Suggested Listening: Black Parade – Globus

Seven Devils – Florence + the Machine

Long & Lost by Florence + the Machine

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Part 4

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Matt stared oddly at the small black safe that had been installed while he was out. Mello had not mentioned buying one, never mind even needing one. What was stranger was that it was the expensive kind that required not only a palm print, but a combination as well. It was probably for his personal documents, or so Matt told himself until Mello had gotten out of the shower.

"Hey Mel, what is the safe for? I did not even know you were getting it." In the meantime, he had made them each a cup of hot chocolate, Mello's with an extra syrup. The blond took the mug gratefully and headed off to the living room.

"It's just for stuff I can't afford to have get destroyed, birth certificate and the like. You don't need to worry about it as you won't be using it." Mello waved him off and settled on the couch with a sigh. He had been gone for a week.

The comment stung. He wasn't allowed to use it? If it was really simple documents as Mello stated, would it not be practical for them to store theirs together as they were married? Something did not add up. He hated to think Mello was lying to him, but with all of the secrets already being kept, what was another one really?

Matt chose the space on the opposite end of the couch by the armrest, the distance between them was vast. Mello looked up from his hot chocolate with surprise on his features, but Matt could not bring himself to care.

.00.

"The suspicion was there, and I could not get it out of my head. What was he hiding, and why? When I sat with him on the couch, it was there. When we ate, slept, made love―it was always there. But it was worse when Mello was gone because there were no distractions." Matt had not realized he was gripping the chair until his fingers started to ache. He hated recalling those weeks because of the feelings associated towards Mello were not what they should have been. Mello was at fault, but so was he for not pushing the issue more.

"I am sorry. It must have been hard for you." Takada's voice brought him back to the present. He nodded swiftly but did not say anything. "Was this around the time that you began to have those other feelings?"

"Yes," Matt said quietly. He shivered upon remembering them. To this day he still looked over his shoulder.

-.0.-

There was something off that afternoon as Matt exited the apartment. He could not put a finger on it, but it followed him the entire way to Gamestop where he was going to pick up another pre-order. Once he stepped inside, it was as if a weight had been lifted. He shrugged it off, and after a minute of browsing other newly released items, he paid for his pre-order and left.

Hardly two feet out of the store, the feeling was back. Almost like someone was watching him. With how crowded the streets were, someone damn well could have been. Yet it was not the kind of passing feeling you noticed and dismissed. This one lingered. It made him nervous.

Matt tried to shake it off as he headed home. He had never felt that sensation before, so it probably had to do with watching The Bourne Identity the night before. Paranoid stuff right there; it was probably just messing with him. Right? Yeah, that sounded good.

With that in mind, he stopped for an iced chai tea latte and sipped it as he leisurely made his way home. He still had time before he and Mello were going out for a special dinner.

Only, the apartment was empty when he stepped inside. Matt checked the time, and he had not been gone for more than forty minutes. Mello had been there when he had left.

With a frown, he flipped open his phone and noticed a missed call as well as a voice mail. Sighing, he called for the message. "Matt, I know you were looking forward to this, but something came up with work. We can do it another night-" something crackled loudly in the background and Matt thought he heard a voice. "I have to go. I love you."

Matt stared at a picture of the two of them, taken hardly three months before, that was stuck to the refrigerator across from him. "Yeah Mel, I love you too." He muttered and turned his phone off.

.00.

"That was not the end of the situation, was it? Tell us what happened next, if you will," Takada was leaned forward and listening with most of her attention.

This was where things started to plateau. The countdown to events that could not be changed and never forgotten.

.0.

He was halfway to work when he felt it again. That weird prickle on the back of his neck and the suspicious sting of paranoia creeping up on him. This time he could not blame it on any movies. Glancing around under the cover of his goggles, Matt surveyed the other drivers he could see. A heavy man rehearsing lines to the left of him, a group of teens blasting shitty music to his right, and a bunch of old people in pricey cars in front of him. None of them seemed the kind of people to trip his senses. He sighed and turned his music up.

'-now have we seen this light for the last time, and turn back the clock and we won't survive'

He frowned deeply at his iPod. Way to help him calm down. "Fucker," he muttered and stepped on the gas a little too hard as the traffic finally broke. He was too stubborn to shut it off, and though he generally liked that song, some of the lyrics were grating on him now.

Matt was still uncomfortable as he turned into his work's parking area, and after a moment's indecision, he turned around and exited the lot. There was something wrong. He knew it. He tested his theory by stopping at the tattoo parlor two turns down as if he could have mistakenly gone into the wrong lot. He rarely went into the main building of his work so should anyone be following him, hypothetically, they would have made the same detour he had.

"Son of a bitch." He was shaking as the same black car with tinted windows rolled into a parking space across the walkway behind him, the one he had thought was too obvious earlier. Seriously, who drove such an conspicuous car?

A man in a business suit stepped from the driver's side, yet from the way he glanced back inside for a moment, Matt doubted the car was empty. The man walked right past his car and into the health food store next to the tattoo parlor. Matt took a deep breath. He was making too much out of this. It was the product of too many crime centered video games and movies. His cell phone rang, and he jumped. He fumbled with shaking fingers and answered. It was a coworker wondering where he was; he was never late when called in.

"I, ah―my friend was in an accident, and I have to check on them. I might be really late, I don't know." With disgust, he realized his voice was a little off too. He needed to get a grip. If Mello saw him like this, he would have a good laugh and tell him to lay off the games. With one hand to steer, Matt backed out of the lot and onto the main road. He finally got off the phone with his coworker―who expressed their sympathy―and kept his phone on his lap. He could not help how his eyes kept darting to the rear-view mirror.

He took a few detours in getting home—the long way around—and he even parked the Camaro in a different spot. Mello was going to think he was out of his mind when he told him. There was no way he was keeping this secret, if only because he needed to be told he was being ridiculous.

Mello was still gone when he turned to lock the door. It made day three without him, and Matt was particularly feeling his absence now. He leaned against the door and lit a cigarette, taking a nice long drag. He held it in until his lungs burned. He only really smoked when he was stressed.

Scrubbing a hand over his face Matt leaned away from the door. He shuffled over to his laptop and pulled up one of the most brain rotting games he could think of to numb his mind: The Sims.

He never made it into work that day.

.00.

"Mello did not return that night, or the night after. I didn't leave the house at all in that time. I did all of my work from home, and thankfully, it was all things that could be fixed remotely or I might have had a problem." Matt hated that he had felt so damn alone. Mello never answered his cell, and he had no way of contacting him other than that. Matt had no idea where he was or if he was alright―which he had never really worried about before even with the scratches and bruises.

"So it is safe to say that you were rattled by this time?"

Matt nodded at Takada. He knew he must have seemed like such a paranoid fuck, yet he had never been so right in his life. If only he had not brushed it off and tried to deal with it. If only he had gone to stay with someone... if only Mello had been there.

.0.

Matt stretched with a loud yawn. He had just made his Sims get married and was working on getting Mello's abducted by the aliens. It might have been just a little bitterness on his part that had caused the action, but his Sim would get over it.

He was playing Sims and earning his paycheck at the same time. It paid―literally—to multitask. With a click of the send button, he had remotely fixed a server issue at work caused by some idiot sending chain-mail on the work email that had an attached virus. Matt shook his head. He had no idea how some of those people had a job at all. His messenger pinged; it was from his boss thanking him for a quick response. Matt rolled his eyes. As if a simple thing like that would have tied him up.

He limped into the kitchen―his leg half asleep―to grab a can of coke when there were three harsh knocks on the door. Lightning went down his spine, and Matt froze, hand poised on the refrigerator door. Who the Hell would be knocking? They didn't really know anyone, and he had no family that he spoke to. More knocking jolted Matt back to reality, and he hesitantly made his way to the door. He thought of perhaps not answering, but the knocks were getting more persistent and last thing he wanted was the door getting kicked in.

Maybe it was just the police? Crazy homeless person in the wrong neighborhood? Yeah, sure.

He glanced at the cracked peep-hole and wished he hadn't been too lazy to fix it―you couldn't see anything out of it―and Mello to be home to deal with this. With a sigh, he unlocked the deadbolt.

"Can I help you?" he asked around the partially open door. The small chain lock was still intact, yet faced with the men in front of him, he wondered if it would snap like a toothpick if they so much as pushed on the door.

"Where's Mello?" one of the men asked gruffly. They were both in suits and looked very much like the criminals Matt had seen in his games or on the television.

"How do you know Mello?" He instinctively asked. His thoughts raced. Where was the phone? Would Mello pick it up if he was able to get to it? Was there something he could use to defend himself?

"I don't like repeating myself." The door was kicked in all too suddenly, and Matt was sent to the floor, holding his head from where it had smacked the wall. What. The. Fuck.

A gun was brandished and pointed at him. "Where the fuck is Mello?"

"I wish I fucking knew! He hasn't been back in days―" Matt was cut off as the gun smacked him in the mouth. Matt had no idea why he was shocked that it hurt, but he held his mouth and stared. This wasn't real, was it? He was asleep on his desk or something...

"Knock Mello's fuck toy out and take him to the car while I see if that traitor is hiding here."

"Wait what? Excuse me, you cock sucker-"

There was anger in both of their eyes, and Matt wished he had taken some sort of defense classes instead of sitting on his ass because there was no way a misplaced punch was getting him out of this. On second thought, maybe he should just learn to keep his damn mouth shut.

"We're not like you and that stupid fuck who thinks he can order us around after he's been fucking men." The words were spat at him, like they were physically disgusting. Like you? What the hell did that mean, and why would it matter to them? Matt took another good look at the men, and his heart skipped. Oh. Oh god.

"Holy fuck, you are mafia." Matt stared open mouthed. This was not fucking happening.

"Oh look, Mello's got himself a smart one," the man sneered at him. The gun was raised as Matt scrambled backwards only for his back to hit the wall. Fuck.

"Send Mello a good message for when he comes looking for his bitch," the bald one called over his shoulder as he walked into the living room, looking for Mello who was not there.

Matt glanced back to the other man-

BANG

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AN: Editing other chap now. Shouldn't be too long :)

Special thanks to reviewers: Carottal, Keono