Mello awoke to the smell of food and the sound of the TV as they both wafted through the room. He shifted his body slightly as his eyes fluttered open, slowly adjusting to the light in the room and landing on the guilty looking red head that sat in the armchair. Mello stared at him silently for a few moments before turning his attention to the food on the coffee table next to him. Mmh… Chinese food.

"Hey Matt."

Matt nearly jumped when he heard his friend's voice, quickly looking over to him and smiling innocently. "Yeah?"

"How come you aren't eating? And… how am I supposed to eat without plates or anything?" The blonde asked casually, watching Matt's movements carefully. Why was he so jumpy? What was he hiding?

Matt paused and stared at the boxes of food. "Uh… well, I was waiting for you to wake up? And… yeah, sorry I'll get plates." He said, breathing a soft laugh as he hopped up and walked to the kitchen.

Mello watched him go, thinking about how he was acting. I bet he broke something and doesn't want to tell me. He rolled onto his back slowly and waited for his friend to come back. When he saw him, he just stared. "So Matt… what's up?"

The red head froze briefly, glancing into Mello's cold eyes and quickly looking away as he sat down the plates and utensils. "Nothing…" Fuck.

The skeptical blonde narrowed his eyes. "…Well, what did you break? Or do? You're acting pretty guilty, you know."

Matt inhaled slightly and looked at Mello, trying to come up with some excuse. No… no, fuck. He'll know if I'm lying. "I uh… I didn't break anything." He assured, shaking his head and opening one of the boxes of food. "I… I bought some stuff?" he said, giving Mello a nervous smile.

Awesome. Their food money is going to more of Matt's stupid wants. He probably bought ten Xbox games or something. "What did you buy?" he asked, a hint of venom on his lips.

"Just… some stuff."

"What kind of stuff, Matt."

The defeated red head sighed and sat on the armchair with his plate of food in his lap, his eyes refusing to meet Mello's. "Uh… just… well food and some clothes…"

Mello watched Matt's actions, shaking his head softly. "That's not all, Matt. What else did you buy?"

Matt tentatively ate a bit of his food, his eyes cast down. "A… piercing gun and a fish."

A piercing gun and a fish. That statement confused Mello more than almost anything he'd ever heard before. First, why? Second, what was Matt piercing? He just stared at his friend for a moment as he tried to think of the correct response. After a few moments of complete silence, Mello drew in a deep breath and asked the question. "Why?"

Matt had his eyes closed, waiting for Mello to yell or throw something. When it didn't come, he was honestly surprised and looked directly at the blonde. Mello had been very nice to him lately… "Well… I went to get food, right? And… well I was watching TV earlier and it made me want gauges… so… I went to the mall and got the gun. I guess I kinda… got distracted by other shops… and stuff…"

With a disapproving stare, Mello thought about what his friend had just told him. He started to feel his anger build up within him and briefly thought about throwing his fork at the other or yell at him, but forced the thoughts away and remained calm. "You said… you bought clothes too?" he worked out, a shaky tone of anger lingering in his words.

Carefully, Matt answered; "Yeah. A shirt and jeans."

"Show them to me."

Matt winced slightly at the sound of the blonde's voice and then nodded and quickly walked off to the bedroom, coming back moments later with the bag in his hand.

The first thing Mello noticed about what his friend was holding in his hand was that it was a Hot Topic bag. That meant two terrible things; the first being that whatever Matt had bought had been very expensive and the second being that it was probably extremely gay looking. When Matt pulled out the shirt and explained it, he quickly studied it and nodded slightly. Just a simple band shirt; one that he knew Matt liked a whole lot. He'd let that pass. The jeans he pulled out, though… they looked very, very tight. Definitely not Matt's usual attire and in all honesty, they looked like jeans that Mello'd wear; considering they looked as tight as his own leather jeans. Wait—skinny-jeans, piercing gun…

"Matt. I swear to God, if you're going into some fucking scene-fag stage I'm—"

"No! No I'm not doing anything like that." The red head quickly assured, waving his hands in front of him a bit. "They're not as tight as they look, I promise."

"Matt, those things are gonna cram your junk so fucking close to your body that you won't be able to get a boner ever again."

With a soft noise, Matt blinked at him. "And your jeans won't?" he asked defensively, raising his brows. Not the best of his ideas.

A soft fire flared behind the blonde's eyes as he stared into his friend. "No, they won't. Besides, leather has to be tight otherwise you'd look like a fucking idiot and I look good in leather, Matt."

Matt listened as the blonde tried to defend his choice in pants, his expression remaining apathetic the entire time. He'd heard all of this before. "Okay, okay. Sorry." He rolled his eyes slightly and put the clothing back into the bag. Inside, he was a bit disappointed that Mello hadn't enjoyed the clothing. Not that he was really expecting him to applaud him or anything… oh well.

Mello watched his friend in silence, a frown painted on his face. Idiot. Mello wouldn't let his mind linger on it too long, but he knew he'd probably like the way Matt looked in the pants. More like Matt's ass, actually.

"…what else did you get? A Piercing gun and a fish?" the blonde asked, trying to tear away the suffocating silence that hung in the room.

Matt kept his eyes away from the other, though nodding at his question. What, was he going to mock him for that too?

"Are you going to pierce your ears?"

"I was thinking about it… to get gauges eventually…"

The blonde kept his gaze on his friend who remained facing away from him. Gauges, huh. That could be kind of hot. Though… he did like Matt's cute, soft ears…

"Okay. That sounds cool."

The red head looked over to his friend, raising his brows in surprise. He actually… liked the idea? "Really?"

"Yeah, sure." Mello shrugged and smiled softly, trying to ease the tension between them. Besides, he didn't like the way Matt looked whenever he was all upset.

Matt smiled a bit broader and shook bangs away from his face. "Okay. Oh, and I'll show you the fish like… later. He's in the bedroom."

Mello smiled. He couldn't help but find the childish expression Matt gained each time he talked about the fish to be absolutely adorable. It made him not care about the fact that his idiot friend had probably spent around $100 today on things that they didn't need and that now he'd have to listen to a fish tank bubble and filter all night. That expression… that face made it all okay.

"Okay… hey. Come sit by me." He said with a gentle smile, shifting on the couch so that his legs made room for the red head and he was sitting upright.

Matt paused for a moment. Was this a trick to get him closer so that he could punch him? He tentatively moved closer to the blonde and sat down next to him, smiling over at him softly. He paused to think for a few seconds as his eyes trailed over the blonde. They were closer, right? He was allowed to cuddle on him, right? He held his breath and flopped onto Mello casually, leaning against the other's side with his head resting on his strong shoulder and then moved one of his calloused hands to rest gently atop the blonde's smooth forearm.

With a brief look of confusion, Mello froze in his place. He's just leaning on you. It's… cute… He let a smile grace his lips and moved his arm so that his palm would rest within the red head's, holding onto his hand softly. Afterwards, he turned his head to the side and gently kissed the top of Matt's head, letting himself relax against the other's warm body. He let them stay in that position for a while as they watched TV, it taking all of his will power to break the comfortable silence.

"Matt, did you wanna pierce your ears tonight?"

The red head in question looked up at the other, raising his brows softly. "Sure. You wanna help me?"

Mello shrugged softly at the suggestion. "Yeah, sure." If it allowed him to touch his friend's soft, delicate ears one last time before they were forever ruined by metal, then of course he'd want to help. "Go get the gun and we can do it."

Matt quickly complied and fetched the piercing gun from the bag next to them, handing the package to the blonde and turning to face him a bit more. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Nope." Mello mumbled as he read over the directions on the back. Seemed easy enough… "You know Matt; you probably could have done this at the mall for like fifteen bucks."

The gamer paused and then shrugged, watching Mello open the case and take out the gun. "Yeah probably… but that would have been weird. So I just bought this."

Mello glanced at his friend, rolling his eyes slightly and then turning his attention back to the gun in his hands. Matt was always so bothered by anything that came even close to being outside of his comfort zone. Of course he wouldn't have wanted some woman piercing his ears for him. No, that'd be too easy.

Once he had an earring installed into the gun he turned his attention back to his friend. "Okay, c'mere." He held out one of his hands to the red head, gently taking his jaw between his fingers and brushing the soft red hair behind his perfect ear. He positioned the gun over his earlobe and inhaled deeply. "Ready? One… two… three." On the third count he squeezed the gun, a soft click sounding as the metal piercing was driven through Matt's soft flesh.

Matt breathed out slowly, smiling a bit to himself. That wasn't so bad. It didn't even hurt. He thought pleasantly to himself as he gently touched the new addition to his ear, watching Mello load in the second piercing to the gun. "How's it look?"

The blonde glanced up to his friend's ear, taking in the sight before looking back down to the gun. "Pretty gay." He smiled jokingly and looked up to Matt again, pushing away a few strands of blonde hair that had stuck to the corner of his mouth. "I'm sure the gauges will look pretty badass though." I gotta give him hope. That way he stays happy.

With a soft smile, Matt slowly turned the piercing in the new hole. "You think so?"

"Sure." He shifted closer to the red head and mimicked what he'd done earlier, positioning the gun carefully and then clicking it closed after the third count. "Now lemme see." He said with a subtly playful smile, holding Matt's head between his hands and looking at both of his ears. "They look pretty good!"

Matt just looked at his friend as he was examined, unable to will away the smile on his face. It was times like these, oddly enough, that he was reminded of his 'childhood' back in the orphanage. Back when the two of them were, for the most part, uncaring and just enjoyed themselves… when Mello would come into his room late at night just because he was bored and didn't feel like sleeping. Matt missed those times. Though… not to say that he didn't enjoy their current time. "Do you want to pierce your ears too?"

"Hell no I don't." Mello said with a laugh, pulling his hands back to rest in his lap as he looked Matt over. "I'll leave that faggotry to you."

With a soft laugh, Matt smiled at his counterpart. It secretly amused him how anti-gay Mello acted. He'd never convince anyone, though, taking his clothing into account and the fact that he's slept with a guy on more than one occasion. Ah well, he'd just continue not to notice.

For now, though, he'd eat his Chinese food and relax with his gorgeous lover. Lover… could he consider Mello that? No… no, for now, he'd keep calling him 'friend'.

A very good friend.

IIIIIIIIIIII

I'm sorry this took so long- Busy. Anywho! Kind of a boring chapter, but the upcoming ones will be more eventful. Promise! Also, I almost made the future of this fic veer off into Mpreg LOL. You're so lucky I didn't. (unless you want Mpreg? Lolol)