The Annals of Fear

"Mail." Mello rubbed his eyes, red raw and stinging with lack of sleep, but he was determined to stay awake for this. Matt looked up from his station at the computer. "There\'s one last story that I haven\'t told you from Sweden."



Matt deflated visibly and Mello could read him like a book. Matt was thinking that they\'d spent the past five hours tearing that album to bits, with no success at finding ghostly women or dogs, and only now Mello added potentially important information. There was a note of rebuke in Matt\'s weary, "What?"



Mello rose from the settee and stalked behind his husband. His gloved hands slid over Matt\'s biceps and held him there, as Mello leaned in to speak conversationally into his ear. "It took me the best part of three hours to find the village from Västerås. But I was given a better route back to Örebro from there. Guess what I passed on that road?" He waited, but Matt just shrugged. Mello injected a note of surprise into his tone. "An airport!"



"Oh shit."



"Now who would have known that? An airport actually in Örebro, instead of two hours drive away in Västerås! Longer, obviously, with that accident that I mentioned earlier, which nearly made me miss my flight back." Mello let his breath graze Matt\'s ear. "And I thought to myself, \'what a prankster that Mail Jeevas is, adding well over four hours onto my journey, needlessly\'."



"I\'m dead."



Mello edged forward, peering around Matt\'s frozen head to peer into his face. "I have to admit that I may have cussed a little, planning all manner of nasty things with you in mind, for when I got home."



Matt blinked, unsure how to take this. "But you came in hyper and full of the case."



"I\'d calmed down by then." Mello grinned. "And besides, revenge is always a dish best served cold."



"Oh shit."



Mello stood up, shaking his hair back off his face. He was already undoing his belt as he headed for the door. "Bedtime, Mail." He paused at the door to look back. Matt was sitting immobile, his eyes closed. "Now." Mello carried on going, snapping the belt doubled up in his hands. Along the landing and into their bedroom, he didn\'t look back again. He didn\'t have to. Matt\'s slow footsteps followed after only a short hesitation and the sound of the computers being set into sleep mode. Mello was waiting for him, facing the door. The belt gave a final resounding thwack, as Mello loosened, then tensed the loop between his hands. Mello just smirked over it.



"Mihael, I\'m really sorry. I should have double-checked to see if there were any airports further west."



"Yes, you should have."



Matt looked very nervous. Mello enjoyed watching it. Matt\'s hand was at his mouth. He stepped forward, both hands now making patterns in the air, in his agitation. "It must have been built quite recently. I remember the airports from when we had to memorise them in class. Three of them in and around Stockholm. There was never one then in Örebro." He stopped, even more pensive than before. "Or maybe there was and I forgot about it. Either way, I should have checked. I\'m really sorry."



"For someone who enjoys being beaten, you are making a real fuss about this."



Matt sat on the end of the bed, then immediately jumped back up again, pacing. "Are you really pissed off? Or have you calmed down now?"



Mello bit his lip over a sly smile, his eyes glinting as he stared at his husband. "Oh! The agony of not knowing."



"You\'ve calmed down. You\'d be much angrier than this. You\'d have ranted the second you came in."



"Is that your final conclusion?"



Matt blinked, still pacing. "Oh God, no. You\'re quite capable of storing this up. You must have exploded initially, but there was nothing you could have done about it. I was miles away. You could have yelled me out over the \'phone..."



"I was driving a motorbike in traffic at the time."



"Oh." Matt gulped. Then he rushed forward and kneeled at Mello\'s feet, his head bowed. "I\'m sorry."



Mello resisted the urge to laugh aloud because, in truth, he had calmed down. He had got the fury over with halfway up the E18 and then consoled himself with imagining this very moment. There was no punishment needed, because Mello was well aware that what Matt could do to his own mind was far worse than anything Mello could inflict. No, Mello mentally corrected himself, because his intellect had immediately thrown up several things that he could do that were much worse. But at this level, it was best to let Matt hang himself. Plus Mello certainly wasn\'t adverse to Matt on his knees begging forgiveness, even if it was a carefully thought out strategy designed to deflect rage by turning Mello on. It was working.



"First," Mello smiled, turning to walk away, but peering back over his shoulder, "I want to see you strip. You were a lot more naked when I envisaged this scene." Matt\'s colour flushed, but he rose. There was a sharp look in Mello\'s direction, full of piercing intellect. Mello smirked back. It was genius versus genius, though Mello suspected that only he acknowledged that. Matt pulled off his gloves and threw them onto the carpet. There was no sexiness in it. Matt was not a natural born stripper. He just looked good with his clothes off. Then he sat on the bed and took his boots off. Mello had to look away to stifle a laugh, which threatened to bubble out anyway. He arranged his face back into sternness, then turned back when he heard the thuds of both of Matt\'s boots hitting the floor. "Nervous, Mail?" Mello purred and was gratified to see Matt\'s blush rise again. "Heh."



"No." Matt lied. "Because there\'s nothing you will do to me that I won\'t want you to do anyway."



"Interesting use of the auxiliary verb, \'will\' instead of \'can\'." Mello grinned. "Little distinction there between what I\'m capable of and what I might choose to do."



"Yes, Mello." A tiny smile played at Matt\'s lips. He wasn\'t nearly scared enough now. Mello darted forward with the belt and whacked it hard across Matt\'s jaw. "Ohmph!" Matt flew back onto the bed, which rocked for a couple of seconds under his impact. He held his face with his hand and experimentally moved his jaw. "Fuck!"



Mello leaned over him. "I thought I was getting a striptease, boy." He draped the folded belt onto Matt\'s abdomen and dragged it down over the bulge in his jeans. For all of Matt\'s theatricals, he was getting hard, Mello noted this and smiled. He stepped back and allowed Matt to stand. The redhead put some effort into taking off his top, wriggling his hips and peeping out after his face was free of the cloth. His jaw wore a bright crimson mark. It would bruise. Mello inwardly shrugged. He hadn\'t meant to hit him quite so hard, but whatever.



Mello lifted one foot to rest on the edge of the bed. It rendered Matt trapped in a small space between Mello and the bed, as he unfastened his belt and ripped down the buttons of his jeans. They fell to the floor, away from his bony frame, but he didn\'t have the room to step out of them. Mello grinned, lightly tracing down Matt\'s upper body along and shoulders with the belt. Mello\'s gaze travelled downwards to where Matt\'s Mario boxer shorts were tented. The belt followed, down Matt\'s chest, snaking down his stomach. Matt attempted a smirk, with his jaw smarting, and let his boxer shorts fall. "I stripped."



"I saw." Mello winked. He cupped the back of Matt\'s head with one gloved hand and drew him in for a kiss. Mouths locked together, Mello pushed forward, forcing Matt back onto the bed, his knees bent over the edge. Mello straddled him, knees up, covering him, kissing him. Eventually he drew back. "Te amo, Mail, but I am going to hurt you." Mello danced back, off him, and performed a striptease of his own. He could see the effect of it in Matt\'s eyes and the heightening of his erection. Mello lapped up the attention, showing him how it was done, until he too was naked. There was no disguising now that he too was aroused and ready for this.



"Bravo." Matt commented finally, his eyes dipping to take in the whole of his husband. Mello felt like Adonis under a gaze like that. It pleased him. He strode around the bed and smacked the pillow with his belt. Matt watched it happen. "You want me up there?"



"Si, puta."



Matt scrambled up the bed, laying his head over the indent in the pillow left by the belt. His arms rose above his head in anticipation of being restrained, but Mello was smirking. "¿Qué?"



"You\'re going to need your hands, Mail. Sorry." Mello didn\'t look at all contrite. Then he considered it. He had been planning a handjob, but Matt\'s mouth might work much better. "Ok, you win."



"Huh?"



Mello climbed onto the pillow, snapping his fingers into the air to make Matt sit up again. Then Mello sat with his back to the headboard and rested the belt on the pillow beside him. "On your knees." He commanded, as he reached into the top of the beside cabinet for handcuffs. Matt did as he was told, facing him and Mello, smiling, fitted one end of each cuff to Matt\'s wrists. The other ends were quickly secured to the headboard, forcing Matt half-prostrate with his head in Mello\'s lap. His arms were spread-eagled either side of Mello\'s body. "You waiting for a starting gun?" Mello enquired. "Surely it\'s obvious what you\'re putting in your mouth down there." He snorted and lifted the belt again. "While I..." He gasped slightly as Matt began licking Mello\'s balls, "occupy myself with your punishment." The belt came down upon Matt\'s back, then again upon his buttocks.



Matt moaned and took Mello into his mouth. As the leather rained down, the moans became exquisite in their vibration, especially when Mello held Matt\'s head down to stop him withdrawing. He felt himself deep in Matt\'s throat, with the whimpers and groans an ecstasy around his cock. Matt didn\'t even struggle and that just added to it. Mello lost his rhythm, trying hard not to come, just to prolong the sensation. Occasionally, Mello released the pressure on Matt\'s head, just enough for his throat to clear. He felt and heard the deep breaths that Matt took through his nose, his whole being concentrating on getting oxygen to his lungs and expellling carbon dioxide. Mello let it happen once or twice at most, then Matt\'s head would be rammed back down and the belt would fly again onto his exposed back. Matt did his best, swallowing, licking, gulping, but mostly it wasn\'t a traditional blowjob. It was a man trying to stay alive long enough to take his punishment. As for Mello, he had to stop it, because he was too close to orgasm and so losing all perspective. He let the belt drop, then, with a reckless abandon, let himself travel over the edge and into that soaring place. Matt swallowed every drop.



They both remained there, gasping for breath, until the moment washed overhead and Mello stroked Matt\'s hair. Underneath, Mello\'s leg moved, until his knee had found Matt\'s groin. He touched enough to know that Matt was not only achingly aroused still, but also dripping pre-cum. "Ah, puta! I abuse you, half-suffocate you, beat you and you, without so much as a whisper on your own genitals, are ready to scream Halleujah."



Panting, Matt lifted his head. Mello caught a handful of hair and craned down to kiss him. "Fuck me." Matt gasped.



"Puta." Nevertheless, Mello wriggled out, upwards, from under him, leaving Matt to fall flat on his face. "Oops." Mello sniggered, taking the opportunity to grab a quick bite of his chocolate bar. His gaze raked over the scored back, as he stroked himself back into arousal. "Just for you, though you don\'t deserve it." He grabbed Matt\'s hips and raised them up, reaching between Matt\'s thighs for pre-cum to lubricate his entrance. Then, with sharp, hard thrusts, he fucked him.



It was afterwards, as they lay breathless in a tangle of limbs, that Mello added, "Incidentally, that wasn\'t your punishment. I always knew that you\'d enjoy that too much." He sniggered. "No, your real punishment is that you\'re coming with me."



"Just did." Matt gasped.



"I mean on the next leg of the investigation." Mello grabbed Matt by the chin and turned him to meet his eyes. "And you will enjoy it."