Matt: Strobot (Netsky Remix) by Shameboy
Mello: Reach by Eyes Set to Kill

Chapter 7: Initiative

Mello heard a crash behind him, and without even turning around, he knew it was Matsuda. He didn't understand how the poor guy planned to keep his job if he couldn't even get near a coffee cup without spilling something.

"I'm sorry!" he heard Matsuda blurt out and turned to see him scramble to mop the half-made drink up off the floor.

"Sorry?" Mello turned to see their boss stomp over. "This is the fifth thing you've dropped today! Customers aren't going to wait for you to make them three drinks because you messed up the first two."

"I-it w-won't happen again, Mr. Ross!" Matsuda managed to get out, still wiping at the floor furiously.

"It better not. You spill one more thing and you're fired," he said before moving away to inspect someone else's work. The second he'd turned around, Mello grabbed a towel and bent down to help Matsuda.

"Don't. You're going to get in trouble too," the dark haired man warned.

"Don't worry about it. I can take care of myself," Mello said, tossing the now empty plastic cup in the trash. The worse Ross could do was fire him, and he was starting not to care about it one way or the other.

Their boss, Rod Ross, was a large, intimidating man who looked more like he belonged in a boxing ring than running a coffee shop in LA. He'd been in charge of training the new recruits from the start, despite each of the seven trainees hoping that someone else would take over once they got to the drink preparation stage of their training. Or in Mello's case, he'd hoped Ross would get carted off by the police for whatever illegal activities he was sure he was involved in.

Mello probably would have quit by now had he not developed the need to prove to Ross that he wasn't going to back down and take his shit. After that first day of training, he'd certainly considered quitting but had ultimately decided against it. He wasn't going to show any sort of weakness towards such a self-entitled dick. Besides, training would only take a couple weeks and then he'd be free of the dictator. Well, unless he was scheduled to work at the same time as him, but he'd deal with that if and when the time came.

"Thanks, Mello…" Matsuda almost whispered, glancing over his shoulder at Ross who was currently tearing apart some poor girl's Frappuccino, seemingly finding every possible way to criticize her.

"Hey, no problem. Just next time, make sure you don't spill something right in front of our overlord," he said, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Heh, right…" a dejected Matsuda said before starting over, now on his third attempt at a Frappuccino.

Mello couldn't understand why he was taking it so hard, but he shrugged it off and returned to his station. He was sure Matsuda would be fine; he always left training disheartened and returned the next day with his determined and upbeat attitude intact.

He wasn't quite sure how, but somewhere along the way, he and Matsuda had sort of became friends. Or, well, he'd made the mistake of sitting next to Matsuda on the first day of training and had had to deal with Matsuda deciding to befriend him. Not that he minded all that much. It wasn't like he had that many friends in the area, only Misa and Matt really and maybe Takada if she was in a decent mood, which wasn't very often. Besides, at the very least, Matsuda's clumsiness was kind of entertaining.

Mello let out a sigh, rinsing some of Matsuda's spilt drink off of his hands. Matt… He wasn't entirely sure where his relationship stood with Matt. He hadn't seen him since the carnival three days ago, and while he wouldn't have been that worried about it under normal circumstances, Matt hadn't responded to any of his texts either.

He'd been ecstatic that night. Matt had given him a quick kiss good night when they had reached Mello's floor and said that they should do something again sometime. Mello had been sure that was a good sign, and Misa had reassured him of that when he'd gotten back to the apartment. For once, he didn't mind her prodding him for information; he'd been more than happy to oblige.

So when he'd texted Matt the next morning and never received any sort of response back, he'd been a little more than confused. After much deliberation, he'd even decided to bring it up to Misa, but all she'd said was "He's probably just busy." She did know Matt better than he did, so he supposed if she wasn't concerned, he shouldn't be either, but that didn't change the fact that he still anxious about the matter.

Actually, rather than reassuring him, it made Mello feel that Misa was hiding something from him, that maybe Matt had said something to her about their date and Misa was just covering for him… Or maybe he was just overreacting. That was probably the more likely explanation. He was sure that their date had gone well, at least from his perspective, so he shouldn't have anything to worry about.

"You. Let me see yours." He jumped when he heard Ross's gruff voice behind him and instantly hated himself for it. It wasn't that he was intimidated by the guy, just that he hadn't been expecting him to be there, and it had surprised him. Unfortunately, the smirk he found on Ross's face when he turned around told Mello that he suspected the former. He only glared up at the much larger man and pushed the Frappuccino he'd made toward him. His boss picked the cup up, looking it over before taking a sip, the corners of his mouth turning downwards. For a second, Mello was worried that he'd messed it up somehow, maybe forgotten to add something or hadn't blended it correctly or- "Not bad," Ross said reluctantly and moved on.

Mello couldn't help but smile at this, feeling a certain satisfaction in Ross admitting that he had done a good job. Alright, so those weren't his exact words, but Mello would take the compliment where he could get it. But as he stood there, leaning against the counter as he waited for Ross to continue his rounds, Mello's grin slowly faded.

He still wasn't really sure what he should do about Matt, and he was certain he was over thinking things. Though he supposed he really only had two options: either wait for Matt to talk to him or take things into his own hands and go find the evasive redhead himself. And the first option wasn't all that appealing to him. He'd already waited long enough.

• • •

Mello quickly rapped at the door and waited for Matt to answer. He let out a sigh, trying to decide what he should say when Matt answered, but he didn't get very far before realizing that he was still wearing his green Starbucks apron. He undid the tie in the back and slipped it over his head, but with nowhere to put it, he ended up just slinging it over his shoulder.

He watched the door intently, expecting it to open at any second. I could just ask him if he wants to do something tomorrow night or something. That would work. And it would be better than flat out asking him why he hasn't been answering my texts…

But it seemed like it was taking an awfully long time for Matt to come to the door. Shit. Maybe he's not home.

He'd been so intent on going to talk to Matt that he hadn't even considered that he might not be home, though now that he was standing in front of his door, it seemed a very likely possibility. He took a step away, about to give up, but then decided to try again on the off chance that Matt was home and just hadn't heard him the first time. He knocked on the door again, a bit harder this time.

Nothing. It was quite disappointing, though Mello wasn't entirely sure why. Yes, he was starting to develop real feelings for Matt, and he did want to spend time with him, but that didn't mean that he needed to keep tabs on him or anything like that. And standing there just outside of Matt's apartment, staring at the door expectantly, felt exactly like that.

With one last glance at the door, he turned back towards the elevator. If Matt didn't want to answer his texts, that was up to him. There was little Mello could do about that it seemed.

Mello heard the click of a door and looked back over his shoulder to see a confused looking Matt staring down the hall, a cigarette set loosely between his lips. "Mello? What ahre you doin' here?" he asked, taking the cigarette between his middle and forefingers, blowing smoke out into the hall.

"I, uh, just wanted to see if you were free tomorrow?" Realizing that he was still halfway down the hall to the elevator, he took a few steps back towards Matt's apartment.

"Oh, um…" he started, licking his lips, "what day is tomorrow?"

"Wednesday."

"Fuck." A look of disdain came over his face before he asked, "Already?"

"Um, yeah?" Mello responded, a bit confused by Matt's reaction. As far as he knew, Matt hadn't gotten fired from his job, so he should have to know what day it was in order to knew when he had to go in for work.

Matt took another drag on his cigarette and let it out in a disgusted sigh. "I have to go to work tomorrow," he grumbled, shaking his head, and Mello could feel his heart drop. He'd finally gotten a hold of Matt, and it didn't appear as if he was even all that interested in talking to him. Although Matt did seem a little out of it. "But," Matt added, "we could get dinner or somethin' if you wanted. Like around six? That should gimme enough time to come back home and change after work."

"Uh, yeah, that would be great," Mello said probably with a bit too much enthusiasm. Matt let out a little chuckle at his response, but it was cut off by a large yawn.

"Right, well I'll text you when I'm on my way home from work."

"Really?" Mello asked, without even thinking, a bit skeptical.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"Well, uh…" He'd decided that he wasn't going to bring up Matt not responding to his texts, and that one simple word had destroyed his plan. Why didn't I just say 'okay'? That would have made things so much easier… Deciding there was nothing he could say that would convincingly cover for himself, he regrettably went with the truth. "Well, I sent you a couple texts, and you never responded to any of them."

"Oh. Naw, I wouldn't have. My phone was off," Matt said simply, as if it was obvious.

"Since Sunday?"

"Yeah, I didn't want the distraction." But when Mello gave him a look of confusion, he apparently realized that he needed to elaborate. "I've been workin' on my music."

"Oh…that's…cool." He felt foolish for worrying over something that had turned out to be nothing, and his rather awkward response did nothing to make him feel better. It made perfect sense that Matt would want to focus on his music rather than having his cell phone interrupt him every five seconds.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I always lose track of time when I work on my music," he said with an apologetic little smile before letting out another yawn.

"It's fine. No big deal."

"Right, well…I should, uh…" he said before nodding in the direction of the interior of his apartment, the door open only wide enough for him to lean against the door frame. "So I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah. See you tomorrow," Mello returned, forcing a smile. Matt nodded but then hesitated, looking like he wanted to say something else. He evidently decided against it because he returned the cigarette to his mouth and pulled the door closed, disappearing into the apartment.

Mello stood there for a second, trying to process everything that had just happened. He did feel a bit better knowing that the reason Matt hadn't texted him back was because his phone had been off and not because he'd been ignoring his texts. Even so, Matt had seemed distant to say the least.

He wasn't exactly sure what he'd been expecting, but the entire thing had seemed odd to him… Though he supposed he should be happy. He'd taken the initiative and had done what he'd set out to do; for all intents and purposes, he'd been successful. He had another date with Matt tomorrow, so why wasn't he absolutely thrilled?

Noticing he was still just standing there at Matt's door, he slowly moved towards the elevator, realizing that he could have taken the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator just to go down one level only after the doors had closed. Not that it really mattered; he didn't really feel like putting forth that much effort.

He dragged his feet to the apartment, pushing the door open, deciding that he'd probably just veg out on his couch/bed for a little while since he didn't have anything else to do all day. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like that would be an option.

The second Mello was inside the door, he was met by Misa's squealing. "Mello! Mello! Mello! Mello! You will never guess what happened today!" she started, hopping up from the couch.

"What?" he said flatly, knowing there was no way around this other than appeasing her.

"I got a modeling job!" And second later, she had launched herself at him, wrapping her arms and legs around his torso in a hug that made him stumble backwards.

"That's great," he said, trying his best to sound enthusiastic. He really was happy for her, but his encounter with Matt had left him distracted. He knew that she'd been trying to find a job modeling for some time now to help pay for her classes, and at least her habit of hanging around the apartment idly seemed a bit more justified now that she would have a real source of income.

"It's not acting, but it's a start!" she continued, unattaching herself from Mello and dragging him to the couch. He flopped down onto the cushions, listening to Misa's excited rambling. "It's for a lipstick ad. The L'Oreal representative said that I'm adorable and have the perfect face for their new line of sheer lipstick!" She let out another high pitched squeal and threw her arms around him again. "Mello, I'm going to be in magazines and on billboards and-" She stopped suddenly, pulling back slightly to give him a suddenly very serious look. "Mello, I could be in Vogue."

"That's amazing," he said, doing his best to put a smile on his face.

"I don't think you understand," she said, her voice still serious. "It's Vogue, Mello. Vogue. People all over the world read Vogue."

"Congratulations."

She let out a frustrated sigh, evidently getting fed up with his lack of enthusiasm. "No, it's-" But she stopped suddenly, a look of concern overcoming her features. "Are you okay? You're acting…weird."

He was actually a little surprised she even noticed. Under normal circumstances, she could usually pick up on things with him fairly quickly, but not after something like this happening, not when she was acting even more self-absorbed than normal. Not that he blamed her for acting that way; it was great news.

He ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. He didn't really want to talk about it. Well, he did, but he didn't want to ruin Misa's moment.

"Mello, what's wrong?" she tried again. "Did something happen at work?"

"No, work was…fine." It was best just to leave it at that. Sure, his boss was a dick, but he could deal with that.

"Then what happened? You were fine this morning," she said, her voice full of concern.

"Remember when I said how Matt never texted me back?" he ventured reluctantly.

"Yeah, and I already told you that you don't have to worry about that. I'm sure he's just busy."

"I know… but I was thinking about it at work today, and I decided to go talk to him…"

"Oh no, you didn't bring up him not texting you back, did you?" she asked, biting her lip.

"Well, it…kinda came up."

"Mello! What are you doing? I told you everything was fine. Now he's gonna think you're clingy."

"He didn't act like it was a big deal…" he said, trying to look on the bright side.

"I hope you're right…because that's why he broke up with Sayu. He said she was really clingy." Mello's heart dropped at these words. Why couldn't I have just left things alone? He would have texted me back eventually… "There's something you should know about Matt," she continued, and although her words instantly set him on edge, wondering what it could possibly be, he would have never expected what she said next. "He's basically married to his music. He will never cheat on you, but he will give you every reason to be jealous. From what I've seen, his music always comes first. I'm sorry," she added, "I should have told you before."

"Yeah, that would have been nice," he said flatly, though he really wasn't mad at Misa for not telling him; he was mad at himself for not listening to her in the first place.

"Well, look on the bright side," she said, offering him a reassuring smile, "he was probably pretty distracted, right?"

"Yeah…how'd you know?"

"Because he always gets like that. I'm thinking since he didn't text you that he had his phone off, working on his music, which means he been at his computer for like three days straight now, remixing things or whatever he does. If it makes you feel any better, he was probably so tired that he was only half paying attention to whatever you said. Cheer up; I'm sure it's not as bad as you think," she said, offering him a smile.

"Yeah…and he did bring up getting dinner tomorrow, so maybe you're right." He watched as Misa's jaw dropped, any concern she had being replaced by shock.

"Jerk!" she said, grabbing one of the small pillows on the couch and hitting him over the head with it. "You have a date with him, and you didn't think to tell me?"

"Well, I-" he tried, but Misa didn't seem to want to hear it.

"No, instead you just let me worry this entire time," she interrupted, crossing her thin arms over her chest and giving him an angry pout. "See if I give you any sympathy ever again."

"Yeah, well if you knew why he wasn't texting me back, you could've told me," he grumbled. It bothered him the way Misa was acting; she could be such a hypocrite sometimes. "And it's not like I was trying to keep it from you. I was kinda preoccupied with everything else."

She let out a small huff and shook her head. "Stop worrying," she chided. "You have a date with him. You should be happy," she said, a small smile slipping through her angry countenance.

"But-"

"No!" and she was suddenly leaning over him, her thumbs on either of his cheeks, pushing them upwards, forcing him to smile. "Be happy!" she commanded.

Despite his best efforts, the corners of his lips turned upward on their own at the sight of Misa's determined expression. She may be overdramatic or pushy at times, but she really did have his best interests at heart and did want to help. If she said he didn't have anything to worry about, she was probably right. She had been the last time, after all. "Alright, alright. See? Happy," he said with a small laugh.

"Are you sure? No more grumpy Mel-Mel?" she asked, skeptical.

"No more grumpy Mel-Mel," he said, deciding that now wasn't the best time to argue against her annoying nickname for him. Besides, he didn't hate it nearly as much as he often made it seem.

"Yay!" she exclaimed, finally releasing his face and throwing her hands up in the air. "So where are you getting dinner?" she asked, a huge grin on her face.

But just as he said, "I don't know," the door was pushed open, and the second Takada stepped in, Misa jumped up and ran to give her a hug.

"Kiyomi!" she squealed throwing her arms around the other woman who fell back against the door from the force of Misa's tackle/hug. "Guess what, guess what!" she demanded, releasing the very shocked looking Takada in favor of hopping up and down excitedly, her pigtails flopping around as she did so.

"Uh…" was all Takada got out before Misa became impatient and opted just to tell her.

"I got a modeling job today!"

"That's great!" Takada said, giving Misa a much gentler hug than she had been greeted with, but then a sly smile came over her face as she pulled away. "So now that you have a job, you won't just be sitting around the apartment in your underwear anymore?" she teased.

"I wear clothes!" Misa returned defensively. "…Most of the time," she added hesitantly.

"Right," Takada said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "But that's great! When do you start?"

"The photo shoot is next Friday," she said. "But that's not the only exciting news," she added, glancing over her shoulder at Mello and flashing him a smile. "Mel-Mel has another date with Mattie tomorrow!"

Takada looked much less excited about this bit of news than she had earlier, though a small grin did come over her features. "Oh, Mel-Mel is it now?" she teased, and he realized that must have been the first time she'd heard Misa call him that. He was never going to be able to live this down. "Do I get to call you that?" she asked innocently though he knew it was anything but.

"Absolutely not."

"But that's not fair," she said, ruffling his hair as she walked past him and sat down in the armchair. "Misa gets to call you that, so why don't I?"

"Because I like Misa better than you," he said flatly.

"Aw, Mel-Mel's being mean," she said, looking to Misa, doing a decent impression of the blonde girl.

"And Taki's being a bitch," he retorted, glaring at her.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"And I told you not to call me Mel-Mel!"

"Stop!" Misa yelled at them, which got their attention. They both turned to look at her. "Kiyomi, only I get to call Mello Mel-Mel, and Mello, don't call Kiyomi Taki." Mello was a bit taken aback, surprised that Misa was being the mature one out of the three of them for once. "Now let's get back to what's important here," she continued. "I'm going to be a model!" she exclaimed, doing a twirl in the middle of the living room. Maybe Misa acting mature was too much to ask… Although, at the very least, she had effectively stopped him and Takada from fighting.

He listened as she continued to go on about how excited she was and how amazing being a model was going to be, deciding it was only fair considering she'd stopped to listen to his apparently unjustified concerns. And although he knew he should probably just take Misa's advice as she'd been right the first time, his worries still sat in the back of his mind.

Not that there was really anything he could do about it at the moment. So instead of fixating on it, he focused his attention on listening to Misa as she talked about her new modeling career, throwing Takada a glare every now and then for good measure.


A/N: The past week has been absolutely hectic, but I actually managed to post on time! And even better, I sent chapter 8 to my beta last night! I seriously don't know how I wrote it so quickly seeing as I only started it Thursday afternoon; I'm pretty sure this is a new record for me :D

But yay, they have another date! How do you guys think it will go/what do you think will happen? :3

A special thanks to the following reviewers:
DarkAngelJudas, Deathnotefinatic13, snow867, kiki1070, brightnight003, TrickledFingers, Midnightkisses10, ConfettiCrazy, Evidence Of Rain, NessaYume, Lotta Devon, Mustached Kira, XxHeartlessKissxX, oJdelight56, Sadique13, and an anonymous reviewer