The restaurant was booming with joyful laughter and boisterous guffaws and the quaint music in the background was becoming more and more upbeat as the night progressed. The sounds of dinnerware and cutlery chinking together and kids arguing on top of everything else were enough to drive anyone crazy.
Not Liam though. Despite the ruckus surrounding him he was in a constant battle with his eyelids, fighting to keep them open. His fork swung lazily in his hand, propped up by his elbow on the tablecloth, and he had no idea what the current conversation of the group was.
"How's your food Li?" Niall asked his friend, nodding at the plate of pasta. Liam blinked and looked down at it. Honestly, he'd forgotten that it was even there. The couple of pieces he'd had when he'd first been delivered his meal were nice, "good."
"But you've hardly touched it," Harry said, sympathy evident in his voice. They'd all known Liam wasn't feeling that great but the doe eyed lad had promised them that he was up to going out for some dinner. Although speculative, the rest of the boys had been desperately hungry after missing lunch due to a particularly lengthy rehearsal and they took his answer as the truth.
"We shouldn't have come out," Louis sighed, taking the fork from Liam's swinging hand. It was obvious now that he most definitely was not up to it and Louis felt awfully guilty for not realising it before they had left the hotel that evening.
"I'm okay," Liam said quietly, not wanting to cause his throat more pain than necessary, "I'm just tired."
He covered his mouth as he yawned and then leaned his head onto Harry's shoulder beside him.
"We should get going, catch a taxi back to the hotel," Niall said. They'd walked to the restaurant but it had taken twenty minutes and nobody believed Liam would be able to stay awake that long.
"You guys finish eating first," Liam whispered.
"We're all finished Li, we were waiting for you. Are you going to eat anymore?" Harry asked him quietly, speaking right into his ear.
"Can we take it with us?" Liam murmured. He didn't feel like eating right that moment but the dinner he'd ordered really was quite nice and he wanted to have it later when he was hungry.
"I'm sure we can." Harry nodded, "Lou, would you go ask for a takeaway container or something?"
"Yeah, sure," Louis complied, getting to his feet. He cleaned his hands on a napkin and walked off.
"I'll call a taxi," Niall volunteered. He found a number online and gave it a call, realising that he was going to have to get away from all the noise if he wanted a chance in hearing anything the person on the other end of the line said.
"I'll just be waiting outside for you lot," he said quickly to Harry and Liam before jogging to the entrance and ducking out into the cool night, phone held to his ear.
Louis returned with a lidded container and Harry helped him to scrape Liam's leftover inside. The lid clicked with each corner Louis pressed down.
Slowly, Harry stood up. Liam got up too, yawning again and clearing his throat.
"Come on then, let's go meet Niall. Hopefully he managed to get a quick taxi," Louis said, waving his two friends toward the way out of the stuffy restaurant.
Liam felt the stares burning into him as he shuffled along behind Harry, yawning and rubbing his eyes. He felt like a kid who needed a nap and he was sure that he looked very much the same, the looks he was being given were all sympathetic and kind, as if his exhaustion was the most adorable thing in the whole world, which made him feel even more childish.
He stepped outside and shivered hard as the cold air collided with his skin like a wall of ice.
"They said three minutes," Niall explained from his perch on a short post on the edge of the car park.
When the car got there Niall opened the closest side door and ushered his three friends inside, a soft hand on Liam's back. Then he got into the front seat and said g'day to the driver.
Liam twisted against the back of the seat, trying to get comfortable. There was something itchy about the fabric even through his jacket and it seemed impossible. He supposed it was probably better that way, as he didn't want to fall asleep before he made it to his bed.
He pinched his thigh to perk himself awake a bit more and then shuffled down to rest on Harry's shoulder again for the rest of the drive.
When he finally got all the way to his room, through the lobby, up the elevator, down the hall and to the right, he trudged straight to his designated bed and collapsed on top of the covers. He kicked his shoes off and shrugged away his jacket before yanking the blankets up and rolling underneath them, hugging them up around his face and letting his eyes finally flutter shut.
Someone came in to close the curtains and switch the light of but Liam was already fast asleep.
***
Later on that same night Liam woke up, and he did not feel well at all. The pain his throat was giving him had escalated to a point where swallowing was pure torture and he swore that it was worst sore throat he'd had in his lifetime. That was saying something, because as a singer he'd had his fair share of sore throats.
He was so hot he felt like he was simmering and no matter how many blankets and clothes he removed the heat was still there, licking away at his body. The space behind his eyes was throbbing viciously and dull aches ran down both his legs.
He couldn't get back to sleep how he was and even though he usually preferred to manage things like this on his own he couldn't be bothered this time around so he shakily got out of bed and padded over to the next closest bed. His mind was so foggy he couldn't remember for the life of him who was sleeping there but he shook the body anyway.
Niall hummed and rolled over as he woke, searching blindly for the reason why he was awake in the middle of the night. As his eyes adjusted he was able to make out a shadowy figure in the darkness and the rest of the evening flickered back to him, allowing a connection to be made.
"That you Li?" Niall murmured, pushing himself up into a sitting position and rubbing his eyes wearily.
"Y-yeah," Liam croaked. He coughed and rubbed his throat as it protested unhappily. His knees shook and he hoped Niall did something soon, or he was going to collapse.
A cool hand landed on his shoulder and fluttered down his arm to his wrist. Niall's finger curled around the joint loosely and he lead Liam out of the room so that they wouldn't wake Louis or Harry. Liam stumbled over every second step and stayed as close as he could, sagging into Niall's side as his friend closed the door behind them. Liam listening to him reach for the light switch, his blunt nails scratching lightly over the wallpaper until he hit the switch and the room flooded with harsh artificial light. Liam hissed and retracted, burying his face in Niall's soft cotton shirt.
"Aren't you cold Li? Where are your clothes?" Niall murmured. Liam trembled as Niall's other hand landed on his clammy back, "whoa, you're definitely not cold. . ."
"Fever," Liam whispered past the glass shards in his throat.
"Definitely," Niall said sympathetically. "Lay down, I'm gonna go find a thermometer."
Liam murmured a quiet compliance and flattened out across the sofa.
When Niall returned he had Liam put the thermometer in his mouth and then got him a glass of water for afterwards while Liam tried to accustom to the strange device in his mouth.
"That's high Li," Niall said, glancing down at Liam with a look of concern, "39.2."
Liam made a sound and used Niall to sit up so he could drink something. He knew if he tried it laying down he'd choke but that didn't make getting up any easier.
Thankfully the cool water had a good effect on his throat and he was allowed a short moment of relief.
After taking a fever reducer and something Niall said would help numb his throat Liam cuddled a cushion to his chest and waited while Niall made the both of them a cup of tea.
"Here Mate, careful," Niall said as he handed over the mug. Liam noticed that the ceramic wasn't boiling to the touch like usual, and Niall hadn't made the mug as full as he normally would. It was just as well, because it lapped dangerously close to the edges as Liam brought it to his lips with shaking hands.
By the time the drunk was gone the fever reducer had kicked in and Liam could make it to the bathroom without feeling like he was going to just drop to the carpet, he was down to 38.7 and Niall said it'd probably keep dropping if they kept on top of the medication.
After doing his business he returned to bed and went back to sleep much easier than he had earlier, drugged up on medication with a warm belly.
Liam went through another four days of more or less the same thing before the lads managed to get away from their busy schedule long enough to take him to the doctors. Liam was stubborn and he'd been trying to tell them he was okay for two days before his doctors but he was very difficult to believe with the raging fever he suffered at all hours of the day, the bags under his eyes, the paleness of his skin. He knew he look ill, but there was a lot to do and if he put his mind to it he could get through it.
Then his fever hit an all time high of 39.9 and it took all the strength Liam had to talk the lads out of taking him to the emergency room. The terms were set, if he wasn't going to the hospital, he'd let them take him to a nearby clinic at least. He couldn't say no, they'd just take him to the hospital and that was the last place in the world he wanted to be.
Throughout his doctor's exam he fell asleep asleep. It really wasn't his fault. The guy kept leaving and poor Liam couldn't keep his eyes open for anymore than five minutes when he wasn't being heavily distracted.
"Well, you have mono."
Liam opened his eyes, "I have mono?" He rasped.
The doctor nodded and smiled, "but you don't have any of symptoms pointing to a more severe case so you should consider yourself lucky. However, it might take a while for the symptoms you do have to disappear."
Liam squeaked, how long was a while? He was on tour! He might've survived the past couple of days but he was feeling the effects and he knew he wasn't going to be able to carry on like he was for much longer with exhausting all of the strength he had.
"How long?" Louis asked, leaning forward in his seat. Liam felt accountable for the stressed look on his face. It wasn't only him that was going to be effected by this, it was going to be everyone and he felt awful about it.
"Anywhere from a few days to a month. It's different for everyone," the doctor replied slowly.
Liam closed his eyes and inhaled, trying to keep himself calm. A whole month?
"He can't fight off a fever like this for a month Doc," Harry said, his voice close to Liam. It seemed as if Liam's head was attracted to Harry's shoulder like a magnet.
"The fever should go down soon, if not go away completely. It's the sore throat and the headache I would count on hanging around for some time."
"Great," Liam groaned.
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you better news," the doctor said, smiling apologetically.
The boys left the clinic feeling kind of crushed that Liam was going to be unwell for possibly so much longer. Liam felt the worst, he almost couldn't believe it. How had he even caught mono? Why now? Stupid.
He kicked the ground with his shoe in frustration and just about fell on his face, only catching himself in the last second. "Damn it. . ."
"Careful, you've still got that fever." Niall caught Liam's side and stuck to him like glue the rest of the walk to the car.
"This sucks," Liam complained in his crackly voice as he slowly got into the backseat and did up his seat belt.
"At least you're not dying or something," Louis pointed out, nodding his head.
"Might as well be. . ." Liam grumbled, "how the hell does mono work into our schedule?"
He hissed and held his swollen glands for a moment, as if touching the outside would make the inside feel better.
"We'll figure that out," Harry promised. "You're tired, we have a twenty minute drive. Close your eyes."
Liam murmured some things that nobody could understand an ounce of and unhappily shut his eyes, curling up against the side of the car as sleep quickly took over.
It was rough, trying to work things around Liam's sickness. Just like before he insisted he was fine but once out on stage his throat got so bad he had to walk off crying. Thankfully, like the doctor had predicted, the fever did go down to a more comfortable 38.3 where it sat for a few more days before breaking completely which made it easier to last the day and Liam wasn't falling asleep every time he blinked. He felt far less groggy with the fever gone and the rest of it didn't seem half as bad as it had earlier in the week.
In the end, he was only sick for just under two weeks, which was a miracle considering it could've stretched on for an entire month. Everything just slowly returned to normal without Liam really realising it and one morning he woke up and realised that he actually felt good, great even.
Let the tour go on, he was ready to get back to his usual self and enjoy every day he spent with his best friends traveling the world and making people happy.
And, queue the cheesy ending. Ah well, it's been a while since there's been a cheesy one and it made the word count higher haha.
I hope you enjoy your day, and that this adds to it :)
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