The game was far more dangerous than Matt had anticipated. Frankie had apparently gotten a few friends to help him try and frighten him off. They had pushed him against a wall while on his way back from the restroom and given him a few good hits. They had been tricky to hide from Mello but he wasn't going to back down because of a couple of thugs. He was a genius dammit, he wasn't going to be pushed around. The prize waiting for him was far too great.
He did, however, change his strategy a bit when some men conveniently decided they needed to polish their various firearms whenever he was in a room. He was going to have to be sneaky, get Frankie away from Mello as much as he could. It worked surprisingly well at first too. Mello was never in a room without him, except for bathrooms, and nearly always had his eyes locked on his friend as if he would disappear should he remove them. This annoyed Frankie more then before and he had more or less told Matt if he so much as touched Mello he would have a new hole in his head. Such an articulate person, Frankie.
When the blond was satisfied he wasn't going to evaporate, he went back to sitting around with his chocolate, thinking of his next move, or he was somewhere below the level Matt was on. He never found out what was going on down there. Mello told him it was better if he didn't know, and he believed him. If he really needed to know Mello would tell him. He did come back looking extremely happy one night. He still wouldn't explain why and Matt was fine with that, he was just glad to see the boy happy. Even if it did concern something he was sure was more dangerous than the Mafia they were currently sharing this… residence with.
After a few months of his "game" with Frankie, he decided it was time to get a little more involved than simply sticking as close to the blond as he could. Frankie would never see half of what he was doing but Mello would, with luck, be noticing him more then the gorilla.
It was more of an experiment though, to see how Mello would react to certain… attentions. Truth be told he was still worried the blond's reaction the other night had been from something that wasn't pleasure. He didn't want to be wasting his time if he was just going to be shot down, metaphorically, if he got Frankie to back off. It had been keeping him up at night to think that Mello might have been disgusted by him. He would lie in bed at night, staring at Mello's back, and wishing things were easy and he could just up and tell him everything.
That would be useless if the blond thought the idea of being with him was the most repulsive thing he'd ever heard. He had to be sure.
Mello was sitting at his desk again, bent over his laptop searching through page after page of research frantically. Something… odd had happened earlier and he wasn't quite sure how to explain it. This notebook - apparently used by Kira, but who knew – had flown through the air. It landed on a guy – Randal? – and he'd started screaming about seeing some shinigami. He claimed if we all touched the notebook we could see him too. Personally, Matt thought he was fucked up in the head, but the notebook had flown so they all touched the book and sure enough there was a shinigami. The idiots had shot at the thing, as if that would do anything. Only Mello and himself managed to stay calm. Well, until Mello had gotten to a computer away from the crowd. Then he got tense and wouldn't look away from the screen.
Matt wanted to change that.
He walked over, and much like the other night, placed his arms over the smaller boy's shoulders. His lips coming to rest right next to Mello's ear. He felt his friend stiffen and bit down on a chuckle.
"Are you still studying? Or is this something new?" he made sure to whisper so the blond would give all his attention to him. He smiled as a shiver ran down the boy's spine. Definitely not disgust then.
"Its… research." he swallowed hard. "About shinigami. I wanted to see if there was anything in Near's system about them. Of course he has pages about them, fucking sheep."
I laughed at the old insult he'd made for the albino. He had missed that name. He was also laughing at the slightly breathless tone Mello had to his voice. He was breathing nearly on they guy's neck, of course.
"Maybe he hasn't actually spoken to a shinigami yet, and then you'll be a step ahead. Ask him about all the rules, maybe a clue is in there. You could sell it to him for something if you wanted. I'm pretty sure he still has a picture of you from Wammy's. I destroyed all the ones I had, but Near would have no reason to do so."
He made sure his lips grazed his neck as he spoke. He was being entirely serious of course. It was really a likely idea, and with Kira being able to kill with a face, a picture was bad to have around. Mello gave a shaky nod but he could see his mind was far from matters involving killers and death notes.
His breathing was slightly frantic, his pupils were dilated, he was shaking like a leaf, his cheeks were flushed prettily. Matt smiled to himself. That was one experiment marked down as a success. The rest would have to wait until later.
"You want me to help? I could find where Near is faster than you can. I'll even book you a ticket to get there." Mello gave another nod, mumbling something about having to lie down for a bit. Matt hid his smirk as he watched the blond trip over things he normally would have avoided easily. Experiment number one was a big success.
Experiment number 2 was probably the most fun. He was anticipating it all day, so much so that he had almost missed several securities surrounding Near's computer system. He found the sheep's location – a huge building in New York, how inconspicuous – and booked a flight for several weeks later at Mello's request. He had also gotten a ticket for himself for an hour later, also at Mello's request, so he'd have some form of protection while he was there. That was a bit intimidating for him, if he hesitated at the wrong moment, if something happened and he messed up, he could lose Mello.
He refused to let that fear show as he crawled under the covers with the blond. He snuggled close, which was rare for them. They only ever woke up close to each other because of some movement during the night, doing it purposely. That was entirely different. It had happened a few times when they were younger but not since they had met up again.
He earned a small look of shock from Mello, but he made no move to shove the redhead away. Actually he did the opposite. He pulled him close and ran his fingers through his hair gently. Matt bit back a gasp and forced his mind to focus. He could count this experiment a success already but he couldn't resist pushing it just a bit farther. If he didn't push him away then the rest of the game was his.
He turned his head where it lay on Mello's chest and pressed his lips to the skin beneath. He was glad the leather vest he had been wearing earlier had been discarded to the floor, it made his job so much easier. Mello's breath hitched and Matt smiled against his chest. He nipped at the skin gently, soothing it with his tongue. He couldn't leave marks with the clothes the blond wore but it was good enough to see the reaction it caused.
"Matt, what are you doing?" his voice was restrained. The redhead couldn't tell if it was anger or something else he was trying to keep back. He bit at the skin again before giving a hum of acknowledgement and no answers.
"Matt… answer me…" his voice was more strained now, almost pleading. He took pity on the boy and answered him, albeit in a creative truth kind of way.
"I'm kissing you. What does it look like?"
"Yes I can see that." He paused to bite back some sound he didn't want Matt to hear. "The question is why are you kissing me?"
"That's a very good question." he said, knowing the blond really couldn't care for the answer when he licked a slow path up to his collarbone. He continued to bite and lick his way along Mello's neck and chest, careful not leave any permanent marks. Mello complained and blushed up to his ears but Matt refused to stop until he earned a moan from the boy. Let's see Frankie do that in under ten minutes.
Smiling smugly to himself, he buried his face in Mello's abused chest and let himself drift off to sleep listening to the boy's breathing return to normal. Experiment number two was another big success.
Neither boy knew about what prying eyes had seen that night nor the decision that could change everything they knew coming in the far too near future.
Matt walked with a new pride after his experiments with Mello provided favorable results. He knew Mello wanted him; he just needed to worry about the two ton gorilla watching them every time they were within sight.
He didn't know Frankie had seen the entire thing. From the second he put his arms around Mello in the chair until he fell asleep, he had been watching and planning. He wasn't a smart man and he knew that. But he could kill anything he chose and he chose Matt.
A/N: yup yup chapter 4! this is now my longest story that i actually updated! finally out of my awful funk! again its a bit short but i was sick give me a break. i love the experiments though! and since i hate writing in 3rd person and i really just cant continue this like that im going to switch it to first person. its so much better like that anyway.
next chapter will be better!!! the action starts!!!