Sidemen Shots

Downgrade ~ Minishaw

RIP Ethan 🙏

~ Implied/referenced sex, nothing explicit.

-

At the sound of Harry's scream, both Ethan and Simon come running, entering the open-plan kitchen from different rooms in the large suite.

"What- holy shit!" Ethan interrupts himself, staring wide-eyed at the blazing fire that's currently swallowing up a good seventy percent of the kitchen.

"How'd you do that?" Simon asks of Harry, partially demanding, partially panicked.

"I didn't!" Harry defends himself, stuttering messily over an explanation, "I-I come to make my-my-s-self a drink, o-only to find th-this! I had no-nothing to do w-with i-it!"

Whilst the three talk, the smoke alarm continues to bleep incessantly, having gone off some time before Harry's scream, but inaudible from the rooms the boys had previously been in. The blaring noise masks their speech, irritating their ear drums but alerting the hotel staff at the same time.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" A staff member suddenly comes toddling through hastily, his face covered by a small, simple gas mask. The covering seems appropriate for such a large fire.

The man is tall, not bulky but clearly strong. He moves to stand in front of Harry, gently warding him back. He doesn't stop until all of the boys have left the kitchen.

The friends are then guided out of the hotel room completely, and at the same time a different man and woman enter the hotel room, these ones armed with the equipment to actually put out the fire and find out what caused it.

Left to wait outside their room alone, the men stand in silence for about a minute before anyone actually speaks.

It's Simon who speaks first, saying something along the lines of what they're all thinking, his tone hush with a hint of amazement in it, "They've got a whole on-site fire department going on. What the fuck."

"I was just thinking that," Comes from Ethan at the same time as, "That's actually quite cool, y'know," does from Harry.

It's a good ten minutes until the three workers finally exit the hotel room, the first man's arms laden with the Sidemen members' bags.

"I'm afraid the room's no longer inhabitable for now," is the first thing the man holding their bags says as he places them on the floor - it's a good thing none of them had taken anything out of them yet.

"The gas was left on (unsupervised) for too long, which is what enabled the fire. Most likely the actual flame was caused by a light or something being turned on, it's as easy as that in this situation. It's not safe for anyone to reside in there until it's all aired out. Plus, the kitchen is all charred, so that needs to be fixed."

"Oh, right," Ethan lets out, the words released breathily, laced with confusion. "What are we supposed to do then?"

"You'll have to go down to the reception and ask for a replacement room. Have you used the kitchen yourselves at all?" When Harry shakes his head, his eyebrows furrowed, the worker nods. "Okay, so it was likely a mistake on the chef's part."

More baffled than anything else, the three friends each pick up their own bag from the floor, making their way down to reception slowly, mostly silent the whole way down.

Down at the front desk, the three are greeted by a cheery brunette woman, who seems all too happy to help and far too apologetic.

"We've had a few issues with that particular room's stove for a few weeks now, but none this extreme," she tells them, typing something into her computer and clicking the mouse as she does whatever it is she's doing. "I'm afraid we're all out of rooms of that standard, at the minute," she tells them carefully, her eyes flicking up to them as if expecting an angry outburst. That particular thought doesn't sit right with any of them. She clicks a few more times with her mouse, types at the keyboard with a little more urgency. "My apologies. We're quite busy this time of the year - we're going to have to downgrade you."