第２話

"Perfect"

.:.9 YEARS.:.

A knock on his bedroom door jerked Mello out of his thoughts, as he read over his report card for the seventh time; no matter which way he looked at it, it wasn't good enough. It was never good enough. "Mello, it's me!"

As he heard his friend's voice through the door, Mello stuffed the paper under the pillow and moved over to the bed. "Come in."

Matt bounced through the door, plopping down on the bed beside Mello. "Hiya!"

"Hey. Bored?"

"You bet – there's nothing to do at home anymore. And my parents are out gambling all night. By the way, can I stay over tonight - that being said?" Matt asked.

"Sure," Mello replied, slightly cheered up by his friend's high spirit. "My mom loves you. You're like her second son."

"Well I feel honored. So what do you say we go walk around town today?" Matt suggested anxiously.

"I can't. I'm um – I'm grounded."

"Again!? What is with your parents? Are they like, super-strict or something? Or did you just completely bomb your report card?" Matt said, his face dropping at the fact that he was still stuck at a house.

"I...could have done better," Mello said uneasily.

"That's what you always say! Let me see it!" Matt demanded.

With a heavy sigh, Mello pulled the report card from its entrapment under a blue pillow, and handed it reluctantly to the other boy, who looked over it with mixed anger and disbelief. "Mello, you made A's and B's! You're lying!"

"Yeah, but it isn't perfect."

"Why does it have to be? You did good – something's wrong with your dad if he doesn't think so," Matt replied, flinging the paper back at Mello.

"He just knows I'm capable of doing better."

"Bull! I get C's and D's on my report card, and my parents don't ground me for a week!"

"You really should start worrying about your grades more," Mello replied. "You want to get a good job when you get older, don't you?"

"Pfht. What's the point? We're all gonna die anyway."

"Well that's a very cheerful outlook you have," Mello said sarcastically.

"Seriously, though. You work your butt off and you get grounded! That doesn't make sense."

"Just drop it, Matt," Mello said, tucking the report card away again.

"Fine," Matt sighed. "We're allowed to go outside at least, aren't we?"

"...I'm not."

"Gods, they've practically put you on house arrest!"

"Sorry. I know it sucks that every time you come it seems I'm grounded."

Matt sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter. Still better than my house."

They spent the night watching television and playing video games, occasionally sneaking down to the kitchen to snatch junk food. Mello always enjoyed Matt's company; with the other boy around, it didn't matter that he wasn't perfect. Matt never made him feel stupid.

At about one in the morning, Matt fell asleep on the bed, and Mello spread a blanket out over him, before going and sitting at his desk, pulling out a textbook and muting the television.

"Mello, what are you doing?" Came a soft, tired voice from behind him. Matt was sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes.

"Nothing, go back to sleep," he said gently, waiting until Matt had crawled under the bed-covers before going back to work.

Matt opened his eyes to bright sunlight streaming through the windows, slightly obscured by the half-drawn curtains. Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he felt the place beside him, where Mello should have been laying. When he saw that the place was empty (and cold, so he knew that no one had been there all night), he looked around the room, and his eyes came to rest on the desk in front of the bed, where Mello had fallen asleep with his head resting in his arms over a textbook.

With a sigh, Matt pulled himself out of bed and walked over to the other boy.

Mello was fast asleep, his face buried deep in his arms. It was obvious he had been studying. Matt tried to take a look at the textbook, but it was all in German, and he soon gave up. He sighed again and gently stroked Mello's hair. He had always been telling the other boy that he should grow it out longer; it would look so pretty.

"Mello, you work yourself too hard," Matt whispered, still running his fingers through the other boy's hair. "You're really smart, so please don't be hard on yourself. You're the smartest person I know, you don't have to be perfect." He reached down and touched Mello's face with his fingertips. "You're already perfect to me."

第２話　－　終

Author's Notes:

I like doing flashbacks of Mello and Matt's childhood together – it gives me a happy feeling inside knowing how much they care about each other, even back then :)

When I was writing this scene, I thought "It's so mean of Mello's parents to ground him for getting a couple B's!" and thought it might be going a little extreme, but then I　remembered that one of my friends actually gets grounded for B's on her report card, so then I'm like... "Well, it happens."

Poor Mello. But Matt still thinks he's perfect, so that's good :)