A/N: Yay! A fast update, spurred by the reviews from you lovely people. Special thanks to lul wut? (anonymous reviewer XD), SistaOSCA (who wins the internet for imagining Mello as Frank'n'Furter; I used to have a DN/Rocky Horror Parody lined up), dull spork, and Yumiaria.
Yumiaria was also the first person to get the fairly obvious chapter challenge: the initials of Mello and Matt's aliases correspond to the initials of their real names (Mihael Kheel is Melanie King, Martin Jones is Mail Jeevas). Congrats! You win a virtual cookie and my undying respect.
This chapter's challenge is somewhat harder: What is the significance of the 8-digit combination that Matt enters into his phone? Or, the bonus point: Which musical is Mello (read: the author) referencing when he says "Whatever Kira wants, Kira gets"?
Happy reading!
D
3 – Whatever Kira Wants
"Oh!" Mello exclaimed upon stepping into the ballroom. "There's the giant picture of Kira. I was wondering when that would show up."
Matt glanced to where Mello was staring (with barely masked disdain) and saw that there was, indeed, a blown-up picture of the politician's smiling face on the opposite wall, under a rather garish red and white banner reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Matt didn't know if it was just his opinion of the guy or what, but that smile seemed a little menacing, perhaps a bit creepy. At least he's a young, good-looking guy, Matt thought as a grudging consolation. I'd hate to have to stare at some old geezer the entire night. As faces go, Yagami's isn't too bad. If you can forget who he is, that is, or ignore the pure narcissism of him superimposing his face on a wall.
"He looks good," Matt said.
"I know," Mello agreed, rolling his eyes so subtly that only Matt would catch it. "A party isn't a party unless there's a giant picture of Kira on the wall. That's what I think."
"I'm glad you agree," said someone standing behind them. "I thought it was a good idea, too."
Matt and Mello spun around to come face-to-face with a dark man in a dark suit. Or rather, almost face-to-face—more like forehead-to-nose—as the man was quite tall, a couple of inches taller than Mello in his heels. The man wore glasses and had the distinct appearance of someone who took things far too seriously, and yet, he somehow wore it well. He was also strikingly good-looking; Kira liked surrounding himself with young, attractive, intelligent, capable people. Matt recognized this guy for who he was almost immediately.
"Mr. Teru Mikami?" Mello squeaked. Yes, squeaked. Matt wasn't quite sure how he'd managed it. "I can't believe it's you! I've so admired your work under the Kira administration." Matt looked at him in surprise—Mello was gazing at Mikami in a way that could almost be called flirtatious, which was quite a feat, seeing as Mello probably actually wanted to pull out his pistol and shoot the man on the spot.
Mikami, however, didn't seem to notice anything either way. "Charmed, I'm sure. And, you two are…"
"Jones. Martin Jones," Matt said, falling back on his default "In a tux, I am James Bond" mode. He shook hands with Mikami, a firm handshake, which was appropriate, because this man was second to only Kira himself. "And this is my…my friend, Melanie King."
"Oh yes. I remember your names from when I read over the guest list." He held his hand out to Mello.
"We were just admiring the décor," Mello remarked casually, taking Mikami's hands warmly in both of his own. Matt was amazed at Mello's self restraint: he did not, in fact, seize the man's wrist, flip him over, and point a gun at his head, as he would have at any other time. "I think it suits the occasion."
"Thank you," Mikami said. "Kira left me to plan his party."
"You did well." Mello kept trying to make direct eye-contact with Mikami, which was annoying Matt a little bit, particularly because of the way Mello had tilted his head to the side and started fiddling with his hair. "He must hold a lot of trust in you, if he left you to organize all of this."
"Well, I hope he enjoys it." The statement sounded perfectly sincere, and Matt took note of the way Mikami's hands fidgeted slightly—he obviously cared quite a lot about what Kira thought of him. He'd go far that way.
"Oh, I think he will," Mello fawned. "Especially the picture. He isn't here yet?"
"Kira prefers to be fashionably late," Mikami recited. "If you'll excuse me, I think I just saw the ambassadors from United Kingdom walk through the door." He inclined his head. "It was nice to meet you both."
"Likewise," Matt said. He waited until Mikami was very far out of earshot, then grabbed Mello's arm and whispered, "What do you think you're doing?"
"What are you talking about, Martin?" Mello asked, looking innocent. "I was just being friendly. He seems like a nice man. A little uptight."
"Don't play coy with me, you little—oh God, this is so wrong." Matt let Mello go and pressed his hand to his forehead. "You were very obviously flirting with him, Mel. And your voice is so good that it's starting to creep me out."
"What? Are you jealous?"
"Of your voice?"
"No, you twit. Of Mikami."
Matt snorted. "No. Although it wouldn't be out of place if you did flirt with your date a little more."
"Well, tough luck." Mello smiled. "I was just warming up on him, anyway. Making sure I could stay in character around people I absolutely loathe. But now…" He held up his handbag. "I'm going to go find the bathroom. I'd rather have my gun on me than in this thing. It's much safer."
"Make sure you go into the Ladies' Room, okay? Otherwise, there might be some complications," Matt teased, and Mello rolled his eyes and stalked off.
Great. Now that he was alone, he had a little bit of work to do. He couldn't let Mello have all the fun.
He'd modified his cell phone just for this occasion. He pulled it out of his to make sure it could receive the signals from Mello's earrings. Entering in the preprogrammed 8-digit combination on his keypad (1-2-1-3-1-9-8-9), he pressed the phone to his ear, and heard a female someone, who was not Mello, say, "Excuse me."
"Well, if you were just watching where you were—I mean, excuse me." Matt smiled. That was Mello. He pressed the pound key and got an image of an indignant- looking young woman slightly obscured by fine strands of blonde hair. Perfect. All systems go.
Feeling pretty pleased with himself, he strode towards the window and lit a cigarette. Everything had gone smoothly so far, but he still needed to calm his nerves a bit, because goddammit if he didn't notice how a lot of the men in the room had looked at Mello when he'd walked in. And they weren't funky lady-looks-like-a-dude kind of looks, they were "Wow, who is that?" kind of looks. Funny? Yes. Unnerving? Yes. Somewhat aggravating? Definitely. Matt didn't own Mello, no one owned Mello, but if Mello kept acting the way he had with Mikami, Matt would have to pick him up, throw him in the limo, take him home, and teach him that just because he was wearing a dress, he did not have license to go around, flirt with every guy, get hit on, and enjoy it.
He wasn't sure how Mello would take that—not well, probably—and Matt would never actually have the guts to do it, but the thought made him smile anyway.
"Hey, Bond comma James," someone called, and he looked up to see Mello waking back towards him. "As much as I approve of you getting ash on Kira's pretty potted plants, I wouldn't like us to get thrown out for you smoking indoors."
Sighing, Matt flicked his cigarette butt into the nearest pretty potted plant. "You look good," he said. "Where'd you put the gun? I can't see it."
Mello raised an eyebrow. "That's for me to know and you not to find out."
Oh. So that's how it is. Well, of course it was, because the only way to find out where Mello hid the thing would be to forcibly remove his dress. Which would, again, not go over well, and probably result in Matt getting shot.
"What were you doing all this time, anyway? Being generally useless?" Mello asked.
"No…just…waiting for our guest of honor to arrive."
"Well, I don't think you'll have to wait any longer," Mello said, indicating the door with a perfectly girlish gesture. "He's here."
Matt looked over his shoulder and saw that Kira was, indeed, there. He was too far away to see properly, but it looked as if he was accompanied by a small blonde Barbie doll. That would be Misa Amane, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, part-time model/singer/actress. Why on-again, off-again? Well, everyone knew Light Yagami was a philanderer, hell, Misa probably knew, but she either loved him or loved his position enough to somehow ignore it. Judging from the way she was clinging to his arm…
"Hey," Mello said suddenly. "Did you bring any chocolate?"
Matt reached into his inside jacket pocket. He'd known Mello would need some when he saw Kira. "Here you go," he said, handing it over.
"My hero," Mello said,with a hint of bitter sarcasm. He tore the wrapper off and tossed it over with Matt's cigarette, then snapped off a piece of chocolate as if he were snapping Light Yagami's neck.
"Um," Matt began, trying to be heard over Mello's fervent munching. "You probably shouldn't eat all of that. I think they're going to serve dinner now that our friend Kira is here."
"Screw that. I'm not hungry," Mello snapped, taking another bite of his chocolate bar and glaring across the room.
"Okay…" Mello wasn't making much sense. This was a bad sign. "Mel. Pay attention. Remember what you said about staying in character?"
"Fuck character. I have a gun, and he has a face that's just begging to be blown off."
"And he has tons of bodyguards over there, Mel! Look at them all!" Matt sighed. "Look, as much as I hate to say it, you're not going to be able to shoot him unless you can get him alone. And you're not going to be able to get him alone unless you can use your…um…feminine wiles." Mello transferred his glare to Matt, who sighed and put his hands on his friend's shoulders. "I just don't want you to get killed, okay? You've done so well this far, Mel. I know you can get close to Kira without shooting him. You managed to carry on a conversation with Mikami, it can't be too much harder. So come on. Let's go sit down, and eat dinner, and keep a cool head."
"Mmnh."
"Please?"
Mello's expression softened. "If you insist," he said, reverting back to his more feminine voice. "I suppose I'll have to pull through it as best I can."
"That's my girl." Matt slipped an arm around his waist. "Just act natural. In a manner of speaking."
As they walked towards the tables, Mello mumbled, "By the way, I'll have you know my feet are killing me."
"That means the shoes are doing their jobs," Matt replied, glancing at the table with the place cards. "Let's see, we're at…table 13. That's towards the front. You up for the walk, Princess?"
Mello's strides suddenly became a lot straighter. Apparently, he was determined to show Matt that, yes, he could do this, and, no, he was not a princess. Not one bit.
Their table gave them a clear vantage point of the main, rectangular table, set in a line in front of the giant picture of Kira's face. Kira himself was in the middle of the table, between Amane and Mikami, and, now that Matt could see him, he thought that he looked much better in real life than he did on that canvas. Light Yagami was very young to be ruling the world, and his eyes sparkled with a demonic brilliance. His hair was brown, and flatteringly cut around his face, and the man himself was fit and tan and well-dressed. It was incredible how his looks didn't give away any indication of his ruthlessness, except, perhaps, his eyes, which seemed cold and unexpressive. He did smile as he addressed everyone, but Matt didn't like his smiles. They were too calculated. Everything about him was too calculated. Matt glanced at Mello and saw that he was smiling at Kira, his mortal enemy, without any hint of distaste.
The food was served, but Matt, between bites of potato and cod, noticed that Mello barely touched it. He was too busy looking at Yagami, trying to catch his eye. And hell if it wasn't working. With Misa on his left and Mikami on his right, Matt was surprised that the guy wasn't completely monopolized. But he somehow found a way to look right back at Mello. And keep looking.
That was when Matt started second-guessing himself. Not about whether Mello could do this, no, Mello seemed entirely capable. But could Matt let him do this?
"Hey, Mel."
"Quiet, I'm being friendly."
A pause. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"Oh, I know." Mello smirked. "Look."
Light was motioning to Mikami while Amane, evidently, was trying to chatter his ear off. He whispered something to his second-in-command, who nodded, stood up, said something else to someone at the side, and then approached Mello and Matt's table. Matt gawked.
"Hello, Mr. Mikami," Mello said, smiling politely. "Can I help you?"
Of course you can help him. You know damn well what's going on, Matt thought. "Is there a problem?" he asked out loud.
"Oh, there's no problem," Mikami said cordially. "Kira would like to invite you to join us at the Head Table." He indicated the spots next to Amane where two chairs were being brought in.
"And whatever Kira wants, Kira gets," Mello whispered to Matt. "We'd be honored. Lead the way."
Uh-oh. Sounds like things are getting a little serious on the Kira-catching front. And how about that Mikami, eh? Well, you know the drill, folks. R&R, and you get to see what happens when Beauty meets the Beast. See you then!
