A/N: Woo! Another chapter! Sorry guys. I'm so awful at updating. I'm trying though. My school work is just picking up at a riciculous rate and I'm getting less sleep than usual lately. I'll keep trying though.

Please review! It helps the process go faster. :D

Thanks for reading!

- Eevil Hero

xXx

Mello's words didn't sit well with Matt at all. He tossed and turned in his sleep over them for days on end.

"With lives and future like ours… well… you never know, Matt…"

Finally, Matt just couldn't take it anymore.

It was four in the morning but he didn't care. He got up and walked out of his bedroom, not even bothering to put on his glasses. He knew the way blind.

He walked the few steps down the hall to Mello's room and walked in without bothering to knock. He knew Mello would probably still be awake studying anyway.

Matt had been right. The light was on and Mello was hunched over some book or another. He looked up when Matt come in, a little shocked. It was unlike the red head to be up so late or to come in without knocking.

"Matt, what's wrong?" Mello asked, setting his pencil down.

Matt closed the door behind him a little more sharply than he meant to. Mello jumped but Matt ignored that.

"I don't like what you said the other day," Matt snapped.

"What are you talking about? What did I say?"

"That thing about our futures. When I gave you the gun from my Uncle's store."

"Your… uncle? …What?!"

"Forget about that!" Matt snapped. He didn't even care that he'd just given himself away without even meaning to. "Why the hell would you need a gun to be a detective? One like L?! WHY?!"

Mello sighed and pushed his chair back from his desk. "Matt…" he said quietly, "you know as well as I do that I'm not going to be chosen as L's heir. It's going to be Near, I just know it." Matt felt like someone had punched him in the gut when Mello said that. "I kill myself every day, trying to beat him… but I can't, Matt. So what else is there? I don't have a lot of choices… This is the only other way I know."

Matt was shaking his head over and over as Mello spoke. "No! That's not good enough!"

"What the hell has gotten into you?" Mello snapped, finally starting to lose his patience with Matt.

"Me?!" Matt yelled back. "Are you kidding?! You're talking about dying trying to be something you're not! So what if you're not L? You don't know what will happen!"

"I never said I'd stop trying, Matt. I just think one day I might have to do things my own way."

"So it's okay if you die in the process?"

Mello finally stood and took a rather cautious step forward. "Matt, I-"

"It's Mail," he snapped.

"…What?"

Matt felt himself blushing a little bit, but his face stayed firm. "My name isn't Matt. It's Mail… Mail Jeevas." His voice had become less fierce by the end.

Mello didn't seem to know what to say. "…Why…did you tell me that?" he asked weakly.

"If… if you're determined to die… I…" Matt looked down even though he couldn't see Mello anyway. "I wanted you to know…"

"Well yeah but… why…?"

Matt bit the inside of his cheek very hard.

He heard Mello coming closer to him. Slowly but he was moving forward nonetheless. "Matt?" When he got no response, he tried again. "…Mail?"

Matt had to look up then despite the fact that Mello would see the tears in his eyes.

Matt opened his mouth to speak but he had to try a couple of times before he could finally get the words out. When he finally did, it was a rather hoarse whisper. "Because I… well I…" He swallowed again. "Because I love you, ok?"

Mello stopped moving for a moment, then seemed to fall back a step. He seemed completely at a loss for words.

Matt nearly started crying then. He knew rejection when he heard it. Or rather when he didn't. He turned to go. "Well… I just thought… you know… that you should know." He started to leave, but was stopped in his tracks when Mello grabbed his arm.

"Mail, wait."

"What?" he asked quietly.

"When did you… decide… that you… that you love me?"

Matt swallowed again. "When Linda… kissed me. It felt…wrong. And when I thought about it, I realized that was why." He was hesitant to ask his next question, but thought it needed to be said. "Does that disgust you?"

The silence seemed to go on forever, but only a second or two actually passed.

"…No," Mello finally said. "No, it doesn't."

Matt was shocked to say the least, but not unhappy about this.

They stood that way for a long time, Matt headed for the door and Mello's firm grip holding him back.

Then, something happened that Matt didn't expect at all. Mello turned him around and closed the distance between them very quickly. Before Matt even know what was happening, Mello had his arms around him very tightly. The blonde's face was hidden somewhere in Matt's chest. Matt was stunned for a moment, then returned the tight embrace, his cheek just barely nuzzling Mello's hair.

The hug ended far too quickly for Matt's taste, but he didn't try to stop Mello from pulling away.

They looked at each other for a moment, then Matt turned to go again. "I should go back to bed. I'm tired and I have to get up early tomorrow."

"Alright… Goodnight Mail."

"Goodnight Mello."

"Mihael," Mello said quickly.

Matt looked back at him, stunned. "Huh?"

"It's my name… Mihael Keehl… it's uh… It's Russian…" He seemed a little embarrassed by this fact.

Matt smiled a little and shook his head. "I like it," he assured the other. Then he nodded. "Goodnight then… Mihael."

When Matt went back to his room and tried to sleep again, he found he had no trouble sleeping at all.