Hiding in the Shadows

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For those who have asked, no, this is not going to be an ageplay story. None of the boys have any desire to regress Niall to be dependent on them they want him to be able to take care of himself and to be healthy. If you are looking for a Niall ageplay story I did start one called Subtle Adjustments if you would like. Enjoy.

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When he started to wake up Niall found himself in a weird state between full awareness and slight floating. His eyes felt heavy and he had no current desire to force them open. He could feel heat coming from someplace close by and it took a moment before he could reasonably guess that it was Louis sitting next to him on the bed. The last sensation he noticed was something running through his hair and messaging his scalp slightly – it felt really good.

Niall would have more than happily stayed in his trance like state for a while longer however he knew that he had band practice at some point today and he needed to fix a couple of the strings on his guitar. He had attempted to replace the strings last night however his fingers were too slippery and instead of fixing anything he just got blood everywhere. Bradford had eventually given up and let him go.

Sighing Niall rolled over onto his side and started to get up out of the bed. He'd almost made it to a standing position when something took hold of his upper arm and pulled him back down. Frowning slightly Niall finally opened his eyes and turned to face Louis. Only catch, it wasn't Louis he was staring at.

"Li...Liam?" Niall croaked out.

Liam gave a sad smile as he looked down at the blond, "Hey, Nialler. You alright?"

Niall was confused. Why was Liam sitting on the bed next to him? Why had Liam called him Nialler? They weren't in public; there was no need for a nickname. Why was Liam smiling at him? "What's... go...going....on?"

"Here Niall, take this" Harry said coming over with a bottle of water and a couple of Advil.

Niall hesitantly took the bottle of water but ignored the pills. He wasn't allowed to take anything to ease the pain of his 'lesson', he'd been through that before and it hadn't ended well. Somehow Bradford always found out.

Harry and Liam frowned when they saw that Niall had left the pills, his throat was obviously hurting him and his fingers couldn't be a pleasant feeling.

Liam reached out and took the pills from Harry and held them directly in front of Niall's face; "You forgot these"

Niall just shook his head and continued to drink his water grateful that Louis wasn't there to stop him from chugging it.

Liam sighed and took hold of the water bottle, "You need to take the pills Niall"

Niall shook his head no again and reached out for the bottle of water that Liam was currently holding hostage.

Liam didn't understand. Why was Niall refusing the pain pills? They weren't anything serious, just the basic over the counter stuff. "You're not getting the water back until you've taken the meds"

Niall glared at Liam before bolting from the bed and racing for the door. The one plus about Liam having taken his water bottle was that the man's hands were full which gave Niall the chance to get away. Harry had been on the other side of the bed and Niall knew that he could easily beat both of the other two to the door. What he hadn't counted on was Louis to be walking up to the door at that very moment.

"Whoa there" Louis said as he easily caught Niall, "Where are you off to?"

Niall thrashed in Louis' hold but soon found himself being carried back into the hotel room. Because his throat was still soar Niall couldn't really yell out for Louis to let him down and his twisting and wriggling was getting him nowhere so, he stared to thump on Louis' back. That earned him five hard swats.