Sidemen Oneshots

A Couple Of Children

Requested by charlottesydx.

Just a dad and his two sons <3

When Tobi felt two warm hands press against his left arm, with the attached arms wrapped around his own, he blinked, confused at the soft sensation.

He glanced downwards, only to be met with the (absolutely adorable) sight of a sleepy Harry, cuddling his arm as tight as a child did their favourite teddy.

"Is he actually asleep?" JJ asked from next to Tobi, his voice just shy of teasing, but still fond in that secret way of his.

Tobi didn't even have to give JJ a response, as his question was answered with a quiet snore from Harry.

A little bit later, Harry was still asleep, but JJ had gone from leaning against Tobi with intrigue, staring down at Harry curiously, to leaning back against the armrest of what used to be Tobi's sofa. His bare feet prodded insistently at Harry's shoulder.

"JJ! Stop!" Tobi scolded, turning to face JJ with a stern expression. When Harry whined (at either the physical contact or the volume of Tobi's voice), Tobi began to slowly comb through Harry's soft hair, his fingers gentle.

At that, Harry seemed to twitch. His head jerked against Tobi's upper arm, flinching down towards his own ear and scraping against his own shoulder in the process. Tobi changed comfort tactics, then, seeing that Harry clearly needed more pressure, a lot more than such a light touch could provide. His palm now rested - in his hopeful opinion - heavily, atop Harry's head.

"Tell him to stop fucking sleeping, then. He's slept for too long, already." JJ threw back, staring with dark eyes and furrowed brows.

"Shut it, asshat." Harry muttered drowsily into the sleeve of Tobi's new favourite hoodie.

JJ's eyebrows shot up at the, frankly, odd, insult; he was clearly holding in a laugh at it. Tobi guessed that it if he were to let it ring free, it would be loud and boisterous. A wonderful little mood booster for everyone lucky enough to hear it in it's true, genuine form. In all of it's sudden realness.

"Language, Harry."

Harry groaned, tired with just that edge of feeling horribly inconvenienced. He muttered - mostly inaudibly - against Tobi, with his face smushed against his arm, his lips kissing the material of his hoodie sleeve. Tobi caught something about the word hypocrite, but that was it.

"Okay, dad."

Tobi only rolled his eyes, reluctant to stoop to his friend's level and deciding not to retaliate, in any way.

He then blatantly ignored the horrific attempt at a joke his other friend made, internally wincing as the word daddy left JJ's lips in a beguiling whisper.

~~~

"Bro, stop hogging him!" Harry yelled grumpily, his lips turned down in a frown, his eyebrows furrowed. He looked mere seconds away from pouting.

JJ, on the other hand, already was.

"But you had him yesterday." JJ shot back. (Without whining, of course. JJ didn't whine, ever.)

(And what a lie that was.)

~~~

Tobi, for all it was worth, really loved his friends. Dearly. He absolutely adored them. Held them all as equally close to his heart.

Unfortunately, Tobi used to hold a lot of friends close - now, not so many. Just a few years ago, a large rift in his main friendship group had torn them all apart. And now (not that he didn't appreciate them with all his heart) he was left with only two close friends remaining, out of the very many that he used to have.

Though, since Tobi always tried to see the good in things, he supposed that the split was, sort of, a good thing for him; a good thing for them, too. It meant that he could spend more time, more devotion, on Harry and JJ - the only two people who had made it through that nightmarish chaos with him all those years ago.

~~~

Tobi awoke to the sound of his flat's smoke alarm going off. The noise was a blearing, obnoxious ring that rattled Tobi's brain until he finally clawed his way out of the tempting depths of sleep.

"What the-" Tobi let out an unfiltered scream of shock, his mind fighting off the usual incessant fatigue as his eyes tried to determine if what he was seeing was real. (He prayed with fretful anticipation that it wasn't. Hoped with all hope, he did.)

Harry, his eyes wide in panic, stood in the middle of what used to be Tobi's kitchen - but now belonged to all three of them, basically, at this point. Harry stood atop a ladder, high up on the third highest, middle, step. (From where he got it, Tobi had not the slightest of clues.) Harry balanced in an upright, poised position, with one of Tobi's, previously, white tea towels gripped tightly in one hand. It did not look so white anymore, though, with a nasty golden brown stain on the one side, and a fraying hole that teared apart most of the material on the other.

As Harry fanned the smoke alarm with the, oh-so clearly burnt, tea towel, he shrieked obscenities down at JJ. His voice was anxious; apprehensive.

Near the corner of the kitchen, a good few metres away from Harry and his frightful shouting, his tiresome yelling in the fictitious face of an inanimate object, was JJ. The other man stood, seemingly agitated, hovering over the burning stove, staring into the eyes of the giant, bright orange flames. His eyes appeared regretful, but the rest of his facial features conveyed nothing but barely restrained horror.

At his actions, at the situation - so, at the consequences of his actions - or even, at Tobi's probable reaction.

(Tobi bet his entire flat that, despite knowing him for coming up to a decade now, and being one of Tobi's closest, and only, confidantes, JJ still assumed the worst of his reaction. JJ did that a lot, after all. He dreaded disappointing others, always assuming the worst responses from those around him.)

Both Harry and JJ replied, at the same time, to Tobi's perturbed, cut-off screech.

"It wasn't my fault-" "He started it!"

Tobi blinked languidly, feeling considerably calmer than when he had first entered the kitchen, but no less confused.

JJ turned, then, completely ignoring the burning flames jetting up from the frying pan in favour of staring open-mouthed at Harry. His eyes were wide with betrayal, his expression screaming with disbelief. As if he couldn't believe that Harry had just ratted him out like that.

"I wasn't even about to blame you, bro. I was going to lie for both of us."

Harry stopped fanning the alarm, slowing stepping backwards down the ladder. After he had hopped off of the bottom step, he turned to face JJ, ashamed. His lowered head and the hand rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly really matched the objective, paired perfectly with his overall guilty presence.

"Shit! Why didn't you tell me that before I switched on you?" Harry demanded to know.

At Harry's words, JJ pulled a face that just screamed pure 'what the fuck' energy.

Tobi sighed.

Then he got to work putting out the fire that was still crackling on his stove top, roaring out with aggressive intimidation.

A couple of children, those two were. They had Tobi feeling like a dad without having any actual children to parent.