[Thread] Girl meets boy

[goggles_win]

Who: fem!Matt ( goggles_win ), Matt ( matchbook_flash ), fem!Mello cocobombshell
Original RP(s): econtra_rpg, none, towermanual
Rating: PG-13 for naughty words?
Location: Matt's apartment.
OTHER NOTES: Fem!Matt meets the sorta-almost-twin brother she's been talking to on ic_secrets the past few weeks. Then fem!Mello arrives to kick his teeth in

Comments

[matchbook_flash]

Matt paused and turned his head towards his front door, frowning slightly at the manic knocking on his door.

"No, not that I know of anyway... You didn't happen to be followed by anybody, did'ja?" Matt glanced back towards his twin, raising his brows slightly in inquiry. She was shifting into a bit of a more modest ball against his couch and he'd had one or two girlfriends who'd done that kind of thing before when unexpected company arrived, so he gathered pretty quickly that she might not be thrilled with being seen in less-than-full dress by strangers.

"If you want, you can borrow some pants or something... I'm sure they'll be huge on you, but better than nothing right?" With that Matt shifted and got to his feet smoothly, patting-down his jeans and walking towards the door. He wondered if maybe he should be armed with a brush, or his actual gun or something like that...

"Who's there?" Matt spoke loud and clear into the wooden door as he squinted one eye shut and looked out through his peephole -which was more than a little bit dingy and hard to see through, because this was in all frankness a pretty shitty old apartment- and when he saw the blurry shape of blond hair and black-and-red clothes he immediately recognized it as Mello.

"Mello? What the hell-..." Matt muttered under his breath as he worked his fingers over the multiple locks on his front door, flipping them open and undoing them with a few fluid, well-practiced movements. He twisted the handle and pulled the door open, frowning and obviously confused as he looked out into the hallway at the blond.

"What're you doing here--? Hey, didja' get shorter or-..." The first thing that halted him was the uneven skin of Mello's face, the scar something totally unfamiliar to him-... and then of course there was the skirt, and about then the gears in Matt's head came to a screeching halt.

[cocobombshell]

For a second, her breath caught in her throat and if she was any less of a woman, she probably would have flung her arms around him, buried her face in his chest, and cry. But she wasn't that kind of woman and, besides, it would be rather insulting to both this Matt, who wasn't her dork, and hers, who had died for her. Mello didn't think she'd be affected this badly, but she shoved those emotions down and actually looked at him, a devious smirk coming to her face as she did so.

The shocked look was amusing and it helped to show off the fact he had less freckles than hers did. And his hair was a lighter shade of red, too. Obviously he got more sun. And his voice was a little lighter, a little clearer, so that meant he smoked less than hers did. He was better fed, that was for certain. He was better built than hers, and a bit taller - taller than her by an inch or so, in fact.

Mello kept her word, pulled back her arm, and punched him across the jaw.

"Wrong Mello," she said, shaking out her fist. Damn, the dork had a hard head.

She looked at him then, hands on her hips and that smirk returning.

"Well, aren't you going to let a lady into your apartment? Or do I have to keep good on that promise to kick your teeth in?"

[goggles_win]

Considering that technically he was a stranger to her, it wasn't that bad, but it could be worse, at least what she was wearing covered her decently, it was only her forearms and legs from the knees down that were showing. Matt was very happy that she took comfort over anything else when it came to choosing sleepwear.

"I don't think so..." she replied with a shake of her head, watchin him get up and head for the door, she would have gone for clothing, except the idea of rummaging through his drawers trying to find jeans made her blanche a little so she decided to wait until he got her some himself. Matt climbed up onto the couch, curling on the corner and looking over the back, arms folded across it.

Hearing the name 'Mello' come from the door didn't help reassure her any, Mello would be the worst person to meet first from his world, especially like this. He'd be the one hardest to convince, at least outwardly.

Maybe she really should make a run for his bedroom.

But the voice that replied to his didn't sound quite like Mello's, it sounded distinctly more feminine and lilting, and when the blonde stepped in... well more accurately followed her fist in, Matt's eyes widened, much the same as her sort-brother's had. "Mello...?" she echoed, a little more quietly than he had, but with an equal degree of shock.

[matchbook_flash]

That was a really good punch, Matt thought as he reeled back from the force of it, yelping and reaching up to clasp at his stinging jaw. Damn, that'd bruise something awful-

"-Shit! That hurt!" He stumbled a few steps away from the door to put space between himself and his attacker... but despite the habitual movements for self-defense, he caught-on pretty quickly to who this was. This was that Mello, the lady Mello he'd invited over here to kick his ass and she'd just made good on it...

Hopefully that was all of it, at least, Matt didn't wanna' lose any teeth--

"N-No, come in-... God DAMN, you hit hard!" Matt grumbled, straightening-up and glancing over towards his twin briefly before returning his eyes to this shorter female Mello, knowing better than to avert his eyes from someone who may very well try to kick him in the teeth if they felt like it. "This-... I'm sure you remember Matt." He gestured towards the couch where his twin was seated, brows furrowed as he smiled slightly-... almost disbelieving, as if any of this had made any sense in the first place.

"Some serious inter-dimensional business must be going on here."

[cocobombshell]

Mello stared blankly at the skinny girl curled up on the couch who looked a bit more like her Matt if it weren't for the fact she had no freckles and her curves were a bit more obvious despite how thin she was. Not to mention her hair was a brighter shade of red as well . . .

. . . she looked good for likely having been brought here from a war zone.

"You think?" she said to Matt - the guy Matt's question and

But she entered the dingy apartment like she owned the place, despite how numb she was at the moment, sat back on the couch next to the armrest, and stretched her crossed legs out across it, being unusually careful not to kick the female version of Matt with her boots, even as she lounged against the arm rest.

"So, got any chocolate?"

She hadn't eaten since . . . since she'd made dinner for herself and Near, actually. Not that she was going to do the cooking for these two. Nope. Near just had no real clue how to care for himself, that was all.

[goggles_win]

Twisting herself around as Mello walked in and took up position on the couch Matt took a moment to look her over, whilst trying not to be too obvious about it, not an easy task. There was the leather, check, the head of blonde hair (longer than on any fo the guys she'd seen), check, the scar... yep. But from there on, it was all rather different.

She was about as curvy as she'd imagined a female Mello would be, and the skirt worked well in place of the pants, with the stocks and the boots and... Matt blinked. Were those her goggles? Or... a Matt's goggles at least. Not something she ever expected to see on Mello.

There was probably a story behind that she didn't want to know, or Mello wouldn't want to tell.

"Erm... hi." Matt tentatively grinned at her, unsure of Mello in a bad mood, which seemed to be the case given her entrance. The redhead just prayed her other self had chocolate here, because Mello with a bad mood, plus the effect of no chocolate... yeah there'd probably be some broken games by the end of the day.

Speaking of her sorta-twin, "You okay?" she asked, Mello had just socked him one in the jaw after all.

[matchbook_flash]

"Well, I'm definitely gonna' bruise but I still have all my teeth..." Matt rubbed at his cheek for a moment longer before removing it, tentatively, from the slightly swollen skin. He was definitely turning the littlest bit purple where he'd been hit, but he smiled down at his twin and reached out to pat her shoulder reassuringly. "...So yeah, sure, I think I'm cool."

Though the blonde had definitely hit him, and that was pretty mean of her and he definitely didn't appreciate the painful throbbing of his face... when he looked over at her he still felt inexplicably relieved that she was free of wherever she'd been taken. She'd sounded so lonely and dispirited, and even if getting socked in the jaw sure as hell sucked it was certainly evidence that she was behaving like a normal, functional firecracker again. That was good-...

But, yeah, chocolate. Matt frowned just a little, trying to think if he really had any. Mello -his Mello- never visited his house, so there wouldn't be any hidden stash here for the blond. But there'd been a holiday recently, right? He should have SOME candy around at least... Matt raised his hands and waved them in the air in a 'STOP' gesture, backing slowly towards the nook that represented his kitchen area.

"--Hold on." Matt stepped backwards over the linoleum threshold to his kitchen before whirling around and opening up cupboards, searching around selections of different-flavoured ramen and plastic cups loaded with silverware in search of chocolate. He snagged some Jell-O Chocolate Pudding mix (how the hell that had even GOTTEN in there was a mystery to him) and plopped it on the counter just in case he couldn't find anything else.

[cocobombshell]

Mello knew the female Matt was watching her, but she kept her eyes on the wall opposite her, a bit nervous about looking either one in the face and seeing her dork there. And, frankly, she didn't blame either one of them examining her so closely considering they were used to male versions of her. Heck, it was taking all her willpower not to study either one any closer than she already had. She knew if she did, she would wind up comparing them to her Matt, and that would make her think of all the ways things could have panned out in her own World, and that would make her want to cry, and that would make her angry, and that would make her get violent.

No, she was only going to throw one punch today if she had any say in it.

Mello sat up straighter to see what the male Matt was noted the pudding mix and felt just a tad bit bad. She didn't like the idea of Matt - any Matt - being afraid of her. The guy had done enough for her in her World.

"You know, if it's that big a deal, I can take something else instead. I haven't eaten since yesterday," she conceded and paused to consider what she said. There weren't any clocks where she'd been and the laptops didn't keep track of dates. Her and Near had taken to counting days based on when they would sleep.

And thinking of that other Near trapped alone there made her expression drop for just a moment, but she forced it down. That Near . . . she was able to tolerate him, she trusted him, but he could take care of himself. Just as she knew her own Near was stronger and more capable than most people gave him credit for.

"At least, I think it was yesterday," she admitted.

She really wanted chocolate right now just thinking about it all. It tended to improve her mood, but she had a feeling that anything in her stomach would make her stomach stop hurting at least.

[goggles_win]

"Okay." she nodded, not minding the little pat on her shoulder, Matt figured there were better ways to say 'hi', but she remembered him mentioning the female Mello wanting to do it before...

She didn't mean to make Mello uncomfortable really, especially since she was trying to do this covertly, but it was hard not to. Like the first time she saw herself as a guy and couldn't help but stare, and at the time envy them, this was the first time she'd ever met a girl Mello though. She'd talked to her over the computers, but never met one.

Matt curled her bare toes for a moment, unsure what to say while the chocolate issue was being dealt with, and she didn't want to light up in case this Mello was like hers and hated the smell of cigarette's. She'd just gotten used to not having to hand out of a window or stand outside everytime she wanted a cig thanks.

In the end what she did was bend down, snatch up the Playstation controller and start the game off again, she did have to save the President's daughter after all. That was something you gave up on after you started it, she owed it to the six months without video games to do this, in the name of Matt's everywhere.

"Since yesterday?" Green eyes blinked at that, giving Mello a brief glace at that before she dodged round encroaching zombie hoardes and blew off a couple of heads. "Where'd you appear? I woke up right here on the couch..." Good thing, because outside in these clothes? She'd have frozen her ass off!

[matchbook_flash]

Matt paused for a moment in his cabinet-rifling, frowning and glancing back into the living room at the two women on his couch. He didn't know Mello very well, hadn't spent very much time with or around him especially in recent years... but there was something wrong with the tone in this girl's voice, and it wasn't just the higher lilting pitch because she was a woman. Mello ordered, he never requested...

...But Matt didn't trust his idea of how Mello really operated, at least not enough to make any assumptions. So he just dragged-out some Roast Beef Ramen (the most plentiful and universally-beloved flavour, Matt figured) and the chocolate pudding and went about getting the ingredients proper to each. SOME heathen god needed to be thanked that there was actually fresh milk in the fridge.

"And then I hear the videogame going and rush out to defend my glorious pad here with a hair brush." Matt volunteered brightly, figuring that the best thing to do was to lighten the mood and clear some of the unbearably tense air between them now. "-Hope you don't mind ramen, by the way. Budget's kinda' tight just now." A pot was filled with water and planted on one of two very sad little working burners before Matt turned to the mixing bowl (rather, just a very very big novelty cappuccino mug) and the pudding preparation, measuring-out milk and pouring-in the powder mix calmly.

"Sis suggests that I hack myself to better fortune, so I might just do that later today, but for now... yeah, just the ramen. And some pudding for desert."

[cocobombshell]

Mello knew he could tell something was off and was about to tell him to just get the damn food when the female Mello asked where she wound up and she had to laugh at the idea of Matt trying defend himself with a hairbrush. It seemed like something he'd do. She couldn't see him handling a gun that wasn't one of those light gun things for that duck game that would always annoy her.

"The park a few blocks from here. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get those prickly things out of your hair and the fur on this thing?" she joked a bit, holding out the rather large hood of the jacket before letting it settle back against her shoulders.

This was nice. As much as the familiarity hurt, it was nice to be able to talk to Matt, any Matt, again. To hang out with him. Well, him and her, but they were technically the same person so it worked. Video games were going in the background and she didn't complain about how loud it was. It wasn't like she was trying to work right now or anything. They were simply being for right now. Something she hadn't had the luxury of until . . . well, until now.

She arched an eyebrow at the suggestion of Matt hacking a fortune for himself. That was new. She couldn't picture a nice guy like Matt doing it, but she wasn't going to stop him from doing it if he wanted to.

"Any ideas for prospective donors?" she asked, glancing at him working over the back of the couch.

[goggles_win]

Matt grinned as she heard Mello laugh, she hadn't laughed at the time, but it had been pretty funny. She wondered if this Matt even owned a gun of his own, she had one back home, though she'd never used it before except on the practice range, Mello had insisted she have one though. Just in case.

"Urm... no." Matt shook her head, reaching up to tug one of her boyishly short locks with a grin, before wincing as Leon took a nasty bite, "Aww shit!" Her attention went back to the game, only half listening to the rest of the conversation betwee the two of them. She bit her tongue in concentration, dipping past what was left of the zombies to the end of the level.

Argh, maybe she had lost some of her touch. That would never have happened before she got zapped to Econtra.

Of course, the scent of ramen was instantly appealing, she hadn't eaten anything since last night after all and had only had a can of beer so far, so she hoped he was making enough for all of them. The level done, she put the controller down and fell back to lean on the seat with a sigh, that was better, much better.

"No idea, whose so stupidly rich here they don't need it?" Matt asked her twin with a wry grin, an old hat at this game since it was basically how she'd survived since she left Wammy's at sixteen.

[matchbook_flash]

Truthfully, Matt hadn't immediately thought to cook more than one package of ramen. But when the first cup worth of noodles was filled with hot water and the scent caught his nose, he decided that two... no, three cups had to be fixed-up together, and by the time his twin was sneering and asking him who he'd prefer to rob money from there were three cups of ramen ticking-down their five minute wait time on the counter top and he was putting the pudding in the fridge to 'set-up for five minutes' as the packaging suggested.

"Oh, easy- there's this guy I've been investigating for one of the local PIs, Dave Brewer. One of those middle-aged heirs to a massive family fortune whose never had to work a day in his life? He's been cheating on his wife and she hired us to check him out... I wouldn't mind ganking some money off of that guy." Matt wasn't a thief by nature, really... in fact, if you were to hold-up the way things had gone in his world and compare them to the way things had been for the two women on his couch, his would be the 'laughably sheltered, goody-two-shoes' world by far.

[cocobombshell]

"Make sure you don't get noticed. Someone might call Coil or L on you eventually," Mello warned him. It would have been one thing in her World or in the female Matt's where people were afraid to show where all their finances were going in fear that Kira would see something unjust about their expenditures and kill them. In this World, Matt could get into trouble.

But it was Matt and he was one of the most talented hackers she'd ever met. She doubted that would change here where it was comparatively peaceful. And she figured if it got out of hand and Near and this World's Mello were sent after him, they'd probably just ask him to stop and he would.

So, no real danger to this Matt there. Good.

The smell of ramen was pretty good and Mello was seriously wondering how long ago it had been since she'd eaten. She had slept a lot in that place, so it was possible it had been longer than she thought since she had last eaten.

[goggles_win]

"We're better than that, right bro?" Matt couldn't help but give a grin at that, if there was one thing and one thing alone she allowed herself to be egotistic about next to Mello and Near it was that she was better with technology than they were. And video games.... so two things, two things she could be egotistical about.

"Sounds like a fun target." she nodded, those were the easy ones, probabl did't even think twice about being able to lose money like that. Of course it was the banks job to watch out for things like that, but a bit of creative shifting through different accounts first before it went into Matt's and they'd be none the wiser. She'd had a ton of dummy accounts set up all over the place just for that.

They'd have to start off from scratch since she doubted he'd ever done it seriously before, but it should be okay. Matt had been stealing ever since she was a kid, being something of a fair pickpocket, they'd tried to wean her out of it at Wammy's, but you didn't forget it like that. It was a useful skill anyway, they couldn't deny that.

She leaned down and picked up what was left of her beer, supping it from the can.

[matchbook_flash]

"True facts, sis." Matt gave a sagely nod as he peeled the tops off of each cup ramen and tossed them in the garbage, smirking to himself. "Then again, that'd be kinda' flattering if they went straight to world-class guys like L and Coil for little 'ol me, don'cha think? Sure, I'd get a scolding at best from those guys, but they've done it before."

Matt jammed chopstick sets into each cup and then carefully lifted the lot of them up between his hands (which was less trouble for a gamer, who was naturally good with his hands, than for the average human being) and carried them out into the living room, presenting a cup first to Mello, and then to his female alternate. He felt a bit more comfortable now, even though his jaw still ached pretty badly.

"Anyway... I guess it'd be pretty acceptably irresponsible of me not to ask, but... what the hell's up with this world-hopping, y'think? Did the fates just happen to smile on me or somethin'?"