"Okay, no rest for the braves, the next one is pretty simple: climb the wall, get to the other side without breaking your neck, and I'll decide who was the most graceful one... just kidding, be sexy guys, show me those muscles, I wanna wet myself like a schoolgirl."

The boys didn't need to be told twice. The wall was quickly overcome for most of them, most trying to display their assets in the meantime, Lou on the other hand was hanging by the arms at the border, unable to lift his weight to the top. He had managed with the pole but being far from sporty and pretty disadvantaged by his small height, his arms were failing him, tired from the previous effort.
Matt was feeling sorry for the boy, who was now fully crying, trying to contain his sobs at the realisation that since he had already lost on the previous spot, failing now would more than certainly put him out of the competition for the evening's one on one with Mello. Quickly, trying to go unnoticed, Matt pushed the boy under his feet to help him up. The chestnut haired boy landed on the other side a bit roughly but it had the merit to dry his tears.
Matt then jumped and lifted himself in a swift movement, landing on his two feet on the other side. He might be a gamer, but he also had a yearly subscription at the local swimming pool. No, he wasn't sporty by any means, but he needed back relief and only swimming brought it to him. Who would have thought that spending hours playing video games would actually lead him to keep his body in condition?

Mello didn't miss Matt's perfectly defined back muscles rolling under the pale skin. They were just as attractive as the abs he had had a glimpse of earlier in the mansion, and a better look now since the boys went shirtless. The least that could be said was that he had been quite surprised to see muscles on what he had taken as a lanky body at first, and he really, really was starting to find that body attractive. He had a soft spot for short and thin guys so if not for the red hair, Matt was already scoring well, physical appearance-wise, with his shorter stature and deep blue eyes and overall really handsome features, but add a bit of muscles to that...
But what didn't go unnoticed either was the help Matt had provided to Lou. Mello kept that in the corner of his mind, not knowing if he should interpret it as a will to see Lou win so Matt wouldn't have to spend the evening with the musician, or just out of sheer kindness.

"So, we have a winner, hands down. Lou, come here baby." Mello shouted in direction of the boys as he came closer to the group. Lou trotted toward Mello, a huge smile on his face. Matt noticed the smirk on the latter's face, and knew that Lou was about to be crushed in Mello's palm.
"Cry baby, I'm sure that you agree with me that Matt-Puppy is our winner, don't you think so?" he purred, playing with a chestnut lock.
The poor boy's lower lip started quivering. Bingo, Matt thought.
But the chestnut haired boy could hardly go against that decision, knowing that he wouldn't have made it without the redhead, and sure now that Mello had seen everything, although he had had some hope that Mello hadn't.
"That's unfair!" the brunette shouted, "Why him again? That show is cheated!"
"Maybe because he showed me something he had that you don't, sweetie, and I'm not talking about his cock." Mello retorted, facing the guy that quickly stopped arguing the decision.
No one dared to add something at that point, although most were quite disappointed with the choice and whispering in Matt's back.

The redhead didn't care about what happened in his back, totally uninterested in rivalries for something he didn't even want to win. Okay, it was probably his only chance to go to a place like the Whisky A GoGo, and it was probably fun there, but he wouldn't miss it if he didn't, and a date with Mello alone, hell no. He was by no means violent but the musician's attitude asked for a punch most of the time and Matt wasn't sure he could resist the urge to comply. What was it with rockstars that they thought they could act like dicks and get away with it (Mello was even praised for that by his little court)? Scratch that. Mello, even not being a rockstar, would probably act the same, he was genetically an ass.
Matt wondered what the guy's parents were like all of a sudden, what kind of family he had to be like that. He wasn't into the band so he wouldn't know, maybe it was a known fact, with all the interviews that had been published until now, that he hadn't read to begin with. Ah, whatever.

"Earth to Puppy!" a voice stirred him out of his thoughts, and a tuft of chestnut hair blocked his sight suddenly as two arms encircled his neck. "Thank you for helping me!" Lou's voice was a whisper, punctuated by a kiss on his cheek that left him stunned for a few seconds, watching the young boy dance away quickly to catch up with Mello and the group that was heading to the next pole. Mello peered over his shoulder and Matt knew that he had seen it all by the way he looked at Lou, a possessive glow in his eyes.

"Now's the time to go down and dirty boys!" Mello said loudly, and his expression was proof that it was probably his favourite activity to watch: a large mud puddle, a rope, and fifteen boys to try to land safe on the other side.
"Dry-cleaning's not included!" the musician shouted as he reached for the arrival platform, climbing a small ladder that led to his private seat, offering him a good view far from the splashing.
Matt carefully looked at the boys that went before him: three ended getting their legs to the knees in the mud but managed to reach the other side, while two lamentably dived head first or butt first in the puddle, unable to hold on to the rope long enough.
Lou approached the border of the platform, rope in hand, giving a desperate look at Matt.
"Can't do anything for you man." he said, raising his hands in defeat. Lou was so helpless, he needed to grow some balls before he got eaten alive in this show...
The chestnut haired boy let himself fall from the platform, holding on as much as he could to the rope, but not building up enough speed led him to hang above the puddle, his legs curled up under him very close to the mud, balancing slightly until he came to a full stop. Matt looked at the scene, aggravated.

"We don't have the whole afternoon Cry baby!" Mello yelled in annoyance. Lou didn't really have a choice at that point, and, letting the rope go, splashed in the puddle, crawling to reach the other end, covered in mud. And crying.
Mello sighed. The boy was a cutie, but damn was he needy and sensitive.
The singer gave a small sign to Danny, who had just come back from the bus with a red box. The cover was quickly discarded, the box open in Mello's lap, and he plunged a greedy hand in it, popping two chocolates at a time in his mouth, closing his eyes for a second.

Matt didn't do the same mistake and, taking enough distance backward, he jumped, gaining height on the rope quickly as he passed over the puddle, getting rope-burnt as he descended too fast when the arrival platform was under his feet, before the rope took him backward.
When all the contestants had taken their turn, some going behind Matt getting the hint and making it unstained to the other side as well, Mello gracefully jumped from his seat to the platform, throwing the empty chocolate box to his second hand man.
"I'm afraid to say that at this point, it's pretty clear that Matt is leading the game, and will be going out with me tonight if you don't bust your asses boys!"
"Hey, we made it too, why do you always pick him, you don't even like redheads!" a voice protested.
"Yeah, he's right! I'm sure Matt is an actor and all is already planned for him to win!" someone else added, soon everyone but Matt getting involved in the little display of discontentment.
"It's always like that!" the brunette said, "Why are we here anyway?!"

"SHUT UP!" Mello ended the little argument quickly, "If that's what you think I'm capable of, then leave right away, nothing's keeping you here." he calmed down quickly and took a threatening tone, knowing full well that no one would actually take on the offer. Playing indignant was kinda fun since they all feared his reactions.
And indeed, the clamour died down, none of the participants wanting to be off the show.

Matt was pretty annoyed. He didn't want to be winning this but he couldn't help doing his best, he had a pride to preserve, and they were on TV after all. He hated to be the center of attention in the group though. He really felt like the man to bring down, Mello making sure of it on top of it. He'd thought that winning wasn't taking the way out off of his options and that even being victorious at the end of the day, he could always decline the one on one. He didn't need to make a fool of himself to avoid the date, he couldn't even bring himself to do that anyway. He wasn't a macho by any means but heh, he still was a man. And his mum was watching the show... oh how embarrassing it had been when Linda, a high school friend, had babbled aloud about the show in front of her, when all Matt had wanted was to hide it from her since she was unlikely to discover by herself...

What wasn't cool was the guy that pushed him quite roughly off his way as he walked past him to reach the next pole, following the others, giving him a dark look. If it came down to that, it wasn't going to be pretty. Matt hoped that no one would get physical, in a violent way that is, in the mansion. He wasn't a fighter, and he doubted that he could reproduce the moves of his favourite character of Tekken 6 in real life...

"Last one guys! Everyone in the pool!"
The boys didn't need to be said twice, their muddy and sweaty body dying under the sun of California. The water splashed, wetting Mello before he could step back.
Smirking, he removed his tee-shirt, exposing his perfect six-pack and toned chest, throwing the garment strip-tease style to Danny, who rolled his eyes, accustomed to that kind of show off. Brushing his damp hair back with his fingers, he relished a few seconds in the wolf-whistles and cat-calls of the boys.
"Okay, enough now, keep a bit of it for what's next babes..." he simpered, pretending to undress completely as he unlaced his leather pants slowly. The boys went simply wild at the sight, making Mello laugh loudly.
"Really, did you think I'd give it to you so easily? I'm saving this for my special one..." he calmed them down, lacing back up and looking at Lou who was already grinning and imagining he would be the winner since he had spent the previous night with the singer in a very, very intimate way. "And for Lou." Mello added, a nasty smirk on his lips, that he seemed to reserve to every time he crushed Lou's little world.

Matt looked instantly at the boy, who, weirdly enough, gave him a sad look, making Matt think that the puppy was probably more Lou than himself. Mello seemed to love teasing the boy, except that the teasing was really mean, especially when the target was someone as fragile as Lou. All wet and crying again, the petite contestant suddenly looked so young that the redhead wondered how old he was. He was such a cry baby, Mello was right on that point, and couldn't obviously take care of himself, and Matt didn't want to nurse the boy to the slightest, but the latter seemed to search answers in him and that was pretty bad.

"Boys, there are weighted items at the bottom of the pool. You need to grab one, and one only, and when you have your own, exit the pool and join me here. I'll tell you what to do with it once everyone is here. And no, you won't have to stick it up your ass, I promise, unless you really want to."
Everyone chuckled and hurried underwater.
Lou for once was the first to exit the pool, an old vinyl record in hand, and he tiptoed to Mello's side with a careful, but happy grin. He didn't know what Mello expected of him exactly, relationship wise, but even if he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, he had gotten it by now that the rockstar was kind of playing him. Still, he hoped that if he held on, they could be a couple anyway, Mello would see they could be fine together, and Lou really had a crush on Mello after all. He had him plastered all over his bedroom, knew all the songs and trivia of the band by heart and had seen them live too many times to count.

Matt was close behind, holding a guitar pick.
It barely took four minutes for all the boys to exit the pool, items in hand.

"Everyone got his item? Good, let's get started. The last game will show me who knows me best. The item you're holding refers to a question, that you will have to answer. Let's start with Cry baby since this time he was first, very unexpectedly." Mello chuckled. "Lou, your item is a vinyl record. And your question is: How many years in a row did my band get the best rock band Grammy award?"
"Four years!" Lou exclaimed in a high pitched voice, almost jumping in excitement.
"I didn't expect least of you baby."
"Can I get a kiss?"
"No. Next one. Oh, Matt-Puppy, my sweetiepie." Mello exaggerated, "A pick. Okay, can you tell me what was my first guitar?"
"No idea." Matt replied, shrugging, and not really ready to make any effort to guess.
"I'll leave you with one guess, think hard Mattie!"
"I'd rather stick the pick up my ass actually. No-i-dea." he punctuated to show how few he cared about giving a proper answer.
"I'd love to see that Mattie, but I'm afraid we can't show that on TV so that will have to wait tonight." the musician winked. He would still be taking Matt to the one on one tonight, there was no way the redhead escaped what looked like a punishment to him, which added to Mello's pleasure. He had done well to the three first poles and even without the correct answer right now, it was still three to zero with the others.
"It's an ESP Eclipse, dumbass!" someone shouted.

"Catwalk, what's your item?"
"A plastic bottle!" the model replied, raising it for everyone to see.
"Question: what is the one thing that I will never, ever drink?"
Catwalk's mouth opened slightly in worry. He wasn't sure he knew the answer, that was a tricky one. He had read lots of interviews before the show, but he wasn't sure Mello had ever talked about his likes and dislikes concerning food or drink. Mello obviously drank water, bourbon, he also had seen him drink coke in the bus... damn, what could it be?

Lou was obviously dying to give the answer, jumping from one foot to another, looking insistently at Mello.
"Come on Catwalk, that's simple!" Mello was growing impatient, "Okay, Lou, say it since with Catwalk it's all body and no brain obviously."
"From your river of tears!" Lou shouted, clutching to Mello's arm.
"I'm getting worried here guys, never heard our song Drown yourself?"
Ohs and ahs resounded at the tricky answer.
"Good boy, Cry baby, you at least know your lessons." Mello patted his head, "A little more and this boy would purr." he chuckled.

The next questions were all answered, but Mello didn't change his mind. He announced Matt as the winner.
"But I answered to more than one!" Lou protested weakly, a visible pout on his lips.
"I don't mind leaving my place to him..." Matt saw that as a chance to avoid the date and offered quickly to let Lou take the spot.
"You won't get out of this Matt-puppy, trust me, I want you there with me." Mello whispered, a glint in his eyes that told the redhead that the singer was pretty irritated by his constant trials to escape the date.
"At least take Lou too, he did his best and got some success anyway..."
"You decide now?" Mello spat, turning his back to the redhead and calling everyone to go back to the bus. "Come on boys, time to get back to the mansion and clean yourselves!"