Note: I managed to write a whole day of the show in one chapter, woohoo! Okay, that's a long chapter XD

"WHAT THE FUCK DID THEY DO TO THAT PHONE?!" Mello yelled at the top of his lungs, "THAT'S MY FUCKING PROBLEM IF I WANT IT OFF! FUCKING BASTARDS!"
Danny quickly understood that the ringing cell phone Mello was holding, that had been provided by the production as a little extra with the contract - as if Mello didn't have the means to buy himself such an expensive device - had a distant access bug that the producers could use to switch it back on if they deemed it necessary. Mello had signed the clause that stated he had to be reachable at any time but this was going a bit too far. Even if that proved that they were aware of who they were dealing with.
The man mentally cursed at the production. If there was one thing they shouldn't have done, it was that one. Now he would have to deal with the outcome...

"Mello please."
"PLEASE WHAT? PLEASE CALM DOWN? THAT'S WHAT YOU WANNA SAY?!" the blond was so infuriated that the boys couldn't miss the argument from the rooms upstairs, and had all gathered along the banister to look at the scene.
Mello's eyes roamed over the line of boys, stopping on Joshua who was beside Matt. The boy quickly put some space between him and the redhead, leaving Matt looking from him to Mello, suddenly realising why Joshua had been asked out tonight and why he had been so distant since he was back from the date.
"LOU!" Mello shouted, his eyes falling on the petite boy. The latter started going down the stairs, but he was a little scared with his idol's attitude right now. He wasn't fast enough to Mello's likings, and the musician walked to him, grabbing his wrist roughly with his only valid hand, ignoring the pain of the still fresh cuts as he pulled Lou to his room, the boy almost tripping with the violence of Mello's tugs on his arm.

"This is all your fault so you're gonna make up for that." Mello seethed, his voice at bay this time, which rendered him even more threatening.
Lou began crying, his wrist hurting and Mello so frightening.
"Mello, let him go." Danny approached, trying to put himself between his boss and the boy, but Mello wouldn't give up, and the boy was now sure to have marks on his wrist.
"Stay out of this." the blond's voice was low, almost unrecognisable, full of venom, "He owes me a good fuck for ruining my hands for him, okay?!"
He resumed pulling Lou to his private apartments, but Lou tried to set himself free of his grasp, which only triggered Mello more, and he nastily twisted the boy's arm, making him almost kneel to try to escape the pain.
"Mello, let me go!" Lou was completely alarmed, he didn't want to be with Mello now, he was too scared that he would hurt him. The man wasn't his idol anymore at the moment, just an insane mess.
Danny intervened, taking Lou's arm with a hand and trying to untie Mello's fingers with the other, but he only ended up making Lou cry in pain, the musician keeping his iron grip on the boy.

Matt was dumbfounded, just like all the other boys. What was happening? What was going through Mello's mind? Some questions were starting to fuse here and there. Was Mello under some substance? Was he drunk? Had he gone insane?
But the scene didn't seem to progress and Mello was now at risk of really breaking Lou's arm, as the boy kept on resisting, and Danny was helpless.
So helpless that as a last resort, he slapped Mello. Better have the wrath directed at him than Lou, he was far more capable of fighting Mello, should it come to this. Unlike the petite boy, he was a lot taller and broader than the musician, probably even twice his weight.

Mello's only reaction to the slap was to momentarily let go of Lou's wrist in surprise, and send a defying look to Danny before he marched on the boy, who had taken this as a cue to step aside, to grab him back.
But he didn't have time to do so, Matt running downstairs and catching Mello's arm, pulling him to his apartments.

As soon as the door slammed shut, Matt trying to prevent Mello from going back to Lou, the blond pulled on his arm to free it, but Matt smoothly went along with the pull, pushing at the same time Mello against the door.
Suddenly, the redhead's free hand grabbed a fistful of the blond's back of the head's strands, crashing his lips on Mello's, who's eyes went wide with the surprise.
The kiss that Matt initiated quickly turned to a battle, Mello kissing back but biting as well, freeing his arm for good and encircling Matt's waist roughly.
They eventually stopped, out of breath, lips swollen, Mello's chest heaving, eyes confused.
Matt took a step back, Mello's arms falling limp at his sides.
"If that's really what you need right now, fuck me, I'm not scared of you at least."
Matt was lying. He was scared. Shitless. It reminded him all too much of a previous situation, and he was regretting bitterly stepping in right now. Mello was out of his right mind and he was probably going to kick himself for this if it really went down to sex, but at least he was strong enough to oppose Mello, Lou wasn't. And some part of him imagined that maybe, maybe... he wasn't imagining this whole connection and he would succeed where the others had failed to reason the man.

But Mello stayed silent. He was obviously exhausted, his shoulders hunched, his expression lost. His eyes roamed over the place, and he dragged himself to the bed, sitting on the border, his elbows resting on his thighs, head low.
Matt wasn't sure what to do. Maybe he should leave now, but Mello had a problem and he wanted to help, if he could.
He walked to Mello, keeping a safe distance as he stood face to him.
"Can I do anything? Do you want me to leave?"
He clearly heard Mello sniffle. Mello was crying? Fuck, this, he never would have expected. He waited, but Mello never replied, so he sat beside Mello and waited more. For some reason, he didn't want to leave until Mello had expressed that he wished for him to do so.

Mello alternated keeping his head in his hands, and staring right in front of him, when he would straighten up a bit from time to time, but no words came out of his mouth, nor did he look at Matt once.

At some point, he sighed, and, brushing his hair out of his face with his fingers, keeping his hands on his skull a brief instant as if to relieve a headache, he straightened his back fully, looking like he was waking up from a trance.
He twisted his middle, crawled on the bed, and laid there above the blankets, completely worn out.
That's when he acknowledged Matt's presence. His cheek resting on the blanket, he was staring at him, his expression blank if not for his half lidded eyes.
"I'm not gonna fuck you as an outlet."
"Good." the redhead simply replied.
"Either you come next to me or you go back to your room, but you should sleep now."
Matt knew he looked like shit, Mello could only notice the tiredness in his eyes, after hours of waiting for a sign from the blond. He noticed a few rays of sun starting to change the lightning in the room. He glanced around, looking for a clock. 5am...
"Which do you prefer?" Matt asked. He wouldn't leave Mello alone if the latter didn't want him to. Something was going on with Mello and, even if curious about the singer's irrational behaviour, Matt mainly wanted to make sure he could leave him alone without any risk. After what had happened tonight, he expected anything to happen, even the most suicidal tendencies.
Mello extended his arm, his hand inviting Matt on the bed. Matt wasn't really surprised, but he knew it wasn't a trick this time. He laid down next to Mello, and he barely had time to notice the other's breathing evening up that himself drifted to sleep.

DAY SIX – (normally 9 contestants / 1 to be eliminated) 10 contestants / 1 to be eliminated from the previous day's missed elimination + 1 to be eliminated

The redhead started awake as someone knocked at the door. He looked at his left and found Mello still sleeping soundly so he stood up and went to open the door, finding Danny on the other side. The man visually checked on Mello over Matt's shoulder.
"Nothing of this will be broadcast. Go back with the others."
"Yeah, that was obviously my main concern here." Matt spat, glaring at Danny, "What's going on exactly?"
"That's none of your business."
"Really? Mello was a danger to himself and others last night, we're all exposed to what he could do and that's none of my fucking business? That... this blowout... it wasn't just him being angry, he was out of his right mind, so if he's a psycho or something, that would be nice to know."
"He's not a psycho. It got out of hand but that won't happen again. I'll handle this."
"Yeah, right. Just like you handled it last night. You did an amazing job, really. Couldn't have been better." Matt couldn't stop stinging Danny. It had been a rough night, and something was off with Mello, and the guy had the guts to insinuate that it was no big deal? He wouldn't let the bodyguard get away with it, not when the man had clearly lost his footing during Mello's explosion. No one seemed safe as for now. Mello had obviously calmed down, but without knowing the real reason for such a display, Matt would continue to think that it had been totally irrational and out of hand, thus unsafe.

Mello, awoken by the voices, grumbled in the background.
"Danny, get the fuck out of here, I wanna sleep..." he muttered, his words half dying in the pillow his face was buried in.
"Sorry but you have to wake up and get ready. It's almost 10am and we're filming yesterday's missed elimination now."
Matt was surprised to see Mello stir and get up from the bed without protesting, and Danny leave as if he knew that Mello would do just that: get ready without a protest. Danny was obviously handling it, or better said, he knew his boss well enough to know he would comply, which was the more unsettling for Matt. Yesterday's outburst was a premiere for Danny otherwise he would have known what to do.

Mello left for the bathroom, uncaring for Matt still standing in the doorway, and soon the sound of a bath running was heard.
Just as he was about to leave, Matt heard Mello call his name.
Undecided, he didn't move from his spot so Mello called again.
"Mattie, please, I've got a slight problem here." he waved his plastered hand when the redhead appeared in the bathroom.
"You really meant it when you said I'd have to hold it for you..." Matt chuckled, but he couldn't refuse to help, Mello would really have a tricky time with his injury, he couldn't wet the plaster and he could barely use his other hand.

He removed the bandage around the musician's left hand so he could wash himself. Even if Mello winced when the warm water hit his cuts as he plunged in the bath, Matt didn't fail his decision not to do the washing for him. He did it for his hair only, the rest, Mello could attend to himself.
Leaving Mello alone to soak for a short moment, Matt went to the medical supplies cabinet upstairs to fetch a few things, before coming back to Mello.
He helped him out of the tub, to dry himself and to get dressed, unable not to notice the perfection of the body under his eyes. He didn't know if it was all due to pole dancing, since lifting his weight on a metal rod did probably take a lot of strength and muscle, but damn... there wasn't a part of Mello that wasn't toned.
"Like what you see?" Mello teased him at some point, Matt blushing as he was caught staring.
"You know the answer I suppose."
Mello chuckled as Matt tried to focus on covering the cuts with a fresh bandage, instead of his heated face.
"You look like you've been doing that for years." Mello stated, surprised by the way Matt knew what he was doing.
"I went to nurse school."
"Really?"
"No, you won't have the sob story, stop smiling like that." Matt laughed softly at the way the singer was staring at him, obviously expecting more.
"So, there is a sob story behind it." Mello winked, satisfied with the information as for now.
"Caught..." the redhead chuckled.
"You know, I kinda trust you for now, I mean, even without the no disclosure contract..."
"Aw, just when I had enough on your account to fill a book..." Matt teased him, but the shadow of anxiety in Mello's eyes told him that the trust was really fragile, "Hey, that was a joke, loosen up. I'll sign your contract if it makes you feel better."
"I'm fine without it. What I meant to say is that it works the other way around, you don't tell me much about you but you can, you know?"
"It's not a question of trust, I have nothing to hide, Mello. I just don't consider you close enough to tell you about my personal life." Matt knew immediately that Mello felt it like a rejection, when the blond frowned and became silent, "I'm sorry, I didn't say that to reject you, take it more like an offer to get closer, if anything." Matt corrected the shot, understanding that Mello was doing great efforts. Somehow, he was feeling like he was getting the musician a bit better. He was happy when he saw the other smirk, even if he knew that Mello would be twisting the words he just said to his own benefit.
"I've been trying to get closer from the beginning, in case you haven't noticed." Mello taunted him, his freshly bandaged hand already sliding up Matt's arm.
"Mello, I know it's totally obvious that I'm not indifferent, but that's not gonna work this way. I may give in at some point because let's face it, I'm having a really hard time with my hormones since I know you, but taking advantage of my weak point is the one thing I'm expecting you not to do."
Mello seemed to think for a moment, and nodded. Matt wasn't sure if that meant good or bad, he could never be sure with the musician.

Matt stood up. "I'll go back to my room, I suppose you've got stuff to do."
"It depends if you count yourself in the stuff I have to do." Mello winked, chuckling.
Matt rolled his eyes, laughing. "You can barely hold your own dick to take a piss so leave mine alone for now."
The door closed, Matt hearing Mello laugh heartily on the other side.

The filming of the elimination was quick, the guy that had started a fight with Mello the previous day being expectedly expelled. Nothing would filter from the previous day, some technical difficulties had been thrown out as an excuse to the public, and the latest footage would be aired as if filmed the day before right after the date.

Just after all the boys returned to the main room, Mello reappeared. He didn't mention the previous events, and the way all the boys kept silent told Matt that Danny had probably given some warnings, and even got some clauses signed. It would be really bad press for Mello if once out of the show, some began to talk. He felt all the more out of the game since he hadn't been warned like the others, and also because things with Mello were a bit weird right now.
It would all be kept secret, nothing of his latest interactions with the singer would come into play for the sake of the suspense, so this little aside really looked like a parallel universe with Mello.

"Okay boys, today, you will be cooking for me!" the blond was cheerful, as if nothing had actually happened.
Somehow, the contestants seemed to get back in the mood of the competition, and the babbling came back just as before.
"You will choose by yourself what you want to cook, there are recipes books in the kitchen for those who have no clue about cooking, but choose wisely. Four professional cooks will be with you in the kitchen to make sure you don't burn the whole room or poison me. The game starts now, and I'll be eating your dishes in two hours so don't let me starve. The winner will join me tonight for dinner in the most expensive restaurant of LA."
The boys cheered, impressed by the prize.

One hour later, the kitchen was a terrible mess. Some of the boys had chosen to cook main dishes, some had set their mind on a cake, but few of them actually knew what they were doing. The professional cooks gave a few clues to the ones meeting difficulties, but apart from that they stayed out of it.
Matt wasn't overly confident with his own cooking, when Mello arrived at 1pm and sat in the dining room, but he knew he wouldn't be the worst, seeing some clear fucks-up among the others' dishes.

The salty dishes were brought first, one after the other, anonymously. Mello refused to eat the first one, making several other boys wince: Mello was a vegetarian, and they didn't know it... four of them had cooked meat or fish, and they already knew that they hadn't 'chosen wisely'.
Matt chuckled to himself. The fact that the dishes were not vegetarian-friendly was actually a good point for them, because no one in his right mind would want to taste something like what they had cooked: some of the dishes looked like vomit.

It only left five boys in the run. The punk guy was a vegan so it was an easy one for him, as his cucumber maki sushis were brought to Mello.
"Nice. I love Japanese food." Mello simply stated, pushing the plate aside after tasting one of the rice pieces.
The four remaining dishes were actually on the sweet side, so that left Mello pretty hungry.
With no surprise, there was a lot of chocolate involved.
The first to be served was a simple chocolate cake.
"Do you want to choke me?" Mello said, trying to swallow the dry mouthful he had just taken, "This one's awful."
The chocolate mousse Lou had prepared didn't do any better, the singer grimacing at the bitter taste.
Matt lost all confidence when his white chocolate cookies were deposited in front of Mello. He knew they tasted good, it was a recipe he had baked with his mother too many times to count since he was a kid, but were they good enough for Mello's diva tastes?
"Holy fuck." the blond didn't say more, as he downed all the three cookies on the plate. "I think there's a last one?" he stirred, looking at the boys.
A small round shaped cake arrived under his nose. The frosting was glistening, and soon Mello was attacking it with a fork, discovering a heart of raspberry sauce in the middle. It wasn't long until he finished it.

"There's someone good to marry in here." Mello stood up, surveying the boys, "Who baked that last cake?"
To his surprise, it was the model.
"Catwalk? Damn, you're finally good at something."
The boy was too happy to be concerned by the musician's condescending tone. "Okay, then you're the lucky one that will come with me to Urasawa, I hope you like sushis."
Mello left, not even looking at Matt, who was a bit stung, more by the fact that Mello had ignored him than because he hadn't won the date, because somehow, it was good that he wouldn't spend time with Mello for once. He really needed to cool his head about it all.

Catwalk was a bit impressed when him and Mello entered in the fancy restaurant, grooms bowing in front of them before a waiter led them to a table in a corner.
"You look so good tonight Mello." the boy stated, trying to engage the conversation as the singer kept silent.
"I know." Mello barely glanced at him.
The model didn't add anything more. He got it that Mello probably wanted someone else to be at his own place tonight, but he felt like it wasn't fair for him to be given the silent treatment.
"Mello, can I ask you something?" he gave it a try.
"You just did, actually." Mello wasn't in a bad mood by any means, he hadn't even meant to sound rude, he was just tired, but now he was kind of amused by the turn the conversation was taking. Being sarcastic always was a great fun for him. "Go ahead."
"Why do you like Matt so much?"
"What about you continue to tell me how good I look and I pretend that I care, we eat and go back to the mansion and I fuck your brains out?" Mello glared at Catwalk. Why were they all so concerned with Matt? The guy didn't even care about winning the show!
The boy gulped. He didn't want to get Mello crossed, so he nodded, and the dinner went pretty eventless from that moment.

Once at the backdoor of the mansion, Mello pushed the boy inside of his private apartments, told him to undress, and waited, his eyes never leaving Catwalk as he removed his clothes.
Then he threw him on the bed face first, and, barely preparing him, took a condom and slid inside of him to the hilt, not even removing his clothes, his leather pants open, uncaring for the boy's discomfort as he rammed inside of him to completion.
"Leave." Mello said abruptly as he stood up from his bed. The boy gathered his clothes quickly and exited.
The musician cleaned up, readjusted himself, and left his room to reach the elimination stage.
Catwalk wasn't even surprised to be the next abatement, but it made all the others wonder what had happened during the date for the model to be dropped out right after it. They wouldn't know, since the boy had to leave immediately after elimination.

Note: Did you really think I was going to give you the explanation for Mello's behaviour so fast? XD
Not now, but there IS a valid reason. I don't even know myself when it will come up, to be honest, nothing is planned for this fic, except the activities, the type of dates and the characters' background and personalities. I have no idea who will drop out, when or how this will end.