All The Way Here

Matt gazed out at the world going by outside their red Chevy Camara. He was huddled up on the passenger seat, freezing as he smoked a cigarette out of the window. It was only open a crack, but it was enough to maintain a steady stream of cold air directed straight at his face. Though Mello had never done so, in their entire relationship, Matt felt that it was only a matter of time before he was shouted at to shut the window and put out his smoke.



To add to the redhead's abject misery was the knowledge that they probably wouldn't be out here, just driving around the city and its outskirts, if he hadn't mentioned safe-spots. He had been curiously proud at the time. A shout out from his on-line friend, Lyma, to say that she was trapped and in immediate danger of dying at the hands of Sub. He'd immediately got on Vent and organised himself and their friend, Tronjoy, in a rescue. Half of his strategy was castigated by the other two as impossible, right up until the moment when they had the monsters in a pincer attack and Lyma was teleported out to safety. Matt had been pretty pleased with himself. The only trouble was that Mello had witnessed the whole thing.



Instead of the promised afternoon gaining his level, already delayed by Lyma's trouble, they were now driving aimlessly around the Japanese countryside. Mello hadn't even explained how he had leapt from discussions about besting the boss and safe-spots to demanding this trip. It wasn't even like there was nature out there. It was winter. Matt closed the window and pushed his hands into his pockets. Beside him, Mello shivered but didn't say a word.



Miles passed by before something was said. It was inevitably Mello, sighing, then saying, with forced brightness, "You certainly get to see the world hanging around with me."



"Yeah." Matt pushed his chin well below the line of his collar, signalling that he didn't want conversation.



"Come on, Matt, I'm not asking you to do anything that I'm not doing myself." The blond spoke evenly. It was the tone he used when he thought he was being concilliatory, but which actually came across as patronising. "Help me memorise these roads and find some safe-spots."



"You want somewhere to stand completely safely while you range a boss monster?" Matt asked, more scathingly than he'd intended.



Mello whispered, "Yes." Matt turned again and stared out of the window. The blond suddenly erupted. "You said you'd help me! I'm sick to fucking death of this!" His foot pressed down on the accelerator and they quickly picked up speed. "I'm trying to unpick all of the fucking clues that Kira is shedding and all I'm thinking about is what the fuck I've done to upset you this time."



Matt briefly considered putting on his seatbelt, but decided that would just show fear. One of the things he had learned early on when dealing with Mello was that showing fear meant he'd won. As the scenery blurred around them, he sat stock still. "You haven't done anything. I'm just in a mood."



"I know! But what the fuck can I do about it?" He took the next slip-road and they left the rest of the traffic behind them. Matt judged that silence was wisest. "You act like you're just along for the ride and you don't give a shit about catching Kira!"



"I do." Matt responded quietly. Mello slowed the car and parked it alongside a hedge. He turned to survey Matt with a murderous look in his eyes. "I'm sorry, ok? I'll apply myself more."



"I'm trying very hard not to..." The blond began, then just yanked down the door handle and stomped out, slamming the door behind him.



Matt let out the breath that he had been holding and found his cigarettes. Stepping outside, he leaned against the car, letting the nicotine soothe away his worries. He could hear Mello stamping around behind the hedge, kicking at foliage and swearing. Matt turned words over in his head. How could he explain that he was 100% committed to this, but he was tired, bored and his back was really aching? At least, how could he say it in a way that the driven Mello could understand?



A sound filled his ears, dread draining through. A hand pounding on metal. It's hollow echo resounded across the landscape and travelled through sixteen years to twist Matt's stomach. He put his hands over his ears and pressed against the car. It took disorienting seconds before he realised that it was happening now. But he wasn't three anymore. He was nineteen and he had a gun of his own. Matt pulled out the semi-automatic and flew around the car, through the trackway and around the hedge. He could see it was Mello, hitting some kind of rusted oil drum, but panic was raging through him. Urgent messages confused his mind, not to shoot, it was only Mello. Flashes of toddlerhood over-rode them, screaming danger and flight. He screamed out, "Stop it!" And the pounding mercifully stopped.



"Matt." A kaleidoscope of Mellos stood watching, then strode towards him. Matt fought for breath and clarity. He realised that he was still holding the gun; outstretched, just as Mello had taught him, staring right down his arm in a perfect line to the blond. Only the scene was blurring and it took Matt a moment to notice that it was because he was crying. Mello, though, was calm. He stood just out of arm's reach, his expression unreadable. "Matt." Just for an instant, Matt wanted to shoot him, just to make it all go away, but then Mello's hand was over his on the gun and it was being eased from him. "Matt."



Reality swam into focus and Matt could only stare back in horror. His mouth opened and closed a few times, then he turned to run. He didn't care where, just to get away. Mello caught his arm and swung him back around, then he was encased in a hug. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"



"Ssh." Mello soothed, holding tight. "Ssh." After a time, Matt felt quieter; the demons leaving his head. Now he just felt foolish. The blond sensed the change in the way he stopped shaking so much and his hold on him became much more a hug than a restraint. "Where did you go, Matty?"



"Spain." Matt whispered. "I'm sorry."



"Don't be." Mello leaned back to see him better. "What did they do to you?"



"Who knows? I was only three. I don't remember it all." They both knew that he did remember. Matt fumbled for his cigarettes and lit one. "Probably no worse than what was done to you." He slipped an arm around Mello's waist. "What are you thinking?"



"That after Japan, we'll go to Spain and hunt down the fucker who did this to you."



"Heh." Matt flashed a half-smile. "We'd have to go to England first. The evidence is all in a drawer at The Wammy House."



"Fair enough." Mello squeezed Matt's arm, still enveloping him in a half hug. "We shouldn't fight. Not when there are so many bastards out there trying to kill us. What's that you said the other night about divide and conquer?"



"That was in New York." Matt drew heavily on his cigarette. "Us Wammy refugees should stick together and watch each other's backs."



"Yes." Mello kissed his cheek. "We should."



"Tell me everything you have worked out so far about Kira." Matt muttered. "I doubt I'll get more than you out of it, but it might help you to have a sounding board."



At Mello's suggestion, they returned to the car and switched on the heater. He recapped all that he had learned from Hal and his own investigations. His belief that Kira was Light Yagami, the person currently posing as L; and that Takada was in direct contact with Kira. "How have you reached that conclusion?" Matt asked and was told that it was how she delivered the messages. More confidently and more in line with the pattern of Kira's killings than her predecessor had been. He added to that Hal had seen Takada and Yagami together. "If you are sure that Yagami is Kira, than yes, she's in direct contact with him."



"I'm struggling with Misa Amane." Mello admitted. "I can't see where she fits in anymore. Though she was once undoubtedly the second Kira, I'm sure that she's not anymore."



"What's Near thinking?"



"Who cares?" Mello snapped automatically.



"You should because if you and he make moves now, in the same city, you might cancel each other out." Matt shrugged. "What does Near think you're doing?"



"Hal and I don't discuss Near."



Matt bit his lip. "Call Hal. Near will have a toy that represents you. If she can't work it out, then ask her to describe what he's playing with and it should be obvious. Ask her what he's doing with it."



"I don't care what he's doing with... I'd rather he didn't have toys that he thinks of as me at all."



"Hal is his employee and she's feeding you information." Matt squeezed the hand in his own. "I know you hate it and I know you trust Hal, but right now we haven't discounted the fact that Near is feeding her the information to give to you. If so, then what he tells you could be the thing that determines your actions. If Near is attempting to manipulate you, don't you think you should know about it?"



Mello glared at him, eyes flashing, then bowed his head. A moment later, he nodded once and reached in his pocket for chocolate. "You think that my reasoning so far is sound though?"



"Yes, but I wouldn't expect anything less from you."



"Thank you."



"Are we going after Light Yagami then?" Matt ventured.



He received a nod in response. Mello extracted his hand and turned on the ignition. "Yes, but I need to work out the fine details. He's a hard person to track down and I know from Hal that he hasn't been home to Misa Amane for a while." Mello drove away from the hedge. "When you hacked all of those police computers, did it include the Japanese?"



"First one I did after the NYPD. Nothing of interest, though I could look again."



"I'd be grateful." Mello slowed the car just a few yards up the road. "What the...?"



It was a ruined church, it's cross still perched on the rafters reaching to the Heavens. They parked and walked out together to investigate. On closer inspection, it appeared to be an old monastery, its masonry dangerously unstable. They fanned out, exploring outhouses and what remained of the main building, meeting together in the middle.



"Thoughts?" Mello asked.



"Looks like a safe-spot to me." Matt gazed up at the roof. "Give or take being crushed to death." He pointed back towards their car. "You can't see it until you're right on top of it and you can drive right behind that wall. In fact, you could drive right in here, if that's not against your religion or something. The ceiling is mostly intact; surprisingly so, considering that the roof has gone." Matt surveyed the blond, counting three crosses on open display on his lover's body. Underneath his jacket there would also be the rosary. His gun had a cross engraved into the hilt. "Great place to park if you want divine protection."



Mello nodded, running a hand over the wall. Despite appearances, it felt fairly solid. "It's probably deconsecrated though."



"Say a prayer or something and reconsecrate it."



Mello's boots scuffed stone, moving soil to see beneath. "Graves." He turned, searching, then smiled. "Entrance to the crypt." He played with a skull button on his jacket and tried the door. It was rusted shut. "Need a wrench to get in, but it's somewhere underground to hide someone."



Matt began to piece together the plan in Mello's head. This was going to involve kidnapping Light Yagami rather than just killing him. He left him to work out the details and went to lever himself up onto wall and then up to the first floor. Bricks wobbled under his feet and foliage had already started their undermining of the structure. It would hide a car. It would probably hide a Sherpa tank.



"What's up there?" Mello called, emerging from the hole in the nave wall.



"Ruins." Matt replied, running a hand across the high outer wall. "Could go any time."



"Ok, come down before you break your neck." Mello gazed thoughtfully at the outhouses. "This has potential."