The Annals of Fear

Matt stood in the centre of the pantry, creating a mental inventory of the food they needed to order in. He paused at the chocolate, frowning. There were nearly half of the fifteen boxes left, which was highly unusual. Mello should have nibbled his way through all but one of them by now. He stepped into the doorway and raised his eyebrows at Mello. Sitting at the kitchen table, intent on a webpage, displaying a list of speciality cheeses, on his laptop, Mello didn\'t look up. He did, however, say, "Yes?"



"Are you sickening or something?" Matt noted that Mello did not have a chocolate bar in his hand.



"Huh?" Mello scrolled down the page. "No. I have excellent health." He paused to investigate the Wensleydale with blackcurrant chunks. "Why?"



Matt shrugged, calling behind him as he retreated back into the pantry. "No reason. Just the fact that this is the first time in the history of the universe that we don\'t have to add chocolate to our shopping." A thought occurred to him. "Oh. You have a separate stash somewhere else."



"Nope." Mello replied, blithely. "Is it an issue?"



Matt blinked, but didn\'t respond. There wasn\'t much to say on the subject. He moved down the shelves, adding or subtracting items from his remembered list. Satisfied that he had got it all, he returned to the kitchen and picked up Mello\'s scribbled list of perishable foodstuff. He studied it and it still made no sense. "Your handwriting gets worse."



"What are you struggling to read?"



Matt lifted it out of Mello\'s grasp. "I\'ll work it out."



Mello rolled his eyes. "Just show me and I\'ll tell you what it says."



"No." Matt sat and picked up the cigarette that he\'d rolled before being sent into domesticity. "I like puzzles."



Mello tutted and turned the laptop around, giving it a push, so that it inched towards Matt. "Place the order before you forget what we need. I doubt you wrote it down."



"I\'ll remember."



"You\'re annoying me now..." Mello began, before instantly changing tactics. He stood and wrapped his arms around Matt from behind. His kisses nuzzled into Matt\'s neck. "Guapo, place the order." His hand moved over Matt\'s and raised it onto the keyboard. Guiding Matt\'s fingers, Mello pulled up the supermarket site\'s order form. "How\'s this for taking you over?"



Matt laughed. "Only you could turn shopping into sex."



"Eggs. Milk. Brussels paté."



"Don\'t tell me!" Matt sighed. "I\'m working it out." He peered at the list. "How does that say eggs?"



"Ajo." Mello murmered, still kissing along Matt\'s jugular. "Verdura: coliflor; brécol; patata nueva..."



"Just the one?" Matt smirked. "Why are you trying to get around me by telling me your vegetables in Spanish?"



Mello slid his hand down Matt\'s chest to the bulge of his jeans. "Because I\'m bored of this and just want to get it ordered and because it\'s annoying you as much as you\'re annoying me. Quid pro quo." His gloved hand squeezed, just a touch. "Then, because it\'s a lovely day, you can come with me into the village to buy my cheese."



Matt frowned at him. "Why do I have to come?"



"Because I\'m never going alone to buy cheese again." Mello gaze held just a hint of menace. "Call it one of my little superstitions." Matt received the message loud and clear. Suddenly Mello\'s grip on him wasn\'t some doomed attempt at romance. It was possession. "Humour me, Mail." Mello growled, softly, like Matt had a choice in the matter. "And come with me to the deli."



Matt started clicking boxes on the screen and, after a few seconds, Mello stood and left him alone. There was an audible unwrapping of a chocolate bar and the short click of the first strip being devoured. Matt glanced sidewards to try and establish what the blond was up to now. Mello was just standing there, staring at him. "Ok. Read out your list. Let\'s get this bastard thing sent."



Mello smirked suddenly. But before he could respond, the house telephone rang shrilly, its tone amplified through several small speakers. Mello grimaced. He had recently fitted them, so that the \'phone was more audible. "Too loud?"



Matt just snorted in response and watched Mello dash to respond to it. It had to be Hal, or a breach of security. Hal was the only person with their telephone number. Matt muttered, "Hello Hal."



Across the room, Mello said, "Yes, Hal?" Then, "Why would I check the MayDay Line? I\'ve set up my own Code." He looked irritated, then just laughed, as the warden of Wammy\'s House evidently said something to disarm him. Matt silently switched screens and logged into Watari. A few seconds later, the packed list of the MayDay Line rose up before him. He began to read through. The first thirty were just training fodder, destined to be ignored or used by the children in Deduction Class. The thirty-first was slightly more interesting, but a closer look saw Matt mentally allocating it to Luigi. He carried on going, aware of Mello lurking behind him, still talking to Hal and still denying that he would ever lower himself to look at this database. Mello leaned over, moving Matt\'s hand off the keyboard so to take over, clicking onto a second page. This showed the cases already allocated. Matt\'s eyebrows raised at the sight of the sixteen against his own name, but Mello was already homing in on the single case against his own name. "I\'m not doing anything for Watari, Hal. I\'ve told you before."



Matt moved his head, as Mello\'s rosary hit him in the ear. Matt cast a sharp look upwards, then returned his concentration to the screen. It was a high level case. It was L level, Near level. The great question, therefore, was why Near hadn\'t got this. There was a couple of million up for a successful result. Skim-reading the details made it look like a Scooby Doo adventure. A ghosthunt. He glanced again at the reward tag. It still said two million. "Is that sterling?" Matt whispered, soliciting a death glare from Mello. Matt rolled his eyes. He could be talking about anything. Unless Hal had bugged their kitchen, she couldn\'t know that they were in the system. It wasn\'t like they\'d logged in through the front door.



"I\'ll call you back, Hal. Something\'s just come up." Mello didn\'t give Hal time to protest. He shut the connection and peered at the screen. "Thoughts?"



"Why is that price tag on this? And why hasn\'t Near got it?"



"Check Near\'s page."



Matt clicked back to the homescreen and attempted to access the cases allocated to their erstwhile foster brother. There was a lock on it. Matt tutted, while Mello rolled his eyes. It took Matt three minutes and 26 seconds to break through into the screen. "Four cases."



Mello had wandered across to the fridge to retrieve a second chocolate bar, the first already devoured. He turned to stare at his husband. "He\'s working on four cases concurrently?"



"Apparently."



"What sort of cases?"



Matt flicked through them. "Serial killer. Suspected serial killer. Corporate fraud on a global scale. Serial killer."



Mello frowned. "How has he got so many serial killers?"



"He\'s L."



Mello stalked back to the table and stood there glaring at the cases. He pulled off the wrapper from his chocolate and snapped off a strip with his teeth. "Huh."



Matt raised his eyebrows. "Why are you getting wound up?" He gestured towards the laptop. "We are nothing to do with these clowns anymore. Remember? Own code and everything."



"Show me the case again."



"Mello. Reality check time." Matt twisted in his seat to survey his husband. "You owe Watari nothing. You have one case just been wrapped up and another couple of leads. That \'phone could ring at any time and the next big one will be at the other end of it. Why take a step backwards? It\'s not like you need the money."



Mello nodded. "Understood."



"Good."



"Show me the case again."



Sighing, Matt opened it. Privileged teenagers, all over the world, were dying. They were doing so in sometimes horrific circumstances, but always, it seemed, by their own hand. It wasn\'t even a murder case, let alone a serial killer. It took some reading of the details to discover that it wasn\'t just rich kids. The vast majority were from the other side of the tracks. Whichever tracks they happened to be. 182 of them so far dead, in places as far sprawled as India, New Zealand and Hawaii. But the important part, insofar as there was a case to be paid for, was that two of the deceased were the offspring of wealthy Texan oil families and another was minor nobility in Scotland. That was were the reward money was coming from. "My guess is that they already offered this case at a million and Near turned it down."



Mello sucked on his chocolate. "I don\'t see what the link is. What\'s linking them? People commit suicide all of the time."



"Page two?" Matt scrolled down to bring up more details. "Ah."



"Ah."



"Are you taking the case, Mello?"



"Fuck no." Mello smirked. "It\'s for Watari." But he still sat down and read to the end of the case file.