AN: Sorry for the late update but enjoy anyway :D <3 love you all!
My peaceful slumber was suddenly interrupted by a large crashing sound, followed by a sob.
I threw open my eyes, noticing the darkness surrounding me, the light of my alarm clock flashed 3:24AM.
I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and then scanned my room from the comfort of my bed.
"Chloe, are you awake?" A familiar voice said, sounding hesitant.
"Yeah, where are you?" I hopped out of bed, trying to figure out the direction of the voice.
"Over here." He said, as I noticed a movement near my pile of clothes.
I scooped up the gnome, to reveal the sad face of Zayn.
"Are you ok?" I asked, carrying him carefully back to my bed.
"I-I'm sorry for waking you up." He stuttered, avoiding eye contact.
"It's ok, I couldn't sleep either, do you want to talk about it?"
He sniffled, then looked up at me.
"I hate being a gnome, I just want to be human again. I miss dancing, singing, performing, even brushing my hair. But I may never do that stuff again, I could be permanently stuck like this, for the rest of my sorry life." He began to cry.
I put my hand on his tiny back, trying to support him.
"I thought life in the spotlight was hard, but being out of it is harder. I wish everything could be back to the way it was. Before The Wanted even existed, the early X-Factor days."
He looked up at me, feeling embarrassed for unloading on me.
"But I guess if I hadn't become a gnome, then I never would've ended up in your backyard, and would've never met you. I can't imagine not meeting you." He said, smiling into the distance.
I was glad it was dark , so he couldn't see me blushing bright pink.
"You're really cool, Chloe, I hope you know that. I don't think many other people would be ok if their favourite band ended up in a box in their backyard. Not many people could put up with our crap as humans, so you've done an amazing job taking care of a bunch of gnomes."
"I'm happy you ended up with me. If you'd ended up with Nancy, you probably wouldn't be alive today." We laughed and smiled at each other.
There was a pause, we looked away after a few seconds.
"How did you end up in my backyard? I mean, it's not the easiest to get to, you have to go through the house." I said, changing the subject quickly.
"I don't actually know. Then again, how did we end up as gnomes?" He chuckled.
"Fair point. Maybe The Wanted broke into my house, out the back door, and placed the box of you guys in my backyard. That might explain my missing ukulele." I joked.
"I didn't know you played ukulele!"
"Neither did I" I replied, causing hysterical laughter from both of us.
I looked back at the boys asleep, slowly rolling around in their sleep.
"We should be quiet, they're asleep." He whispered, I nodded.
"TOO BLOODY LATE, YOU NOISY LOVE BIRDS!" Harry shouted, rolling towards my bed.
"Shhhhhh Harry, don't wake the others. Remember how Louis reacts when forcedly woken." Zayn whispered.
"We don't speak of the Sleeping Incident." Harry said, putting his hand over his heart.
"Or the sleepwalking through the hotel incident" Liam added, joining Harry on the floor near the bed.
"Or that one time Zay-" Niall added, awkward wobbling over to join the others.
"I know what you're going to say, and I think you should be quiet." Zayn said, giving Niall a death glare.
"What, don't want to look like a fool in front of Chloe?" Harry smirked, winking at Zayn.
A thunderous snoring sound came from the corner, shaking the entire room.
The boys froze, fear filling their eyes.
"Oh no." Niall whispered.
"This isn't going to end well." Liam whispered.
"We're dead, we're all dead." Harry panicked.
I looked confused at Zayn.
"You don't wanna know, grab your things and run." Zayn said, jumping into the pile of clothes below my bed, and hobbling over to the bathroom door.
The boys snuck the open door, and hid under the sink.
I closed the door behind me, and sat next to them.
"I'm confused, wh-"
"Wait for it, 3, 2, 1!" The boys ducked, covering their ears.
A loud snore rocked the room, my makeup began to fall off the sink.
The boys rolled around, avoiding flying mascara, lipsticks and eyeliner.
An eye shadow pallet fell on top of Harry covering him in shades of pink and purple.
"Oh, bollocks!" He shouted, the boys laughed at him.
"Very pretty Harry, pink suits you." I laughed, showing him his reflection in a handheld mirror.
I picked up the eye shaddow pallet, and dumped it on Niall.
"Oi!" He yelped.
I then dumped it on Liam, followed by Zayn.
"You think you're getting away with it that easily?" Zayn said, running towards me.
The other boys followed suit, getting the pink powder all over my Peter Alexander pyjamas.
I lay down with laughter, so the boys ran up me and got the powder all over my face.
We ended up in a pile, laughing hysterically.
Then there was a knock on the door.
We all froze.
"Oh my god, who could that be?" Liam asked.
"Ok, boys, you're going to hide in the bath, I'll answer the door, don't move at all. " I whispered, lowing them into the bath.
I looked at my face in the dark, covered in multiples shades of pink.
Breathing deeply, I opened the door.
"Mum I can explain, I was just do- oh, not mum, ok. Good morning Louis." I said, looking down to see Louis.
He sighed, and entered the bathroom.
"Top of the mornin', Louis!" Niall said from inside the bath.
"Don't get too excited, Niall. I'm going back to bed soon. It's nearly 4 in the morning, and I need more than 6 hours of sleep." I said, putting the boys under the sink.
"Awwwww, but this was so much fun." Harry complained.
"Another time, but now we all need our sleep. You never know what might happen tomorrow." I said, turning on the water.
The boys shrieked at the cold water, which I quickly adjusted.
They climbed out of the sink, and were greeted with a warm towel.
"Thanks Chloe, you're the best! No one else would do this for us." Niall said, starting to look tired.
One by one, they fell asleep in the towel.
I carried all of them back to their box, and got them comfy for a few hours more sleep.
Zayn opened his eyes one more time and muttered
"sweet dreams, Chloe."
I smiled, and shuffled back to my bed.
I hopped into bed, and stared at my alarm clock.
4:02 changed to 4:03, and then I drifted into a wonderful dream.
~~~~~
"CHLOE, WAKE UP!" Louis shouted, jumping on my chest.
I opened my eyes, and found Louis' face a few centimetres away.
An unfamiliar phone was ringing near the box, with an unknown number on the screen.
"Help, should we answer it?" He said.
"Wait, who's phone is that? I don't recognise it." I said, moving over towards the box.
"Mine, but the only people who have my number are the boys, Simon, and our manager." Harry said, looking cautiously at the phone.
"Can you slide to unlock it, please?" Zayn said, attempting to unlock it with his porcelain hands.
I bent down, and slid the screen across.
A booming voice echoed through the room.
"HARRY! LOUIS! LIAM! ZAYN! NIALL! WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU? THIS IS YOUR MANAGER SPEAKING!"
"Oh no." Niall said, backing away from the phone.
This was going to be an interesting phone call.
AN: OOOOh cliffhanger!!! What's going to happen!?
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Until next time lovelies <3