Hiding in the Shadows

Questions

Louis had been goofing off and cussing on stage which didn't go well with their image. He'd already received multiple warnings from management and he hadn't listened so they sent him to Bradford. The man had Louis run through every song on their set over and over again until Louis' voice was so used it could no longer be heard. It was three days before he could speak again and by the end of it Louis had been assured that Bradford had been fired and none of the boys would ever have to deal with the man again.

Looking over the texts between Bradford and Niall it appeared that Louis had been lied to. While none of the other boys had ever had to deal with the man again Niall clearly had, approximately once a month or more if Louis was correct. It angered him to see that the last time Niall had an appointment with Bradford was two weeks ago. Thinking back Louis could remember how Niall had been a little off the next day, Louis had thought it curious that Niall hadn't spoken much while they were all cooped up on the bus but he hadn't asked. He regretted not asking now. Still, why was Niall meeting with Bradford? Why hadn't Niall said anything? Two more questions for his list.

After Louis finished going through all the texts he noted two things. One, Niall received absolutely no texts or calls from his family, not one person. Two, Niall received zero texts from Louis, Harry, Liam or Zayn. Niall had kept every text for the past five years, ever since he'd gotten the phone and yet there wasn't one pleasant conversation just people telling Niall where he needed to be when or telling Niall how worthless he was. Louis felt guilty, he held a good deal of blame here. Why had he never noticed? That was a question for himself not Niall. What was the seventh question on the list was, why did Niall not communicate with his family?

Sighing Louis clicked off Niall's phone and closed his eyes. He had taken in a lot of information in a short amount of time and his head was spinning. Not only that but his list of questions wasn't complete at seven. More and more questions kept pouring into his mind. Why won't Niall take a warm shower? Why won't Niall eat? Why hasn't Niall said anything over the years? How had the boys forgotten about Niall? And, because it just popped into his head, why hadn't Niall said anything about having asthma? Why hadn't Niall gotten a new inhaler once his old one expired?

With that last thought in mind Louis picked up his own phone and made an appointment with his own doctor. He'd call Niall's doctor but he didn't know who the man was. Naturally Louis' doctor, Hernandez, wouldn't give Niall a prescription without actually having assessed the boy to be sure he was receiving the proper medication. Louis had no issues with this, he wanted to have Niall's weight looked at as it was, this would be a perfect cover. With his plan in mind Louis made an appointment for nine the following morning.

Smiling to himself for finding the solution to at least one issue Louis put his phone away and turned to face Niall, the boy needed to eat, shower and sleep. When he looked to the couch where Niall had previously been laying he didn't see the blond tuft of hair he'd expected. Curious Louis made his way to the couch and looked over the back, there was no Niall. In fact, there was no Niall anywhere in the room. "Shit"

Niall wasn't sure where to go when he left the hotel room. He couldn't go to the gym because Liam had an appointment there in half an hour with the trainer. He'd already missed band practice so he couldn't go anywhere the band members were. He spent a few minutes debating the issue before deciding to head out to the venue and see if the cooking staff would be willing to give him a lesson if Louis was at least fifty feet from the building.

Hoping that the cooking staff will go for it Niall slipped out of the building and down to the venue being sure to stay out of public places. It's amazing how empty alleyways tend to be in broad daylight, Niall never did understand why people stayed out of the alleys in the middle of the day and yet would willingly walk into them during the night.

Making it to the venue in under twenty minutes Niall was happy to note that the place was pretty bare of one direction staff or crew. There was some other group playing there tonight and it was that groups people who were rushing around everywhere. Smirking to himself Niall pulled his hat farther down the front of his face and took a direct route to the kitchen to beg the wonderful staff to give him a lesson. Hopefully it would work.

Louis had spit out every curse word he knew in four different languages (the perks of being a world traveler, he now knows every curse word in multiple languages). It had taken him a full hour to learn that Niall was no longer anywhere in the hotel – that was only after having had the security search the entire building. Much to Louis' annoyance the members of the security team who were assigned to Niall specifically were rather... unconcerned about the issue. What proved even more annoying was that no one on the entire security staff seemed to consider this event as nothing more than a nuisance, a regular inconvenience. Really, Louis couldn't help but wonder exactly how often Niall felt it necessary to sneak off. When Louis got his hands on Niall he would be one very sorry little boy, and under constant supervision until Louis said otherwise.

After deducing that Niall was no longer in the hotel it took a following two hours to actually locate the boy and then that was only because he came back, through the staff entrance. Louis couldn't help but wonder where Niall got a key to the staff entrance door.

As soon as Louis learned that Niall was back he made his way down to the staff entrance to meet him, he wasn't there. "Where is he this time?" Louis sighed.

The security team looked a little uneasy, it seemed as though these people weren't used to having to answer to anyone about Niall's whereabouts, that had made for an even more irritating few hours. "We're not certain. We haven't actually seen him"

"Then how do you know he's back?" Louis exclaimed in annoyance, "How do you know he came in through the staff entrance?"

"Well" another member hesitated, "we were showing his picture around and one of the staff said he saw Niall come in approximately fifteen minutes ago"

It took all of Louis' self control not to start cursing again. These people seemed so amazing at their jobs every other time Louis had dealt with them but one question as to Niall's whereabouts and they were the worst security team of all time. How could one scrawny kid bring an entire security force of over one hundred to their knees? Foregoing an answer Louis just turned and stalked off. It was unbelievable how crazy all this seemed.

The first place Louis checked was the hotel room he and Niall shared, no dice. Sighing in realization and annoyance Louis stalked off to the workout room. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"