They're he-ere [Active/Open, but ask first]

[sin_of_my_being]

Characters: Mello, Oz, anyone else
Setting: The dawn room
Time: Day 19, Around the time the beetles start to appear.
Summary: Oz and Mello meet under some odd circumstances and get attacked by beetles.
Warnings: Definite animal/insect abuse, a bought of insanity, nasty heat, and bugs. So many bugs.

Comments

[is_not_number1]

Mello may have been glad about the house's newly warm temperature once, but that period of time was long over. It was beginning to get unbearably hot now, and he didn't know how much longer he could stand the heat without utterly losing his mind. Despite the fact that he was still wounded enough from the previous night's incidents to need damn bandages, and he really preferred that they go as unseen as possible, he'd eventually resorted to discarding his shirt entirely. In an effort to get rid of at least some of the bandages, he'd removed the ones that covered the burns on his back entirely. Those wounds were by far the least severe, even if they were still quite visible, and if any of them could afford to be uncovered, it was definitely them. The bandages on his side and his arm, he figured, still needed to be there. The heat was miserable; he'd likely never have done this in the first place otherwise. Without a damn shirt, he looked way too injured. To add to his fresh and bandaged injuries, he still had plenty of scars on

[sin_of_my_being]

No matter how hard Oz tried to focus on something else, anything else, other than the voices and the heat, he quickly found that he couldn't. He could sort of deal with the buzzing for now, but the voices and the heat were going to drive him crazy. It wasn't until another voice, different from the ones ringing in his head, spoke up and distracted him for a moment

[is_not_number1]

...Another new kid? Mello's immediate reaction was to roll his eyes and stare at Oz in what seemed to be a mixture of disbelief and dislike. It wasn't that he detested the kid quite yet; even if Oz seemed to be obnoxiously nice and friendly, he wasn't going to judge him that quickly. Mello was just incredibly unlikely to give anyone a pleasant stare at the moment. He was already in a foul mood, and any reason he had to add to his annoyance was just the better. And right now, it irrationally irritated him that he was constantly running into these damn kids who had just arrived at the house.

"Well. That's good," he muttered almost viciously, "Because I wasn't about to leave for your convenience." His gaze upon Oz had turned to flat out glaring when he noticed that the brat appeared to be staring at his injuries or something. What the hell? Didn't the kid realize that was just rude? And that little falter in his smile... It made Mello rather suspicious, for no legitimate reason. He just didn't like the way Oz was looking at

[sin_of_my_being]

By the look Oz received from looking at Mello's wounds, Oz could tell his gaze wasn't appreciated. But, it just made him wonder: if the door's locked, and nothing can get in and out in a conventional way, then something inside must have done it. The question is what?

"Nice to meet you, too, Mello!" he said in his signature, cheery tone. Just because he was glaring, doesn't mean Oz had to glare back. And, usually, through his experience anyway, just because people were a bit unpleasant at first, doesn't mean they weren't nice people.
Or at least a bit agreeable.

"Have you been here for a long time?" Oz asked curiously. Maybe he could help answer some of Oz's unanswered questions.

[is_not_number1]

God damn it. Oz was almost disgustingly bright and cheery. In his experiences, Mello found that most people, when greeted in such an unfriendly manner, tended to have at least some response to that. And that response, though varied within different people, definitely wasn't cheerfully grinning back at him as if he had been doing the same all the while. What was wrong with this kid?

He forced a smile back at Oz, though it was very plain that it was not sincere and that Mello did not share any of Oz's... enthusiasm. "A while," he answered, with a shrug. "So far... five nights and five days, including this one. Time moves slowly here, though, so I'd guess I've actually been here for months. There're people who've been here longer."

Giving a slight smirk, he stepped forward towards Oz and crossed his arms as he looked the kid over. "So tell me," he prompted, in a rather falsely cheerful tone, "How've you been enjoying your stay here so far?"

[sin_of_my_being]

As much as Oz would have liked to have called out Mello on his pseudo tone, he though it would be best if he didn't; it's not like he was any better. Instead, he left it as an open matter. If the man wanted to have that tone of voice, Oz wouldn't stop him. Though to him, Mello's new found enthusiasm seems almost painful