Thanks to everyone for reading this, and more importantly enjoying it! Thank you so much to everyone who reviews, especially those who review every chapter please enjoy this latest chapter!

Disclaimer: if I owned death note this certainly wouldn't be called fan fiction.

I had gotten used to dreaming about Mello ever since the incident in the shower; the dreams became much more frequent. A lot of the time they would be totally innocent and I would just be holding him against my chest, his arms secularly locked around my back and his face buried in the crook of my neck with my face in his hair as I held him close. Those simple dreams made me so happy. After a night of one of those dreams I would always wake up with a smile on my face and happy.

Other times I would dream of Mello laughing and that would be it; just a happy, care free Mello that sat cross legged on the lounge floor laughing. Of course, I would be laughing with him and we would be happy with just each other. Those dreams made me ecstatic also-- because I knew that I was happy just because the Mello in my dreams was.

But sometimes, at least once a week, the dreams were not so innocent. I'd dream of having Mello pinned beneath me, flushed in the face and panting as his nails clawed down my back. Other times he would be straddling my hips, those jet black claws slowly sliding down my chest and stomach; not enough to hurt, but enough to leave my skin tingling and leave little red trails after them. He would have that devilish smirk on his face, and he would ask me exactly what I wanted to do to him.

Those dreams always made me jumpy around Mello. Whenever I had a dream like that, the next day when Mello would grace me with the lightest touch, I would jump a mile into the air and my face would turn the same colour as my hair.

Now, I'm not naive enough to pretend to be blind to these dreams because I knew exactly what they mean. I loved Mello, I wanted to hold him, and I wanted to protect him, because God knows that the world he has forced himself to live in wasn't safe. I wanted to make him happy and I wanted to make him laugh that care free laugh that had become so rare these days. Yes, I loved Mello more than I loved anyone or anything else, but I wasn't stupid enough to think I was in love with him-- I just wanted to screw him senseless, it's not my fault that Europe had taught me to be a down right whore.

I was still trying to figure Mello out, what he thought and felt. I knew he loved me too, it was the same way I loved him. But still, I didn't know if he felt the same level of lust that I felt myself. I wasn't stupid enough to think that the kiss he had stolen from me when he had left Wammy's house was a simple promise of seeing me again, nor was his reaction to the kiss I had stolen from him the one you would expect of a guy kissing his best friend.

So I did what I was taught to do all of my life, I analyzed the facts, which is how I came to the conclusion above; that's how I figured out that I loved him and wanted to do to him everything Europe had taught me. I smirked to myself at the mental images and memories that floated into my mind and I took another drag from my cigarette.

A few weeks had passed since the incident in the hallway when Mello had so quickly gotten up and left, coming to the conclusion that I was in love, well no, not in love... I just wanted Mello, hadn't been a shock to me nor did I try my hardest to deny it either, I kind of just smiled and "hmm'd". What else was I supposed to do?

That's what I was doing now as I sat on my bed, legs crossed in just my jeans and a cigarette dangling lazily from my lips. I was analyzing Mello, he wasn't actually here but I was just trying to figure out where he stood in this situation. I had tried to analyze Mello while he was here so I could see first hand his reactions, but he would catch me staring and snap at me.

I was really worried about him. I knew he wasn't sleeping right, he was spending all of his time on his duties within the mafia organization, or he was spending all night going through those files and scanning through Near's files on my laptop in the hopes that Near had found something new.

So I didn't blame him for snapping at me. He would have known I was trying to analyze him because, lets be honest, we had grown up together and had taught each other how to analyze a situation. So he would have recognized the signs of it straight away. And Mello never liked being analyzed, no matter what mood he was in.

It was while I was contemplating all this, that I heard my bedroom door open, and saw Mello poke his head round the door.

When did he get in? I didn't even hear the front door.

"You hungry?"

"Not particularly, why you made something?"

"Yeah, but I'll just leave it in the kitchen for when you're hungry," he left the sentence hang in the air before continuing, "I'm going to go on your laptop, see if Near has found anything new..."

With that he exited the room, closing the door behind him.

I sighed and laid myself back, taking another drag of my cigarette and exhaling slowly.

I couldn't let things carry on like this I thought to myself, I had dealt with Mello like this before, back at Wammy's house when he would stay up until the very early hours of the morning studying for the next test. I didn't want Mello to deal with that again. I stubbed out my cigarette in the ash tray and decided that I had to do something about it.

I searched my room for a shirt that was at least half clean; I really needed to do some laundry. Eventually I pulled out a short sleeved bright green t-shirt and slipped it over my head before heading out of my room towards the lounge.

"Mel we need-"I smiled when I saw him, he obviously was more tired than I originally thought. It had only been five minutes since he had been in my room but here he was passed out on the couch, my laptop resting on his knees; he hadn't even managed to keep his eyes open long enough to wait for the thing to start up. Various papers were scattered around him in a huge state of disarray that I knew he would hate when he woke up, Mello liked things organized and this was definitely not organized.

I walked over to him and gently lifted the laptop off of him, putting it to the side. I couldn't move him yet, he would wake up because he hadn't been asleep long enough to be in a deep state of slumber. I didn't want to take my chances and have him wake up when I tried to put him into his own bed.

I began to clear away the files, as well as generally clean the place up; putting the dirty plates in the kitchen to be washed later on and I packed every file against the back wall next to the TV. I was about half way through cleaning the lounge when I looked at the clock above the door and decided that enough time had passed for Mello to be deep enough in sleep for me to move him.

I walked over to the couch and smiled at how peaceful he looked for once. He really was putting his everything in to this investigation. I gently placed one arm under his head and the other I hooked under his legs, and as smoothly as I could, I lifted him from the couch. He muttered something unintelligible as I moved him but other than that he never moved, proving the fact he was too tired to keep his guard up.

I slowly moved to his room and kicked the door open, I'd never actually set foot into Mello's room during the ten months I had been here, but it looked a lot like my room, only bigger; his desk was over flowing with yet more files relevant to the Kira investigation, his bed was just as big as mine but instead of the light blue cotton sheets that covered my bed he had black satin, and a large plush rug covered most of the floor. There was a large book case against one wall and it was filled to a bursting point. And above the wrought iron head board, on the wall was a large crucifix. I smiled at this, I bet Mello still said his prayers and asked for forgiveness, the same as he did every night at Wammy's.

I grabbed the quilt with the hand from under Mello's legs and pulled it back, gently placing him down onto the bed as I undid his boots and placed them under his desk, knowing that if he found them just thrown on the floor, he would kill me later. I was about to pull the quilt over him when I noticed his gun poking out the front of his pants. I chuckled to myself. And he was the one who called me a fucking idiot.

I loosened the laces on the front of his pants enough for me to easily pull the gun free; once it was free I placed it on the night stand where he could see it when he woke up. I pulled the blankets up around him and I smiled again as he sighed in what I hoped was contentment.

Gently, I brushed his hair out of his face. And I walked out of his room, quietly shutting the door behind me.

I peeked into the kitchen and sighed as I began to wash the dishes and clean in there too. Whilst I was drying and putting the dishes away the thought came to me. I was wrong to be analyzing Mello for my own selfish reasons, Mello was putting everything he had in to this investigation and what I was I doing? I was scrutinizing him to see whether I had a chance of getting him into bed... that was wrong of me.

I finished in the kitchen and I moved back into the living room where I saw all the files sitting against the wall. I sighed and grabbed as many files as I could carry, my laptop included, before heading back to the kitchen and sitting at the rarely used dining table. If Mello was putting all his energy into this thing then I should as well. So from now on, instead of focusing on him, I was going to focus on Kira.

I opened the first of the files and began to read the details of people in the NPA. I could try to narrow down the possibilities of who was on the Kira investigation to begin with; that would give us something further to work with at least, and Mello would see that I was in fact making an effort.

After two hours of staring at the pages in front of me and sorting them into two separate piles, I decided that if Mello was putting all of his energy into this, I really only needed to put half mine in. I grabbed my DS, flipped it open and carried on with my Pokémon game. A half hour break wouldn't do any harm, plus Mello was going to be asleep for awhile.