happen. However, right now just didn't seem like the time for that. It didn't feel right to just leave him like this after all that happened today. But what else was there to do? I could only think of one thing, and I wasn't sure what kind of response I'd get, nor did I really care at that point.

"Mello."

"What?" was his quiet, defeated response. I didn't say anything. I leaned in and wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his right shoulder. Now this is the point where, if this were a romance novel or a shoujo manga, I'd say something like, "don't worry about it," or, "I love you for what's on the inside." I wasn't a big fan of that stuff, though. And on top of that, I was in such close contact with Mello, one of the most feared guys in school, without giving him any warning in advance. If I didn't feel like I was playing with fire when I supported him on the way home, or when I took off his gauze, I sure felt like that now.

I waited for a long time, refusing to move out of both my perseverance and fear. He just stood there, letting me hold on to him. It felt like several minutes had passed before he finally spoke.

"Matt…no…"

"Shhhh…" I said quietly, lifting my head so it was right by his ear, "just…just look at me." The sophomore hesitated but eventually obeyed and turned as I loosened my grip a little to let him. Our eyes met yet again and I tried to think of what to say next, hoping I wouldn't sound too stupid.

"Mello…It doesn't matter how you got that scar or how much of you it covers. You're you and that scar can never change that. Only you can." I added, "For what it's worth, it doesn't make me think any less of you, because of what you look like now. That scar will heal and become a part of who you are, but that doesn't mean you've become any less of a person. You aren't any less of anything, for that matter." I waited for his response.

"Matt…why are you saying and doing all these things for me? We hardly know each other."

"I…don't know." Was what I said. Even though I had a pretty good idea of why I could sympathize with him so well. We both have our scars. Neither of us wanted them. We're both hurting because of them…

Now it was Mello's turn to rest his head in the crook of my neck. He sighed deeply, his shoulder-length hair spilling in every which directing, some of it finding its way down my striped shirt and tickling my back. I remembered how whenever I was sad when I was a little kid, my parents would kiss me on the top of the head, so that's what I did. He didn't seem to mind, only hugging me tighter. After a few more minutes of hugging and back-patting, Mello felt well enough to make a request.

"Matt…go get my chocolate."

"What?"

"My chocolate. It's in my room, across the hall.

"Um, okay." Even though he was asking me to get it for him, he followed me into his room. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had similar tastes in style, as far as décor went. His walls were a light red color with red carpeting, and a black queen-sized futon with some other black furniture like dressers and a night stand, which is where his chocolate was. Oh and by 'same taste in décor' I meant 'same lack of a reason to care for it.'

As I looked around at his room and admired the size of it compared to my own, Mellow made a B line for his precious chocolate and unwrapped another bar. I heard him mutter "useless…" and smiled to myself. The blonde teen sat down on his futon, which looked more like an over-sized lawn chair with a cushion than a couch, and started tugging on his shirt again.

"Ah, do you want me to help you with the bandages on your back?"

"Nah, I've seen enough for one day," he said, but still he took his shirt off and threw it in his hamper. I couldn't help but notice his physique at this point. He was skinny, like me, but definitely more muscular. I wondered what he'd done to get like that. It couldn't have just been from all the fighting he'd done, could it? I was staring again, so I turned my head to look at a random dresser when he got up and left. He came back a few seconds later with his lap top and my water that I had bought but left in the living room Instead of giving it to me, though, he sat back down, opened it, and took a sip, eying me the whole time. I gave him a questioning look and he gave a sly smile.

"You want it back?" It took me a second, but before I had the chance to do the "right" thing and let the scarred kid have my drink, I realized something: this was a test. Mello wanted to see how much of what I said was the truth. He wanted to see if I'd drink from the same water bottle as a disfigured person and not make a big deal out of it like my speech kind of insinuated. Fine by me. I gave him a pleasant smile and walked over to him, taking the bottle with one hand and downed half of what was left. When my tongue accidentally touched the edge of the water bottle, I could taste the faintest hint of chocolate where Mello's lips had been. Then I was the one smirking at my own evil plot.

I sat down next to Mello, set the water down, pulled his hand that was now holding his chocolate bar close to my mouth, and stole a bite right where his own bite marks had been. I looked up at him, still smiling as the sweet chocolate hung out of my mouth slightly. The blonde boy was suddenly seething with near comical amounts of rage now. I found this amusing considering the circumstances, and spoke through the part of my mouth that wasn't occupied.

"Sweet revenge."

"That's taking it too far, Matt." His voice sounded both surprised and dangerous.

"What're you gon' do about it?" Mello considered this for a second, and then he gave me a sly grin with his teeth showing and reached his arm around to the back of my head, pulling my hair back so I was looking up at him with my whole face instead of just my eyes. I winced a little as he quickly closed the space between us and I swear I had a thousand different thoughts in that second of what he was gonna do.

The last thing I would have ever expected, though, was Mello actually taking back his chocolate, with his mouth. I my mind quickly came back to the situation at hand, and out of impulse I decided I wasn't going to let him have it that easy. I gripped the now melting object even harder with my teeth so he couldn't pull it away from me. Somehow in my worsening daze, I figured pulling back and away from him would win me my prize, but Mello followed suite, putting his hands on my shoulders and pushing me down onto the futon even quicker. He was glad to let me slip into a position that I failed to realize would give him dominance in this fight. I was still determined, though. My next strategy was to use my lips and teeth to pull the chocolate into my mouth, which I figured would be like a safe base. Mello quickly caught on and did the same thing, only quicker. If I wasn't so focused on our little war, I would've doubled over laughing at this boy's desperate attitude toward his sweets. It didn't take long for our lips to meet abruptly, the quickly melting chocolate now too soft for our teeth and lips to grasp. I was instantly reminded of that old movie about the dogs kissing because they didn't realize they were both eating the same strand of spaghetti, which brought me even quicker to my next realization.

We're kissing!

Not to mention, this is my first kiss on the lips, ever…!

I felt really embarrassed and tried to move my face away, but Mello noticed and immediately took his hands and placed them on either side of my head, holding it steady in place, not allowing this crazy awkward moment to end for some reason. Without his hands on my shoulders supporting him above me, his bare chest and torso were now what was pushing me into the futon, further reducing any chance of escape. His lips were still on mine, but I could feel a warm tongue swaying back and forth on my lips, being sure not to miss anything. Once he was done with that, he became more persistent, trying to force his way into my mouth, which now had a thick coating of completely melted chocolate, with his now impatient tongue. I shut my eyes and mouth as tight as I could and moaned desperately, trying to snap him out of his frenzy and make him realize that this was the 'too far' that he was talking about earlier. This only seemed to make him try even harder, though, and I found myself so nervous and light-headed that I finally gave in and let my lips relax.

Mello wasted no time taking what was his, making sure there wasn't a single drop of chocolate forgotten. I couldn't keep from shivering and I was getting more and more aroused by the second. Right when I thought I was gonna lose my mind he pulled away, satisfied with his work. We were both breathing heavily. While I still wasn't daring to sit up or even open my eyes, he was sipping from my water again and looking around him for his laptop.

Finally I mustered up the willpower to sit up and look at him. My face felt like it was on fire and I just felt so strange. I couldn't help but feel both mad and confused my Mello's rashness, and dared to question him on it.

"Why-…what did you do that for? Is chocolate really that important to you? Didn't you realize I was trying to pull away? I felt like I was gonna die!"

"Yeah." Came Mello's simple response. His eyes were on a window on the computer that showed what I presumed was his emails. He must not have gotten any that he wanted, because with a sigh, he shut the computer and pushed it aside so there was room for him to lay down again, god forbid he didn't have that same bar of chocolate that caused all this in his grasp again.

"Do you realize what that was? We kissed! More than that, we totally made out, Mello!"

"So what? You provoked me." At that, I just stared at him, dumbfounded. I was kind of glad he didn't notice I kind of liked it, or at least he didn't say it. My cheeks were still burning, though. I needed something to get my mind off all this. Then I remembered the portable game system I always carried on me and pulled it out. Thankfully I had remembered to charge the batteries today. As the start screen loaded, I could already feel myself beginning to relax. It was comforting to look at something so familiar when I'd just experienced something so foreign. Then Mello's voice brought me back to reality.

"What game are you playing?"

"Tetris."

"Can't see." Was he kidding? What the hell was I supposed to do about it? I sighed and leaned back so I was lying next to Mello, my head resting slightly on his arms that were crossed behind his head. I couldn't help but notice at this point that Mello even smelled like chocolate. 'Must be nice,' I thought, immediately feeling self-conscious about me and how I probably smelled like cigarettes right now. Mello watched me play without disturbing the sound of nothing but the beep's and bip's of the game for some time. It must have been at least a half hour later when he finally spoke.

"Y'know, you taste like cigarettes. And chocolate." I looked over at him. He seemed pretty damn pleased with his declaration. I could feel the unwanted burning come back to my cheeks in a heartbeat.

'God dammit! Do I...kind of like this...?'


Well there you go! Notice how the chapters keep doubling in length? XD Anyway, please continue to review, as it is the only way I have of knowing if this story is good enough or not! Plus it's your reviews that drive me to wanna write more~ ^_^