'Allo! Guess who's back, back again, Kyoko's back, tell a friend, now everyone was going to Anime Boston, Anime Boston, Anime Boston, now everyone was going to Anime Boston, all right, stop- Mello time. Sorry 'bout that. :-) I was feeling goofy. Soooo. Here's chapter 2, as promised. I had a hard time figuring out where to end the last one. A big part of me wanted to end with the line 'you're very cute', but I thought just leaving it like that would be all lame and people would be like 'NYAAAAHR WHAT HAPPENED' and burn down my house. Plus, I wanted to add that last thing in there (even though I wanted Mello to say something that rhymed but all I could think of was 'whore berry soup'. Sadly, I'm not even kidding.) because I thought it was cute and it's my story. Teehee. Obviously I don't own Death Note or Vanessa Carlton or Coke, though I'd love it if someone could give me L, Mello, and Matt for my birthday (which was May 14th). Happy reading!
"Mello! Argh!" Matt tumbled off the bed and frantically crawled toward the corner in which he'd flung his controller. Mello laughed.
"That's what you get for showing off." He'd started to lose their game and, consequently, shoved Matt off the bed in a desperate attempt to screw him up.
Mello swiftly destroyed Matt's character as the redhead fiddled with the batteries that had become dislodged from his wireless controller. He smiled triumphantly and slouched against the pillows on Matt's bed.
"I win."
"Yeah, but only because you cheated," Matt retorted.
"I don't have to cheat, you know."
"Yes, you do."
"Do not. I could easily beat you even if you hadn't had that unfortunate loss of balance."
"Loss of balance, you say?" Matt muttered to himself.
"What?"
"Nothing. Want to play fairly?"
"I always play fairly."
"Yeah, right."
Matt and Mello restarted their game and Matt crushed Mello, fair and square. Mello immediately called for a rematch.
"No way, Mello. If you don't recall, that WAS a rematch." Matt crossed his arms on his chest. With the way he was sitting, he bore a slight resemblance to Roger.
"One day, Matt."
"One day you'll what, give up?" Matt gave his best cheeky grin.
"Very funny." Mello poked Matt in the ribs, causing the younger boy to jump up and, once again, tumble to the floor. However, on the way down, Matt managed to grab Mello's ankle and pull him down with him. They collapsed in a pile on the carpet. Matt sat up and smiled.
"You know, you really are beautiful."
"Sh-shut up!" They had gotten into fights before about the feminine term 'beautiful'.
"But it's true! You're absolutely gorgeous!" Matt insisted.
"Stop saying that," Mello said, blushing slightly as he looked anywhere but into Matt's eyes. "If anything, it's handsome."
"But handsome sounds so… old." Matt's face lit up. "I've got it. You're cute."
"Cute?" Mello gagged. The term was used on puppies, small children, fish, anything but him. However, hadn't he once called this redhead cute? He had, but did that mean Matt felt the same way he did…? To use the same term… does one have to have the same feelings behind it? Did Matt like Mello as much as Mello liked Matt?
"Yeah. Well, what do you want, if not cute?!" Matt was getting exasperated.
For you to kiss me. "Nothing. Cute is fine." Mello shook all thoughts of Matt and kissing out of his head. They were both guys. That wasn't right, was it?
Matt sighed. "All right. Whatever you say." He walked out of the room and Mello was left alone.
Matt shut the door and continued down the hall. Tears began to run down his cheeks.
"Dammit…" He was frustrated beyond belief. There was nothing more in this world he wanted than to just kiss Mello but he knew Mello didn't feel the same and would likely kill him later for it. When they fell, all he could think about was Mello's body against his. He was 12 years old and he'd known Mello three years and never stopped thinking about him.
"Mello, you may be 2nd in this orphanage but sometimes you're really thick," Matt said to himself.
Back in Matt's bedroom, Mello had stood up and sat in the computer chair at his desk. He spun around a few times, then stopped due to a severe dizzy feeling. He hadn't really been thinking about kissing Matt, had he? There was just something wrong with it. He couldn't overcome Matt's gender. If he were going to get in a relationship, it would be with a girl, not Matt. But… Matt was cute, and Mello did like him.
What was going on with his head?
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Later that night, Mello awoke to Matt poking him in the ribs.
"WHAT," he yell-whispered, angry at having been woken up at 11:05.
"A bunch of the other guys and some girls at playing spin-the-bottle. Want to come?" Mello would much rather sleep than play a stupid game like that, but Matt's smile won him over.
Mello sat next to Matt in the circle of 11- to 13-year-olds as a pretty little girl with green hair ribbons and freckles spun the bottle. It landed on a boy a few spots from her. She skipped over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before blushing and returning to her seat on the floor. The boy spun the bottle and the game continued. It went through several more blushes and kisses between boys and girls, girls and girls, and boys and boys. Finally, a boy with black hair and green eyes spun and landed on Matt. He crossed the circle to kiss Matt on the forehead. Matt sighed and took his turn. Mello held his breath as the Coke bottle spun around and around. It began to slow down and…
Mello couldn't believe it.
It landed on him.
Matt turned and faced Mello. He stood up and took Mello's hand to pull him up as well. Mello found trouble breathing as he stared in Matt's eyes through his goggles. Matt flashed him a usual grin and Mello barely had time to think before their lips connected. It was a fast kiss, like all the others had been, but it left Mello with almost no balance and very little coherent thought. He shook off his stupor and ran from the room before Matt had a chance to speak.
Matt stared as Mello sprinted out of the bedroom and down the hall. By the time he thought to chase his friend, Mello was all the way around the corner. Luckily, Matt was faster. He soon caught the blonde by the edge of his shirt.
"Yo, Mello! What's wrong?" he asked.
"Let go of me!" Mello insisted, desperately struggling to break free.
"No. Not until you tell me why you ran away." Mello was thrashing so violently that Matt had to put both of his arms around Mello's waist from behind to keep him from running. Suddenly, he stopped altogether.
Mello whispered something that Matt couldn't understand.
"What'd you say?"
Mello turned in Matt's arms to face him. Matt was reminded of the day he met Mello three years before.
"I ran because I like you and I know it's just a game."
Matt felt his heart jump. "You… like me?" Mello turned away, embarrassed. Matt turned Mello back to face him and, before the older boy could protest, he threw his arms around his shoulders and kissed him full-on.
Mello squirmed for a second, then relaxed and eased into the kiss. It was nice. Matt's lips were soft and warm against his and he could feel Matt's breath on his cheeks. It tickled a bit, but it was a good kind of tickle. Matt slowly broke away and Mello looked up to see a different kind of smile. Instead of the goofy grin Matt usually sported, it was a kind, warmhearted, loving smile. The redhead leaned into Mello's ear and whispered, "If I didn't like you, don't you think I'd be back in there, kissing other girls and guys?"
Mello didn't know what to say. Matt liked him? It certainly helped Mello's decision between structure and his heart, but it was still a little strange to think. Matt liked him. The Matt he'd liked for three years liked him back. He was a strange mix of nervous and happy. It started to bubble up inside of him and he knew he couldn't go another minute being 'just friends'.
"Matt… I like you a lot." Mello stared at the floor.
"I like you, too, Mello," Matt replied, tilting his chin up. He pulled his goggles off and let them slip from his hand onto the carpet. For the first time, Mello looked directly into Matt's bright green eyes. "I have since the day we met."
"So, what now? Are we boyfriends?" Mello asked.
Matt grinned. "Sounds good to me." He kissed Mello on the cheek and walked down the hall to his own room, leaving Mello to stare after him.
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The next day, Matt and Mello became even more inseparable than before. They played tag during break in the yard and Matt, being the faster of the two, glomped Mello after a mere minute of being 'It'. They fell to the ground laughing at the base of a big tree. Matt, having fallen on top, brushed some of Mello's hair out of his eyes and smiled warmly down at him.
"Mello."
"Matt."
"Hey, isn't this the tree we met under?" Matt asked, suddenly remembering the thick roots.
"I don't know. It could be. I wasn't really paying attention to which tree it was," Mello answered.
"Yeah, it is!" Matt answered himself, instead. "You know what we should do?"
"What?" Mello said, slightly distracted by a yellow butterfly next to his head on the trunk.
"Put our initials on it somewhere where no one else will find them."
Mello's head snapped up. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah! Really small, and up high, so Roger won't see."
"Fine. Do you have a knife or something?"
Matt whipped a Swiss army knife he'd nabbed from an older boy's room earlier that week out of his pocket. The two boys climbed up the trunk of the tree quite easily and settled into a branch about 15 feet up.
"Here?" Mello inquired.
"Here," Matt answered. He carefully carved a heart about the size of his hand onto the branch and wrote 'Mello' inside it. He handed Mello the knife and he carved '+ Matt' in the remaining space. Matt returned the knife to its place in his vest pocket and settled on the branch with his arm around Mello.
"Hey, Mello," he breathed.
"What?"
Matt pressed his lips to Mello's cheek.
"Nothing."
He said take my hand,
Live while you can
Don't you see your dreams lie right in the palm of your hand
And as he spoke, he spoke ordinary words
Although they did not feel
For I felt what I had not felt before
And you'd swear those words could heal.
And as I looked up into those eyes
His vision borrows mine.
And I know he's no stranger,
For I feel I've held him for all of time.
Wow, that was the longest chapter I've ever written of anything, EVER. That's kinda sad, ne? I like the way it ended, myself. Big things coming up soon… I promise… I know someone reviewed and said they know the song. For anyone else who does, you know there's only two more verses! Eek! I've been thinking about this during my English class a lot, which is bad because I should be focusing on A Tale of Two Cities. Fuck Dickens, Matt/Mello is more interesting. Things are going well with Rano-kun, Ny-chan is happy and healthy, and my room is a mess. G'night, reader-sama! By the way, it's 11:11 PM Eastern Time on May 22, 2008. Please review! :-)
