Watari Pt 1: L\'s Heirs

The sea rushed and roared; the stars shot through like a hyperdrive being initiated. Mello wiped his eyes clear of the tears softly falling. "Iz dubina plakah na tebe, O Gospodine: Gospodine, čuj moj glas." The land rose up to greet him. Warm air against his skin and an arm around his body. They stumbled on.



A trolley clattered across the tiles, but Matt refused to get on it. Leaning heavily on Mello, he looked up at the entrance hall, still not quite understanding why they were here. The orphanage was too quiet, devoid of children and filled with ghosts. Madeleine was trying to be stern, but her voice came from afar. Matt twisted around, trying to see the helicopter, but there was none. Only a car. His short-term memory was grasping like footfalls on ice, too slippery to fully connect. Mello pulled him back and he looked up into those blue eyes. He could trust Mello to know what was going on. "Why are we here again?"



Mello sighed, answering for the fifth time, "Because it\'s basically a Wammy\'s House civil war." The blond gestured for Madeleine to carry on. "And Winchester was awfully close to Purbeck Hills. Would you have preferred to go to hospital?"



"No!" Matt moaned. "Mell, I don\'t want to go to hospital." He could feel strong arms holding him up. "I need to have a drip. Mr Wammy said I need water in me."



"Yes, Matt." Mello whispered. They were in the corridor now, the old house dark and creaking around them, but a patch of light spilled out from the infirmary. Madeleine appeared anxiously in the doorway, then returned inside when she saw their proximity. "Mr Wammy is going to be fucking angry if you don\'t stop turning around as well." They entered the room, where a bed was ready with the hydrating drips beside it. Mello didn\'t stop to persuade Matt onto it. He lifted him and placed him onto it. Then sank wearily into a chair beside him. "Thank you, Madeleine."



"We were in a helicopter?" Matt asked, his gaze fixed onto Mello. His lover nodded and unwrapped a bar of chocolate. "Fuck shit!" Matt\'s hand was whipped away from the medic and he made to roll away.



Mello leapt up and pinned him down. "It\'s the fucking drip, Matt! You know what a drip is. You know why you need one. We can\'t hydrate your brain back to normal with just water taken orally. This will all make far more sense in a few minutes time." His stare stilled the redhead. "Madeleine, put the drip in. Mail, you\'re disorientated as Hell. Please just trust me." He watched shock flash across Matt\'s features and knew that the drip was in. "Good boy. You know that I\'m Mello and you know that I wouldn\'t let anyone do anything bad to you. Just trust me."



Matt seemed to look straight past him. His words came out pronounced and sharp as bullets. "Sácame de aquí?"



Mello blinked and exchanged a glance with Madeleine. She smiled reassurance. "He\'ll be fine once his body is properly hydrated."



Matt\'s head turned, watching something that neither of them could see, then his gaze flashed back to the drip. He raised his forearm, his hand held out, though it already contained the syringe connecting him. Mello increased his grip on Matt\'s shoulders. "Mail, you starting to feel better?"



"Not Miles!" Matt scrowled, though his eyes pleaded. "Not Miles. Not Mail. Not Matt."



Mello\'s breath caught. "Oh fuck." He leaned in to kiss those cracked lips. "Madeleine, tell me he\'s not cracking up."



"He\'s dehydrated and hallucinating, Mello. He\'ll be fine."



"He was better when we were in the caves." Mello frowned, then recalled that Fenian had predicted this. The Irishman had listed the order of events, leading right up to mental shock. This was that stage and meant that the end was in sight. "Mail, just keep calm, this is all going to make sense soon, I promise."



"Not Mail. Not Miles. Not Mail. Not Miles." Matt turned his head this way and that, as if trying to dislodge something from his head. He stopped and stared at Mello. "Señor Wammy, haz que me sienta mejor?"



"The drip\'s going to make you feel better." Mello confirmed, watching Madeleine preparing to insert a second one in his other hand. This one was to deal with the hypothermia. The redhead didn\'t seem to notice this one going in.



"I\'m tired." Matt\'s eyes closed and opened again. He frowned. "Wammy\'s House. Only clever boys come here."



Mello smiled. "Yes they do. What are you actually seeing Matt? Just so I can properly take the piss out of you tomorrow."



Matt began to struggle. "Get off me!" He yelled, though his voice cracked under it. "Get off me!" Mello released his grip, sitting back with hands hovering ready to catch him should he try to move. Matt quietened. "Only Mello." Eyes opened wide. "I want Mello. I want Mello."



"Madeleine?" Mello asked, poised to touch his lover again. She just shrugged with a faint smile. "Matt, I am Mello."



"Too many lies." Matt\'s face crumpled, but he didn\'t cry. He tried to turn in the bed, but Mello was there to push him back down. Matt stared up at him. "Mihael?"



"Yes?" Mello grinned. "Is the water finally getting to your brain, guapo?"



"Not guapo." His eyes closed again.



Mello frowned. "Not beautiful? Yes, you are. Right now, you\'re even more beautiful than normal." A second disquietening thought occurred to him. "Or not guapo the name? Not Miles, not Mail, not Matt, not guapo. Right?" He watched that bewildered gaze emerge to settle on him again. "If it\'s not any of them, what is it?"



"Milo." Matt whispered. "Or Mail, when the Death Note gets me. Mello said it was. Mello knows."



Mello felt a hard lump forming in his throat. He stroked back the red hair and bit hard upon his lip not to cry. "You couldn\'t spell Sebastian either, could you? I wonder what you were attempting when you came up with Jeevas? Mother of God, no wonder you\'ve always been so hung up on identity, everyone keeps changing your name for you and you always did leave clues for yourself on the walls. The Death Note is never going to get you. I promise you." Matt\'s eyes were closed and his breathing deepening. "Milo?" Mello leaned down and kissed his cheek. "You\'re loved so much, Milo." Matt didn\'t stir. He was sleeping. "It\'s not even a Spanish name. That\'s why he never saw it on Spanish television. Shit. Did you see something in English? Did you see mail written down and someone said it? You thought it sounded close enough? That\'s why we could never find its origin in any of the \'meanings of names\' searches. Shit."



Madeleine rubbed a hand on Mello\'s shoulder. "He\'s asleep, Mello. Why don\'t you have a lie down in the next bed? You look exhausted yourself." She smiled at his sharp look. "I\'m staying in here too. You\'ll be the first to know when he wakes up."



It was the early hours of the morning when Madeleine leaned over him. "Mello." He shot bolt upright. "Nothing to worry about. Just thought you might like to know that the others have returned from London."



"Others?" He asked, confused. On the next bed, Matt was curled up and still fast asleep.



"This was the meeting point before they went to Near. They had all left their cars here. Chrissie was asking if it was possible for them to see Matt."



"Oh!" Mello blinked, comprehension rising. "Right." He thought of this house, with all its current occupants evacuated and many of the previous generation returned. It felt surreal. It wasn\'t entirely a welcome sensation. "I don\'t think he should be disturbed. Sleep\'s helping him, right?" Madeleine nodded. "I\'ll go and see them though. I have some thanks to give." He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and leapt off the bed. Yawning, he picked up his jacket and searched the pockets for chocolate. There was none. He had eaten the last in the helicopter flying over the forest. There was only Kendal Mint Cake, which would have done for Nathalie, but not for him. Making an impatient noise in the back of his throat, Mello leaned over his lover, stroking back a lock of hair. It was very warm in the room, neither of them had been under quilts. It was unusual to see Matt sleeping without also being cocooned. "Matty," he whispered, "I\'ll be right back."



Mello strode out into the corridor, hearing the tread of his boots clicking against the tiles. He overheard Salvo in the common room saying, "No, it\'s a bit of a headfuck, to be honest!" There was laughter. Mello paused outside the room, listening to their voices within. The goosebumps rose on his arms and he didn\'t like it. Swallowing back the unsettling sense of limbo, he charged into their midst. "Who grassed me up to Roger? I\'ve got another detention because of you! I hate you!"



Everyone froze, then titters of laughter broke out amongst one or two of them. "Oh God!" Chrissie laughed. "We even got Mello tantruming to complete the picture."



Mello grinned. "I\'m with Salvo. It\'s a complete headfuck." He bit his lip. "But thank you all for coming through for me. I didn\'t actually deserve that, the shit I\'ve put you all through over the years. You brought him back for me and it was a team effort. I bet any one of us could have solved the puzzle eventually, but we did it in just over twenty-four hours. That\'s really some going and I\'m..." He paused, unaccustomed to making speeches like this, "more grateful than you\'ll ever know."



They all looked at him, many with mixed emotions, though the most prevalent appeared to be akin to fondness. They may have been bitter enemies, some of them for most of their lives or, at least, the formative years, but they had a shared history. Old hurts and loves, the camaderie of the intense pressure and the rivalries of the same ran like some thick bloodstream through their collective memories. Not one of them had arrived or left Wammy\'s House unscathed; each bringing trauma and a personal Hell into their orphaned lives; each fighting for survival in a home that encouraged isolationist wars. Mello may have prowled like a tiger through a cage full of cats, but he was one of them. Suddenly he seemed both the giant of their nightmares and the dwarf of his own insecurities, all in the same very human package. It was as awkward as it was poignant.



"How\'s Matt?" Deontic asked, breaking the charged mood of the room. She never could deal with emotions.



Mello nodded. "He\'s doing fine. He\'s being treated for hypothermia and dehydration, but he\'s fast asleep now." He glanced around the room. "Fenian gone back to Ireland?"



"I thought he was here with you."



"No, he took the car back with Neuron. I thought..." Mello\'s eyes widened. "Century, get Fenian on the \'phone."



"It\'s 3am." Salvo protested. "Hey! Another 3am meeting. Great."



Mello\'s mind was racing. "Oh! Fuck! Shit! It took two of us to move the planks in place!" He turned and ran, out of the door, down the corridor and into the infirmary. Madeleine stared up, startled. "Matty!" Mello shook his lover, hoping to God that the hydration had reached a point where he could have a coherent conversation again. "Matt, you fucker, wake up."



Matt jolted awake, peering at him with bleary eyes. "What?"



"Who took you into the cave?" Mello demanded. Matt closed his eyes again, then opened them wide. His disorientation was of a different hue. This was just the usual Matt waking up bewilderment. He blew out his cheeks and focused on Madeleine, then the whole room with a slight frown. "Matty, I love you, but pay attention. This is very important. Did Neuron know where you were?"



"Oh shit." Matt winced. "Can I have a cigarette before we have this conversation please? I promise you, I\'ll..."



"Will you just answer the question, please?" Mello softened. "Matty, guapo, lovely, gorgeous man of mine. Just tell me, was Neuron ever with you in that cave?"



"Yes."



"Shit." Mello turned on his heels and raced back down the corridor. He burst into the common room. "Fenian\'s in trouble!"



Century frowned, speaking into his telephone. "Hold on, Fenian, Mello\'s having another episode." He looked up. "What do you...?"



Mello snatched the \'phone from the teenager. "Fenian, is that you?" He paced the room. "Is Neuron still with you?" He yelled out, "Which hotel?" Mello gazed around him, eyes flashing. "Mother of..." He threw the \'phone at Century. "Everyone get out! Out of the building!" He raced back out into the main hall and took the stairs two at a time.



The shell-shocked group left in his wake just stared at one another. Chrissie laughed, "I have missed him. In a weird, perverse, probably utterly masochistic way, I think I might have missed Mello." There was laughter, which increased to giggles as they heard the Slav scream from the landing above, \'Matt, get your fucking arse up here now!\'



Salvo wearily pushed himself up from his seat. "He can\'t get Matt up from his sickbed. I\'ll go."



Chrissie waved him back, "You sit back down. You\'ve been at his beck and call for the past day and half. This is Mello remember, give him an inch and he\'ll take a mile."



Lamond snorted her laughter, "Take a Mail!" She set them all off again. The relief of their great adventure being over, and bone tiredness, taking its toll on their emotions. Anything felt funny now. Upstairs, Mello shouted for Matt again and the common room erupted into sniggers. Lamond wiped her eyes. "It\'s no good, I think I am going to get my head down here for a couple of hours before hitting the road. I\'ve got to go all the way back to the capital." She stopped dead as a redhead popped his head around the door. "Matty!"



His jaw dropped. He rasped out, "What the fuck...?" But before he could even begin to assimilate what his eyes were telling him was truth, the fire alarm wailed into being. Its urgency bypassing their ears, hardwired into their collective psyche to move. With so many people studying and the constant cycle of examinations, there had been strict penalties for setting off the fire alarm at Wammy\'s House. It was one of the few things that Roger had been very strict about. Matt looked down at his cigarette, as if it was somehow the cause.



"Do we get out or...?" Linda asked. "The bomb was disconnected by Near\'s people. The building has been searched. Unless Mello\'s up there setting fire to the place..."



"Mello\'s where?" Matt interupted, his tone soft and mystified.



"Upstairs, yelling for you." Salvo helped his wife stand and people drifted into the hallway. "That bell is really going through me."



Matt started to climb the stairs, one foot wearily after the other. Century overtook him. "Go with the others, man. I\'ll find Mello and sort him out." Matt nodded and, equally heavily, returned the way he\'d come. But instead of rejoining his peers, he rattled the door of Roger\'s office, then unhooked his keyring and picked the lock. Within half a minute of him disappearing inside, the alarm stopped ringing. They all cheered. Then Century called from the top of the stairs. "Everyone out! There\'s a bomb."



Chrissie yelled back, "Century that includes you. Come down here!" Salvo was pulling her back towards the front door. Around them, the alumni were streaming out to safety. "Mello, get out too!" She spotted a redhead moving against the tide. "Matt! Outside!" Century was looking back, uncertainty rife in his stance. "Century, come down here."



Suddenly Mello was back, stalking into view behind Century and clattering down the stairs. "I want Near on the \'phone now." He caught up with Matt halfway down and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I\'ve disabled it. Why didn\'t his people spot that? Fucking..." He drew Matt to him and kissed him hard. "You need to get back in bed. You\'re supposed to have drips going." Messages were being conveyed outside and people began returning. "Neuron said \'bombs\', plural. Near only found one. The incompetent shit. I should have clipped Neuron when I had the chance. He won\'t get another one." He spotted Madeleine in the group below. "Pack me some solutions and I need two drip stands. Write down quantities, times, everything. I\'m taking him home."



"Mello." Century leaned over the bannister offering his \'phone. "Near."



Mello took it and returned upstairs. They could hear him yelling through the empty corridors, leaving Matt to sit down on the stairs, watching them all in confusion. Lamond ran to the bottom of the stairs. "Oh! Matty, look at you!" She started up towards him and he moved up another step. "Oh! Don\'t be like that." She stopped dead, hands on hips. He blinked and his gaze moved from her to the others.



Luigi bit his lip. "To be honest, I felt sorry for Near when we all left. I think he liked having us there." He bowed his head. "And now he\'s got Mello screaming at him again."



Chrissie yawned. "I am so bloody tired." She leaned against Salvo and was held. "Do you think there really was a bomb? Or Mello losing the plot?"



Century called down. "There was one. I saw it before Mello made me get out. He said it was a Mafia thing, like a diversion and the real one hidden disguised." He tapped on the bannister. "Or something like that. Hey! Do you realise we have the run of this place and no Ann! No Roger!"



"There\'s Madeleine." Lamond replied, still staring at the redhead. "I can\'t believe you\'re being stand-offish after everything that\'s happened. That\'s really out of order, Matt."



Matt tried to take a drag from his cigarette, but it was already burned down. He was sucking on a charred filter. He tried to speak, but it came out as a croak. He swallowed and tried again. "Are you real?"



"Yes, I\'m for real!" Lamond snapped. "You\'re a fucking ungrateful bastard, Mail Jeevas. Next time I\'ll let you rot." She turned and flounsed back down the stairs.



Far above them, they heard a slamming door. On the stairs, Matt looked to the landing above and the halls below; and at the people. No-one was looking at him now, all wrapped up in the melodrama of the early hours and their \'to stay or go\' decisions. Everyone exhausted, argumentative, finding the most ridiculous things funny; and Mello stomping down a corridor. Matt felt his eyes stinging and tried to speak again. It came out as a whisper, which no-one heard, even Century, who was quite close. "Are you real?" He looked from face to face and couldn\'t stop the emotion spilling over. Tears cascaded down his face, but until the sob came, no-one looked. Then they all did. Everyone turning shocked faces in his direction; at the boy who never cried, until the day Mello left, and then never stopped. He sobbed out, louder now, "Are you real?"



"Oh Christ, Matt." Chrissie started, but Linda gestured that she would deal with it.



She didn\'t get far before running feet on the landing signalled Mello\'s return. He rounded the corner in a fury and thrust Century\'s \'phone back into his hand. "Thank you." Mello bent to help Matt up, then saw his distress. "Oh..." He turned his glare onto everyone else, then held his hands up in surrender. "Neuron and Kato are both missing from their hotel. I have no idea if this is the end of it or if we are in the shit. I fucked up not putting a bullet through his head. That\'s the situation." He crouched and pulled Matt into his arms, patting his back as the redhead fought for composure. "I shouldn\'t have taken you off the drip. What do you say, guapo? You want to stay here and get some rest or go home?"



Matt quietened in Mello\'s arms. "Manetti got in." He whispered into his lover\'s ear. "Mell, I haven\'t had my pills. They were in the car. I\'m sorry I got them out of your room."



"What do you mean, Manetti got in?"



"Into our house."



"What?" Mello erupted, clutching Matt\'s arms so hard that his fingertips bruised. "He couldn\'t! The security! He... No! Tell me!" Matt\'s legs went from under him and he slipped on the stair. Mello caught him before he fell and panted. "Ok, sorry. Sorry." He helped the redhead sit, then cuddled him to him. Above and below, his peers were staring back with accusing eyes. "Let me think."



Madeleine called up. "Mihael, I want Mail back in the infirmary. If you have made this building safe, then that should be a priority."



Mello nodded. "It was a Sicilian thing, New York family. They needed the bomb to go off at a specific time, but their chance to place it meant that it would be found before that time. They put two in. One was obvious and drew the attention. The other was hidden under the floorboards in a bedroom. There was only two. If Neuron is emulating the Mafia, as he understands it, then there would only be the two that we\'ve found and both of those are disabled. Those incompetent gorillas that Near sent have already been through this house and found nothing else. The question is how far we trust them?" He shrugged. "Neuron is pretty set on what he thinks the Mafia is. I\'m 90% certain that the building is safe."



"That\'s good enough for me." Chrissie declared. "I\'m going to lie down." She slowly climbed the stairs, pausing to place a hand on Mello\'s shoulder. "Sort Matt out and then make your decisions. You did brilliantly again, as I\'d expect from you, but it\'s time to calm down and slow down." She ruffled Matt\'s hair, then continued upwards. Salvo dashed past to join her. "Goodnight all and goodbye if you leave before I see you again. We did great."