Matt turned and looked at Mello dumb founded. "What do you mean? Someone had to make Christmas Eve Dinner!" He then blinked as he looked into the pot. "Hey I didn't put any pepper in the mashed potatoes… How'd that black stuff get in there?"

Mello rolled his eyes and looked down at Lunatic before unhooking the leash and hanging it by the door with his coat. The blonde then walked over to survey the damage. "Uh Matt… You can't use metal masher in a pot that is non stick… It scrapes the not stick surface off…"

Matt stared blankly at the pot. "That still doesn't explain why there's pepper… Oh! That's the non stick coating… I so just failed…"

Mello shook his head and turned off the heat under the pot before putting it back on the stove. "We can start over on those…" Mello said trying to not kill Matt's Christmas spirit. "What's burning?"

The smoke alarm suddenly began to go off and Matt spun around to look at the oven, where flames could be seen through the small glass panel. "Holy shit!"

Mello ran out in the hall way to break the glass and grab the fire extinguisher, putting out the flames and looking back to Matt after the burnt turkey was covered in white. "What the hell? How do you… I don't want to know…" Mello turned off the oven. "What else did you try to cook?"

Matt scratched his head and shrugged innocently. "Uh I tried to cook buttered noodles… but uh… I ended up burning myself and dumping the pasta all over the floor… But I cleaned that up!"

Mello sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. "Ok… Step one… What do we have left that we can make for dinner?"

"Um… Ramen?" Matt suggests. "Lunatics food?"

"Ok.... Give me ten minutes to make a few calls to see what I can round up…" Mello says with a sigh, taking his cell from his pocket and walking into the bed room.

Matt put his head down and looked around for a moment with all the excitement where was Lunatic? "Lunatic?" He says looking around, pausing in horror when he realized the door was left open when Mello had run out to get the fire extinguisher. "Oh no… Lunatic…!" He says again, checking the apartment first to make sure she wasn't just hiding some place. His eyes widened and he ran out the door and looked around the hall way before running down the stairs to get to the outside door. "Lunatic!" He called frantically. Matt cursed when he found the bottom stairs door was not latched all the way shut.

'This is all my fault! I should have just ordered the dinner from the market! Now lunatic is gone!' The thoughts raced through his head as he looked around, snow started falling and Matt was starting to panic. What if she got hit by a car? Or picked up by the dog catcher? Or something worse?

After about 15 minutes his cell phone rang. It was Mello, Matt picked it up, maybe she'd gone home.

"Matt where the hell are you?"

"Looking for Lunatic…"

"You lost her! I had just taken her for a walk Matt, you didn't have to go out and loose her!"

"Mello… She ran out when the door was left open with all the excitement…" Matt said, still searching through alleys and such to try and find their dog.

"Which way did you go?"

"I went left out of the apartment building…" Matt said, wincing as he heard the anger in Mello's voice. The line disconnected and Matt hit his head against the wall he'd stopped beside. "Lunatic… Where did you go?" Matt felt a tightness in his chest he hadn't felt since he'd been afraid Mello would die after the explosion. But even then he'd had someone to help him stay calm. Mello would do anything but stay calm if he caught up with Matt.

Mello growled as he pulled on his coat and ran down the stairs. How could this have happened? They were always careful with the door, She never liked to be out of their sights why would she have run out the door? 'Because she was afraid…' The answer seemed to clear to him as he ran the streets searching for any sign of the yellow dog that had become such a big part of their lives in such a short amount of time. She had been trying to run away from the guys that were hurting her, when all the yelling and the commotion started she had run off to hide somewhere. "Where could she have gone? God why did they have to shovel the side walk after the snow last night! At least then we could have followed her tracks…" He thought allowed.

After each had gone about four hours in search of their dog; Mello had gone home and tried calling the local shelters but to no avail. No one had found a lost yellow puppy. He knocked on the neighbors doors explaining the situation, and walked down the stairs again to grab Matt's car and go find him, it was dark now and the temperature was dropping. Mello noticed that Matt had run off with out his vest or a jacket. He was out there in less then 30 degree weather with out anything but his shirt on. As mad as he was for Lunatic being gone, he didn't want to loose Matt either. He hit the speed dial on his phone and waited for Matt to pick up.

"Did you find her?" Was an out of breath Matt's voice.

"No… Where are you?" Mello asked as he started Matt's car.

"Outside the park…"

Mello could practically hear Matt's teeth chattering. "Stay there I'm coming to pick you up, it's too cold for you to be out here." Mello pulled up 15 minutes later to find Matt sitting on the curb with his head in his hands. He pulled over and got out of the car. "Come on Matt… Your going to get sick if you stay out here like this." Mello's voice was tired and he pulled a very un responsive Matt to his feet and put him in the passenger side of the car.

The ride home was quiet. "I called all the shelters and told all the neighbors she was gone Matt… If anyone finds her we'll know…" Mello left out the part that he'd also called the Mafia on it. If she turned out anywhere near any Mafia activity they'd know to.

Matt didn't reply, he just sat there looking down at his feet a tear moving down his cheek. "This is all my fault…" Matt croaked out, voice dry and cracked from the cold.

"No its not Matt… As much as I'd love to blame this on you I can't… I didn't make sure the door was shut when I went to get the extinguisher… You were just trying to help… In your own Matt way… We'll find her Matt don't look so down…"

"Its Christmas Eve Mell's… and I lost our baby…" Matt put his head down between his knees and just sat there. Then Mello saw Matt do something he hadn't seen him do for a few days, he pulled out a cigarette. He hadn't been smoking them around Lunatic because the pup would sneeze anytime she got wift of them and cower away. Matt had taken to only doing it out on the fire escape when Lunatic had collapsed after a long run.

Mello sighed and kept an eye out while he was driving for their dog, but it was hopelessly dark. "Maybe I should have let the Vet's office find her a home…"

Matt didn't say a word he just nodded his head as Mello parked the car and walked around to pull Matt out of his stupor back up to the apartment to warm up. Matt just let the cigarette fall to the ground when they got outside the door. They got back upstairs, and Matt just walked into their room and collapsed on the bed.

Mello sighed and put the food he'd ordered away. He looked around at the Christmas decorations and the stocking Matt had bought for Lunatic that hung by their fake fireplace that said puppy's first Christmas on it. Mello's heart skipped a beat at seeing the toys stuffed in it. And then he looked under the tree at the gifts they'd wrapped and tried to hide from the puppy. The pile of chewed up lights that she had torn off the tree last night that had been replaced this morning was a reminder of just how short time ago she had been causing hell. The chewed up shoes, the destroyed pillows from the couch from the few times they had left her alone. The blonde walked over to sit on the couch and heard a squeak as he sat on her camel. He sighed sadly. Where was their Lunatic? Matt was right, she was as close to a baby as either of them would ever have, she wasn't just some dog to them. Some where in the last few days he had become a dog lover, and now all he wanted for Christmas was for their family to be complete as it had been the last few days.