A/N: This fic is dedicated to my beloved CANDY chan who is being nice enough to give several of my favourite characters Joker Immunity™ in exchange for it. This chapter is for Luxord from Kingdom Hearts.
As part of the conditions set out before I began writing: this fic will have only minor angst which will be countered with immediate fluffiness.
Also, I must include certain things throughout the fic, I shall include a list of these things covered in each chapter in the author's notes. In this chapter we have #44) Finding a human tooth on Delancey street and #38) Aiber (who doesn't really make and appearance but oh well).
Please enjoy and thank you to CANDY for betaing
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of the songs included in this fic. This chapter including Nightminds by Missy Higgins (who is from Geelong, where I live! (and yes I know that I'm a total fangirl thankyou very much)). And the title is from the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness" which is highly recommended by CANDY and will probably be done so by myself once I have gotten around to reading it. A word of warning though, before you go and look it up, it is a very funny comic but in a dark, sick and twisted way.
Rated for language and very very slight angst.
Chapter Twelve: Lost in NYC part II
Mello groaned as he passed the old man begging in front of a Chinese bakery again.
He had been wandering around for hours and had yet to see anyone of anything he recognised. 'I blame Matt' he thought viciously, 'he's the one who made me get out of bed to come into this godforsaken city.'
Matt sneezed suddenly out of the blue.
"Bless you" a passer by said.
"Thanks!" Matt said cheerfully. Matt was in a good mood, a very good mood indeed. After all, he's been lost in this city for hours and keeps running across little internet cafés and gaming centres, why wouldn't he be happy?
'I wonder how Mello's getting along' he thought suddenly.
He quickly found another café and sat down, pulling out his Tangerine and quickly opening a program he'd designed a while back after the last time Mello decided to get lost in a big city.
It was a program designed to track bugs he'd planted on various people, just for fun and also to make sure they wouldn't get caught on their frequent chocolate runs.
Typing in Mello's name, he found that the blond chocoholic wasn't too far from where he was.
Now the only question was …'what's Mello doing in China town?'
Mello growled, low in his throat as he passed the old beggar and the bakery again.
He was just about to give up all his pride and ask for some help when he heard a familiar chuckle.
"Mells, why have you been walking in circles for the past three hours?"
Mello turned his head so fast he heard his neck crack. There, sitting in a little café with a coffee and his laptop was none other then the person Mello blamed for all of this.
"Matt" he growled but the red head held up a hand to stop him.
"Here," the gamer gestured to the seat across from him which Mello took suspiciously…which soon faltered as Matt pushed a mug of hot chocolate and a block of Cadbury chocolate to him.
"You…you found Cadbury's?" he asked around a mouthful of the glorious sweet sent down by the Gods to England.
"Yeah, there was a store somewhere, not sure where exactly, that had a heap of stuff from back home so I thought I should get you some before you went off to find and destroy all producers of Hershey's" Matt said, grinning easily.
Mello didn't answer, purely because he was too busy swallowing his chocolate. Matt smiled softly and went back to breaking into the FBI database. He was so close too. A couple more all-nighters and he'd have everything the FBI claimed to know in the palm of his hand…
"So uhh, where are we exactly?" Mello asked once the block of chocolate and his hot chocolate had disappeared.
"We're in China Town" Matt said, not looking up from his computer, "Give me a sec will ya? Just a bit more and I'll have reached a safe spot"
Mello nodded, not even trying to figure out whether his friend was playing a game or hacking into the MI5. With Matt it was best not to know.
"Done" Matt said after about five minutes, "Lets see if we can lose our way back home huh?" he put some money down onto the table and the two of them left.
"Matt we've been here before" Mello said, "look, there's that pool of dried blood and random teeth where someone had a fight last week"
"Mells, this is New York, you can't say that we've been here before just because someone had a fight on that corner." Matt replied.
"Matt we're lost, just own up to it already so we can try and find our way back"
"But Mells" Matt whined, turning to look at the blond with huge green eyes filled with tears, "I wanted for us to lose our way back, not find it"
"I don't care" Mello said, meeting his friend's gaze firmly, "and can you stop with the crocodile tears already? People are going to think you're a wimp"
Matt rolled his eyes but shrugged and wiped them dry anyway, "so where are we exactly?" he asked nonchalantly.
Mello groaned and went into a nearby store. He came out ten minutes later with a pleased smirk on his face and a handful of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. "We're on some street called Delancey" he said to Matt.
"Oh, really?" Matt asked, "I know how to get back to school from here…"
"YOU KNEW ALL ALONG?" Mello exploded and Matt grinned.
"Of course Mells, I'm the walking map remember?"
Mello just glared as they made their way to the train station.
"Never again" Mello yawned as he collapsed onto his bed.
"But Mells, didn't you have fun?" Matt asked, grinning as he got 'wired up' as Mello put it.
"No"
"You got Cadbury's out of it didn't you?"
There was a pause in which Matt sent a triumphant smirk to Near.
"…Shut up and let me sleep" came the eventual reply.
Near ignored the banter between his two roommates, choosing instead to begin on a wall of Tarot cards around his bed.
~"Just lay it all down"~ Near looked up at the sound. Matt was tapping away on his Tangerine, singing softly so as not to disturb Mello, oblivious to Near's stares.
~"Put your face into my neck and let it fall out. I know I know I know. I knew before you got home."~
Near blinked, trying to ignore the red head and focus on his wall.
~"This world you're in now, it doesn't have to be alone and I'll get there somehow. 'Cos I know I know I know, when even springtime feels cold. But I will learn to breathe, this ugliness you see, so we can both be there and we can both share the dark."~
Near glanced up to see Matt staring at the lump that was Mello, hiding under his blankets, and the pale boy felt a sharp pang of…something in his chest.
~"And in our honesty, together we will rise, out of our nightminds and into the light at the end of the fight."~
"YES FINALLY!" Matt cheered, completely forgetting that it was three am in his elation at finally getting into the FBI database.
He absently dodged the pillow sent his way as he entered the name of the person he was looking for into the search bar.
Clicking on a link, he pulled up his file and grinned at the image of the finely made blond man staring up at him.
"Maaaaaatt, what are you doing?" Mello's voice floated out from underneath his blankets, "Its three o'clock in the fucking morning, I want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeep"
"Sorry Mells, I was just excited cos I finally got through into the FBI database. Go back to sleep and I'll explain some other time when you're awake."
"Nnngg"
Matt smiled softly as his friend's breathing evened out into sleep. "Now I just send off a quick email to Roger and Watari and Mr Aiber is in the bag"
Later that day in music class, Matt was all but dead.
"Dude, when's the last time you slept?" Brad asked the exhausted gamer.
"Can't remember" Matt croaked, "Sometime before coming here? I'll be fine" he added at the skaters worried look, "All I need is a good cup of coffee and I'll be fine"
Brad looked at him sceptically, "Oi white boy!"
Near looked over at the pair, raising an eyebrow, "yes?"
"How often does he sleep?"
"I don't know, you'd have to ask M, he's been Max's roommate for longer."
"Yo Blondie!" Brad yelled to the blond.
"What do you want?"
"How often does Max sleep?"
"I dunno, once every month or so usually I think, sometimes more sometimes less"
"…Why isn't he insane?"
"Who says he isn't?"
Brad didn't have a reply for that but he did catch Matt as he collapsed over his guitar.
"Miss! Can I take Max to the nurses office?"
Ms Cav nodded, he face worried, "is he okay?"
"He'll be fine in a few hours, just don't try to wake him" Mello assured from across the room, "he's worse than me when someone wakes him up"
"Nnng, wha?" Matt said groggily as he tried to sit up in an unfamiliar room, "where am I?"
"Oh good you're awake" a brusque female voice said, "you're in the infirmary"
"Right, what happened?" Matt sat up properly and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking around for his goggles.
"You collapsed in class, your friend, Brad, told me you haven't been sleeping recently"
"I don't sleep" muttered Matt, "I just wake up sleepier then I was before so there's no point."
"It's that kind of thinking that landed you here young man. People's bodies need rest so that they can function properly. I hate to think of what you've done to your immune system"
"Look lady, I've been like this since I was eight, I'm not about to change any time soon and I've been fine so far so I don't see what your problem is"
"You have been out for three days, had you not awoken by five this afternoon you would have been transferred to the nearest hospital. As it is, we are advising your headmaster back in England who we understand is also your legal guardian that you see a councillor about your sleeping issues"
Matt snorted at that, the thought of Roger getting a councillor in because Matt was having a little trouble with sleep was really quite laughable. "Yeah good luck with that" he muttered
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, can I go now?"
The nurse pursed her lips but nodded, "I suppose so, but make sure you sleep regularly!"
"Yeah, yeah" Matt said with no intention of changing his sleeping pattern as he walked out the door.
A/N: And there we have chapter two. Which means Luxord is saved! *dances*
Next up will be Roxas from Kingdom Hearts because I didn't realise he hadn't already been saved.
I'm so cruel to poor Near. *Huggles Near* I'm sorry Near! I really do love you~~
But wasn't it so cute? The sheep is learning how to feel. ~~
In the next chapter we will have our long awaited angsty scene.
Reviews = love. Love for me and love for the people I am saving through writing this (you may request people to be saved but remember I am limited to one character per chapter and will only save characters I believe should be saved. If you request someone who is a) already granted Joker Immunity™ or b) is already in the waiting list I will let you know via a PM.)
OKAY! Because I have realised that many people have reviewed and I have not mentioned them, from now on I shall thank everyone who has ever reviewed (if you review more than once you will only be mentioned once though)
So, I would like to thank: CANDY, The Two Notorious Dipshits, xxxDuckiexxx, boogified, Kit-Kat-AnGeL, yvonna and polymath78 for their love (Jenny and Mei chan don't get a mention because they're actually related to me and thus do not count :P)
Thanks for reading!
Suzette
