You Know You're Holding My Heart - Cheryl and Liam

We've Been Friends Now, For a While

Hello Everybody!

I've been working on this for a while, so I hope you like it. I will try to update at least once a week, but I wanted to get the first chapter out before Christmas.

This is essentially my fictionalized version of the past year, what an unexpected year it has been.

Hope you all enjoy, and check out my other works too.

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It starts the day Reggie 'n Bollie perform What Makes You Beautiful on the live shows.

The message comes while she's eating a nutritious breakfast of coco pops and strong sugary tea, two very interested dogs at her feet.

heard ur boys r singin our song 2nite

And two seconds later:

bettr not screw it up, ill be there

Cheryl is a confident person. Not in everything, but in her ability as a performer, and her capability as a mentor she is very secure. She's good at it. Very good. She's confident in her boys, because they trust her, and she trusts them, and they work well together. She knows they've made the right song choice, it's a risk no doubt, but it's one she knows will pay off.

So she doesn't understand why she panics at the thought of Liam being there.

She sends back a cocky: they'll blow your mind Payno, just you wait, and then proceeds to go over every reason why choosing this song was the worst decision she's ever made as a mentor on the X Factor.

And her boys, her wonderful talented boys, she will have let them down, and they'll leave the show disgraced because of her and the fact that she has clearly lost her fucking mind, and why did she think this was a good idea?

She's still panicking when she gets to sound check hours later, but watching them rehearse reminds her of all the reasons why she was right in the first place. It's a good song for them, it's a fun arrangement, it will bring the house down.

Cheryl is very good at her job, thank you very much.

...

The entire audience is on their feet cheering and Liam has a giant grin on his face, and Cheryl honestly feels like she could touch the moon, she's so high.

...

She all but attacks him backstage.

He's talking with a very starstruck Keira and Louisa, and she's so full of adrenaline, even after the moment, the high of Reggie and Bollie and their incredible performance, that she kind of can't help it.

She sees him standing there, and she runs.

He laughs as she launches herself into his arms, securing her tightly. "Hi Chezza".

"Hi", she beams, as he places her back on the ground, keeping his hold around her waist.

"So", he starts, his smile morphing into something slightly teasing, "you were right. Absolutely bloody mental, but right."

She's too happy to even pretend to hide her smugness, "I know."

He snorts, "modest."

"Don't speak ill of management Liam, it's not nice."

He giggles then, shoulders lifting, eyes crinkling, one hand moving from her side to his mouth, almost like he's embarrassed to have found her awful joke so funny. He's still so boyish and cute sometimes, like he was when she first met him. She loves that. He's so grown and mature these days, almost impossibly handsome, yet his laugh is as exuberant as a child's. She loves it for precisely those reasons.