Hiding in the Shadows

Shadowing

"Hey who's rooming with Niall tonight?" Liam asked looking up from his phone to the other two in the room with him.

Currently the boys were all on the bus. They were heading to their next location and should be there within the hour so Liam felt now was an important time to discuss the room situation. This would be their longest stop yet. They were going to have an interview today along with rehearsals then tomorrow there'd be another interview, a meet and greet, sound check and a concert. After that though they had three days to themselves before their next day of work, they'd be at the location for two more days after and they would all be staying in the hotel the entire time. Whoever was rooming with Niall tonight was rooming with him for the entire time – all seven nights.

Harry groaned, "Please not me, I need to sleep"

"That's precisely my point" Liam said.

"He's not that bad" Louis defended, "and it's not his fault he has nightmares"

"He wakes me up screaming every night I have to share a room with him" Harry argued.

"And it's always in some crazy language" Liam added.

Louis just shook his head, "It's only the first night in a new place, he's fine the rest"

Harry and Liam shot Louis looks of utter disbelief, "It's never just the first night. If it were just the first night I wouldn't care" Liam said.

"It's every night, it's always every night" Harry stressed.

"No. He only ever has nightmares on the first night" Louis corrected.

"For you maybe" Harry snorted.

"If he only ever has nightmares on the first night for you then he's all yours" Liam said, "I'll room with Harry"

"Yes!" Harry cheered, "Sleep!"

Louis rolled his eyes at the younger boy's dramatics, "Fine. I'll share with Niall" and it was settled, Louis would be rooming with Niall for seven days.

Niall was gathering the boys things from where they'd been strewn around the bus and packing their bags in preparation for their long stop. By now he'd learned that all the boys had certain things that they just couldn't be without for long lengths of time, long being anything more than a single night. Harry just had to have his laptop and Liam never remembered his phone charger, Louis was obsessive about his video game collection and the memory cards so that he never has to go back and repeat a level that he's already beaten.

Niall was a bit nervous about this upcoming stop. He knew that no matter who he roomed with he'd annoy them, his nightmares would keep both of them up and that wasn't good. Maybe he'd get lucky and room with Louis then he could get some actual sleep the first night, force himself to stay awake for a couple of nights and then on their down time he could take naps while Louis was out of the room so he would be able to stay asleep those nights. The only issue he'd run into was on the second to last night and, well, two nights out of seven wouldn't be too much of a problem for Louis. Still though, as much as Niall would like that to be the case he knew it was Liam's turn to room with him and Liam wouldn't be so patient. Niall winced at the thought of his bruises getting any worse but what could he do?

"Alright let's go" Louis called not five minutes after Niall had finished packing everyone up and setting the bags by the door, wrenching Niall from his panicked thoughts.

Harry and Liam both grabbed their bags and rushed off the bus not even bothering to question if all that they needed was in them or how they were already at the door when neither boy had done any packing. Louis watched the other two go in amusement, they were such goofs sometimes. Unlike the others though Louis did wonder how his stuff was at the door and he bent down to check his bag, just to be sure.