It's uncool how cliché I looked, tapping on the table and staring at my watch while I waited for my date (aka Mello) to show up at the restaurant we decided to meet up at. Yesterday night, Mello and I watched a few more movies and then, and after we decided it was late, Mello went back home; but not before we (finally!) traded phone numbers and decided to meet today at lunchtime for coffee and to just hang out. That being said, Mello is now officially 22 minutes (and counting) late. Not that I minded too much, I've only gone through two and a half cups of coffee while waiting.

Sigh, the things I do for love.

Last night, I came to a realization. Even when Mello'd said my fairytale explanation of the depth of the feelings I felt for him was stupid, it really is not. Mello and I are so different, from each other as well as from other people. I mean, I have never ever found anybody attractive (except myself; but we aren't talking about that now, are we?) and I've never wanted to be friends with anybody; and I certainly would never have tolerated waiting for someone who is late for a date, I'd probably just up and leave after 5 minutes of waiting. Most of all, I have never felt so right like the way I do when I am with him. What I'm trying to say is, I am absolutely certain that this is not just some stupid teen romance-y fascination. I really do enjoy being around Mello, and it's not just an attraction. I can be myself without having to conform to stupid societal expectations weighing me down.

I can't really explain how I feel around him, really the only word that comes to my mind to describe the feeling is 'right', and that doesn't really explain everything to you, does it? Like, I trust him with my freaking life.

I love him, despite all his shortcomings.

Yet it still seems so absurd! Is this what it is like when you really do love somebody? I feel like I'm in some sappy Shakespearean play or some shit.

Holy...I am totally in love with Mello!

I laughed slightly (and I probably looked like an utter lunatic to all the other people around me, but whatever); I have only known Mello for a little over a week, yet it doesn't really seem like a problem at all. Really, what does time matter when you feel this way about someone? All those stupid quotes on love make so much sense to me now.

"What's so funny?"

Mello's voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I turned around in my chair in surprise.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about us," I said, with a cheeky grin.

"What naughty thoughts have you been entertaining in that cute head of yours?" He smirked. What a saucy boy.

"You're late," I remarked, not spitefully, but cheerfully for some reason I couldn't even fathom.

Mello looked down at the table, and he seemed a little embarrassed when he said, "My parents wanted to give me a talk about my career and when I said I didn't want to talk about it, they asked me where I wanted to go to in such a hurry...so yeah,"

"Damn! That's fine, I don't mind," I told him, not wanting to make him feel bad, even though he wouldn't show it if he did.

"So, how late am I?"

"Um," I looked at my watch. "About half an hour,"

It was 31 minutes, but I wanted to show off my cool side to him today, and that wasn't the best way to look cool, right?

"Huh, you've probably already had a few cups of coffee by now, so," he pointed to my empty coffee cup, "Err, do you want to go do something else?" He asked me a little awkwardly.

"Uh yeah, I did have quite a bit of coffee, so how about we just walk around a bit? There's a park near here,"

"Sure," He stood up, grabbed my hand and pulled me up, and then we left the shop, our hands still held together.

"This way," I led the way left down the fairly busy street till we reached our destination. We were in a pretty leisurely area in LA, kind of a reserved quiet spot for those who live wealthier lives; so it wasn't so crowded that we couldn't talk as we walked towards the park.

"So...you want to be a detective, don't you?" I asked him curiously, and to strike up a conversation. It was so cute to watch him perk up a little at the mention of his future career.

"Yeah, my parents want me to be an administrator in the agency like the rest of my family, but I don't want to just sit behind a desk all day sorting out who could work for us. I want to solve crimes, like L."

"L?" I couldn't quite place the title.

He looked at me disbelievingly "You don't know who L is?"

I shook my head. "Gamer, remember?"

"Oh, right. L is a world class detective, the best of the best; and he came out of my family's agency. That's why my family is so popular. But you know what? That is absolute bullshit; L is the only success to make it through my family's agencies. I want to be the next success, and maybe even work alongside L one day." He explained determinedly, and I could see how much it meant to him.

"Really, I don't know much about this stuff, but it sounds pretty badass," I said, not faking my enthusiasm.

"It is." He assured me, "And what about you?"

If I was asked that a year ago I wouldn't have had an answer, but now I have a much better idea, even if it isn't so clear. "I am planning on taking an online hacking and computer technology course, but I am not sure what I am going to focus on in that area,"

He snorted, "Typical."

"Yep, you know me too well, and you barely know me," I joked.

"Yeah, what are we going to tell family members in the future about how we met? It really is an odd situation," Mello pondered.

"Tell them it's complicated," I told him as I grabbed his hand and landed a quick peck on his cheek, Mello smiled at me in return.

"Puppy." He mumbled under his breath with amusement.

"That one's gonna get old pretty soon, you know,"

"I guess I will have to find new ways to make it interesting," He mocked with a wide smirk, and I blushed hotly as soon as I caught on to the innuendo and ducked my head in embarrassment. But that brought a question to the surface of my mind.

"Did I embarrass you?" He spoke in mock concern.

Hah! You wish.

"Um, Mello?"

"What's it?"

"It's just," I could feel my face heating up as I asked him; "Are you...you know, not a virgin?" I was about to explain further when he stayed silent for a few seconds until he started laughing.

I gave him a confused and embarrassed look. "What?"

"Nothing. No, I'm not; I am assuming you are, though."

"Uh, yeah," I ducked my head again, "Actually I have never even dated somebody," I admitted.

"Seriously?"

"Mmhm. I kissed a girl when I was 15, but I never experienced anything more. In fact, I didn't actually like it all that much, so I have never had any interest in girls, or guys for that matter since then," I explained, deciding I might as well tell him.

"Oh," He said in understanding "You're like the opposite of me, except I kind of always knew I was gay." He informed me, filling in a few of my own questions for me with that sentence.

"Ah, so Jure...?" Now is as good a time as ever to ask him that question.

Now it was Mello's turn to blush a little, only a little though. "Jure and I have been best friends since we were kids; we did experiment when we were in high school, but we were nothing more." He said, clearly reminiscing about his old friend.

For some reason I actually didn't feel jealous about that, not at all like how it is said to be when you are in relationships. It just didn't bother me. Of course it would've pissed me off if they were still together or something, but I trust that Mello wouldn't lie about that.

"I see,"

"You're not bothered about that or anything?" Wow, I just finished thinking about it. Y'know what they say, great minds think alike.

"No, not in the slightest; as long as it's over and there is nothing to worry about." I told him.

He smiled "I really do like you. Some guys would make a fuss over it,"

Finally someone realizes what an awesome boyfriend I am.

"Well I'm not one of them," I chuckled.

"No you really aren't. I'm not sure how you put up with me, actually; I have been told I come with a lot of baggage."

I shrugged, "Small prices,"

"To bad we are in public..." He mumbled, clearly insinuating what he wanted to do and making me blush again. What? I'm totally unused to this side of him.

"Anyway, Mello..." I said, wanting to clear something up that had been bugging me.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it's just...your parents..." I trailed off, unsure of how to continue, so I just hoped that he would fill in the spaces there.

"I don't want to deal with them, I just want to move out already and leave them behind," He stated icily. Wow, what a quick change in his demeanour. I just want us to go back to the camaraderie we had like, ten seconds ago. But I have to plod on.

"I know that's what you want to do, but have you had a conversation with them about how you feel without anybody raising their voices or anything?"

He snorted. "They hate who I am. That's just how it is, there is no getting around it."

"Yeah, but my parents are generally going to come to terms with the idea, and I wanted your folks to be on board with us being together. I mean, obviously, just because my parents were okay with it doesn't mean your parents should be okay with it too; but I'd like it if we went and tried to talk them into accepting us, it probably won't affect us -and more importantly, you- anymore than it already does, right?" Truth is, though we haven't spoken about it, I could tell how much it hurts Mello that his parents dislike him like so, even if he doesn't acknowledge it. That kind of thing affects everybody one way or another and I would like to be able to see Mello on a friendly level with his parents in the future.

Mello stayed silent for awhile and I was worried that I shouldn't have brought it up, until he spoke again. "If you really want me to, I will; but you definitely have to come with me okay?"

"Of course, that is what I was thinking," I smiled.

"But it won't go as well as you are planning, Mattie," He sounded disdainful.

"If it doesn't, then we can forget all about your parents, okay? Let's just try and see. Like I said before, how will it affect us anymore than it already does?"

He shook his head with a sigh. "If you say so; I'd rather just leave it as it is though,"

"Hey, it's okay," I told him slightly more cheerfully, trying to lighten his now dampened mood. "Both of your parents will be home at about two, right? Let's go get some ice cream and go to the pet store for awhile. Then, we'll go see them, how does that sound?" I said gave him a light kiss.

"Okay, but why do we need to go to a pet store?"

"We'll need a cat to even out your mood," I chuckled only to earn a firm shove in the shoulder by Mello.

"How about another puppy so you can be friends with it?" He teased in retaliation.

"Sounds good," I laughed

"Are you serious?" He questioned me with a dubious look on his face.

"Am I?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No, because dogs are a pain." He stated.

Ooh, we have a serious cat person right here. Thank god I don't mind one way or another.

"Fine then," I mock pouted and dragged him in the direction of the nearest ice cream shop.

"See, it's adorable!" I held up a fluffy orange kitten to the ever-reluctant Mello.

About an hour after we got ice cream we headed off to the pet shop, though Mello seemed very reluctant. Honestly I would like a pet of sorts, but only if Mello agreed, so I was relying on that a bit. So now I was holding up an orange tabby kitten to Mello.

He glared at me for about one second (before realizing I knew how his mind worked most of the time and gave up) then gave a resigned sigh and took it gingerly.

"It's really not that cute," He drawled as he held the kitten awkwardly in his arms, stroking it's ear lightly so it would stay still.

"Whatever. Put it down then," I told him dejectedly as I reached into the cage and pulled out a fluffy black kitten "By the way, we could start looking around for an apartment to rent; we only have six months before we move out,"

"Yeah, we should get started right now if we want to get a hold on something nice that we can afford," He said distractedly and he frowned down at the kitten who had a firm grip on his finger and wouldn't let go, purring contentedly all the while.

It was a really pretty sight to see Mello all flustered and trying not to show it.

"So, what's his name?" I asked him, noting how he didn't want to put the kitten down.

"Huh?" He looked up at me.

"What's that little guy's name?"

"I don't know, Ginger, for all I care," He responded, withdrawing his hand and letting the kitten clumsily (but carefully) tumble back into its cage.

"Aw, you really don't like him?" I asked him, pouting.

"No, not really. Now come on, we should get going soon." He said as his stood up from his place on the floor.

"Alright, sounds good," I responded and put my own kitten back into the cage before closing the door and standing up as well. "Thanks for letting us visit," I said as I waved to the employees of the pet shop and followed Mello out the door, earning a few pleasant goodbyes from them.

"I don't like cats," He mumbled as we stepped onto the sidewalk and tried to hail a taxi.

"You didn't seem to mind that one," I responded.

He only huffed as a taxi pulled up beside us and entered the car with a quick "1420 Bird Street, Robin Drive," thrown at the driver as I sat down beside him

"Hey, I was wondering what it's like in Slovenia," I spoke after a few minutes of driving in silence.

"Well.. it's definitely not like here. It is way prettier, even for someplace in the countryside. I lived in a small town, so I didn't get to see many of the cities." He told me.

"Do you miss it?"

"Well, I was pretty pissed when my parents told me we were moving."

What a shocker. Mello is such a sourpatch, I'd be more surprised if he wasn't pissed off about this.

"I could easily imagine that scenario," I mumbled thoughtfully.

"Hehe, yeah. I threw a fit. Actually, I had almost convinced them to stay..."

"Yeah, so why did you move out here?" I asked him, recalling my earlier question.

I noticed him hesitate a little before he spoke. "My parents kinda caused some trouble with the family business in the past; rejected it, if you will. So, with most of the family living in Slovenia, we weren't the most popular people in town. My parents figured we should just get a new start and chose LA," He explained.

"So it was really just to avoid rumors and drama?"

"Yep, so what do you intend to tell my parents?" He asked me, his look a little distant now. I knew he just doesn't like talking with his parents, and this could do more harm than good. But I had to try, I just wanted to see what the situation really is and hopefully they would come to a little bit more of an understanding.

"I don't really have a plan," I realized (thank god Mello decided to ask me about this, what if I'd just remembered that I didn't have a plan when I was standing at the doorway to The Louvre..erm, I mean Mello's house), earning a snort from Mello, who in turn only rested his head on the window and stared at the passing traffic.

Taking that as the end of this conversation, and easily being able to tell that Mello was, in fact nervous, I followed suit and stared out the window as we drove along the road.

What would I tell his parents? I didn't have a clue, of course I could tell them that Mello and I are together, but that would just make them angry. I guess I'll gauge the situation and just let it come to me as I went. It wasn't like I was cool as a cucumber about the aspect of facing Mello's not-homophobic-and-not-condescending-at-all parents.

The taxi soon parked up to Mello's mansion-like house and I made sure to pay the driver a good amount before we exited and soon enough we were walking up the driveway to his house, both of us nervous -as expected. This time, knocking on the door was not necessary considering Mello has been here for at least a little while, so we simply entered without knocking.

The inside was just like I remember, with all of the fancy paintings, flowers and their vases, and the like. We didn't need to take off our shoes like we would have had to in my house, as the maids cleaned regularly. Hiring a maid at my place sounds like a great plan right about now. Maybe I should go home and...okay, I'm not going to be a wimp.

"Mello, welcome back." A younger brunette greeted us after we stepped inside, dressed in a formal white button-up shirt, black Capri pants and had a waist belt to carry whatever minor items she had, her hair was brushed back into a ponytail and overall she looked friendly, if not a little tired.

Could this be a real, honest-to-goodness, live butler?! Good heavens, what am I going to witness next? The Queen of England descending down the staircase?

Mello only nodded in response to her before saying, "Can you ask my Mother and Father to meet us in the living room?"

"Oh, of course. Would you like to give them a reason?" She asked politely.

"No, just tell them to come," He drawled and continued walking down the extensive hallway, with me following suit.

Damn, this place looks like a burglar's wet dream.

We came into their living room, that I easily recognized as everything was the same as before, if not a bit more immaculate. Beige couches surrounded a large coffee table, with plants hung along the plaster walls, a burgundy rug lay across the main walkway, and some idle lounge chairs here and there. I noticed one thing different though, and that was a chess board set off to the side, and obviously a very expensive one at that. I could tell each piece was made of silver, with gems of some sorts on each one, whereas the board itself was made of marble. Usually, I wouldn't consider this set a match made in heaven, but somehow this one managed to work quite well indeed.

"Matt," Mello's voice broke me out of my thoughts, and I realized I had been nearly gawking at their house again.

"Sorry," I apologized, "It just looks so cool in here," well, that sounded childish, but that was the truth. This house was magnificently opulent (if the fact that they had statues and water fountains indoor didn't indicate that to you) as opposed to the modernistic and minimalistic decor found in most other houses. Probably because in Slovenia their decor was less modern than in LA, so they would have different tastes.

Mello sighed and took a seat at one of the couches, "You have already been here; what's so impressive about it?"

Is this dude for real? Seriously?

"Everything, you rich twat," I grinned, and took a seat beside Mello, "I didn't pay quite as much attention to it before; y'know, what with me trying not to piss my pants when your Mom was facing me off. Either way, the feel I get here is way different from what I get in other houses in LA. Plus, you have a butler."

"Huh, I guess I kind of got that feel about your house too; I had lived in Slovenia all my life, so I'm just used to this," He spoke absentmindedly.

"Did you set up your bedroom yet?" I asked him, curious about how he would decorate his room. Mine is pretty basic, with computer parts and old clothes strewn about. My room basically tells everything about me, but I had no idea about Mello's room.

I half expected it to have black walls and a bookshelf filled with books on criminology and detective stuff, but in a way that was quietly luxurious.

"Uh yeah, I did. We can go up there if you want to after this. We should look around for places to rent anyway."

"Sounds good," I said; and just then, footsteps could be heard heading towards the room we were in.

The Kheels entered the room in single file, Eric looking slightly confused at seeing the two of us, and Angela looking borderline suspicious.

"What's going on, Mihael? And why is Matt here?" She said as she followed Eric into the room. The latter took a seat on the couch adjacent us.

To my surprise, Mello spoke up first. "We need to have a talk with you," He stated firmly, leaving no room for them to argue even if they wanted to leave. Oh god, I have a feeling this is going to get real ugly real soon. I should have wimped out when I had the chance, damnit.

Nah, Mello needs this. And Mello needs me to get through with this.

Damn.

"Alright, what is this about?" His Father questioned, sending me a faint glare.

Hey, what's the big idea? Mello just started talking, for god's sake!

So I spoke up, "We want to talk to you about Mello, really," I told them, my voice an octave higher than I would have liked, making me sound much less firm than Mello and more nervous.

"What about Mihael?" Angela questioned, using his given name to make a point.

"We wanted to talk to you about me being gay, and Matt-" Mello started, only to be cut off by me because I'd realized that his tone was going on the defensive side.

"-I didn't want to leave things as they are with you and Mello," I told them, and watched their expressions change into something unreadable. Angela's mouth made an 'O' as she leaned back in her seat.

Suddenly the room became awkward and Mello and I had no idea what to say next. His parents were mulling over whatever questions they had before Eric spoke again, "You and Matt are together?" He asked Mello pointedly.

"Yes, we are," Mello responded.

"We told you that you are not allowed to date other guys," Angela cut in, "It is bad for publicity and goes against everything that we follow. You know this, Mihael."

Woah, what the hell did she mean by that?! Did she want him to remain celibate his whole life and never date anyone? Is she really such a homophobe?

...she probably is.

And then I remembered Mello's rosary and put two and two together. "Is this because of religion?" I asked, cutting in, I probably sounded almost rude. But I needed to clarify.

"Yes, we are Catholics and in our religion, loving another of the same gender is a sin," She nodded sagely.

I didn't know much about religion but the basics, but that little fact went against whatever I did know about religion.

"But, shouldn't god be proud if someone loves another unconditionally enough that they would sin to be together with them?" I asked them, to earn borderline glares from his parents.

"Matt, you do not understand what it means to follow god. No, god would not be proud even if you loved that person to the moon and back if they belonged to the same gender as you, because it is a sin." Angela told me bitterly.

Wow, I felt like I was going up against a teacher.

"Matt's right," Mello stated, "God loves everyone, no matter what. I know you mainly dislike what I am because of religion, but since that is clearly stated, as long as two people are in love it is not as much a sin, as it is just love. I don't think there is any reason for god to shun someone just for this sake."

"Why exactly are you talking to us about this? We aren't going to change the beliefs we've held throughout our entire lives just because you ask us to," Angela told me, ignoring Mello's conclusion.

And that was another dick move perfectly executed by Angela! One would almost wonder how she was such a pro at this. Oh right, because she is a biatch, that's why.

"We are not asking you to change your belief system, just bend it a bit," I said slowly. There was the one thing I wanted to say, but I knew Mello wouldn't like it if I did (considering how it wasn't something he told me about and in fact, shied away from discussing it even subconsciously. I only knew it because I understood Mello so well), and that was about how he was affected by how they treat him.

"Matt, our family can't have someone like this in it. This is just wrong," Eric spoke up again after quite a hiatus, "I know that you don't understand religion, so you don't know what it means when we say it is wrong."

"I think I understand enough to know how it affects someone when they are rejected by their family." Well, lookie here, I finally did say it. My statement earned a disbelieving look from Mello, and confused looks from his parents.

"Matt?" Mello questioned me. I expect he never thought I'd pick up on it in his wildest dreams.

"Explain, Matt." Angela said (ordered) as she leaned forward in her seat.

Well, that puts me in quite a tough spot. I didn't want to talk about Mello's feelings without his consent, but this was the only way I could think of that would change their prejudiced views on Mello just being himself. I cast a look at Mello, hoping that he'd pick up on my distress signal and just explain this part himself, but he only looked dumbfounded and more than a little nervous now. Oh, crap.

Just before I was going to explain it, Mello (thankfully) spoke up for himself.

"Matt means how I feel," He said slowly and nervously, but his voice was slowly gaining confidence, "How I feel when you...reject me and treat me like a failure."

I wasn't surprised when I heard how he became more and more heated as he delved deeper into his repressed emotions, and maybe almost a little proud, strangely enough.

Angela and Eric looked confused because they never thought he would ever say something like that, and angry because what he said is right, and annoyed because they also realized that that was there mistake, and that Mello was right. They didn't know what to say, but I could tell that they were trying to process it.

"Well? Do you not have anything to say?" Mello asked them pointedly. He was angry. Very, Very angry and progressing slowly.

"We..." Angela tried, and failed.

They knew what we meant, and they probably started to realize how wrong they've been, so they didn't know how to react.

Eric eventually spoke up. "Mihael, I'm sorry." He paused, Mello waiting in silence for his explanation. "We didn't know we made you feel that way."

Mello raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you didn't know?" He said sarcastically, his voice rising, "You didn't know that you actually bullied your son for who he is? Just because I am gay you pushed me away, and you didn't realize till Matt, someone you barely even know, pointed it out?!" By then he was borderline shouting.

"Mello, calm down," I cut in, sending him a soothing glance.

"I'm calm," he stated through gritted teeth. Yeah right, clearly he was trying to contain a lot of emotions.

"Mihael..." Angela started, regaining her words. "I didn't realize until now that this is how you felt, I admit that. I'm sorry, but can't you understand how we feel about this?"

"No," He told her, "I don't understand how you can't just accept your son for who he is."

I picked it up then, all of the little bits of their prolonged emotional battle. How this went on for so long; with them rejecting Mello, and them not noticing how much it affected him be of how he unintentionally hid it from them as he has a hard time expressing how he feels, and generally ends up turning all of his feelings into anger and lashing out at everything.

I then realized what exactly the situation was, his parents simply didn't have the time to deal with his already eccentric way of showing his emotions and simultaneously trying to fit him into the person they want him to be. Really, they were ignorant of him in every way, and the fault probably lay in the way they were raised themselves. Another thing, Mello somehow finally managed to tell them exactly how he felt right now; how did he finally get up some courage to show his emotions freely in another way besides anger? That was the one thing I didn't have the answer to.

Or I did...

"I get it, Mihael; but I can't accept it just like that. Ever since I was a child, I was told it is wrong," She sounded like she was subtly pleading with him to understand her stance on this. And as expected, I was right about her childhood.

"I was born this way, Mother; do you expect me to marry a woman even if I don't love her, and if I do not marry a woman, to be rejected and alienated completely by my own family?" Mello asked her spitefully.

"That is what we want...but..." Angela tried to explain, indecisively.

"If I may," I spoke up, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Mello and I are going to move out together in February. Really, if we could all just be on friendly terms, even though I realize it is not all that simple, that would be fine." I chose my words carefully, noting their surprised expressions.

"Mihael, I..." Angela started again.

Angela really needs to learn to finish her bloody sentences.

"Mihael, if you and Matt wish to do that, then you can. As you are soon going to be of legal age, we cannot stop you. And, like Matt said, we cannot just believe it is okay for you to be gay in a matter of minutes. But, I think we can try," Eric told us slowly but surely. I was glad, considering Angela couldn't seem to place her thoughts. "Is that okay with you, Angela?" He asked. "Let's just give it time, shall we?"

"Yes, I think it's fine," She said, looking a little rattled.

Mello looked, unreadable at best. I could only guess what was going through his head, after however many fights with his parents about this that went down badly.

The fact that I was here probably helped them to agree though, as they would have wanted to make a good impression on me, an outsider to their family.

Eric stood up with a light cough "I'm sorry, but we'll have to cut this short as I have a meeting in the office about a case in about thirty minutes." He said apologetically. "But Mihael," He said, catching Mello's attention, "I don't hate you, I just have a hard time accepting ways different than my own, and I'm sorry for that."

Well, that was actually quite decent of Eric to say that.

Mello didn't respond and only stared at him for a few seconds, and then looked down. When Eric got the hint that Mello wasn't going to grace him with a reply, he gave a short nod to me and headed for the exit of the living room. It was just as he almost left the living room that Mello spoke.

"My name's Mello, not Mihael." He stated, causing Eric to turn around with a disapproving scowl.

"Mello's a nickname...but alright," He agreed, "Goodbye Matt and...Mello."

After another brief pause, when Mello didn't say anything else, he exited the room.

Angela stood up then, "I don't like it, Mihael, and you know it. But I will follow my husband's lead and do my best, okay?"

"Sure," He said dismissively.

She frowned and turned to me, "So uh, thank you for the visit, Matt. Um, I talked to your Mother earlier today, and after she gets back from the surgery I would like to host a dinner for us all, if that would be alright,"

"That would be great, I am sure my Mother would appreciate it." I told her with a smile.

It felt weird to start being polite neighbours again after all this deeply personal drama went down, but I'm not complaining.

"Alright then. Goodbye, boys." She said with a wave and went out the same way Eric did.

When they were both far down the hall, I finally spoke, as Mello seemed very silent. "That went okay, you know."

He let out a long sigh and rubbed at his face, and I finally realized the source of his silence. "Yeah, I guess..."

"Hey," I scooted over on the couch and pulled him into my arms; he resisted at first, but relaxed quite quickly. I didn't say anything else, only keeping silent as I knew he was quite upset with his face buried in my arms.

"They've never ever even listened to me," He mumbled against my arm.

I hummed in acknowledgement, but otherwise stayed silent.

"Or been nice to me even once. They even said sorry. I don't get it, how did they not realize how I felt until you said it?"

"Because you hide your emotions too much," I told him softly.

He turned around in my arms to look at me, his eyes slightly puffy from just barely crying.

"I'm sorry," he said abruptly, his voice almost cracking.

I blinked at him in surprise, "Why?"

"Because I never apologized for being late,"

"That's no big deal, I didn't mind at all. I needed all that coffee to calm me down for this," I chuckled.

He sat up, wiping at his eyes a little before looking at me intensely.

"What?" I asked him confused at the intense stare.

He shook his head as he leaned over me placing a chaste kiss to my lips, a much more meaningful kiss than the others, no movement, just his lips against mine. Soft, loving and more meaningful than anything else he has ever done, that kiss was filled with his every emotion, and told me all of his feelings just from the small gesture.

He pulled back after a few minutes. "Thank you."

I smiled. "I love you."

He looked surprised for a second before responding "Ich liebe dich auch, Mattie."

I gave him a confused look for a moment before finally figuring out what he'd said. Oh, wow. Now I realize the novelty of being in love. He grinned, seeing that I figured it out and placed another kiss to my lips, a quicker one than before but still loving, and pulled me up from the couch.

"Let's go up to my room," He told me.

Oooh.

I blushed for a moment before I realized what he meant (how embarrassing!) and hid my face as I said, "Okay."

He chuckled lightly, "To check out apartments, silly. Now come on," he said and led the way out of the hallway and up a few tiresome flights of stairs.

I regained my composure from the embarrassment by the time we ended up on the third floor, and he led us to the end of the hallway until we stopped in front of a cedar wood door, with a silver plaque that read 'Mihael' on it.

"Here we are," He told me and slid open the door, leading me inside.

I couldn't do much but gawk at his bedroom, his house was one thing, but his room was another. Firstly, it was huge, the size of my living room. It had cedar floors, with burgundy walls and grey trim. Grey curtains covered the windows, letting in almost no sunlight, but enough to see everything in the room.

Straight ahead were two big windows with a bed in-between them, a king sized bed with an overdue amount of pillows on it all either black or gray; it looked extremely comfy. A blue rug was laid out across the floor from the doorway to the foot of the bed, and to each side of the room lie a bookcase, each probably eight to ten feet wide and tall, and both of them were stuffed full of books on all sorts of things, like encyclopedias, criminology textbooks, a few detective novels, and a few other types.

Wow, my guess was mostly right.

A computer desk lay closer to the door, with two monitors on it, indicating that he really was a bit of a technology freak. Well, I was in no place to comment on that, if I get any sort of career in technology I would probably have up to five monitors at once. Maybe more.

There were a few other things in the room (obviously); for one, there was a white-board with all sorts of images tacked to it, indicating crimes and seeming to follow most of L's recent cases, I recognized a few cases that Mello'd mentioned earlier today. A little away from that, was another chess board, though this one was pure white and cerulean black (almost ebony). The board and pieces were immaculate and very well taken care of. I wondered if this one as well as the set downstairs were both his. It would make sense, as I hadn't seen the other one when I was here before, though I don't see why it was left downstairs.

Aside from those, there were also some paintings and posters, but nothing that I particularly thought Mello deemed important so I dismissed them.

On the other side of the room was a black leather couch with a coffee table in front of it, though one thing that caught my attention there was the zebra print throw blanket, the reason Mello would keep that was a mystery to me. The second thing that caught my attention was a picture frame on the table, but I couldn't see what was in it from the angle.

Mello shut the door behind me, and then walked over to his computer.

"You can sit wherever you'd like; I have a laptop we can use," He told me absentmindedly, as he opened one of his desk drawers. I nodded and went over to the couch, still curious about that picture.

When I sat down at the couch, I immediately brought my attention the picture. It was of Mello when he was a kid, maybe seven or eight. He didn't look much different from now, except his hair was a little shorter, and he was wearing a black flannel long-sleeve shirt. He was a pretty cute kid, that was for sure; but there was another boy beside him, holding onto his arm nervously with a sheepish smile on his face; whereas Mello was grinning. This boy was odd looking at best; though he did resemble Mello, they were clearly complete opposites. This boy was wearing all white. Head to toe, even his hair, which was short and fairly curly, was pure white. He would have looked albino creepily albino, but his eyes weren't light (or red), just a dark gray. He was also fairly shorter than Mello, by at least a foot, and was probably younger too.

"Hey, Mells, who's this?" I asked him when he walked over, holding the laptop.

He sat down beside me and placed the device down before he responded.

"That's Near," He said vaguely, a hint of bemusement in his voice as he opened the lid to the laptop and pressed to button to turn it on.

"Near?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I haven't seen him since that picture was taken, actually. He's my cousin, believe it or not. I guess he ended up in an orphanage founded by L when he was just about three years old, he had spent a few months with my family." He shrugged and typed in his computer password. "He's a big headed twit if you ask me, always thinks he knows everything, then throws a fit when he's wrong."

I chuckled, "Why do you have a picture of him, then?"

He leaned back on the couch. "I suppose that's the only picture I was actually smiling in without having to force it. Don't know why, though." He told me.

"Huh," Is all I said in acknowledgement, interested by that little piece of information.

"Oh, yeah," He suddenly said, making me look away from his younger, gleeful self and back at him.

"Hm?"

"Well, I was thinking, since you wanted to do something with computers, and I want to be a detective, what would you think if you got into hacking, and then we could work together on cases? You do the technology side of things and I do the detective work."

"Really?" I asked him, dumbfounded. "I- I mean yes! I would love that." I told him excitedly.

"Awesome!" He grinned.

I grinned back.