All The Way Here

Even with the water running over his body, Mello heard a shout. He carefully switched off the shower and listened. The person calling his name was Japanese. The inflection on the letter 'l', which rendered it more like 'Mero', confirmed that. He had left Matt on the settee, engrossed in his DS, but there was no answering call out there from the redhead.



Mello whipped up his automatic from his pile of clothes and opened the door. Naked and dripping, he eased his way into the shadows at the end of the landing and peered over the railings. Something in the stance and dress of the men standing amidst their scattered, broken mannequins bespoke classy violence. The Yakuza. Looking across, past the television and the back of an armchair, there was no sign of Matt. On the other hand, there were no sounds of beeping and wooting either.



The blond determined how he would play this and called out a greeting. The men below followed the direction of his voice, but couldn't see him. Mello continued, in Japanese, bidding them to please come up. He would have preferred to have met them downstairs, if only for the chance of getting rid of them; but without clothes there was nothing he could do, within the bounds of politeness, but stall. "Matt-kun, offer these gentlemen some refreshments."



On the other side of the landing, Matt suddenly stepped into view. Mello blinked with surprise. His eyes had already glanced over that area without spotting him. He'd been quite silent. Slinking equally quietly back into the tiny bathroom, Mello locked the door. Fortunately, he had clothes with him. They were the ones he had just removed, as his intention had been to walk naked back into their living space before changing. He hated drying himself in a steamy room, for the clammy sensation that kept him damp, but needs must as the Devil called.



There was a knot of anxiety in the pit of his stomach. Not for himself, nor this encounter, but for the fact that Matt had no experience with people like this. He had never sat in a room with Mafioso, playing mindgames that could end in brutality or random, cruel death. Mello dressed himself quickly and towelled his hair. There was a brush, which was yanked through the sodden knots. He would have to do. Then the blond stared at his reflection in the mirror and thought himself into the role he needed to play. He projected and watched his own eyes harden and glint.



Mello unlocked and pulled back the bathroom door, striding out onto the landing with his boots clicking against the wooden floor. Once onto the tiles of the living area, he could survey the assembled men as he prowled towards an armchair and sat in it. Only one other man was sitting down and this was the one whom Mello fixed in his predatory gaze. Behind the supposed Oyabun, each of the kobun lackies bowed deeply. It was a good sign and he hoped that Matt had done it too. Mello stretched languidly towards the table, his muscles taut, and picked up a chocolate bar. Ripping off the wrapper, he bit into the cocoa revealed beneath and smiled. "You have me at a disadvantage." He said, in Japanese, though his tone and stance warned that he was never thus. "Who are you?"



A gangland father was mentioned, at which Mello pointedly bowed his head. He understood now that he was facing underlings here, including the seated, stony-faced individual, Yamada. His tongue snaked out and licked chocolate from his lip. Matt appeared from the kitchen with two glasses of whiskey, one of which he placed before the seated man with a bow, the other he placed on the table before Mello. He didn't sit, but took up position between the blond's chair. Mello was impressed.



Yamada came straight to the point. "You have been given many things and in return you gave an oath to catch Kira. There is progress?"



"Yamada-san, these things take time." Annoyance flashed across Mello's face. "Did I specify a time-scale?" The look he gave the man opposite would have frozen Kira himself, but Yamada merely stared stoically back. "On my honour, that oath will be fulfilled and you will be..." A serpentine smirk slithered across the blond's features, "repaid in full."



Yamada nodded, then smiled back. "Why do we circle each other like dragons, Mello? Your goal and mine are the same." He clicked his fingers and two of his men fell away to walk downstairs. Yamada's gaze took in their living space. Mello silently thanked the Lord that he had had a tidying frenzy this morning, forcing Matt to pack away the slag-heap of games that had littered the space between their bed and the table. "You are comfortable?" His attention was caught by the bed, then flicked across to take in Matt.



Mello bit off chocolate with a loud crack. "Very comfortable. Pass on my regards and thanks to Sato."



"Have you other needs?" Yamada locked stares with Mello again. "I could bring you women."



Mello laughed, disturbingly, "I prefer to keep my focus." He turned his head, so that Yamada was facing mostly a scarred face lined with shaggy hair and a smile which told him to back away slowly. "I do have a few things that would be useful though. Sato-san could get his hands on a motorcycle, I trust?"



Yamada's eyes widened with surprise, but he nodded. "Make and model?" He was told and the man beside him wrote it down. "Anything else?"



"Oh yes." Mello responded, as if this was entirely his show. He lifted a hand back to Matt. "Pad." Matt found it beside the bed and handed it over. Mello flicked through and found what he was looking for. "Matt-kun, rewrite this list in Kanji for the convenience of Yamada-san." He tore off a page and caught a flash of hesitant green eyes beneath the goggles, as Matt leaned to take it from him.



Yamada raised a hand and switched to the English language. "That will not be necessary. Though I thank you for your consideration, Mello-san." One of his men took the paper from Matt and both retreated to their own sides. "I have another reason for being here. Mello-san, Sato-sama understands that in your culture this is a special time of year." The two men had returned, carrying hampers. "He hopes that you will enjoy the festival far from home with his regards."



Mello's eyes opened wide with surprise and he licked, thoughtfully, at his chocolate. The two men approached at Yamada's command, but stopped three foot away from the seated blond. There was a pause, then Matt stepped from behind Mello's chair again and opened the first hamper. Inside was revealed a array of food, alcohol and delicacies. The second hamper included a frozen turkey and the accruements of a fine lunch, complete with crockery. "Mello-sama," Matt spoke in Japanese, "We've been sent Christmas."



Mello raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Sato-san is very generous. I regret that our present situation does not allow for reciprocal gifts." He leaned forward, "Though my gift to him will be Kira's head on a plate before Hina Matsuri."



Within quarter of an hour, the family had left; the atmosphere suitably respectful between both parties. Matt watched them go from the railings, then turned to face Mello on the chair. "Fuck." He grinned. "That was intense."



Mello smiled weakly at him. "Funny though." He poked inside the hampers. "When you called me Mello-sama, I nearly burst out laughing."



"Well, they were playing power games." Matt frowned and Mello really did laugh this time. "No, I was watching all the sans and samas and I thought, 'fuck it! Mello is a sama and arse to the lot of them.'"



"No, you did it perfectly." The blond touched the turkey with a gloved finger. "You'd better go on the internet and find out how to cook this."



"One moment." Matt strolled across the living area. "Something I have to do first." He climbed onto Mello's lap, straddling his thighs and kneeling there. Thus facing him, Matt hugged him close. "You are really fucking sexy when you play Mafia."



Mello smirked, head back, gazing up into those emerald eyes. "Power always turns you on."



"Yeah." Matt grinned. "Kiss me, Mello-sama."



"If I have to." Mello bobbed his tongue out, then reached up to draw Matt's head down. They met in a tender kiss, more love than lust, though that ran as an undercurrent between them as it always would. "You did brilliantly while they were here. Thank you, Matt."



"You're welcome."



"Now go and unpack the hampers, let's see what we've got." Mello pushed him gently to emphasise the point and Matt slid off him. "I can't see any logical reason that this lot would be poisoned. It's not Sato's style for a start."



"That occurred to me too." Matt lifted a hamper in both arms. "Unless they've gone over to Kira's side, there's no reason for them to want us dead right now."



"Don't think that. There are plenty of reasons." Mello bit into his chocolate. "But there's more in it for them to have us alive. They want Kira stopped and I am a way for that to happen."



"When is Hina Matsuri?"



"I'm hoping it's the one in March, but you'd best look that up too." Mello's eyes were gaining the diamond stare that came when he was thinking as a general. Matt left him to it and, when he returned for the second hamper, Mello was already scribbling in his pad, drawing diagrams. The hunt for Yagami Light was intensifying.