Coming Home // Sidemen AU (Minizerk)

The Morning After

The first thing Ethan saw when he woke up from his temporary bed on Simon's family couch was the form of the tall boy sitting on the living room window seat, head in hands, staring out of the window into the rainy day.

Ethan himself had been up until about half four trying to help with finding their missing friend before tiredness overcame him and he'd passed out amongst the cushions. Apparently, it seemed the same had not occurred to Simon, his eyes red with tiredness as he turned to face the waking boy, his hair sticking up in random directions.

The younger boy rubbed at his own eyes as he sat up, propping himself up on his hands. "Have you even been to sleep?" was the first thing he asked the blond boy.

The boy shook his head. "I couldn't," he simply said, his voice quiet, dry and raspy, and Ethan had to wonder whether the boy had been crying.

He didn't want to put Simon on the spot though and had more urgent thoughts in his mind. "Well then?" he questioned, hope in his face but deep down he already knew the answer.

His older friend sighed and swung round so he was facing him. "No one's heard anything Ethan, his mum's a mess, no one from school's heard from him, not Frey or Lewis," he admitted, expression downcast. "We even tried contacting people like Cal and Harry, just in case they'd heard anything, but no, there was nothing." He looked down at his own lap before saying quietly: "Nobody knows anything."

Ethan felt his heart go out to the blond, who looked absolutely broken. Ethan was too but he knew that whatever pain and worry he was feeling right now, it was going to be twice as worse for Simon, He and Josh were inseparable, had been ever since they were barely walking and talking. With Josh gone it was like a piece if Simon was missing too.

"You look exhausted Simon," Ethan pointed out softly.

"Well it's not me you should be fucking worried about," the boy snapped, immediately changing his tone straight after, shocked by his own harshness.

"Ethan," he said, walking over to the younger boy. "Ethan I'm sorry," he apologised, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder and giving him a small smile. "C'mon, let's go and get some breakfast," he decided.

That sounded fine by Ethan. He just wanted to do something that felt normal at the moment and the late night session had made him extra hungry. Walking into Simon's family kitchen was another harsh reminder though of the previous night; sheets of paper with almost indistinct scribbles of phone numbers were scattered across the table, the efforts of a major round up of all of Josh's family, friends and known acquaintances. When Ethan had eventually called it a night Simon and his mum and dad were still scraping the bucket for anyone they might have missed.

It was empty now though and the two boys were quiet as they took out bowls and Simon began rummaging around in the cupboards for some suitable food. Breakfast was rarely eaten by either of them, they wouldn't normally be up at this hour.

"What do we do now?" Ethan asked as he sat down at the table.

"Keep on trying to find him," the blond answered with determination. "We still can't file a missing persons report but I've put messages up on Facebook to see if anyone has seen him or just knows anything."

Ethan nodded to himself. "Someone must know something," he agreed. "People don't just disappear into thin air!" he exclaimed, knowing fully well that if history was anything to go by, they very well could. He needed to be positive right now however and Simon seemed to share his sentiment.

"Exactly," the boy said as he held up a box of cereal and some bread. "What would you like?"

The younger boy shrugged, not really fussed. "Cereals fine."