Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Annals of Fear II	By : DeathNoteFangirl Category: Death Note > Yaoi-Male/Male > Mello/Matt Views: 5803 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note and I do not make any money from these writings

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
The door burst open.   Mello hadn't meant to do that, but the wind took it from his hand and slammed it back against the wall.    Nevertheless it was an entrance.    He did move a hand to catch it, but Matt was already there, wrestling it shut.    From the table, paper rose or flapped beneath coffee mugs.   Mello began to affect an apologetic wince, but his consciousness clocked what his instinct had noticed from the beginning.   They were all looking at him like this was a very bad moment to return.

Kiana had frozen, her lip between her teeth and her eyes moving with horrified inevitability towards the whiteboard.    Hal had stood, with that air of brisk, detached professionalism that she ordinarily only affected in high-stakes siege situations.   The three Wammy alumni were all watching with that shining eyed fascination, that was the hallmark of people waiting to see what would happen next, so they could process the data in case it ever arose again.   In the seconds before Hal stopped whatever was being projected from a laptop, Mello heard a commentary.   "... NATO forces entered the town..."

He marched forward and stared pointedly at the cleared space on the whiteboard.   There was nothing there now. Hal had switched it off completely.    "Have I missed film night?"   Mello asked, lightly.   Hal busied herself closing down the whole page, but Mello had seen the YouTube logo.    He nodded.   "I see."   He glanced behind him to find that Matt was there.   "Gorskica, I presume."

Century took his lollipop from his mouth.   "Didn't think you'd be back, see."

Deontic shot Century a withering look.   "Mello, we were discussing flashpoints.   Things that the house could use against us..." She petered out, realising belatedly that it wasn't just the house that could exploit such a weakness.

"Fine."   Mello replied, noting the pity in Kiana's gaze.   "If I didn't want it to get out, I shouldn't have told you about it."    He glanced down at the box under Matt's arm.   "Hopefully now you've got the torture and murder of Gorskicans out of your system, we can move on to survival at the manor house."    He gestured to Matt to put the box onto the table.

Fenian coughed. "Mello.   I'm sorry to see what happened.   It was fucked up, man."

"I know." Mello glared. "I was there."    He stood beside Matt, as his husband opened the box and took out a three inch, rectangular, black box.    "There's five of these.    We under-catered, but then we didn't know that you'd be here."   He flicked his gaze towards Fenian.   "Matt's put them together at home.   Mostly they are tracking devices. You carry them on your person at all times in the house and it transmits a signal.   It gets picked up by satellite and sent back to Matt's map of the house and surrounding areas.   For the record, he won't be going up there.   He'll be sitting in the chalet monitoring every move we make in that place."   Matt was holding an upturned box in front of his eyes, showing the socket in the bottom.   "Yes, I know, Mail, I'm getting to that." The box was removed.   "We also have some communicators, with built in recorders - visual and audio.   They're still down in the chalet, because we frankly couldn't be arsed carrying them up.   But they fit in your pocket or clip on.   There is a lead to slot into this, which transmits in the same way as your tracking signal.   Matt will receive it all and take it from there."   He looked around the table.   "Any questions?"

Fenian reached to claim one for a closer look.   That opened the floodgates and they were all grabbing one.   Not that there was much to see.   It was a small steel, black finished container with a hole in one end and a tiny, plastic dome near to the top.   Century frowned, "And when the electricity goes off and all 'phone signals are scrambled?"

Matt replied promptly, "You stand still, if you can."   He reached across and pointed to the dome of the one in Hal's hand.   "This flashes red when there's a signal.   If it stops, you know I'm getting nothing and so will be basing my awareness of your whereabouts on the last time I received a reading."

Deontic peered at her dome, "What's the procedure if that happens?"

"I contact the others in the house with the last reading and send them to retrieve you."

"And if they all go down?"

"I get to play war games." Matt smirked.

Mello rolled his eyes.   "He makes whatever decision he deems appropriate, in possession of the last known facts, to enact a search and rescue, and to ensure our survival."   He slid his arm around Matt's waist.   "Up to and including calling in the armed forces." No-one asked if that might be overkill.    Half of them had been there two months previously and had had to twice be rescued, while the remaining three had spent most of the afternoon and evening immersing themselves in the fine detail of their collective testimonies. "He's also..."

"Hold on." Fenian interjected.   "Aren't I best making the call on search and rescue, seeing as that's my fucking job?"

"We haven't even started with strategy yet." Mello sighed. "You'll be factored in."

"Yes you have." Fenian countered. "You've just outlined strategy."

Mello nodded, "Which will evidently have to be refined."   He indicated Hal.   "I didn't know that she'd be here either.   Another strong resource to factor in.   We're good for search and rescue. Fantastic.   But Matt's monitoring the hub, whatever happens.   I trust him implicitly with my life.   Not to mention the fact that he's built the hardware and written the programmes himself, so he knows them backwards."

Deontic flickered a smile at Matt.   "Thank you for doing that."   Others echoed her sentiment.

"You're welcome." Matt shrugged, though Mello, at least, could tell that he was pleased.

"Additionally, my amazingly talented husband has adapted the cameras and sensors, to place around the house, with satellite transmission.   Hopefully this time we won't be constantly running around the place putting leads back in."   He beamed at them. "Which I'm sure is a relief to all."

"What's the spec?"   asked Fenian.   Mello cringed.   He felt like he hadn't had a conversation with his husband, at home, for weeks without words like 'processor', 'adaptor', 'transformer' and an array of acronyms cropping up in it.   Matt could waffle on for an hour about the pros and cons of a single element in his complex system. Mello had learned by the age of ten not to mention the word 'spec' to Matt, for fear of having to sit through the answer, and this last month had reminded him why.

But Matt just wore a half-smile and didn't reply.   Mello rushed into the silence with, "Trade secret. Sorry."

"Can you at least tell us the battery power?"

Matt's smile widened very slightly, "Adequate."

Mello glanced at him.   "More than adequate, Mail.   Bordering upon excessive."   He returned his attention to Fenian.   "Let's just say that there's a good chance that an epoch can pass, continents shift, and our species evolve into something entirely different, and the battery will probably still be working in these."

"I'd be happier if I just knew the fucking spec."

"The spec is 'made by Matt'."   Mello replied decisively.   "And can we please get past this habit of having to debate everything like it's an issue?    It's getting really wearying.    In fact," Mello twisted away from Matt and stomped across to the pile of stones by the door.   He picked one at random and rushed back to roll it across the table towards Fenian, "what type of rock is that?"

Fenian picked it up and glanced at it once, before bouncing it on his palm, "It's a poorly lithified argillite."

"Good."   Mello nodded.   "That's good enough for me.   See what I did there?   I accepted your answer and trusted that you had the knowledge to back it up."   He frowned.   "And that's not because I don't question everything. I do.   That's why I'm the best detective alive today." He hurried on at the sight of a few raised eyebrows. "But I went to school with you and your knowledge of rocks is unparalleled."

"But my life doesn't depend upon this mudstone." Fenian replied patiently. "I have a car full of equipment myself, which serves me very well many miles down unexplored holes in the ground.   Why should I trust this over what's tried and tested?   That's all I'm asking."

Mello's head hunkered down into his shoulders and he reached for his chocolate.   "You can do what you like, Fenian, because you and I aren't going to be at the house at the same time anyway.   For both of our sakes."   He ripped off the foil and sank his teeth into the chocolate beneath.   "And I'm not saying that," he jabbered, with splinters of chocolate flying from his lips, "because I don't respect your abilities in search and rescue. You found my Mail for me and you brought him out alive.   I will always be grateful to you for that."

"You're welcome." Fenian replied, putting the stone into his pocket and taking out his cigarettes.    "You seem really rattled, Mello. Is anything the matter?"

Mello stood a little straighter, his chin up, "I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

Deontic used the short silence that followed to call across, "It looks like you put a lot of work into this, Matt. They will be very handy."

"Pleasure." Matt responded, softly.

Deontic smiled and nodded, then leaned forward to view Century. "So now we're all here, what is your plan?    Seeing as you're the project leader."

The chocolate bar froze halfway to Mello's mouth, but he injected a pleasant, brisk tone to his voice, "Isn't it more of a collective? I know Century invited us all, but we were all going to come back anyway.   It's an unsolved case, so that was inevitable."    His tongue snaked out to lick the chocolate bar.   "And it did all evolve out of my case."

Hal smirked.   The rest just surveyed him with coldness.   Century ignored him. "The way I see it, all we can do is experiment. We know that the witch bottle somehow stops it, but we need to really dig down and find out what 'it' is; and why something so flimsy seems to make it stop."   Now he glanced at Mello.   "Unless anyone else has any better ideas."

Mello raised a gloved hand to his forehead.   "You know, I'm developing a really blinding headache.    I think I'm just going to have a lie down."   He leaned against Matt, who raised an arm to wrap around him.   Mello started moving, until they were both walking towards the door.   "Goodnight all."

"Night."

"Goodnight, Mello. Matt."

Once outside, with the night and wind racing against them, Mello turned and flashed the birdie at the door.   Then stamped off down the track.
- 5
- 6
- 7
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Annals of Fear II