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“I don’t care! I am not even looking at him!” Liam shouted at Niall, who put his hands up defensively.
“C’mon, Payno. Don’t you just want this to be over?” Niall asked, desperate to get the older boy to see reason.
“I will be happy once he apologizes.” Liam replied sternly.
Niall sighed. This was the third time they’d had this conversation in the past week, and once again it hadn’t gone anywhere. Hopefully Harry and Louis were having more luck with Zayn.
Liam and Zayn had gotten into a fight about… something, last week. None of the other boys knew what it was over, and at this point, they weren’t sure Liam and Zayn even remembered how it started. The point is, it was definitely over something stupid, but Liam and Zayn are both frustratingly stubborn and refusing to apologize.
“Zayn, don’t you think it’s time to kiss and make up?” Louis asked him.
“I’ll forgive Liam when he says he’s sorry.” Zayn replies curtly.
Harry lets out a long exhale. “Mate, you’ve said that every time we’ve talked to you.”
“And I’m still waiting on him to say it.” Zayn said simply.
“Z, Niall has already told us Liam’s not gonna apologize.” Louis started. “And you’ve told us the same. We don’t know what else to do here.”
“Why don’t you both just apologize at the same time?” Harry pleaded.
Zayn shot him a glare. This wasn’t Harry’s first time suggesting that, but damn Zayn and his stubbornness. He wasn’t going to apologize, even if it was at the same time, because he was fully convinced that whatever started this fight, it wasn’t because of him.
Louis sighed. “Niall will come talk to you after the show. We should probably get ready.”
He stood up, walking out with Harry right behind him, leaving Zayn to stew in his dressing room.
The boys were waiting on the lift, lined up side by side with Liam and Zayn on the ends. Louis, Harry, and Niall stood between them as a three-man buffer. Thankfully, Liam and Zayn’s little spat hadn’t started affecting their performances yet. But there was a feeling in the pit of their stomachs that tonight the pot was going to boil over. The tension backstage could be cut with a knife, so Louis, Harry, and Niall had made a silent agreement to make sure one of them was always between the two quarrelers. Hopefully they could get through another show without killing each other.
They got through the first hour or so with no hiccups, but when they began the second verse of Kiss You, that’s when everything went to hell.
Zayn walked a bit too close to Liam during his verse, accidentally bumping him in the side a little bit. Now, on any other day, he’d simply shrug it off: it’s an accident, and the boys bump into each other on stage all the time. But the fact that it was Zayn, who Liam was still royally pissed off with, made his blood boil.
By the time Niall was singing his verse, Liam was grabbing Zayn’s wrist and shouting at him. Zayn wasn’t one to take anything lying down, and started shouting back while Niall looked over, voice shaking with nerves as he continued to sing.
Louis and Harry shared a glance before moving to pull the two apart, Harry grabbing Zayn and Louis grabbing Liam just in time for everyone to come in for the chorus. The entire altercation couldn’t have lasted more than 20 seconds, but it felt like a lifetime to the other three boys.
Harry dared to look down into the pit, and immediately regretted it once he saw the concern on the fans’ faces. He knew it was stupid to expect no one to notice something was off between Liam and Zayn. They’re on a stage in front of thousands of people, for God’s sake. He shot a resigned look to Louis and Niall, who both nodded solemnly. They needed to switch up their intervention tactics.
“What the hell was that?” Louis demanded once they were safely backstage, out of earshot of the fans.
“He bumped me.” Liam said simply.
“Oh, suck it up.” Zayn retorted.
“We bump into each other all the time.” Niall pointed out, causing Liam to shoot him a death glare and Zayn to smirk.
Louis cut his hand across his throat in the “stop talking” gesture, as Harry mouthed “not helping”, causing Niall to sheepishly back off.
“I don’t even understand why you three are so involved anyway.” Liam said. “It’s not your problem.”
“Correction: it wasn’t our problem.” Harry explained. “We just wanted to help our friends. But now that it’s affected our show, the fans have noticed and it’s impacted your ability to perform, it is officially all of our problem.”
"If he just says he's sorry-" Zayn begins.
"For what?" Liam cuts him off.
"Stop it, stop it!" Louis shouts at them. "You two are acting like children and now it's affecting everybody! When we get back to the hotel, you two are sitting down and talking this out like adults."
"No." Liam and Zayn said in unison.
"Yes." Niall, Louis, and Harry replied simultaneously.
"Clearly us trying to be your middle men isn't working. You two are rooming together tonight, I'll go tell management." Niall says, turning around and running off, expertly ignoring both Liam and Zayn's protests.
"Oh for God's sake," Louis began. "We aren't asking you to share a bed or anything. Just the same hotel room, you've done that before."
Liam opened his mouth, but Harry cut him off before he could get a word out.
"We don't wanna hear it, we're not budging on this."
Liam closed his mouth, giving a very disgruntled look to all his bandmates. He knew he wasn't getting out of this situation, and sat on the couch with a resigned huff.
Niall came back over just as Paul approached from the other side to inform the boys that the car was here. Zayn and Liam sat as far from each other as possible, arms crossed over their chests like petulant children, which they were honestly kind of being right now.
They got to the hotel room, each taking a bed and refusing to speak or even look at each other. Liam was on the bed closer to the TV, watching some mindless reality show that he couldn't be bothered to know the name of; he just needed a distraction.
Zayn, on the bed closer to the window, took to listening to music while he sketched in his notepad, the scratch of pencil against paper only serving to distract Liam from his Love Island/Bachelor/Whatever he was watching. He looked over at Zayn, clearing his throat. When the dark-haired boy gave no response, unable to hear him due to the music in his ears, Liam stood up and yanked his headphones off.
"What the hell?" Zayn shouted.
"Could you draw a little quieter?" Liam asked. "Or do something else? Your sketching is driving me crazy."
"Are you serious?" Zayn asked. "Then you can turn off your shitty show, I can hear it over my music."
"It's always about you, isn't it?" Liam snarled.
"You fucking started it!" Zayn shouted, getting off the bed to face Liam down.
"I'm done. I'm done with you. I'm staying with Niall, you can have the room to yourself." Liam said.
"Fine by me!" Zayn retorted.
As Liam went to open the door, he was met with a harrowing realization. It was somehow locked. From the outside. He didn't even know hotel rooms could do that.
He fiddled with the handle a bit more as Zayn settled back in with his music and notepad, and when it still wouldn't budge, his eyes widened.
"Don't tell me..."
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Tommo?" Niall asked.
"Yes, mate." Louis responded, standing outside Liam and Zayn's room with the other two boys. "Lock them in a room together, it's classic. Practically forces them to make up."
"That only works in sitco--" Harry began, before jumping back at the door being handled from the other side, and Liam's voice faintly going, "Don't tell me..."
"Well lads. The lock works. Let's hope One Direction isn't a trio by morning. The press we'd have to do if two of our members killed each other would be unbearable." Louis said.
"I knew about your master key thing, but... I didn't know you could lock hotel rooms from the outside like that." Niall said.
"Honestly? I didn't either. I was just kinda winging it and hoping for the best." Louis laughed, as the three boys went into their rooms.
"What happened? I thought you were staying with Niall." Zayn snipped at his bandmate.
"Those bastards locked us in." Liam grunted.
"They did what?" Zayn asked. "How? Can hotel rooms even do that?"
"Apparently!" Liam threw his hands in the air as he flopped back onto his bed.
"Well shit." Zayn said. "Now what?"
"I dunno. I'm just gonna go to bed. Don't talk to me." Liam responded, stripping down to his boxers and getting under the covers. Zayn didn't respond, going back to his phone. At least he had stopped drawing, allowing Liam to be lulled off to sleep by the TV buzzing in the background.
An hour or so later, Zayn began getting ready for bed himself, trying to be quiet, not wanting to wake Liam. Not out of any politeness, but because he knew Liam would just get all pissy again at being woken up. He turned off the TV just as he crawled into bed, the only sound in the room being Liam's gentle snoring. Zayn hated to admit it, especially right now, but he always found it comforting, and drifted off, focusing on nothing else.
Liam woke up a few hours later, blearily glancing over at the clock to see 3:47 AM in bright red. Too early. Why was he up? It took him a moment, but he did finally register what had woken him: Zayn was whimpering from his bed, shuddering underneath his blankets. Liam grunted; how was he going to get back to sleep now with Zayn making all that noise? Liam shuffled the covers over his ear to attempt to block it out, but then Zayn turned over in his sleep, now facing Liam.
And Liam's heart broke at the sight.
Zayn's face was scrunched up, his breathing erratic, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. One glance, and Liam couldn't believe himself. His friend was in serious pain, and his first response was to try to ignore it? It didn't matter how upset he was with Zayn, he mentally berated himself for doing such a shitty thing. He got out of his bed and snuggled in beside Zayn, rousing him awake.
"Liam?" Zayn asked softly.
"Yeah mate, I'm here. You okay?" Liam asked, reaching around and rubbing Zayn's back in soothing circles.
"Just had a bit of a nightmare, don't wanna talk about it." Zayn whispered, Liam nodding in understanding.
"C'mere." Liam said, opening his arms to allow Zayn's head to rest on his chest. "I've got you."
Zayn smiled softly as he allowed Liam's arms to cradle him, the warmth and safety of his friend being such a comfort that he forgot all about the fact that the two were supposed to be pissed off with each other right now.
"Thanks, Li." Zayn said as he nuzzled into the younger man's chest. Liam leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to the top of Zayn's head.
"No problem mate, let's go back to sleep, yeah?"
"It worked!" Louis shouted, barging into their room and smiling at the sight of their two fighting bandmates snuggled up in bed together.
"Oh God." Niall said, covering his eyes. "A little too well."
"Oh sod off." Zayn said, voice still gravelly with sleep. "Nothing happened."
"You two still hate each other, or can we continue our tour like adults now?" Harry asked impishly.
"Yeah, yeah. I think we can manage." Liam smiled. "I'm sorry, Zayn. I don't even remember why we were mad at each other."
"I'm sorry too." Zayn said. "And yeah, neither can I. It was probably something stupid if we can't remember."
Zayn hugged Liam from where they were still sitting on the bed, Liam returning it, the three standing boys cheering.
"Beautiful." Louis said, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. "Now get dressed lads, big day!"
When they arrived at soundcheck hours later, the crew was relieved to see Liam and Zayn laughing and talking like they normally did. No longer having to walk on eggshells around the two, the vibe backstage was lighter than it'd been in at least a week. The night's show went off without a hitch, Zayn even returning Liam's kiss (on the cheek) onstage at the end, making the fans go wild. Louis, Harry, and Niall smiled at the sight, and all five were ready to continue the tour, hopefully with no more squabbles.
"Hey, has anyone seen my water bottle?" Liam asked when they got backstage.
"You had it, love." Zayn replied.
"I gave it to you."
"And I gave it back."
"I don't remember that."
Oh no, not again.