A/N: I know I suck for not writing this earlier. Well, just a quick warning, there's some light MattxMello in this one, but it's only a sprinkling. If you don't like such things, please don't hesitate to either ignore it or hit the back button. And a huge thanks to Inuyasha4eva! Because she's aweseome. Longer note at the end.
Disclaimer: Why, no, I do not own Death Note, thank you for inquiring.
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Chapter One
The sun was setting on the Western horizon, making the small town where Matt and Mello stopped an inky pinkish-purple-orange.
They pulled into a standard motel around seven o'clock. The parking lot was already full of family-looking vehicles piled to the brims with people's junk.
Matt and Mello sauntered into the lobby. A perky looking high school girl stood behind the front desk. Her nametag read "Ashley."
"Hi!" she said cheerfully, a large grin spreading across her face. "How may I help you?"
"Uhm…" Mello began, a bit taken aback by the sheer force of happiness emanating from the perky brunette. "Do you have any rooms available tonight?"
With a few flicks of the computer mouse, Ashley procured a reservation list. "Hmm… We have only one open; a single…"
"Smoking?" Matt cut in.
"Actually, yes."
"We'll take it," Mello threw his credit card onto the counter.
Ashley gave them a bit of an odd look, but took Mello's card and swiped it through the card reader. After the processing, she slid two card keys across the counter.
"Complimentary breakfast begins at six and ends at ten. It'll be in the room right over there," she gestured enthusiastically towards a room with French doors. Several tables and a coffee maker were visible inside.
"Enjoy your stay!" Another face-shattering grin.
Matt and Mello smiled meekly and made their way back to the car to retrieve their luggage.
After a few tries with the card key, Matt managed to wrestle the door open to the worn hotel room. The scent of stale cigarettes and burnt coffee wafted from the darkness. Mello reached around the doorframe and flicked a switch, casting light into their second-story room. A double bed clothed a la Motel 6 was shoed against one wall. A dresser with an old TV on top and a desk with a chair resided on the opposite wall. A sink and counter were visible at the back of the lodging; the other half of the bathroom was presumably through the door to the right. The room was completed by the abundance of lamps that were not turned on by the switches on the lamps themselves, but were, in fact, turned on by switches located on various walls.
Matt and Mello kicked their meager luggage inside and bolted the door behind them.
"Well," Mello said, "it's a bed."
"Should we even bother unpacking our stuff if we'll just be leaving early tomorrow morning?" Matt asked, stretching upwards, his striped shirt inching up to reveal a pale stomach.
Mello flopped onto the lumpy bed. "Naw…" His stomach issued an unpleasant rumble. "I need food."
"There was that one place, like, right down the street," Matt gestured in the general direction of the café he had seen.
"Cool. Let's go," Mello elevated himself from the bed and swept out the door, Matt trailing behind.
The two walked across the parking lot of the hotel and barely made it across the four-lane highway at a jog. They entered a low adobe building labeled only as CAFÉ by a hand-painted sign leaning against it. Matt and Mello seated themselves at a table in a far corner. After a few minutes of fingers drumming on a vinyl checkered table cloth and idle fingering of silver forks, a middle-aged waitress appeared from the kitchen and presented Matt and Mello with two menus.
"Hi. My name's Sally Mae. What can I get y'all to drink?" The waitress asked, flipping open a notepad and pulling a pencil out of her dyed red hair.
"Uh… Coke," Matt half mumbled as he opened his menu and began to browse.
"Water," Mello said as he repeated Matt's actions.
"All right, I'll have those out for you boys in just a sec," Sally Mae smiled as she went back to the kitchen.
"Oh my God. Matt. They have chocolate pancakes. And chocolate fudge sundaes!" Mello's eyes widened a bit at the thought.
Matt gave Mello a thumbs up. "Go for it!"
Sally Mae came back a few moments later and handed Matt and Mello their drinks. "Ready to order?" she asked with her notepad and pencil again poised in hand.
"I want the chocolate pancakes, no bacon on the side," Mello answered as he snapped his menu shut and handed it to the waitress.
"I'd like a cheeseburger, no tomatoes, extra pickles, please," Matt said politely.
"Comin' right up," Sally Mae once again retreated to the kitchen.
The two men resumed their finger drumming and staring in random directions. The café was nearly empty. A couple sat at a table against the opposite wall, and an older man had claimed a seat by the front window. The sun was almost completely gone, now, and the west-facing window had only traces of orange light filtering through it, complimenting the rooster border décor that Mello had noticed ran along the ceiling.
"You look like that rooster," Mello said bluntly to Matt. Matt stopped his finger drumming and idle longing for a video game.
"What?"
"Your hair. It's the same color as that rooster's tail," Mello observed, gesturing vaguely to the troop of roosters parading across the wallpaper border.
Matt turned around in his seat to get a better look. "Sure… Well… You… You look like that lemon."Matt pointed to the lemon perched on the edge of Mello's water glass.
"I'm not a fruit!" Mello angrily glared at Matt, slamming his fist onto the table.
"But you're dating me," Matt bent over to take a sip from his Coke without picking it up. He glanced up at Mello through his lashes.
"You're really aggravating," Mello huffed, settling back into his seat. Matt merely shrugged and kept sipping.
At about this time, Sally Mae came out with Matt and Mello's food. The waitress noticed that the blonde one looked slightly agitated, and she could even detect an underlying smirk on the red-headed one's lips, but, being the generally nice person that she was and having several years under her belt of being a waitress, she decided to ignore it.
"Let's see, I have chocolate pancakes for you," Sally Mae set a stack of three pancakes doused in chocolate and whipped cream in front of Mello, "and a cheeseburger for you." A plate piled with a hearty burger and French fries was placed before Matt.
"If y'all need anything, just ask."
Matt and Mello both nodded and eagerly stared at their food as Sally Mae went to go attend to some customers that had just arrived.
"Aw. Dammit. They put tomatoes on my burger," Matt noted as he lifted the bun and made makeshift use of a French fry to scrape the offending hamburger accessory off. "At least they got all the pickles."
"Mmhgmfmm…" Mello nodded, chocolate pancake already stuffed into his face.
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Mello slammed the metallic hotel room door shut as Matt flopped onto the bed face first.
"I learned something tonight," came Matt's muffled voice.
"What?" Mello had begun to peel off his vest with the intention of taking a shower.
"Eighteen wheelers drive faster than you think they do."
Mello scoffed. "Well, yeah. We weren't exactly using the cross walk." He threw the TV remote at Matt's head. "I'm going to go take a shower. Entertain yourself while I'm gone."
"Mmggffm…" Matt rolled onto his back and hit the "on" button as he heard the bathroom door close and the sounds of water clanking through pipes. He toggled the up and down buttons, searching for something other than a boring newscast that would come in without strange colored lines on the screen. When he ran out of luck, he threw the upper half of his body over the bed and reached into his bag for two of his favorite things: cigarettes and his DS. He hummed the game's start up theme as he lit up.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Mello's voice echoed from inside the bathroom.
"What's wrong, Mello?" Matt asked calmly as he tapped his cigarette against the ashtray.
"The water's damn cold!" Mello turned the hot water up, and Matt heard the pipes roar.
"It's probably because there're too many people taking showers right now!" Matt rationed.
"But aren't these places supposed to have, like, industrial water heaters or something?! I mean, what the hell?!"
"Mello, just give it five minutes!"
"AAARRGHH!!!" Mello howled.
"Do you want me to call the front desk if this is going to be such a problem?" Matt remained as calm as ever and began pushing buttons on his game.
"NO!" Mello yelled stubbornly.
"All riiiight…. Take your damn shower, then!"
After a few more grumbles and mutterings, Matt heard the water pressure lighten a bit along with several "thunk"s, confirming that the soap was slippery and that Mello was dropping it.
By the time Mello got out of the shower, Matt had blown through two and a half cigarettes and six levels of Tetris. The bathroom door opened and Matt was assaulted with a fluffy hotel-white towel.
"GAH! Mello, you almost lit the towel on fire! It got really close to my cig!"
Mello smirked. "Sorry. Your turn."
"Mmm… Not in the mood. I'll just wake up early tomorrow," Matt extinguished his now spent cigarette.
"Whatever. Just don't take too long. We have to leave early tomorrow."
"Why? Does this trip even have an agenda?"
Mello rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Well… No… But, I want to see the Grand Canyon."
"What? We're stopping for the Grand Canyon? That's going to take an entire day!" Matt propped himself up on his elbows.
"My point exactly, my dear Matt. So, we should go to sleep so we can leave early tomorrow!" Mello gave Matt a cat-like grin and flicked off the bathroom light. Matt grumbled as he stripped into his boxers, leaving his clothes in a pile on the floor.
The two climbed under the starched white sheets, their shoulders rubbing against each other in the tight bed.
"Good night, Matt," Mello said, kissing Matt on the forehead.
"'Night, Mello." Matt reached up and pressed the pointless button to turn off the bedside lamp, sending the room into darkness.
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A/N: As said before, a really big thank you to Inuyasha4eva for betaing and helping me with some characterization problems that I encountered. It was a huge help! And, again, I'm really sorry about not updating. Seriously, I feel really bad, and this chapter is definitely not enough to make up for it. I can't help but feel like something is a little off in this one. :( But, I'll be writing a lot in July. Promise. :)
At any rate, I hope you're liking this so far, what little of it there is. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think! :3