Work Text:
Simon sat in his room editing a new video to put up on his second channel. Josh did invite him to join the livestream and play H1Z1 with him and Tobi but Simon had passed the opportunity as he was exhausted from staying up for two days straight. He also needed to continue editing. That was at 11:00pm and now at 1:30 in the morning Simon was replaying their previous conversation in his head.
-
Josh and Simon perched on separate chairs around the island eating in silence, Simon checking Twitter, and Josh in the middle of thought. The silence was eventually
broken by Josh.
"Simon, I’m going to play H1Z1 later with Tobi and I wondered if you’d want to join?"
Simon looked up to reply. "I could but I haven’t slept in a couple of days and I need to finish editing." The older of the two nodded and picked up his empty
plate.
Josh placed his plate by the sink then opened a cupboard to retrieve some Dr Pepper. After pouring a glass for himself, he began to walk out of the kitchen.
"See you in the morning." Simon looked up and saw him go. A second later, and he was gone.
-
Simon could not get this conversation out of his head for some reason; it was almost as if something was a bit… off. Was it the way they sat in silence? No. The way that Josh only got a drink instead of a snack as well? No. His mind kept going back to when Simon looked up to answer Josh. "What's so special about that?" He thought, "People normally talk to other people by looking at their face," He then found the reason: Simon had been staring at his eyes the whole time. It was like they froze time.
Looking back over the last year, Simon did pick up little things that he or Josh did like the time when they passed each other in the kitchen or seating arrangements in Nandos. Josh always sat two seats away from him. Maybe Josh had wanted to sit near him, but not directly next to or opposite in case they brushed limbs while eating.
Simon ceased his mind from analysing situations further and continued editing. "When did I stop editing?"
30 minutes later, Simon had finished the video and started to schedule its upload. Then he leant back in his chair and was deep in thought. Simon thought that Josh would never love him because he's not gay (though Simon never thought that he himself would be gay) and also he's in a relationship with Freya. He abruptly grabbed his phone and wrote a text to Ethan.
'I think I'm in love with Josh, is this normal and what do I do?' Send.
Shit.
"I've just sent it to Josh! God, I'm such an idiot. I've just ruined our friendship haven't I? Oh fuck."
Simon’s phone beeped.
'I would tell him, I'm pretty sure he loves you too.'
Staring at the phone in disbelief, Simon's world stopped revolving. He did not know what to do. He was expecting a text like ‘What the fuck, bro?’ or ‘Is this a prank?’ but no. A text from the man who was apparently straight confirming the fact that he loved his best friend.
He was not sure what to do. Should he sleep and forget about this or should he confront Josh? His sleep-deprived mind decided on the latter option and he pushed himself up off the chair then made his way to Josh's room. Not thinking of knocking, Simon walked slowly into the room. Josh looked up and their eyes crossed. Josh smiled shyly and turned his attention back to his computer. Simon walked behind him and hugged him from behind but then he glanced at the monitors and froze when his eyes came across a Twitch chat. A look to the first monitor confirmed his suspicions and he remembered that Josh was doing a livestream.
"Oh shit. I'm sorry, bro, I forgot you were livestreaming."
"It’s fine bro." Josh looked around at Simon and smiled. Simon’s heart fluttered as he returned the smile.
"This is going to be gif-ed, you realise that?"
"Tobi's here and he knows about the text. The chat do as well, obviously, and Tumblr have probably made tons of gifs by now." Simon laughed and greeted Tobi. Simon did not hear his reply because he was not wearing headphones.
A few hours later, Josh ended the livestream and Simon had passed out on Josh's bed. Tobi exited the Skype call and the other turned off his computer. Sitting down beside Simon, Josh shook his shoulder lightly.
"Simon? You awake?" After no response, Josh stood up, opened the door and carried Simon to his room. Once there, he tucked him in then went to go back to his room.
"I thought you loved Freya." Stopping in his tracks, he turned to face Simon whose eyes were now open and looking directly at him.
"I did," Josh paused. "but then we broke up a couple of weeks ago. She said it wasn't working between us because she thought I had an eye for someone else."
"Who?"
"You." Silence surrounded them both for a minute. "Get some sleep, bro."