A/N: Ah yes, another lovely update. I'll have you know I risked the wrath of an infuriated stepmother to write my part of this, for I wasn't technically suppose to be on the CPU at the moment but she was outside power-washing the upstairs garage, so you better be freakin' grateful, kiddies! XDDD loljk. But we hope you do enjoy!
Matt's POV
Mello's shift did end at the same time, after all. We didn't have, um, any interactions, though. I'm not spiritual or something like that, but I fully believed that it was a good sign. It turned out to be true, since the following morning, I actually woke up on time.
I had a pleasant breakfast(cereal and a grape), which naturally sent me into a good mood. I mean, nothing beats cereal and a grape, right? Yeah. I even had enough time to play a bit on my PSP. It was a good day, so far.
Until the old lady with the cat happened, that is.
Remember when I said I was sorry for nearly running her over? I take that back. Her face can be scratched off by her cat and I wouldn't give a damn. I wouldn't think like that about others, because, really, who thinks, 'Oh, I just met this guy-DIE, DIE, DIE!' anymore? This old lady deserved a freakin' medal.
I was just searching for my keys when my doorbell rang. After almost burning myself with an iron(yeah, I iron my clothes, all right?) I opened the door to find Mrs. Pavlakovich standing there, smiling toothlessly with her fat tabby cat in her arms. Seriously, who could carry a cat that large and not tip over?
Apparently, her.
"Matt," Mrs. Pavlakovich croaked, "I've been running low in money lately, and my rent's due in three days. Would you mind helping a neighbor out?" She winked.
I prevented myself from blurting out, 'That was disgusting,' knowing she'd only sic her cat on me. Tch. As if a cat as fat as that would even be able to move out of her arms. "Um," I said uncertainly. "I've been having trouble, too, and..." I trailed off, trying to find an excuse. Whatever happened, I could not let her sway me to lending her money. First of all, she never paid back, and second, there was a new Final Fantasy game I'd been saving up for for months. I was not going to give it up for some damn cat-lady.
"Please, Matty?" Mrs. Pavlakovich almost pleaded. She looked at me with what were supposed to be puppy eyes, but came out all squinty. The cat in her arms hissed at me.
"N-no!" I stammered, hastily slamming the door shut on her face. Hyperventilating, I leaned against the door. I'd just saved myself from paying twice the amount for rent, but had signed up for mysteriously finding cat shit all over the carpet. You heard me, that old lady is crazy! She asks you to pay her rent for her, and if you don't, she somehow sneaks her cat into your living space so it could crap all over your floor.
Evil. Who knew so much evil could be contained in a small, wrinkly body? Ugh.
I finally found my keys laying in plain sight on the counter. I pocketed them, then cautiously peeked out the door. There was no Mrs. Pavlakovich stalking around, so I deemed the coast clear and walked out, trying to be quiet. I locked my apartment door in vain, knowing the crazy hag would manage to break in anyway. I turned to leave, caught a glance at the door, and groaned. Right there, next to my door, was a pile of brownish-greenish shit. Damn you, Mrs. Pavlakovich.
Careful to avoid the mess, I jogged down to my car. I knew I'd have to clean it up later, seeing as the landlord was too cheap to hire a maid. He did the cleaning himself. When he felt like it, that is, so that was never.
There was some rock song playing on the radio as I drove to my job, and I managed to belt out the lyrics with the singer. It helped with my mood a bit, and I found myself believing I could make it through my 7-11(okay, I took the four-hour shift again, I'm guilty...) shift. I was a few minutes early, I noticed as I parked in the spot closest to the entrance. Maybe L would finally get off my back about yesterday.
As I got out of my car and locked it, a voice said, "Hey, Nice-Ass," making me jump five feet in the air and three feet to the left. Having a good feeling of who it was, I turned around and found myself staring at Mello, who was smirking and leaning back against his motorcycle. Damn it, why didn't I see him before I parked?
"That's not my name," I said through gritted teeth. Fuck, why couldn't he just leave me alone?
Mello lifted his chin haughtily. "I know," he said, giving me a look that said, 'I know your name, but I think I like calling you Nice-Ass better.'
Bastard. "Well, I've gotta get to, um-" I gestured behind me to the mall, giving him one last look before spinning around and starting to walk briskly towards the building. Mello didn't harass me any further, instead choosing to walk after me.
"Oh, my gosh, your vest is, like, so fluffy!" a redheaded girl squealed, attacking me when I took my fourth step inside the mall.
"Uh, yeah," I said, trying to be subtle about prying her off of me. I was aware Mello was laughing, not bothering to stifle it as he stopped a few feet away, crossing his arms and smirking at me with that damn smirk. "Please get off!" I finally said, breaking the girl's death-grip around my waist. She stumbled back, eyes watering.
Randomly screaming, "Everybody hates me!" she ran off somewhere. Hm. As L would have probably said, she must be having her period.
Glaring once at Mello(still laughing, by the way), I stomped off to Justice without giving him any more attention.
"Good morning, Mattie!" Misa greeted, throwing her arms around me the second I entered the tween girl store. The cheery aura lessened my pissy mood a little.
"It's refreshing to see you here on time, Matt," L said. "Maybe Mello is a good influence on you." He glanced behind me, where I presumed Mello was standing. "I need to make a phone call, now, so please try not to come in my office unless totally necessary. Misa, you are in charge of keeping everyone in line."
Misa nodded, pigtails bouncing. "Yes, sir!" she said dutifully.
L, as always, took her seriously, nodding back with satisfaction. He retreated into the back office, making me wonder what he did back there besides 'working.' After all, he was L, genius extraordinaire. It didn't sound right that he'd take six hours to finish whatever he did.
Meh. Beats me. I had a job to do, anyway. I couldn't get distracted.
Right, I thought, pulling out my PSP and leaning back against the counter. No getting distracted.
Misa didn't mind that I gamed when I was supposed to be helping around the customers and never told L about it. She was actually really nice, once you get past her over-bearing and too energetic personality. Most of the time, I depended on her not to snitch on me whenever I was late or whenever I felt like going to the shop next door to get a lollipop. Strangely enough, all she asked for return was a hug.
Anyway, back to the present. I was clicking away at my handheld gaming device when suddenly I saw a flash of golden hair(and I still wanted to run my hands through it, damn it) and leather. I jolted backwards, slamming my thigh against the counter painfully.
Mello just laughed sadistically as he smoothly picked up a lip gloss from one of the boxes and glided away to whichever customer it was for. He enjoyed torturing me-wait, no, that's the biggest understatement of the year. He took pleasure in seeing me run away from me. Damn, was I some sort of entertainment to him? Jackass.
"Hey," a sultry voice whispered in my ear. The hairs in the back of my neck stood up, I swear, as I slowly wheeled around, slipping my PSP into my pocket.
"What?" I asked irately, wondering how the heck I was in such a good mood this morning and suddenly short-tempered within an hour. I blamed Mello.
I forced myself to focus on the person, only to find out in despair it was that perverted guy(the other one...not Mello) from two days or so back. His black hair was swept to the side, and I remembered from my photographic memory that he was still wearing the same checkered blue shirt and jeans. What, was he a hobo or something? Did he not have a home to come home to and shower and eat and change clothes in? Speaking of which, I totally feel for homeless gay people. They don't have closets to come out of.
"So, I broke up with my girlfriend," the guy said conversationally, smiling at me in an attempt at being seductive. "I'm free now. How about we go out tonight and grab some dinner?"
Okay, I'll admit he did look remotely hot. I might have said yes...if he hadn't tried to hit on me last time and epically failed (that and if I was gay, which I'm not…). Damn, I still could see him doing that stupid hair flip. Ha! "No thanks, I'm actually busy tonight," I told him, coming out from behind the counter to hang some shirt back on its hanger. I silently hoped he'd leave me alone. Weren't enough people perving on me already?
"My name's Jason," the guy said quickly, walking after me. As I busily hung the shirt, the perv's arms wrapped around my waist. "And I can give you the best damn ride of your-"
"No! For the last time, dude, no, and back off!" I shouted, interrupting him from saying the shittiest pick-up line ever. I turned around, scowling, fists clenched in case they were needed. I wasn't much of a fighter, but I knew a few moves from playing so many fighting games.
"Hey, come on," Jason chided, trapping me in between the rack and his body, bigger than me in mass.
I was going to scream "Rape!" when suddenly I found another pair of lips pressing against mine. The kiss was disgustingly sloppy, and he forced me in place while he tilted his head to kiss deeper. Dear god, I wanted to die on the spot.
When Jason finally pulled away, he grinned. "Change your mind?" he asked, tugging on my sleeve a little.
I could only gape at him, seeing Misa staring in shock, to our left, too, with Mello by her side. The unfamiliar taste of nicotine flooded my taste buds and I shoved Jason back, kicking him where the sun don't shine. When he groaned and stumbled back, holding his crotch blatantly, I ran out of the store, past a frozen Misa, to the nearest bathroom.
I barreled through the door, almost forgetting to push instead of pulling. I ran past two guys in the midst of peeing, straight towards the an unoccupied stall and not bothering to shut it behind me. Not a second later, the contents of my stomach emptied itself into the toilet. I puked again once or twice, then flopped back tiredly against the stall, feeling like I'd been trampled by a bull and pissed on by a goat.
Nicotine never was a good thing for me. I tried smoking when I was dared at sixteen years old. I reluctantly sucked in the poison into my mouth, and instead of smoothly exhaling the smoke, I sent myself into a coughing fit and somehow almost had an asthma attack. After that, I never went near a cigarette ever again. I guess the suddenness of the nicotine just surprised my stomach. That, and cereal doesn't really taste good with nicotine. It didn't matter. I was just glad I didn't need to be sent to the hospital.
I drew my knees in to my chest, taking calm breaths. The bathroom was now empty except for my breathing, meaning that the two other guys had fled when they heard me retching. However, there was the sound of the bathroom door being swung open, and the click clack of boots against the white-tiled floors. Seconds passed and I heard the stall door being pushed open. I blearily opened an eye.
And of course, who'd be standing there in his glorious, leather-clad self other than Mello?
Mello's POV
What the fuck is this!
Okay, wait, let me rewind really quick. Today, before that what-in-the-name-of-the-sweet-lord-is-going-on moment I mentioned briefly, had been a pretty good day, considering the circumstances. I woke up nice and early and had time to jog around the neighborhood, and despite almost getting hit by a car and having my ritual scream-out argument with that old man across the street, it had been a pretty good walk in it's essence. So I got to work in a good mood; I worked in a few half-friendly teases with Matt, all of which made him squeal and run for the hills (you should have seen him in the parking lot, cutest fucking thing ever when he's startled, seriously!) but none the less entertained me. Misa had somehow managed throughout the day to be semi-decent, and actually turned out to have a pretty good sense of fashion (we had an almost hour long conversation about Lolita wear over a box of chocolates… don't even fucking laugh); I got flirted with by a few girls (three), all of which I managed to go pale within the first two seconds; I also got flirted with by a gay guy, who was actually pretty cute but his flirting was obnoxious so I turned him down - besides, I had the distraction of Nice-Ass to think about, and…
Anyway. My point here is that I wasn't really expecting this day to take such a turn for the worse.
Here I was, standing around and listening to Misa blurt random shit in my ear (like I said, semi-decent) and preparing to cut her off and hurry away to help a customer who didn't really look like she needed assistance, when that happened. By that I mean the pervy guy.
At first, it was funny. This total emo guy who looked like he just walked out of Hot Topic and bought all the wrong clothes, then spent seven hours doing his hair in the men's restroom only to have it flop in that same position, walks in and I'm like 'what a douche, no way he shops here.' And I was right, of course, and I fully expected him to go flirt with Misa (as most guys who walk in do) but instead he walks right up to the cash register.
And then starts flirting with Matt.
Okay, okay, I admit it. I got a little possessive. A little tiny voice in my head was screeching that is YOUR ASS, go take it back! But of course I didn't, because A) kind of really not my business in reality and B) it was actually pretty hilarious to watch. Poor tortured soul he was, I could seriously see the hair on the back of his neck rise when that guy snuck up on him. And I was semi-pleased when he turned around, obviously expecting me at first, and his face went even paler, meaning more than likely he liked me more than this guy (small victory, I know, but shut your mouth).
But then things got creepy. Matt went trotting away when the guy was obviously flirting with him (and clearly doing a pretty bad job of it) and the guy followed him. In fact he followed him all the way across the room and started getting all close-and-personal in his face. And I was like um, okay, that's creepy but whatever… not my problem, right? But oh, no, he just had to take it further.
The guy, out of seemingly no where, leaned over and starts kissing him. No, seriously. You should have heard Misa's gasp, it was loud even over the pounding Hannah Montana in the background (sooo not the time for Nobody's Perfect, Hannah!) Matt clearly wasn't thrilled about it either, since his eyes got really wide and as soon as the kiss ended he looked ready to die. Oh, that and he kicked the guy in the crotch.
Insert inner happy dance here.
While perv-guy was hopping around and holding his crotch, much to the amusement of me and the group of giggling pre-teen girls hiding behind the plaid skirts. Matt must have been really traumatized, though, because he turned tails and literally sprinted into the men's bathroom.
Now, let me tell you, I am perfectly aware that following him into the bathroom was completely beyond anything I should have done. Completely out of bounds for a clearly-gay guy to do, right? Something I would never do, right?Apparently, no. I found my legs moving against my will to follow him, blatantly following him towards the bathroom. The only voluntary thing I was doing as I made my way there was to shove Perv-Guy over while he was bent over in pain, sending him falling into a middle-aged woman, who had no mercy and blatantly smacked him across the face. I didn't have the concentration to take pleasure in that, though, not then.
No. Right then I had full attention on striding into the bathroom chasing after Matt, who had disappeared into the inside of said restroom. Just as I was approaching the door - cautiously, of course, because my kind aren't always exactly welcome in such felicities if you catch my drift - two teen guys shot out of the room, laughing and whispering to one another as they quite rudely bumped past me. Any other time I would have paused for a moment to shove my boot up their skinny asses, but not then. Right then… well, I have no reason to repeat what I was doing. Instead, of kicking them I kicked open the door, ignoring the way it slammed against the bathroom wall.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. It, quite frankly, smelled like vomit, which would more than likely be why the two boys made a run for it.
The second thing I noticed was Matt.
I freely admit it - as soon as I saw him, my heart dropped. He had left the stall door hanging open, bent awkwardly over the toilet bowl having just vomited into said toilet. He was shaking just slightly, obviously in a state of shock, suddenly looking very frail and small where he sat, hands pressed to the edge of the toilet seat. He wasn't heaving anymore, which was good, but instead he was simply sitting there, trembling, as if he was afraid to move from said spot.
I started to take a few steps forward almost involuntarily when he suddenly turned around, looking up at me with wide, bleary eyes, barely visible behind his goggles. I knew instantly by the way he looked at me that he wasn't freaking out just because some guy kissed him, because he was literally having some sort of mini-breakdown on the bathroom floor. Yet somehow, the only word that came coherent in my mind in that split second of eye-contact was beautiful.
"What do you want?" he croaked out after a moment of silence, resurrecting me from my odd train of thought. He was looking slightly defensive now, though not altogether repellant. Or maybe he did, but I ignored it either way, taking another step forward.
"You alright?" I heard myself ask, bending down and balancing on the balls of my feet, looking quite a bit like L sat as I did, really just not wanting to get on the bathroom floor in my leather pants.
Matt looked at me with slight bewilderment, as if he couldn't believe I would actually give a shit, before glaring at me and replying, "I just vomited, got sexually harassed, and had one of my worst memories come back into my head thanks to some random jackass I don't even know. Do I look like I'm okay?" His voice was snappish, at the end of it's wits, as if he was simply looking for anyone, anything, to attack in his frustration. I understood the feeling perfectly.
Slowly, he stood up, his entire body tensed. I quickly got up after him, standing semi-hesitantly in front of him. It was awkward standing there, especially since he made no move to go past me, instead just staring at me, as if questioning my existence.
"Well, you're being ridiculous," someone blurted. Oh, wait, fuck, that was my voice. Matt's eyes widened in surprise from behind the goggles, clearly not expecting that response. But the words had leapt to my mouth, and like hell if I wasn't going to finish. "All the guy did was kiss you, Nice-Ass, you don't have to freak out completely."
Matt's glare unexpectedly took a turn as those words escaped my lips, though, instead collapsing into a bitter kind of dejectedness. "You don't understand," he whispered raspily, shoving his hands into his pockets somberly. "Don't try to."
I found myself freezing up as he brushed passed me, heading towards the sinks. Just as the last bit of fabric from his shirt brushed past my fingertips, though, I spun around, grabbing his wrist. He yelped in surprise as I jerked him back, sending him stumbling half-way against me, head spinning around to stare at me with wide eyes behind slightly-crooked goggles. I caught him around the waist with one arm, keeping the other hand clutching his wrist a bit too tightly.
I never planned on doing anything then. By walking after him into the men's restroom I never once intended on making any sort of move, or of farther teasing/stalking/flirting-with him. I had come after him solely in attempt to be nice or maybe comfort or help him (or rather because my legs moved on their own, but that had been the intention I assume).
But in that moment it didn't matter. All rational thoughts left my mind, replaced only by the helpless kind of look on his face and the random possessiveness that was screaming in the back of my mind. I didn't hear the warning bells going off in the back of my mind as I released his wrist, grip still around his waist to hold him still as my hand slid up his chest, stopping to caress his cheek gently.
"U-uh?" Matt managed brilliantly, lips trembling just slightly. His gaze was screaming no, but his body made no move to stop me as I leaned forward. What expression I had on my face right then I hadn't a clue.
"You shouldn't take things so seriously," I whispered, tangling my fingers in his hair. Before he had the chance to register what I had spoken I found myself leaning forward, closing the distance between our lips just gently, careful not to be too rough or forceful. I'm not really sure why I was so gentle or careful, since I hardly knew the kid, but the result was electrifying.
For a second, I forgot he was a stranger. I forgot the lust, or whatever it was I felt for him, wasn't mutual. Just a tiny split second, and all thoughts in my mind were irrational, focused on the moment alone. Focused on the softness of his lips as mine moved against his, a chaste but blissful contact. He neither kissed me back nor shoved me away, frozen yet warm against my lips, my hands still firmly placed against him, one tangled in his hair and one firmly around his waist. His own arms were still shoved awkwardly in his pockets. I wasn't once tempted to go any further, the moment seeming like an hour in my mind, and….
Then I remembered what I was doing, and I moved away, feeling an irrational blush leap to my cheeks despite myself. He stared at me with wide orange-tinted eyes, hand flying from his pocket automatically to rest on his lips. Matt was blushing too, major in fact, cheeks burning a rosy pink that made his few almost-unnoticeable freckles stand out in an extremely adorable fashion.
After a moment of bewildered silence, Matt scowled at me. "Why the fuck did you kiss me?" he cried, voice shrill and disbelieving, hand still placed lightly on his lips.
I chuckle and lean forward, so close that our noses are nearly brushing, and I feel a Cheshire-cat grin spread across my features as I retort, "Because I wanted to, Nice-Ass."Matt gasped, grabbing my shoulder roughly and throwing me backwards. He didn't shove me very hard, so all it accomplished was for me to take a few stumbling steps backwards, but it was enough for him to bolt around me and make a break for it, escaping out the bathroom doors with an audible mutter of 'pervert' under his breath.
Really, by the horrified way he reacted to it, I should have felt sad, or at least a little disappointed that he seemed so humiliated by my actions. But instead, the only thoughts that entered my mind were he looks so cute when he blushes.
Guess I'm a pervert after all.
A/N: Oh how I loved writing this chapter~ oyes. This one's a teeny bit short, but at least there was a kiss, right? XD of course, Matt didn't exactly react the way you might have hoped, fan girls, but don't worry - this is a romance (right?) Anyway I hope you laughed as hard as I did (inwardly or outwardly regardless) when Atreyl and I were planning this story XDD