Not An Angel

AN: Has anyone noticed how my style has changed a little since the first fic? I don't know, maybe I’m the only one whose noticed.... maybe I’m just crazy... but somehow I doubt it... not the crazy part, that I know...

BTW, this chapter starts directly where the prologue left off. :)

Suggested Listening: Give Until Theres Nothing Left by Relient K; If You Could Only See by Tonic

Chapter 3: My Beautiful

~Matt~

I heard the door slam shut and knew that Mello was home; he was the only one who would ever slam the door. And I highly doubted that someone trying to kill me would slam a door... that would just be stupid beyond belief.

"Hey Mello." I called out to him softly. I heard the thunk of his boots as they hit the carpet, probably after being tossed across the room.

"Sorry I’m so late." he said tiredly. He was always so tired lately. This entire case, as well as the ones he did to pay the rent, was taking their toll on him. "Come here?" I asked.

He walked over to me and I noted how tangled his hair was, which meant that he had driven without his helmet. I pulled him towards me and onto my lap. He tensed as I wrapped my arms around him and forced his back to rest against my chest.

He flinched as my hands trailed down his arm but twisted out of my grip when I went to kiss him. "I'm not in the mood for this tonight. I'm too tired." he stood up and with a sigh I watched him walk away from me and into our bedroom.

He never let me touch him anymore. Not just in the sexual sense either; it was like he had suddenly become afraid of touch itself. He would always shrink away even from the smallest thing. A hug, a kiss. It didn't matter. I rubbed at my eyes wearily. Maybe it was just... me?

Was that why things were getting worse instead of better?

I shook those thoughts from my head. Mello wasn't one to stick around in a relationship if he didn't want it. It was probably just the stress. Nothing else made sense.

I looked at the clock, and despite it only being just after eleven, I was tired. Shutting down the computer, and ridding myself of shoes and my new fleece vest, I walked quietly to the closed door.

I didn't bother knocking since it was our bedroom. He was lying on the bed with his back facing me. His shoulders were bare meaning he had stripped to his boxers. Once down to just my boxers I joined him in the bed but made no move to touch him.

“I'm sorry.” Mello said; his voice slightly obscured by the pillow.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I slid closer to Mello and draped an arm across his waist; he immediately stiffened but slowly began to relax after a minute.

Stress it was.

I smiled softly and pressed a kiss to Mello's shoulder before laying my head on the pillow beside his. I laid there, slowly drifting off to the sound of his breathing. So I was surprised when he turned in my hold to face me.

I could just make out the blue of his eyes in the dark; they were tired. But a different kind of tired. A bone weary exhaustion kind of tired.

“Go to sleep. You look like the living dead.” he laughed, a quiet sounding one, and allowed me to pull him closer. This was the most contact he had allowed me in some time and I wasn't going to waste it.

Once he had finally fallen asleep, and only then, did I allow myself to follow.

I awoke some odd hours later, the sun just beginning to rise, to a chaste kiss to my lips and a soft goodbye. Cracking an eye open I noted how Mello was no longer in bed. Which meant that he had left already.

“Wonder what time he'll be back today?” I sighed to myself. I wouldn't dwell on it today, I had too many things to do.

One of them involved calling L back. Apparently he had something important to discuss with me. It didn't bode well whenever he used those terms.

Deciding that sleep was now nothing more than a word, I heaved myself out of bed. I had gotten somewhere around six hours sleep. That was a surprising amount for me so I couldn't really complain; especially when it hadn't been Mello's intention to wake me.

Shuffling across the apartment and into the kitchen I tugged open a cabinet door and looked at the assortment of coffee we had. Honestly, couldn't we open one bag, use it, and then move onto the next one?

I took out the one with the least amount left in it, Kona blend or something, and poured a generous amount into the coffeemaker before starting it. That was one difference between us. I like strong coffee, he did too, but said mine tasted like battery acid.

I rubbed at my face and yawned. “The things I think of before caffeine...”

Grabbing my cigarettes of the counter I pulled one out and lit it while I waited for the coffee to brew. Mello always hated when I smoked inside but I had to remind him that we had no balcony and I wasn’t going to walk downstairs just to have one.

Exhaling I watched the cloud of smoke travel upwards and dissipate before it reached the ceiling. Maybe it was a good thing Mello left so early, I could have my cigarettes without all of the whining and bitching, none of it on my part.

With a smirk I retrieved my coffee cup out of the sink, which was beginning to pile up again, and rinsed it out. Barely waiting for the coffee to finish I pulled out the coffee pot and poured the black coffee into the mug.

Setting the pot on the counter and turning off the coffee maker I added sugar and cream to it. How Mello could drink the stuff black with just chocolate I would never know. Taking an experimental sip I winced as my lips burned.

With a sigh I seated myself at the computer and began task number one for the day. It was an easy hack job, timely but easy, that needed to be done by tonight. It was unfair to make Mello pay all the rent as he was obviously stressed enough as it is.

Maybe now he could take a day off....

Three hours and four cups of battery acid later I had finished the hack and now had money floating around the account. Hacking paid better than detective work, which now was very dangerous, and there weren't many cases right now.

Or at least not for J. I had done two the week prior but so far nothing else was lined up for the next few days. A far cry from my usual ten or more a day.

At nine-thirty the doorbell rang making me look up from my e-mail. He was early. “Doors open.” I yelled.

With a turn of the knob a tall, dark haired man walked in wearing a white button up shirt and black slacks. “Long time no see J.” I rolled my eyes. “I suppose.” I closed out my e-mail and stood up.

Task number two of the day, speak with Zane.

“Everyone was real freaked out when they heard you had relocated. Though part of the reason could be no more drug haven.” I snorted at that. “We both know I couldn't stay there anymore, besides the fact that my location was now known.”

Zane nodded and sat himself on the couch while pulling his phone out. “So what did you call me about?” I sat opposite him on the couch and propped my legs up. “I know you are working on the Detective Purge case, what detective isn’t?” I nodded.

“You also know that I work at a bar just inside city lines. Strange people have been coming around lately.” I cocked my head to the side curiously.

“At first I thought maybe they were tourists or something, we get them all the time. But me and the other bartender, Jennifer, noticed that they only came there after the announcement of a detectives murder.” I leaned foreword at this.

“It's probably nothing, it’s a time of paranoia, but I figured you'd be interested in it either way.”

“Thanks for this. What did they look like?” Zane turned to me and grinned. “Like this.” he handed me his phone and on the screen was a picture of three people sitting at a table with drinks littering its surface.

They were in a more shadowed portion of the bar and their faces were mostly hidden, though the shock of long blond hair stood out easily in the dark atmosphere. It appeared to be a woman though it was hard to tell.

On the blondes index finger was a silver ring. The only reason I was able to see it was because of the light it reflected.

“You might have found something very interesting. Tell me if they come in again, but don't make it obvious you are looking. People end up dead that way.” he shifted uncomfortably but nodded.

He stood up after that and I guessed he was leaving. “Send me a copy of this when you can, alright?” I gestured to the picture. Holding out his cell phone I waited for him to take it. When he did his fingers brushed against mine and lingered for longer than I would have liked.

“You want to have a go?” he asks with a coy smile.

“Excuse me?” I raise my eyebrows at him.

“You know exactly what I mean.”

I glared at him darkly. “I'm with Mello. You damn well already know this too.” Zane just shook his head and sent me an almost pitying look; like he knew something I didn’t.

“Whenever you decide that he's not enough, you know my number.”

I let him walk out the door without saying another word to him. I have no idea what to make of the look he gave me. And the more I think on it the more confused I get. So I decided to shake it out of my thoughts for now.

I had to contact L at any rate.

I called the private number back and was met with a recording telling me I had the wrong number. I knew I didn't so I figured this was to alert L that someone had called. Hanging up I waited no more than thirty seconds before my phone rang.

“L.” I stated into the receiver. “Correct. I suppose it is down to business then.” L said with a sigh. “I feel that the killer is closing in on us. All of us. So I advise you to be extra aware of your surroundings.” I rose and eyebrow at that. L, concerned?

“I think we'll be fine. Neither Mello or I have received any suspicious e-mails. We'll be fine until then.” L said nothing for a moment; it was a purposeful silence, like he was trying to convey something to me. Was something being kept from me again?

I decided that if he wasn't going just tell me then I couldn't spend my time worrying over it. Even if I asked him he probably wouldn't tell me, so it was pointless.

“Matt, is your computer on?” I blinked. Was the computer on? When was it ever off?

“Yeah, why?”

“I am going to send you a video file of the murder of Anastasia Lanceberg. I want your opinion of it.” Anastasia Lanceberg? I didn't know she had been found dead.

Sitting at my computer desk I waited for the file to completely transfer before pressing play. A scream rang out through the speakers and I had to quickly turn the volume down before the neighbors though I was murdering someone.

Instead of watching the murder itself, I began to focus in on the surroundings; things most people wouldn't look at while someone was being tortured on screen in front of them.

It was a dark place, but lit with swinging yellow lights. It was a basement of some sort from the appearance of the walls, which looked like concrete. The area around the woman was cluttered but beyond that, what little could be seen, appeared bare. As though it were a temporary place, or one used specifically for this.

The walls themselves were void of any type of hangings; no pictures, posters or tack boards. Though in the far corner of the room the yellow light shown on three spray painted letters, though it was apparent that there was more to the word. T. A. N.

The ending of the video was of her bleeding to death, and it went blank after despite the player saying there was at least another twenty seconds to the video.

“I suppose you already noticed the letters?” I asked L. “Very good, I doubt Mello would have noticed that right away. About them?”

I shook my head as though he could actually see me. “It could mean anything from Tanning to Tankers or something like that. It’s not going to help unless we can see more of the word.”

“I suppose...” he trailed off. “Why ask my opinion on this? Near is with you, so you don't need me.” though it was true that I would have scored higher than the albino had I tried to.

“It is always better to have three sets of eyes than one. Each new set brings new information.” he stated calmly. “I would like you to keep analyzing the video and if you happen to see something interesting then please contact me.” with that L hung up leaving me staring at the phone in irritation.

As much as I respected him, he was a very irritating person at times. With a sigh I clicked play once more on the video and set myself to watch through it again. But before I did that I opened a special program made to decrypt corrupted files, I placed a copy of the video in it and let it run in the background.

About halfway through I heard the door slam shut and Mello paused in the doorway. I could feel his eyes watching me for a moment before he moved again. “What are you watching?” his tone had an edge to it and I wondered if a case was going poorly for him.

“L sent this for me to analyze.” I said absently as my eyes were fixated on the video.

“Have you gotten to the end of it yet?” his tone was curious, but it almost seemed like there was fear and annoyance mixed in. A very odd combination.

“Yeah, I watched it once while talking with L. But it seems like the file is corrupted. There is around thirty seconds of footage unaccounted for. I have my program running in the background but so far it’s unfixable.”

“Oh. What's the video of?” he finally asks. I turn to look at him but notice the oddly heated glare in his eyes. He was pissed off at something, and I doubted it was me. Something was odd about him at the moment...

And it would only get worse if I commented on it. So I would just watch him for the time being, if he slipped up then maybe I could figure out what was going on. Why were all the geniuses in my life so.... complicated?

“It's the murder of Anastasia Lanceberg.”

Deciding that my concentration was now shot I closed out the video and looked at the clock. Already eleven-thirty. “Mello. Let’s go get something to eat.” he looked surprised at my request.

“Before you protest, I hardly ever get to leave the apartment except for cigarettes. I haven’t seen much of you lately, pizza perhaps?” I knew that it wasn't very nice of me to guilt him into it but if it worked then it was worth it.

His eyes softened momentarily before he nodded with a heavy sigh. “No fish on the pizza.” I smiled, knowing I had won.

Standing quickly I surprised him with a kiss which he leaned into making me smile. With an arm wrapped securely around his waist I pulled back from the kiss. “So, pizza?” he rolled his eyes and I was relieved to see some playfulness in his expression; something he had been lacking in the past months.

“Yeah, let's go get your damn pizza.”

-End Chapter 3-

AN: I will say one thing, no the blond in the picture isn't Mello, that would have been kinda messed up... :) Hm.. from here on out Matt’s chapters will probably get smaller, hopefully not too much so, since the main focus of this IS Mello. Though Matt does play an important part for obvious reasons :)