No. No, no, no, no, no. God fucking damnit—yes it was happening. Matt whimpered faintly and pushed Mello's arms away from him, trying to get out of the bed as quickly as possible despite the fact that a minute prior, he'd been completely and comfortably asleep.

"Hhh…" He whined quietly as a strong wave of nausea crashed over him, further persuading him to walk as quickly as he could to the bathroom. Once inside he immediately crashed to his knees in front of the toilet and braced himself, his stomach heaving up its contents only seconds later. After the initial wave ended, he gagged and coughed a few times before spitting into the toilet and looking hazily around the room for toilet paper to wipe his mouth.

Fuck my life. He thought as he threw the soiled paper into the toilet as well. I hate being sick… He sighed and moved back off of his knees to sit on the cool tile floor, his body a bit hunched over as he waited to make sure that was the only wave that would hit him so he wouldn't have to get out of bed again in another five minutes. So when nothing else happened during the following ten minutes or so, he decided that his body was finished and he stood slowly, flushing the toilet afterwards. Before he went back to bed, though, he rinsed out his mouth in the sink. He hated the current taste and burning sensation in his mouth and throat.

How did he even get sick anyhow? The question plagued his mind as he slowly walked back to the bed. He hardly even went outside, let alone interacted with people who were sick… maybe he contracted it from someone at the tattoo shop. None of them really seemed sick, though… oh well. It didn't matter. He'd just have to deal with it until it went away.

IIIIIIIIIIII

"Matt! There aren't any towels in here."

The red head sighed and looked towards the bathroom, pausing his game and dragging himself off of the couch. Why couldn't he have checked before he'd gotten in the shower…?

"One second." He called back as he moved through the apartment to the laundry room, checking the dryer for towels. Good job Mello, you washed and dried towels but you didn't put them in the bathroom. He thought as he pulled out a couple and made his way to the bathroom.

"I'm coming in." He said as he knocked once and then pushed the door open, shivering slightly as the humidity of the room hit him

"Just hand them to me." Mello said as he poked his head out from behind the curtain, holding his hand out so that the red head could hand him said towels.

Matt did as he was asked and held them out, only to pull them just out of reach as the blonde went to grab them. He did so a few more times until he couldn't hold back his laughter and Mello flailed slightly in frustration, laughing as well.

"Just give me the fucking towel!" Mello exclaimed, laughing and leaning out of the shower a bit to grab at them.

Matt comically screeched, holding the towels away before grinning and surrendering, handing the towels over to his friend. With a broad grin, he waited for Mello to be occupied with drying off so that he could dart his hands forwards, tickling up and down the blonde's narrow sides.

"Ff—Matt stop it—Ah!" Mello laughed, twitching and jerking away from his friend's hands and then swatting at them with the towel. "Get out!" He said, grinning broadly as he pushed Matt away slightly.

The red head only laughed in response, leaving Mello to dry off in peace as he left the bathroom to continue his game. Oddly enough, he felt much better than he did that morning. He no longer felt sick or nauseous… in fact, he was starting to wonder if his incident had been a dream. Whether it had been or not, though, he was certainly happy that he seemed to be okay because now he could play all day without interruption.

In the bathroom, Mello had stepped out of the shower and was now drying off his body fully. When he was finished, he rubbed away some of the steam on the mirror to look at his reflection, examining the hickey on his neck once more. As he was doing so, a small plastic container sitting on the counter caught his attention. Curious, he picked it up and looked it over, soon realizing that it was the gauges that Matt had bought almost two months ago. He turned over the package and read the numbers, looking at the size. Size six… He pushed his damp bangs to the side and set down the case, slipping on his boxers afterwards and then taking the case out to the red head in the living room.

"Hey Matt? Were you ever going to put these in?" He asked, holding up the case and then sitting down next to him on the couch.

Matt looked from the TV to his friend and then to the case in his hand. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about them actually." He said with a laugh. "I was waiting for my ears to heal from being pierced in the first place." He paused and then decided to shut off his game. He might as well put them in now while he was thinking about it, right? Right. He took the case from Mello and opened it up, removing one of the sticks and taking off the black rubber rings. He wasn't entirely sure how to do this correctly but… what could be so hard? Push it in and wait until it feels loose enough to keep pushing, right? Oh well, he'll go for it.

He set the stick down on his knee so that he could remove his earring. Afterwards, he pressed the narrowest end of the stick into his piercing, pushing it in about a fourth of the way until he felt the slightest bit of stretching pain. Okay. Now just wait for it to stretch and relax. He thought, holding the gauging stick in place while his free hand changed the channels on TV.

Mello watched his friend push the stick in and cocked his head slightly to the left. It didn't seem like it'd hurt too much… he sure as hell wouldn't do it to his own ears but he figured that Matt would look good with them once they were finished. After a moment though, he decided to get dressed.

"You… keep doing that. I'll be back soon." He said as he stood, walking off to the bedroom to find a shirt. Once he did so he made his way back to the bathroom to dry his hair further. He plugged in the hairdryer and turned it on, watching his hair in the mirror as it blew around.

In the living room, Matt began to slowly push the stick through his ear further, twisting it slightly as he did so. It seemed to make it slide in easier. The whole process, though, was taking longer than he wished… sure, he didn't want his ears to tear or anything. That would be painful and… disgusting. But… oh well. It wasn't like he had anything else to do anyways… he'd just sit there and stretch his ears while watching TV. Sounded like an easy night.

III

Around two and a half hours later, Matt had completely inserted the first gauging rod into his ear and held it in place with the rubber rings. Now, he was starting on his second.

"So how do you feel now that you have gauged ears?" Mello said in mock enthusiasm. He'd rejoined Matt on the couch soon after his hair was dry and the two of them were curled up beneath a thin blanket, watching TV. "Did it hurt?"

Matt shrugged and looked over at him, currently twisting the rod further into his ear. "I dunno… cool I guess?" He said with a grin and a snort of a laugh. "Yeah… well, not really. Only up until the fattest part. Otherwise it was okay."

The blonde nodded in response, looking at his friend's freshly stretched earlobe. He wasn't quite sure how big Matt eventually wanted to stretch his ears but…he hoped he wouldn't make them grossly large.

Over the next two hours or so, Matt twisted and pushed the rod into place with only the occasional wince at the bit of pain that came from it. The second rod didn't hurt quite as much as the first… mostly because he now knew what to expect and how fast he should actually push. He was mostly grateful of the fact that he was almost finished.

Mello soon began to realize that he was watching Matt more than he was watching the TV. He didn't think Matt actually noticed though, which was good. He wasn't sure what he'd say to explain himself if he had been noticed… But, as he watched, he realized that Matt's hair was getting quite long. Not at all close to his own length but it was definitely getting shaggy… He kind of liked it, actually. He thought the red head looked a bit sexy with the length but he wouldn't want it much longer. He'd look odd then, he figured. Or maybe… Mello raised a brow, examining his friend and trying to imagine him with different hairstyles. He might look just as sexy with shorter hair… shorter on the sides but longer on top… Hmm…

"What do you think?"

Mello blinked away his thoughts and focused on what his friend was saying, raising both brows. "What?"

Matt moved his hair back from both of his ears, showing the completed torture on his earlobes. "Do they look cool?" He asked with a bit of a laugh.

The blonde looked at both piercings, smiling. "Yeah Matt you look sexy." He joked in a bit of a monotone voice, taking in Matt's full appearance. "They look good with your stubble." He mentioned as he tapped his friend's chin.

With a raise of a brow, Matt smiled. "Oh really? I was thinking about shaving tonight." He laughed.

"Don't."

Matt just smiled in response, shaking out his hair so that it lay back in its usual place. He'd gotten the hint a while back that Mello liked stubble so… he didn't shave as often anymore. That was good for him too, though. Shaving was a hassle and he was lazy.

Now that he'd finished with his ears, though, he could channel all of his attention to the blonde that lay in his arms. Well… that and the TV. He smiled softly and relaxed into the comfort of Mello's embrace with one of his arms casually draped around the blonde's shoulders. He let his hand wander up the side of Mello's neck softly, his fingertips stroking the tender skin for a few moments before traveling further upwards to slowly stroke through his hair.

Mello let his eyes droop in content as he felt his friend's fingers through his hair, unable to hold back the soft smile that spread across his lips. He sighed out softly and rest a bit more heavily against the red head, his hand falling to rest against Matt's thigh. He felt so… comfortable like this. Relaxed, warm, happy… Something about how Matt held him felt… perfect. No matter how gay it sounded.

Even though Matt was perfectly happy and comfortable how he was, he couldn't ignore the fact that his addiction was pulling at him and that he needed to have a quick smoke. He hadn't done so at all that day, after all. So without moving from his spot or disrupting the blonde, he reached over to the side table and picked up his cigarette carton, tapping one out and bringing it to his lips before reaching over again to take his lighter. Once he lit the cigarette he put the lighter back on the table, glancing over to the blonde as he smoothly ran his fingers through his soft hair yet again. The feeling, coupled with the scent of smoke, caused Mello to look up at the red head and smile lazily. Matt smiled back and pulled the cigarette from his mouth, blowing the smoke away from the blonde before leaning his head down to kiss him slowly and softly, it almost feeling as if love was laced within it. Mello kissed back and as his tongue dragged over the red head's in a slow dance, he could feel faint goose bumps trail over his skin.

The kiss only lasted a moment though and before long, they'd pulled away and resumed cuddling like they had been previously. Mello could still taste the bitter smoke on his tongue and even though he didn't like smoking himself, he enjoyed the taste. It was the taste of his Ma—

"Ooh look Mello, Paranormal Witness is on."

Mello deadpanned. "Matt, why do you have to ruin moments?" He asked with a playful hint in his voice, smiling softly and curling up slightly more. "I don't want to watch it."

"I do." Matt said with a sadistic grin, setting the remote down and out of reach of the blonde. He didn't believe much in ghosts and demons, though shows like this were always interesting to him. The more important fact was that Mello did believe in them and shows like this made him uneasy and paranoid; hence why they were watching it.

Mello sighed quietly and moved his hand from Matt's thigh to his upper stomach, watching the show with a bit of nervousness. He's seen the commercials for this… this show was legitimate and one that he knew would scare him. Though, because of his curiosity, he couldn't help but to watch. And he did watch… for a while, even. Until an actual home-video was shown of unexplained, loud knocks on a door.

"Nope. Nope. I'm done."

Matt grinned broadly at Mello's reaction, holding him tighter against himself. "No you're not, just watch." He said in amusement, leaning over to kiss the blonde's head. "You'll be fine."

"It freaks me out."

Mello's words didn't persuade him at all and he only kept hold tighter. "You're okay." He smiled, continuing to watch the show until the next commercial came on. "Mello you should watch the Slenderman videos."

"I don't even want to know what that is."

IIIIIIIIIIII

I love gauges :x Probably why I have mine lol. I used my own experience for Matt doing his ears. I didn't really know the "PROPER" way of doing it so I kinda winged it. I figure Matt would be the same way. XD Also, Slenderman makes me cry. Just sayin' lol. I'm just as afraid of ghosts and demons as Mello is XD. Anywho I kinda like this chapter so I hope you do toooooooooooooooo :D