Ed Sheeran collapsed in the chair of the studio's waiting room, heaving a sigh. He had just finished an exhausting 6-hour recording session for his new album and it had been tough. He kept singing off-key, messing up the guitar chords, and just generally screwing it all up. The producer had scheduled 2 more sessions for the following days and simply the thought of it made Ed sick to the stomach.
He had been working non-stop for the past two months- touring, albums, songs, talk shows. God, he thought, he could really use a break. Glancing over at the clock on the wall Ed noticed with a small whine of disapproval that it was nearing 5 o'clock. After everyone had left, the studio was eerily silent, which the artist found unnerving; for anywhere he went there was always noise. Either someone was talking, playing, tuning guitars, eating- there was always some sort of sound to remind him he wasn't alone. Here, there was just the constant ticking of the clock, reminding him of the unforgiving passage of time; each second that was wasted away felt like an eternity to him.
His progressively more depressing thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a door opening. Getting up, he decided, would take too much energy - Ed just settled for a loudly asked "Who is it?"
Hearing footsteps, he twisted around in his chair to face the hallway. He heard the voice before he saw who it was.
"Oh, no one really. Just a dedicated fan coming to visit. Nobody worthy of a minute of your precious time. But perhaps, perhaps you will be benevolent and spare a minute to talk with a simpleton such as myself." Said a man theatrically as he rounded the corner. His tall, lean figure seemed to radiate energy. He was dressed in heavy hiking boots, fitted jeans and a red, plaid, button-up shirt; all of which seemed to compliment the shack of chestnut hair, trimmed beard and storm grey eyes. He gave the sitting man a sassy grin as he entered through the doorway.
Ed's face instantly lit up as he recognized his fellow artist and boyfriend, Mike Rosenberg. Springing up from his chair he bounced across the room to give Mike a bear hug. Suddenly the tiredness was gone.
"Well, my dear dedicated fan, I am so kind and generous that I will take pity on commoners like you and give you some of my valuable attention." He intended the sentence to sound dreadfully sarcastic, but he couldn't keep a huge grin off his face as he stood up on his toes to kiss Mike's cheek, to which the other man responded by pecking him on the forehead.
"What are you doing here?"
"I knew you were going to be in the area, and I don't have many projects to do as of late, so I decided to stop by and say hello. I don't get to see you much nowadays. Besides," he ruffled the shorter mans hair, "I missed you."
Burying his face in the soft cotton of Mike's shirt Ed mumbled, "Missed you too". For a few minutes they just stood still in their embrace, enjoying each other's presence. Once the initial wave of sentiment caused by the greeting was over, Mike stepped back and took a good look at his boyfriend. And decide that he had never seen him look worse in the 4 years they've known each other.
"You look like shit." He stated bluntly.
Rubbing his eyes tiredly with the back of his hand, Ed muttered, "I know. I didn't get much sleep last night."
With a heavy sigh he walked over to the framed mirror hanging on the wall. He almost didn't recognize himself- dark circles under bloodshot eyes, hair more of a mess than usual, skin seemingly drained of color.
Walking up behind him Mike wrapped his arms around Ed's waist and gently kissed the top of his head.
"You work too much."
"That's just the price you gotta pay for being famous..."
"Eddie, look at me," he spun him around so that he could look him in the eyes, "You can't do this to yourself; you're gonna wear yourself out if you carry on like this."
