Photograph

"Look at this photograph," Matt said, spread out on the floor of their apartment in front of a photo album.

Mello took of his jacket, throwing it on the couch. He knew perfectly well that it was dangerous to have pictures of them, but he knew that Matt wouldn't be so careless as to show it to anyone else. It helped him deal with his phobia of being left alone, too, so he'd been allowed the pictures back at Wammy's. The redhead took pictures whenever he wasn't playing video games.

Mello came to sit down beside the hacker.

"Everytime I do it makes me laugh," Matt continued, smiling fondly.

"How did our eyes get so red?" Mello asked, chuckling as he glanced at the picture. The memory came to him. They'd been drunk back then. "And what the hell is on Joey's head?" Joey had been the fourteen-year-old who gave them the booze. The brunette was grinning drunkenly at the camera, on the floor beside a tipsy-looking Mello. On the older boy's head was a fuzzy purple thing that vaguely resembled a monkey.

"This is where I grew up," Matt said softly, gazing a picture of Wammy's Orphanage.

"I think the present owner fixed it up," Mello said, thinking of Roger.

"I never knew we went without..." Matt trailed off, seeing a picture of Mello frozen in place, looking in the middle of dancing. In the background was a stereo, and Matt could almost hear 'Mellow Yellow' playing again. He remembered a twelve-turning-thirteen Mello telling him, 'We'll take this song everywhere we go," with an amused expression.

Mello frowned at the 'we' in the sentence. They hadn't gone together; more like Mello left Matt without telling him and Matt found him by himself. The mafia boss shook his head, not wanting to think about that. "The second floor is hard for sneakin' out," he told Matt. It had been hard sneaking out, considering their rooms were in the second floor, but the duo had done it with ease. He grinned.

Matt grinned back, looking down. "This is where I went to school." He paused. "Most of the time had better thing to do." He laughed. "Criminal records say I broke in twice," he said, remembering how he used to hack into Wammy's main computer. "Must have done it half a dozen times."

"I wonder if it's too late," Mello said, looking at Matt. When Matt raised an eyebrow, Mello elaborated, "Should I go back and try to graduate?"

Matt snorted, shook his head and said the obvious answer, "Life's better now than it was back then."

Mello snickered. "If I was them, I wouldn't let me in."

Matt cringed, recalling how Mello terrorized everyone and broke almost every rule. "Remember the old arcade?" the gamer asked. "Blew every dollar that we made." Technically, every dollar he'd managed to wheedle out of other people's bank accounts.

"The cops hated us hanging out," Mello said smugly.

Matt sighed. "They say somebody went and burned it down," he said sadly. So many good memories in that place...

"We used to listen to the radio and sing along with every song we'd know," Mello reminded him. It seemed only like yesterday that he and Matt sneaked out, hot-wired a car, and drove it around screaming like maniacs.

Matt leaned against Mello's shoulder, staring off into space. "We said someday we'd find out how it feels to sing to more than just a steering wheel."

There was a brief moment of silence. Mello took comfort in Matt's presence. "Kim's the first girl I kissed," he commented quietly. And the last, he thought, knowing that that was when he'd found out he was gay. "I was so nervous I nearly missed."

Unable to picture Mello being nervous, Matt said, "She'd had a couple of kids since then." He knew this because he'd hacked the woman's bank account. He hadn't known she was Mello's first kiss, and, with jealousy, Matt was glad he decided to take that fifty bucks out of her account.

Mello laughed humorlessly. "I haven't seen her since God knows when," he pointed out, not seeing the envy in Matt's eyes.

"Every memory of looking out the back door, I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom door," Matt said, seeing in his mind again of when he left Wammy's-three days after Mello did. "Every memory of walking out the front door, I found the photo of a friend I was looking for." He threw Mello a little smile.

Mello looked away guiltily. Why did Matt have to bring up bad memories? "It's hard to say it's time to say it," he chose to say instead. "Goodbye."

And Matt echoed, "Goodbye..."

Another silence. Mello broke it first.

"I miss their faces," he stated. Roger, Wammy, Linda... He even kind of missed Near.

Matt shrugged. "You can't erase it, you can't replace it."

"I miss it now, I can't believe it," Mello said skeptically. He continued, "So hard to stay, too hard to leave it." He tried to tell Matt with his eyes that he did give his leave a second thought back then. He had known it would affect Matt and probably devastate him, yet still he had had faith that the loyal redhead would find him again.

"If I could relive those days," Matt said wistfully.

Mello broke in, "I know one thing that wouldn't change." He grinned at Matt.

Blushing, Matt looked down at the next picture. "Look at this photograph," he said, pointedly avoiding the subject. "Everytime I do it makes me laugh." He tried to ignore Mello's hand, taking his chin gently and tilting it up so jade green could meet aqua blue.

"Everytime I do it makes me-" Matt began, but Mello was already kissing him.

All the dialogue are lyrics from Nickelback's 'Photograph.' I don't own Death Note, or Nickelback.

From,

F.

Edit: GAH! *slams head on table* Fanfiction is driving me crazy! My sister opened up this story to read it, and then it said that the story couldn't be found again. It drives me nuts!

Just wondering...is this happening to anyone else?

Oh, and you don't have to repeat-review, BB. ^^