Zayn and Niall: Everybody Needs Somebody Sometimes

Tequila And Other Useless Things

Zayn rolled over twice, lying facedown on the bed and snoring with his mouth open wide.

Niall made a face at him, then pulled away, getting out of bed. He did a quick brush through his hair and then made his way down the soft carpeted stairs, leading toward the dining hall.

Liam and Danielle were sitting downstairs, with Louis, who looked very annoyed.

"- such an insensitive dick, who is he to leave Zayn when he needs all of us?" he was snapping.

"Who?" Niall asked, yawning as he went toward them and took a seat.

"Hi, Niall. Harry just went out to a nightclub," Liam said gently, looking up at Niall. "And Louis here is missing him terribly."

"I'm not missing him!" Louis spat. "I'm pissed because this is a very important time for all of us to be there for Zayn, and he just heads out to a club and doesn't bother helping his best mate out."

"Don't worry, he won't forget you that easy," Niall said. "He just wants to make you jealous."

"Did you not hear what I just said? I don't miss that cockhead, I'm annoyed that he -"

"Louis," Danielle interrupted, with a kind of motherly patience. "That boy loves you."

"I don't care about that!" Louis spluttered, going red in the face. "Why doesn't anyone believe me, I -"

"Anyway," Niall cut across. "Can someone bring out a few drinks, I'm in need of some wine."

"Trust the Irish one to bring up drinking," Louis snorted.

"I'm choosing to ignore the racism," Niall told him, as Danielle got up and went into the kitchen. "So what happened while I was asleep?"

"I got Zayn's old Polaroid," Louis said, lifting up an ancient camera, finely crafted and probably worth over ten thousand pounds. "Said he wants me to use it to take pictures of Eleanor and the kid."

"Wait, Zayn gave you his Polaroid?" Liam leaned in, frowning. "Why? That thing means the world to him."

Louis shrugged.

Liam looked like he wanted to say something, but then shook his head. Niall heard him indistinctly mutter about discussing something with Zayn later.

"Zayn's been cutting a lot," Niall sighed. "But only nine days till he's in the rehab centre, though."

"Nine days?" Louis winced. "And then he'll be gone for.. for a year."

Niall looked down. "It's for the best," he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else.

Liam reached out and touched his shoulder softly. "He'll be alright, Niall. Don't worry."

"Yeah, he's said so himself, that he's grateful you signed him up," Louis said, in that stupid, loud, innocent, blundering voice. "He'll be fine!"

"This isn't about -" Niall paused suddenly, staring down intently at his sneakers. "This isn't about Zayn."

Liam took a moment to understand, and within that one second Niall could literally hear the cogs of his brain twisting in concentration. When he finally got it, his face softened immediately. "Oh, Niall."

Niall felt his cheeks heat up, and he continued staring down at the ground.

"What's going on?" Danielle asked, reappearing with the drinks. She set the bottles down on the table and took a seat, wiping her hands off. "Why's Niall blushing?"

"All this time we've been so worried about how Zayn's going to react when he gets into rehab, and no one even stopped to wonder about Niall, the poor guy," Liam said, in an infuriatingly sympathetic voice. "He's going to be alone for one whole year, none of us are talking to him about that, God. How selfish of us."