What's Next? || Ant x Stephen

Just Snapped - Chapter Eleven

*SLIGHT POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING*

Ant and Stephen have been living in the same house together for almost a week now, but they haven't moved in together! They're just doing this to stop the paparazzi being in Ant's street, so Dec doesn't have to worry about trying to keep his daughter away from them. 

The only difference right now is that they practically spend 24/7 together and they don't exactly mind spending all this time together, their just used to having a bit of time apart, so they have space... so to say.

So, with spending so much time together, it can make things... difficult, sometimes the smallest things can get on each other's nerves, and sometimes you can lose it, without meaning to.

This didn't happen, not until this morning. Ant and Stephen had just woken up, they said good morning asked how the other slept, gave each other a good morning kiss, all the normal things they usually do when they stay over one of their houses.

It's fair to say over the last week or so, Stephen's been stressed, what Michael said really stuck with him, and he can't help but have thoughts about coming out, like 'was it a mistake?' or 'maybe we should've waited a bit longer' and the one that was bothering him the most was 'Maybe Michael was right about us? What if we don't last? What if we-' and he would always end the thought there. He hated when these thoughts came into his head because he knew, deep down, that they weren't true. But he couldn't help thinking them.

Stephen has been keeping these thoughts, these worries, to himself for so long that he's sort of become... short tempered. Not in an angry way so to say, he's not meaning to be so annoyed, it's just the small things get to him a lot more than usual and since he and Ant are staying together, Stephen's been taking that anger out on him, he's noticed certain things about Ant that he hadn't noticed before, even when he'd stay the night.

As Stephen was walking around that morning, making his way to the kitchen to make breakfast, he tripped over Ant's shoes that were left in the doorway, normally that wouldn't bother him, normally he would just move them and put them by the door but today...It bothered him, he just snapped, he was burying so much that the small things just annoyed him. Next thing he knew he yelled up at Ant in an obviously angry tone "Stop leaving your shoes in the doorway!!" Just as Ant was walking downstairs, he was taken aback by Stephen's yelling, he doesn't usually raise his voice unless he needs to, or he's filming something, never usually directly at Ant. Stephen wasn't the type of person to get angry over these things.

"I- Uh, I'm sorry. I'll try not to anymore" Ant said nervously. He'd been quite worried about Stephen recently, ever since the PR meeting, before they came out, he assumed it was just because he was scared to come out, which would be totally reasonable. But there is definitely something wrong, something more than just anxiety about coming out. "It's not that hard to put your shoes by the door-" Stephen stopped himself, still obviously angry, before finishing his sentence. He let out a deep breath and turned around, he made his way over to the door, grabbed his shoes and put them on. "Where- Where are you going?" Ant asked nervously "I just need some air..." Stephen trailed of as he left. Ant would've followed him, but he knew he needed to leave Stephen have some time on his own for a bit.

As the door shut, Ant still had an extremely worried look on his face, Stephen is never like this, I mean yeah, he has issues with his anxiety and has panic attacks sometimes, but he never usually yells at anyone, he never yells at Ant.

Ant slowly sat down on the stairs, as he grabbed his phone and rung Dec, hoping he'd have some advice for him. Dec picked up after the phone rang for a moment. "Hey Ant?" Dec answered confused "Hey, sorry to bother you so early, I just- I need some help." Ant asked, in an apologetic tone. "What's up?" Dec responded almost immediately. Dec was always there for Ant, and Vice versa, no matter the time or the issue, they were always there for each other! Whether it was 3am or 3pm they'd always be there for each other.