miniminter7 / Simon Minter - Virtual to Reality

(Chapter 5) Connected.

Simon gazed into your eyes before JJ nudged him gently and gave him a look out of the corner of his eye, telling Simon that there was a forming line behind you and they had to hurry up.

"O-Oh yeah, sorry. Uh, do you wanna take a picture with us, (Y/N)?" Simon stammered, his eyes never leaving yours.

You nodded in silence and handed a guard your phone, then turned your back and posed with your favorite YouTubers, smiling happily. You thought you would feel more giddy and excited now that you were inches away from the group of men that made you laugh so many times, but right now, everything was blurry. You felt the guard set the phone back into your hands, snapping you out of your daze for a few moments. You quickly turned to the boys at their booth and slammed down your notebook on the table, a blush lighting up your cheeks.

"IjustwantedtothankallofyouformakingmesohappyandinspiringmetobeabetterpersonsoIdrewthisforyou!" you rambled, tearing off a page and leaving it on the table, looking up briefly to see the surprised expressions on each of their faces.

Vik, who picked up the paper, held it up and grinned. "This is brilliant! You're so talented!" he smiled, handing it off to the other Sidemen.

You ducked your head in embarrassment and nodded, waving quickly and turning on your heel. "Thank you so much, guys," you smiled back at them, before moving away and off into the convention.

Simon practically leaped over the booth in an attempt to grab your wrist before you vanished, but was far too late. He began to panic, then cupped his hands around his mouth.

"MEET ME BACK HERE BEFORE THE PANEL!" he called, hoping his voice would have an easier time reaching you. Luckily, you heard him and stopped in your tracks, looking over your shoulder and smiling the sweetest, shyest smile that he had ever witnessed.

"Okay," you mouthed, growing evermore lost in those eyes of his again. Simon slowly sat back down in his chair and grinned, those dimples of his carving into his complexion. He nodded and waved at you, his heart racing in his chest.

You took a deep breath and proceeded down the convention hallway, your palms sweating and your breaths short and quick. You ignored the strange looks people gave you, obviously having witnessed the scenario that just occurred, and normally you would have excused yourself into the bathroom, embarrassed as all hell, but right now, Simon Minter just invited you to see him once again. And that...

Well holy shit, that is cool.

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"Finally, we can break," Harry groaned, watching the doors to the meet-up room close. He sank down into his chair and cracked his knuckles, looking up at his tired friends.

Ethan nodded and studied the sharpie marks that he had accidentally drawn on his fingers, chuckling quietly. "It's always awesome meeting everybody, though. We have the best jobs ever! It's especially cool when people quote directly from our videos. Remember that shit drawing of a lion you did, Josh?" he laughed, pointing at his friend. "Some girl replicated it and gave it to me!"

Josh chuckled and rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. "Enough about me, lads. How about that girl that Simon couldn't take his eyes off of?"

"That's right. The pretty girl with the art skills," Vik nodded, lifting a few Sidemen shirts up and pulling your drawing out from underneath.

"You tryn'a smash, fam?" JJ poked Simon's head, laughing.

Simon smacked JJ's hand away and smiled shyly, shaking his head. "She's just a girl from Twitter who sent me some cool fan-art. That's all. It was just a bit shocking to see her in real life, you know?" he replied, glancing at Ethan. 'You better not say anything, Behz,' Simon thought, his blue eyes boring into Ethan's soul.

Ethan grinned and looked up at JJ from his seat. "Yeah, that's all."

JJ wiggled his eyebrows at Simon and turned on his heel, adjusting the snapback on his head. "Right. Sure."

Tobi entered the room and closed the doors behind him, smiling at his friends. "Oi, that artist girl from earlier is waiting for Simon. You wanted to see her, right, mate?" he asked.

Simon quickly got out of his chair and nodded, running his hand through his quiff again and wiping his hands on his black jeans. "Right, right. Thanks, Tobi," he muttered, before making a beeline for the doors.

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You stood in front of those gray double-doors, your heart racing a mile a minute. Any second now, Simon would (hopefully) appear, and you two could finally meet properly. You heard the door push open, taking a step back and holding your breath.

Sure enough, that tall British YouTuber whom you admired so much stepped from behind those doors, his blue eyes traveling up once more to meet your (E/C) ones.

"Simon.." you breathed, backpedaling a little to move out of his way. He smiled at you and much to your surprise and his, he gathered you into his arms and pulled you into a hug. You gasped and felt the fabric of his Sidemen sweater touch your cheek. You tilted your head back and gazed up at him curiously, confused as to why he was like this.

After a few moments, Simon came back to Earth and broke the hug, holding your shoulders with both hands. He looked down and laughed. "Wow, I'm sorry. It's just.. it's really great to finally meet you. I know we've been chatting for a little while..." he grinned, his words trailing off.

You nodded and touched one of his hands that rested on your shoulder, your cheeks warming up once more. "It's an honor to meet you, Simon. Thank you so much for inviting me here. To Insomnia, I mean," you smiled back at him, your nerves beginning to calm a bit.

Simon kept a hand on your shoulder and led you back into the meet-up room, shutting the door behind himself and waving at the Sidemen, who were munching on a few boxes of pizza. "Oi, be gentlemanly for once and meet (Y/N) properly, fam," he called.

Before you knew it, you were surrounded by the faces of the YouTube personalities who you watched every day. You shook hands with all of them, and even scored a bunch of hugs as well.

"You want to join us for some pizza, (Y/N)? Before these dickheads eat all of it?" Simon laughed, gesturing to the piles of pizza boxes (some empty, some full).

"I would love to. Thank you so much!" you nodded, grabbing a plate and a slice. Tobi graciously offered you his seat at the booth, which you took.

Simon sat beside you and looked down at his lap with that same dimply grin that caused you to melt, then looked at you, his blue eyes practically twinkling. "Ah, so... I know you know this, but.. I think your art is fantastic. And I think you're fantastic, and I'm sure everyone else here can agree," he began. "So, uh.."

"He's basically asking if you want to come stop by the Sidemen house while you're in the country so you can make an appearance in one of our videos," Ethan finished for Simon with a smile.

"We were also thinking about maybe partnering with you business-wise; we loved the art you made for us and we would think it would be awesome to make a t-shirt out of that design. We'd split profits, obviously," Josh added, sitting next to you.

You practically choked on the piece of pizza you were chewing, all of this wonderful news crashing onto you at once. JJ noticed you cough and patted your back, laughing loudly. "Oi, give her a moment, bastards!"

You caught your breath and composed yourself, setting your pizza down. You had a quite bewildered look on your face, and had to take another full minute to calm down fully. "I-I... I would love to do all of that. This is all just so surreal, I'm sorry.."

"No, it's alright," Simon chuckled. He looked at the other Sidemen with a certain look of joy on his face that was so rare, even the other boys were flustered.

"I haven't seen Simon look like that in so long," Vik mumbled under his breath. Josh nodded slowly.

"It's like a loose wire in his heart has finally been... connected."