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

TEN -- OURS

Liam gets to him first, grabbing the tiny boy's elbow. "Niall, you don't understand," he says quickly. He stumbles over his words. There's so much he wants to say, and if he doesn't get all out now, they could all lose Niall forever.

"Lemme go!" Niall tries to tug his arm out of Liam's grasp. Tears are still running down his cheeks, but out of embarrassment now. He'd wanted to escape as soon as he'd said what he did, not to be caught, trapped in his embarrassment. "Liam, let go!"

"Niall, you've got to hear us out," Zayn adds. Niall glares at him, eyelashes wet and clumpy, face pink with anger.

"I don't wanna hear anything!" Niall is still trying to tug his arm out of Liam's grasp, and Harry grabs his other arm. "Stop it!"

"Damn it, Niall," Harry snaps, catching Niall's chin in his hand so Niall will look at him. "Will you listen to us?" Niall stubbornly shakes his head until Louis leans in, his face inches from Niall's.

"Niall, we're all in love with you!" Louis yells. "We're in love with you, you adorable little shit, and with each other!"

Niall stiffens. The blood drains from his cheeks, and he blinks at his friends, cheeks pinking then with realization. "But...I'm confused."

"That's why we wanted you to hear us out," Zayn says, but his voice is much gentler now. "Come with us to get some food, yeah? We can sit down and talk about this."

Niall is still hesitant, chewing on his lower lip, but he nods, and his friends all breathe a sigh of relief.

- - -

"Can we talk now?" Niall whines. They all have ordered their food at the restaurant and are sort of just buying time. Niall is sitting in between Zayn and Harry, and he has a tiny smile on his face, watching Louis absently play with Liam's fingers.

"I suppose so," Liam shrugs, and Harry nods, too.

"Explain," Niall demands. "Explain how you're all in love with me and each other but all skipped over me when you started dating!" When no one starts talking right away, Niall glares at all of them, ending at Liam.

"All right," Liam sighs. "It started with me and Harry, I guess. He and I have been together for, what? Nearly a year now?" Harry nods, smiling a little. "Yeah. We'd always loved you, Niall, even before he and I got together, and we knew Zayn and Louis loved you, too. We didn't want you to feel forced into anything, and we didn't want to hurt each other by one of us dating you...and I don't know. It just sort of happened. We started dating Zayn around Halloween, and Louis wasn't far after."

"But...you all loved me the whole time?" Niall is playing with his fork so he doesn't have to make eye contact with any of them.

"Yeah, that's what brought us together," Zayn responds.

"We didn't want to exclude you," Louis adds. "You'd always been the original goal. We just didn't know if you felt the same, and we'd rather have you as our best friend than not have you at all."

Niall juts his lower lip out. "You could've just asked, you stupid noodles."

Zayn's lips quirk up. "'Hey, Niall, are you in love with me? And Liam? And Harry? And Louis?' Yeah, no, you would've stared at me like I was insane."

Niall giggles and pokes Zayn's nose. "You are insane!"

Zayn shakes his head, fond, and gently bites at Niall's finger, which is still in his face. Niall squeals, still giggling. When he pulls back, all of his friends are staring at him, the fondest, most enamored looks on their faces. It makes him duck his head, blushing, unsure of how he hadn't ever noticed this.

"You...you all wanna be with me? Really?" Niall asks shyly. He brightens when they all nod. "I can't believe you guys didn't know I"m in love with you, too! I'm sneakier than you give me credit for!" He giggles proudly.

"You could've saved us a lot of time and energy, angel," Harry says, but he's smiling. "You were awfully sneaky about it, though."

Niall is still giggling. "I almost went on a date with someone else tonight!"

Louis shakes his head. "God, that would've been terrible."

Niall's smile fades slightly. "So...what does this mean?"

"What does what mean, sweetheart?" Harry asks. Niall blushes again from having all of their attention on him at once. That will take some getting used to.

"Am I your boyfriend, too? Or..." he trails off, not knowing exactly what the 'or' would be.

Liam laughs aloud. "Of course you are, baby, if you want to be."

Niall beams. "Of course I do!" He's a bit shy about it, but he's so happy. He loves these boys so much. He can't believe how well this day's turned out.

When they drop him off at home, Liam kisses him goodnight, which leads to them all kissing him goodnight (obviously). When he gets into his house, he's giggly and blushy for the rest of the night.