Disclaimer: Not real, nope.

I haven't posted for a while, sorry! I've been a little busy with other things, as well as working on this, which might be the best thing I've written in my life. It's a little different (I know, I know, I say that every time, but it is!) and I'm not sure if it might be triggering but it's nothing too bad. The story is set in 2007, but there are a lot of flashbacks. Well it's a little hard to explain but you'll read it and you'll understand.

I will be posting a fair deal but I would like more reviews, because I need to know what you guys think! In my end of year exams, English was my second lowest, and I know exams aren't everything, but it really makes me wonder whether you like what I write. I get a couple hundred views on each fic, and less than five reviews on all of them. It makes me sad. I will keep posting but I'm just saying reviews are awesome! You can always say something, bad or good, or just to chat about anything really. I am a lonely person *laughs* :D

Anyway, you're probably telling me to shut up in your mind right now so read on and enjoy!

The Monster

2007

"Hi Tom." Dougie gave a weak smile as Tom invited him in to sit down.

"So are you alright?" Tom had been worried ever since Dougie had called saying they needed to talk. He'd known Dougie for so long now, and had cared for him like a younger brother as well as a good friend ever since.

August 1993

"Come on, Tom. We've just moved in, it's always good to invite the neighbours around to introduce ourselves properly." Tom's mother looked at Tom and sighed.

"What am I going to do? He's three years younger than me! That's a really long time!" Tom folded his arms across his body and frowned. Tom was being unusually difficult today and his mother blamed it on moving stresses.

"Thomas, believe it or not, you were five once upon a time, and anyway, it's good practise for when little Carrie is born. Go and get changed and I'll answer the door."

"Hmph." Tom stalked off back into his room, staring at the floor. Why did he have to move anyway? He had good friends back in Harrow and all his teachers thought he was the perfect student. Then his father got a new job and they moved away from all that. Life isn't fair, Tom thought to himself. He grudgingly threw on a plain red T-shirt and jeans before running down the stairs.

"And this is Tom!" His mother laughed.

"Hello Tom!" The woman said with a friendly smile. A small child with dirty blonde hair hid behind his mother, peering out to take a look at Tom. He looked a little younger than five, and was staying very quiet. Tom gave a small smile at the child and waved.

"This is Dougie. I'm sure you'll get on very well!" The woman laughed. Dougie stayed hidden behind his mother's legs, face buried in his hands.

"You'll have to excuse him, he's very shy."

"Don't worry; Tom was very shy at his age too." His mother chuckled, in a way mothers do about children. "Tom, why don't you take Dougie up to your room and you can come down later for some squash and biscuits?"

Tom held his hand out to Dougie, who hesitantly took it, and stepped out, from behind his mother. His hand felt so small and soft compared to Tom's, who carefully led Dougie up the stairs, almost as if he was scared of breaking him.

"So, this is my room." Dougie looked up at all the posters and toys and the colouring pencils on the desk to the large bookshelf opposite Tom's bed.

The first word Tom ever heard Dougie say was 'Wow.' Completely in awe of Tom's colourful bedroom, he ran towards a plastic toy and picked it up.

"It's a dinosaur!" Dougie giggled.

"Yeah. Do you know what kind?" Tom walked over and leaned on his small desk. Dougie looked at every part of the dinosaur; twisting it around in his hands and making it walk around the shelf in little jumps.

"Tri- Triceratops." He ran his finger down the back of the toy, stubby finger running over the dinosaur's spikes before it trailed off into the tail and onto the smooth, wooden shelf.

Tom smiled at Dougie's struggle over saying the dinosaur's name. "I love dinosaurs."

"I love dinosaurs too. I like lizards more, like little mini dinosaurs that you can keep!"

They spent a little while talking, mostly about dinosaurs and lizards, with a few sentences on other items in Tom's room before Dougie had to go back home.

"Bye Tom!" Dougie grinned, a lot more confident than at the start of their visit.

"Bye Dougie!" Tom grinned back, waving goodbye as his mother hugged Dougie's mother goodbye.

One part of their conversation stood out to Tom, although he didn't say anything on it, letting Dougie ramble on and on like he hadn't talked for days. Dougie was very scared of monsters.

"Do you want a drink?" Tom offered, trying to calm Dougie down, or to help him open up.

"No thanks." Dougie stared at the ground, hair covering his eyes slightly. Tom had to admit, Dougie turned into quite a good-looking boy, after all the bowl haircuts and the strange clothes he wore. His hair was now much shorter and swept across his forehead and, well his fashion choices were still a little questionable but then again, so were Tom's.

Dougie sighed to himself, "Well this is going to take a lot of explaining; so you better get comfortable. Do you remember that time I went on my first sleepover to your house?"

June 1997

"This is my first sleepover! Ever!" Dougie laughed, probably already a little hyper from the sweets Tom hid in his room to share. Dougie jumped around the room, giggling to himself, whilst Tom sat on his bed and watched, the biggest grin on his face.

"As much as I hate to say it, we've got to sleep a little; mum's taking us out to the arcade tomorrow."

Tom caught Dougie mid-run and gently pushed him down to the floor onto his sleeping bag. He laughed at the small pout Dougie had on his face before getting into his own bed.

"Aw. You're no fun, Tom." Dougie giggled again but much quieter than before, the sugar probably wearing off already. Tom threw a bag of sweets onto Dougie.

"We can share these if you stay quiet so my parents don't come in." He wriggled over the side of the bed and turned off the lamp, making the room almost pitch black. Although he hated the dark, he didn't want Dougie to think he was any less strong than he is, the other people in his class already teasing him enough for it, as well as being nerdy and smart.

"Tom?" Dougie whispered. Tom looked over the side of his bed to see Dougie curled up in a ball. "I'm. I'm scared of the dark."

Tom sighed in relief, getting out of bed to turn his night-light on. "Is that alright?" Dougie mumbled a 'yes' in response, cuddling his soft toy lizard Zukie closer.

'~'

A little while later, Tom heard a small whimper. He dismissed as nothing, probably part of his dream or a cat or something. But a short abortive scream woke him up. He sat up and looked around, not seeing any aliens, or anything out of place, but then he saw Dougie, shuffling around, eyes squeezed shut.

"NO!" Dougie woke up with a start. Tom leapt out of bed quickly and crouched down to Dougie's side.

"What's wrong?" Tom asks, worry shown on part of his face.

Dougie looks down, already sitting up, his sleeping bag wrapped around his shoulders. "Nothing. Just a small nightmare." And Tom knows this is Dougie's way of saying, 'You can go back to bed if you want, and we don't have to talk about it in the morning. Pretend it never happened' But Tom wouldn't, he shouldn't let Dougie just go through a nightmare that's clearly as small as he says it is on his own. So they sit there, in silence for a bit, Tom's fingers skating over Dougie's forearms, in a soothing way before he decides he needs to talk.

"It was a monster. A monster that drank potions. One potion made the monster funny, two potions made the monster loud and scary, and lots of potions made the monster violent. He attacked me." Dougie paused for a while, the two of them in a strangely calm silence (considering the situation) before adding, "He was going to get you."

Tom blinks at Dougie because he looks genuinely scared about losing Tom and Tom can't really comprehend why?

"Well, I'm alright." Tom assures Dougie with a comforting smile, a little unsure what to say, what to do. "Do you want to sleep in my bed? I mean, if that would help. I'll sleep in the sleeping bag." And Dougie looks a little calmer, but he's still holding the sleeping bad tightly, shivering a little.

"I- I don't know." Tom thinks about what to do, he remembers when he used to wake up in the middle of night after a nightmare, and his father used to come in, to sing for a while, anything, so that's what he does. Any lyrics that come into his head, any nameless songs that he's tried to write and it works. Dougie looks at Tom with a curious look, before lying down, wriggling back down into the sleeping bag and closes his eyes, focuses on Tom's soft voice, before he's drifting off into a happy dream.

Tom pulls the duvet off his bed onto the floor, curls up beside Dougie outside the sleeping bag and keeps on singing, until he can't last any longer and falls asleep himself.

Tom nods, thinking back to that sleepover around ten years ago. "Yeah. I remember that."

"And do you remember when you were my sixth form 'mentor' and you helped me with my English?" Dougie giggled, remembering the time when Tom was his mentor.

Tom wondered where all of this was going.

February 2003

"Why did I ever become a mentor?" Tom sighed, shaking his head. He already had enough on his plate looking for universities and everything, being a mentor was the last thing on his mind. That being said, Dougie was the only student (apart from two others in the year below) who needed his help.

"So you could help me with my English! So do your job and read this." Dougie handed over his creative writing piece that was due in the next day.

"Always the procrastinator." Tom laughed, Dougie pulling a hurt face.

He scanned through the pages, not wanting to take too long, the whole story being quite a few pages long. The story reminded Tom of Dougie's dream, several years ago, written down in so much detail he found himself almost crying at the words. The tale followed a young boy being friends with a strange monster, however the monster always hungered for potions, doing anything possible just to find some. Soon the young boy realised his mistake in befriending the monster but he couldn't escape it, the monster much more powerful than him. The young boy ended up just running, constantly running away from the monster, trying to keep it away and block it out and wait for the monster's greed for potions to take over. Dougie looked at Tom the whole way through, worried about his response.

"Dougie, this…" He looked for the right words to describe how he felt about it.

"I knew it. It's not good enough. I don't have enough to time write anything else, Mr E is going to-"

Tom shook his head quickly, " Dougie this is amazing, you could get this published! I mean, when did you become such an author?"

Dougie stares at Tom for a bit because it doesn't look like he's making fun of him and Tom isn't that kind of person anyway but it can't be true. He can see Tom's eyes shining a little in the light of the classroom and it looks a little like he might be hiding his tears.

All Dougie can whisper is, "Really?" and Tom smiles (with a small nod) in such a way that you know you can believe him because he's Tom.

"I'm going to miss you when I go to Uni." Tom hugs Dougie tightly, wiping away a tear with the back of his finger, letting out a small chuckle to how sentimental he gets sometimes.

Dougie can't help but smile at the memory. "Well, there are a few things I haven't really told you. A few things I didn't really know myself too."

Tom's running through all the bad ways this conversation could go in his mind, how bad it could get but he stops himself.

"To put it simply, my dad has left. But that's a good thing." Dougie adds the last part quickly, replacing Tom's panic and worry with confusion. Tom never really knew Dougie's dad, he was always working or elsewhere whenever he had the rare chance to go to Dougie's house.

"My dad was…" Dougie takes a breath, because he cares what Tom thinks. He doesn't want him to be mad for not telling him sooner.

"My dad was an alcoholic. An abusive alcoholic. Yeah."

And in that moment, it all clicks in Tom's head. The memories Dougie brought back, it fits together like a puzzle.

"So the monster was your…"

Dougie's trying not to just sob into Tom's shoulder, letting out small whimpers with the effort. "Well I didn't realise until last week but…yeah."

Tom's quick to react, wrapping his arms around Dougie and letting him cry into his shoulder as much as he needs to. He grins, singing a song he remembers from a long, long time ago, wiping a tear away with his thumb, reminding Dougie of many memories he'd forgotten under the mess.

And Dougie appreciates Tom that much more, knows Tom has been there when nobody else was, he knows Tom will always be there, knows Tom will never leave.

How was that? Not sure about this one. Don't forget to review!