A/N: Ehehehehe... *evil laughter*

So, this is going to be an interesting chapter. Very interesting. XD I don't personally think it's that well-written, but I did the best I could, so don't be too harsh, okay? I tried. X3

On a completely irrelevant note, had my prom last night, and am now exhausted. =_= It's ridiculous. I barely even did anything apart from mingle and eat (except the waitress took away my food before I could finish, GRR) all night. Ah, well. XD

Thank to all those who reviewed/favourite/followed from last chapter! Tii-chan hearts you all! Grazie:

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and ScoutieLove! Another long list! *is very happy indeed*

Disclaimer: Some day I'll wish upon a star and wake up where Death Note is miiiinneee! Mi-i-ine!

Chapter 14: Compromise

In the SPK investigation room, everyone was silent.

Matt stared at where Mello's retreating back had once been, but was now instead replaced by a cold metal door. To say he was worried about the blond would be a gross understatement: the thought of what Mello must be going through made his stomach churn so much he thought he was going to be sick.

L moved first. He lifted a thumb to his mouth, gnawing on the nail as he shifted his piercing gaze to Matt. "I believe it would be unwise to leave Mello on his own," he said, and Matt couldn't agree more, "Try to talk to him, but don't push him too hard."

Matt nodded briefly, determined to finally be of some small use to Mello, rather than a dead weight. He got up from his chair and hurried to the elevator that would take him to Floor Three.

As he entered Mello's bedroom, the first thing he noticed was the location of the blond. He was curled up in the centre of the bed, his knees drawn to his chest as he mimicked the position of an unborn child. That was the thing that panicked Matt the most; he'd never seen Mello so closed-off before. He'd always worn his heart on his sleeve, his loud and abrasive personality practically daring an onlooker to challenge him. Now, he didn't really seem to be Mello at all.

Matt stopped a couple of metres away from the bed, making sure not to invade his best friend's personal space. The blond appeared not to have noticed him, or to be ignoring him, and Matt was fine with either one, until he could think of something to say.

In the end, he started without planning anything out at all. Mello was too unpredictable anyway.

"Mello..."

The only reaction the blond showed was a slight twitch of the shoulder and a mumbled, "What?"

"It's really not your fault, you know." Matt knew he'd already perfectly illustrated that particular point, but it couldn't hurt to say it again. "You had no idea."

And suddenly, Mello was back, the scorching fire in his eyes as he snapped his head up, the coiled muscles in his back tensing as he prepared to spring from the bed, as if he were a lion.

"And that's part of the reason why it was my fault!" he shouted, fury and self-loathing branded across his face, "I was so fucking naïve! I should have seen that the demand for raids was higher than normal – once every month is fucking ridiculous! I was a blind fool, and look where it's got those kids! They might all be in comas for all we know!"

Matt took a step forward. "Mello, I don't think –" he broke off as Mello interrupted.

"I could've stopped this before it even started, but instead I had my head shoved so far up my ass I couldn't see anything, let alone add two and two! I'm a –"

The first thing Matt noticed was how quiet the room seemed now that Mello had finally stopped yelling. The second thing he noticed was how soft Mello's lips were against his own.

Mello was so still it scared the life out of him, but Matt persisted in the kiss, pouring all the affection he'd ever felt for the blond down Mello's throat, so there was no way he could deny it.

Matt pulled back after a few seconds, his face an attractive shade of puce that clashed with his hair so badly it hurt to look, but still he went on, determined to say what he meant to say before Mello started up with his shouting again.

"Mello, not only are you the most outwardly beautiful person I've ever seen, but the most inwardly beautiful too," he said hurriedly, almost tripping over his words. "You care more about others than you care about yourself: just look at how you're beating yourself up about what happened to those kids! And don't even bother trying to argue with me, Mels, there was no way you could've figured out what Palm were doing, so instead of sitting here moping, shouldn't you be down there, with L and Near and Light, trying to figure out how to bring the culprits to justice? It doesn't matter what you did or didn't see, it doesn't change the fact that you're an amazing, good person, if a bit trigger-happy, and I –" Matt stopped talking.

Mello was looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face; it may as well have been a mask. "You what?" he asked flatly.

Matt swallowed thickly. "Uh..."

He was nervous, there was no denying that, and yet Mello, who had helped Matt through his own bouts of self-hatred and disgust, needed to know there was someone who cared about him, no matter what. Matt owed him that much, and anyway, he'd kept it in the bag so long it was starting to become painful. It was time to man up and let it out.

He took a deep breath. "Mello...I think I might love you. Maybe."

Immediately afterwards, Matt wanted to shoot himself. That was not the eloquent, heart-warming confession he'd had in mind.

Mello stared at him, still with a face of marble. Then, the statue came to life, and he rubbed between his eyebrows and sighed.

"Matty...look."

And then Matt knew for certain he wasn't going to like what was to be said next.

"You and I both know that we're the closest friend each of us have, and I care a lot about you – really, I do. But...I've never felt love before, or felt loved before. My family were dickheads, the little I remember of them, and I wasn't exactly Mr Popular at Wammy's either. I guess what I'm really getting at is that I can't feel love, not really, and –"

"Please don't make excuses, Mello, it just makes it ten times worse," Matt said, keeping his face blank and his voice blanker. "I knew it was a long shot."

Mello's eyes widened to proportions that would have been almost comical out of context. "No, Matt, I'm not rejecting you!"

"Sure." Matt's face was still impassive, but his voice was so thick it felt like mud dripping from his lips.

"Matt..." And then, without any warning, Mello's arms were around him, holding him close and keeping him there when Matt tried to shy away. "The reason I'm saying all this is to apologise –"

"I just said not to –"

"Not because I don't want to become involved with you, but because I can't give you everything, at least not yet. You deserve everything, Matt – more than everything! And now I'm going to say the most selfish thing I've ever said in my life."

Matt was still. "Which is?" he asked against his better judgement, his voice muffled by Mello's leather-clad torso.

"Will..." Matt had never heard Mello hesitate before. "Will you accept me anyway? Wait for me?"

Matt blinked, confused.

"I'm so sorry for asking you this," Mello went on, "but I want to make sure I can give you all I have, which is still less than you deserve. We can go little by little – I'm attracted to you, but right now, apart from fond, friendly feelings, that's all there is."

Matt pretended that didn't hurt.

"And, until a few minutes ago," Mello went on, "that was all I thought you felt towards me as well. A simple attraction to my body and my appearance. But now I can see there's more, I can't just ignore everything and hope it'll go away. I want you, Matt, God, I want you so much! And now I have a chance to get you, I honestly can't let you go without saying anything. But I can't just take and give nothing in return; you deserve more than that. So...will you ignore my selfishness and accept me? I won't say please, you need to make this decision without feeling guilty if you don't want it because you think you'll hurt my feelings."

There was a pause, in which Mello died on the inside, and Matt slowly came back to life.

Eventually, Matt spoke. "Mello, I know I'm not the most eloquent person in the world, but even I realise that my first confession was a pile of shit. So I'm going to reiterate." He grinned. "Mello, I really, really love you and you're amazing and incredible and the best thing that ever happened to me and way out of my league and I'll take you any way you come, you idiot, why wouldn't I?"

Mello grabbed him. He fisted his hands in the uncharacteristic black hoodie Matt was wearing, dragged him onto the bed and attacked his mouth with a ferocity that wouldn't have been out of place in a gladiator tournament.

Matt would have been lying if he said it wasn't the best moment of his life.

Back on the ground floor, L, Near and Light were sitting in a silence that was a third thoughtful, a third emotionless and a third concerned.

The silence quickly became three sixths concerned (though one wouldn't have thought so to look at it) as L turned to see his charge biting his lip in a fashion that was very un-Light-like.

"Mello will be fine, Light-kun, you needn't worry," L said, cocking his head to the side as Light rotated slowly in his chair to face him, poorly concealed agony written all over his too-old face.

The boy (man?) shook his head slightly. "That wasn't what I was thinking about," he murmured.

L regarded him for a while longer before fishing a chewy sweet out of his pocket, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth.

Yagami Light's thought patterns were getting to be so unpredictable that even L couldn't forsee them with one hundred percent accuracy. To be more exact, it was only with seventy percent accuracy that he did so.

Light-kun would rejoice if he knew. Or maybe not.

L swallowed his sweet and hugged his knees a bit closer to his body. Either way, it wasn't long now.

Near supposed it was normal to be concerned about someone you cared about.

From that observation, he came up with two hypotheses. Either Yagami Light cared about Mello more than Near had previously assessed, or he was concerned over something (or someone) else. Possibly, he was concerned over his own life's happenings, which, taking into account the teen's reclusive nature, was the most probable out of all his theories.

Applying the same theories to L, however, was more difficult. The man, though Near held him in the highest regard, was not a socialite, and the white-haired boy had never seen him become explicitly attached to any individual before. Subsequently, it was strange that L seemed to be worrying over his ward; the psychologist had often warned Near about the dangers of becoming fond of the people you worked with.

And yet, there he was, chewing on a sweet of some sort, casting glances at Light every so often, as if to check he wasn't self-harming while his back was turned.

Curiously, Light was doing the same, causing the two to engage in a complicated dance of evasion, both trying their utmost to simultaneously stare at the other without being noticed by their object of fascination.

It was almost endearing, Near thought.

Sighing inaudibly, he shifted his own gaze to stare down at his lap, wishing for a puzzle of some sort. He himself had initially been something akin to concerned about Mello's reaction to the news of his former gang's involvement in the Jouka Case, but as Matt had run after the blond, he'd realised that Mello would be fine, as he had Matt to take half the burden from him.

Near had never detested Mello as much as Mello appeared to detest Near; the blond had an interesting array of emotions and, for lack of a better phrase, Near honestly liked him. The blond was his antithesis, and as such, they'd never really hit it off, but Near did enjoy the atmosphere he brought to a room, to some degree. Matt was a cooling agent to Mello's fire as well, which made the pair of them definitely more bearable than Near had initially assumed. They just fitted together, like two pieces from one of the puzzles Near took solace in.

For the first time since he could remember, Near wished for company.

A/N: Aw, poor Near. *sheds tear*

Yayy for Matt and Mello though! (Even if I thought that scene was a bit awks and OOC...) FINALLY! Though it's a bit weird still. I honestly don't know what's wrong with my head. O.o

Please review! I think we'll make a hundred in the next two chapters, which is amazing, except that's also exactly when I go on study leave for exams. Oh well. I'll make time to write a oneshot when I have to! XD