The pressure on Mason's shoulders wasn't letting up, from the moment he had read the instructions from his phone. Vote someone out?

He'd immediately conjured up an image from his head after reading it. He felt guilty immediately that it hadn't even taken him five seconds to decide who he considered the lamb for his slaughter.

The sweatpants bounced against his legs as he started to break into sweat.

Mason had always liked running, especially if he could feel the wind against his face. The adrenaline rush he got from it, then getting back right before his favorite person in the world woke up.

The only problem now was that he was doing it on a treadmill, he couldn't complain nonetheless, at least he could do what he wanted.

Exercising with the Master didn't turn out to be so bad after all. You did whatever you wanted, just as long you actually exercised. Only the stretching was instructed directly by him.

He still remembered the first time when everyone was really dumbfounded. It was awkward, for all but only two of them.

Only Riley and Jet seemed to know exactly what they were doing. Linder was clearly not cut out for this sort of thing. He'd crossed his arms like he wanted to send out a clear message— he didn't want to do this.

Until Mason had talked him into it, tried to make him look at it differently. He'd succeeded to some extent but Linder treated exercise like his sworn enemy.

His heart had gone out to Pierre. His hand had crossed at his front to hold the other one, rubbing it nervously as he looked down. He went as far as to step away from everyone else, clearly excluding himself.

The beauty was extremely uncomfortable but as far as Mason was concerned, he had nothing to hide in the baggy clothes he'd come in. He was a little chubby, but Mason couldn't understand why he was trying so much to cover it. He looked so good.

The hypnotic moment was when Pierre's eyes had shot to him and he'd licked his lips in nervousness. He was beautiful. Fuck.

He didn't catch the man's eyes again, no matter how many times he had to admit he'd sneaked a peek.

He still remembered the first day when they were being shown around the house. Pierre was the first person he had talked to, although technically he just ran away from him.
But he hadn't stopped looking ever since.

His heart settled when they'd gotten to the stretching bit. Pierre had been paired with Riley. They stretched together. Probably because Riley could talk to even a tree, they fell into a conversation.

At a point, Riley's legs were spread out on either side of Pierre from the back, he leaned a little and said some things to his ear and Pierre seemed to relax further.

For some reason they looked really perfect. He imagined it for a while, Pierre, married to Riley. Pierre would be the sweet, nice one and Riley would be the serious and-

Nope, it just didn't make sense. He couldn't imagine Riley in any form of the word serious.

"Suck it up smartass!"

Everyone's head whipped to where Linder and Jet struggled to stretch. It looked like Linder was trying to get away from Jet while he held him captive.

The Master looked amused. "Switch," he said to them but everyone heard him loud and clear. The order reverberated across the room.

He then went ahead and said something to the two. Whatever he'd said, made them calm down, but they continued to glare at each other.

______________

Zel remembered marveling at every single piece of equipment when he'd first seen the gym.

To his surprise, he couldn't even name most of them.  He'd always turned down every chance to accompany his dad to the gym. This was the result.

Before five minutes had gone by, He had already touched every single thing that was in the room.

He didn't even pipe down until the Master had covered his mouth and held him against him while explaining to everyone what he expected.

"It's important to me that you keep fit while you are here. The reasons will not be disclosed now, or ever. But one way or another, you have to take care of yourself. It might not be important to you but here, your health is important to me."

Zel broke free after that, his eyes sparkled after spotting a few purple dumbbells right after he was done stretching with Mason.

He was really glad to be paired with him. Mason was kind, and he really liked kind people. There was a seriousness about him, like he was the type of person who would hold your hand when you went out for a walk, and continue to hold it even after.

It made Zel want to get to know him better, but their stretching time wasn't enough for that.

He closed his hand around the dumbbell and pulled up. The dumbbell was stubborn, it pulled him back to the floor instead.

"Daddy! This is so heavy!" Zel sounded frustrated as tendrils of his hair escaped from their hold and tried to cover his eyes a little.

The Master was immediately by his side. Crouching down then taking the dumbbells away from him.

"This isn't for you," Zel's eyes turned wide as saucers as he watched the Master lift it so effortlessly with a hand and put it away.

He chuckled. "You can't lift this, but if you want to, we'll get ones for you. You can try those for now okay?" The Master pointed to the exercise balls.

"Okay Daddy! They look fun," Zel smiled widely at him. The Master's hand hovered above his head before Zel pulled it down to rest on top of it.

"You can pat my head if you want. I don't mind!" Zel said, a little excited and still holding the Master's hand to his head.

The Master hesitated, then pulled his hand away, earning a sour look from Zel.

He moved on, back to the dumbbells the Master had set down, eyebrows knitted in a frown while he seemed to calculate. "I kinda don't want that now," he said, looking pointedly at the heavy equipment on the floor. "What if I get huge biceps and get all muscly and start beating everyone up?"

As if in answer, the Master stared at Zel's balled fists as he tried to make his point and chuckled again.

"What? With these tiny fists?" The Master kissed his knuckles.

Zel pretended like it didn't affect him as much as it did. He pulled his hands away.

"Someone once told me," Zel leaned closer until he was just against the Master's ear, then whispered. "Dynamite comes in tiny packages."

He moved away. "But I'm sure you already know that."

꧁_____________꧂

Out of curiosity, after the exercise that day, Linder had showered while contemplating. Finally making up his mind that he had to talk to Zel.

If there was a secret formula for the way he took everything lightly, then he needed it.

He found Zel watching a movie with a bowl of popcorn nestled between his thighs and the remote loosely clasped on his other hand.

"Linder!" He said immediately their eyes had met, as if he found Linder more interesting than whatever he was watching. He settled next to him.

"Want to watch with me?" The look on Zel's face was so hopeful that Linder couldn't find it in him to say no. He nodded.

"Here! We can share my popcorn, or I can get-"

"No," said the taller male quickly. "It's fine, I don't really like popcorn."

"What?! Are you serious? Why?"

Linder shrugged in answer. Zel was so adorably cute that he found himself smiling at him. Relaxing even.

"Who are you going to vote?" Linder asked.

He knew it wasn't an easy question, and it was easily going to make Zel uncomfortable. He surely wouldn't have answered if he'd been the one asked it. At least that's what he thought.

He was wrong.

And Zel had absolutely no reason to tell him anything. In fact it should have been his private business. But he couldn't resist the urge to ask.

He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Zel didn't seem to care, whatever angle you stood and looked at him, there was no pressure on him. That's what fueled his curiosity.

And now, Zel didn't even take a minute of his time, "Oh you're talking about the game?"

Linder nodded.

"I won't vote anyone out."

"You're not voting for anyone?" Linder was shocked all over again.

"I'm not."

"You'll get disqualified. You know that right?"

"Uh huh, I know, and thats okay."

Linder was a little astounded. In the end, only one person was going to leave, that was according to the instructions of the game.

Only one person, and it turned out, Zel was already offering himself up for whatever reasons he had up in his head. The reason had to be really good because no one was saying fuck you to four million, louder than he was right now.

Zel got off the couch. "I need more popcorn. Don't go away okay?" He said walking away like he didn't have a care in the world.

Linder pulled his phone out and typed a name.

꧁_________________꧂

Hi you!
I'm curious, how are you doing?

Thank you for reading this book❤️