The Mello Code

They passed Jamboree close to Wammy\'s House. She was speaking on her mobile and rushing to where Hal was waiting with the gates open. Matt rushed past her, parking Mello\'s bike practically at the foot of the steps into the building. It was difficult to disembark with Mello still sitting behind him, but when Matt turned, it was to see his husband still holding onto the rear bar, surveying him with a sardonic glare. Only after Mello had done that for a few seconds did he slowly lift his leg over and drop onto the gravel. Matt twisted himself off too, mentally determining that he was going to get himself a motorbike. He stood beside his husband, but Mello didn\'t say a word. They both watched Jamboree arrive back and Hal locked the gates behind her.



Matt touched Mello\'s arm and was shrugged away. The blond marched around Matt and took the steps two at a time to enter the orphanage. Matt followed, fighting the urge to leave the helmet on. Hal\'s office door was open and Mello disappeared inside it. Matt took the helmet off as he trailed after him. It was a relief not to have the visor pressing his goggles into his eye-sockets. He glanced back to ensure that Hal was on her way, then walked into the office. Mello was just standing in the middle of the floor, staring at him as he entered. Matt stared right back. "Mello, if that had been me out there, you\'d have drawn the same conclusions and done the same thing."



"So you think I\'m insane?" Mello challenged him. "You think I\'m not of sound mind and couldn\'t possibly decide for myself what should be happening?"



Hal breezed in, closing the door behind her. "Do not start having a domestic in my office."



"Fine." Mello snapped. "We\'ll have one outside."



Matt could think of half a dozen ways to react. It all depended upon which Mello was currently glaring at him. His husband could be so volatile and unpredictable that what would calm him one day might rile him the next. Matt doubted that Mello would actually hit him in Hal\'s company, but there were no guarantees. In truth, Matt wished that Hal wasn\'t there. She had called him with her concerns, but she was still the spare wheel. Matt found himself wanting to automatically sink into silence around her, but she was looking from him to Mello as if she expected Matt to save the day. Matt put the helmet down on the settee. His glance upwards told him that Mello hadn\'t stopped staring at him yet. "What?"



"What do you mean what?" Mello took a couple of steps in his direction, then circled around to pace. "I was on a fucking case! I was inches away from concluding said case when you stuck your oar in. I could strangle you, Matt. Honestly, I could kill you with my bare hands."



Matt could see the world weariness in Mello. It wasn\'t madness. There wasn\'t that shining hopelessness in his eyes that had been there all those months ago, but it was a lesser cousin of that state. There was a blankness behind Mello\'s eyes that belied the annoyance exhibited everywhere else. Matt bowed his head. "Hal, would you mind awfully if we were alone?"



The blonde woman didn\'t protest. She picked up her \'phone and immediately walked back to the door. "I\'ll check to see what\'s being heard. I\'ve got people listening to the bugs."



"Which people?" Mello frowned.



"Lauren and Jamboree. I was too until you arrived." She left the room.



Matt had more to work with now that he wasn\'t being watched. He stepped out into space, hating the way the leather dug into the back of his knees and the creases of his cheeks. He was certain that he didn\'t look half as sexy as Mello did in it. "Rant at me all you like. Smack me around the room if you\'re going to." Matt shrugged. "But don\'t tell me that I\'m wrong."



Mello narrowed his eyes. "It\'s not about right or wrong, Matt! Those lines got blurred years ago. It\'s about safety and security."



"If you had been 100% certain of what you were going to do, you would never have got on the back of the bike. You\'d have staked out your position until you were able to come home. You certainly wouldn\'t have been thrown off course by me calling you." Matt watched the minute signs. He became more confident in his analysis as Mello betrayed himself with them. "I\'m not telling you that you were out of order. I\'m telling you that you\'ve been so paranoid recently, that I think it\'s highly possible that you\'ve thought yourself into a corner. I know you feel cornered, because you\'ve come out fighting. You\'re not as trigger-happy as all the hype would have you. Was your back against the wall, Mello?"



"Worst case scenario." Mello held his hand up. "Singh heard enough to know precisely what Wammy\'s House is. He sells that information on the black market to the highest bidder or he contacts the intelligence agencies of every country. They set him up for life in exchange for that information. What happens next?"



Matt considered it. "Presumably Watari would buy up another property in another country and evacuate all the kids there. Or use one of Near\'s millions of safe-houses. Either that or whichever civil servant stops social services coming to visit us get a a call now. Dude steps in and everything disappears under the carpet again. Why?"



Mello looked at him like he was an idiot. "Shall I tell you what the Mafia would do with information like that? They\'d be in here, take a kid or two, or maybe Hal. They\'d use that to establish contact with Near. Once they have Near in their pocket, they\'d use his resources for business."



"Fortunately the Mafia haven\'t got your brain behind anymore, so Near would pwn them. Probably use the opened communication to get half the families arrested."



Mello snarled, "Meanwhile, back in the real world..."



Matt stopped him by rushing suddenly with intent to cuddle and kiss his husband. Mello caught him before he could do either and held Matt at arm\'s length in a vice-like grip. Matt spoke quickly, "At best you\'re pessimistic. At worst, you\'re acting like a paranoid schizophrenic. Wammy\'s House is not vunerable. That kid who was snatched from the Children\'s Home in Norwich? It couldn\'t happen here because the place is even more of a fortress than it was in our day. It\'s full to bursting with geniuses and the warden was once bodyguard to the president of the United States. It\'s overseen by L. There are category A prisons easier to infiltrate than Wammy\'s House." The fingers on his biceps loosened slightly. "All this crap about safety and security? It\'s the same stuff that\'s been coming out of your mouth since you first started working on your code. You\'re panicking, Mello. You\'ve let panic and pride get in the way of clarity of thought."



"You even dare come out with this shit..."



"I\'m your husband!" Matt hissed. "And your best friend. If I don\'t say it, who will? You can wake up tomorrow knowing that three kids have been shot through the head. Three families have had their Christmas ruined. Or you can wake up thinking how wonderful it is that we make mistakes. If we didn\'t do that, then we\'d never have anything to learn from." He peered into Mello\'s eyes. "But three young, stupid and a bit reckless men will still be alive."



"L would have taken them out."



Matt frowned. "Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn\'t. L was in a different position. He only had a bunch of kids as back up. Something kicks up now and look who could rush to defend this place. Look who did rush to defend it. The Wammy alumni is stronger and more experienced than anything L had to fall back on." Matt could see that Mello was waivering. Moreover, he could see that Mello wanted to be convinced. "Besides, if L killed people because of what they might have done, Yagami wouldn\'t have survived his proximity long, would he? Checkmate by bullet would have been way too boring."



"Like you have insight into L."



"Between what\'s been inferred by this place and what you\'ve told me, I think I have enough." Matt kept going. A certain softness was creeping back into Mello\'s eyes and his fingers held without hurting. "Anyway, I know about games. If you\'re interested in the game, it\'s always much more satisfying to reach the end on your own merit than to use a cheat. You know the major problem with your car case, Mello? The absolute fundamental problem?"



"I\'ve messed up so many times along the way that the case spiralled out of control."



"No. It\'s that the case bored you stupid." Matt felt the hands begin to slip off him, so stepped closer and held his husband. "It didn\'t matter really if it was a case, or if it was big enough, or worthy enough, or any of that shit that we\'re gone round in circles discussing. You were bored with it from start to finish. You want to know what I think L would have really done? He\'d have said, \'this case is boring the crap out of me\', then stopped working on it. If it then really grew into something big, it might have been more interesting and then he could look."



"So fucking dispassionate."



"Yes!" Matt grinned into Mello\'s face. "Yes, it is. But you\'re not. That\'s why L\'s methodology cannot be slotted over you with gaps. We\'ve been through this. Why are we having this conversation again?"



"So we just leave it, is that what you\'re saying?" Mello pulled away from Matt, pacing halfway to the curtained window. He jabbed his finger in that direction and growled at his husband. "We just leave them to sell their information on the basis that it might grow into a more interesting case?"



Matt smirked. Mello narrowed his eyes dangerously. Matt unzipped the heavy leather jacket that he was wearing, because it was quite warm in that office. "Mello, angel, love of my life, light of my heart. You left me at home with an IP address for a computer containing potentially dodgy information about Wammy\'s. Did you really think I was sitting around beating my Brain Academy hiscores?" He had the satisfaction of Mello looking absolutely stunned. "Oh! You did!" Matt gasped. "Singh is a glorified technician and engineer. He\'s not a computer geek. He was relying on the University\'s own firewalls and Norton. It took me about five minutes to ping him then another half an hour to get in. Ok, I had to take over the whole University\'s mainframe, but that wasn\'t too much hassle. As for Norton..." Matt smirked. "Let\'s just say that we\'re old friends. We kind of circle around each other." He considered it a badge of honour that he could hack through the major anti-virus and spyware programmes, though it would have been dishonourable to actually introduce a virus or spyware into their servers once he was there. He just planted a flag and then added it to his tally when they had to produce a patch to kick him out again. It was something to do when he was bored. Mello was still staring at him. "What?"



"You got into Singh\'s computer." Mello prompted, the fire leeching out from him. His shoulders sagged and he blinked too much. Matt knew that Mello was hurting quite badly right now.



"Yeah. I found his packets and listened to about five before you called. Then I started on MI5 until Hal called." Matt shrugged. "Then I stole your bike."



"And?"



"Inaudible." Matt grinned. "You can\'t hear fuck all. My guess is that the hole in the wall wasn\'t big enough, so the concrete and brick just absorbed the signal. You get occasional bits from the street. I don\'t know what that was being conducted from, but from inside the House?" He gestured dismissal. "He knows nothing."



Mello bit his top lip so hard that it turned white. He turned away. Matt wouldn\'t have been surprised to hear sniffs, because Mello had looked close to tears. There was nothing though, not even the munching of chocolate. Matt wandered across and hugged Mello from behind. After an age, Mello crossed his own hands over Matt\'s and squeezed them. Then he turned and wrapped his arms around Matt\'s back, leaning in to kiss him long and hard. His voice rasped, "Thank you, Matty."



"You\'re welcome."



"I could have found this out after I\'d..." Mello buried his head in Matt\'s shoulder. Matt rubbed his back for him. "I\'m a fucking disaster area."



Matt kissed Mello\'s ear. "You\'re really not. You took a case that bored you. Mistook being bored for being a failure. The second you actually got around to investigating it, you solved it to its conclusion in a matter of hours. Your problem isn\'t your brilliance, it\'s the," Matt paused, wondering how to diplomatically phrase this.



"Emo crap that goes with it."



"The self-doubt and being way too concerned about what everyone else is thinking." He lifted Mello\'s head by the back of his hair and kissed him again. "Let\'s call the ladies off their surveillance, declare this case over and go home. What have you done with my car?"



Mello kissed him back. It grew into several minutes worth of their mouths meeting in promise and invasion, hands clutching at each other\'s bodies. Only when Mello suddenly pushed Matt backwards, and half over Hal\'s desk, did they stop. They grinned at each other. "Oh come on! You know it\'s a fantasy."



"Hal would kill us."



"Doesn\'t that just add to it?"



"Well." Matt smirked. "Yeah."



Though realistically they had known that Hal was watching them, the fact wasn\'t brought home until running footsteps sounded in the reception area now. Hal knocked once before bursting in. "Off my desk!"



"Awww." Mello grinned. Matt just peered at her beneath his goggles, a half-smile ghosted across his lips. "So close." Mello stepped back and pulled Matt to his feet. "It\'s the first time I\'ve seen him in leather. It moved me."



"Fucking uncomfortable."



Mello shook his head. "That\'s because it\'s biking leathers. Hard leather. You need soft leather." He indicated his own clothes. "Have you got your jeans on under there?"



"No. Too bulky."



Mello laughed. "No wonder they\'re uncomfortable. Is this your plan to get to ride my bike home again as well?"



Matt smiled. "I\'m getting a bike. They pwn. Once you get used to the lean."



"I\'ve never seen you ride a motorbike before now."



"I never have, though it\'s hardly rocket science, is it?" Matt took the hand that Mello was offering and landed on his feet. His husband was staring at him. "Oh! Come on! After a mile you can drive any vehicle. You just transfer the skills from one to the other."



"Crash my bike and I\'ll kill you."



"Yeah."



Mello turned his most charming smile onto Hal. "Baby, we\'re going now. The case is solved and there\'s no danger. They couldn\'t hear inside the building. If I was you, I\'d invest in some anti-surveillance here though. Thank Jamboree and Lauren for their assistance for us please." He returned the Watari \'phone to the stand and dropped the bluetooth earpiece next to it. "Thank you for your part in this."



Hal stared from one to the other. She rolled her eyes. "That\'s it? Mello, you\'re like a fucking twister. You come in here and leave a trail of destruction wherever you\'ve been."



Mello approached her, his hand on her arm, his eyes staring into hers. "I know. I\'m very exciting to be around."



Matt never failed to be amazed at how Mello\'s flirting could still Hal. He hoped that it didn\'t work on himself quite so pathetically. Hal was smiling at Mello now, still shaking her head, but no longer looking so exasperated. "You\'d better take your birthday present home with you then."



"I have a birthday present?" Mello beamed at her.



She walked away from him, reaching into a desk drawer to remove a stiff-backed A4 envelope. This was handed to Matt. "Don\'t let him have it until the 13th."



"What is it?" Mello demanded, staring as if he could see through the cardboard.



"You\'ll have to wait and see." Hal smiled. She watched him a little too long and her smile faded. "Would you really have killed them, Mello?"



Matt could have slapped her. The shadows had only just disappeared from Mello\'s gaze, but they were back now. Matt wanted to snap something plithy at her, like \'we might have some history, but you have no idea where we\'ve been\'. Instead he just narrowed his eyes at her and moved to find the helmet. He hadn\'t honestly expected to get away with riding Mello\'s bike back. His own clothes were in the panniers. He figured that what Mello didn\'t know wouldn\'t sway his decisions and left it at that. There was still a tense silence behind him. Matt turned, wondering whether he should speak in Mello\'s defence after all. Just then, the blond did speak up. "I prefered your version of me, to be honest, Hal. I just wish it was true."



"Mello." Hal said, sadly, but it seemed that she didn\'t have the words to complete her sentiment. Mello just nodded at her and turned to pat Matt\'s back on the way past. Matt nearly didn\'t acknowledge her on the way out, but, at the door, Mello stopped and smiled at her. Matt was forced to stop too and, in turning to watch her reaction, saw her little wave. "Bye both. I personally still believe that you are good people. You just can\'t admit it to yourselves."



Matt snorted and looked away, but Mello had nodded. "Thank you. Bye Hal." Matt felt duty-bound to raise a hand in a languid wave, then he followed his husband out.