All The Way Here

As Matt moved around the computers, plugging in wires and connecting routers, Mello stood by the kettle trying to speed up the water\'s boiling by sheer will alone. He needed the warmth.



Mello was in no doubt that finding the studio flat in the right location had been a stroke of luck, needing just a combination of fast, charming and low-level threatening discussion with the owners and a reasonable down payment of hard cash. It was furnished, which was great, but so cold. The walls, stripped to the brick, conducted the cold November air straight into the large, open room inside, while the uncarpeted floorboards did nothing to trap heat in. To be fair, there were radiators, but they were in desperate need of a service. Both he and Matt were huddled in their jackets, their every breaths visible in the icy air.



"Fucking boil!" Mello screamed at the appliance. "I know that a watched pot never boils, but this is freaking ridiculous. Does it even work?"



"Yes." Matt mumbled, rubbing his fingers through the gloves, as he linked scart leads from the monitors to the desktop. "I can hear it."



"So can I, but it doesn\'t feel any hotter." Mello reached out another tentative hand. "Oh. Ok, it\'s a bit warmer now." He stared at the damp mottling the cement between the bricks in the wall straight ahead. "We\'ll die of pneumonia before Kira gets us at this rate." He moved to the window and watched the people passing several floors below. This was the reason for the studio\'s lure. They had a perfect view of Near\'s headquarters and all who came and went within. It would be even better once Matt had linked in the surveillance equipment. "I can\'t even feel my fucking fingertips. I swear it\'s below freezing."



"Not quite." Matt responded amiably. "Probably will be in the middle of the night though."



Mello flashed him a murderous look and tramped, with echoing footsteps, across to one of the over-stuffed, red leather armchairs. He sat down heavily, arranging his fake fur-lined hood carefully around his neck to maximize the benefits. "I\'m going to get myself one of those Russian hats. They are designed for Serbian winters, so they might just about help in here."



"One of those with big droopy bits, like Deputy Dawg ears?" Matt pressed a button and every monitor zapped into life. "Result." He sloped across the floor, adjusting one of the tripods so the camera atop it pointed more precisely into Near\'s window. It didn\'t show much but a reflection of his portion of sky. Nearby the kettle boiled, so he paused to make their drinks, before carrying a hot chocolate to his frozen lover. "Hold on." He warned, as Mello made to grab it. Placing it on the floor, he flopped onto Mello\'s lap, legs dangling over the edge of the armchair, then reached down to retrieve their drinks. "I need your body warmth too much. Frozen."



Mello raised his eyebrows, but, in truth, was glad of the heat himself. He rested his mug on a tuft of Matt\'s jacket, so not to burn him, then waited to thaw out. "Matt, I\'m going to make a \'phone call in a bit and I need you to be absolutely silent. Probably for hours. You\'ve patched the line so it\'s free long distance?" Matt nodded, having already obeyed an earlier cryptic demand. "Thank you. Can you make sure that all of your games are on silent, so there\'s not a load of beeping in the background? And can you practice achieving a level without shouting \'woot\' please?"



Matt flashed an \'I\'m not an idiot\' look and huddled closer to the blond firebrand. He had stopped shivering and pondered whether that was a good sign or not. Did that mean that hypothermia was very close? "I was going to bleed the radiators. Silence over heat?"



"Unfortunately, yes."



"\'kay." He recognized the fixed stare that descended over Mello\'s visage. Strategy was being picked over in his lover\'s head, a whirl of activity taking place inside that genius mind that would probably be elaborately stunning in the execution or else subtly significant. Matt remained silent, just enjoying the quiet proximity and the faint beating of Mello\'s heart against his arm. His tea drunk, he cradled the empty cup on his own lap, until he slowly faded into sleep.



"Matty, up." Mello slapped his leg urgently. It could have been minutes or hours later. Matt slipped off, his hands already enclosed around the cigarette packet in his pocket. "I\'m going to the toilet, then I\'ll be making the call. Check your lines again and make sure it\'s definitely restricted."



"Restricted line. Check." Matt yawned, lit his cigarette and drifted over to the monitors. The whole left-side of his body felt cold where he\'d been pressed against Mello. "Already done it."



"Well, do it again." Mello barked from the far corner of the room. The tiny bathroom lay there, even colder than the big room. "This has to be right. If we\'re traced, we\'re dead." He disappeared into the other room, too preoccupied to even rant about the cold. Matt tested the line. It was secure. Mello returned and held out his hand, the \'phone placed into it. "I\'m calling a member of the Japanese taskforce in charge of hunting Kira. I strongly suspect that one of them is Kira and so we may be about to hear his voice. I am going to lure one of the officers here, though I doubt that that will be Kira. These are the stakes."



Matt blinked rapidly, shock draining through his body, though he sought to keep his expression neutral. He couldn\'t recall the last time that Mello had outlined a plan like this, except the fragments that he needed to know to do his part. He nodded mutely, trying to flesh out the detail in his own quick mind. "\'kay. Knock \'em dead." He sat down at the monitors and fixed his earphones, ready to listen in and record the conversation. He whispered, "Good luck", a second before the connection was made.



Behind him, Mello sank back into the armchair, his chocolate in his hand. He spoke brusquely into the skull and bone shaped receiver, "Are you Mogi?" Though the earpiece there came the stifled half-noise of several strangled gasps. More than one person was listening in at the other end, but Matt never made a sound.