The Mello Code

Mello found himself distracted. He had read all of the documentation now and had already formed a reasonably strong couple of conjectures about who was overseeing operations in America's drugs market. On the other hand, his monitor was showing Matt smoothing out clean sheets on their bed. Declaring himself due a break, Mello bolted out of his study, along the landing and into their bedroom. He rugby-tackled Matt from behind, sending them both sprawling onto the bed. Mello's hands grappled to capture Matt's arms and a leather-clad leg wrapped itself around Matt's back, to hook over his hipbone. "Gotcha!"



"Hi." Matt bit his lip, smiling. "I'll consider myself glomped then."



"Do you think I'm being too possessive?"



"Dunno. I'm neurotically dependent on you." Matt kissed him. "I'm so in thrall to your evil brainwashing that it's impossible for me to judge things things. Am I getting a shag out of this or are you just randomly pouncing on me?"



"Am I making you uncomfortable with my possessiveness?"



Matt shook his head, green eyes keenly watching the blond right in front of his face. "No. It's part of the package. Even when you used to be away for days or a week at a time, you used to hate me leaving the flat."



"Yes, I did. That's true." Mello gaze appraised the redhead's reactions. "But then you had Kira hunting Wammy alumni and discovering the identity of my comare would have been a great bonus for a lot of Mafioso. It was a dangerous world for you to be out in, especially when you are the perfect stereotype of the absent-minded genius."



"Fuck off!"



Mello smiled. "Matty, I'm sometimes amazed you can dress yourself in the morning. I've seen you trying to push doors that need to be pulled open."



"Yeah, Mello, dream on in your little fantasy world. Who rewired this house? Who sorted out the dry rot in the basement, when you got paranoid about external workers coming in? Who sorted out the pipe that got blocked when you kept flushing cotton wool balls down the toilet?" He paused as Mello's grin grew broader. "You make me sound like I'm Savant." He stopped as he felt Mello's leg squeeze more tightly around him, pushing their groins together. "So you've got it into your head that I'm too stupid to leave the house and..."



"No." Mello kissed him. "Though it's a very rare occasion that you don't have to run back into the house because you've forgotten something. I'm saying mostly that every time you've left the house recently, you've ended up in mortal danger and perhaps it's better for my blood pressure if you just say in." He pushed and rolled Matt onto his back, sliding himself on top of him. "You're fucking gorgeous, Matty. Have I mentioned that recently?"



"So I'm not going to Catholic class is the summary here?" Matt smirked wantonly up at him, his hands starting to feel numb under the pressure that Mello was exerting on his wrists. He was deeply aroused and Mello had to be able to feel that under the denim.



The blond rose from kissing along Matt's jawline. "You can do what you want. You're not a prisoner here, Mail, and your spirituality is your concern." He returned to his administrations, reaching as far as Matt's ear and licking it. "It would be nice if you were baptised though."



Matt closed his eyes. This had all the hallmarks of a conversation that would be going around for days, if it wasn't nipped in the bud now. "Ok, here's my take. I promised I'd go, so I'll go. You deal with your paranoia and then..." Mello was grinding against him. Matt really didn't want to think about anything but that fact right now. "All good?"



"You keep mentioning me and paranoia in the same sentence."



"I wonder why." Matt kissed Mello's cheek, the only part of him that he could actually reach to kiss. "Now, are you going to fuck me or what?"



"Yes." Mello's hands raked down Matt's arms, puckering the striped sleeves along the way. He reached down to Matt's waist and pulled the shirt up over his head and threw it across the bedroom. Kisses rained down, reciprocated in kind by the man underneath him. Their hips continued to move against each other, increasing the urgency on both sides to shed the jeans or leather encasing them. Matt's arms snaked around Mello's head, but the blond ducked down to suck on each nipple in turn, hands already working at Matt's belt and his flies. "I want you out of these."



"'kay." Matt laughed. "We going for quick and dirty over long seduction?"



"Fuck, yes." Mello dived down, yanking the jeans from Matt's legs before whipping off his own belt. The laces delayed things, but only for a few seconds. Mello no longer used the intricate knots he had mastered to tie them in the past. Matt rose from the bed to help him, but he was slapped away. As soon as Mello was naked, he grabbed the redhead again, turning him over and pinning him to the bed. They were both already hard, so there was barely a preamble, before Mello positioned himself and thrust inside Matt with a loud gasp. "Oh God! Matty, love you, man."



Matt clutched a handful of newly laundered quilt cover and turned his head, as Mello nuzzled at his neck. The metal collar had become trapped, so the serated edge of the combination lock cut into Matt's collarbone. He attempted to shift, but Mello's hand came up and held him in place. Kisses trailed to Matt's mouth and their lips met passionately, desperately. Mello drove into him roughly, the head of him ramming Matt's prostate in eruptions of glorious ecstasy. Matt might not be cuffed or otherwise rendered helpless, but it was still possession, pure and simple, and Matt shuddered under him. He breathed out, "Mello, fuck, yes."



"Love you, baby! Love you!" Mello panted back at him, before coming in a scorching blaze of heat inside him. He kept on pounding, until Matt came too, then collapsed onto his husband in a scattering of kisses. "Fucking gorgeous, fucking love you, fucking beautiful, gorgeous. Te amo, guapo. Love you so much."



Matt burst out laughing. "Volim te, right back at you, Mell." He had discovered that the Croatian for 'I love you' didn't sound half so embarrassing, in passing his lips, than either the English or the Spanish. It also made Mello squirm more, so Matt had started using it whenever the situation seemed to call for it. Otherwise, he just trusted that Mello knew anyway. "Let's do it again."



"Work to do." Mello didn't appear to be in a hurry to leave. His hands stroked down Matt's body in hard, languid movements.



"While I've got you in a post-coital haze, can I say something?"



"Matt." Mello warned. "Enjoy the moment, baby."



"It's about your case. Something bothering me." He succeeded in moving the collar from where it was digging into him. The release on the taut skin over his bone was almost as painful as its presense had been. Mello had still been inside him, he was starting to slip out now and Matt missed the sensation even as he could still feel it. "Angel, I'm fucking proud of you, you know that, and I want you to succeed."



Mello rolled off him onto his back on the quilt beside him. His lips were pursed and eyes starting to narrow. He was barely there before he was bouncing back up again. Matt reached an arm out, to clamp it over Mello's lap before the blond could actually stand up. The sentence was finished for him. "But you don't think I have what it takes to solve the case."



Matt sighed. "That is not what I was going to say." He wriggled around, to link another arm around the Slav's back, so that Matt could clasp his hands together by Mello's hipbone. "What I was going to say is please be careful. I've got alarm bells going off on this particular case." He noticed the wet patch on the top of the quilt. "Fuck! I only just washed that."



Mello's head was bowed, but a thumb stroked Matt's forearm. "What are your alarm bells saying?"



"That it's a really big coincidence, don't you think? That this is the first big case that Hal has slipped under the net to give to you rather than Near, yet it's also a case which you have been personally involved in. The problem was caused because of the loss of the Mafia in America; they were lost because Kira was trying to get at you. The problem was partially solved, or is that exacerbated?, by you helping the British Mafia reinstate the flow of drugs into America. Both things put you in a unique position to solve the case, but it just stinks to high Heaven to me." Matt peered up, but Mello was just staring at the carpet. "What if someone is trying to set you up? You already told me that people became more willing to speak out against Mafia operations in the wake of what Kira did. They might be people who could have placed you right in the shit. What if the case files are full of your name, but not enough firm evidence to convict you? Hal might be your friend and she might be Watari, but before all of that she was SPK. The reason she was SPK was because she's a law enforcer for the American government. Clash of loyalties much?"



"Hal could have put me away long before now. She could have done it in New York when I turned up at her apartment."



"You were still useful for catching Kira then." Matt kept his tone neutral. Emotion of any kind might just inflame Mello and right now, Matt just wanted him to consider a few cold facts. "Remember what we learned since? That it was personal for Hal. She knew someone whom Kira killed, so that whole involvement was pretty much revenge on her part. You were useful to her, so she gained nothing from placing you where Kira could kill you too. That is no longer a consideration."



"Are you jealous of my friendship with Hal?"



Matt frowned. "I can't believe you just asked me that."



Mello snapped back. "What are you actually saying then, Matt? You want me to give the case up?"



"I'm saying that a tactical reappraisal might be in order." Matt kissed the ridge of Mello's ribcage. "You're a fucking good detective, Mello. I have no doubt that you will solve this one and it would be a great addition to your portfolio, but on the other hand, it might be a set up." He felt rather than saw Mello's quick nod. "Angel, I'm just saying that you might be so excited about getting a case that hasn't come through Watari, and isn't one of Near's cast offs, that your judgement might have been a little clouded."



It was a comment too far for Mello. He forced Matt's hands apart and threw his arm from his lap, then stood to gather up his clothes. He shot back, tersely, "I'll be in my study."



"Mihael, just think about it, eh?" Matt called after him, but Mello made no indication that he had even heard.