Disclaimer: I do not own or make money from the anime Death Note, but the plot of this fic is mine.

Epilogue:

Part 3

Mello had punched Matt after he had kissed him that first time in the rain, stayed angry for all of three second and hugged him again. Mello had missed him too obviously, enough to forgive him of his oversight.

But once they had helped dig out the vehicle and retrieve the supplies they had been able to wash up and rest at the nearby community free of the degrading bite and scratch searches. Well, provided they cleaned up, gave a blood sample and waited in isolation.

It had given then ample time to talk.

Mello hadn't exactly had an easy time recovering it seemed. It started with the day Community 4 fell. While Matt had apparently been covered in dust, debris and God knew what else Mello had been stuck in the bed half alive and half dead.

When rescue crews had started coming in there had been infected crawling the area. The infected had not even wanted Mello, lumbering around him and going after anything that moved, including the rescue teams. At first they had thought Mello had been one of them but a new system was in place where they had to do blood tests rather than shooting "possible" infecteds first.

Imagine their surprise when his test came back negative. The team that had found Mello was a couple who had almost left him to die but in the end drug him from the wrecked building and taken him to Community 15's hospital. Mello had not been written down as a community survivor because of the company he had been with.

It had been upon the couples insistence that Mello get treatment and it had been a long time before Mello was even coherent enough to give his name. By that time Matt had already left for the road again.

Matt might have never met him again had the blond not been in the area helping that same couple out.

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There had been an awkward silence between them after that; Matt not knowing where they stood anymore and Mello either ignoring it altogether or sorting his thoughts. Matt had not known which.

"I've never thought of you in that way. Never had the time." had pretty much spelled it out to Matt. He knew he would get over loosing what had never happened, eventually, only to be surprised by Mello continuing,

"I do care for you though. So its not that much or a stretch really." Mello had shrugged.

It probably ended up being the best stay either of them had had in a community, isolation and all.

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Nearly four years to the day of the vanishings there still had been no clues as to what had happened, what had caused it; or where all those who had eventually become known as the infected had disappeared to for all those days. It was also uncertain why the effect was so vastly different in certain cities and towns; some being left completely barren and others only having one or two disappear before all hell broke loose.

Mello had mentioned, more than once, that it was likely the will of God cleansing the earth before the inhabitants could destroy everything on it and do irreparable damage.

Matt disagreed.

He suspected that whomever or whatever was behind it had gone down with the ship as it were. Whatever had happened, Matt was almost happy it had, despite all the lives ruined in the process. Because no matter how fucked up their world was now and would be for the foreseeable future, he had met Mello because of it.

That had honestly been the best damn thing to happen to him in the twenty something years since his birth.

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"Mello what the hell are you doing?"

Matt watched in amusement as Mello nearly tripped over himself and failed miserably landing on the Up arrow of the pad. "Damn it Matt I almost had a Perfect!"

Matt laughed and helped the blond to his feet. He grinned at the small flush of embarrassment Mello held at being caught playing DDR, something that Matt was more likely to do. However it had been raining all the night before and was muddy, therefore not ideal conditions to do any sort of work, physical or otherwise outdoors.

They had to be careful how long they used electronics like that as everyone was still paranoid that the power would eventually cut and die. But it was actually sort of fun watching Mello jump around on the DDR pad. It wasn't often that Mello enjoyed much of anything dealing with games never-mind with such a determined expression.

Mello frowned at him as the game shouted 'FAIL!' but Matt had the foresight not to laugh.

"Come on. I'll hook up the second pad and we can compete. That way you can still work up a sweat."

Mello considered it for a moment before nodding and almost made it out of Matt's grasp before being pulled back in. "But first..."

Matt pressed their lips together and grinned into the kiss as Mello instantly responded.

"Alright, we can go back to DDR now." Matt effected a neutral expression to Mello's disbelieving stare and knew enough to shut the game off before Mello slid his hands under the striped shirt he wore.

Mello hated rainy days but Matt figured he could probably persuade Mello into liking them...so long as the infected weren't around.

-END-

AN: *flails* its finally over! XD

no more chapters. I had a lot of fun writing this.

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Now, as I said before I am posting the second chapter of the winning fic that you all voted for, it will be up by the time you have read this :D

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Stay Still: Mello left Matt all those years ago and when he finally comes back, what he finds isn't what he remembered. Not at all. AU (no Kira) - 31 chapters. MM. Slight yaoi.

Excerpt:

Prologue-

Mello wasn't certain what he expected when he tracked down his elusive one time friend from Wammys, but with Matt's smarts it hadn't been the crappy apartment in the average Joe neighborhood.

The kind of apartment that was lucky to have the wheelchair ramps and elevators it had, and where the buildings had seen better days despite the insides looking relatively nice. The kind that would be a last resort.

Mello supposed he really shouldn't judge as he lived inside an abandoned factory with a converted interior.

He shrugged off the bitter cold as he stomped inside and trudged up the steps, not wanting to test the elevator that could very well stall and leave him locked in. Not an experience he cared to repeat in this lifetime.

Mello had the apartment number memorized so he knew exactly where to go. The numbers on the doors were faded and in some cases non existent but '209' was clear enough to read when he approached it.

Knocking, Mello shifted almost nervously. Five years. It had been five long years.

A soft "hold on" was shouted from inside and Mello heard the bolts on the door being undone and the wood creak open an inch at a time...

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so please go check this out :) And thank you for being on this long journey with me.

Special thanks to reviewers:LissaT3rror, guest 1+2, anon, TheShadows2523, xXmini-chibiXx, KKartter, BeyondMySanity, mxmsupporter, Frozen Meatballs, errantimpulses, theheartstourniquet, RG, Keono, issagokurosaki, Goldenpaw, Lotta Devon, Deadly Nightshade1395

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