Hiding in the Shadows

Over Four Years

 Alright. This is a first chapter and I'm just seeing how it goes. If no one likes it I'll ignore it and move one. If there's interest I'll update when I can. Thank you. Also disclaimer: I own nothing.

When they were first put together and started making a cd and music videos and their first tour all the boys were as close as brothers. They all knew each other and had their rolls. Louis was the oldest, the protector, he was the first to know if something was wrong with the other boys and he was always the first to defend any of them. Louis was also a prankster and he loved to have fun. Zayn was serious and quiet, creative and got stressed easily but he was loyal and caring, fun to be around. Liam was the one obsessive about their health and if they were on time or if they had slept enough, he was the 'daddy' of the group, which was helpful especially when the boys were on tour. Harry was the curly haired one whom the girls obsessed over and the tallest. Niall was the one with the baby face and the innocence that made everyone coo. Though he was not the youngest all the boys identified him as the one they felt they needed to protect.

And protect Niall they did. The boys were constantly herding Niall away from the crowds so he wouldn't become claustrophobic; they were excluding him from horror movies because they didn't want to scare him. They wouldn't allow Niall to hear about the their nights out or the after parties because they wanted to protect his innocence. Unfortunately when you couple a sudden amount of care and concern among a bunch of teenage boys and the stress of a tour, recording an album, interviews, meet and greets, and all the other duties that came with being the most popular band out there and things can go a bit astray.

Stress brought about agitation and all of the boys seemed to suffer from it. If someone had to share a room with Niall they found themselves kept up more than they'd like because Niall would talk in his sleep. Typically it wasn't so bad, just quiet whispers, but when Niall was stressed he tended to have nightmares and those did pose a problem. Many times Niall had been woken and yelled at by a stressed and sleep deprived band mate in the middle of the night. Soon Niall just got his own room after all there were five boys and two to a room, someone was bound to be left out.

As their popularity grew more and more fans would be outside the venues when they arrived places and the boys soon found themselves overwhelmed. When they were being pulled at by multiple fans the last thing any of the boys wanted was to suddenly have a scared Irish lad clinging to them as well. They started to push him off and complain about what a helpless baby he was. When they all wanted to sit down on one of their rare days on traveling on the bus and watch a movie – horror being their favorite genre – they didn't want to listen to Niall whine throughout and complained about how stupid he was that he couldn't tell the movie was fake and how he was a baby for being scared. When they naturally went from watching a movie to playing video games they didn't include Niall because he hadn't been there and they wouldn't have even teams if they did so meaning someone would need to be left out anyway, why not Niall?

When all the boys sat down to eat and Niall would stumble in late because he'd been at band practice, which none of the other members of one direction attended because they didn't actually play an instrument on stage, and he would load down a plate and shove it into his mouth as quick as possible in the ten minutes they had before sound check all the others would call him a pig and tell him he needed to slow down so he didn't get any fatter.

Now none of the boys really meant what they said or ever meant to hurt Niall. It was their first tour and they were stressed. Liam, Louis, Harry and Zayn seemed to have more in common with each other than Niall did. It always seemed as though they were all one big happy band whenever they were in public so no questions were asked.

Niall felt as though he were inadequate. He knew he was different from all the other boys. Management insisted that he needed correction of his teeth, that they weren't good enough so he had to have braces. He was the one to get the most hate so he knew the fans didn't like him all that much. And then the boys went from caring to disgusted. With so many people telling Niall that he wasn't good enough the boy couldn't help but believe them. After a lot of time sulking Niall decided that if no one was going to help him then he'd just help himself.