Work Text:
“What did I fucking tell you?”
“Good evening to you as well, Mello,” Matt greeted him with a sarcastic tone, but Mello completely ignored him.
“I told you to keep watch. And what are you doing?”
Matt rolled his eyes in answer.
“Matt!”
Matt sighed. “Yeah, I’m playing a game. You happy now? By the way, there’s a thing called ‘multitasking’, you know.”
“Christ, Matt, you have to focus on them, not on that fucking game!” Mello growled. “We can’t afford the luxury of letting our guard down. If you don’t pay enough attention, they will sneak out as they did last time, and we can’t let them do that! I’ve worked so hard to get to this point, and I can’t be having you ruin everything just because you’re bored! You think I’m having fun?”
“Oh c’mon Mel, gimme a break!” Matt tossed the controller on the couch, giving up on letting the blond vent all by himself. This time, there was no way he could get out from this easily, with his usual monosyllabic replies while keeping his focus on the game. He lit up a cigarette, mentally preparing himself for what was about to come.
Trouble.
Mello sighed, rubbing his face in exasperation. “You really don’t get it, do you? For your information, we’re in the middle of a fucking case!”
“No, you’re in the middle of a fucking case,” Matt corrected.
“Then what are you doing here?? If you don’t give a shit about all of this, you might as well go away. I don’t need some fucking dead weight.” Mello hissed.
“Well, technically, you can’t kick me out considering this is my apartment.”
If glares could kill, Matt would have been dead right on the spot.
He laid the cigarette on the ashtray, trying to buy time and find something, anything, to say.
Mello took that burden from him.
“You know, sometimes I wish you had never found me at all.”
Matt felt his heart sink. That hurt. A lot. A part of him was sure Mello was just furious and didn’t mean that… Did he? Doubt was clouding his mind, fueling all those fears he kept hidden behind his easygoing and careless attitude. For a split second, he believed he saw a glimpse of remorse in Mello’s eyes, as if he realized he had crossed the line. Or was it just his mind playing games with him?
However, he tried to brush his anxiety off, sighing. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with that too. Silence was growing heavy, so he decided to stir the discussion in another direction, helplessly trying to cross the minefield that was Mello when he was angry.
“So, what happened?” Matt asked gently, noticing the few droplets of blood on the other’s shirt. Knowing Mello and his short temper, seeing blood on his clothes wasn’t so uncommon. Still, he couldn’t help but be a little alarmed every single time.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Well, sorry if I’m worried about your safety!”
“Oh, so now you care? That didn’t seem like it when you were playing with your damned videogames without even trying to help me!”
“Fuck, Mello, drop it!” Matt tried, but Mello went on as if he never said anything at all.
“God, you can’t even look at a fucking screen for a few hours! It’s not like I asked you to do something so out of your league! I'm sick of you complaining about every task I give you. If I asked that to one of my men back in the mafia, they would have done it without question!”
“Well, sorry to break it to you, but I’m not one of them, too bad.” His words were dripping dry sarcasm.
“Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m wasting my time here,” Mello said, taking his gun on his way to the door.
“Then leave! After all, that’s what you can do best, isn’t it?”
Matt instantly regretted having said that out loud. But on second thought, he couldn’t care less at this point.
Mello stopped dead in his tracks. When he turned around, Matt could swear he saw fire in Mello’s icy eyes. The same spark that ignited them when he was about to kill someone.
Mello quickly approached him, but Matt didn’t back down, not even when Mello shoved him against the wall, pinning him there.
“You better take it back.” He said, no longer screaming. However, Matt was perfectly aware that Mello was far more dangerous like this. Cold and calculated. He could be even more lethal than his loyal Beretta.
But there was no going back. Not this time.
“When things aren’t going the way you want, you just fucking leave. Look at you, playing tough with your gun. But underneath all that façade, you’re scared. Scared to fail. Scared you’ll never be enough.”
Mello clenched his fist around his gun. “Shut. Up.”
Their faces were so close that Matt could feel Mello’s raging breath right on his face. Mello’s gaze was piercing right through him.
“You know I’m right, Keehl.”
He used his real surname, just for the sake of it. And, of course, that made Mello even more furious. His eyes were murderous. Matt knew for a fact that this was the last view many had after having made the poor choice of wronging Mello.
“I said shut up.” He whispered through gritted teeth.
Matt lowered his gaze, looking at Mello’s lips and smirking before locking eyes with him again.
“Make me.”
A challenge. All in. Win or lose.
He knew he was playing with fire, but hell if he wanted to get burned.
And without any hesitation, Mello closed the little space between them, crushing his lips to Matt’s and locking them in a heated kiss. Matt was just as passionate in returning it.
Only after they parted Matt opened his eyes. He was faced with a completely different vision in front of him. The threatening aura around Mello was gone. In its place was a sight that no one besides Matt was ever allowed to see: the shell of a man who was clearly overworking himself. Mello was no stranger to stress: unlike Matt, he always fought hard to reach his goals. Giving up has never been an option for him. But all this Kira business was really taking its toll on him. Not to mention the never-ending rivalry with Near added with all the shady things he had to go through in his mafia days.
No matter how much Mello tried to hide it, he was scarred in more ways than one. He was on the verge of breaking up for good.
“Look, I know you want to do things your own way, and that you hate more than anything to ask for help. And don’t even bother saying that it’s not true. I know you better than anyone else does. Definitely better than you know yourself. But you have to let me in. Let me help you.” Matt whispered, bringing his hand to Mello’s cheek.
Mello’s gaze was fixed on the gun he had apparently dropped during their making out. He nodded slightly, still too proud to form an apology of any kind.
“Mh?”
Mello rolled his eyes. “Alright,” he sighed in defeat.
Matt smiled.
“That’s more like it.”