Lights, Camera, Action [N.H]

19

I wanted to start this update by quickly acknowledging Liam, rest his soul. My younger self is grieving deeply,  but I wanted to share my condolences with the members of the band, Harry, Niall, Louis and Zayn, and of course, all of Liam's family, including his son. It's okay to be sad, its okay to mourn the loss of a part of your childhood regardless of the circumstances. RIP Liam, we will love, cherish, and miss you deeply. 

also, apologies for the time in between updates, I moved house and have sent my laptop off to get fixed so its all a bit slow for now. This was a super long chapter to edit so sorry if its TOO long :,) I cant upload the photos for this chapter just yet, but I would definitely recommend the song of the chapter be played :)  'Perfect' by One Direction. 

ONE LAST THING! thankyou SO much for 1k reads. I really appreciate every single read, favourite and comment. They genuinely put a smile on my face :,) Ok, enjoy!

Backstage at Niall's Manchester show was similar enough to the others, but a vibe slightly different from the rest of them. I'd always loved the idea of visiting Manchester, and surprised I'd not been before now. Most of the crew hung out in the greenroom like usual, I was chatting with Claire quietly while everyone else ate and picked at the food from catering. We started a bit later than we normally would, but weren't late by any means. I hadn't seen Niall all day or night since we arrived at the venue, the last time I saw him was last night with the promise of hearing his new music. It put a smile on my face to remember that.

"Do you know when he's doing dart throws?" I mumbled to Claire.

She shrugged at me, a mouth full of plain sandwich.

"Not a clue."

It felt weird when the evening went by without his dart board throw,  something nobody mentioned but I'm sure we all noticed. It gave me this uneasy feeling, like something bad was about to happen. I'd already had too much stress on and around the stage, I was trying to keep myself calm for the evening. Despite only just figuring out how to slot myself into a routine, Niall was apparently desperate to keep me on my toes, by forgoing the usual process and skipping straight to the show. We didn't talk much beforehand, he seemed a bit preoccupied with his thoughts when I saw him walk by. He approached me quietly after most people had left the greenroom,

"Hey, sunshine."

"Feel like we should shorten it."

"Your nickname? Don't be silly." He scoffed, "What would we even change it to?"

"Sunny!"

"That's ridiculous. You're sunshine - not sunny. End of story." He chuckled, and I punched back, giggling. The second I stopped laughing, his face dropped. It wasn't completely sad, but it was something noticeable. He looked tired, but not in the way I'd noticed before. His eyes weren't puffy and sunken, he looked more exhausted than anything. But not from lack of sleep, he looked like he'd had a horrible night. I hoped I wasn't the cause of that, but he seemed perfectly fine when I left him last. Judging was the last thing I wanted to do, maybe he was just having an off day.

He's a person, after all. He won't always feel amazing.

"You alright?" I asked gently. He nodded, a mouth full of water he drank from... nervousness? At least, that's what I was picking up from him.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem... a bit off." I expressed honestly, putting my hand on his wrist and rubbing it gently in comfort. He seemed preoccupied, somewhere else with his thoughts.

"Feeling a bit less than grounded today."

I smiled calmly at him, grabbing both his hands in mine as everyone else finished filtering out of the room, leaving us quietly alone. He was taking short and sharp breaths, they were shallow and filled with an anxiousness I couldn't describe but was definitely picking up on.