The Mello Code

Matt lay awake in that hazy state between sleep and a commitment to open his eyes. Mello wasn\'t beside him. He half-remembered feeling his husband leave their bed, though whether that was hours or minutes ago, Matt couldn\'t say. He snuggled further into his cocoon, where it was warm and secure, and thought about the night before. For all their long preparations, there had been neither sex toys or saints between their sheets. Matt had been held down with handcuffs and his body taken over, as only Mello knew how, but their orgasms had been reached softly. Staccato gasps that had punctuated the air, but no screaming out of each other\'s names. Matt felt his sex twitch in remembrance, then his eyes shot open. Hal was still here.



He tunneled out of this quilt and reached for his goggles. The strap dug into a tender spot over his temple and the rim was sore over his eyebrow, but he left them on. Their bedroom door was shut. He silently thanked Mello for his consideration and lit a cigarette. They would have to go to Winchester some time today, probably sooner rather than later, unless Mello had already taken her home. His body craved caffeine. He contemplated texting Mello to bring one up to him. It was an action which would stave off having to make conversation with a guest before being fully compus mentus, but might also risk the having to deal with the sharp side of a Slavic tongue. Matt sighed, got up and dressed slowly, in boxer shorts, jeans and a long-sleeved, red and black striped shirt.



Sunlight barely lit the stained glass windows, which meant that it was still morning. Matt could hear banter coming from the kitchen, indignant laughter from Hal, a snigger from Mello. The redhead stood in his bare feet on the cold tiles of the hallway. It felt somehow intrusive to enter his own kitchen. He knew that Hal didn\'t like him and he didn\'t blame her. It didn\'t really matter much to him either, but for the fact that Mello knew it too. His presense would cause tension indirectly, as Mello sought to include them both and Hal stiffened slightly in red alert. Matt blinked blearily and figured that he would stay just long enough to secure a cup of tea, then leave them to it.



He stepped inside the bright kitchen. The sun was so low in the sky that Mello had pulled the curtain halfway across the window, but daylight still spilled inside. It felt airy, homely, peaceful. Hal glanced up and Mello grinned at him as he entered. "Ah! The walking dead." Mello immediately turned to fill the kettle. "Word to the wise, Hal, don\'t try to engage him until he\'s woken up."



"Will he bite?" Hal asked, a slight smile on her lips. She had a plate in front of her ready for the dishwasher.



Mello laughed. "No." He held out an arm in invitation for a hug. "He\'s an inoffensive, little puppy when he\'s just woken up. Actually, yes, that does mean that he\'s quite capable of biting."



Matt lifted his goggles and rubbed at his unbruised eye. He tried to ascertain whether he was being teased, complimented or being used as the butt of Mello\'s jokes to impress Hal. He resolved to get refills for the Teas Made when they were next out. He could get them on the way back from Wammy\'s. It would be too late then to deal with the present situation. He also vowed not to waste the refills on daytime drinks that he couldn\'t be bothered to go all the way downstairs to make. In fact, he might just buy a kettle for his study, while they were shopping, and keep a jar of powdered milk beside it. Or get some of that solution, where adding water turned it into proper milk, though it tasted weak and unnatural. He caught them both looking at him and involuntarily took a step backwards. "What?"



Mello bit his lip. "Morning, Matty."



"Morning." Matt pulled out a chair and sat down at the kitchen table. "Morning, Hal."



"Morning, Matt." Hal smiled.



They were both still looking at him, like something significant was expected. With a sudden sinking feeling, Matt twisted around to look at the calendar. "Oh, shit! Is it the 13th?"



Mello chuckled. "Oh, guapo, I love you to bits. No, we\'re still a week and half away."



"Good, because I need to go shopping." He rubbed his forehead and winced as he did so over a forgotten bruise. "Fuck. Erm..." It occurred to him that he couldn\'t shop for Mello\'s birthday with the blond snipping at his heels, too paranoid to let him go alone. Matt glanced up, wondering how he could even broach the subject with Hal sitting there, then realised that he didn\'t have to. They would eventually drop her off and then could discuss it. Then go shopping. Matt lifted the cigarette to his mouth. He couldn\'t even remember lighting it and it was half smoked. Mello arrived at his side with a kiss and caffeine. "Thanks angel."



"You\'re welcome." Mello patted his shoulder and took off again, towards the perculator. "Top up, Hal? Matt, me and Hal are shooting off in a minute. She needs to get back to Wammy\'s before noon, ideally, and it\'s already gone nine."



Matt looked up, startled. "It\'s only nine o\'clock?" He glanced at the clock for confirmation.



"Matt didn\'t know there were two nine o\'clocks in the day." Mello informed Hal, laughing.



"No, Mell, I want to come with you. I\'ve got to go shopping." Matt yawned. He remembered that, if they were going the scenic route back, so to disguise their location, then it was going to take them a couple of hours at least. With enough tea, he might just be awake enough to leave the house in an hour. Hal was watching him, looking bemused. Matt needed to deflect her attention back to Mello, where it belonged. "Did you know that Mello\'s twenty-one this month?"



It worked. Hal turned to survey Mello again. "Are you really? Your youth always startles me. You act much older."



"I\'ve crammed a lot of life experience in so far." Mello answered with a wink. "Mail, if you\'re coming with us, you\'re going to have to go and get ready. We\'re going when we\'ve finished our coffees."



Matt sniffed, hating being rushed so early. Nevertheless, he had just felt that little sense of rising inside himself, which meant that the caffeine and nicotine were doing their jobs. "Carry on, I\'ll go out on your bike later."



"You fucking well won\'t." Mello snapped, a little too sharply. Both Matt and Hal fixed him with a stare. "You\'re not insured for a start and you haven\'t got any leathers." The reply seemed to satisfy Hal, though both men knew that that wasn\'t the real reason. Matt had not even left Wammy\'s House to buy his own cigarettes, the day before, because the shifting of his signal would have panicked Mello too much. As it was, the blond had practically camped outside the institution for the entire time he had been there, only going home when he had run out of placed in Winchester to sit in the warmth and converse via laptop and text messages. Mello\'s paranoia was out of control, but Matt doubted if Hal would believe him if he told her now. "Your choices are be ready in ten minutes or else shop on-line like you normally do."



"I want to have another session on my tattoo done before Christmas as well." Matt informed him.



"Fine." Mello hid his agitation beneath vigorously cleaning the worktop with a dishcloth. "Book one in then."



It was nearly an hour before they were ready to leave, which annoyed Matt because he had been ready in half of that time. He sprawled across the back seat of the car, his back against one door and feet up on the handle of the other. He was soon absorbed in his game, yet not much that he couldn\'t follow the conversation between Mello and Hal. They were encircling in some dance which hadn\'t been in evidence in the ease of their breakfasting. Hal was losing and doubted that she even knew. Now that she had calmed down, she was not wary of Mello. Matt took a perverse delight in witnessing how disarmingly his husband pressed home that advantage. He was flirting outrageously with her and Hal was soaking it in with a girlish glee that disappointed Matt. He had thought her more detached than that, but then Mello could be a charming bastard, when he tried.



"You\'ve never seen \'Phantom of the Opera\'?" Mello gushed, as they passed the county line for Hampshire from the opposite side, an hour and half after they had set out. "That\'s no good. How about I take you? Matt won\'t come. He hates anything like that. But me, I feel a kind of affinity." He laughed and Matt glanced across, knowing that he referred to his scarring, but Hal just looked puzzled. Mello hurried on without giving her chance to ponder it too deeply. "I\'d recommend the novel, \'Le Fantôme de l\'Opéra\' by Gaston Leroux, but it\'s in French. I\'m not sure if there is an English translation, but in lieu of that, I\'ll take you on a night out into the West End of London to see the Lloyd Webber version."



Hal chuckled softly. "I speak fluent French." She laughed even louder at the sight of Mello\'s expression. "I knew you didn\'t know that. I was standing right there, when Matt chose that as the language to converse with Near in the Yellow Box." She informed them deftly, with that statement, that she knew about Near\'s Aspergers and what Mello had given up there. She evidently took it as read that both men had gleaned so much. "I never told the others or even Near that I knew. I doubt Rester and Gevanni, let alone the others, know even now. I watched for him, though I doubt that will fill your heart with gladness."



Mello whispered. "Thank you for doing that."



"No. Thank you." Hal shifted in her seat. "Mello, you have always presented yourself to me as the most charming devil alive. I know I\'m supposed to be awed by your danger. Your reputation certainly proceded you." She gestured its irrelevance. "But the first time I saw you..." She tittered and Mello blushed. Matt\'s eyes grew wider, as he quietly paused his game. "We won\'t go into that. I just wanted to tell you that I have you penned now, Mello. I know what makes you tick. You are a master at what you do, but it\'s all smoke and mirrors. I doubt you\'ve ever taken a life. I think you\'ve taken the credit for a lot of other murdering bastards, but for the amount of time your finger is on the trigger of your gun, I would be highly surprised if you\'ve ever fired it."



"Really?" Mello swallowed loudly. Matt tried to predict what his husband\'s reaction would ultimately be. He decided that Mello would end up telling her the truth.



"Yes. The more I\'ve got to know you, the more I realise that you couldn\'t possibly have been responsible for all that\'s been attached to your name. You did not write the names of my SPK colleagues in that Death Note, regardless that Near believed that you did." Hal was staring at him, her gaze searching. She wanted to believe this. Mello was holding his breath. "You did not kill those agents who attacked your hideout in Los Angeles." No, thought Matt, but he gave the orders on both occasions. "Takada was an accident. You did not want her dead and she was killed by Kira, not you. I have yet to find a single corpse that can be positively accredited to your own actions. Hell, you didn\'t even kill Neuron when the opportunity and the motivation were all there. Shall I tell you what I think is the real Mello?"



Mello\'s voice was barely audible. "What?"



"I think you\'re a sweet person, who uses this big, scary persona to save lives. You\'re a true Christian, aren\'t you?" She smiled and stroked his arm, as he drove them within sight of Winchester. "That day, when you gave up the L title to Near, knowing that it was all he had, confirmed it in my eyes. It made me very glad that I learned French." Mello took a deep breath and made to speak, but she quickly pressed on. "Which is the reason that I\'m about to say what I am, despite all of my instincts telling me no. Mello, I\'m going to personally recommend you to my own contacts. Please never let Near find out. I\'m trusting you, alright? I have worked for many senators and VIPs in my time. I was bodyguard to the President of the United States." She bit her lip, waiting for that to sink in, though they had already known that. "I will help you build the Mello Code, because I believe you deserve a break. I will not actively divert cases away from Near, but I will open doors for you that you maybe wouldn\'t be able to on your own. Ok?"



Mello nodded and whispered. "Thank you."



Matt felt it time to intervene, before Mello lost this opportunity, either through not reverting back into any persona that would wipe the look of abject guilt from his face or else blurting out the truth. "Wow! Mello! That\'s brilliant." Matt sat forward, one arm around the driver\'s seat to clutch Mello\'s shoulder. "Hal, we really appreciate this and if we can ever help you, you know where to come."



Hal nodded, biting her lip. "And in answer to your original offer, yes, I would love to go and see \'Phantom of the Opera\' with you." She glanced back. "And Matt as well, of course."



Matt grinned. "Pwnage. You sort out a date and I\'ll get you both tickets. It\'ll give me a night in to play my games in peace. That\'ll be nice, won\'t it, Mello?"



Mello recovered himself and nodded with a smirk. "Yes. That would be wonderful. I\'ll look forward to it." He flashed a quick glance at Hal and then concentrated intently on the road ahead. "Thank you for everything."



"You\'re welcome."