-AdRenaline
U
S
h

So all you fill the streets, it's appealing to see
You won't get out the county, 'cause you're bad and free
You've got a new horizon, it's ephemeral style
A melancholy town where we never smile
- Feel Good Inc., The Gorillaz

Chapter Four

With fingers combing his wet blond hair, Mello exits the bathroom expecting dinner waiting for him, and he is only sorely disappointed. But that is only the least of his concerns. The second thing he notices is that Hex is missing.

Of course he notices. Her figure stands out like a sore thumb when contrasting with the yellowish wallpaper of the room, and this feature is missing! He almost starts scanning each corner of the motel room when he notices the piece of yellow padded paper stuck to the front of his shirt. Reading the loopy, narrow and messy scrawl, his eyes narrow. 'Back later. Don't look for me.'

Mello does not have time for this, but he never has been one to back down from something like this. It might've been purely unintentional, but he's taking this as a challenge. And it's just like him never to back down from one. It's in his nature, always was, and always will he crumples the paper in his fist and rummages in the drawer of the tiny table to retrieve his locator, only to find it in pieces. On what was left of the screen, there is another note. 'I said not to look for me.'

This time he lets out an animalistic sort of growl in his throat, gritting his teeth together to stop himself from screaming, because that would be irrational, and Mello is definitely not. He is trained to think rationally, and so he will. Or at least, that what he keeps telling himself, because now he's fighting the increasing temptation to just drive his fists in the wall in frustration, repeatedly.

"One..Two.. Three.." he begins counting, inwardly feeling very much like an idiot to resort to Hex's book he'd found on anger management yesterday. "Four.. Five.." It isn't working. He exhales deeply, rubbing his temples with a pronounced scowl.

He eyes the laptop in the corner, displaying a disturbing dancing rainbow lollipop as a screen-saver and he bites his lip, pressing over a random key, and the screen goes dark, requesting the user's password. Unable to take it anymore, Mello mutters a long string of curses, pulling out his cell-phone and dials a familiar number. It rings twice, thrice before it picks up, and he grits out, "Matt! Locate Hex. Now."

A hundred miles away, Hex nuzzles closer into the much larger, much muscular, much smellier and sweater arm of the buff man, inwardly wishing the elevator will only elevate freaking faster because she is starting to suffocate from the man's smell of alcohol, man stank and sex. Not only that, but she also just wants to just get it all over with already.

Because the man who is currently running his fingers down her side, but none too sensuously (and more with lust-filled intentions) is the current boss of a mafia group. Not as fear-striking nor is it with too high a reputation like Hex would wish, but his blood spilt is enough for her and Mello to get closer to their goal.

In her opinion, this is a rather stupid plan of hers, maybe one of the most stupid yet. Hex knows she could just do this in so many other ways, but when this guy suddenly showed… interest.. in her- Hex just feels cornered into this. But downstairs will be the boss's men, and she just doesn't want to deal with them all with just one gun- it'll be suicide- and she swears it was a damn good idea to leave her gun back with Mello, since she's been given a very thorough body search by some underling a while ago.

So she supposes she just might spare the boss.

No, not really. Okay, not at all; she wants him dead (and she doesn't normally wish death upon anyone). But in Hex's opinion, murdering just one man when he least expects it, though low, even for her, is better than a massacre that just might result in her own demise. There are so many ways to kill him. She's already added the poison into his red wine, and it will only take a little less than twenty more minutes until it spreads entirely into his system.

A slow acting poison, but it's the best she's got.

All she has to do is keep him entertained, and she can finally make her move.

"Baby," the boss's voice is rough, almost hoarse when he breathes the scent of a random perfume on her neck, so her collarbone is exposed. He begins kissing her skin roughly, and while Hex feels a little too uncomfortable, and all she wants to do is just kill the fucker right there, she fakes a moan, quite unsure if she is doing this right. She must be, though, for him to respond with an approving growl. When the elevator door 'ding's open, he wastes no time in leading her into his quarters, slamming the door behind him.

"Strip," he orders her, already unbuckling his belt as he sits himself down stiffly on the large bed sheeted with red satin. She knows he is watching her unabashedly, and she can feel his eyes roaming her figure as she hesitantly reaches her hand to the string of the corset top, and she hopes that her actions looked to him to be deliberately slow.

"You're virginal act is fucking sexy," the large man says, and he looks amused by her antics. "But don't tease, baby."

Hex raises her head and twirls a stray lock of her brunette wig, and she would have bitten her lip had it not felt too weird being stained with gloss. Damn it, the poison isn't working as fast as she would have liked it to. How fucking funny, it must've been sad karma from being mean to Mello, that she's going to be punished like this.

She's gone all this way right now, and there's not going to be any turning back here. The worst case scenario she won't give a second thought for is that the poison wouldn't work at all, because that would just suck completely. She'll lose everything, if that happens. Her survival, her virginity, and she'll be some sort of faceless slut to this dude until he decides to kill her.

But no. The poison will work. It absolutely must. She knows the dose to be enough to kill at least two men, but that's because she it had been the most potent thing she's possessed then. Well. If she makes out of this like she's planned, she's already got a little list of things to do, starting with buying more potent poison.. Like rat poison, and then she'll feed it to any fucking beefy mafia guy if they get in her way.

Take that!

Hex leaves the strings of her corset slightly undone when she makes her way to the bed, exaggerating the sway of her hips as she lies herself down, and she forces herself not to kick the guy where it really hurts. It's too tempting, and suddenly too tempting when he is on top of her, tongue lapping just above her breasts, and Hex stiffens when his hand leaves a trail down her side again, and they stop just at the band of her leather shorts.

But there is a loud bang from the door just as it opens. And then again, twice, thrice, and the mafia boss uses her body momentarily as a makeshift shield against the quick coming bullets, and then Hex falls to the floor like a doll, "Oof"-ing comically.

Angry, Hex dusts herself without much care for the intruder, because the gun still aims at the boss, and only at the boss. Then she notices Mello.

He is holding the gun, he is shooting the fuck out of the pervert, he is here.

Hex's eyes narrow, and she tries to stand when she suddenly notices a sharp pain at her abdomen. She sees two gunshot wounds right there, and there is dark, wet and warm seeping out of it, staining her corset a deep burgundy. "Well, fuck," she curses casually, letting herself fall back to the floor so as to keep her strength, because she thinks her vision is slightly hazy, slowly darkening.

And she can't hear the gun firing anymore, but Mello is already beside her.

"Hex, you fucking moron." Mello hisses, and his eyes are narrowed to slits, fists clenching and unclenching as he bites his tongue to keep from yelling out. "Shit.. Are you okay?" That is the best he can start with, and he isn't sure what to do here- because sure, he's read about these things happening in books, but reality is just… so.. real, and he's starting to get a little (he won't admit this aloud) panicky.

Hex either hasn't noticed his acts, or she's chosen to ignore it completely. "It's just pain, asshole. No big deal," she replies in a chipper tone, but a short silence follows her words. Then, she growls out, "Of course I'm not okay, you dumbass! I'm bleeding and it's all your fault!"

"What the fuck? My fault?" he snaps, pulling her up gently despite her protests, so she is laying –or rather, thrashing about- on the guy's bed. He bites his lower lip, too many pieces of information running through his mind as he tries to recall his first aid lessons. "I saved your little ass! Be grateful, Hex! He would've raped you, and then kill you!"

She shoots him a dark glare, thumping her fist on his head. Mello would've already beaten the crap out of her.. well, if she is in a lesser.. bloodier situation. He cusses, undoing the strings of her corset, clumsily, but his intentions are so she'll be allowed to breathe more freely. Thankfully, she doesn't question him, most likely already knowing, but she pulls the blanket from aside to cover her womanly attributes.. Not that Mello is looking, or anything.

It isn't the time to be ogling some girl's chest like a pathetic hormone-driven teenager! She's still bleeding!

"I let him, Melly-bean," she tells him seriously, staring off somewhere in the ceiling as he tears the material of his shirt into strips. Not the best for bandages, really, but they will do their part for now.

Mello questions, or rather, deadpans, "You don't let strangers touch you randomly, Hex, you're not some kind of slut. It's rape, and you know it." Thankfully, there aren't any exit wounds from his damage, so he starts probing around for the bullets in her, no matter how much he knows he shouldn't. Hospitals are too risky. "Why the hell did you do this?"

Hex only shakes her head, continuing to babble, and she disregards his question. Mello begins to assume that she does this to direct her mind away from the pain. "No- I poured some poison into his wine.. He would've died regardless of your actions." She bites her tongue when Mello finally pulls out one from the two bullets.. and then the second one. "You coming.. It was completely unnecessary. I could've done this myself."

"Just swallow your damn pride and be grateful. I saved your life," he tells her again, eyeing the bottle of whisky on the table two feet away, and he quickly takes it, pouring it onto the cloth as a sort of antiseptic, and then pressing it onto her wound. "Those guys downstairs were on their way up, you should know. I took 'em out."

"You killed them?" Hex groans in displeasure. "Damn it, there'll be more eviden-"

Mello cuts her off, shaking his head impatiently. "I'm not an idiot, Hex. They're unconscious, and will be for at least four more hours. A friend showed me how to create those kind of bombs.. Real useful." Tearing more cloth carefully, he begins wrapping it around her. "It's a damn good thing I found you when I did."

"I told you not to come," she whispers feebly, quietly, her eyelids fluttering shut.

"You would've died," Mello tells her, and in a more subdued manner, but she already knows this. He's unexpectedly stopped his furious cleaning of her wounds, taking on a slower, a gentler pace. "I couldn't let that happen."

"Hm.." Hex cracks her eyes open slightly, a small smile –an actual smile, this time, not a smirk nor a grin- is on her lips. "…Mello?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He directs his gaze to meet hers again, she's already looking away, cheeks slightly flushing in embarrassment. She pulls off the wig, letting her much lighter tresses fan around her head, and her smile is already gone. He clears his throat quietly, eyeing the body of the man he's shot.

Mello doesn't understand. He's thought he would've felt a little more guilt than this. All he feels is the familiar loathing, and he is slightly colder now. He supposes he feels this way, this non-guilt, because he's done this for the good. Only for the good, because Mello will never truly be a murderer.

He swears it.

"Hex?" He calls her, and he gets a hum in response. "What do we do with the guy's body?"

"We'll get rid of it, obviously, along with the evidence. Then, the fun part, Melly-bean," she jokes humorlessly, letting her empty giggling fill the thick air. "Did you know that this is the guy that Rod Loss has been wanting dead? This dude was practically gloating about it," she pauses, taking a breath, then two. "Precisely, his words were "Loss wants my head".. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"I'm not beheading a man," Mello says almost immediately, clearly reading her intention, a grimace on his face as his tone takes one of an almost whine. "That's sick."

Hex laughs again, breathier from blood loss and tiredness. "Sick, maybe, but it's definitely going to get Loss impressed." As if feeling Mello's disgusted stare, she shrugs, "I'm just saying.. We'll probably even get to the higher rankings quick too."

"I'm not beheading a man!" He repeats angrily, pulling back from his hovering over her, to sit still, eyes still trained on the body. "I might give a fuck about the rankings, Hex, but I have a sense of morality and this is shit."

"I have morals too, fucker.. But, this is going nowhere," she says lightly. "… We'll do it, then. How's that?" And Mello might have imagined it, but he thinks he saw a glimmer of approval in her eyes at his unwillingness.

Mello groans, burrowing his head deeper into the uncomfortable arm of the couch while pressing a pillow over his head, trying to drown out the annoying beeping from God knows where, only without much success. His blazing blue eyes force wide open, and he is all but ready to throw something at the source of the infernal racket when he Hex stumbles off the bed, finally conscious, and she rushes as fast as her drowsy state allows her to, and she asks, "How long had it been like that?"

"Hell if I know," Mello mutters and his voice is still thick from sleep, but his mind is working just fine. Balling his hand into a fist, he rubs the sleep out of his eyes, shuffling over to Hex's cursing self at the discreet corner of the room. He raises a blond brow skeptically at the display, because she is currently typing too fast at her blaring laptop, eyes narrowed as she places her focus on it entirely. "Hex.. What's up with it?"

The string of curses are still flowing out of her mouth like a river, but she only speaks after the laptop goes silent, and her voice, from what he can tell, is a fake tone of nonchalance. "Aiber's dead." But those words were the last he'd expected. He freezes in his tracks, suddenly remembering the day he'd been told that L, his fucking idol, was dead.

And he suddenly also remembers why he is here. Kira. L. Near.

"Hex," he begins, stepping back slightly, because he does not want to remember that, and that step makes him pretend he's rewinding time for a bit. Hex is running her hands through her hair, not in that languid way she always does- it looks as if she is tearing strands out, forcing herself to think. Mello doesn't really know what to say. Well, he does, but he isn't sure if Hex wants to hear it.

He doesn't even know why he particularly cares if she wants to hear it or not. Maybe, it has something to do with losing the last (from who Mello knows, anyway) person she's ever cared for, but if Hex says shit about not caring, Mello will know. Mello isn't really.. gifted at 'comforting' anyone, it's always been Matt's job, but he isn't here now, is he? So Mello tries anyway. "I'm sor-"

"Stop," Hex exhales, rubbing her temples furiously. "Let me think."

"I'm just.." He lets his words hang, because the message is clear right there.

"I know. I know," she stresses it, "But it doesn't matter." Hex lowers her hands from her face, and now a smile, small and sad, wears itself on her features. "I thought I told you; people die anytime. It's not like I didn't expect it."

There is a silence, far too long for Mello's tastes. He backs up a few steps again until he reaches the foot of the bed, and he sinks down into it, all the while not taking his eyes of her. Her expression suddenly reminds him too much of what he might have looked like back then, and he thinks he can sense an oncoming storm brewing.

Mello is right, just for a while, but he is right. Hex becomes volatile here, grabbing the laptop and throwing it against the wall in the far end, but she while she isn't through with it, her wounds restrict her movement. Still, that single throw is enough to reduce it to an unrecognizable mess of glass, metal and other fragmented things, and when Hex gets herself on her feet again, she looks livid.

"Stop it," he tells her, just like Matt's told him. "That won't get you anywhere."

Hex shakes her head, but her eyes are sharper this time, he notices. "Might not," she hisses. "But at least I put this shitty thing to good use." She sighs, producing a lighter from her back pocket, and she sets it on fire.

He understands her intention entirely, that she wants to burn all evidence or useful information of her prior existence, because she's already inherited her higher titles. Mello thinks he is envious, because he wants to be L, and he isn't quite at his goal. Not yet. He knows it will happen in due time. Mello just lacks the patience.

"So.. What's the agenda?" he asks her, and he thinks she should be fucking appreciative that he's dropped the touchy subject on Aiber.

"We've still got a goal, don't we?" she rolls her eyes, and she's wearing a cattier smile. "We're gonna get Kira's head on a candy stick."

Mello laughs, a grin spreading across his face.

TBC

A/N: Happy summer, everyone, it's got me in a chipper mood. :) Oh, and just so you know, I have no idea how to do anything involving first aid. What Mello did was just some random crafting I did, so now that I've ruled that out, please be nice about this chapter. And about Hex's almost-rape scene.. Well, I'll leave you to comment on that. T_T

But besides that, how was this chapter? Comments, constructive criticism, opinions and ideas- they're all welcome. :D A special thanks to C. Holywell-Black (I actually look forward to your reviews. :) Mello's not quite waking up yet, but he's stirring. I get that Hex's method was a little harsh.. but Hex really isn't the nicest of characters. . haha, thanks for pointing that out.), Miss no Name (If by serious, do you mean more character building and bloodshed? I'm going to be cryptic here and say 'They'll get there in due time'. Thanks for liking the writing style!) and Overboard343 (Awesome is an awesome word. :P Mello's getting more and more badass here, at least, in my opinion. Haha, Mafia!Mello will come in due time, since they're both in LA already.) for reviewing! Now here's another little preview..

Preview:

"Why can't you do as I say? Just for once?" Hex hisses in his ear in agitation, "We need this contact. Why can't you see that he'll prove to be an asset to our goals? Charging in there will be like suicide, and I don't wanna die until I'm in the fucking mafia!"

"Hex," he sighs, calling her name firmly, then tightening his hold as she struggles, and she stiffens suddenly, as if only noticing the contact. "Why look for some guy when when Loss is right there? I don't want anyone else involved with us, asset or not." He looks to her, forcing her to listen, "Do this my way, Hex."

"Give me one good reason to."

Mello smirks, already expecting her request. "What's life without the risk?"

Now be a dear and review, please? I am shamelessly begging for some more recognition. D: