The Mello Code

Mello had nipped to the toilet. He sniggered now as he joined Matt in the parlour. "Well, that was fun." He smiled as he sat down. "Thank you for doing that, baby."



Matt was serving up the chocolate mousse that had been waiting in the fridge. He flashed a smile and sat back. He\'d already lit the candles again. They reflected in his goggles as he lit a cigarette. "Feel better now?"



Mello lifted his spoon. "For having had a dump or the baptism?" He grinned across the table. "Yes, I do. On both counts."



Matt raised his glass. "To you. Happy twenty-first birthday, Dr Keehl, and here\'s to many more."



There was still half a glass of wine on the table beside Mello\'s bowl. He lifted it. "No, to us." Then took a sip. He set it down and started on his chocolate mousse. "You\'re not having any?"



Matt shrugged. "It\'s triple chocolate. I thought you might want seconds."



"It\'s delicious." Mello licked the spoon before plunging it in again. "But have some."



"I\'m good with my wine and cigarette."



"If you\'re turning down pudding, you\'d better be at least eight stone the next time I weigh you." Mello tried to be stern, but it wasn\'t in him. "I meant it, thank you for humouring me. It meant a lot." Across the table, Matt inclined his head. "You must be wondering about it. I mean, yesterday I left the church and today I\'m baptising you in one. It must seem like a contradiction." Mello shook his head. "For the record, I\'m still a Christian. Still. But I\'m not going to beat myself up anymore trying to fit into something that I\'m not. I\'m twenty-one now, Matt. I\'ll live life my own way."



Matt flicked his cigarette against the ashtray. "Meaning?"



"Meaning that I\'ll make it my mission to find out what God\'s plan is for me. I\'ll read the Bible and come up with my own conclusions. As far as I can, I\'ll emulate Jesus Christ in the way I live my life, but I\'m not prepared to give you up. I\'m not even prepared to feel guilty about what we have. It\'s love. At least on my side, it\'s love. I\'m pretty sure that it is on your side too, even if you are neurotically dependent upon me." Mello smiled and Matt laughed. "I find it hard to believe that God would have a problem with that. Christ preached a doctrine of love. He did not make exceptions to the rule. But you, you\'re more than just my lover, you saved my life from," Mello frowned, "well, from a lot of things. You made my childhood bearable. You tried to pull me out of the Mafia. You ultimately succeeded, though I\'ve never told you that. Just one day I sat in that club and you\'d been missing for a week, gone back to Wammy\'s House, and it finally dawned on me that Rio was never going to give me the resources to catch Kira. Not after what happened in the States to the families there. Rio wasn\'t a philanthropist, he was a businessman. It made no sense to him. But then there was you, quietly feeding me a drip-drip alternative path. You and me against Kira. It sounded desperate, Matty, I have to say. It sounded like the kind of reckless, reactionary plan that you specialise in and I do say that in all fondness. I didn\'t think you really wanted to go after Kira. I half suspected that your ideas were basically ways to keep us out of the fight. I\'m sorry."



Matt nodded, sitting passively on his chair, sipping wine and smoking. "Right." He breathed. He glanced at the doorway, then down at the PSP on the table beside him. "You\'re a genius, angel. You know?"



Mello snickered. "There have been clues to that effect, yes." He spooned more chocolate mousse into his mouth. "Anyway, less talking and more eating."



"No, I mean that you were right." Matt peered back at him. "I didn\'t want to fight Kira. I was trying to pull you out of the war. The first time I knew for certain that I was in it was when we flew to New York. I was working on it, don\'t get me wrong. I took the cyber route. I built sites and forums; I built the EHC from scratch and all of that was related to the hunt for Kira. But they were also a hunt for you. You were after Kira and so it made sense to chase him and hope to find you in the melee." He shrugged. "It worked."



"Thank you for letting me find you, Mail. I knew, when I was looking for you, that it shouldn\'t have been that easy. It took me a matter of weeks to find you and for someone of your calibre, that should not have happened. That\'s what gave me the courage to send for you."



"Send for me?" Matt smirked. "It looked more like being snatched by Mafia thugs from where I was tied."



Mello winced and finished the last couple of spoonfuls of mousse. "It was the world I was in. I couldn\'t leave any traces between you and me. People would have used it. People would have suspected how I felt about you and that would have undermined my position. I\'m sorry about that. I\'m sorry about a lot of things I did to you."



"It\'s the past." Matt gestured dismissal and stubbed out his cigarette. "Don\'t swop Catholic angst for Matt angst, else I\'ll just assume that you\'re emo and there\'s no hope for you." He refilled his glass. "Am I going to get away with that?"



"With what?"



"Saying that I wasn\'t after Kira. Saying that I was trying to pull us out of the fight." Matt was watching Mello carefully. Tiny flames danced in the lenses of his goggles.



Mello shrugged. "I don\'t know what to say to that. It is a little startling."



Matt settled back in his chair. "When we were children, it was a game. It was hard and it was fucking grim, but we were battling it out for prestige. The winner was going to sit at L\'s right hand and learn how to deliver justice by the expert in the field. Detective royalty. The losers got uncertainty. It was best not to think about losing, because that was game over. No more life-lines."



"I was there, Matt. I was that loud blond kid in your room. Remember?"



"But then you weren\'t." Matt replied, softly. It was heard as a barb and Mello bowed his head. "Wammy\'s House, after you left, held more reality. L was not supposed to die. That was incomprehensible, as I\'m sure you know only too well. Then you, then Near, were gone and it was finally very clear what the ranking system meant. When nations go to war, whole generations die in the trenches. Cities get wiped out in shock and awe bombing raids. When a genius mass murderer is the war, then the cannon fodder is far more select. Don\'t you think?"



"I chose to go."



"Of course you did, Mello. So did Near." Matt lit another cigarette. "A shockwave hit that institution after you\'d gone. We were standing on the shoulders of a giant, but the giant had toppled. From our perspective, you and Near were rushing out with only half of the artillery. It looked like a suicide mission. You didn\'t have L\'s experience. The way we\'d been raised, it didn\'t even feel like you had L\'s intelligence. It was like you\'d bolted over the top into No Man\'s Land and all we could do was wait to hear the gunfire mowing you down. Deontic came to see me and we went together to see Roger. I asked him what would happen. If there was a strategy. He went on and on, you know what he\'s like, but the general gist of the conversation was that someone had to take Kira out. Someone had to bring him to justice. You were the maverick. You were gone. No-one had even given you the Watari Network to call us on. It all rested on Near."



Mello\'s head shot up. "Fucking arseholes!" He gasped. "I said I\'d have Kira\'s head. I said I\'d defeat him! Why was I dismissed?"



Matt raised his hands in surrender or warding. "I didn\'t say that. I said that no-one knew where you were. How could we count on you if, for all we knew, you were lying dead in a ditch somewhere? Near was visible, that\'s all." Matt bit his lip. "We left that room and we didn\'t say a word to each other. The ranking stopped that day. Wherever we were on the day that we knew that L had died, we stayed. Roger said that it was because there was no L to adjudicate, but that\'s bollocks. It was because the cleverest amongst us knew what we were. We were sitting on a conveyor belt waiting for our turn to be sent out to die; of course we\'d want to alter our position in that listing. The wisest place to be was last."



"So I was just written out of the running?"



Matt gave him a withering look. "We didn\'t know where you were! So, if you\'d left Wammy\'s House and been knocked down by the first car you passed, then what then? Watari let Kira run rampant just on the off-chance that you were still alive and it would hurt your feelings if we didn\'t?" Matt angrily stubbed out his cigarette butt. "Besides I wasn\'t privy to the strategy, even if there was one. Roger\'s exact words to me and Deontic were, \'all we know for certain is that L was looking for Kira in Japan. I think you should both take extra classes in Japanese.\' I was fourteen years old. She was thirteen. L was dead. You were gone. Near was holding the front line. You were both up against someone who had killed L. I was the head of a queue that, if Near toppled over, meant I would be the one disappearing in a black limousine. Lauren commended us for our courage yesterday. Fuck courage. I lost the freaking plot."



Mello sighed and stared at the second portion of chocolate mousse. "I\'m sorry I left. I\'m sorry I didn\'t keep in touch."



"Have the chocolate mousse." Matt emphasised the point by pushing it towards him. "If you had been there, I would have been just as anxious knowing that when, because it felt more like when than if, Near got killed, you\'d be the next one out."



"No you wouldn\'t have." Mello replied quietly. "You wouldn\'t have been just as anxious at all. You would have reacted with your usual brand of closing down. I would have kept you calm." He didn\'t touch the mousse. He didn\'t even lift his spoon. "The House needed someone strong at that time. Not Roger."



"The House displayed its true colours at that time. You would have been afraid too."



Mello looked up at him and the bitterness in his gaze silenced Matt. "I think it might have been preferable to what I was actually doing." He stared until Matt bowed his head, then shrugged. "It\'s not a competition. Neither of us have the patent on suffering. We did what we had to at the time."



"But I didn\'t want to. That\'s the thing. I was scared. I was freaking scared. I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to flee in the opposite direction."



"Yet you came anyway." Mello flashed a wry smile. "Courage isn\'t doing things that other people assume to be brave. Courage is pissing your pants with fright and doing it anyway. You have courage, Matty, whatever the starting point was. We were all brave."



Matt stared at him. "I\'m still stuck on the \'we did what we had to\'. There were adults and armies to do that. They sent in genius children. They let those genius children go one by one and made it so that those waiting in line knew what was in store for them. Kira nearly won and you know it. If you, Near and I hadn\'t ultimately joined forces, Kira would have won. Then what? Deontic out there. Nathalie. Kira would have eaten them alive. Jonny. Hollow. Luigi." Matt uttered an empty laugh. "Kira versus Luigi, can you even contemplate that?"



"It\'s a moot point." Mello gestured dismissal. "We won." He dipped his spoon into the mousse, but didn\'t scoop any up. He drew a cross into its smooth surface. "I think Deontic might have stood a chance. The woman is brilliant. She combines a lot of qualities that the three of us have."



"Yet she couldn\'t beat us at Wammy\'s House." Matt drained his wine. "Pek Wan would have been killed too. In fact, there\'s only one amongst us who I think might have had a chance alone against Kira." He waited until Mello had looked sharply up. "Lamond. You know why?"



"Lamond?!"



"Because she has the intelligence to have worked out who he was. I think we all have that. But when it comes down to it, every one of us would have gone in with brains and strategies. Lamond would have walked straight in there and said, \'here\'s my face, you haven\'t a clue what my name is. I\'m L\'s successor, isn\'t that interesting?\' Then fucked him. You telling me that a woman alone in his bed couldn\'t have found some way to bludgeon him to death in it?"



Mello stared. For a long minute, he said nothing, then he laughed. "There is no much wrong with that hypothesis that I\'m not even going there. Lamond has more self-respect..." He faltered.



"Claire has no self-respect." Matt countered. "She would have had one shot, because left alone too long, he would have found someone with shinigami eyes. But one shot is probably more than the rest of us really had going up alone against him."



Mello glared. "You have no idea how close I was in LA. Fuck you, Matt."



Matt raised his hands and sat back. He lit another cigarette. "And now it\'s over. Kira didn\'t kill us. One of our own did a good job of that, but we beat Kira." He formed his next words slowly and with venomous precision. "Isn\'t it good?"



Mello closed his eyes and stood. Matt glanced up, then watched him, but Mello didn\'t walk out. He shimmied around the table and caught Matt up in a tight embrace. "I love you, Mail. Kira is dead. We are safe. The system has been changed. We have a lot to be proud of. But you and I are still standing, despite it all, and that\'s all that matters."



Matt softened, holding Mello too, until they met in a short kiss. "Yeah. You\'re right."



"I know." Mello smirked and returned to his seat. "Now, I\'m going to eat this deliciousness, that\'s been staring me in the face for ages, and stop being so morose. Kira can go fuck himself." He made a show of eating his mousse. The tip of his tongue flicking over his spoon. "Is there more dessert after this?" Mello peered up, licking his lips.



"I\'ve never seen anyone eat chocolate like you do."



"I hope you\'re not watching anyone else eat chocolate." Mello landed a hearty dollop of mousse into his mouth and then sucked the whole length of the spoon. "Because I\'ve had some lovely presents and I\'d like to," he licked the spoon again, "convey my thanks."



Matt chuckled. He even blushed very slightly, but his eyes kept being drawn back to the display of wanton chocolate eating. "Really?"



"Yep."



"I love how you\'re flirting. Like really flirting head on."



"Head on?" Mello grinned, winking at him.



Matt bit his lip. "You\'re flirting, but you\'re going to get it anyway. Isn\'t that, like, a wasted flirt?"



"Nope. I love gaining your attention." Mello\'s finger stroked the handle of the spoon, while he sucked another mound of mousse. His eyes closed in ecstasy, then opened slowly. "Mmmmm."



The bowl was empty. Mello peeled off his glove to slide a finger over the residue. He looked straight at Matt as the finger entered his mouth. "Ok! I get the message."



"I do believe you\'re blushing, Matty."



Matt\'s colour deepened. "God, I\'m shit at flirting. I should be flirting at you. It\'s your birthday."



Mello laughed aloud, then shrugged. "You\'re not shit at flirting. Trust me." Mello rose languidly and leaned forward, his hands on the table. "Are you full, Mail?"



"My food has settled now." Matt grinned over a bitten lip. "If that\'s what you mean."



"How would you like to be filled more?"



Matt roared with laughter. He bent double in his chair, then stood up. "Ok." He refilled his glass of wine and picked up his cigarettes and lighter. "You know, it would be easier just to say, \'Mail, let\'s go fuck\'."



"But not half as much fun." Mello grinned. "And that wouldn\'t make you turn that colour. Oh! I do love playing with you, Matt." He started to walk out into the hallway, turning just once to flash a look of promise. Matt nodded, put down his glass and ran. A moment later, he had landed on Mello\'s back, causing the blond to stumble forward before he regained his balance. "Matt! You fucker! What the...?"



"Consider yourself glomped." Matt grinned over his shoulder, kissing him before sliding back down again.



"Ah!" Mello grabbed a leg. Matt hopped, clinging onto him. "Oh really?"



Matt laughed. "Let go of my leg or I\'ll kick, erm..."



Mello pulled him around to the front of him and held him in a kiss. "How were you supposing that you might have kicked me from that angle, baby?"



"I realised that flaw as I said it." Matt grinned. "Where are we going? To bed?"



"I\'m going up to put more clothes on." Mello patted Matt\'s backside and took off up the staircase, two steps at a time.



"No!" Matt doubled back to grab his wine, then followed him up. "You\'re doing it wrong! Take clothes off. Not put clothes on."



He had reached the top of the stairs before Mello called from behind his opened wardrobe door. "Matty, I left my gloves on the dining table. Get them for me please?"



Matt looked back down the way he\'d come. "I\'ll lose weight if I have to go up and down the staircase. Things like that make you fit. It\'s exercise."



"I need my gloves, Mail." Mello growled.



"Ok, but I strongly protest you putting clothes on. I\'m organising a petition of all the voting members in this house. As that\'s only me, the result is unanimous. More naked and less getting..."



"Gloves, Mail."



"It\'s wrong." Matt turned and meandered back down the stairs. By the time he was back, Mello was waiting for him on the bed. He had on his feathered coat and had zipped his vest top back up. He unfurled and stood on the bed, before stepping off it. "Your gloves." Matt held them out. Mello had put his boots back on. "What are you up to?"



Mello grinned, "Thank you. Raise your arms." He pulled on his gloves.



"Oh?" Matt did as he was told. In his bare feet, he was forced to look up to meet Mello\'s eyes. He nodded, then scuttled across to deposit his glass, cigarettes and PSP on the bedside cabinet, before returning to raise his arms. Mello slowly pulled Matt\'s striped shirt off and threw it over his shoulder. "I see, so I\'m getting naked and you\'re getting dressed. What\'s wrong with this picture?"



"Nothing that I can see." Mello kissed him, then twisted him, turning him backwards onto the bed. More kisses ensued, Mello pinning him in place with hands on each shoulder. "It\'s my birthday and I get to play with my sexy redhead. My topless, sexy redhead." He planted another kiss, then leaned back. "Get up by the headboard." His finger traced a line down Matt\'s chest. "God, you\'re fucking delectable."



"Delect me then." Matt grinned.



"Get up by the headboard and stop making words up." Mello looked pensive for a couple of seconds. "Does the English language have the word \'delect\'? I know it has \'delectable\'."



"Fuck knows, I\'m Spanish. Are you seducing me or having an English lesson?" Matt moved on up until his back was against the headboard.



Mello shrugged. "I\'m going to look that up." He reached into his pockets and brought out two pairs of handcuffs. Stretching Matt\'s arms out along the width of the headboard, he secured his wrists at the extremities.



"Now?"



"Not now, freak." Mello span away. "Right now," He knelt on the foot of the bed, "I\'m going to eat my Flake."



"Oh God." Matt grinned. He tested the tautness of his bonds. "You got dressed to eat a Flake? I think you\'ll find it was the other way around in the adverts."



Mello carefully unwrapped the chocolate. His gaze lifted from it to Matt and held his eyes. He rasped out, "What was a gay man doing watching Flake adverts, Matty?" Then slowly wrapped his lips around the rim of the Flake. Bit by bit, it\'s length was fed into Mello\'s mouth, his eyes fluttering as he fell back onto the mattress. The feathers danced around his head, coming to rest as Mello sighed, taking in more of the Flake. He stared up at the ceiling, a glazed look in his eyes, and his tongue lapped up the underside of the chocolate. He turned his head and, in his nest of feathers, fixed his gaze upon Matt, then swallowed. A fingertip came up to push in the flakes on his lips, then stayed there, reflectively. A tiny smile flickered into life.



Matt breathed. "Did that taste like chocolate\'s never tasted before, Mello?" He watched the smile broaden on across Mello\'s lips. "I think I finally understand, beyond the theoretical, why Jonny, Fenian and Salvo spoke in such hushed tones about the Flake adverts."



Mello raised his chocolate in the air, he had only eaten the first inch. His knee rose and the crook of his other knee rested on it. He lowered his Flake into his mouth again. Toes pointed as far as his boots would allow, Mello\'s lower leg rose into the air. His hand gripped the quilt cover beneath him, as he swallowed his second mouthful. The rest quickly followed, being sucked in whole. Mello licked his lips at the last of it, a low moan escaping from his throat. The wrapper was crumbled in his hand. Finally he looked across and purred, "Did that do it for you, Matty?"



"Yes." Matt smiled, watching unblinkingly. A bulge in his jeans was testimony to its truth.



"Good." Mello rose up onto all fours. "Because it\'s fucking shit chocolate. Don\'t make me put that in my mouth again. Do I look like a milk chocolate man?" He winked and sprang off the bed. "I do enjoy you watching me, Mail. I love the look in your eyes." Mello wrapped the coat around himself, feathers covering the lower half of his face. His eyes sparkled over the top of them. Slowly, he moved, his shoulders dipping and rising under the black fabric, picking up speed as he shrugged the coat off. He danced as he stripped. "I love your eyes on me. I love the wanting in them."



"I\'m all for you stripping."





Mello placed a knee on the bed. Half-naked, he leaned forward, dragging a fingernail down to Matt\'s nipple. "Are you really?" His mouth closed over the nipple, flicking it with his tongue. "Oh good." Fingers gripping Matt\'s sides, Mello straddled him. His hand slid down, between his open thighs, to stroke Matt\'s erection through his jeans. "I love you looking at me with those \'fuck me now\' eyes."



Matt turned to raise his knees, but Mello was sitting on his thighs. Instead he squirmed against the bed. "Mello, fuck me now."



"I haven\'t finished my show." Mello grinned, eyes drinking up the sight of his husband. "I love the colours you turn, when you really want something and all you can do is watch. You want me, Matty?"



"Do I really need to answer that?" Matt swallowed, licking his own lips as he craned his neck, straining to reach Mello for a kiss. Mello, though, rolled away, touching the floor with his foot before leaping back up onto the bed. He stood over Matt, one foot either side of him, as he loosened his fly laces. "God, Mello, you\'re hot. You\'re really hot. I\'ll give you that."



Mello smirked, swaying and bouncing slightly on the mattress, as he inched down his leather trousers. Then he dropped to his knees to take them down further. "Want me, Matty?"



"Hell yes."



"How much?"



"There are honestly no words." Matt\'s Adam\'s apple bobbed in his throat. "I\'d really rather not be wearing jeans right now."



Mello slithered backwards to pull his own trousers free of his legs. His own erection was stroked in front of Matt\'s eyes. Mello groaned, writhing on the bed, before rising up on all fours again. He prowled up Matt\'s legs, until he could reach his flies. "I want you." Mello growled. "I want your tight arse."



Matt nodded. "Mello, please, angel, moj dragan, stop arsing around and fuck me. Please?"



"Do I make you hot?"



"Yes!"



"Tell me." Mello whispered kisses all down Matt\'s neck and onto his chest. "Tell me how hot I am."



"What?"



"Tell me." Mello growled.



"Can\'t you fucking see?" Matt moaned. "Look a bit further south."



"Well, if you can\'t tell me..." Mello let the sentiment hang, but he drew away slightly.



"You\'re freaking hot!" Matt shrieked. "You\'re sexy and hot and gorgeous and, oh!" Mello fingers were undoing Matt\'s flies. He stopped when Matt did. "Ok! You\'re amazing! You\'re beautiful and your hips, oh God! That shaking thing you do, it\'s really hot. You\'re sex on legs. I\'m nearly coming just looking at you! Fuck me, yeah? Sexy, pretty man."



Mello had eased Matt\'s jeans off him. The blond crawled up the length of his husband\'s legs again, kissing and licking, until he reached his genitals. "Ooooh!"



"Mello, stop just looking at it and do something about it or..." Matt faltered, unable to think of an adequate threat that he could actually carry out from that position. "I\'ll sing \'I\'m Henry the VIII, I Am\'! Over and over again until your eyes bleed!"



"Aw." Mello sat up, looking injured. "But it\'s my birthday." Nevertheless he was shuffling back; the look in his eyes was the only indication that his need was as great as Matt\'s. Mello knelt again, walking on his knees and pushing back Matt\'s legs as he did so. Now there was another huge hint that he wanted sex now, but still he lingered, teasing Matt\'s entrance with his fingers. "You\'re hot too, guapo. Sexy as Hell. Delicious, delectable, beautiful man." He waited no longer, but thrust hard into his husband.



Matt groaned, gasping out, "Finally! Oh God, Mello! Yes! Yes!" He was crushed backwards, his legs sprayed out, his back against the headboard. His arms ached under the assault, but Matt moved with him, trying to meet each thrust, to gain more inside himself. "Yes! Mello!"



Mello grinned, his face a mask of concrentration. Reaching for kisses, as he gripped Matt\'s hips and pounded into him. "I love you, Mail. I love you! I love you!"



They both rode the sensation home, coming in floods pressed tightly together, until the last waves of it passed in a coda of pulsing vibrations. "Happy birthday, Mello." Matt gasped out.



"Thank you." Mello grinned. "Itssa so nice."



"Huh?" Matt\'s eyes flashed open. "What?"



Mello laughed and kissed him. "Mario clear. Itssa so nice."