It Matters

Mello emerged gleaming from the shower, towel wrapped tightly around his slim waist. Tension was still radiating off him in waves. With a cursory rub of his hair, he was immediately in another bag, touching something, then opening the bag next to it. Matt paused his game, a sidewards stare kept Mello in the periphary of his vision without making it obvious that he was watching.



There was something really dangerous about Mello's mood tonight, so much so that even Matt was wary. Still the observation taught him that Mello was doing nothing much. He was busy without being productive, moving around just for something to do. His mind was already in New York or Japan or wherever they were going to end up. The set of his mouth and the fire in his eyes were well-known. This was about meeting Near again. It was about not having caught Kira in Los Angeles, when he had a fighting chance.



Surrepticiously, Matt saved his game and placed the controls on the floor between his feet. Mello didn't even notice, so wound up in his world that nothing else was mattering. This wasn't good. He would be missing details and that didn't bode well for the future. Matt took a deep breath and reached behind to find his gun. Two could play this game.



He stood suddenly and strode across the room to point his gun at Mello's head.

"Drop your..."



The effect was immediate. Mello turned and whacked him so hard. Matt stumbled onto the bed, lying more dazed than he'd been in that hallway when he'd got the concussion. The blond screamed in his face,

"For fuck's sake, Matt! What the bastard...?" Tears in his eyes, of rage or pity or whatever, Matt couldn't tell. "What do you have to do that for?"



Matt perversely was on safer ground now. He'd seen this mood before and he could play it.

"Hoo-fucking-ray! You've finally got over the treating me like porcelain bit! I should go away more often!" Matt lunged up, instantly regretting it, as stars darted before his eyes, but using the momentum anyway to headbutt Mello in the stomach. "Come on then, princess! Let's see..." Mello rose with a punch and Matt sprawled backwards. "Fuck!"



"Stop!" Mello blazed at the foot of the bed. "Stop it, Matt! Stop." His towel had fallen in the scuffle and his hands were still bunched into fists. He stared down at his lover. Matt wasn't bleeding yet, but one finger tentatively touched explored his lip. Mello stood panting, watching him carefully. "Right, all calm now? Fucking hyperactive bastard." Mello swooped down and returned with Matt's fallen gun, instantly pointing it at him. "I fucking refuse point-blank to stand here naked when you are dressed!"



Matt smirked back. Hands wide in supplication.

"Oh yeah?" He didn't move.



"Take them off." Mello waved the gun. "Now."



A mocking smile under half-lidded eyes, Matt leaned down to unbuckle his boots. The gun was a lot closer now, practically poking into his red hair. If he looked along it, he was facing Mello's flat stomach and the stiffening member underneath. Despite the fact that he knew, as Mello didn't, that that particular gun was unloaded, it was still tantilising. Boots and socks disgarded, he shuffled back up the bed. "Sorry, can't take them off and make it look sexy. Am I half-naked enough?"



Mello mounted the bed, edging towards him on his knees, the gun still trained at his lover's head. He grabbed a handful of red hair and yanked it, yelling loudly,

"Which bit of 'take them off' don't you understand?"



Matt glanced at the hotel door, wondering how long before someone alerted security, and received a slap for it. "Ok! Don't get your panties in a twist, I'm..." Matt actually flinched as Mello helped by whipping the goggles off over his head. "I'm getting naked! Look!" Matt pulled his striped shirt off and reached down to undo his flies. "We stop for a cigarette break after this, ok?"



"You can put something in your mouth, but if you think you're setting fire to the other end, you are so out of luck." Mello waited until the second that Matt's trousers and boxers landed on the floor, then shoved him off after them. "Here!" Matt looked up to find Mello sitting, open legs, on the edge of the bed. He crawled over and had his head pushed into Mello's groin. "You need a diagram?"



Mello was already hard and got progressively harder as Matt's tongue coated him, from the tip to the balls, then he took him in his mouth. Deep down, out, licking the tip, deeper down still, deep until Matt had to reposition himself to stave off gagging. His hands held Mello's lower back and he knew the gun had been disgarded because Mello was holding his shoulders. They fell into a rhythm, until, on the brink of coming, Mello pulled Matt off him and twisted him onto the bed.



Mello's hand crept down to Matt's dick, as urgent kisses covered his lover's face and found his lips to linger there. Mello drew back again, smacking Matt hard across the head and pushing him onto his front. Even without handcuffs, Matt's hands had automatically risen to where they would have been held. Had they been at home, Matt had no doubt that he would be feeling the smart of a paddle or similar across his arse about now, but, as far as he knew, Mello had packed nothing like that. Instead, he felt a sharp stinging from shoulderblade diagonally to his hip. Mello had a knife. He followed each cut with his tongue, licking Matt's blood at the instant it welled.



Yet Mello was too impatient. It was in his every touch and gesture. He flung the knife away, clattering it against the radiator, then jostled Matt's legs apart. With the most perfunctory of preparation, Mello slid himself into Matt the second he felt that he'd fit. They fucked hard and fast, arriving at last at a shuddering finale, with Mello still inside Matt, impaling him to the bed long after they'd both come.



"Matty?" Mello breathed at last.



"Yeah?" His voice rose languidly from the pillow.



"What the fuck was that all about?"



"Erm..." Matt lifted his head slightly, incredulity fixed upon his features. "Which bit?"



Mello nibbled his ear and smiled. There was a little snigger, then a breath. "You sexy, incredible man." He shifted position, rolling underneath Matt and raising his mouth for a kiss. It came, long minutes tasting each other, conveying all there was to be said of love and lust, respect and need. "You ok?"



"Much better now." Matt sucked Mello's nose, then pushed himself up onto his elbows. "You're not bad yourself, you know? Hot as fuck."



"I've still got so much to do. Things to think about." Mello frowned, but the preoccupation was gone from his gaze. Instead he traced the lines of Matt's neck with his finger. "I've missed you. Last week. The week before."



"Missed you too." Matt kissed him. "I love you." He kissed him again, then slipped off the bed to fetch his cigarettes and a chocolate bar. Mello took the latter from him, then padded across the room himself to rummage in a bag. He returned with a small first aid kit, snapping off chocolate as he wiped clean the knife cuts with anti-septic wipes. Matt lit his cigarette. "Thanks."



"I swore I'd never hurt you bad again." The distance started to creep into Mello's tone again.



"I'd have dumped you then." Matt commented, wryly. "Thank you for being yourself again."



"Matt, all of this, with The Wammy House..." Mello floundered a little and stopped wiping.



"I know." Matt leaned back, against the pillows, and pulled Mello against him. "You shit me up though. If I hadn't come back early, would you have gone without me?" Silence. "You would have gone without me."



"Matt..." Mello sighed, staring into the room with a precipient darkness forming in his eyes. "Sometimes I think I'll get us both killed."



"As long as it's at the same time, I'll cope." Matt kissed Mello's forehead. "Just do what you have to do to. I trust you."



"Thank you for helping me, Matt." Mello snuggled closer into Matt's embrace. "Thank you for always being here."



"Where the fuck else would I be?" Matt shook his head. "Someone has to have your back. You can't plan to go off, where you might get yourself killed and... you can't think of leaving me behind, like our... what we have doesn't matter. I'd follow you into fucking Hell itself. I'd..."



Mello silenced him with a kiss,

"It matters." A smile fading into grim understanding of what they were undertaking. "Whatever else, it matters." He gazed up into those emerald green eyes. "It Matters."



"Then let us go and catch Kira."