Who We Were Born To Be (Niam) [ON HOLD]

Chapter 11: Modest Management

Author Note: The video on the right is a 1 hour BBC documentary about the discrimination faced by gay people in parts of Africa. I encourage you all to watch it, but it is pretty horrifying, so be warned.

Chapter 11

Liam's point of view

Liam sat backstage in the dressing room, with his arm around Niall, who was having a last-minute snack. Liam looked over the other boys, making sure they were all ready to go on. Zayn's asleep! Liam realised with a grin. Liam leaned in and whispered to Niall, “Zayn's asleep!”

The cute little blond boy jerked his head up from the cellphone he had been using to look at Twitter while he ate. Niall looked around until he spotted Zayn. “Yeah, he looked pretty tired when he and Lou arrived back!” Niall told Liam loudly, with his cute Irish accent coming through strongly. Niall didn't really have an inside voice. Niall is always happy and always loud, thought Liam happily.

Zayn stirred slightly, and a small smile appeared on the sleeping Zayn's face as Niall spoke, as if the boy had heard Niall. For some reason Zayn's smile annoyed Liam.

At that moment, Paul walked into the room. “You're on in five, guys,” he announced. Paul caught sight of Zayn asleep and went and woke the other boy up.

Zayn didn't look very happy about being woken up. Liam found some of the faces Zayn made as Paul woke him to be quite amusing. Zayn began hastily checking himself in a mirror to make sure that he hadn't wrecked his hairdo while sleeping.

Liam's attention was brought back to Niall, as the boy bounded off Liam's lap and onto his feet. Niall turned around to Liam and offered a hand to help Liam up, which Liam took. Niall pulled Liam up and forward into an embrace. Liam grinned and then looked over Niall's hair to make sure it was still good. A couple of strands had gotten out of place, so Liam fixed them. Niall gave Liam a few friendly pats on the bum with his hand as a thanks.

They turned and walked out onto the stage with the rest of the boys.

Liam watched with amusement throughout the TV appearance as Zayn's head kept beginning to nod. Liam had carefully positioned himself beside Zayn so that he could poke Zayn in the back at regular intervals to make sure the other boy stayed awake.

When they finally walked off stage, Zayn yawned loudly and dived face-down onto a couch. It's not even that late, Zayn must have really been working hard today using his power on his trip with Louis. Louis didn't look particularly tired. The boy was talking animatedly to Harry. Something to do with breaking into police stations from the sounds of it?! I hope they were careful.

Niall ran over to Zayn and climbed on top of him. Sitting on top of Zayn's arse, Niall began massaging the tired boy's back. Zayn moaned in appreciation. For some reason Liam was beginning to feel a bit hot. It must be warmer back here than on stage, Liam thought. Which is strange because the lights on stage normally make it really hot on stage.

Liam blinked in annoyance as two men in suits walked into the room. Liam recognised the two as executives from Modest Management. What the fuck are these bozos here for? Nothing good probably. Liam didn't miss the disgusted look on one of the men's face as he spotted Niall on top of Zayn.

Paul called Harry and Louis over, and led them all through to the next room, where there was a large table. The five boys and Paul sat down on one side and the two guys from Modest sat down on the other. Appropriate, since it is us versus them, thought Liam.

The two men gave their names as Mr Lawrence, and Mr Thompson. The one named Mr Lawrence smiled a false-looking smile and said, “That was a great appearance tonight boys, well done. And your concerts this tour have been extremely well received. Congratulations. The stadium tours for next year have been selling out also. There's phenomenal demand for tickets. We've been talking about extending it to additional countries.”