April 2021 Update: Just a quick edit and clean up some things :)
Hey Everyone, I hope everyone is having a good day and staying safe! Here is the next chapter! It is very long I am sorry! Enjoy!
PS, Again none of the pictures are mine, the credit goes to anyone who took them! Just thought they fit into the story!
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I wake up the next morning to an alarm going off. My head begins to pound as I move to look for where it is coming from and quickly place my head back on my pillow as I groan. "I got it, sorry!" I hear a pleasant Irish accent say as he moves to turn off the alarm, "Good morning, beautiful."
I slowly roll over to face Niall, who is propped up on his elbow, smiling at me, "Morning," I groan closing my eyes again.
"A bit hungover?" Niall asks, and I nod my head.
I open my eyes again for a second, and notice that I was still in my clothes that I wore out last night, "What happened after we got home last night?" I asked, closing my eyes again, the light coming in from the window was too bright and was making my head feel worse.
He laughs slightly before replying, "Louis asked if I was spending the night in here, you said I could and immediately passed out afterwards. I didn't know what to do, so I just tucked you into bed and let you sleep."
My heart melted; how did I get so lucky with him, like actually, "Thanks, Nialler." I groan again, "Mind grabbing me some Advil or something and some water?"
"Of course, love," he replies, getting out of bed and walking out of the room. It feels like forever before he comes back into the room, "Here."
He hands me two extra-strength Advil and a cup of water, "Thank you." I take the pills and drink the whole glass of water, "What time is it?"
"It's only 10, so you have plenty of time to feel better," Niall comments climbing back into bed. "Everyone else is still sleeping, so we are in no rush."
I let out a sigh of relief as I cuddle into Niall's chest, "Do you mind if we just lay here for a bit until my pills kick in, this is the worst I have been hungover in a while."
"We can do whatever makes you feel better," He answers as he begins to rub my back.
We lay there staring at the ceiling for a while as I notice the Advil beginning to kick in. "Did you have a fun time last night?" I ask him with my eyes still closed.
"I did," he answers, "I was actually talking to the owner at one point, and he told me he was originally from Ireland and came over to Ontario to spread the Irish culture, which is one of the reasons they had Guinness."
"That must have made you happy then?" I comment, and I feel him nod as his chin rubs up against the top of my head.
"Did you have fun?" He asks as he begins to play with my hair.
"Oh, ya!" I exclaim, "You and the boy's performance was amazing, and I am quite glad you convinced me to sing with you, that was a lot of fun." I reply opening my eyes as I sit up, on my elbows, looking up at him.
"I am so glad it was a great experience, and you weren't bad at all!" He replies, smiling at me. We sit there staring at each other for what seems like hours until he speaks. "So, do you wanna talk about, you know, us?" This had been the second night Niall had stayed with me. I was enjoying every moment with him, honestly, but it had only been two days since we told each other we liked each other. "I know it's only been a couple of days.." he says, trailing off.
I smile at him, "it's been hard not to fall more for you," I respond, and his eyes light up. "But as you said, it's only been a couple of days since we told each other." He nods, I can tell he's a bit disappointed in my answer. "How about I tell you this," I begin and he perks up a bit. "Before we leave Toronto, I will talk things over with Gabs and get back to you? It allows us more time, and I can talk to my best friend about it."
"I like the sound of that," he replies, pulling me on top of him so he could hug me. "I am enjoying this time to get to know you better anyway, and it was nice of you to suggest that pub yesterday, even if you didn't realize it was an Irish pub, it made me feel special."
I lay my head on his chest, and I hear his heart beating through his chest, "I am glad you enjoy it Nialler, it was a nice changed to ordering in."
As we lay there enjoying each other's company, my phone suddenly begins to ring, "Ugh," I groan as I reach onto the bedside table to grab it. It was Gabriella, "Hello?"
"Hey, I just wanted to make sure you were alive after last night." I hear her say through the phone, and Niall lets out a laugh and immediately covers his mouth. "Was that Niall?"
"Uhh, yeah, it was." I say, giving him the death glare, "I was quite hungover when I woke up, but I took Advil and drank water, so I am starting to feel better."
"Did Niall spend the night in your room?" Gabriella asks, clearly not caring about how I feel anymore.
"I am not answering that question; you should know the answer." I respond, "I wanna see you again before I leave so we can talk."
"About you and Niall?"
"Not everything is about Niall and me," I comment, and Niall laughs again, "But yes."
She laughs, "You have two concerts in Toronto, right?"
"Yeah, they have one tonight, they have press stuff tomorrow, and another one the day after that," I say, looking at Niall to confirm, he nods his head.
"Wanna see if you can get us in to see the second performance?" Gabriella asks.
"I will try my best, but Simon may want Mia and me to be taking pictures, so I will keep you updated," I respond.
"Alright, well let me know, I love you, stay safe, use protection, goodbye."
I roll my eyes, and Niall laughs again, not trying to hide it at all this time, "Goodbye Gabs, I love you too," I respond clearly pissed off, and I hang up the phone, "You," I say glaring at him.
"You love my laugh, don't lie," he comments, pulling me in for another hug.
"Okay, you got me there," I say, hugging him tightly as I listen to his heartbeat again. I notice it picks up speed as I lay on top of him longer. "Nialler, it's almost 11, we should probably get moving."
"You feeling better?" He asks, and I look up at him and nod my head, "Good, alright, well, I need a shower, so I am gonna go do that," Niall says as he pushes me off him.
"Excuse me, how rude," I say, pushing him over as he tries to get out of bed, I land on top of him again, face to face.
Staring into his eyes, I notice he smiles at me and looks down at my lips. Fuck, he is gorgeous. Before I know it, he is leaning in and kisses me. It only happens for a few seconds, but it catches me so off guard. I think he got caught in the moment and didn't realize what he was doing. He pulls away, his cheeks eye beat red, "Sorry."
I feel my cheeks redden, "Don't be sorry," I say, smiling uncontrollably, "I liked it."
"Well, it was hard not to kiss you before, and this time I just got lost in the moment," he explains.
"Niall, you do not need to explain yourself," I say, kissing him again, "Now, go get in the shower," I continue as I blush even more. He gives me a handsome smile, nods and exits my room.
I lay back down on my bed and stare up at the ceiling again—our first kiss. Honestly, I don't think there could have been a more perfect moment. Slightly hungover from the night before, after a good night's sleep, cuddling, laughing and being goofy, the best combination. I let out a big sigh. Some people say you feel fireworks when you kiss your true love for the first time. For me, it felt like a bomb went off, but instead of being terrified, I felt protected and safe. I have no clue how he does it, but he somehow knows how to make my emotions go crazy, but make me feel completely calm all at the same time.
After lying on my bed, completely consumed in my thoughts, I hear a knock on my room, "Come in."
Liam opens my door and smiles, "Just came to check up on you, you were quite gone last night," he says, taking a seat on my bed next to me.
I sit up, "Yeah, I am alright, took some Advil this morning, it was needed," I say as we laugh.
"Well I am glad you are doing alright, I made breakfast for everyone if you wanted to join us downstairs," he says getting up and walking towards the door, "bacon will go fast with Niall around so I'd hurry if you want some."
I laugh and jump out of bed, "I will be right down, I am gonna change out of these clothes into something a bit comfier." He nods and closes the door behind him.
I quickly throw on my sweats and an oversize sweater, toss my hair into a bun and jog downstairs. I am greeted by Paul, Lou and Niall sitting at the kitchen table. "How is everyone this morning?" I say, skipping into the room behind Liam, grabbing a plate and putting some pancakes and bacon onto it before sitting down at the table next to Lou, across from Paul and Niall.
"We are doing good! Better than you I hear this morning," Paul comments and I look over at Niall, who is shovelling food into his mouth.
"Ah, yes." I say glaring at him as he avoided eye contact with me, "I was a bit hungover, but I am feeling much better after taking Advil," I respond as I take a bite of my pancakes. "These are amazing, thank you, Liam!"
"No problem, Charlotte! Glad you enjoy them!" Liam replies as he continues to make breakfast. Mia soon joins us in the kitchen, "Mia! I made Banana pancakes special for you since you are vegan!" Liam exclaims, sounding incredibly proud of himself as he goes to grab the plate for her.
She gives him a beautiful smile, "Liam, that is very nice of you, thank you!" She says, grabbing the plate from him and sitting down at the head of the table. Mia takes a bite, and you can see life come back into her eyes, "these are incredible Li!"
"Good!" He exclaims you could see how proud he was.
*******
Time passes, and I am back in my room, getting ready for the day. I was checking the settings on my camera to make sure I have the shutter speed correct for taking multiple pictures at the same time and checked to make sure the brightness is right. I will be going over my settings again once we get to the venue, but I do not want them to be messed up again.
I had also gotten changed into my outfit of the day, which was a pair of black ripped skinny jeans and my cute oversize, "It's a tea shirt" shirt, which I had tucked into my pants with a black belt. I had left my hair down for the day but made sure to have a scrunchie on my wrist just in case.
I packed my bag with my Canon, polaroid camera and water bottle as I got really thirsty last time, and I made my way down to the living room to see what everyone was doing. It was almost 12:30, which is the time Simon had mentioned earlier this morning that the car would be coming to pick us up.
I walk into the living room to find Mia and Liam talking on the sofa, and Harry and Lou goofing off on the ground, "Do you two ever act normal?" Louis was sitting on Harry, who was lying on his stomach, watching some show on the TV. Louis, however, was facing the opposite way and was pretending to play the drums on Harry's ass.
Paul was walking past right as I asked this, and he decides to chime in, "They have a song that clearly says they won't act their age, I think you can answer that questions yourself," I laugh.
"Exactly," Louis comments and goes back to pretending to play the drums. I roll my eyes and sit down on the second couch as I hear Simon calling up the stairs at Niall to hurry up.
"Do you want me to go check on him?" I ask Simon, and he nods his head. I get up again, taking my bag with me, and walk back upstairs. I knock on the bedroom door, and Niall opens it, shirtless just with pants on.
"Hey, sorry I fell asleep and just now realized what time it was," he explains as he throws a shirt on and quickly fixes his hair.
"That's alright, we are just getting ready to leave," I say, grabbing his guitar case and making sure his guitar was in it.
He finishes getting ready and smiles at me, "You look cute."
"Thanks, mister slowpoke; now let's go handsome," I say, handing him his guitar and pushing him out of the room.
************
1 Hour Later
"Boys get ready for the meet and greet!" Simon says, walking into the dressing room. The boys were in the middle of getting dressed. Harry was walking around without a shirt on because he had misplaced it, and Louis was in the corner, getting his hair done by their stylist. Liam was doing up his pants, and Niall was sitting on the couch with me and Mia drinking water with lemon, not even dressed yet. When Simon saw the chaos in the room, he rolled his eyes and let out a big sigh. "I understand we still have 30 minutes until it starts, but boys, get going!" He exclaims as he walks out of the room again.
I elbow Niall in the ribs, "You heard Simon; get going."
"What are you, my mother?" He replies jokingly as he gets up to get ready with the rest of the boys, I give him the death glare as he walks away with a cheeky smile on his face.
I looked over at Mia, who looked noticeably nervous for tonight, I, however, was more relaxed than I was for the first concert. The first concert felt like days ago; a lot had happened between then and now. I had become more confident in my skills but also knew that I was surrounded by people who cared about me, and would help out in any way they could.
Simon walked back into the room probably 20 minutes later and ushered the boys out of the room. Paul came in shortly after to take Mia and me to survey the venue for picture locations and prep our cameras before the place filled up with fans. We got roughly 15 minutes to do this, I calmly walked along the long stage and made sure to set my brightness settings correctly before heading back to the dressing room. I kept a close eye on my camera and Mia as I did not want a repeat of the first concert. Today's challenge is going to be harder to complete, especially if I had to use my polaroid camera. Action shots need to be timed perfectly or they turn out a blurry mess.
We adventure back to the dressing room, and I scroll through my phone as Mia, and I listen to some 80s music in the background. "How are you feeling for tonight?" I ask her in between songs.
She looks up at me; I could see the nerves in her face, "I am prepared," she said, trying to hide it.
"That's good, whoever wins tonight's challenge will be in the lead," I mention, and she nods her head. Me trying to be a nice person, I attempt to continue to hold a conversation with her. "How are you enjoying this experience?"
She locks her phone and places it on the couch next to her. She looks up at me and sighs, "It's been interesting."
I laugh, "yeah, they are an interesting group to work with; that's for sure," I reply, looking up from my phone to see she is no longer in the room. I sit there awkwardly until Super Trouper comes on, and I jump up and start dancing around the room with the boy's stylist, Maria. We are screaming the lyrics of the chorus as the boys walk into the room. We stop dead in our tracks when we notice they came into the room. They are all laughing at us, and we soon go right back to dancing around and screaming the lyrics; they join in.
It is a big dance party right up until the song ends, and Paul and Simon walk in the room and stare at us. "I have no words," Paul says, shaking his head and immediately walks out of the room again.
Simon shakes his head also but tells us to sit on the sofas as he needs to prepare us for the night ahead. He tells the boys that they will need to begin warming up as they will be going on stage at 6 pm. They get up and go to a separate part of the room to warm up their voices. Mia walks back into the room as the boys leave the couches and joins Simon and me.
"Mia and Charlotte, like I said before, tonight is action shots. While I know, the boys are not the most action-filled group, if any water fights break out, or they are running around the stage doing their normal shenanigans, that is what I want you to capture." He explains. "Just do your best, and I will take into consideration how the gig ends up going with what pictures you end up being able to capture." He goes on to explain where we will be entering through to get to the front of the stage to avoid fans and that bodyguards will be around if we need them. Mia and I nod, understanding what was going on, and we begin to prepare to head out to the front of the stage.
We stand up to leave the dressing room, my camera around my neck and phone in my back pocket. The boys come over right before we leave the room, "Good luck to both of you!" Liam says, giving us both hugs before he heads towards backstage.
"You guys are going to do amazing! Have fun out there!" Harry smiles, also giving us hugs, before following Liam.
Louis and Niall are the last to hug us and wish us luck. Louis takes Mia's hand and guides her out of the room, leaving Niall and me alone in the dressing room, smooth move Tommo. "You have a blast, okay?" I say to Niall, hugging him.
"I'll keep an eye out for you and maybe do my famous jump for you," he says, winking as me as we pull out of the hug. "Depending on how my knee feels."
"Thanks, Nialler," I say, leaning in and giving him a little kiss on the cheek quickly.
"You are going to do fantastic!" He says, smiling and kissing me on the forehead.
"Niall, let's go!" I head Louis yell from outside the dressing room. We quickly exit the room and walk in opposite directions. I run to promptly catch up with Mia, who was with Paul walking down to the front of the stage. He guided us to the doors leading to the front of the stage, gave us our earplugs and wished us luck before opening the doors the stage. We followed closely behind until he got to his post, we continued past him to where we were going to start for the night.
What Makes You Beautiful begins to play, and the boys run on. I start snapping as many pictures as I can, not knowing exactly what I was capturing, but not wanting to miss anything.
About 10 minutes later they were probably three songs in and I decided to stop and take a look at the pictures I had captured, none were perfect yet, but I did get some good ones that I can use. I look up from my camera as I hear girls screaming exceptionally loudly, and I notice they are trying to get Liam or Louis' attention. One of the girls had water guns that she wanted them to have. I walked over to the girls and told them I would give it to one of them, they handed me the water guns, and I made my way back over to where Liam happened to be standing.
He watched me walk up, and I could see the huge smile on his face. I screamed, "Hide them until closer to the end of the concert! I wanna get some good pictures when you both aren't soaking wet." He nodded in agreement and ran to hide them before Louis saw.
The concert continued, and I got an incredible picture of Niall that I plan to edit, so it's black and white. It's him mid strum on his guitar, mouth wide open and singing his heart out. I loved it, and it is going to turn out fantastic.
I also happened to capture a beautiful one of Liam in the middle of belting a note I am quite happy with.
As the concert slowly draws to a close, I give Liam the nod, and he runs to get the water guns from earlier. Ironically, Act My Age comes on, and it honestly was perfect timing. I captured an interesting picture of them drenching themselves with the water guns, and soon after, Liam decided to pour a whole bottle on Louis' head, which came out stunning.
They each did a solo performance to show off their solo music, and at the very end of Harry's performance of Kiwi, he did his imitation of a whale and spit water out of his mouth, which I got an incredible picture of.
They ended the concert with their new song, which did not provide any good action shots, so I just stood and listened to them perform. The song was so deep, and you could feel the emotion behind all of the boy's vocals. The song sadly came to an end, and they ran off stage. Paul rounded up Mia and me and took us back to the dressing room.
I looked over at Mia and could feel the stress radiating off of her. She was constantly scrolling through her pictures. Obviously, this challenge was a hard one for her.
We walked into the room to find a soaking wet Louis stripping his shirt and pants off, "I can't say I am sorry for giving Liam those water guns," I say as I laugh and walk to sit down on the couch.
Louis turns around and glares at me, "It was you?!"
"I mean, fans provided them, I just passed them along to Liam," I replied just as Niall and Liam walked into the room.
"You get some good pictures?" Liam asked, walking over to join me on the couch.
"Definitely, I am looking forward to editing them!" I reply, and Niall smiles at me as he throws Louis his dry pair of clothes.
Simon walks into the room, clapping, "Another outstanding show, boys! I hope the girls got some incredible pictures because you guys looked like you had a blast out there." He ushers everyone over to the couches and has everyone sits down. "For tonight, boys, you need to spend a good hour working out before you can call it a night, and girls, you will again have 3 hours to edit your pictures. Come down to the living room when you are finished, and I will take a look at them." He explains and then tells us all to get ready to head back to the Air BnB.
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Mia quickly walks past me and bursts through the front door into the house. I watch her basically run to her room and slam the door. As much as I want to help her, this is a competition, and my plan is to win, not help her win. I walk up to my room and close the door behind me, I change into sweats, leaving the t-shirt I had on previously, just taking off my bra, and I crawl into bed.
Niall said he would stop by to check on me and bring me something to eat after he was done working out, but for now, I was just blasting 80s music and editing by myself.
My bedroom happened to be right beside the gym, so all I could hear was grunting and them fucking around in there. It was quite funny listening to them, especially since all the sounds were so out of context.
The hour went fast, and before I knew it, Niall knocked on my door with a burger for both of us along with a garden salad. I turned down the music and took a break from editing to chat with him.
"How did everything go?" I ask him while I take a bite of my burger.
He finished chewing his bite, "It went well, did cardio and weights, basically full-body workout."
I nodded and took another bite of the burger, "Gonna feel it tomorrow?"
He laughs, "Probably."
We finish our dinner, and I get back to editing while he goes to take a shower, "You better hurry before I pass out from your stench." I laugh as he rolls his eyes.
"It is not that bad," he laughs lifting his arm to smell himself and makes a face at the smell, "well maybe it is," I laugh at his comment as he closes my door.
Fifteen minutes later, I was finished editing, and he was just coming back into my room. "I gotta start being careful and not just walking into your room without looking around to see whos in the hallway."
"Why what happened?" I asked as he sat down on the side of the bed.
"Liam was walking up the stairs because he forgot his water bottle in the gym and was wondering why I was just about to open your door," he explains, and I give him a worried look. "I acted dumb and pretended that I thought it was my room."
I laughed, "well, that's one way to get around it."
He shakes his head and laughs with me, "You all done?"
"Yeah," I said moving closer to him and showing him the pictures I chose to show Simon.
"Damn, you chose 5, but these are all amazing." He says, scrolling through them, "That one of me, damn I want that so badly."
"I will give it to you after everything is over," I said, smiling and giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "I am gonna head downstairs and show Simon," I say, getting up and walking towards the door. Niall decides to follow, and we make our way down to the main floor.
We find Liam and Harry watching Harry Potter on the TV while Simon and Paul were talking in the kitchen. Niall goes to join Liam and Harry, while I walk over to the kitchen, "Ms. Carter, done already?" Paul comments as he watches me walk closer.
"Yep, they were easy picks tonight, just needed to focus on editing them," I explain, placing my computer on the table in front of Simon.
He scrolls through the pictures, and his face begins to light up, "Stunning, all of them are incredible, I am very proud of you." He says, smiling as he scrolls through them multiple times, "You can go join the boys in the living room until Mia is done." I nod and walk towards the living room right when Louis is walking down the stairs.
"Hey love, how did editing go?" He asks as we make our way to the couches to join the other boys.
I sat down next to Harry and sprawled my legs on to Harry's lap, so I am sitting side was on the couch, "It was beautiful, I am quite happy with how they turned out."
All of the boys smiled at me, "I am glad to hear that Char, can't wait to see them," Liam responded, and the room went silent as we continued to watch Harry Potter.
Another hour passes, and Mia is currently over the time limit; I hear someone walk down the hall and knock on her room. She loudly walks out of her room and joins us in the living room. Simon and Paul then join us 10 minutes later and hook Mia's computer up to the TV to show her pictures.
She had taken some good pictures, nothing too incredible, but they weren't horrible. Then Simon set up my computer and went through my pictures. During this process, he picked out good things and bad things from both our handful of photos. However, mine was more of the nitty-gritty than constructive criticism. He pauses for a moment, "Now you all probably want to know the winner of this challenge," everyone nodded. "The winner for tonight's action shots challenge is Charlotte."
The boys give me high fives, and I do a little happy dance in my seat while Mia just crosses her arms and rolls her eyes. "Can I go to bed now?" She says, sounding pissed off. Simon nods his head, as she storms off.
"Congratulation Charlotte, you did a fantastic job!" Simon says as he and Paul make their way to their bedrooms for the night. "Oh, before I go to bed, boys, you have press and media interviews all day tomorrow starting early in the morning, so be ready to leave by 5 am, please. Charlotte, you and Mia can stay here and just relax for the day."
The boys groan but agree to be awake by five and Simon heads to his room. "Guess we should head to bed, eh?" I say, getting up from the couch. Everyone agrees, and we head to our designated rooms. Louis, Niall and I head upstairs, Louis goes into his bedroom, gives us both a wink before closing the door.
"Guess you will be spending another night with me?" I say to Niall while giving him a big smile.
"That alright?" He asks, and I nod. We walk into my room and crawl into bed. "My alarm is set for four so I can get ready. I hope that is alright."
"Of course, don't worry, I will be able to fall back to sleep," I smile, cuddling in closer to him and resting my head on his chest. "Did you have a good day?"
"It was wonderful. And you?"
"It was perfect," I say, looking up into his beautiful blue eyes. We slowly lean in and kiss each other before I turned over and fall asleep in his arms.