Motive and Mayhem

SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name, Another Note, Law and Right, Truth and Justice.

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Motive and Mayhem

Chapter 16: Acting

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Mello was restless when he returned to the bedroom he shared with Matt, when he sat down and tugged his boots off. He could feel the tension rolling around in his body and doubted that it would fade any time soon. He nearly jumped when Matt's hand touched him, slid up his back slowly.

He closed his eyes, let out a shaky breath. There was only one way he could spin this and make it believable. Matt could read him too well for it to play any other way, so he'd do it. He'd lie.

Right to his goddamn face.

"What did L want?" Matt asked, sitting up to look at Mello. He left his goggles on the nightstand.

Slowly, Mello pulled his clothes off, rubbed his face with his bare hands before he replied. "He interrogated me. I think he has evidence that makes it look like I was the one who framed Near."

There was a moment of hesitation, then Matt moved close, slid his arms around Mello. "Are you Kira?"

He snorted softly. "Of course not," Mello turned his head to look at Matt. "I'm not Kira."

"Doesn't mean you weren't, back then. Giving up ownership erases memories. It's possible," Matt shrugged, "even if it doesn't ring true for me."

Closing his eyes with a sigh, Mello shook his head. "I wasn't Kira, I'm certain of it. There aren't any inconsistencies in my memory."

"I believe you," Matt replied, kissing Mello's cheek softly, trailing the kisses down his neck, down his shoulder.

"He's going to arrest me tomorrow. I can feel it, like the door of a cage swinging shut," Mello tilted his head away, offered his skin. "Will you look for the evidence that will clear me?"

"I swear it," Matt replied without a second's hesitation.

It was in that instant that Mello realized he'd already begun to hate Matt. Hate him for all the lies, for the manipulation he'd used. He understood now, why Matt wanted to dominate him so badly. Why it was so important, why he’d risked so much with that first week, why he took the case that 'inspired' Mello to suggest doing a full time lifestyle.

He wouldn't be surprised if Matt had set the case up to begin with. He'd have to look into that, he decided.

But that could wait until after the sex, because Matt was doing one of those lovely things with his tongue. "I want it rough," Mello whispered. "So the feeling won't fade."

So, Matt gave it to him rough, fucked him into the bed until bruises were blooming on his hips, until they were both sure Mello'd be limping for a good two days after. There was biting, scratching, squeezing and pinching, and Matt left as many marks as he could.

The both knew Matt wouldn't actually look for anything to clear Mello's name. Matt wouldn't throw himself to the wolves for anyone and Mello wasn't going to be the one with his name sullied, anyway.

Afterwards, as they lay in the bed, sleep refused to find Mello. Instead, he drifted in a haze, staring blankly at the wall as Matt curled against him, embraced him.

He hadn't said master. Not that time, not their last time, and he wondered how long it would be before Matt realized it. How quickly would the revelation come, that Mello had known, had not warned him? Bitterness rose up within him and he closed his eyes, swallowed it down.

He was not weak. He would not allow anyone, no matter how emotionally involved he was, to use him like that. There would be hell to pay.

The next day, there was.

It had been surprisingly easy to separate Matt and Mello from each other on the way to pick up Light. L was extremely distracted, for obvious reasons. Aizawa had assigned a few of the best, with Yamamoto leading the small taskforce.

There were two missions. Apprehend B and apprehend Matt. L was leaving the whole thing to the Japanese Police, but he kept Mello close.

Aiber, Mikami, Mello and L had all been in one car, with Yamamoto, Matt and two officers in another. They were the last of the police to reach the scene, but it was close enough that they arrived before the ambulances.

As L ran to Light's side, Mello was stepping onto the pavement, his gaze shifting slowly over the scene. The apartment Light had been held prisoner in had just been cleared for the EMTs, and Matt was being held at gunpoint by two officers as Yamamoto cuffed him.

For a long moment, Mello let his gaze meet Matt's through those damned goggles. He saw the realization there, just a split second before Matt lowered his head, allowing himself to be led away. The gurneys came down, the EMTs gently moving Light onto one, the others heading up to put B in a body bag.

The business of the scene was a strange comfort for Mello, as the CSIs began arriving, putting down their little plastic markers, taking pictures and samples. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder, surprised to find that it was Mikami instead of L.

"Mello, isn't it? L asked me to look after you," Mikami said smoothly. "You'll be interested in what happens next," he checked his watch, "Light will be clinically dead soon, so we'd best hurry."

Well that didn't make any sense at all, but Mello knew that L trusted Mikami enough to show his face, so Mello went along with it. They weren't far behind the ambulance when they arrived at the hospital, hurrying into the ER and L's side.

What Mello saw when he looked into the treatment room made his heart ache. Light was covered in blood and cuts but that wasn't what concerned him, instead, it was the high pitched scream of the heart monitor. He was dead.

Mello turned to L just in time to see him erasing something from a sheet of paper, looking up into the treatment room as if he could somehow will Light alive. It wouldn't work -- how could it? They all knew the rules. Erasers couldn't save a person if their name had been written in a Death Note, and why else would L be erasing something at a time like this?

Then, they used a defibrillator in another attempt to revive Light... and it worked. Mello scowled, yanking the piece of paper from L's hand and taking a good look at it. That was definitely Light's name that had been erased, you could still see the faint ghost of pencil lead.

"What the fuck?" Mello demanded explosively.

Of course, Mello hadn't gotten an explanation right away. That just wouldn't be L's style -- he had to wait with the rest of them. Wait for Light to be released from the hospital and for everyone relevant to the case to gather.

He'd driven Light back to the headquarters when he was ready to be moved, surly and grumpy and silent. He couldn't even sleep well without Matt there, with his scent still lingering in the sheets. Or without the warmth of another body pressed to his own.

He spent far too many of his nights in tears, hiding them from the cameras by covering his head with the blankets. He hated it, hated the tears, the pain, the weakness he felt.

He wasn't weak. He knew he wasn't, but it infuriated him to be used like that, to be taken advantage of. His phone blinked with a voicemail message. It was from Matt, and he refused to listen to it. He turned his phone off, hid it from his own sight. He just couldn't deal with it right then.

Soon enough, everyone had gathered for the explanation and, despite his participation in the conversation, it was little more than a blur. He tucked the important details away in his mind for later review. Of course, when Near began taunting him, it didn't go over very well and he wound up chasing Near from the room, running around like a pair of children after his chocolate bar had been stolen.

Apparently that had been part of Near's plan because when they were out of view, he stopped, shoved Mello up against a wall. It certainly wasn't the move Mello had been expecting and hell, when his back hit the wall he half expected Near to kiss him.

Instead, his chocolate bar was given back.

"You did love him," Near said softly, tugging at his hair as his gaze slid to the door that separated them from the main room.

"What would you know about that kind of thing, anyway?" Mello snapped.

"Not much, but I knew that there was a strong bond between you. Otherwise, I would have pointed L in the correct direction sooner," Near shrugged, his gaze returning to Mello. "However, I maintained contact with the outside while I was in prison, and I was notified of the change in your relationship. I realized that this was dangerous, no matter which of you had been Kira, so I began planning my own escape."

"With Lidner's help," Mello bit off a piece of chocolate.

"She owed me," Near shrugged, his gaze wandering for a moment, a brief smile on his lips. "If I did not believe you were in danger, I would have remained quietly imprisoned."

"Why?" Mello snapped. "Why would you do that?"

Slowly, Near's gaze returned to Mello, as if he were bored with it all. "Despite my resemblance to L, I form attachments much easier. I would not go so far as to claim that I loved you and Matt, but I felt that the bond you shared was more important than my own freedom. A person cannot exist alone, and since that is almost always how I work, I felt that the team of M would be more beneficial than the detective N."

"You're stupid."

An eyebrow swept upwards on Near's face. "I'm smarter than you."

"With math, yeah. Logic, too, sometimes. But I'll be damned if you've got a fucking lick of common sense," Mello snapped, giving Near's hair a tug. "A criminal is a criminal, and if they haven't had to pay for their crimes, there's no way they're good for the world. Didn't Roger teach you anything?"

There were a few blinks, a small shrug as Near turned away, walked to a chair and crawled into it, curling one leg to his chest and hugging it there. "He had someone good to balance him out."

Mello's laughter was a bark. "Good? Do you even know what we were doing when I got these scars?" he demanded. "Smuggling! We were criminals, and yes, we stopped when L almost caught us, but I'm pretty sure Matt was still doing things behind the scenes. I wasn't with him constantly, and once our relationship changed, he could just tell me to turn the fuck around if he wanted to do something illegal behind my back!"

"And what of Yagami-kun?" Near countered.

The way that Mello's face changed sent a shiver down Near's spine. "You haven't seen what I've seen, Near. He suffers, he pays for the crimes. Maybe he doesn't regret them or feel guilty for them, but he's been punished just the same. I've seen what his panic attacks are like."

The silence spread between them as Near gazed at Mello, considering his reply. "Very well. When you need me, you will know how to find me."

It was probably the most confusing thing Near had ever said, and it left Mello standing there, alone in a dark room as Near returned to the gathering of people. Him? Need Near?

Hell would freeze over first.

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A/N: Not like most of my endings, no, but this isn't meant to have a huge amount of closure, and there won't be much of a time skip between this story and the next one. I’m not even done overlapping with the Truth and Justice timeline yet!

Adele: Haha, yes. I had to make Matt into a bastard for this, I’m afraid, but really… his character is so minor that you can’t really argue that it’s ‘not like him’ or anything. I’m really looking forward to writing the next one, though, because there’s going to be a lot of Mello and Near arguing in it, and I haven’t really written much of Near yet.