A/n: I just wanted to put a funny quote in before the chapter begins 'kay?

'How could you be pregnant? I thought you said you had a sponge in your-oh you meant me!'

Spongebob to Sandy, Robot Chicken

Chapter 9: Seeing Railroads and 'small' problems

Waking up the next morning wasn't worth it. Lawliet groaned as he pushed his sluggish body from the soft mattress. He was in a world of pain, his knee still tingling from where it had crashed into the ground as he had tried to...help Light up the night before.

The night before...was this going to become a habit? Was he going to do something stupid and then reminisce about it the morning after?

He sighed inwardly as his fingers brushed over his swollen lips. Light had bitten hard on them as they had kissed on his floor.

Lawliet shuddered. That wasn't a kiss. That was plain, animalistic hunger.

It was something that he had instigated. Light may have said to kiss him, but Lawliet had complied.

He had walked, no waltzed into the mouth of a starving lion.

A lion that had unbelievable charm and social skills.

"..." L pulled the covers up to his neck. He was feeling...strange again. Like the feeling you feel when you meet the eyes of the prettiest girl in the class as you look around.

Or the prettiest boy...

L shuddered again as his face began to flush. He threw his blanket from his bed swiftly as he ran to the bathroom.

He suddenly needed a shower.

A really cold shower.

...

L clapped his hands happily as his car started quickly. For the first time since he bought it, it wanted to do something that he wanted! Even though it threatened to stall once or twice as he sped along the roads, it still stayed alive.

It was a magical day.

The road rage, the haze. Even the roar of the traffic couldn't have destroyed the moment.

Until he arrived at his destination of course. It was rare that Lawliet would have needed to actually go to Matt and Mello's house. Normally they would just show up uninvited and unannounced. Now it was his turn.

As he quietly walked up the stairs, his mind battled a terrible war.

'I have to see Matt...'

"He won't listen."

"What if he finds a knife? What if Mello has a gun!" he cringed at the thought. What if Mello did conveniently have a gun...?

He stopped. He really regretted this. Matt's door was only a few doors away, and Lawliet was officially scared. He had seen Matt when he was happy, sad, angry, furious, on the verge of eating somebody and disappointed.

He really didn't want to see him disappointed again. It killed him inside.

None the less, he still found the willpower to raise his fist and rap on the door. The loud music most likely blocked any noise within a ten kilometre radius out.

'I could take it as a sign to leave...it has only been a couple of days...maybe he-'

"What the fuck do you want Lawliet?" Mello's voice derailed his train of thought.

"Shit. Hi Mello. Is Matt in?" L gulped. Lawliet was the older one, the cleverest one, the responsible one, and he had almost crapped his pants just being faced with such a situation.

He couldn't just sever all ties with them. The two were like siblings to him.

Mello groaned and massaged his forehead. One ice blue eye flickered open and watched him carefully.

"Can't you smell the fact that he's here?"

"Hmm?" It took a few moments for the older man to grasp what the teenager was saying. A thick, sweet smelling smoke had begun to seep out of the door and was followed by a loud cackle of laughter. Mello rolled his eyes.

"I told you. Look it might be a bad idea for you to-"

"I need to see him. Now." Mello sighed again and opened the door completely.

"Fuck it. If he shoots you it's your problem."

L's eyes widened. 'What the hell? He does have a gun!'

"I'll leave you guys to talk. But I promise you that he is far from in his right mind. Bye." Mello grabbed his coat and pushed past the taller man. He gave a guilty whimper as he began to jog down the stairs.

"Thanks Mello."

...

The inside of the boy's apartment was dark and closed, the smog making it hard to breath. All of the curtains had been pulled shut making the blackness even more daunting.

"Matt?" L cupped his lips, which were still sore, in an attempt to make his voice louder than the music. It failed miserably.

Thankfully Lawliet didn't need to tear apart the apartment to find Matt. All he had to do was walk into his bedroom.

'I should have just looked in there in the first place.'

"Matt?" Unfocused green eyes studied Lawliet's hunched figure and a wide grin spread on the red-haired teenagers face. A black eyebrow rose in concern at his younger friend.

"Matt what's wro-?" The answer was self explanatory. Matt's eyes closed as another wide grin spread over his face, a cigarette lit and smoking in his hand.

'Oh shit. That's not a cigarette.'

"Matt what the hell?"

"I felt stressed." The simple reply was cut off by another puff from his joint. Lawliet bit on his lips and flinched. The bruises were still smarting.

"I thought that you were off that shit!" L yelled angrily. Matt had only just given up on the dope a few weeks beforehand.

"I was off it. I stopped sitting on it!" A loud roar of laughter suddenly burst from Matt and he fell from his chair onto the floor holding his ribs. It was so comical that Lawliet thought he would sweatdrop.

"Come on Matt. Get rid of it now. You know what you're like when your high." He tried unsuccessfully to pull away the offending roll of paper just to have Matt growl and pull away.

"You're not my father! I can smoke weed if I want to!" To make his point Matt took another long puff and blew the smoke into Lawliet's face, which caused a loud coughing fit.

"Cut it out!"

"C'mon! Smoke one with me! Mello decided that he wants to be clean and not have any. So he was lookin' for an excuse to leave. No fun."

"I won't either!"

"But we used to all the time." Matt pouted and crawled back onto his couch as he patted the seat next to him. Lawliet reluctantly sat himself on the sofa as Matt began to puff again.

"Sure you don't want one?"

"Argh. Matt we need to talk about the other night." An awkward silence followed as a loud sigh left Matt.

"Naw dude it's all cool. Beth and I were old news. I guess you and her could be happy." A sad smile sat on the teenagers face as he rested his head in his hands. L placed a hand softly on the younger mans shoulder awkwardly.

"There there?"

"Whatever."

The two sat in silence until Lawliet gave in.

"Hey Matt?"

"Mmm?"

"Could I err..." He scratched at his neck embarrassed that he was even willing to fall back into bad habits just to get his friend back.

Oh well. It wouldn't kill him. Maybe it would kill a few brain cells, but it wouldn't completely kill him.

...

"Eheheheheh!" L sniggered loudly as Matt pulled a random face.

Both men rolled around on the carpet in hysterics, just missing the cluttered coffee table. It didn't matter. If you smoked enough dope, L concluded, every little worry would just subtly just slip from your mind. Even if it meant that your hands looked like they were railroads, he was willing to loosen up for Matt.

"Hey Lawliet!"

"Y-yeah?"

"I think that I might be able to smoke the rest of this through my nose!" Matt giggled as Lawliet's face lit up like a firework.

"Oh man, if you can do that then I swear to god that you are a hero!" Matt grinned devilishly as he lifted the joint to his nostril. With his friend egging him on, Matt didn't even think about what would happen if the lit end touched his lip. His skin seared and smoked as the ashes began to land on his upper lip. He shouted frantically and threw his arms in the air, startling Lawliet who had been watching on enthusiastically.

"Oh shit, oh shit! Lawliet get me an ice pack or something!" Matt hissed in pain as Lawliet stumbled over the mess in the room and staggered into the kitchen. He swung the freezer open and grabbed the first thing he could grasp. He chucked it to the snivelling teen and watched uncomfortably as he tenderly placed the bag of corn on his lip.

"I think it might be good if we lay off the dope for a few hours. Clear our heads Y'know?" Matt mumbled, his voice muffled by the ice on his lips. Lawliet nodded slowly in reply, his thought still sluggish because of the drugs in his system.

...

What's the best way for you to come down after smoking weed?

Eating ice-cream.

Well how else are you supposed to?

Matt and Lawliet ate the freezer out of the sweet dessert in an attempt to calm their nerves. Matt occasionally placed the ice-cream on his burnt lip.

After a few hours of haziness, the boys began to function normally. But with the normality came the discomfort and anger that Matt had been repressing for days. It was hard to stay in the same room as a tired and furious Matt.

Plus it's kind of hard to break the ice on a situation when the water has already begun to boil.

"..."

"What the fuck did you come over to talk about Lawliet." Matt grumbled as he sipped a cola.

"I already told you before." Matt tsked pathetically. "No Lawliet I want you to tell me when we are both in a sensible state of mind. Not drug addled and mindless." It was rare that Matt would speak so maturely.

"Well I wanted to talk to you about..." L's voice trailed despondently as Matt's green eyes watched him wearily.

" Is it about Bethany?"

"Yeah. It's about Beth."

"Well talk away! I'm sure that you guys did more touching then talking though!" The red-head spat furiously, his lips curling into an animalistic snarl. He raised his drink to his lips once more, his fingers tightening around the can. L's ebony hair fell into his eyes as he looked down shamefully.

"I didn't have anything to do with Bethany! She kissed me!"

"Oh whatever! She wanted to thank you for getting me out of her life! Doesn't that say anything?"

"She was angry! She didn't mean what she said!"

"Then why the fuck did she kiss you then?" Matt almost sobbed into his sleeve, his eyes tearing at the corners.

"Did you really love her that much Matt?" L sighed as he brushed his matted ebony hair from his face, his eyes watching his friend unhappily. He had caused one of the closest people in the world so much pain, even if it was accidental. Mat sniffled pathetically, almost choking on his words before they left his mouth.

"I did-I still do! I haven't been with anybody since her!"

"But what about those women that you always pick up? Like the one that broke your goggles?" Matt didn't reply for a few moments as his face began to redden.

"I lied. I broke the goggles when I walked into a door. And Mello is the one picking everybody up."

'So all this time he only had one person he wanted to be with. And I took away that woman. Wow I am a real douche.'

"Well you should call her. I'm sure that now you're...sober that she will happily give you a chance."

"No she won't. I'll let her call me first. She won't answer if she hears my voice. She'll hang up."

A kind smile spread over the older man's face. "Fair enough." Matt ruffled Lawliet's hair and laughed.

"You're an awesome pal sometimes."

"You can be one to, at least when you're not PMSing."

"I see that we are all on good terms now are we?" Mello's husky voice interrupted the conversation. Both Matt and Lawliet beamed happily at the blonde who nodded in return.

"It's nice to see you guys are alright. I thought that you would both be high of your brains by now! Considering it's nearly-" Mello flickered a glance at his watch, "three in the morning."

Matt and L jerked in shock. It was already that late?

"What time did I get here?" Lawliet asked as he counted on his fingers.

"Around eleven this morning." Matt whistled in awe.

"So it took us nearly sixteen hours for us to get high, eat the house out of ice-cream and become buddies again." The other two nodded in amusement.

"I think that we have set a record."

...

Lawliet decided that he would stay the night. Mello still didn't have the motivation to get a job, and Matt just fixed computers whenever he got a call. So nobody was worried.

Even though they all knew that the oldest of them had work at nine that morning, he decided that another all nighter wouldn't kill him.

And then the questions started swirling around the room, almost like the marijuana smoke that had sat happily in the air hours before. Matt and Mello had pulled out some alcohol and were sharing the scotch cheerfully. Lawliet passed on it. He really didn't want to be drunk when he saw...

No. No-one at all.

Matt had shuffled himself as close as he possibly could to Mello who pushed him away with little force.

It was pretty cold in the boy's apartment. But it wasn't that cold.

"So L, got anything important to do at work tomorrow?" Mello asked loudly. L's obsidian eyes widened in fear.

"N-no!"

"Not looking forward to seeing your boss at all?"

"Since when...have I ever wanted to see him out of my own free will!" His throat had begun to constrict. That damn, idiotic, pompous, sexy man had taken over his life.

Mello's ice blue eyes met with Matt's soft dew green ones. Both had playful, almost embarrassed looks on their features. L's face flushed angrily.

"What's the silent joke!" He spat and Matt just looked away sniggering, Mello held his hand over his mouth and coughed.

"Your pants seem to disagree with you Lawliet."

Mello was right.

Obviously his thinking brain wasn't exactly in contact with his friend who lived downstairs, as his friend was very much making a point. L's hands flew to his crotch in a feeble effort to cover his growing dilemma.

Mello snickered as Matt threw a pillow over to his pal.

"Well at least now we can tell if you're lying to us about him." Matt said as he tried to restrain his laughter.

"Yeah Lawliet. At least we know how to get your attention. All we have to say is..." An evil grin spread over the blondes face. "...Light."

Lawliet felt a sudden twitch and he bit his lip with spite.

"I hate you both!" He yelled as he walked into the spare room, slamming the door for good measure.

...

Nehehe...next chapter, Lawliet goes to work!

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