A/N: And here is the practical investigation chapter! This would be your cue to cheer.

I'm afraid this A/N's going to be quite short, because I'm going swimming in...ten minutes ago, and I need to hurry. But please enjoy!

Thank you to:

mxmsupporter

xxFall3n-Ang3lxx

VampirePrinssess

CatatonicVanity

AmandaNC1999

Rainbow Fruit Loop

and Tanglepelt! You are my sunshine, my only sunshine~

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not fair.

Chapter 11: Investigation

Mello and Matt were standing outside Near's headquarters, bundled up in scarves and coats to dissuade the freezing fingers of Winter's breath.

L was standing in front of them, hidden from the public eye (though there weren't any people around at that time in the morning anyway) by the wall he was standing next to. Predictably, Light was just behind him.

"The things to consider when investigating the chain-shops would be where the products were made, and by whom, if possible. It would also be helpful if you were to gather some information from the employees, but don't risk blowing your cover. For the office blocks, don't draw attention to yourselves, but try to find out the address of their main headquarters, and possibly the names of the main administrators of Four-Field. I wish you luck," L said, nodding and retreating back to the warmth of the building.

Matt sniffed, shivered, and buried his nose deeper into the collar of his coat, causing his breath to steam up his goggles. "Well, this sucks," he offered his opinion, "Why did we have to find that lead in January, of all months?!"

Mello shrugged. "At least it's not snowing."

Matt couldn't argue with that.

The blond set off down the road towards the centre of the city, where all the shops were located. Matt hurried after him, shoving his fingers inside his pockets.

"Why didn't we take the car?" the redhead asked through his chattering teeth.

Mello shrugged again, not looking cold at all, which bothered Matt more than he'd like to admit. "A red Chevrolet's a bit conspicuous, don't you think? We're supposed to be undercover."

"I suppose I can understand that," Matt relented. "But couldn't we have waited for the afternoon, when it's warmer, at least?"

"We need to work as soon as possible for as long as possible," was Mello's determined answer.

"The shops won't even be open yet, it's only half seven!"

"We're getting breakfast first."

Matt blinked, surprised. "Why can't we just eat at home?"

"Food's nicer out, and Near's given us an unlimited credit card for today," Mello grinned evilly, before turning to look at the redhead curiously. "And I'm startled that you think of our floor as 'home' already. That was fast, seeing as you only left your old apartment about a month ago."

Matt blushed lightly, though thankfully it was mainly hidden by his collar. "I...don't really know why I feel so comfortable already. It's probably because I'm living with someone now," he admitted bashfully, lowering his eyes behind orange lenses.

Mello smiled, stunning Matt with how relaxed and normal the blond looked (except for the scar, of course) when he had a gentle expression. "Like I needed that ego stroke. I guess you should know I feel more at home with you than I have in a long time, as well."

This time, Matt's blush was definitely noticeable, and the redhead tried to hide his pink cheeks behind his still-insane bedhead.

Mello pushed the fiery locks away from his friend's face, his smile widening. "Don't hide your face, you're too sweet," he said, chuckling lightly. "If slightly retarded."

And there Matt had been wondering where the real Mello had gone.

"Don't call me retarded!" he scolded, smacking Mello lightly on the head.

The blond only laughed and skipped (masculinely, of course) to the other side of the pavement.

The rest of their walk to the town centre was much the same, the only event worthy of note being when Mello planted a sloppy kiss on Matt's cheek to see exactly how crimson he'd turn.

When they reached the restaurant that was apparently their destination, it was nearing eight o'clock, and they only had to wait ten minutes until the place opened.

Walking inside, Matt relished the feeling of warm air caressing his face, and shed his coat. Mello unwound the scarf from around his neck, then tugged harshly on the end of Matt's own scarf, whipping it off and probably giving the redhead friction burns in the process.

As there wasn't anyone else in the establishment apart from them, they could choose where they wanted to sit before the crowds invaded the building. Mello chose a fairly secluded table, that couldn't really be seen from outside and was in an obscure enough corner that they wouldn't be very noticeable from inside either.

"Now we can talk about whatever the hell we want," Mello explained as they sat down and picked up the breakfast menus. "Oh, and by the way, choose the most expensive thing you can find. I'm not wasting this opportunity to spend Near's money."

Matt rolled his eyes. Typical Mello. Ignoring the blond's command, the redhead scanned the card for a breakfast that he would actually enjoy, regardless of the price it cost. Finding something, he turned the menu over to check out the coffee section.

Mello appeared to have already chosen, and placed his menu down, looking smug. When the waitress, a short, shy brunette, came over to take their orders, Mello placed his first: "I'll have the stuffed French toast with bacon," he said, looking nonchalant, "and a hot chocolate."

The waitress scribbled in her notepad before looking up again. "Would you like cream with the hot chocolate?"

Mello's grin reminded Matt vaguely of Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat. "Whyever not?"

Looking slightly worried, but not too disturbed, the girl turned to Matt. "And you, sir?"

"Scrambled eggs and bacon, and a cappuccino, please." Matt gave Mello a meaningful look as he placed his order. The blond just beamed at him.

As the waitress walked away, Matt sighed and said, "You'd better eat all of that now. And what the hell is stuffed French toast anyway?"

"No idea, but it was pricey." Mello smirked, crossing his leather-clad legs.

Matt shook his head pityingly. "You need a life. Getting a kick out of spending someone else's money is not cool."

Mello waved him off. "Don't give a flying fuck; it's fun."

Matt gave up and waited for his food to arrive.

When it finally did so, Matt inhaled the breakfast in less than five minutes, chugging down the coffee in one gulp afterwards.

"Ah, I needed that!" he said, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his stomach, feeling warm and full up. He then looked surreptitiously at Mello, to see how the blond was tackling his breakfast. Because that wasn't stalker-ish at all.

Mello wasn't eating elegantly, per se, but his movements had a natural grace to them that was impossible to imitate. He seemed to be enjoying his breakfast, which Matt was grateful for, as the blond was most certainly not above ordering a completely different one as well if the first wasn't to his taste.

As he watched Mello, Matt wondered exactly why he was so dependant upon the blond's presence, and had been right from the start. When they had first 'met', though perhaps that wasn't quite the right verb, Matt had felt a spark, a connection that drew him to Mello like a Suicide Bunny to its ultimate demise. When Mello had left, he'd felt empty, as if the blond had taken the large majority of Matt's entrails with him. And when he'd come back, when he'd told Matt he'd be staying "indefinitely"...

"You're staring, you know?" Mello glanced up at him humorously, smiling teasingly. "You like what you see?"

More than either you or I would like to admit, Matt thought. Out loud, he said, "Your ego has never deflated beyond the 'I Am Superman' point, has it?"

Mello chuckled, stirring his hot chocolate idly and brushing a few strands of hair out of his eyes. "Nope."

Matt made a show of laughing too, but inwardly, his stomach curled in dread. He'd never felt romantic love before, only a few silly childhood crushes, and as such, he had no idea what it felt like.

But he knew what he felt for Mello wasn't nothing.

And he knew Mello thought it was.

And he knew Mello didn't feel it back.

Well, fuck, Matt though articulately.

Entering the joke/magic store run by Four-Field, Matt was more nervous than logic required. No one would suspect them of foul play here, and by the appearance of the bubblegum-blowing sales assistant, no one was clever enough to do so anyway.

And yet, Matt's heart was pounding like a tom-tom, and he kept glancing nervously at the security camera positioned in the corner of the shop.

"Stop looking like a fugitive," Mello hissed, gripping his elbow in a vice-like hold, "You're a hacker, for God's sake, if you're that worried, you can erase the footage afterwards."

"I know," Matt whispered back, trying to loosen Mello's grasp before his lower arm turned black from lack of circulation. The blond just switched to crushing his hand instead.

Trying to ignore the assistant, who was currently giving them the Those-Two-Customers-Are-Holding-Hands-OMG-NO-WAY look, Matt looked around for an information poster, or an advert, or anything that could give them hints as to where the products in the store had been made.

He was, to say the least, surprised when Mello instead dragged him over to look at display of whoopee cushions.

"Uh, Mels...?" he said quietly, frowning and wondering what horrible prank the blond was cooking up to torture Near with now.

"Check the information on the back of the packaging, idiot!" Mello rolled his eyes, swatting the redhead's arm lightly.

Matt obliged, cursing himself for not thinking of the idea in the first place. On the back of the small box was printed a cleverly-worded advertisement with the purpose of emptying the pockets of Four-Field's victims even more, as well as a short safety warning in small print. Turning the object to look at the side, Matt saw the words Made in China.

"Well, that's helpful."

Mello narrowed his eyes and snatched the box from him, scouring the text for any clues as to how the product was made and whether the process by any chance included kidnapped-child labour.

There weren't any clues, it appeared, as the blond threw down the box with a distasteful look in his eye.

"Uh, like, can I help you?" came a voice behind them.

Matt had to make a conscious effort not to jump out of his fucking skin.

They turned to face the sales assistant, Matt's face safely blank, and Mello's nonchalant.

"Nah, we're fine," Mello told her, waving his hand that wasn't attached to Matt vaguely in the air.

"You sure?" she said, blowing another bubble and letting it pop in their faces, spraying them with sugar-infused saliva.

"Yup." Mello's voice was strained, as is he was having a hard time not strangling the damn woman to death. Matt could sympathise.

"Okay, then." The annoyance thankfully sauntered away, checking her nails for any chips in her gaudy varnish.

Matt and Mello looked at each other, rolled their eyes and did over-exaggerated impressions of the woman, including tottering around on imaginary heels as high as a heroin addict, chewing noisily on non-existent gum, and drawling fake offers of help in what Matt had fondly christened The Chav Speak.

Realising she could still hear them, they decided it was time to go.

"That didn't go well," Matt decided as they beat their hasty retreat down the road.

"No, it didn't," Mello agreed, slowing down and finally letting go of Matt's hand, much to the redhead's disappointment. "Let's try the office blocks next."

"Yuck." Matt wrinkled his nose. He'd always detested office blocks, or any professional environment, really. They gave him indigestion.

"Cheer up, if we don't find anything there, we can spend the rest of the day as we please," Mello promised him, his eye-roll not taking away from the pure cuteness (though Matt would never say it to Mello's face) of his offer.

"Really?"

"Really really."

"What happened to the whole 'we need to work as long as possible' thing?"

"I got bored."

"Fair enough."

"So you're saying there's absolutely no way you can give us the names of your big bosses?" Mello repeated confrontationally, leaning over the desk of a rather nervous-looking receptionist.

"That's right, sir, I'm afraid it's confidential information," the slight man affirmed, not budging in the slightest, despite the way he kept glancing worriedly at Mello's hands as if he expected the blond to suddenly pull a gun on him. Which was completely ridiculous, of course.

"Well, that's disappointing," Mello narrowed his eyes threateningly, the enormous scar on his face making him look even more nightmare-ish.

The man gulped, obviously not expecting to live much longer.

Matt contemplated placing a restraining hand on Mello's shoulder, but decided he liked his arm the right way round.

"Come on, Matt, let's go." Mello turned around and stormed out, surprising everyone (though receptionist looked relieved as well).

Matt hurried after the blond, not looking back as the poor man behind him loosened his tie and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Uh, Mels?" he started apprehensively.

"What?"

"What about L's advice of not drawing attention to ourselves? That was a bit conspicuous, even if it was only the receptionist guy you were terrifying," Matt understated.

Mello shrugged. "Sometimes being inconspicuous doesn't always bring results," he said.

"That didn't either," Matt pointed out.

Mello glared at him. "You will not mention that around me ever again."

"Yessir. But now we'll have to be ready for the fallout from that little..." Matt searched the dusty corners of his mind for the right word, "...incident there."

"Why?"

Matt blinked. "Well, he'll report us, won't he? And then they'll check the security tapes, and see our faces."

Mello shook his head. "Nah, he won't report us, but you'd better erase the CCTV footage just in case."

"Why wouldn't he report us? That was verbal harassment, he'd be well in his rights."

"He carried himself like he was the king of the world, much too proud for his own good. Admitting to being threatened would hurt his ego. Also, he was scared stiff of me, and won't want an excuse for me to...visit him again." Mello grinned evilly.

Matt eyed him. "You are one scary Mafia boss, you know?"

Mello snorted. "Hardly, I wasn't even the boss. But I called enough of the shots to be, I'll admit."

"I can believe that," Matt said, not sure himself whether he was teasing Mello or serious. Probably serious, now he thought about it.

"Anyhow, we have the address of the HQ now, so it wasn't a complete failure," Mello told him smugly, his smirk only growing when Matt shot him a stunned look.

"We do? But you never even asked about the headquarters!" Matt admitted 'asked' probably wasn't a very accurate choice of wording.

Mello put on an all-knowing expression. "No, but when I was...discussing the finer points of confidentiality with the receptionist, I found the little card with all the phone numbers and addresses of the different office blocks on his desk. HQ is on West Avenue, number eighty-four."

Matt frowned. "In this city?" he asked.

"Yup."

"But why? We're hardly in London. Why would it make sense to have the base of all company operations in a run-down city like this?"

Mello shrugged. "No idea, but it might be a clue. All the kids that disappeared lived in this city, right?"

Matt blinked. "That's true. Well, it's pretty certain that Four-Field's the culprit, right? Now it's just a matter of finding concrete evidence."

"Yeah, I guess." For some reason, Mello didn't seem as confident as he was with everything else in life.

"What is it?" Matt asked, wondering whether he really wanted to know.

Mello sighed. "I dunno. It just seems like this shouldn't be so simple. I mean, if it is Four-Field, they've left some pretty huge holes in their planning, and I can't really see their motive despite the cheap labour. It'd be a big company gamble, with more at stake than they'd probably get out of it. Something just doesn't seem right."

Matt winced. Yup, he definitely had not wanted to know. "Isn't it a good thing that it's simple? The sooner this is over, the sooner we get to live a more normal life, right?"

Mello looked at him patronisingly. "You think I look like I could ever be normal?"

"I didn't say we'd be normal, I said we could live a more normal life." Matt pouted, put out.

Mello ruffled his hair. "I didn't mean it like that. Of course I'd like to live with you without the stress of a kidnapping case over our heads-" Matt blushed violently for no reason, "...but we can't just do this half-assed. The bastards at the bottom of this are fucked up and they need to be stopped; we have to do it properly, and as quickly as possible."

Matt nodded reluctantly. "I know, I know...but we're all so sure about it being Four-Field, even L. According to you, he's pretty much infallible, right? And who else could it be, anyway?"

"I agree. But we could have missed something, maybe some other company who's new to the underworld. The kidnappings couldn't have been carried out by an individual, but maybe a fairly small group? There are so many other options, and it just seems like this is too easy to be true." Mello frowned.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Come on, you'll give yourself a brain haemorrhage thinking too hard about this. That's Near's and L's job, right?" he joked.

Mello didn't smile, but his eyes softened slightly as he looked at the redhead. "Yeah, you're right. Come on, let's go get lunch."

"At three?"

"A late lunch, then."

"What if I'm not hungry?"

"I'll eat yours. All those threats and slutty shop assistants have worked me up an appetite."

"Of course..."

When Mello and Matt returned to Near's building, it was five and completely pitch-black. Daylight saving was a fucking waste of time, Matt observed.

"Greetings, Mello, Matt," Near called to them from the simple metal table in the centre of the room. L was on his right, with Light just next to the psychologist.

"Yo, Near," Matt greeted cheerfully. "Hey Light. L," he said, his smile fading slightly.

The latter two returned his salutations with deep nods of their heads, which Matt passed off as some Japanese custom thing.

"Did you find anything?" Mello asked L, slumping down into a chair and propping his feet up on its neighbour.

Matt was sitting down in the chair next to Light (which just so happened to be on the other side of Mello as well) when L answered. "Yes, we did. It's nothing too serious, but Four-Field has previously been charged with child exploitation in the production of their items. None of the cases resulted in Four-Field being proclaimed guilty, but it does strengthen my suspicion of them by eleven percent."

"That little?" Matt frowned, confused. He was pretty much certain Four-Field was guilty of this particular crime. "That would only take it up to about seventy-five percent, right?"

"Seventy-eight, Matt-kun," L correctly patiently, dropping another sugar cube into his tea. "And an eleven percent increase is remarkably high for me, as I'm sure Light-kun will tell you."

They all turned to stare at Light quizzically, who looked uncomfortable. "It's a long story," the youth said quietly, effectively avoiding the question present in all of their eyes.

Mello looked irritated, but didn't push it. "Whatever. Me and Matt found out the address of the main headquarters of Four-Field, anyway."

You mean you did, Matt corrected him mentally.

"Ah, that's very good." Matt was slightly disturbed to see a smile appear on L's face, but supposed he might be capable of some emotion after all. When he thought about it, it was quite strange that L had become a psychologist; maybe the fact that L seemed to be so far out of touch with his own emotions helped him to see others' that much more clearly.

"Yeah, it's on West Street." Mello's voice brought Matt back to the matter at hand. "Eighty-four."

"I see, that is convenient. Well then, Mello will be able to investigate there tomorrow," Near said, without any trace of emotion in his voice whatsoever.

Matt groaned. "Really? I don't think I can survive another day of traipsing around the city so soon. At least let us take the car."

"Matt's concern is unnecessary; he will not be accompanying Mello," Near informed him.

"Excuse me, what?"

"Mello is much more used to such missions, and this one is too crucial to risk jeopardising. Also, it will be much less noticeable to have one operative in the building. Matt will help Light-kun with the technical work."

Matt was speechless. He was going to stay in a high-security, top-secret building while Mello went out into the dangerous world of criminals and kidnappings? This had to be some kind of joke.

"It makes sense, Matt, you're much better at computer stuff than practical work," Mello said, not looking as if he cared at all about their being separated for the first entire day in what felt like centuries.

Matt suddenly felt the urge to curl up in an unwanted ball and disappear. He supposed it showed on his face, as L leaned forward with a calculating expression on his face.

"Are you upset at the fact that you will be apart from Mello when he is in such an unsafe position, Matt-kun?" the psychologist asked, though the dark-haired man probably knew as well as Matt did that it was much too accurate to be a proper question.

As such, Matt didn't bother answering, instead lowering his head to avoid Mello's piercing stare.

"I can assure you that Mello will be perfectly fine," L said, in such a tone of voice that even the most sceptical of people could not defy. "He is very experienced in this field of work, and even more experienced at shooting people if things do not go to plan. Am I right, Mello?"

Mello smirked. "As always."

Matt was only partially reassured, but the worries soon left his mind (along with all of his other coherent thoughts) as Mello took his hand under the table and whispered, "We'll talk after all this," in his ear, his lips just barely brushing Matt's earlobe.

Matt pretended that he wasn't turned on by the sensation.

Not that he needed to pretend.

At all.

"In the meantime, I suggest we wind down," L said, taking a sip of tea-flavoured sugar that didn't look like it'd help anyone wind down. "It's been a long day, and we need to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow."

Matt agreed fervently, noting that Light looked relieved as well.

"We shall meet in this room at seven-thirty tomorrow morning, then. Good evening," L nodded to each of them in turn, and Matt took that as his cue to leave.

When he and Mello reached their floor, the blond caught Matt's wrist lightly in his hand and led him over to the sofa, where he gently forced (if that was possible) Matt to sit.

"So what was all that about just now?" Mello asked, tipping his head to the side inquisitively.

Matt flushed slightly, averting his eyes. He decided to get straight to the point, as it was never wise to fuck around with Mello. "I know this is going to make me sound like some clingy dweeb, but I don't like the idea of being away from you for an entire day, when you're going to be right in the lion's mouth. We've only lived together for a month, but God, Mello, it feels like I've known you for my entire life! I know you probably don't see me the same way, but you're one of, if not the most important person in my life..." Matt trailed off as he realised he sounded completely insane. "What I mean is...I don't want to lose you, Mels." His voice broke on the pet name. "And if I have to, then I want to be with you right at the very end."

He didn't dare to look up at Mello, whom he was sure was about to either refer him to L for some serious counselling or shoot him through the skull.

"You're an idiot, Matt."

He flinched.

A tender hand entwined itself with his hair. "And I'm an even bigger one," Mello said, tilting Matt's head upwards and allowing him to witness the overwhelmingly gentle smile on the blond's face.

Mello sat down next to the redhead, not breaking eye-contact. "I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that I have some serious trust issues," Mello said, and he was right: Matt had noticed. "It's been a long time since I've even considered trusting someone enough to get as close to them as I have to you, and I swear, Matty, I'd trust you with my life. I don't even know the reason, that's why I'm such a moron. I feel the same way about all you just said; I don't want to lose you either. Ever. But we're not going to lose each other through this. There ain't a snowball's chance in Hell that I'll even get arrested, let alone killed, so just trust me on this one, okay, Matty? You can watch me on the security cameras if you're that worried."

Matt nodded silently, not trusting himself not to break down in tears if he tried to speak.

He may as well not have bothered; he started bawling like a baby anyway when Mello drew him into the warmest and most comforting hug he'd ever experienced.

"Thank you, Mels," he managed through the sobs, clutching at Mello's jacket as if it was a lifeline.

Mello pressed a kiss to the top of his head and whispered, "No, thank you. But don't tell anyone about this, okay? It's critical that I keep up my badass reputation."

Trust Mello, Matt thought. Only the blond had the ability to make him laugh and cry at once.

A/N: D'aww, fluff overload!

You guys have no idea how hard it is to put in all the line breaks FF deletes. -_- IRRITATION. Sorry if I missed any!

See you lot next week, and in the meantime, please review. I start school again on Tuesday. I need motivation. And comfort. O_O