#25 Trouble lurking
In hindsight, it was a horrendously bad idea.
Sneaking into Mello's bedroom while he was in gym class had seemed like such an easy way to get find out more about him at the time, Matt reasoned.
The bedroom was smallish, like all of them, a plain blue quilt on the bed that was against one wall, a window opposite the door, a desk opposite the bed, a wardrobe crammed in at the end of the bed, and shelves on any wall space there was, fairly standard for a Wammy's house dormitory.
It was the things scattered around the room that drew Matt in. The things that were undeniably Mello.
The box of Thorntons chocolates with half the contents gone on the bed, the little gold wrappers scattered about the floor and pillow. The solid bars of Cadbury's that were piled neatly on the desk, next to an open notebook with a half-finished essay written in Mello's neat print across its pages.
There were rows of reference and text books on the shelves, and on the pin board Mello had over his bed, there were post-its referencing cases Matt knew L was on. Maps of cities, photos from papers of crime scenes.
And, to his immense bliss, a single photograph of the infamous L himself, accompanied by Mello and Matt either side of him, waving at the camera.
Matt knew for a fact that Near had been in that photo too. Mello must have cut him from it.
And he'd been very eager to root around in the older boy's room and see if he could find a sock or an extra chocolate bar or something. Anything of Mello's that he wouldn't miss.
Ok, that seemed too stalker-ish.
It was mostly about getting the boy's journal and seeing what he wrote about his little red-haired sidekick.
Yes, that sounded better, Matt thought to himself.
But he hadn't expected to hear Mello coming down the hall like he had, and in the mad panic he had given a yelp and dove into the wardrobe.
And for three seconds that had seemed a reasonable thing to do.
Then he'd become aware of the fact that he was not, in actuality, alone in Mello's wardrobe.
"…Please god tell me Roger wasn't telling the truth about monsters in the closet." He hissed, trying to keep as silent as possible. Through the slits in the door he could spy Mello's thin form in his gym clothes, calmly tidying away the wrappers scattered over his bed.
"Hello Matt. Why are you snooping
in Mello's room?"
The gamer swallowed. "Near… I could ask
you the same question."
The little boy shuffled faintly in the darkness of the wardrobe, "I think you came in to try and find Mello's journal to see if he writes about how he feels for you."
Matt
felt his face flush crimson. "I…"
"Oh look, he's getting
changed." The quiet little voice whispered.
Matt's eyes practically leapt out of his head, squinting through the slits as sure enough, Mello lifted his shirt off over his head, rosary bouncing on his chest.
"I…I…"
Near
giggled in his creepy little way. "I'm afraid he doesn't write
much about anyone other than L." he sighed, "I have to admit, I'm
rather disappointed about that too."
Matt blinked a few times,
but his eyes refused to move from the sight of beautiful, slender
Mello stripping off his gym uniform.
It occurred to him that he ought to be outraged and hitting Near right at this moment, fighting him for Mello's honour or something like that. Especially since he had a horrible feeling that this was not the first time Near had crept into Mello's bedroom to spy on him.
"You're really very feminine in the way you write your journal, Matt, you can't expect Mello to be the same." Near chirped. "You certainly gush about him a lot."
Matt wriggled uncomfortably in the cramped space, wanting very badly to punch Near in the gut. "You've read my…?" he whispered.
He didn't get to say the rest, as the wardrobe door was opened and the two boys fell out onto the floor of Mello's bedroom, staring up at the handsome blonde boy.
Mello smirked.
"You two are the worst lurkers ever."