Game Over (Harry Lewis/Sidemen fan fic)

Lost Sands

Ash's POV.

I leaned against the counter of the game store. It was another late night after another long day and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to last tonight. I was debating on my head for the past hour whether or not I should call Lea and have her cover for me. I needed sleep and I hadn't been able to get any for the past month. The last time I slept more than an hour was right after the pub crawl. Ever since then I had been working non-stop. I told myself I wanted to get home before my birthday and since I hadn't done that I felt pathetic; I needed to save up more so I could put a down payment on a house and apply for a job before even thinking of flying back to the states.

But I hadn't even been looking for houses....

I looked once at apartments in California near my family's grave site, but after I found the perfect place I shut my computer off and didn't look again. That was about two weeks ago and the idea of going back finally being a possibility seemed so foreign to me. Everything here in London was starting to fall into place; a profesional training organization had heard about me through one of my clients and wanted to bring me into a managing position with them, Lea had just been hired on as a manager of a high class restaurant, we would be making enough money to live comfortably alone if we wanted to. Lea couldn't stop talking about the idea of moving into an actual house together because of it. A life I didn't know I could have was beginning to grow here. It was a strong and healthy life, one I would miss out on if I went back - yet I struggled to let go of the past.

I had nothing back in the states, at least nothing that was alive, but the living were just as important as the dead, and here, in London, there was no grave I could lay flowers on to honor my dad. There was no head stone that was branded with the name of my parents. I had Lea, Harry, Vik, and Simon here, living and breathing with warm blood pumping through there bodies, but the family that had the same bones as me was back in America. I couldn't ignore the blood that bore me and that's what staying in London felt like. It felt like I was forgetting the people who made me who I am.

I laid my head down onto my folded arms. I was over thinking everything. My dad had thought me to think things through, but to also follow my gut. So I slammed my forehead against my arms a few times hoping that my gut would figure it out for me, but my gut was just as decided as my mind.

I stood up straight, pushing away from the counter and wandering towards the shelves. I pulled down a few games that were in the wrong location down into my arms yanking down enough of them so that I was carrying a small pile. I meander to each specified section before slipping them in as I walked along the wall. Once I was done and could stare satisfied at the perfectly console colored, alphabetized order I shuffled my feet back to the other side of the counter. With a huff I perched myself on the tall chair in the corner, leaning my head against the wall and closing my eyes for a second.

Unfortunately though, I could feel myself drifting off into sleep. I pulled out my phone. Typing quickly I sent a text to Lea saying I was falling asleep and begged her to come cover for me. I couldn't even remain awake to read her response as I drifted into sleep.

I dreamt of the ocean. I was twelve, maybe eleven, and I was on the sand, but not the irritating soft stuff that makes your calves hurt when you want on them, the harder, wetter stuff that trials your footprints. I carried my small flip flops in my right hand, a sand dollar in my other. My dad was walking to the left of me, towering tall over my small body. He was talking about family, speaking calmly about how family should be at the center of every Dragonheart family member. He said that even though my mother had died, she was still at the core of his thoughts and his heart.