Bromance One-Shots [Closed]

8. Zianourry: Hunger

Drabble I wrote out of sheer boredom ^_^

Prompt: Niall reads some hate on twitter about him being 'fat' and he decides he needs to stop eating to be perfect.

Disclaimer: these tweets are not my actual opinion on the real Niall I think he's perfect. (:

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Niall sat alone in his flat one night, the boys had had the day off. Niall had spent the day with Zayn indoors, because the other three had other things to take care of.

A little after dinner Zayn had gone home and Niall was sitting alone on his couch, his laptop on his legs, scrolling through twitter, when he noticed a tweet that wasn't even directed at him.

@jaime450: "Has anyone else noticed Niall from 1D is fat?"

Niall stared at the comment and tried to ignore it. He wouldn't let that get to him. He knew he wasn't fat.

As he scrolled through his mentions, he noticed a few more nasty comments.

With tears streaming down his face, he enlarged a tweet that really stood out to him.

@kittykatxo: "@niallofficial have you ever heard of the gym? You are like seriously huge! You make one Direction ugly! I bet the others want you gone. Either loose weight or leave you disgusting fat ass"

Niall stared at the screen, reading the message over and over. Liam had told him not to let people like this get to him. But maybe they were right. He didn't even have abs and he had ugly braces on his teeth.

Maybe he was fat. He pulled out his phone and photographed the tweet. He'd use it as extra motivation.

He was going to loose this weight.

--

A month later 4/5 of One Direction were gathered in the kitchen having a very serious discussion.

"I'm worried about Niall." Louis spoke up.

"Me too" Harry put in.

"When was the last time you saw him eat?" Liam questioned. He was a little more aware than the others due to something he heard after dinner one evening.

"He ate lunch with me yesterday." Zayn said.

"And where did he go after you were done?" Liam asked raising an eyebrow.

"Bathroom. Why?"

"Guys don't you see? He's not really eating at all! He's purging it up." Liam announced.

"Are you saying he has an eating disorder?" Louis asked.

"It certainly seems logical. The last time I hugged him, his hip bones dug into me." Harry mumbled, mostly to himself.

And the boys weren't wrong. Since that night Niall hadn't kept a single thing down. He survived on water and maybe the occasional lettuce salad when he felt proud of himself.

The boys didn't know the half of it though.

They weren't around to see Niall pass out from lack of food and exhaustion. His body was slowly wasting away.

They weren't there to hear him purging into the toilet when he was forced to eat.

They never noticed how he cried himself to sleep at night.

How he purposely looked for hate on twitter. Letting the hurtful comments push him when he felt like giving up. When he felt like asking for help.

They would remind him that asking for help meant eating, and eating meant gaining weight, and gaining weight meant getting fat.

~

Niall slowly trudged down the stairs that morning to find that he was the last one awake.

"Morning Niall" They all chimed.

"Morning." He mumbled back, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and filling it with water.

"You hungry?" Liam asked as Niall took dainty sips of his drink.

"Nah, not right now." Niall replied.

Liam frowned but didn't push it further. As Niall turned to leave, Zayn pulled him back, hugging him gently, careful not to hurt him.

Hesitantly, Niall hugged back unsure of the elders intentions, but he was grateful none the less.

"Okay, so the plan for today," Louis started as Zayn pulled away from the hug. "We should all go out for lunch and then a nice long shopping trip!"

Everyone seemed keen, all except Niall, if they went out he'd have to eat, and he may not get the chance to rid his body of the food before its too late. Niall nodded, and headed up to his room.

Zayn stood, staring after Niall. The boy had been so thin when they hugged it was scary. Zayn was afraid of what the latter might be feeling, thinking, what might have caused this.

"You're right." Zayn whispered to no one in particular. But the other three boys knew exactly what he meant.

--

Niall sat nervously in the car twiddling his thumbs absent mindedly as the five of them headed to the restaurant that Louis had recommend.

When the car pulled up at the place, everyone got out and made there way in. Niall didn't realize just how hungry he was until the smell of food entered his nose as they were directed to their table.

Niall was starving as he scrolled through the menu but the idea of eating made his stomach lurch. Even though he'd lost over ten pounds he was still too fat. Even though he was now thinner than the other four members of his band he was still fat. Even though his ribs, hip bones and spine were scarily prominent he was still fat.

"What are you going to order?" Liam inquired, breaking Niall from his thoughts.

"Oh, um I'm not sure, I'm not very hungry today." Niall replied, mustering the best and most believable smile he could.

"Well you have to eat something!"

In the end Niall had settled with a bowl of wedges that he happily offered around the table, although the others didn't take anything.

The boys talked about many things but Niall didn't try to join the conversation. He was focused on his food, how incredibly hard it had become to swallow. He would chew the food into a disgusting mush, and he'd try his best to swallow without it coming back up, but such a task was becoming difficult.

The others pretended not to notice the struggle the blonde was having even though it was hard.

The four of them cared for Niall and none of them knew how to handle the situation because the latter wasn't asking for help.

By the time the four of them had finished their meals, Niall wasn't even half way through his, and he had this pained expression on his face every time he swallowed.

A few times Harry had caught him prodding at his stomach to see if it was growing, so when Niall excused himself to use the bathroom, Harry didn't hesitate to go with him.

"You don't have to come." Niall mumbles nervously as they enter the men's.

"I know, but I wanted to." Harry smiled warmly. "I care about you, you know that right?"

Niall looks down at his feet. "Yeah..." He says unsure.

Harry begins to use the urinal, giving Niall a worthy excuse to look away from the younger boy.

"We tell each other everything right, No secrets?" Harry asks.

Niall hesitates for a little too long. "Nope, no secrets." He replies walking into one of the stalls.

Harry frowns, zipping his fly up he heads over to the sink to wash his hands.

"I might be a while..." Niall says. "You can go back to the others if you want." Niall has no intentions of actually going to the bathroom, all he wants to do is get the food out of him. And unfortunately for Niall, Harry suspects as much.

"No that's fine, I can wait." Harry replies, he can't help but smirk thinking he's caught the blonde.

Niall's eyes widen and he removes his fingers from his mouth. Harry can't stay, he'll hear. But then Niall realizes, he's been lying to his best mates, his brothers, the ones he promised he'd never lie to for a while now so what's one more lie gonna do?

The smirk is wiped clean off Harry's face when the sound of gagging comes from Niall's stall.

"Niall?" He asks, panic evident in his voice as he rushes over to the door. He jiggles the lock, trying fiercely to open it, but it's too late.

The small amount of food that was in Niall's body is now in the toilet. The blonde smiles for a second before flushing and opening the door, where he finds himself being pulled into the arms of Harry.

"What the hell are you doing?" Harry asks on the verge of tears.

"Harry calm down, I was just feeling a little sick!" Niall lies, trying to wriggle from Harry's grip, he doesn't want Harry to judge him by how fat he must be from eating all that food.

"No!" Harry yells. "Sit down, I'm calling the others." He pushes Niall to sit on the bench next to the sink and pulls out his phone.

"Hello?" Zayn's voice fills Harry's ears.

"You lot had better come to the bathroom. Now." Harry explains before hanging up.

"What are you doing?" Niall demands.

"Helping."

Niall falls silent. Harry can't possibly want to help him. He's fat, ugly, worthless. Nobody could possibly care.

"I don't need help I'm fine!"

"But you're not fine!"Liam says, as he Zayn and Louis enter the room.

"I am!" Niall insists.

"Lift up your shirt." Harry says bluntly.

"Wha- No!"

"Why not?" Zayn asks.

Niall feels tears well up in his eyes. They're making fun of him. They want him to show them how fat and disgusting he really is. Without warning, Niall flings himself from the bench and out the bathroom doors. Liam and Harry turn to give chase, only to be pulled back.

"Let him go." Louis says softly. "We'll see him at home."

When the four eventually do arrive home, tired eyed and grim faced, they decide they'll deal with the problem in the morning. They had spent all afternoon searching for the blonde and now they just want to sleep.

But as they ascend the stairs they can hear a faint sobbing coming from Niall's room, and immediately go to check it out.

"Niall?" Zayn calls, softly knocking on the door.

"No! Go away!" Niall sniffs.

"We're coming in okay?" Zayn says, his tone still soft.

"No!"

But despite the protests, Zayn pushed the door slowly open and they walked into the dark room.

Niall was sat on his bed looking at something on his laptop, tears streaking down his face. When he realized the others were in his room, he quickly slammed his laptop shut and tried feebly to wipe his eyes.

"Oh Niall." Zayn says, pulling the blonde into a hug as tight as he dares, hoping not to snap the younger boy. Very quickly it turns into a big group hug and they all stay like that, silently just enjoying the embrace.

Niall slowly melts into the hug, feeling a sense of security.

"What's the matter?" Louis mumbles into Niall's ear.

Niall simply shrugs, still tucked safely away in the arms of his band mates.

"Niall please talk to us!" Louis says softly as the boys pull out of the embrace.

"I'm fine." Niall mutters looking down to play with his hands.

"Stop saying that! You aren't fine!" Liam says tears beginning to form in his eyes.

Niall goes silent for a long while. "Why do you even care?" He whispers.

All four of his bandmate's hearts break. How could Niall think they don't care about him?

"What do you mean why do we care? Niall you're like a brother- fuck! you are a brother to us! How could we not care?" Louis says frantically.

Niall shrugs. He's unsure weather Louis is being truthful or not. Why would they care about his fat ass?

"Niall please tell us what is going on?" Zayn pleads.

"It's nothing, just a few rude comments on twitter. It's nothing I can't handle..." Niall gives a weak smile. Secretly he wants their help. He knows he can't handle this.

The four other boys sigh.

"Niall we aren't leaving until you tell us right now why you've lost so much weight!" Harry says firmly.

"Why?" Niall says his voice raising. "Why do you have to know? I'm just going on a small diet! I'm fat and I need it! I have no place in this band because nobody likes me! You guys don't even like me!" Niall's shouting now as he climbs off the bed. "You don't know what it's like being me! Look at me! I'm disgusting! I'm huge! I'm a disgrace!" Niall screams lifting his shirt up.

The four boy's mouths drop open and their eyes widen. Not because Niall is fat, it the complete opposite! Niall's rib cage is now clearly defined, the parts of his hip bones visible almost break through the skin and all in all Niall's tiny. He's so small you could probably wrap one arm around his waist and still have room.

All five boys begin to cry.

Niall because he's fat and the way his bandmates just stared at him confirmed it; and even though he would read about it every day on twitter, it hurt so much more knowing that the five people he's the closest too agree.

Liam, Harry, Zayn, and Louis all cry because how could they let this happen? How could Niall get this skinny without them noticing? They feel terrible that they didn't notice, didn't prevent it.

"Niall, when was the last time you kept anything in your stomach?" Zayn asks cautiously.

Niall just shrugs not lifting his head up to look them in the eyes, he just watches as his tears fall from his face dampening the carpet.

"Niall, why aren't you eating?" Harry whispers.

"I just...I just needed a diet." Niall whimpers wiping his eyes. "Because you four are perfect and I'm just this fat, ugly, getting in the way blob. The fans don't even like me!"

"Niall, what brought all of this on?" Liam asks getting up from the bed.

Niall doesn't reply.

"Niall, you're perfect! You're more perfect than us! You aren't fat and you aren't ugly! The fans do like you, they adore you!" Liam says pulling the younger into a soft hug.

"Oh my God!" Louis gasps. Everyone turns to face Louis who's got his head in Niall's laptop, his eyes fixed on the screen.

All boys gather around and read the hateful comments that cover the screen. Niall stares at them blankly not showing emotion and so, when Louis closes the Internet they're all stunned that Niall's home screen wallpaper is that very first comment. The one the caused the problem.

"I'm sorry..." Niall whispers sinking the floor.

Zayn climbs off the bed and pulls Niall's trembling body off the floor and into his arms, placing a small kiss on the blonde's forehead.

"Niall, please let us help you." Louis whispers.

Niall nods feebly into Zayn's chest, clenching his eyes shut as he tries to fight the tears. Happy tears this time. Overwhelmed in fact, Niall honestly thought he had no place in the band, like no one cared. But the boys do. The four angels care and that alone mAkes Niall's heart explode.

*

The next couple of months were agonizing.

Niall refused to go a rehab centre, and no one was going to force him to go.

So the boys decided they'd help him them selfs.

Niall's family was informed of the situation and the band took a small break, telling the fans that fame was getting to them and they needed a couple months to just spend with family, and reconnect with themselves. And in a way that's what they did. They fixed Niall. Made him as good as new again.

The first two months were by far the hardest. Niall couldn't be left alone for even a minute and there was a constant struggle to get food into the boy.

Niall would scream profanities at them and run to his room crying and then an hour or so later, a head of shaggy brown/blonde hair would appear in the doorway, asking for forgiveness.

The whole process tested their friendship but it made them stronger. So after four months and Niall was eating on his own and steadily gaining weight they revoked their break and went back being a famous boyband.

Niall still struggled with the little voices in his mind telling him not to eat or that he was fat, but he would go to one of the boys to take his mind off the niggling voices and constant urges.

The boys constantly praise Niall on how well he's doing and tell him he looks good whenever it's appropriate.

Niall will never be as he was before the incident, it's just not possible. But he is determined to get as close as he physically can.

And so, Niall beat his eating disorder and it was all thanks to his four angels. The ones who gave him strength to carry on.

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Send me some prompts maybe?? Xx