End Transmission

Suggested Listening: Collect Call by Metric

Chapter Sixteen: Zero

However long later Matt finally stopped at a slightly run down looking building advertising pizza. Now, having never had pizza there before he didn't know what to expect. So he was rather surprised by the scenery change on the inside.

It went from grimy and more than slightly dirty on the outside to more than presentable inside. They must not clean the outside at all then, Matt thought. That or they did a really shoddy job of it in order to keep the inside as clean as it was.

The place wasn't new, by any means, with the cracks in the floor and the slightly pealed wallpaper, but it was clean. Better than he could say for other places he'd been, even in other countries.

Matt was sold.

He politely, as politely as he could manage to sound, ordered a large and small pizza of very different tastes. The small was a simple cheese pizza, as he knew Near didn't like additives and the ones he did Matt wouldn't eat and didn't want anywhere near the pizza; honestly fish on a fucking pizza, what the hell...?

And the large was some form of meat lovers or whatever. Basically every meat imaginable, that they sold there, on the pizza in a nice greasy mess.

He paid and was told the wait would be ten minutes. He supposed that wasn't bad. He sat himself in the corner of the room and stared at the pictures on the wall, mainly well known places in Russia or scenery from the city itself.

The wait seemed longer than ten minutes, mostly due to the fact that there wasn't anything to distract his mind, and he found himself staring blankly at the small refrigerator that held soda because he was bored and tired of looking at the pictures.

His order was called, and for no other reason than it had caused a craving in him, he grabbed a few random flavors of soda, a brand he had never seen before, and paid for those as he collected the pizzas. With the pricing of everything there Matt was happy it wasn't his money he was using. Ahh the beauty of being a hacker.

He placed the pizzas and sodas on the front seat, after adjusting the other bags, and began the drive back to the apartment. It was strange, he suddenly thought, that he didn't consider it home, simply 'the apartment'.

He wondered at that...

Matt turned his music up loud and attempted to drown out his own thoughts, because they had started to drift down a path he needed a lot more sugar in his system to deal with.

He supposed that was the problem with such a mind as his, it was constantly moving and was hard to shut off or derail. It led to some rather depressing times in the past few years. But short of giving himself a lobotomy there was nothing he could do except try distraction tactics.

Matt lit a cigarette and snorted suddenly. The thought of what Mello would do to him for even entertaining the thought of destroying his mind was enough to lighten his mood slightly. Though he knew that such thoughts should not have been amusing to him.

He parked the car and sighed at the sight of the amount of bags he had to carry up to their place. Blowing smoke from his nostrils he started with the pizzas, soda bag, and whatever else he could carry from the front.

Matt almost missed punching in the alarm code as his arms were weighed down; he probably should have placed a few bags on the floor but that required effort to pick them back up. And at the moment all he wanted to do was eat some pizza and sit on his ass.

"Near pizza is on the kitchen counter." he shouted into the apartment before he was out and jogging back down to the car for the next load; it took three trips total to get everything inside, and Mello would have murdered Matt had he learned he'd left the alarm system off simply to make things easier for himself.

Near hadn't gotten up until Matt was leaning against the counter, smoking his cigarette, and practically breathless. That was what he got for not exercising. Ever.

What could he say? He was a computer geek, not an athlete; excuse him for getting short of breath. He would so get eaten by zombies in an apocalypse...

Near stood on shakily legs and wobbled, with a slight limp, over to Matt and peered at him with his dark eye. Matt noted how the eye patch was too far off to the side, hardly covering the hole where Near's other eye should have been, so he reached over and fixed it.

It showed just how much the albino trusted him as he had stayed still during the entire process, not even flinching, though he had watched intently with his remaining eye transfixed on Matt's hands.

He couldn't blame Near. It was his blind spot, literally, and it was a weakness that Near had learned to be weary of, especially with the Mafiya so close to them. Not that Mello would let them anywhere near them.

He moved off to the large pizza, after setting the smaller one aside for Near who he knew wouldn't eat but maybe two slices, and decided to simply take the box, and two sodas, with him to the couch, and set his things on the table. Though he didn't immediately eat.

No, before he could even think of eating, not that he wasn't hungry, he had to put away all the groceries. There were a lot of them that needed to be refrigerated and would have gone bad had he left them out much longer.

He didn't worry about organizing anything, as he could do that another day, just getting everything out of their bags and onto the shelves. And once he was done, some ten odd minutes later, he settled down on the couch with his feet propped up on the table, balanced the pizza on his legs and turned the TV on.

Matt wasn't sure why he suddenly was spending all of his time watching TV when he had never really done so before. Maybe he was simply... bored. Of everything...

He found some random horror/comedy to watch and as he bit into his first slice Near seated himself on the other end of the couch with two slices on a plate. He grinned at the albino who merely titled his head slightly to the side. Matt shrugged and went back to the movie, though his thoughts weren't actually on it.

Matt knew he wouldn't be content to simply sit there and stay mindless, and he wondered if he should continue looking for information once he was full. It wasn't anything thrilling, per say, but it was better than this. Wasn't it?

He had made it through his fifth slice, mouth full of pizza crust, when his phone rang. He sighed and set the pizza on the table, Near still nibbling on his second piece to his right, and walked slowly over to the offending noise.

He had taken it off of vibrate earlier and hadn't put it back on. He supposed it was a good thing or he might not have heard it at all with the movie on so loud. "Hello?" he asked, though he knew it would be Mello.

Though it was unusual for the blond to call unless he needed something, though Matt was certain Mello hadn't forgotten anything else, he would have told Matt to bring it along with the papers.

"Matt, are you and Near in the apartment?" Matt blinked at the strange question and answered affirmatively. "Good. That's all I needed to know." and suddenly Mello was gone, just as quickly as he had called.

Matt pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it incredulously for a moment before he shook his head. Mello calling, and asking that weird question, left him with an odd feeling. But it was probably Mello simply being his normal paranoid self; although even when he had arms deals and what not going down he didn't usually call. But Matt figured it was a one time thing so he simply let it go for the moment.

Mainly because he didn't want to drive himself crazy with all the possibilities it could be.

He looked forlornly at the pizza sitting precariously on the edge of the table but found that his appetite had vanished for the moment so he simply took that, as well as Near's empty plate, into the kitchen and left them on the counter.

Perhaps it was time he played around on the laptop. And by that he meant hack. Though games were fun, should he find something to interest him. Maybe he would play WoW, it was a classic.

Matt sat in much the same way, the only difference being the pizza was replaced by the laptop. He stretched and decided on checking his e-mail first, because that was a much higher priority...

He got distracted by the link to a world news site and glanced randomly at the articles featured and otherwise archived there. There was nothing, no mention at all, about L gearing up for a take down of organized crime. And the fact that it hadn't been publicized yet meant there was massive planning involved in it, which meant that just like Jack said, he was going to hit hard once he finally struck.

Matt exited out of those and brought back up the agencies he wanted to hack into. At that point, as if sensing what Matt was about to do, Near shifted over to sit next to him, peering at the screen unblinking. Matt wasn't bothered by the albino being so close, nor watching him work.

It wasn't the first time something like that had occurred so Matt was more than used to it. He prowled around the agencies for more information, anything new at all, but there was nothing more than the small tidbit he had found the last time. Matt wondered if they would even have so much as a whisper in the air before L went after everyone.

He debated, not for the first time, if he should inform Mello, despite the fact that the blond would know he had done something to get the information... he just didn't know, and that was what bothered him the most.

"The smaller agencies that I observed were of the same result." Near commented and Matt exited his programs. There was nothing to find and therefore nothing to hack.

"Near... should we tell Mello?" and he knew Near understood without any more needing to be said. He watched as Near's fingers stopped messing with his hair and fell to his lap, where a robot rested.

"No, we should not. Not unless the situation appears to be going out of control."

Near had hesitated.

And Matt understood his apprehension. The only way they had been able to help Mello thus far was because of the fact that Mello was unaware that they would do something behind his back. That they would even dare disobey him.

If they lost that surprise it would be so much harder to help him, if at all. So he got Near's hesitancy. But he just didn't want to wait too long and have something go wrong and Mello get hurt, or worse, killed.

Matt knew he would fall apart if that happened.

With nothing more going on Near moved away and off the couch to perch awkwardly on the floor. His hip must have been bothering him more than usual for the carpeted floor to cause him pain.

But Matt didn't comment on it.

Matt leaned back into the couch even further and sighed. Despite all the sleep he'd had earlier he was tired. And it wasn't even eight in the evening. He had to wonder if it had anything to do with going out into the cold or perhaps jogging back and forth for the groceries. Both were likely explanations. Well that and the last few days had been...exhausting, to say the least. More so mentally than anything else.

But Matt wondered if he should perhaps, be used to it, the strain, by now? After all, living with Mello, the Mafiya, and the treat of L was no cake-walk.

"If Matt is tired, then Matt should sleep." Near commented a short while later. He looked down at the albino and smiled. Perhaps he should. His schedule was only messed up, well his usually weird schedule, because he had been woken early in the morning. Though one would have thought that sleeping the entire day would have fixed that.

Or maybe all the sleepless nights had finally caught up with him. He had years of those on his tab too...

"Sure Near, just wake me if something happens? Assuming I can sleep." he muttered the last part to himself though from the twitch of Near's lip he had heard it anyway. Matt placed the laptop onto the cushion and heaved himself from his relaxed position and stretched to relieve the tenseness that had accumulated.

He went to the pizza in the kitchen and took both boxes to the fridge and shoved them inside, along with the extra sodas he hadn't drank, as he doubted Near would have more anytime soon. With that put away he moved to his laptop and simply put it into standby mode and moved it to the table just so Near didn't have to bother with it should he want to move back there later.

Matt didn't want the hassle of bringing the laptop into his room in case it decided to beep insanely as it did before. If he was going to sleep he wanted to actually be able to sleep.

"I will see you in the morning, goodnight Matt."

Matt blinked at the albino who had as good as said 'don't leave your room until morning when you are rested' in his own way. He laughed, he really was amused by Near at times. Near's head was bowed and his hair shielded his face from view but Matt knew Near held a small smile.

It was times like that, despite what L had done to them, he was glad for Wammys.

He closed his door behind him softly and let his eyes adjust to the dark before he attempted to move around the room, his light switch was stupidly halfway across the room. Once it was flicked on he found the remote for his TV and turned it on. He was tired, but not quite tired enough to fall straight asleep.

Matt stripped to his boxers, which he wasn't ashamed to say were Mario kart, and slipped under the covers in the cold room. He flipped through the channels until he wound up on some talk show station, that he practically muted due to the irritatingly loud voices, and figured it would help him sleep.

He amused himself for a while with ad-libbing what they were saying

(Host: Hey, why don't you joint me in my trailer a little later, we could have some fun?

Female guest: Oh! Well.. I don't think we're supposed to talk about this on air... but alright, I'm up for it.

Host: So am I! *crowd laughs*)

Though Matt honestly had no idea what the show was even about. He felt his eyes drooping and shoved his goggles off until they landed somewhere on the floor. They would be a bitch to find in the morning, but for the moment he didn't really care.

.

Matt was awake and stumbling from the bed before he had even registered the action. He sighed heavily, though it was a sigh of contentment. He hadn't felt that rested in a very long time.

He kicked something on the floor and when it only rolled slightly he bent down to stare at the blurry figure before he picked it up. It was his goggles. He had been lucky. One time they had ended up in the corner of the room and had taken him forever to find... which was why he generally kept them on most of the time. Though every once and a while he liked to wake up without them digging into his face.

That or get another pair as he had been meaning to...

He grabbed a new set of clothes and pulled them on almost lazily, he would shower later on that night. He would probably be up late after all that sleep. He didn't even know what time it was but decided he could find out after coffee.

Matt winced at the thought though; it meant he would have to clean the leftover stuff from the day before as it had conveniently slipped his mind until then. Well didn't that suck?

He trudged from his room and into the kitchen only to spot the coffee pot already cleaned with coffee brewing. He blinked. To his knowledge, Mello wasn't home, so that left Near. Matt shook his head with a grin; he supposed it was a thank you for the pizza.

And thinking on the pizza made his stomach growl, though he really wasn't in the mood for it. While the coffee bubbled and gurgled in the pot Matt searched through the cabinet for the noodle cups he knew he had put away.

He glowered at the non-organization, though it was his own laziness from the night before, until he finally found them three shelves away from their usual spot. He would need to have it organized before Mello got back or something would end up shot if the blond couldn't find his chocolate... which Matt didn't even know the current placement of.

The coffee machine beeped just as he had finished ripping the packaging off a noodle cup and filling it with water. He placed the cup in the microwave, which was not recommended, and got himself a cup of coffee while the other cooked.

He had wondered where Near was, until he realized the faucets water pressure had been a little off. Near was in the shower. He hoped that using the hot water hadn't affected the shower at all, Near's skin had always been too sensitive so the water had to be just right or he burned whether the water was too warm or cold.

Matt pulled the noodles form the microwave and set them aside with the lid open to cool as he fished out a fork. He brought everything to the computer desk and moved his laptop over to it a second later.

Near took that moment to emerge from the shower and walk into the room. "Mello called again while Matt was asleep."

Matt immediately glanced up; that was odd. "What did he want?" and more importantly was he going to be in trouble for not answering.

"Mello wanted assurance that we were still here." the way Near said it suggested that he was bothered by something, not that the news hadn't bothered Matt as well. For Mello to call twice, and in such short intervals, meant something was up. The problem was what exactly.

"Thanks for making coffee." Matt decided to comment on instead. They were both worried over something and confirming it to each other wouldn't help them get it sorted out. It could simply be Mello getting more paranoid... but Matt didn't buy that.

He sighed as he sat down in the swivel chair while Near turned on the news. Matt stuffed the fork into the noodles and pulled a bunch of them from the cup and into the air to cool off, otherwise he would never get to eat them.

"And on other news, a gruesome murder happened right at the entrance of-"

Matt took a bite as he looked up, wondering where it was simply because he was bored, only to choke as he recognized the face of the deceased. Near looked over and he forced himself to clear his throat and fix his expression.

"I stuffed too much in my mouth at once, you know how that goes..." he told Near with a shrug and went back to slurping it up as if everything was well. Which it wasn't.

Because that had been Jack.

-End Zero-