Black Mail

Experiment

"Harry, you don't understand." I shivered in the October chill, clutching my coffee tighter. Without the sun the nights were brutal. Harry sat on the patio, with is leg and arm pressed up against mine, holding his own steaming cup. "I never stopped for one second to consider that he came from a bad background. He was in a gang. I'm just pulling him into something just as dangerous."

"Niall. I need you to calm down." Harry's arm snaked around me shoulders, gripping me fiercely. "You did what Louis asked you. Its done. You can't go back, can't change it. That's it. Done. Now we all need you to focus on that fine woman that doesn't know she's waiting on you yet."

I cracked a ghost of a smile. I was so grateful for Harry. I didn't know how I would survive without him.

Harry leaned his head against mine, whispering in my ear. "Everything is going to be okay."

I nodded, believing in him.

"Come on, let me see that smile." He pulled back, tapping under my chin. I gave him a feeble one, but before he could make me do another one Louis and Liam came out on the balcony.

"What are you two doing?" Liam, oblivious to our small moment, planted himself right up against me on my other side, and snaked his arm around my waist playfully. "I heard the news! We got Zayn!"

"Oh G-d," I exasperated. Harry and Louis laughed. Liam squeezed my side in amusement.

"I'm proud of you Niall." Louis pretended to steal my nose.

"Thanks Lou." I chuckled, knocking his hand away. Harry squeezed my shoulder in encouragement.

"It's freezing out here. It's literally winter. How about we go in and watch a movie huh? I could use a snuggle buddy!" Liam pinched my side with his free hand, trying to make me laugh.

"Why are you all ganging up on me!?" I whined, squirming away.

"You've seemed so miserable lately. We just want you to be happy." Liam replied seriously.

"Oh... I'm not miserable. I've just been really bu-,"

"Busy at work." They all chanted at me in unison. I almost snorted out loud.

"Yeah we know," Louis finished.

Then I laughed for real, a genuine laugh. These were my boys. Sometimes we fought, sometimes we wanted to kill each other. However, at the end of the day, we always had each others backs.

"I love you guys." I stated simply, suddenly extremely overcome with the knowledge, and the emotion that accompanied it.

"Alright, don't get all sappy on us. Let's go watch a movie. Come on lover boy." Harry was releasing me, standing up and punching me in the shoulder.

I let Liam pull me up and followed them all along inside. I allowed myself to pretend for the moment that we were four normal blokes, living a normal life, without a care in the world. For a moment, I almost believed it myself.

*

"Okay, house rules. No making fun of anyone. No using it against anyone, ever."

"So we're actually going to sit here and watch sex tapes right now?" Zayn asked skeptically, almost nervously.

"Yeah, its not a big deal. The boys and I do this all the time for training. We watch each others videos after every one is made, and we give each other pointers. After you've watched as many as we have, you don't even get a boner anymore. Oh, disclaimer. You'll probably get turned on 100 times by the time were done, but no judgement- we've all been there." Sitting on my knees in front of the dvd player, I shifted through a handful of dvd's. I wanted a good one, with good lighting, and good action in it to really give Zayn a good idea about what we did. "I'm just trying to find a good one."