The Mello Code

"I see." Ann was saying, in a tone of voice which said that she didn\'t see at all. "So tell me, because I\'m not the genius here, do two wrongs make a right, Mail?"



Matt\'s head was bowed over the game in his hands. He was perched on the edge of one bed, in the Wammy\'s House infirmary, while Mello lounged on another. The metal frame under Matt\'s bed made a brief scuffing noise, as he moved the soles of his boots over them. Mello\'s gaze moved from the embarrassed smirk on Matt\'s face to that swinging foot. He wondered what would happen if Matt, in his awkwardness, picked up enough speed to really whack it and if that would sound a loud metallic thud across the room. He wondered then what Matt would do in phobic reaction. He hated noises like that. It was an accident waiting to happen, but Mello\'s headache and stinging brow forestalled him saying a word.



Madeleine approached with cleaned hands and fresh gloves. "Am I taking those stitches out, Matt?"



"I don\'t know why you boys can\'t just settle your rows like civilised human beings." Ann continued. "You never used to fight. Well, not each other. It\'s like you\'ve gone downhill since you grew up."



Mello grinned across at his husband. Matt was doing a superb job of ignoring all of them, but Mello had no sympathy. For a start it was hilarious and secondly, it was Matt\'s fault they were here. Mello would have just as happily gone to Southampton, but Matt had driven them to Winchester. Mello licked his chocolate and watched the boot swinging. It never altered it\'s rhythm. Mello deduced that it was unlikely to cause the bang that his mind had already heard. Then he noticed that Ann was looking at him too. "I agree with you, Ann. He has gone downhill."



Matt grit his teeth and there was a flash of green behind the goggles. It took a lot to solicit a reaction from the redhead, when he was in shutdown mode, so Mello was quite proud of himself. Then his mind wandered into the likely repercussions and Mello realised that Matt could keep a feud running a lot longer than he could. In fact, Mello\'s annoyance over being knocked out had already receeded. He was only enjoying this show because he was a bit bored. Another thought floated to the surface. It was that never, in the history of Wammy\'s House, had he and Matt not shown a united front. Disloyalty piqued at Mello\'s conscience. Until his memory supplied all the times when they had, in fact, been at odds and reminded him that he was a hopeless romantic creating an ideal that had never happened. Ann was sighing, "Have you both learned your lessons now though? Are you going to be nicer to each other from now on?"



Mello blinked. "You appear to be including me in this rollicking. You were only telling Matt off before."



Madeleine slowly shook her head, as she extracted the stitches from Matt\'s eyebrow. "Incorrigible."



"Mello, I\'m speaking to both of you." Ann stood her ground. "He wouldn\'t be having stitches out now and you wouldn\'t be having them put in, if you looked out for each other, instead of fighting. This isn\'t how a husband and wife would behave, so I\'m certain it\'s not how two..." She struggled for the words, seeming uncomfortable. Even Matt looked up, while Mello fixed her with an amused stare. "How a homosexual husband and wife should..."



"He\'s the wife." Matt interupted swiftly. Mello shifted his gaze onto Matt, hoping to draw his attention, but the redhead was looking at Ann.



"Two husbands then." The housekeeper shifted awkwardly. "A married couple. Mello, you are twenty-one years old tomorrow. You\'re a man now, but you\'re acting like a boy."



That annoyed Mello. He felt it twinge through his psyche and he sneered. "Like an actual age means anything, especially in this place. I think I did my rites of passage a long time ago, don\'t you?"



Now Matt looked at him, chewing his lip, before having his head forcibly turned back by Madeleine. "Please keep still, Mail." She muttered. "Nearly done."



Ann straightened a little. "Mello, I\'m not trying to deny that you\'ve had to grow up too fast."



"Good." Mello let the emotion wash over him. It meant nothing. It was just Ann being Ann. Mello\'s mind drifted back to those nights on the street and those nineteen months in the Mafia. He recalled the deep down aching to be back at Wammy\'s House, a need repressed under layers of living in the moment, while planning an intricate future in which he was going to catch Kira. He weighed up the difference in potential punishments for misdeamours, a telling off by Ann versus some capo clipping him with a bullet to the head. He tried to pin-point the exact moment he could say that he became a man, because it sure as Hell wasn\'t going to be tomorrow. He frowned. What was he even doing back here? A year ago, he wouldn\'t have deigned to contact the place, let alone visit. Now he felt like he\'d practically moved back in. Mello sat up suddenly. "Are we done?"



Matt smirked. Ann rolled her eyes. "You haven\'t heard a word I just said, have you, Mello?"



"I didn\'t need to. You were back-tracking over the bit where you said that being twenty-one is somehow significant in my life." Mello had jumped off the bed and he strode now past Matt and Madeleine. "He doesn\'t need a sodding great pad on his head. He\'s just had stitches out. Just wipe it with anti-septic and come on." As Mello encircled Ann, she raised her hand. A chocolate bar was held in his face, so close that the tip of Mello\'s nose touched it. "I\'ve got chocolate."



Ann hadn\'t stopped there though. A thick arm snaked around Mello\'s waist and his next step just landed him straight into a cuddle. "Twenty-one might not seem all that great to you, my darling. But I saw you go storming off into the rain as a tiny thing, then come back through all that danger. It seems nothing short of miraculous in your case. That you reached it, I mean. Now humour me with a hug and some chocolate and a promise that you and Matt are going to be nice to each other from now on."



Matt had slipped off the bed and was wandering by, giving them a wide berth. "Hug your surrogate Mummy, Mello. Awww."



"Mail." Ann reached out, but he dodged her hand. Mello took the chocolate off her and thrust it into his jacket pocket. "You can\'t go out like that, Mello. There\'s blood in your hair."



Mello stared at her. It felt surreal. His whole mind kept cycling back to the fact that, massacres aside, he was the Consigliere of a strong LA family. He had had grown men literally shitting themselves, grovelling on the floor in undignified pleading for mercy. Now he had a working-class Hampshire woman telling him that he couldn\'t go out because his hair was a mess. He looked at her and not only did she step away, but Matt did too. Mello blinked. He had no idea why they would do that. He didn\'t want them to actually back off. He noted that Matt had that studiously blank expression, which meant that he was on his guard. Ann had just licked her lips, as if desperately trying to think of something to say or do. Behind him, Madeleine was extremely loud in her silence. Mello gulped, willing himself into calmness. "What\'s up with you all? It\'s just me. Just Mello."



Ann coughed and hid her trepidation very well. "Have you stopped being so prickly now? Do I get...?" She hesitated. Mello filled the awkwardness by moving forward and hugging her. She whispered into his ear. "I didn\'t mean to suggest that you aren\'t a grown man. You are, my darling. Break my bloody heart, you would. But while you\'re here, allow me to fuss a little. Clean your hair off at least, so that everyone looking doesn\'t think you are a butcher."



"But I am, Ann." Mello smiled into her neck. "Thank you for trying to keep the child alive in your head, but we\'re a long way past that. Twenty-one feels awfully old to me. I packed a lot of life into those two decades." He squeezed her for good measure and looked quickly up over her shoulder. He hadn\'t heard Matt leave, but he\'d felt, almost as a psychic instinct, the lack of him. Dread shivered down his spine, even as his mind rationalised that Matt would be outside the backdoor smoking a cigarette. He could even feel the draft from the opened door coming down the short corridor. "Blood in my hair is a little more honest than usual."



"You do frighten me with what you kids get up to. You\'re such a clever thing as well." Ann was watching his face, trying to draw his attention back to her. "You are exaggerating, aren\'t you? I know you can be a little handy with your fists but..."



Mello had had enough. He patted her back and extracted himself, stalking immediately out of the door. He could see Matt in the doorway just a few feet away. His back turned to Mello like there was no threat. Mello sighed, wondering why he felt so on edge. His heart was pounding and his whole mindset was ready to take on another family. He felt the same icy calm, the same willingness to do whatever it took to win, that he\'d felt negotiating business on behalf of Rod Ross. While Matt just stood there, smoking like everything was alright; and Ann fussed in the room just beside him, trying to turn him into a ten-year-old again. He glanced past her to Madeleine. The woman was keeping both beds and a chair between herself and him. Her hand brushed the telephone receiver and he couldn\'t tell if she\'d just hung up or was planning a call. He hadn\'t heard her speak to anyone. It was nerves then, telling her to call Hal to control the wayward Wammy\'s House monster.



It was cold outside, as Mello stepped up close to Matt\'s back and slid his arms around him. The December wind stung at his cheekbones and down his neck, despite the fake fur of Mello\'s collar. Matt calmly exhaled. "S\'up?"



"Why do we keep coming back here, Matty? It\'s five acres of mindfuck." Mello nuzzled the back of his husband\'s neck, wondering why he had ever wanted to annoy or hurt Matt. Right now, the redhead seemed like a gloriously sexy, beloved anchor; his history, his love and lust all bundled up in one package. Matt felt like home. Not the house in the New Forest or this one, which felt like it was trying to suck him back in. "I\'m sorry if I..." Mello faltered. What could he say? He didn\'t know how he\'d looked back in that room to make the two people who saw good in him step back like that. "Do you ever play roles in your head and get stuck on the wrong one for the present situation? I feel like I\'ve got caught between two of them. Like I don\'t know precisely what my role is right now."



"Right now?" Matt flashed a half-smile around his cigarette. "It\'s what it always is when you\'re at Wammy\'s House. You\'re Bill Sikes. I\'m Nancy by default. Near got to be Oliver because he\'s shorter."



Mello couldn\'t help himself. He snorted out a laugh. "You are so fucking ridiculous at times! I\'m trying to make a serious point and you..." Mello sniffed, his nose freezing in the cold air. "Worst of it is, you\'re right. Bill Sikes. Fuck." The more he thought about it, the more amusing it became. Mello ended up getting the giggles, until he couldn\'t have even explained what was so funny. He buried his face in Matt\'s shoulder and laughed until he cried. He felt Matt move to close the door, then try to turn in Mello\'s grasp. Mello looked up grinning. "So Roger\'s Fagin, or was that Wammy?"



"Dunno. But L was the Artful Dodger."



Mello shook his head. "No, that doesn\'t work at all." He blinked, noticing that Ann and Madeleine were both in the infirmary doorway behind him, watching them both. "I want to be the Artful Dodger."



"You can\'t. You\'re Bill Sikes." Matt considered it. "Which is really fucking something, because you look like Nancy."



Mello supposed that he really ought to be slapping Matt for that, but instead it just fed into his amusement. He chuckled, biting his lip and allowed Matt to turn properly. There was no real humour in Matt\'s eyes. They glinted intelligence, green and harsh, like uncut emeralds. Mello\'s gaze met them and the realisation that he was the only one laughing drenched his mirth. "Let\'s go home, Matt."



"No." Matt took Mello\'s arm and led him past the infirmary towards the rest of the house. They hadn\'t actually been in there yet. They\'d come through the back gate, where the updated and reinforced security had been no match for Matt. They\'d walked through the garden without anyone confronting them and then straight through the backdoor into the infirmary. Mello sagged and considered just putting his foot down about this, but Matt had a look of determination about him that suggested hours of moodiness if Mello didn\'t give in. They arrived quickly at the smaller staircase and Matt started to climb it. Now Mello hung back, yanking his arm out of Matt\'s grasp. The redhead turned. "What?"



"Why are we going to our room?"



"Because I want us to."



"Matt. I just want to go home." Mello glanced at the corridor behind them. Ann and Madeleine were still watching. He had no doubt that Hal was watching via a camera feed. "We can do whatever you want to do up there much better at home. The kids are going to be coming out of their classes soon. I don\'t want to be dealing with them right now."



"\'kay." Matt said, but he carried on walking upwards until he\'d gone around the bend and was out of sight. Mello growled in exasperation, but followed. He knew that Matt had counted on that and the knowledge was unsettling. Mello knew that Matt manipulated him on a regular basis, but it was never so blatant. It could always be shrugged off as paranoid imagination. Now he was following his husband through the corridors of Wammy\'s House like Hansel being led by breadcrumbs. It wasn\'t doing his self-esteem any good. Matt had reached their old shared bedroom door and was hunting through his keyring for the key. He only glanced back once before entering the room.



Mello leaned up against the wall and took out a chocolate bar. If Matt wanted to speak to him, then he would do it on Mello\'s terms. Mello refused to be dragged into there at his husband\'s bidding. It took a couple of minutes before game music sounded loudly through the door. Mello closed his eyes and looked at his chocolate. Down below, he could hear children, which meant that at least one class had emptied. He growled in exasperation and pushed away from the wall. Mello opened the door quickly and glared at Matt. The redhead was, predictably, sitting on his old bed playing on his PSP. "Come on, we\'re going home. I just want to go home, Matt."



Matt nodded. "I just want you to do one thing before we do." He inclined his head towards a spot on the carpet. "Stand there."



"I know what you\'re trying to do. I want to go home. We\'ve still got to get a new piece for the sink and fix the bloody thing."



"\'kay." Matt didn\'t move. He carried on playing. Mello had never had the urge, quite like he had now, to rip the machine out of his husband\'s hands and dash it up the wall.



"I don\'t know what\'s got into you, Jeevas. I really fucking don\'t." Mello hissed. He closed the door and stood in the spot indicated.



Matt immediately paused his game and looked up. "Well?"



"Well what?"



Matt nodded towards him. "It was there. Right where you\'re standing. That\'s where I first heard you say that you will be number one. You will beat Near. You will be L\'s successor. I heard it a billion times since, but that was the first time."



"And?" They stared at each other for several long seconds. "What are you expecting, Matt? This is clumsy even by your standards. Why am I standing in this fucking house, in this fucking room, having yet another conversation that keeps going round and round? We don\'t have conversations, Matt. We have themes that go on until I\'m ready to tear my hair out. If it\'s not sex, it\'s the Mario Clause. If it\'s not your inability to articulate a single emotion, it\'s this fucking code. What\'s supposed to happen now? Was I supposed to stand here and have some great celestial vision, where L appeared as a fluffy cherub and all the world became rosy?"



"Nope. You\'re supposed to be remembering what that code meant. What are you fighting for, Mello?"



Mello sighed. He turned and sat on his own bed. "You really are an incomparable wanker. Cast your mind back. Go back about a month and a half. You were in London, threatening to blow yourself up. I was just outside here, handcuffed to a chair under Near\'s arrest. Can you remember the conversation?"



"Vividly."



"Oh good." Mello fixed his stare onto his husband. "Do you recall the part where I told Near that I was going to create the Mello Code and it would be better than the L Code? Do you remember when I said that world leaders would be beating a path to my door, not his?" He knew that those weren\'t the exact words. He knew that Matt\'s eidetic memory would be silently correcting him behind those shielded goggles. Mello didn\'t care. The sentiment was there. "Near is laughing at me, Matt. He\'s watching me flailing around, scrambling amongst his cast offs to find a decent case. He\'s sitting pretty in his ivory tower, with the Watari Network supporting everything he does. He could sit back building lego forts all day and still be miles above me."



"Oh."



"Oh yes." Mello went to bite into his chocolate, but it had all gone. He screwed up the wrapper and threw it at that spot in the carpet. "Nothing I can do about it. I could work my tits off and I\'ll never beat him. He\'s got it all sown up."



"You\'re basing this on a month and a half, most of which was spent keeping me from actually going over the edge into a proper nervous breakdown."



"No." Mello spat. "I\'m basing this on fucking years of the same story. In this fucking House! Out there on the streets racing after Kira. Everything."



Matt didn\'t care about regulations. He lit a cigarette right there in their room. "You gave him the code three times, Mello. He knows that he holds it because you didn\'t take it when you could have." He inhaled smoke and shrugged. "He wouldn\'t have done that. The prize was holding it, not the method by which it was taken."



Mello waited until childish footsteps had thundered past. He didn\'t put it past juvenile geniuses to somehow know that they were in there and be listening quietly outside. He stared at the door, but didn\'t discern anyone out there now. "You know what I\'d have done, if I\'d actually taken the L Code?" Another thought occurred and Mello quickly looked back at Matt. "Are you angry with me for not taking it? Did you want to be the comare of L?"



Matt rolled his eyes. "No."



"Right." Mello found the chocolate that Ann had given him. "I\'d have disbanded it. The L Code should have died with Lawliet." He watched for Matt\'s reaction, but the redhead gave none. He just sat there radiating indifference. "This should all be about the Near Code and the Mello Code now. A level playing field, because we\'ve never competed on one of those and that would be very interesting indeed." His gaze dipped to the carpet. "Probably the only reason he wouldn\'t do that is because the Near Code sounds too much like something that almost happened. Not quite a code at all." He heard Matt breathe a slight chuckle. "I should have taken it, you\'re right. I should have taken it and disbanded it. I probably still could. You and me, I reckon we could get behind Near\'s defences because we know what they are. You nearly took it a month ago. Just over a month ago. We could take it but, do you know what?"



"We\'re not going to."



"No, we\'re not." Mello frowned. "I know that, why do you know it?" There was no response from the redhead, just eyes fixed on him behind the goggles. "We\'re not going to do it because of two reasons. One is that, ironically, I\'m probably the only honourable person this House has ever produced." He raised a gloved hand. "Don\'t even think of sneering at me, Matty. I love you to bits, but you cannot argue to me that you are honourable. You have a code of honour, yes, but that largely consists of doing whatever you fancy doing at any given time. You\'re probably more like the real L than me and Near put together." He took in Matt\'s smirk. "Don\'t. Just don\'t. You are going to tell me that you do have a code of honour. Don\'t."



Matt laughed aloud. "I love how you say that you can\'t have a conversation with me, but when we attempt it, you fill in my side of it. Yes, I do think that I have honour, just nothing that you would see on your scale. There\'s the hands on imperative for a start."



"Ok, ok." Mello realised that he was in the mood for talking, not listening to Matt. He didn\'t like himself much for that discovery, but nevertheless pressed on. "You\'ve got honour. But Matty, I didn\'t learn honour here. I learned that in Yugoslavia. My God, I wish I had a memory like yours. I get flashes and feelings. Colours. All I know is that I arrived here knowing right from wrong. I had a code of conduct. I knew what my life should be. All Wammy\'s House taught us is that we have to win. There are no other options. Do you want to know something fucked up? Some of the most honourable people I ever met were in the Mafia. Old timers for the most part. Those who\'d been around long enough to remember different times."



"Like Don Corleone in \'Godfather II\'?"



Mello closed his eyes. "That\'s a fucking film, Matt. No, I\'m not getting into that. That\'s just crap. Besides they were the Sicilians. I wasn\'t in that Mafia..."



"There\'s an argument to say that you weren\'t in the Mafia at all." Matt began and Mello could have killed him. He felt it flash through him, intense and white hot, a burning anger. Then it was gone. A flash in the pan. Mello hadn\'t even moved. Matt hadn\'t even shut up. "I was reading something that said that you had to be Sicilian or..."



"You read nothing." Mello spat and the fury was in his voice. Inside he couldn\'t feel it. He felt divorced from himself. Now Matt stopped. He swallowed and sat back a little. His eyes fell to the game in his hand, but he wasn\'t playing it. "There is nothing out there in books or films or soundtracks or t-shirts or Scarface plushies or games. There is nothing that will tell you about the reality. Nothing."



"Ok, Mello. Ok." Matt whispered.



Mello wondered if Hal was watching. He wondered what was wrong with himself. His emotions were cycling around like a wheel of fortune. It didn\'t feel like madness but neither was it sanity. He wondered what Matt was thinking. "I\'m concentrating on a detective code and I should be working out a code for life. I should be working out what I believe and what I want. You\'re right, Matty. I want to win, but I don\'t even know what winning looks like. How can I plan a strategy towards that?"



"Hoo-bloody-ray." Matt rubbed ash into the carpet. He tapped his little finger. "You want your morality as set out by your parents. You\'ve got that. You know they were devout Catholics. Go and see what the Pope has to say. There\'s a whole rulebook there."



"Which is telling me that I\'m going to Hell and will have to give up you. There\'s another code here. I married you. I have to do right by you. What the fuck am I doing? I\'m sending you to Catholic classes, knowing full well that that\'s going to last a year before they\'ll baptise you. I\'m letting you do that, because maybe if you\'re saved." Mello stopped. He considered it. "You know what? I don\'t even believe my own hype here. Stop going, Matty. You\'re off the hook. You\'ll never be saved because you won\'t believe in it. You could go for a decade and you won\'t believe it. It doesn\'t work like that. You have to believe. Why am I even trying to save you? I\'m not an evangelist. I couldn\'t even save myself."



"Because you want me to be baptised."



"When I killed in the name of the L Code, I put my ambition over my Catholicism. When I kissed you, I was already damned."



"Which is why you kissed me."



There was a knock on the door. Mello didn\'t want the outside world. He wasn\'t even sure he wanted Matt with him at this second in time, let alone Hal. He knew it was Hal. He sighed and called out. "Come in." But it wasn\'t Hal, it was Lauren. "Oh. Hello." Mello felt that other persona falling onto him like an overcoat. The self that could be hero worshipped by this generation, if he believed Hal\'s hype. It descended, soaking through his skin, until it became inner calm. "What can we do for you?"



Lauren\'s cold had worsened. Her nose was a mess of red, raw, flaky skin and her eyes were puffy. She spoke nasally. "Mello, I\'m sorry."



Mello felt that slight shifting that was Matt on red alert, but knew that Lauren would have noticed nothing at all. He just smiled at her, his mind racing to predict what she was going to say. "You don\'t want to take me up on my offer of a job." The girl\'s eyes widened. Mello carried on smiling. "You\'ve been talking with Jamboree. You\'ve realised what working with me might entail."



Lauren sat next to Matt on the bed. Mello noted that with interest. She gushed on. "I know that it\'s a wonderful opportunity. I doubt you would keep the position open, if I turned you down now." Lauren paused, waiting for confirmation. It didn\'t come, which was, in itself, evidence that she was right. "I\'m not like you two. I haven\'t got that courage."



"You\'re kidding, right?" Mello snorted. "You have courage, Lauren. You\'ve stood up me twice."



"Hal thinks that her contacts," she carefully didn\'t say Near\'s contacts, though they all knew what she meant, "can get me in as an interpreter at the United Nations."



Mello nodded. "That would be a wonderful boon for the Watari Network."



"Are you angry?"



Mello stared at her. The pair of them a living reminder of the weeks when it had all gone so badly wrong. Matt kept telling him that he was going mad. Maybe he was. He tried to read their expressions. Matt\'s was calmly blank and Lauren\'s too filled with cold and low level anxiety to tell him much about himself. "I\'m not angry."



"I feel like I let you down."



"So you\'re going to work for the United Nations and Jamboree\'s going to be a surgeon. Yet absolutely no-one has applied to the Board for the right not to be a detective. You know what?" Mello sat back, smirking at them. "I\'m half tempted to be the first."



Even Matt\'s jaw dropped at that. He spluttered out, "What?"



"Mainly to see what they\'d do. If their faces are anything like your pair\'s, it would be worth it for the laugh." Mello was watching Matt work it out. "What actually happens? Do they take your access away and stop giving you money every birthday and Christmas?"



"No." Lauren rasped. "You still get all that. Don\'t give it up, Mello. Would it make it better if I reconsidered?"



Matt laughed. "Lauren, he\'s had a bang on the head. Just ignore him, ok?"



Mello blinked. He was remember all those tears when Matt had concussion. No-one had mentioned concussion to him. It was just a cut and stitches. He stared at Matt. "Guapo...?"



"Just my conjecture." Matt replied. "Based on the fact that you\'re being even more up and down than normal."



Mello sagged a little, then shook his hair back and sat up. "Well, I\'m not. For your information, I\'ve come to some conclusions, which I\'ll share with you at home. Lauren, do whatever the muse leads you to do. Have fun with the world leaders and try not to cause the apocalypse. Matt, come on, we\'re going home." Mello stood decisively, zipping up his jacket. He was glad to find Matt standing too. "Have a good life, Lauren."



"Are you throwing in the towel?" She asked, still alarmed.



It was Matt who replied. "No, he\'s not. He\'s just going to entertain himself with the idea that he might for a bit."



Mello slipped his hand inside Matt\'s and opened the door. "No, I\'m not. If I wasn\'t around, the kids wouldn\'t have a role model who wasn\'t a geek or a freak. I make this look glamorous. They need me." He led Matt out and waited until Lauren had followed. There were no other children in the corridor.



"Did you know that you had blood in your hair?" Lauren ventured. "What did you do anyway?" She indicated his head.



"That?" Mello shrugged. "I blew myself up chasing Kira. Come on, Matt." He hurried him along the corridor back towards the stairs. "It\'s ok now. I\'ve worked it out."



Matt glanced back over his shoulder. "You really know how to blow people off. I thought I was the anti-social bastard."



Mello sighed and turned. "Lauren." He called after the retreating teenager. "I bashed my head up on the bathroom sink. I had stitches in it. Good luck with whatever you do and don\'t lose my e-mail address, ok?"



As she turned back, glowing with a sudden smile, Mello winked and carried on walking. Lauren called after him. "Mello, the world would lose a great detective if you gave up now. A great and glamorous one."



"Another fan." Matt muttered as they rounded the corner.



Mello grinned. "Yep."