Watari Pt 1: L\'s Heirs

It took over an hour from first pulling into the track to both standing in their kitchen, the fridge humming softly and the rest of the house silent. For most of that time, Matt hadn\'t even made it past the perimeter fence. He sat in his car worrying about what Mello was uncovering inside. Now though, Mello paced angrily across the room, while Matt inspected the tiny audio device that had been embedded in the coving of the landing. "Shot in?"



"Yes." Mello hissed dangerously. He had scanned, manually checked and monitored every inch of this house, but was still loathe to relax. "Let me show you." He ran upstairs and was waiting with his finger pointing upwards when Matt joined him. "The line of fire would go straight out of the toilet window and..." He stalked into the small room. "That tree!"



"Ok, so they never made it inside." Matt shrugged, peering upwards. "That\'s a relief."



"That\'s not the point!" Mello raged. "That tree has got to go!"



"Ok, I\'ll get onto the Forestry Commission." Matt bit his lip. "Erm, it\'s not on our property, I don\'t know..."



"Get the fucking tree gone, Matt."



"\'kay." He stood looking lost. There were things that needed to be said, but not with Mello in this mood. He watched the blond prowling the upper rooms, eyes everywhere searching. Matt understood. Their studies might have been safe, but Manetti, Neuron or Hollow could have heard everything in their bedroom. He lit a cigarette and called out. "Angel, thank you for coming for me. I knew you would. I used to sit there holding my collar and I knew you\'d come."



"You\'re not just my possession, Matt." Mello snapped from his own study. "I wouldn\'t have gone through that if they\'d nicked the fucking stereo."



Matt took a deep breath. "He kissed me."



There was a clatter, then Mello yelled. "What?" When Matt didn\'t reply, the blond stomped back onto the landing and glared down. "What did you just say?"



Matt stayed against the wall, his smoke curling in blue and grey in the evening light. He kept his eyes on the stained glass on the opposite wall. "In the back of the van, Neuron kissed me. When I was blindfolded and handcuffed."



"I see." Mello\'s tone was icy. "And what did you do?"



"Kicked his legs out from under him."



Mello marched across, his hand slamming into the wall beside Matt\'s head, then taking his weight as he leaned in. "Then what happened?"



"He punched me in the guts."



"So far it\'s sounding like perfect sex from your point of view, Matty." Mello glared. "Get hard did you?"



Matt\'s attention snapped to meet Mello\'s eyes. He bit down betrayal and sneering both, but rasped, "Fuck you." The redhead stepped sideways from the wall, away from his lover. He flicked the birdie over his shoulder. "No, I did not get hard. You fucker." He walked into his own study, but didn\'t shut the door. Mello followed and just watched him from the doorway. "I can\'t believe you even asked me that."



"Matt, look at me." Mello demanded. When the redhead just stood there, staring down at his Playstation, Mello spoke again, more harshly. "Matt, look at me!" Matt sighed and looked up. "It was a kiss. You got nothing out of it and you fought back. Is that everything?"



"No." Matt gushed. "You missed the bit where I was fucking terrified that they were going to rape me and I would have to face you with that afterwards." He stubbed out his cigarette and immediately reached for another. "Manetti was driving. Neuron was in the back with me. He said, \'what is it about you that sets Mello off like that?\' Then he put his hand on my shoulder and kissed me. I kicked out and heard him fall over. He punched me in the guts and Manetti shouted, \'what\'s going on in the back there?\' The end."



Mello nodded, "I\'m sorry. I shouldn\'t have doubted you."



"No, you shouldn\'t."



"What would you like me to do?" It was said softly enough, but the murderous intent was still in Mello\'s gaze.



"Own me." Matt replied, equally softly. It hung in the air between them. Awkward. The whole atmosphere feeling combustible. Matt broke first. "Mello, I\'ve been taken out of here. I\'ve been sitting there for hours waiting to die and all I had was the collar around my neck to fight the paranoia. I haven\'t had my anti-depressants for three days. I\'m fucking... please?"



"They were in the car with you for the last hour." Mello frowned. "I thought you\'d have had them by now."



"You want me to?" Matt asked, more plainitively than he\'d planned.



"You\'re doing so well..." Mello began.



"Don\'t!" Matt snapped. "Don\'t tell me I did it right and I was brilliant and... just tell me what to do! Tell me where I got it wrong."



"Mail, you didn\'t get it wrong. You did everything right."



"No!" The redhead sat on his settee with his head in his hands. By the time Mello had slipped away downstairs, then returned with pills and water, Matt was crying again. "You\'re not getting it, Mihael. I want..."



"I know." Mello pushed the medication into his hands and held the water. "But until you calm down, I\'m not budging."



"I need to feel..."



"I know."



"They just..."



"I know." Mello crouched down. "And they won\'t get away with it. Two are already dead for what they did to you. One more." His smile was chilling. "Drink your water." Mello waited, just watching him, until there was only an inch in the bottom of the glass. When he struck, it was with a suddenness that caused Matt to yelp. The glass flew across the room, splashing water over the redhead and the settee, before smashing against the wall. Shards showered down, but Mello had Matt by the scruff of the neck and threw him towards the doorway. The redhead stumbled and fell, only to be dragged up again. He ended up sprawled on the landing carpet, Mello standing over him, glaring down. "I\'m going to strip you in a moment, Matty. What am I going to see?"



"I..." Matt began, then remembered and grew even paler.



"I\'ve seen where you put a cigarette out on your stomach. I know you had your penknife on you." He circled his prey. "I\'m not judging. I want you to be the one to tell me."



"I cut." Matt shrieked out, looking wildly towards the railing bannister and the stairs below. Mello grabbed his chin and forced him to look back. "I couldn\'t panic down there! I knew... oh shit..."



"You were out of control and it wasn\'t me in control." Mello nodded. "Yes, I know, Milo." Matt screamed, over and over again, the sound of it ricochetting around the house. His eyes were wide, staring back at the blond in abject terror. Mello gazed back, mouth set in a straight line; eyes accusing. Mello\'s words spat out. "I could destroy you now. All I have to do is walk away." He smiled a truly evil grin, then yanked Matt up by the hair and silenced his screaming with a harsh, possessive kiss. "But you belong to me!" His hand came down to hook under Matt\'s arm; he used the momentum to propel the redhead against the wall. Matt connected with it with a sickening thud and clutched his arm, but Mello was already on him, holding both wrists and flattening him against the panelling. "I don\'t care what you call yourself. Milo, you\'re mine. Mail, you\'re mine. Matt, you\'re mine. Mariomatt, you\'re mine. Jeevas, you are fucking mine!" He yelled the last, pressing in for another crushing kiss. Mello pulled the goggles off, throwing them behind him, before reclaiming the wrist. "Any more secrets that I should know? Anything else you\'ve neglected to mention over the years?"



"I don\'t know!" Matt screamed back, weeping now. "I can\'t think!" Mello pressed a leather-clad thigh between Matt\'s legs and leaned in to kiss the tears from his lover\'s face. "I promise you, I can\'t think of anything." Mello\'s gaze grazed him. "I\'d tell you!"



"As if I\'d believe that after all this." Mello barked back into his face. His hands came down and he pulled the striped top up and over Matt\'s head. His fingers pressed into the parallel lines cut into the redhead\'s right forearm. "Ok, so you told me about this, but only after I asked. I won\'t have secrets with-held from me, Matty." He slapped him hard across the ear, only Mello\'s arm and leg stopping the redhead from falling. Nevertheless, Mello stepped away. "I\'ll be right back. You strip for me. I want you ready and waiting for what\'s coming, guapo."



The blond marched away into the bedroom and Matt sank trembling to the carpet. He could barely undo the buckles of his boots, but managed it eventually. The semi-automatic scittered across the floor in the direction that Mello had gone, coming to a halt just short of the top of the stairs. He nearly had his jeans off when Mello emerged and picked the gun up. There was a half-laugh and Mello looked back at him. His eyes devoured Matt to the bone, then he took the firearm away. He was back almost immediately, towering over the redhead, a booted toe poking at the denim still to be pulled over one foot. "I\'m doing it."



"Not very fast, are you, guapo?" Mello sneered. "Are we felling all weak and pathetic?"



"Fuck you."



Mello dragged him by the chin, back up the wall, onto his feet. Matt stamped down on the remaining connection of his jeans, finally getting them off. Mello\'s bent arm pressed across Matt\'s breast-bone, holding him back as a finger traced down his chest and stomach. "I didn\'t think it was possible for you to lose anymore weight, Matt. I want to see that put back on if you have to eat cake for a month." Mello\'s hand paused at the waistband of his lover\'s boxer shorts. "And these are still on, why?"



"I ran out of time." Matt\'s gaze pleaded. Mello yanked them roughly down, pulling Matt away from the wall and spinning him towards the railings. Legs caught up in the falling boxers, Matt lost his balance and crashed hard into the bannister further along the landing. Mello was immediately there, eyes searching. "What?" Matt gulped. "I..."



Mello was apparently satisfied with whatever he wanted to see. He laid his hand on Matt\'s chest and leaned in. "Lie still a minute, there is something I have to say before I beat the crap out of you."



Matt kicked his boxers free and lay, shivering, gazing up at the intensity in the Slav\'s eyes and on his expression. Mello felt more dangerous and coiled than usual. Matt\'s body ached from the abuse he had already received. He smiled. "What is it?"



"Something really fucking important, so pay attention." Mello pressed down over Matt\'s heart, the ribcage beneath shrieking for mercy. "Names were given in love before they were ever written down. You want the history of registrations, you go have a conversation with Century one day. That\'s his realm. But right now, you\'re listening to me. I have no intention of being your mother or your father, but you belong to me. That gives me the right to name you." He stared unblinking at Matt\'s flickering gaze. "I know you must have told Wammy, in that whispering voice you get when you\'re out of your depth, and he had two attempts to hear it. It came out Miles the first time, nice English name, and Mile the second. I\'m amazed you let him get a second chance, you normally shut the fuck up if no-one listening first time round." Mello shrugged. "I name you, Milo Ricardo Sebastian Jeevas. However, I reserve the right to give you several nicknames, to which you will answer. Mail, Matt and Guapo are first and foremost amongst those names. We will be spelling your name M. A. I. L. Is that understood?" Matt\'s heart was pounding. His eyes welling up and his lip quivering. "Right." Mello reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It was all in Mello\'s handwriting, with borders carefully drawn with a ruler. "This is your birth certificate. You now officially exist." His gloved hand came down to cup the side of Matt\'s face. "And if the Jeevas part is a problem, I have absolutely no reservations about changing that to Keehl."



Mello stepped away from Matt, pushing the paper back into his pocket. The redhead raised shaking hands to cover his face, his knees coming up, until he\'d curled into a foetal position. Loud sobs came, which shuddered through his entire body. "You can stop that." Mello bent and grabbed his arms, pulling him to his feet. Matt appeared on the verge of crumbling straight back down again, but Mello punched him in the chest and the redhead hit the wooden railings. "Stop crying right now!" There was a clank of metal and Matt lifted his head to see. Mello glared back with handcuffs taut in his grip. The tears dried in those green eyes, but the redhead was still shaking. Mello slapped him across the face, then turned him over the railings, forcing Matt\'s hands behind him. The cuffs clicked into place as he stared down below at the mosaic on the hallway floor. "Yes, I could push you and yes, you would break your fucking neck." Mello breathed in his ear. "You just have to work out how pissed off I am with you right now to see if you\'re going to survive this aftermath."



Matt\'s breath caught, then came out in ragged pants. Fear drenched his body and then he looked up at the sunbeams, dancing in multi-colours around the stairwell. Mello\'s hand was stroking down his hip-bone, buttocks and thigh. The other arm tightly, too tightly, squeezed around his stomach. Matt\'s vision rose to take in the stained glass and he realised that they were doing all of this in the light of a cross and under the gaze of several saints. His eyes widened and he peered back over his shoulder in time to see Mello\'s faint smile. The blond caught him looking and the predatory glare was back. "Mihael, for the record, I really do love you."



"As if that\'s going to save you." Mello smirked back. "It\'s a pity you\'ve stopped looking so terrified, because I\'ve only just begun." He danced back and came down so fast that Matt didn\'t even have time to brace himself. He reeled backwards, blood splattering from his mouth and onto the carpet. "I\'m sorry, did something make you think it was alright?" Mello picked him up again and careered them both into the wall. The dado rail connected painfully with the base of Matt\'s ribcage, as Mello squeezed his chin, forcing his face up to receive a kiss. His tongue slithered over the cut and the loosening teeth, blood filled both of their mouths. Mello\'s hand reached down to cup Matt\'s balls, stroking up the length of his hardness. Mello laughed and drew back. He licked Matt\'s blood from his own lips and then pulled off a glove. A black painted fingernail scratched across Matt\'s chest, the tip of Mello\'s tongue appearing in the corner of his mouth as it often did when he was concentrating on his work.



Matt looked down. Mello\'s nails weren\'t sharp enough for cutting deep, but he was scraping a top layer of skin away in places. Here and there, tiny pin-pricks of blood appeared, too small to drip down, bubbling along the line of his administrations. Matt swallowed, making out an \'M\', then an \'I\', and his tattered nerves threatened to resurface. But the next was an \'n\' and then an \'e\'. "Mine." Matt breathed, as Mello finished the final stroke of the \'E\'. Mello nodded and punctuated it with a punch to the stomach which sent Matt down onto his knees. "Oh fuck."



"Should I stop beating you up now, Matty?" Mello asked, mockingly. "Or are you loving it too much?" He stroked the red hair now leaning against his thigh. "You\'re bleeding on my boots." There was no response, so Mello grabbed a handful of hair and pulled Matt\'s head back. He surveyed the redhead with a self-satisfied smirk. "Because I\'m a loving, caring person, I\'ll let you get your breath back. But, my beautiful whore, this is your only concession in lieu of where you\'ve been."



"Only?" Matt breathed, spitting out blood. "You watch me, Mello. This is about the third. Each time you think I can\'t take it, you give me a break."



Mello laughed. "Do I really?" He leaned down until his face was only inches from Matt\'s. "If that helps you think you\'re safe, then you dream on and think it. I\'m in control of you, but what on earth makes you think I\'m in control of myself?" He planted a kiss on his lover\'s swollen lips. "I love seeing you bleed." He stood and pinned Matt\'s attention with his gaze, as he removed his belt and loosened his laces. The leather slid over Matt\'s shoulders and neck, across his arms and chest. There was no hint of menace in Mello\'s tone, just a slight distance, which made hearing it all the more frightening. "I can do whatever I want to with you. I can streak that lily-white skin with lashes. I can kick you in the face. I can make you crawl until you beg for mercy. You\'ve never done that, Matty. I never heard you beg for mercy. I wonder how far I\'d have to push you until you did, if I ignored Watari."



Matt became pensive. "What do you mean?"



"We always play it so safe, underneath it all I mean. You call Watari and I stop. " The belt trailed down across Matt\'s lap and lingered there. "You think I\'m so in control. You need to know the distinction. I\'m in control of you. Me? I\'ll do whatever the muse takes me to at the time. Got your breath back?" The belt whipped up suddenly and striped across Matt\'s shoulders. "Oh good." It rained down then, bruising arms and chest and back to his shoulders, until Matt rolled against Mello\'s legs again and curled there, heaving. "You had better not vomit on me!" Mello stared down impassively, waiting until Matt\'s gasping stopped and he lay still again. "Poor lamb, getting all hurt." He held Matt by the head, while he crouched down again to join him on the floor. There were tears, mostly drying now, and the redhead bit his tortured lips so hard that they turned white beneath his teeth. Mello cuddled him close, "You doing ok, Matty?"



"Yes." Matt replied, huskily, but he took the comfort.



Mello nodded and smiled, "Good, because I haven\'t finished with you yet." He pressed his lips against Matt\'s, until the younger man opened up and kissed him back, then used his body weight to push them both back onto the carpet. There was a tinkling and the cuff keys appeared from Mello\'s pocket; it was awkward to release his lover\'s hands from that angle, but he managed it. He immediately gribbed the freed wrists between fingers and thumbs, slamming them down above Matt\'s head. "You\'re so beautiful, guapo. So fucking beautiful." There were two loud thuds as Mello kicked off his boots, then he turned Matt around to face him, stopping for another kiss. Releasing his wrists again, Mello smiled. "Undo my laces." Matt blinked at him, but his arms slowly withdrew from the floor behind him and met at Mello\'s flies. His muscles ached painfully, but Matt was practiced at liberating Mello from his leather. His eyes remained fastened on what he was doing, but he couldn\'t resist a glance upwards. Mello was staring down at him like he was a thing captured. "Funny how you get more battered at home than anywhere else."



"Huh."



"That will do." Mello rose onto his knees and shimmied out of his trousers, as far as he could, then lowered himself back onto his lover. "Who do you belong to Matt?"



"You." Matt blinked back; that emerald gaze so much calmer now.



"Good. Now you just remember that." Mello\'s finger hooked the collar. "You belong to me." The sex they had was hot and hard, violent on the landing floor, continuing against the panelled wall. Bloodstains dotted the route they\'d taken and the places they\'d been. Until, at last, Matt lay pinned half over the threshold of Mello\'s study door, sweating, exhausted and bleeding. Mello covered him with his body, claiming the kind of yielding cuddles that were otherwise too difficult to attain. His breath dripped kisses all over Matt\'s face and neck. "Is that what you needed from me, Mail?"



Matt nodded, languishing in the stillness inside. "Yes." He reached back to kiss his lover. "Thank you, my angel."



Mello squeezed him close. "We\'re so fucked up, you know that?"



Matt chuckled. "Yeah." He winked at the blond. "And isn\'t it great?"



Mello answered with a dubious look and an affirmative kiss.