~Mello

Matt and I had decided on a small funeral, just the two of us and a priest. We figured it would be easier this way, for the both of us. So I was a bit pissed when there was a crowd of people standing before us.

I stared at the crowd that stood around Aiko's final resting place. I turned to look at Matt who met my gaze. "You told them."

"I only told the principle, I didn't think he'd tell the whole world." Matt shrugged.

I smacked Matt's arm.

"Ow!" Matt complained.

The crowd of people then turned around to face us. Shit. I cleared my throat and walked towards the crowd. They split open giving Matt and me a path to the front where the priest stood and Aiko's coffin laid. Matt followed me to the front. I looked over both of my shoulders. Why the fuck is there this many people? Half of them probably only saw her on the street and don't even give a shit.

"Mello, you ready?" Matt whispered into my ear.

I glanced up at him, looked around at everyone one more time, and then nodded.

The priest began the ceremony and I could hear people sniffing behind me. I kept my gaze low and focused on Aiko's coffin. It's really cold. Aiko hates the cold; she'd always cuddle close to me when we're watching TV and at night I'd make sure to leave and extra blanket on her bed. I looked around, there are so many faces but none of them are hers. I need to see her.

"Now, does anyone have something to say about Aiko?" The priest smiled at us all.

A girl to my left stepped forward. She looked familiar. She turned to Matt and me. She looked so devastated.

"My name is Alice. I never got to really meet you two but I'm Aiko's best friend."

She's one of the girls we met at the park.

"She was a really good friend. She was always there when I needed her even at times when it was incontinent for her. One thing I really remember about Aiko is that she really loved you Matt and Mello. She always told me stories about you two. I know you two already know that Aiko loved you but I just wanted to make sure you knew how much. Thank you for taking care of her—"

She stared to sob.

Matt walked over to her and hugged her. He was talking softly to her as she began to cry more. When they separated Alice turned to me and walked over. She wrapped her arms around my torso. She was Aiko's height and they had the same hair. I wrapped my arms around her. I couldn't hold back. This girl is the closest person I have to Aiko.

"I miss her, Mello." She sobbed, "She was such a good person."

I hugged her tighter, "I miss her too."

I pulled her away a bit so that I could look at her.

"But she's gone now."

This isn't Aiko.

She tried to dry her cheeks and shook her head, "She's not gone Mello. She's living within all of us. She's watching over us in heaven because there's no way she'd leave us all alone. Especially you Mello, she loved you so much."

I felt Matt's hand on my back. I looked around at all the people standing and crying. Everyone here holds a piece of Aiko.

Matt turned to everyone, "If Aiko were here she'd probably hit everyone for crying. She was always smiling but I'm sure you all know that. I just want to thank you all for coming and showing your love for Aiko. And I think this is how it should be. Aiko showered us all with her love in the past and now its time that she gets it back."

/_=_+_=_\

I opened the door to our apartment. I stared into the dark living space. I walked in as the couch caught my eye. I placed my arm on the dirty fabric and dragged my hand across the top. I lifted my gaze to the room again. It was quiet.

"It was nice that everyone came." Matt voice was a small mumble but it broke through the silence that surrounded me. I nodded in response.

Matt walked over to me slowly. Ours eyes met when he reached for my hand. I laced our fingers together and looked at him again. We knew we'd have to go in at some point. It was a healthy way to overcome her death right? He haven't entered the room since the night she died… This is going to be hard.

"Ready?" I asked quietly.

Matt looked down the hall that led to the bedrooms and took a deep breath. I tightened my grip on his hand as I lead us to her bedroom door. I grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open. The afternoon sun peeked through the red curtains on the window. The beam of light lay over Aiko's bed brightly as if she was still here, sitting, waiting for us. Matt walked deeper into the memory of her. He turned on the stereo that sat on Aiko's desk.

Now you say you're lonely
You cry the whole night through
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

The slow beat filled the room as Julie London sang. I stepped towards the bed and sat on it gently as if not to wake her from her dreams like I use to do when I couldn't sleep.

Now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

"I remember this song." Matt stated as he stared at the stereo. "I remember her singing it while she was cooking one night. She couldn't hit the high notes."

I smiled. She liked to sing even though she was never really good at it. "She was shy about it though. I'd open the front door as she was on the couch singing her heart out. She stopped as soon as she noticed me."

The song changed. A happy piano began to play.

The story is over
But sometimes it's under
Which makes me just smile and wonder

I float down the river
Of freshly-made hot tea
Till the future is far behind me

Here comes the boy with the butterfly eyes
Who can sing like the birds in the bubble gum trees
I hear him sing
That the sun will not rain today—

It stopped. I turned to Aiko's desk to find Matt's finger on the off button. This was their song, Matt and Aiko's. He'd sing it to her when she had nightmares or when they were together and he wanted to make her smile. It always made her smile.

"Matt?" I leaned my arms on my knees.

Matt looked down then at me and smiled, "She loved that song."

I smiled back at him, "She did."

Matt looked down at Aiko's desk and studied it. I stood up and walked to her bookshelf. She didn't like to read much but she still managed to fill all six shelves. Comics, books she had to read for school, a couple books she read on her own, DVDs, and games.

"Hey Mello."

I turned and saw Matt reading something on Aiko's computer. Leave it to a hacker to break into his daughter's computer. "What is it?" I walked over to him and red it over his shoulder:

Dear Matt and Mello (aka Daddy and Mommy),

By the time you find this I will have probably died from my disease. If not then that means you're looking through my things. If that's so then come on! You can trust me. Anyway, I have decided that when God takes me away you guys won't be ready to go though the sudden change so I'm going to leave behind this virtual notebook. I will write in here every morning just incase something happens during the day and I cant continue writing in here. I know soon I will not be able to speak or write or even type so sorry if the entries start to get short.

Getting onto the actual entry for today: How are you guys doing? I don't know how long its going to take Matt to go through my computer but I hope its not to long after my death. Its kind of weird talking about when I'm going to die, I mean aren't we suppose to just live life and then let God decide that day he wants to take us? Knowing that I'm going to die soon kind of makes me wonder if God wanted me to die of this disease and if so then why at my age? I'm pretty young don't you think? Does this mean I've done what God wants me to do on earth? I don't think I've done anything special… You never know though, maybe I'll do something amazing just before I die like cure cancer or solve world hunger! Well, did I? Yeah I guess I didn't… Oh well.

I like to think that when I go to heaven that God will be there waiting for me on a big couch like ours, nice and comfy. He'd call me over and I'd sit on his lap and he'd ask me: "So Aiko, what did you do while you were on earth?" and I'll tell him about all the things I learned on earth like how to count and spell and make friends and to cook. Then he'll laugh at all the stories I have to tell and all the jokes I learned that aren't dirty. Duh, I am going to be talking with God. Then I'd tell God about you two. I'd tell him about how you saved me and loved me till the last seconds we spent together. I'd tell him about Mello's grumpiness and Matt's awesome gamer skills. Then I'd ask him to bless you two and have patience. I wonder if he'd be mad at me for not going to mass every Sunday? I hope not. I wish the three of us could have gone to mass together with you two in tuxedos and me in a pretty dress. I think God would have liked that.

Well I have to go, you two are fighting about something in the kitchen. Time for me to save the day and end all the violence!—oh! Maybe I will end all the wars and hate before I die! That would be nice.

~Lots of Love, Aiko.

There was silence again. I stood up straight and looked away from Matt. These tears couldn't be held back. I cried. I could hear Matt crying at Aiko's desk too. I turned back to him and rubbed his shoulder to try and comfort him. He broke down, and then I broke down. We cried for what seemed like years before we could calm down.

"How many did she write?" I asked, drying my cheeks.

Matt pulled up a window with a single folder titled "For Matt and Mello" then clicked it. Dozens of word document icons appeared on the screen with dates. We scanned through the whole list. She began writing the journal entries shortly after we told her about the disease and stopped writing it the morning before she died.

"Mello, what time is it?" Matt asked pulling out his cell phone.

"Why?" I sniffed.

Matt turned to look at me with his big brown puffy eyes, "Lets go to mass."

"You want to go to mass?" I questioned. Matt was never one for religion. I knew he didn't hate it but he definitely didn't practice it.

"We're in tuxes. Lets just go. They have Saturday masses too right?" He sounded hopeful.

"Going to mass and praying to God isn't going to bring her back Matt—"

"We're not going to mass to bring her back, we're going to mass to grant her wish. This is what Aiko wanted Mello. Lets do this for her." Matt explained. "She probably has a lot of things that she wanted to do but didn't get a chance to do written down in these entries. Come on Mello, lets grant all of her wishes as a final goodbye."

"Matt… I'm fine with going to mass but I don't think Aiko left behind her journal for us to go around the world like idiots eating pizza from Italy because she wondered how it tasted like one morning." Was he going insane?

"So you don't want to do this because you don't want to look like an idiot? You're so stupid and selfish Mello! Even when she was alive you never wanted anything to do with her!"

"Don't you fucking dare Matt I loved Aiko just as much as you did!—"

"But you never showed it!" Matt roared over me. "You never held her hand when we crossed the street, you never comforted her when she was stressing over stupid shit—"

"Because it was stupid!—"

"Not to her!" I've never seen Matt this mad. He's got some major balls to talk to me like this. "When she needed you, you weren't there! God Mello I cant believe how stupid you are sometimes."

"Don't give me that shit. I never got a chance to show her how much I loved her because I had to be the adult all the fucking time! You were her best friend Matt and it fucking sucks to know that she loves you more than me. So fuck you Matt!" I clenched my fists and stormed out of Aiko's room. I grabbed the keys to my motorcycle and left.

/_=_+_=_\

An hour later I found myself in front of a church. I stood at the bottom of the steps that lead into the building. I dropped my gaze and mumbled, "I'm sorry it couldn't be all of us Aiko…"

I kept my head down as I walked up the steps. When I reached the door I looked up and pushed the wooden door open. The mass had already started but the church was less than half full. I looked around to find an empty row but found a redheaded man sitting on a bench by himself near the back. Everyone stood for the Gospel; I took this as my chance to sneak into Matt's row. I stared straight forward but I could tell Matt was surprised to see me. The priest finished up and we sat for the homily. I wasn't paying attention to the priest when Matt nudged my side.

"What is he talking about?" Matt whispered.

I started listening to what the guy up front was saying and recognized the story, "He's talking about a guy named Job. He was a faithful catholic and was pretty wealthy so the Devil and God decided to have a contest. The Devil took away all the guys treasures and then they waited to see if in the end he was still faithful to God."

"Gods pretty fucked up." Matt commented, "So did he still believe in God?"

I glared at an old lady that was staring at us for talking in mass, "Yeah he did."

"So did God give him back all his stuff?" Matt seemed interested.

"No. I believe Job lived a hard life after that and was rewarded in heaven." It's been a while since I've heard that story but I'm pretty sure that's how the ending went. Besides its not like Matt would know.

"'Rewarded in Heaven.' Sound like bull to me. I mean what does that even mean?" Matt sat up straight in his seat.

I glanced at Matt then looked up at the giant dying Jesus on the wall behind the priest, "It means that when we die and reach the gates of Heaven God wont pull the ground out from under us and send us down to hell for eternity. It means that when we die and see God for the first time He will invite us in and sit us down on a big comfy couch and ask us 'What did you do while on earth?'"

/_=_+_=_\

By the time we got out of mass the sun was still high up in the sky. I looked around to find Matt's car but didn't see it anywhere. Matt must have noticed because he put his hands in his pockets and said, "I didn't bring the car."

I looked at him questionably, "You walked here from the apartments?"

Matt gave a small nod.

I sighed and walked up to my bike. I swung my leg over and began to put on my gloves. Matt was watching me. I finished and turned on the motorcycle, I could feel it vibrating under me. I sat up straight, "You coming?" I looked forward, "We still have to find Aiko's next wish."

Matt smiled and walked over to the bike. He got on and put his arms on my hips, this made me smirk. I revved the bike up and shot down the street. I headed home to Aiko's room where her journal to us was with all her wishes.

Incase you didnt understand it, there is going to be a sequal. I havent gotten to makeing the first chapter for that yet but dont worry it'll be up soon. Thank you for reading!! (I can finally put this one to rest D: xD)