A/N: Rated for Mello's foul mouth and appreciation for italics. With lyrics provided by 30 Seconds to Mars. Enjoy.

--

tell me, did you see her face?

tell me, did you smell her taste?

tell me, what's the difference

don't they all just look the same inside?

--

bleed

--

"Hey, Mello, I've got her," the big lumbering brute says as he enters the room, the unconscious form of Sayu Yagami slung over his shoulders as if she were nothing more than a sack of potatoes. His alias is something Mello has been told several times, but never bothered to remember. All the blonde does remember is that it is bland and dumb, just like this great big mountain of a man is. All these mafia goon-types are exactly the same to him - faceless and boring. They're just another tool for Mello to utilize in his pursuit of Kira, and not particularly note-worthy beyond that. "I think the chloroform is wearin' off though, should I throw her in th' cell?"

"Nah, set her down," Mello says, as he takes a particularly large chunk out of his chocolate bar. "I want to take a good look at her."

"Where?" He asks, and Mello resists the urge to roll his eyes. Fuckers can't even think for themselves, they always need direction. Mello wouldn't be surprised if the overgrown ape needed someone to help wipe his ass for him when he took a shit, too.

"Oh, I don't know, anywhere." He indicates the open expanse of unused sofas and armchairs scattered liberally around the room with a sweep of his slender arm. It's close to four AM and the dilapidated headquarters are completely barren save Mello, this no-name, and their stowaway. "Just throw her down and make yourself sparse, alright?"

The thug sets her down on the lumpy loveseat opposite to Mello and obediently shuffles out of the room. Sayu groans but otherwise doesn't stir, lying on her side with her arms bound behind her back and her feet tied together. Mello finishes the last of his chocolate bar, crumples up the foil it came in, and tosses it aside. Then he reaches for another one.

It's another forty-five minutes before Sayu finally begins to regain consciousness. Her initial response is expected, and typically boring. While Mello has never personally requested kidnapping a broad before Sayu, different girls have come and gone since his stay here on others' behalf, drugged when they arrive, beaten or worse when they leave. Their reaction is always the same, and Sayu is no different.

Her eyes open with fright as she struggles to sit upright. Of course, she is tied up, and so she wriggles around like a fish out of water, twisting and writhing with no avail. Then she tries to scream, but the gag they've fitted her with obscures most of the noise (thankfully, because Mello is ill-tempered and the shrill wails of a woman really grate on his nerves.) Then she struggles some more. And then she starts crying as the hopelessness of the situation settles in. Mello is not at all impressed with her theatrics, to say the least.

Fortunately for Sayu, however, Mello does not intend to kill her. Not because he actually cares about her well-being or anything, but because she would be a shitty bartering chip if she was dead. She is his key to getting his hands on the Notebook, and therefore, that makes her a very precious commodity. For the time being, anyway.

She's addressing him, he realizes. Its muffled nonsense, because he can't understand a damn thing with that handkerchief forced up between her teeth a bit in a horse's mouth. Mello thinks she has to know this - has to know that he can't possibly understand her and it's pointless to even try - but her mouth keeps working and God damn is she just stupid, or what?

"Don't you fucking scream or anything," he warns, aggravated, as he leans across to where she's positioned on the cushion directly in front of him. Then he pulls free the knot from her gag and yanks it up above her head.

Her first words are also predictable, and Mello bites back a sigh. "Where am I?" she demands.

"In the middle of the desert, somewhere," he answers, which is perfectly true. He rips the paper on his chocolate bar and peels it back so that he can break off a piece with his teeth.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?"

He laughs, humorlessly, and skips straight to the second question. "Honestly? Right now I'd really like for you to shut the fuck up." He brushes a stray piece of candy from the black leather of his vest. "Somehow, however, I don't think I'll be that lucky."

"You're... you're not going to... to k-kill me, are you?"

Mello shrugs in a show of indifference. He likes the reaction it evokes from her: a very visible shudder of discomfort. That's right, he thinks, with grim satisfaction. Fear me. Her eyes swell with fresh tears and Mello raises his hand to cease her wailing before it begins. "Save it," he says flatly. "You're only going to give me a headache."

"W-what do you want from me," she says again, more miserably this time. Mello is already tired of her blubbering and sets his chocolate bar down before standing up and leaning over her. He reaches for the handkerchief, which is pushed back into the matted strands of her coffee-colored hair, and pulls it free in order to sidle it back in place and shut her up. But then Sayu misconstrues his hands in her hair for something else, like he's stroking her or something, getting a feel for her before he uses her, maybe. Her eyes widen in panic and alarm as she comes to a premature conclusion, struggling against her bonds yet again with a kind of renewed vigor.

Oh Christ, Mello thinks with a snort, and retracts his hand in disgust. What a dumb bitch. Does she actually think I'd...? He stares down upon her stricken face in a mixture of amusement and revulsion. Then he actually looks at her, takes in her slender and inviting form, and smirks. He's seen pictures of her before, yearbook pictures and family portraits of Sayu with a plastic smile and dead, glossy eyes. She's prettier in the flesh, more alive, which is even more apparent when she's crying and fighting him. She's got a fairly decent rack, too, for a petite Asian girl, and her struggling gives Mello a surge of power and something else, something that could potentially be desire.

Mello's never really been obsessed with sex, at least not like the other guys were. He's committed all sorts of crimes since he joined the mafia - he's tortured people, after all, even killed them - but he has never taken an unwilling woman, or really, any kind of woman at all, since this little endeavor began. From the start this has been about showing Near, avenging L, defeating Kira - and he's been so preoccupied with these things that he hasn't really had time for carnal indulgences. Now, however - now he's suddenly aware that there's nothing to do, there's nothing he can do except play the waiting game until the deputy director agrees to negotiate. There is nothing but this.

Oh, what the hell, he thinks, grasping Sayu roughly under the chin and steering her forward. His eyes flutter closed out of habit as their lips loom ever closer, but the kiss never takes place because Sayu retaliates by sinking her fangs into Mello's lower lip with enough force to make him cry out.

He's not sure what's worse, the fact that he let his guard down like that and let the little bitch bite him, or the fact that he actually likes it, but he's humiliated no matter which it is and he backhands her across the face as he pulls away. The force of his blow leaves a big nasty handprint on the side of her face but he doesn't care, it serves her right. He gingerly touches his lip with his forefinger and brings it up in front of his face to inspect it. Holy shit, he realizes, wincing as the wound begins to sting. I'm actually bleeding. He feels another twinge of heat under the stifling leather of his pants and gets even more pissed off, slapping her once again for good measure.

They stare at one another for a long time, hating each other. Then Mello decides against pursuing further activity, since she has proved herself to be an imprudent bitch full of piss and vinegar and frankly, not worth the time or the effort. His hands are shaking in anger as he grabs the gag and yanks it down aggressively over her face, snagging her nose and making her cry out in surprise before he stuffs the wadded cloth back into her mouth. His hands lash out immediately after to seize the back of her jean jacket, pulling her forcibly off of the loveseat and pitching her out onto the concrete floor. Mello watches dispassionately as Sayu tumbles through the air clumsily before landing on her face with a satisfying 'smack!' As his rage begins to subside he stomps out of the room to leave Sayu alone with her tears, his boot heels ringing throughout the hall as he goes.

--

he said, "can you hear me, are you sleeping?"

she said, "will you rape me now?"

he said, "leave the politics to madmen."

she said, "i believe your lies."

he said, "there's a paradise beneath me."

she said, "am i supposed to bleed?"

he said, "you better pray to Jesus."

she said, "i don't believe in God."