A/N: Please note that I do not own anything related to Moone Boy, its story or its characters.
I just loved how sweet the series was and wanted a moment where Martin was there for Sean, as Sean's so often there for him.
Misunderstandings Coupled with Phobias
It was 3am on a late summer night as a storm hammered down outside the Moone families home and Martin had just been woken up by something shaking his bed.
As thunder shook the paintings on the walls along with the residents of the house, Martin had been sleeping soundly, unbothered by the thunderstorms that raged overhead. No, it had been something else that had woken him.
Although storms weren't a frequent occurrence in Boyle, Martin was quite use to sleeping through loud noises due to his roomies frequent night terrors, so it hadn't been the noise from the storm.
His Mum and sisters were out on a holiday to...honestly he hadn't been properly listening. But they were off somewhere for the weekend doing something for one of Mum's career endeavors. This left Dad and Martin, and of course Sean, to themselves for the weekend.
Dad had spent the day catching up on his work in his shop, asking Martin to entertain himself and stay out of trouble. Although it had been chilly and overcast all day, Martin and Sean had indeed kept busy.
By the end of the day Martin had tired himself out exploring a nearby cave they'd found. While Sean did seem to be acting...oddly while they'd pretended to be pirates looking for treasure, Martin figured it may have been due to his first reluctance to the idea of exploring the tightly confined space of the cave, after all in reality it had really just been a small cut out in a rock face, barely 5ft wide by 6ft deep and a modest 4ft tall. Martin had spent 15 minutes convincing the imaginary man he'd fit as dark clouds had rolled above them.
For such a tall man, it had been funny at times to watch him stand crouched over with his head cocked to the side while he swash buckled about.
Martin however had figured he was fine, otherwise he would've said something, and continued their game until the sun had begun to set.
After they'd got home they ate dinner before heading to bed early where Martin passed out quite quickly and uneventfully.
But back to the matter at hand. If it wasn't the thunder itself that had woken him, what had?
Martin sat up in his bed blearily, rubbing his eyes.
A bolt of lightning startlingly close flashed brightly through the window for a moment before the house shook and thunder crashed through the sky, roaring loudly. Martin thought he saw movement from the foot of his bed for a moment when the room was lit, and scooted closer.
"Sean?" He called out tentatively, looking for his friend.
Silence greeted him, but in the dark he could just barely make out a pile of quilts tucked into the bed footboard and then slung out across a chair. Under that he was sure he saw the form of a large lump. Swallowing hard he got off the bed and slowly came around the edge of it, calling out "Sean, is that you? What're you doin' under there?"
Lightning and thunder hammered the house again, drowning out his voice and even startling him a bit.
This time as the room was illuminated, Martin both saw the lump move, as well as heard a muffled cry come from it.
That's when Martin remembered suddenly, and guiltily, that Sean was terrified of lightning and thunderstorms.
They were slightly troubling at worse for Martin, but ever since that one time when he'd been reeeaaaal little and they'd both been alone during a bad thunderstorm, Sean had been utterly terrified of them. Boyle had only had mild storms since then, which Martin and Sean managed to successfully ignore by making blanket forts and drowning the noise out with the radio, earmuffs and the headlamp to fight off the light flashes.
How could he have forgotten? That's why Sean how been so distracted during their swash buckling games, he'd been worrying that the overcast would work itself into a thunderstorm, and rightly so.
Even during dinner, he'd sat by the window, barely listening to Dad and Martin's conversations. Biting his bottom lip Martin felt terrible as he remembered Sean asking if they were just going to go to bed, sounding probing at the time. Martin had almost been annoyed, telling Sean to go watch telly with Dad if he was that bored. Sean had slunk off, looking disappointed.
He must have come back after the storm started. But why hadn't he woken Martin up?
Another bolt illuminated the room and now on the floor, close to the quilts, Martin could make out violent tremors wracking the structure. It took a moment for the thunder to make it's presence known, but once the loud crack hit the house, Martin heard Sean try to muffle a scared sob under the quilts which Martin now realized was a hastily made fort.
The bolts terrifying Sean, making him jump and shake the bed must've been what woke him.
'Oh Sean...I'm so sorry bloke..'
Martin thought to himself, feeling terrible for having abandoned and ignored his friend. He'd just forgotten...it wasn't an excuse, it was just what had happened...but it didn't make it right.
Steeling himself to fix this, Martin edged closer to the quilts and spoke gently.
"Sean? It's me..of course, it's me, only I can see you but what I mean is...I...I'm...I'm coming in." He ended lamely, feeling both unsure of himself and ridiculous for hesitating.
Lifting the edge he ducked underneath quickly, not wanting to break the sacred fort seal for too long, even if it was makeshift.
Even with how large Sean was, the combination of the quilts being tuck into the edge of the bed hastily and then being draped over the chair the fort was just big enough to accommodate Martin's form.
Once he was under, and the fort sealed, he turned to try to see Sean. As his eyes adjusted he couldn't see the man's face, but he could make out the outline of his form.
The normally happy, confident and normally large man was curled tightly into himself. His long limbs were tucked to his chest as he sat on the floor, his head ducked to his knees, trying to be as small as possible.
Just as Martin took a breath and reached out to touched his knee in an attempt to comfort him, lightning struck again lighting under the fort enough to reveal Sean's face, tears were streaked down it and into his beard, his eyes scrunched shut and his hands were held firmly over his ears. He was mumbling almost silently to himself and shaking violently as tremors wracked his body.
When the inevitable thunderstruck, both of them jumped in surprise and Sean let out a terrified sob, his eyes snapping open and widening as they finally locked onto Martin's.
Shame flooded his face, he seemed shocked to see the 12 year old, he must've been too consumed by his fears to hear, let alone notice the boys presence.
Sobs tore themselves from his body suddenly, and he slapped both hands over his mouth, trying to muffle the sound in shame. However, this left his ears unmuffled and exposed to the sounds of the storm just as another crackled throughout the house, causing his fear and anxiety to impossibly raise.
The last clap slapped Martin out of his shocked state, he quickly got to his knees and scooted as close to Sean as possible. He quickly reached forward to cover Sean's ears firmly with his own hands before pulling the man towards him in an attempt to both hug, and shelter the giant as much as possible.
Sean was mumbling something and Martin strained to hear the words as they were muffled.
"M' s'rry...I tr'd not ta wake ya...kno' we're too ol'...M' s'rry Martin..M' s'rry I both'rd ya.."
Sean couldn't seem to stop crying and Martin had never felt guiltier in his life. How could he have let his friend down so much? How could Sean think Martin would care if he was still afraid of thunderstorms and lightning? Maybe the fact that he'd spaced on Sean's fear as a storm brewed tied with his dismissal earlier had sent the signal that he disapproved of Sean's phobia. He had been talking lately of growing up and whatnot.
He would make right, he would.
"Sean I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking with me head at all, I didn't notice the storm and couldn't bother myself to be a decent friend. You're like my brother Sean, I would never judge ya..."
His apology trailed off, unsure if his words impact until he heard his imaginary friend's sobs had ceased.
"S'ok kid.." he said in a quiet and almost defeated tone, "S'my fault, should be over it, should be able ta ignore it and be ok but it-"
Another crack of thunder rumbled their room and Sean's tremors increased, but atleast his sobs hadn't.
Martin's heart did squeeze at the sight of Sean getting scared again. He felt helpless to protect Sean until he remembered his radio AND his new, (Trish's old) headphones!
"Sean! Hold on, I've got an idea! It'll be ok!" Sean to his credit did manage to raise his head, and although his hands were still muffling his ear, he did manage a very weak and small shadow of a smile.
Martin gave him one last squeeze before hastily exiting the fort.
Once outside he snagged his headlamp, radio, headphones and Sean's hat. He also grabbed his pillow and threw another blanket over the fort before ducking back inside.
In his absence Sean had resumed his previous position, legs crossed and tucked to his chest, head down on his knees and hands clamped over his ears as tightly as his eyes were scrunched shut.
"Sean?" The large man jumped when Martin tentatively touched his elbow before seeing Martin and his reassuring smile. Nodding Sean tried to relay but was only able to slightly lower his hands when lightning and thunder struck again.
Sean trembled and quickly covered his ears again before leaning into Martin.
"It's ok Sean, I've got you, you'll be good to go in a moment!"
He leaned back a bit enough to put the headphones on Sean and then his hat over those. Martin turned the radio up until he could hear the music himself and then turned the headlamp on and set it in the middle of the fort so that it lit the whole tent.
The effect on Sean was almost instant, the tremors began to lessen until his body was still and he leaned back, slack against the footboard of the bed.
Bathed in the light from the headlamp Sean raised his head. His face was still tear stained, but he looked so relieved and he unexpectedly let out a mix between a hysterical laugh, and a half hearted sob.
The imaginary man's eyes drifted to meet Martin's young guilt ridden ones and looked guilty themselves.
"Thank you, thank you, bless you Martin...gods Martin no, no don't feel bad little man..I should have said somethin'... thank you...I..."
As another round of thunder struck the house Martin was barely aware of it himself. 'Phew, the storm must be finally passing..'.
Sean seemed unaware of the round other than a faint suspicion.
A weak smile that caused him to pause.
Martin shook his head firmly, not let Sean finish. Instead he moved to sit shoulder to shoulder with his imaginary big friend and brother.
"No Sean" he gestured to himself and mouthed "I'm so sorry I was a clot. I won't ever forget again, and I don't care about this" he gestured around and to Sean.
"Its part of what makes you, you!"
Sean nodded and a small, but genuine smile graced his big, ugly bearded face, and Martin smiled brightly back at him before hugging the big oaf.
Together they spent the night riding out the thunderstorms and making faces using the headlamp light at each other, completely forgetting their misunderstanding and enjoying each other's company. Martin however, would never again dismiss a slightly overcast day again, or his friends legitimate phobia that was associated with storms.
~End
Thanks to all that read, hopefully it inspires you to write some Moone Boy fanfiction of your own like Woflsmouth inspired me!
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