Hello. Nice to see you. How are you today?

The idea for this was forming at the back of my head when I wrote my last MM story, but I wasn't aware of it until I'd opened a new document and typed the first three paragraphs. Funny how that happens sometimes.

So here's my new one-shot, "Tear Away". It's painfully short and full of angst, which I never like writing but somehow always manage to do anyway. I hope you like it.

-x-

If I don't leave now, we will both be destroyed by this.

I can see it when you look at me, the fear and pain in those eyes. You might try to hide behind your goggles, but I'm not fooled. I'm killing you, and you're too damn in love with me to say anything.

I should have known this would happen. I've always been a bomb ready to go off – you were just the box of matches. Only, you didn't realise the damage I would do until it was too late to go back.

Goddamn it, Matt, why did you have to go and fall for someone as fucked up as me?

I'm sorry for everything. I hate what I do to you. I hate how I scream and shout and lash out at you, using you as my punch bag because you're too close and too easy to hurt. But what I hate the most is that you take it, hold me with broken arms and smile through bloody lips, whispering that it's ok, that everything will be alright. I can't stand it any more.

I've tried leaving you before, but you always blindly follow me wherever I go. Christ, I even joined the Mafia because I thought it would scare you off. And it did, for a while. But being away from you didn't stop my self-destructive streak, and in the end it was me who begged you to come back.

I wish I hadn't. I wish I'd died with everyone else. Because then I wouldn't be able to hurt you any more. We would be free from this suicidal relationship, and you wouldn't be here, asleep in my bed, waiting to head off to your doom.

So I'm going. Running away like I always do. If I can get far enough away, maybe you'll be alright. I don't care what happens to me, as long as you are safe.

That's what I tell myself as I head for the door, bag in hand, until a voice stops me, broken and dejected in the darkness.

"Bastard, you could at least say goodbye."

And suddenly all the resolve drains out of me. I can't do this, can't desert you again, not after everything I've done to you already.

I'm across the room before I even realise it, my lips crushing into yours with an almost murderous passion. I taste tears – yours or mine? – but I ignore them, trying instead to apologise with my body, to take away all the pain I've caused you. And you accept it, forgiving me as easily as ever, which only makes me hate myself even more.

You whisper something else then, another knife buried in my chest.

"Please… please don't leave me."

And just like that, I know I won't. We're chained together, you and I, freefalling in each other's arms, not knowing where this is going to end.

Maybe it is better if I stay, because then we'll go to Hell together. This thought is of little comfort to me, as even whilst you sleep peacefully by my side, innocent and serene, I can't help but wonder…

Will Kira lead you to your death?

Or will I?

-x-

Thank you.

Reviews are greatly appreciated.