Author's Note: This is another chapter where Matt's song is actually featured within the chapter. I would recommend listening to his song when it comes up. It will probably be a lot more entertaining if you do x)

Mello: Staplegunned by The Spill Canvas
Matt: P.L.U.R. by Blood on the Dance Floor

Chapter 11: Uncertainty

"Do you have everything?" Misa asked him, and for as excited as she had seemed about him moving in with Matt, Mello swore he could see a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Yeah, I think so," he said, shuffling though his box of things briefly, not really bothering to look that closely. He honestly wasn't all that concerned; it wasn't like he was moving cross country again, just up one flight of stairs.

"Well, if you need anything, you're always welcome," she added, smiling up at him.

"Of course," he said and wrapped his arms around her in a hug, but when he heard someone knock on the door and tried to let her go, he found that he couldn't. When he went to pull away, Misa wouldn't let go. "Misa, what are you doing?" he sighed.

"I just got my Mel-Mel back. I'm not letting him leave," she said into his chest, holding onto him tighter.

"I thought you were happy for me?" he asked, glancing over at the door, not wanting to make Matt wait.

"Can't I be happy for you and want you to stay at the same time?"

"Sure, as long as the second one doesn't involve you leeching onto me." Matt knocked again, and Mello tried to move towards the door. And although Misa still refused to let go, her tiny feet stepped up onto his, allowing him to move without having to drag her.

He managed to walk to the door, although with slight difficulty, and opened it to reveal Matt standing out in the hall; his hands were shoved down into his pockets and his goggles placed over his eyes, looking around awkwardly. "Hey," he said excitedly when he turned towards Mello, but the smile that had been on his face faded to be replaced by a confused expression as he saw the strange situation Misa had put him in.

"Misa doesn't want me to go," he said flatly, answering Matt's unasked question, and the redhead nodded.

"It's not that I don't want you to leave," she said, "I'm happy for you and Mattie. I'm just gonna miss my Mel-Mel."

"Misa, I'll be right upstairs. We'll still see each other all the time," he told her.

"Yeah, and you can visit anytime. You know my door's always open," Matt added, and with that, Misa slowly unattached herself from Mello.

"Fine, I guess I'll let you go then," she said to Mello before turning to Matt. "But don't worry. I'll knock first. Don't want to interrupt anything," she said suggestively, giving Matt a wink, which only made him start blushing wildly.

"Okay, Misa. That's enough," Mello told her, feeling bad for Matt who looked like he wanted to disappear into the floor.

"Don't even pretend like you don't want to, mister," she said, shooting him a coy smile, and he was certain she was doing this just to punish him for leaving her.

"Alright, I think it's time to go," he announced quickly, going to get his suitcase which was sitting on the floor next to the couch.

"No! I'm sorry," she said, pulling his arm away from the suitcase as he reached for it. "I'm sorry. Please don't leave yet," she pleaded, "Just wait for Kiyomi to get back. Please?"

"Fine," he sighed, flopping down on the couch. He'd really been hoping to have already left by the time Takada got back from her internship, but he supposed it really wasn't that big of a deal; she should be in soon anyway. "Is that alright with you?" he asked Matt who only nodded as he came to sit next to Mello, still blushing slightly.

"Yay!" Misa exclaimed, flopping down on the other side of Mello. "So have you guys discussed sleeping arrangements yet?" she asked offhandedly, looking at them curiously, but when Mello glared at her, she recanted what she'd said. "Sorry, sorry, I know. It's none of my business," she said, rolling her eyes.

Although, it wasn't even that Mello was mad about her asking; rather, he was concerned with the fact that he and Matt hadn't discussed it yet. It had been three days since them moving in together had first been brought up, and they had both largely evaded the subject.

Though they hadn't even really talked all that much over the past couple days to begin with. When Matt had been getting ready to leave after Misa's little celebration, they'd discussed when Mello would move in, deciding on Monday after they got in from work since they both had the morning shift. Plus, that would give Matt the weekend to clean up his apartment, and from what he'd said, it sounded like it really needed it.

But now it was Monday, and Mello still had no idea where he would be sleeping that night. As Misa had less than discreetly suggested, he did want to sleep with Matt; he wanted to do a lot of things with Matt, things which he'd only been able to fanaticize about thus far. He hoped that moving in together would give him more of an opportunity to make some of his fantasies a reality, but with how nervous Matt acted anytime Misa alluded to it, Mello doubted that anything terribly interesting would be happening his first night in his new home.

And if Matt wasn't ready for any of that quite yet, he was fine with it. He just didn't relish the idea of bringing up where he'd be sleeping that night to Matt. He could imagine how flustered Matt would get, at least if how he was acting then after Misa had brought it up was any indication.

Mello reached over, finding Matt's hand, and laced his fingers between Matt's, hoping he'd relax a bit. His thumb brushed back and forth gently over the back of Matt's hand, tracing the veins that ran just under his skin, raising it slightly, all the while looking, not at Matt, but at Misa who had moved on from trying to pry into their private life to attempting to give them her well wishes.

"I'm sorry," she said sadly. "I really am happy for you both. It's just that there are a few things you should have discussed by now," she added, looking at Mello expectantly. He elbowed her in the ribs in response, knowing full well what she was getting at.

He'd intended to confront Matt about his smoking habits before they moved in together, to explain to him how he'd had to watch an addiction eat away at his mother's life growing up, but he'd never really gotten the chance. He'd justified it to himself by saying that since he'd be seeing Matt a lot more, that there would be plenty of opportunities in the future to broach the subject.

Matt gave him a weird look, obviously having noticed their exchange, which Mello pointedly ignored, hoping that he wouldn't ask what it had been about the second they left. Although if he was hoping that Matt would just forget about it, it didn't seem like Misa was going to make that easy on him.

"Ow! I was just trying to help," she grumbled, crossing her arms and sticking her lower lip out in a pout.

"I'm sorry," Mello offered halfheartedly.

"I'm sure," she said sarcastically, shooting him a glare out of the corner of her eye.

"No, really," he tried, not wanting her to still be mad at him when they left. "I'm sorry."

"Mello, I don't care if you're sorry or not. I know you think I'm being pushy, but I'm worried that you're not taking this seriously."

He was about to tell her that he was, in fact, taking it very seriously when the door was pushed open, and a very surprised looking Takada walked in. "What are you still doing here?" she asked, looking directly at Mello.

"Waiting for you to get home," he told her and got up, walking over to her. "Couldn't leave without saying goodbye," he said, giving her a hug.

"Ugh, get off me," she said, pushing him away, and a smirk came to his lips. He was going to miss messing with Takada. "No, really," she said once she was a safe distance from him, "Don't tell me you decided not to move out."

"I wanted them to stay till you got back," Misa answered for him, getting up from the couch.

"Ah, well, I'm back now, so…" and with that, she nodded to Mello and headed to her bedroom.

The second she was out of the room, Misa had her arms around his neck again. "It's okay to let him in," she whispered in his ear, "You need to let him in."

He glanced at Matt, who was standing up, getting ready to leave, over her shoulder. "I know," he told her, and she leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek and let him go. He gave her a little smile and then moved to grab his suitcase.

"Could you get that?" he asked Matt, motioning towards the box sitting on the coffee table.

"Is this everythin'?" Matt asked as he picked the rather small cardboard box up, sounding surprised.

"Yeah."

"Wow, you weren't kiddin' when you said you could manage on your own," he said, going to stand next to Mello at the door. When they'd decided when the move would take place, Matt had offered to help him with his stuff. Mello had told him that there wasn't much to move, but Matt had insisted.

"You're both gonna visit, right?" Misa asked, looking between the two of them, but didn't give them a chance to respond. "I expect you to visit."

"Of course," Mello said, giving her a reassuring smile, and Matt nodded.

"Good. You better," she said, giving them a stern look which faded to melancholy expression before throwing her arms around Mello again. "Bye," she said and then did the same with Matt, though with a bit more difficulty as he was still holding the box.

Mello pulled the door open with his free hand and held it open for Matt. "Bye," he said to Misa who waved to them and closed the door as they started towards the elevator.

"Well, that was, uh…interestin'," Matt said as they stepped into the elevator.

Mello pushed the button marked '7,' making it light up. "Interesting? Is that what you'd call that?"

"Ha, well, I didn't expect Misa to, uh, be so dramatic."

He looked over at Matt in surprise. "You didn't expect Misa to be dramatic? Do you know Misa? That's exactly what you should expect from her. All the time."

"Yeah, I guess… But I got the feelin' she doesn't think this is a good idea. She seemed to be okay with it when I was over on Friday…" he trailed off as the elevator doors opened in from of them.

"She's just being overdramatic," he said, following Matt out of the elevator, hoping that this would be a sufficient cover for everything Misa had said. He would get around to confronting Matt about his addiction when the time was right, and as long as he didn't directly ask him about any of the specifics of what Misa had said, he didn't think 'the right time' was while he was moving in.

"Yeah, you're prob'ly right…" Matt said, shifting the box so he could hold it in one arm, and opened the door to his apartment. "So here it is. Home sweet home," he said, setting the box he was carrying down on the floor as Mello stepped through the doorway.

The first thing Mello noticed was the sheer quantity of stuff in Matt's apartment. The large flat screen TV that sat against one wall stood out to him, as did the blue plaid couch in the center of the room, but as he scanned the room, the smaller details were almost overwhelming. Next to the TV were a few of stacks of DVDs to the one side, and a couple boxes were stacked on top of each other on the other side, though there was no indication of what could be inside. Gaming magazines were piled next to the couch, and where Misa had a coffee table in her apartment, Matt had what appeared to be a piano bench. A small wooden table that held an ashtray sat on the other side of the couch. Posters advertising various video games, movies, and concerts for artists Mello had never heard of plastered the walls, leaving room for little else. A couple more boxes like the ones next to the TV were stacked in one corner, and a few more trailed along the perimeter of the room, leading up to a life-size model of…something which sat in another corner. Mello knew he'd seen the 'something' somewhere before, but couldn't place where.

"So whadya think?" he heard Matt ask to his left.

"Uh…" was all he managed to get out. He wasn't entirely sure what he thought.

"Yeah, it's a lot to take in," Matt laughed, "You should've seen it before I cleaned up."

"You…cleaned?" Mello questioned in disbelief. Sure, that had been the plan: Matt would take a couple days to tidy up the apartment before Mello moved in, but he didn't know how anything else could have possibly fit in the small room.

"Yeah, all the stuff in those boxes was just kinda…out. You could hahrdly see the floor," Matt said with a laugh. "C'mon. I'll give you the grand tour." And when Mello started following him, not even realizing that he hadn't set his suitcase down, Matt added, "You can just leave that there for now if you want."

"Oh, right," Mello said, setting the suitcase down and following Matt around the room.

"Here we have my DVD collection which includes all the classic sci-fi staples as well as some of the better adaptations of the superhero comics," he started and then opened the doors to the small wooden entertainment system the TV was sitting on. "DVD and Blu-ray player, and I have my Xbox 360 hooked up right now, but I have my PS3 in here," he said, pointing to one of the boxes next to the TV, "and my Xbox games in here," he added, pointing to the other. "The stormtrooper I bought off eBay, DJ equipment, classic video game systems and games," he finished, going around the room, pointing to the thing standing in the corner and the various boxes.

"Stormtrooper…" Mello repeated, still trying to place where he'd seen it before.

"Yeah, isn't it cool?" Matt said excitedly, a grin spreading across his face.

"What is it?"

Matt's jaw dropped. "A soldier under the Galactic Empire. You know, from Stahr Wars?" he said as if this should be obvious.

Mello looked back to the white suit thing. "No, that's not it."

"Whadya mean 'that's not it'? That is what it is."

"No, because I've seen it before, and I've never seen Star Wars."

"You, wait, what? You've never seen Stahr Wars?" Matt asked, exasperated.

"No…?" Mello replied hesitantly.

"How can you have… Never mind. I know what we're doin' tonight," Matt said, a smile returning to his face. Mello let out a sigh. It wasn't that he was against watching the movie even though he wasn't that into science fiction; it was just that what he'd hoped to be doing with Matt that night involved much less clothing. "I figure we'll stahrt with Episode Four. The older trilogy is way better," Matt added as he led Mello to the next room.

"Episode Four? How many are there?"

"Six," Matt told him, giving Mello a look which told him that this was a stupid question, but continued with his tour nevertheless. "Anyway, this is the kitchen. Table, oven, stove, fridge," he said, pointing to each in turn. "All the kitchen-y stuff. The only thing I really use is the cahfee maker. If you get hungry, I have… Well, I'm actually not sure what I have," so Matt started looking through his cupboards. "Looks like Trix cereal, a pack of chicken flavored ramen, two chocolate Pop-Tarts, cahfee of course—that's basically the one thing you can count on me havin', that and some kind of energy drink, usually Monster—and…" he continued to the fridge and peering in, "uh…some ketchup, couple cans of Coke and Monster—like I said," he added, glancing over his shoulder at Mello with a shrug before returning to the contents of his refrigerator, "and…huh." He pulled out a Styrofoam takeout container from behind the cans and opened it. "Ugh. Don't even know what that is," he said, frowning down at it. He closed the refrigerator door with his foot and went to throw the whatever-it-was in the garbage can before going back to see what was in the freezer. "And a thing of hash browns. So if any of that sounds good, help yourself. Most of the time, I just grab somethin' on the way home from work."

Mello nodded, taking mental note of the chocolate Pop-Tarts. He followed Matt back through the living room to the small hall that led to the bedrooms.

"Here we have my room," he said, pushing the door open and revealing another cluttered room, though it wasn't as bad as the living room. More posters covered the walls, and Mello picked out one for Star Wars that was on the far wall. The bed was positioned against the center of the wall to the left, covered in a simple black comforter, and had a laptop sitting on it which was plugged into the wall, charging. The small night stand to the left of it held a lamp; what looked like a picture frame from where Mello was standing, but between the glare from the light coming in through the window and the angle it was at, he couldn't tell what the picture was of; an another ashtray; and one of those handheld game things, though as for which one, Mello wasn't sure. A stack of comic books sat near the closet to the right.

With no further explanation, Matt moved down to the end of the hall to the bathroom, which turned out to be much less interesting than the living room or Matt's bedroom with the exception of the Super Mario Bros. themed shower curtain.

He led Mello back the way they had come from to the room across from Matt's. As the door was pushed open, Mello assumed that this was where he'd be sleeping, at least at first. Matt had said that he had an extra room, and Mello had taken it to mean that said room would be his. However, it didn't appear that this would be the case. "This is where I keep all my computer stuff," he said, gesturing to the interior of the room, though there was really no need to point it out; it was quite obvious by the boxes that lined the shelves of the bookcase in the room, wires and whatnot poking out over the tops. There was another set of shelves on the opposite wall which held a few books on different coding languages, and a desk that had a black laptop sitting on top of it. "Best of all," Matt said going to the desk, a wide grin on his face, "I finally finished the laptop I toldya I'd build."

"Really?" Mello asked excitedly, forgetting all about the issue of where he was supposed to be sleeping and, for that matter, all the weird stuff Matt had in his apartment as well. "Can I…?" he asked, moving to pick it up.

"You can do whatever you want with it. It's yours," Matt said with a laugh. "I was gonna give it to you Friday when I went over to Misa's, but I forgot to bring it, and then I figured I'd just wait till today."

Mello hesitantly lifted the top and pressed the power button, almost afraid that he was going to hurt it in some way. He'd never had a computer of his own before. "How much do I owe you for it?" he asked hesitantly. It looked pretty expensive.

"Naw, don't be ridiculous," Matt said with a shrug, and then nodded towards the door as the startup scripts ran, and 'Windows 7' was displayed on the screen, "C'mon." So Mello carefully picked it up and followed him back out to the living room where he sat down on the couch, already pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, using the piano bench as a foot rest. Mello sat down next to him, gingerly setting the computer in his lap. "Here, let me show you a couple things," he said, holding his hands out to take the laptop, and Mello gave it to him. "I already set everythin' up, downloaded what you'll need to get stahrted, your basic Microsoft shit, Word and all that good stuff," Matt said, pointing out the icons with the cursor as he explained, "I put some games on it, not much 'cause I wasn't sure what you'd want, but I have a ton on mine if you wanna check any of 'em out. You should be connected to my internet, and I set it up to print to the printer in my computer room, but I haven't tried printin' anthin' from it yet, so let me know if you have any problems. But," Matt paused dramatically and took a drag on his cigarette, flicking the ashes into the ashtray on the table beside the couch, "this is the best pahrt." He clicked on the iTunes icon, bringing it up in a new window. "I took the liberty of loadin' some music in for you. Gave you a nice little sample of some of my personal favorites, even put 'em in a playlist for you," he said, clicking on the playlist.

Mello leaned over to see better the screen and scoffed at what Matt had titled the playlist. "'Good Music'?" he said, rolling his eyes, "Really?"

"Well, that's what it is," Matt said, very matter of fact.

"Right. Of course," Mello returned with a laugh, but then a thought crossed his mind which made the 'Good Music' playlist much more intriguing. "Do you have any of your music on here?"

"Heh, no. It's not really ready," he said running a hand through his hair, and Mello thought better of pressing the subject. Not that Matt gave him the opportunity to do so."Uh, you have anythin' you wanna load in? Whatever you brought over from your old computer?" Matt asked quickly, changing the subject. He hit the 'shuffle' icon, and an upbeat techno song started coming from the speakers of his new computer, seemingly making him forget about what had just been said. "Oh man," Matt laughed, "Of course the most embarrassin' song I gave you is the first one that comes on." Even so, Matt continued to let the song play, turning to Mello and asking, "So? You wanna load in anythin'?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," he said, getting up to go dig around his box of stuff, and pulled out the flash drive he'd stored his music on. He sat back down on the couch and handed it to Matt, all the while wondering why exactly they were listening to this song. "This is good music?" he asked, more skeptical than ever in Matt's taste in music.

"Ha, well…not exactly," he admitted, glancing over and giving Mello an awkward little smile as he slid the flash drive into one of the USB ports on the side. "Blood on the Dance Floor…They're kinda like my guilty pleasure of music," he explained almost hesitantly as he brought up a new window that displayed the contents of Mello's flash drive. "This is all you have?" he asked, shocked, "'Music' and…'Writing Stuff'?" he read the names of the two folders before turned to Mello, looking impressed. "You write?"

"Uh, no, not really. It's just the stuff from my English classes that I couldn't bring myself to delete. I just got rid of most everything else so I didn't have to buy something bigger to store it on. Not that I had a whole lot saved on our computer. Just my music and some school stuff," he explained.

"Can I read it?" Matt asked, and Mello could immediately feel his cheeks start to burn.

"My writing?"

"Yeah, but I mean, I don't have to…" he trailed off, turning back to the computer and started the transfer of Mello's files, clearly having noticed that it made him uncomfortable.

Mello sat there, watching as the little progress bar inched forward as his files were moved over to the laptop, hating that his cheeks continued to burn. It really wasn't a big deal; it was just that no one had ever expressed any interest in reading anything he'd written before. Sure, his English teachers had told him that he was a good writer, but even so, they'd had to read what he'd turned in. "You can if you want," he ventured, "Just not right now. I don't want to be here if you read any of it." He could just imagine how nervous he'd be if he actually knew that Matt was reading something he'd written. It was better if he were at work or something, blissfully ignorant to it.

"Ahre you sure? If it's private or whatever, I'll forget about it."

"No… Like I said, just stuff I had to write for school. You can read it if you want," he shrugged, trying to act nonchalant even though the idea of Matt reading anything he'd written made his heart jump into his throat.

"Alright then," Matt smiled, honestly seeming excited, and it was a strange concept for Mello. Why would someone want to read something he'd written? But even so, it appeared to put Matt in a good mood. He tapped out the beat of the song playing on the edge of the laptop and started singing quietly to himself as the song came back around to the chorus. "Don't judge me, just love me. I'm not a criminal, I'm innocent, so come and set me free. I choose ecstasy, and music's my religion, magic is my kingdom, and the dance floor is my heaven."

Mello could only stare at the redhead as he sang; he clearly had no idea how ridiculous he sounded. It wasn't the odd lyrics or even the strange contrast between Matt's much deeper voice and the higher pitched voice in song; rather, it was just that Matt was a terrible singer.

"What?" the redhead demanded when he noticed Mello staring.

"You're, uh, music doesn't have singing in it, does it?" Mello asked.

"Oh, ha ha. I know I can't sing," Matt said, his tone flat, but a small smile came to his lips, letting Mello know that he wasn't actually offended. "And no, to answer your question, it's just the music, no singin'."

"That's probably for the best," Mello said jokingly, giving Matt a cheeky smile.

"Oh, right, well I'd like to see you do any better."

Mello shook his head. "Sorry, don't know the words to the song." Besides, he didn't really feel like making a fool of himself. He could remember being in the children's choir at church when he'd been little, but even so, he'd never thought that he was very good.

"Excuses," Matt said, shaking his head in mock disappointment. His bangs flopped into his eyes, and he took a second to brush them out of the way, moving his goggles to rest on top his head before his hand went back to cigarette between his lips, now only a short stub. He removed it from between his lips, smashing it down in the ashtray on the table next to the couch and lighting another absentmindedly. "Damn. Last one," he grumbled, crumpling the now empty pack in his palm and placing it next to the ashtray. The entire thing made Mello sick to his stomach.

He thought of what Misa had said to him, and considered saying something to Matt about his addiction. A part of him wanted to, he wanted to let everything out and let the chips fall where they may, but the side of him that wanted to just ignore it and forget about what it reminded him of won out. It could wait. Matt had just opened up his apartment to him and given him a new laptop; scolding him for smoking hardly seemed the way to repay him.

He heard Matt say something, bringing him out of his thoughts. "What?" he asked, not having been paid attention.

"D'you want me to open a window?" he asked, holding up the cigarette.

"Oh, yeah, sure…" he said and took his laptop from Matt when he got up. He watched as Matt pushed the window open, the sounds of the street below tumbling in and mixing with the song that was playing, which unlike the first, he knew he'd heard before, probably in Matt's car.

"Sorry," Matt apologized on his way back to the couch, "Not used to havin' guests over." But then a pink tint crept into his cheeks, and he added, "Well, I guess you're, uh, not really a guest."

Mello quickly looked away from Matt. As of about fifteen minutes, they'd officially been living together, but besides his suitcase still sitting by the door, it hardly felt like it. The very idea seemed odd at the moment.

But as Matt sat back down next to him on the couch, he saved Mello from having to come up with a response. "Oh good, it's done," he said, unplugging the flash drive and handing it back to Mello before telling him, "Go get your iPod."

He handed the laptop back to Matt, eager for the distance that the simple task put between them. He'd packed his stuff back into the box he'd brought it to California in and had walked into Matt's apartment knowing full well what it meant, but just exactly what it meant hadn't really hit him until Matt had pointed out that he was, in fact, not a guest. That same feeling of it being too soon which he'd experienced when Takada had first brought it up came flooding back. But he'd made his bed, and now he would have to lay in it.

Or, he would if he knew where he'd be sleeping.

"Here," he said, handing it to Matt along with the white cable to connect it to the computer, and sat back down a bit further from Matt than he had been before.

"Wow," Matt said, looking the iPod over, "Second generation Nano. When did'ya even get this?"

"When I was in middle school," he answered curtly. He knew it was old; he didn't need Matt to tell him. Besides, it still ran fine, so he didn't really see the need to get a new one, not when he liked the one he had.

Matt shook his head in amazement but plugged it in without another word. A minute later, it was handed back to Mello. "There, now you don't have an excuse not to listen to the music I gave you," he said with little lopsided looking grin.

"Thanks," Mello returned sarcastically, "Just what I've always wanted."

"You're welcome," Matt offered enthusiastically, and Mello couldn't help but smile back. Maybe they had moved in together too soon, and maybe it would turn out to be a mistake. Or maybe everything would turn out fine and would be the best decision he'd made since moving to California. There was no way for him to know in that moment, not even twenty minutes into living with Matt, so he might as well look on the bright side: he was alone with his very attractive, albeit extremely nerdy boyfriend if the stuff he had in his apartment was any indication.

He started to lean in towards Matt, about to kiss him when he noticed the stormtrooper thing over the redhead's shoulder and pulled back. It felt like it was staring at him. It was more than a bit unnerving.

"Uh, is somethin' wrong?" Matt asked, giving Mello a confused look.

"No…" he mumbled, and rather than sitting their awkwardly after almost kissing Matt, he got back up and placed his iPod at the top of the box of his things. "Um, hey, where am I supposed to put my stuff?" he finally asked with the realization that he still had no idea where he was supposed to be sleeping that night. He did know where he wanted to sleep, but he wasn't going to suggest it when the most they had done was make out a few times.

But the second the words left Mello's lips, this deer-in-the-headlights look came over Matt, and his mouth fell open like he wanted to say something, but no words came out. He finally brought the cigarette that sat between his fingers up to his lips and managed a vague "I-I dunno…" before he slowly blew the smoke out in a sigh. "I didn't really think this over," he admitted with a small nervous laugh. "Well, I guess there's…the couch and, uh, my room." He smashed the cigarette butt down into the ashtray next to the other, watching it intently as he spoke.

"Uh…" Mello started, wishing Matt would just tell him that it was fine if he slept in his bed rather than leaving it up to him.

"Or, uh, you could take my bed, and I'll take the couch," he said quickly when Mello didn't answer right away, his hands fidgeting almost continuously, pulling at a loose string in the couch, picking at his thumb nail, finally going to the pocket where he kept his cigarettes before drawing away when there was nothing there. "Yeah, that's prob'ly best," he decided, although it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

"Yeah, probably…" Mello agreed halfheartedly, watching Matt chew on his lower lip nervously.

"We can always figure somethin' else out later," Matt continued, getting up from the couch. "I need to… I'll be right back," he said and disappeared down the hall. Mello could hear him shuffling through some stuff in his room before returning with his keys in hand. "I'm gonna run to the store. You want anythin'?"

"No, I'm, uh, good," he managed to get out, knowing exactly what Matt was going to the store for.

"Alright, well, I'll be back soon," he said and leaned in to kiss Mello quickly before rushing out the door, leaving him standing there.

Mello's feet moved of their own accord, bringing him to the couch where he flopped down. The sound of a police siren blared in through the open window. He turned to look at the window, considering getting up to close it. He almost did but thought better of it. Everything in the apartment smelt of smoke.

He wished he'd said something to Matt about it…but he would have plenty of opportunities to bring it up in the future. He would bring it up when Matt got back…or maybe tomorrow. He had time. And besides, like Matt had said about their sleeping arrangements, they could figure things out later.

He looked around the room absentmindedly. The television, all the video game stuff, the posters that covered the walls, that stormtrooper thing standing in the corner. He stared back at it, musing over how familiar it looked until he finally remembered. It wasn't from Star Wars like Matt had said, or at least that wasn't where Mello knew it from. Too bad Matt wasn't there for Mello to tell him.

A/N: So I went back over my plans for this fic and brought them up to date, which is helpful to me but probably not terribly interesting for you guys. What I'm assuming will be interesting for you is that I've added two chapters, so now this story will be 26 chapters rather than 24 as I had planned. Yay! I'm excited :D

As always, please review. Hearing from you guys really does make my day :3

Oh! And I almost forgot; does anyone have any guesses as to where Mello might have seen a stormtrooper before? Remember that he's never seen Star Wars, so it's not from that. Ha, if anyone actually guesses right, I'm going to be so surprised XD

A special thanks to the following reviewers:
kiki1070, Midnightkisses10, MyBeautifulBlackHeart, CatatonicVanity, samiekins17, Astreich689, DarkAngelJudas, GothicNerd469, brightnight003, NessaYume, Mustached Kira, GoldenCityBlues, Evidence Of Rain, MissBloodyWonderful