Death Note Fan Fiction ❯ A Life Less Lived ❯ One-Shot

“A Life Less Lived”
By Viridian5
6/19/07

RATING: PG-13; Matt/Mello, Mello/L. If m/m interaction bothers you, pass this by.
SPOILERS: the end of Death Note.
SUMMARY: Mello isn’t done yet.
ARCHIVAL/DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere, as long as you ask me first.
FEEDBACK: can be sent to Viridian5@aol.com.
DISCLAIMERS: All things Death Note belong to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. No infringement intended.
NOTE: This is what happens when I go driving while listening to A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box? This crack is for Kef.

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“A Life Less Lived”
By Viridian5
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Fire! He should’ve-- Burning....

Seated, with something hard against his back, Mello looked out on an empty plain under a gray sky. How the hell had he gotten here? He looked both ways to see more featureless nothingness. Only the tall metal fence behind him broke it up, and looking between the cast iron parts of it revealed only more of the misty grayness.

Then he realized that he could turn his head to the left farther and smoother than he had in ages, without pain or the sensation of scarred skin pulling too tight. Hell, he could see better too. When Mello took off one of his leather gloves and ran his hand lightly along the left side of his face and down his neck, he felt only smooth skin, no lumps or seams. Although he had a love/hate relationship with the burn scars his fight against Kira had earned him, he’d realized that the extensive damage made him stand out while tailing people, so he’d looked into cosmetic surgery. Although money had been no object, he hadn’t found a doctor who could promise good enough results to make it worth the vulnerability and loss of time during recovery. Yet not only did his skin currently feel perfect, even his left eye had regained full vision. Thus, nobody could’ve... fixed him this well and dumped him somewhere.

Once you eliminated all the most likely things, the things left, no matter how improbable, had to be considered.... Mello had been too busy chasing and harassing Kira to spend much thought on the afterlife.

There better be more to it than this.

It probably wouldn’t get much more interesting if he just sat on his ass hoping something would happen. His fingers playing over the crucifix at the end of the rosary hanging around his neck, Mello stood up and started walking toward the right, pursuing a glow in the distance. At least it made a change of scenery.

A lot of walking later he started getting really fucking impatient. Had he hit Limbo or something? Hell might be better than this kind of boring.

He sped up a little as he noticed familiar legs and boots in the distance, closer than the glow at least. Having goals always made things easier.

Matt sat there, looking very much like Matt, still wearing his goggles, smoking, and playing his handheld DS. Figures he’d find a way to bring it with him. “Hey,” Matt said.

Mello crouched down beside him. “Hey.”

“What happened to you? I figured I’d have a longer wait than this.”

“I'm not sure, but I get the feeling I may have been better off watching carefully as Takada stripped naked, then hog-tying her.” Though that probably wouldn’t have been enough to save his life anyway.

“Why do you get to do all the kinky stuff with girls?”

“Because I make the plans. How long were you gonna play,” Mello looked, “Mario Kart waiting for me to show up?”

Matt grinned at him and touched the now healed side of his face. “As long as it took. It’s good to see you again. Rowr, yeah. Look at you, all cute again without the scars. And now you can’t kill me for calling you cute.”

Shit. Mello remembered the news report. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Who would’ve expected the Japanese cops to be that trigger-happy? Damn, they had some nice guns.”

That was over, and now all Mello could do now was rely on Near to take what Mello had done and destroy Kira. That sucked so much.

They were here now, so they’d have to handle here. “Do you know what’s on the other side of the fence?” Heaven maybe, but what would Heaven really look like?

“I tried climbing it to get over, but it fucking never ended. For real. There’s a glowing gate down the way a bit, but it’s manned by some guy who looks like Roger who asks you questions and I suck at pop quizzes. I happen to know that you ace tests.” Matt grinned.

Mello had to grin back. “There’s nowhere we can’t get into.”

“Hell yeah.”

As they stood up they heard someone yelling, “No! I was supposed to be a god! This isn’t right! This isn’t fair! This can’t happen! I was betrayed!”

Mello saw Light Yagami nearby struggling, screaming, and being held by demons or maybe Shinigami. Kira. Dead, like them. Being a whiny little bitch about it, unlike them.

Maybe Near had done it? No, killing him wasn’t something Near would do. But still, that smug Kira had been defeated. Thoroughly from the way he was carrying on.

Light saw and obviously recognized him, so Mello put his hand to his forehead in the shape of an L. Just to get the point thoroughly across.

Light screamed and just about frothed at the mouth as the whatevers disappeared with him, taking him away to Hell or the Shinigami realm or wherever. Failure and early death would be a huge punishment to an ego that big, but Mello would be even happier if the punkass who’d dared to kill L and steal his name got eternal damnation and suffering on top of that.

“I’m ready for the Pearly Gates,” Mello said. “Come on.”

The old guy at the gate--St. Peter?--really did look a lot like Roger. “You’re late,” St. Peter told Matt as he looked up from his large leather-bound book.

“I had unfinished business,” Matt said.

“You also have a lot on your record: theft, menacing, property damage.... Mailboxes?”

“You can’t blame me. I was wasted for that!” Matt replied.

“He has a good heart, and he repents,” Mello said.

“Huh?” Matt answered.

“You’re full of repentance, Matt. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I’m full of it.”

Close enough.

St. Peter turned to Mello and said, “If so, he may be able to get in, but his sins pale before yours, Mihael. Theft, kidnapping, menacing, murder? It would take me a while to get through your time helping the Mafia.”

“I did what I needed to do to get to the mass-murderer Kira.” It had worked, so he couldn’t repent that. Besides, archangels killed people.

“Mello is chaotic good!” Matt said. Mello wondered if they were familiar with RPGs here.

“Yes, Kira and his dupes caused a lot of trouble,” St. Peter said.

“His role in putting an end to that should make Mello’s chances of getting in 100%, shouldn’t it?” L said from behind St. Peter. Even in the afterlife, L still slouched, wore clothing too big for him, and had shadows under his eyes. His feet were bare.

L. Mello felt himself turn into a starstruck kid just from seeing L again. When Matt smirked at him, Mello elbowed him hard. Mello knew he had very sharp elbows.

“We all have to answer to a higher authority,” St. Peter answered. “You don’t have that much power here.”

“I would appreciate it if you’d ask about these two.”

St. Peter appeared to be listening to a kind of earplug then sighed. “We prefer to let them think about their sins more and have more repentance, but it appears that they’re in. Don’t think you can make a habit of this, L.”

“I don’t expect to. You know I couldn’t resist being here for this arrival or Light’s.” A sudden sadness further darkened L’s eyes.

“Of course.”

“Come along,” L said as he put his hands in his pockets, turned his back on them, and started walking, obviously intending them to follow. Matt waved at a still steamed St. Peter as they entered.

“I didn’t expect it to look like this,” Mello said as he looked at a huge district of picturesque little homes surrounded by grass, trees, and flowers, warmed by the sun. It was... a gated community.

“Looks dull,” Matt said.

“In Hell, they have only PSP,” L answered.

“Let’s not go there then!” Matt said. “What does a guy have to do to get a house here?”

“Claim one. There are no rules against living with other people either.”

Matt grinned at Mello, so certain of himself. Since Mello couldn’t help smiling back in assent, Matt obviously had reason. The time Mello had spent alone after leaving Wammy’s House wasn’t something he’d like to repeat.

“There are mysteries to be solved and good to be done here. Otherwise, you can be reborn and give life another try as a different person,” L said as he handed Mello a chocolate bar.

“Good,” Mello said as he ate. It burned that Near had won.

L, giving him a deep look, said, “You’re at least 60% of #1. Near admitted as much to Kira.”

Mello had to smile at that. #1. Finally. Finally. Then he saw people flying overhead. With wings. “Wait, we actually have wings here? Or just some people do?”

“Hmm,” L answered. Suddenly L had off-white angel wings, unkempt wings that needed to be groomed and smoothed.

Mello’s fingers twitched at the sight. “Can I... fix them?”

“Mmm-hmm. I tuck them away in hammer space when I don’t use them, so I forget....”

Mello hadn’t gotten anywhere in life by being timid. Taking his other glove off and shoving the end of it into his waistband along with the other, he went right to it with his bare hands. The feathers felt so soft and smelled a bit of aging paper. L seemed to like the grooming, since he hummed a bit.

“This rules!” Matt said as he zipped around with auburn wings. Having wings made him look like he had a reason for wearing goggles. “Show us yours!”

Mello wanted to know too. It turned out that Mello’s wings were black, glossy and full, matching the feathery trim on the coat he wore. They barely had any weight, and the breeze they made as he casually moved them blew his blond hair into and out of his eyes. Seeing why L “tucked them away” when not specifically using them, Mello sent his away with the thought of bringing them back again later so he could try flying.

“Of course they’re black,” Matt said as he levitated and kissed the top of Mello’s head. “They’re damned sexy too. I can’t wait until I can get my hands on you later.”

Mello half expected Matt to get struck by lightning for that, but the sun just kept shining. One of the angel people had an “isn’t that cute” look on his face as he idly watched them while flying by.

“This is one weird heaven,” Mello murmured.

“Heaven is what you make of it,” L said softly.

That gave Mello a cold, squirming feeling. Did that mean that none of this--Matt here, L here, Kira finished, his contribution and status affirmed--was real? Right now he had so many things he wanted and nothing left to strive for. Was he making all of this up? Some people would say it didn’t matter if it felt real to him but it mattered to Mello.

“I told you there were mysteries,” L said.

And Mello smiled, because he did hate to be bored.

  **********************THE END***********************     More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room version 3.0 at http://viridian.shriftweb.org/   No-frames but no-frills access available at http://viridian.shriftweb.org/index2.htm