The Mello Code

"I\'m probably going to have to use a gag on you." Mello mused as he returned to the living room. "Pause the game."



Matt didn\'t look up. He had already lost his ranger, but that was alright because the only opponent left standing used mage. He could send his melee and flying attackers in. The latter wasn\'t much use in the combat triangle, but might distract the mage long enough for the melee chara to get in with the killer blow. "kay."



Mello walked behind the back of the armchair and peered over to see. "Have you just got to kill that boss, then you\'re available for comment?"



"Yeah."



"Ok, let\'s see how good you are." A moment later, Matt was wriggling away from him to the edge of the cushion. "What\'s up? Surely a champion gamer like you can deal with a little molestation while owning pixels."



Matt stood up. He had been through about five minutes of backstory to reach this point and wasn\'t prepared to go through it again. "Mello, do and die."



The blond stalked him around the armchair, so Matt wandered away towards the fireplace. Mello sighed. "Baby, I haven\'t been alone with you for days. I\'ve been ogling you all day thinking that when I get my hands on that man, I\'m going to make him..."



"Sssh, you\'re putting me off." Matt lost his flying attack, but the melee was still strong and the boss had lost more than half of his hitpoints. An icon flashed in the top right-hand corner. "Woot! I can summon familiars again! In the bag." He chewed the inside of his mouth, vaguely aware of Mello sitting on the arm of the chair watching him. "Cause and effect, angel. You went upstairs for an hour with Hal, you might have known that I\'d be halfway through a game when you returned."



Mello sniffed. "I\'ll just play with myself while I\'m looking at you then." Out of the periphery of his vision, Matt saw Mello\'s gloved hand stray over the laces of his own flies. "Seeing as I\'ve got no-one to service me."



Matt concentrated on the screen. He quickly fed his melee attacker and the hitpoints rose to full capacity. The boss roared backwards as the summoned creature launched his special attack. "A minute. Two minutes at most and..." He didn\'t finish his sentence. The boss had just killed his familiar with two huge blasts of fire ball. "Fuck." All was not lost. His chara danced out of the safespot again, delivered three hefty blows, then ran back for more sustenance. There was only a slither of life left on the boss\'s hitpoints. Matt manouvred the attacker out. "Woot! Yay! I are the pwnage! kay?"



"Now can I molest you?" Mello asked, hopefully.



"Yeah baby." Matt saved the level and grinned at his husband. Mello was probably aiming for sexy, but what he actually looked like was a lost, little boy. "Hey, hot, pretty thing, s\'up?"



Mello opened his arms and Matt entered them, straddling his lap over the arm of the chair. Mello smirked and, if there had ever appeared to have been vunerability in his gaze, it was gone now. "You realise what a God given opportunity this is?"



"What?" Matt smiled, recognising the conspiratorial look from old.



"I was thinking of putting a gag on you, so we don\'t wake her. But waking her might be just the thing to convince her once and for all that it\'s not domestic violence." Mello ran his hands down Matt\'s back. "I\'m talking loud. Really loud. See if she comes running down to save you."



"Erm, no." Matt fastened him with a piercing stare.



"Why not? It would be like public sex. You never fantasised about public sex?"



"No, I haven\'t."



"It\'s not like you to be a prude." Mello\'s hand stroked across Matt\'s arse and down his thigh. Despite himself, Matt was becoming aroused. "It wouldn\'t be our fault, because we couldn\'t have known that she\'d be able to hear from all up there. It would be freaking hot, I reckon. Knowing that she\'s listening and could burst in on us at any moment."



Matt chewed his lip. "Or a bit cruel, considering that she fancies you."



"Ok, so she\'ll be up there listening and wanking, but it would..."



"Mello!" Matt protested. "I don\'t want to think about Hal fapping, thank you."



Mello pouted. "You\'re no fun."



"And you\'re a fucking headcase." Matt leaned forward, his kisses lifting Mello\'s chin so that he could nuzzle underneath it. He had just reached Mello\'s ear, when the blond shifted position, clasping his hands together around Matt\'s backside. With the minimal amount of grunting, Mello stood, carrying Matt with him. The redhead quickly crossed his legs behind Mello\'s back and clung on. "Where are you taking me?"



"Upstairs." Mello glanced slyly at him. "I\'m going to make you scream, so she hears you."



Matt squirmed until he landed on his feet. "You are not carrying me up the stairs. Fucking drop me and yourself, then she\'ll be picking us up with broken backs at the bottom." Mello had a tight grip on the back of Matt\'s shirt. "You can do what you fucking like to me, I\'m not making a sound."



"Is that a challenge, Mail?"



Matt realised his mistake. "Oh shit." He didn\'t need to see the look on Mello\'s face to know that this was now a contest. "Ok. Go for your life, but I\'ll win this one." He considered it. "And afterwards, you have to say, \'Mail Jeevas, you are the pwnage\', and you have to mean it."



Mello laughed. "Deal." He stuck out his hand to shake on it. "Damn fool boy." His fingers curled around Matt\'s collar, at the back of his neck, and marched him out of the living door doorway. Matt slapped the lightswitch on their way past, plunging the room behind them into darkness. "Have you locked the backdoor?"



"Yes." Matt nodded. "Though I think the perculator is still on." He was manhandled into the kitchen, his own hand wrapped around the collar so that he wasn\'t throttled. There was something wonderfully delicious about Mello doing this to him. It was the sensation of being swept off his feet, practically running with no hope of independent action. He was being possessed, owned, taken over; there was no need to think, no blame or praise attached to anything that he did, nothing that he could do that was right or wrong. He was Mello\'s plaything, a ragdoll without feelings. It felt like relief, it felt like love. His mind was clouding and his erection was already painfully hard.



Mello knew. After dragging him around to unplug the coffee machine and the kettle, then to reset the heating and check the bolts on the backdoor, Mello glanced at him with a self-satisfied smirk that remained until they were halfway up the stairs. "The trouble with you taking me on in a battle for supremacy is that I know you." Mello paused on the landing, glancing at the door that opened onto the stairs up to the floor above. It was ajar and Matt wondered if Mello had planned this all along. "I know all of your kinks and what sends you into an absolute frenzy. I\'ll have you screaming my name and begging for more at the top of your lungs."



"Yeah." Matt gasped. "And I know you. I\'m already bruised to buggery and you never touch me when I\'m like this. When you strip me off and you\'re reminded of this fact, then if it happens at all, it\'ll be vanilla. I\'ll be silent as..."



"You counting on that, Matty?" Mello propelled him into their bedroom and threw him onto the bed. "Good luck with that." The blond abandoned him on the bed, as he dashed around it to rumage through items scattered over the floor.



"Where\'s your bedside cabinet?"



"In the guest room." Mello\'s head popped up above the line of the quilt. "Enough room in those jeans, baby? Looking a bit tight in there from this angle."



"Fuck off."



"Get your clothes off."



"\'kay." Matt began with his boots. He had been dying to take them off since he\'d arrived home, but there was no way he was going to drop another couple of inches when there was a nearly six foot woman walking around. Especially one who kept looking at him like he was scum on the bottom of her shoe. "Mell, why are we looking to piss Hal off even further? Haven\'t you just negotiated a truce?" A series of sex toys appeared on top of the bed. Matt had not seen any of them before. He kicked his boots off with two loud thumps and leaned backwards to inspect the haul. "Black Cat Dual Rotating Butt Plug, with extra suction." He held it in his hand. "Heating lube." He spotted something that looked like mini jump-leads for a very small car. "Adjustable Alligator Clamps, with rubber tether." His eyes widened. "Where the fuck do you put that?"



"Nipples." Mello was still sorting through a bulging carrier bag, crouched down on the floor beside the bed. "I\'ve got a remote control butt plug in here somewhere, which will do for breakfast tomorrow."



"You are not," Matt backed off the bed, "I repeat, not, sticking something in me that vibrates, while Hal is sitting on the other side of the table! Mello!" Another thought occurred to him. "Where do you get all this shit? And how come I\'m never with you at the time? And how come it\'s all still in the packaging?" He didn\'t wait for Mello to respond, but turned on his heel and dashed along the landing. He was soon back, sauntering into the bedroom with a huge grin. "If you are using toys to enhance your side of the battle, I\'m using some to back up mine." He desposited the statue of Mother Mary on top of his own bedside cabinet and turned to her to face the bed. From his pockets came the smaller figurines of saints, which habitually encircled her at the Marian Shrine in Mello\'s study.



Mello sat up to see. "Mmmm." He smiled. "Kinky."



Matt pointed. "You used to be afraid to kiss me because of the cost to your immortal soul and now you\'re sitting there holding a..." He squinted. "Move your thumb. A cock cage with anal invader. What does the Vatican have to say about that, Mello?"



Mello considered it. "I don\'t think the Pope\'s ever mentioned one to be honest." Matt creased. He started laughing so much that it hurt his throat and stung his eyes. The bed beneath him bounced, sending assorted fetish devices edging back towards Mello. The blond surveyed with stark amusement. Matt only glanced at him once and was lost again. "You could ask the Father next week, when you go to Catholic class, if you need an official directive."



Matt struggled back to sitting up, removing his goggles so that he could dab at the sore skin around his eyes. At least he could no longer see Mello\'s expression and so recovery from his mirth was once again feasible. "And maybe not." He rasped finally. He coughed and then reached for his cigarettes. "We need boundaries."



"Finally!" Mello leaned on the bed and stared at him. "Now he wants the boundaries conversation. I\'ve only been trying to have it for weeks and now, right on the verge of having sex, he wants the boundaries conversation. Was it the nipple clamps?"



Matt frowned. "What? I\'m talking about this that we\'re doing now. What\'s the finishing post? I mean have I won if Hal doesn\'t appear at that door? Or is it all about not making a sound? What defines sound? Have I lost if I breathe too loudly or are we talking actual screaming your name?"



"Fine." Mello cocked his head considering his options. "Yes, you\'ve lost if you breathe. You\'re going to have to hold your breath the entire time."



"Twat." Matt narrowed his eyes. "I meant loud breathing. Gasping. Panting. That sort of thing."



Mello grinned. "This has gone way past Hal, Matty. This is game on between us. Moaning, groaning, doing that little mewing noise you make when I\'m..."



"I do not mew."



"You do! It\'s like a fucking kitten!"



"I don\'t mew!"



"Trust me, Jeevas, you mew. Then you whimper." Mello shrugged and went back to his bag. "It\'s really sexy actually."



"I don\'t whimper either."



"Let me be the judge of the noises you make during sex." He took out a padded blindfold. "Unless you want me to call Hal down to adjudicate. If you don\'t trust my ears. But I assure you that she\'ll say it\'s a fucking mew."



Matt balanced his cigarette inside the ashtray and pulled off his shirt. He could tell that Mello was in a combative mood and so anything he said was going to be argued with until Mello was declared the winner. It was easier just to ignore him. "So any vocalising is a failure, but heavy breathing is fine. The finishing line being orgasm."



"Post orgasm."



Matt reclaimed his cigarette, while unfastening his jeans. "How far post orgasm?"



"Until you go limp." Mello hunted with renewed vigor and produced a cock ring. He held it, grinning maliciously.



Matt kicked his jeans off, then knelt before the relocated Marian Shrine. He crossed himself and bowed his head. "Mother Mary, I\'m trying to learn how to be a good Catholic, but Mello is going to hurt me really badly." He peered back under his fringe to see how his husband was reacting. He had expected that evil smirk to still be in place or, at least, replaced with a mocking one, but Mello was looking very pensive. Matt took the cigarette from his mouth and sat back. "Have I just won by default because you don\'t want to play anymore?"



"No." Mello\'s chin rose and his eyes narrowed.



"But stop fucking with your religion and put the Virgin back in your study." Matt watched his husband carefully, seeing the conflict inside rather than the malevolent mask. "Right, truce. I\'ll put my back up away and you put yours away. The second Hal is out of this house, we\'ll try out each and every one of them. You\'ve got your issues and I\'ve got mine. One of which is not doing anything in public, let alone being caught by Watari with alligator clamps on my nipples."



Mello sagged. "But Matt, that\'s the whole point of this! There\'s no way anyone can cry domestic violence if they\'ve seen you, what was it? Writhing in abject pleasure, while being tortured with stuff."



"The Mother stays then."



Mello sighed and began packing away. "I don\'t know what your problem is. It\'s not like you\'re not a whore." He slammed the blindfold back into the bag. "Who was it I had crying on that bed, right where you are, going \'I don\'t want to be L, I want to be your whore.\' Cute redhead, not unlike yourself."



Matt didn\'t want to think about that time. It had felt like his whole world was becoming unpicked at the seams and he was closer to insanity than he had ever been in his life. "You can be a really arsy prick sometimes, Mello." He pushed off the bed and pulled his jeans back on, before shoving the saints back into its pockets and lifting the Virgin in both hands. "You can keep out the handcuffs and the rotating cat butt thingie."



"Contrary bastard."



"Yep." Matt returned the statues to Mello\'s study, arranging them according to memory and the patches in the dust exactly as they had been before. On the way back, he closed the upper stairs door, smirking as he returned to their bedroom. Mello had stripped down to his trousers. He ran past Matt and opened the door again. "Mihael." Matt hissed, then glared at him as he returned. "Mihael, you fucking tosser. Do you ever bloody well think about what you\'re doing?"



"Me, think? No, never." Mello\'s tone dripped sarcasm.



"Right. Step back a moment and answer me this. What the fuck are we doing right now?"



"You want me to write a user manual?"



"No, just tell me the summary. This all started with you bemoaning your aching balls because you hadn\'t had any for three days. Then it veered off into sexual fantasy territory, then it became a competition." Matt bit at his thumbnail. "Why do you have to complicate things so much? Why can\'t we just fuck?" He drifted past Mello and headed towards the stairs door again, but his husband charged after him. "Why do you want...?" He began, but Mello rammed him against the wall, reaching in for a kiss. Matt\'s temper flared and he hissed, fiercely, "Will you get your fucking hands off me!"



Mello reacted swiftly. He leapt backwards, eyes sliding skittishly towards the open door. His expression screamed panic and betrayal, but he didn\'t speak. His breathing became heavier, more laboured and, watching him, Matt felt dread wash through, icy cold. The door remained closed and there were no footsteps heard on the stairs beyond. Mello swallowed hard. "Matty."



"I don\'t think she heard." Matt gulped, his hand over his mouth. "Mello, I\'m sorry. I didn\'t think."



"That\'s your trouble, Mail, you never do fucking think." Mello bit his lip and looked like he was about to cry. Matt wanted to protest, to shout back that that was unfair, but he could see half a dozen different reactions flashing across Mello\'s features, as if he didn\'t know what to feel. "She already thinks I beat you up." He paused, his hands covering his face as he leaned against the bathroom wall and bent down.



"Mell, I\'m sorry, ok?"



Mello shrugged, like it was of no consequence. They both knew it was, if not to Hal, then to Mello himself. He eventually looked up again and his eyes were still dry. There was no anger there either, just anxiety. "She\'s not come down. Perhaps she didn\'t hear."



"I didn\'t speak loudly." Matt wandered across the landing, standing close enough to hug his husband, but Mello didn\'t open his arms. "\'kay, no more games." Matt rubbed Mello\'s arms, peering into his face. "Are you scared they are going to arrest you?"



"They can go fuck themselves." Mello snarled back.



Matt smiled. "Mello, I\'d never give testimony against you, because there\'s none to give. I\'m being an arsehole to you because we\'ve challenged each other. Didn\'t we decide months ago that challenging each other was a fucking stupid idea?" The blond just looked away. "Say yes, Mihael. Say \'yes Mail, we\'re not going to challenge each other again, because that\'s fucking stupid\'." Mello\'s eyes flashed briefly towards him, then he looked away again. "They can try arresting you, but how far is it going to get? If it comes to it, I\'ll hand over my internet porn collection and they\'ll see that it\'s all S&M."



Mello finally allowed a small smile to spark from his lips to his eyes. He pushed away from the wall to enfold Matt into his arms. "You\'re a fucking arsehole, Matt, but you..." He didn\'t finish his sentence, but buried his face into Matt\'s shoulder. "Ok," he mumbled at last, "we\'ll call the contest off and keep the door shut. Hal doesn\'t need to listen to our crap."



"This mean you\'ve finally stopped challenging her as well?"



"Huh?"



Matt kissed the side of Mello\'s head. "You and Hal, it\'s like watching you and Near go at it. You can\'t exchange a word with each other without it turning into a battle for supremacy. Quite amusing really."



Mello pulled back, looking at him cautiously, "You reckon that\'s what it is?"



"Don\'t you?"



The blond shrugged slightly, "I like Hal. She calls me on my shit and not many people dare. I\'ve seen her call me on shit that even you\'ve backed away from and that\'s saying something." Matt tensed in his arms. "Baby, don\'t go prickly on me. I know you have your own way of making me gain perspective when I lose it. I think Hal\'s great. I enjoy sparring with her and I respect her. I love you. You\'re my fucking soul-mate, man."



"I think I\'m just going to extract the compliments out of that and ignore the rest." Matt decided. "So, are we having this shag or not?"



Mello breathed a laugh. "Yeah, guapo, I\'d like that very much."



"Good." Matt leaned in and kissed him, urgently, passionately and Mello responded in kind. They passed back into their bedroom with flies already loosened. The door was banged shut behind them.



On the stairwell, Hal released the breath that she had been holding and, as silently as she had descended, padded up the stairs and back into bed. She thought about what Mello had said and it touched her, warming her, more than any of the hours of negotiations downstairs. She wondered if he had known she was there. After all, he sometimes appeared to have an almost preternatural awareness of his surroundings. Matt might have also known. Hal was keenly aware that she underestimated Mello\'s husband with depressing regularity. Yet she felt instinctively that neither had known and that she had finally overheard some truths. It quietened the doubts inside and left her able to drift off to sleep.