Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note.
A/N: Late again. So it goes. I'm having some more computer troubles. I hate my laptop with every fiber of my being. Don't get a MacBook! I don't care what anyone says about its user-friendliness or lack of viruses! It is evil!
Chapter Nine: An Emotional Conversation
When Matt and Mello got to the car, it was a little bit awkward. Their happy reunion was over, and they both knew it was time to talk about their various misunderstandings, but neither knew how to begin.
They drove in silence for a while, with Mello sitting in the passenger seat, arms and legs crossed and fidgeting nervously. Matt watched the blonde in his peripheral vision, unable to look completely away from him.
Their time apart, however brief, and the accompanying frustration and mistrust had warped and tarnished Matt's mental image of Mello in such a way that it alarmed him to be reminded of how very attractive his boyfriend was in person.
There was a certain quality to Mello's voice and the way he moved that drew Matt in even more effectively than his looks, and he'd never even noticed it before.
While Matt was busy being intrigued by this newly discovered magnetism, Mello had apparently been trying to think of something to say for a while. Eventually he broke the silence, shaking Matt out of his reverie.
"Matt, I missed you…" He said abruptly, and then paused as if he'd forgotten what he wanted to say next.
Matt glanced over and saw that Mello had turned to look out the window very purposefully, frowning slightly as if he was thinking hard about something.
Matt couldn't tell if Mello was waiting for him to echo the sentiment or not, and decided it was better in this situation to err on the side of more affection.
"…I missed you too." Matt said uncertainly. Mello shot him a quick glance of vague annoyance and Matt assumed he'd guessed wrong and interrupted Mello's train of thought. Or maybe he'd taken too long to say it back.
Mello gazed out the window for a while longer and then sighed and spoke up again without turning to look at Matt.
"Look, I don't even care if you're fucking Yagami anymore, I just want to forget this whole week ever happened." Mello said, and he was clearly lying, because there was no way he didn't care, and it wasn't in his nature to just let offenses go.
"I'm not fucking Light!" Matt shouted very defensively, his anger at the accusation overriding whatever spell Mello's presence had cast on him. Mello gave him a calmly skeptical look before staring out the window again, pursing his lips.
This made Matt even angrier, as another person's aloofness during an argument always did.
He could suddenly feel all the frustration Mello had caused him throughout the week piling up, and he wanted to lash out and scream at the blonde for not trusting him, for not even taking the time to listen to his explanation.
He wanted to accuse Mello of fucking Near and make everything even. He wanted for Mello to get angry and hit him instead of looking so exhausted and sad.
But mostly he just wanted them both to tell the truth and work everything out so they could trust each other again, and he knew his anger was counterproductive, so he took a deep breath and forced himself to be quiet for the rest of the short drive.
He was fairly confident that he could convince Mello of his innocence when he told him the whole story. Mello would know he was telling the truth; interrogating people was important in his line of work, after all.
When he turned into the parking garage of their apartment complex, he was half aggravated and half hopeful. He pulled into a spot, and Mello immediately hopped out of the car and ran up the stairs, leaving his bags behind for Matt to carry.
Matt did so grudgingly, knowing that leaving them behind would only create another barrier between him and his lover, and suspecting that it might even be a test of some sort.
He entered their apartment to find Mello, already changed into black pajamas and inspecting Matt's bed sheets with a black light to detect semen and whatnot. The sight would have been funny if Matt wasn't already irritated by Mello's ridiculous lack of trust in him.
"Mello, what the hell?" Matt said. Mello glanced up at him with a mock-innocent look and a shrug.
"Just checking." He said unapologetically. Matt shook his head.
"You do realize that any results you get could just as easily have come from you or me and there's no way of knowing…" Matt pointed out. Mello shrugged again, then glanced at the bed and froze. He reached out and carefully picked up a hair from the pillow and held it up to his eye to inspect.
"This isn't your hair." Mello accused. Matt closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down again.
"Maybe not. Light did sleep there, but I wasn't with him. Can you just let me explain the whole story before you accuse me some more?" Matt asked. Pleaded, really. Mello looked to be considering for a moment, then nodded hesitantly and came into the living room, flopping down on the couch.
"I'm listening. Explain away." He said with a gesture that Matt didn't understand. He took it as an invitation to sit next to Mello on the couch; then he launched into his story.
"Okay, so the night you left, Mr. Wammy ordered me to go to dinner at his house."
"I know that, you told me on the phone." Mello interjected annoyingly.
"Yeah, I know. Anyway, L was ignoring Light, and Light was really upset, and he asked me if he could stay at our apartment for the night because he was lonely without L there…" Matt said, frowning worriedly as he realized how that sounded. Mello didn't look like he took it that way, though.
"So you said yes because you're a clueless moron. That still doesn't explain why he was there the next night." Mello said.
"I'm getting there! He and L were still having problems the next night, so I let him stay over again. And he slept in my room while I slept in yours, there was nothing going on."
"So why didn't you tell me he was going to be staying over?" Mello demanded.
"Because I knew you would overreact! And look what happened!" Matt shouted, his anger suddenly returning. Mello flinched as if expecting Matt to hit him, which made Matt immediately remorseful. Why did Mello have this power over him? The slightest expression could send Matt flying from one emotional extreme to another.
"Okay, fair enough." Mello said in a small voice. Matt reached out and took Mello's hand between both of his own.
"You believe me then?" Matt asked. Mello nodded.
.
.
.
As Mello listened to Matt's story, he felt a sense of relief settle in. It was a pretty stupid story, but Matt was not skilled enough in the lying department to tell it so earnestly.
Anyway, stupid things were always happening to Matt because he was completely oblivious, and that was a trait that Mello had always forgiven him for because he found it oddly endearing.
Naturally, Mello was very glad that Matt hadn't cheated on him, but once the explanation was over, he dreaded the conversation that he knew was coming, in which he would have to admit that Matt had been right about Near all along.
He should probably even apologize to Matt for not trusting him. There were few things in life that Mello hated more than admitting he was wrong, and one of them was apologizing.
He might even have to do it twice, once for not trusting Matt about Near and once for not trusting him about Light.
"Don't you have anything to say to me?" Matt asked. Mello sighed.
"Um, I'm…sorry I didn't trust you about Yagami. But you don't know what it sounded like when he answered the phone!" Mello defended himself. Matt nodded.
"I'm sure it must have been very suspicious since you got so worked up about it." Matt said in a conciliatory fashion. Mello continued.
"…And I'm sorry I didn't believe you about Near." He said, crossing his arms and looking at the floor. Next to him, he felt Matt's body stiffen.
"What do you mean? Did he do something to you?" Matt asked, worry and outrage bleeding into his voice.
"Well, he sort of attacked me in the hotel room…"
"What? That little cretin!" Matt shouted angrily, standing up in alarm.
"Matt, it's okay…" Mello said, trying to pacify Matt, but instead causing his eyes to bulge out unattractively.
"I mean, no, of course it's not okay, but, I just mean I can take care of myself, and he didn't get very far because he's a little weakling, and I think he just didn't know how else to…you know…" Mello quickly stammered an attempt at an explanation, and then realized he was almost defending Near, and shut up.
Matt stared thoughtfully at him for a while. Mello continued when it appeared that Matt wasn't going to speak.
"Anyway, that's why I'm home early. I found out that they didn't even need me. The whole trip was just his plot to try and seduce me or something." He said, and realized, to his horror, that he could feel the beginnings of tears stinging his eyes. He shook his head and blinked them away. Matt sat down next to him and pulled him into a hug.
"Well, it's okay now, isn't it?" Matt said. Mello felt the tears come back again.
"You don't understand! This isn't even about…it's…the reason they didn't need me is because Near already solved the case on his own! He's better than me! He's always been better than me!" Mello moaned, tears choking his voice.
"No he's not." Matt said firmly, but he was trying to stifle a giggle.
"It's not funny!" Mello exclaimed, lifting his head from Matt's shoulder, all thoughts of crying suddenly forgotten.
"Yeah, it is! You don't really believe that, do you? Near's a perverted little weirdo!" Matt said incredulously.
"But he's smarter than me!" Mello said stubbornly.
"No he's not. He can't even get you into bed, and even a clueless moron like me can do that." Matt said, almost with a straight face.
Mello glared for a moment, then started laughing, and looked at the floor with a small smirk on his face, shaking his head.
Then, without warning, he spun around and tackled Matt onto the floor, where a brief wrestling match occurred, resulting in a victory for both of them.
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A/N: Review!
