Chapter Text
As soon as the boys stepped out of Radio 1 they were met with hysterical screams.
“HARRY!”
“OH MY GOD, LOUIS TOUCHED MY HAND!”
“OH MY DAYS, LARRY!”
“I SHIP THAT, OH EM GEE!”
“YOU ARE MY OTP, NIAM!”
Niall gave a cheeky little wave and hopped into the car as fast as his crutches could carry him, glad for the quick getaway – not that he didn’t love the fans; it’s just that sometimes they were a bit much. Especially when you had to hop everywhere you went.
Breathing a sigh of relief Niall leant back against the headrest and closed his eyes as the car pulled away.
He felt Harry turn round and shift in his seat to talk to Louis. Within seconds they were giggling hysterically about something Grimmy had done to Finchy, and Niall settled down to try and get a bit of sleep.
But for some reason the screams of the fans were plaguing his thoughts; he realised he didn’t know what OTP actually meant. Niall felt consciousness slipping away from him as the car trundled back home and he decided to find out when he had a beer and bowl of chips in front of him.
Harry and Louis watched Liam with smug grins covering their faces as he gently placed Niall onto his bed and tucked him in. Gently patting down the duvet he smiled softly as he leant against Niall’s wardrobe and watched the slow rise and fall of his chest, as he continued to snore lightly.
Then Harry started to snigger and desperately tried to smother it behind his hand. Louis elbowed him sharply in the ribs but he was starting to giggle too.
Liam turned to glare at the giggling pair, “Oh can’t you just piss off?” He hissed sharply.
“Can’t you just admit you like him?” Louis retorted and fist bumped Harry whilst the pair held eye contact with Liam.
Liam flushed as he marched towards them and pushed them out the door. “Get out! Now!” Liam knew they were right, he would have to say something one day. The problem was he just didn’t know how.
“Niall, Niall! Wakey, wakey!” A chirpy voice cried.
“Mwjfhwjjjk.” Niall mumbled, burying his face in the warm pillow.
“What on earth is he mumbling about?”
“I have no idea Harry, no idea whatsoever”
“Oi pricks, leave him alone. Go prank call Paul or something”
Niall yawned and stretched, waking up mid conversation. Groaning he opened his eyes and saw Liam shoving Louis and Harry out the door. Threatening them with various things such as no cuddling, which sent them packing pretty quickly.
Just the mere sight of him going all protective made Niall’s heart melt. Sure, Niall was the world’s most carefree mofo, but Liam Payne made that damn hard be.
Pushing his feelings into the back of his mind Niall smiled groggily as Liam saw he was awake.
“How long I been out?” Niall rasped, coughing a couple of times to try and shake it off.
Liam glanced at his watch. “About 3 hours?” He smiled again. Niall utterly under its spell, mesmerised by the way it was so effortlessly carved into his perfect face. “Sorry about those two waking you. I thought they were having a twitcam. I’ll just go grab you some food then I’m gonna head back to mine. I didn’t want to leave till you’d woken”.
As Liam headed back into the kitchen Niall fell back against the pillows, now completely and utterly wide awake with a head full of Liam. He loved it.
Niall had barely got his thoughts back in order when Liam appeared again with a huge bowl of Doritos and a mug of tea. He placed it on Niall’s bedside table and ruffled his hair, his hand sliding Niall’s cheek and lingering there before he made his way to the door.
“Er… thanks.” Niall mumbled stiffly, but didn’t see the slight fall of Liam’s smile as he turned away.
“I’ll lock the door on my way out!” He called as the door shut with a loud bang. Then there was silence.
Sighing, he reached over for his cup of tea as he mulled over the day. Then Niall’s thoughts short circuited, the fans screaming from earlier in the day rushing through his mind as a brain wave hit him faster than Liam’s right hook.
He hadn’t checked Tumblr.
Now, Niall had glanced at Tumblr a few times, but Liam was more of an expert. He knew just how to completely turn the site upside down; just mentioning tumblr in various interviews seemed to do the trick.
And as he reached for his laptop Niall concluded that now seemed a good time to see what all the fuss was about.
After a few hours of googling, Niall found himself with a new insight into ‘fangirling’, ‘shipping’, various people’s ‘OTP’s’ and oh, a tumblr account.
He didn’t specify that it was him; neither did he tweet about getting an account. He fancied going all ‘incognito’ and finding out what the fans really thought.
And boy was he introduced to a whole new world.
He quickly realised the great divide between good fan fiction and utter bullshit, some written beautifully whilst others barely strung a comprehensible sentence together.
Another thing Niall cottoned onto pretty quickly was the various different divisions of Larry shippers. Some just shipping for the hell of it, some who lives were ruled by the pair, and some who were just damn scary.
In the midst of his tumblr education Niall stumbled on a rather peculiar post. It was entitled ‘Lord of the Shippers’.
And much to his shock, next to the post was an edited picture of himself with a crown upon his head.
Moving into a different position on his bed Niall settled down to thoroughly check out the post and it read:
‘All hail Niall Lord of the Shippers! Ruler of all fandoms, King of Directioners and all round legend.’
Niall smirked; he already liked this post a lot.
‘To take the oath of the allegiance to the Almighty Lord reblog this post and abide by these rules- Thou shall keep ones ships and OTPS strictly on Tumblr, Thou shall not ruin ANY relationships in reality and one shall always listen to the Lord’
Niall noticed at the bottom was a collection of Niam gifs. From their X-Factor days to the present. It was strangely moving, seeing his younger self with a very young looking Liam.
A tear slowly rolled down his cheek. If the entirety of Tumblr could see it why couldn’t Liam?
But what Niall failed to see was that he was blind too. Unable to see the love that Liam could offer and protection he could provide.
Niall shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts and steer them away from Liam.
Noticing that the post had only just been made Niall changed his URL. Well, if he was going to dive into the world of Tumblr he needed a damn good name.
He glanced at the clock on his laptop and saw the time – 01.19am. He’d been on tumblr for 4 and a half hours, and with a busy day tomorrow Niall decided to call it a night. Sighing, he shut his laptop lid and snuggled deep into his duvet and dreamed of Liam.
Over the next few days Niall decided against telling the boys about his Tumblr account. For various reasons, the main one being that Niall poured all his love for Liam onto the site, and the thought of anybody truly knowing what it meant was humiliating.
Each night he lay in bed reblogging and posting to his impressive pool of followers which after 4 days totalled 6,298, a number which Niall was very proud of. By the end of the week Niall found himself a councillor, a fan fiction reader and a completely and utterly addicted Tumblr user.
By the middle of October Niall had been a proud member of tumblr for a month and a half. He glanced over his calendar and realised they were doing promotion for the next few days; he would have to part with his laptop. And tumblr.
This revelation hit him head on, “Aw, shit!” He cursed.
‘What you done Nialler?’ A voice asked behind him.
Niall jumped about 6 foot in the air and turned round to see Harry leaning bemusedly against the wall.
Niall desperately racked his brains for an excuse, and as he looked down his eyes fell on one of his snapbacks in Harry’s hand.
‘My snapback!’ He cried with a much glee as he could muster. Crossing his fingers that Harry would believe him, considering its Harry it shouldn’t be that hard, he thought to himself. Thankfully Harry fell for it hook, line and sinker. He smirked and ran off down the hall yelling that if Niall didn’t get in the car soon he was going to sit on it.
Fortunately Niall’s tumblr ridden brain wasn’t so confused that he didn’t register the threat, and was soon charging down the hall way after Harry.
It was the last interview of the day and Niall was absolutely knackered, he wasn’t too bothered about it being a television interview. The hysterical screaming would ensure that he didn’t start snoozing.
‘And, now please welcome the cheekiest band, with the most hysterical fans, it’s One Direction!’ the interviewer cried, ushering the boys onto the sofa.
The interview seemed to flow well with each of the boys answering each other’s questions, saying things to try and put each other off, the usual really. As the interviewer rattled on, Niall remained in his little bubble, which was about to burst.
Because like so many others Niall believed that that on tumblr he would remain anonymous; his blog would never be the subject of a decent discussion. The strange fantasies and ideas that tumblr became a platform for would remain hidden in plain sight.
Unfortunately for Niall, life wasn’t that keen to play fair.
The interviewer then brought up Tumblr, which was a common occurrence. But instead of asking a trivial question that Niall was expecting she asked a question which threw him completely.
‘Have you boys ever heard of the ‘Lord of the Shippers’?’
Niall barely managed to contain his shock as he shook his head numbly along with the others, who still had no idea that it was him.
‘Well let’s just say they’ve been creating quite a stir on the site and have been revealing some pretty interesting things!’ the interviewer continued, thankfully oblivious to Niall’s discomfort as she continued to show them posts and pictures.
‘Well this is definitely the weirdest thing I have ever seen” Zayn giggled, as particularly funny edited picture of Louis came up. Niall had to allow himself a little smile, he was quite proud of that one.
The interview finished but the discussion about tumblr carried on during the boys’ journey home; Niall had to force himself to join in with the conversation. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Liam looking at him, brow furrowed. He chose to ignore the intense stare as he continued to chat with the boys about tumblr.
The car dropped them off at their flats and Niall stumbled out the car, fatigue leaking into his aching bones. Niall shifted on his good leg whilst fiddling with his crutches before he suddenly felt the ground disappear and he realised Liam had slung him over his shoulder and was marching him into the lift.
‘Tommo, grab Nialler’s crap will you?’ He yelled before the lift doors shut.
‘Can I get down please?’ Niall mumbled against the material of Liam’s jumper.
‘Not until you explain yourself’
‘Liiaaamm let me down!’
‘Niall,’ Liam’s voice was stern. ‘I suggest you explain yourself’
Explain himself. If only that was so easy, Niall thought.