Slash Challenge Series - 15: Hiding {Oli Sykes/Tom Sykes}
Series Title: Slash Challenge Story Series
Story Title: Hiding
Author: havah24601
Part: 15/62
Series Rating: M
Story Rating: T
Series Characters: Alex Gaskarth, Alex Greenwald, Alex Suarez, Curtis Ward, Gabe Saporta, Jack Barakat, Josh Franceschi, Matt Barnes, Matt Brown, Matt Flyzik, Michael Guy Chislett, Nate Flynn, Nate Novarro, Oli Sykes, Pat Brown, Sam Carter, Tom Sykes, Tony Marino, William Beckett and Zack Merrick.
Series Pairings: Available on Master Post.
Story Pairing: Oli Sykes/Tom Sykes
Series Explanation: Over the next few months/year, I am challenging myself to write 62 one shots featuring various bandom pairings. There are 20 characters total that will be featured in these stories. Bands involved are: The Academy Is..., All Time Low, Bring Me the Horizon, Cobra Starship, Phantom Planet, Sing It Loud, Skies Alive, The Architects and You Me at Six.
Story Summary: "Everyday, Oliver Sykes throws himself, all of himself, into the public eye, but his brother Tom stays hidden. He doesn’t stay at home or in the car, he doesn’t keep behind a newspaper or sat behind a pillar trying hard not to be seen. No, Tom Sykes hides in plain sight, behind the lens of his prized Nikon camera and no one calls him out on this. While no one sees Tom from outside of the lens, Tom, from the small window in his camera, sees everyone and everything. Tom goes through film as though it’s his oxygen, using roll after roll to take photographs of absolutely everything that he can. He sees things no one else ever sees and he knows things that no one else knows, things which are documented in his own personal collection. "
Disclaimer: Fiction can be SUCH nasty fun. :P
Everyday, Oliver Sykes throws himself, all of himself, into the public eye, but his brother Tom stays hidden. He doesn’t stay at home or in the car, he doesn’t keep behind a newspaper or sat behind a pillar trying hard not to be seen. No, Tom Sykes hides in plain sight, behind the lens of his prized Nikon camera and no one calls him out on this. While no one sees Tom from outside of the lens, Tom, from the small window in his camera, sees everyone and everything. Tom goes through film as though it’s his oxygen, using roll after roll to take photographs of absolutely everything that he can. He sees things no one else ever sees and he knows things that no one else knows, things which are documented in his own personal collection.
In his room, under his bed, Tom has cardboard boxes full of pictures that no one knows he has, pictures no one has ever seen. Sometimes people are vaguely aware that there’s someone in the corner taking pictures, but no one thinks that he uses more than one roll at each party. No, in an average day, Tom is likely to use no less than 5 rolls of a film…if there’s a party, sometimes more. Every time he sees something even slightly interesting, he turns the camera and takes a picture of it so that he’ll remember it and he organizes his photos in the boxes and in a way that very few people would understand.
In the nature section, Tom has the flower box, the tree box, the insect box, the mammal box and many others. He has boxes full of pictures of buildings, mountains, books, appliances, toys and everything anyone could think of. Tom’s people section is the largest because Tom is fascinated with people - the way they act, the way they look, especially how no one person looks the same in any two pictures. He has boxes full of pictures of people who are alone, people who he doesn’t know, people who are in groups, people who are in pairs - he has a family box reserved for family photos of him and his family. Tom has special boxes with pictures of his friends, pictures of people who mean a lot to him. Those he keeps in shoeboxes because there are fewer pictures and finally, crammed up against the wall by the very back of his bed is the ‘Oli’ box.
Tom’s ‘Oli’ box is bigger than a shoebox, but smaller than some of the other boxes. The exact box that he uses once contained the coffee pot that Tom had purchased when he started secondary school so that he could keep up all night, having time to both take photos and do all of his school work. It’s not unusual that Tom should have pictures of his brother - after all, Tom is hired to take pictures of Oli and the rest of the band on a regular basis, but the pictures in the box are the pictures that no one else has seen.
In the box, Tom has pictures from parties, pictures from family outings and events. He has pictures of Oli in concert, Oli back stage, Oli getting ready, sleeping, on the bus, playing video games, screaming at Curtis, screaming at his parents, breaking a bottle over the edge of a table in case a fight broke out. He has pictures of Oli doing thing that no one else even remembers because everyone else present at the party was far too wasted to remember. He has pictures of Oli that he would never show to anyone, pictures that he rarely looks at.
It’s true that Oli throws himself in front of everyone’s camera, every tabloid, every paparazzi. He throws himself onto people, he throws himself into the public eye while Tom hides, yet it is Tom and his Nikon that see Oli more than anyone else. The obsessed fans, the sneaky tabloid cameramen, even the other boys in Oli’s band don’t see Oli half as much, half as well as Tom does.
Because Tom is notoriously nonexistent in Oli’s world, it comes as no surprise to him that on Saturday night he finds himself in the corner of another one of Oli’s parties, his camera raised, blocking his face as he snaps shot after shot of the guests. He is surprised, however, when, after three hours, Oli approaches him. In the past three hours, Tom has watched Oli down 5 shots, 9 beers and the singer is just getting started.
“Tom!” Oli swaggers over to his brother, flinging his arm around the boy’s shoulder, knocking the camera out of Tom’s hand.
“Be careful!” Tom reprimands his brother, glad that he is wearing the neck strap, keeping his camera securely hanging above his navel. “This was expensive!”
“If I break your camera, Tommy, I’ll buy you a new one, alright?” Oli rolls his eyes and Tom sighs. Oli will never understand that the camera is more than just the physical appliance to him, it’s got memories for him, importance - a new one simply wouldn’t be the same.
“What do you want, Oli?” Tom asks. At parties, his brother only socializes with him when he needs something or when he’s too wasted to realize Tom’s his brother and not a random guest.
“I want you to take your camera up to your room and actually talk! You’re sexy Tom!” Oli smacks his brother’s ass playfully. “Far too sexy to be hiding behind that old camera of yours - besides, there are tons of cute girls and guys here, you should be getting laid, not taking pictures of my friends getting smashed.”
“You’ve never minded before,” Tom grumbles, hands clutching at the camera.
“Never noticed before.” Oli shrugs. “Put that thing away, find someone you like and hit on them.”
“Fine.” Tom sighs again, taking his camera and heading up to his room. He closes the door behind him, walking over to the bed. He sets his camera down on his bedside table and lies on his stomach, reaching back behind all of his boxes. He goes past the flower box, the tree box, the sunrise and the sunset box, past the family box, the box of Matt, the box of band, the box of Curtis and he reaches for the coffee pot box labeled ‘Oli.’ He dumps the pictures out onto the floor and lays them out, making sure that each photo is end to end, but none overlapping another. Once he has set out all of the photos from the ‘Oli’ box, he grabs more boxes, laying the photos out just the way he had with the others. He works until his entire floor is covered in glossy photos. He hops up onto the bed so that he can see them all and, looking out at the pictures, he bursts into tears.
Tom falls asleep crying that night. Each picture on the floor contains a memory, contains a story, but none of the memories are his, none of the stories are his and most upsetting to him of all, none of the pictures contain him. He doesn’t have a single photograph with so much as his finger in the shot and as he realizes this, he begins to wonder if he really does matter at all. As Tom sleeps that night, he hugs his pillow to his chest, feeling smaller than he ever has before.
When Tom wakes up the next morning, the first thing that he notices is that he’s no longer the only person in his bed. He jumps back immediately, smacking the back of his head against his bedroom wall. His brother is laying on the bed, completely passed out, his arm across Tom’s torso…or at least it had been before Tom moved.
“Oliver Scott Sykes what the FUCK are you doing in my bed?” Tom doesn’t care that Oli was asleep, he doesn’t care that he’s waking his brother up.
“M’sorry.” Oli opens his eyes slowly, yawning as he does so. “I came in to find what was wrong with you - I mean you never came back to the party. I opened the door and there were pictures all over the place. Don’t worry, I moved some of them to get to the bed, I didn’t step on them.
“Ok, still doesn’t explain what the hell you’re doing in my bed!” Tom looks distressed as his brother pushes the blankets down, sitting up as he yawns again.
“I looked at the pictures,” Oli explains. “I looked at every single one and I looked at them closely. I had no idea that you took so many pictures.” He bites his lip, turning his focus to Tom. “Why don’t you sell some of these? The tabloids would give you a fortune for a few of these.”
“I thought about that, but the ones that they would pay for would hurt you.” Tom shakes his head.
“I ignore you.” Oli frowns slightly. “Why would you protect me?”
“You’re busy.” Tom shrugs. “At least that’s what I tell myself,” he adds under his breath.
“Why would you make excuses for me?” Oli asks, looking at Tom. “I’m not a good brother, never have been.”
“I’ll answer that question when you explain why you slept in my bed.”
“Fine.” Oli sighs. “I slept in your bed because I came in here and I saw that you were hugging your pillow the way you used to when you were small so I figured that something was wrong and then I saw the pictures and they were all so beautiful…” Oli looks down, back at the pictures. “I feel awful, Tom. Awful for not giving what you deserve. You spend so much time behind that camera, no one…no one really, truly knows you because you keep yourself hidden all of the time…I don’t even know you.” Oli bites his lip. “But Tom, you clearly know me. Not a single one of these pictures is low quality and with each one you’ve captured something. I want to get to know you, Tom.”
“I’m boring.” Tom shakes his head. “I’m boring and-” Oli cuts Tom off by leaning in, pressing a soft kiss to Tom’s lips.
“You’re not boring.” Oli shakes his head. “But you are completely in love with me.”
“What?” Tom backs away, frowning.
“It’s clear. These pictures…the ones of everyone else are lovely, but the shots you’ve got of me? I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but those are intimate. The reason that you didn’t come down to the party last night was because the person you wanted to chat up was me.”
“I…” Tom gulps, tears rolling silently down his cheeks. “I didn’t think you’d ever find out, I’m sorry, Oli.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for.” Oli shook his head. “You’ve never had anything to be sorry for, but I have a lot of things to atone for.”
“Like what?” Tom asks, his voice slightly sardonic.
“Like the fact that the one person who truly loves me was right in front of me all along and I never once noticed.”
“You know…” Tom bites his lip. “It’s not too late to stop looking.”
“I’m looking.” Oli nods, turning to Tom, placing his hand on Tom’s cheek. “And for once, you’re the only thing I’m seeing.” Oli leans in, kissing Tom again. This time, the kiss is soft, gentle, just the like the last, but this time, Tom doesn’t pull away. Tom closes his eyes, his hands going to the back of Oli’s head, as he returns the kiss he has waited a lifetime to receive.
Story Title: Hiding
Author: havah24601
Part: 15/62
Series Rating: M
Story Rating: T
Series Characters: Alex Gaskarth, Alex Greenwald, Alex Suarez, Curtis Ward, Gabe Saporta, Jack Barakat, Josh Franceschi, Matt Barnes, Matt Brown, Matt Flyzik, Michael Guy Chislett, Nate Flynn, Nate Novarro, Oli Sykes, Pat Brown, Sam Carter, Tom Sykes, Tony Marino, William Beckett and Zack Merrick.
Series Pairings: Available on Master Post.
Story Pairing: Oli Sykes/Tom Sykes
Series Explanation: Over the next few months/year, I am challenging myself to write 62 one shots featuring various bandom pairings. There are 20 characters total that will be featured in these stories. Bands involved are: The Academy Is..., All Time Low, Bring Me the Horizon, Cobra Starship, Phantom Planet, Sing It Loud, Skies Alive, The Architects and You Me at Six.
Story Summary: "Everyday, Oliver Sykes throws himself, all of himself, into the public eye, but his brother Tom stays hidden. He doesn’t stay at home or in the car, he doesn’t keep behind a newspaper or sat behind a pillar trying hard not to be seen. No, Tom Sykes hides in plain sight, behind the lens of his prized Nikon camera and no one calls him out on this. While no one sees Tom from outside of the lens, Tom, from the small window in his camera, sees everyone and everything. Tom goes through film as though it’s his oxygen, using roll after roll to take photographs of absolutely everything that he can. He sees things no one else ever sees and he knows things that no one else knows, things which are documented in his own personal collection. "
Disclaimer: Fiction can be SUCH nasty fun. :P
Everyday, Oliver Sykes throws himself, all of himself, into the public eye, but his brother Tom stays hidden. He doesn’t stay at home or in the car, he doesn’t keep behind a newspaper or sat behind a pillar trying hard not to be seen. No, Tom Sykes hides in plain sight, behind the lens of his prized Nikon camera and no one calls him out on this. While no one sees Tom from outside of the lens, Tom, from the small window in his camera, sees everyone and everything. Tom goes through film as though it’s his oxygen, using roll after roll to take photographs of absolutely everything that he can. He sees things no one else ever sees and he knows things that no one else knows, things which are documented in his own personal collection.
In his room, under his bed, Tom has cardboard boxes full of pictures that no one knows he has, pictures no one has ever seen. Sometimes people are vaguely aware that there’s someone in the corner taking pictures, but no one thinks that he uses more than one roll at each party. No, in an average day, Tom is likely to use no less than 5 rolls of a film…if there’s a party, sometimes more. Every time he sees something even slightly interesting, he turns the camera and takes a picture of it so that he’ll remember it and he organizes his photos in the boxes and in a way that very few people would understand.
In the nature section, Tom has the flower box, the tree box, the insect box, the mammal box and many others. He has boxes full of pictures of buildings, mountains, books, appliances, toys and everything anyone could think of. Tom’s people section is the largest because Tom is fascinated with people - the way they act, the way they look, especially how no one person looks the same in any two pictures. He has boxes full of pictures of people who are alone, people who he doesn’t know, people who are in groups, people who are in pairs - he has a family box reserved for family photos of him and his family. Tom has special boxes with pictures of his friends, pictures of people who mean a lot to him. Those he keeps in shoeboxes because there are fewer pictures and finally, crammed up against the wall by the very back of his bed is the ‘Oli’ box.
Tom’s ‘Oli’ box is bigger than a shoebox, but smaller than some of the other boxes. The exact box that he uses once contained the coffee pot that Tom had purchased when he started secondary school so that he could keep up all night, having time to both take photos and do all of his school work. It’s not unusual that Tom should have pictures of his brother - after all, Tom is hired to take pictures of Oli and the rest of the band on a regular basis, but the pictures in the box are the pictures that no one else has seen.
In the box, Tom has pictures from parties, pictures from family outings and events. He has pictures of Oli in concert, Oli back stage, Oli getting ready, sleeping, on the bus, playing video games, screaming at Curtis, screaming at his parents, breaking a bottle over the edge of a table in case a fight broke out. He has pictures of Oli doing thing that no one else even remembers because everyone else present at the party was far too wasted to remember. He has pictures of Oli that he would never show to anyone, pictures that he rarely looks at.
It’s true that Oli throws himself in front of everyone’s camera, every tabloid, every paparazzi. He throws himself onto people, he throws himself into the public eye while Tom hides, yet it is Tom and his Nikon that see Oli more than anyone else. The obsessed fans, the sneaky tabloid cameramen, even the other boys in Oli’s band don’t see Oli half as much, half as well as Tom does.
Because Tom is notoriously nonexistent in Oli’s world, it comes as no surprise to him that on Saturday night he finds himself in the corner of another one of Oli’s parties, his camera raised, blocking his face as he snaps shot after shot of the guests. He is surprised, however, when, after three hours, Oli approaches him. In the past three hours, Tom has watched Oli down 5 shots, 9 beers and the singer is just getting started.
“Tom!” Oli swaggers over to his brother, flinging his arm around the boy’s shoulder, knocking the camera out of Tom’s hand.
“Be careful!” Tom reprimands his brother, glad that he is wearing the neck strap, keeping his camera securely hanging above his navel. “This was expensive!”
“If I break your camera, Tommy, I’ll buy you a new one, alright?” Oli rolls his eyes and Tom sighs. Oli will never understand that the camera is more than just the physical appliance to him, it’s got memories for him, importance - a new one simply wouldn’t be the same.
“What do you want, Oli?” Tom asks. At parties, his brother only socializes with him when he needs something or when he’s too wasted to realize Tom’s his brother and not a random guest.
“I want you to take your camera up to your room and actually talk! You’re sexy Tom!” Oli smacks his brother’s ass playfully. “Far too sexy to be hiding behind that old camera of yours - besides, there are tons of cute girls and guys here, you should be getting laid, not taking pictures of my friends getting smashed.”
“You’ve never minded before,” Tom grumbles, hands clutching at the camera.
“Never noticed before.” Oli shrugs. “Put that thing away, find someone you like and hit on them.”
“Fine.” Tom sighs again, taking his camera and heading up to his room. He closes the door behind him, walking over to the bed. He sets his camera down on his bedside table and lies on his stomach, reaching back behind all of his boxes. He goes past the flower box, the tree box, the sunrise and the sunset box, past the family box, the box of Matt, the box of band, the box of Curtis and he reaches for the coffee pot box labeled ‘Oli.’ He dumps the pictures out onto the floor and lays them out, making sure that each photo is end to end, but none overlapping another. Once he has set out all of the photos from the ‘Oli’ box, he grabs more boxes, laying the photos out just the way he had with the others. He works until his entire floor is covered in glossy photos. He hops up onto the bed so that he can see them all and, looking out at the pictures, he bursts into tears.
Tom falls asleep crying that night. Each picture on the floor contains a memory, contains a story, but none of the memories are his, none of the stories are his and most upsetting to him of all, none of the pictures contain him. He doesn’t have a single photograph with so much as his finger in the shot and as he realizes this, he begins to wonder if he really does matter at all. As Tom sleeps that night, he hugs his pillow to his chest, feeling smaller than he ever has before.
When Tom wakes up the next morning, the first thing that he notices is that he’s no longer the only person in his bed. He jumps back immediately, smacking the back of his head against his bedroom wall. His brother is laying on the bed, completely passed out, his arm across Tom’s torso…or at least it had been before Tom moved.
“Oliver Scott Sykes what the FUCK are you doing in my bed?” Tom doesn’t care that Oli was asleep, he doesn’t care that he’s waking his brother up.
“M’sorry.” Oli opens his eyes slowly, yawning as he does so. “I came in to find what was wrong with you - I mean you never came back to the party. I opened the door and there were pictures all over the place. Don’t worry, I moved some of them to get to the bed, I didn’t step on them.
“Ok, still doesn’t explain what the hell you’re doing in my bed!” Tom looks distressed as his brother pushes the blankets down, sitting up as he yawns again.
“I looked at the pictures,” Oli explains. “I looked at every single one and I looked at them closely. I had no idea that you took so many pictures.” He bites his lip, turning his focus to Tom. “Why don’t you sell some of these? The tabloids would give you a fortune for a few of these.”
“I thought about that, but the ones that they would pay for would hurt you.” Tom shakes his head.
“I ignore you.” Oli frowns slightly. “Why would you protect me?”
“You’re busy.” Tom shrugs. “At least that’s what I tell myself,” he adds under his breath.
“Why would you make excuses for me?” Oli asks, looking at Tom. “I’m not a good brother, never have been.”
“I’ll answer that question when you explain why you slept in my bed.”
“Fine.” Oli sighs. “I slept in your bed because I came in here and I saw that you were hugging your pillow the way you used to when you were small so I figured that something was wrong and then I saw the pictures and they were all so beautiful…” Oli looks down, back at the pictures. “I feel awful, Tom. Awful for not giving what you deserve. You spend so much time behind that camera, no one…no one really, truly knows you because you keep yourself hidden all of the time…I don’t even know you.” Oli bites his lip. “But Tom, you clearly know me. Not a single one of these pictures is low quality and with each one you’ve captured something. I want to get to know you, Tom.”
“I’m boring.” Tom shakes his head. “I’m boring and-” Oli cuts Tom off by leaning in, pressing a soft kiss to Tom’s lips.
“You’re not boring.” Oli shakes his head. “But you are completely in love with me.”
“What?” Tom backs away, frowning.
“It’s clear. These pictures…the ones of everyone else are lovely, but the shots you’ve got of me? I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but those are intimate. The reason that you didn’t come down to the party last night was because the person you wanted to chat up was me.”
“I…” Tom gulps, tears rolling silently down his cheeks. “I didn’t think you’d ever find out, I’m sorry, Oli.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for.” Oli shook his head. “You’ve never had anything to be sorry for, but I have a lot of things to atone for.”
“Like what?” Tom asks, his voice slightly sardonic.
“Like the fact that the one person who truly loves me was right in front of me all along and I never once noticed.”
“You know…” Tom bites his lip. “It’s not too late to stop looking.”
“I’m looking.” Oli nods, turning to Tom, placing his hand on Tom’s cheek. “And for once, you’re the only thing I’m seeing.” Oli leans in, kissing Tom again. This time, the kiss is soft, gentle, just the like the last, but this time, Tom doesn’t pull away. Tom closes his eyes, his hands going to the back of Oli’s head, as he returns the kiss he has waited a lifetime to receive.