Five

Pushing past bodies and trying to escape the fast-moving crowd, Farrah was determined to get there as fast as she possibly could. She wasn’t sure if she would even catch them before their shuttle left; her shuttle wouldn’t be leaving for a while after them. But she needed to get there.

She finally shoved her way between three screaming, sweaty teenagers and made it to an aisle, going the opposite direction of the crowd and making a beeline for sidestage. The security there checked her pass and nodded her through, and without waiting a moment, she shouted a “thank you!” in their direction and ran full speed around the massive stage.

She sent smiles and gave high fives to all of the members of the crew preparing for tear-down, just waiting for the stadium to be empty so they could pack everything up. They seemed to be cheering her on as she ran for the boys, ran as fast as she could. She finally made it through to backstage, where she couldn’t even look up before having to bend over and catch her breath.

“Jesus, Fanny, you alright?” Louis laughed, grinning widely at the sudden intrusion of their closest friend. She breathed heavily, gasping for air with her hands still on her knees. All four boys were still there, Lou fussing over drying the sweat from their foreheads because she’d never admit it but she was, in many ways, their tour mum.

“I… I…” Farrah started, her lungs practically about to collapse. She laughed exhaustedly and straightened up, and observed the four boys. Louis was holding a half-empty water bottle, a self-satisfied grin on his lips; Liam was wringing out the bottom of his now wet t-shirt, shaking his head and smiling across the space at her; Niall was just setting down the guitar he’d been inspecting for scratches, seemingly still coming down from the entire show; and then there was Harry, his eyes staring at her, so used to not being able to step forward and hold her, that was the message they carried.

“Harry,” she started, wanting to say something, Louis ushering her on with a nod of his head and excitement in his eyes. She huffed, and Harry waited, wondering. She opened her mouth again to try to think of something, and she looked around at all of the people working backstage, and she knew that this was a big thing, this was a big deal, and it could backfire, really, it could, but she wasn’t willing to care, she just.. she just.

She was in front of him before she could stop herself and she was nervous but not and she was standing on her tiptoes and their lips were connecting and her hands were on his cheeks and his brows were up past his forehead and his eyes were wide but then they closed and his arms went around her and the three boys, along with too many people in the room, began cheering and she thought she heard several “finally”s, but she’d get them later, because right now she was falling into Harry’s arms and willing it to never, ever stop, willing herself to kiss him for the rest of her life without ever pulling away.

His lips felt amazing against hers and this kiss had been long-awaited, it had, but more than anything, as they pulled away and her eyes met his, she wasn’t thinking about the wait, or about the bad, or about anything but, “I love you.”

He let out a breath of confused, happy laughter, and pressed his lips to hers again, holding her even tighter to him in disbelief.

All the love as always.

“Hey, there, mate,” Louis interjected, “Hey! My eyes! My poor, innocent eyes!” They laughed as they parted once more, and Farrah immediately buried herself into a hug.

“Well now that that’s done and overwith, can we have our hugs so we can get goin’?” Liam’s voice suggested, a wide grin on his lips as he hugged Lou tight into his side.

Farrah turned and nodded, squeezing Harry’s hand in hers before smiling widely at each of the boys. Her eyes first met with Niall’s, and though he was smiling at her, there were still apologies, thousands of them, bubbling in his eyes. She wanted to abolish each and every one of them. She stepped forward and pulled him into a tight embrace, mumbling, “I’m so proud of you,” into his shoulder. He smiled softly and let out a breath he hadn’t really known he was holding in, hugging her back and hardly knowing what to say.

“We love you, Fanny,” he replied softly as she stepped away, “Always have, always will.” She reached up and pinched his cheek, having always wanted to do that - “Eh! No!” he protested with a laugh.

“No!” Jimmy protested.

She turned to Liam and found a warm embrace open and waiting for her to take. She couldn’t help but feel so loved as she accepted the hug, humming happily as he rocked her from side to side. “Didn’t I tell you comin’ tonight would be a good idea?” he teased, refusing to let her go.

“Yes, yes, you were right, I know. You usually are, Payno,” she giggled.

Are u not reading what I’m saying its a SNAKE HABITAT TURN AROUND

She sighed softly and pulled back, and was immediately engulfed by arms - Doncaster arms. She giggled against the arm that was pressed to her face, the other around her middle pressing her back into Louis’ chest.

“Damnit, Tommo,” she mumbled into his arm.

“Say the magic password.”

Her face was not amused.

“Uhm…” she started, trying to think.

“I like girls who like carrots.”

“Liam Payne?”

“Nope,” he replied.

“Tommy the Tommo, your future firstborn?”

With a laugh, he again said, “Nada.”

“Energy juice?!”

“Uhm, Kevin?”

“The pigeon? Come now, Farrah, we’re in 2015.”

There was a pause.

“But yes, it was Kevin.” They laughed as he pulled away and turned her around, tugging her into a normal hug and squeezing her until she couldn’t breathe.

“Vas happenin’?!”

She let herself stay in the hug, and before she knew it, three more large bodies were enclosing around her, a giant group hug forming not entirely with her consent. They laughed together and she felt a few kisses to the side and top of her head, arms squeezing her, Preston shouting from down the way that they needed to get going, and Lou telling him to give them a minute as they all hugged. Farrah couldn’t be entirely sure, but some part of her suspected that Lou and maybe two or three others had been sucked into the oversized embrace. She smiled softly and bit her lip, closing her eyes tightly as memories began to flood her mind.











































By the time Farrah had pulled away, her eyes were welling with tears; but she was smiling softly around at all of them. Louis held her out in front of him by her shoulders, sighing slowly and nodding his head.

“Ready to get back, love?” he asked, his smile curious and eyes reassuring. She glanced over at Harry over her shoulder, to see him playing with his bottom lip and eyeing her happily. She then turned to the rest of them and nodded.

“Come on, One Direction. Let’s get somethin’ to eat, yeah?” she replied, met straight away with shouts of approval as she felt fingers slide between hers.

Smiling to herself as she squeezed his hand back, Farrah walked alongside Harry and stared at him and the three boys he had spent the last four and a half years of his life living beside. And she not only saw One Direction, but she also saw her family, her closest friends, her heroes and her greatest confidants. In that moment, she couldn’t have been more proud to be a part of their story, and was more excited than ever to be there as they continued writing it.

Zayn had been right. What he’d said all that time ago. It’d been true then, and Farrah knew… It was true now.

This wasn’t the last of One Direction.