A/N: Here it is, guys! EVERYTHING'S COMING TO AN END! Mooahaha. :P So, I'm pretty damn pleased with this chapter for once. Yeah, there may or may not be some OOC moments or whatever, but I DON'T CARE! I'm still proud.

Quick reminder, though! This isn't quite the end. It's nearly the end, but not quite. We still have the Epilogue. It is short, but I like it. For reasons you will soon find out.

A great response to the last chapter! Thank you to:

Pinjaoncrack

mxmsupporter

shynictheshadow

VampirePrinssess

TheTakahashiTwins

Lotta Devon

Grell-lover-4ever

Rainbow Fruit Loop

sunsetboulevard143

SkyiMello

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and Wind Whisperer! Thanks to all of you for supporting this fic and giving me fuzzeh fuzzeh feelings. XD

Disclaimer: I own this fic. I own my laptop. I own my cat. I do not own Death Note.

Chapter 20: Liberation

Matt was sitting beside Near on the sofa in the tracking room, staring at the blip on the screen that was Light and trying not to feel too awkward.

They had been sitting in silence for the past half hour, and Matt was ready to scream. It wasn't that he hated Near's company, as such, just that Near wasn't very good company. At all.

Light seemed to be in transit, on the road and moving at a speed that suggested he was in a car. Matt just hoped he wasn't either unconscious or dead.

Mello and L (the latter of whom had suddenly decided he wanted to be part of the rescue team) were in the investigation room with at least twenty policemen and women who had been hand-picked by L and Near for the mission. Mello hadn't looked nervous at all when Matt had last seen him, just very serious and determined, but Matt was terrified enough for both of them.

What if there are hundreds of people guarding this place? he fretted. What if they decide to detonate the building? Mello won't survive another explosion! What if the police decide that Mello's actions now aren't enough to excuse him from what he did while he was part of Palm? What if they arrest him? What if they decide to bring back capital punishment just for him? What if –

"I do believe Matt is working himself into a frenzy for no reason." Near helpfully interrupted his train of thought.

Matt blinked. "Yeah. Yeah, thanks." He forced himself to breathe.

"Mello and L will be fine," Near continued, "They have an escort of policemen that are very able and ready, and they are key witnesses to this investigation. If anyone gets hurt, it will not be them."

Near's logic made sense, but Matt's brain usually didn't, so the logic didn't help much.

"In addition, in all the time I have known Mello, he has never failed at anything he wanted to do. Even in surpassing me, he has succeeded, though he has not realised it."

This surprised Matt. "What do you mean?" he asked the strange boy.

Near sighed quietly. "Mello seems to be under the impression that in order to become superior to me, he needs to become more intelligent, but he is wrong. I am inferior to Mello in many ways, and I am afraid I will most likely never catch up to him."

Matt blinked. "But surely if you told him that, he'd stop hating you so much, right? I mean, the only reason he does is because he sees you as a rival, so..."

"That is true," Near agreed, "But Mello would not believe me if I told him such a thing. He would merely think I was taunting him. I do not dislike Mello, and would appreciate it if he were to stop with his dislike of me, but I cannot be part of his life in that way. My purpose in Mello's life is to be the unattainable goal, the challenge that keeps him going, even when he is unable to move." Near looked slightly saddened by this, and Matt felt sympathy for the boy wash over him.

"You really want to be his friend, don't you?" he asked quietly.

Near nodded. "But he does not need me. He has Matt." At this, he looked Matt straight in the eye for the first time in Matt didn't know how long. "And if Matt leaves Mello, I can assure you he will have me to deal with."

Matt was shocked into silence for a few seconds, but soon came to his senses and grinned. Making to hug Near, but thinking better of it, he patted the boy's shoulder instead. "You don't need to worry, Near. I wouldn't abandon Mello if someone threatened me at gunpoint. But seriously, try asking him to be your friend. You might be surprised."

Near shook his head. "In this case alone, I think I know more about Mello than Matt does."

Matt thought he was probably right; he had never been on the receiving end of Mello's unconditional hatred before.

"I don't think Mello actually hates you that much, though – he helped you out with this case, right? And –"

"Light seems to have arrived at his destination," Near interrupted, drawing Matt's attention back to the screen, upon which the blip indeed appeared to have come to a halt. "We shall inform the raiders."

Sighing heavily and cursing Near's stubbornness, Matt followed him out of the room.

Well, I guess this is it, Mello thought as he strapped on his gun holster. Around him, police officials were doing the same, while L (who refused to carry a gun) slipped a weighty cosh into his bottomless pocket.

Matt was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room, his googles concealing his anxiety, but nevertheless, Mello could feel it coming off him in waves. When Matt bit his lip in the way he did only when holding back tears, Mello gave up and walked over to the redhead.

"Look, I'm gonna be fine, okay?" he reassured his friend, "The police've already said they'll have me covered at all times, so I won't be accidentally shot in the head and unable to testify."

Matt didn't say anything.

Sighing, Mello tilted Matt's head up with a finger under his chin and gave him a quick, tender peck on the lips, ignoring the odd looks they were getting from some of the policemen (and women). "Please stop looking like that, it's making me want to just stay here and make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Please do," Matt whispered, his voice sounding broken.

Mello felt a pain in his chest at how sad Matt looked. "Matty..."

"Mello, we must go!" L was calling him.

Mello turned half away, then back to the redhead. "Come on, Matt, I'll be alright! Just concentrate on giving us directions to the place and we'll be fine, okay?"

No answer.

Harried and desperate, Mello whispered, "Remember, Matt: when I come back, I need to tell you something. Promise me you'll wait patiently until then?"

Matt looked up and smiled waterily. "Just as long as you aren't thinking of breaking up with me," he said with fake cheer.

Mello froze.

"Mello! We must leave now!"

"Guess I'll see you, then," Mello muttered, turning away from Matt and making his way to the impatient crowd.

The piled into the trucks and drove off.

"SPK to Infiltration Team 1, this is Near. I will be guiding this group to the place where the children are being held captive." Near's voice sounded through the group's earpieces.

Mello sighed as he realised it wasn't Matt telling them where to go. He'd be guiding the second group around the back.

"Please follow the road for the next two kilometres, then turn left,"said Near, sounding remarkably like a Sat Nav.

Such were their instructions for the next half hour, until they reached the end of the road on which the prison was situated. Then, Mello and his fellow raiders got out of the truck and briefly reviewed their tactics that had been discussed beforehand.

They were to burst in through the front entrance, announcing their arrival very loudly with lots of gunfire, and draw attention away from the back door, where L and the rest of the police team would sneak in, find Light and hopefully the rest of the kids and arrest anyone they could find, unless they tried to attack them, in which case they would shoot to kill.

It was by no means a complicated plan, but as L had said that evening, there really wasn't any need for complex manoeuvres. All they needed was solid evidence that the children were being held by Four-Field, and then any extra information obtained through interrogation would serve to ensure the two offending companies would be brought to justice.

Mello's train of thought was interrupted by Near's voice through his earpiece. "The other team are in position. Infiltration Team 1 may proceed. Good luck."

Mello took a deep breath, and straightened to his full (though not very impressive) height. "All right, guys," he said, "Let's go."

They crept down the street, guns ready. When they reached the address they had been told was the holding prison, they grouped around the door and hesitated a moment. At a nod from Mello, the police constable shot the lock, kicked the door down, and they all rushed in.

"Attention!" called the constable, "This is the police! Surrender quietly and no one needs to get hurt!"

There was silence for a moment.

Something shifted in the corner of Mello's eye, and he only just had time to yell, "Take cover!" before they were showered with machine-gun fire.

Everyone dived behind whatever shelter they could find: boxes, shelves, walls. Mello threw himself behind a wooden crate, on top of some poor man who hadn't managed to get out of the way quite in time and had sustained a bullet to the leg. Mello used his knife to quickly cut away the man's trouser leg below the knee and shoved the bloodstained cloth at him.

"Bind it quickly," he hissed, "And shoot whoever you can from where you sit."

The man nodded bravely.

There came a lull in the fire, which Mello took advantage off, sneaking along the ground to a better vantage point. From there, he located the barrel of a machine gun poking out of a shadowed corridor, and took aim at where he supposed the man's head would have been.

He missed his mark, but must have hit something, as the gunman let out a shout, dropping his weapon and leaving himself defenceless.

The police were out in seconds, firing all out and scanning the room for other threats. They were saved the trouble, as at that point, the rest of the gang members emerged, shouting and swearing, with guns, knives and heavy objects galore. Some were shot down before they could do much damage, but others managed to land hits on the police, and Mello watched with despair as more than a few of his allies were put out of action, some permanently.

He loaded, aimed and shot again and again, as fast as he could, but it was with inevitability that someone soon yelled, "Hey! Isn't that Mello?!"

Suddenly, everyone was trying to kill him, with shouts of "traitor!" and "son of a bitch!" and other such insults. Mello legged it down a corridor, and systematically gunned down those who followed him, as they had to do so in single file due to the lack of space.

Eventually, they seemed to taper out, until Mello was alone, listening to the sounds of fighting ensuing from the large space he had just left.

He was just about to return and help his team-mates when he heard a sound from behind him. Turning immediately, Mello just managed to catch the iron bar before it made contact with his skull, though he had to drop his pistol. Inches away from him was the huge man he had shot in the knee when he had rescued Matt from his former base so long ago.

"I knew I should have finished you off while I had the chance," the blond hissed, struggling with the brute strength of the man as he tried to push him back.

The man leered evilly, and raised the bar again, bringing it down hard. Mello dodged in the nick of time, ducking under the giant's arm and barrelling into his legs. He managed to make the man stumble slightly, and used the opportunity to viciously kick the very knee he had shot those many weeks ago.

He was rewarded with an enormous bellow, but had little time to rejoice in his victory, as the toppling man used the momentum of his fall to slam his weapon into the back of Mello's head. The blond staggered, then fell to his knees while the world began to disappear into black spots.

He was vaguely aware of the titan heaving himself to his feet and lifting his weapon yet again to deliver the final blow, before a loud gunshot cracked through the air. The man dropped his weapon and keeled over, narrowly missing crushing Mello on his way down.

With herculean effort, Mello turned his head to see his saviour and found it was the policeman who had been shot in the leg. He was balancing on one foot and leaning against the wall, looking extremely proud of himself.

"I saw you go in here, and when you didn't come back out, I thought something had gone wrong. Looks like I was right!" he announced cheerfully.

Mello managed half a snort before he collapsed and the world went completely black.

Meanwhile, L and his troupe were creeping through the corridors, trying to be as quiet as seven full-grown, heavily-armed adults could be.

Matt was guiding them to the room where the children were supposedly being held. "Okay, it's the second left, and then the door at the end of the corridor."

L nodded, knowing Matt could see him through the surveillance cameras on the walls, and followed the instructions. Reaching the door, he paused for a second, and looked behind him at the police officers.

"I warn you, this will probably not be a pleasant sight," he said, before opening the doors.

He had been right. It wasn't a pleasant sight at all. There were at least twenty children in the room, and though L recognised some of them from photographs they had used during the investigation, it was just barely.

The children were very thin, and seemed to have had their brains wiped, leaving them empty, emotionless shells. There was barely any sound in the room, though some eyes did glance at them as they entered.

A woman gasped. "How much opium have they given these kids?!"

L frowned solemnly. "I do not know exactly, but I am certain that it will take a huge amount of rehabilitation to return the children to normal, if it is even possible to do so."

Then, a figure in the corner stood up. "L!" it called, relieved.

L smiled with relief. "Light-kun." The youth seemed to be alright; a few bruises and cuts on his face, and his clothes were filthy, but all-in-all in very good health for his predicament.

"Huh?" said a policeman. "How come you're not drugged?"

"This is Yagami Light, Aizawa-san. He is a member of our investigation team, as I have already informed you, and is lucid because..." L trailed off when he remembered he didn't quite know the answer. It appeared Light's good health had affected him more than he'd previously thought.

"They wanted me to be conscious during my...stay," Light explained, "because they wished for me to give them information as to who sent me here and the like. I believe they were going to let me go without food for a while."

Aizawa-san nodded, appeased. "Good to see you're alright, kid," he said gruffly. "Let's go help the other team now."

Light looked confused. "Other team?"

L nodded. "Yes, Light-kun. Mello is leading a second group of officers who are currently drawing the attention of the gang members away from us. I believe they would be grateful of some backup."

Light nodded, and made to leave.

L blocked his path. "My apologies, Light-kun, but you are in no state to fight. Despite everything else, you have not had any training."

"You are not leaving me here while you go risk your life," Light hissed, looking dangerous.

L smiled slightly. "No, I am not. I and some other officers will be staying here to guard the children while the rest make any arrests necessary."

Light didn't look happy, but grudgingly accepted the compromise. "Fine," he muttered, "Maybe you'll be able to get a reaction out of these kids. They're starting to creep me out."

"Indeed," L indulged him, though he knew trying to coax a response out of the children before the effects of the opium had lessened somewhat was hopeless.

"Well, we'll be off, then," Aizawa announced, making for the door. "We'll call ambulances for the children and injured when we're done."

"Very well," L said, and they left, leaving only a couple of policemen standing by the entryway.

L shut the door quietly behind them and sat on the floor with his back against it. "Well, to pass the time, perhaps you'd like to tell us your tale, Light-kun?"

Matt received the news that the raid had gone successfully from Near, who seemed almost as immensely relieved as he himself was, in his own way.

However, when L and Light arrived back without Mello, Matt suddenly felt as if he was going to be violently ill.

Noticing his green-tinted face, L quickly said, "There were a few fatalities on our side, which is regrettable, but Mello was not one of them. He merely sustained a blow to the head, and has been taken to hospital to be on the safe side."

Matt wasn't very relieved, "But Mello hates hospitals!"

"I think he can deal with it, don't you?" Light teased, sitting down next to the redhead. He looked dirty, tired and bruised, but altogether fairly okay.

"I want to see him!" Matt demanded, jumping up.

Light rolled his eyes. "Hello to you too. Don't worry, that's why we came back here, or else we'd have gone straight to the police station with the rest of the group. We took around fifteen prisoners, and they're being questioned right now, I'd guess, so we should get the results fairly soon. We don't need much extra information apart from why Palm and Four-Field were working together in the first place."

"And why they did this," Matt reminded him, much happier now he was going to see Mello. "Come on, let's go!"

Shaking their heads at his impatience, L and Light followed him out of the room. Suddenly halting at the doorway, Matt turned around.

"Hey, Near!" he called to the boy sitting by himself in the middle of the room, "You coming?"

Near looked mildly surprised. Before he could answer, however, Matt insisted, "Come on, you have to! I bet he'll want to see you!" That might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but it seemed to have worked, as Near got up and followed them outside.

The drive to the hospital was quite short, but nevertheless full of information, both about the rescue and Light's capture.

"What were the assholes' names again?" Matt asked Light about his captors, "We'll want to lock them up too, for assault and association."

Light thought for a bit, then replied, "The woman was called Dee, and the guard was...Mike. No, Mick. They mentioned another name – supposedly their in-house torturer – but I can't remember it. It was Italian. Something like Damien?"

Matt shrugged. "Well, most of Palm's gonna be arrested anyway. I guess it doesn't really matter."

When they reached the hospital, they found with relief that there wasn't a shortage of open parking spots, seeing as it was two in the morning. They parked quickly, then hurried inside.

Matt reached the reception desk first, but before he could say anything, the sleepy-looking receptionist said, "Let me guess: more people from the police raid. What's the nature of your injury?"

Matt shook his head impatiently. "No, we're here for a visit."

The lady looked surprised. "Now?"

"Yes. Now."

"Who to?"

"Mello, Room 53," L told her.

She hesitated for a second. "Well...visiting hours are kinda over..."

Matt glared at her.

"Fine," she sighed, "Are you family?"

Matt debated over lying, but then realised there was no way an albino, a ginger, an insomniac and a Japanese person were all going to be related to one blond Englishman.

"Uh...not exactly," he hedged, hoping the woman would let them through anyway. She seemed nice enough, but it was really very late.

Thankfully, she chuckled softly, and handed them a map of the hospital. "Didn't think so. Oh well, just don't tell them it was me who let you through, okay?"

"Thank you," Matt said sincerely, already halfway across the waiting room.

"If anyone reprimands you for admitting us, inform them L told you to do so," L advised solomnly, before he and Light followed after Matt, Near trailing after them.

They reached the room with minimum confusion, and Matt wasted no time knocking. He opened the door and ran in, searching frantically for Mello.

There were two beds in the room, one of which had the curtains drawn around it, and the other containing a cheery-looking young man with dark hair. "Hey," he greeted them, "I'm Matsuda. I was with Mello when he got smacked in the head, so I got to share a room with him too. He's sleeping right now, but –"

"No I'm not," came a groggy, familiar voice from behind the curtain.

"Mello!" Matt called, rushing to the bed and pulling back the screen.

The blond was grinning up at him, looking mildly dazed, but not too bad. "Yo, Matty," he said.

Matt just hugged him so tightly the blond had to push him away slightly to avoid being suffocated. "Hey, hey, careful there!" he laughed, "I'm an invalid, remember?" He still held Matt close to him for a very long moment, though.

"Are you okay?" Matt asked when they eventually broke apart.

Mello rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, it's just a concussion. I should be out by tomorrow, and if not, the next day. They said it wasn't so bad."

Matt finally drew an unhindered breath, sinking down onto the chair by Mello's bedside.

"I still hate it here, though," Mello complained, looking sulky.

"Just be patient, Mello," L said, looking amused (if slightly exasperated).

"Easy for you to say. I don't see you bedridden."

"Well, you shouldn't have got hit in the head, then, should you?" Matt retorted for L's sake. "What if it had been a bullet?"

"Don't be daft, like that'd happen. He didn't even have a gun," Mello snorted.

His gaze fixed upon Light, who was standing next to L, quiet but smiling. "I see you got out alright," Mello commented.

Light nodded. "Thank you for coming to my aid." He bowed.

Mello rolled his eyes, but look pleased. "No problem. I didn't do such a great job, though, obviously."

"What do you mean?!" Matsuda chipped in, "You were amazing! Even when all those people went after you, you were calm and tactical! We would have all been much worse off if you hadn't been there!"

Mello shot him a look. "You shut up." Turning to the others, he explained, "He's been bugging me with stuff like that the whole time I've been here! I didn't even do that much for him, I just told him to bandage up his leg. He's the one that saved my life."

Matsuda blushed and looked very pleased. "Hardly," he mumbled bashfully.

Mello's eyes drifted over to Near, who until this point had stood at the foot of the bed, observing the proceedings silently.

"Why're you here?" the blond asked suspiciously.

"Mello!" Matt slapped his arm lightly. "Don't be rude! Near was worried about you!"

"Was he now?" Mello didn't appear convinced. "Well, whatever. Anyway, what're you doing all the way over there? Come stand with everyone else, it's hurting my head to try and look at you."

Near blinked, and obliged.

"Thanks for talking us through the journey, by the way," Mello added gruffly.

Near shifted his feet, looking both awkward and pleased, which was an amazing feat for him. "It was no problem, Mello."

They all talked until the Sun came up, by which time Mello had fallen asleep again, and Matt was stroking his hair gently, smiling contentedly.

The next day (or later during that day), as promised, Mello was discharged from the hospital, with strict instructions to take it easy and to lie down if he ever felt a headache coming on.

All in all, they concluded, he was very lucky.

By the time they returned to the SPK headquarters, Commander Rester was waiting for them with the results of the police questioning.

"We have a list of people directly involved in this crime," he informed them, "as well as the names of the Palm administrators, and a confession as to the reason Four-Field and Palm organised this."

Near nodded, and took the papers from his employee. He scanned through them quickly, and his eyes widened slightly.

"This is interesting," he commented, handing it to the rest of them.

They all looked it over. There was a long list of names, both members of Palm and employees of Four-Field, and right at the bottom were the names of the bosses of Palm.

"Well, who would have thought it?" Matt wondered aloud, "Takada Kiyomi and Mikami Teru. I guess that's a pretty good explanation as to why the companies were working together. They had the same bosses all along!"

"Yes, very clever," L mused, "Even I did not fully consider this possibility."

Light was still impatient, however. "Why did they do it, though? Why would they even need to, if they had all the influence of Palm and Four-Field together?"

L flipped through the pages. "It appears Palm was actually getting into some difficulty. Too many of its member had been arrested before the case, and their funds were dwindling. Obviously, Four-Field couldn't help too much, as they would be discovered, but if they did something like this, it would cause the children to become dependant upon opium, and they would buy it from Palm, expanding their influence and giving them more profit."

Light wrinkled his nose. "Despicable. How far will humans go for money?"

"Wait, something's not making sense yet," Mello cut in. "If Palm and Four-Field have the same bosses, why did Four-Field buy the opium from Palm? Surely that's pointless."

"It would appear so at first," L agreed, "But it seems we are the only people that know Four-Field and Palm are run by the same individuals. Even the members of the groups themselves were unaware; they merely gave us the names of their own bosses. It is likely only the superiors of the company knew about this, and as such, they had to keep up appearances."

"Right," Matt said, seeing it made sense, "So do we go arrest the people now?"

L shook his head. "I think we can leave that to the police," he said, "They are probably arresting Takada and Mikami as we speak."

Matt didn't bother to pretend not to be relieved. He was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to sleep for a year.

Luckily, L seemed to pick up on his thought waves. "I think we should all get some rest. We have worked hard, and it has finally paid off. Congratulations, everyone, though it is not quite over yet. We still have yet to see through the formalities, though I am sure the offending parties cannot bribe their ways out now. We will regroup tomorrow, at two pm." With that, L and Light left the room.

Matt and Mello followed them a little later, after scanning through the papers a while longer. As the left the room, Matt turned and said to Near, "You get some sleep too, okay? No working down here for ages."

"I can assure Matt that I will be unconscious within the hour," Near told him, a trace of humour in his voice.

Matt grinned and waved, before the door slid shut behind him.

In their room a minute later, Matt and Mello were pulling on their sleeping clothes, Mello carefully avoiding touching his head too much and Matt just trying not to fall over with exhaustion. Eventually, they tumbled into bed and curled up together, elated to finally be able to sleep without the stress of the Jouka Case hanging over their heads.

Matt was about to drop off when he remembered something. "Hey, Mello?" he whispered, hoping the blond was still awake.

Mello opened his eyes lazily. "What is it?" he muttered.

"What were you going to tell me?"

Mello laughed quietly. "I was wondering when you were going to ask me that," he admitted, propping himself up on his elbow.

Matt followed suit, and looked the blond in the eye. "So what was it?"

Mello took a deep breath and started, "Okay. First, I want to apologise for making you take part in this whole friends with benefits thing. That was wrong of me, and I feel really guilty for it; I shouldn't have taken advantage of your feelings like that."

Matt snorted. "Oh, please, Mello. Taking advantage of stuff is in your nature, you wouldn't be able to stop if you tried! Anyway, it's not like I care. At all. I love every second I'm with you," he said sincerely, his eyes burning with honesty.

Mello blushed lightly, then cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. "I don't deserve it, but thank you. But Matty...there's something I need to tell you."

Suddenly Matt was tense again, all traces of sleepiness gone. "What is it?" he asked hesitantly, not entirely sure whether he wanted to hear the answer.

Mello took a deep breath. "I was wrong about my feelings. I'm sorry, Matt, I should have told you sooner, but –"

Matt suddenly couldn't breathe. He gulped in vain, recognising the horribly familiar sensation of his throat constricting, his lungs shrivelling up.

He needed his inhaler.

No. He needed to curl up and die.

"Matty?" Mello was calling anxiously, "Matty, please breathe! It's not what you think, let me finish!"

Matt was honestly trying to inhale, but he seemed to have forgotten how. His vision started swimming, and the panic of not being able to breathe only served to cause his throat to close further.

"Matty, breathe, please breathe." Mello was rubbing slow circles into his back, a calming, soothing pattern that would have helped more if the touch didn't hurt Matt so much. "In through your nose, out through your mouth, remember?"

Matt went through the familiar exercises, and they were immensely difficult at first, but eventually his ears stopped ringing and he could breathe relatively normally.

"Are you okay?" Mello asked, concerned.

Matt shook his head, tears welling up in his eyes.

Mello gathered him into his arms and held him, still rubbing his back. "You're jumping to conclusions," he reprimanded without any anger in his voice, "You didn't let me finish my sentence."

"I don't want you to finish your sentence," Matt told him. "When you do, you'll just leave, like everyone else. Like you did before."

"No, I'm not!" Mello's voice was impatient. "Just listen! I was wrong when I told you I couldn't feel love; I just didn't know what it felt like! Matt – you're daft and weird and geeky and just slightly messed-up, but I don't care. I want to stay with you for the rest of forever. I really, really think I love you. A lot. So stop being so pathetic already."

Matt looked up at him, amazed. "You what?"

"I love you," Mello repeated, grinning now.

Matt sighed, going completely limp. "And exactly how long have you not told me this?"

Mello hesitated. "Uh...a few days now. Sorry, but I wanted to be sure. And I didn't want you to distract me from the case. Or for me to distract you."

Matt smirked. "But I can distract you now, right? Seeing as the case is over."

"I thought you were exhausted," Mello teased.

Matt just kissed him, and did so for the next small eternity.

Then, they fell under the covers, completely drained, and passed out. They slept until long past midnight.

A/N: Yay, happy feelings all round! XD Seeing as this is my first mystery, I'm well aware that some people may be confused about a few aspects of the case. If you are one of these people, please don't be afraid of reviewing with a question or PMing me; I'll be happy to fill in any gaps I might have left in the story! But please make sure you're logged in if you decide to ask through a review...it'll be a bit harder to answer if you don't. If you don't have an account, I'll try and answer your questions as best as possible in next week's A/N, but obviously that's not ideal, so again, please log in!

So, Mello finally confessed! Yay, I'm happy! To be completely honest, when I was writing this story, I debated over Matt being hospitalised/dying from asphyxiation, but then I thought that'd be slightly too cruel. Also, I'm not one for sad endings, so this was kind of my only option! XD I'm also happy Near and Mello are getting along a bit better now. I always liked the little puffball, so I thought I may as well be nice.

See you next Saturday for the epilogue!