A/N: Okay, as promised, the reason for why I called this story "Hands Down." Any of you heard the song Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional? If not, look it up, listen to the song, or read the words after finishing this story and you will find out. The song actually gave me the idea for this story. It's really good, if any of you like alternative rock music, you'll like this song. If you already knew this, congratulations but you get no prize from me other than this last chapter. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, each chapter is named by lyrics from the song.
Disclaimer: Everthing belongs to the lovely creaters of Death Note and the now deseased founders of Knott's Berry Farm (Man, I'd sure like to meet them). Credit also goes to the wonderful and insanely, yet stupidly funny band Bowling for Soup (They ROCK!!).
Chapter 3 And I Knew that You Meant It
A little over four years later, Matt and Zoe moved back to Los Angeles after Zoe had finished her semester at her Tokyo College and she graduated from UCLA number five in her class. Now twenty-three-years-old, Zoe began her second year at the LAPD Academy to become a police officer. She and Matt began dating while in Japan after he was able to walk again and while he was there, he lived with Zoe and Keiko in their small house just outside of the university campus. Kira had been caught and revealed as Light Yagami by Near, who would not have been able to do so without the unexpected help from Mello and Matt when they kidnapped Lady Takada.
The news of Mello's death came as a complete shock to Matt. He never expected his friend to die; he thought that it would most likely be himself who would die, not his friend. Zoe tried to comfort him after the discovery of his friend's death, but as usual, her mouth traveled faster than her brain and she let slip how she thought it was better that he was gone because of his selfish ways. Matt glared at her and did not talk to her for a few days after, but after a while he let her back in. Zoe understood, a friend was a friend, and it was still tough to lose one.
Zoe shut the front door of her new home and dropped her heavy bag to the floor. Sighing deeply, she went into her kitchen, grabbed a beer from her refrigerator, and plopped herself down on her couch intent on watching a good comedy show like Two and a Half Men and sipping on the alcoholic drink. She just started going on patrol with a senior officer who was rather rude to her. She did not like him that much and could not wait for the day when she was able to have a patrol car of her own and work her own cases.
No sooner had she turned on the television and flipped to the right channel did her home phone begin to ring.
"Fucking phone, why can't it just shut up for at least half an hour!?" she yelled out, practically slamming her beer bottle down on the coffee table. Picking herself up off the couch, Zoe walked back into the kitchen and grabbed her phone off its holder on the wall and pressed the "talk" button. "What?" she asked, sounding extremely ticked off.
"Jeez Zo, didn't think you'd be angry when I called." Zoe could not help but crack a smile when she heard the sarcastic voice of her boyfriend.
"Holy crap, sorry Matt, I'm just a bit ticked off at the moment." She walked back to the couch and picked up her beer again and took a sip. "So, what's up?"
"Oh nothing, besides the fact that I got some time off tomorrow and was wondering if you wanted to go on a day-long date with me to, say, Knott's?" His voice sounded suggestive but Zoe ignored it.
Perfect timing, tomorrow is Sunday and I don't have to go into work. "You couldn't have picked a better day for this. Tomorrow is my day off as well."
"So what do you say? Call it a date?" Zoe took another sip of her beer and chuckled.
"Knott's Berry Farm? Hell yes! I've loved that place since I was five."
"Great! I'll pick you up at your place at, say…ten?" Zoe suddenly burst out laughing. "What the hell? Why are you laughing?"
"Oh, no reason. It's just that for as long I've known you, you've never sounded so excited about actually going outside. It just sounds kind of funny."
Zoe heard an exasperated sigh on the other line. "You are one strange girl. I knew it the moment I first saw you in that Game Stop." He paused and she heard a few sound effects like someone dying come out of the speaker held to her ear. Probably playing Assassin's Creed. I just let him borrow it yesterday and it sounds like he's almost done. Damn, he's good. Fucking bastard. "So, see you tomorrow?"
"Sounds good, Matt. Love you." That said, she pressed the "end" button and tossed the phone onto the couch that she and Matt had spent a few long nights together and settled into an armchair across the room from the television. She grabbed the remote one more time and turned up the volume to one of her favorite television shows. When she heard the main character's last name, Charlie Harper, she suddenly noticed something that she had not before. "You know," she said as she took another sip of her beer. "I never got to know Matt's last name. Weird."
--
The next day, Zoe awoke at eight o'clock sharp and got dressed immediately. She searched in her dresser for something that seemed fitting for a day in July, the hottest month of the year. Finding what she was looking for, she pulled a pair of worn short, dark-blue jean shorts, a plain white, spaghetti-strap shirt and a loose, long-sleeve, black fishnet over shirt. Deciding it would be best to walk around with socks instead of no socks, she put on a pair of no-show socks underneath her yellow and black checkerboard converse shoes. Yep, she certainly liked to stand out when she was not in uniform.
She checked herself in the mirror and decided to leave her hair down but bring hair ties with her just in case she wanted to put it in a pony tail later on. Satisfied, she made her bed and left her room to the kitchen to eat her breakfast. She checked the clock and saw that she had an hour and a half before Matt came to get her; she took out some eggs, bacon, and pancake mix from her refrigerator, freezer, and pantry intent on having a decent breakfast before her day of fun. When she finished cooking everything, she sat down and ate, leaving the cleaning for when she got home. Once done shoveling food in her mouth, she left to brush her teeth and wash her face. She could not have bad breath when on a date, could she?
When she walked out of the bathroom, she glanced at the clock one more time. 9:30, well, I guess I could play a bit of Daxter while I wait. Plopping herself down on her couch, feet resting on the armrest on the other side of the couch, she took out her PSP and turned it on. For the next half hour, Zoe took pleasure in moving the small, orange, egotistical Ottsil around and kicking Precursor butt. She had just gotten to a save point when she heard the doorbell ring. Jumping up, she turned off her PSP, threw it on the couch, and ran off to answer it. Looking through the peep hole in the wood, she saw a distorted picture of a red-head with goggles and a striped shirt. Smiling, she opened the door and immediately tackled poor Matt, almost knocking him to the ground.
"Wow, excited much?" Zoe glared at him, her arms around his neck.
"Can't a girl be happy to see her boyfriend?" she pouted. Matt just rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand in his, turning around and leading her to his car, a bright red Camero with red stripes running along the side. "Heh, it never ceases to amaze me that your car matches the shirt you always wear." It was true; the red and black striped shirt he had on did match the colors of his car.
"Hey, yeah, it does match my shirt," Matt said as he opened the passenger-side door and allowed Zoe to get in before shutting it.
"You just now noticed?" she asked after he had run around the front of the Camero and sat down in the driver's seat, shutting the door and turning the ignition key. The car roared to life and Matt switched the transmission into "drive" and sped off down the street.
"Yeah, I just noticed," he said, sounding a bit embarrassed and guilty at the same time. "I really only got the paint job because I thought it looked cool."
Zoe smiled. "Funny how you think both your car's paint and your shirt look 'cool.'" She said sarcastically. Matt did not answer, only turned on his car radio, which played a CD that Zoe had never heard before. "What band is this?" she asked while Matt braked to turn around a corner in the road.
"Bowling for Soup," he answered. Zoe nodded. She had never heard the band before, but so far, they sounded pretty good. Then a song came on that the radio screen said was titled "High School Never Ends."
"Reese Witherspoon, she's the prom queen,
Bill Gates, captain of the chess team,
Jack Black a clown,
Brad Pitt the quarterback,
Seen it all before, I want my money back!"
Zoe chuckled but the song continued.
"The whole damn world is just as obsessed
With who's the best dressed
And who's having sex.
Who's in the club,
Who's on the drugs,
Who's throwing up before they digest."
She could not hold it in any longer. Without thinking, she burst out laughing. Matt stared at her but shrugged it off; he, too, had laughed pretty hard when he first heard the song.
--
Matt pulled the red Camero into the parking lot of Knott's Berry Farm after he had paid the man in the booth before they came in. He parked in a space close to the entrance and turned off the engine after pulling on the parking brake and switching the transmission into "park." He got out and went around the other side and opened the door for Zoe. He took her hand and helped her out of the seat and closed the door as they started walking to the entrance of the amusement park.
"You're not wearing your gloves," she said when they arrived at the back of the line. A few kids ran past them to catch up to their parents before they entered the park. "That's new."
Matt smiled. "It's July, Zo." He reached into his back pocket with his free hand and took out his wallet, ready to pay for their tickets to Knott's. "Do you honestly think I would burn up my hands by wearing black, leather gloves in the hottest month of the year?" He looked at her as if expecting to see confusion on her face but instead saw understanding.
"Ah, I see," was all she said before their spot in line arrived in front of the ticket booth.
Matt paid for their tickets then gave one to Zoe and kept his own. He allowed Zoe to go first; she handed her ticket to the waiting young boy then passed through the spinning gate, Matt followed close behind. Once inside, he caught up to Zoe who had stood a few yards in, waiting for him, and put his arm over her shoulder. "So," he began. "Where do you want to go first?"
Zoe smirked deviously up at him. "Why don't we get a map to figure this out, smart ass?" A map! Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Wow Matt, you're really on a roll today, and it's only the beginning. God, and I still have that question to ask her, too. She ran off to a young teen with acne and grabbed a packet small enough to fit in her back pocket and walked back to him, opening it up as she went. "Let's see," she said mainly to herself then to him. "The Silver Bullet and Ghost Rider are closest. What do you say, which one first?"
Matt studied the map from over her shoulder. "Hmm, I heard that Ghost Rider is pretty fun at night, I think we should wait until it's dark to go on that, so it looks like the Silver Bullet is up." Zoe folded the map back up and stuck it in her back pocket. Matt watched and noticed that only a centimeter of the packet was left sticking out of the pocket. He took her hand in his and smiled down at her while saying, "Well, shall we go?"
She smiled back and nodded, leading him off in the direction of the red and yellow rollercoaster. "This coaster is rather new so the line for it might be rather long." Oh yay, lines.
"That's alright. I just hope it will be worth it."
"Oh, don't worry, it will be."
They walked down the paved walkway, past the bright green trees and brown park benches, to the large, winding rollercoaster. As soon as the entrance to the ride was in sight, Matt let out a small groan. The line took up almost the entire space made for it. God dammit! This ride better be worth the wait. They entered the line behind a group of older teens who looked to be the prepiest kids Matt had ever seen. When he and Zoe approached them, they looked the couple up and down and the girls in the group gave Matt hungry stares while the boys stared down Zoe's body.
Matt noticed that she did her best to try and ignore the teens but he could see that they were getting on her nerves, no matter how hard she tried to conceal it. About ten minutes and twenty feet later, Matt could not hold back his anger at the boys any longer and finally had to say something to get them to leave his girlfriend alone. "You better watch it, kids," he said, his anger just barely held back from his voice. "She's a cop, and she's mine." He put his arm around her shoulder protectively and glared at the boys through his orange-tinted goggles. One of the teens, a burly athletic boy, let out a chuckle.
"A cop, huh?" He grinned at his friend, a slightly smaller, but still muscular-built boy, who smiled and nodded for the burly boy to continue. The girls giggled and moved out of the boy's way as he stepped forward towards Matt. "Yeah right. What's going to stop me from taking her from you, kid?" He put emphasis on the last word, mocking what Matt had said earlier and not believing that the two were old enough to have a career. Matt had his own job in the law enforcement, but in his own field. As a techy, he naturally made a good hacker and did some work for the new L, or his long-time acquaintance, Near.
Matt just sighed. They're not going to give up, are they? Hoh boy, here we go. "You might be surprised, but we're older than you think." The teen cocked an eyebrow.
"I'm twenty-three," Zoe cut in.
"And I'm twenty-four, so you might want to just drop it." He noticed the boy began to flex his hands, opening them and then closing them, in agitation. Interesting. What comes next should be good.
"If she's a cop, how come she's allowing you to provoke me?" I'm provoking him? Wow.
Zoe smiled and slipped her hand around Matt's waist before she spoke in answer. "I'm not on duty right now and this is getting entertaining. That's why I'm just going to sit back and watch." The line moved again and Matt let go of his girlfriend, allowing her to walk first behind the attitude-prone teenagers. Their spot in line moved about fifteen more feet before they stopped.
"Listen, goggle boy," the teen growled after he stopped walking, his back to Matt and Zoe. The kid was obviously agitated and prone to snapping at any time. "If she really is a cop and is not going to do anything, then I guess there's nothing stopping me from doing this!" Suddenly, he spun around and threw his fist right at Matt's face, intent on breaking his nose.
With skillful ease and dexterity, Matt moved his head to the side, effectively dodging the kid's attack. Surprise written all over his face, the force of the punch made the teen stumble forward and fall into the person in line behind Matt and Zoe; a large man with long hair and had an overwhelming smell of corn nuts. Matt turned to Zoe and saw an amused smile spread across her face. She knew that he did not need her help when it came to small fights like this. During her past year at the police academy, he had accompanied her to her self-defense classes and learned a few things himself. He even practiced with Zoe a few times to help him learn faster.
The boy, now annoyed further, regained his balance and glared at Matt. "Alright, that's it!" He turned back around and swung his fist again. Back for more? Matt thought, surprised. Alright. This time, instead of dodging, he grabbed the kid's wrist and twisted it in a very uncomfortable position, disrupting his center of balance and temporarily ruining his posture.
He took a sharp intake of breath from pain before Matt spoke to him. "You may be strong, but you've got no idea how to fight properly, so why don't you just call it a day? How's that sound?"
Gritting his teeth, the young boy glared at Matt and nodded only once before his wrist was released. He stood, rubbing his forearm, and walked back to his friends. The three girls he was with giggled to each other and looked back dreamily at Matt while he removed his goggles and placed them on the top of his head. "Humph, some cop," the teen growled. "Needs some low-life skinny guy to protect you." Matt noticed Zoe roll her eyes, purposefully ignoring the kid's remark. He felt her hand grab him around the waist again and he looked down at her smiling face.
Something about the event reminded him of an old friend of his, someone he knew that he would never see again, but desperately wished that he could. Zoe noticed his sudden silence and nudged him in the side just as the line began to move again. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Oh, just thinking," he replied, putting his arm around her shoulder again. Somehow, she knew exactly what about.
"About Mello?" Her voice was devoid of any emotion when she spoke what was on his mind. She guessed it, damn.
Matt nodded. "Yeah, just thinking that if he was put in my shoes a few minutes ago, he would have completely pummeled that guy just for looking at him funny."
Zoe laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like Mello." She squeezed him tighter. "I know you miss him, and, oddly enough, I do too."
They continued through the line without any more unfortunate run-ins with the group in front of them and made it to the rollercoaster cars with no more mishaps. He and Zoe strapped themselves in and after a worker came and checked if each safety belt was secure, the train moved forward and continued with incredible speed around the track. Holy shit, Zoe was right, Matt thought during the ride. That line was definitely worth it. When the ride ended, they got off and examined the map to see what they wanted to do next. Deciding on the Calico Mine Ride, Zoe stuffed the map into her back pocket once again and they headed off towards the giant stone hill in which the ride resided. Matt was fascinated to find that the places where one sat was a mine cart pulled by a small train engine.
After the Calico Mine Ride, they headed for Supreme Scream, a big tower that took people up 254 feet in the air and then dropped them, letting gravity take them back to earth. After Supreme Scream, Zoe insisted that they ride on another rollercoaster. Looking around the park, she spotted a tall arch that was part of a coaster track and suggested they do that one. It turned out to be a rollercoaster call The Xcelerator, a ride that accelerates from zero to eighty-miles-per-hour in just two seconds and takes the riders to a height of 208 feet in the air before coming back down and twisting around several times and finally coming to a stop back at where it started. Shrugging, Matt decided to give it a try and almost lost his goggles in the process. He kept them on his eyes after that.
By the time one o'clock rolled around, Zoe and Matt had gone on two more roller coasters, The Boomerang and The Jaguar, battled some feisty preteen boys in bumper cars, and rested their feet for a bit on the merry-go-round. Matt was against it at first but Zoe let out her inner child, made a pouting face, and eventually he had to give in. Zoe ran and grabbed the first thing that appealed to her eyes, a zebra, and Matt took the one right next to her, a regular horse.
Once they got off the merry-go-round, Zoe grabbed her stomach when an audible growling noise issued out of it. It was time to find some lunch. Matt, himself, was hungry as well. I'm surprised I made it this long without a cigarette, he thought as he and Zoe walked over to the closest and most appealing restaurant, La Victoria Cantina. I'll have to get one soon though.
They went through the buffet and took what looked good or what they knew was good then went outside and sat down at a two person table under an umbrella to eat. When they were finished , they threw their trash in the garbage and put their trays back in the restaurant, then walked over to the Hat Dance and watched young children with their parents spin sombrero-topped carts till they got dizzy or sick from watching the world pass by them several times. They stopped next to a park bench where Matt took a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket, stuffed one in his mouth, and lit the end with a lighter he pulled out with his cigarette pack. As soon as his was lit, he held out the pack to Zoe.
"Want one?" he asked, his cig still in his mouth. She shrugged.
"Sure, why the hell not?" She took her once-in-a-blue-moon cigarette from the pack and Matt reached down to her and lit up his lighter to the end of her cancer stick and set it ablaze. When his cigarette had burned halfway down, Matt noticed a small boy, no older than four years of age, cautiously walk up behind his girlfriend, stop right behind her, then raise a tentative hand and pull on the end of Zoe's black, fishnet over-shirt.
--
Zoe allowed Matt to light her cigarette for her. She usually was not one to smoke but only one now-and-then was not so bad. Unlike mister chain smoker who stood next to her, she was not addicted. In fact, she rarely ever had a cigarette. She only started when she met Matt and even then, after five years, she only had three or four cigarettes.
She lost track of how long they stood in the Fiesta Village area of Knott's Berry Farm smoking. The only sense of time she had was how far her cancer stick had burned down. Yet she had only smoked half the cig when she felt a slight tug on the bottom of her fishnet shirt. Confused and curious as to who would be pulling on her shirt, she turned around to see no one behind her. As if on a gut feeling, she looked down to see a small boy, around the age of four, crying and looking at her hopefully. Holy crap, Tyler? She was surprised, she had seen the boy before; he lived right across the street from her.
Squatting down to his eyelevel, she laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile. "Hey, Tyler. I didn't know you were here. What's wrong?"
The boy named Tyler sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "O-officer Mckinsey, I can't find my mom." Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks after he spoke and Zoe stubbed out what was left of her cigarette and wrapped her arms around the boy's shoulders.
"There there, Tyler. We'll help you find her." She released him then looked at his adorable little face. "Does she have her phone with her?" she asked.
The little boy nodded. "Ah-huh." He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a slip of paper. "She said if I ever got lost, I was to find someone who works here and have them call this number," he said, handing her the slip of paper while he wiped the back of his hand against his nose again.
Zoe took the paper from the crying boy and read the contents. "Why didn't you do as your mom told you?" she asked, more curious than accusing.
"I'm too afraid to talk to strangers," he replied innocently. "I was about to when I saw you."
The young cop stood up and handed the paper to Matt. She took Tyler's hand and pulled out her cell phone from the front pocket of her shorts. "Could you read off the numbers for me, Matt?" she asked. The gamer complied, his cigarette never leaving his mouth.
"Seven-three-six. Eight-one-seven-zero." After each number he read off to her, she pressed the corresponding button on her keypad. Pressing the "talk" button, she placed the speaker to her ear and waited for the person on the other line to pick up. After only two rings, a woman's voice, strained and worried, answered. "Yes?"
"Mrs. Carlos? This is Zoe Mckinsey."
"Zoe?" The woman on the other line sounded confused. "How did you get my cell number?"
The young cop ignored the elder woman's question and got straight to the point. "Mrs. Carlos, I found your son, Tyler. He's with Matt and me in the Fiesta Village next to the Hat Dance. Where are you?"
Zoe heard an exhausted sigh come from the phone speaker. "Oh, thank God! I thought I lost him for good. I'm by the Sky Cabin. I'll be there in about ten minutes." Good, he didn't wonder far.
"Sounds good. See you then."
"Thank you so much, Zoe. You are amazing." She sounded relieved.
"No problem, I love to spend time with little Tyler." That said, she snapped her phone shut and looked down at the boy just recently mentioned. "Do you want some ice cream, Tyler?" The little boy nodded excitedly and hopped off the bench he had sat on while Zoe was on the phone with his mother.
When they were walking toward a small snack vendor, Matt turned to the young woman beside him and asked, "How do you know that boy?"
Zoe shrugged. "He lives across the street from me," she answered when they arrived at the snack stand. "One chocolate ice cream cone, please," she said to the vendor, who immediately nodded and turned to get the ice cream. "When his mom had to stay late for work, I would babysit him. He really is a sweet kid." She paid for the frozen treat while Tyler reached up and grabbed the cone with both hands and immediately began licking hungrily. He looked up at Matt as he ate his chocolate ice cream and said his next words completely serious.
"Mister, are you Officer Mckinsey's husband?"
--
He certainly did not expect that question to come out of the boy's mouth when he looked at Matt. He thought the boy named Tyler would ask something more along the lines of, "What's that in your mouth?" But of course not, the true question had to be, "Mister, are you Officer Mckinsey's husband?" Matt nearly dropped his cigarette from his mouth when he heard the question. The worst part about it was that the kid sounded completely serious. Matt felt his cheeks warm up a bit after the boy had asked the question of the day. Fuck, why does that question have to haunt me? Zoe doesn't even know my real name, I haven't even told her my last name. How could I be her husband? Damn that question. I've been meaning to ask her all day but haven't picked up the courage to do so yet. God fucking dammit!
Letting out a short laugh, Matt smiled down at the boy who looked at him with large eyes. "No, Tyler, I'm not her husband, I'm her boyfriend."
The little boy licked his ice cream again. "Oh, so you're just her friend?" The kid wasn't getting it. No, I am not just her friend! Matt wanted to scream at the kid, but kept his cool. "No, I'm not that either, I'm more than a friend to her."
"So you are her husband?" Matt sighed. This was getting nowhere. He was about to explain the situation better to the kid, but Zoe got their first.
"Tyler, your mom's here." The boy looked away from Matt and searched around the park eagerly for his mother. Not two seconds later, Mrs. Carlos ran up to the three of them and hugged her son. "Mommy!"
"Tyler! Oh thank God!" She released him and examined his body. "You're not hurt are you?"
"No, Officer Mckinsey and her husband took good care of me," the boy said, looking back at the two behind him. Matt sighed, this kid was never going to understand.
Tyler's mother chuckled. "Oh, honey, he's not her husband, he's her boyfriend. That's in between friend and husband."
The boy's eyes opened wide. "Oh! So he's her boyfriend!" So now he gets it. Jeez, took him long enough. The next few minutes were spent conversing with Tyler's mother. She kept insisting to give he and Zoe something in return for helping her find her son but they both were humble and told her that they wanted nothing in return, it was just what a good neighbor would do for another.
After sitting and chatting for about half an hour, Matt and Zoe said goodbye to Mrs. Carlos and young Tyler and continued on to the next ride, Montazooma's Revenge. Zoe took out her map of the park and they both decided to go to the Buffalo Nickel Arcade in The Boardwalk area of Knott's after the major rollercoaster. They spent almost two hours playing games and never growing tired of them. When they spent almost a full hour on Mortal Combat, Zoe winning a few matches but Matt winning nearly all of them, they gathered a crowed of young kids, both girls and boys alike. When he and Zoe faced off, the girls in the crowd would cheer for her character and the boys would cheer for his. The two were very popular with young children. They only stopped when Zoe checked the time on her phone and flipped out, dragging Matt away from the games by the back of his stripped shirt while complaining that they were running out of time for other rides.
She took her map out again and they headed for The Boomerang once more, a rollercoaster filled with many loops and twists that sends people in forward, and then brings them back backwards. After The Boomerang, the two went on several different rides and saw amazing shows before dark. They got sopping wet sitting in the front of the cab in The Perilous Plunge, laughed heartily at the Ghost Town Stunt Show, got dizzy on the Wilderness Scrambler, and kicked ass at the park game booths. When they came across a shooting booth, Zoe dragged Matt over to it, insisting that she wanted to try shooting a rifle, even if it was a fake one. He gave in to her right away and paid for her "ammo" before she began knocking down every target offered to her.
"Damn, you're a good shot for never firing a rifle before," Matt commented on his girlfriend after she had taken out the last target.
"Well what do you expect?" she asked in a way that suggested that he should have known better. "I'm a cop; I have to have good aim." True, Matt thought as they were walking away to try their hand at another game. I should have known.
They played several more games and by the time they got to the last game, night had already fallen. "One more game before Ghost Rider?" Matt asked before he paid the vendor.
"Sure, why not?" Zoe handed the three plastic balls to him after she had taken them from the game vendor. "But this time, you play." Me?
He took them from her anyway and shrugged. "Okay, this one's for you, then," he said as he threw the ball with the best accuracy he could muster. To his surprise, it went right where he wanted it to. He blinked, unbelieving. Whoa, didn't expect that to happen. He took another ball out of his other hand. Let's see what happens when I try again. Once again, the ball hit the bull's eye dead center. Still disbelieving, he tried the last ball and it, too, hit the dead center of the target. Holy shit, I've never been able to do that before. The vendor came over to him and congratulated him.
"Congratulations, sir," the kid behind the counter said. "You may have your pick of any of the prizes on display."
Matt glanced over all the stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling of the game stand. There was a large variety of assorted animals from western animals such as horses and wolves, to those only found in Africa. He was having trouble deciding what to get when Zoe chose for him.
"Oh, get the monkey!" she cried, leaning one arm on his shoulder and pointing at an orange and gray stuffed monkey that hung between a zebra and an elephant.
Matt stared at her through his tinted goggles. "You want the monkey?" he asked as if confirming a food order.
"Yes! Get the monkey." Matt sighed and nodded to the game vendor who turned around and pulled down the monkey in question and handed it to Matt, who, in turn, handed it to Zoe.
Satisfied, Matt took her hand in his and they both headed for their last ride, the Ghost Rider wooden rollercoaster. When they arrived, the line was about as long as the one for The Silver Bullet was at the beginning of the day. Fortunately, they did not get in line behind anyone like those teenagers from that morning and their time in line was happy and uneventful. After about forty minutes, they finally arrived at the coaster car. Matt watched patiently while Zoe put her orange monkey where normal women would put their purses and then crawled into the front car next to him. The ride was rather exhilarating whenever they went over the drop-offs. There were no lights so one could not see how far down, or how steep, the drop was until you went over it. It was the most fun Matt had ever had on any rollercoaster he had ever been on and was disappointed when it was over, but was unwilling to stand through the long line again.
After Zoe grabbed her monkey from where she had left it before the ride, they walked out the exit only to be met with loud and amazingly bright fireworks. Matt stared up at them in surprise. Oh yeah, it's the Fourth of July, isn't it? He looked back down to see Zoe standing a few feet in front of him, staring at the fireworks just as he was. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, resting his head on her shoulder and nuzzling her cheek.
"Happy Fourth of July, Zoe," he whispered in her ear.
"Same to you, Matt," she said in return. Shit, not that name again. It's been hanging over my head like a fucking rain cloud all day. I have to tell her or she may never forgive me if I don't. God dammit! Better late than never, right?
"Zoe?" He began with a question, not really knowing why.
"Yes?" she asked, placing her hands on his, which rested just above her breasts.
Here goes nothing. "I need to tell you something, something about my name."
"What? Are you finally going to tell me your last name?" She sounded hopeful and excited at the same time.
"Well, yes and no." She cocked her head to the side as more fireworks exploded and lit up their faces. "You see, Matt isn't my real name." She stiffened and released herself from Matt's hold.
Turning around to face him, she stared with at him stern face. "It's not? Then what is it?"
Matt hung his head. She was going to break up with him for sure. "Matt is just a nickname I've had since I arrived at the Wammy House. My real name is Mail Jeevas." There was a long and dead, awkward silence between the two for some time, the only sound coming from the fireworks exploding in the background and the cheers of the crowd when a particularly big one exploded, lighting the night sky with bright blues, purples, and reds.
"Mail?" Zoe asked, breaking the ice and sounding angry. Matt nodded. "I like 'Matt' better," she finished ecstatically before jumping on him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Dammit, Matt, I thought you'd never tell me your name!"
Matt, now Mail Jeevas, opened his eyes wide, completely taken aback by Zoe's reaction. She's not mad? He was completely baffled. Any normal girl would have been rid of him on the spot, but Zoe? No, she was happy. "You're not angry?" he asked in a surprised tone.
"No, you twit! I'm happy, in case you haven't noticed." She loosened her grip on his neck and pecked him lightly on the lips. "It's about bloody time. Now let's get out of here. It's getting late and I have to go to work tomorrow." Matt nodded and followed her out of the amusement park to the parking lot. Once back in his car, he lit another cigarette with his car lighter and drove off. Fuck, I still have to ask her that question. Well, I guess it could wait until we get back to her house.
On the drive back to Los Angeles, they sat in silence aside from Zoe singing along to the Bowling for Soup CD he had in his stereo. Wow, she picks up on the words pretty quick.
After a half-hour drive, Matt pulled his red and black Camero up alongside the sidewalk in front of Zoe's house. Opening the car door for her, they walked up to the front gate to her house. Zoe tried to open it but it would not budge. "Oh, shit," she breathed. "I locked it before I left but forgot the key inside." She sighed. "Now how am I supposed to get in?"
Matt studied the stucco wall that surrounded her front yard and got an idea. "Hold on," he told her. "I'll get us in." He then ran and jumped up on top of the wall.
"Wait, Matt!" she called after him but said nothing more when he lost his balance and rolled off the top of the wall and landed with a thud on the other side, and dropping his cigarette out of his mouth. He stomped on it before it burned the plants it landed on.
Picking himself up, he let out a small, "Oww…" He heard Zoe's voice come from the other side of the wall.
"You fell on the rose bushes, didn't you?"
Matt croaked out a weak "Yeah…" before picking himself up, walking over to the gate, unlocking it and letting Zoe in. "There you go," he said when she walked past him.
"Thanks, Matt." He followed her to her front door, his mind racing on overdrive the entire time as he watched her pull her hair back into a pony tail. This is the time to ask her, ask her now, God dammit! If you don't, you'll forever hate yourself. You know what? Fuck it! I'm just going to come right out with it.
"Um, Zoe?" he began. She turned around to face him right before she was going to unlock her front door.
"Yes, Matt?" He stepped onto her front porch and stood in front of her.
"There-there's something I want to ask you. Actually, I've wanted to ask you all day but just couldn't bring myself to come out with it." He did not know where this would take him but decided it best to try.
"What is it?" she asked, sounding hopeful and moving closer to him inch by inch.
"W-well, since you know my real name now and did not care that I had kept it from you all these years," he began again, shoving his hand in his pocket and gripping the small, felt box that had been sitting in his front pocket collecting dust and pocket lint all day. He pulled it out but kept it hidden from Zoe's sight. "I thought that now would be the best time to," Matt's stomach filled with dancing butterflies as he bent down on his knee and held out the felt box, opening it to reveal a silver ring with two small diamonds on it. "Ask you to marry me?"
Zoe made no emotional expressions but just grabbed his hand with the ring in it, lifted him to his feet, grabbed his waist with both hands and slowly moved her face closer to his, eventually pressing her lips onto his passionately. The kiss lasted for only a short thirty seconds but to Matt, it was as long as a lifetime. When she finally drew back, her face hovered only an inch away from his when he finally found his voice again.
"Is that a yes?" he asked, the butterflies beginning to die down. To his great delight and joy, she whispered only one word to him.
"Yes."
--
Several months later, Zoe and Matt held their wedding in her parent's backyard and Zoe's mother cried the entire time, from when her father walked her down the aisle, to when her best friend and Maid of Honor, Carrie Thomas, stood up at the reception to give her speech, to the very end when all the guests left and she and Matt left in a limo to get ready to leave for their honeymoon.
To Matt's great surprise, Near came to the wedding as well. Provided he was still in his over-sized white pajamas, but he was still there.
Zoe became one of the best officers in the LAPD and was eventually promoted to Investigator a few years later where she stayed happily. She was one of the few law enforcement officers that Near trusted and was able to work several cases with him and Matt.
A/N: And there you go. Yay! I actually finished a story! I need to go celebrate now! I'm actually now going to finish that Rufus ShinraxOC that I have not worked on for the longest time. I only got about one and a half chapters left so it should be done soon.
I will be starting college this coming Fall semester at the University of New Mexico and will be doing Navy ROTC. Yeah, I'm not a COMPLETE and total nerd loser like most people obsessed with anime but I still have my guilty pleasures like everyone else on this God forsaken site. Anyway, wish me luck in college, my peeps! Love you all!
Don't forget to review, or I'll have to go military on your ass and you don't want that, trust me.
Oh, one last thing. My sister just got an account on this site and she wants me to advertize for her. Her name on here is FoxFire Pheonix and she has written, or "is writing", a Treasure Planet story. Look her up, she's actually pretty funny.