~sidemen oneshots~

Let the music drown it out

no ship// platonic fic :)

harry has a sensory issue problem
or
author heard Harry say he doesn't like the sound of chewing twice and ran with it

I don't think there's any TW's but please lmk and I'll add some!!

Word count: 1689

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Harry winces.

The group were having a much needed food break in between filming.
It was silent apart from the sound of chewing rattling through Harry's ears. Usually someone would be speaking or music would be playing, anything as to not hear what his ears are being subjected to now.

Chewing.
Loud, smacking, gross sounds.

Everything about the noises makes him physically recoil, a nauseas feeling settling in his stomach.
He needs to leave, he needs to get out of here or at least say somethin-
"I'll be back," he stands abruptly.
He gets a few confused glances but most wave him off or don't even acknowledge him.
'Fair', he thinks. He'd rather them not notice completely to be honest.

He ends up finishing his wrap outside the studio in the fresh air, something he's not opposed to though he could have gone without the funny looks from strangers as he held the door open with his foot as to not get locked out while munching on his food.

-•-

Harry finds that this is starting to happen a lot more. As they bulk filmed a lot of main channel videos over the last couple of months he found filming second channel videos meant that people cared less about keeping the energy up in between shoots. Which by default meant having more silent lunches where he was forced to listen to his friends annoyingly loud chewing habits.
He began excusing himself a lot more, telling them it was the fresh air that he needed. Sometimes one of them would join him to which he didn't mind as at least when they were outside the sound of cars driving past would drown out the smacking lips.
He's also tried wearing headphones but that almost always led to someone pulling them out of his ears or telling him it was rude.
Weird, considering there was the unspoken knowledge that Harry sometimes wore headphones for his own personal processing reasons.

-•-

He didn't realise his how much this was bothering him. Now even the slightest hint of the sound put him on edge.
But why? Why is he feeling this put off by this now?

To put it simply Harry had never thought about it so much before. All he knew is when he heard it every so often he didn't like it, but now that it was almost a constant battle or an occasion that he had to psych himself up for it was becoming more prevalent in his mind.

Laying sprawled out on his bed in his room is where Harry is now. Battling his thoughts of whether to tell his friends yet another one of his possibly annoying quirks.
While at first he thought the talk would be easy, 'all I have to do is ask if we could play some music or explain to them why I need to wear my headphones,' now that he's thought about it he thinks that might make them upset with him and he can't have that.

Has he overthought this?
Yes, completely.
But is that the Harry Lewis way?
You'd be most certainly correct.

He groans to himself as he looks at his phone seeing the time.
"Cal!" He calls for his older friend hoping the man in question isn't busy with something. He hadn't heard the other talk in a while so he assumed he at least wasn't with anyone.