I should have known from the beginning that it was going to end like this. After all the first time that we met it was sunset.

At Whammy's I was revered as the best thief around. I could steal anything, extra food, information, underwear but most importantly, chocolate. And all at the ripe old age of eight. I sat in one of the lower branches of the big oak out back relishing the hardest thing of all to steal around that place, time. I stared up at the orange light that filtered through the thinning autumn leaves above my head.

I sat there with one of my precious chocolate bars dangling from my mouth when I heard the footsteps from below. I glanced down at the ground before snapping off another piece of chocolate choosing to ignore the suited figure standing under the tree. Unfortunately, ignoring him didn't mean that he wasn't there and soon the elderly man cleared his throat loudly for my attention.

"Mello, could you please come down from there?" he asked peering up into the nearly barren branches.

"Why should I?" I mumbled around the mouthful of chocolate, bristling at the intrusion on my hard earned quiet.

"Do you have to make everything you do difficult?" Roger sighed up at me. I smirked at his frustration and swallowed before I swung down out of the branch.

"What?" I asked as I landed with a crunch in the newly fallen leaves.

"Mello, I'd like to introduce you to a new student here at Whammy's," he said fatigue creasing the lines on his face. I hadn't noticed the small figure standing beside him until just then. I looked him up and down, giving him a quick once over. He looked to be about my age with a mop of unkempt red hair and a ridiculously long black and white striped shirt with sleeves that hung well past his hands.

"So?" I sneered. I still didn't see what this had to do with me.

"This is Matt. His entrance exams score right up there with yours," Roger continued with his speech as though I hadn't said a thing. "In other words I'd like to introduce you to your new roommate. Matt this is Mello," he explained turning to the boy on his left. "He'll be showing you around and I expect there to be no problems." I could tell that the last two words were directed at me by the stern look in our caretaker's eyes. I shrugged and looked away realizing that it wasn't worth putting up a fight.

"Whatever."

"Good, then I will leave you two to know each other better. I'll see you both at dinner." The old man heaved a heavy sigh, stuck his hands in his pockets and headed off in the direction of the main building.

I glanced over at the boy beside me. What was I supposed to do with him?

He didn't give me much time to think about it though. As soon as Roger was out of sight he thrust a sleeve covered hand into mine and started babbling on and on about collecting sunsets and how he'd always remember the day we met because it was at sunset. I just shook my head in confusion at the sudden barrage of words.

That day all we talked about was his odd habit of "collecting" sunsets. He explained to me that it meant paying close attention as the sun set and remembering his favorites. He described to me some of the ones from his collection and I was in awe of the explosions of orange and red and the heavy golden skies that were tinged with a hint of purple on the horizon.

I just brushed it off as a stupid hobby but as time passed we grew closer and soon I found myself collecting those damn sunsets too.

At first it was a subconscious thing. The colors just seemed to catch my eye as the sun slipped ever so slowly behind the horizon. The vibrant oranges and reds always commanded my attention whenever I passed by a window. It didn't take ling for my striped shadow to notice. Every time he caught me lingering at a windowsill or staring off into the west he would pester me about starting my own collection. To which I always replied with a shrug before I walked away.

It didn't take very long after that for me to give in to the idea of collecting sunsets. I was already doing it anyway. Soon we were watching them together. We started marking important events in our lives by watching one together. Like the first time I got a higher score on a test than Near we sat out in the large oak and watched the sky transition from day to night. The sun was a shimmering disk of gold that evening.

Our first kiss was at sunset but that was purely coincidental.

We had been fighting constantly for the past week or so. I was struggling with these new found feelings for my best friend and roommate. I tried to suppress the taboo feelings by pushing him away but that was an exercise in futility. Pushing him away only left me with more time to think about him and thinking was the last thing that I needed right then. At least when he was there I had something to focus on. After a few more days of battling my teenage emotions I came to terms with the fact that I might just be in love with the crazy ass gamer.

I was sitting on the bed looking at a picture that had been taken on our field trip to the zoo a few years back. The two of us had an arm slung around the other hoisting bags of pink and blue cotton candy up to the camera, flashing slushie stained smiles. Both of us had pulled a funny face when the picture had been snapped. It used to be so easy! Those really had been good times.

The call went out for dinner and I set the picture down with a sigh, said a quick Hail Mary and headed off to find Matt in the only place that I knew that he would be this time of night.

I swung up into the large oak and started to climb up to the top. I found my redhead perched on one of the highest branches staring blankly out into the glowing evening sky. I hauled myself up on the thin branch next to him.

"Umm," I mumbled turning my eyes down to look at my hands. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry." Matt turned to look at me slightly, empty eyes sending a pang of sorrow through my chest.

"You're sorry?" he asked with a painfully sharp voice that cut through me deeper than any knife ever could. "Well I'm sorry you're sorry Mello because it doesn't mean a damn thing to me." Angry green eyes pierced mine making me feel smaller than I ever though possible.

"Matt," I whispered painfully. Furious eyes held me in place. I shook my head gently. "I'm not just sorry."

"You're not?" he asked taken aback. I could see that he hadn't been expecting that.

"No, I'm more than sorry." I pushed myself closer to him on the branch. I leaned in even closer to him, grabbing the branch on the other side of him. I drew a shuddering breath as I drew ever nearer to those perfectly rosy lips. After a mere moment's hesitation I surged forward and pressed my own lips onto his.

I sat there awkwardly for a moment not believing that I had actually done it. I had actually kissed him. I felt the branch shake under me and I sat back quickly not knowing if I had done something wrong. I looked over at the boy sitting only a few inches from me and I saw that he was laughing.

Confusion was the first emotion that overtook me, quickly followed by embarrassment. Was I really such a bad kisser that it was laughable?

Matt stopped laughing as he noticed me staring. He smiled and quelled all of my anxieties with seven words.

"What the hell took you so long?"

The first time we made love it was a sunset too but that was no coincidence.

We had joined forces to take on Near in the challenge of acquiring the Death Note after a few years of being apart. For the first month or so we clumsily rediscovered our relationship but this time we were older, hornier and we knew what we wanted.

I knew by the way that he looked at me that he thought I had forgotten. I just let him keep thinking that.

I had to time everything just right. And let me tell you that was a real pain in the ass. I even had to break the TV to keep him from leaving the apartment. I slipped out to the store while he was busy with the TV. I just hoped that he didn't find the wires that I'd pulled too quickly.

I checked the sky before I headed up the stairs to our apartment, a grin painting my face. It was absolutely perfect.

A red head popped out from the back of the couch as I pushed my way into the room.

"Hey, I think I found the problem. There was a fist sized ball of wires that looked like they had been yanked out in the back. Do you know anything about that?" he asked suspiciously.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I muttered nonchalantly. I dropped the bag on the coffee table and headed over to the window. Our apartment was tiny and cluttered and cost too much money for the location but we got it for the view. The entire back wall was made up of west facing windows. I threw open the curtains and let the colors of twilight flood the room.

I walked back to the coffee table and emptied the contents of the grocery bag onto it. A couple packs of cigarettes, gum and chocolate fell onto the small table. The nicotine addicted gamer went straight for the cigarettes. He muttered half heartedly about "fourteen different varieties of chocolate and only two packs of cigarettes." I just smiled and let him grumble. Money had gotten tight recently and chocolate and cigarettes were some of the first thing to get cut as nonessentials. It didn't take long for the two of us to get crabby.

I let him light up and take that first glorious drag on the cancer stick before I snatched it from his fingers and took a nice long drag myself.

"Now what have I said about smoking in the apartment?" I asked exhaling in a cloud of smoke. I stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray behind me. A mild look of annoyance crossed the gamer's face and an adorable pout formed on his lips.

I leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his pouting lips. I felt myself gravitate closer to the sexy man. My fingers began to tease the collar of his favorite striped shirt and the kiss became less gentle- much less gentle. I felt his thin typist fingers tangle themselves in my hair and my back arched so our chests touched.

My hands wandered down to the hem of his shirt and slipped beneath. I started to pull the fabric of the shirt up pausing only to caress each of his nipples briefly with my thumbs. He moaned into my mouth sending a pleasant shiver down my spine. I pulled the shirt up further over his head, hating to be parted with those lips for the few seconds that it took to be free of the torturous fabric. I cast it aside as soon as it cleared his head and our lips found each other again.

I gave him a sharp shove and sent him tumbling back into the couch. I slunk over to the sofa unzipping my vest slowly as I went. I slipped it halfway down my shoulders and stopped to look over at him. Emerald eyes smoldered with lust and I knew that he wanted this as much as I did. I let the smooth leather slide off my arms and my hair hang in my eyes. Strip tease was just one of my new talents and I was anxious to show it off.

I crawled up on the couch so I was on top of the surprisingly toned computer geek. For awhile we kissed as tough the other's lips was air itself while breathing just became a minor annoyance. I ran a thumb over the button on his jeans playfully and looked up at him for approval. He nodded desperately and I grinned mischievously.

"Happy birthday," I whispered huskily popping open the button on his pants.

"You remembered," he said surprise coloring his voice. I nodded.

"Of course. I celebrated it every year, you know, with a sunset. I figured we could celebrate it together this year with a very special sunset," I suggested running a finger down his chest. He laughed and god how I loved his laugh!

"Yeah, I think that sounds good," he said with a smile.

I reached over and grabbed a chocolate bar off the coffee table. I snapped off a large chunk of the sweet stuff and set the rest aside for now.

"You know I didn't buy all that chocolate just for me. I got it for us to share," I mumbled around the mouthful of the delicious brown confection.

"Oh?" he asked raising a curious eyebrow. "You never share your chocolate. And why would I eat that stuff anyway? It's way too sweet for me."

"Now, I don't remember saying anything about eating it, do you?" I smirked. Matt looked confused.

"What do you mean?" My grin only grew more wicked with the question.

"Let me show you." I bent down and proceeded to show him exactly what I meant.

That evening passed in a flurry of discarded clothes, chocolate wrappers and whispered "I love yous". We laid together wrapped in a blanket as the last tendrils of daylight clung to the rapidly darkening sky.

"That's probably my favorite sunset so far," my lover said slowly stroking my hair.

"Mine too," I agreed. "Happy birthday." I shifted my weight so I could look him in the eye. "Do you want the rest of your present now?"

"What more can there be?" he asked incredulously. I smiled.

I gave him my sunsets. My entire collection. I gave him the one from the night that I found out about L's death and the one from the first night that I realized that I was on my own. I gave him the sunset from my last night in England and my first in LA. I showed him dusk from outside of the mafia headquarters and the glorious view from inside. I gave him the painful ones. I gave him the one from the first night working as my boss's whore and the night after my first murder. But I gave him the best ones too. Like the one from the night when I started calling all the shots and the one I watched after I found him working as a CEO in a stuffy board room.

By the time that I was done the sky was completely dark and tears were glistening on my cheeks. He held me closer and we both knew for the first time that we didn't have to be alone anymore.

After that the sunsets became even more important to us. They became a sign of how much we depended on the other. Most nights we would just throw the curtains open and watch the darkening sky wrapped in each other's arms. We couldn't afford cable anyway.

One of my favorites though was our first night that we spent in Tokyo. We were staying in a crappy motel room because that's all we could afford but it did have a balcony with a perfect view for the explosion of colors that was to come.

I was amazed by how red the sky was. But as I watched it appeared led of a red and more of a golden orange. The clouds were stained with a shade of purple that was rimmed with gray. Perhaps it was the silver lining that I'd always missed, I mused. The sun remained golden through all of it leaking its warm yellow light into the various buildings that lined the horizon.

There was also that one that Matt stole from Misa Amane's apartment. The idiot was supposed to be installing a few bugs before he got the hell out of there but he got distracted and stayed to watch the sun fall down into darkness. I could never be mad at him for that though. Later he told me that he hated to miss a sunset because he knew that wherever I was, I was watching too.

I should have known from the beginning that it would end like this. The two of us faced each other for a long time without saying anything.

"We should probably go," I finally said with a sigh. The goggled boy nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, mustn't be late," he muttered under his breath. I watched him turn and walk to the red sports car and climb inside. I said a quick prayer before I hurried over to the side of the car.

"Hey Matt?" He stuck his head out of the window. "Be careful," I begged.

"Please," he said with a wave of his hand. "My middle name is careful." I rolled my eyes.

"Your middle name is Jacob," I mumbled drily. He grinned.

"So?" I shook my head tiredly.

"Let's go get Takada," I said swinging my leg over the motorcycle that was parked beside his '63 Comet.

"Make sure you watch the sun set," Matt reminded me. I nodded. Neither one of us added the words that hung in the air around us.

Because it's sure to be our last.

A/N:Hi, Misao here. I never know what to rate these things! Review if you think that I should up the rating! Okay... so what did you think? Reviews please!

Just in case you were wondering, no I don't know Matt's middle name but I DO know that the car that he was driving in episode 35 was a 1963 Comet