Oktoberfest '10: Punishment Aplenty

[sunsingergirl.livejournal.com]

Title: Punishment Aplenty
Author: Sun
Beta: Partly ellie? I failed so much on time, didn't really get a chance to get the whole thing looked at. (tears)
Word Count: 2748
Rating: OT
Character(s): Matt, Mello, L, Near, and Ed Elric
Pairing(s): Wow, is that all you guys think about? (nottalking)
Summary: In which Matt makes not-friends with the orderlies, Mello busts his ass, and Near is seen on his feet for the first time.
Notes/Warnings: Some violence (of course). Cursing and baiting and Wammy boys just plain being stupid geniuses boys. Sorry for any potential failing, ran out of time for a full beta overview, orz.

It was a stupid plan, Matt knew. A good lot of Mello's plans were stupid – always had been, always would be – but harassing the nurses was always a better way to start the day than. Well. Not harassing the nurses.

They met up by the bulletin board in the Sun Room. Scanning over the notes, he didn't move as he whispered to the left, “So why am I the runner again?”

A narrow glance was all he received from the blond, at first. For a moment or two afterward, it was all he thought he was going to get at all. “You need the exercise,” was Mello's eventual answer.

The brunet glared back openly. “You've got to be kidding.”

“You know I don't kid.”

“...you do sometimes.”

A quiet groan, and Mello rolled his eyes. “Look. I'm not kidding about this. You're going to run because you can't fight; I'll hold the staff off as long as I can.”

Releasing his head back, Matt stared up at the ceiling blankly for a quiet moment. “So the smoker with no stamina is the one being chased in this dodgy scheme? Nice.” He emitted a long, slow sigh. “Real nice, mate.”

Mello only scoffed at first. “Just shut up and don't duck.”

The brunet's eyes narrowed as his head snapped back down; he started to turn it, to give Mello a look. “What are you-?” His head snapped back suddenly, his neck popping audibly as bare, relatively smooth knuckles collided with his nose. Stumbling backward, Matt shook his head vigorously, cursing at the searing pain that shot through his entire face, wrapping around to the back of his head; after a moment, he felt something warm and wet running down across his lips.

Glaring openly at the skinny blond now in front of him, he licked his lips, grimacing at the metallic tang. “Oh, you're going down for that cheap shot-” Matt shot off before ducking down and charging, right at his friend. The top of his head hit the other boy right in the gut; if anyone had been paying close enough attention, they'd have managed to catch the small smirk, mostly hidden by shoulder-length blond strands, on his face. Mello took the blow, his arms wrapping around Matt's torso as they both went down, straight to the floor. Matt was an easy target; he almost always took the bait when Mello dangled it in his face, though it seemed he was the only one to ever receive such a violent reaction from the brunet.

The boys collapsed in a pile on the Sun Room floor, Matt grunting as he straddled Mello, pulling back and making a fist with his left hand. He hissed as he popped the blond in the face, his nail digging angrily into that scarred left shoulder to hold the other one down.

Mello's eyes narrowed, and he shoved up, trying to force the other boy off him. “That wasn't part of the plan-!” he hissed, irate and in pain; his fist shot up, catching Matt in the chin.

To one side, they heard the nurse shout, and then the shuffling footsteps of several orderlies coming into the area.

The blond's eyes widened. “Get off, dumbass, and go- Go-!”

Heaving himself back to his feet with a loud groan, Matt spun, blinking in surprise at the three gigantic orderlies already gathered in the Sun Room doorway. Well, that can't be good. Chuckling nervously, he started to back up slowly, his eyes never leaving the approaching orderlies for longer than a second. One of them started to head toward Mello, and Matt swallowed, suddenly alarmed. That's not part of the plan either-

“Oi!” He needed to try something, to keep them off Mello's ass. “So which one of you is going to lead me right on out of here? I'm tired of being someone's mistake.”

“You're not going anywhere, Marcus,” the nurse called from behind the wall of burly orderlies; she was making her way to Mello, obviously, to make sure he was all right. “Just don't make any sudden movements, and everything will be all right.”

“You're making sudden movements.” Still backing up, he grinned; Matt just couldn't help himself. He loved to poke at her.

“I'm trying to make sure Michael here isn't too banged up from your pointless brawl.” She shot him a look, and Matt just smirked back.

“Oh, he's fine. As for me-”

And off he went, dashing toward the left, making like he was going to try to get past the orderly on the far left; at the last minute, when all three giant men were moving toward the library door, Matt went right, narrowly dodging the nurse and sliding across the floor at a curve, landing himself right outside the Sun Room door. Picking himself back up quickly, the chainsmoker panted heavily as he practically threw himself into a jog, letting the suffocatingly large members of the staff give chase before breaking out into a panicked run, heading left for the doctor's offices.

Back in the Sun Room, however, Mello just sat up slowly, blinking at the door a moment. Didn't know you could run so fast, Matty, he thought with an amused smile. The nurse started to help him up, to his feet.

“I'm not sure why Marcus attacked you, Michael, but I think it might be a good idea to keep you two separated for quite a while,” she started to say. “Such a friendship could be detrimental to your recovery- Michael, what are you doing?”

Mello grinned. The palm of his hand was pressed to the pocket at her hip, and his other hand shot up abruptly, thin fingers wrapping eagerly around her throat as he dug into her pocket, yanking out the small metal key inside and enclosing it in a tight fist. She choked a little, struggling, her eyes widening when she saw the key in his possession.

He gasped when he felt the disturbingly familiar prick in his arm; looking down, he saw that she'd managed to work the sedative syringe out of her other pocket and jab him in the arm with it. A cold feeling washed through him as he watched her push down the plunger, and Mello dropped her, swallowing hard as he stumbled back, key held in a tight fist. “Fucking bitch-” he managed to work out before the sedative hit him hard, and he collapsed down to his knees, glaring at her as much as he could. He wouldn't be this lucid for too much longer, so he leaned back, moving his arm to pocket the key.

“No, you don't, Michael!”

The nurse had already managed to get back to her feet, and, for some reason, she seemed completely recovered; Mello was just about to make a rude comment about the unfairness of the situation when everything spun abruptly, and the key disappeared from his palm. Dizzier than he had been in a very long time, he stuck out one hand to catch himself on the floor – anything to keep from going down, from showing that they'd taken him completely by surprise.

Which was useless when he watched them practically drag Matt back in through the still-open double doors; the brunet looked like he was in about as bad shape as Mello. His blue eyes were lazy, the soles of his slippers were scraping uselessly against the tile as he stumbled along, both arms held tightly by a pair of enormous orderlies.

The blond couldn't repress the urge to jump when he felt a hand on his arm, but it was just that damn nurse, wrapping her hated fingers around his arm and trying to pull him to his feet. She only succeeded because Mello let her; he'd been watching the orderlies plop Matt down in one of the chairs nearby to cool off, and he was confident that she'd do the same with him.

And she did; seconds later, she was helping him along to a chair across the room from Matt, babbling and mumbling about how she hoped he started recovering soon, how he and Matt were going to cause her hair to turn gray before it should. He glared at the floor the entire time, trying his best to ignore her... but all he could do was smile. Who cared if it was creepy, or if it seemed like the completely wrong reaction to the way their plan had ended? All Mello was concerned with was the fact that they'd done it.

As soon as he was nice and comfy in his chair, she just gave him that fake smile and turned away, shaking her head as she left him there. Mello waited a moment or two, watching her with narrowed eyes as she walked away and left the room, another nurse appearing at the door to take her place. They seemed endless, the wonky staff, and he sighed heavily, exhaustion seeping into him at least.

But he was in a good mood, despite their “loss.”

Shoving himself slowly to both feet, Mello trudged across the Sun Room, pushed by that usual mad determination to make it over to his friend. The closer he got, the more out of it Matt seemed, and he felt a momentary jab of guilt – that was gone in an instant. Thank you, superiority complex, he thought as he made one last shaky step in Matt's direction. Always thinking I'm the best always makes me the best, doesn't it? Skewed logic, he knew, but logic nonetheless; no Wammy kid in their right mind would argue with logic in its most plain form.

He took the chair beside his friend, noting the way the brunet was sunk in the chair, seemingly half-awake. A small snicker was all it took to get the other boy to raise his head, fixing Mello with a glare.

“Why'm I always the one being tackled?” he slurred, pushing himself up in the chair just a little more. His eyes never left Mello. “D'you get tackled this time? Or any time?”

The blond laughed - actually laughed. “No. 'm not that stupid.”

“'m not stupid! Jus' unlucky.”

“Both assumptions would appear to be accurate.”

Both boys turned, blinking in surprise at the wiry white-haired figure now occupying the floor at Matt's feet. A toy robot in one hand and a string of his own hair twined in the fingers of the other, Near just peered up at them, gray eyes narrowed and disapproving. He pursed his lips ever so slightly as he looked away, at the spot just across the room where he'd seen the two of them get into it. “A pointless fray, wasn't it? There was no conceivable way for either of you to have gotten away with that key – especially not with the lack of finesse you seem to enjoy displaying when dealing with the staff, Mello.” His head turned, and those blank eyes landed on his former competition.

Matt stared at his friend, after giving Near a hardened glare. But, instead of trying to get at the little wanker and give him what for, Mello only leaned back in his chair – and laughed. “What makes you think I didn't get exactly what I was aiming for, you little prat?” He laughed again.

The brunet in the chair next to him blinked. “So... you did it?”

Near ceased his hair-twirling, watching Mello closely. “What did you do?”

Mello just kept laughing for a minute more. “Oh, so y'haven't figured it out yet?” He shook his head, leaning over in the seat of the chair a bit; his hand reached into the right-hand pocket of his dreaded sweatpants, fishing out a piece of napkin and a pen. Grinning as he did, he drew the outline of the key down on the napkin, exactly as he remembered it – even going so far as to open his palm and trace it from the imprint on his skin. Near's brow raised as he watched the other boy, and there was a slight, hardly seen flicker of movement at the right side of his mouth.

As Mello went about copying down the outline of the key, Matt let out a celebratory howl, ignoring the looks that earned him from the staff at the door, watching them closely.

“Keep yourself tight-lipped, crazy wanker!” Mello hissed as he hurried to finish. “We don't need to be caught when we're so close!”

Suddenly, a shadow fell over them, just as Mello felt a very... peculiar presence, just to his right. He flinched away, then internally berated himself for pulling away from L.

“And what would my successors be up to at this time?” the older man asked, bending over Mello and eyeing the napkin in question; all three boys stared up at him with widened eyes and the look of children who'd been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Well, except Near; he simply blinked up at their mentor, his face a relative blank.

“We're up to a way out of this maddened madhouse,” Matt snarked back in a low tone, glancing away. Mello shot him a hardened glare before kicking at him haphazardly; his foot didn't completely connect with the other boy's ankle or leg, but the brunet jerked away, throwing his friend a sharp look.

L just stood idly over the blond, watching the spat with obvious disinterest. His gray eyes lingered over the nearly finished drawing still clutched in Mello's hand. “And what do you plan on doing with this drawing, M?” he inquired, quite passively. “Have you learned to weld since leaving the House?”

This earned a snicker from Matt. L ignored him, though Mello made another attempt to kick him. Near only smiled, feeling confident that he wouldn't catch any of the ill-deserved wrath – given that his face was adequately hidden from the blond by his toy.

“No,” Mello answered simply, and that was that for a few more moments as he finished up the drawing; as soon as he did, he folded the napkin up, very carefully, and glanced across the Sun Room, at a small young man with long blond hair standing at the board. When he caught the other blond's eye, Mello gestured subtly for him to come over; the next few seconds went by so quickly that the other three geniuses were unsure for a moment as to what had just occurred. The other boy walked over, his strides strong and confident, and Mello slipped him the finished drawing as he passed by. It was a very smooth transaction, and Matt was honestly impressed with the tact his friend had learned since leaving the House.

L nodded. “The alchemist. I wouldn't have believed it, had I not seen it for myself just a few nights ago.”

Mello smirked victoriously, leaning back in the chair and stretching his legs out. “I can't make that key, but you can be damn sure he can.”

That statement earned a nod of agreement from Near as the smaller boy resumed his easygoing hair-twirling. “Mr. Elric does have quite the knack – and he certainly has a penchant for offering others aid in their own endeavors to escape this facility.” His gaze zeroed in on Mello. “It's almost admirable, your skill for manipulating others, M.”

Matt howled with laughter at that one, and L even smiled. Mello shot straight to his feet, ready to rip the little wanker a new one – only to fall flat on his face, tumbling completely over Near and ending up in the middle of the Sun Room floor.

Matt, of course, laughed harder.

“Shuddup, you twat, and get over here and help me up!”

“No way; this whole thing is too priceless!”

L had somehow disappeared on them, and Near, still smiling, was slowly inching away from the seething blond struggling to get back up to his feet.

“Oh no you don't, you little-” The soles of Mello's feet finally found the floor, and Matt cracked up even harder when he actually saw Near launch into a run for the first time ever.