Hell and Healing

SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name, Another Note, Law and Right, Truth and Justice, Motive and Mayhem.

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Hell and Healing

Chapter 4: Magnets

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Mello had the satisfaction of watching fear rise in the eyes behind the goggles as he dropped the Christmas card and closed the space between them.

Watching Matt tumble to the ground was pretty satisfying, too, until the correctional officers were coming in to break it up, ordering everyone to their cells. He watched Matt get to his feet, rubbing his chin as the officers reached him.

He was restrained in handcuffs again, escorted from the cell, but he didn't struggle. He only paused as Matt went past him to get to the cell.

"That was for lying to me," Mello said softly, his gaze level on Matt's.

He spent a week in solitary confinement before he was returned to the same cell. He knew something was up when he was still expected to share the cell with Matt, so after he had dumped his things on the bed he would be using, he turned to his cellmate.

"Is it Near or L?" he demanded.

"I don't know why you think I'd tell you a damn thing," Matt slid a hand over his chin, where the bruise was still fading. "That's one hell of a hello, though."

"One of them is behind this! They wouldn't put me in the same fucking cell with you after that if someone didn't pull some god damn strings," Mello snarled.

"What makes you think it wasn't Mikami?" Matt raised an eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest.

"Like he'd go to this much trouble?" Mello snorted. "That guy doesn't even know me."

"He prosecuted your case. I really didn't think you'd sink to prostitution over me," he shook his head sadly, deftly dodged when Mello took a swing at him. "Same trick won't work twice, you ought to know that by now, Mello."

"You give yourself too much credit," he snarled, fuming as he turned his back and stalked out onto the range, storming down the stairs and putting himself against a wall where he could watch everything.

In less than ten minutes he realized that Matt was at the top of the food chain in his little piece of the prison. He snarled in irritation when Matt met his gaze and returned to the cell, kicking at the sink-toilet, ignoring the pain that jolted up his leg, huffing in irritation as he made his bed. He fussed to distract himself, bristling when he heard Matt come to the doorway, waiting patiently for attention.

"What do you want?" Mello snapped, glaring over his shoulder.

"A reasonable conversation would be nice," Matt replied dryly.

"About what? How you tried to frame me for murder?" Mello demanded, turning to face him.

"If that's where you want to start, then fine. I wasn't trying to frame you. Just Near," he shrugged.

"Worked pretty fucking well for a while, too, didn't it?" Mello's glare intensified slightly as he folded his arms over his chest.

"You know, I still haven't forgotten how those scars looked when you first got them," Matt's voice was softer now, as if he was lost in memory.

"I wish I hadn't tried to save you," Mello said it before he could stop himself, felt a twist of guilt as the pain registered in Matt's eyes.

"I should have expected you to say something like that," Matt sighed, slipping his hands into his pockets as he leaned on the doorframe. "How long did you wait to listen to the voicemail?"

Mello debated about lying, claiming that he never had, but it would probably have been pointless. "The Christmas after Watari died."

"Not a very good day to listen to something like that, I suppose," Matt rolled his shoulders. "The whole reason that I did all of this, it's pretty simple and stupid."

"I don't care what your fucking reason was," Mello snapped, "so don't tell me."

There was a soft sigh as Matt gave up for the moment, returned to the range and left Mello to his angry sulking. They had a while yet before Mello would be released, after all.

For a week, Mello didn't so much as grunt in Matt's direction. He spent his days asserting himself, making sure everyone damn well knew that he took orders from no one, not even Matt.

More than once he and Matt had gone for the same thing and, to avoid having to talk to each other, they simply gave whatever they were after to someone else. There was a lot of silent posturing and no one was quite sure who had the upper hand at any given moment.

Most of Mello’s time, however, was spent in some form of exercise, usually push-ups, since there wasn't much else you could do in such a small space. When they were released to the yard for a few hours each day, Mello switched to things like basketball and weightlifting. Despite his small size, he was quickly earning the respect of the other inmates.

Finally, it was Matt who broke the silence over lunch one day, as he inhaled away his rice. "So, I finally managed to weasel your name from one of the COs today," he said conversationally. The correctional officer he'd finally gotten the information from wasn't one that usually worked on their range and he'd tricked her into revealing the name by complaining about ‘that guy’ he shared a cell with.

Mello froze with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, glared at Matt. "It doesn't mean any fucking thing."

"Is that so, Jeevas-san?" Matt asked with a wide grin. He was rather satisfied with the way Mello's knuckles went white around his chopsticks.

"Yeah, it's fucking so, you filthy son of a bitch," Mello snarled. "You're one to fucking talk, anyway. Wasn't it you who turned your back on me? Who used me to build up an alibi and was going to let me take the fall if they started suspecting me?"

"Actually," Matt drawled, "the plan was to make it look like B had done it."

"Your plan flew out the fucking window when Near escaped," Mello snarled.

"That's true," Matt agreed mildly, shoveling another bite of rice into his mouth. "But really, I never intended for either of us to be implicated. The whole plan was to be number one."

"Then why didn't you fucking kill Near and destroy the weapon instead of hatching some fucking idiot scheme to make a big deal out of it?" Mello demanded.

"Where would the fun be in that?" Matt grinned. "It was a game, you should have understood that right from the beginning. It's how we were always taught to look at it."

"You and your fucking games," Mello shook his head, went back to eating, ignoring the silence that had fallen over the rest of the table.

"Does that mean you've forgiven me?" Matt asked easily, letting one of his legs slip forward, slide along Mello's. He winced when his other foot was stomped on and he pulled his leg away. "Jesus. You don't have to be that angry over it."

"I don't have to be that angry?" Mello growled.

It was all Matt could do not to shrink away from him. Apparently he'd said one of the worst possible things at the worst possible moment.

"I don't have to be that angry?!" Mello rose to his feet, glared furiously down at Matt. It took all he had to keep from lashing out. "I fucking loved you, you worthless piece of shit!"

It seemed, for a painful moment, as if the entire prison had gone silent. Even the COs that had been moving quickly to stop a fight that seemed all but inevitable had been stopped in their tracks by those words.

It was offset by the smile that bloomed on Matt's face when those words were spoken. He got up slowly, leaning in to press a tiny, chaste kiss to Mello's lips. He laughed as he picked himself up from the floor a moment later, after Mello's fist had once again connected with his chin.

"Be careful, you might break my jaw," Matt scolded as he got to his feet again, brushing himself off and rubbing the bruise.

"Fuck you!" Mello snapped, dropping back to his seat and returning his attention to his food. He figured he might be able to finish it before they dragged him back to solitary.

Matt lowered into the seat opposite him once more, speaking quietly. "I never stopped loving you."

Slowly, the rest of the inmates went back to their food and surprisingly, the COs didn't haul Mello off to solitary. He was mildly surprised by that development but figured it was probably for the best, anyway. He was just lucky that another charge hadn't been filed against him for the first assault.

It was, he supposed, probably Near or L's doing. The rest of the day passed without event and soon they were locked into their cells for the evening. Mello got to his bunk as always, laying on his back and gazing up at the ceiling in silence.

"I'm up for parole in a few months," Matt said softly.

"I fuckin' know," Mello grumbled. "Mikami told me."

"I have to stay in Japan until my parole is complete."

"I'm not going to be your partner again," Mello said firmly. "Not after the shit you pulled, not after the way you betrayed me. I trusted you, I gave you every fucking thing I had. We were practically married."

There was a smile in Matt's voice. "I wondered if you hadn't thought of it that way. I did, too. I didn't want to lose you to Near."

"The fuck?" Mello leaned over the edge of his bed to glare down at Matt. "What fucked up sort of shit are you on? Near? You were worried I'd hook up with Near? I'd rather fuck Ryuk!"

That had Matt laughing softly. "Wouldn't that be a sight! Really, though, you and Near have always been close."

"Like hell we have. I've always been a step behind him, trying to catch up," Mello shook his head, rolled onto his back again. "You're saying stupid shit."

"Even if you've always been struggling to get ahead, you've always understood him," Matt replied. "And he's always understood you. I always thought that there must have been some sort of attraction there."

Mello snorted. "That's like saying that the north poles of a couple magnets are attracted."

"Polarity can change," Matt sighed, raising a hand to brush his fingers over the underside of Mello's bunk.

"If it couldn't I'd still be in love with you."

Matt winced, rolled onto his side and fell silent for the night.

"I hardly ever sleep well. If it's any consolation," Mello added before he, too, shifted onto his side to get some sleep.

It wasn't quite the kind of consolation Matt wanted.

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A/N: Yay! Another chapter! =3 And now Matt gives us a little more insight into his motivations and we find that he's coming up for parole soon! (For those who may be curious, L recommended that Near have a much more severe sentence when he was charged and convicted. L was still warming up to the idea of reformation and still considered the mercy he showed Light to be a moment of weakness.)