I stifled a groan and turned away from the crowd for a brief second to compose myself again. This whole performing thing wasn't working out as well as I had hoped it would.
After lunch I had started feeling kind of sick, like stomachache sick, and it carried on throughout soundcheck and the rest of the concert prep. I refrained from saying anything, figuring that once I got on stage it would go away. Apparently I had been wrong, because we were an hour in now and I was just starting to feel worse.
I wandered over to Liam and turned off the microphone when we finished a song. Harry and Niall were busy chatting to the audience so I figured I had a bit of time.
He turned his microphone off too as I sat down beside him.
"I don't feel very good" I told him quietly, knotting my hands together.
"I know Lou, you're not very subtle" Liam smiled sympathetically, "what's wrong?"
I winced and cast a quick look out to the crowd. I'd thought that I'd done a pretty good job at pretending to be okay, just because Liam knew didn't mean they all would did it?
"My stomach" I replied uneasily. I hoped it was just an indigestion thing or something and that I wasn't actually getting sick. I hadn't been properly sick in such a long time and I definitely didn't want to be.
"Do you feel like you might get sick?" Liam uttered questioningly, "you're definitely paler than usual."
I shook my head, "I don't think so. It just hurts."
"Stay sitting beside me for a few songs, see if it helps" Liam nodded as Harry announced the next song on the set list. I bit my lip but nodded. I really just wanted to curl up in bed but I knew that was impossible, I was in the middle of a concert. There was way out, I just had to go through the next two hours.
I did what Liam said and stayed sitting for twenty minutes or so but it didn't help. The lights were making me feel stuffy and hot and my stomach began doing random flips. I couldn't even rub it or anything to try calm it down without being screamed at by the fans surrounding the stage and one glance at all the cameras made my hand drop back down to my side every time.
"You good Louis?" Liam murmured quietly, nudging my side.
I shrugged unknowingly. Sitting definitely hadn't helped.
"Hey, what are you two doing over there?" Niall called, "come have fun with us!"
"We are having fun" Liam replied with a loud laugh.
Niall must've realised there was something strange about the situation because after the next song he made his way over and asked what was going on with a confused frown.
"Louis' not feeling well" Liam replied, "still not good I take it?" He looked to me.
I shook my head and shut my eyes for a few moments seeing as Niall was blocking me from most of the crowd. I took the chance to try rubbing the cramps from my stomach too. It didn't work as well as well as I would've liked.
"Well, I need a wee" Niall spun around with a grin, "sorry guys. Anyone else need to go?"
Thank the lord for Niall, he was a total lifesaver.
"I'm coming Mate" I stated with a dry smile. I got to my feet with a gently push from Liam.
"Alrighty then, we'll be back in two seconds" Niall said to the fans apologetically.
Harry snorted from the other side of the stage, "you can't pee in two seconds!"
I walked with Niall stiffly off the stage. The minute we were out of view I groaned and sat down on the floor, almost dragging him down beside me. "Lou..." He grumbled, trying to pick me back up, "you can't just sit there."
"I honestly don't think I can get back up" I shook my head. It was so hot, even now that I wasn't under all those lights anymore. There was a really nauseating storm rolling around inside me and as Niall continued to yank me up it suddenly amplified and quickly my body began to shake with waves of heat. My mouth went dry.
"Ni I think I'm about to throw up" I stammered.
"Can we get a bin, like now?!" Niall yelled, letting me sit back down in my spot.
Someone rushed over and handed one to Niall. I held my churning tummy in my hands as he crouched down and put it in front of me. I glared at it.
"Liam usually does these things Lou, so I have to warn you, if you puke right now I'm probably gonna be a pretty sucky comf-"
I heaved and everything came up in one heavy stream as tears involuntarily ran down my cheeks. I wiped them away hurriedly and pulled the bin to my chest.
"Whoa okay, that's a lot of puke..." Niall muttered, his hand awkwardly moving over my spine. I coughed and vomited again, my stomach forcing everything up relentlessly. And I thought I felt sick earlier. How stupid.
I groaned when my body finally relaxed. I knew the only reason I'd stopped was because there was nothing left.
When I stood up it was like I was about to fall right back down and I didn't like it one bit.
Niall handed the bin to someone in the backstage crew with a quick apology and a makeup artist redid me as I had sweat the majority of the stuff right off. I wasn't allowed to sit out for the rest of the concert sadly.
I was dreading getting back up on that stage.
Niall had already headed back out there after a stern order so I had to walk back out there by myself after I was done.
"I'm back" I waved, shielding my eyes from the lights. Everybody screamed, "Niall left me and I got lost, sorry guys" I shakily let out the words I'd been told to say. I took my place behind Liam again and resisted hiding my face in his shoulder. I was sweating again almost instantly and my stomach had only marginally calmed after throwing up. I took a deep breath as the next song started, two hours. That was it. 120 minutes.
Thankfully I wasn't sick again in those two hours. I had a god awful time up on that stage though. Liam stayed close, Niall had let both him and Harry know about what had happened backstage. I was terrified I was going to puke again and embarrass myself, every time I opened my mouth to sing it felt risky.
The relief I felt when we were finally allowed to say goodbye was indescribable. I knew I'd been a pretty lame act that night and although I felt kind of guilty I really just wanted to get back to the hotel.
Liam ushered me down the steps with a hand on my back and Harry handed me a water bottle as we headed out back where the van was waiting to take us back. I made it out to the car park before stopping still with a loud gag that made me recoil away from the lads before I spewed all over them. I turned and leaned over as more of my stomach's contents spilled out onto the concrete.
Panting and trying to get my breath back I straightened up and wiped my wrist across my lips. I groaned as Niall ushered me into the van.
I sat down heavily and strapped my seat belt over my chest.
"Everything okay back there?" The driver asked curiously and even though my eyes were closed I could feel his eyes lingering on me. I probably looked drunk.
"Yeah, we're good. Louis' just a bit sick" Harry, who was sitting beside me now, rubbed my back.
"You just performed like that?" The driver said with a frown.
"I had no choice" I replied with a croaky sigh, "can we just go?"
"Sure" he turned back the other way and turned on the engine.
Thankfully there weren't any fans waiting outside the hotel when we pulled in so I didn't even have to try to look presentable as I got out of the van. I was craving a shower to wash the gross sweat out of my hair and the sticky feeling that just seemed to encase my entire body. Halfway to the elevator I was also craving a chair.
"You holding up Lou?" Niall asked while we waited for the lift to reach us.
"Just wanna lay down" I replied. A cold breeze drifted out of the elevator when the door opened and goosebumps sprang up eagerly on my bare arms. I huddled into Niall's side as we got into the lift.
"You cold Mate?" Harry rubbed my arm.
I sucked in a sharp breath and nodded, "kind of. But it's also like hot, at the same time... Ugh I have a fever don't I?"
Liam sighed sympathetically and touched his palm to my forehead. I couldn't help but chuckle, the gesture felt awfully motherly and Liam's casualness about it just made me laugh.
"You're definitely warm, what are you laughing about?" Liam smiled in amusement as the lift door shut. Harry had already plugged in the floor number.
"Just you, you're so- Oh no..." I gulped as the elevator shot up, leaving my nasty, nauseous tummy down in the lobby.
"I know that look, do you think you can hold it until we get to the room?" Niall asked worriedly.
The elevator pinged and opened to let more people on, we hadn't even gotten to our storey yet.
I locked my lips shut and held my breath as we continued upwards, making the churning grow stronger and stronger. And wow was that nausea bloody intense.
I managed to hold off from projectile vomiting in front of the two elderly ladies in the lift fortunately but the moment we reached our floor and the door closed behind us I grabbed onto Harry's shoulder to hold myself up and then threw up all over the carpet. It was kind of ugly anyways, I realised while I was getting my breath back, but still. Some poor bugger would have to clean that up later.
"Well, at least you tried" Niall shrugged, his face screwed up in disgust as he looked at the mess I'd just made. Liam whacked him and pushed him off in the direction of our room, chucking the card key at him so he could open it up.
"Come on Lou, just a little walk and then you can relax" Liam promised. Harry carefully helped me step around the puke.
I think the shower was a huge inspiration for me making it to the room. When we got inside Liam said something about taking a shower and I literally growled at him.
"Okay, nevermind, looks like Lou's claimed it" he held his hands up in mock surrender.
"I think he deserves it" Niall chuckled.
"Damn right I do" I grumbled as I made my way to the bathroom. "If I don't come come out in half an hour I've died okay?"
"Please don't" Harry shook his head.
I would've retorted if my stomach hadn't decided then to shoot more puke up my throat. I slammed the door shut and spat into the sink before vomiting yet again. After cleaning myself off and stripping I got under the hot water. Instantly the goosebumps vanished and the hot water felt amazing. I sat down on the bottom of the shower and shut my eyes, enjoying the heat.
***
"He's dead! He's actually fucking dead."
"What?"
"He's just sitting there! Look at him!"
"Oi Louis, wake up!"
I was already half conscious due to the boys talking but when the water suddenly turned off I was fully awake. My eyes flew open and I curled in on myself and all my naked glory.
"What are y-you doing?" I murmured in confusion, peering up at them all. They were just standing there in front of the shower, staring at me with wide eyes.
Harry was the first to talk, "I told you not to die!"
I wrapped my arms around myself, instantly cold, "I d-didn't d-die."
"That's kinda what it looked like when we came in and you were laying down in the shower Mate" Liam reasoned, "you scared the shit out of us"
"Here, we don't need to see that much of you" Niall pulled a face as he chucked me a towel. I sluggishly wrapped it around myself, not caring if it got soaked from the bottom of the shower.
"I was j-just taking a n-nap" I shivered as I heaved onto my feet, grunting in exertion. The hot water was amazing but hell was I feeling exhausted now.
"Pretty dumb place for a nap" Harry pouted as he took my arm and helped me out of the shower. My legs were shaking pretty bad.
"I didn't m-mean to" I chattered apologetically, pulling the towel closer.
I brushed the disgusting taste out of my mouth before taking some medicine and going to bed. The lads kept asking if there was anything I needed, or if I felt sick, or just anything and anything you can possibly imagine and in the end it resulted in me shutting them out of my room and locking the door. It only occurred to me that I shared a room after I was settled and comfortable in bed, and there was no way in hell I was moving, so I supposed Niall would have to sleep on the couch that night.
He'll live.
***
The next day the lads were woken up early by alarms set in a weeks advance that they had totally forgotten about.
After twenty minutes of fluffing about and arguing about what the alarm was for Liam finally remembered: they had to get back on the bus for a few days of driving.
Louis still felt sick and he was dreading being on the road for so long. Even worse he always struggled to sleep with the floor moving beneath him and sleep deprivation was exactly what he didn't need while he was sick with the stomach flu. Liam had to manhandle him out of bed and then practically drag him out the door, even sick with fever Louis couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He hadn't even had to pack his own things, they were in so much of a rush that the others had done it for him.
The hotel was like a ghost town apart from a few of the workers as it was still mostly dark outside. It made the trip down to the lobby then outside to where the bus had pulled up right outside the doors a lot more manageable for poor Louis who was struggling to keep on his feet and Niall too, who suddenly seemed drowsy and exhausted. The Irishman's eyelids just could not stay open. The moment he got on the bus he was passed out in the nearest bunk. It was usually Harry's, but oh well.
Louis scurried off to the toilet to throw up the piece of toast he'd eaten before bed the night before with Harry comforting him while Liam started on a quick breakfast. It was early but he was hungry and he knew his friends well enough to know that they were too so he made sure to make enough scrambled eggs for everyone. The toast took a while because two pieces every four minutes was the best he could do but he got there in the end and went to wake Niall. Louis and Harry were still in the bathroom.
"Disgusting..." Louis groaned from his slouched spot in front of the toilet. Already he was hating everything about the whole situation. The bus hadn't even started moving yet but the cramped bathroom was enough to irritate him. He felt like total crap and he just wanted a king sized bed to pass out in when he was finally finished regurgitating what he'd eaten. Instead he had a small single, squished against the wall, on a damn bus.
Harry patted his back, "don't look then."
"I can still taste it," Louis retorted with a cough and a shake of his head, "can I have some water?"
"Yeah, sure," Harry replied. He took a cup from the cupboard and filled it at the sink before handing it over to Louis. The shaking of his friend's hand made him worry a bit and he watched carefully as Louis took a weary sip. He screwed his face up and spat it into the toilet, "yuck."
It took a few minutes to down the whole cup and by then Harry was ravenous, the smell coming from the kitchenette had stirred the hunger in his stomach and now he couldn't wait to get his hands on something to eat.
"Liam's cooking something I think, do you feel like eating?" Harry asked Louis as he helped him to his feet. As an afterthought Harry bent over and retrieved the bucket they used to mop up any spills from under the small sink. It may come in handy later, he thought.
Louis shrugged lethargically and wiped his brow with his shirt, "maybe."
"Come on then, let's go see what it is and then you can make up your mind," Harry said and then they slowly walked out to where Liam was sat comfortably on the couch, legs splayed out, dropping a forkful of eggs into his mouth. He lifted his head in greeting, "I made food."
Harry dumped Louis onto the couch by Liam and nodded happily as he grabbed himself a plate, "I'm starving, thanks."
"Where's Niall?" Louis rasped, his voice crackly.
Liam sighed and swallowed, "I couldn't wake him, he's sleeping like a rock."
After a few bites of his own Harry offered Louis one of the other plates. Louis narrowed his eyes decisively just as the buses engine roared to life. He groaned and sat back.
"I'm not going to just hold it here forever." Harry waved the plate slightly.
Liam nudged Louis' thigh with his foot, "you should try some at least."
Louis grunted but reluctantly took the plate anyway. He knew he'd end up throwing it up and regretting it but he needed something inside him so that he had the energy to rush to the bathroom when he needed to. The bucket by his feet was a last resort.
It quickly fell silent as the lads tucked into the food, all three gazes locked on the TV. Louis was taking slow cautious bites while Liam shovelled and Harry picked away with his fingers like always. The quiet wasn't uncomfortable until Niall started making weird sounds on the other room. It took a few moments for the questioning looks to be shared amongst the other three and after a few more second Liam put his empty plate on the counter top, "I think I'll go see what he's up to in there."
"Good idea," Harry agreed.
Liam strode off in the direction of Niall's bunk where he had left him deep asleep hardly quarter of an hour before. When Liam pulled the curtain away it was clear that Niall's rest wasn't exactly easy anymore, the grunts and whimpers falling from his lips as he tossed and squirmed on the mattress made Liam frown.
"Oi, Nialler, wake up!" Liam took hold of his shoulders and shook gently, but with enough force for Niall's eyes to fly open and his breath to leap into his throat.
"Hey, it's okay, you were just moving around a bit. I wasn't sure if you were alright so I woke you. Relax," Liam explained as Niall clumsily sat up and kicked the duvet away. He rubbed at his eye for a second and gulped hard, "I don't think I feel right..."
Liam internally groaned as he ran his eyes over Niall. Truthfully, he didn't look right either. Liam probably should've known something was the matter when Niall had put himself straight back to sleep earlier.
"Let's go sit in the bathroom for a minute yeah?" Liam guided Niall onto his feet. He didn't like the greenish tinge to Niall's features and he didn't want to clean spew off the ground if he could help it. The thought made him shudder and wince.
"Hey, what's going on?" Harry questioned curiously as he watched Liam bustle Niall into the loo. With his eyebrows drawn together he stood up and wandered over satisfy his curiosity. He peeked his head inside right in time to witness Niall burp and promptly throw up into the toilet.
"Oh...Great," Harry sighed, "you good Ni?"
Liam patted Niall's back gingerly and shook his head. Niall never got sick. He was was pretty much invincible as far as Liam could tell, he didn't think he's seen the Irishman sick for as long as he'd known him. If Niall had caught this stomach flu then there was no chance him and Harry would be able to get away from it. They were doomed.
Thankfully they had four days before the next concert, but there was a magazine shoot they were supposed to do the day after tomorrow, and probably an interview too.
Just thinking about the days to come made Liam feel sick.
"I really really hate being sick..." Niall whimpered when he'd finished vomiting. Shakily he picked himself up from over the toilet and leaned back against the wall to collect himself. He couldn't help feeling upset, he had such a good streak going where he just didn't seem to fall sick at all, and then this had to happen. He felt deadly and his whole body just felt like a block of concrete attached to his head. He hated it.
"At least you've got Louis to whine with, come on, let's get you up off the floor," Harry offered a hand. Liam flushed the toilet, looking unimpressed as he tried to avoid any glimpses of its contents.
Niall wiped his hand on his pants and let Harry help him onto his feet. Woozily he swayed and groaned, this wasn't going to be any fun. Somehow he'd forgotten how awful being sick really was.
With a mildly revolted look on his face Harry unpeeled Niall's shirt from his sweating torso and fanned him with it lightly as they walked out to where Louis was falling asleep on the couch, "what was Louis's fever like last night Li?" Harry asked, a bit worried about the heat he could feel coming off of Niall.
Liam clicked his tongue thoughtfully before speaking slowly, "um, just 38 and a half I think, or something like that. I was supposed to check it again this morning but I forgot. I'll go grab the thermometer."
"Okay, it's just that Niall feels real warm," Harry explained as he offloaded Niall into the cushions. He adjusted the positioning of the bucket so that both sick boys could reach it and Louis' eyes tiredly blinked open, "can't reach now..."
"You'll just have to sit if you need it then Mate, you've gotta share now sorry," Harry answered with an apologetic smile.
When Liam got back with the thermometer it was confirmed that Niall was in fact very warm with a temperature of 39.4 and Louis had crept up to 39 on the dot. Twenty minutes later they were both dosed up on fever reducers and all cuddled together snoozing while Liam and Harry played on the play station.
The rest of the day was fairly quiet and uneventful. The bus was boring anyway but with half of them sick the time seemed to pass even slower. Louis couldn't stop throwing up and Niall was complaining like a toddler ever waking second. It was painful for everybody involved.
Two sick people were enough to make the night pretty disastrous and when Liam woke the next morning only to scramble to the bathroom to release his own stomach he knew the next was only going to be a thousand times worse.
"Can we just pretend that I didn't see that so you can go through your usual show of acting like you're okay? I really don't want to take care of all three of you..." Harry knocked his head against the wall tiredly from the doorway. He'd been up a lot of the night and even though he was used to functioning on little to no sleep he was feeling even more exhausted than usual. Definitely not in the mood to run around after everybody for the whole day again.
"I wish we could, but I don't think I can get up," Liam cracked a weary smile and flushed the toilet. His legs felt like jelly.
Louis nudged past Harry into the bathroom and hurriedly pushed Liam aside to fall down in front of the toilet with a moan.
"I'm so over this..." he managed to croak out before throwing up for what Harry thought must've been at least the fiftieth time. Liam paled even further from his spot on the ground so Harry hoisted him up over the sink to do his business.
"So, today's going to be heaps of fun isn't it guys?" Harry's voice dripped with sarcastic joy.
Unsurprisingly, the next 24 hours went about as well as Harry had predicted.
"Harry I need that bucket again!"
"Harry it's too hot!"
"Harry, help me, I'm dying!"
When his own body finally threw in the towel and he found himself gasping over a puddle of his stomach contents he didn't really mind because it meant that he'd finally be able to take a break and sit down. The lads would quit making him run after them because he was sick too.
"I'm sorry man, I didn't think you were gonna catch it..." Louis apologised groggily. He was on the other end of the bug now and hadn't been sick in a promising number of hours. Now he just needed two days worth of sleep and he'd be back to normal.
Harry shrugged, "now your demanding arse can take care of me. I'm expecting five star treatment."
He wiped his lips and grimaced as his stomach growled warningly and painfully, "I'll just be in the bathroom if anyone tries looking for me, for the next few days probably."
"What about that?" Louis pointed at the vomit on the floor with his face screwed up in disgust. He'd seen more than enough spew recently.
Harry shrugged again, "not my problem any more."
He smiled before turning on his heel and racing for the toilet, leaving Louis to stare at the puke with two options as bad as each other dancing around in his head: he could either clean up or just leave it. With a groan he realised that of he decided on the latter he'd be in trouble.
He really was feeling significantly better and mopping up the mess wasn't as dreadful as he thought it would've been. However he was fast to turn Niall back into the bathroom when the blonde came into the room looking far too close to being sick for comfort. Louis had managed one puke cleaning session, there was no way he was signing up for another.
He was the only one awake two hours later when he felt the bus roll to a stop. He paused the TV as his heart started to speed up. There were only a few things the bus stopping could mean. One, they needed to fill up. That would be fine. Two, they had some surprise job to do, which would not be fine in any way, shape or form.
A few minutes later came the knock at the door and Louis clambered to his feet to answer it, ignoring the grunts from the bunks.
"Hey," Louis squinted in the bright light, "what can I do ya for?"
"There's a shoot, remember? We're running a little behind schedule so you guys need to get out here quickly so we can start."
Louis coughed into his hand, "we're all kind of under the weather, is there any chance we can just postpone this thing for now?"
"No. Times ticking."
With a childish groan Louis yelled out to his bandmates, "lads, were doing a photoshoot, drag your asses out here!"
The response was a whiny series of complaints and grunts and Louis couldn't help but smile slightly at the shocked look on the ladies face as each of his friends appeared in the doorway looking like total shit.
"These people had better be photoshop miracle workers," Louis chuckled.
I struggled a bit writing this one, not going to lie. It's something though, which is better than nothing and as always I really really hope you like it and that maybe it makes your day a little better :)