(almost) famous ♪ narry au

vi. wallowing in artificial cheese dust.

Niall opened the door slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. It was definitely past midnight now. He would have made decent time had he not made the last minute decision to take the scenic route home. He just needed to clear his head, and the best way to do that was by rolling all the windows down and blaring music that made him feel like he was in a music video.

"Where have you been? You never texted either of us." The living room lamp clicked on, illuminating the sofa where Louis and Liam still sat and completely blowing Niall's only chance at cover.

Louis's head was on Liam's lap, and he was curled up like a kitten in his sleep.

"I stopped to talk to Nick." Niall said bitterly.

"The barista?" Liam asked.

"Yes."

"So the Harry thing didn't go well, I presume?"

Niall shook his head and sulked to his room. He'd talked enough about this for one day, and now all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball on his bed and stalk Harry's twitter to see if he could figure out who this "Babe" character was.

And as bad as it sounded, Niall was incredibly jealous of Louis. Anytime Niall had a bad day, he'd always go to Liam for comfort. But now it seemed that his spot had been taken.

It was strange, Niall had never felt alone in nearly his entire life. He almost always had someone around to comfort him and to be the focus of their attention. He didn't know how to comfort himself. He'd never had to do such adult things.

He went to his room, finding solace in the familiarity of chaos. Well, organized chaos.

His bed was in the middle of the room, with piles of books, magazines, notebooks, sketchpads, and pencils lying on any feasible surfaces. The floor was littered with clothes, but they were stacked in arranged piles throughout the room. They were folded and sorted by type and color. There was a place for everything and everything was in it's place.

Niall wondered why life couldn't be so simple.

_

"Niall, come on mate. You gotta get up." Louis was the first to intervene the next day. After he got off work, he and Liam met up to discuss what might have occurred the night before on their way back to the flat.

"Do you think something happened, like with that Nick guy?" Louis had asked Liam. Liam shrugged, keeping his eyes focused on the road.

"I couldn't tell you. But I'm sure whatever happened wasn't good. I could hear him crying last night when I was laying in bed. I was going to go check on him, but his door was locked."

They came home to a quiet house, with no noise coming from anywhere other than the soft hum of the heating unit in the background. Usually, them coming home on a Niall day off consisted of a mess in the kitchen of various meals, loud music blaring from a speaker somewhere off in a random room, and the television on in the living room just for there to be some type of extra noise. The silence now was absolutely deafening.

That was how Louis ended up straddling Niall's thin body, shaking him around like a ragdoll.

"Get your lazy arse up. It's 5 o'clock, and the Dorito dust on your face tells me that you haven't left this spot all day."

Niall grumbled something under his breath and shoved Louis onto the floor.

"Stronger than he looks," Louis mumbled to Liam as he walked by him on his way out the door. It was clear that he was passing the challenge off to the second string.

Liam smiled softly, walking over to Niall's bed. Meanwhile, Niall was curled up in a ball hiding his face in his pillow. Silently, he was relieved that Liam was coming to comfort him.

Liam slipped off his shoes and pulled his uniform shirt over his head. He usually changed at the station, but today he'd forgotten his bag of clothes and was still in full uniform. His pants were the next thing to come off, leaving him in shorts and his plain EMT shirt.

He pulled back a corner of Niall's comforter and easily allowed his larger frame to envelope Niall's smaller one.

"Talk to me Ni," He whispered. Niall sighed, and turned around so that he was facing Liam.

Niall and Liam were admittedly close, probably too close, to be just friends. However, they weren't always just friends. No one outside the two of them knew that they had tried a relationship once before. It hadn't gone too bad, in fact it went kind of fantastic. But it caused an awkwardness in the air when Louis was with them, even though Louis was oblivious to the idea of them being in a relationship. So, they decided together that throwing away their three-way friendship for a chance at dating was just not worth it.

Niall wiped a few tears away from his puffy red eyes before sniffling to begin explaining to Liam what had happened the night before.

"Mate, it seems like Nick really cares about you. Why not just give him a chance?" Liam prodded, smoothing Niall's blonde hair back soothingly once he had finished his story. Niall leaned into the touch.

"Because I'd just be leading him on Li. It's wrong to be with one person when your heart belongs to another."

Liam shook his head at Niall's protest. "That's not how it works Nialler. Don't you think that tons of people feel this way about celebrities? And most of them are in committed relationships with people who love them for them, but aren't famous."

"But, it's different with Harry. We have a chance! He's not really a celebrity. At least not yet."

"Niall, he carries himself as one."

"What do you mean?" Niall asked in confusion, looking at Liam with disappointment in his eyes.

"He has a big ego. He thinks higher of himself than he should."

Now, Niall was squinting at Liam in suspicion.

"How would you know how Harry acts? If anything, I know him better than you for sure. I do spend everyday obsessing over him, in case you forgot."

Liam immediately realized he had stuck his foot directly into his mouth, and quickly tried to cover his tracks.

"I can just tell. When he's on stage. In his- um- his presence."

Niall seemed to accept this as a good enough response, but he still seemed upset about what he was hearing.

"It wouldn't be fair to Nick. He deserves someone who is fully devoted to him. As long as Harry is still breathing, I won't be able to stop loving him. He's perfect." Niall was absolutely swooning, which made Liam near close to gagging. Harry was not the type of guy Niall needed to be involved with. And the idea that Niall was so desperately wasting his time on him made it even worse.

"How about this. Why don't you take Nick to the show tonight?" Liam suggested. It hadn't even occurred to Niall to go to the concert today. It would have been the first one he had ever missed. But for some reason, it just seemed inappropriate for him to go now. What if Harry's "Babe" was there? What if she asked him about his poor excuse of offering to buy her dog? It didn't seem like too good of an idea.

"I think I'll skip this concert."

"You? Skip a concert? That's funny," Liam teased. Niall gave him a sad smile that broke his heart a little. It also made him realize he was being a tad bit insensitive. He was handling the situation as if it was a normal person having a crush on an idol. But Niall was much softer than a normal person, and so it was obvious that he had to take more precaution. He needed to treat it as if it were a break up.

"I'm forcing you, regardless." Liam concluded after adding some more thought.

Niall sighed, but Liam knew it to be the sigh of giving in.

"So, you've got two hours. Go shower the cheese off your face and call your Prince Charming."

Niall nodded in agreement. He wasn't going to bother mentioning that his Prince Charming would be too busy with his princess to ever notice he existed.