Poisoned Rationality

Matt caught up with Mello in the hotel\'s reception. The blond was scrawling a name in the register, clutching a key in his gloved hand. Matt sidled up to him, noting that the smile hadn\'t slipped a notch, then followed him as Mello stepped away from the desk. "You are such a wanker sometimes." Matt hissed as soon as they were out of earshot. "He\'s really distressed up there."



"I know." Mello grinned, his gaze sliding up and down Matt\'s body. "We\'ve got a room. I can\'t wait two hours to do what I want to do to you."



"Don\'t you think we ought to..." Matt began, but Mello pressed a finger to his lips, making hushing noises. "I\'m just saying that..." His lover pressed harder, smiling at him with his tongue flickering over his top lip. In truth, Matt reasoned that he ought to be enjoying this. Mello rarely looked this delighted and never for so long. The cause rankled though. "Mello, please, just..." The blond\'s hand slided across Matt\'s chin and onto his chest.



"Go and get the car, Matty. Remember to bring our shopping and the overnight bags from the boot. I\'ll meet you in Room 58." Mello looked so self-satisfied. "Quickly now."



Matt fumed half way across Camden. Mostly he was annoyed with himself for letting Mello get away with it and for secretly being turned on by the treatment. He walked down two whole streets before realising that he hadn\'t actually lingered upon Near once in his resentful thoughts; he was within sight of his car before it occurred to him that he had just left Mello and Near alone in the same hotel. Boots pounding on tarmac, Matt slid to a stop beside his car. His key-ring didn\'t include the car-key. Mello still had that in his pocket. "He planned it! He knew! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Matt berated himself aloud, as he rifled through the hooks and rods that he did have. It took him several minutes to break into his own car and another one to hotwire the engine into life. Foot down and screeching out, it occurred to him that, though he didn\'t feel drunk, he was technically over the limit and trapped within the one-way system. He slammed on his brakes and punched the steering wheel. "\'kay, Mail, calm down. Calm down and think. Come on you fucker, think." He took out his \'phone and dialled Mello. It rang out. "Fuck." There was Mello\'s answerphone message, \'Shoot\'. "Call me back soon as you can, you duplicitous arsehole." Matt snapped into it, then hung up.



Slowly and legally, he drove the car half a mile in the wrong direction, before being able to nip back towards the canal. His memory supplied a map of the area and he was able to find the hotel\'s carpark. It had taken him twenty minutes already and he wasted another by forgetting the bags. A few seconds pacing, trying to prioritise seeing what was happening over going back to collect them, and Matt\'s anxiety levels were through the roof. He lit a cigarette and leaned against the car. Near was probably dead by now; Mello was probably sitting in a blood-soaked room gloating over his victory. Roger was going to look at Matt like he was the greatest failure to live, because Roger was the only one who knew their true rankings. "Pwnt." Matt breathed through the nicotine and his phone played Franz Ferdinand\'s \'Michael\' in his pocket. He scrambled to answer it. "What have you done?"



"What?" Mello still sounded smug.



"Mell, I\'m really fucking freaking out here. What have you done?"



There was a loaded silence, then a wry sharpness to his tone, "I\'ve had a shower." He could hear a can being opened. "Are you nearly here? Don\'t forget the bags."



Unwilling to pick the lock to the boot within sight of the CCTV cameras, Matt crawled into the backseat and unlatched the back. A car raced into the carpark behind him and he recognised the driver. Hal Lidner. In London. Matt ducked further down, watching as she parked and ran into the hotel. The whole gang must be in Britain, he noted numbly. He\'d vaguely assumed they would be in America. Matt waited outside, watching her through the window as she took the lift and disappeared out of view. Near was out of his hands. Now all Matt had to do was resist the urge to put a bullet through the vicious blond head of the other contender.



Matt rose dejectedly through the levels and stepped out onto their floor. Number 58 was only a handful of doors along the anonymous corridor. With a rustle of carrier bags, he raised his hand to knock the door and Mello answered, smirking. "Oh, my poor, little Matty-kun. Did I frighten you?"



"Fuck off."



Mello laughed at him. His hair was wet and tiny droplets of water pattered down onto his naked chest. A towel hung over his shoulder. Almost imperceptively, Matt glanced down, but Mello was wearing his leather trousers. The look had not gone unnoticed and Mello\'s grin widened. "Let me have the bags." He pulled Matt in by his jacket collar and closed the door behind him. "You\'ve got lots of nice, new things." Mello danced back into the room and started rifling through the contents of carrier bags. He unzipped his overnight bag. "Matt, for the record, you are in the mood."



Matt stopped glaring at the fire regulations and stared at the corner of the wall which shielded Mello from his view. Interest piqued, he took the couple of steps to see what his lover was doing. Mello flashed a look of angelic innocence and started to towel dry his hair. "In the mood?" Matt frowned. "Or in a mood?"



"Let\'s put it this way. You\'ve got approximately ten minutes to chill, sort yourself out, have a drink, whatever."



"Before what?"



Mello\'s smile was distinctly feral. "Before I take out my pent-up emotion on you." His gaze drank in the sight of Matt from top to toe and back again. He heard the catch in the redhead\'s breathing. "It will hurt."



Matt fell back behind the wall, "I\'m going in the bathroom."



"Matt." Mello waited until he rolled back into view again. "That stuff in the club, saving that bloke\'s life? I was really impressed. Respect, man." He smiled as his lover blushed. "And Matt?" The redhead peered back around. "Cyberpunk is really hot."



"I\'m going in the shower."



"Ok." Mello sniggered. "Oh Matt?"



"What?" He called back from the bathroom door.



"Amazing, isn\'t it? How you stop trembling so badly right after I tell you you\'re going to get used." Mello heard the door shut with a decisive click and stood again. Crossing to the window, he gazed out, but all was quiet. Brushing out droplets of water with one hand, he replied to Hal\'s text message with the other. \'Who\'s side are you on now?\' Through the bathroom door, he could hear the water running. He was expecting a message back, so jumped when the vibrations indicated that she was actually ringing him. Frowning, Mello answered it. "Hi."



Hal sounded annoyed. "This is too long to text, so I\'m just going to say it. Ninety percent of the time, you are way beyond your years. The rest of the time, like right now, you are an immature, little brat. Grow up, Mello. Goodnight." She hung up before he could get a word in edgeways. Mello\'s jaw dropped and his temper flared. He punched the menu and scrolled for her name, calling her right back. It rang several times before Hal answered. "What?"



"Listen, bitch, when you have earned the right..."



"I was with you in Japan and got you out of that church. I risked my life too. I might not have come from your precious Wammy\'s House, but I have earned the right." He could hear her pacing. "You just go right on ahead with this attitude and see how many friends you end up with at the end of the day. Call me when you\'re acting your age again."



"Do not hang up on me again!"



"Or what? You\'ll point a gun at my head too. Just come and try it, Mello."



Mello grabbed his semi-automatic from the pile of his clothes and charged out into the corridor. "You want to remember sometimes where I\'ve come from." He took the stairs two at a time.



"Oh good, you\'re on the way." Hal snapped. "Are you bringing Matt as well? Shall we traumatise him further too?"



Mello stepped out of the stairwell. "What did you say?"



"Well, apparently he was the human shield in yours and Near\'s little game earlier. That must have been fun for him, mustn\'t it? Trust me, I know from experience what it\'s like being in between you and Near and..." She sighed angrily. "Mello, I\'ve just had enough for one day, ok? I am supposed to be going home on a visit tomorrow and that probably isn\'t going to happen. I\'ve spent weeks processing all the bloody paperwork after Kira. Now I\'ve got Near telling me he\'s going back to HQ and Watari telling me to take him to an address in Winchester; and a twenty year old, who\'s acting like a five year old, coming to blow my brains out. You\'re the genius, you tell me why I\'m stressed."



Mello could hear her through Near\'s door now. He exhaled. "Hal, just drop him off in Winchester and get on your flight. Night." He cut the connection and tucked the gun into his waistband again. Mouthing \'bang\' at the door, he turned heel and walked in his bare feet towards the lift. He hurried inside as he heard, then saw, Near\'s door opening. Mello stabbed a finger at the close button, praying to all the saints, Mary and Jesus, that it closed before they reached him. It did, but the wait for the lift to rise seemed to last forever. Just when Mello was convinced they would be awkwardly trapped in a small, metal container together, gravity shifted beneath his feet and carried him out of potential embarrassment. "Slava Ocu i Sinu i Duhu Svetome. Kako bijaše na poèetku, tako i sada i vazda i u vijeke vjekova. Amen." He crossed himself, entering their room, just as Matt was emerging from the bathroom.



The redhead took in the naked torso, the gun and the last sweep of Mello\'s hand across his chest. Green eyes flickered past him into the corridor. Mello closed the door. "What...?"



"Your ten minutes is up." Mello snapped, pushing him against the wall and removing the towel from his waist. His kiss arrived so forcibly that Matt\'s head hit the wall behind him. Mello stepped away and back-handed Matt across the cheek, gripping his arm in the same movement and hurtling him into the wider room. He staggered against the bed and Mello grabbed a handful of red hair, yanking it cruelly as he over-balanced Matt, throwing him to the floor. A fist flew down and hit him in the stomach. As his lover curled up, Mello flicked open his bag, removing handcuffs and gag. The blond stepped over him, reaching down to pry Matt\'s hands away from his stomach and to pin them above his head, while Mello sat on him. Only now did a smile reappear. "In answer to your question, I was praying."



Matt coughed between panted breaths. He was secured there until his breathing slowed and green eyes blinked through the water running into them from his sodden hair. "That was... sudden."



Mello grinned and released a wrist in order to rake Matt\'s hair back off his forehead. "So that\'s what you look like. I often wondered." Mello rose, dragging Matt to his knees and forcing his arms behind his back. He secured him with the handcuffs. "Wait there." Mello collected the brush and dragged it through the knots, smoothing the red hair back over Matt\'s scalp. Emerald eyes, unfettered by goggles or hair, peered quizzically back from Matt\'s white face. Mello shrugged, "I just wanted to. Besides, now I get to see your expression when I do to you all the things I\'ve been planning all day. Aw, look, you\'re already hard. Sweet." Mello bent to kiss him possessively, teeth on teeth, before hurling him sidewards. Mello swooped down, fitting a gag, before stepping away from him. Just Matt\'s head was on the bed, his body arched backwards, feet shifting for purchase on the carpet to support his awkward position. The belt seemed to come out of nowhere, bruising a nipple and a strip of his chest. The second hit his stomach and the third his inner thigh. Matt collapsed onto the floor.



Mello squatted by his side, one hand stroking Matt\'s arm as he smiled down. "Matty, you never guess what I found in one of those cyberpunk shops earlier?" Green eyes swivelled suspiciously to survey him. The blond was spinning a metal collar on his finger. "It\'s got a combination lock." Delight spread from the smirk to those blue eyes. "Which I think I\'ll memorise." Mello pushed a square of paper into his mouth and ate it. He unscrewed the smooth edges and squeezed it around his lover\'s neck. "With this collar, I do own." A flick of the dials scrambled the code. "And..." He picked up a pocket cyberpunk dictionary. "Does this mean I\'m a netrunner or I\'ve haxored you?" Despite the gag and dribbling saliva, Matt managed to snort a laugh. "You really shouldn\'t have left me alone so often to go into changing rooms, just because I told you to."



Mello reached down and entwined his fingers in the back of Matt\'s hair again. Gazing down with a slightly maniacal smirk, Mello watched fear and trust flash in equal measure through his lover\'s eyes. His gaze took in Matt\'s obvious arousal. "Whore." He guided him upwards with an iron grip on a clump of red hair and tossed him onto the bed. The belt came down repeatedly on Matt\'s naked arse, until it drew blood amidst a mass of reddening bruises and he began to struggle. Mello stopped, his hand slipping into Matt\'s, but the redhead squeezed back. Mello smiled and nodded. Matt\'s arms were forced higher, bending at the elbow until his hands were at his shoulder-blades. Kisses cascaded across the unblemished back, fingers gently tracing the shadows where his ribs showed beneath the skin. "Fuck it. As much fun as it is beating the crap out of you, I\'ve got to have a bit."



Turning Matt\'s head so he could watch, Mello wiped away the tears that fell from those green eyes and kissed them. With much wriggling and a shimmy, Mello discarded his leather trousers, standing naked and almost ready to exploit his lover\'s helplessness. His dick was rubbed over Matt\'s face and across his neck, lingering momentarily where his bound wrists met. Matt tried to touch him, but his hands were too cruelly crushed together and anyway, Mello slapped them away. Down between Matt\'s arms and onto his lower back, it brushed against the tortured backside and Matt lifted himself slightly to ease penetration, but that didn\'t come. Instead, Mello yanked him up again with an arm locked around Matt\'s throat and the other fastened in his hair. As Matt smashed up against the wall, turning his head at the last moment to avoid a broken nose, Mello apologised. "Sorry, I\'m just fascinated with your hair at the moment. You\'ve had the same hair-do since you were born. I might change it." He jolted him again, breathing in. "After all, you are mine to do with as I want. All of you."



Now Mello entered him, each impaling crushing Matt into the wall and sending new flames of smarting across his beaten arse. With a hand encasing his hands, Matt\'s biceps screamed for deliverance. With another hand pressed against his scalp, the psychological entrapment was as intense as the physical. Matt gasped for air through the gag, his mind flying free as his blood coursed with adrenaline, bio-energy, dopamine and natural oxytocin. Matt\'s body was relaxing, despite the punishment, in that moment of surrender, which Mello always found so intoxicating to feel happening under his administrations. The blond came hard inside him, then threw him back onto the bed. Sliding down onto his knees, Mello took Matt in his mouth and finished the stimulation there, swallowing as the redhead arched, moaned and orgasmed.



There was a silent moment of almost hypnotic peace, before Mello\'s smirk rose above Matt\'s stomach and he reached to untie the gag. "Alright there, Matty?"



Matt spat onto his own shoulder and gasped. "Yeah, man."



"Am I still shit in bed?"



Matt grinned. "Yeah."



Mello bobbed his tongue out and slithered up to cover him. Their kiss told a different story. Mello rolled Matt over until the redhead was on top, then languidly stretched for the handcuff keys on the bedside shelf. Wrapping his arms around him, he unlocked them, rubbing the circulation back into the unfolding limbs. "I love you."



Matt smiled back and allowed himself to be cuddled. His fingers explored the circular collar, half an inch in shiny diameter, locked around his neck. Mello felt him hardening again against his thigh. "When did you get this?"



"This afternoon." Mello kissed his bruised cheek. "I\'m about as likely to give you permission to take it off as I am to remove this ring from my finger." His hand travelled down to stroke Matt\'s discoloured backside. "It should remind you when I\'m not around just whose whore you are. You are mine, Matt. All mine."