Niam Horayne - Love in a Boy Band

6 - Flight to America (Part 2)

Niall's pov

We got out of the car and were immediately swamped by photographers and news-people. We tried to ignore them as best we could and move on, but there was one group that was really agressive and they wouldn't let us move through. Normally, Liam or Zayn would be holding my hand or something to comfort me, because I got nervous in crowds, but now it was me trying to protect Liam and shelter him from the photographers by resting my arm at his back. Liam seemed to be feeling better this morning, but you could still tell that he had been crying. Plus, I knew how good he was at hiding his feelings to try to be "responsible," after two years of living in close proximity to someone, you get to know them pretty well.

"So Liam, we have pictures here of your girlfriend snogging another man. Could her cheating have been caused by your affair with your bandmate, Niall Horan?" one especially sleazy looking interviewer asked, holding up pictures of Danielle and Jake, Liam and Danielle, and Liam and I. "You two seemed quite cozy after the four of you met up in the park yesterday. Do you think you were sad enough after seeing your alleged 'girlfriend' with another man, or did Niall here 'cheer you up' in ways that she never could?"

When he questioned Liam's grief, I snapped. Of course Liam was devastated. Even a stranger could see the redness of his eyes. Just because I comforted him afterwards didn't mean we were together. Couldn't the media see that Liam was sensitive about this right now? Even though I knew that I had already lost it yesterday, and it was probably detrimental to our publicity, I lashed out at the photographer to defend Liam.

"Who gave you the right to question him when he's obviously in a fragile state," I yelled. "Why do you think it's okay for you to bring up subjects that the poor boy is hurting about? It's wrong! And you're all a bunch of wankers and pussies if you think you can hurt people I care deeply for and get away with..." I trailed off as Zayn touched my shoulder to calm me down. He was giving me a light warning, but I ignored it and shoved the cameras aside, pulling Liam along with me.

Liam's pov

When we got out of the car at Heathrow airport, I really, REALLY did not want to deal with the paparazzi. Somehow, Niall could sense that, and I felt his arm wrap around my waist protectively. It was an incredibly sweet gesture, but the end result looked mildly comical, because Niall was a good few inches shorter than me. As our security guards quickly ushered us through the airport, some paparazzi started asking me about Danielle.

I had tweeted about our breakup in the car this morning. she may have cheated on me, but She was generally a really sweet girl; hate and cyberbullying could lead a person to all kinds of disorders, and Danielle hadn't always been the most confident person.

Despite my lack of animosity towards my ex, the breakup was still fresh in my mind and having the paps asking prying questions got me a bit overwhelmed -- and not the "you-flipped-your-hair" overwhelmed, more like "minor-impending-panic-attack" overwhelmed.

Suddenly, I was incredibly grateful for Niall's arm supporting my back, otherwise I might have possibly collapsed. My chest tightened as if I was having an asthma attack (I knew the general feeling because Harry has asthma) and I heard a rushing in my ears, a sound that faded every time one of the paps said something especially rude. All I could make out was a few snippets of their demands.

"Did she cheat on you?" "Did the fans hate too much?" "Was the long-distance thing too hard?"

Then Niall's Irish brogue, clear and melodic over all the noise, "Shut up! Can't you blokes see that he cried all last night because of this? Have some decency!"

But then came the comment that set Niall completely on fire, "So Liam, we have pictures here of your girlfriend snogging another man. Could her cheating have been caused by your affair with your bandmate, Niall Horan?" one especially sleazy looking interviewer asked, holding up pictures of Danielle and Jake, Liam and Danielle, and Liam and I. "You two seemed quite cozy after the four of you met up in the park yesterday. Do you think you were sad enough after seeing your alleged 'girlfriend' with another man, or did Niall here 'cheer you up' in ways that she never could?"

Niall literally exploded. I couldn't help but notice how his biceps bulged as he forcefully pushed the cameras and mics aside, protecting me with his body as he dragged me to our jet. Luckily we were already through security, because he was fast and he didn't want to wait for Paul or the others to catch up to us. He shoved his ticket under the scanny-ma-jig and gently pried open my fingers, lightly tugging my ticket out of my grasp and scanning it as well.

I was close to tears by the time I had sat down in my seat on the plane; I had been holding them in since we got out of the car this morning. I was confused by Niall's face when he saw my eyes welling with tears. His forehead scrunched together adorably, and his bright-blue eyes darkened and narrowed, showing instinctive anger toward whoever hurt me. All his features combined to be the most concerned expression I had ever seen the carefree leprechaun wear -- not even when Louis and Harry decided to crush every single bag of chips in Niall's flat so there was only powder left. The sheer amount of emotion in his features was astonishing. It was almost as if he cared about me...maybe even as much as I cared about him.

A lone tear leaked out of my right eye, running over my cheekbone and into the dip in the corner of my mouth and Niall's eyes followed its path, his eyes lingering at my lips. Everything seemed to slow down and my pulse quickened dramatically, my heart in my throat. Niall leaned forward from his standing position, placing his right hand on the left armrest of my seat. The concern in his eyes dissipated into an emotion I couldn't recognize. I could feel his warm breath on my lips as he leaned close and lifted his calloused left hand to caress my right jaw. His rough thumb traced the path of the tear and my breath caught as he brushed his thumb across the corner of my lip. He pulled back and removed his thumb, placing a chaste kiss on my cheekbone. Niall then enveloped me in a bone crushing Horan Hug, nuzzling into my collarbones.

I'm not a reliable witness, because the things Niall was doing to my heartbeat were not conducive to factual observations, but I could have sworn I heard him mumble, "I would never hurt you. Not my LiLi. Not in a million years."

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Liam's pov

I woke up to the buzzing of my phone, and when I looked at my notifications I saw that Harry had posted about five pictures of Niall and I sleeping together on the plane. I glared at Harry, before being distracted by light snores that I quickly realized belonged to the blonde Irishman sprawled on top of me. I tried to reposition Niall so that I could sit up a bit, but he just groaned and fisted my grey t-shirt. Needless to say, I didn't get up. I stroked his bleached tips, only to look up and find Harry smirking at me suggestively. I rolled my eyes at him. I mean, who in their right mind would want to wake up someone who looked so beautiful and peaceful. 

And yes, I called him beautiful. I was attracted to Niall Horan, my bandmate and bestfriend of two years. There, I admitted it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I'm soooooooo incredibly sorry because I had two week of no school and no homework to update this, but I became addicted to xfactor usa on youtube (developing Lovatic here) and Teen Wolf on Netflix (Stiles Stalinski...dayummm). But, I had a burst of inspiration when I woke up at 1:00 AM last night and wrote until 4:00 AM.

Brief summary of all my accounts:  

Personal 1D Instagram: @carlisius 

Co-owned 1D Instagram: @7girlsfor5boys 

1D tumblr: daaancingwith1d.tumblr.com 

Personal/non-1D tumblr: carlisius.tumblr.com 

Twitta: @daaancingwith1D

Also shout out to my friend @colleenwhite415 who made me my new cover.