#10 Bar

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Mello scowled from his seat at the bar, the chocolately liqueur in his shot glass swishing up the sides and leaving milky trails on the glass.

He should have been the centre of attention, his slender and perfect body was wrapped in tight black leather showing off just enough to make everyone want a little more, silver chains swaying and catching the low lights in this dive. His golden hair fell flawlessly around his fine, handsome features.

He should have had his pick of anyone in the bar.

His navy eyes were fixed on the very thing that was preventing that.

That thing was Matt.

Mello growled to himself and took another swig of his drink. It wasn't supposed to go like this.

He scowled to himself, recalling the little boy he'd left behind at Wammy's. Skinny, short for his age, with a body that looked like it was made of elbows. Gangly, with slightly greasy red hair and a pair of thick glasses that magnified his eyes and made him look like an insect. And he'd had acne; puberty wasn't kind to Matt.

In fact, as Mello recalled, what facial hair the kid did grow came out in tufts that made him look diseased. And anyway, he never knew how to dress, everything he owned clashed.

Matt was supposed to stay like that. A huge dork, undesirable forever, while Mello was the pretty one.

Matt was not supposed to grow up to look… like that.

His body had filled out, now he was tall and well-built, evenly muscled, his hair was soft and more crimson than before, his glasses had been replaced by goggles that somehow accentuated his clean-cut features, the slight shadow of morning stubble on his face making him look deeply masculine and frankly, sexy.

And those stupid clothes that used to clash so horribly were working now. The weird jeans fitted snugly in all the right places; the striped shirt accentuated muscles Mello was sure Matt never had before.

And because of all that, Matt was the centre of attention. Several girls had already gone over asking him to dance with them and now he was entangled with one under the flashing lights, moving with her in time to the pounding music.

Mello snarled. How dare Matt get cute? Wasn't he aware that his only purpose was to belong to Mello?

Besides, Mello was the hot one of the two of them, which was how it always had been.

Furious, and maybe a little drunk, the blonde rose from the barstool and stormed across the dance floor to the pair. In one movement he grabbed the girl's hair and yanked her backward with a snap of:

"Hands off my property, ho."

And then he calmly inserted himself into the space she had occupied in Matt's arms, curling his own slim limbs around the red-head's neck.

Matt blinked for a moment, then smiled and kept moving.

"How many have you had?" he enquired in that rough, musky tone. Damn his cigs for making his voice sexy.

Mello shrugged.

Matt rolled his eyes behind those sheets of yellow plastic. "Jealous?"

Mello scowled. "No." he saw the smirk forming on Matt's face and snapped out quickly, "Okay, maybe, but not of that bitch."

Matt laughed, nuzzling Mello's hair a moment before purring into his ear, "Like I could ever be as gorgeous as you." He nipped slightly on the earlobe before continuing, "They're all just intimidated by how sexy you are… they figure I'm easy cuz I'm not that cute."

Mello smiled like a cat with (chocolate) cream. "Mmm, say more things like that."

Matt chuckled against his throat. "Love you boss. I'm the luckiest guy in the world."

Mello sighed and relaxed against him totally, mumbling out, "Mm. Me too."