Matt: Horizon by Leviathan
Mello: Kings & Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars

Chapter 27: Decoration

Mello looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, fingertips grazing over the crinkled and distorted skin of his cheek. Barely able to feel it, he pressed harder until it hurt.

He hated he scars that covered the left side of his face and neck.

After his month-long stay at the hospital, they were mostly healed now. They no longer needed to be covered in bandaging, but he had been instructed to clean them thoroughly once a day while he was in the shower, as well as massage and apply lotion to them several times a day during the final stages of their healing. He didn't mind washing them so much—he could almost pretend like they weren't there, like it was just a normal part of his shower routine. Massaging them, however, was torture.

It wasn't that they hurt; on the contrary, he'd lost a lot of feeling in the areas affected by his burns. It took quite a bit to actually feel anything through the stiff scar tissue. It had nothing to do with the faint sensations his damaged skin picked up on; rather, it was the feeling of the scars under his fingers, the fact that he was acutely aware of their existence throughout the entire process that made it so terrible.

He had been immensely grateful when Matt had offered to do it for him his first night home from the hospital only four days before. He would have never asked it of Matt, would have never wanted to put that burden on him when Mello knew how hard it had been for him to forgive himself for the scars that weren't even his fault to begin with. But for Matt to offer, it meant the world to him.

And for Matt to act as if nothing had changed, Mello was forever indebted.

With the exception of those times when Matt helped him take care of his scars, the redhead didn't even seem to notice them. Or if he did, he never said anything about them. Mello was thankful that he didn't, but at the same time, it was almost unnerving. Even if Matt refused to acknowledge it, things had changed; the scarred man staring back at him in the mirror was a testament to that.

"Mello, have you seen my…? Mello?" He turned to see Matt standing in the doorway, looking on with concern. "Ahre you okay?"

Mello only looked at him for a moment. The goggles pushed up into his messy red hair, those green eyes filled with worry, the freckles that dotted his cheeks and spanned the bridge of his nose…Matt was just the same as always. He held no visible marks from that night.

"Do you think my scars are ugly?" Mello asked sadly, and a soft smile came to Matt's lips.

"What scahrs?"

"No, Matt. Look at me. Just because you pretend they're not there doesn't mean there not."

Matt shook his head. "I'm not pretendin'. Look," he said, pointing at the mirror. Mello turned back towards it, and Matt stepped into the bathroom behind him. A hand went to Mello's hip, and Matt rested his chin on the blond's shoulder. "When I look at you, I know the scahrs ahre there, but I don't see them. I see you." Matt raised his hand, holding it a couple inches from the left side of Mello's face so that the scars weren't visible in the mirror. "You're the same person you were before," he said and slowly lowered his hand. "Just with a little more decoration."

Mello smiled at Matt in the mirror, the muscles under his skin tugging at the stiff scars, and Matt leaned forward a little to kiss him on the cheek, hugging him from behind. He appreciated those words more than Matt would ever know.

But no matter how understanding and supportive Matt was, he was certain of the stares he would receive when he finally had to leave the apartment. He'd been avoiding going out since he'd come home from the hospital, but he couldn't be a hermit forever if only because he wouldn't let complete strangers have that power over him. Plus he had his first class the next morning. He hadn't fought with Dr. Anders to okay his registering for two classes that semester for nothing.

He would learn to ignore the stares from strangers, but what about when they visited Matt's family in October? He wasn't worried about Matt's parents—at least not for that reason—but what about Tegan? Kids weren't always the most understanding…

"C'mon," Matt said, untangling his arms from around Mello, "I need some help findin' my phone."

"Here, I'll call it for you," Mello said, pulling his own phone from his pocket and pushing the thought from his mind. He could worry about their trip to Boston later.

The Star Wars theme played from somewhere in their apartment, sounding a bit muffled. They followed it into the bedroom, and Matt quickly located his phone. He bent down to pick it up from where it had fallen between the nightstand and the bed and answered it, pressing it to his ear. "Hello?" Matt said into the phone, but Mello had already ended the call. "I can't believe you hung up on me," Matt said with feigned offense, shaking his head as he pocketed his cell phone.

"We're in the same room. If you wanna talk to me, I'm right here," Mello laughed, but Matt glanced at the clock on the nightstand, and Mello knew what he was thinking before he even said it.

"Ahre you sure you're fine with me leavin'?

"I told you. I'll be fine. I'm not an invalid," he said firmly. They'd already had this conversation, and he didn't really want to have it again.

"Ahre you sure you're okay with it though? I could skip the first day of class. We'll just be goin' over the syllabus anyway. It's not a big deal if you want me to stay." And there it was. Because even if Matt didn't care about the scars that now covered much of the left side of Mello's body, he still worried about him because of it. Mello knew it would pass in time, but for now…

"I'm fine. Besides, what are you gonna do? Skip all of your classes just because you don't want to leave me alone? Matt, I don't need a babysitter."

"I know…" Matt said, stepping closer. He took Mello's hand in his own, their fingers entwining. "It's just the first time you'll be here alone since you got home from the hospital and-"

"I won't be alone though."

Matt looked to him in surprise. "You…won't?"

"I…may have asked Misa and Kiyomi to come over. Misa doesn't have a class till later, and Kiyomi already had both her classes for the day this morning, so…"

"So what I'm hearin' is you don't need a babysitter, right?" Matt smirked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No, I don't. They're just…keeping me company. And it's not gonna be an all the time thing. Just today."

"Sure," Matt nodded disbelievingly.

"Don't give me that look. Seriously, it's just for today. I'm actually looking forward to having some alone time. I…I'm excited to have the time to work on my writing…"

"Really?" Matt's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Mello nodded, a small grin tugging at his lips. "That's great!" Matt said, pulling Mello into a tight hug. He could hear the pride in Matt's voice. From the beginning, Matt had encouraged him to try writing again, if only to see what came of it. Now, not only would he finally have the opportunity but the will to do so. Maybe taking a smaller class load because of his injuries hadn't been a tragedy, but rather, a blessing in disguise.

The doorbell rang, and Matt pulled away. He glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand again and let out a sigh. "I should prob'ly get goin' soon…" he said and grabbed the black backpack sitting against the wall as they headed out into the living room, slinging it over his shoulder.

"Mel-Mel!" Misa exclaimed the second he had opened the door. She threw her arms around him more carefully than she once would have, being cautious of his scarred shoulder. He picked her up, swinging her around, hoping to convince her that he wasn't as frail as his scars suggested. He hated how he seemed to have to prove to everyone that they didn't need to be careful with him.

She squealed from the unexpected ride and looked almost disappointed when he put her down. "Mel-Mel's certainly in good mood today," she said, sounding surprised, and he shrugged, turning to Kiyomi who came in behind Misa.

"I can do without the rollercoaster ride greeting," she told him flatly. A devious smirk came to his face, and Kiyomi shook her head. "No, absolutely not," she said firmly, but Mello pulled her into a hug, swinging her around as he had done for Misa, one of her shoes, a pair of black flats, falling off in the process. "Put me down!" she shrieked, so he spun her around an extra time for good measure.

"Calm down, Kiki," he told her lightly, setting her back on her feet. She shot him a glare as she slipped her shoe back on, and his smirk widened. Only Misa was allowed to call her that, but that hadn't stopped him just like it had never stopped Kiyomi from calling him Mel-Mel when she wanted to annoy him. Not that he particularly liked using Misa's new nickname for Kiyomi. He'd just recently gotten used to calling the brunette by her first name; 'Kiki' was still a bit of a stretch for him.

"Are you sure you have to leave now?" he heard Misa ask sadly, and he turned to see Matt slipping on his Converse.

"Yeah…" he sighed. "I dunno how hahrd it's gonna be to find pahrkin' so…" He shrugged and gave Misa a quick hug goodbye, followed shortly by Kiyomi before moving to Mello. He pulled Mello tightly against his chest. "Love you, Mels."

"Love you too," Mello returned, and Matt gave him a kiss before turning to the door.

"Bye!" Misa called out, and Matt gave them a short wave before shutting the door behind him.

"Is Mel-Mel excited for his first day of college tomorrow?" Misa asked, and he turned to see Misa and Kiyomi settling in on the couch, Kiyomi's arm going around Misa's shoulders. Mello smiled at the scene before him, proud to have had a hand in getting them together. He still didn't always get along with Kiyomi, but he could see that she was good for Misa, especially compared to the type of people she normally dated.

"I guess," he shrugged, coming to sit next to them.

"That's not very enthusiastic… Are you worried about…?" Misa started, eyes falling on his scars.

"I'm just not super excited about the looks I'm gonna get…" he admitted, and Misa gave him a smile.

"If anyone gives you a hard time, I'll send Kiyomi to beat them up!"

Kiyomi snapped her head around to look at Misa. "No you won't," she scoffed.

"But Kiki protected Misa from that creep at the concert," the blonde girl contended.

"That was…different…"

"But Kiki is butch, right?" Misa asked innocently, and Mello burst out laughing.

"N-no," Kiyomi stammered, blushing wildly. "Misa, I don't think you know what that means… And even if I was, that doesn't mean I'd beat someone up for Mello…"

"But…" Misa started, looking confused, "Kiki likes to be on top. Doesn't that-"

"Oh my God! Misa, can we please not talk about this right now?!" she exclaimed, mortified. Mello could only laugh harder.

He felt content, sitting there on the couch with them, like he was exactly where he was supposed to be in life. Because despite everything he'd had to go through along the way to get there, he couldn't regret any of it when it had ultimately led him to where he was then, even if he had come out of it with just a little extra decoration. Somehow, it was difficult to imagine his life any other way.


A/N: This ended up kinda short, but that's mostly because it was originally supposed to be the epilogue…and then a certain something came up that had to be the epilogue (I'll give you three guesses for what that 'something' is x3), so this got demoted to being an abnormally short chapter.

Also, I just thought I'd mention that I posted a oneshot last week for Matt's birthday, y'know, in case anyone wanted to go check that out :)

A special thanks to the following reviewers:
CatatonicVanity, MyBeautifulBlackHeart, IssaHORROR, VampireDoll666, brightnight003, Lotta Devon, BlOo KiSsEs, HeroofTwilight'sgf, Awesomenessknowsnobounds, Lissa T3rror, CharLizzard