Matt got all of, what, something like twelve panels in the manga and even less in the anime? And yet he's a main character of so many stories, including this one. How interesting.
Matt POV
I am so tempted to lie down on the big white bed in the hotel room, but I know I can't, because if I do it will be harder to wake up when it's time to leave. Besides, Mello's almost done with his shower. I feel awful for panicking. I know I can't necessarily help it, but I feel like I really made it difficult for Mello.
And yet he trusted me with his real name afterwards, and told me that he didn't want to lose me. I believe him. I trust Mello. Hell, I love him, but that will only lead to disappointment and the loss of my one friend. So I have to try and ignore all that.
My Gameboy is plugged into the wall, and I want to charge it before the flight, so I have nothing to do now. Thank God that I always keep a little charger with me. Battery life cannot get in the way of my gaming.
"Matt, your turn," Mello informs me as he steps (shirtless, damn it) out of the bathroom, drying his hair off with a fluffy white towel. I stand.
"Thanks." I slip into the steamy bathroom, very carefully avoiding looking at Mello. It's hard not to appreciate his slender form. I shut and lock the door, and pull my tattered shirt off. Roger has already found us clothes, suitable enough to our personal preference. My new striped shirt is nearly identical to my tattered original.
The hot water seems to melt away the last of the anxiety from the fire. My stress washes away with the black soot and shampoo bubbles. Running my fingers through my hair, I find that a chunk in the back is noticeably shorter. The tips must have been singed off.
Oh well. At least it's my hair and not my arm.
I shut off the water and quickly dry off. When I open the door, the cool air blows over me like a gust of wind. I shiver and rub my hair with a towel, not at all liking the cold water dripping on my neck.
Mello sits on the bed, happily eyeing the small stack of chocolate bars Roger had brought up. I smirk.
"Looks like you've found your fix."
"Yup." Mello yawns. "I want to sleep…" he mutters, looking wistfully at the puffy pillows at the head of the bed.
"Tell me about it. If I lie down on the floor I think I'll be out like a light." I hang my towel on the bathroom hook to dry.
"So how long do we have?" I glance at the time.
"Well at noon we're getting lunch…" It's nine AM now.
"So we have time to sleep?" Mello suggests hopefully.
"I wish. Roger wants us to meet him in room 212, as soon as we can."
"Ugh, Near will be there. What does he need us for?"
"He's going to tell us something. We should go." Mello throws one last regretful look at the bed and picks up his candy. I unplug my Gameboy and follow him out the door. We walk down the hall to the end of it, a suite. Mello raps loudly on the door until it opens. Roger steps aside to let us in the room.
The suite is really nice, and big. There's a kitchenette and a short hallway that leads to an untouched bedroom. Near sits on the couch, pale as ever, playing with a Transformer. Mello sits on the farthest end away from Near, and I next to him. Roger sits across from us, a somewhat grave look on his face.
After a moment of silence, Mello sighs irritably. "Whatever you're going to tell us, get it over with. I want to sleep if I can."
"Please, you three need to take what I'm going to tell you very seriously." The old man adjusts his glasses and folds his hands in his lap. "As you know, you are going to stay with L in Japan until the orphanage is rebuilt, possibly five to six months from now. You will continue your studies as usual, the only difference is that… Well, there are certain drawbacks to staying with L."
"He is working on the Kira case as of now, isn't he?" Near says this as if he already knows and is just asking out of politeness.
Roger nods. "This is possibly the most dangerous case the world has ever been confronted with; I'm sure you all know about the mysterious killings. Well, L has informed me that it is risky to send you three to japan. But Watari, L, and I all believe it is the best course of action. I am just warning you three to be careful, and to stay out of everything to do with the case."
Right. All three of us are now going to be doing some serious undercover work on this case. Especially Mello. Near already probably knows more than Roger does. I can see my thoughts echoed in Mello's scathing glare at Near.
"Of course, Roger," Near agrees. He can be such a suck-up sometimes.
I can see in Mello's fiery expression that we will definitely not be sleeping while we have access to Roger's laptop. We're going to be doing research.
. . .
Never, ever again am I going to go through the long lines of an airport on zero energy. As Mello and me stumble through security, I really wish Mello had put off his Kira research until we reach Japan. He's not the only one to blame, of course, because I'm interested in the whole Kira thing too. But I need sleep.
Near apparently doesn't. He seems fine, and I'm almost sure he didn't sleep last night or today. Obviously he is nothing compared to professional insomniac L, though.
Mello almost had to toss his chocolate, but luckily Roger managed to convince the security officials to allow it through. It is his only luggage, after all. They should be happy.
When we finally board the plane, I'm not sure I'm even tired anymore. Somehow my body managed to scrape up enough energy for me to spend on getting to the plane. It's dark outside, and inside the plane is a hectic mess. I've flown once before, and it's honestly nothing special. I could probably fly the thing.
Mello glares at anyone who he catches looking at him, and the expressions of the people who happen to look at him for more than three seconds are quite funny. Mello does tend to appear a bit unique. The hilarious thing is that I notice both girls and boys our age, obviously finding him attractive, try to figure out exactly what gender he is. Mello looks like a guy, but the hair and slim physique sometimes throws people off.
Of course this also annoys me. I don't want people looking at Mello like that.
I'm glad we have the very back row, especially since the bathrooms are in the front of the plane, so no one will come back here and bother us. Mello sits in by the window seat and leans against the wall. I fasten my seatbelt, and glance to my right. Near and Roger are in the isle across from us. Near is busy toying with his doll as usual. I wish I could turn my Gameboy on, but I can't until we take off. Stupid airline regulations.
The captain's voice comes over the intercom, and I stare sleepily at a magazine. The plane starts moving, and I stuff it back in the pocket. My eyes are getting heavy; airplane seats can be quite comfy, actually.
By the time we take off both of us are out.
Light POV
I check my watch; it's seven. Ryuzaki has already called every member of the Task Force, telling them about the three boys coming today, as well as told them not to come until tomorrow.
I try, and fail miserably, to stifle a yawn. It's not my fault I only got about two hours of sleep last night.
Ryuzaki and I are setting up the rooms for the three boys coming.
"Matt and Mello can share a room, but Near gets his own."
"Why?" I ask.
"That's how it is -was- at the orphanage."
"Oh." L sure planned ahead when he had this building constructed; there are three extra rooms on the same floor, two with two twin beds and one with a queen.
"Is there anything else we need to do?"
"No, I think we should be good." He looks around thoughtfully. "Light-kun, do we have chocolate in the kitchen?"
"What? Yes, we always do."
"Okay, remind me to buy some more."
I stare at him incredulously, because we have at least ten bars of the stuff, and hardly anyone ever eats it. "Why? We have plenty."
Ryuzaki smiles. "Not for long."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see. Come on, we should go do some work while we still can."
I follow him down the stairs. I pick my list of names up from beside my computer and scan over the names I marked. I didn't quite finish last night.
"Don't start working yet, I want-"
"Let me guess, cake," I interrupt.
"How did you know?" Ryuzaki murmurs sarcastically.
I smirk and go with him to the kitchen.
"What are you going to do now that Watari isn't here to replenish your sweets?" I lean against the wall, letting my arm be tugged around.
"I have my ways," he says simply, pulling out a slice of chocolate cake. We go back to our computers. I return to my list, but L is very distracting.
He crouches in his chair, and I realize that I've gone from finding the position weird and impolite to quite liking it. In fact, I quite like everything about the scruffy detective now. I'm not even sure exactly what I feel, but every time our eyes meet I get the urge to walk over and kiss him.
I'm seriously questioning my logic and my sexual orientation now.
Ryuzaki finishes the last bite of his cake and sets the plate down with a clink. I'm watching him out of the corner of my eye, and suddenly his eyes flick in my direction, meeting mine. I look away and straighten up, trying to ignore the heat on my face and look like I'm working. I risk a look at L and find him looking down at nothing in particular with a strange expression on his face. I can't quite place what it looks like.
I turn my attention back to my work. It isn't long before I let my mind go back to Ryuzaki. I thought I wasn't concentrating well last night, but today is a whole other story.
It doesn't help that I can feel Ryuzaki's eyes burning holes in me. He's probably searching, like usual, for some reason to label me as Kira.
He doesn't trust you. It's just another reason to forget him.
And yet… he wants us to be friends. There was honesty in his words when he said that, but does he just want to be friends so he can squeeze a confession out of me?
I check the time. Nine. I wish they would arrive sooner, so I wouldn't have time to dwell on things like this. I sigh and put my list aside. I finished with it a while ago, and now I've just been reading and re-reading the same page for several minuets. I push my chair back and check the time again.
"Light-kun, is something wrong?"
"No. I'm just a little tired."
"That's understandable," Ryuzaki says more to himself than me. I lean my elbow against the desk and face L.
"What are Mello, Matt, and Near like?" I inquire. I am curious to know, and I assume that they will be fairly similar to L.
Ryuzaki's mouth curves. "You'll find out in forty-five minutes."
I roll my eyes. "At least tell me what they look like."
Ryuzaki pauses thoughtfully. "Near is pale… I would say he's the most like me of the three. Mello is harder to describe. He-"
"Light!" Misa squeals, waving from the stairs. I force a smile.
"Misa."
"Who are you talking about?" she asks, plopping herself in my lap.
"There are some people that Ryuzaki knows who are staying with us for a while."
She tilts her head. "Who are they? When are they coming?" she crosses her arms and glares at L. "There's not any girls Light's age, are there?"
Ryuzaki looks surprised. "No."
Misa beams. "Good. I don't want Light to be taken away by someone else! He's mine." She hops up. "Ryuzaki, I need to go shopping but no one's here to take me. Can I please go?"
L looks eager to get rid of her, but I can see his reluctance to let his second suspect go anywhere alone. "I suppose so."
She squeals. "Yay! Okay, Misa-Misa has to go! Bye, Light!"
"Bye Misa." As soon as she leaves, I smirk at L.
"You couldn't be more eager to get her to leave."
"Neither could you," he points out, still looking at his computer.
"True." I return to my earlier position. "What were you saying about Mello?"
"Mm, Mello. Be careful of him, he has a lovely temper. And Matt is like his accomplice, almost. He is the only person to ever befriend Mello."
He makes Mello, whoever he is, sound like a bomb on countdown, and Matt some mystical character from an anime Sayu would watch.
After a few minutes, L gets up to get more cake. As we walk to the kitchen, my phone goes off. I sigh at the caller ID; it's Misa.
"Hello?"
"Light! I called to say hi! Also, I'm getting this really cute dress, but I don't know what color to get it in. do I look better in black or pink?"
"You look fine in either, Misa."
"Okay, I'll get both! Bye Light," the call ends and I flip my phone shut. I put it on silent and pocket it. Its then that I realize Ryuzaki still hasn't gotten any more cake, he's just watching me with the same strange expression on his face as before.
"What?" I ask, again wishing he'd stop staring at me. It doesn't make things much easier for me. I'm surprised when color appears on his cheeks and he looks away. I step closer to him, not dropping my gaze.
"Sometimes I really wish I could read your mind. Then I'd understand why you stare at me like that."
"Like what?" his eyes meet mine, and he steps a little closer.
"Like… Like you still don't trust me, but there's something else that I can't figure out, and that's what annoys me," I admit, not really sure why I'm telling him this.
"I could say the same to you, Light-kun," he takes another step closer. He's closer than he should be, close enough to make me blush and my heart speed up.
"What do you mean?" I ask, my voice low.
His hand gently lifts my chin a fraction of an inch, and his eyes bore into mine. "It's… confusing, Light-kun," he murmurs.
"Ryuzaki, what are you do-" I don't get to finish my sentence, because he chooses that moment to close the distance between us. For a second, I'm numb with shock, and then a million thoughts flood my mind.
Why is he doing this? He shouldn't be doing this. This isn't good… this isn't… I'm distracted by the taste of his breath, strawberries. The feel of his lips against mine sends what feels like electric currents through me. My thoughts are one giant storm of confusion. I don't want him to pull away, and yet I know that this is a very, very bad idea.
Suddenly, he steps away from me, eyes wide. "Sorry, Light, I don't…" he mumbles, stumbling over his words. I blink, still trying to put my thoughts in order.
L kissed me. I liked it. But I don't understand why he did it. The one part of me that is still thinking realistically keeps telling me that, not only is this not good in any way, but it's likely to be a trap to somehow gain my trust or something of the sort. But the majority of me wants him to kiss me again. In the matter of a few seconds, my mind whirls through a hundred different things.
And I come to a conclusion.
Ryuzaki mutters another apology. "I don't know why… Sorry, Light…" He starts to turn away, but I reach out and catch his wrist. He freezes, and I step close to him.
I smile slightly, and murmur, "It's a good thing you told the others to stay home today."
Ryuzaki turns his head. "Light?"
I pull him around to face me again, and our lips meet. My eyes close and I feel L's hands travel up to my hair, pulling me closer to him. For a few moments, neither of us is thinking.
We break apart to breath. Ryuzaki murmurs, "This is probably a bad idea."
"You act like I don't know that." I pause. "Well, if you don't want to…"
His hands grab my shirt and pull be back to him. "I didn't say that." I smirk and kiss him again.
And then we are interrupted by the sound of the alert, telling us that someone is at the entrance. Ryuzaki blinks and looks through the kitchen doorway at the screen.
"It appears that they have arrived early."
I sigh. "We never get any work done around here." Ryuzaki smirks.
"I think we can fix that. But later. And you should fix your hair… or, no, leave it like that. It suits you." I check my reflection in a black computer screen. My hair is mussed up. I flatten it a bit before the chain forces me to follow Ryuzaki.
At least I'm not so confused any more. Certain arguments inside my head have been settled.
I am homosexual.
I like Ryuzaki.
And Ryuzaki is a good kisser.
Yay! I had to get them together in this chapter, I was tired of waiting :)
