Damnit damnit damnit. Now Mello was going to punch him or yell at him for saying something so stupid. He couldn't say anything now though… he didn't want Mello to think that he didn't think he was cute. But… augh, God-fucking-damnit.

"You… think I'm cute?"

Mello had been a bit… shocked, to say the least when he'd heard the red head say it. Matt had definitely become more openly emotional towards him lately. Maybe if they kept it up… they would actually stay like this; like he'd hoped and worried about the night they had sex. Maybe… one day he could honestly look at Matt as his boyfriend. The thought had him fighting back a smile as he waited for the red head's answer.

"Well…"—he paused—"…Yeah."

Mello felt a flutter thought his chest and let a glimpse of the smile break through before covering it up again. I am such a faggot. He sighed out slowly before pressing his body back into Matt's further. "Only cute? You could have called me something less gay."

Matt opened his eyes at the playful tone of the blonde's smooth, velvety voice. So… so he wasn't mad? He… liked that he called him cute? Or rather, thought he should've been called something else? Like what, though…

"Like… 'Oh Mello, I think you're the hottest, sexiest being I've ever laid my unworthy eyes on'?" he recited with a small, playful smile as he held the blonde's body against his own.

"The sounds about right to me." The blonde said, a light-hearted laugh trailing after it. If only Matt meant all of that…

"Heh… well sexiness aside" he said with a lazy, slightly raspy tone to his voice, "I need to change your bandages first thing tomorrow morning." It'd be better to change them now before bed… but… he really did not want to give up this position. Mello's leg would be fine until morning.

The blonde nodded in response, lying still for a few minutes as he silently watched TV. His mind wasn't focused on the show, though. There had been a thought buzzing around in his mind since Matt had left for food. He might as well bring it up now… there probably wasn't going to be a better time.

"Hey, Matt? Speaking of sexy…" he paused for a second or two, choosing his words carefully. "I think we should have sex again. Without the alcohol this time, though." He waited for the response, honestly having no idea what was going to come out of his friend's mouth. He just… thought it would be better to do it again while sober. That way they could remember it and… be sure that they actually wanted it instead of waking up cuddled together and thinking 'Oh, this feels nice'.

Matt felt his body tense slightly as he heard the words that floated out of the blonde's mouth. He… Mello… wanted to do it again? He wanted to? After all of the times he'd bailed on him out of fear… leaving him alone in the bed wondering why he couldn't do it. And now… now he wanted to do it? Without getting drunk first, even. He wanted… to honestly have sex with him. Holy shit. Mello wants to… but wait.

"Like… right now? But your leg—"He grunted when he felt Mello's familiar, sharp elbow jab into his stomach.

"No you stupid fuck. I meant tomorrow or… something."

With a slow sigh, Matt kissed the back of Mello's neck softly as his fingertips trailed up and down the other's smooth chest. "Okay. How about… I'll change your bandages and all that and then if you still want to… we will."

The blonde smiled softly at his response, nodding a bit to tell Matt that he agreed. It would be perfect; all he'd have to do before then is figure out exactly how they'd be performing such actions with his leg in its current state. He definitely wouldn't be able to be on top with his injury being so close to his knee. So that meant… he'd probably have to be the 'catcher'. Fuck. He'd only done that maybe… once in his life. With a soft breath he hoped to God that Matt would be gentle.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Matt awoke the next morning feeling more comfortable than he could ever remember feeling before. His knee was nestled warmly between Mello's thighs and his face was buried in a sea of soft blonde hair, his arms locked around the sleeping boy before him in a warm embrace. For a while he simply lay motionless, listening to Mello's relaxed breathing and feeling his steady heartbeat beneath his palm. When he moved that hand, he noticed that his thin fingers were laced between the blonde's and it sent a warm feeling through his chest that made him want to hold the hand tighter. For once in his life, he hoped that Mello would sleep in later. He enjoyed this position way too much and in all honesty… he was dreading the task of changing the bandages. Since he hadn't changed them yesterday, he now had to do extra cleaning; which would cause more pain. Sure, Mello was fond of pain—to an extent—but he knew that he wasn't going to be too happy about what was to come.

To Matt's displeasure, though, the wounded blonde shifted as he began to wake. He let out a soft sigh as he leaned into the red head, fluttering his eyes open for a few seconds before closing them again. He felt so warm like this… laying in Matt's arms while they slept the day away. He grunted softly and pulled the blanket up so it rest over his nose and mouth, cuddling back against his friend further as he tried to fall asleep again. After about ten minutes, though, he realized it wasn't going to happen and sighed. He let out another soft grunt as he slowly rolled over, his side and hip aching from having slept on the same side the entire night. Oh well, even though he'd have to give up the God-given position, he could now press his face into the red head's broad chest and smell him; which he did. He wrapped his strong arms around his friend's chest and pressed their bodies together, breathing in his scent deeply. God he loved that smell… the smell of Axe body wash and cigarette smoke that was permanently laced within the fibers of all of Matt's clothing. It was just so perfect. He nestled further into his friend, pausing though when he felt the red head hug back. Crap, now he knew that he'd been smelling him. How awkwardly gay.

"Morning"

Mello mentally sighed, "Morning"

"Are you ready to fix that wound more today?"

With a small smile, Mello moved his head back just far enough so that he could lazily and briefly press his lips against the red head's. "Yeah… just lemme wake up some more…" he said with a slow yawn, rolling away from the other to lie on his back with his arms stretched above his head. And after they did that… they would have glorious sex. He wasn't going to wait until later… no. He wanted to have sex immediately afterwards. That way, in theory, all of his lingering pain from the cleaning would be absorbed and replaced by pleasure. "You wanna make some coffee?"

Matt kept his gaze on his friend, a small smile remaining in place the entire time. He'd never quite noticed just how attractive Mello really was; until recently, that is. His baby-soft skin, calm blue eyes that held a unique flare behind the initial beauty that he'd never seen before on anyone else, perfect and sharp angles to his face with silky blonde hair that hung so lovingly and angelically around his features… not to mention his perfectly thin, yet toned and muscled body that he displayed so well with flashy leather clothing. Leather clothes… heh, Mello's pants. Matt loved his pants. He'd started to find the laces along the crotch area extremely sexy and had to fight to keep his eyes off of it each time the blonde would wear them.

"Yeah, sure."

Mello watched his friend get out of the makeshift bed and walk into the kitchen. He'd worn his jeans to bed… that must not have been very comfortable. Though, he was probably used to it. Most of the time, Matt would just fall asleep on the couch after a night of gaming without changing first. The red head obviously didn't have enough time to look away from his game for a second to take off his pants. Or goggles. Or boots, even. Idiot.

Mello's attention turned back to his friend whenever he reentered the room, holding two steaming mugs. He sat up with a grunt, taking one of the mugs carefully and sighing out with happiness. "Thanks" He breathed in some of the steam, holding the mug close to himself. I wonder if he—

"I put a piece of chocolate in yours like how you usually do."

Mello looked up at Matt in surprise, his brows raised slightly. Oh, he was good. "You're awesome Matt, thanks."

The gamer smiled broadly and shrugged a response, sitting down in the armchair with a tired groan. He took a long sip of his coffee and sighed out, silently praying that Mello's injury hadn't become infected or worsened in any other way because he just wanted to clean it, re bandage it, and be finished for the day. The thoughts about it had been plaguing his mind for the majority of the morning. Think about something else… something good.

"…So, I figured out how to fuck even though you're leg is all messed up."

The blonde coughed a few times into his coffee upon hearing Matt's sudden conversation topic. "You did?" he asked, looking up to his friend's face. "I figured you'd just top? So I could just kinda lay there and… you know. Take it."

"Oh I didn't know you were willing to do that." Matt responded with a subtle smirk, sipping more of his coffee. Score?

Mello blinked, staring at his friend. "Wait. Wait, wait. What was your idea?"

The red head laughed softly, flipping his bangs from his face as they fell down into his eyes. "Well… I was thinking that one position where you'd be on bottom but… still technically topping, you know?" He tried to explain without just saying it. He was fairly certain that the blonde knew what he was talking about… he'd seen enough porn and fucked enough people. More than likely he'd come across the situation at least once.

Mello cocked a blonde eyebrow at the description, a mental image of the last instance where he was in that position immediately coming to mind. Oh hell yes. Why hadn't he thought of that himself? Besides, it would probably be easier anyways. With this, he didn't have to worry about lifting his legs or trying to prop them on something that might end up hurting his injury further. "I like that idea better." He said as he drank more of his coffee. He then smirked and asked coyly, "Have you ever sat on it before?"

This time, Matt coughed. Once he'd cleared his throat, he flicked his eyes to the blonde. "No, actually. I haven't." Turning his eyes back to his coffee, he thought about the position a bit. It didn't seem too difficult… he was sure he could do it.

The blonde's playful smirk grew wider and he finished his coffee, leaning over to set the mug on the edge of the coffee table. He sighed and then looked at his friend. "Well, time to fix my bandages?"

Matt nodded and downed the last of his coffee as well, setting down the mug and walking over to Mello who was still sitting atop his mountain of pillows. He pulled back the blanket so that he could check over his leg briefly before jogging off to the bathroom, coming back soon after with his medical supplies. "This'll probably hurt again." He informed. "I dunno if it'll be more or less than last time, though."

Mello shrugged and twisted his body around, pushing his legs to the side also so he could rest back against the armchair with his legs out in front of him. "Eh… I can't really avoid it. Don't worry."

True. Matt thought to himself as he sat down on one of the pillows, pulling Mello's injured leg over to him carefully. Taking in a deep breath, he prepared himself for the possible horrors that may lie beneath as he cut the edge of the bandage and began to slowly unwrap it. Once those bandages had been removed, he slowly started to peel off the cloth that was placed directly over the top wound. Man… the placement for this must really hurt…With thinking that, he paused and looked up quickly to Mello's face when he heard him take a sharp breath.

"Are you okay?"

Mello kept his eyes on the bandage that was held between the gamer's steady fingers. "It's stuck to the wound."

Matt gently chewed on his lower lip, looking back down to the bullet hole and pulling on the bandage slightly more. "Yeah… well get ready, because I'm pulling it off." He said as he pulled off the rest of the bandage, despite the blonde's pained grunts and breaths. Afterwards, he looked down to see the real damage, a heavy sigh of relief pushing its way past his lips when he realized that it was actually better than he was expecting. Sure, it was severely bruised and there was dry blood caked around the opening, but… so far it didn't look like it was infected or anything. That made his life so much easier. With a slight smile, Matt picked up the bottle of cleaning alcohol and the washcloth he'd brought along with him, looking around the injury to see where he thought would be best to start.

"Okay I'm gonna start. It'll probably hurt more this time because of all the bruising so… prepare yourself."

Mello breathed out slowly and moved his hands to grip one of the nearby pillows, nodding to show that he was ready. More pain. Awesome. He watched Matt's hands carefully as they lowered to his leg, waiting for the pain—

"FUCK"

Matt tensed his hands slightly when he heard the blonde's voice but kept going, trying to rub off the dried blood from around the opening as delicately as he could. He sighed as it started to bleed a bit again, thoughts racing through his mind. Something… say something; start a conversation so he has something to focus on other than what I'm doing. Anything… augh, fuckfuckfuck.

"Hey Mello"

Mello turned his hazy attention to his friend's face for a moment, his entire body tensed from the shocks of pain that shot through him from his leg. "A-ah… what?"

The gamer glanced at his friend's face for a second before casting his eyes back down to what needed attention. "During that time between when you left the orphanage and met up with me again, you know? I learned how to play the piano." He said calmly, casting a small smile at his friend.

The blonde raised a brow at this new information, trying to ignore the pain that raged in his leg so that he could concentrate on what Matt was telling him. "You did?" Matt never seemed like one to play piano. Hell, he was just as surprised that the red head took time away from video games long enough to learn.

"Yeah. I taught myself."

Taught himself, huh. What could have compelled him to learn how to play the piano, of all things? Did he just randomly sit at a piano one day and start tapping away at keys all by himself? Oh… that was kind of cute. "Really?" The blonde paused, cringing at a sting of pain. "…you should play for me sometime."

Matt glanced up at his friend, embarrassment twisting through his stomach at the suggestion. "Uh… I haven't… I haven't played in like a year and I don't have a piano…" He applied some medicine to cleaned injury and then placed a new bandage over it. "Roll over so I can get the back one."

The blonde complied and rolled onto his stomach slowly, propping his upper half up onto his elbows. "So. I doubt you forgot everything… we'll get a keyboard tomorrow or… when I can move easier." He winced in pain as the second bandage was peeled off, sighing out heavily afterwards.

Tensing again slightly, Matt scanned over the second wound where the bullet had entered. To his relief, it looked even better than the other one. He applied alcohol to the cloth again and began rubbing away blood, wincing at each of Mello's pained sounds. It seemed like his conversation was working, though. "Well… I… I have a keyboard, but… I can't play it as well as a piano. So it probably… wouldn't be that good." He should have expected that Mello'd want to hear him play. He was always very curious and any new information about himself, Mello was sure to jump on it.

"I don't care Matt." Mello said firmly, a gasp of pain escaping as his leg jerked slightly away from Matt's hand, the wound stinging in pain. "Play it tomorrow, okay?"

Matt sighed in defeat, his eyes staying on the bruised skin beneath his hands. "…maybe." After a few more minutes of rubbing away blood, the red head applied medicine and bandaged up the entry wound. Afterwards, he grabbed the new wrappings and tenderly began to run it around the blonde's leg, tying it off snuggly. "Okay babe, all done." He said with a smile as he patted Mello's ass. There was no way he could punch him in this positio—

"Ah" he cried out softly, laughing a bit as he pushed away the blonde's uninjured leg that had collided with his side quite firmly. Whoops, forgot that he still had a useable leg.

Mello smiled deviously and turned himself over again so that he was sitting upright. He looked over at his friend and stretched his upper body with a sigh. He was actually… excited for what was about to come. All the fear that had previously hindered him now seemed like only a dream. As his eyes trailed over Matt's body he found himself imagining the future scene… him lying down with the red head on top of him, bouncing and moa—

"What?" He said innocently, his eyes focusing onto Matt's. Apparently he'd been so far into his imagination that he hadn't heard what his friend was saying.

Matt gave him a bit of a weird look and paused, repeating what he'd said earlier. "I said… Do you want to have a quick bathroom run before we start anything?" He wasn't sure if Mello wanted to do it now… but… considering the looks he'd just been given, he figured it wasn't too wrong of him to assume.

Mello blinked and then nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea."

IIIIIIII

Worst chapter ending ever. I would have had it finished last night, but I figured I'd sleep and finish it in the morning, rather than rush it all that night. Also, I was going to put the sex in this chapter. But, I was called by my friends with "We're going swimming and we're on our way to pick you up right now." So… I need to post this quickly before they get here. Anywho! I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can, I PROMISE D: