--

you got to save us! S-O-S!

i'm out of gas. i'm out of touch.

shipwrecked ferry... marry me - or take me out to lunch.

no, i won't be coming home.

tell her that i still am on the road.

make sure she knows that i would change it if i could

--

It was funny how just a single phone conversation could change everything.

Priorities swapped, engagements made - Mello was racing toward calamity, Sayu at his back. The brunette's chocolate-colored tresses (dark chocolate, the good-for-you-kind, Mello's favorite) fluttered out behind her, like a ribbon in the wind.

70 miles per hour. 75. Sayu was silent behind him, her arms secured tightly around his thin waist. The only thing Mello could hear was the dull roar of his bike, the sounds of traffic as they went whipping past, and the thundering of his own heart.

It was midnight. The skies were black. Mello saw a yellow light coming up, half-way through red, and gunned it. They went sailing through the intersection just as the signal went crimson, and he heard the squeal of nearby tires as Sayu's grip on him tightened. He expected her to ask him to slow down, and he was not sure he could comply with such a request, should she inquire. Sayu said nothing.

I am going to die.

77. 78. The road was wet up ahead, black and glittering and smelling faintly of tar. Mello began to lean left as the road banked into a curve. He couldn't risk stealing a glance back at Sayu, but he imagined her shutting her eyes, anticipating a crash.

Stupid girl, he thought, though it was devoid of any kind of malice. I wish I didn't love you so much. A lie.

The blue-black sky was cloudy tonight, a thin veil of haze obscuring the stars. Mello didn't mind so much. It was mood, ambiance - it was a dark filter, dark, dark, dark. The opaque blackness could swallow them up alive, if Mello would stop and let it. But he would not. 79. 80.

"Are you scared?" He had to shout in order to be heard. You could do so much better than me. A truth.

"Yes," she tells him, her cheek pressed up against his leather clad-back. "Go faster."

--

Rewind.

It was Friday night, and Mello was alone. Matt had been sent away on a recon mission, and was not due back until Monday. The redhead was probably in a hotel room - or a furniture-less apartment, not unlike Mello's own; was probably busily jacking off to Kira's bitch, Misa Amane, while he watched her on camera somewhere. Probably. Most likely. It was an infatuation Mello would never understand.

But then again, Mello was one to talk, since his current infatuation was most likely going to get him killed in the end.

The blonde was watching live video feed of the Yagami household, feeling weary. The current angle was trained upon Sayu, as she was spread at languorously on the couch in front of the TV downstairs. She looked so at ease with herself, so content. It was almost enough to make Mello hate her.

This is all your fault, he thought, growing irate at the peaceful sight of her. It's your fault I fucked things back up at Lidner's place. If you hadn't brought it upon yourself to complicate things, I could have done it. I could have made that bitch mine, could have made her my ultimate resource.

He had been very pointedly avoiding Lidner the past several days, ever since The Incident. He had tarnished his bad-boy image back there, made himself look like a complete fucking cunt, and he was still angry about it, ashamed.

His affection for Sayu had failed him at last, denying him the use of Lidner, and he knew that could only prove to be more problematic in the future. Sayu was a liability, a security risk - not only was she affecting his judgment, but she was Kira's fucking sister. She could get him killed if she slipped up. There was too much bad blood between them, and she was too impossibly close to the enemy, his nearest kin.

Sayu, this is something bigger than the two of us, something I have to do... and I can't compromise my ideals for anyone, not even you.

It would be easy enough to break up with her, if even really necessary at all. Could their... well, whatever it was, really be considered a relationship? Mello couldn't be sure. He could just as easily break off contact with her, never see her again. He could drop her like a bad habit.

Really. He could.

Loving you is dangerous to my health, Mello thought grimly, as he reached out and closed his laptop, Sayu's form folding out of sight. I'm sorry.

Mello reclined back against the futon, feeling slightly ill. Then his phone began to vibrate in front coat pocket. He glanced at the caller ID before picking up.

Lidner.

Mello frowned and took a deep breath. He flipped out the phone and growled into the speaker: "This had better be important."

"Mello," the blonde was all business on the other line. "Have you ever heard of the Yellow Box Warehouse?"

--

Sayu's hands fisted his hair as Mello pounded her deeper into the mattress, her milky thighs wrapped around his waist like a vice.

All the windows in the tiny hotel room had been thrown open, in hopes of finding some relief in the stifling heat. It was muggy out, humid - Mello's body was covered in thin layer of sweat, a result of nerves, his stifling leather from their ride, and the effort of their frantic fucking.

If only you knew, Mello thought, as he stared down at the contorted expression of her face. Sayu's eyelids fluttered with each fluid thrust, her mouth slightly ajar with a soundless moan. I was going to dump you. Scarcely a point now, since it would only bring us both more grief, and I'm condemned to die anyway.

--

Rewind.

"Sayu," Mello told her in the swirling darkness of her backyard. It was after midnight, and all of the streets on her block were dark and quiet. "Let's go on a holiday."

The forwardness of the proposition startled a laugh out of the lithe brunette, who was clad in only a sleeping shirt and a pair of polka-dotted boxers. "W-what? Right now?"

"Yeah, why not." Sayu leaned a little closer, searching Mello's face to see if he was being serious or not. When she discovered that he was, she stepped back and frowned.

"What will I tell my mom?"

Mello shrugged. He was feeling impatient now, antsy. The decision to lure Sayu out into the dark with him was a last-minute thing, borne out of desperation and fear and loneliness. I am going to die. Save me. Everything in Mello's head was a jumbled mix of emotions, false pretenses, anxiety. His biological clock was ticking, and he wanted just a few more precious hours with Sayu, a last foray into the field of the unknown, a final hurrah. I love you. Please. "I don't know. Anything. Nothing? Let's just go. C'mon, hurry, before I lose my nerve."

"Lose your nerve?" She lifted an eyebrow at his unusually twitchy form. She leaned forward and gently touched his shoulder. "Mello, what's wrong?"

"I love you," he blurted out suddenly, before he could help himself. Sayu froze, and for a moment, Mello thought she was going to rebuke him, reject him. What twisted irony. How cruel. Never before had he uttered such words, to this girl or anyone else.

Then, very quietly, she responded, "I love you too, Mello." The words she spoke were gentle, sincere. "Are you okay?"

"N-no, I'm not," he told her truthfully. He stared at his boots as he pawed at the ground like a skittish horse, feeling uncertain, confused. When he looked up, he had trouble meeting her gaze. "R-remember what you said, Sayu, back there in the parking lot so many weeks ago? 'Just drive.' Let's drive, Sayu."

"Let me pack a bag," Sayu said.