L couldn't say whether he was disappointed or relieved when Light moved back into his own hotel room. He missed his company, but he was glad about the lack of distraction. He wouldn't say temptation, since he did not find it hard to hold back his feelings... on the outside at least. On the outside he was cool and collected, or so he hoped.
They had all gone back to filming, Misa excluded of course. She was still hospitalised, and Light visited her 'as often as possible.' Which of course really meant as little as he could afford to visit without attracting suspicion. A few of the others had gone to see her; Matt and Mello managed half an hour before swearing to each other that they'd never go back. L hadn't been back since his first visit with Light, as Light had said that he was fine to go alone now. L didn't mind, it wasn't as though he particularly enjoyed spending time with Misa, but he seemed to be seeing a lot less of Light now that all the fuss had died down. He did want to be friends with the younger man, but Light seemed more distant than usual. He had always seemed a little... closed up, but he had seemed to be growing a lot more friendly towards L. Could it be that Light had deduced L's feelings and was steering clear? No, L was certain that Light would have said something about it to him to make sure...
The two men hadn't been seeing as much of each other on set as they were working on seperate scenes. Light was determined to bury any feelings for L as deep as he could. He spent most of his time alone in his room or out on his own. It worried him that he actually really missed L. Well, maybe if he stayed away, he'd lose these feelings. But he didn't want to push L away, so he accepted any of his invitations to play ping pong or pool. Invitations which were becoming scarcer, now he came to think about it. Had L taken Light's actions as an indication that he no longer wanted to be friends? Light didn't want that; L was first and foremost a good friend and the brunette enjoyed their discussions and talks immensely. As he had thought before, L was the one person who was on Light's intellectual level and they therefore could have intelligent conversations about almost any subject. The idea of having a talk like that with such as Misa was laughable.
Matt and Mello however, were blissfully unaware of the conflict going on inside their co-stars' heads. They were still firmly within their own bubble and barely took notice of anything else around them. At the moment they too were filming seperate scenes, so only saw each other at lunchtime and of course when the work had finished for the day. Nobody else had noticed anything amiss with the couple's behaviour to each other, which had lulled the two men into a false state of security. They were careful of course, but mistakes can occur with the most cautious of minds. These mistakes can lead to problems, particularly when the mistake was to leave the door of a cupboard unlocked.
After lunch one day, Mello had suggested casually to Matt that they take a walk around set. When they were in the corridor away from prying eyes, Matt spotted a handy cleaning cupboard and propelled Mello inside. The blonde chocoholic smirked, closing the door behind them and engulfing them in darkness. Matt pressed Mello against the wall, sliding his hands over the other's body and up his neck to find his face and lips. Mello wrapped his arms around Matt as the redhead kissed him ardently, grinding their hips together roughly. His lover moaned softly, biting down on Matt's lower lip and lifting one leg to curl around around his waist, resting on the belt of his jeans. Matt placed a possessive hand on Mello's leather encased thigh and pressed their bodies as close together as possible as he ran his tongue along Mello's teeth. Mello bit down, making Matt gasp in pain and squeeze Mello's thigh, hard. Mello shifted position, accidentally knocking against something and sending it to the floor with a loud clatter. They both ignored it, and Matt tangled his hands in Mello's blonde hair as he kissed him furiously. Mello kissed him back with equal passion
A sudden flood of light made them pull apart. Somebody had opened the door. They sprang away from each, knocking over mops and brushes in their urgency, and looked towards the doorway to see which cleaner had come to get some floor polish and inadvertently stumbled upon them. But it wasn't a cleaner. It was a teenager with curly pale hair, dressed in a white shirt that looked far too big for him. A brightly coloured plastic space ship was dangling loosely from one of his hands, and his eyes were wide with surprise as he took in the scene before him. A small smile curled his lips slowly.
"Near!" Mello exploded, extricating himself from the fallen cleaning tools and glaring down at the boy "What the hell are you doing?"
Near eyed him blankly, taking a few moments to answer to infuriate Mello further.
"I should be asking you that question," he said finally in a calm voice. "I heard a noise and decided to investigate."
Matt sidled out of the cupboard, wondering whether to say anything.
"We were just looking for some stain remover for Matt's dressing room carpet, not that it's any of your business," Mello snapped, folding his arms and leaning forward in an attempt to intimidate Near. Lesser men would have crumbled under his gaze, but Near stared blankly back.
"In the dark?"
"We couldn't find the light switch."
"I'm not a fool, Mello. For one, you wouldn't have shut the door. Also, I saw you before you saw me."
Mello looked as if he was about to slap the younger boy. There seemed to be more of the whites of his eyes than the ice blue iris, which actually appeared to be darkening as he glared furiously at Near. Near looked back at him with his arms folded.
"Nobody would believe you. Who would take the word of a bratty little kid with another piece of worthless gossip? So what I was snogging my male co-star? Nobody'll pay your story any attention." Mello snarled.
"Oh, I wouldn't go to the press without proof... and proof I have, actually. You see, I've recorded our whole conversation so far, including the part five seconds ago where you confessed to engaging in romantic activites with a male co-star. I'd say that was pretty conclusive." Near replied, holding up his mobile phone.
Matt clenched his fists, looking angrily at Near's smug face. Mello was absolutely incandescent.
"You fucking slimy little fucking twat, Near!"
"Language, Mello."
"Fuck you!"
"What do you want?" Matt demanded "What will you get out of making this public?"
"I haven't said that I will make this public," Near shrugged, looking up at Matt with the hint of a smile.
Mello took a deep breath, trying to calm down before he attacked the infuriating git of a Near. He was having a savage fantasy of pulling off his own rosary and winding it around Near's neck to choke him. He wished he had a gun or something to point at Near's head and get the kid to show some bloody emotion. He knew that slamming his knuckles into Near's face repeatedly would be satisfying in the short term, but he'd probably regret it.
"What... do we have to do... to stop you making it public?" Matt asked slowly.
"We're not making a deal with this little creep!" Mello growled, yanking Matt's arm to pull him back.
"Like it or not, we might have to!" Matt retorted, facing Mello with fierce eyes behind his goggles and his hands on his hips.
Mello was glaring at both of them now with equal venom. He looked to be on the point of combustion, or tears.
"Well you fucking well sort it out, then," he shouted at Matt, storming off in the opposite direction.
Matt stared after him, utterly bewildered. He could understand why Mello was angry; Matt was annoyed as well that their carefully constructed cover had been blown by Near of all people. But they had to sort it out somehow, and running away wasn't going to solve anything.
He stepped forwards to follow Mello and see if he was all right. A tight grip on his wrist stopped him, and he looked down into Near's face.
"Leave him to cool down." the boy advised.
"What do you know about it?" Matt huffed, wrenching his arm free.
Near shrugged, and Matt frowned at him.
"Why did you do that? Do you hate him that much?"
"Hate? This isn't about hate." Near said impassively, twirling a tendril of hair around one finger
"Then what?"
Matt didn't wait for an answer. He shook his head in exasperation, running down the corridor after Mello. He knocked on Mello's dressing room, but there was no answer. He pushed the door open cautiously, peering around for the blonde. The room was empty, and after a quick search of anywhere Mello could have dodged to avoid him, Matt sat down in the corridor outside to think. He racked his brains as to where Mello might have gone. Truth be told, he had no idea where a hurt Mello might hide. Mello had never run away from him before.
His first thought was the cafeteria, or the small snack shop outside the set. Surely Mello would want chocolate when he felt upset or angry. He went to check both, but no Mello. He wasn't altogether surprised; Mello would hate being around people when he was angry. If he had collected some chocolate, he hadn't lingered. But there wasn't many places in the studio to hide. He checked the men's bathroom, but all of the cubicles were empty. He slumped against the tiles, lighting a cigarette. He hadn't a clue where Mello could be.
He took a long drag from his cigarette, trying to think like Mello. If he was Mello, and he was pissed off, where would he go? The answer was astonishingly simple. Where nobody would find him. So where in this building could one be unnoticed and alone to mull over one's anger? Where would nobody expect him to be?
It wasn't hard to break into the office where the keys for the different sets were kept. Matt was pretty good at that kind of thing, and if Mello could do it then so could he. He slipped inside and looked at the spaces where there were missing keys. One set was for the town scene Mello had been working on with Light. Another was L's character's house, so Matt ruled that one out. The third was his own scene. There was only one missing key left, and Matt wondered why he hadn't realised straight away. It was the set that his own death was filmed in; Mello was hiding in Daisuke's small dark bedroom. Perfect place to run.
Sure enough, it was locked when he got there, from the inside. Matt peered through the keyhole, and realised that Mello had left the key in the other side of the door. Luckily, it was the old fashioned type of lock; a proper keyhole. No bolts on the door either. He shook his head, looking around for something he could use. He tore a poster down from the wall, sliding it under the door. Then he hunted around in his pockets. He pulled out a pencil, and a paper clip. He checked where the poster was lined up to the lock on the door, then jabbed the pencil into the keyhole sharply. It was too thick to reach through the keyhole to the key on the other side. Matt nodded with a small frown of concentration, straightening the paper clip into a straight piece of wire.
He inserted this into the lock, wiggling the wire around and hoping it would work. He heard a clatter as the key fell out of the keyhole, and lay down on the ground to peer through the crack underneath the door. Would there be room to pull the key out? He tugged gently at the poster and it slid from under the door... with the key on top of it. Matt grinned, picking it up and unlocking the door. It opened with a satisfying click, and he stepped inside.
He made his way quietly to the bedroom. It looked empty at first glance but then he spotted Mello's silouhette behind the ripped curtain, sitting on the windowsill. Mello was peering at him with narrowed eyes.
"How did you find me?" he demanded as Matt walked towards him.
Matt shrugged, pulling back the curtains to look at him. Mello didn't look as angry as he had before, just a little upset. He shifted his legs so that Matt could sit beside him, looking at him silently.
"Why him? Of all the people who could see us, why Near?" he asked in a small voice after they had sat for a few minutes in the dark. "It could have been L, who wouldn't have bothered, or Light, who we could have dealt with, or one of the random other actors like that Hal or Takada or somebody... why did it have to be Near?"
"I don't know, Mel." Matt sighed softly, looking at what he could see of Mello's face in the dim light.
Mello fell quiet again, twirling his rosary around his fingers.
"Maybe we'll have to deal with what happens if this does go public." Matt suggested slowly.
The blonde shook his head vigorously, putting his head in his hands.
"What are you scared of? The fans?" Matt asked.
"No... I don't know. I think... I don't want Near to tell..." Mello mumbled "I'd rather we did it ourselves than it come out through him."
"It was going to happen sooner or later," the redhead said quietly "Won't it be nicer not to have to hide how we feel?"
"But it's none of their damn business! Bloody parasites..."
Matt looked at him thoughtfully. To be honest, he wasn't scared of people finding out. It wouldn't be a massive scandal, surely. But it was really Mello's decision.
"So... what are we going to do?"
"I... need to think."
"Okay. Do you want me to go?"
Mello didn't reply, so Matt jumped down off the windowsill.
"Are you going to give me a hug before I go?"
"No." Mello replied without looking at him.
Matt nodded slowly, with a small sigh. He turned to leave, his hands thrust deep in his pockets.
"Matt...?"
"Yeah?" he asked, turning around.
"I'm not ashamed of you. Don't think that."
"I know." Matt said in surprise, heading towards the door.
The corridor looked garishly bright after the black of the room he had just come from. He leant against the wall, checking his watch. They'd missed so much of the day's filming that there was really no point going back. Matt went outside instead, sitting on a concrete block that was supposed to serve as a bench. He lit a fresh cigarette, tilting his head to feel the sun on his face as he took his first puff. Mello seemed certain that Near would sell his information to the tabloids, and Matt supposed that he would have a better idea. He did know him better than Matt did, after all. So maybe trusting Mello's judgement was the best thing he could do.
Hey, so sorry for not uploading until now puts on pitiful face I've been banned off the internet at home but I'm going to write up the chapters on my laptop and upload whenever I can get to a friend's house and use their internet looks sneaky