Dance with the Devil「Larry/Ziall/Niam」

Chapter 1

This fanfic has two authors. The first is @LucretiaDanger666. I highly recommend you fan her and read her awesome fanfics on Twilight, Hunger Games, Harry Potter. This chapter is dedicated to her, so click on her profile! She writes all the odd chapters (1,3,5,7 etc.) The second author is moi. I write all the even chapters (2,4,6,8...)

We don't own 1D, but we own the storyline. Beware: Things will happen in this fanfic that have happened in no other.

Enjoy!

~Q

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Dance with the Devil

Pairings: Ziall, Larry and Niam

Chapter 1

Niall was bored and very hungry. They were in Nevada, staying in a quiet, dusty town for a few days after the end of the Take Me Home US tour. America was a nice enough place, but everything was covered in grease and spelled peculiarly. Harry and Louis had gone off on a picnic somewhere and Zayn and Liam were being boring. Niall wanted to go and stuff himself with all the comfort food he could find, but Harry had stolen all of it for the picnic.

Sighing, he peeled himself off the sofa and grabbed his phone from a small table. "Hazza," he texted, "Where r u???!!!1!? Need food :(((((( sob u stole da redy saltd crisps :'( tooo hungry 2 spel...food now pls x" Niall always saved this level of illiteracy for emergencies. This was undoubtably an appropriate time for last resorts, in his eyes, at least.  After  five whole minutes of waiting for a reply, he gave up and decided to go out and find them. "Liam! Zayn!" he called, practically dragging them to the door. "Harry and Louis have been gone for far too long! We need to go and find them! Please?" He gave them his puppy dog eyes, which he knew full-well meant neither of them could argue with him. Niall may have looked like an innocent little food-consuming creature, but he was secretly a master of manipulation. Liam and Zayn obediently followed him into the woods — they knew that all Hell would break loose if he wasn't supervised at all times. It wouldn't be the first time he'd managed to fell an ancient oak just by looking at it. It was a wonder he still had all his limbs in tact.

Zayn pushed back a branch, to see Louis and Harry, ambling through the trees. He waved them over, relieved to have crossed paths with them after a relatively short period of time. After sharing a series of grunts that, as all men in their early twenties can testify, passed for a greeting, Harry gave their group a cursory glance, before giving Zayn a confused look. "Where's Niall?"

Zayn looked around frantically. Harry was right; Niall was nowhere to be seen. As it happened, he had gotten distracted by a squirrel, which he was intent on chasing. It was actually a rare red squirrel, leaping nimbly through the undergrowth. Unfortunately for Niall, he wasn't nearly as nimble. In an ill-judged attempt at a lunge for the little ball of fur, he tripped on an exposed tree root and landed awkwardly in a ditch. He let out a strangled cry of pain, sounding for all the world like a puppy who'd just been shot. Zayn ran  after the noise, panic welling up inside him. It was actually quite impressive, how fast he was when his Nialler was in danger. "Niall," he cried, as soon as he saw him, "What happened?"

"My leg..." he groaned, "I think I broke it. Ow..." He scrunched up his nose, allowing Zayn and Liam to examine his injury. Liam, who seemed to know what he was doing, explained that it probably wasn't actually broken, but it would be a bad idea to put too much pressure on it. Liam, Niall decided, was a clever person who knew things that normal people didn't. Zayn immediately took up the post of letting Niall lean on him, nearly ripping Liam's throat out when he offered to help. "No! I mean...no thanks, mate. I'm fine. He's not really that heavy."

Louis didn't say anything, but he couldn't help but think that Zayn was being a tiny bit overprotective towards Niall. Was something going on there? He supposed that Zayn had good cause to be protective, given the number of times he and Harry had played practical jokes on their little blonde friend. Niall still hadn't completely forgiven them for the whole 'Kevin' debacle. Still, the look on his face had been completely worth it; there was no doubt about that. The German term 'Schadenfreude' (meaning 'deriving enjoyment from the grief of others') seemed particularly appropriate. Maybe it was wrong of them to take pleasure in taunting Niall, but it was a fundamental part of who they were. That was just how their friendship was and there was nothing to be done about it.

After a while of walking, they realised that they were completely lost. Liam could tell that it was nearing nightfall and they needed to find shelter before it got dark, but he could see nothing but trees. Louis offered to climb up one of the taller pines to get a better vantage-point, but Liam and Harry immediately made sure he didn't — it was far too dangerous. Eventually, Niall spotted something. He pointed it out to Zayn. There, almost totally hidden by dense ivy, was an empty house.