Disclaimer: I don't own them, I never have, I never will.
A/N: Yeah, this one was quite a bit quicker to write than the last few. The chapter title has no bearing on what's in the chapter, it's just the song on the Les Miserables soundtrack that I was listening to while I wrote most of this. I'm already working on the next chapter, but I can't promise I'll write it very fast... Anyways, enjoy, and as always, thanks to DessArtem for being an awesome semi-cowriter/beta.
Chapter 17: Stars
I woke up a few hours later feeling significantly warmer than I had when I went to sleep. I attributed most of that to the fact that my ice pack had completely thawed. I grabbed it and tossed it onto the floor to pick up later, then realized that the thawed ice pack wasn't really why I was warm. I was warm because there were two warm somethings on the bed, one on either side of me. It seemed that Mello had somehow gotten closer and was now almost pressed against my chest, and something else – I had no idea what – was putting off a lot of heat right against the small of my back. Slightly concerned, I pushed myself up on my elbow and twisted myself around to see what it was. When I figured it out, I turned to Mello, who was sound asleep. "Mello!"
"What?" he muttered, not opening his eyes. Apparently he wasn't quite as asleep as he'd appeared.
"The Cat from Hell's on the bed."
He opened his eyes and looked at me. At least I think he was looking at me – I wasn't sure he could see me as well as I could see him. "What do you want me to do about it?"
"Well, you let the thing in, you can throw it back out."
He closed his eyes again. "I'm not getting up to throw the cat out right now. Do it yourself."
"Fine. I'll just move." I scooted forwards so I was farther away from the cat. And much farther into Mello's personal bubble than he'd been into mine.
Luckily, he didn't seem to care. "Shut up so I can sleep," he grumbled.
Behind me, I felt the bed move, and there was once again a warm, furry-feeling weight pressed against the small of my back. "For crying out loud," I muttered, inching forward once more to try to escape the thing.
"Pick a spot and settle," Mello snapped. "I can't sleep with you moving around every five seconds."
None of this was getting me anywhere – other than into Mello's personal space, that was. He seemed too tired to really care, luckily for me. "I can't move now anyway," I told him, trying to get comfortable without squashing either Mello or the cat, both of which would retaliate if I did such a thing.
"Good. Now shut it."
I did shut it, but not without a parting shot of, "Stupid goddamn animal." Then I closed my eyes and attempted to ignore the cat and sleep. But I really didn't want to go to sleep with the little monster right behind me, so it took me ages to finally doze off.
When I woke up again, there was light seeping in through the half-open bedroom door, and both Mello and the cat were nowhere to be found. I sat up, grabbed my goggles and pulled them on, then hopped off the bed and stretched. I was a bit sore and stiff, but nothing that a cigarette and a cup of coffee wouldn't fix.
I meandered into the living room about ten minutes later, half-full coffee cup still in my hand. Mello was bent over a laptop on the coffee table. "Morning," I said, meandering over to the couch and leaning over the back.
Mello quickly closed the tab he'd been reading. "Morning." I couldn't tell what had been open before I walked up, but the screen was now displaying an article comparing Kira's "morals" to different types of ethics.
"If you're trying to justify Kira, Mello, I may seriously begin to worry about your mental health."
"You don't already?"
"Well, I do, but at least you're a consistent lunatic."
He snorted. "I'm not justifying it; someone else is. They've put Kira in the books right alongside Aristotle."
"Bet they can't wait until he's caught – then they'll have a real name to cite. What are they calling the theory? God Complex-ism?"
"Totalitarianism, actually."
"…Can you really say anything good enough about that to turn it into an ethical theory?"
"Yes, apparently. It's 'the adherence to an absolute moral code with the goal of improving overall conditions.'"
I leaned over his shoulder to reread the definition on the screen. "Isn't that a contraction in and of itself, to murder murderers because your ethical beliefs say murder is bad for overall conditions?"
"Yes. It is."
"There's humanity for you." I sighed and went around the couch to sit next to him. "Have you learned anything from that essay? Other than people are cowards, that is?"
He closed the laptop. "No."
I considered asking him what he'd been looking at before I came over, but decided not to. It really wasn't my business, and besides, I had a feeling that if I asked, he wouldn't answer anyway. Instead I grabbed my DS off the coffee table and turned it on.
I'd been playing for about ten minutes when I realized Mello was watching me intently. I paused the game. "Wanna try?" I asked, holding it out to him.
"No. I'm not letting that thing rot my brain."
"Says the man I caught playing Pokemon a few days ago," I said, going back to God of War.
"I told you, I was deleting your game!"
"Right."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mello grab a bar of chocolate off the coffee table. A moment later there was a vicious snapping sound, which I took as the end of the discussion.
After a while, Mello opened the laptop again and presumably recommenced whatever he'd been doing before. Every so often I would glance over when the action in my game slowed down. Once or twice I saw him twisting the beads on his rosary. I wasn't sure if it was a prayer or just a habit. Maybe it was both.
* * *
It was getting rather late – or early, depending on how you looked at it – when I finally packed in my games and looked at Mello, who'd abandoned the computer and was watching television without paying much attention to it. "Bedtime," I announced.
Mello jumped and stared at me, then seemed to come back to earth. "Oh." He stood up and stretched, cat-like, which…
I decided I wasn't even going to go there. For many reasons.
"Goodnight," Mello said, heading for the bedroom before I could answer and shutting the door behind him.
"…Goodnight," I told the wood. The wood said nothing, unsurprisingly.
I grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and shook it out. I wasn't sure what was up with Mello. He'd been off the entire day. Jumpy. I wanted to know what he was thinking about, since something told me it wasn't Kira's supposed ethics, but I wasn't about to ask him. He seemed to be in a mood where it wouldn't take too much to make him angry.
After five minutes of stillness, I was sorely, sorely tempted to grab my PSP and play until I fell asleep, but I was worried that the light might wake Mello up if he saw it through the slightly-open door. Although, judging by the creaking bedsprings I could hear every few moments, Mello wasn't sleeping any more than I was.
"Mello?"
The creaking abruptly ceased.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he snapped back.
"Okay." After a few more minutes, I grabbed my PSP off the coffee table and turned it on.. I'd fall asleep eventually.