A/N: I'm so sorry for the delay, but a lot was going on for a while, and I just got a chance to really work on my fanfictions. BTW, did you guys see Matt's hair? It was freakin' brown. Well, I am among those who will continue to go on with the delusion that his hair is crimson. Yes, I am mad stubborn.

Disclaimer: Matt, Mello and all related characters are copyrighted to the authors of Death Note, Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba. Rabbit belongs to my mother's boss, Kevin. :D We gave him a bath last night, now he's a puffball.

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Puppy Love

.:X:.

Something was licking him.

"No... gerroff, dam'it," Matt muttered stupidly, eyes closed. He swiped at a random spot in the air, and connected with something fuzzy. He felt a slight pain in his hand as the fuzzy thing growled, bit him, then continued to lick his face. "I sa', gerroff... I don't got no time fer this..." He was speaking gibberish, and instead of speaking Japanese had reverted back to his native American.

Not to mention the fact that he was tired.

There was a pause in the licking, and Matt thought he'd have a nice return to slumberland.

Boy, was he in for a rude awakening.

"OOF!" He shot upright as Rabbit pounced and landing squarely on his abdomen before taking off out the door, partially propelled by Matt's colorful language as well as the added step from when he bounced off Matt's stomach.

"MOTHER EFFING DOG!!" Matt half screeched, half gasped. Rabbit just walked back in and gazed up at him in adoration. Matt massaged his stomach. "Dammit, I can't hate you when you look at me like that."

"Matt, shut the fuck up already," Mello moaned from the living room couch. Matt swung his feet off his bed and, giving Rabbit the old evil eye as he walked by, stepped into the living room. "Yo, feeling better, Mr. Oh I hate dogs so much yet I pet them when I think my friend is asleep?"

Mello stared at him. "...what?"

Matt repeated the question.

"Matt, you're speaking in fucking English again."

"Oh." He repeated the question again, in Japanese.

If Mello had been physically able to, he probably would've pounced on Matt in a similar manner to Rabbit and throttled him.

"Shut up," he snapped, trying (and failing) to ignore Matt's stupid trademark grin/smirk/sneer.

"Hey, I walked in during the middle of the night, and it was your hand on top of his head. So don't tell me you don't like animals. I saw it with my own two eyes. You love the little rascal."

"The little rascal. It's official, Raccoon Boy, you've gone over the deep end and you're never coming back."

Matt responded with a rude hand gesture, which Mello happily took as a "throw one of the puppy's toys at my face, please, Mello", and obliged.

A small plastic hedgehog went sailing through the air and bounced off Matt's noise, making a squeaking noise during the impact. Matt cursed, picked it up, and chucked it so it just barely ruffled Mello's hair. Rabbit tore across the room to retrieve it, happily oblivious to the obscenity battle that was going on above him, then dropped it on Matt's foot.

"I was not petting him. My hand slipped."

"And it just happened to fall on top of the dog's head, eh? Please, my brain hasn't deterierated that much from video games."

"Yet you play that one extremely girlish game... what was it called? That farming sim?"

"I was bored, I had nothing to do."

"Yeah, yeah, lay it on thicker, why don't you."

"You are so lucky you're injured right now."

"Oh, so scared."

"Shut the fuck up."

Mello made a rude hand gesture, before watching Matt's head nod back and forth as he followed the little puppy chasing its tail. Mello made a somewhat concerned face. "Is it supposed to do that?" Matt laughed. "Yes, actually, it is supposed to." He was starting to calm down; the morning had not been the best. "Dogs aren't really that smart when they're younger."

"So his intellect is currently equal to yours, is that what you're saying?"

To quote Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet, "What a change is here!"

"FUCKER!"

.:X:.

Mello had finally gotten to the point where he could physically get to the bathroom without needing help, something he was thankful for. His friendship with Matt was preferably limited to boxers, if he could keep it that way.

Thank God for those goggles was all Mello had to say about that particular part of his inability to pee without assistence.

Unfortunately, according to the doctor, he shouldn't go through any periods of severe stress or shock while he was still injured, and walking in on Matt growling playfully at Rabbit was just about all his sanity would allow.

"MATT. WHAT THE FUCK. HOLY FLYING FUCK WAD WHAT THE FUCK."

Matt looked up, the puppy attempting to lick his face. He looked to the left, then to the right, then back again, all the while saying in a voice of self-preserved dignity, "Uh, nothing, just... um, telling the puppy to back off is all. I, uh, thought you said you were going to be in there for a while."

Mello was unfortunately still incoherent.

"MOTHER OF FUCK MATT. I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS."

Matt rubbed the back of his neck. "Er, yeah. Um, why don't you go take a rest, Mello? You, er, look you like you could use it."

Mello just blinked.

The single image of his friend --who played Enlisted, for Christ's sakes-- crouched on the ground and growling at a puppy was too much for the Russian. He shook his head to try and clear his mind and wobbled back into the bathroom, muttering to himself.

Matt blinked too. "Oops..." He said to the puppy. "I think I broke him..."

Rabbit yipped.

.:X:.

"Okay, look, Mello, it's really, really easy. Just grab the end of the rope and pull. Rabbit will try to get it away from you. Not only will the puppy be having fun, but it will also hopefully bring back some upper body strength from your twig-like appearance." Matt ducked as the chew toy came plummeting towards his head.

"Upper body strength my ass, Matt. I'm still realing over that whole growling thing." Mello scowled. And now you want me to play with it?"

Matt rolled his eyes. "For God sake's, Mello, grow up."

Another chew toy came soaring towards his forehead.

"You're telling me to grow up? You were on all fours growling at a puppy. Jesus Christ."

Matt stuck out his tongue. "At least I can have fun."

Mello narrowed his eyes. "Gimme the fucking rope."

Matt smirked. "Score." He chucked the toy at Mello, who caught it and inspected it. "So I just-- HEY! Don't lick me!" Rabbit looked up from his position by Mello's hand, looking at him with adoring eyes, eyes so cute that it almost made him throw up.

"Ugh," he shook his head. "I can't believe I am doing this." He thrust the end of the rope at Rabbit, who immediately snatched it with his puppy teeth and pulled, growling. The unexpected force from this tiny animal caused Mello to nearly fall off the couch he'd been reclining on. He bared his teeth at the puppy.

"Oh no you don't, Furball," he snarled, trying to wrench the toy away from Rabbit and nearly dragging the poor pup up with him. Rabbit held firm, however, and Mello waved the toy back and forth, Rabbit's muzzle going with it. "Leggo, you stinkin' animal!" Rabbit growled at him again, and shook his head frantically, trying to get Mello to let go as well. Before long, Mello's face slowly melted into a grin as he kept tugging at the toy, and he kept talking to Rabbit, saying many odd things that the dog probably couldn't evn understand, considering they were in Russian.

Matt watched this entire process unfold before him with a stunned look on his face.

"Mello, are you... are you having fun?" A smirk slowly worked its way onto Matt's face. "Oh, this is such awesome blackmail!"

Mello jerked at the rope, and said, still concentrating on the toy, "You do and I'll kick your ass back to America, Yankee."

Matt stuck out his tongue again, but he was still grinning. "I can't believe you're having fun. And you're not blowing up someone's head."

Mello shrugged, dragging Rabbit back and forth. "Neither can I, come to think of it."

Matt opened his mouth to say something else, when the doorbell rang.

They both looked at each other, then Mello nodded his head in the direction of the door.

Matt, always the quick one, got up slowly, walked towards the door and turned the knob. Outside, a young girl of about fifteen stared up through black-rimmed glasses hopefully. She pushed some brown, highlighed hair out of her face.

"Hi. Um, I followed the poster. Are you Matt? I'm looking for Rabbit."

Matt blinked. "Oh."

Crap.

.:X:.

A/N: Well, there we go. One more chapter left, people. I'm sorry this is so short, but it's kind of hard to get into Matt and Mello's minds... It hurts, actually. O.o BTW, I make a cameo appearence. That's me up there.