Mine ♡ Ziall/Niam/Narry/Nouis/Zianourry AU [COMPLETE]

EIGHT -- CAFFEINE

"Liiiiiiiiiiam!" Niall singsongs, galloping into the living room where he's sitting. Liam lets out a laugh as Niall plops himself into his lap. "Hi hi hi!"

"Hi, cutie," Liam says, unable to stop smiling. "Why are you so hyper, huh?"

"Louis gave me coffee!"

"Oh, fuck," Liam mutters, dropping his head into his hands.

It's never a good idea to give Niall caffeine. He's hyper enough without it, but when he's caffeinated, that gets about ten times worse. He gets jittery and excited, and he practically runs around screaming until the caffeine wears off.

"How much did you have?" Liam asks him warily.

"Two cups...four? I DON'T KNOW!"

"Baby, you don't have to yell," Liam laughs. Caffeinated Niall is both parts amusing and terrifying. 

"Sorry!" Niall starts giggling, and then keeps giggling for, like, five minutes. Liam just stares at him, fond smile on his face.

"What's going on?" Louis asks a few minutes later when he comes down the stairs. 

"You gave him four cups of coffee!"

"No, I didn't." Louis looks confused. "I let him have a sip of mine, and...oh." Guilt flickers over his face as he stares at Niall, who is still giggling.

"Do you think if I drink enough, I can hear colors!?" His eyes are wide and crazed, and Liam laughs again.

"We need to de-caffeinate him," Liam chuckles with disbelief.

"How?"

"We dump him in a cold shower."

"No, we do not," Niall says firmly, suddenly not giggly anymore.

"Sorry, babe, we kind of have to," Louis frowns. "Look, you're shaking."

"No, I'm not. The world is on vibrate." Liam and Louis exchange amused, confused looks. Niall's hands are shaking really hard.

"You really don't need coffee," Louis says to Niall as Liam stands and tosses Niall over his shoulder. Niall squeals, giggling, hands gripped in the back of Liam's shirt. With a loud laugh, he swats at Liam's butt, making him jolt.

"Stop that," Liam laughs, but Niall is giggling again. The blood rushing to his head isn't helping either, and Liam glares at Louis when he stifles a laugh. Niall swats at his butt again, so Liam smacks Niall's butt as he climbs the stairs. Niall squeals. "I told you to stop."

Niall is still giggling. "He touched the butt," he whispers to Louis, who laughs aloud.

Liam puts Niall down in the bathroom and gestures to the shower. "Hop in."

"Noooo," Niall says stubbornly, and Louis and Liam exchange glances. With a bit of a fight, they manage to strip Niall down to his boxers, and Louis just kind of plops him in the shower. He pouts at both of them until Liam turns the shower on, at which he shrieks loudly.

"Cold!" he whines, but he knows that's really the only way to de-caffeinate him. Hot showers don't do shit. So he sits there, on the floor of the shower, shivering and pouting. "I hate you guys," he snarls through chattering teeth, as scary as a wet puppy.

"I know," Liam says, but he says it fondly, and Niall finds himself blushing.

When he gets out of the shower, he goes to his room to change. Liam just kisses the side of Louis' head before going down the stairs to clean the kitchen, which is a disaster from the coffee fiasco.

"You guys are poops," Niall states to Louis when he walks into his room.

"I know. But you would've been shaky and anxious all day if we didn't do something," Louis responds, and he kisses Niall's forehead to make up for it. Louis is right, of course, and Niall knows that, but he's still grumpy.

He cheers up, though, when he goes down the stairs. Hercules' menu screen is up on the TV, and Liam popped popcorn. He bounces down the last few steps and over to Liam, going up on his tiptoes to kiss Liam's cheek. Liam shakes his head fondly and starts the movie.

A few hours later, Harry and Zayn come over, too. They're about to watch Tarzan, and they all refer to Tarzan's character as Harry, which makes Niall laugh every single time. 

"Where were you two? You missed me being coffee crazy and slapping Liam's butt!" Niall exclaims.

"I am seriously sorry I missed that," Harry says with a frown, and Liam glares at him. Harry just winks back.

"We were Christmas shopping," Zayn says, which is true. Normally they Christmas shop in bunches, because buying things for each other when they go together is too hard. Niall nods, satisfied.

Cupcake pads into the room a little later, and Niall yells delightedly and pulls his dog into his lap.

"I'm choosing dogs over motherhood," he tells his friends.

"You were planning to be a mom?" Zayn asks, trying not to laugh.

"Yes, but now I'm gonna be a dog mom!" Niall yells happily, kissing Cupcake's head affectionately. They all just laugh at him. Clearly all the caffeine isn't out of his system, but it's probably just mostly Niall being Niall -- equal parts weird and adorable.