"This is a bad idea, Harry."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't worry so much. It's easy. You've driven a car. You've ridden a bicycle." Niall nodded in agreement. "So, this should be easy. And I'll be sitting right behind you."
Niall eyed the motorcycle warily. "If you say so."
"There we go," Harry cheered and clapped Niall on the back. "Hop on."
Niall took a deep breath and rolled his eyes before swinging a leg over and settling down on the bike. The handlebars sat in a good position for his arms, the seat was comfortable. "Not so bad."
"See? Alright," Harry got on the bike behind him and curled his arms around Niall's waist, "let's take it for a spin."
"If I break it, you can't blame me."
Harry squeezed around him. "You won't break it. You've been practicing.
"Yeah, going ten feet."
"So, go ten more feet, and then ten more."
Niall sighed like Harry was testing him greatly, but started the bike and nonetheless. He put his foot on one pedal and revved the engine just a little as he let the clutch go. It jerked forward before Niall lifted up the other foot and they were off. Niall could feel his pulse racing in his throat and Harry's firm hold around him, but the wind and the adrenaline kept him from feeling much else.
They rounded a bend on the smooth, deserted road and Niall was too focused on the way the sun looked over the ridge and accidentally killed the engine. They rolled to a stop in moments and Niall groaned when he tried to start it and it merely gurgled at him. He took off his helmet and angrily flipped the kickstand down before getting off after Harry.
"I told you I would break it!"
Harry already had his phone out. "Don't worry about it, Niall. I'll just called someone to take us to my place and they'll have it fixed in no time." Harry came over and pet a loving hand over the sharp paint job as his phone rang. "I need a tow for my bike."
Niall gripped his hands into his hair in frustration as Harry handed out their location and hung up. He pushed the heavy metal contraption further off the road before sitting down next to it. Niall paced in front of the bike and Harry.
"I'm sorry. How are you not angry? I broke your baby."
"Niall," Harry said sternly to calm him. "The first week I had it I broke off a foot pedal. I've replaced the fuel line twice." Harry shrugged. "Stuff happens."
Niall seemed at least mildly placated by that because he settled on the side of the road next to Harry and waited for the tow truck.
It was fifteen minutes and two drawling stories from Harry later when the tow truck arrived and lugged Harry's bike onto the back of the truck while the boys slid in the front. The silence was awkward at first, but good ol' Harold couldn't let anyone walk away without talking about their breakfast. So, by the time they got to Harry's shop, the driver was giving Harry a hug and telling him he will definitely try that recipe.
They rolled the bike up to the garage just as a small brunette girl greeted them. "He knows you're coming, Harry. Take it in." Harry gave his thanks and pushed it under the roofing with Niall close behind.
Harry pushed it up to where a mechanic was hunched over in a dirty uniform, facing the other wall, and rifling through his tool box. "It wasn't me this time," Harry started by way of greeting.
The mechanic gave a small laugh in response as he stood up and turned around. "I don't believe that for a second." Niall almost knocked the bike over looking for something stable to hold himself up. His eyes travelled from short, mess quiff to round, indulgent puppy eyes, down his broad shoulders to his wide chest. Niall closed his eyes against the urge to move further and shook his head of those thoughts.
"I swear. It was this one actually." Harry pointed over to Niall.
"Is this one going to open his eyes or do I have to guess what color they might be?" Niall realized they were talking about him and his eyes popped open. "Blue? Should've guessed."
Niall fumbled for something, anything, to say that wasn't completely inappropriate. He ran a hand through his hair. "I've heard they turn gray when I'm turned on."
Harry's loud cackle was the first thing to break the thick silence after Niall's declaration. Then it was the mechanic's blinding smile. "Well," he took a step closer and looked straight into Niall's eyes, "they're still pretty blue. Does that mean I'm not doing it right?"
Niall swallowed down his offer to show him how to do it right and just shook his head instead. "I just have really great self-control."
Liam's eyes flicked down and back up before he smirked. "I see that."
Niall looked down as well and noticed for the first time the semi that had grown just from looking at the greasy car man. While Niall stuttered and covered himself, Harry guffawed loudly and clapped Niall on the shoulder. Once Niall was sufficiently red and Harry was wheezing for air, Liam calmed him and turned to his bike.
"Want to tell me what happened?"
Niall took the moment to quickly run out of the shop and inhale some fresh air. He could hear the casual exchange and wondered how many times Harry had broken his bike if he'd been here enough to be on good terms with the employees. At least the guilt wasn't in the forefront of his mind anymore.
He took two preparatory breaths and headed back in to find the mechanic on his knees on a padded mat with Harry's bike opened and unguarded in front of him. He didn't look up when Niall came back in, but Harry did, coming over to pull Niall into a hug.
"Don't worry about it. I crushed on Liam for a while when I first met him."
"Liam," Niall repeated in a whisper.
"Yeah, great guy. Pretty sure he's straight though."
"Oh."
"I mean, he didn't send any sort of signals when I tried so I think so."
Niall nodded easily, if not a little put down by the news, but hey, Liam wasn't even all that great. It's not like he was suddenly unzipping his uniform to push it off his shoulders and let it hang from his waist, leaving only a thin white vest to cover what Niall could now clearly see was trained-for muscles. Niall didn't even look...like at all.
But if Liam caught him looking then whatever.
He snapped his attention back to Harry and ask him how long this would take. "Actually, a while I think. I was going to walk down the street and grab us something to eat."
"I'll come."
"No," Harry urged. "Stay. I'll be right back." Niall couldn't decide if the cheshire grin was in his imagination or not as Harry left with a flick of a wave.
Niall looked around the shop like it was suddenly of great interest to him, even though he probably couldn't name two tools in the whole garage. He'd just made it to some sort of metal saw when Liam piped up. "Don't touch anything. Can't have you getting hurt."
Niall scoffed. "I can handle myself, thank you."
Liam glanced up from the bike and leveled Niall with a look before giving him a small smile and nodding. "I believe you. But please," he waived Niall over to him," a wrench monkey doesn't touch another man's tools. If you're going to snoop come play with my stuff."
Niall almost choked on the invitation and had to physically hold himself back from giving some knee-jerk, filthy retort. "Yeah, okay," he decided on instead. He came over and leaned against the table full of tools next to Harry's bike and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, I'd ask you what I did to it, but I wouldn't have any idea what you're saying anyway."
Liam laughed kindly, eyes crinkling up with the sound. "Basically you just got overexcited and shocked it. Not a huge deal, but more a pain to fix."
"Well, sorry for it anyway."
Liam nodded cordially. "Happens to the best. We all get too excited with new toys sometimes."
Okay now, Niall could've sworn that was intentional flirting. One can only take so many thinly-veiled insinuations in a two minute time span. But Liam was still intently looking at the bike and gave no hint that he meant it other than mechanically. Niall sighed out a long-suffering sound and let his head fall back on his shoulders.
"Am I boring you?"
Niall popped his head back up. "What? No!" He came over and crouched down beside Liam. This close the definition in his arms was unmistakable. Niall took a long moment to tear his eyes away. When he did, Liam was looking at his with a raised brow. "I'm just having a really great day," Niall explained lamely.
Liam nodded in consideration. "I'm sorry to hear that. Anything I can do to help?"
Niall wanted to just tackled Liam to the floor right then, rip his clothing to literal shreds, and show him how great his day could be. But instead, he shrugged and sat down on his bum on the mat Liam was kneeling on. "I wish," he muttered.
"Wish what?" Liam caught it and asked.
Niall groaned internally. "Nothing. Just-nothing."
Liam twisted hard with a wrench and looked sideways at Niall. "So, Harry..."
Awesome. Great. So Liam was gay, but he was interested in Harry. Awesome! Great! "What about him?"
"Are you two..."
Us two. "What? No. He's like my-no."
"It's just, I know-" Liam dropped his current tool back in his toolbox and turned to sit and face Niall. "He was pretty clear with what he wanted when we met."
The last thing Niall wanted to hear about was Harry hitting on Liam. And Liam flirting back. "Yeah he's a pretty...straight forward guy."
The pun wasn't lost on Liam. He laughed and a hand landed on Niall's knee. "Point is, I figured I'd take a note from his book. Straight forward and all."
Niall nodded in annoyance. "He'd like that."
Liam's hand shifted, moved so just the tips of his fingers were touching Niall's folded leg. "In the spirit of Harry-"
"Talking about me. I see tons is getting done." Liam and Niall both turned to see Harry with two bags of food. "Fast friends, then?"
Niall jerked up to his feet and grabbed one bag from Harry. "Finally. Took you long enough." The comment was unnecessarily snappy, but Niall was honestly just relieved he didn't have to hear Liam gush about Harry's emerald eyes or something.
"It was only like ten minutes." Harry gave Niall a confused look as the blond went over to an empty table and laid out his food. "What's his problem?" Harry asked Liam, who was looking past him at Niall was something like hurt on his face.
"Nothing," he echoed Niall's earlier sentiment.
"Okay..." Harry looked between them with a worried crease to his brow. "How much longer, Li?"
Liam focused back of the bike. "Not too long, I just need to..." he trailed off and went inside the garage's office to grab another tool.
Harry came and let his food drop on the table next to Niall. "What happened? I've literally never seen Liam frown before. Not even when I asked him if I could use one of his bungee cord things as bondage material."
"Bet he'd love that," Niall scoffed.
"Okay, see what is up? I told you that I'm pretty sure he's straight. You can't be mad at him for it."
"He's not straight, Harry."
Harry's face brightened. "No? Are you sure? I'm not normally wrong."
"He's into you, Haz!"
Niall heard the sound of metal hitting the floor and both boys turned to see Liam holding his foot and wincing, a heavy tool on the floor next to him.
Great. Awesome.
***
So this is more like a teaser. I've decided to make this a mini fic and post it separately. I'll let yall know when its up!!
***Update***I ended up not doing a fic for this. Soz y'all.
COMMENTS AND VOTES! MWAH!! Xoxo