All The Way Here

Mello\'s arm rose straight out from his side, his gun perfectly in line, an extension of his hand. He pulled the trigger and there was an explosion of gunfire, a perfect bullethole in the chest. "Like that."



Matt dived in to pick up fragments of the mannequin. "That\'s no nearer than I got it!"



"Bollocks!" Mello stomped over to check, crunching chocolate on the way. "That\'s bullseye on the heart."



The redhead scrowled and returned to the line. The automatic was raised closer to his body, only inches from his chin. "Shift then."



"You won\'t shoot me, Matt." Fixing the mannequin\'s position another minute fraction, he surveyed his lover. "No! You can\'t have the control like that. It\'s not a lighter, get it away from your mouth. For fuck\'s sake."



"This has always worked for me." Matt protested, but Mello kept himself in the line of fire until he was right in front of him. He moulded the redhead\'s body to his own, arm to arm, torso to torso, his finger over Matt\'s on the trigger. "Feels wrong."



"Look down your arm. See the target. Stop moving." He steadied Matt\'s outstretched arm with his hand under it. "Fire."



The mannequin flew backwards, shedding plastic and fibre, before crashing down against a pile of pallets. Mello pogoed on the spot, applauding. "Finally! You get one where it\'s not exploding limbs and head!"



Despite himself, Matt grinned. "Pwnage! What else can we shoot?" There was a snap of chocolate and he turned his head. A gun was pointing straight at it, the smile in a perfectly straight line beyond it was downright evil. "Why am I getting lectures about not pointing loaded guns, then you going right ahead and just doing it? You\'re not freaking me out."



"Well, I should be." Mello\'s eyes hardened and the Mafia in him emerged in all its powerful, predatory presense. Matt\'s eyes widened. "What\'s the matter, Matt? Suddenly realizing how vunerable you are?"



The redhead gulped. "This isn\'t funny." His gaze slid away from that above the gun and his own weapon rose impotently, then fell again. Another piece of chocolate was snapped off and Matt lashed out. The confectionary flew onto the concrete, shattering into several pieces, sheer momentum propelled Matt bodily into Mello. They fell heavily with the blond pinned to the floor. There Matt waited, breathless. "Oh fuck." There was a click and the gun was back at his head. Matt scrambled off him. "I\'m sorry!"



Mello\'s features creased and he rolled, laughing, across the hard floor. Within seconds, he was on his feet again, but the gun was lowered and his hand came up to wipe tears of mirth from his eyes. "Your face then!" Another round of hilarity, while Matt emerged from behind the car. Mello\'s gun came back up, the laughter gone and the steel returned. "Oops." He pulled the trigger and Matt cringed, but nothing happened but a loud \'click\'. "Bang."



"You bastard!"



Mello winked at him and practically sashied across. "You did really well then. You didn\'t panic, even when I did my best to scare the shit out of you. You watched for a weakness and hit it. Pity you didn\'t follow though, but better anyway." He looked around, spotting the smashed chocolate. "Ambitious..."



"I\'ll get you some more." Matt leapt up the stairs, almost colliding with the railing at the top, in his bid to reach the living area. Mello stifled his giggles with a gloved hand and bent to erect another mannequin. A second later a shot rang out, exploding the head of the mannequin three foot away. The blond crouched and ran, zig-zag, behind a wide pillar. "Oops." Came the call from behind a cabinet on the top landing. "Did you let your guard down?"



"You fucking, incomparable arsehole!" Mello screamed back. "That was fucking loaded! And the way you shoot, it\'s amazing I\'m still here to rip your motherfucking head off and shove it up your blessed jacksy!"



"Yes." Matt called back, coolly. "But you\'re the one without a loaded gun or chocolate."



Ice dripped from the tone that responded. "There are one of two ways I could play this, Matt." Mello stepped out from behind the pillar, a serpentine smirk on his face. Eyes blazed, belying the calculation of his freezing voice. His arms were wide, a gun still held loosely in one hand. "Not shooting? Oh dear..." He stepped carefully, precisely across the floor and started to climb the stairs. "In lieu of our friendship, our history! I am going to choose this one. Out of respect for you, it will be quick and painless, I swear, but no-one..." His voice rose again in volcanic fury, "not even you, shoots a loaded gun at me." He reached Matt and in one swift movement knocked the gun from his grasp. Mello\'s gloved hand cupped his chin and pushed him up against the cabinet. He eyed with obvious sadistic glee the expression of pure terror flashing through his lover\'s eyes. "Want to know what I\'m going to do, darling?"



"I\'m sorry."



Mello nodded, then leaned in and kissed him hard on the lips. "Clever boy." He let him go and retrieved the fallen weapon. "You should have shot me second I came out from the pillar. You really shouldn\'t have let me come all the way up here and disarm you. But most of all, you shouldn\'t have aimed a gun at me when I was only five foot away from the place where we\'re storing everything else. Matt! I could have come from behind that pillar with anything but the two automatics we\'ve already got out. Idiot." He yawned. "Where\'s that chocolate you were fetching?"



Matt stared at him. "I\'ve got away with it?"



"I wouldn\'t go that far, but I\'ve been trying to teach you all afternoon how to stay alive, so I lose the moral highground a bit shouting at you for pulling off that last coup." He reached out and took Matt\'s hand. "Truce. No more surprises. Point a gun at me now and it\'s for real, so I\'ll take you out."



"Check." Matt released the breath that he had been holding. "I\'ll get your chocolate."



"Thank you." Mello peered over the landing. "We made a right mess down there."



Matt returned, smoking a cigarette with trembling fingers, and handed over a bar of Mello\'s favourite dark chocolate. "Can I have my gun back please?"



"Not until you\'re less hyper." Mello grinned, patting his cheek. He took the bar and ripped off the wrapper with a practiced movement. "You have a really interesting fighting style. Moments of pure genius, interspersed with stupidity and the odd instance of lying down and playing dead."



"It\'s different when it\'s you though." Matt inhaled heavily on his cigarette. "If it was for real, I wouldn\'t."



"I was impressed at how you\'ve stopped letting the glamour freeze you though." Mello leaned into him, receiving an arm around his back in a half-cuddle. "Even a week ago, you\'d have freaked. You\'re thinking through it."



"You make it sound like I was never in a fight before we entered this warehouse."



"\'Course you have. You\'ve been with me since you were three." Mello smiled. "I\'m just fine-tuning, Matty. The world\'s gone mad and I\'m happier if you can put that sparkling intellect into action whatever is being thrown at you. You know things are always better if I\'m happy."



Matt snorted. "Oh yes." He kissed Mello\'s cheek to remove the sting of agreement. "What did you mean by not going so far as to say I\'d got away with it?"



"Wait and see."



"Are you going to shoot me in my sleep?"



"Matt, if I wanted you shot, trust me you\'d be dead already." The blond stowed his gun in the waistband of his trousers and handed the other back to the redhead. "Let\'s watch television. See what wonderful things Kira is up to now."



"\'kay." Matt pushed his gun into his pocket and followed his lover to the settee. "So what precisely would I have to do to get shot?" He muzzled in, kissing Mello\'s neck.



"Rate you\'re going? Just give it time." Mello grinned, though the part he was kissing was right over his scar. Sometimes it felt like that just didn\'t matter. "Why don\'t you sit the other side of me?"



"I\'m alright here." Matt continued round, kissing that mottled neck and shoulder, then back up to kiss his ear. "Unless I\'m hurting you."



Mello was blushing. He had been self-conscious before, but never this openly and never with Matt blatantly acting as though his burned flesh was actually a turn on. It felt strange in the pit of his stomach. "Do you do that because you think it makes me feel good-looking again or...?"



"Yes, that one." Matt smoothed back blond hair and kissed the face he uncovered. "The good-looking one."



"No, I meant because you think it\'ll make me feel good-looking."



"It doesn\'t matter what you feel, you\'re still good-looking. That bit\'s fact. All the emotional stuff isn\'t going to alter it." Matt kissed his lips. "So stop doing your own head in about it."



Mello gave him a half-smile and sat back to watch the television.