The Pack and Sidemen Oneshots

Leston- More Than Skin Deep

Preston's P.O.V.

Lachlan grinned, covering his mouth with both of his hands while he laughed. Goddamn he was cute, even if he tried to hide himself when he was laughing or just happy, and we were both having a great time. It was evening and we were settling down for the night, winding down with a movie and cuddles.

I ran a hand through his hair as he settled back down against me and I heard his tiny sigh of contentment. His hand moved to grab mine and his fingers tightened around my own, his eyes moving to look at the television, clearly not caring that he was half crushing me.

"Oof! Lachlan, you're heavy!" I said, shifting underneath him to push his legs off me. He giggled again.

"I know."

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My boyfriend slept like a log every night, he slept through everything and nothing woke him up. Hell, he could probably sleep through a party in the next room and not even stir. But, and it surprised me, it was Lachlan that woke me up in the middle of the night, his eyes wide.

I had thought that he had had a nightmare or something, not a common occurrence but something that happened on occasion, but that wasn't it. Lachlan was shaking, his head spinning around, glancing from one corner of the bedroom to the other. He was on edge.

"What's up?" I mumbled, my eyes half open.

"Preston- I think... I think I smell smoke." That caught my attention.

I sat bolt upright and followed his line of sight to the closed door of our bedroom, leading out into the hall, and my heart sank. I sniffed and yes, it did smell like smoke, Lachlan was right- something was definitely up.

"Is someone having a burn off in the field?" Lachlan said, his voice high. It was clear that even he didn't believe what he was saying.

"I don't think so..." I mumbled, slipping from the bed. The smell was growing stronger but the smoke alarms weren't going off and there were no sounds of fire- maybe I had left a window open and the smoke was coming from somewhere else?

But it wasn't so.

A shock of pain ran through me as I placed my hand on the metal door handle of the bedroom but I didn't understand what the pain was until I drew my hand away. The skin of my palm was red raw- the entire face of my hand, my palm and the pads of my fingers had been burnt.

I fell backwards- for some reason it wasn't hurting. My entire hand was numb and now the smoke was growing stronger, it was getting harder to breathe and Lachlan had slipped from the bed too. I barely stopped him from trying to grab the handle.

"Lachlan don't!" I yelped, biting down a scream of pain as I grabbed his arm with my burnt hand.

"What- holy shit Preston!" He spun around, his eyes meeting mine.

Just outside our door, the smoke alarm went off.

Lachlan silently begged me for direction with his eyes, his head snapping between me and the door. I didn't know what to do, the pain was hitting me hard and my brain was working so hard that nothing was making sense.

I snapped out of it and wheeled around, grabbing a blanket off the bed to open the door. I regretted it almost at once because it sent a wave of smoke through the room- Lachlan went reeling backwards, both of us coughing and spluttering. I slammed it shut again.

"Shit!" I swore, turning. I clutched my hand to my chest, the pain getting almost too much. Lachlan was coughing heavily, doubled over with the effort- he had always been sensitive to smoke.

"Window!" Lachlan gasped, bringing the neck of his shirt up to cover his mouth. I turned to it- flames were already burning outside it, licking the windowsill.

"No- shit!" I swore again, pulling Lachlan closer to me- we were completely trapped. There was no way we could go out into the hall with suffocating and if we leapt from the window... we couldn't, the flames were already burning to high to see.

I was panicking, Lachlan was panicking, we were trapped.

"Preston?" He whispered, his voice high with fear. "What do we d-"

I didn't have to answer that question as the building decided to answer it for him- before he could finish his sentence the floor creaked, then buckled with a loud snap and finally collapsed, sending the two of us tumbling a floor onto the flaming ground below.

Lachlan screamed as the fire burned his skin, I could feel it but I didn't take much notice of it, I was too busy pulling myself from the burning wreckage. We were right on the edge of the house, if we could just climb over a section of the wall we could get out-

I coughed and hacked, my lungs burning with every breath and the smoke was so thick I could barely see my hand in front of my face, Lachlan was clinging to me with everything he had in him. I couldn't see, I stumbled and then fell, tripping over something that had fallen-

"Preston!" Lachlan screamed, coughing, his hands scrabbling at my arms. "Get up-!"

By some miracle, I don't know what god was watching over us, I found the wall of the house, I pushed against it and suddenly I wasn't in the burning house anymore and Lachlan and I were on the grass, coughing and heaving.

The house behind us burned while my eyes flickering, the adrenaline blocking the immense pain for now. Through blurred eyes I could see Lachlan on the ground, curled up in agony, parts of his legs and arms fiery red with burns, coughing so much that his body shook with every movement.

We're alive. I thought as people rushed to my side. We made it out.

Before I finally gave into the tempting arms of darkness.

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The scars were the worst part, covering a lot of my hands, arms and chest. Sure the lung infections and pain had been bad but once everything healed it was difficult to comprehend that this was going to be permanent- I was always going to be disfigured.

Lachlan had escaped lucky, his burns had been mostly superficial and although he had patches of shiny skin along his arms and legs, and a few burn flecks on his face, it had mostly healed. The smoke inhalation caused more of a problem for him, scar tissue had formed in his lungs from the burning heat.

Me on the other hand, I hadn't been so lucky. The burns on my hand received from the door handle were among the few burns that had healed, but a lot of my arms, chest and legs, as well as parts of my face, had received third degree burns that had healed into visible scars, impairing my ability to walk and even move at certain times. The healing process had been difficult, but a year on it was getting better.

The mental scars were, at time, more difficult than the physical ones. There were nightmares, panic attacks and an absolute refusal to go anywhere near a place with a fire, gas or otherwise. We still didnt know how the fire had started, likely an electrical fault and the police report had never confirmed or denied anything, but it didnt stop the fear of it happening again, however unlikely.

Lachlan ran a soft hand through my hair, his arms folded across his stomach. That was the position he spent the most time in, with the skin healing in weird places he often couldnt let his arms hang in what would be a normal position for most people. He smiled.

"You okay?" I shifted, my head against his chest, before nodding.

"I'm fine." I whispered, closing my eyes. "You?"

"Just tired." He mumbled with a gentle smile. "It's getting late."

I sat up a little further, pressing a kiss to his cheek. If I could reach his forehead I would have pressed a kiss there as well but given he was taller than me and I was sitting slightly slouched, I couldn't reach.

"Then sleep. You'll feel better in the morning." He closed his eyes and settled against me. "I love you."

"I love you too babe."