Just wanna quickly apologise to the person who requested this, its been days and I've only just realised now that I didn't even title it, let alone stick your name on it, sorry!
Niall groaned loudly, "I'm not feeling so hot, Liam. . ."
He had put himself to bed twenty minutes or so ago, despite having only gotten up two hours before that so his voice came from the bunks. The rest of us were gathered in the back, just sitting around trying to entertain ourselves. We'd been driving for forever now and although it had been fun to begin with, seeing as we got to just lounge around, but now we were all bored shitless. And Niall was being super whiny.
"I know, Ni, there's nothing I can do about it," Liam called back, looking up from his phone.
It wasn't exactly uncommon for one of us to get car sick and apparently this time it was Niall's turn, which really did suck for him because we didn't have any stops scheduled for today.
"We can look after ya if you come out here with us, Ni!" Louis called,
A few moments later Niall emerged, holding his stomach wearily. He didn't look as bad as he'd sounded from his bunk, but I still felt for the guy. He was in for a long day.
Niall gingerly made his way over to the empty spot on the couch in between Louis and I before sitting stiffly right on the edge.
Louis gently pulled him close and Niall tilted his head to lean it on Louis' shoulder.
"How are you doing?" I asked, patting his knee lightly.
Niall shrugged under my gaze, his lips twitching.
"How about I get ya a drink of water? It might help settle your stomach," Liam suggested.
Niall looked unsure. It was kind of weird seeing him like this to be honest. We'd known each other too long for me not to have ever seen him sick but usually he was pretty alright with it. This time, probably because of exhaustion, he seemed so young and vulnerable. His usual happy go lucky demeanor had totally disappeared and he didn't have any energy at all. It was just odd.
"What if it makes me puke?" Niall questioned timidly.
"It's worth a try though right?" Liam suggested after a moment of slight hesitation.
Niall sighed and looked up, "I guess, are you sure there aren't any carsick pills left?"
"I've checked at least five times, there's none there," Louis murmured into Niall's ear as Liam left for the kitchenette, "I'm sorry, Ni."
Niall huffed as his stomach let a moan that was loud enough for all of us to hear. I winced sympathetically as he rubbed it.
Liam came back and passed him a bottle of water.
Niall just looked it. He was tipping the water backwards as forwards when the bus jolted forwards suddenly. I glanced over at Niall, watching to make sure the sudden lurch wasn't his breaking point. Luckily, he seemed to be okay.
He finally took a small sip from the bottle a few minutes later, looking very uncertain as he swallowed.
"Yeah no, that's not going to sit very well," he decided with a brisk shake of his head. He leaned his head back into the couch with a low whimper, tapping his foot. A random shiver shook through him and he closed his eyes and yawned widely.
I felt really bad for him, motion-sickness on the bus really was awful.
"Why don't you try get some more sleep? Maybe you'll feel better when you wake up," I said.
Niall hummed a quiet yes and I stood up to give him more room. He slowly stretched out across the couch, settling his head down on Louis' lap and hugging a cushion to his stomach.
Niall's POV:
This was so stupid.
The day we have to drive nonstop is the day that I get carsick.
Typical.
My stomach rolled under my hands and a quiet sound escaped from my lips. I had woken up this morning to a god awful stomach ache and it's pretty much just progressed since, adding some powerful nausea and a feeling of complete exhaustion and heaviness. It was so hot, my clothes were sticking to me but at the same time I couldn't seem to get warm.
I squeezed my eyes shut from my spot on Louis' lap and hoped that I could just fall asleep and about the constant feeling that I was about to throw up for just and hour or so. My breathing slowed and I smiled a bit to myself as I felt myself drifting off. Then nothing.
Unfortunately the sick feeling was far from gone when I woke up, in fact, it had gotten worse.
I was all alone too, I figured everyone else had moved to get something to eat. I couldn't help the pained grunt that slipped out as I sat up, my stomach immediately cramping in on itself. I shivered again. My hands were trembling hard and I knotted them together on my lap in an attempt to stop the shaking.
I took a deep breath and stood up.
It was like all the blood just rushed straight out of me.
My mind fuzzed over and I got light headed, feeling like I could pass out. A flash of heat passed over me and I gasped, latching onto the wall so that I wouldn't fall over. My stomach was swirling now and the nausea was so overwhelming. It was like being bowled over by a massive wave at the beach. No matter how much you needed air the water forced you under until the wave had passed over.
In this case though it felt like the wave was never going to pass over.
A strangled gasp slipped through my lips as I tried not to throw up all over the carpet and thankfully someone heard, I knew because I could hear the footsteps coming closer, fast and loud.
"Shit, come on, let's get you to the bathroom dude," Harry tugged on my arm a little bit and I stumbled along as he gently ushered me into the tiny room. I could feel myself starting to panic, I didn't know why, I was well past old enough to handle this, but still. My heart was racing in my chest and I felt like it was taking too much effort to suck in a simple breath.
My stomach jerked forcefully and I fell onto my knees, lurching over the toilet. Nothing happened apart from the rapid increase in the speed of my breathing.
"Hey, Hey Ni, you're okay," Harry said, obviously seeing the struggle I was putting myself through, "try to calm down."
"I c-can't," I stuttered, my voice shaking all over the place. I gagged but still nothing happened and I slapped the bowl in frustration.
"You can, just take a breath."
Harry crouched down behind me, which was an accomplishment in itself considering how small the bathroom was. He put his hands on my shoulders.
"Fuck you're warm," he muttered quietly in surprise. I went to go say something, I wasn't sure what, but my stomach lurched again and I found myself finally throwing up into the toilet. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for it to be over.
"That's it Ni, you're do-"
"Shit, how long have you been in here? Why didn't you call out?" Liam cut in as he peered into the room, his eyes scanning over the sad sight in front of him. I heard his voice but kept my eyes shut and I continued to puke.
"Not long, maybe five minutes or so," Harry replied, "sorry, I didn't even think."
I swallowed and gripped the toilet seat hard, my knuckles white. I could still feel everything swirling and rolling around in my stomach.
"It's alright, I'm here now anyway. You alright, Horan?" Liam asked. I shook my head and groaned.
"He doesn't look it," Louis chirped. I figured he must be standing next to Liam.
"He's really warm, Liam," Harry murmured, glancing around at the others with an odd look on his face. I don't think being sick on the bus had ever made me warm before. It was weird.
"I'll go grab the thermometer. Do you wanna come back out now, Ni?"
I shook my head again. I was too nauseous, if I moved I'd spew.
"You'll be more comfortable out there than in here, buddy," Louis stated just as my stomach decided to give it another go and I dry heaved suddenly. The bus jolted over something on the road and my insides curled.
"I'll be back," Liam said.
I honestly felt like crying. I felt so horrible and it was like tears would help for some reason. It was like being five all over again.
"Alright. How are we going to do this?" Liam came back with the thermometer in his hand.
"Mouth or pit Niall, your choice," Louis said, leaning against the door frame.
I lifted an arm and Liam took the hint, sliding the instrument under my T-shirt and closing my arm over top of it. Again, it was like being five years old.
The nausea continued to flicker until the thermometer beeped and I pulled it out. I tried reading the numbers but my eyes were watering so I exhaustedly handed it to Harry. He quickly read the numbers and looked at me worriedly.
"What does it- oh motherfucker-" I cut off as my gut cramped and I curled over the toilet again.
"39.5", Harry said.
"Seriously?" Louis' eyes widened and I groaned. Lucky me.
Niall looked up hopefully, "honest to god, 39.5 degrees."
"Okay, someone grab a wet towel or something? Or an ice pack even," Liam ordered as the bus went over a particularly large bump and I dry heaved again. And then we moved onto fucking gravel.
Gravel. Stony, bump, agonising gravel
I staggered to my feet and latched onto Louis. The bus shuddered along and I let out a cry. It was so hot and I felt so sick, everything was spinning and my legs felt like they weren't even there.
"P-please, " my voice was slurred as my knees buckled, "stop i-it. S-stop the b-bus."
Harry and Liam ran forwards to get the driver to stop. The 'absolutely no stops' rule was quickly overruled by the yelling and shouting and thankfully the bus pulled over a few moments later.
I pretty much collapsed into Louis in relief.
"How about we get some air?" Louis suggested and quickly lead me outside. The cool breeze felt amazing on my sweaty skin and luckily it brought some feeling back, I actually knew what was going on now. Moments later I crouched over and threw up on the grass but I handled it a lot better this time, I didn't panic nearly as much.
"Better?" Liam asked when I'd calmed down. I nodded.
"I don't think you're car sick Ni," Harry admitted and I realised he was probably right.
"That's just great."
My voice was raspy from throwing up.
"Sucks to be you huh?"
Louis knocked my knee softly with his and I cracked a forced smile. We sat in silence for a bit until the driver decided we'd spent long enough sitting on the side of the road and we all piled back onto the bus.
Harry found a bucket so I could be set up in the back room. The gravel seemed to go on forever unfortunately and although we'd managed to get the fever down a little using rags and whatever the nausea didn't let up and I was throwing up twice an hour for a good few hours.
24 hours later I was alright surprisingly. Just a day long bug. No one else had caught it by the looks of it, well not yet anyway, so that was a plus. The bus reeked of vomit though, despite how much stuff we sprayed everywhere. That definitely was not a plus.
This is so short, I'm so sorry.
Its been forever since I've written anything though, again, so I hope you enjoyed it :)