I Remember

Liam just froze. He certainly was not expecting a question like that.

“Of course you are! Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering...” Niall mumbled to himself while nervously twiddling his thumbs.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it lad! You know we’ll always care about you!” Liam responded with a caring smile and mussed Niall’s hair. Niall returned the action with a false, half-hearted smile of his own. That wasn’t exactly the answer Niall was searching for, so he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed... almost as if the answer wasn’t sufficient enough.

“Okay so what are we going to do today?” Niall asked, trying to seem enthusiastic, plastering a fake, cheeky smile across his face. However, Liam wasn’t that stupid and saw right through his smiling facade.

“What’s eatin’ ya mate?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

Niall began to think back to the dream, and his ‘smile’ faltered a bit. Nonetheless, he put more effort into his smile to make it seem more believable. “It’s nothing, really. I’m just a tad bit tired, I s’pose.” said Niall with a simple shrug of his shoulders.

Liam gave Niall a weary glance before blinking a few times and shaking it off, still not buying his story. “Okay then... So would you like to take the day to just hang about or is there anything else you want to talk about?”

Niall childishly began to bounce up and down on the bed. “I dunnooooooooooooo, what do YOU want to do?” he asked with an interested smile.

Liam then took this as his chance to try and lighten the mood, so he began playfully mocking the blonde boy. “Iunnooooo~ whadda YOU wanna do?” he sent the other boy a wink to signal that he was just messing around.

Niall certainly picked up what Liam was putting down, so he decided to play along. He reached over and poked Liam’s stomach (getting him to chuckle a bit since that’s one of his tickle spots) then plopped back down with his arms and legs crossed and a fake pout on his lips.

The moment Liam noticed Niall’s faux pout, he reached over and cupped the blonde’s round cheeks in his hands. “MISTER GWUMPY GIWLS!” Liam taunted while trying to keep a serious face, but absolutely failing.

This caused Niall to make a fish face and cross his eyes. He then wriggled out of Liam’s grasp, jumping off the bed into a ninja-esque stance. He then proceeded to say in a terrible Japanese accent, “You do not have the strength or the power to mock the ninja warrior. You will pay, Liam Payne.”

Liam retaliated by jumping up and also striking a ninja pose. “You seem to underestimate my power, Niall Horan. Now you are the one, who shall pay! HIIIIYAAAA!”

Both boys let out a sudden battle cry. Niall made the first move by running over and jumping onto Liam’s back screaming, “YOU SHALL NEVER WIN!”

Liam was able to catch the Irish boy on his back as he felt the sudden impact. “I SHALL PREVAIL!” the brown-haired boy started yelling as he ran and spun around with the other still on his back.

Eventually, Niall was no longer able to hang on, so he jumped off Liam’s back in a fit of hysterical laughing. He ended up flopping onto the bed, clutching at his stomach and trying to wipe the tears away. “Okay, Liam you win; You can stop acting like a crazed emperor now.” He said between gasps for air.

Hearing this made Liam laugh even harder, but he stood triumphantly, feet together and hands like blades in the air. “I, Liam Payne of Wolverhampton, have defeated Niall Horan of Mullingar! May the applauds begin!” Liam cheered and stood proudly as if basking in the radiance of adoring fans.At this, Niall simply rolled over and shoved his face into his pillow. He began to fake snore, ignoring the proud Liam in the middle of the room.

When Liam noticed that he wasn’t soliciting any attention, he hatched an evil plan.

Liam quietly snuck over to the bed and positioned his face next to where the ‘sleeping’ boy’s would be if he was looking. He waited silently, holding his breath.

Niall waited for about thirty seconds before saying into the pillow, “Liam? Did you leave?” He then proceeded to wait for another thirty seconds and, not having heard anything, turned his face to the side in confusion.

“HI NIALL!” shouted Liam when Niall’s face was now directly in front of his.

Niall drew in a sharp intake of breath and widened his eyes. He jumped back until he was teetering on the edge of the bed. “Bloody hell, Liam! Fucking give me an aneurysm, why don’tcha?!”

Liam almost fell over from laughing so hard. “Y-Your face!” He was clutching his sides when he realized Niall didn’t find it funny. Liam was able to calm down and straighten himself up. “Sorry lad, I couldn't help myself.” he said, extending a hand to help pull the other boy from the edge of the bed.

Niall simply swatted away Liam’s hand and exhaled with a huff. He tried getting up, but succeeded in falling off the bed instead, landing on the floor with a thud, pillows and sheets dog piling on top of him.

Liam immediately ran over to Niall and kneeled on the ground next to him. “Oh my god. Niall are you alright?” he said with a slight bit of panic rising in his voice.

“I'm fine, Liam, my arse just hurts.” the blonde deadpanned. He started to move to sit up, pushing the pillows and sheets off of him. Suddenly, the lad on the floor was hit with the blinding light from the window. “Why are you so worried about me anyways, it's not like I'm going to break into a million pieces every time something happens.” he snapped back at Liam. He quickly shut his mouth, not meaning to sound so angry when he said that, yet snapping all the same. Ever since that dream, he had been second guessing everything that Liam had said.

“I-I'm sorry mate. I...” Liam’s sentence trailed off. Niall’s words obviously hurt him but he tried not to show it too much, for fear that the other might get angry again. Liam then stood up and looked down at the small form on the floor, sensing how off he was and thinking about his last words. Even though last time Niall rejected, Liam still offered his hand to help his friend up.

Niall, staring at the ground, tried to ignore the guilty feeling in his gut, so he accepted Liam’s offer to help him off the ground. Both avoided the other’s eyes and just stared at the ground. After a few moments, Niall chimed in, “I think I'm going to go see the doctor, I have a meeting with him today anyways.” then left the room before Liam could say anything
Liam just stood there for a few moments blinking and flabbergasted. He dropped onto the bed, head in hands, mumbling to himself things such as, “Why am I so stupid?”

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Niall walked back into the room about 45 minutes later and looked around. For some reason, Liam was nowhere to be seen. The blonde paused for a second, then sighed, and shuffled his feet over to the bed, flopping down with one leg still touching the ground. He threw himself backwards on the bed and put the pillow over his face, squeezing his eyes shut.

Liam walked back in a few minutes later with a take-out box of food from the café. “Hey Ni--” he shut up quickly when he saw Niall. He decided to just put the chicken carefully on the bedside table and begin to slowly creep out of the room.

As he was walking out, he heard Niall mutter something unintelligible from under his pillow. All Liam did was let out a concerned sigh, then left, making sure the door quietly closed behind him. He then decided to head back to the café to get himself some food... and a giant cup of coffee.

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Niall threw the pillow across the room with a grunt and wiped the tears that were starting to form in the corner of his eyes. He ignored the food on the table, the rolled over, falling asleep.

Liam sat alone in the café, sipping his third cup of coffee. He racked his brain to try and see what could possibly have Niall in such a twist, but he kept coming up short. After he drained his cup, he decided to venture back to the room to check on the blonde boy. When he arrived there, he knocked lightly on the door. He waited a few seconds, but when there was no answer, he let himself in.

After taking a few steps, Liam stepped on the pillow that Niall had tossed across the room, and quickly noted that his friend was sleeping. He placed the pillow next to Niall’s sleeping form so as to not disturb him, and then left a note with his cell phone number on it on the bedside table.