Oneshots and Other Things

Tired ~ Part 6

Part 6: Ant, Dec & Stephen (BGT 2017)

They were all fighting a losing battle by the fifth day of auditions. A combination of too many late nights and every early morning had left all three of them looking more worn out than any of the judges could remember seeing before.

Even in their breaks, when they tended to wind each other up until one, two or all three of them lost their tempers, they were choosing instead to sit in near silence, wallowing together in their shared exhaustion.

All three of them had continued to push a little too hard, struggling to keep up with the volume of contestants from the biggest year of auditions they'd ever tried to pull off. And, for the first time, it sometimes seemed as if they weren't enjoying themselves so much.

Stephen usually hung around Ant and Dec like an over-excitable puppy, getting a great sense of joy out of messing with the two of them until they pushed him away with mock frustration, never able to hide their own amused grins.

Ant normally managed to talk to all of the contestants and family members in every gap in filming they had, never running low on energy or seeming to get fed up with any of them.

And Dec was always right there with him, messing around with the crew whenever he didn't have his best friend at his side to annoy instead.

On day five, all of that went out of the window.

Stephen's eyes had been drifting closed for the entirety of their lunch break so far, head falling and jolting upright several times before he gave in and rested it against one hand, finally succumbing to temptation to have a nap.

"Seriously, Dec, leave him," Amanda heard Ant say, his tone far too clipped for who he was addressing.

"He's not eaten anything!" Dec retorted, short temper fraying at the edges.

"He's only just got to sleep," Ant said firmly, swatting Dec's hand away when he reached over to shake Stephen awake. "Leave him be."

"So he doesn't get any lunch as well as being shattered?" Dec sighed frustratedly, looking uncharacteristically angry as Ant merely huffed under his breath.

Two sofas over, Amanda watched Alesha and David exchange a look, the other woman shaking her head in warning as David looked a little too mischievous for his own good. He got to his feet, ignoring her silent eye roll, taking a diversion to pluck a colourful feather from a nearby table which had shown up after one of the BGMT filming sessions a few days earlier.

As soon as he approached the three of them, Ant and Dec looked over at him with a knowing suspicion. David was still a little too caught up in making a joke to notice the mood emanating from the two of them – one that definitely suggested they weren't up for a laugh.

He flourished the feather in front of them, pulling it from behind his back and putting a finger to his lips as he headed in Stephen's direction. Neither of them got that usual look of cheekiness that preceded a prank.

"Come off it, David," Ant said instead, holding a hand out for the feather wearily.

"Leave him be," Dec joined in. So, it seemed they could still agree on something.

What David didn't know was that Stephen had been forced to stay behind the previous evening to keep filming after his usual game with Ant and Dec. What none of them knew was that, even after all that, he'd inexplicably managed to have a bad night's sleep. But it turned out that it was possible to be so tired that sleep wouldn't come.