Part 4: Mat

I grinned, chuckling as Mario dropped into the penguin's house. ..The irrationally oversized penguin's house. No penguin gets that big, really. And Mello snickered at its size. "What is that thing, on steroids?" He laughed.

I laughed, too. "He was with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and lingered a little too long in the cartridge." ....Blank stare from Mello. He had absolutely no clue as to what I was talking about, and it was blatantly apparant in the blond's expression.

"Nevermind." I shook my head, and made Mello make Mario speak to the penguin for the race. It wasn't really too hard, but since Mello had no experience whatsoever with games.. at all.. it would be really hard for him. And actually, me reaching over him the way I was would make it hard for me to help him. "Wait a sec. Here." I tugged the cushion from beside me and plopped it onto the floor in front of me. "Sit here. It'll be easier. This part's actually pretty hard if you don't know what you're doing." It wasn't an insult, and he couldn't argue. He knew he had no idea what he was doing. So, with a sigh, he sat between my legs with the controller, leaning back against the couch. I leaned down a bit, his head resting against my chest as I placed my hands over his again. I hoped he couldn't tell that my pulse was going a little quicker than normal.

I sighed and bit my lip, wondering if I should take him through the little shortcut or not... (Well.. it was MY game, anyway.. 1Ups FTW. Shortcut = yes.) "You ready?" He nodded, and I began the race. Down the icy slide, with that asshole penguin on my tail. (Cheating bastard. Srsly.) (I use too many parentheses.) (So sue me.) (Jk.) (X.x;;) (p *.*)p q( *.*q) Go, Kirby. Shake ya tailfeather.

Anyway. (Distraction FTW.) Mello and I were racing the penguin, when I became rather highly aware of the position we were in. It was nice. I liked it. Comfortable, in an almost sweet way. And I very much liked having my arms around him. He was crazy to be in a tank top like this in late December, even in the house. It still got cold. I decided to address this.

"Where's that blanket you had? You're not cold at all?" I mumbled as we continued down the slide. Almost to the end. Fuck you, penguin bitch. We're winning! Mello moved his head a little, almost looking at me before looking back to the game. "Uh.. the blanket's in my room. I'm not really too cold, no.."

Not really? No? Sounded uncertain to me. I rose an eyebrow. I didn't want him to be even a little cold. I hoped he wouldn't think it was suggestive at all as I paused the game and nudged him forward, slipping from the couch to sit behind him. Now my back was against the couch and my arms were around his arms, to keep him warm. That's all. Just to keep him warm. Not gonna mention the fact that it was totally a bonus to practically have him in my lap. I felt his body stiffen completely against me. ...Well... apparantly he was a little uncomfortable with this? I hoped not.. maybe he was just surprised or something? Well, whatever. I unpaused the game and we continued toward the end of the slide. When he realized I wasn't going to budge, he relaxed against me, his back to my chest. Since he couldn't see me, I smiled. This was very nice. I wished we could just be like this all the time. Mello and me.. and the floor.. and Super Smash Brothers. (I can dream.) [If u haz a problem with my parentheses I can haz brackets.] (x.x Sorry.)

I yawned, completely unthinking as I let my breath out in a little gust from the action. It went right across Mello's neck, and I thought I felt him shiver. My eyebrow rose. ...Really? Damn. Too bad I couldn't test that. ...Well, I could, if I wanted to wake up with bruises...

We beat the penguin and I got two 1Ups and Mello yawned as well. Time for bed. We finished our food and said our goodnights, slipping into our separate rooms. Mello mentioned going decoration shopping tomorrow. So it seemed I would have to rest up. I turned off my light, laying my head down as I hugged a pillow close. ..Like I said. I can dream, right?

* * * * * * * * * *

The next day found Mello and I store-hopping, purchasing colored lights, blue icicle lights, tree ornaments and even a tree.. which took a FUCKING LOT of persuasion and a canvas before I agreed to put it on my roof. (If there is ANYTHING wrong with my paint job, so help me..)

Well, we got it all home safely, and our day of decorating began. First, we set up the tree in the living room so the branches could settle. We'd decorate it either later or tomorrow.. whenever it happened to be ready. We placed the ornaments beneath the tree so they wouldn't get lost, and then it was time for the light fest. Both Mello and I had agreed that we did not want those big, old-fashioned bulbs. We got the thin multi-colored ones. The ones that blink, flicker, do some funky pattern thing, or keep a steady stream. I was already contemplating ways to drive him crazy with them... alternating the lighting patterns. Hehehe..

I was pulling all the lights out of the boxes, setting them in orderly bunches around the living room as Mello looked around, contemplating how we should fix the lights.

"We can string them around the doorways and along the floorline... How many do we have? We could do that and - Oh, the tree needs lights, too! We got tinsel, right?"

I looked at him. Man.. he was so excited about this. ...Cute. "Yeah, Mel, we got tinsel, and we've got lights to decorate ourselves and our neighbors if you wanna play with the lights. Don't forget we've got those other ones too, though. The icicle ones." He nodded, looking to the ceiling. I rose an eyebrow. Dangling lights from the ceiling would probably not be the best idea. Mistletoe, however...

Like he would.

I had the lights all pulled out, and he chose to start with the icicle lights, stringing them along the ceiling above the doorways to our bedrooms. And then we put a string each in our own rooms. And some of the multicolored lights. (R4v3 in my r00m, y0. Sweet. Colored ghetto strobes ftw.)

I managed to talk him out of lining the apartment with the lights on the floor and whatever crap he'd been talking about, and we instead were able to come up with some really cool drapery patterns that looked.. well... pretty, and symmetrical. (He has this thing with symmetry.) (Yes, I'm using parentheses again. Mind your business.) (Pretend they're mun bubbles if it makes you feel better.)

Well, anyway. I liked it. It looked cool. And symmetrical. We had three strings draping like an expensive web drop necklace along the middle of the living room wall with little snowflake pendants keeping them pinned up at each drop point, and icicle lights along the entrance to the kitchen. The tree stood in the corner of the living room, almost ready to be decorated by the time we were done with the rest of the house. ((Which took a lot of time and fiddling. And cussing.))

It was already starting to get a little dark outside, despite that it was only late afternoon, so we turned off all the lights in the house to try out the ones we'd put up.

"..Woah, cool." Mello grinned, nodding appreciatively. And it was. Our apartment lit up like... A light show. And it looked good. Definitely kind of romantic. I couldn't help thinking that a lady would approve of the decor. Not that a lady would see it. Mello would totally murder me if I even thought of bringing a woman here around this time. ..Not that I would. I stole a peek at Mello in the dim light. I couldn't see him too well with my goggles on in the near-dark, but I could see him well enough. Smiling proudly at our decorating. Looking like an angel with the colors tinted in my goggles. This Christmas would be almost perfect. Almost, because even though I'd be spending it alone with Mello... it's not like anything "romantic" would even happen. Maybe we could play video games again. Then I could at least have him in my arms for a little bit. ((And my lap. Don't forget in my lap. O BB.))

But you know what? ..I could.. at least try..? Maybe if I hinted at it enough, he'd ..? Y/N? Abort? Fuck it, I'm going for it. And so, after he remarked about how cool it looked, I nodded.

"Oh, yeah. Totally romantic, Mello. I'm impressed. Who are you having over? This better be for me, or I'm gonna get jealous." I grinned, smirking at him. And to my surprise (only a little surprised, since we usually fling remarks back and forth,) his reply was, "Oh, yeah, Mat. You'd better like it. I'm gonna decorate with your clothes next." What?? Off my body, I hope? Meow, baby. Go right ahead...