A/N: Hello, this one is pretty long, and I worked quite hard on it. Have fun!
Edit: I was looking over it and found several absolutely horrid spelling errors, so I'm re-uploading this chapter. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Disclaimer: I do not own Matt, Mello, Roger, Linda, or Death Note.

The first time Mello made Matt laugh was on the longest day of the year.

The sun was red-hot; the grass had long ago been replaced by coarse dirt, and everyone at Wammy's was covered in sweat – including Mello. This was quite distracting to Matt, and his disobedient brain had to be distracted with thoughts of video games instead of Mello's body (although he did prefer Mello).

The faculty was worrying about the orphans possibly overheating, so they ordered them to stay inside and drink lots of liquid. Mello, as always, had an opinion.

"Fucking bullshit!" he exclaimed, pacing the floor of Matt's room as the usual blips emitted from the bed where aforementioned boy sat. "Those bastards cannot make us stay in this hell house on such a nice day!"

"Dear God, Mello," said Matt in his usual semi-monotone, "lay off the cursing. And they obviously can make us, considering we're in our room right now- err, you're in my room. Why are you always in here, anyway?"

Mello pointedly ignored the question; instead, his face slowly lit up. He obviously had an idea. "We don't have to be in your room, you know…" he said slowly.

"No, Mello, I am not sneaking out," said Matt, sounding horribly bored.

"Oh, go fuck yourself," snapped Mello. "You are coming out, and you're coming out now."

Matt sighed. When Mello got like this, it really was pointless to argue. He flipped his Game Boy off and stuffed it into his pocket in case the excursion became excruciatingly boring (although considering it was led by Mello, he highly doubted such a thing would happen).

"Fine. Where are we going?"

That goddamn grin again. Oh no…

-

Well, it wasn't as bad as he'd thought. In fact, past the initial stages, it had been fine. Sure, convincing first graders that Wammy's was on fire because it "got too hot" and sending them off to distract Roger wasn't exactly his idea of a good time, but at least no one had gotten hurt.

And paying that Linda chick five dollars (out of his savings, too) to stand near the door on the inside and sing "Hot in Herre" in her lowest alto voice if she saw anyone coming while they made a mad dash for the trees that bordered the orphanage wasn't precisely how he'd envisioned his day to go.

Certainly, after running for nearly half an hour (and to some random place that made Mello smile his evil grin) only to discover that he was running to a huge, murky lake and hadn't brought any swim trunks, he had a right to be angry.

He stood on the rocky shore, looking out over the jagged stones and rough sand and into the muddy water, and secretly wondered what had given Mello that smile, because it sure as hell wasn't the lake itself.

"What are you doing just standing there, Matt? Jesus Christ! Jump in already!"

"You expect me to go in the LAKE with no SWIM TRUNKS? Are you crazy, Mello? No way." Matt shook his head and flopped onto his back. A rock poked into his behind. He pulled his Game Boy out.

He was just beginning his first round on his game when Mello struck.

The water splashed up into his face with a surprising amount of force. He hadn't brought his goggles (they just obstructed things on such a hot day) and found his brown eyes flecked with water. His eyebrows creased.

Simply put, Matt was pissed off. He was tired from the run to the goddamn lake, five dollars had been unmercifully taken away from him, and now his GBA was wet.

He didn't think he could keep his head on right if Mello did that again.

Unfortunately, that happened to be Mello's plan, and the next wave hit him even harder; his shirt was soaked, the GBA fuzzed and blacked out, and he could taste the salt and mud in his mouth.

With a battle cry that only a middle school boy could properly pull off, Matt went flying into the water, jumping right on top of Mello and sending them both cascading farther into the lake and under the water.

Sputtering, they bobbed up to the top and screamed like (decidedly male) banshees. Mello splashed Matt right in the face, and Matt retaliated by dunking Mello's head. As they continued fighting and the sun shined down on them from up in the sky, Matt forgot about the fact that he didn't have swim trunks. He forgot about the huge English paper due Monday, and how incredibly angry Roger would be when they trudged into the house hours later, and how Linda would demand that he serve the day of detention she'd get for helping them escape. The only things in the world were him, Mello, and water; and he was being cleansed.

As they trudged back to shore, Matt swiped some of his hair out of his eyes. It was clinging to his forehead uncomfortably.

And then, he laughed.

It started out quietly, like a low rumble in his chest, and then he couldn't really contain the pure noise of it and it burst completely from his mouth like a sunbeam; and he fell back into the water in joy, laughing and laughing. Mello just stared at him, but as he resurfaced and Mello caught the look on his face, a huge smile spread across his face.

And then they were both laughing and Mello had tackled Matt again, this time pushing him onto the sand; and they laughed some more and rolled around, and suddenly Mello was giggling, not laughing. It was so high-pitched that Matt started for a moment; but then he was acting on the second impulse he'd ever had in his life (ironically, the first one had also occurred today) – he was hugging Mello.

Mello immediately stopped giggling and stiffened up. He didn't respond, didn't wrap his arms around Matt; but what mattered to Matt was that he didn't push him away. They stayed like that for a moment, and then Matt pulled back and smiled again.

"Shall we head home?"

Mello was still in such shock from everything – Matt hugging him, Matt smiling – that he didn't respond.

Matt didn't need him to. He knew where home really was - with Mello.

Because – well, you know what they say, right?

Home is where the heart is.