Our Boys

Someone To Lean On

Prompt from gabiiii_08: Tobi is feeling really stressed and ends up lashing out. When Simon goes to talk to him, he discovers that the teen feels like he has no one he can talk to and it determined to make things right.

It was not unusual to find Tobi hunched over at his desk. Quite often the most relaxed and calm of all the boys yet the one often locking himself away in his room to work. Today the fifteen year old sighed loudly, rubbing at his temples with two fingers as he blinked the stinging sensation from his eyes.

Tobi's room was clearly lived in. He had food containers on the desk and an overflowing bin. He's got his set up, computers and sound system and a multitude of other gadgets, with his prized chair, that both his fathers were adamant was not to be used as a second bed. The blanket screwed up beside it, however, suggested Tobi thought otherwise. Cups of un-finished coffee sit on the window sill, old and stale from when his work caught his attention half way through drinking them. One thing was for certain, he couldn't wait until his exams were over and he could finally enjoy the summer. Maybe he'd even be able to make up with Jake and the others again...

He let his head fall to the desk for a moment, clunking heavily as his skull met wood. Tobi groaned softly but not in pain. He moaned in frustration, wanting more than anything just to smash his keyboard across whatever is up on his screen, some confusing maths problem it happened to be. But he didn't. Instead Tobi lifted his head, let out a composing breath and started back to work.

As he continued to type, eyes blurring when he stared for too long at the bright screen, the sound of footsteps clambering up the ladder to his room echoed for what must have been the third time that hour. He barely had time to look away from the monitor, before a mess of blond hair and big blue eyes were popping up into his room.

"Morning Tobi!" Harry's voice bounced energetically around his room as Tobi reminisced wistfully. He remembered when he was that age and the weekends after the school week were only seen as playtime. Harry's right. It was still the morning. Barely. But still. He must have completed at least four past papers and it was only 11:47.

"What's up Harry?" Tobi sighed gently, finally drawing his eyes fully away from his work on the screen to glance at the ten year old. The youngster looked as happy and hyper as always, the complete opposite to what Tobi's feeling inside right now but he tried to put on a front for his younger brother. Instead of throwing his head back into his hands, he swivelled his chair and gave the boy a grin.

"Am I interrupting?" Harry asked and Tobi shook his head, glad he had younger brothers who were actually sympathetic enough to tone down on the annoyance scale when he had exams.

"No, it's fine. What's up?" Tobi probed. The quicker he could sort out whatever Harry wanted, the quicker he could get back to the mound of revision piling up.

"I need you to make a playlist for our class party, we all had to do something for it and I told Miss Henry that you were really good at doing stuff like that." Harry explained and Tobi was mentally screaming. More work wasn't what he needed. What he needed was a good sleep, less work and his friend group back. He didn't want to do it at all.

"You got it. What sort of music?" Tobi asked with the most forced tone of compliance he could muster.

"I don't mind, just what you thinks cool, as long as there's no bad words cause that'd get me in trouble."

"What if they're clean edits?" He questioned again, somewhat interested in the situation now, even if the prospect of more work feels like someone just dumped a ton of bricks onto his shoulders.