A/N: It's a miracle! I'm finally updating on an actual Saturday! O_O No way, right? On the negative side, school started again, and I'm already having the crap assessed out of me (T_T) so I am EXHAUSTED! Can't wait for actual exam season...not. -_-

Sooo, this chapter could be considered a filler, as in it doesn't have much action, but it is pretty important for introducing character development and for seeing into the inner workings of their minds...mooahahahaha... XD But yeah. I wouldn't tune out, even though it is kinda long-winded. :P

Thanks so much for all the reviews! I'm really grateful to:

ohmyblitz

KuroShiroNeko-chan

CatatonicVanity

samichuu

PenguinXHero

VampirePrinssess

Rainbow Fruit Loop

and Graffiti-Kami! Thanks for the feedback, it's makes me all fuzzy inside to hear your thoughts! X3

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of its characters. All credit to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Gods of All. (Couldn't resist)

Chapter 5: Covert

Naturally, Mello's first reaction to waking up in a strange place was to scramble around for his gun like a squirrel trying to find where it had buried its latest hoard of acorns. However, when Mello remembered where he was, and that there was no immediate danger that he knew of, he relaxed slightly and sank his head into the soft pillow again.

It wasn't a feather one, which suited Mello just fine, as he found down to always have those little poky things that stick you in the eye when you least expect it. No, this pillow's stuffing was made from good old polyester, one of the best inventions of mankind, in Mello's opinion. Just after chocolate and firearms.

Rolling onto his side, Mello gazed down at the bundle of blankets and pillows on the floor directly next to the bed. Matt was lying somewhere underneath the mess, only a mop of crimson hair poking out from the covers.

The redhead didn't seem to snore, which earned him some grudging respect in Mello's eyes.

Glancing at the clock, Mello noted that it was precisely twenty-seven past six in the morning, revealing that he had actually had a lie-in. Well, he supposed he deserved it, after all he'd been through the past few days. It was certainly nice to be back in a proper bed again, and Mello was almost tempted to just roll over and start power-napping again.

Unfortunately, though, Mello detested getting up at any time after quarter to seven, as it always made the day seem too short to fit everything into it. And so, as quietly as he could, so as not to wake his host, Mello stood up and padded out of the room, still in his borrowed T-shirt and sweats.

When he reached the one door in the house he was most curious about, Mello stopped for a second and listened for any noises. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong, but he would rather Matt didn't know about this anyway.

Turning the handle silently, Mello entered the Tech Lair, as he remembered Matt so fondly describing it.

Taking a long look around the crowded room, Mello was again stunned by the sheer amount of technology occupying one space. There were at least eight enormous TV or computer monitors (Mello had no idea which), even more keyboards of various different styles, gaming consoles galore, and wires absolutely everywhere.

What the heck does he even use all this stuff for? Mello thought incredulously. Most of the things looked the same to him; he had absolutely no clue why Matt needed ten of each.

He walked to the largest computer in the room, placing his socked feet carefully between various screens and extension cords. When he reached it, he noticed the letters on the keys were faded, indicating Matt used this specific machine a lot.

Bingo, Mello thought, smiling mischievously.

He seated himself in front of the screen and pressed the power key. While it was firing up, Mello pondered upon what Matt's so-called illegal job could possibly be with all the technology.

Of course, it's most likely he's a hacker of sorts. That's the most obvious explanation for all this junk. Then again, he could be an electronics developer for some shady organisation, an illegal researcher, a phone or computer tapper, or any number of things. He could also be something completely unrelated to this, and the tech's just a hobby, but the probability of that's only twelve percent...

Mello's train of thought came to a halt as he realised to computer was ready, faster than expected.

He probably upgraded it or some shit, he thought rolling his eyes.

Looking at the password bar, Mello pondered on what it could possibly be. The blond was a self-proclaimed failure of a hacker (he was more likely to blow up a laptop than get into someone else's with it), but he prided himself on being exceptionally good at reading people.

Judging by all this crap, the guy knows what he's doing, Mello mused, leaning back in the chair, I sincerely doubt he'd have some easy-ass password. It'll be long, complicated and consisting almost entirely of numbers and punctuation, probably case-sensitive. There won't be any sort of pattern, wording or sense to the sequence, but it'd have to be less than fifteen characters so that he wouldn't spend ages punching in the passcode. So, I've got a choice of fifteen or less characters from a selection of...96. In any order. He probably has some kind of locking system that freezes up the computer after a certain amount of failures. I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of cracking this one.

He tried anyway.

Flexing his fingers, Mello was just about to start tapping away when a voice from behind him caused him to jump out of his skin.

"What are you doing?"

Mello froze, automatically scouring the room for anything he could use as a weapon. Then he revolved slowly in the office chair to come face to face with a suspicious-looking Matt.

"Uh..." he hesitated, looking sheepish.

Matt narrowed his eyes. "If you're being paid to hack into my system to deliver information to that fucking gang of yours, I can tell you now you won't be leaving here alive."

Mello swallowed. He wasn't scared of the guy at all, but he didn't really want to be jumped right now, what with his shoulder and all. "I swear I wasn't doing this out of maliciousness or for any gang. I was just curious about your job, and seeing as there're so many of them here, I thought it had something to do with all these gadgets," he explained.

Matt didn't seem to buy his excuse completely, but relaxed slightly anyway. "I'm a hacker and/or cracker," he told Mello indifferently, "I work for whoever pays me to gather information, plant viruses or bugs, or disable security systems."

Mello nodded. That made sense, and the redhead didn't sound like he was lying. "I see. That's pretty cool, I guess. So you actually know how to use all this stuff?" he asked, if only to steer the conversation away from the danger zone.

Matt gave him a look. "Of course, why else would I have it? But anyway, why were you trying to get into my computer?"

Mello grimaced. The guy wasn't as stupid as he'd hoped.

Matt continued. "You could have just asked me about my job, you don't need to go rooting through my personal belongings."

Mello spent a few seconds thinking up an answer that wouldn't sound like he was making it up on the spot. He wasn't lying, for the first time in his life, and it made him feel pressurised. Irony had no bounds.

Taking a filler breath first, Mello spoke, "I don't really feel...comfortable with talking to people. You might have noticed. I'm just so used to doing things the unconventional, illegal way that it didn't really occur to me to use the normal method instead. Sorry, I shouldn't have invaded your privacy like that," he apologised sincerely, though he wasn't really sorry in the slightest. Mello didn't regret anything this minor.

Matt seemed to analyse his confession for a moment, before apparently deeming it satisfactory and grinning at the blond. "Alright, I'll buy it. But if I catch you doing something like this behind my back again, I won't be so lenient, 'kay? Though you'll never get into it, so there's really no point," he boasted subtly, obviously proud of his security system.

Mello nodded, ninety-eight percent sure the guy was right. Getting up from the chair, he walked over to where Matt was standing. "So anyway, how did you manage to sneak up without me noticing? No one's ever been able to do that before."

Matt's grin morphed into a smug smirk that Mello instantly hated. "I guess I'm not as useless as you seem to think I am," he said conceitedly.

Mello glared at him, then marched out of the room.

Out of the corner of his eye, the blond noticed Matt's eyes. Or rather, he noticed the fact that they were glued to Mello's narrow hips, where the borrowed sweats were just clinging on to them.

Oho, he thought wickedly, this'll be fun.

The dysfunctional pair sat at the small kitchen table, munching on cereal. Mello looked distinctly unimpressed with the Bran Flakes, chewing slowly and choking it down like it tasted foul.

Matt shot him an irritated look, chowing on a mouthful of his own breakfast. Swallowing, he said, "Oh, come on, it's not that bad! It's good for you!"

Mello looked sour. "It tastes like shit," he complained, "and you're the last person I'd expect to be concerned about their health enough to eat this."

Matt shoved in another spoonful, saying around the mush, "It's not so bad once you get used to it. And I don't really get much exercise, what with my job and all, so I eat well in order to avoid being fat. That would suck."

Mello choked at the mental image of an obese Matt, spraying milk and tiny bits of dissolved cereal all over the table through his nose.

He flushed in humiliation, bringing a hand up to hide his still-streaming nose. "Shit, sorry," he apologised.

Matt looked mournfully at his now-contaminated bowl of cereal. "Now that," he pointed at his food, "is really disgusting."

"Sorry," Mello repeated. He didn't often apologise this much, but then again, he didn't often spout milk and cereal from his nose either. And Matt seemed to have the most curious...mellowing effect on him (pun most definitely intended).

Matt passed him a kitchen towel and the blond took it gratefully, mopping up the mess on his face.

The redhead eyed him in silence, taking in the pale pink blush dusted over the blond's cheeks. Mello was almost painfully pretty. It just wasn't fair! How could a guy be that stunning?!

He quickly averted his eyes when Mello glanced up again, staring down at the mess of pre-masticated cereal, mucus and saliva floating around in his bowl.

It appeared even someone as beautiful as Mello could produce something that made him want to hurl.

Wrinkling his nose and standing up with an extra "Eww..." for effect, Matt walked over to the sink and dumped his ruined breakfast in the basin.

As he returned to the table, he noticed Mello sneakily squashing the soggy bits of bran with his spoon, reducing them to an almost-undetectable mush at the bottom of his bowl.

Matt poked him admonishingly, saying, "Oi. I might make you eat that now."

Mello whipped around to stare at him, alarmed. "You wouldn't. Would you?" He looked honestly scared for his life.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Of course not, I'm not your mother, even if you do act like a toddler at times. But if you don't want to eat this, you can bloody well buy your own damn cereal. I'm not shelling out for some shit full of E-numbers."

"Don't have any money," Mello reminded him smugly.

Matt groaned. "Naturally. Then get some," he suggested helpfully.

"How?"

"A job?"

"What kind of job?"

Matt mentally screamed in frustration. "I don't care! Stacking shelves in the corner shop? Serving tables in a restaurant? Prostitution? I don't give a shit, as long as it gets you enough cash to buy freaking cereal!"

Mello regarded him curiously, and not without a large amount of surprise. "And then you'll pay for everything else?" he asked disbelievingly.

Matt blinked, surprised at the question. "Uh...yeah, I guess so. I have a lot of excess cash from my last job, so I can afford to feed you and stuff. Apart from cereal. I'm not paying for you to poison yourself with Coco Pops or whatever."

Mello frowned, all of a sudden examining the apparently fascinating tabletop.

"What's up?" Matt asked, "You don't accept charity?"

Mello snorted, though thankfully this time without a mouthful of food. "Nah, I'm not that proud. I'll accept help if someone offers it, as long as it has no strings attached."

Matt scowled. "And you think I'm going to blackmail you into something unsavoury?" he asked grumpily, though it wasn't really a question.

"No, I didn't mean that!" Mello denied quickly, "It's just that I don't often get no-strings attached help. I was surprised you offered, is all."

"Jeez. What kind of world did you grow up in?" Matt asked, shocked that someone would have reason to be that distrustful of humans.

"The same as yours," Mello declared bitterly, "but the harsher side of it."

Matt bit his lip, feeling decidedly awkward. "Right," he said.

Mello sighed heavily, abandoning his disgusting, brown slop. "You do realise we can't stay here longer than a couple of days, right?" he asked.

Matt groaned, hiding his face in his hands. He really didn't want to think about that right now. "Yeah, I know, I know. But I really have no clue where we'll go. I don't have any other place and if I spend my money on a new apartment, I'll have none left for the necessities."

Mello cupped his chin in his hands, humming thoughtfully. "I think I might know someone who'd be able to help us. He's a dickhead, though."

Matt looked up in interest. "If they'll help, I wouldn't care if they were Hitler incarnate. Who?"

"Just this guy I know from the youth institution I lived in during my pre-teens. He's a detective now."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "You know a detective? And you haven't been arrested yet?"

"He doesn't give a shit about law and all that either, as long as I don't full-out attack him."

"Why the heck is he a detective, then?" Matt was confused.

Mello shrugged. "Beats me. Anyway, he owes me for a reconnaissance trip I did for him a while back, so he'll probably provide us with free accommodation if you act nice and pretend you aren't a weirdo that'll ruin his property."

"Like you can talk."

"He knows me already. Anyway, we'll probably be able to visit him tomorrow. You have transport?"

Matt grinned. "Yeah. Chevy, but I tweaked her a bit. She's beautiful."

Mello blinked, unimpressed. "Whatever. Can we use it to go see the douchebag?"

"Y'know, you're really not warming me to this person. They can't be that bad. And yeah, we can."

"Good."

They sat in an unbelievably awkward silence for a few minutes before Matt decided to speak up.

"You know what? It ridiculous: we're going to be living together, for heaven's sake, and we still barely know a thing about each other!"

Mello glanced up. "And? What are you gonna do about it?"

"Get to know you," Matt said, like it was obvious.

Mello opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it again. "Fine, whatever makes you happy. I suppose I should be nice to you, seeing as you're housing me and all."

"Damn straight," Matt told him, pondering on what to ask as a not-so-private question. Failing to come up with one of those, he enquired, "So...what happened to your face?"

Mello shot him a glare that would have killed a lesser mortal. Matt just shot him his I-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think look.

Muttering to himself under his breath, Mello self-consciously let his long hair fall to veil the marred side of his face. "Accident," he told Matt briefly.

"What kind of accident?" Matt pushed.

Mello tutted in exasperation. "The police made an unexpected raid on our last base, so after everyone got out, I blew up the building. Happy now?" he asked acidly.

Matt frowned, trying to work out exactly how that would have got Mello a scar that enormous. Then he froze in shock, staring at the blond wide-eyed. "You weren't inside the building at the time, were you?"

"What do you think?"

Matt gazed at him in horror, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Mello became even more self-conscious, ducking his head (his scar was his sore point). "What?" he demanded grouchily.

"You...you're completely insane, you know that?" Matt told him, shaking his head in amazement.

Mello snorted derisively. "Like I haven't been told that before. Anyway, my turn!" he announced with false cheer.

Needless to say, Matt was suddenly apprehensive as to what Mello would ask about, exactly.

The blond tilted his head to one side in thought, flaxen hair shifting with the movement. Finally, he said, "Why did you take me in?"

"I told you, I didn't want you to go around sleeping rough with a bloodthirsty gang on your tail!"

"No, not that time! The very first time. When I was chucked out onto the street."

"Oh, that one..." Matt thought about it.

Before, he'd thought he'd had a reason to take Mello in and tend to his wounds, but now said blond had actually posed the question...he didn't know for sure.

But he definitely knew it had something to do with a shallow admiration of his outward appearance.

Blushing quite a lot, but naïvely hoping Mello wouldn't notice, Matt murmured, "Dunno. Guess I just didn't like the idea of you dying of blood loss in the cold."

Mello wasn't appeased. "So you'd have done it for anyone else?"

"Probably not a fat guy. I'm not quite up to weight-lifting just yet," Matt quipped.

"You're lying," Mello informed him calmly, leaning his chin on his palm.

Cursing inwardly, Matt wondered what had given him away. His eyes were completely hidden by his goggles, and he usually kept up a pretty good poker face.

Mello interrupted his thoughts. "One of the reasons I was such an asset to the gang is that I'm exceptionally good at reading people. The way you tell whether someone is telling the truth or not isn't by their face or body language – though you can if you try hard enough – but by what they say and how they say it. While answering the initial question, you mumbled as if you didn't quite want me to hear the answer, and with the second, you avoided the question by only answering it for one category of person and attempting to cover it up with humour."

This time, Matt's cursing was audible.

Mello smirked. "Face it, I'm right."

Matt swore at him again.

"Shall I tell you why I think you picked me up?" Mello asked, idly tracing circles on the tabletop with his finger. Matt really wished he'd stop; it was putting him on edge.

Tearing his eyes away from the mesmerising patterns Mello was drawing, Matt folded his arms in a defensive posture that he knew was obvious as an elephant in a shower. "If I say no, will you tell me anyway?"

"Yes."

"In that case, go ahead."

Mello smirked slightly. "I think you like the way I look."

Matt nearly died of humiliation then and there.

Mello chuckled at his beetroot-red face for a minute before continuing: "But I don't think little enough of you to imagine that was the only reason. I figure you're kinda lonely, all by yourself in this house, with the only person to spend your money on being yourself."

Matt swallowed. Mello'd hit the nail on the head.

"And I'll let you in on a little secret." Mello looked up at him through his lashes. "I'm kinda lonely too."

Matt inhaled shakily. It was honestly ridiculous (not to mention dangerous) what Mello (who, he reminded himself, he had barely known for a week) could do to him with only a few words.

"I don't think you're a bad person," Mello said, standing up and walking over to where Matt sat, frozen. "I don't think you're untrustworthy either." He leaned down to remove Matt's goggles, sliding them down his face while he stared into emerald eyes. "I've never trusted anyone in my life. But I think I might try to, just this one time." He brushed his lips lightly across Matt's cheekbone, a slight smirk playing across his lips.

Matt appeared to have forgotten how to breathe.

"One word of warning, though," Mello drew back to look at him properly. "Betray me, and I'll never forgive you. I will make your life as miserable as possible," he vowed fervently.

Matt nodded woodenly. "I haven't fully trusted many people in my time either," he told the blond, "But I'm willing to try with you, one last time. But," Matt's forehead creased in concern, "we can't just start trusting each other immediately, now that we've decided we will. That's impossible."

"Of course it's impossible!" Mello scoffed, straightening up and pushing his hair out of his eyes. "We'll have to be patient; it's a thing that'll come with time, hopefully."

Matt blinked. "Does that mean...?"

"I'm staying, yeah." Mello flashed him a cheeky grin. "Indefinitely."

Matt grinned back, relieved for reasons beyond his understanding. Something was niggling at the back of his mind, though.

"Mello?"

"Hm?"

"Why me?"

Mello looked at him with an expression that Matt would have described as tender, on anyone else's face.

"You're different," he said softly.

A/N: Yup, its official. I'm a fluff-addict. :) Oh wells.

Sooo, yeah, Mello's being a bit touchy-feely and it probably feels really weird to you, but PATIENCE! All shall be explained. *mysterious smile*

I'll update again next Saturday, (hopefully) so see you then guys! Love ya. ;)