Simon's P.O.V.
Lachlan leaned into me, his hand scrabbling to find mine on the couch. He sighed happily and I kissed his forehead, carding my hand through his blonde hair gently and humming under my breath to allow him to drift off to sleep.
"Are you recording later?" He mumbled, tucking his head underneath my chin.
"Yeah so I'll leave you with Vikk for a bit then, he's just editing this afternoon." He nodded.
We had this system at the Sidemen house, making sure that someone was with him at all times, and we recorded on a schedule so someone could be editing and have him with them. He didn't like to be alone and we catered for that, never leaving him by himself.
He was with me the most often, at night and in the morning's when I edited my videos from the previous day and in the afternoons he went with either Vikk or Josh because JJ was hardly ever around. They each had little nests in their rooms beside their desk, where he stayed when I was recording.
We liked to spend time together when I wasn't recording, lying on my bed or on the couch and just basking in each others warmth and being happy that we were there. Lachlan and I had been together since long before he moved to London and the long distance relationship was a huge struggle for both of us, but after the accident he didn't have much choice.
He had lost his eyesight in a terror attack, a gas attack, in Australia and couldn't cope on his own so he moved into the Sidemen house with me and the other boys until he settled back down again. It was permanent and he knew he would never see again, but after a little while his mood lifted, knowing that it was better to make the most of everything.
I yawned, sitting up and pushing Lachlan off me gently and letting him settle on the couch. Even though it was only noon he was already half asleep but if Vikk was nice then he might take Lachlan swimming, like he did most days, so he could get some exercise.
He didn't like leaving the house or going to places where there were people he didn't know because he felt too exposed, too vulnerable, and he knew people stared at him. I understood. So if we did go anywhere it was to a friends house or a place where people could understand what he was doing.
"I'm gonna start recording now Lachy, do you wanna go down to Vikk now?" He sighed but nodded, mumbling to himself under his breath as he pushed himself up from the couch.
He held his hands out to me, allowing me to lead him downstairs. He still didn't trust himself enough to walk down the stairs on his own and although he had done it before, clinging to the railing with me watching from beside him, he didn't like to do it on his own.
I held his hand and took him into Vikk's room, where he was already editing his videos with a bowl of rice and leftover chicken on the desk beside him. He looked up when we came in.
"Hey Lachy, hey Si." I helped Lachlan onto the little mattress beside Vikk's desk and he settled down, reaching out for everything that was there to keep him entertained.
There were a few stim toys that he liked to play with just to keep himself busy and there were also several books that taught him how to read braille or contained very basic braille. There were also quite a lot of audiobooks as well.
I kissed his forehead, squeezing his hand.
"I'll be back later okay, keep yourself busy." He nodded and I turned to Vikk. "Have fun editing."
He nodded and I left the room, ready for a long few hours of recording.
-------------------------------------
When I returned to get Lachlan 4 or 5 hours he wasn't in Vikk's room, neither was Vikk actually, and when I checked in Josh's room he wasn't there either. JJ wasn't home. I figured after a few minutes that they were probably down in the pool so I stumbled down the stairs on my sore legs to the pool building.
I knew they were all in their when I heard laughing and splashing and I entered the pool building to see Josh hanging out on the edge of the pool, Vikk splashing around underwater and Lachlan spinning on his heels, reaching out to try and grab for him.
The water was only up to his chest height so I wasn't worried but he and Vikk were playing a little game where Vikk would swim around him and try to tap him, either above or underwater, and Lachlan would try to grab him return.
Vikk had a much bigger advantage because he was very adept in water and obviously Lachlan couldn't see him, but Lachlan still seemed to be enjoying it anyway. He was bouncing on his toes, laughing happily and smiling at Josh, I slipped my shirt off and cannonballed into the water beside the other two.
Lachlan shrieked and Vikk swum to the surface, laughing. I hugged Lachlan from behind and kissed the inside of his neck, his arms coming around to wrap around my waist.
"Hey Lachy." I whispered, rocking side to side in the water as Vikk and Josh splashed each other behind me. "Was the rest of the day okay?"
"Mm yeah, Vikk found me a new series of audio books when I finished the last one. We also did an update video." I smiled, spluttering as Vikk threw a wave of water over the two of us. Lachlan leaned into me, his head in my shoulder.
Lachlan didn't use his channel anymore, he literally couldn't record or edit because of what happened, and the only thing he uploaded were update videos that were recorded and edited by one of us.
They were just little updates to tell his viewers about his improvements, progress, little things like that. A lot of the time they were just silly little things that we were proud of, like the first time he climbed the stairs on his own or him learning to read braille.
They were our happy moments and our down time, our best and our worst moments, happy and sad times.
"Sounds good."
We stood in the shallow end of the pool, my arms around his waist and his head on my shoulder, watching the playful fight between Josh and Vikk. Well I mean I was watching it, he was listening in and smiling discreetly, laughing at their words.
They were yelling and calling names at each other, dragging each other under the water and pushing each other over.
"Love you Lachy." I whispered, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes.
"Love you too Si." He whispered back, his glazed over and blank eyes looking up at me. "Love you too."
