Two weeks passed. It was affirmed that Riley had fathered Nora, and Roger made sure Matt got his laptop back in one piece. About a week after the gangster was sent to prison, his death was announced to the trio of Wammy kids. He was found dead in his cell with nothing other than the clothes on his back. Such a healthy individual, Roger said, couldn't have died naturally of a heart attack, and it was assumed that Riley was another of Kira's victims.

Days were spent with Matt bouncing between Linda's and Ben's apartments. He had to curb his smoking habit while at Linda's because of the baby, much to his chagrin. But it was worth it, he figured. Ben was rarely home anymore, as he decided to take up martial arts once again and work toward his fifth degree, the level of mastery. Mello was working wherever he was on the Kira case through his precious laptop, and Linda busied herself with parenting and painting.

It wasn't until the thirteenth of December the five of them were in one place again. Linda toted her daughter in her carrier to Ben's apartment. Mello slept away in his bed, but Matt and Linda were up and about. Ben was off at the dojo, but was on his way back soon enough.

There was a loud clang from the kitchen, followed by a few coughs from the ginger. Linda didn't even look up from changing Nora's diaper in the living room. "Clean it up."

Matt cursed to himself. "Flour. Flour—everywhere," he grumbled, snatching the broom the closet. White flour coated his black and white striped shirt and the top portion of his jeans.

"What did you do?" Linda asked, laughing. Nora laughed along, oblivious.

"That cup of flour totally didn't just fall on the floor." The hacker scowled and swept the white powder into a dust pan before disposing of it.

The artist rolled her eyes. "Smooth move."

The jingle of keys caught both of their attentions as the door was pushed open and Ben entered. "Hey guys." He gave Matt a quick once-over. "What the hell are you trying to do?"

"Brownies."

"Move," The brunette rolled his eyes and pushed Matt out of the kitchen. "I'll show you how it's done."

"Thank God, someone who knows what he's doing," Linda chuckled at Matt's glare.

"I'm not a damn chef," He mumbled bitterly before plopping down on the couch. He observed the Dora the Explorer that was playing on the television for Nora. He soon was absently following the young Spanish girl's journey to her abuela's house.

Linda glanced at him before standing and leaning on the cutout to the kitchen. "So how'd you learn how to cook?"

Ben cracked an egg into the brown mixture. "Well, with my mom working so much to support me and my little brother, a lot of the time, I was responsible for dinner most days. Treats were always a plus. It also doesn't hurt to know how to cook when you've been on your own for almost a decade now," He leaned onto the cutout from the other side. "As appetizing as it may sound, you can't exactly live your life on ramen and microwave pizzas."

"You should try it sometime," Matt piped up, breaking his focus from crossing a bridge.

"Yeah, no thanks," Ben smirked, returning to the counter to finish the brownies.

Linda looked at them. Matt seemed to be more into the cartoon than her daughter was. Nora was almost asleep, sprawled out on a blanket on the relatively white carpets. "I swear, he's got the mind of a six-year-old," She whispered to Ben, jerking a thumb over her shoulder.

"I'd believe it." He nodded and added another drop of vanilla to the metal bowl. Grabbing a whisk, he mixed it all together thoroughly.

Linda hummed. "Smells good already." She reached out and swiped a finger of brownie batter from the edge of the bowl. "Yum."

"Thanks." Ben emptied the batter into a pan before sliding it into the oven. He called to Matt. "You know, it's really not as hard as you think it is."

"Whatever," he waved at him distractedly.

Ben shook his head. "Okay," He leaned back against the cutout, glancing at Linda. "So, do you bake much? I mean, I know you paint, but I've seen a lot of artists as cake decorators."

"Nah," Linda waved him off. "I'm all for my old acrylics and a blank canvas—even if it's not really canvas." She exhaled, tracing the pattern of the kitchen floor with her eyes. Her head snapped up to meet his line of sight. "But I'd never turn down a piece of cake."

He chuckled and pushed himself away from the wall, moving to join them in the living room. "I'm the other way around. I'll bake all you want, but god am I sick of it by the time rolls around when the first slice is cut. Brownies, however," He sighed with a chuckle as he sunk into his chair, "I'd eat them all. Unless, you know, it's a birthday." With a smirk, he nodded his head down the hall.

"Riiiight," she drawled, sitting down beside her now napping daughter. She rubbed her back slowly and rhythmically.

Ben observed the mother and daughter for a moment. "What's it like? To be a parent, I mean?"

The artist bit her lip and sat back on her heels. "Hard to explain. In the last few weeks, Nora's become my entire life. I don't do anything without her anymore," She gazed fondly at the baby. "It's pretty much just a change of lifestyle, forced as it may have been for me. It's terrifying because I've no experience, but I'm learning every day. It really is nice, though."

He nodded along distractedly. "I was kind of a surrogate dad for my brother. Although, you know, three years older is kind of a stretch, but you know what I mean. I was the one to look up to. Anything I did, Andy had to do too. That's how he got into martial arts too, because I joined. The look on his face when I got my black belt…" He breathed a laugh. "Bittersweet, now."

"I didn't have any siblings. At least, not that I know of. I don't know if you've told him, Matt," At the mention of his name, the redhead turned to listen fully, "but the three of us are orphans. No family aside from each other. Cheesy as all get out, I know. But it's completely true."

"Mello never really spoke of his past. I think he mentioned something about an orphanage when he was talking about you" he nodded to Matt "one day. But, knowing me, I was probably too submerged in Soul Calibur to have comprehended."

"It's kind of hard to imagine a badass, leather-clad, scarred-up Mafia boss talking about his past," Matt snorted.

"What about me?" A groggy blonde padded slowly down the hallway. His hair was mussed and his usually sharp eyes were half-hooded with residual fatigue. With a yawn, he sniffed the air. "Mm, that smells good…"

Ben stood to guard the brownies from the chocoholic. "We were just mentioning how you don't seem like the type to share your history."

"Yeah, I mean, it took you almost three years of being best friends for you to explain anything you remembered from your past," Matt finally broke away from the television. "Not that it wasn't anything I found from hacking into the system. You know I cared about you just by my doing that. Bitch took me a full hour."

"How nostalgic. When will the brownies be ready?" Mello ignored an expected response and jumped to the mouth-watering treats in the oven.

"Ten minutes."

"Uuuugh." He stalked away, back down the hall and into the bathroom.

Matt, Linda, and Ben looked between each other. "Was he always…?" Ben wondered aloud, pointing down the hall.

"Not at all. He was the definition of morning person when we were little. But hey, that's what stress and overworking will get'cha," Matt brought his feet up on the couch, extending his body the full length. "Which is why I prefer to expend as little energy as possible," he said with a satisfied smirk.

"That's just what I call lazy," Linda smiled. She picked up her daughter and laid her in the carrier to sleep. Turning around, the artist decided that the couch was the best place to sit, and lowered herself right on top of Matt's stomach.

"Oof."

She just ruffled his hair with a cheeky grin before hopping up again and walking to the kitchen to observe brownies.

Ten minutes later, the Mello everyone knew exited the bathroom in a cloud of steam. The thick black sleep pants and T-shirt he had previously been sporting were replaced with his usual leather pants and vest. His eyes were wide and alert once more, and blonde locks were in place. He unwittingly followed Linda's example and plopped down on top of Matt as if he wasn't even there.

"Today's sit on Matt day!" He exclaimed, pushing Mello up just as the timer on the oven went off.

"Before you attack them like a starving velociraptor, let 'em cool," Ben slid the sheet of fresh confectionaries atop the stove and dropped the oven mitt on the counter. He pushed Mello out of the kitchen. Linda remained at the small table, sketching something in her notebook.

"Hey Mello, guess what?" The artist called through the cutout as he dropped himself onto the couch. Matt wisely sat up.

"What?"

"You're twenty."

He paused. "Oh, yeah."

Matt crawled across the cushion separating them and whispered something in his ear. Had it not been Mello, he probably would have smiled or blushed or something. The Mafia boss just quirked the corner of his mouth and nodded.

Ben looked between them. He shook his head and padded back down the hall to deposit his things in his room. "I don't wanna know."

"Good, you're not gonna know."

A few minutes later, Mello had returned to his room and was conversing with Near. Matt heard the sheep's monotone voice offer birthday wishes before the door was closed and headphones were installed.

Linda leaped at the microwave to stop the timer from buzzing with one second left on the clock. Linda carved up a couple of brownies and arranged them with a scoop of chocolate ice cream in a large mug. She handed it to Matt, who stuck a single blue candle in the center of a brownie on top. He lit it with his lighter before knocking loudly on the door at the end of the hallway.

"What?" He shouted from the opposite side of the room.

Matt pushed the door open, followed by Linda. Ben hovered at the doorway. As Matt belted the happy birthday song at the top of his lungs, the artist harmonized behind him. Ben just shifted awkwardly. He wasn't exactly a singing type of guy.

Mello ripped off his headphones at the knock on the door. He actually smiled a bit and blew out the candle before digging into his ice cream-brownie concoction like a savage. "Thanks guys."

Near stopped mid-sentence when the birthday crew burst in. There was a large, old English N on the screen. The voice belonging to the albino echoed from the headphones, "I will contact you later, Mello. Go enjoy your treat. We'll discuss this later. Good bye."

"Bye," Mello called through a mouthful of ice cream. He swallowed before mumbling after the N disappeared, "You fucking emotionless troll."

Matt gave a cheeky smile. Mello glanced behind him. "Hey, Linda, don't you think it's a bit late? I bet Kyle's looking for you," He suggested casually.

"Mello, it's barely past eleven."

"Then go take him out to lunch."

Something finally clicked, and the artist hummed. "Alright, I get it. I'll go," She backed up, rolling her eyes, and bumped into Ben. He stepped back and allowed her out to the hallway.

"I guess that means I'm getting kicked out too?"

"Yup," Matt just grinned.

He raised his hands defensively. "Okay, okay. Maybe I'll go look up one of my old friends for lunch or something." Ben too began to back into the hallway as Mello strode across the room. "You two have fun—but not too much fun. I want the place in one piece when I get back."

"Yeah, yeah," the Mafioso waved him off as the door slammed closed in his face.

Ben and Linda shared a look. "Let's get out of here."

Before any incriminating evidence could be involuntarily gathered, Ben and Linda with Nora booked it out of the apartment. Matt and Mello were left alone in the middle of the afternoon, and that was just the way they wanted it.

A/N: Yeeeeee, Mello's twenty noooow! Sorry this took so long, I've been working a bit on later chapters as well. So, I'm going to try to plan this out to be 42 chapters, so that means we're down to seven after this. Home stretch! From here on out, things are gonna get pretty interesting, so we'll see how it goes. :) Hope you enjoyed, and be sure to drop off a review!

Oh, and if anybody happened to go to Anime Boston this weekend—it was totally crazy. Glad I went! :D