Pictures that tell 1000 words

The creation

3rd April 2034

Sighing softly, Alex lent his body onto the back rest of the sofa. His eyes scanning the vast scene visible from the window in his living room. His head and his right arm lent up against the top of the sofa, whilst his left arm continued to hand in the sling around his neck - the blue cast which had been on his arm for a week continuing to make his life unnecessarily difficult.

"You okay buddy?" 

Alex turned at the sound of his fathers voice coming from behind him. The familiar blue gaze of the man who he looked up to, seeming more cautious than it had done in a while. The same sort of fluster which the little boy had noted when he walked into the hospital with his mum, strewn across his features.

"Yeah..." He responded. The evident lie within his voice, letting Joe know that his suspicions where correct.

Walking over to the sofa on the far side of the room, Joe sat down in the same way his son was. His knees on the seat - head on the top of it - and his gaze far off into the rolling Surrey hills of their country home.

"Are you sure." He began - "Because you don't seem it."

Alex shrugged in return, his right shoulder moving far quicker than his left as the heavy weight of his arm slowed his movements down - causing him to sigh in frustration once again.

"Do you want to tell me?" Joe pressed further - his mind fluttering about in a craze, searching for the answer which his usually jovial, and talkative son was seeming to keep quiet.

Alex sighed once again, before leaning slightly so that his head was resting on his fathers shoulder. A small, gentle act which seemed to make Joe's heart melt. A relief flooding through his veins at the knowledge that his son really did seem to need him.

"I'm meant to be playing football right now." The little boy uttered somewhat angrily.

"Oh..." Joe responded somewhat bluntly. Cursing himself internally for how stupid he had been. Of course that's what was bothering him... How could it not have been. "Of course, it's Saturday."

Alex nodded in response - his rounded cheek ruffling the gritty texture of the old t-shirt Joe wore that day. The odd bleach and paint stain scattered across it from over the years of redecorating, house work and sweaty summer days out in the garden. 

Saturday's were a well-oiled machine in the Sugg household. The mornings consisting of Alex's football matches and yet another of Lily's dance lessons, meaning that it was always the same for mum and dad. Joe would take Alex to his match, whilst Dianne would drop Lily off at her lesson, before heading back home to take the dog for a long walk through the countryside. Today had been much the same as every Saturday for the girls that morning. But with his new found injury, the boys had found themselves stuck indoors with nothing to do, and nowhere to go.

"I hate this." Alex said harshly as his eyes followed the sight of a large bird soaring through the sky, free enough to run over the hills which seemed to go on for miles. The same backdrop which he had grown up with, now seeming to taunt him as he sat indoors.

"I know you do Monkey... I don't like it either." Joe whispered. Tilting his head down slightly to press a soft kiss onto his forehead.

"But you're always inside Daddy."

"No I'm not." The elder man responded defensively. "I'm always out and about with you guys."

"But, you spend most of the day in your.... Your office."