It was hard to imagine the day getting any worse but Stephen was humming to himself in the kitchen when Dec got through the door and even it it was more of a distracted tune, rather than anything overly joyful, Dec felt like he was about to walk in and shatter a more upbeat mood.
The preemptive guilt made him drag his feet, reluctant to get Stephen's attention as he walked into the kitchen. He didn't let himself cross the room, to seek out Stephen's comfort without the younger man knowing what had happened. He had to mention it before anything else.
"Did you see what Dan emailed you?" he bit the bullet straight away, hating the way Stephen's tentative smile instantly dropped from his face. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and then hesitating, choosing instead to hear it from Dec.
"What's going on?"
Dec steered him towards a chair despite his slight resistance, the expression on his face pleading with Dec to tell him sooner rather than later.
"Just," Dec hesitated, pushing him towards the table and lying to himself that he wasn't just trying to buy himself time. "Sit down, okay?"
"What's happened now?" Stephen sighed helplessly, finally moving out of choice and dropping into a chair. Dec watched him pull his phone out again but only to place it on the table, his attention still fully in the room.
"There's some more stuff about us," he murmured quietly, closing his eyes. "They've got hold of the fact that it was our team who leaked the picture to the press."
"They don't think..."
"No, no," Dec hastened to reassure him. "They know it wasn't a publicity stunt. Thank God. It's just dragged the attention back to us again."
Stephen nodded slowly, frown deepening and lifting again in the space of a few seconds. Eventually, he let out a breath, head dropping tiredly with the expulsion of air. And Dec finally found himself understanding the curl of guilt in his stomach.
"I don't want you to think I'm always the first to find out about this stuff," he said gingerly, Stephen's bowed head making it hard to judge his reaction, "Dan did try to phone you."
"Oh, did he?" Stephen glanced up, then across at his phone. A shadow passed over his expression that Dec found hard to read but the distraction at least seemed to make Stephen gloss over the first thing Dec had said.
"He emailed you the story instead, when you didn't answer," Dec explained, pushing aside his concern about that to focus on Stephen who reached for his phone and switched it on. It made very little sense that he would have switched it off in the first place and yet still kept it nearby.
Once it was on, Dec counted five vibrations before Stephen turned it to silent, only one of which would have been the email. A couple could be missed calls from Dan and the rest – well, they could have been anything but the look on Stephen's face didn't reassure him.
He let the younger man read the article without bringing it up, levelling off his own expression when Stephen looked up and helplessly shrugged.
"There's not exactly anything we can do about it," he said eventually, although he looked as sapped of energy as Dec had felt since the phone call. The stress was taking its toll on both of them. "We just say you're not working with them anymore because they did it without consulting you."
"That was what Simon said," Dec replied, moving over to the table and resting against it, close enough to reach out and touch Stephen as he sat thoughtfully in one of the chairs. He deliberated over his next thought for some time. "Unless we want to say something else."
YOU ARE READING
As we fall apart
Fanfiction"Maybe it would be best if..." "What's that supposed to mean?" "I don't think I can do this anymore." It felt like it came out of nowhere. They'd had a lot to contend with for a long time but still, after it all, they'd had each other. Until they di...
