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It all comes to head the night before the first show of the On The Road Again tour. They’ve gone out to celebrate the beginning of another fun and mental series of nights and Niall is well past a bit buzzed. He’s always liked touring, spending time with his lads and performing in front of crowds who were always so supportive and energetic.
“Shots!” Louis announces, carrying a tray of unnameable drinks.
“Actually,” Harry interjects, “I think we should call it a night? We’ve all had, like loads to drink already.”
Niall nods. He doesn’t want to go to sound check with a beastly hangover. “I’m with Harry on this one,” he agrees.
“Aww bedtime for kiddies,” Louis taunts. Zayn laughs and shoves at his shoulder.
Niall flips them off. “We’re being responsible,” he retorts. “Thought that was your job, Payno.”
Liam shrugs, cheeks aglow with all the alcohol he’s had. “They’ve gone and corrupted me, Nialler. Never too late to join the club, mate.”
“Nuh uh. We’re going to bed,” Harry pouts. He literally drapes his body over Niall’s back and giggles at something.
It takes a lot of skill to get himself and Harry safely to their car, a skill that requires tonnes of concentration that’s hard to muster in his drunken state. Cal practically carries them both up to their floor at the hotel and mutters something about careless adolescent behaviour.
“Niall,” Harry whinges. He’s doing that thing again, clinging to Niall. “Can I kip in your room?”
“Of course,” Niall doesn’t even have to think about it. He fumbles with the key car to swipe it right before they enter the room. It’s got two massive beds but for some reason, Harry crawls into the bed that Niall’s plopped onto.
“Comfy,” Harry mumbles, fingers tangling in Niall’s hair. He then winds his arms around Niall in a vice grip. As much as Niall loves a good cuddle with his band, he is still wearing a shirt soaked with smells of beer and other beverages as well as a pair of tight trousers.
“Thanks. I kinda need to change before we go to sleep though.”
Harry wrinkles his nose. “No. Stay.”
Niall resigns himself to attempting acrobatics so that he can at least tug his trousers off. Undoing the belt and the fly is easy. Sliding them off, not so much. For one moment, Niall’s face is so close to Harry’s face and their lips are less than an inch away from each other. Niall’s mind hyper-aware of the softness appearance and how he wants to kiss them and taking off his trousers seem to be the least of his worries right now.
So when he leans in and close the distance between them, he lets his eyes slip closed and part his lips a bit—
Until he is met with a mess of hair in his mouth and he has to spit it all out. He opens his eyes and sees that Harry has turned away at the very last possible second. From the barely audible snores coming from Harry’s side, Niall can only assume that the other lad is asleep.
Sighing, he finishes freeing himself from the tight trousers and wills himself to sleep as well.
-
After the drunken almost kiss incident, Niall has become acutely aware of the fact that he wants to do more than just kiss Harry. It’s so obvious, now that he’s had some time to think about it, that he’s always been in love with him. He had thought that all the stage antics was more about living in the moment and also teasing the fans with their speculations and other online stuff that they get into. Now, he knows that he’s been doing those things because in the back of his mind, he always wanted to let Harry know that he sees him as more than a band mate and a best friend.
Melbourne is awesome. Niall has said in many interviews that he loves visiting Australia and he wasn’t lying. It’s a stark, pleasant contrast to the dreary winter in London and whilst he is prone to acquiring sunburns or in the very least, sun-irritated skin, he loves the general climate of it. Plus, he gets to see Deo.
But it is pretty annoying to hear half the band talk about Valentine’s and shit.
It’s understandable, what with the long-standing tradition of Valentine’s Day dictating that the day is supposed to be so romantic and it’s rather hard to do that halfway around the globe. So all day, he has to endure the giggly phone calls and other unmentionable things that he walks into.
“Pathetic, the lot of them,” he says to Harry when they’ve got the dressing room to themselves.
Harry shrugs. He tips a bottle of water into his mouth and for some reason, Niall can’t tear his eyes away from the sight of Harry’s neck move with the swallowing motion. Oh, his mind is going to imaginative places alright.
“Let them romance their missuses,” Harry says. “You never complained about it before, why start now?”
Niall almost blurts out those three words but he bites his lips and manages to stop them from spilling out. He bites on his lower lip, looking away from Harry’s inquisitive green eyes.
“Hey,” Harry mumbles. Niall hears the bed sheets rustle and feels Harry’s thighs bump into his. “Something the matter?”
Niall looks up and, shit, Harry’s face is so close and his lips are shiny and red from Harry having licked them. He leans forwards and Harry must know what is happening because his eyes flutter.
Then Niall comes to his senses. He can’t just kiss his best mate out of the blue! He throws his arms around Harry instead and nuzzles his neck. He smells like his shampoo and cologne, and it’s very comforting.
“Nothing. Just a bit bitter, is all.”
Harry laughs. “Aww, poor little Nialler.”
Niall mentally sighs in relief. This is getting out of hand, isn’t it?
-
Japan is interesting. The last time he was there for touring, he learned a lot of exciting things as well as some strange things that he still doesn’t understand. The crowd is absolutely headers and it’s cool how they respect them and the whistle thing that Harry did was something unimaginable elsewhere in the world.
“Man, I love Japan and all but I can’t wait until we’re back in England,” Harry mutters. Liam nods his agreement and he loves his lads but the dressing room now stinks of sweat and too much of cologne in attempts to cover it up.
“I’m taking the first shower!” Niall shouts and Zayn groans. He sticks his tongue. “Oh, go call up Perrie or summat.”
He doesn’t take a long shower. All he wanted was to wash the sweat out of his hair and body anyway. And besides, they have maybe half an hour before their cars arrive to drive them to their hotel, or even a night club.
Niall steps out of the shower, feeling squeaky clean and refreshed and he’s reaching over for a towel when someone stumbles in. Of course, it had to be Harry.
“Sorry!” Harry says, blushing. “I forgot you were here.”
Niall shrugs. “Not like I haven’t seen you naked too, mate.” And it’s true. It caused a bit of a problem in their X-Factor days. He wraps a towel around his hips and starts drying his hair with another.
Harry is still rooted to the spot near the door, looking at anywhere in the room but Niall. An idea comes to his mind.
“Harry,” Niall croons. He strides across the small space and Harry has no choice but to take a step backwards, knocking his back on the door. “Did you wanna say something or are you trying not to stare at me body?” he smirks.
“I . . .” Harry gulps and Niall’s smirk grows. He pulls the classic move where he is leaning on the door with his weight on one hand. They’re so close that Niall can feel the fabric of Harry’s shirt against his bare chest and Harry’s breath smells minty, like he’s chewing on a piece of gum. A big part of him wants to dart in and taste the insides of Harry’s mouth and find out if he tastes like he smells.
Instead, he kisses Harry’s nose and pulls away laughing. “Bathroom’s all yours, if ya want,” he announces as he opens the door and walks out.
That was too close for his comfort. Maybe he should toughen up and just tell Harry already.
-
Niall decides that he loves the food and the general mood in the Philippines. He loves that his job requires for him to travel all around the world and one day, he will have gone to most countries in the world.
The heat and the humidity, however, he could do without.
He has barely done more than breathe and he can feel the humid air stick to his skin like a second layer of skin. It’s foul, and he swears that he is having difficulty breathing even with the fans blowing at full-force on stage.
“Niall!” Harry shouts and jogs over to where Niall is standing. He has barely a second to retaliate before he is tackled by Harry and falls over. It’s a good thing that they aren’t stood by a crate of equipment and summat because that would have hurt a lot worse.
“My knee!” Niall exclaims, face contorting into feigned pain. “’M an old man now, Haz. You gotta be more careful ‘round me.” He pouts and belatedly realises that Harry is pretty much sprawled on top of him. Harry has himself propped up on his elbows, arms bent so that his face is hovering right on top of Niall’s. A drop of sweat drips from Harry’s forehead and Niall pretends to be disgusted.
“You’re all sweaty and gross, get off me,” he complains. He squirms a bit but Harry the size advantage. It’s so easy for Harry to gather up Niall’s wrists in his hands and pin his legs down by carefully sitting on Niall’s thighs.
“Never,” Harry declares. Niall twists around to see that Louis and Zayn are busy chasing Liam around on the far side of the stage. Traitors!
“You’re the worst,” Niall pouts. He tries for that hurt kitten look that Harry often pulls on them and sees Harry’s resolve crumble. In a stroke of luck, Niall throws Harry’s arms off and rolls them over, bracketing Harry’s legs with his own as they flail in an attempt to regain control.
“Hey, you always play dirty,” Harry whines.
“You haven’t seen nothing, Styles.” Niall flashes his most innocent smile. He brings his hands up and tickles Harry’s sides and armpits.
“No!” Harry wails. He is breathless, caught between laughing and shrieking his head off. From the corner of his eyes, Niall sees that the other lads have wandered over to see what they’re up to. “Guys, help me!”
“I think Harry just told us to bugger off,” Louis smirks. Niall sees Zayn nod in his peripheral vision.
“Indeed,” Zayn agrees. “C’mon, Leemo. You still have to show me that boxing move you promised earlier.”
Harry frowns, and Niall only laughs. He wiggles his eyebrows and slides his hands up so that he is practically holding Harry’s hands. “Admit defeat and I’ll let you up.”
“Never,” Harry states.
Niall rolls his eyes and crouches down further. Harry looks so vulnerable, is the thing, and Niall is tempted to just blurt out the truth right here and now. The distance between their lips diminish and Niall can almost feel Harry’s lips on his, pressing back and opening under his guidance . . . .
He finds himself on his back again and trapped under Harry’s weight. Damn it!
“Ha!” Harry crows triumphantly. “Brilliant distraction tactic you had there, mate.”
Nialll scoffs. “Yeah, yeah. Let me up, you eejit.”
Harry laughs and acquiesces.
-
It’s nice, being back in Africa. Granted, their last visit was for charity and they didn’t do much of performing but it’s still fun to be back. He wishes that they could have gone to more venues in Africa but whatever. It’s frustrating that a good chunk of their lives is controlled by the management but Niall’s learned to live with it.
There’s less than half an hour to go until the show and everyone is buzzing. Zayn has buggered off for a smoke and Liam has gone with him. Louis has made it his mission to annoy the hell out of the staff and Harry, he’s all mellowed out and tucked to Niall’s side as he browses through Twitter.
“Have you noticed how the fans always have the most ridiculous theories about us?” Harry asks. It takes a few seconds for Niall to process the words and when he does, he freezes up.
“Like you and Tommo?” he jokes.
“No,” Harry shifts and Niall can feel Harry press up even more against him. “You and me too, lately. During the Where We Are tour too, come to think of it.”
“What’re you rambling about,” he retorts. Shit, this is about the near-kisses lately, it has to be.
Harry doesn’t given him an answer. Instead, he catches Niall off-guard and properly kisses him. On the lips.
The kiss isn’t brief by any means, and there is no way that it can be construed as being accidental or jocular. Harry’s lips are warm and soft and everything that Niall has imagined them to be. Niall remembers that he should be kissing Harry back after the initial shock wears off. So he does. He parts his lips slightly, slotting them against Harry’s and it feels so natural to be doing this with him. His hand winds up in Harry’s hair and there is a warm, gentle pressure on the back of his neck.
“Fucking finally!” Louis’ voice pierces through the lovely moment. “Thought I was gonna have to lock you up in a closet or summat!”
“What?” Zayn peeks his head in through the door. “Did I miss the ‘Narry’ action?”
Louis nods, disregarding Niall and Harry’s slightly confused looks. “Bloody insufferable, they were. Remember in the last concert when they were giving each other heart eyes during my solo in ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’ and Harry nearly missed his cue? ‘Bout time, I say.”
Liam smiles. “Gotta agree with you here, mate.” He turns to Niall and offers him an apologetic smile. “You were so dense and that’s coming from me.”
Harry pouts. Niall laughs and kisses him again until the pout dissolves and is replaced by a smile.
“Gross,” Zayn mutters. Niall hears footsteps and the quiet creak as the door shuts. When he reluctantly breaks the kiss, he sees that they have the room to themselves.
Harry giggles. “They’re going to have so much fun with this on stage.”
Niall kisses him again. “Let them. We’ll just give ‘em a good show then, won’t we?”
Harry smirks. “We will. I guess it goes without saying but I love you, Nialler.”
“Love you too, Harry.”
They resume kissing until Paul comes knocking on the door, telling them that the show starts in a couple minutes and that they’d better not be naked. Niall has his fingers intertwined with Harry’s as they walk out the door, pulling at their shirts to make sure that they aren’t all rumpled up. Paul only shakes his head and mutters, “Finally,’ under his breath.