A/N: Ok, so first thing, this is my absolute first try to write anything romance-related so please don't kill me if it sux . Also I've been wondering whether I should continue it. I've had a couple of ideas but I don't know if it isn't so bad that it's not even worth to be continued. So, please, I'm begging you, tell me whether I should continue it. I really need your opinion on that.

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After spending the last few hours on the road again, Matt was glad to finally hit the breaks, coming to a stop a few meters away from the big building that had been his destination for a couple of days now. Spending all day on the highway, trying to reach one particular spot had been the thing he had been doing for quite some time now, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. Opening the window, he rested his hand on it and his hand popped up from inside the car, eying the structure critically, with a look of self satisfaction on his face.

"I've got you this time, Mello", the redhead said to himself, pleased that he had finally caught up.

And "caught up" was quite the right thing to say in this situation. The blond detective had been playing this game of hide-and-seek way too long for Matt's liking. Tree-years-too-long to be exact. That had been the time Matt had finally left Wammy's safe grounds in search of his old friend and what for? Just to spend his next few years, chasing after the wind.

And that was the best definition of it, too. Mello had been just like the never stopping wind, not holding still for even one second. Sure, he had had enough reasons, being now a Mafia boss and all, but Matt was sure the other teenager had been fully and completely aware who and why had been chasing him and he still wouldn't stop! He could've waited just a little bit for the redhead to catch up, damn it! It wouldn't have been so much of a problem!

Sure, there were such times, when the gamer had been this close to catching him, and they were the times that left him throughly frustrated. Just when he would tell himself "This is it," he would turn the corner only to see the needed building completely empty and deserted and to realize that Mello had ran away from him again. Those were the times that left the redhead cursing himself he wasn't just a little bit faster, because not only had he missed his old friend, but had also lost any clues to his whereabouts.

But it is needless to say he never gave up. The desire to find him, to make sure he was alive and in one piece and to finally tell him the truth about everything he had hadn't told him during their years in Wammy's was too strong and he found himself not able to stop his search. Being the good hacker he was and growing up with the blond had helped him a lot during his chase and it had let him to where he was now.

Yes, this time it was going to be different. He could see the building in front of himself and it was obvious to the boy that it was far from deserted. But come to think of it... There weren't supposed to be any police officers running about a Mafia hideout... were there?

Oh shit!

"If you've gotten yourself caught, I'll never forgive you," Matt growled, trying to push aside the panic that was taking over him as he started a fearsome battle against his safety belt, trying to launch himself out of the damn car as soon as humanly possible.

He was just about to open the door and dash out towards the building, when all Hell broke loose in a single explosion that came from the second floor of the place. It was then when a series of blasts followed it, sending parts of the structure and its surroundings flying trough the air in every possible direction. Matt's instincts kicked in, as he ducked even though he was far enough to be out of the range of the bigger smithereens that fell around like a deadly rain crashing on the ground with sounds as deafening as the explosions themselves.

When Matt had recovered from the shock enough to look up, he realized what had just happened. The two-storey building was no more there and on its place was a wreck, surrounded with raging flames from any possible direction. The color was drowned from the redhead's face, as he finally managed to find his way out of his vehicle, and just stood there staring for a second.

Mello wasn't suicidal enough to blow himself up, right? Then again, if the police had really cornered him, the blond was capable of doing almost anything and standing there Matt started fearing that determination from his old friend's side. What if he... What if he had killed himself with that explosion...

The gamer cursed loudly as he sped towards the remaining of the unfortunate building. The closer he went, the more obstacles appeared in his way - be it parts from the walls or ceiling of what used to be the Mafia hideout a couple of minutes ago or what was left of the burned furniture or even pieces of monitors or other machinery. Matt, however, ignored all and every thing that was on his way, determined to get in the burning reminding of a building with what little hope he had that Mello would be alive.

'No! He has to be alive, damn it! He has to be!' The thoughts wouldn't leave him alone, as he got closer. His heart was racing together with him and the adrenalin was flowing trough his veins. He would not allow himself to fail when he had gotten so far. It would be all for nothing, he would have failed... He would have failed Mello, but he would have failed himself even more.

And he knew, as soon as the burning flames surrounded him, that there was no going back without his old friend. There was no way he would let him die... Even as the smoke started to choke him, he knew that he couldn't look behind, because if he fled and saved his own live, than Mello would be gone. Forever. And this time there won't be hope.

Hope. That had been what had kept Matt together during the last few years. That was what gave him the strength to continue after Mello. It was what drove him into the crazy chase as well. It was the hope that he would make it to the blond before it was too late and that he would be able to tell him the truth.

Why hadn't he told him during their time in Wammy's? Because the redhead himself hadn't realized it. It wasn't until Mello had left that he had seen how he really felt for his friend, and to be hones he was at first terrified by it. He never believed himself to be the kind of person who would fall for another male, but it had happened. And it hadn't been before the emptiness of the orphanages walls had become too much for him to stand, before he finally started to search for Mello.

Why had he started to look for him, actually? Because, simply said, he needed Mello. He needed to know that he was safe and next to him, he needed to see him, to hear his voice, to catch that faint smell of chocolate that followed him wherever he went. It was like an obsession, kind of like the cigarettes. He couldn't live without him, even though he knew that one day Mello would get him killed.

Covering his mouth with the sleeve of his left hand, Matt realized how lucky he was for wearing those goggles - no smoke went anywhere near his eyes and it helped a lot. At least he could see well enough, but that couldn't be said for his ability to breathe. Another cough echoed trough the place, mixing with the sound of burning fires and falling parts of the building. He looked around again, trying with all his might to spot Mello, knowing he was here. There was no other place, after all. There was no other chance.

Matt entered the next room. 'Nothing.' Another room. 'No.' There was a door to the left. 'NO!' He ran over another door.'No! He's not here!'

Panic struck, the teenager ran out of that room again and then he saw something. It was a part of what was felt from the second floor falling together with a body. He ran there, ignoring the small gasps that his breathing had become and the burning in his throat and lungs, cosed by the smoke. That could wait. What was important now was...

"Mello!" The yell could hardly be heard over the sound of the fires around him, as he had gotten closer to the fallen figure.

And indeed Mello it was. With a half destroyed mask that now covered only the right part of his face and a terrifying burn going from his left eye down trough his face, neck, shoulder and hand. Matt knew that if he had a better look at it, the whole wound would be far worse that what he was seeing now, but he had no time. No damn time...

Realizing how every second counted he bent down towards the unconscious blond and slipped one hand under his knees and the other one behind his back, lifting him carefully. It wasn't before he turned towards the exit that he realized how bad the smoke was effecting him. His vision blurred for a second when he stopped in his tracks, trying to find a way out. It was hot, burning even and the lack of oxygen was saying its word. Matt felt dizzy and that wasn't helping his sense of orientation...

'No... I have to make it...'

Coughing again he resumed his pace, this time quite slower towards the door, making sure not to trip over something, because he knew it - if he fell, he wouldn't be able to even get up not to mention picking Mello up and getting out of there. His feet felt like they were giving up on him, but he refused to fall. Hardly making it trough the next to the last door, he realized how close he was to the exit. Just a little bit more... All he had to do was cross this damn hall and he would be out.

He leaned back, hardly being able to keep himself standing and hit the wall behind him. Even though it helped him to keep his footing, he could feel his back burning and was almost certain that his vest had caught fire. But there was no way he could get rid of it right now, so the boy just made it into another motivation - the sooner he got out, the sooner it would stop burning.

Pushing himself away from the wall he started to walk forward again. Just a little bit further...

In his desperation, Matt put all of his strength into running past the last few meters that separated him from the end of this Hell and he realized a little bit too late that there was s part of the ceiling right in front of his feet. It had picked the worst possible place to fall - right in front of the door - and the gamer found himself unable to stop. Tripping into the burning substance, he fell forward. The crash was hard and he rolled a few times on the ground, before coming to a stop and realizing that Mello was no longer in his hands, but instead he was lying on his back next to him.

Matt felt like Hell, his back still burning as was his right ankle right now. His lungs and trough felt like they would never stop hurting and his hands and feet had quite a few bruises and cuts from rolling on the ground. His goggled were broken in more than one place and had fallen during his tripping, revealing his tightly squeezed eyes.

Opening them slightly he was able to stare right at Mello's face which didn't look any better than his. Yet, right now, he couldn't care that much about wounds. He pushed himself up and checked the other boy quickly, feeling really relieved when he realized that he was indeed breathing.

"Fuck it, Mello..." his voice was quite different from what it was supposed to be, but he payed no attention to it. "Never do that again."

For a second or two Matt just stared at him, wondering what would Mello have answered him if he asked what had happened. His mind drifted back to one of those quarrels they had, because of the blond's secrecy...

"Shut the fuck up!"

There it was again. Matt should have learned by now that his blond friend could be a helluva stubborn bastard when he felt like it, and yet he just had to push his luck by asking. And even though asking a normal "What's up?" was all the redhead had done... well he should have known better...

"Aw, come on, Mello," and there he goes again pushing his luck... "Just say what's wrong. I can clearly see something's the matter."

"It's none of your business," the chocolate lover snapped turning away from his roommate.

Yes, you read right - roommate. The two boys had shared one goddamn room for as long as they could remember being in the orphanage. Right now they were approximately 13 years old and still at Wammy's. Approximately, because Mello was almost 14 and Matt didn't really know when his birthday was, considering that he had spend his entire life from one place to another... The date was long lost.

Usually everything was just fine with them, actually they easily tolerate each other, as strange as that sounded - some of the other kids still made bets on how long it will take Mello to get too pissed off at Matt and to beat him up good, but little did they know about the two boys' relationship. The redhead was proud to say he had actually made his way to become the short-tempered blonde's friend and he knew that the said chocolate addict was his only real friend.

Well, things were usually alright... If they didn't count situations like the one at hand that led to a very pissed off Mello and quite the annoyed Matt, that is...

"Hey, we live in the same room and we're friends. How much closer to I have to get to you to make your bitching my business?"

After saying that the redhead was wise enough to duck and to successfully dodge the punch that had been aimed for his head. Mello's heal, however, connected with the back of his head and made it so that his nose would slam painfully on the floor that had actually been just a couple of inches away to begin with.

"You should have learned by now to leave me alone when I'm pissed," Mello's voice was just a little bit higher than the necessary as he took his foot away and fell back on his own bed on which he had been sitting up until now, saying this time more coldly than angrily "Get me a chocolate when you get up."

"Uh..." the redhead popped his head up over the side of Mello's bead so that he could send a half-hearted glare his way, holding his own acing nose. "What am I anyway? Your slave or something?"

And even though he said that the gamer found himself up and searching for some of the tasty brown sweetness of Mello's chocolate. It wasn't long until he spotted a bar that had mysteriously found its way under his own pillow. He threw it towards the lying boy on the other bed, wondering how it had gotten there as he sent an absentminded look around the room... The question was found to be completely out of place.

The only two chairs that had ever had the horrible misfortune to enter the room were toppled over and one of them was missing a leg which was actually hanging from the lamp in the middle of the room. The table was on its side and it was more than obvious that it had served as a shield during more than one of the many food fights. One of Matt's laptops could be seen from under one of the unfortunate doors of the closet which was hardly holding up on one of its hinges (the other door was currently missing though the wood that was popping from under the couch looked suspiciously like it). There were clothes - both dirty and clean - practically everywhere, mixed with papers from different cases, wires and other parts that were left from some older and quite missfortunate games and, of course, many chocolate wrappers.

Eventually Matt's eyes drifted back towards his roommate and a devilish grin started growing on the redhead's mischievous face.He started to quietly make his way trough the garbage on the floor, towards the blond who was currently still fighting with the wrapper of his sweet addiction. Without even looking up from it Mello growled, obviously threatening:

"Don't even think about it."

"Cut it out already, Mel," the redhead whined seeing that his plan had been found out, as he dropped down on his stomach next to his friend and getting one of his Nintendos that was lying next to Mello's bead and turning it on without even as much as looking at the blond again. "Just tell me what happened."

"Why should I?" Mello had finally gotten rid of the wrapper and bit the side of the chocolate, taking quite the big piece of it before letting it melt into his mouth, enjoying it's sweet taste.

"Because I actually care-"

"WHY do you care!?"

'Why do you care?' It would always get to that point. Matt hated that question because he never really found the answer of it. Because he never understood himself enough to be able to say why he truly cared. Or at least he hadn't when he should have, when Mello was with him in Wammy's, when he could tell him if he had only known.

Now, though he knew the answer. It had nothing to do with the neutral "I just do", "Just because" and "What? Can't I?" which he had said in the beginning. Neither was it because Mello was his friend and they were roommates, which he had pointed out quite a few times as well. No, the real answer was far simpler than that. So much simpler that it was really strange for Matt that he hadn't realized it earlier.

"Because I love you."