The Flaw - Part 14

Part 14

~Papers~

Matt sighed again as Mello twitched at the slamming of a door and the shouts in pitchy Japanese that rose from the other side of their hotel wall. They were lucky to have a place for the night, but the area wasn't exactly the best.

The door slammed violently once more before everything was silent, deathly silent. It wasn't hard to be on edge especially as Matt was certain L was looking for them and every suspicious sound caused the paranoia to grow.

They had to get out of the country, and soon, but it was proving difficult.

It wasn't as though they could simply apply for the passports they needed and expect L not to notice it. And neither could they simply stay inJapanas it was now ground zero for L's search. The detective would know how hard it would be for them to get what they needed on their own.

Matt hated him.

Though Matt was conflicted on even that; was it L or was it the notebooks influence? Where did one end and the other begin? There was no way to tell as Matt had not met the man before the Kira case started so it was impossible to say what would have occurred otherwise.

Matt tore his thoughts away from Mello and L and the couple that had been yelling next door; they needed a way out. His hands shook as he typed, so fast he was misspelling words left and right and having to backtrack every few seconds; it was counter productive. Matt had liked to think he was good under pressure but this pressure was different and if he failed it was more than a slap on the wrist at being caught in a hack; not that he would get caught easily.

Matt was looking for someone, anyone, that could potentially get them out ofJapan. Everything needed a passport. Everything legal.

And even some of the not so legal ways needed it as insurance just in case. Matt was having a hard time finding hints of anyone willing to make forgeries too, even the temporary kind. It was a huge mess.

But he couldn't stop; not when he could see Mello peering through the dirty yellow curtains with that nervous energy of his. Mello had every right to be weary of the outside noises. But chances were that if L found them he wouldn't let them know in advance. There would be no warning, no sounds to alert them or any time to run.

Matt took a deep breath as quietly as he could and forced himself to calm down, if only a little. Getting panicky, no matter how warranted it was, wouldn't help. The sound of something hitting the wall and breaking glass startled them both and Matt was willing to bet that in the near future one of the people in the room beside theirs wouldn't be alive.

Matt was actually surprised his laptop was even working at the moment after having dropped out from under his vest and hitting the street earlier. Matt glanced irritably at the scratches it now had and his finger slipped during the distraction causing the mouse's pointer to go astray; it clicked on a side link. Some flashing banner that held promise of infecting his computer with something. Silently cursing himself Matt stared at what had come up. A site advertising the sale of private jets. Matt's eyes widened and he quickly exited the page to look up specifics on charter jets. It was something he hadn't thought of, something that was definitely feasible.

His eyes scanned the page quickly taking in all the details as fast as he could process them. Types and sizes, styles and models and capacity and how far they could travel and what was available inJapanfor use. So many things to memorize and understand but Matt's mind soaked it up like a sponge.

They could get out that way, through private charter; they really could. If he could find the right person. Everyone had a price; Matt just had to make sure his was higher than the authorities, than L's. Because if it wasn't, they probably would never leaveJapanalive, not if L and Near were as deeply affected by the murder notebook as it was beginning to seem.

The kind of people he was looking for would be hard to find online, as they would need to seem legit or risk immediate consequences, and maybe they were legal until a price was given. There were always inconsistencies with those people, just one thing that didn't add up that would tell Matt when he had found exactly what he was looking for.

But whether L had found them first or not would remain to be seen and Matt really hoped he wouldn't be too late. Because the only other alternative was for them to hide inJapan. While L was there. Where L had infinite resources. Where L had been living for over a year already.

"Matt."

Mello's voice was soft so unlike his usual tone that it caused him pause, made him look over. Mello was leant against the windowsill, curtain drawn tight in his hands, and he stared at Matt with an uneasy expression. Mello looked too skinny now that he was back to wearing only the one pair of clothing, the rest piled messily on a chair along with Matt's own extras, including his vest. It had become too hot to keep them on and Matt knew they would need something to carry the clothing in if they wanted to travel with them.

"I know you want to rush but if work yourself up into a frenzy it will be that much harder to come down from. If we look like we are in massive trouble even the most greedy of people won't give us the time of day, right?" Mello's skin was pale and the longer Matt looked at him the more drained Mello seemed. The situation wasn't just stressing him out. Why hadn't Matt thought of that?

"Mello why don't you lie down? I know you won't sleep, but it might be good…" Matt's hands were frozen over the keys, head turned away and he couldn't seem to get the words to flow from his lips anymore; couldn't just say what he wanted without making Mello believe he thought him weak. And he didn't.

Matt tensed at the sound of movement behind him, fully expecting Mello to protest; so when he heard the rusted springs of the cheap hotel rooms bed squeak in protest he was confused.

"Just try not to get jittery and any more paranoid alright? You are a terrible liar on a normal day and acting like you just robbed a bank won't help once you find what we need." Mello sighed, head pillowed on his arm that was bent under his head.

Mello acted as though he knew definitely that Matt would get them out of the situation. Matt doubted Mello knew how much that meant to him, to be trusted in so completely.

Matt forced himself to slow down. He lit a cigarette and simply let it burn as it was held loosely between his lips; the smell alone was partially calming. Matt hadn't wanted to light them around Mello but short of doing all his work outside just to smoke them it was the only option he could think of for the moment.

He'd never really had a problem keeping calm as things at Wammys hadn't been all that exciting but there had been a few occasions where things had spiraled out of control, mainly because of something to do with Mello and Near or that he'd been reminded of something he would have rather forgotten and Matt had always had a hard time calming himself afterward.

There were things Matt had seen, while certainly not the worst in the world, that had wired a panic switch into his system. And sometimes Matt just wasn't able to help it when he got too anxious. Normally he would just game until the feeling went away, an escape, but with that not an option it had begun to eat at him despite the way he had tried to ignore it, pretend that he wasn't stressed.

Mello had known.

Mello had always known but had never acknowledged it.

Matt just wished it hadn't taken a situation this dire for the blond to say something. It had always kind of hurt to be ignored, to have to try and fix it himself.

Matt shrugged the thoughts off knowing it was hardly the time or place for them and instead continued on. The nicotine was helping his nerves and the slight nervous jerking in his leg had subsided as the seconds ticked by.

His breathing was slower as he scrolled down another web page feeling more and more like he might have just found something. Matt had gone through a lot of the legit websites, some advertising more than just one charter business, and none of them had so much as mentioned the one he'd just found.

One that had been mixed in the very last pages of the search engines results.

The more Matt read the more certain he was that there was something off with that business. Their prices were dirt cheap in comparison to the business he had confirmed as legal. No one, not even the best, could afford to have prices that low if they weren't getting something on the side or doing less than legal things business wise to get more money.

If there wasn't something illegal going on Matt decided he would quit smoking.

Whoever owned the business obviously couldn't outright advertise if they did some not so legal things; that would have been idiotic to say the least, so Matt understood he would have to call and when they got there hope that not having passports wouldn't be an issue.

Matt twisted, fully intending to tell Mello of what was going on but found the blonds eyelids firmly shut and his breathing soft; Mello was asleep and had been for at least a few minutes. Matt worried his lip for a moment and decided to simply let Mello sleep for a while longer. Mello wasn't needed for the initial call now that Matt was as calm as he was going to get in that situation.

Matt was not going to risk waking Mello though so he would move into the bathroom. Matt carefully gathered everything he would need and shoved what he could in his pockets before gently closing the laptops lid and placing it underarm as he stood; the tiny stubbed remainder of the cigarette still in his mouth.

Matt hesitated, eyes locked on Mello, and couldn't resist brushing the stray strand of hair out of Mello's face, smiling as Mello sighed slightly in his sleep. Matt was frozen in spot at the almost overwhelming fluttery feeling that rose into his chest and had to take a deep gasp of air just to remember how to breathe.

What was it about Mello that caused such confusing emotions in him?

Matt slowly backed away and breathed a sigh when the bathroom door shut behind him, blocking Mello's sleeping form from his view. Matt sat heavily on the bathtubs edge and stared at the door still picturing Mello's thin frame with that shoddy blanket draped halfway across his waist and his blond hair that never quite stayed out of his face.

Matt didn't want to label it something more than it was but he could no longer profess to be completely unsure of what he felt.

It was more than the urge to cradle the fragile looking blond in his arms, or the urge to press his lips to Mello's, or the fluttery feeling he continually got when he looked at him or the way Mello was able to read him better than anyone...

It was more than lust.

It was more than their usual friendship.

But due of past experiences... Matt was hesitant to call it that word.

And yet, that was all it could be.

"Why can't things ever be easy?" Matt muttered, resting his head against the dingy bathroom tile.

-End 14-