Wow. It has really been a while since I have updated, ne?? Actually, right now I have almost completely stopped watching anime. gasp But don't worry, Cho will continue...hopefully. But at this point, it looks like she will. I wrote this chapter uber-fast. It really was going to be longer, but it's not. Because I have to go back to my mom's house and I have the story at my dad's house. So deal with it. LoL I hope you enjoy this anyway. I added a bit of fluff for you fans of MelloxCho. LoL. It's kind of sentimental fluff tho...so...read and REVIEWWWWW I love you all!!

I am probably going to start responding to reviews up here. (here) It would be fun. I think.

24

Cho couldn't take her eyes off his face. It was beautiful; it practically was shining, glowing, angelic. Matt drove along the street, a huge grin on his face and his goggles pulled up, slightly mussing his shaggy bangs.

"I missed you!"

"I thought you were dead."

"Me too."

There were no questions, no demanded explanation of where the other had been. Matt and Cho were in ecstasy. Floating in their own form of time and space. His hand was clenched around hers while the other steered the wheel nonchalantly. In the backseat, Mello's crumpled form sprawled sideways over the worn leather cushions, his tangled singed locks hanging over the angry red skin on his left cheek. If he were conscious he would be embarrassed at the affection.

"I love you."

It was so good to be with her brother, even in a run-down car, in a crappy part of LA with blistered, red fingers and tangled hair. She was happier than she had been in the last couple of years, if even more than that. Cho wished she could stay in this moment forever, frozen in time, never to bore of this renaissance of Matt. Just Matt, Matt, no one else. Not even Mello. The black haired idol leaned back and closed her eyes.

Matt cleared his throat.

"Cho, you're cutting my circulation off."

She unclasped her death grip and relaxed. "Sorry, Mattie."

Matt glanced over at her and flicked his turn signal. Loose gravel crunched under the wheels as they turned.

"Just because we are reunited does NOT mean you can call me Mattie." He rolled his eyes, but a smile curved his lips.

"Then YOU can't call ME Butterfly Girl."

"You're just the same, ya know that?"

Cho giggled and smiled broadly.

--

They drove to a small apartment, where Matt carried Mello up the stairs and laid him on the couch. Cho sat down tentatively beside him, her eyes suddenly stony.

Matt went into another room, shut the door and reappeared with ointments and washcloths and medicine. Cho watched him bend, flashing a reassuring smile at her and begin to work on Mello's burns. The girl watched the way he worked, quickly and carefully, his lips pressed together. His fingers neither strayed from the particularly nasty parts of the scar, nor did his face scrunch up when puss seeped out over his palm.

He should be a doctor she thought, smiling.

The light turned into afternoon golden, turning everything shades of yellow and blue. Cho's hair was violet, Matt's deep yellow, and Mello's almost white. Cho sighed and began to relax again, gathering her knees to her chest.

Matt's bark startled her. "Cho. Hold his hand."

His deep eyes were urgent and tight. They never wavered.

"Why?!" Cho looked at her own hand protectively, then at Mello's. It lay limp across his hipbones. Matt smoothly unzipped Mello's leather vest. Yanked it off. His torso was equally ripped and bony, the ribs and hips all visible, but washboard firm, like he ran miles every day. Cho blushed inwardly. Then she saw the scar. It ran down the whole right side of his body, raging and rough, like Mello himself. In a way, the scar fit him so perfectly. A deformed glove that enveloped his personality and made it more insane. More extreme. More zealous.

She took his hand, even though Matt had yet to answer her question. The blisters on them burned at the pressure, but she sucked it up. Her brother took out a black bottle and wincing, carefully poured the entire contents over Mello's scarred body and face. Almost immediately, Mello jerked up. His teeth bared, spit-shining. He cursed loudly. Cho suddenly realized why she was holding his hand. She squeezed tightly; even more so than she had held Matt's hand. But Mello was silently shaking. He barely noticed Cho holding his hand.

"Hydrogen Peroxide." Explained Matt, pulling down his goggles and standing. Mello swallowed hard and gritted his teeth.

"You mean torture by medical means, right?" he said in a cracked voice. Masses of white bubbles from the peroxide were already beginning to spill from the dirty sections of the burn. Matt blew out a puff of relief and wiped his hands together.

"I need a cigarette."

"You STILL smoke?" Cho folded her arms and frowned at him. Matt shrugged and pulled a pack out of the breast pocket of his vest. Mello looked from Matt to Cho and back again.

"What do you mean, STILL smoke?" he asked. Suspicion edged his voice like venom. "You two just met."

Cho laughed and dropped the maternal disapproval at Matt's rat poison addiction. "No stupid, he's my brother." The words were like candy on her tongue. Brother. MY brother. HE'S MY BROTHER.

Mello's mouth dropped open. "No shit."

"No feces, Mel. Remember that day?" she thought about the snowy evening when she had presumed Matt dead.

Mello blinked, looked from Matt to Cho again.

"No way. That's too..."

"Amazing? Coincidental? We know." Matt turned and began to leave, trailing a pungent trail of cigarette smoke in his wake. Peering back over his shoulder, he grinned slightly, the cigarette trapped between his teeth.

"I'm out for a bit. You two keep…holding hands or whatever you plan on doing."

Simultaneously, Mello and Cho both stared at their fingers, intertwined tightly on the pillow between them. Simultaneously, Mello and Cho both pulled back at the speed of light.

"Ugh! Perv!" Cho shook her fingers as if they had been infected with disease. Mello snorted and wiped his own fingers on his leather pants.

Matt turned back around, a smile still visible in his tone. "We all know how you two feel." He teased. "Cho, there are some bandages and peroxide on the floor. Use them on your hands. Mello will help you." He left.

Cho groaned and lifted the peroxide in her aching hands. Shook it. Only the whoosh of air sounded. It was empty.

"Is there any more?" she asked Mello, not making eye contact. He shrugged and then realized she wasn't looking at him.

"Probably in the cabinet." He said gruffly.

"What cabinet?"

"In the bathroom." He pointed. Cho followed his finger and found herself in a small, almost perfectly square room boasting a microscopic shower, tiny toilet and looming cabinet over the latter. Mello had followed her in, leaning himself over the door frame, still shirtless.

"What do you want?" Cho asked, kneeling on the closed toilet bowl and opening the cabinet with a slight creak.

"To wash my hands." He said a little too quickly. He went to a bowl-shaped sink in the corner and turned the cold on full blast. They were back to back, his shoulder blades brushing the tops of her shoulders. Both tried not to move much, Cho rummaging carefully through the cabinet. Mello holding his hands still under the torrent of water. Both wished Matt was there to ease the tension.

"Here it is." Cho said abruptly, grabbing a black bottle perfectly resembling the empty one. She spun around at the exact time Mello turned off the water and turned. They stood still, crushed together in the sliver of space, her face bent up towards his. She clutched the bottle. His dripping hands quivered in a barely audible movement. There was a long pause, a stare issuing from her crimson-rimmed irises to his blue ones. Neither detected any emotion in the other, simply stared silently. They were barely touching, but pushed into one. Barely feeling, but their hearts were racing like speed cars. Barely detecting the way his wet fingers brushed hers.

"Mello…"

Breathy and sweet, her voice gave him a jolt.

"…can you go get the bandages?"

He left almost immediately, jerky movements spraying droplets of water onto her. She sat down on the toilet seat, shaky as ever and took a deep, tremulous breath.

What was she feeling and why did it make her so jumpy?

Mello returned with the bandages, eyes downcast.

"Gimme your hands."

She did so, not resisting as his cold fingers held hers still and poured hydrogen peroxide over them. It stung. She gasped and swore. The white bubbles dripped onto the floor in hissing clumps.

The bandages felt good over her hands, like soft bed sheets after a restless day. Mello held her wrists and twirled the textured white fabric over each one of her fingers gently, securing them with bendable metal clasps.

When he finished, Cho held out her hands at arm-length and ran her eyes over them in quiet contemplation.

"When do you think they will heal?" she asked.

"I'm no doctor." Mello looked at them too. "But I would say...well…I dunno. Time will heal them, I guess."

He left, reappeared with his leather shirt zipped up.

"I'm going to the drug store for some chocolate with Matt. You want to come?" he asked hurriedly, straightening his collar.

Cho sure didn't want to be stuck here alone. And she was starved. There might be cherry cordials or Hostess or something if she came along. Wordlessly, she stood and followed Mello outside. The cool air brushed her arms and she shoved fists into her armpits.

The three piled into the run-down car. Mello made Cho take the back. Engine roaring to life, Cho stared out the window and took deep breaths. She was exhausted. Starving. Over stimulated to the max. She never thought her reunion with both her childhood friend and older brother could be this…miserable. Sure she had been happy, but this underlying exhaustion was weighing down her limbs with every smile, every shaky breath. Now all she wanted was to sleep again. For a long time.

They pulled into the drug store parking lot. Cho let Matt open the door for her in a fleeting bout of feministic weakness. The girl could barely keep her eyes open as she staggered towards the see-through door with Mello. Matt had hopped back inside the car for another quick smoke.

IT was mostly empty, except for a hat-clad blonde buying chocolate. Cho yawned, the fluorescent lights giving her bleary eyes. Mello looked down at her.

"You're sure you're all right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Cho shook her head and followed him over to the chocolates just as the blonde took the register. A box of dark cherry chocolates lay on top of the Clearance stack. The girl lifted it under her arm and looked up at Mello. But he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were on the girl at the counter. She drummed her fingers as the cashier rang up her purchase—a dark chocolate bar.

Cho rolled her eyes to the sky. "Mel, you can check out hot chicks later. Let's go." But Mello shushed her with a single finger and started towards the blonde. He was NOT going to hit on her! Cho felt a light surge of something cold and hard in her stomach. She began to grab his arm, but he strolled right up the counter and wrapped his hand around the girl's face. She shrieked and the black haired girl's jaw hit the floor.

What was he DOING? She ran over, suddenly alert and yanked at Mello's arm forcefully.

"Mello!" she shouted. The clerk stood there, his lips open in a gothic O. "Mello! You let go right now!" she was on the verge of a nice right hook to the eye. But at that exact moment, the blonde stopped struggling.

"Mello?" she asked quietly. Her voice quivered in disbelief and something more. Cho froze, her fist poised and ready to smash some face. But Mello smiled. Smiled. It was the first time she'd seen him really do that, Cho realized. Then he dropped his hands off the girl's face.

Blue eyes, just like Mello's. Full, red lips. An innocent expression.

Michelle was back.

So there you go! Short, but I had funz writing it and listening to "Linkin Park", "I Killed the Prom Queen", "Drop Dead, Gorgeous" and "Eyes Set to Kill." All great groups, all heavy metal!! I am obsessed with the Kite Runner right now. I know. I have THE weirdest obsessions. O.o I am writing a sequel of my own. :D And Oh, I am obsessed with House MD and Hugh Laurie. Me and my friend Emma/Kat/Mary are writing a pwned FANMAILLLLLLLLLLL.

Now click that review button and give me some love!