Forty Seconds (MattxMello -- Death Note)

1 // twelve

Matt entered Mello's room to see a curious sight.

The blond boy was moving at an incredible rate; picking up piles of clothes off the floor, gathering his belongings off shelves, and cramming everything into a black duffle bag laid open on his neatly-made bead-spread. Matt stopped in the door frame, examining the scene with narrowed eyes.

"Mihael...?" Matt's voice sounded weary to himself. There was a pause in which he waited for the shorter boy to react, but the only sign he had been heard was Mello's rapidly increasing pace. Matt took a careful step forward to the boy's side, and was not acknowledged as he continued attempting to fit just one more book in the small bag. Sweat beads collected on Mello's forehead as he got on his toes to lean all his body weight into fitting everything in the bag. Just like Tetris. Mello, however, was never very good at Tetris. "What're you doing?" said Matt. His voice cracked half way through, and he cringed to himself.

The other boy suddenly stopped dead, just like if Matt had pressed pause. His eyes flickered left, seeing Matt and then scanning the rest of the room. A long strain of blonde hair fell over his eyes, and he tucked it behind his ear. Something Matt had seen him do a zillion times. Mello's hair was so blonde, it was almost yellow. Matt had a sudden urge to compare the shade to a yellow crayon. He had a feeling it might match up.

Mello grasped the bedspread like he was in pain, and bit down on his bottom lip. Lines of rage appeared on his forehead. Matt had once joked to him that he would have wrinkles by the time he was nineteen if he kept on getting so angry all the time. As expected, Mello had not laughed.

"Leaving," said Mello's newly deep and hormonal voice, cracking with anger. "L is dead." Matt saw Mello squeeze his eyes shut, like he was keeping in tears. Or maybe he didn't wish to see Matt's reaction.

Matt felt his stomach churn as the realization began to sink in. His brain moved slowly, processing Mello's words. L...dead? Killed by Kira? No way! L couldn't be dead. He was at the orphanage just a couple weeks ago, living and pumping with motivation for justice. Matt tried to imagine him dead; glassed over eyes and motionless limbs, lying still on a cold metal table at the local morgue. The image was so horrific Matt felt a shiver go through his body.

Before he could even fully process this information, Mello was off again. He cinched closed the duffle bag and swung it over one shoulder, and began cramming his small feet into his pair of black converse two sizes too small.

"Wait...Mihael," Matt's desperate voice cried. Hearing himself was strange to Matt; he sounded awfully far away. "...where are you going?"

Mello grunted with frustration as he finally pushed his left foot into the shoe, starting on the laces.

"I don't know. Anywhere is better than here."

"But...But what about L? What about catching Kira?!" Matt had once envied Mello for being one of L's successors, but the envy had died down when he saw what the pressure of surpassing Near did to Mello.

"L died before he could choose between me and Near. Whatever, I don't care anymore. Let the little pimp surpass L. He's smarter than me, anyway." Mello grimaced as he tied his laces into a neat bow. He then opened the chestnut nightstand's drawer and extracted the wooden crucifix which the children used for bedtime prayers. He took a string from his pocket, tied it around the cross, and then knotting it on the loose ends, putting the necklace around his neck and allowing the crucifix to fall half-way down his chest. He stood, finally facing and acknowledging Matt. Matt was struck by the sudden intensity of eye contact between the two boys.

"I'm leaving this institution," said Mello forcefully "I don't need Near or anyone else's help to surpass L and catch Kira. I will be the best! And when I catch Kira, I'll claw his eyes out for what he did to L." There was a pause. The magnitude of Mello's words rang in the air for a moment after he'd spoken them. Matt thought he hear Mello sigh. He reached out, and embraced Matt in a brief hug, as Matt stood in shock. "I guess this is goodbye then, Mail."