Eyes widening at the sight of the gun pointed at him, Matt was much too scared to make a move, after landing on his butt. Above him, two very tall men were standing, one aiming at him with a silver revolver, the other a few inches behind, holding a black suitcase and a sport bag.
"That's just a kid." the armed one stated, his eyes not leaving Matt, who was now shaking from fear. Why did it have to happen now? They didn't have anything to steal here, maybe the laptops, he would even give his car if they wanted, but why now of all moments, when things were already going pretty bad?
The second man entered, and spotted Mello on the bed.
"Are you Matt?" he asked, not looking at the redhead as he approached the corner of the room where his boss was lying.
"Ye...yeah..." Matt stuttered, following the one whose voice he had recognised from his call earlier with his eyes.
In an instant, his mind gathered the informations to form a coherent explanation: the doctor had come with a bodyguard because it was night, and it wasn't the safest place to come to. For now, he would believe that, and he didn't have time to focus much on it anyway. All that mattered was that someone was here now, to help Mello.
The doctor deposited his bag and suitcase beside the bed, and, sitting on the border, tried to pull on the towel in which Matt had draped Mello, causing the blond to emit a pained groan. He was now under the effect of a high fever and slowly losing consciousness, not realising the presence of his two subordinates in the room.
Hearing Mello complain, Matt jumped on his feet and ran to the bed.
"Don't make a move!" the henchman yelled, closing the distance between him and Matt, and burying the barrel of his gun in Matt's back, who was now standing beside the bed, looking at every gesture the doctor was now making. Matt began to sweat, scared and shaking, but he didn't move. He was going to stay beside Mello, and make sure that everything was taken care of properly, even with the metal digging in his spine.
"Calm down Jim, you can see there's nothing to fear from him, he's not even carrying a gun." the older of the two men said, his voice slightly raising, his eyes giving a reprobative look to said Jim, who lowered his revolver but kept it in his hand, ready. Having a kid half his size and unarmed in front of him didn't mean he wouldn't be ready to shoot. The look in the redhead's eyes didn't bode well, he had seen apparently inoffensive guys beat the shit out of bodybuilt thugs before, and this kid knew the boss after all. And the boss said it many times, never trust your eyes only. The boss itself was the living proof of that.
Grunting, he made a step backward and leant against the nearest wall, between the night stand and the desk, his eyes not leaving Matt's back.
"Why do you even have a gun? I didn't know doctors went around with bodyguards!" Matt was recovering his senses after the initial shock, and took his chance at asking, the situation too awkward for him to understand what was really going on. The doctor had called Mello 'boss', and this, Matt couldn't find an explanation to. Except if he was putting two and two together, Mello's strange shifts at his supposedly waiter job, his leather attire, the smell of gunpowder, the state he was in now, the two men present in the room...
Matt knew the answer, it didn't even need a genius to understand, but you only see that in movies, that couldn't be... Mello wouldn't have...
"Do you really know who your... friend is, Matt? Or better, what your friend is?" the doctor asked, briefly looking at the redhead and stirring him out of his train of thoughts before going back to cleaning the burns with the material he had pulled from his suitcase.
"What do you mean? He's Mello, he's my friend, we know each other since we were kids!" Matt explained, confusion growing in his mind. Did he really want to know?
"Matt, if he's never told you, I'm not gonna tell you either, and I suppose that he had a good reason not to tell you considering how naïve you seem to be. But there's something I'm gonna tell you nonetheless, you took a great risk by calling with Mello's phone, and would you have called anyone else, you two would be dead by now. So I suggest that you forget until the existence of his phone, and keep him here until he's able to go back to his business. Do you hear me Matt? Don't let anyone know what's happening here, and don't take any risk. I'll help you with the medical part right now, but believe me, if you two make it alive until Mello has healed, it will be a miracle."
"Why won't you tell me? And why should I believe you? You're making so much mystery, you're asking me to be careful about something I don't even understand!" Matt was almost screaming, panic gaining him after the doctor's explanations. He knew. He knew what he meant, he knew, but he didn't want it to be that way. No, things couldn't be that way, Mello and him should be together and happy, it couldn't be so bad, things like that don't happen in real life!
They had to tell him! Yes, they had to say it, that it was not what it looked like, that things would be ok soon and that Mello hadn't put a foot in whatever gang or anything he was the boss of!
Jim chuckled. "God, can't you even take a guess?" he smirked, totally unphased by Mello's state or Matt's panic.
"But guess what? That Mello lied to me? This I already guessed, I'm not that stupid, that doesn't tell me who would be after us and why you shoved that gun in my chest when I opened the door, I mean, I called you, and you know Mello, so why so much trouble?" Matt was on the verge of tears, and his voice was now a mix of fear and anger. Mello had lied, or at least he had hidden things to him, and now he was alone to take care of Mello, caught in something he didn't want, only registering that Mello was in danger and that it was his fault if their address was known. He had fucked up everything. Everything. The happy life, Mello, all his dreams...
Jim shifted slightly to stand straight, pushing himself from the wall as he stepped closer to Matt.
This kid doesn't even falter in front of me, he's either as dangerous as Mello or he's totally stupid.
"Listen kid... Matt. This is the Mafia..." he was cut by the doctor: "Jim! Damn, why did you need to tell him?" the older man protested loudly, his hand hung up in the air with a bloody piece of gauze in it.
Jim only glanced briefly at the doctor, and leant back against the wall, shrugging.
Matt's eyes went as wide as plates, looking from one man to the other in disbelief.
"The Mafia? The real Mafia?" he couldn't believe it. He had already guessed that it had something to do with a gang or something along those lines, but he hadn't expected things to be that big.
"I don't know of a fake one." Jim chuckled again. God, this kid was so genuinely naïve. Why did the boss share an apartment with such a... fag.
He did the once over to Matt once again. Everything would make sense, two guys living together, the boss' leather fetish and girly look, although the one with the chick attitude wasn't the most effeminate one of the two...
"Jim, not everyone is used to what we see everyday, stop being so sarcastic. Can we focus on Mello for now, and discuss details later?" the doctor said, reminding the two others of the reason why he was here.
Standing to reach in his sport bag, the doctor stirred a perfusion stand and some pouches from it, and assembled the pieces of the stand as well as the tubes, plugging them to the pouches.
"I'm going to perfuse him with nutriments, morphine and antibiotics, he won't be able to take food by himself for days, let alone swallow medics, and it's better this way, because the pain would be unbearable if he was awake. Matt, you will have to change the pouches twice a day, and clean the burns and change the gauze exactly like you saw me do because I won't come back. Do you think you can handle that?"
"I will." Matt simply replied, suddenly feeling a wave of relief wash over him as his eyes travelled on Mello's body now clean and covered with proper bandages, the needle stuck in his wrist and secured with band aid, "Thank you." he simply said, feeling like he was about to cry but not wanting to give in in front of the men.
"Put that in the fridge." The old man held out some pouches to Matt, "They're labelled, you can't make a mistake."
Matt reluctantly walked to the kitchen to put the pouches away, his eyes almost never leaving Mello. He came back as soon as he slammed the fridge's door closed, just as the two men were about to leave.
"Don't call ever again, Matt, and don't answer Mello's phone for him either. Actually, cut the line totally. Play dead, that's all I can advise you." the doctor said before exiting the apartment, Jim already waiting for him in the stairs, sparing him a strange look before turning around.
"Won't anyone wonder about Mello?" Matt suddenly asked as the doctor followed Jim.
Looking up at the redhead, the man seemed to think for a brief instant before opening his mouth: "His absence will surely be noticed since he won't reply any calls, and we've seen none of his men come back from where he got the burns, and many of the remaining ones at the hideout will try to take his place, considering him dead, but that's the best that can happen Matt, that they think he's dead. No one comes and kills dead people. Do you understand? He's dead."
Matt nodded, closing the door and locking it.
Immediately sitting by Mello's side, Matt grabbed his phone and, still using Mello's chipset, he cancelled the line, then pulled the small piece of electronics out of his own phone, and flushed it in the toilets.
Sitting back on the bed, he stared at Mello, mechanically lighting a cigarette. Long drags filled his lungs, but the thuds of his heart didn't want to fade.
"Mello..." he whispered, "I can't believe it... how could you? And why? Why did you do that to us? Everything was perfect... no... you lied to me... I need to fix that, it will be perfect again, I promise..."
Matt let his head fall, tears breaking free from his closed eyelids. He finally stood up to reach the ashtray, and stood there, still staring at Mello's half covered face. The bandages were already stained with blood and lymph, but the blond looked peaceful.
Crushing his cigarette butt, he undressed and laid carefully beside Mello. He deposited a kiss on the uncovered cheek, and entwined his fingers with Mello's, sliding under the sheets, inhaling the scent of his skin as he felt asleep, his forehead against Mello's shoulder.
Matt arrived at the end of the last bandage, making sure to secure it with band aid. There, the fresh bandages were almost perfectly tied. But he would need to refill the stash since he had used almost everything the Mafia doc had brought three days ago.
Carrying the used and bloody bandages to the thrashcan, he realised the apartment was a mess.
The thrashcan was almost vomiting its content, several thrash bags were waiting to be thrown away all around the can, full of bandages, empty pouches and energy drinks crushed cans. Ashtrays were more than full, cigarette butts scattered around them, empty packs on the floor, the bathroom wasn't in better shape with towels and sheets covered in various bodily fluids spread on the floor, since Matt hadn't bothered to fill the laundry basket.
Himself felt quite dirty after three days of not showering of even changing clothes. He had nursed Mello without a single break except for resting a bit at night. Not that Mello needed him to be awake, since he was drugged and sleeping since he had had the perfusion on, but Matt had taken a huge amount of time to manage to take care of the bandages, change the sheets and clean the wounds without hurting Mello or cracking the burns open. He had lived on energy drinks, barely eating, and he was now feeling quite drained.
Throwing his dirty clothes on the pile of towels on the bathroom floor, he stepped in the shower. Barely adjusting the water, he washed himself as quickly as he could, wanting to clean the mess in case Mello would wake up since he was running out of morphine and whatever sleep medics the pouches contained. Mello had shifted a bit two hours ago after three days of complete stillness, so it wouldn't be long until he recovered his senses at least a bit.
Matt was worried about the pain, but he couldn't help but be happy to have his boyfriend awake soon. He felt extremely alone during these last days, and he couldn't wait to talk to Mello, and tell him everything would be perfect again, that Mello was now safe and they would always be together.
Sighing happily at this thought, Matt dried himself and got dressed before sitting at Mello's side, resuming his favorite activity from these last days: staring at the one he loved. Somehow, he liked it this way. Mello was home, and he was Matt's, all day long, all night long, and Matt didn't have to worry about who he met, who he talked to or what he did.
A few cigarettes later, Matt's eyes had surveyed the apartment for the umpteenth time. He finally stood up and began to clean, unable to refrain glancing at his lover from time to time and running by his side each time Mello emitted a sound.
Two hours later and several garbage bags waiting next to the door, the apartment was vacuumed, dusted, washed and in order, as well as the laundry.
Smoking a well deserved break cigarette, the redhead smiled as Mello stirred in his sleep. He hadn't awoken yet, but he moved more and more.
Grabbing all the bags, Matt hurried downstairs to the dumpster.
Climbing the stairs three by three, Matt had only taken two minutes to get rid of his thrash bags but he didn't want to miss Mello's awakening.
"I'm gonna make a chocolate brownie, so he'll have something he likes to eat in case he can take food!" he murmured to himself joyfully, pushing the door closed with his foot as he threw his keys on the nearby furniture beside the door.
But the door resisted.
Turning around, Matt knew, by the expression in the eyes of the man blocking the door with his shoulder, that it wasn't a courtesy visit.
