I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling. It was nearing three in the morning but, for once, my insomnia wasn't due to work. Instead, it was caused by a particular blond that had left only six hours ago. I found myself...almost craving his presence. I was craving just to be around him, just to talk with him. I was craving him as badly as the substances I flooded my veins with every day. But this was...different somehow. Different...

"Oh, God," I groaned aloud.

Winchester picked his head up and tilted it towards the side in curiosity. Almost as if he was asking me what was wrong.

I sighed and scratched his ears lightly. "What am I gonna do, boy?" I asked. "I think I'm falling in love with him..."

Winchester whined and lay his head on my stomach.

OoOo

The next morning, I waited for him to pull up. I'd arrived early anyway, but for some reason I felt like an excited puppy.

The first bell and still he hadn't arrived.

I was worried, but I tried to shrug it off. Maybe he was just running a little late; I was sure he'd be here by lunch.

But lunch came, and went, without a sign of him.

Okay, maybe he had to go somewhere last minute today, I reasoned as I walked into Ms. Roland's class.

"Matt?" she asked. "Where's Mello?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. I guess he's sick. I haven't seen him at all today."

"Oh." She nodded and I made my way to my seat in the back.

After class got out, I didn't think, I just acted. I walked up to Ms. Roland's desk.

"Yes, Matt?" she asked without looking up. "How can I help you?"

"Can-can I get Mello's work so I can take it to him and he can work on it over the weekend?" I asked.

"Yes, of course," she said. She gathered a few copies of the assignments we'd done that day. She handed them to me and said, "And don't forget to tell him that you two will have to present your excerpt to the class on Monday."

"Yes, ma'am," I said, nodding. "Thank you."

I went to his other teachers as well, saving Negron for last. When I made my way into his class he looked up and laughed.

"Well, hello, Matt, he said. "What can I do for you this afternoon?"

I smiled. "I was hoping that maybe I could get Mello's work for him since he was out today."

"Oh, you're friends with him, are you?"

"Yep."

Negron chuckled. "I wondered why his grades had improved suddenly."

"Yeah, I've been helping him," I said, rubbing the back of my head in slight embarrassment.

"It shows," he said. "Now, as for the assignment. I actually gave them a project. Yes, I know Mello will love hearing that. But, perhaps you'll make it easy to understand for him. The boy just seems to be unable to understand the basic codes."

"Heh, yeah, I've noticed that. It took us about two hours before I could explain to him what HTML was and did," I said. "But thank you, Mr. Negron. Hopefully Mello will be back on Monday, ready to give you the assignment."

Negron nodded. "Very well, here you go," he said, handing me a small, stapled packet. "All the information is in there, but should something still be misunderstood, you will no doubt be able to explain it to him."

"Yes, sir," I said.

"Now, run along, alright? I have some assignments I need to grade."

I nodded, thanking him again, and left. I went to my locker and pulled my books out, putting them into my bag. I hoped Mello wouldn't need any of his books that he hadn't taken home last night, but if he needed them, I could just loan him mine for the weekend. I sighed and hefted my backpack over one shoulder while I tried to balance Mello's make-up work in my arms. This was gonna suck.

I managed to get to my car and drop Mello's assignments on the trunk of my car so that I could dig out my keys and unlock my car. I put his assignments and my backpack in the back seat and climbed into the driver's seat. Okay. Now, how was I gonna do this? Oh, yeah, that's right. I remembered he'd given me his address about a week ago, don't remember exactly why though, and I'd scribbled it down on a sheet of paper in my notebook. Digging the thing out, I pulled out the paper. Hmm, 384 Central Ave., huh? That was only about a three blocks from my house.

Chuckling to myself, I stuffed the paper back into my notebook and my notebook back into my bag, before turning around and making my way to his house.

OoOo

Once I pulled up, I made sure to park in the street. I didn't want to piss his parents off, after all; especially when I was, in actuality, doing their son a favor. I grabbed Mello's assignments and made my way up to the door before ringing the doorbell.

After a few minutes, the door was answered by a blonde who looked to be in her late 30's early 40's, with shoulder length hair. Well, I knew who Mello'd gotten his hair from then.

"What do you want?"

"I'm a friend of Mihael's," I said, figuring his parents more than likely referred to him by that instead of his nickname like mine did. "I'd noticed he was out of school today, so I brought his make-up work for him."

Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she looked me over.

I could feel myself beginning to twitch slightly. I hated being scrutinized like that.

"Very well," she said eventually, even going as far as to almost adopt a sweet tone(like the stereotypical housewife). "He's upstairs in his room, probably asleep. Would you mind taking him some soup for me?"

"Uh, sure," I replied. Hell, if it got me away from this woman faster, I'd do just about anything.

She smiled and disappeared down the hall to (presumably) the kitchen, before coming back and placing a bowl of soup in my hands. "His room is the third door on the right, dear."

"Thank you," I said, nodding. I adjusted his assignments under my arm to take the bowl in both hands and I made my way up the stairs. When I reached the right door, I shifted the things I was holding again, and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" His voice was somewhat muffled by the door.

"It's Matt," I answered.

"Matt? C-come in."

I opened the door to find Mello half sitting up in his bed, rubbing sleepily at his eyes. "Have a good rest, Sleeping Beauty?" I chuckled as I closed the door gently behind me with my foot.

"Shut up," he grumbled. "What are you doing here?"

"I brought your assignments."

"Oh. Yay. You can put them on my desk, I suppose."

I nodded, setting the papers and the bowl down on his desk. "Oh, and your mom sent up some soup," I said as I turned back to him.

I swear he turned green for a split second before grumbling, "I'm not hungry."

I rolled my eyes. "You should eat though."

"No, you don't get it," the blond said. "Her cooking is shit, literally. Nearly every time me or my dad eats it, we get sick. Even if it's just canned or prepackaged stuff that she only had to heat up, somehow she ruins it."

"Oh." Well, that would explain suddenly loosing your appetite, I suppose. "Mind if I sit down?"

Mello pulled his legs closer to him, almost sitting cross-legged under his sheets and patted the mattress in front of him. "Go ahead."

I sat down hesitantly as the bed creaked slightly. "Well, this would suck to have sex on," I muttered unthinkingly.

Mello laughed. "Why do you think I don't even risk having a girl over?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I was figuring you'd be too interested in studying to pay attention to the female gender," I joked.

"Meh, true."

I laughed that time. "So, you've never kissed anyone?"

"What kind of question is that?" he countered.

"Never mind," I said, shaking my head. Though, it was odd that he completely evaded my question.

"Mihael! I'm going to the store. I should be back in a few hours, alright?"

"Fine, Mom!"

I couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face.

"What?" he asked indignantly.

"Does she really aggravate you that badly?"

"You're an idiot," he muttered.

I tilted my head to the side in curiosity. "What do you mean by that?"

"She doesn't like the fact that I'm friends with you. In fact, if she were 'allowed' to hate you, she would. But she really, really doesn't like you," he said.

"I've never even talked with the woman before today," I said. "How could she possibly not like me?"

"I sort of...told her about you," Mello explained. "When I asked about Saturday."

"Oh." Yeah, Saturday was more than likely out of the picture now.

"I'm sorry, Mattie, really. But she wouldn't stop pestering me about it."

I shrugged. "It's fine. Not like I care what she thinks of me. At least she hasn't started calling me a demon or the spawn of the devil, or some bullshit like that."

"Heh, yeah."

I sighed and glanced around his room. "So..."

"Yeah?"

"Why weren't you at school today?"

"I'm sick, dipshit. Why else do you think I wouldn't be at school?" he said irritably.

"I was trying to subtly ask what was wrong, you jerk," I answered.

"Oh. Well that..." He trailed off suddenly. "Oh shit," he breathed and bolted towards the bathroom.

I sighed. So that's what it was. I got up and followed him, kneeling down beside him on the tile floor and holding his hair back as his stomach emptied itself into the bowl.

When he could finally take a few gasping breaths, he mumbled, "You didn't have to, y'know."

"I know, but what are friends for, right?"

"True. Thanks, Matt." He pushed himself to his feet and rinsed his mouth out in the sink.

"You should get something solid in you, or at least try, you know," I said gently.

"I'm not eating that shit she sent up. I'd be sicker than I already am."

"Would you like me to make you some soup then?" I offered. "You need something light like chicken noodle soup. Just enough to give you a little bit of energy."

Mello nodded, swallowing. "Okay."

"Come downstairs with me then, and we can talk while I'm cooking." I went back to his room to pick up the bowl of soup before making my way downstairs, the blond following close behind me.

Mello sat down at their kitchen table and lay his head on his arms.

I couldn't help but feel bad for him. I knew what it was like to be sick; it drained all of your energy on top of making you feel like shit. And most would say "Well, at least he's got his mom to take care of him." Bullshit. Woman couldn't even cook edible chicken noodle soup. I dumped the soup down the drain and washed the bowl thoroughly before setting it in the dish drainer to dry. I dug around, not wanting to bother Mello as bad as he was feeling, and eventually found a pot to cook the soup in and a can of chicken noodle soup. I put it on, adding just the right amount of water, before fixing the blond a glass of water and gently pushing it against his arm. "You need some fluids, Mel."

He nodded tiredly, sat up properly, took the glass from me and took a few small sips. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

He just smiled and took a few more sips of water.

I went back to cooking. "Hey," I said, the thought hitting me as I was stirring the soup. "You want me to set up that web cam since I'm here? That way you can talk to your friend."

He shrugged. "Whatever. You can meet him too then."

That was...odd. He seemed like he didn't want to talk to this friend, at least not while I was around. I pushed the thought away though. I wouldn't pester him about it. I finished the soup, poured it into the bowl, washed the pot and, taking the bowl in my hand turned and said, "Well, come on. Let's go back up to your room and you can eat this while I hook everything up, okay?"

Once he was situated and comfortable on his bed, and he'd told me where his laptop and web cam was, I set to work.

"You're not gonna use the manual?" he asked, poking his spoon around to find a piece of chicken.

"Nope," I replied, pulling up the necessary programs and running them. "Don't need 'em."

"Hn." He continued eating his soup in silence.

"Done," I said after a few more minutes. "Everything's set up."

"'Kay." Mello put the half-eaten bowl of soup on the table by his bed. "Can you send him an email?"

"Sure, just tell me who," I replied.

"BB; it's Beyond Birthday on the contacts list."

I nodded as I pulled up his email; I froze suddenly. "Wait... THAT'S B?"

"Uh, yeah," Mello said. "I've told you his full name before. Weren't you paying attention?"

"N-not really," I mumbled sheepishly. "You must have said it yesterday when everything kept getting jumbled. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he said. "But B can be a stubborn asshole sometimes."

"I'll take that as that's why you don't really want to talk to him," I said, mostly to myself, as I searched through the contacts. I wasn't even going to think about that, truthfully.

"I'll be right back," the blond said, getting up and walking out the room, leaving the door partway open.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to pee is all," he replied.

I nodded and went back to sending the email.

Mello came back into the room a few minutes later. After he got back under his covers he said, "Mattie, come here and sit beside me."

I felt myself flush slightly. "I'm already on your bed, though," I mumbled lamely. It was true. I was sitting cross-legged near the foot of his bed, his laptop open in front of me.

He frowned slightly. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," I replied. "Oh, look, he answered. He says he'll set it up in a minute or two."

"I don't give a damn about that right now," Mello said. "What's wrong with you? We're best friends, aren't we?"

"We are," I said. "It's just..." I sighed, swallowing hard. "I think I like-like you..."

"Really?"

"Yeah..." I looked away from him, doing a few last minute checks to make sure everything would work properly.

The blond laughed.

"I-It's not funny!" I spluttered angrily, flushing slightly.

"In a way, it kinda is coz I thought I was the only one that felt that way," Mello said, snickering softly.

"Yeah, well, you're not. And my feelings aren't a laughing matter," I grumbled.

"I know that. And I'm sorry for laughing. I shouldn't have done that; I should have been more considerate of your feelings," he said softly. "Now, will you please come sit by me?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied, crawling up by him and situating the laptop in front of us.

He smiled. "Thank you, Mattie."

"Eh, don't mention it."

The blond sighed quietly and lay his head down on my lap.

I found myself smiling slightly as I ran my fingers lightly through the golden strands. Some small part of me had always wanted to do that, to know if his hair was as soft as it looked. It was.

"Heh, that feels good, Matt," he mumbled sleepily.

"Oh, really? It's not putting you to sleep, now is it?" I chuckled.

"Mm-mm, I'm awake. It's just nice and comforting is all."

"Well, that's good."

The small video chat screen flickered to life.

"Hey, Mello. What's up?" a man with raven hair hanging in his equally dark eyes said.

"Not much, B."

"Who's the red head?"

"My friend, Matt. I was sick today, so he brought me my make up work and set up the web cam stuff," Mello replied.

"Oh. So, he's the infamous Matt. He looks like more than a friend to me," B said.

"S-shut up!" the blond grumbled.

"Sorry," the raven-haired man laughed, though he didn't sound quite that sorry to me. "Forgot that was a touchy subject for you."
"Whatever."

"Aw, don't sulk, Mel!" B laughed. "It's not very becoming."

"Now I remember why I always refused to talk to you," the blond grumbled. "You're annoying son of a bitch."

"Meh. So I am." The man cackled. "Anyway, I've gotta run. It was nice talking to you. Later. Love you."

"Love you too," Mello said, before getting up and walking to the bathroom.

"Love you"? But he said he'd never felt that way be fore, and that he'd never been close to a person. Was all of that just a lie?

"Matt, what's wrong?" he asked as he shut the door behind him. He'd already come back; he was looking at me curiously.

"Was it all just a lie?" I whispered.

"What?"

"You said you'd never liked anyone like that before, nor did you ever feel close to a person. Was that all just a lie?" I asked.

"Matt, what are you talking about? When he said 'love you' and I said 'love you too'? That's just a joke we have between us. Alright? That's all. The first person I've ever, ever felt feelings for is you, Mail. That's it. Yeah, B's a good person in his own weird way, but I can't tell him my deepest secrets, I don't feel comfortable being around him like I do with. I would never let B see me like this, to see me so weak and vulnerable. I would be too embarrassed. But I don't feel that way at all with you. You're so caring, so...kind to me, even when you're not to the rest of the world. I can be myself around you. There's nothing between B and myself, he simply cares for me and is protective of me. That's all. Please, believe me," Mello pleaded.

And that's when I realized how much I loved him. I knew that last line was a lie; there was more to his and B's relationship with each other and I knew it, yet I still believed him. I loved him, so I believed him. Whether it was a lie or the truth, I would always believe him. "Okay, I believe you, Mihael. Now, come lay back down and try to get some sleep, okay? I'll even let you use me as a pillow, how's that sound?"

The blond smiled gratefully. "That sounds wonderful," he said as he crawled back into his bed and curled up next to me, laying his head on my shoulder. "Thank you, Mattie," he mumbled sleepily, nuzzling a little against my shoulder.

"You're welcome, Mel."