Warmth.

Too warm. I felt like I was suffocating.

What the hell?

I tried to move but it felt like a weight was holding me down. My leg had fallen asleep and was now awakening or whatever, and the uncomfortable tingling sensation just made me want to move away from it all. But I couldn't. I was on my bed, there shouldn't have been anything holding me down.

Perhaps this was a dream?

I cracked my eyes open, trying to wake up, and saw flaxen cotton candy. What even? I mean, that's an awesome vision to wake up to, but shouldn't it be lightweight? And I couldn't smell any cotton candy either.

And that's when the events of yesterday flooded back to me.

That was Mello.

I could feel his chest rising and falling against mine. He was lying right on top of me. I further opened my eyes lazily and blinked sleep away, my vision clearing quickly. He was lying flat on my chest with his head buried into my shoulder, and his legs in between mine with his arms wrapped around my waist awkwardly and it took me a moment to fully process the situation. And as soon as I did, my face heated up as I realized how pressed up against each other we were, leaving literally no room between us. No wonder I feel so hot (well, I am quite the handsome hunk too; but we can talk about that later), he must have cuddled up with me in my sleep.

Wow, I never expected him to be the cuddling type. I guess I expected him to be the kind that hogged all the blankets and kicked everyone off the bed or some shit.

I was about to try an push him off of me when he shifted on top of me with a sigh of contentment, and I realized he was going to wake up.

"U-uh, Mello?" I whispered uneasily.

He grumbled something inaudible in response, most likely not realizing he is sleeping in my bed yet. I didn't want him to wake up, his reaction to the fact that he twined himself around me like were a rope of Twizzlers in the middle of the night would probably end up with him punching me in the face and plotting my demise, even though I'm the victim. But the chance that he would fall back asleep and get off of me is super low.

"Mello?" I spoke a little bit louder this time, deciding to wake him up.

His breathing changed quickly as he became more awake, and rolled off of me just slightly as he opened his eyes.

"What?" He mumbled lightly, still blinking sleep out of his eyes, though I could see confusion on his expression.

"Nothing," I mumbled and sat up before he said anything else about what just happened, or noticed my cherry red face. I stood up awkwardly and walked hurriedly into the bathroom, leaving no time for him to say anything else. Once I closed the door behind myself I took a quick glance in the mirror, before deciding on a shower.

I leaned down and turned on the taps, adjusted the temperature and turned on the shower head. Then I quickly undressed and piled my clothes in a corner of the floor, I hadn't finished the load of laundry from last night so I didn't have a basket like I usually would, but I didn't care all the much. I stepped under the cool spray of water and sighed as my body temperature adjusted to the water; though, much to my disdain, the water couldn't cool off the temperature of my cheeks. Which meant I still looked like a cherry wannabe.

You know what? I'm just going to pretend like I had a nice, hot shower which left my cheeks so red. There.

Unlike Mello, I didn't take long showers. Actually, I didn't take showers often. Only if I am going to a meeting or dinner, aside from that I tend to settle for a shower once a week. Well, yeah, it is unhygienic; but if you think about it, I don't exercise much, so it's not like I need to shower often anyway. I picked up a bottle of cinnamon shampoo and squirted some into my hands before lathering my hair, running my fingers through my mousey brown locks and lightly scrubbing them clean. When I was satisfied I let the water rinse my hair of the sharp scented bubbles, and lazily washed the rest of my body. I made sure I was fully rinsed off before shutting off the taps and grabbing a towel, and proceeded to dry myself off.

I pulled on a pair of baggy jeans and and a red and black striped t-shirt and then I exited the bathroom. I didn't check the time when I went into the shower so I hoped it wasn't too late, considering the fact that I still had to go to school.

I felt heat rise to my cheeks again when I saw Mello sitting on the bed shirtless. He was sitting with his legs crossed and I guess he caught on to what exactly he'd done because his face expressed something more like a mix of embarrassment and anger instead of sleep-mussed confusion. The good thing is, he hasn't leapt of the bed and cold-bloodedly strangled me (yet).

I avoided his gaze and walked across the room towards my phone that lay on my computer desk. I couldn't help but think that this was exactly like some cheesy soap opera where characters are really awkward around each other in the morning after a one-night stand. Only, this wasn't a one-night stand, this was just an awkward situation that I was put into with this guy I hardly know and, it wasn't even my fault. Yet I can feel Mello glaring holes into my back as I picked up my phone. 'As if it were my fault,' I thought resignedly.

I picked up my phone and looked the time. It was 6:29am.

School starts at 7:30am for me, and I usually arrive just as the school bell rings for class. Normally I would be frustrated to wake up at this hour, but this time it was all good, considering the fact that my mom wakes up at 7:00am. Ugh, just imagining what would've happened if I'd overslept and she walked in on me and Mello in that extremely compromising position makes me shiver. This timing would give me time to smuggle Mello out of here. I am pretty sure he would not be happy to be stuck in my room all day.

What was I going to do with him though? I need to get him to go back home for obvious reasons, but I doubt I will be able to convince him to do so, considering his opinion of his parents. I can't let him get mad at me for trying to get him to go home. I wasn't stupid, if I try to get him to do so he will say that I just want him out of my way. But it is only a matter of time before my parents notice him staying here.

So what do I do?

Not just that, he is a runaway, there is that little fact about it being illegal to house runaways (it's not like I'm a stickler for rules, but this is a big one to flout) and where would he stay while I am at school? Actually, I'll let him figure that out, as long as he doesn't get himself, or me, into any trouble like yesterday, and I doubt he'd do that. So, he should be fine by himself. It is not really like I should care anyway, though I do...

I turned around to face Mello, trying hard not to let the awkward air in the room faze me.

"I have school, so you'll have to go out somewhere for the day until I'm out," I said, my voice more nervous sounding than I intended it to be.

"Where am I supposed to go?" He questioned, annoyed.

Why is he being so difficult first thing in the morning?!

"You don't have anywhere to hide out for the day?" I questioned him, trying to be composed around him. Thankfully, I liked him a bit too much to actually feel any anger towards him.

He shrugged. "Nope. Also, shouldn't you get my clothes out of the wash before your mom finds them?"

Smartass.

"Oh, yeah." I said dumbly, I had forgotten about the clothes that I put in last night for a moment. "I can still get them," I righted myself, "But you can't exactly stay here all day, my Mom cleans my room and she would find you..." I trailed off, edging him to speak.

He looked thoughtful for a moment, "I will figure something out, but I can't hang out in town anywhere," he spoke dismissively.

I frowned "I don't think..." I don't think it would work, and it wouldn't be good if my Mom found Mello in my room, in fact she might think that he has been here the whole time. But if he doesn't have anywhere to stay for the day, I guess he could hide in my room if my Mother is coming, under the bed, shower, closet, maybe computer desk? Mello is smart, so I think he could pull it off. More so than I could anyway...

"Alright." I nodded, changing my mind.

Mello only nodded in response and lay back down on top of the blankets, with the same criminology book from last night that he had left on the bedside table, and he began reading from where he left off, ignoring me completely.

I exited the room silently, being careful not to wake my Mother and headed for the laundry room, rejoicing at the fact that I was out of Mello's presence. I still felt awkward from my abrupt awakening this morning and decided I would go to school early, after telling my Mom so that she has less reason to go into my room of course.

I collected the laundry from the machine and headed back upstairs quickly with the basket of clean clothes, entering the room again and putting the laundry basket beside the bed before I found my jeans from yesterday and took my ID card out of the pocket, grabbed my bag and headed for the door again. Before I exited again I spoke. "You will need to put your clothes on before my mom comes in here, okay?"

He didn't acknowledge me even a bit. Dude's got a load of bad attitude, I tell you. I just sighed and got out of there.

"School doesn't start for another hour," I heard him state just as I was about to close the door.

"I have to go early to finish a project," I lied weakly, as I shut the door, not wanting him to know I felt uncomfortable around him at the moment.

He didn't respond to that. I felt like he knew my excuse was just that, but didn't dwell on it. I walked down the hall towards my Mother's bedroom and knocked on the door, it opened in a few seconds so I guess she was doing her makeup or something of the sort. She gave me a questioning look at the fact that I was at her door this early.

"What's up?" She asked, still looking a bit sleepy.

"I have to go to school early for a project that I need to finish, so you don't need to make me breakfast or anything," I told her, using the same excuse I had with Mello.

"Oh, alright, that's fine." She smiled at me. "See you later!"

"Bye," I turned away with a wave and shot her a smile before heading down stairs and outside, and then took my usual route to school.

XXXX

"No, I do not see your point, Beyond," The brunette argued, "He was a psychopath, he had no reason not to kill her if she was going to out him to the police. I don't see how it wasn't him!"

Beyond let out a sigh at the prospect of having to have to explain his theory to the girl again. "He was raised on the streets with her since they where children. He'd murdered people so they could survive with the money off the victims. As he got older he murdered for fun, but when Cecilia found out that he wasn't murdering victims for survival alone, she threatened to out him to the police, as her journal states. She was shot in the head once, but Million's other victims were chopped and carved and made into a disturbing forms of art, as this file states. If you ask me, if he had a connection with her from childhood he would have put effort into making her corpse look nice."

"But the others were just his victims, if you are going with that point; he wouldn't have carved her out," She looked sickened, "He would have thought that she deserves to be preserved as she was, therefore he would have just left her like that; he's a human too, right?"

"You're not getting the point!" Beyond drawled.

"Your theory doesn't make any sense, Beyond, why would someone else want to kill her anyway?" She continued with her argument.

"Because, like you said, he was a psychopath! He wanted all of his victims to 'look good' after death. For example the more important or rich people he murdered he put more effort into cleaning off their blood and making sure the cuts where exact. Those who deserved it in his opinion he made look nicer, therefore he would have done so with someone he had a friendship with, also meaning he didn't kill her. For your other question there is not enough evidence to know for sure if someone else had a grudge on her or not." He explained his theory concisely.

"But-" She started, only to stop and pout, which was probably supposed to look attractive, "Fine," She grumbled. "But you're wrong."

I could tell Beyond's argument prevailed. In fact, he had the same theory I had for today's criminology assignment, although his was well thought out, while mine was just a vague idea. But I still felt bad for his partner's lack of smarts in this area of study.

"What do you think, Matt?" Beyond asked me, ignoring the girl sitting on the other side of the table who was now taking notes on the assignment resignedly.

I looked up from the crime photos that I was looking at, to look up at Beyond. "You had the same theory as mine, though you were more detailed," I responded carelessly.

"Ah, I see," He chuckled lightly and went back to his own file to build up evidence on the case.

Million Varmin and Cecilia Forefront, raised on the streets, no family, always relied on each other, a total of 23 murders ranging from beggars and gang members to wealthier and important business people. The reason for murdering at first was survival, they would murder the victim and then take all of their belongings. Eventually the murders became more precise and it became harder to find clues; the only thing tying them together being the dollar symbol carved on the victims' chest. After the 11th murder, it was concluded that the murders weren't just for survival anymore. In 2011, they got evidence after a killing that led them to an apartment on Riverside Bank in LA, where Cecilia was found shot and Million was nowhere to be seen. There is a lack of evidence everywhere and two years have passed, no more murders, no sign of Million anywhere.

Me and Beyond paired up and chose this assignment because of the fact that it was never solved and it would be interesting to come up with more theories for it, though it is pretty straight forward. The girl that joined us has a crush on me, I guess. It's foolish to choose your class partners just because of a crush, right? But anyway, criminology is okay, though I still don't care about it all that much; in fact, I'd only chosen it because it seemed more difficult than most of the other courses. I don't intend to pursue it in the future; I want to do something associated with games actually.

The school bell rang shrilly, signaling the end of class for today and the students collected their bags and began to leave as the teacher extolled the things to remember before they all left. I stood up with my bag ready to leave along with Beyond, who took his sweet time stretching in his chair before putting his books precisely in place. Zipping up his bag he finally stood up and followed me to the lockers. I put what books I wouldn't need in my locker and slung my bag over my shoulder, ready to leave.

"See you, Beyond." I waved goodbye to him and waited a few seconds in case he had anything he wanted to say.

"Yeah. Bye, Matt," He waved as well and headed the opposite way that I would go, as usual.

I headed off back the way I came to school this morning, through a few alleys that were usually frequented by students so they were generally safe.

Unlike this morning, I actually wanted to see Mello. I had gotten over the morning's predicament and getting away from him for the day, no matter how short the time period, had helped. I wanted to be friends with him, though there are a few problems that I should deal with concerning him, like convincing him to go back to his home and resolving things with his parents. But that will definitely take a while.

I like Mello. Like, I genuinely like him, and though I don't want to deal with my own feelings of attraction towards him right now, I still want to be friends with him. I also feel like I have known him for years. It is an odd feeling really, like I would trust him with anything even though I don't know him.

I arrived at the door to my house and right away noticed that my Mother's car was gone from the garage, so she left for some reason? Maybe she went to the market or something. It is likely, though she usually goes in the morning...

I opened the door, entered the house and took my off shoes before I headed towards my bedroom, though I stopped when I caught sight of Mello, sitting on the couch like he owned it.

He was watching a show of some sort on the TV with little interest; he had his legs crossed and his arms resting on top of the couch. Looking rather relaxed for someone who had run away and is hiding out in a house that belongs to someone else.

"You shouldn't be down here," I stated.

He didn't look at me when he responded, "Your Mom is gone and I am paying attention, when she comes back I will have plenty of time to go back to your room."

I stared at him, letting a moment of silence pass.

"And besides," He drawled, "Your room is boring as hell."

"Whatever," I huffed, giving up the small argument and turned away to go back to my room. I had a few things for homework that we were not allowed to do at school and had to wait till we got home anyway, so I decided I would get those over with and play some games for awhile. Then maybe I would see about socializing with Mello, which will definitely be difficult.

Mello didn't respond as I went upstairs and soon I was settled in front of my computer.

Within the course of thirty minutes I had all of my assignments done, I finished my criminology paper, a computer science file that was way too easy, and a math book that was supposed to take quite awhile, but I finished that easily as well. After that was done I entered an online game called Fallon Breaks that I had recently signed up for. It was interesting, kind of like Runescape but a little more simplified and more for one story line than many. It was fun and I enjoyed it.

Two hours passed in that fashion before I began to grow bored, I beat several levels of my current game and I was considering going to find Mello and do something. I wonder how good he is with games? He probably couldn't beat me even if he was really good, though.

I wondered where my Mom went, it was unusual for her to be gone this long after I got back from school and she didn't work a job. I dismissed the line of thought though, deciding that she was probably having lunch with a friend or something of the sort and lost track of time. I instead went downstairs to find Mello, who looked like he was observing the TV with little interest now. Why was he still there? Surely he was bored of that after this long?

I spoke from my place in the doorway before Mello noticed me, "Do you want to do something?"

He looked over at me. "Like what?" He asked blankly.

"I don't know, we could play some games together,"

That sounded so childish, dammit. And awkward...

"I told you already, that I wouldn't play your dumb games with you." He scoffed.

I let out a sigh, remembering the first day we met, and I walked over to the couch where I grabbed hold of the TV remote before Mello noticed what my intentions were.

"Hey!" He yelled, turning around in his seat.

I quickly backed away with a smirk and pressed a button on the remote changing the station to the Wii, "You're going to play Mariokart with me," I stated.

"No, I'm fucking not." He deadpanned while glaring at me.

I purposely pouted at him. "Just one game, come on!"

"One," He agreed as his turned back towards the TV, after he flipped me off of course. Typical.

"Great," I said happily, and hopped onto the couch, letting Mello have some space still as I shuffled through the TV stand and retrieved two Wii-motes and the wheel cases for them.

I sat back and clicked into the Mariokart icon on the screen and while it loaded, I tossed Mello a controller and started on the settings for our game.

"I don't know how to play," He admitted from beside me.

"Um," I took my eyes off the screen for a moment to tell him the controls and leaned closer to him so I could point to the buttons. "A is to look behind you, B is to drop your items, you can hold B to keep an item behind you, one is for breaks and two is gas. It's pretty simple. Oh, and you just use the remote like a wheel to turn."

"Seems stupid," He mumbled.

"You mean fun," I corrected him and sat back up to press the play button on the screen. "Hold the two button in sequence with the numbers to get a speed boost on the start line," I advised as the first map appeared. It was the Luigi Circuit which would be good for Mello to get the hang of the game.

The counter went off with a 'Go' and Mello (who was Bowser) and I (Mario) both went off with a speed boost, pulling ahead of the computers. But I bumped him out of the way and pulled ahead of him, earning a frustrated growl from Mello.

I saw Mello get hit by a red-shell as I took a corner and got a mystery box, but continued ahead of him anyways, determined to win the round.

Soon we left all of the characters at least half a lap behind us and Mello was in second place just behind me, sending off the odd green-shell with surprisingly good aim. He actually got me with a green-shell a few times. I had to admit, he was really good for someone who never played before.

The first race finished pretty quickly with me first and Mello second.

I heard Mello let out a sigh and toss the controller on the couch, I continued and pressed 'Next map' button on the screen.

"Hey, I said one game!" He shouted.

"Yeah, one game. You know there are several races in a game, right?" I smirked at him.

"You fucking-"

He was stopped mid sentence as I threw a pillow onto his face, though I soon realized this was a mistake as his face turned into an expression of rage and he raised his fist at me. "What the hell did you do that for?" He growled at me.

"Uh-" To late, his fist connected with my shoulder, in more of a push than a hit(that felt like a last minute decision) sending me sprawling to the floor below him, I made a noise of surprise as I reached my hand to my shoulder. Mello was small, but he was surprisingly strong.

"What the hell was that for?!" I shouted to him indignantly, only to get an angry glare and a scoff.

"You threw a pillow at me," He stated.

"It was a pillow, not Thor's hammer!" I countered. "How the fuck does that justify a punch?"

"Yeah well, what are you going to do about it?" He mocked, giving me a challenging look. The bugger, he was..totally baiting me.

I glared at him. He had no reason to punch me, pillows don't hurt, fists do. You would think he could have been less childish, though as I glared at him from the floor I noticed he was not as angry anymore as much as his expression showed a bit of mirth. He was teasing me, not quite baiting, I realized, and had an idea.

With one swift movement I pushed myself up, kicked my legs out and effectively knocked him to the ground. He let out a rather girly squeak as he hit the floor in a similar fashion that I had, and I took the chance to jump on him, pinning him to the floor in the only way I could without it being awkward and sat on his stomach sideways, crossing my legs.

"That," I snickered, "Is what I will do about it, Mello."

"What the hell?! Get off of me, you fucking piece of redheaded gamer shit!"

I ignored him as he threw a fit, kicking, screaming and uttering rather creative profanities, while I kept him pinned to the ground.

"Get off of me, you freak" He spoke quieter then last time, his face was red now from his incessant screaming and his hair tousled from his struggling. It looked rather cute.

"Apologize, and I will." I said smugly.

"Apologize?" He said incredulously "You drag me here, make me stay cooped up in your room all day, force me to play video games, then act like you know me or something and you expect me to apologize?"

"What?" That surprised me.

"What do you mean, 'what'?" He huffed.

"I act like I know you?" I clarified.

"Yeah, you make me play games with you, offer me clothes, tease me, you'd think we were middle school buddies or something,"

"I do that?" I questioned, still sitting on top of him.

"Yeah, dumbass."

"Well you do the same thing. But now that I think about it, I do feel like I know you," I mumbled thoughtfully.

"Can you get off of me now?"

"Not until you apologize" I persisted.

"Fine, I'm sorry that I punched you, Matt." He said offensively, not meaning it in the least.

"Good." I hopped up off of him and lent him a hand, he took it this time and stood up and dusted himself off.

An awkward silence passed us for a few minutes, neither of us knowing what to say after that, until Mello decided to speak. "Why are you doing this anyways? It makes no sense. I have known you for what? Five days?" He questioned me.

"Uh..." I stammered, not knowing what to say, but finally settled for, "I just like you, is there a problem with that?"

"Yes,"

"Why?" I challenged.

"There just is," He proclaimed.

"Well, tough luck. Also you've known me for six days, not five." I couldn't help but tease him with that little bit of information.

He paused, probably going through the last few days and counting how long since he first met me, and then returning me with a confused look "Are you stupid? It's five."

"Six," I smirked.

"I met you on Sunday, that is almost precisely five days."

"It's six," I repeated.

Mello opened his mouth to question me but was cut off by the house phone ringing and I rushed over to answer it, in case it was something important and blatantly ignored Mello's "Hey, forget the phone! What do you mean...?" and picked it up.

"Jeevas residence, Matt speaking,"

"Hello, this is the Spring Bank hospital. Is Thomas Jeevas at home?" A female voice spoke on the other end.

My stomach sank as I heard her and remembered my Mother being late, my voice was laced with worry when I spoke again (I know that for a fact because Mello noticed it too). "No, he is at work currently, what is going on?"

"What is your relation to the family?" The voice on the other end questioned.

"I'm Thomas Jeevas's son, you can call me Matt," I clarified for her.

"I'm sorry, your Mother was in an accident today at the market."

"What?!" I shouted, my stomach dropping and a wave of nausea passing through me. My mother has been sick for years, but never enough that she has ever ended up in the hospital, she always faired just fine despite her illness.

"Calm down, Matt, she is stable but we need her family to come to the hospital as soon as possible. Can you call your Father?"

"Yeah."

"Alright goodbye dear. Best of luck,"

I hung up without a response and simply stared at the phone.

What the hell happened? I felt a little more at ease knowing she is stable, but the way she said it, it must have been bad, really bad; especially for them to request we come to the hospital immediately.

"What's wrong?" Mello questioned from beside me.

I looked at him.

"It's my Mother..."