Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note.
Warning: Gratuitous nudity. But it's only in writing, so it's really your minds that are responsible for any images. Perverts.
A/N: Super late, sorry.
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Chapter Ten: Intruders
Matt awoke suddenly to the sound of the phone ringing in the middle of the night. Normally he would've just let it ring, but that tended to piss Mello off.
All of his limbs were entangled with Mello's, so he gently rolled the still sleeping blonde to the side and extricated himself carefully. He hurried out to the kitchen and picked up the phone, answering with a sleepy hello.
Silence was the only response. Matt repeated his greeting and listened for a few more seconds before hanging up with a sigh.
He turned around to reenter the bedroom, only to emit a high-pitched scream upon seeing that there was a strange woman leaning against the back of the couch. She was tall and blonde, and rather pretty, but with a sort of masculine jaw line. She looked tough, too. She could totally beat Matt up.
She smirked at him, and then casually allowed her gaze to meander down his body, making him suddenly very, very aware that he wasn't wearing anything. He blushed, wide awake now, and attempted to cover himself with his hands. The strange woman chuckled. Why was everybody in his world an unabashed pervert?
"Who are you and, uh, how did you get in here?" Matt stammered out as he moved to stand awkwardly on the other side of the counter, shielding his lower body from her sight.
"So you're Mello's new boyfriend, huh? Not bad." She said approvingly in lieu of an answer. Matt blushed still harder, but suddenly he realized who the woman was. She fit all of Mello's descriptions of Halle. That still didn't explain what she could possibly be doing in their apartment at that hour.
Matt glanced briefly through the bedroom door and saw that Mello had slept right through Matt's girly scream. How comforting. He could potentially be attacked in the middle of the night and Mello wouldn't even stir.
"Halle, right? Seriously, what do you want?" Matt asked.
"I came to see Mello. And you, I guess. I need to talk to you guys about Near." Halle said.
"What about Near?" Matt asked immediately, suddenly fully focused on Halle.
"I'll tell you when Mello gets out here. He's a heavy sleeper, huh?"
"Well, he's tired." Matt said, making the excuse mostly for his own benefit.
"I bet he is." Halle said suggestively, her eyes flickering briefly down Matt's body. Matt blushed yet again, even though the counter hid him, and then he rolled his eyes.
"He's tired from traveling." Matt clarified. Well, it was partly true.
"Uh huh. Anyway, why don't you go wake Mello up?" She said. Matt was annoyed. In order to do so, he would have to leave the protection of the counter. He shook his head and crossed his arms stubbornly. Halle laughed. Matt decided that he really, really did not like this woman.
"Fine, I'll do it." She said. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
"What're you-" Matt began, but then he heard Mello's cell phone, which was sitting on the counter in front of him. Matt groaned in exasperation and glared at Halle as Mello rushed out, also naked, to answer it.
Matt took note that if he was ever attacked in the middle of the night, he should find a way call Mello's phone instead of screaming. This made no evolutionary sense, but whatever.
Upon answering his phone and hearing nothing on the other end, it took about a second for Mello to lose patience and hang up. Then he looked up and froze.
"What the fuck?" He asked when he noticed the two of them. He put his hands on his hips and fixed Halle with a look that was grumpy, but inquisitive. Matt thought he didn't seem nearly embarrassed enough about his lack of clothing, but then, she'd seen it all before, hadn't she?
Matt decided that he didn't want to dwell on that fact at all, so naturally, he found himself imagining what that night must have been like, and he felt a tightening in his chest that he would later identify as jealousy. Mello had never actually told him the circumstances of their fling. He had no idea how close they were.
But, of course, it no longer mattered. Except that it did, now that he'd seen the woman in person. He kind of wanted to shake Mello by the shoulders and demand to how he could actually like this woman. Matt shook his head instead and looked at Mello.
"Well?" Matt and Mello said to Halle at the same time.
"So, I found out that Near hired some dude at your work to try and seduce you so that Mello would finally submit to Near's advances in a moment of heartbroken weakness." Halle said to Matt.
"Yagami's working for Near?" Mello asked, outraged. Matt frowned, realizing he hadn't actually told Mello about the Aiber kiss thing yet. This would be a bad way for him to find out.
Of course, he didn't even know if it was Aiber, as it could just as easily have been Light. They'd both made somewhat out of character advances toward him. How was he going to find out which it was?
"Well, I have to go now. Work starts in a few hours." Halle said, looking at her watch. She turned to leave, and Mello walked her to the door and whispered something in her ear that made her laugh and glance briefly at Matt. Matt scowled back, and she laughed again before shutting the door.
"What did you just tell her?" Matt demanded suspiciously. Mello giggled.
"Nothing."
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Matt entered his office building two hours later, feeling very grouchy indeed. He sat down in his chair and waited for Light to show up so he could interrogate him about Near.
He was really hoping it was actually Aiber who Near had hired, because with Light it would seem almost…betrayal-like. Not that he would put it past the evil, evil man, but lately Matt had been trusting Light more than their vaguely friendly ex-nemesis relationship really warranted, and it made him uncomfortable.
He finally saw Light come into the office about twenty minutes late. He was hand in hand with L, even though adults were not supposed to walk into work holding hands. Apparently the unwritten rules of public behavior did not apply to Light, or perhaps that rule didn't really exist anywhere except in Matt's head.
Probably a lot of Matt's social rules were imaginary like that, and they were likely responsible for much of the stress he'd always felt when he was forced to interact with other people.
Light entered the room, but only after pinning L to the doorframe and deeply kissing him goodbye. Matt rolled his eyes. He wasn't even going to ask what was going on with them. He waited until Light sat down before beginning.
"Light, did someone pay you to come on to me?" Matt asked casually. Light looked up at him with an curious expression.
"No, why would someone do that?"
"There's this guy at Mello's work whose trying to break us up so he can get in Mello's pants. Apparently he's hired someone here to seduce me." Matt explained. Light nodded in understanding, just as if the situation wasn't really weird.
"Ah. Well, wasn't me. I was just doing it for fun." Light said with a dazzling smile. Matt glared at him.
"Why are you so happy?" He asked. Light shrugged. For some reason, Matt believed him, so he decided with some relief that it must have been Aiber. Maybe Matt could tell Mello about the kiss that night, and try to make it sound like it just happened that day.
He wouldn't have to lie, he would just have to make it sound more emotional and disbelieving, like he'd been when it had first happened, and Mello would assume it was news. Problem solved.
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A/N: Review please!