Matt: Alive by Invader!
Mello: Time Bomb by All Time Low

Chapter 26: Aftermath

"Do you think Matt's gonna be okay. Seeing him like this…"

"He'll be fine. Shh, you're going to wake him up."

"But do you think we should go after him? He seemed pretty upset…"

"Misa, give him some space."

"I know, but…" It sounded like she was crying.

Why was Misa crying? Where was Matt? Was something wrong with him? Takada seemed to think that Matt would be fine, but Mello needed to find out for himself. He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids must have weighed a thousand pounds. It was too great of a task. He didn't have the energy for it, and he certainly didn't have the energy to part his lips and form the questions he needed answers to. He was just so tired…

"Misa…" Takada whispered. "It's going to be okay…"

"No it's not! Can't you see him?! How is that going to be okay?!" Her sudden outburst tugged at his consciousness as he had started to drift off again, but it made his body no less heavy, his muscles no more willing to comply.

"Why don't we go outside? Get some air?" Takada suggested.

Misa gave a weak "…Mkay" and a door opened and clicked shut a moment later.

Mello fought his exhaustion, but it quickly won over. He was just too tired to wonder what was wrong.

• • •

There was someone in the room with him. He heard their shuffling around, their movements as they adjusted things, and a distant "Hmm…" He tried to open his eyes to see who the intruder was but found that it remained an impossible task.

They were gone just as abruptly as Mello had become aware of them, and he was left in relative silence with the steady beeping. Had it been there before? He couldn't remember.

• • •

He heard the crinkle of a page being turned and a sigh. Mello listened intently for any other sounds that would clue him in on whoever was with him, but as his consciousness slowly returned to him, the only other sound he could make out was that incessant beeping.

He breathed in slowly; the air tasted stale. He tried to lick his lips. His mouth was just so dry. He needed water.

He made another attempt to force his eyelids open, and with a bit of effort, he managed to get his right eye to flutter open. The left would not be so easily persuaded, it seemed.

The bright fluorescent lights above him were blinding, forcing him to clamp his eye shut again. He let out a low groan at the piercing light, and he heard the pages rustle again.

"Misa," he heard Takada hiss out. "Misa, wake up."

"Hmm?"

He tried to open his eyes again, the right one only a slit to guard against those awful lights. He seemed to be in a sea of white. White ceiling, white walls, while lights.

"Misa, I think he's waking up." Her voice was urgent.

He turned his head to the side towards where he heard Takada's voice coming from. She was sitting in a chair, a magazine in her lap; Misa sat in a chair next to her, her head on Takada's shoulder. But when the blonde girl heard Takada's words, her head snapped up, suddenly wide awake. She stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, hesitating, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.

"Oh my God…" It was barely above a whisper. She slowly got up from her chair and moved to his side, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Mello…you're awake…"

Of course he was. It wasn't the first time he'd ever woken up, and it wouldn't be the last. It was hardly a novel discovery on Misa's part; Mello had more important things to deal with. Like the way his sight kept going out of focus. He looked up at Misa, his vision swimming before him. He opened his mouth to ask her to stop moving like that but found it hard to get the words out. His tongue tasted like dust, and his throat felt of sandpaper.

He changed his approach, trying to ask for water, but the sound that came out could hardly be considered a word. He swallowed and tried again. "Wa…wa…ter," he managed, it coming out in a scratchy sounding whisper.

It took her a moment to realize what he had said, her eyes lighting up when it clicked. "Water," she commanded, turning to Takada who was still staring on in shock from her chair. She nodded once, tossing her magazine to the chair and hurrying out the door.

"Are…okay? How…feeling? Do you…anything?" He was having a hard time focusing on Misa's words as she shot out question after question at him. It all seemed to blur together, and he could only pick out certain words, trying to piece it back together.

Takada was back before he could even try to answer. A nurse, a middle-aged woman whose curly hair was pulled back away from her face into a bun, followed behind her into the room, a styrofoam cup with a plastic spoon sticking out of it in hand.

Misa backed up, letting the nurse in next to Mello's bed. "Glad to see you're awake," she said with a soft smile. "Let's get you sat up a bit." She pressed a button on the panel on the side of the bed until he was sitting mostly upright though still reclining back a bit and held out a spoonful of ice chips just in front of his lips for him to take. "There you go, dear."

He looked up at her, trying to express his gratitude as he took the ice chips from the spoon, rolling them around his mouth with is tongue. He would have preferred a glass of water, but this would do. She waited and gave him another spoonful before setting the cup down on the bedside table.

"I just want to check a few things first, and then you can have more, okay?" He hummed out a response he hoped conveyed his consent, and she went about her work. She checked the monitor next to his bed, took his temperature, and asked him how he was feeling, making notes on his chart. She took the cup back up in hand and waited as he finished the ice chips.

"Thank you," he murmured when he was done.

"You're welcome," she said sweetly. "If you need anything else, just let me know." She placed the nurse call button in his right hand. "Press this, and me or one of the other nurses will come help you. Or you could send one of your friends out again," she smiled.

He tried to nod but found he didn't have the strength to do so. Instead, he sighed out an "Mkay."

With the nurse gone, Misa and Takada returned to the side of his bed. Tears were streaming down Misa's face again, leaving trails of grey on her cheeks from her mascara. She placed her hand gently over his. "You're such an idiot," she told him angrily, and Takada put a hand on her shoulder.

"Misa…" she warned. Misa shook her head and looked away, crying silently.

"What…happened?" he asked. He knew he was in the hospital, but he couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. "Matt?"

"Matt's fine," Takada told him. "He just…can't be here right now."

He let out a sigh. Takada had misunderstood him, thinking it one question instead of two. But at least Matt was alright, wherever he was. "Misa…why…idiot?" He'd apparently done something stupid to get himself in the hospital, but his muddled brain couldn't remember for the life of him what it was that he had done.

"You…don't remember?" she said, looking back down at him incredulously.

He let out another sigh. Obviously he didn't, otherwise he wouldn't have asked. He felt so utterly drained. He didn't want to answer any more questions; he just wanted to be told what had happened in the simplest terms possible.

"I think you should get some rest," Takada said, a pained expression contorting her features. "We can talk about it later."

"No… Now…" he insisted even though sleep did sound like a wonderful idea.

Misa and Takada exchanged a look before Takada turned back to him. "There was an electrical fire…at the concert. Frayed wires or faulty connections…something like that. We got out, but when we couldn't find Matt…you insisted on going back in to look for him…"

"I told you not to… So fucking stupid…" Misa said, shaking her head. She refused to look at him, choosing to stare out the small window on the other side of the room instead.

It sounded familiar, but the bits and pieces that came back to Mello as Takada explained seemed more like a dream than something that had actually happened. But where was Matt? Was he okay? "Matt?!" he tried again, it coming out with such urgency that he felt as though he may have strained his throat.

"He's fine, remember?" Misa snapped through her tears. "We already told you."

Right…Takada had said that Matt was fine. He'd forgotten. God, he just felt so tired…

"Misa…stop," Takada said firmly.

"I'm sorry." She turned and was suddenly running out the door.

Takada took a step to follow her but turned back to Mello. "Try to get some rest," she said softly and ran after Misa.

Rest. Yes, he would do that. Matt was fine. That was all that mattered.

• • •

Mello lay awake in his hospital bed. The clock on the wall read 8:45, which meant one of the nurses would be in soon to clean his burns. Hopefully it would be Nurse Claire.

He spent his first week in the hospital drifting in and out of consciousness. He would wake up, sometimes finding doctors or nurses in his room, sometimes Misa and Takada, and sometimes no one. If Matt visited, Mello was never awake to see him.

Dr. Anders, the doctor in charge of overseeing his injuries, had explained the severity of his condition to him on his second day in the hospital. He hadn't thought much about it until the doctor had brought it up, though he hadn't had much time to think about it either, having spent most of his time asleep, which he learned was a result of the heavy doses of pain medication he was receiving.

Dr. Anders had told him that much of the left side of his body was covered by second and third degree burns. They covered the left side of his face and neck, extending down over his shoulder to just above his left elbow.

He would receive skin grafts for the affected areas of his face and neck as well as the most severely burned areas over his shoulder. The doctor explained that he would still be left with scars but that the scaring would be a lot less severe than if they didn't perform the skin grafts. Those done on his face and neck were for cosmetic purposes; the one done on his shoulder was to limit the amount of tough scar tissue to form over a joint, which would have impaired its movement.

The dressings over his burns had to be changed once a day, and every day at 9:00 am, a nurse would come in to do so, most often the middle-aged nurse with curly hair that had brought him ice chips when he'd first woken up whose nametag read 'Claire.' He didn't mind the process so much when she did it; she was always friendly and talkative, trying to keep his mind busy as she cleaned and redressed his burns. He couldn't actually feel much of the process what with the strong pain medication he was on, but he appreciated the effort to distract him all the same. He didn't much care to think about his charred and blistered skin and had not once tried to look down at his burns while she cleaned them. He had, however, been elated the first time the bandaging had been removed to find that his vision in his left eye hadn't been damaged; it had been the dressings themselves that had blocked his sight, preventing his left eye from opening.

The door opened, and Nurse Claire walked in. "Oh! Awake already?" she said, giving him a smile. "How are you doing this morning, Mello?"

He smiled. It had taken him all week to convince her to call him Mello. She had started with Mr. Keehl and moved to Mihael when he protested to being called by his surname but had refused to switch over to his nickname until she'd finally given in the day before. "Bored," he replied. While he still slept most of the day and Misa and Takada visited daily, he had nothing to do when they weren't there.

"I could bring you something to read, if you like? Or maybe some crossword or Sudoku puzzles?" she offered, checking the heart monitor and writing something on his chart.

"A book would be great," he said earnestly.

"Any specific type of book?" she asked but didn't give him a chance to respond. A thermometer was stuck in his mouth, under his tongue.

When the device it was connected to let out a high pitched beep, she removed it and wrote down his temperature. "Horror, suspense…anything. I'm not picky," he said but quickly added, "Not sci-fi."

"I'll see what I can find," she said with a smile. "Now let's take a look at those burns of yours."

He let out a sigh. He'd prefer not to.

• • •

Dr. Anders stood at the end of Mello's bed, looking over his chart. "Well, the skin grafts are taking nicely, your burns seem to be healing well, and your temperature is back down. I'd say you're on the road to recovery," the doctor said, looking up at Mello from the chart.

"Great. When can I get out of here?"

"Burns of the severity you suffered don't heal overnight, Mr. Keehl." He had yet to convince Dr. Anders to call him Mello.

"I know. If they did, I would have been out of here already."

The doctor chuckled softly. "You've only been with us for nine days. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit longer than that for third degree burns to heal."

"Alright, how long does it take then?"

"It depends on how quickly your body heals, but if I had to guess, I'd say you're looking at another three weeks with us."

"You're joking," Mello said dryly. There was no way in hell he was going to be spending another three weeks in the hospital. Fall classes started in just over three weeks.

"Unfortunately, I'm not. Most major burn victims stay in the hospital for about a month. I know it probably seems like a long time, but you're moving along right on track. In fact, I'm lowering the dose of your pain medication, effective today. You'll still receive higher doses before redressing and physical therapy sessions, but otherwise, I'm going to gradually start tapering off the doses."

He looked at Dr. Anders, stunned. "But…the Fall semester starts at the end of September…" he said weakly.

"You might want to think about seeing what online courses are offered or taking the semester off altogether. Even after you are discharged from the hospital, you'll still have outpatient rehabilitation," the doctor said. "Don't look so glum. The most important thing is that you get better."

He gave a half-hearted "Yeah" and Dr. Anders let out a sigh, evidently seeing that he wouldn't be cheering Mello up on this particular visit.

"Do you have any questions?"

"No," he grumbled. The doctor gave a curt nod and was out the door to attend to his other patients.

Mello tilted his head to the side, staring out the window. He couldn't see much from the angle he was at except the grey sides of other buildings, but it was arguably better than the interior of the room. He felt like he was going to die in that room.

He tried to look on the bright side. Lower doses of pain medication would mean that he wouldn't be so tired and out of it all the time…but it also meant that he would probably be able to start feeling things. Dr. Anders had said the he would be given higher doses before redressings and physical therapy sessions, but those too would end up being tapered off he imagined. Redressings and cleanings with Nurse Claire were one thing, but he couldn't even begin to imagine how painful his physical therapy sessions—once in the morning and once in the afternoon to prevent the hardening of the joints in his shoulder—would be with lower doses of painkillers.

And now he would have to pick out entirely new classes, that is, assuming UCLA even offered online classes. He didn't think they did, but he wasn't sure. And if they didn't? He wasn't sure what he was going to do. He didn't want to take the semester off. He hadn't even started yet.

He felt so isolated in his little room: a prisoner in a stark white cell. He wished Matt were there with him, to tell him that things weren't as bad as they seemed, but he hadn't seen Matt once since he'd been in the hospital. He'd asked Misa and Takada where Matt was during several different visits, and each time, they refused to tell him. The most he had gotten out of them was that Matt was fine, but for all he knew, that was a lie.

He'd gone through different theories over the course of the last week: Matt was also in the hospital—or worse yet, dead—and they didn't think he could take the news in the condition he was in; talking to Sayu had rekindled old feelings Matt still had for her, and they had gotten back together; Sayu actually was pregnant, and Matt had gotten back together with her out of feelings of obligation; Matt just couldn't bear the idea of the ugly scars that would cover the left side of Mello's body and had abandoned him…

He didn't know what to think anymore.

Mello turned away from the window, closing his right eye. He didn't want to think anymore, but for the first time since he'd found himself in the hospital, he couldn't seem to fall asleep.

• • •

By the time Misa and Takada walked in the next afternoon, Mello had decided that feeling sorry for himself would get him nowhere. He'd decided that he would do what he had to regarding his fall classes even if that meant taking the semester off though he hoped it wouldn't come to that. Instead, he wanted to talk to Dr. Anders about just taking a smaller class load, perhaps only one or two courses, but he would have to wait until the doctor did his evening rounds to discuss it.

The more pressing issue was his uncertainties concerning Matt. He had planned to demand to know what was going on as soon as Misa and Takada walked through the door; however, he hadn't factored a certain development into his plan.

He looked up from the book Nurse Claire had brought him, a copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the second he heard the door open, just quick enough to catch Misa and Takada holding hands before they parted. "What's that about?" he asked, a sly smile tugging at his lips as he stuck a scrap of paper between the pages to hold his place, happy to be done with the book for the time being. Although Nurse Claire had admitted that she had never read it, she had said that her daughter, who was about his age, loved the trilogy and thought he might enjoy it too. While the prologue had caught his attention, he'd found the first chapter to be rather long and dull; as of yet, the second chapter wasn't much better.

"What's what about?" Misa asked as she and Takada pulled the two chairs in the room up next to his bed.

"Don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about."

"Seems like Mel-Mel is feeling better…" she said, not sounding entirely happy about it.

"The doctor lowered my pain medication."

"So you're not going to be half-dead when we visit anymore?" Takada said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"What do you mean half-dead?"

"Apparently not."

Giving up on convincing Takada to elaborate, he tried again, "So did something happen between you two?"

"I think I like drugged Mello better," Takada told Misa, ignoring his question. Misa let out a giggle.

"Thanks guys. You're such wonderful friends. Fine, don't tell me," he said, waiting for Misa to take the bait. If something really had happened, she would be dying to tell him.

Sure enough, as soon as he turned away from them, pretending to be upset, he heard an excited, "Can we please tell him, Kiyomi?"

"I thought we were going to wait."

"But he's like actually awake now. Please?" Mello slowly turned back to face them. Misa looked to Takada, a huge grin on her face.

Takada let out a sigh. "Yeah. Sure," she smiled, and Misa clapped her hands excitedly.

"Yay!" she exclaimed and grabbed Takada's hand in her own. "Me and Kiyomi are together now! We went on our first date last night," she told him proudly, and he saw Takada blush.

"Really? Congratulations!" he said, feigning surprise. "How did you finally end up getting together?"

"Finally?" Misa questioned, sounding confused, and he realized what he had said.

"Um…well…"

Understanding flashed over Misa's features. "You knew! I can't believe you knew she was gonna ask me on a date, and you didn't tell me!"

"I didn't actually know she was going to ask…I just suggested she should talk to you about how she felt and-"

"Wait. So how long have you two been scheming about this?"

Takada turned to Misa sheepishly. "'Scheming' is such a strong word…"

"Since before I left for Ohio," he said, and Misa's jaw dropped.

"So when I asked you what I should do about how I felt…you knew?" Mello nodded, and a smile slowly spread across Misa's face. "I've taught my Mel-Mel well," she said, sounding impressed. "And you," she poked Takada's shoulder. "I didn't expect that out of you."

"It was really more Mello…" she admitted, her face turning red.

"And I can't take all the credit," he told Misa. "Matt was kinda in on it too. We sort of had a 'Get Misa and Takada Together' plan, but it got put on hold with the funeral and everything. Turns out Takada didn't need our help as much as we thought."

Takada looked stunned, and much to Mello's surprise, Misa looked like she was going to cry. He had thought they were done with that. Misa hadn't cried during one of her visits since his fourth day in the hospital. It took him a moment to realize what must have brought it on.

"Are you…ever going to tell me where Matt is?" he tried. His chest felt tight. Something was wrong. Why else would Misa be so upset just by his mentioning Matt?

Misa looked away, and Takada pursed her lips, looking worried.

"Tell me."

"We didn't want you to worry…" Misa said weakly.

"…What happened?" His voice was barely above a whisper, his mind immediately jumping to the worse.

"Matt…has been having a hard time with all this," Takada said slowly, her brow furrowed. She was obviously choosing her words carefully.

"A hard time…? What do you mean?"

"He blames himself for…what happened." She eyed the bandaging covering his burns, dropping her gaze to her lap.

"But that's ridiculous. It's not his fault." He couldn't believe it. Why would Matt blame himself? He had nothing to do with it.

"We tried to tell him, but he won't listen…" Misa said. "We told him to come see you again…"

"What do you mean 'again'? He was here? When?"

"After you got out of the emergency room and they transferred you here, we were allowed to come in and see you," Takada said solemnly. "Matt…he…he couldn't take seeing you like that… You almost looked dead…"

"But…I'm fine…" he said, and Takada gave him a look of pity that seemed to ask 'Have you looked in a mirror recently?' "Can't you…talk some sense into him?"

Takada shook her head wearily. "We've both tried."

Mello turned to look out the window at the grey buildings outside, his fingers running over the corner of the book Nurse Claire had given him, flipping through the pages absentmindedly. "Can you give him a message for me? Can you tell him that I said I love him, and I miss him, and that he needs to stop being an idiot and get his ass in here?"

Takada let out a faint laugh; it almost sounded like a sigh. "Sure… We'll let him know."

• • •

Mello turned the page, engrossed in his book. He had been both relieved and a bit surprised when it had finally picked up a few chapters in. He'd gone from not really wanting to pick it back up to not wanting to put it down, already a little more than half done with the over 600 page novel after only a couple days of having it.

He heard the door click open and ignored it, trying to at least finish the page before having to deal with whichever doctor or nurse had decided to check in on him. "Mello?" he heard, and his hand slipped, the pages of the book flipping shut, his place effectively lost.

His head snapped up from the forgotten book in his lap, looking to the doorway. Matt stood under the threshold, half in Mello's hospital room and still half out. He looked in sheepishly, his head bowed slightly, at an angle which didn't allow Mello to see his eyes through the orange lenses of his goggles.

"Matt…" he said, a grin spreading across his face. He could feel the tug of his healing skin under the bandaging on the left side of his face. It was hardly a pleasant feeling, but he didn't care. In that moment, he couldn't bring himself to care.

"I, um…" Matt looked around the room nervously: out the window, at the heart monitor next to the bed, at the boring pastel painting of a vase of flowers hanging on the wall opposite Mello—anywhere besides directly at Mello himself. "I…" he tried again but didn't seem to be able to finish.

"Matt, you can…come in the room," Mello offered uncertainly when Matt didn't move. The redhead gave a jerky nod and hesitantly stepped through the threshold. He closed the door behind himself and took a seat on one of the chairs, which had been pushed up against the wall after Misa and Takada had left the afternoon before. He looked terribly uncomfortable. "Matt, what are you doing? Come here." He could feel the smile fading from his lips. He finally had Matt with him—he was just there, on the other side of the room—but he felt so distant.

He watched as Matt inched the chair closer until he settled back down in it, still a couple feet away from the edge of the bed. "Matt…?" He reached out for him in vain, and his long forgotten book slid from his lap and toppled to the floor, landing facedown at Matt's feet.

Matt bent to pick it up, turning it so he could see the cover. He stared down at it in his hand. He remained like that, and Mello could only look on, the mere feet separating them spanning miles. He sat there, watching, waiting, until Matt's shoulders gave a shutter.

The book dropped to Matt's lap, his hands going to his goggles, pulling them down to hang around his neck. Though a hand quickly moved to rub at his eyes, trying to hide it, tears rolled down his face and fell to his lap, leaving little dark circles on his jeans. "I'm so sorry…"

"You don't have to apologize. I-"

"Really? I don't hafta apologize?" he said flatly, his hand falling away from his face, not bothering to try to cover his tears anymore. His eyes were bloodshot and the dark circles under them reminded Mello of the sleepless nights Matt had passed working on his music when they'd first gotten together. He looked miserable. "How can you say that?"

"It's not your fault…" He hated seeing Matt like that. When Takada had said that Matt blamed himself for what happened…he'd never thought it would be like this.

Matt shook his head. "Yes, it is… I asked you to come. You were there because of me… You-" he tried, but his lips pulled together in a thin line as he tried to collect himself, brow knitted together in despair. Mello watched as Matt collapsed in on himself, an arm clenched tightly around his ribs as he bowed his head, face in his hand; a silent sob shook his shoulders. He sniffed loudly, and hand still over the lower half of his face, he looked up at Mello, tears streaming down. "You went back in…for me… And now…" His eyes ran over the bandages that covered much of the left side of Mello's body, a few sobs escaping his throat. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"Matt, come here," he said gently, holding his hand out. Matt looked at it for a moment before slowly moving the chair closer with such careful, calculated movements, as if he were afraid that he might break Mello just by coming nearer. He set the book down on the edge of the bed with the same hesitancy, and Mello's hand closed the distance, cupping the side of Matt's face in his palm. "It's not your fault. I don't blame you at all, and I don't want you to blame yourself. I'm just glad you're here."

Matt nodded slowly, leaning into Mello's hand lightly. He sniffed again, a small, sad smile on his lips. And though Mello didn't know if Matt believed him yet, it was a start.

• • •

Mello stuck the scrap of paper between the pages to mark his place and sat the book on the bedside table. He leaned back and let out a sigh, listening as Matt snored softly.

He felt ridiculous, thinking over what Matt had told him about that night. His theories had been all wrong. Of course there was nothing left between Matt and Sayu. They had just talked, Matt explaining why he had done what he had and apologizing for how he'd handled things. They had been outside the entire time.

He looked down at Matt who was still sitting in the chair, bent over to rest his head on the bed, the top of his head pressed against Mello's hip. It hardly looked to be the most comfortable position, but Mello got the impression that it was the best Matt had been able to sleep in the past week and a half.

His hand moved down to rest in Matt's hair, his thumb running over the red locks softly. It seemed so surreal, being there in the hospital with Matt like that, like a dream that he would wake up from at any second to find himself back in the apartment, dozing on the couch as Matt got ready for his album release. But even if it wasn't a dream, he realized he wouldn't mind his reality so much as long as Matt was there by his side.

Content, he leaned his head back against the pillows and closed his eyes.

• • •

Matt eased the door open and peeked his head in. "Hey!" he greeted when he saw Mello was awake.

"You're early," Mello grinned, placing the notebook on the little table next to his bed and setting the pen on top.

"I traded shifts at work so I could be here longer," Matt shrugged, shutting the door behind him. He set the bag he was carrying in one of the chairs as he dragged it up next to the hospital bed.

"Is that…"

"Yep." He placed the bag on the edge of the bed as he sat down in the chair and pulled out Mello's laptop.

"Thank you so much," he said earnestly. He'd finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo the day before as the second week of his hospital stay came to a close. He'd asked Nurse Claire that morning to bring him the second one in the trilogy if she could, and she had told him she'd have it by the end of the weekend. In the meantime, he had asked for a pen and paper.

"No problem," Matt smiled and leaned forward, kissing Mello softly, being careful of the left side of his face. He felt the distance every time Matt touched him, even it was only holding his hand. It was as if Matt were handling something frail that could shatter under the tiniest bit of pressure.

"It's okay, you know. I'm not gonna break."

"I just…don't wanna hurt you."

"You won't. Here," he said, shifting closer to Matt, leaning his left shoulder towards him. "Touch it." Matt looked at him uncertainly. "Go ahead."

Matt's hand hesitantly reached out to Mello's bandaged shoulder, but the second his fingers brushed the surface, Mello let out a scream, as if in pain. Matt jumped back, a look of horror on his face. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" But Mello was doubled over in the bed, laughing uncontrollably.

The door flew open within seconds, a nurse looking in on them. "Is everything alright in here?" she asked, clearly confused when the sight that greeted her was hardly what she'd expected from the scream she'd heard.

"Yeah, we're fine," Mello managed, finally getting hold of himself again. The left side of his face felt sore from laughing.

The nurse gave them a stern look but left without another word, the door swinging shut behind her.

"You ahre such a fuckin' asshole," Matt grumbled, settling back down into the chair.

"Come on, it was joke… I'm sorry…" he said, but Matt sat with his arms crossed, looking away from him. "Mattie…come on…" He reached out, tugging on Matt's wrist until he eventually let him take his hand. "Look." He brought Matt's hand up to his shoulder, pressing it flat against the bandaging. "See? It's fine," he said, although it did sting a little even through the painkillers.

Matt let out a sigh and nodded.

"I'm sorry…" Mello said again. "Please don't be mad…"

Matt shook his head, his hand falling away from Mello's shoulder. "I'm not mad. I'm just sorry you hafta go through this…"

"Matt…please don't… It's not your fault." Mello had thought they were done with this. He didn't want Matt to blame himself anymore.

"If I wouldda done things different… If I wouldn't've taken so long talkin' to Sayu, I wouldda been back already…"

"And if I had just waited for you by the car with Misa and Takada, I would've found out you had been outside the entire time. Matt, it's not your fault. I'm the one who decided to go back in… I don't want you blaming yourself." Matt gave a weak, half-hearted nod, but that wasn't good enough. "Matt- No, Matt, look at me. Stop it. You're being ridiculous. There was nothing you could've done, so stop acting like what happened was your fault. And stop treating me like I'm gonna break. Just because I have these stupid bandages on doesn't mean I'm an invalid, and it doesn't mean I'm fragile or weak." To send the message home, he reached out and grabbed the front of Matt's shirt, trying to pull him closer. Unfortunately, the angle he was at didn't allow him much more than to stretch Matt's shirt towards him.

"What ahre you doin'?"

"Come here!" he demanded, frustrated by his lack of success. Matt leaned closer, and Mello abandoned the front of his shirt to grab the back of his neck, pulling him down with as much force as he could manage to meet his lips, causing Matt to stumble forward off his chair in the process. His hip hit the bedside table, knocking the pen and notebook to the floor, and he had to brace himself on the bed to prevent himself from falling on top of Mello.

Mello kissed him roughly, almost violently, not letting Matt go until he was done making his point. "Got it?"

"Um…" Matt looked at him, surprise still written across his face, a small giddy smile appearing on his lips as he slowly sat back down, scooching the chair a bit closer this time. "Yes, sir."

"Good," Mello said, satisfied.

Matt let out a little laugh, shaking his head incredulously, and seeing the notebook he had knocked to the floor, he bent over to pick it up. "What's this?" he asked, opening the cover to the first page.

"I'm…writing a letter to my dad. I figured I might as well do something productive while I'm in here."

"Mmm," Matt muttered, flipping through page after page of crossed out and scribbled over beginnings to letters, not stopping long enough to read any of it. "Not havin' much luck?"

"I don't know what to say… 'Hey, dad. I'm in the hospital. No need to worry though. Just third degree burns.'"

Matt let out a snort of amusement and shrugged. "That could work."

"Yeah…right… I thought maybe if I took a break, tried working on something else, I might have better luck with it later," he sighed, motioning halfheartedly to his computer still sitting at the foot of the bed.

"Hey, Mels?"

"Hmm?"

"Am I ever gonna get to see that 'surprise' you were workin' on?"

Mello looked at him in surprise. He'd forgotten he'd mentioned it to Matt. That seemed so incredibly long ago… He thought about it for a moment and then said "Yeah, sure. Hand me my computer." He took it from Matt and sat it in his lap, opening the lid and pressing the power button. "It's not done," he explained as they waited for it to finish turning on. "And you don't actually get to have it until it's done."

"Okay…" Matt shrugged, watching the screen intently as the computer started up.

When his desktop finally appeared, Mello clicked on the icon for iTunes, and the window popped up. He scrolled through his playlists in the sidebar and clicked on the one he was looking for, turning the screen to face Matt.

Matt looked over the screen, clearly a bit confused. "What am I s'posed to be lookin' at?" he asked, and Mello moved the cursor over so that the little arrow sat next to the name of the playlist: 'Good Music for Matt.'

Matt's eyes lit up, looking up from the screen to Mello, a grin spreading across his face. "Can we listen to it now?" he asked, and Mello could hear the excitement in his voice.

"No, not until I'm done with it."

"But I mean, it's already up. I could very easily accidently click on any one of these songs," Matt said, hand hovering over the mouse pad.

"Just like I could accidently slam the laptop shut on your hand."

Matt jerked his hand back, just in case. "Y'know, you've been kinda violent lately. What the hell's in that medication they're givin' you?" he laughed.

Mello shrugged. "I think I'm just bored. You have no idea how awful it is, being stuck in here for two weeks straight. Every time anyone visits, it's like Christmas."

"Just…anyone? No one in particular?"

"Hmm…" he pretended to think about it. "Well…Takada never cries when she visits."

"Takada? Takada's your favorite now?" Matt said flatly. "And I only cried once," he added, blushing.

"Of course Takada's not my favorite," he scoffed. "Misa is."

"Wow, thanks. Love you too, Mello."

A soft smile came to Mello's lips. He shook his head slowly. "Is it really even a question?"


A/N: As a couple of you have guessed, the songs I put at the beginning of each chapter are supposed to make up the "Good Music" playlists Matt and Mello made for each other. It's something I'd been on planning on revealing within the story itself, but then I couldn't figure out how to do it without listing all the songs out throughout the story, and that just would have been too tedious for me to write and for you to read.

I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but since someone brought it up in a review, I just want to reiterate that there will not be a MisaxTakada spin-off, at least not right away. I'm not saying I will never ever write one, but I'm not saying it's a definite thing either. I might eventually return to the idea, but after Neon Hearts, I'm planning on writing something entirely different: a (most likely) novella-length fic called Favorite Worst Nightmare.

A special thanks to the following reviewers:
Awesomenessknowsnobounds, CatatonicVanity, BlOo KiSsEs, WammygirlZ, brightnight003, UltimateProcrastinator469, IssaHORROR, teB360, VampireDoll666, Carlazard, MyBeautifulBlackHeart, kay-kw33n, HeroofTwilight'sgf, and an anonymous reviewer