don't | n.s

tastes like happiness

Afterwards, when the Wendy Darlings have disappeared into the back room and Niall has passed into the sleepy stages that insist on coming with consuming alcohol, he moves over to a table near the stage. He drops his head onto his folded arms, stuck between fighting the heaviness of his eyelids and giving in to sleep until Zayn will shake him awake later.

"You okay there?"

A lot of willpower combined with hearing what could possibly be the voice from the stage gets Niall's head up off of his arms so he's looking right at Harry. "Yeah." He sits up straight quickly, too quickly; Harry's hand hovers across the table like it's going to steady him but he holds back. Niall's considering spinning a bit more. "Fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"One of your eyes is very unfocused," Harry says, a smirk sliding onto his face. "It seemed fine earlier when you winked at me --"

"So you saw and didn't reciprocate?"

"I was busy."

"I see," and Niall mostly does see, unfocused eye or not. "Are you busy now?"

"Louis and Cara are arguing about something," Harry says, picking at the table in front of him. There's a burn mark the size of the pad of his finger; when he presses with his nail a piece of the wood flakes off. "Might as well get a drink while I wait, right?"

"Right," Niall nods in agreement, suddenly feeling much more awake."You wanna get me one too?"

Harry digs into his pocket and when that movement happens to slide his jeans a couple of inches down his hips, well. "Sure, what do you want? Another one of those purple things?"

"You should try them. Tastes like happiness."

Harry shakes his head. "Disgusting."

And Niall laughs loud in the emptying bar, loud enough that he thinks he catches a smile on Harry's face as he turns away.

"Interesting band name," Niall starts with when Nico sits back down. He takes a gulp of his drink, wincing at the burn, and watches Harry's eyes flash with something dark, something bright.

"It has meaning," he says, glaring at Nico from under his bangs.

"Hey is that an accusation, Harry.....I don't know your last name."

"And you're not going to." Harry finishes his drink and wipes his hand over his mouth. His lips are stained red and that's his band coming through the side door now, the girl with the stockings bubbly and gesturing wildly to the boy beside her who looks half in love and half like he wants to hit something. Percy knows the feeling. "See you around, Niall."

"How d'you know my name?" he asks, quick, before he loses him.

"It's on that poster over there," he says and points over to the wall behind Niall where sure enough there's his band and there's his name in smaller print underneath along with Luke and Jade. "How do you know mine?"

"Just do."

"You're playing tomorrow, aren't you?"

"S'what your poster says, doesn't it?"

"You're an ass."

"We're leaving this on uneven ground," Niall calls to Harry, swinging onto the back two legs of his chair to watch Harry leave. He walks like he's still on stage, all hunched shoulders and slouch, then he opens the door and all but slinks into the shadows. Niall falls back onto all four legs with a bump, picking up his empty glass.

"Closing in ten minutes, Ni, you walking home with us?"

"Wha -- yeah, sure."

He gives his jacket to Liam and whistles loudly in Zayn's ear all along the street, ducking into his apartment with the feeling that tonight was a good one.

[genderswap all the way. okay so here's the run down for all you idiots.

Niall is in a band with Jade &girl!luke because why not.
Harry is in a band with Louis & Cara
umm, Zayn is a bartender with girl!liam I'm doing weird shit with this fic okay. ]