:D After careful re-reading and editing, I think this fluff is just fluffy enough to make all of you beautiful readers and reviewers squeal with Matt-love the way I did when I wrote it. But don't get too cozy there, all.. I've got something up my sleeve that will either leave you loving me or hating me for it 3. I think first, you'll love me, though. Then.. Well, we'll see how things go. Be wary of the next chapter, and watch for a rise in the rating. Yep, it means just what you think it might. Lemony goodness, anyone? I can't help myself. As I said, we shall see! Anyways, onward to the next installment!

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It isn't such a big deal, Matt tells himself as he gazes down at the girl asleep in his bed. We've known each other for years. It'd be platonic, right? Nothing else…

He shakes his head and forces his knees to bend in a manner that allows him to sit down on the very edge of the bed. Stupid, he thinks. She's just a girl. Its hard to tell if the voice in his head is his own or if it has morphed into Mello's sneering drawl. Just a girl. No reason to run and hide like some great pansy baby. Shut up. Lay down.

Easier said than done. Because quite honestly, being so close to something so sound and vulnerable is harder than a block of cement for Matt. And that it's her. That she waltzed back into his life so easily, and that he's done nothing but let himself fall to some stupid heap for her is far harder to confront than anything. It hits harder than any joking blow from Mello. It hits deeper than any stretching, empty night he's ever endured.

She- this… all of it… it's everything.

Mello. His eyes flash in front of Matt's vision; that jaded shade of green that just doesn't seem to ever fade out. (I'm sorry, Mello… I can't help you anymore. I don't know how to help you when you're gone…)

Matt brings his legs up onto the bed and leans his back against the wall. He crosses his arms over his chest and closes his eyes. Mello smiles at him from some old memory.

That was the Mello he remembered best; the one that laughed with him and pushed him around the way an older brother would. The one who looked out for him. The one who asked for nothing in return but the companionship. That was the Mello that was taken from him. The Mello that left the rest of the world was a sneering, jeering bastard that was tired of never coming in first.

But that wasn't his Mello.

That wasn't his best friend.

Matt would always remember Mello best as the kid he was forced to share a room with when they were far, far younger. The kid who swore and prayed in the same breath.

Mello was always first to Matt. He'd earned that much. Matt owed him that much.

And Audrey. She was the innocence Mello never had a shot at. She was the half smile and the quiet laugh that Mello was rarely allotted time for. Funny, Matt thinks. They probably would have gotten on great had they given each other the time of day. They do have the same smartass attitude, besides…

And here, in the shadow of what Mello was and all that Audrey is, Matt no longer feels the need to choose either one or the other. They could have been about one and the same anyways, he smiles. When he looks down at her, he see's his best friend again. Reflected in her peaceful face was the Mello that Matt held so close to his heart for all these years.

Matt slides down and rests his head on the pillow. He scoops Audrey up in his arms and holds her to his chest. She takes to him like a bird to the sky; her arms wrap around his middle, and she buries her head into the crook of his neck.

"Stay with me," he hears her mutter languidly in her sleep. He nods his head and tightens his hold around her.

"I will," he breathes out. "I will." For the time being, there is nothing left between them to conquer. No more arguing, no more excuses. The ghosts have lifted, the walls have crumbled, and there is nothing but the honesty of what is between them left to rely on, the way yellow relies on blue.

He kisses the top of her head and feels her smile softly against his skin.

This is everything.

It's not platonic, it's not wrong, it's just everything.

The warmth is enough to lull him to sleep, and sleep he does; far more peacefully than he ever has.