Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off the anime/manga Death Note.

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Part 9

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Mello couldn't say exactly when Matt had actually started to loosen up around him and act more like the boy whom he had remembered—though who was still a sarcastic asshole a lot of the time.

Mello only thought of it when he had made some offhand derogatory comment about one of Matt's game characters, and the comment had been met with laughter rather than stony silence.

He looked over at the small grin that sill played across Matt's features and swallowed tightly. It was the first time in years Mello had heard that laugh.

Matt was stationed next to the zebra striped loveseat that Mello had taken over, and Mello noted just how little space there was between the edge of the loveseat and the wheelchair. It was greatly symbolic to him just how much the distance between them had been bridged in the short months he had been there. He and Matt had always had great chemistry.

Mello leaned back against the cool leather and tried not to think about the ever shrinking time frame he had from the mafia. He knew it would probably be better to go back there for a while and do some things for Rod so he could return to Matt again, but Mello couldn't really bring himself to leave on his own. It almost felt like he would lose the connection, all the progress, between them if he left again now, and Mello couldn't stomach the thought of things going back to the time of their reunion. It was more than the effort put into it; he didn't want to lose Matt again, not at all. It had been his own idiocy the first time around, and he'd be damned if it happened again. Despite the dangers, the mafia would have to wait.

The longer he spent away from that life, the more he did not want to go back. For all the work he put into getting and maintaining his position...he could almost let it go.

"Mello?"

"Hmm?" He turned his head to glance at Matt whose smile was replaced by a frown. Mello wanted the smile back.

"You ok there? You were staring off into space for a while."

Mello almost smiled at the concern Matt inadvertently let show. "No. I'm ok." Mello didn't even know what Matt thought about him staying so long with being in with the mafia or if the thoughts even passed Matt's mind at all. It was probably best not to mention the mafia to Matt.

Probably.

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"Mello."

Mello cringed a little at having been caught staring again. He couldn't really help it though; he knew nothing of the incident that put Matt in the chair. He could hardly be blamed for being curious.

Matt sighed heavily and shut his game off, not even saving beforehand. That was a bad sign to Mello, and he sat ram-rod straight and hoped this wasn't the precursor to an argument.

"Stop looking like you're going to get chastised. Act your age please," Matt said.

Mello glared. "Hypocrite." Matt sent him a tiny smile before a more serious expression took over.

"Alright... where to start." Matt's tone was resigned, if not a little contemplative.

Mello looked questioningly at Matt. What was Matt talking about? Had he missed part of a conversation? He did not believe so...

"I left Wammy's about six months after you did. I couldn't take listening to Roger anymore. With you gone, he needed someone else to nitpick over, and since Near is 'perfect,' that fell to me. I up and left and found the real world to be a little harder than I thought."

Matt was really going to tell him? That was...Mello had not expected that. "Matt-"

"Just sit there and listen," Matt told him sternly.

Mello's mouth snapped shut, and he drew his legs onto the loveseat, locking his eyes with the faint lines of Matt's that he could spy behind the goggles. If Matt wanted to tell him, then Mello supposed commenting would have to wait until the end. It was a large show of trust from the gamer, and Mello wouldn't ruin it.

"I made out ok though. I knew enough about electronics to get a rather low paying job working in the back of the store and fixing things. They couldn't pay more since they could have gotten in trouble for having me work as it was." Matt grumbled the last portion, as if it was a total injustice.

Mello remembered how scrawny Matt had been back then; all skin and bones and pale with a dusting of freckles. He was still very much light-skinned now but not as bad, and his freckles had faded somewhat into the background. It had probably been pure luck he got the job.

"A little less than a year after I left Wammy's, I was in a car accident. Some idiot ran a red light, and my car was hit, sending me into another lane of oncoming traffic. I was thrown from the vehicle. I wasn't wearing a seat belt, but the doctors said that was probably the reason I lived. My car was totaled, and had I been in it, they said I would have ended up crushed," Matt explained, and his tone gave away none of what he was feeling.

Mello had suspected an accident of the sort but knowing Matt had escaped death so narrowly was quite unexpected, almost as much as when the accident had occurred. Matt had been dealing with this for four years! He had been hardly sixteen when it happened.

"But that's not the reason I'm stuck in here. My injuries were serious, and I did have to go into emergency surgery, but had it not been for the incompetence of the doctors working on me, I might be up and walking. They fucked up, and now I'm stuck in here." His tone was just a tad bit bitter.

"You didn't go to Wammy's?" was out of his mouth before Mello could stop himself.

Matt gave him a withering look and sighed. "Obviously not."

Mello knew Matt had disliked, ok probably hated, Wammy's—mainly the man himself—but to not go there after to see if something could be done to fix that...it was ridiculous to Mello. But it wasn't his place to state that, not yet anyway. Maybe in a few months or even years. But not now.

"At least you didn't burn half your face off?" Mello offered with a small shrug. It wasn't something he liked to joke about, but considering the extent of his injury compared to Matt's, it was acceptable. The situation had gotten too tense, and Mello didn't like it.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did that happen? I assume it was after you joined the mafia." Matt gestured to his face and although Mello detested talking about it, it was only fair.

"It was only a few months after I joined. and I was accompanying someone on some business and things went bad. Gunfire was exchanged, and a steam pipe was hit. I'm lucky all it did was melt the skin on my face and chest and didn't kill me." Mello shuddered at the memory. He doubted he would ever feel something as agonizing as that again.

"You're right. At least I didn't burn myself. That must have hurt like hell—I couldn't even feel my injury when it happened. Still can't." Matt gave him a very small smile. It wasn't faked, and that meant the world to Mello.

"Alright, enough of this depressing shit. Let's go rent a movie or something."

Mello nodded and reached for the remote.

"You are actually going to rent off the TV? I'm surprised. You are always trying to get me out of the house." Matt sounded amused.

"Shut up. I don't feel like dealing with people at the moment. Though my mind can easily change..." Mello trailed off purposely and watched as Matt put his hands up in surrender.

For the rest of the night, they were content to just watch movies. Mello wished it could stay like that forever. Just him and Matt and none of the troubles of the outside world.

Too bad none of Mello's wishes ever came true.

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-End Part 9-

AN: Sorry this is late. Holidays were hectic.

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Special thanks to those who reviewed: Lotta Devon, Catotologist, Keono, fatkitty123, issagokurosaki, Deadly Nightshade1395, Nazlyn101, BrightNight003

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