Mmkay, well, this one is a bit of a baby filler chapter but I figured I'd get it posted today because, hey, it's christmas. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to those celebrating!

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note


"Mello!" Matt banged on the door, frantically, erratically, frightened, "Mello, open the god damn door, right now!"

It was near impossible to hear what was going on inside over the fan and the running water of the sink and Matt was worried. Mello had woken from a nightmare and before Matt was completely awake, the boy had bolted into the bathroom and locked the door. By the time Matt got to the door, it was locked, he couldn't hear anything and he didn't know if Mello was vomiting or not.

He took a moment to calm himself down and got the key from the underside of the dresser. Roger had made him a copy after the first time Mello locked himself in the bathroom. His hands were shaking as he tried to put the key in and it took him a handful of seconds to actually get it in the lock. When he finally did get the door open, he burst in.

Mello was curled up in front of the bathtub, his back pressed against it. There was no smell of vomit in the air and from what could see, there were no indentions from Mello's teeth on his knuckles.

With slow steps, Matt drew closer, crouching down in front of Mello and settling a hand on his knee.

"Mells?"

"I'm fine," he growled, "I didn't puke if that's what you're worried about."

Matt eased back to sit down properly, keeping his hand on Mello's knee. He waited in silence until Mello finally looked up and met his eye.

"I'm more worried about you," he said.

Mello arched a brow and rolled his red tinged eyes. Matt could see fresh tear tracks painting his cheeks, but didn't point them out.

"Same thing isn't it?" Mello hadn't moved much, only shifting one of his hands so his pinky touched Matt's.

"Not really, well, kind of. I'm more worried about you than I am the fact that you didn't vomit, though I am glad about that."

With a short sigh, Matt rose from his crouch and turned to the small drawer beneath the sink, looking for a washcloth. When he found one, he ran it under the faucet and wrung it out before returning to Mello's side. Before the other boy could ask what he was doing, or protest the action, Matt began gently dabbing at Mello's eyes.

"It'll stop the swelling. Wouldn't want anyone to know you were cr-" Mello's venomous look shut him right up and he backpedaled, "that you had something in your eyes."

When he deemed the job done, he added, "You know, like tears."

He ran out of the bathroom before Mello could stand up, hoping that he'd play along. Sure enough, within a few seconds, Mello tackled him to the floor and pinned him there, grinning in victory.

"I was not crying," he said, not easing up.

"Sure you weren't."

Matt guessed that Mello understood what he was doing. He wasn't dwelling on the fact that Mello had sunk low enough, no matter how momentary, to actually send himself to the bathroom to vomit, even if he didn't actually do so. He'd distracted Mello by caring and then immediately snapped him back to a sense of normalcy.

And while it wasn't a genius plan by any means, and both boys were in fact geniuses, it was a working plan, and that was enough.

"Okay, Mells, come on, it's two in the morning and I'm still tired."

Mello's smile widened but he got up, holding out his hand to help Matt to his feet. Once they were both standing, they returned to Matt's bed. Mello was already under the blanket by the time Matt even reached the mattress.

"Hurry up, you're slow and it's cold," Mello whined.

Matt rolled his eyes but complied and lay down, letting Mello fuss over the blanket and pillows before he got comfortable.

When silence had its hold over the room, their breathing evened out they quickly realized just how tired they were.

Mello fell asleep first, arm thrown loosely over Matt's waist, his other was tucked up close to his chest, fingers near his mouth. Matt took the opportunity to observe them. Mello's skin has always been a healthy tan shade, save for when he'd collapsed, but his index, middle, and ring fingers on his right hand looked slightly discolored. Though they'd evened out in the past months, Matt remembered that those nails were always shorter than the others.

It made sense though.

Matt slipped his hand into Mello's, running his thumb down the altered fingers. The other boy didn't stir and Matt just sighed before setting into sleep.


"No, you're stressing your syllables wrong, and you don't need to roll your 'r's' every time they show up," Mello said, throwing his eraser at Matt.

Their language instructor had given them dialogues to translate. Mello thought them useless as he was already fluent in Spanish, but he was helping Matt because he appeared to be utterly useless at learning new languages. In actuality, Matt had a pretty stable grasp on the language and only exaggerated his incompetence to keep Mello distracted.

"I'm not even trying to roll them!" Matt protested.

"You're hopeless, you know that, right?"

Matt only grinned cheekily.

They moved onto vocabulary words once Matt finished his dialogue and when they were done with that, Mello dragged him outside. It was uncharacteristically warm out, most of the kids decided to take advantage of the weather before it turned foul .

Matt had been keeping an eye on Mello's chocolate consumption. He was eating a lot more than Matt had hoped, putting away anywhere from five to ten bars a day, where Matt had projected two or three. With the inability to vomit as easily as before, Mello was gaining weight, which was good, but Matt knew that he wasn't happy about it.

The sessions with L via computer were still happening, they appeared to be working well. Mello found it easier to open up to his mentor, Matt thought it was because he couldn't actually see L and the man had already promised not to remove him from the running. Mello still crawled into his bed at night though, not like Matt was complaining or anything.

Come dinner time, Matt piggy backed Mello down the halls, more because he just wanted to carry him for the sake of carrying him rather than preventing microscopic calorie burning.

When they sat down, Matt watched as Mello began systematically cutting up and dividing his food.

"Hey, Mells?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Mello was currently attempting to cut a strawberry into eight equal pieces and Matt had to quell the urge to yell at him.

"We are friends, right?"

Mello gave him a look that was part fury and part fear.

"I should hope so, given what's happened the past couple of years. Why do you ask?" his voice was steely, but there was an underlying tremor. Mello only got a tremor when he was about to cry.

"I just- I'm not sure," Matt huffed, "I mean, have I been helpful? I haven't been useless through all of this, have I?"

Deep down, Matt knew he'd helped, to some extent. He could have let Mello drown, but he'd dove in after him dragged him kicking and screaming back up. And, yes, he was Mello's friend, but he couldn't help but worry. He didn't want to lose Mello. If he did, he wouldn't know what to do.

So Matt did what he did best, he worried.

Mello's eyes softened and he patted Matt's hand across the table.

"Of course you've helped, Matty, you're not useless. If it weren't for you, I'd be in a hospital right now," as if to further the point, Mello ate a whole strawberry, disregarding the one he'd cut up into eighths.

Matt nodded and stared at his hand for a moment before finishing his food. He mentioned the up and coming test that would take place the following week, and he listened as Mello animatedly rambled on about how this time, this time, he would crush Near once and for all.

If Wammy's ranked the kids on their heart and devotion, Matt had no doubt that Mello would be number one, never to be beaten by anyone. Least of all Near.


While Mello talked with L that night, Matt dug in his nightstand for a small box.

Mello's birthday was coming up, he would be turning fourteen. Matt had seen the small cross that he carried, there was a small ring affixed to the top, but Mello must have lost the chain. It was hard to get work done with the blond practically glued to his side, but he managed a few beads every night.

Asking for Linda's help took even more stealth but she was more than happy to instruct him in the finer details.

It was really the first gift he'd gotten for Mello, in the past years the two of them hadn't thought much about gift exchanges, whether it be for birthdays or Christmas. Mello's gift was being less irate, Matt's was not playing his games as loud as he usually did.

To say he was worried that Mello wouldn't like it was an understatement.