Hey Guys! Sorry for the long wait. I got some writers block x.x Also things have been pretty hectic since I JUST STARTED HIGH SCHOOL TODAY! :D I'm hoping that now that I'm an official high-schooler it'll be easier for me to write a fanfic that takes place in High School...yeah. Anyway, just a funny thing, but my new language arts teacher was going over electronics rules, and said "Oh by the way, last year I had one guy student, and he was trying to play his Nintendo DS in my class!" DOES MATT GO TO MY SCHOOL! I wish! Then I could just follow him and Mello around for inspiration, but alas, I must work with what I am given. Oh, yeah! Thank you, Jess, for showing me around and being there to encourage me to finally write this chapter, I'd be very, very lost without yooh~. So without further Adieu ~

You've Seen My Scars, Now Show Me Yours

Slowly, I began to recognize the strange feeling on parts of my body as warmth. I opened my eyes, still a little drowsy and glad the only lighting in the room was the sunshine coming from the window behind me. First I saw hair, then I saw a soft green throw blanket, then I saw my arms, wrapped around Mello's abdomen. The greatest threat to society our High School had ever seen, or so I had thought.

…and I was spooning with him?

I panicked a little, and felt my leg twitch involuntarily, clueing me in to the fact that my left leg was between Mello's two legs and my right leg was under it all. 'Seriously?' I thought to myself, 'what is this madness and how do I get out of it alive?' It was only a matter of time before the blonde woke up and noticed the position we were in. I mean, we didn't do anything. Last I remember, I set the game down for a few minutes to give my eyes a break from the small screen and I must have fallen asleep. I've been known for jostling around in my sleep, and even falling off the bed a few times, but never this. 'Oh man, how mad would Mello be? Actually, will he even be mad? He did kiss me last night…but that was just for the chocolate…'

"Nnn, does this mean you're awake, yet?" If I wasn't already frozen from fear of my current situation, his voice did the trick. I considered pretending I was still sleeping to buy time, but I figured that wouldn't do any good.

"Uh, y-yeah I'm awake now, I just woke up…" I felt stupid saying that while still not letting go of him. But it was one of those situations, how do I explain…? Kind of like when your mom tells you to get up for school in the morning and you know you'll be late if you don't get up, but there's just something keeping you from moving because you're so damn comfortable…well that and the fear of making any sudden moves made up my current predicament.

filled with both fright and tiredness. "Are you still cold? You're heart just sped up to a mile a minute…" At this point I finally let go and untangled my legs from his. My face was burning and I noticed that it was true. My heart was racing and it was so noticeable that Mello either heard it or felt it through his back. I looked down, not knowing what to do or just how to feel.

"No, I'm not…cold." I realized that any part of me that wasn't touching Mello really was cold. Freezing, in fact. Aside from my still-burning cheeks, not even the cozy throw blanket was enough to shield me from the crisp late-November air.

"The minute you put your game down, you started nodding off. You were shivering, though, so I went and got a blanket from the closet. Guess that wasn't good enough, though," Mello said with a slight smirk. I couldn't help but feel a little pissed at him.

"That wasn't my fault," I said, propping myself up on an elbow, "I was sleeping, and it's cold in here! I mean jeez…" I trailed off. The sudden movement had given what felt like all the cold in Antarctica to crawl across my body. I made a face and let the arm that wasn't holding me up shoot to my chest, feeling for the familiar fabric of my shirt. It was so cold it felt like I wasn't wearing anything. Thankfully, though that wasn't the case. Relieved, I pulled the blanket off me, checking for my pants, next…

Mello watched the whole time, letting the blanket slide off him as well when I moved it. "You don't really think I'd take off your clothes and do something like that while you're sleeping, do you?" Well actually, you are a heavy enough sleeper…"

Hearing this made me stop, and I looked up at him with my most incredulous face. "That's not what I was thinking about, but thanks for putting the thought in my head." 'You sick freak!' I added mentally. Even though I was sure Mello was teasing me, was it really necessary to be doing it during such a delicate situation?

"Oh? Then what were you looking for?" The question caught me off guard and I groped for an answer to it.

"My um…phone." I got up and started searching my pockets as if worried I'd lost it, finally pulling it out of the front pants pocket which I knew it was in. Out of habit I flipped it open to check the time. What I saw only resurrected my catatonia.

Mom: 6 missed calls

Whatever carefree world I was living in at that point had shattered around me. I immediately felt stupid for not calling her to let her know I was spending the night. Then again, I didn't know I'd be spending the night. I was torn between calling her right away to end her panic and not doing it to elongate my life. She could care less about my personal life, but boy could she make herself upset if she thought that I was dead or in such a bad situation that I couldn't reach my phone. Mello was still looking at me and wondering what I saw on my phone that made me turn so white.

"It's 7:30 a.m." he informed me. I shook my head.

"I know, but my mom. She tried to call me 6 times." I my hand shook as I started dialing her number, but Mello swiped the phone from me before I pressed the call button.

"She's gonna yell at you?"

"Well, yeah. I was gone for almost 12 hours. Even more if she hasn't called the school to make sure I got there okay."

"What time did she call you?"

"All six are from this morning…about 3 hours ago." Mello thought about something for a while.

"How important is this phone to you?"

"What? It's not that important. It's old so dad ordered a new one that should come in the mail either today or Monday. Why?" At this point Mello was dialing my mom's number on the screen of my phone with his own. It rang a few times before I heard my mom pick up. I was afraid of what Mello was doing but didn't try to stop him since it seemed like he had a plan.

"Hello, is this Matt's mom? I'm the one he took home from the hospital yesterday," I put my ear against the phone to hear what profanities might come from my mom the moment she got a chance to speak, but Mello continued, "I just wanted to let you know that Matt cut his jaw on the lid of a can of tuna last night and fainted." I can only describe the face I was making at that point as the one you make when you hear someone say something completely stupid. He didn't take notice as he let my mom give a response that sounded saturated with equal disbelief.

"Matt doesn't even like tuna though, and why was he using his mouth? Did he ever wake up?" I couldn't help but think that if anyone was just listening to my mom's half of the conversation at the house; they'd get the wrong idea. Anyway, when I heard that last part I couldn't believe she was buying it. I wanted to do a face palm but was afraid to make noise so close to the receiver. Oh mom…

"Ah, that part you can blame on me. The doctor in charge of me said eating fish would help me heal faster and all that, but I can hardly move, so Matt said he'd take care of it. The can opener got stuck though, so he tried to pull the lid back with his teeth, and got cut. It's not deep though. Matt finally came to about ten minutes ago and he's in the bathroom right now. I gave him some peroxide to wash his mouth out with…oh wait, he's here now." Mello handed the phone to me, giving me a small smile.

"Hey mom, it's me." I said into the cell phone.

"Matt…I called you. Why are you using someone else's cell phone?"

"Ah…I dropped my phone when I went up some stairs. I thought I'd be going right home before I passed out, so I didn't think I'd have to call you…sorry." I said, continuing Mello's lie. I was so nervous I could feel my hands sweating. There was something about my mom that really bothered me when she yelled or got upset. I couldn't help but feel that I was walking on thin ice, even if it seemed that Mello had gotten me through the most tedious part of the made-up story.

"Whatever, just come home right now." It sounded strict and didn't exactly feel fair, but I was just glad she wasn't blowing her stack like she would have in any other case. Keep in mind this was her when there was a burned man, a cut son that had fainted, and a lethal can of tuna involved in the alibi. Then I decided to see how far I could push my luck.

"Mello still needs me. Can he come over?"

"…fine. But I didn't buy any food so don't ask for me to feed the both of you. And I ain't driving anyone home, so don't ask about that either." I tried to keep from rolling my eyes. After saying goodbye, I hung up and returned the phone to Mello.

"But why didn't we use my phone?"

"I'd seem like a bad person if I didn't try to use it to contact her sooner," Mello said innocently.

"I guess…but she probably already hates you just for being my friend. I mean…!" Was it okay to say he was my friend? I mean, did he think we were friends?

"What do you mean," he said, disrupting my thoughts, "she hates all of your friends?"

"No…Well, she hates other people in general, but teenagers especially. She also kind of hates me, so it's only natural she'd hate my friends."

"Don't say that, she's your mom, she can't hate you."

"Well, you don't know how she is. All she cares about is her books. Sometimes I think she regrets having a kid…" I caught myself before going any further. I didn't want Mello any closer to my personal life that he already was. 'Time to change the topic again.'

I left Mello's room and started making my way over to the front door. "Are you all set?"

"Hang on, lemme at least take a shower first, dammit!" He shouted back from his room. I sighed and decided to take a tour of the house while he was doing that. I was beginning to get bored when I came across a box in the kitchen. It was already half-open, so I pulled the flaps back and the contents made something in my brain click.

"Fireworks…?" I couldn't help but ask out loud since I'd never seen them just lying around before.

"Yeah," Mello's voice made me jump. I didn't even hear the water stop, but sure enough, when I turned around at the speed of lightning, he was standing there, wearing similar leather pants to the ones he had yesterday, "those are fireworks alright. And not the cheap shit kind, either."

"Mello…"

"Yeah?"

"Did you…do these fireworks maybe….have anything to do with your…"

"…"

"Mello?"

"I don't wanna talk about it right now. Let's just go to your house already."

"…will you tell me when we get there?"

"…"

"Please?"

"…fine, but you have to get me chocolate on the way. And It can't be milk chocolate, it has to be dark."

"But didn't you just get-?"

"I ate it already." A lot of things scared me about this guy, but his ungodly consumption of chocolate was making its way up the list quickly. I had a feeling he was even lying about having tuna in the house.

"Uh…yeah, sure. There's some at my house. It's the expensive kind too. Nobody in my house likes dark chocolate, but my mom bought it cause it was on sale." Mello seemed to loosen up and was even smiling a little now.

"Good."

Hope you liked this chapter! Personally I don't think it's my best...it's always those morning-after chapters that get me...XD just kidding! Sorry again for such a late update, and thank you for being patient!