ii/iii mini-ficz

Hottest Day Of The Summer (III Mephoj)

It was the hottest day of the summer. Because of this, Mephone had cancelled any challenge plans to instead let everyone enjoy the beach and stay cool.

OJ walked across the beach, slower than usual as he looked around at all the umbrellas and towels set across the large spread of sand. He nearly began to move towards the water as the others cheered and called for him to join their fun, except...

"Shit. No cork."

He quickly remembered. He'd forgotten to grab it on his way out, and the distance between the contestant housing and the beach was already a bit tiring on foot, even more to be going back and forth like that.

So instead he reluctantly rejected their offers to include him and went towards whoever might be under one of the umbrellas, hoping to find some sort of company. Seemingly, the only person sticking to the land at the time was..

OJ sighed. Mephone 4. Company's company, I suppose.

Things had been...awkward between them to say the least, even more so after Mephone had OJ share a place with him since he didn't exactly count for Bow coming back when generating the houses for everyone. His logic for picking him definitely made sense, they are business partners after all, but that didn't make it any less conflicting for his feelings on the guy.

He sat down on the towel next to him with barely a word, ice cubes rattling against the inner glass of his head. The sound was enough to startle the robot, nearly jumping off his seat as he snapped around to see what made that sound. He then let out a loud sigh of relief, nervously chuckling at his own reaction.
"...Heya, 'J."

OJ only raised his hand in a lazy sort of wave quickly before going back to watching the others, unsure if he should even try at conversation with him.

The leaned forward to see his face better, tilting his head a little, soft whirring and clicking sounds following along with his movement.

"You, uh.. doin' okay?" He was never great at comfort, nor was he one to be very vulnerable with anyone, but something about OJ made him feel this was the right thing to ask.

He glanced over to the others, then back to him. "..Did you wanna join them?"

That was enough to pull OJ's head out of the clouds. "Uh- ..Yeah, why?"

"I can generate you an extra cork, y'know," He answered with another small chuckle. "I don't really have anything better to do over here. 'Cept built another sand thing I guess, but that's beside the point," That earned a smile from OJ, which might as well have been a framed award for how Mephone felt from causing it.

"You'd really do that..?" He asked, still a bit skeptical that Mephone of all people is so willing to help cheer him up.

"Well...yeah!"

Ironically, this made OJ a little more interested in staying than whatever everyone else was busy with. He once again glanced to the others, and looked back at him.

"Mm...To be honest, I'd probably be better off staying. Wouldn't want my ice cubes to melt too fast and dilute me,"
Technically he wasn't lying about this, but in reality he only wanted to get to know the endearingly awkward host more. As strange as it was (and as much as neither would dare admit it), they found they actually..enjoy eachother's company.