🎈Oscar and Mer 🍆🪼🔮🐌🤕💻💞 🔨

VI

Although Oscar didn't know it, Mer ended up crying himself to sleep. Everything was still very fresh in his mind since he had just left the ocean earlier that day. He wanted to tell Oscar, he wanted Oscar to help him, but he was too afraid of what his friend might say or even think of him. He knew Oscar was worried and it made him more upset to know that he was upset, but he also knew that Oscar wouldn't press the issue. He would press not bottling everything up, but he would never press the issue of telling him. Everything about Oscar just made Mer want to cry all the tears for all the emotions; pain, sorrow, happiness, disbelief, relief, guilt... He was crying for multiple reasons but he knew it worried his friend, so he ran away. Besides, he needed a good night's sleep and he knew that he was safe here with Oscar.

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Oscar couldn't seem to get into a good REM cycle. Every time he seemed to relax, he would remember finding Mer on the porch looking beaten and dejected or he would be woken up by a strange, deep humming sound that would get a little louder and wake him up. Now that he thought about it...

Oscar sat up and rubbed his eyes. He got up and went to the studio room, turning on the light. He moved the sheet that was covering the canvas and grabbed some paint. Usually if he couldn't sleep, he could work on his paintings and it would lull him into a stupor of sorts or it would take all his energy and he'd screw up his sleep schedule. He needed to try and be more scheduled though. If he was going to start working at the marine park then he was going to have to configure to their hours.

He hated that he had to have a set part-time job, but he wasn't going to rely just on his artwork. Now that the beach house was his, he had a few more bills he needed to pay that he didn't think was going to get covered with his paintings alone. He was excited, though, since he was able to get the job through a friend he met when he was younger... but he was also nervous because the marine park was one of the few jobs around that people who lived there could get full-time pay. That meant that most likely one of the... other people would either work there or be there often.

Oscar shook his head and focused back on the painting. The other thing was that there were a couple of times where Oscar would have an art block and not be able to produce decent paintings or he would just not be able to think of any at all. Having the part-time job would help in those scenarios. Just as he was about to dab the blue onto the canvas, a long, deep, sorrowful moan seemed to echo the house. Oscar looked around in confusion and set the paint palette down to check out what the noise was.

He got up and started looking around the house when he heard it again. He followed the noise and ended up outside of Mer's room. Oscar hesitated to go in but another sad moan sounded and he had a feeling Mer may need him. He opened the door a little and found Mer still curled up in a ball but he was shivering and flinching. He didn't look like he was getting any sleep at all. Oscar walked over and reached out to touch him when Mer let out a sad cry. Oscar frowned and touched Mer's shoulder.

Startled, Mer's sea green eyes shot open and he practically jettisoned to the other side of the bed, falling off on the other side. Oscar blinked in confusion and Mer sat back up, glaring at Oscar over the mattress as if he were still in water.

"What the hell, man?" Oscar said softly. "It's just me..."

Scared me. Mer signed, crawling back into the bed. Why are you here?

"You were making this weird noise and I came to see what it was. Are you having bad dreams?"

Why are you up so late?

Oscar frowned. "Because I can be? Sometimes I have insomnia, sometimes I can't go to sleep because I'm worried about my friend who sounds like he is crying out for help with his weird little whale sounds... you know, the usual." He growled.