Choices

AN: Yeah, this was supposed to be out before Friday…. But I had to prepare for an interview, as I’m getting a new job…, so I was kind of occupied. SORRY!

OK, there may be some things in this chapter that offend people, but honestly if you are reading a yaoi fic, with Mello in it, expect some religious stuff to happen... that's all I’m going to say. If I offend anyone, I’m sorry, but as I said...

Suggested Listening: Too Close by Flyleaf; So Help Me God by Fireflight

Chapter Seventeen: Interlude

A gloved hand prodded gently at the still healing tissue, and winced at the sting it caused. He didn't know why he bothered, it wasn't going to be completely healed for some time, not with the burns he'd sustained.

They were, after nearly five months, an itchy, raw mess. But he was alive.

As was the redhead whose bed he sat beside. Though not once in those passed months had he awoken. The doctors had said it had been a miracle he'd even survived the gunshot to the head, and that the coma he was in, should have been expected with such an injury.

Mello didn't care if it was 'expected' or not.

But he couldn't be picky. Both of them really were lucky, despite everything that had happened. Apparently when the building had collapsed, spilling outward in some parts, he'd fallen on top of Matt. His body had shielded Matt from the fire that had scorched his own skin.

The doctors had said that had Matt been burned on top of the gunshot, he wouldn't have survived, that it would have been too much for his system. As it was, the fact that they'd been halfway out of the window and fallen into the snow, helped slow Matt's bleeding as well as his heartbeat; that in effect, had kept him alive.

Mello held onto his rosary, still new feeling after four months as the old one had been destroyed in the fire, and once again sent a silent prayer out for his friend.

It was almost amusing in a way. He hadn't prayed in years, and yet it only took the near loss of Matt to break the cycle. Mello had lost count of how many prayers he sent for the redhead’s recovery. And yet after so much time, it seemed none of them had done any good.

Mello ran a hand through his choppy, jagged, hair with a sigh. His hair was longer now, his previous cut an impossibility with his facial scars. Hell he was lucky to still have hair at all, as a lot of it had been a singed mess in the beginning.

It was coarser, thicker; but its length looked better with the addition of his scar. And Mello supposed the scars made him look rather dangerous, though he thought they were hideous. Like a black mark on a white table cloth.

Noticeable and yet irremovable.

He had scars on half of his face, and that ran down his past his shoulder and back before they tapered off by his hip.

He hated them.

But he would not do the skin grafts. They would be painful, too painful to deal with without some sort of mind dulling medication. And that was unacceptable. Not only because he still had to keep up with Near... but he didn't want to be completely out of it should Matt wake.

Not that it appeared he would anytime soon. Or so the doctors said.

But Matt always had a way of surprising people, even without having intended to.

A prime example of that would definitely be his former occupation as a spy. Mello glanced out the window, the pre-summer weather ruffling the tiny budding flowers with its gentle wind. He didn't care about that anymore.

And after his anger had calmed down, he'd gone over the conversation he'd overheard again and again. Matt had defied orders, turned himself in, all because of him. Because they were friends.

Friends. Mello snorted. How he hated that word.

Mello had definitely had a lot of time to think, to examine what he felt for his friend. The fear he'd felt when he'd woken, the pain, hadn't been for himself, but Matt. He'd been so damn worried and hadn't been able to rest until, and even after, he'd discovered his friend’s condition.

It had been a relief that he was alive, but a whole new set of worries had come from it.

His feelings had been so strong that he hadn't been able to ignore them anymore. He had been forced to pull them out and examine them. Pick them apart, unwind them, until he found out why he felt that way.

It hadn't been an easy thing to accept, once he'd figured it out. Not at all. He struggled with the knowledge for a solid month, before he came to a decision; though for some people that was a relatively short period of time.

In Mello's eyes, the god he knew, the one in his heart, would not condemn him for loving someone, regardless of gender.

Love.

Something so foreign to him. At least before Matt, who had wheedled his way into his heart. And damn if he didn’t love that boy. And he knew, that Matt had at least taken second or even third glances at him before, and the time he could have sworn Matt said his real name in his sleep, so maybe...

Mello sighed. His thoughts always went down that road. But if Matt didn't feel that way...

Well than he would just have to deal with it. He would rather keep the redhead close, as a friend, than loose him because of a selfish desire for them to be more, and only more. It would be painful for Mello that way, definitely, but it would be enough.

It would have to be.

Once Matt was better, awake and fully healed, he would tell him. It was just not something he could keep hidden. And though it may only cause problems, Mello wasn't someone to back down from something, especially something that big.

As Mello glanced at the redhead again, he couldn't help but wonder just how long he would have to wait.

Though he was impatient he was also, in a way, happy. Matt was, after all, alive.

He slipped the rosary back over his neck, and under the vest, and leaned back in the chair. L, after having discovered just how much time he spent in that room, had asked for a nicer chair to be brought in.

Mello smiled slightly. He'd finally gotten to meet L, but hadn't been able to fully enjoy it. The circumstances were different than before, though he had still liked meeting the odd detective. He'd have to ask Matt what he'd thought of him, as Matt had spent a good while with him.

Everyone from Wammys had been relocated to a different, yet still secluded, area. At first everyone had been staying in a hotel, as L could definitely afford it, though Mello had missed that as he'd been in the hospital for his burns.

There was a new place for them to stay, supposedly better than the original, though Mello saw no real difference with it.

“Arg..”

Mello's head jerked to the bed at the groan. Matt's hand had risen to rub at his head, probably at a headache as the doctors said he'd have them for a while, and slowly opened his eyes. They blinked blurrily for a moment before they focused on him.

“Matt!” Mello had stood up and leaned across the bed, a smile stretched across his face so much so that it hurt.

There was a look of confusion for a moment, and Matt seemed to think on something.

“Um... who are you...?”

Mello sucked in a breath, as his smiled faded. That was not what he'd been expecting. Not at all.

-End Interlude-

AN: *cackles* OK, ok... I know... I did go there. But this has been planned since the moment I got out of bed that one night and wrote three pages of notes on this fic... yeah... Did you think my stuff was going to be all smiles and laughs? Have you looked at the categories lately? Yeah.....

But this wont be all soap opera-ish, as in no ones long lost sister is going to suddenly pop up and have an affair with someone’s husband, k?

Anyway. So what did everybody think of Mello's little interlude?