A/N In an earlier chapter, L refers to Rose's mom as Ellie... this is his pet name for Emilee.

minor fluff... nothing too serious though... if holding hands isn't serious...

The song for this chapter is: Where Does the Good Go by Tegan and Sara

Chapter 10: Bad Dreams

The night started out normally; Rose and I sat on the couch and made fun of stupid sitcoms, while Mels sat in the chair, chocolate bar in hand, laughing more at what we said than the TV. It was around the time Rose usually went home that it got... awkward.

When we got back to the house, Rose relaxed after a cup of hot chocolate (courtesey of a chocolate bar stolen by yours truly), and she actually smiled. I was relieved, because I was prepared to resort to tickling the crap out of her. That made people laugh, right?

I whipped out my DS after Mels abandoned us for his bed, and Rose grinned. Grabbing her own pink one from her bag, we sat on the floor and dueled each other like there was no tomorrow. We both got tired of it after about the third battle. I had "trained her in the arts of the Nintendo," and we were equally matched.

Rose glanced at the clock and almost flipped out. "It's two A.M.! How am I going to wake up for school tomorrow?" she gnawed on her lip. I felt bad for keeping her up. Maybe she would just have to ditch.

"You could call in sick?" I suggested. That shouldn't be a problem, unless she was aiming for perfect attendance. She looked at me and grimaced.

"I guess so..." the seventeen year old rested her chin on her hand sitting cross legged, across from me. "But then what? I just... hang around all day?"

"Pretty much... Or you might want to get some air. Mels and I aren't exactly the most entertaining hosts, ya know." Well, it was true. I mainly played XBox or DS... I can't remember the last time I was on a computer... And Mello was usually out on his bike. Aside from the TV, there wasn't that much interaction among the house.

She lightly punched my shoulder. "Ah, you're plenty fun to hang out with, Matt. As long as you have multi-player games, I won't be bored," she stifled a yawn.

"Alright, get to bed," I said, ruffling up her hair. "The guest bedroom's down the hall, you know the one."

"The one you used to keep all your games in?" she checked.

"That's the one. If you need anything, just get it. It's not as if there's a set of rules around here." I stretched and yawned myself. "We don't follow rules, so we can't make them." I laughed, helping her to her feet, and she giggled.

"'Night, Matty," she said, flicking my nose. I rolled my eyes. Matty? THat was new. But, strangely enough, I could get used to it. Mels only called me Matty when he wanted something.

"'Night," I said, heading to my own room.

I was sitting in the "Camera Room," as I called it, chatting with Matsuda over pizza. We were discussing how well Light Yagami would do well under pressure. I was positive that he might feel uncomfortably, but otherwise, keep his cool. Matsuda said he would crack for sure.

"Aww, come on, Matsoo! You know Light-kun better than that! He kept his cool when he heard that his father had a heart attack. Knowing that Kira was now eliminating people opposing him, it took a lot of will power to keep his cool in front of Daddy, even though he was breaking inside, you know he was!" I said, loving that I had tricked Matsuda into listening to his own words.

"True..." he ventured, taking a bite of his slice. "But... what would happen if-"

"Everyone," my dad said from one of the screens on the wall. I put down my slice. "The Shiniga-" he stopped abruptly and his eyes got wider than usual.

"Dad...?" I said, even though he couldn't hear me. The Shiniga... Shinigami? The Shinigami what? What about them? "... Dad...! DAD!" I yelled as I watched the spark leave my father's eyes, I was numb as I watched Light run over to catch his limp body's fall. I couldn't hear anything, couldn't breathe.

The light was drowned in a bright red light, but I didn't notice. A single tear rolled down my face as I watched my world fall apart.

Which way was up? I was falling, I knew that much. I closed my eyes, and something snapped inside of me.

I was indeed standing straight up, I could indeed see, hear, and breathe. I was hyper aware of everything. Including the brief second I saw Light Yagami split a wide, nasty, but quarter of a second long grin. His eyes looked... triumphant?

Something kicked in. The grin was gone as fast as it had appeared, but I saw it. I was angry. At Light, at Shinigami Rem, who had fled with a notebook seconds ago, angry at God.

Angry at Light for relishing my father's death. A sob racked through my body. "Daddy!" I yelled desperately.

Angry at that stupid Shinigami for murdering my father. Another painful sob racked through my chest painfully. "Don't leave!"

Angry at God for allowing this to happen. "You can't leave me again!" my chest was hollow, painful, aching. "You can't leave! DADDY!" Somewhere around there, Matsuda grabbed my wrists to calm me down. When I stoped the blood curdling screams that only he and I could hear, we were in a completely different building. I buried my face in his chest and he hugged me, not sure how to stop the violent shaking and sobbing.

"Daddy..." I whispered.

"Rose," a panic-etched voice said. "Rose, wake up. Rose. Rose, wake up, are you alright?"

I sat bolt upright in the dark, my heart beating erratically. I half expected Matsoo-chan to be there.

It was Matt. He was standing by the bed, bent over to where his hand was on the bed, and as I slowly relaxed, he gently put the tips of his fingers on my shoulder, feather light, as if he were afraid to hurt me.

"I heard you say 'Dad'. You alright?" he asked, worry seeping into his voice. Crap.

"I..." I looked into the jade green eyes that I could see by the light of the window. Could I trust this boy? True, we had been video game buddies since I was nine, but being on the same team and being on the same page are two totally different things. All the same... "I constantly relive the..." what was it, exactly? "The moment he died. Every night." I said. Something about his probing green eyes made me spill out the rest without hesitation.

"They're always the same. I've had that dream so many times since I was ten, I could tell you every minute detail of the room..."I shut up when I realized how pathetic I sounded.

But he didn't look at me like I was psycho; he looked genuinely worried. He moved his hand from my shoulder to my forehead and gently pushed me back into the lying position.

Sitting on the bed now, he removed his hand from my forehead to put it on the bed next to me, so there was a hand on the bed on either side if me. I just warily watched him in case he was really worried about my mental health.

"You're clammy. You sure you feel alright?" I just nodded. He put the back of his hand on my cheek amd left it htere. I felt like I was at the school nurse.

"And this happend how often?" he put his hand back on the bed, making a protective "tent" around me.

"Every night." I breathed, not wanting to talk about it.

He frowned. "Rose..." I looked away from his emerald gaze, which was now inches from mine. I closed my eyes and yawned. When I opened them, his was was gone, and so were his arms. Great, I thought. Now I'm hallucinating. I rolled over and jumped when I saw Matt's face lying on a pillow, yet again, inches from mine. I raised an eyebrow when he smirked.

"Lets see if it comes back," he said, enjoying my obvious discomfort.

"I doubt it will. I only usually have one every night." I stalled. I really didn't like where this was going.

"Rose... Listen. I used to have nightmares all the time about..." he sucked in a breath. "certain people. And if there's one thing I know, it's that holding someone's hand helps. A lot." he said as he twined my fingers with his own. I closed my eyes, trying to assemble my thoughts before I spoke.

"Matt..." I said. "You don't have to do this for me." but I squeezed his hand anyway, hating how much he was right. Holding someone's hand does help with painful thoughts.

"Yes, actually, I do. It's a... self-fulfillung prophecy thing. I'll explain everything later, I promise. But now, sleep." he said, softly. I nodded, letting another yawn slip out, and drifted off to sleep.

I watched as her obsidian eyes fluttered closed and her breathing slowed. I began to slowly drift off to the steady pulse I could feel in the hand.

When I woke up, she was still out. She was rolled over to where her head was resting on my shoulder. Looking at the peaceful look on the seventeen year old girl's face, I couldn't help but smile to myself. I shifted to get up without waking her, and only then did I realize our hands were still twined. I gently pulled my fingers out of hers, and sucked in a deep, slow breath when she laid her arm over my chest after I let go of her hand. Maybe I could stay like this for a while, I thought as she gently gripped the collar of my red t-shirt with her fingers. She was so... warm. I loved it.

A/N When I said minor fluff, I meant minor fluff. Matt didn't mean anything intimate by holding Rose's hand; he was truly trying to console Rose and help her nightmares go away. As he said, he understands what its like to be haunted by memories.

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