Sidemen Shots

Convince Me (Order me) ~ Minishaw

She doesn't know I wrote this but this is for minishawx. It's a little thing but I hope you like it x

- 

Ethan spent a long time watching Simon during the day's scheduled MoreSidemen shoots. He gathered a lot during that time; nothing new, just cementing old suspicions.

After the second video recording but before the third, during a little break the group decided to take, Ethan leant in close to Simon. "He's pretty, isn't he." It's wasn't a question, though it probably should have been. (Harry may be his best friend, but Ethan wasn't blind.)

Simon didn't physically startle (he rarely ever did whenever Ethan caught him off guard), but Ethan could easily read the panic in his eyes when his friend turned to look at him.

"What?"

Ethan didn't even attempt to hold back his smirk, genuinely didn't care to. "Harry," he gestured with a discreet tilt of his head towards where Harry was innocuously chatting to Vik, "He's pretty fit. Don't you think?"

Simon's eyebrows furrowed, not in anger but in dubious intrigue. He shrugged, his head shaking slightly and his lips sort of pursing. "I guess so."

Ethan knew that Simon had publicly admitted, on at least one occasion, to thinking Harry was the most good-looking Sideman, so such a front of hesitant like-mindedness was rather amusing to him.

If Simon was confused by Ethan ending the conversation there - getting up to go to the toilet - then he didn't mention it, not once.

~

"'... and I don't know what to think about it all,'" Ethan read, his face pink as he attempted not to laugh, trying his very best to keep serious and provide support for the troubled fan. "'I'm straight. I've never thought this stuff about a woman. I'm twenty-three and went to an all-girls boarding school. If I liked girls, I'd know. I don't want to make my friend uncomfortable, but I don't know what to do. It's been a couple years now, and the admiration hasn't gone away, only strengthened. Am I fine or fucked?'"

There were four men (Ethan, Simon, Tobi, and Josh) sat in the studio with buzzers placed before them, yet only one man leant forward to press the button in answer to the tell-all question. Tobi, the only one sitting next to Simon, turned to look at him in alarm at the action. "You think that's fucked?"

Simon didn't look all too thrilled to have his friends' attention at that moment, or to have to explain why he chose to press his buzzer. He nodded once, offering nothing more than a (too) nonchalant, "Yeah."

Ethan shrugged, looking nonplussed as he dragged the attention away from Simon and on to himself. "I'm not gay but I know a good arse when I see one. Harry - for example - is a fine specimen of a man, and if you cannot see that, then you are blind. Girl, guy, neither, both, gay, straight, lesbian, bi, pan, asexual - whatever!" He turned his head to look directly at the camera, his eyes wide and earnest as he addressed the fan whose problem he had just read out. "I don't think you're fucked. I'm sure your mate is just a good-looking chick. If she's anything like Harry, then at least probably half your mates can see that. I doubt you're alone."

From beside Ethan, Josh nodded along with his friend's words, laughing good-naturedly whenever Harry's name left the younger man's mouth.

"I don't think you really got your message across. You're saying you think Harry's ugly?"

Ethan laughed along with his friend, his face's previous pinkness slowly ebbing away, losing its sharp edge, its telling starkness. "Nah, quite the opposite."