Originally, this was going to be a oneshot. But it's running on and on so I've decided to make it a story with... maybe five or four chapters? Guess we'll see. For now, enjoy this beginning and tell me what you think of the plot ^^

When Mello wasn't studying himself sick, and Matt wasn't playing a new video game without stopping until it's completion, the two roommates shared a common interest. Unfortunately, it's not what the anime fan girls at the orphanage would absolutely die over; no, they both took a lot of enjoyment in causing chaos around the institution by playing terribly over-elaborate pranks.

Their favorite, and relatively only victim, was Near.

Neither of them liked the boy very much; Mello since he constantly came just one or two points under him in the tests, placing his name beside the hideous "#2" ranking; and Matt because Mello was his only friend at the orphanage, and when he was in a good mood, they had great times together; but when he wasn't, all hell broke loose. The point being... Near was a prime target; one who, as a plus, never brought his case to the teachers or Roger. This saved Mello and Matt quite of a bit of time sitting in detention, although they probably would have continued messing with the frail albino kid anyway.

Of course, Near wasn't ignorant enough to fall for them every time. Often, actually, he out-smarted the duo and turned tables so they were the ones suffering damage. This only coerced them to try harder next time.

One afternoon in the later months of winter, the ones where it was still unbearably cold, but there lacked snow, so the whole season lost it's charm and point; Mail and Mihael sat huddled around Matt's laptop in their room. It's beginning purpose had been to show Mello one of many shock sites that Matt frequented, but now that the blonde had punched him in the face for it, they were placing an order for a box of chocolates on Godiva's website.

"I don't mind caramel filled ones... but make sure they don't give me any cherry cordials. The last thing I want in my chocolate is fruit," Mello explained, pointing to different options on the flat screen and ordering Matt around. The redhead found the ordeal amusing, and kept pretending to totally misunderstand what Mello would say.

"Right. Cherry cordials." He clicked the square check box so, yes, those would be included.

"You fucker, you're not even listening. No fruit!" Mello reached over and tapped the mouse once so the check disappeared. Matt started laughing, hard, at this and handed the laptop over to his best friend so he could finish the order by himself. After a feigned glare of malice towards the gamer, Mello tapped on the keyboard a few times and finished within seconds. Something in the right upper corner of the site caught his eye. "Fun facts about chocolate?" He clicked on the link. "Definitely my kind of trivia." Matt glanced without interest at the screen, taking a D.S. from his pocket and inserting the game card for "The World Ends With You". He got so involved in realizing that, 'hey, that Joshua guy resembles Near a little too much for my liking', that he almost forgot about his chocolate addicted friend, until...

"Hey, Matt! Did you know American's eat chocolate at the rate of eleven point seven pounds per person each year?"

"We're not in America, Mel."

"Well maybe we should be. Although people in Denmark apparently eat the most chocolate, about thirty pounds per person a year. I like Denmark."

"Did you by any chance just start liking it?"

"Fuck you. Did you know chocolate is an aph-...aphro..disiac?"

"No, and I also don't know what an aphrodisiac is."

"Me either." Mello added another tab to the browser window and rapidly typed the address for Wikipedia in the search bar. He entered the word, tapped the enter button, and needless to say... was quite surprised. "Oh..."

"Well what does it mean?" Matt glanced up from his game, to see Mello actually blushing. The blonde shrugged in an absolutely terrible attempt at being nonchalant, and moved to exit out of the page. Matt grabbed his arm, immensely curious about what could make Mello act so bashful, and stopped the action before pulling the laptop into his own angle of vision. In a monotone voice that got gradually more interested, he read out:

"An aphrodisiac is a substance which is used in the belief that it increases... sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sensuality. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable." The article was quite long, but this was all the information Matt needed. He looked over at Mello again, who avoided the eye contact, and laughed a mandatory, "So is this why you like chocolate so much?"

"No! I didn't even know that!" Mello didn't take it as light humor and narrowed his eyes. The redhead put his hands up, a sign of surrender; though still snickered.

"Jesus, Mel, calm down." He nudged the laptop back over to his irritable friend and smirked, picking up his abandoned gaming system. Mello exited out of the site, taking a chocolate bar from his black denim and ripping off the foil; though just as he was about to take a bite, he stopped and stared warily at it.

At this, Matt started laughing all over again, just forgetting the D.S. and falling onto his back on the blanket-covered mattress. Mello glared at him, though his eyes seemed just as amused by now, and set the chocolate aside.

"Since you seem to like laughing so much...." He inched closer, watching with satisfaction as the cocky gamer widened his eyes, and grabbed the other boy's sides, tickling him.

"A-ahh!" A desperate laugh. "You fuckin'..." Sharp inhale. "Asshole!" An awkwardly girly squeal. "St-stop....!" Matt tried to protect himself with useless, flailing arms that only succeeded in making Mello work his deft fingers harder. Finally, as a last resort, he rolled off the bed onto the hardwood flooring, away from the merciless death hands and completely breathless. The blonde looked down at him, satisfied, and snapped a piece of his chocolate bar off.

"You're a fucking bastard, Mello," Matt tried to reprimand him sullenly, but instead broke out in giggles again at the thought of his feminine response to the tickling. "And a sadistic one, too." Tapping Mello's forehead, the gamer regained territory on the bed and claimed his laptop to check up on some of his forums. Of course, that wasn't the only reason.

The entire time Mello had been tortur- ... tickling Matt, the redhead barely considered that Mello was a sadistic bastard, as earlier stated. No, the only thing he remembered running through his mind while Mello's dexterous fingers carelessly explored his torso was that he was in dangerously close contact with the chocoholic whom he liked much, much more than a friend.

Not that he could ever tell him that. Matt enjoyed keeping his head on his shoulders where it belonged.

So, hiding the evidence of his excitement to be touched so freely by his best friend by placing the laptop in... well, his lap, sorted everything out. He checked his various forum memberships while Mello fake-yawned and sprawled out on the bed to assert his boredom. When he had enough, the blonde boy made a move to grab the laptop.

"Wait! Er, Mello, I'm not done," Matt lamely explained. Truthfully, he'd been roaming around the same web page for the past five minutes, terrified and with no idea how to escape the room without Mello noticing.

"Tch, I have things to do," Mello countered blatantly, pulling a bit on the corner of it and narrowing his eyes.

"B-But... well..." He glanced at the website history for an excuse. The Wikipedia article for aphrodisiac caught his eye. "What about..."

Finally he struck an idea and exclaimed it loudly, almost proud of his accomplishment. "Near!"

"...What about him?" Mello raised a hand flippantly, meaning he did not have any interest in discussing the albino at that moment or understand how he came into play with the conversation.

"Well we've been trying to think of a new joke to play on him. We could use the aphrodisiac! Like, sneak it into one of his meals or something," Matt explained, slowly getting into the idea himself and using his hands enthusiastically to explicate.

"As fucking awesome as that would be, wouldn't that file under poison? And how are we supposed to get a hold of a strong enough aphrodisiac anyway?" Mello presented his only logical flaws with the simple plan easily.

"It's not like it's a negatively affecting poison. Near probably could stand a dose of hormones, hell, it's not like he has any to begin with." Matt chuckled a little, and Mello smiled; Near bashing was an easy way to get him on someone else's side. "And sites that sell things like that are always very secretive with the way they ship products. You don't even want to know what I've snuck past Roger." The devious, all-knowing little smirk that Matt gave in suggestive emphasis made Mello's stomach flutter.

Even though he muttered, "You got that right," and looked away, Mello was internally begging to know more. Hell yes he wanted to hear about all the naughty things Matt had done behind the backs of authority; but, quite obviously he couldn't say something like that. No, any talks involving things like that and Mello would lose his already precariously unstable self-control and end up admitting his feelings to Matt. Definitely not an intelligent move.

"So want to try it? Shall we 'poison' the untouchable Near together?" Matt broke Mello's melancholy pondering and began to search up sites that might sell the sinful items. It was definitely a plus being adept enough to think of an excuse like that so quickly. Matt didn't even want to imagine the outcome if Mello had claimed the laptop and noticed his less-than-innocent reaction to the earlier playful assault.

The blonde just nodded, though with a grin that gave away excitement, and moved to sit beside Matt and assist the first act in the vaguely formed plan. And maybe he nudged in and sat a little closer than necessary, but it was the damn laptop's fault for having such a condensed screen. Yeah. That was it.