Archive of Our Own

Before
Liam doesn’t remember the accident. The doctors had said that might happen, that his brain might block it out, too traumatic or something. Liam doesn’t remember the car hitting him, doesn’t remember the ambulance ride to the hospital, doesn’t remember the doctors rushing him into the operating room to try and stop the internal bleeding before it was too late. No, he’s told all of that afterwards, his mum crying as the nurse relays everything that had happened.

When he was brought in, they’d been sure he wouldn’t survive. There was just… so much damage. Three cracked ribs, a collapsed lung, a concussion. He’d broken both collarbones and a leg. There was blood flooding his abdomen that had shown no signs of stopping. All of that coupled with his condition, with the missing kidney, and the doctors hadn’t had much hope.

“How?” Liam had demanded. “I feel fine. How?”

His mum had taken over from there. Told him about how one of the doctors had come to her, told her that there was a way to save him but that it was risky. It was an experimental serum, something a few of the doctors had been working on in secret. Through tears, she told Liam about how she’d agreed, told them to do whatever they could to save him. “You’re my baby boy,” she’d said. “I couldn’t just let you die.”

Liam had looked at the nurse then and asked, “So what happens now?”

“Like your mum said, it’s very experimental, so we don’t really know. There could be side effects or you could be totally fine. We’re going to keep an eye on you for a while, just in case.”

“What kind of side effects?”

The nurse’s look had been sheepish when she shrugged. She asked if Liam had any more questions or if there was anything she could do for him and when he said no, she excused herself to check on other patients.

There are no side effects for two years. Well, besides his kidney growing back but the doctor's are pretty sure that would have happened anyways. When Liam goes in for his monthly check up twenty-four months after the accident they tell him that they’re officially ruling him a success. No more doctor’s appointments, no more blood tests; he's a normal sixteen year old boy.

There are no side effects for another year, and then a little girl runs out in front of a truck. Liam's on his way home from school, backpack slung over his shoulder and head down. He's bulked up in the past year, having joined the track team after getting the all clear from his doctor, but just because he can defend himself a bit better now doesn't mean the bullying has stopped. It just means they have to wait for his guard to be down.

He's on his way home when a little girl runs out into the street without looking. The truck tries to slow down, and Liam's close enough that he can see the look of sheer panic that crosses the driver's face as he realizes there is no way that he can stop in time. Liam doesn't even think before he's throwing his bag to the ground and darting out into the street. He knows he probably won't survive, he's wasted whatever kind of luck he had with car accidents, he's sure, but he can't just stand by and watch this little girl get crushed. She's much smaller than him. She'll have no chance at all.

So Liam throws down his bag and runs out into the street and pushes the little girl out of the way. He spares a passing thought for the cuts and bruises she'll get from that and then all he can think about is the truck barrelling towards him. He holds his hands out on instinct, some primal desire to protect himself no matter how futile it will be. But it isn't futile.

Liam's hands connect with the front of the truck and the truck stops, violently, the metal of the bonnet crunching and bending under Liam's hands. Liam moves maybe half an inch from the impact, but otherwise he's completely unharmed. Besides the fact that he seems to have lost the ability to blink.

"Wow." Liam turns to look at the little girl as she draws the word out. The blinking thing seems to be affecting her as well as she looks at him with her eyes wide. "That was amazing!"

With the inability to blink comes the inability to speak as well, apparently. Liam's mouth moves but not a single sound comes out. He tears his eyes away from the little girl when the door of the truck creaks open and the driver climbs out, already apologising.

Liam regains his voice then. "'S not your fault, mate. I should be apologising, I ruined your truck."

"I could have killed that little girl. This old truck is nothing compared to that," the man says, running his hands through his hair. "Don't really know how I'm going to explain that to the insurer. Or my wife. That was amazing, what you did, lad."

"Thanks," Liam says sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Just kind of jumped in before I even thought about it."

Liam and the man exchange a few more words before Liam excuses himself. The man waves him off, telling him that it isn't like they can exchange information when he was at fault and Liam did him a favor, really. Liam turns to go and finds the little girl standing on the sidewalk, still staring at him.

"Shouldn't you be getting home, love?" Liam asks as he approaches. She's standing right beside his backpack. He sinks down to her level when he goes to scoop the bag up. "Your mum will be getting worried."

"Are you special?" the girl asks instead of answering Liam's question. After Liam stands and puts his bag on his shoulder, she starts walking down the street, glancing over her shoulder expectantly. It's the opposite way that Liam was going, but she has just been through something traumatic and Liam thinks maybe it's best he doesn't leave her alone just yet.

"Not really," Liam tells her. It's not the whole truth, but he's not going to explain to a primary schooler all about how he's as not-special as they come.

The girl hums thoughtfully. "I'm special, you know. I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but I like you."

Liam's brow furrows in confusion and he looks down at her as they walk. "What do you mean you’re special?"

She grins up at him. "I could show you, if you'd like. It's much easier that way."

Liam looks around, but they're the only two on this part of the street. He doesn't really understand what's going on, but he's heard it's best to go along with children's stories, help them foster their imaginations and whatnot.

"Sure," Liam agrees. "Show me."

She stops then, and holds out her hand to Liam, watching him carefully as he studies her. After a few beats of nothing, she shakes her hand impatiently, so Liam reaches out and takes it.

His mind is instantly flooded with images. Flowers, crayons, voices. There's so much color and life. There's the image of a face laughing and glimpses of a grey house with a white fence, but everything moves too fast for Liam to really see anything. The images stop when the little girl pulls her hand from his.

"See? I told you I was special."

"What was that?" Liam asks.

She shrugs. "I don't know what you saw. I don't see what you see, I see what's in your head, so I can't really tell you. But it's things from my head. They went into your head and the things from your head went into mine."

Liam is struck dumb. He follows behind her as she starts walking again. There's a part of him (a huge part of him) that doesn't want to believe that really just happened. But it did. There's no way it didn't. Unless Liam dropped some kind of weight on his head at practice today and this has all been some kind of unconscious dream, he just saw images put into his head by a girl who can't be older than nine.

"Have you always been able to do that?" Liam questions her.

She shrugs. "For as long as I can remember. My mum said I didn't do it as much when I was a baby, but now it happens a lot. All I have to do is touch somebody sometimes and I go into their heads. My teacher doesn't like it when I do it to her."

"You shouldn't do that," Liam says, an automatic response.

The girl shrugs again. "I know. But sometimes she looks sad and I want to know why so I can cheer her up."

"That's very nice of you, but you should let people tell you things, don't just jump inside their heads."

"That's what my mum says. But sometimes I can't help it. I don't do it on purpose sometimes."

They walk on for a bit more before the girl stops in front of a house. Not just any house, but a grey one with a white fence.

"This is my house," she tells Liam.

"I know," Liam says. "I saw it when you... you know."

She positively beams at him when he tells her that. "Cool! I was thinking about my house before I touched you and then you saw it! That's awesome."

"Yes, it is." Liam agrees. "But you should get inside. Be careful crossing the street next time, okay?"

"Okay," the girl agrees, already opening the gate and stepping through to the other side of the fence. She starts walking up the cobblestone path to the door and Liam watches her, wants to make sure she makes it safely inside. She turns around when she's on the porch. "Oh, wait! What's your name?"

"Liam," he calls to her.

"Thank you for saving me today, Liam," she says, voice very serious. "You said you weren't special, but I don't think that's true. I think there's a lot you're about to learn about yourself."

Liam's mouth drops open as the girl disappears into the house. He was not that eloquent at nine. He's pretty sure he's not even that eloquent now.

He shakes his head to clear it and turns around to head for home. His head is swimming with everything that's happened today. He stopped a car. With his bare hands. It's just. That's unbelievable. Adrenaline, his brain provides helpfully, but Liam isn't so sure. It didn't feel like an adrenaline rush. Stopping that truck had felt like pushing a pillow off his bed.

And then the little girl. What the hell had she meant when she told him that he was going to learn a lot about himself? What did that even mean? Kids could be weird, but Liam thought that this was something a little bit beyond that. She'd seen into his head, for fuck's sake.

He’s quiet during dinner that night, more so than usual, to the point where his father asks if something happened at school. Liam knows his dad is asking about the kids on the football team that like to use Liam as their own personal punching bag, but Liam tells him they've been leaving him alone now that he is putting on more muscle. He doesn't tell his dad about how it’s almost worse now, being completely ignored in the hallways, only noticed by anyone when he’s alone and not paying attention enough to deflect the punch of whoever was walking by. He just says that it’s been a very long day and that he’s tired. Which isn’t totally honest, but whatever.

Once he's settled at his desk to do homework, Liam pulls up Google on his computer, curiosity outweighing the need to do his maths. He types in 'little girl with powers.' He expects to get a lot of movie hits or books or something, but instead he hits the jackpot. Headlines like "LITTLE GIRL SAVES FAMILY OF FIVE WITH POWERS" and "YOUNG GIRL WITH POWERS?" scream out at him from the page. There are dozens and dozens of results, all with the same kind of headline. Liam opens the first one. The sites a bit weird, offering information about aliens in the sidebar, but he figures it might still be worth a shot.

It talks about a six year old girl who managed to suspend an entire family in the air and remove them from their burning home. Witnesses talked about how they couldn't believe it, about how what she was doing was impossible. The end of the article is what intrigues Liam the most. The reporter writes about how more and more "Specials" have been showing up.

Special. That was the word the little girl today had used. Liam types that into the Google search bar and tries again. He sorts through dictionary definitions until he finds what he's looking for.

"GOVERNMENT TO BEGIN DISCUSSION ON 'SPECIALS'."

Liam clicks the link and reads through the article, the first one he’s found on a real news site. It explains that "Specials" are people who are gifted with certain powers. The little girl who levitated that family is only the beginning. Most officials believe that the powers granted to the Specials comes from doctors secretly experimenting on regular people and altering their DNA and, in some cases, unlocking a larger percentage of their brain. The article goes on to talk about how Special cases have become more prominent in the last few months from the bank robber who could turn himself invisible to a young boy who could cause earthquakes just by crying. It is impossible, the article reads, for the government to continue to stay silent on this topic any longer.

Liam skims the rest of the article, not really interested in the politics. Apparently the leaders are confused about what to do with Specials. They haven't done anything wrong, per se, but they're wild cards. No one knows who they are or what they may do. They don't even know if they'll be stable after everything their genes have gone through for them to have powers. The other side argues that Specials should be judged based on how they use their powers, not simply because they have powers. The debate has been picking up steam in the past few weeks.

It's fascinating, actually. That there are people out there who can do such amazing things. Liam's almost tempted to go find that little girl again and question her more about her powers, about what else she can do. But he knows that that would be ridiculous and probably very inappropriate. He doesn't even know her name.

It only takes Liam a few more days to realize that there’s something off with him. He’s lifting more weight at the gym than he thought possible. He accidentally pulls the door off the refrigerator one night when he’s looking for a midnight snack. It’s not until he’s vacuuming the living room one afternoon at his mum’s request and realizes that he’s lifted the sofa over his head that he thinks something may be a bit different about him.

He sets the sofa down and starts to panic a bit. He doesn’t really know what to do with this. He’s strong. Super strong. Or something. He’s not actually sure. He considers going back to the hospital where they treated him after his accident, but he hesitates. He’s been following the news on Specials ever since the day with the little girl and things are getting ugly. The world has blown up with stories about Specials. People are crying for world leaders to do something, but no one really seems sure what they’re asking for. For every one Special who uses their power for good, there’s three or four that use it for evil. And even more that simply can’t control their powers. The government is still at a stalemate, but Liam figures it’s only a matter of time before something happens to tip the scales one way or the other.

All of that makes him very hesitant to tell anyone about what’s happening to him, even his parents or sisters. Maybe it is just all the time he’s been spending at the gym. Even as he thinks that, he knows it’s not true. He lifted the sofa like it was nothing. Normal people don’t just do that. Normal people at least realize that they’re doing it.

Liam’s walking home from school the next day when the little girl finds him again.

“Liam!” she calls, and Liam turns to see her running down the sidewalk to catch up with him.

Liam stops and waits for her. She stops in front of him and, without any sort of preamble, reaches out and grabs his hand. Liam gasps as images flood his brain again. Snatches, just like last time. A man with bushy eyebrows. A doctor’s examination room. A red bike.

She lets go of his hand abruptly, nodding and humming to herself. She looks up at him, expression almost concerned. “You’ve figured it out, then. That you’re special.”

“I don’t know what I am,” Liam admits.

She tilts her head. “You’re a Special. Like me. You’re strong.”

“What does that mean?”

She shrugs at him. “I don’t know. You’re the only other Special I know. It’s just been me before now.”

She sounds so sad then. Liam crouches down to her level. “Well, now you’ve got me, haven’t you?” The smile he gets in return for his words is blinding and Liam can’t help but smile back.

“I’m Melanie,” she says.

“Hello, Melanie,” Liam says. “It’s very nice to see you again.”

“You too, Liam. Do you want to walk me home again?”

“Sure.”

It becomes a daily thing. They always meet up at the street corner from that first day, when Liam stopped the truck from hitting her, and then Liam walks her home. She tells him all about her day or about her mom or about anything that pops into her head, really. Liam finds himself looking forward to these walks. Melanie doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She doesn’t care that Liam’s a bit odd, a bit quieter than most boys his age. She doesn’t care that Liam’s getting stronger every day, until he has to be careful not to snap pencils between his fingers when he picks them up.

“So what are you going to do with your powers?” Melanie asks one day as they amble towards her house.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to use them to help people? Or are you just going to keep them a secret?”

Liam thinks for a second. He hadn’t really given it much thought before now, using his powers for anything. “I dunno. Use them to help people, I guess. That’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

“I knew you were going to say that!” Melanie exclaims. “I didn’t even have to look in your head to know it, either.”

Liam reaches over and musses up her hair, making her pout a bit at him, and then shoos her through the gate and up the steps of her house. He sees one of the curtains by the door twitch, knows it’s Melanie’s mother watching. He’d asked Melanie about her on one of their walks and Melanie had gone very quiet.

“Mum doesn’t go out too much anymore,” she’d said. “She says the world isn’t what it used to be and she doesn’t like this one.”

Liam raises a hand to wave at Melanie’s mother, even as the curtain is hastily pulled shut. He retreats back down the walk and out to the street, thinking about Melanie’s question. He doesn’t know why he didn’t think of it before. He’s super strong now. He can use that to help people. He just has to figure out how.

Before

The first time Niall takes Liam flying, Liam almost throws up.

“I don’t think I like this much,” Liam says, almost yelling to be heard over the wind as they woosh through the air.

Liam feels more than hears Niall’s laughter. His back is pressed to Niall’s front, Niall’s arms wrapped around Liam’s chest keeping him close. “It can take some getting used to.”

Niall drops them down a bit and Liam closes his eyes, breathes in slowly through his nose and out through his mouth, waiting for his stomach to settle a bit before opening his eyes again. “I don’t know how you do it, mate.”

“I don’t know how to not do it,” Niall counters. Liam squeezes his hands where they’re covering Niall’s on his torso.

They stay up in the sky for a bit longer, long enough for Liam to start enjoying it despite the rolling of his stomach, and then Niall brings them back down to the ground. He sets Liam down carefully before landing himself. He keeps an arm around Liam’s waist which is probably a good thing because Liam’s legs feel like jelly. He nearly falls over.

“Fuck!” Liam laughs and leans into Niall more. “I really don’t know how you do it. That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever done and I lift cars over my head for fun.”

Niall guffaws and Liam studies him. Niall’s so free with his laughter, but there’s something different about how he laughs when he’s with Liam. Like everything’s just a bit funnier, or like Liam’s just a bit funnier than everyone else (which isn’t true, they’re friends with Louis for God’s sake). Liam thinks Niall looks the most beautiful when he laughs, and he’s seen Niall fly around shirtless.

Liam doesn’t really know when this crush on Niall turned into a full fledged thing. He knows that he’s always felt drawn to Niall; to how he’s so quick to smile, so welcoming and friendly, but it’s more than that, too. He wants to kiss Niall and hold his hand. He wants to fall asleep with Niall and wake up with Niall and (if he’s being honest) sleep with Niall. Niall’s fit, and Liam doesn’t really think it’s all that out of the ordinary to want him that way.

“You good to walk or do you need another minute?” Niall asks, interrupting Liam’s thoughts.

Liam tilts a bit of his weight back onto his own legs. He’d probably be fine to walk back to Zayn’s house, but…

“Maybe another minute,” Liam says. He leans back against Niall. Niall wraps his other arm around Liam as well. Liam turns a bit so that they’re face to face instead of awkwardly side by side. He wraps his arms around Niall’s neck, shrugging when Niall raises his eyebrows. Whatever. Liam just needs a little extra support while his legs get reaquainted with the ground, that’s all.

“Do you want me to tell you why I love flying so much?” Niall asks.

Liam nods. They’re close enough together that his nose nearly brushes up against Niall’s. Liam makes no effort to move away.

“Over in Mullingar, we had this really small house. I mean, small. Only one person could use the hallway at the time because it was too narrow. Everything was cramped and it could be kind of awful sometimes because there was nowhere to go to just have time to yourself,” Niall says. “There’s nothing but space when you fly. It’s just you and the whole open sky. You can have as much time and space to yourself as you want.”

Liam knows he’s staring, but he can’t bring himself to stop. Every single thing he learns about Niall just makes Liam want him more. He wants to know about the first time Niall flew, if he felt sick the way Liam had. He wants to know what it’s like to never stop feeling what everyone around you is feeling. Mostly, he wants to know what it would feel like to kiss Niall, right now, in this field a few miles behind Zayn’s house.

“Liam?” Niall’s voice interrupts Liam’s thoughts again. “I, um. It kind of feels like you want to kiss me right now?”

Shit. Liam forgot that Niall can pick up on stuff like that, too. Harboring a secret crush on an empath isn’t the easiest thing in the world, Liam is learning.

“I just. I need you to tell me I’m right,” Niall says and he sounds nervous of all things. “I need you to tell me that you actually want me to kiss you and it’s not just me, like, projecting my feelings onto you or something.”

“Do you want to kiss me?” Liam asks then, a bit incredulous. He’s wanted to kiss Niall for months and now Niall’s going to admit that he’s wanted to kiss Liam too? Liam would be upset that they’ve wasted the past few months not kissing when they could have been kissing, but he’s too excited at the prospect of Niall wanting to kiss him back.

“I pretty much always want to kiss you,” Niall admits.

“The feeling’s mutual,” Liam says, “but I bet you know that.”

“I figured, yeah.”

Liam can’t even call Niall out on his shitty joke because he’s too busy leaning in until he can feel Niall’s breath against mouth. Liam licks his lips and then closes the distance between them.

Kissing Niall for the first time feels a lot like flying.

Before

Liam fucking hates cars. He wishes they’d never been invented, that everyone was still riding around on horseback instead of in stupid fucking cars. It didn’t help that he worked in a garage on the weekend, helping to repair them. His dad had set him up with a job in the same garage he had worked at before moving on to the aeroplane factory. Liam had been thrilled at first, eager to learn a trade and make money so he could go to the cinema or whatever, but tonight he hates his job.

Ten minutes before closing a car gets towed in, two very dejected boys climbing out of the cab of the tow truck as their car was lowered.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with it,” one of them says. He’s wearing a leather jacket, dark jeans, boots, and twirling a cigarette between his fingers. He would have been quite intimidating if not for how nervous and confused he looked. “I tried everything, but it won’t start.”

The boy with him, blonde hair sticking out beneath a snapback and a Miami Heat jersey on (is he aware they live in England?), puts a hand on the other boy’s shoulder, expression sympathetic. “Is there any way that we can get it fixed tonight? It’s kind of important.”

Liam’s boss looks over the car briefly before nodding. He signals for it to be brought into the garage and hoisted up on a set of the lifts. “Liam here will take a look at it, won’t you, Liam?”

Liam wants to argue that it isn’t fair, that this could take much longer than the time he owes them for coming in late after practice today. He looks over at the two boys, who can’t be much older than he is, honestly, and nods. If he was in their shoes, he’d want someone to do this for him. The instant relief that crosses both boys’ faces is enough to tell Liam that he made the right choice, no matter how late he’s going to end up staying.

Everyone else packs up and leaves for the night. His boss throws Liam the keys and reminds him to lock up before leaving himself. Liam sighs and pockets the keys before returning back to work on the car.

He raises the car up just enough that he can wiggle himself under it and get a look at what’s going on down below. He isn’t down there for too long when there’s a loud groaning noise and then a snap, and suddenly the car is coming down on top of him. Without even taking a breath, Liam has his hands up above him, firmly braced against the underside of the car, holding it up off of himself.

It isn’t like the car is heavy. At least, not for him. Liam’s sure that if this had happened to anyone else, they wouldn’t think it was so easy to be holding up a car that’s threatening to crush them. For Liam, though, it feels like nothing. It still sometimes freaks him out, the feeling of lifting something his brain knows is heavy even when his body tries to tell it otherwise, but for the most part he’s gotten over it.

It’s been almost a year since he realized he is Special. After his talk with Melanie, he’d started using his powers to help people. He’d started out small, carrying groceries for old ladies or moving furniture for the family moving in a few houses down. He’d branched out as he grew more comfortable in his new abilities, using them to help people who were getting bullied. Bullies weren’t so tough when Liam was picking them up one handed by the collar of their t-shirts and pulling them away from their targets. Liam didn’t rough them up, it wasn’t really his style. He’d put on enough muscle though that when he crossed his arms and told them to pick on someone their own size, it usually did the trick. He’d only had one or two repeat offenders and even they didn’t come back for a third encounter with him.

Of course, he only did that with his hood firmly pulled up so they couldn’t see his face. The debate over what to do with Specials was gaining traction with the government again. It seemed like Specials were coming out of the woodwork and it was getting almost impossible to track down the people who were making them. Liam’s own doctors had been arrested a few months ago, though they’d burned all their files before getting caught. Liam was thankful for that. He didn’t really fancy being dragged into some government lab for testing. Because of all that, he was very careful not to show his face to anyone. He was invisible enough at school that no one even put the pieces together. Or if they did, they didn’t say anything.

All of that changes, though, when Liam stops the car from crushing him. It isn’t like he had a choice. He wasn’t about to just let himself get flattened by this car. He straightens his arms, bench presses the car until he can balance one of the tyres on the lift. He squirms his way out from underneath it and stands before raising the car off of the lift again and placing it on the ground. He turns around and sees the two boys who came in with the car gaping at him through the waiting room window. Before Liam can do anything, they’re bursting through the door to the garage and making a beeline for him across the garage.

“Mate, that was sick!” the blond boy shouts excitedly. “You’re a Special!”

“I’m not.” Liam lies, though he’s sure the way his face is flushing gives him away. “I just spend a lot of time at the gym.”

The blonde one bursts out laughing while the one in the leather jacket just raises an eyebrow and says, “bullshit, mate.”

Liam starts backing away from them, trying to put more distance in between them in case he has to run. The government aren’t the only ones divided over the issue of what to do with Specials. Liam isn’t sure what side of this debate these boys fall on and he doesn’t want to take a chance that they’re on the wrong one. The one that wants to execute Specials just for being special. Liam’s heart is pounding as he says, “you’ve got this wrong, I --”

“We’re scaring him,” the blond boy murmurs to his friend. Liam might not have even heard it if he wasn’t attuned to every little thing these two boys were doing right now. His fight or flight instinct was in overdrive.

The boy in the leather jacket raises his hands, palms up and his face softens. “It’s okay, dude. Me too. I mean, nothing like that, but, yeah. Me too.”

Liam is still wary, wondering if this is some kind of trick.

“It’s not a trick,” the blond boy says. “You can trust us.”

“I can prove it,” the other boy chimes in again. “You got a mobile on you?”

Liam nods and digs his phone out of his pocket, not really sure what else to do. When the boy holds out his hand, Liam passes the phone over, careful not to let their fingers touch, just in case.

The boy examines the phone for a moment, the blond boy rocking back and forth on his heels behind him and watching over his shoulder. Finally, the boy looks up at Liam. Gives him a wink and says, “watch this.” His hands blur across the mobile and then he grins triumphantly. He bends down and puts the phone on the garage floor, except…

Except it’s not a phone any more. It’s a bloody robot. An actual robot, that is marching its way across the square of floor between Liam and these two boys. The robot mobile bumps into Liam’s leg and tips over, stops moving. Liam looks up at the two boys, unable to close his mouth.

“Zayn,” introduces the one who’d just turned Liam’s mobile into a literal walkie talkie. The boy holds out his hand. “Technopath. I can control and manipulate technology.”

“He’s also unbelievably smart," the blond one adds as Liam reaches out to shake Zayn’s hand. “Give him a few minutes, he’ll probably start showing off.” He thrusts his own hand out toward Liam and says, “‘m Niall. Resident Irish flying empath.”

“I’m Liam. I… I’m strong.”

Niall smiles, wide and genuine, Liam’s hand still in his own and corrects, “super strong.”

The day of the explosion, Liam’s in class. He’s sitting at his desk in maths when it happens.

“Holy shit!” a boy in his class shouts out.

Liam looks up from his worksheet to find half the class already out of their seats and at the windows. He stands and joins them, confused. He doesn’t stay confused for long. There’s a thick column of black smoke pouring into the sky from the city in the distance.

“That’s kilometers away,” one of the girls says. “It has to be a pretty big fire for us to be able to see the smoke from here.”

Liam’s mobile won’t stop buzzing in his pocket. He fishes it out, heart pounding when he sees Niall’s name on the screen. He answers it without thinking. “Hello?”

“Oh, thank God,” Niall says.

“Niall?” Liam asks into the phone, blocking his other ear with his hand. He isn’t the only one on his phone now, almost all of his classmates are talking to someone. “What’s happened? What’s wrong?”

“You’re safe, yeah?” Niall asks instead of answering. “Liam, tell me you’re somewhere safe, please.”

“I’m at school. Niall, what is going on?”

There’s shouting on the other end of the line and Liam hears Niall yell something, though he can’t quite make it out. When Niall returns, his tone is more serious than Liam has ever heard it. “I want you to stay right where you are, okay? I’m coming to get you. We could use your help down here.”

“What happened?!” Liam nearly yells, frustrated.

Niall’s voice is sad when he says, “a little girl blew up.”

After

Niall meets him in an alleyway after dark.

“We don’t have to do this, you know,” Liam tells him. “Meet up in these creepy places. You’re more than welcome at the base.”

Niall grins and shrugs, stepping forward until he’s in Liam’s space. “I know. ‘s kind of hot though, isn’t it? Sneaking off to snog my enemy boyfriend.”

“Enemy.” Liam repeats. He knows what Niall means but it still hurts to hear.

Niall backtracks immediately. “That’s not what I meant. You know that isn’t what I meant, Li.”

“I know.” Liam reaches forward and grips Niall’s hips, pulls him in closer. “Don’t wanna be your enemy.”

“You’re not,” Niall assures him, bring his arms up to wind around Liam’s neck. He pulls Liam down and kisses him sweetly. “You could never.”

“Tell that to Louis.”

“You’re not Louis’ enemy either. And he’s not yours. You’re both being idiots, but that’s nothing new.”

Liam bends down and nips at Niall’s lips in retaliation for the insult. It doesn’t work like a reprimand like it’s supposed to because nipping Niall’s lips leads to kissing Niall’s lips and before Liam knows it, he’s got Niall pressed up against one of the brick walls of the alleyway, Niall riding his thigh and breathing heavily.

“Told you,” Niall says on an exhale. “‘s hot.”

“Shut up,” Liam tells him, but he’s laughing. He leans in to kiss Niall again, presses his thigh more firmly against Niall’s cock where it’s still trapped inside of his trousers. “It would be more hot if I could get you naked.”

“Well, you could…”

Liam laughs again as Niall trails off suggestively. “I’m not going to strip you in an alley where anyone could walk down and see us. Or fly over. I’m like, the number one fugitive in the country right now. Public nudity doesn’t make for a quick escape.”

“So stop trying to escape,” Niall all but moans as Liam attaches his lips to his neck. “Stop running, Liam. Come home.”

Liam pulls away at that, leaves his thigh where it is, but that’s the only part of him that’s touching Niall now. “What?”

Niall at least has the decency to look apologetic. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have --”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Liam cuts him off, not really in the mood anymore. He takes a step back and Niall whines in protest, reaches out and tries to grab at Liam’s shirt to pull him back in.

“Liam, don’t, okay? I said I was sorry. I just. I want you back with me. I miss you.”

“Like I don’t miss you?” Liam asks incredulously. “Fuck, Niall, you’re all I think about. You’re the reason I’m fighting so hard. I want to make this world safe for people like us to live in. I want you to be safe!”

“I know, Li, I know,” Niall soothes. “Me too, yeah? It’s why I’m doing it, too. You know that, right?”

Liam does know that. Of course he does. It’s sick and it’s twisted what they’re doing, but they’re doing it for each other. “I wish it were easier,” Liam confesses. “I wish we could just be on the same side.”

“It’s hard, innit? When neither side is wrong or right. You can never be sure if you’re really making the best choice.”

“You’re my best choice,” Liam says and he doesn’t care that that doesn’t make sense. “No matter what it comes down to, Niall, I’m going to choose you over everything else.”

“Same for me.” Niall surges forward, forces Liam back against the opposite wall of the alley. Niall presses their foreheads together and closes his eyes. Breathes for a second and then says, “I love you so much.”

Liam kisses Niall then, can’t help it. His heart aches with how much he’s feeling for the boy in front of him. Everything is so shit right now, but Niall’s still by his side. Niall loves him despite the fact that Liam won’t come out of hiding, despite the fact that the whole world is against Liam. Niall isn’t even on Liam’s side.. Liam feels dizzy with it, with the knowledge of how much Niall loves him. He tries to channel it all into this kiss. He tries to tell Niall with his lips and teeth and tongue that he feels exactly the same, that he loves Niall just as much. And, because he’s Niall, Liam knows he understands, knows he can taste the love on Liam’s tongue the same way Liam can taste it on his. Niall doesn’t even need to use his powers.

When they finally break apart, Liam’s fighting to hold back tears. The sun is starting to rise and the alleyway is lit in the pre-dawn glow.

“I hate this part,” Niall whispers from where he has his head tucked underneath Liam’s chin. “I hate leaving you.”

Liam agrees wholeheartedly, but he knows that Niall can sense that, and that he doesn’t have to say it out loud.

“I miss it,” Niall continues, “the five of us. We were good, weren’t we?”

“We were great,” Liam corrects.

Niall goes on like Liam hasn’t said anything. “I get why you’re doing it. I get why you and Harry and Zayn are, but, like. I miss when it was all of us against the world, not all of us against each other.”

Liam doesn’t say anything, just pulls Niall closer and kisses the top of his head gently, lets his love for Niall expand out of him so that Niall can feel it. Niall lets out a small sob against Liam’s chest. Liam runs his hands up and down Niall’s back, presses Niall as close to himself as possible as the light from the rising sun starts to flood the alleyway.

Before

Liam closes up his last car for the day and turns around to see Niall smiling at him through the waiting room window. When Niall sees him, he waves enthusiastically. Liam flushes, but waves back nonetheless.

He goes into the back to change and wash the grease and oil off his face and hands. When he finally makes it to the waiting room, Niall’s reading something intently on his phone. He’s wearing a different snapback from the one he’d been wearing the other night, but it looks just as good. It’s turned around backwards and he has sunglasses balancing on top of them. He’s wearing a tank top that must be three sizes too big, hanging off him in a way that makes Liam one hundred percent sure he’ll be seeing Niall’s nipples by the end of today. He looks up when Liam clears his throat and a smile spreads across his face instantly.

“Hey, mate!” Niall exclaims. “Was just texting Harry, he’s excited to meet you.”

The butterflies that have taken up home in Liam’s stomach since accidentally revealing his powers to Zayn and Niall kick it up into overdrive. They’d stuck around for a while afterwards, Zayn making things in the garage come to life, fixing the lift with nothing but his brain which was just as freaky as it was cool. Niall had passed the time by floating around the garage, reclined as he drifted through the air. Before they’d left, they’d invited to Liam to come meet their friends Harry and Louis the next day. Liam had agreed, mostly because he didn’t know how to say no at that point. He’d gone through all of today in a state of shock, not totally sure that yesterday had even happened.

Now Niall is here in front of him, standing and zipping up his sweatshirt, then nodding his head for Liam to follow as he exits the garage. Niall climbs into the car that Liam had repaired yesterday and leans over to unlock the passenger door for Liam. Liam slides in and fastens his belt.

“It’s not too far from here,” Niall says. After a moment, he turns to face Liam. “Can I… can I try something?”

“What do you mean?” Liam asks.

“Being an empath, I can manipulate short term emotions. Like, I can’t make you fall in love with someone or suddenly start hating someone you’ve liked your whole life, but I can make you happy if you’re sad and stuff. It’s probably easier to just show you, to be honest. If you trust me.”

Liam has no reason to trust this boy. He met him yesterday for God’s sake. For some reason, though, he finds himself nodding.

“Okay,” Niall says. “I’m just gonna help you feel less nervous, alright?”

Liam nods. Niall takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly and Liam can feel himself grow calmer. His stomach settles, his hands stop fidgeting in his lap, he loses the urge to jiggle his leg.

“There you go,” Niall says, breaking the spell of silence in the car.

“Oh my god,” Liam says. “That was amazing.”

Niall blushes bright red and shrugs as he starts the car. “‘s not really anything. Especially not compared to like, you or Louis.”

“What can Louis do?”

“No way.” Niall laughs as they start driving down the street. “He’ll kill me if I spoil the surprise.”

They ride in near silence on the way to Harry’s house, but it doesn’t feel awkward. Liam wonders if that’s part of Niall’s powers, too. Just making everyone around him feel totally at ease.

“You can ask me questions, you know,” Niall says as if he’s reading Liam’s mind. He is, in a way, Liam supposes.

“I was just wondering about how your powers work,” Liam tells him honestly.

Niall shrugs. “I don’t know how they work. I can just sense what other people are feeling, I guess. I can also locate people based on feeling. Harry and I were at a concert the other night and I lost him in the crowd, but I’ve been around Harry for so long that I know what he feels like when he’s happy that I just searched around until I sensed him and then found him. That’s a pretty cool trick, I guess. And like I showed you, I can manipulate short term emotion. Came in pretty handy whenever I acted up in school, actually.”

Liam laughs. “Do you always have control over it?”

“No,” Niall answers bluntly. “I’ve gotten more control over manipulating people as I’ve gotten older. I used to do it without even realizing it when I was younger, which got kind of scary after I developed a moral compass. I still struggle with not just feeling everything all the time. It’s worse when I’m in crowds or something.”

“What do you do? To stop feeling all of that.”

“It helps if there’s someone I know with me because then I can just focus on their feelings and it helps me shut everyone else out. Otherwise, I just really have to focus. It can get intense sometimes, if someone experiences something really strong and I wasn’t ready for it. It can be just as bad for me as it is for them. Or just as good. When Louis’ mum had the new twins, Louis was so happy that I couldn’t stop smiling for hours for no reason.”

“Sounds pretty tricky.”

Niall turns down a sidestreet that Liam hadn’t noticed. The car jolts as it goes over the unpaved road. “It can be. It freaks a lot of people out, even if they don’t know the truth. I guess I just give off a vibe or something.”

Liam hums. Niall does give off a vibe, but the one Liam gets from him isn’t anything like that. It doesn’t freak him out at all, it makes him want to be closer to Niall.

“We’re here,” Niall announces as he pulls the car up in front of a house.

“You live together?”

“Yup. It’s Harry’s house, technically. His dad gave it to him when he moved out to start uni. It was mostly a bribe, but hey. I moved in next. My roommate at uni was terrible and Harry and I were mates so I moved in. Zayn came along not much later. Louis moved in after his mum got pregnant again. He has four younger sisters already, she needed the space and he needed a bit more freedom. He’s still close enough to them that he can go home whenever he wants or whenever his mum needs him, but he’s happy here. Happier still that Harry’s also here.”

“Louis and Harry, are they…” Liam trails off.

“Together?” Niall finishes for him as they walk up to the front door. “Nah, but they act like it. They’re so fucking domestic sometimes.”

“Talking about me and Haz again, Nialler?” The door swings open to reveal a boy. He’s shorter than Liam but somehow still seems bigger, like he’s used to being in charge and in control despite his size. Maybe even in spite of it. He’s wearing an oversized tank top (not unlike Niall’s), the neckline scooping low to show off a tattoo across his chest and the ones on his biceps as well. He has a beanie and jogging bottoms on, and a pair of house slippers on his feet. Liam is envious of how comfortable he looks.

“Always, Lou,” Niall says, getting pulled into a hug as he steps forward. When they separate, he gestures at Liam “This is Liam, the guy Zayn and I told you about.”

“Welcome, Liam,” Louis says, just this side of sarcastic. “Come on in. I’m Louis.”

“Nice to meet you,” Liam greets. He holds out his hand for Louis to take, which he does with a positively devilish smile.

“Louis, don’t,” Niall says, sounding both reproachful and resigned.

“Don’t what?” Louis asks and even though Liam’s only just met him, he can tell that Louis’ innocent act is total bullshit.

A few seconds later, Liam understands Niall’s warning. Louis’ hand is hot. Like, burning hot. It feels like Liam turned the hob on and then stuck his hand into the center of it.

“Fucking hell,” Liam swears loudly and goes to pull his hand away. Louis’ holding on tighter than Liam thought he was though, and as Liam jerks his hand to get it away from Louis, Louis goes flying across the room, propelled by Liam’s strength. He crashes into a wall face first and Niall bursts out laughing while Liam rushes to apologize.

“I’m so sorry! I can’t always control it like, I forget and stuff. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

Louis peels himself off the wall (which has the outline of a charred handprint on it now) and glares at Liam. “You bastard.”

“Lay off, Lou,” Niall says, coming up on the side of Liam and wrapping an arm around his waist. “It’s your own fault. We tell you all the time not to burn people when you first meet them. Louis can create and manipulate fire.” He directs the last part to Liam.

“It’s hilarious, though. You have to admit that, at least,” Louis argues.

“It was funny watching you almost crash into a wall,” Niall says.

Louis raises his eyebrows. “You traitor. I should have expected it, really, being Irish as you are.”

“Shut up, mate,” Niall says, but he’s laughing. “Where are Haz and Zayn?”

“Harry!” Louis yells with no preamble. Liam winces and Niall’s hand squeezes at his waist reassuringly. “Zayn! Niall’s home and he’s brought a boy.”

Niall moves away from Liam then and Liam manages to stop himself from taking a step forward, from chasing after the comfort Niall is bringing in the face of meeting these new people. It doesn’t feel like it did when Niall messed with his feelings in the car, Niall just makes Liam feel good. He can’t really explain it. He isn’t sure he wants to. Niall punches Louis in the arm as he walks down the hallway. “You’re an arsehole.”

Louis grins, clearly satisfied with himself, and nods for Liam to come along as he follows Niall down the hall. They find him in the kitchen, electric kettle already on, pint of ice cream in his hand, and a spoon in his mouth.

There’s a click and the sound of the kettle stops. Niall groans loudly, pulling the spoon out of his mouth to say, “Zayn. I just want some tea, bro, fuck with someone else.”

Zayn comes into the kitchen then. He looks different from when Liam saw him in the garage. Gone is the leather jacket and quiffed up hair. In their place is fringe flopping over his forehead and glasses. Liam likes it, makes him look more approachable. Zayn’s smiling. “Aw, baby, you know I only like fucking with you.”

Niall just rolls his eyes and sticks another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

“Speaking of babies, look who’s finally woken up,” Louis says as another boy comes into the room. This boy is tall, taller than Liam even. He has a mop of curly hair not unlike the curls Liam had sported through years nine and ten before deeming it too much of a hassle and shaving it all off. He’s rubbing at his face, sleeves of his jumper rolled halfway up his forearms. He tugs them down over his hands as he cross the kitchen to rub his cheek against the top of Louis’ head.

Louis pushes at him, but it doesn’t actually look like he’s trying that hard. “Stop. Haz, knock it off.”

“‘m cold, Lewis, warm me up,” the boy says, wrapping his arms around Louis and pulling him in close.

Liam stands just inside the doorway, off to the side where he’ll be out of the way. He’s used to it, honestly, has been to enough of the parties that the cross country team has thrown to know all the best places to stand where everyone will just leave him be.

“Hi, Liam.” Zayn turns to him almost like he’d read Liam’s mind. Liam wonders if telepathy is part of Zayn’s powers as well. “Good to see you again.”

“You too,” Liam answers back.

“Hi, ‘m Harry,” the tall boy says. He crosses the kitchen, pulling up the sleeve that’s covering his right hand so he can hold it out for Liam to shake. Liam, for good reason, hesitates to take Harry’s hand. Harry notices, throws his head back and laughs. “I promise not to burn you.”

Liam shakes Harry’s hand, not thoroughly convinced that Harry won’t freeze his hand or something instead, but it’s just a normal handshake.

“You should have seen it, mate. Louis burned Liam, right, so Liam basically threw him through a wall.” Retelling the story sends Niall into another bout of laughter.

“I didn’t mean to!” Liam tells them, but he’s smiling just a bit.

Zayn crosses the kitchen then, poking at Niall’s side. “Do you want me to fix the kettle then?”

“Nah, it’s alright,” Niall says. He puts down his ice cream and picks up his mug. He drops the tea bag in it and pours the cold water from the kettle in. He holds it out to Louis. “If you don’t mind.”

“Never do,” Louis says. He holds out his hand and Niall places his mug on his palm. A few seconds later, the cup starts steaming.

Niall grins happily and takes a sip. “Perfect, as always.” He turns to Liam. “Would you like a cuppa?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind.”

“I got it,” Zayn says, waving his hand. The kettle snaps back to life, warming up the water that Niall left in it.

After all five of them have a mug of tea in hand, they head into the living room of the house. Harry and Louis curl up in the two armchairs in the room. Liam sits on the edge of the couch, Niall and Zayn splaying out beside him. Niall’s knee knocks against Liam’s and he gives Liam a small smile, which Liam returns.

“So, Liam,” Harry begins. “Zayn and Niall say you’ve got something special.”

“Fuck you, that was so bad,” Zayn groans out.

Harry shrugs and grins into his tea, looking extremely pleased with himself.

“You have super strength then, yeah?” Louis picks up the conversation instead. “I would assume, based on the wall incident.”

Liam nods, cradling his tea close to his chest. “I stopped a car from hitting a little girl one day and that’s when I figured it out.”

“That’s a much better story than Louis’,” Niall says. “Much less embarrassing, too.”

“Would you kindly shut up?” Louis cocks his eyebrows at Niall. “I have plenty of embarrassing stories about you that I could share.”

Niall winks at Louis, who laughs, and Liam feels himself relax. Normally he would feel very out of place in a room full of people who are already friends, awkward in the face of inside jokes and familiarity. Something about these four is different, though. It isn’t that Liam feels totally at ease, he still feels too big, like he’s taking up too much space in a place he doesn’t really belong, but part of him feels like he could belong here. He tries to squash that feeling, press it down so that he is less disappointed later on when they decide that he’s too boring or too awkward or whatever it is that’s kept him from making any friends all these years.

It’s hard to do, though, with Niall creeping closer and closer in against Liam and Zayn’s gaze on him, steady and curious, like he actually wants to get to know Liam. It’s hard to do with Harry and Louis bantering back and forth across the room, fondness overpowering any kind of bite the words would leave behind.

“What’s your power, Harry?” Liam finally asks, curiosity winning out over his fear of being awkward.

“Super strength,” Harry says. “And flight. And the ability to manipulate fire, technology, and emotions. And if you can do anything else, I can do that, too.”

“Harry has mimicry,” Zayn explains. “He can adopt and use the powers of anyone around him.”

“I can also heal people,” Harry adds.

“That’s sick,” Liam tells him. “All of you guys have such cool powers.”

“I’d kill for super strength, though,” Louis says thoughtfully. “Then I could throw Haz out on his arse whenever he’s annoying me.”

“It’s my house, Louis.” From Harry’s tone, Liam gets the feeling this is a discussion they have often.

They sit around and talk for a bit longer, all of them asking Liam questions about his life, how he thinks he got his powers. He tells them about the car accident, about the experimental serum they’d used to save him. He tells them about the day he saved Melanie and how he’d started using his powers more and more recently to try and help people.

The four of them seem fascinated, hanging on Liam’s every word. It makes him flush a bit, stuttering over words when he meets one of their eyes by accident. He’s just not used to this, to people asking about him and then actually caring about what he says in response (his parents and sisters don’t count, they’re like, morally obligated to listen to him). And he can tell that they all actually care. They keep commenting, asking more questions. Liam has never felt more out of place and right at home in his life. He quite likes it.

Harry and Niall disappear halfway through Louis’ story of how he figured out that he could manipulate fire (which involved a very awkward situation with his dick and a lot of “heat” jokes from the rest of them) that has Liam in stitches. He has never laughed this hard in his life, he’s sure of it.

Zayn goes next, talking about how he doesn’t really know how he got his powers, but that he figured out kind of young that he was different from everyone else.

“I was doing university level math in daycare,” he says and Liam doesn’t even think he’s exaggerating. “At first I thought it was just because I liked learning more than the other kids, you know? Like, I knew all of these things because I read so much after school and whatever. The tipping point came when I realized that most six year olds were not nearly as self-aware as I was. I started trying to hide it a bit more after that. I still skipped a grade in secondary school, but that was mostly so I could get out of secondary school sooner.”

Over the dinner they prepared, Harry and Niall tell Liam how they figured out their powers. Niall was always more attuned to other people’s feelings than kids his age. He didn’t really think anything of it, just thought he was a bit more perceptive than most. When he started levitating on his thirteenth birthday, he started to figure out that he was just a bit different. Harry’s story is different. Harry knows exactly when he got his powers, was told what they would do, what would happen to him. He’s somber as he tells the story, talks of some of the testing and experiments he went through until he finally broke away. He told his mum what had happened and she’d moved them out to the country, away from the facility where Harry had been being treated.

“She had no idea what was really going on,” Harry says. “She just thought they were helping to treat my insomnia.”

Louis rubs his hand soothingly up and down Harry’s back as he tells the story. Zayn reaches across the table to take the hand Harry isn’t using to eat with. He smiles at both of them gratefully. Liam’s heart aches for him. Harry seems so bright and happy, soft and warm and open. It’s hard to imagine this same boy being poked and prodded by people in lab coats.

“I’m so sorry, Harry,” Liam finally says. Harry just purses his lips and nods.

“Stop it, Niall, I’m fine,” Harry says suddenly, looking up at Niall from under his fringe.

Niall grins, caught out. “I just don’t like seeing you sad.”

Harry puts down his fork to blow Niall a kiss across the table, his other hand still tangled with Zayn’s, who is trying to eat with his non-dominant hand. If the conversation wasn’t so heavy and Liam wasn’t still so new to all of this he would laugh at Zayn’s attempt to stab at his food.

“So, Liam, what do you think?” Louis asks after they’ve all finished their dinners. “Do you want to join our Heroes Club? Unless you have plans to take over the world at any point, in which case I’m afraid you don’t qualify.”

“No, I’m good. No world domination plans for me,” Liam says.

“Well then, Liam Payne. Welcome to Heroes Club.”

Before

Liam is waiting outside the school when Niall pulls up in his car. He throws the door open before he even fully stops, yelling a “get in” at Liam before revving the engine again. Liam climbs in, slamming the door as Niall peels out of the school’s car park and back onto the main road.

“What the fuck is going on? Are you alright?” Liam asks, reaching over to trace a cut that runs from Niall’s temple just past his cheekbone.

Niall manages to shoot Liam a reassuring smile, fiddle with the buttons on the dash, and maneuver through traffic all at the same time. “I’m fine. Some debris got me as it flew past.” He’s still messing with the buttons on the radio console when he says mostly to himself, “what the fuck Zayn, why do you always have to hide the buttons.”

“Niall, why is there debris?” Liam is beyond confused right now. He’d thought once Niall showed up, he’d get more answers. Well, more than “a little girl blew up”. That hadn’t been much of an answer in the first place, honestly.

“There was a girl in the city. She was a Special, not really sure what her power was to be honest, just know she was one. She was outside playing and kind of just… combusted. Blew up an entire city block and the damage goes a lot further.”

“Oh my god,” Liam breathes. That is. That is definitely not how he expected his day to go today. “What’s going on? Are there a lot of people hurt?”

Niall nods, the hand not pressing at buttons tight on the steering wheel. “Louis, Zayn, and Haz are already on the scene trying to do what they can, but we figured you’d be a pretty big help lifting buildings off of people and stuff.”

“The little girl, is she…” Liam trails off, can’t bring himself to say it. He can’t stop picturing Melanie. He just sees her, scared and alone on a playground, maybe clutching her head when everything became too much before exploding. It’s not a feeling he’s unfamiliar with; with having so much inside of you you feel you could burst. But this poor girl actually had burst and even though Liam is sure he knows the answer, he lets his voice lilt up just a bit at the end, turning his half-sentence into a question.

“Don’t do that to yourself right now, Liam,” Niall tells him. “Just focus on helping everyone else, alright? You like that, you like helping people. I need you to focus on that right now.”

Liam studies Niall for a second, letting the determined look on Niall’s face help to settle him. Niall is the most carefree person that Liam has ever met. He doesn’t hold grudges and is so slow to anger, that for a while Liam wasn’t sure Niall knew how to be angry with someone. All of that, though, just serves to contrast this part of Niall even more. The Niall who had once yelled at Harry’s father over the phone for forgetting Harry’s birthday. The Niall who singlehandedly calmed Louis down (without powers) when one of his sisters ended up in the hospital and he couldn’t get there to see her. The Niall who was sitting in front of Liam right now, grinning almost triumphantly as he stabbed at a button just beneath the volume knob of the radio. Niall is everything Liam needs in every second of the day, and a little girl just exploded but Liam can’t think of anything except how lucky he is to be falling in love with this boy.

“Fucking finally,” Niall says, holding the button down. The car makes a loud groaning noise and Liam blanches, thinks that the car is going to give out. He keeps telling Niall to let him take another look under the hood, let him tune some things up. Niall always refuses, tells Liam that his car’s ability to keep going even though it’s total shit is a testament to its character. Liam hopes Niall regrets ever saying that to him as the car slows down and nearly stops in the middle of the street.

Or not.

The car isn’t stopping because it’s broken. No. The car is stopping because instead of moving forwards, it’s started to move upwards. In just a few seconds, they’re hovering over the street and the rest of the cars.

“That’s more like it!” Niall cheers and jerks the car into gear. He presses down on the gas pedal and the car flies forward, much faster than it had been able to on the ground.

Liam doesn’t even realize how tightly he’s gripping the armrest until Niall reaches over and puts his hand over Liam’s. Which, no. Niall should definitely have both hands on the wheel right now. Liam knows that Niall is a good driver, but this is different. This is flying. Which, okay. Niall is pretty good at that, too, but not in a car.

“I see Zayn’s been messing around with the car,” Liam says instead of any of the other million things he could say right now.

“I feel like Harry bloody Potter,” is all Niall responds with. Liam is falling in love with a moron.

They make it into the city in almost no time after that, passing over emergency vehicles heading in and the flood of cars performing a mass exodus.

“Look around,” Niall tells Liam. “See if you can spot Zayn or one of the others.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Louis is the first one that Liam spots. He’s standing in front of what looks like a building of flats, hands raised as he tries to control the fire that’s currently engulfing it. Even from this far away, Liam can see how tired Louis looks, can only imagine how much this is taking out of him.

“Lou’s over there.” He directs Niall over to where Louis is and Niall lands the car on the street just behind where Louis is standing. Louis barely even spares them a glance.

Liam and Niall are out of the car in record time, coming up on either side of Louis as he deals with another surge of flames. “What can we do?” Liam asks.

“There are still people inside,” Louis says, voice strained. “I can hold the fire back, but someone needs to get them out of there.”

“I’ve got it.” Liam doesn’t hesitate to say. He knows that Louis will protect him from the fire, has no doubt that he will leave this building as unburned as he enters it.

“What about the smoke?” Niall asks.

“Not much I can do about that,” Louis admits. “Though it shouldn’t be too bad. I caught this one before the fire could really get in there.”

“It’ll be fine,” Liam says to Niall. “I’m indestructible, remember?”

“No, you’re not,” Zayn’s voice carries over to them. “You just have a very high invulnerability level. And we’ve only tested that by throwing things at you, we don’t know how you’ll react to something trying to kill you from the inside.”

“Don’t really have a choice, though, do I?”

Zayn looks at the building and sighs. “No, not really.”

Liam takes that as permission, pulls the collar of his t-shirt up over his mouth and nose, and sprints into the building.

Fuck, but it is hot. There’s no actual fire anywhere, and Liam silently sends Louis a few cheers, but that doesn’t stop the building from being unbelievably hot. Liam’s throat dries up right away, each breath painful as it scratches its way down his throat. He blinks what feels like a million times, but his eyes stay dry and itchy. He needs to do this fast or he won’t need to worry about the smoke, the heat will kill him. Or at least dehydrate him. Zayn was right, they haven’t tested his ability to resist anything that affects him from the inside. They’ve barely tested his ability to resist anything affects him from the outside. He ignores all of that, though, in favor of pushing on through the building, lowering his shirt every few feet to yell, “Hello! I’m here to help you!”

“Help me! Is there someone there?” a voice calls somewhere from Liam’s left. “Please, I have a child!”

He pulls his shirt back up, slams his shoulder up against the door of the nearest flat until it opens, and then stumbles inside. He finds a mother curled up in the bathroom with a baby in her arms, wet towels stuffed up against the crack to keep the smoke out.

“Hello,” Liam greets. “My name is Liam and I’m gonna get you out of here, okay?”

The woman is obviously scared out of her mind. Her hair is falling out of its bun and there are tear tracks down her face, which is as red as the fire engines Liam hopes are on their way. He doesn’t know how much longer Louis can hold on. She doesn’t say anything, just reaches out one of her hands to Liam so he can help her up off of the floor, her other hand clutching her baby tightly. As soon as she’s standing, she pulls away so she can cover her baby’s face with the blanket. When this is all done, Liam is going to come find this woman and give her an award for being such an amazing and clever mum.

“I’m going to carry you, if that’s alright?” Liam says. She nods at him, and he bends down to scoop her up, her knees over his forearm and a hand around her back. She tucks the baby into the curve of her abdomen, cooing softly. The baby hasn’t made a sound since Liam found them, he realizes. Panic sets in a bit at that, the thought that this baby might have already breathed in too much smoke. He needs to get them out of here. Fast.

He makes his way back out to the hallway. It’s hotter than before, a side effect of the slow burn of the fire. The mother gasps as the heat hits them in unrelenting waves, curling in even more to protect her baby. Liam hunches over to protect them as much as possible as he moves quickly through the heat and towards the front door of the building. He breaks out into the fresh air, gasping as the cooler washes over his body and floods his lungs. He can hear the mother doing the same thing.

“Harry!” Liam hears Zayn’s voice. “Over here.”

Harry is suddenly in front of Liam, hands held out for him to put the woman and baby into.

“She has a baby, Haz.” Liam manages to get out.

“I got them, Li,” Harry assures him as he moves to set them down on the other side of the street, out of harm’s way. “Good job.”

Liam nods, weary as the adrenaline wears off. He makes his way over to where Niall is supporting Louis, arm around his waist, while Zayn stands a bit off to the side, some kind of machine in his hand.

“What’s going on?” Liam asks, nudging Niall gently as he comes up beside him.

“Zayn built some kind of thing that lets him see if there are people in the building,” Niall explains. “They were the only two inside, this building’s empty now.”

“Thank God for that,” Louis says. Liam leans around Niall to look at Louis. He’s unbelievably pale, looks like he could drop at any minute. Liam suspects he would have already collapsed to the ground if not for the arm Niall has around him.

“We’re letting it burn then?” Liam asks.

Niall shrugs in a what else can we do? kind of way. “We tried calling for a fire truck, but they’re so overwhelmed right now that it wouldn’t make a difference even if Lou did hold off the fire for a bit longer. You got everyone out, that’s what matters.”

“Only got two,” Liam protests. “Louis did the hard part. He gave everyone else time to get out.”

Louis gives Liam a weak smile. Zayn comes over then, frowning at his machine. “There’s another fire a block away from here. If you’re feeling up to it, Louis, they could probably use our help.”

“Why wouldn’t I be feeling up to it?” Louis demands, straightening up and away from Niall. He flicks his fringe off his forehead and Liam watches his face transform into something determined instead of tired.

Zayn studies Louis for a second, then nods, as if he’s accepted that no matter how tired Louis really is, he’s going to push on anyways. He has to push on anyways. They all do.

“Great,” Zayn says. “We’ll grab Harry and go, then.”

As they’re walking over to where Harry is still sitting with the woman and her baby, Liam asks, “What’s that?”

Zayn looks at him and shrugs. “Just something I put together. There was some debris on the street from the computer store a few streets over that got destroyed in the blast so I just combined it with my mobile.”

“What does it do?”

“It measures heat signatures, wide range and close range. It essentially tells me where the fires are because they’re hotter than everything else and then, once we’re at the fire, I can search for the cooler heat signatures and those are usually people.”

“That’s amazing,” Liam tells him.

The corners of Zayn’s mouth slip up into a smile, but he tamps it down quickly, all business again. “Thank you. It’s proving pretty useful.” He crouches down beside Harry once they reach him. “How are they?”

“They’re going to be fine,” Harry says, beaming as he looks back and forth between the mother and Zayn. “She did a very good job protecting her baby, didn’t she? Right great mum, she is.”

The woman smiles shyly and Liam can practically hear Louis rolling his eyes somewhere behind him. She looks up at Liam, then, smile turning into something more grateful than bashful. “Thank you for saving us. You really are a hero.”

Liam can feel himself going red and he hopes no one can tell under the flush he’s still carrying from the heat of the fire. “‘s no big deal.”

The woman just shakes her head, but doesn’t say anything else.

“We’ve called a friend to come and pick you up and bring you to the hospital,” Zayn says. “It’ll be a bit of a wait when you get there, but we think it’s a good idea that you get the baby checked over, at least. You should be fine, that’s like, what Harry does, but we don’t want to take any chances.”

“Sure,” the woman agrees easily. “She seems alright, though. Breathing is fine and she’s flirting up a storm with this one.” She nods toward Harry, who smiles smugly at Louis.

“Here’s my mobile number,” Liam says, pulling a note out of his wallet and a pen out of Niall’s pocket. He scribbles his number down and hands it to her. “We’re only going to be a few streets over, please call if you need anything.”

“Thank you, you’ve all been so kind.” The woman takes the note from him. “Very kind and very brave.”

They all say thank you before moving on, following Zayn’s device towards the next fire.

“We should probably have a plan,” Zayn says as they approach. “We can’t just throw Liam into another building. Louis is already tired and like, we don’t want to take any chances.”

“So what do we do?” Harry asks.

Zayn thinks for a second before nodding to himself. “Harry, I want you to stay out here with Louis and I. You’ll mimic Louis’ powers and help him control the flames. Liam can search the first two floors and Niall can fly around the upper floors and help people out of windows or summat. First though, I need everyone’s mobile except Liam.”

They hand over their phones without question, the severity of the situation pounding into Liam’s chest; that none of the guys even made a small noise of complaint. Zayn works them for a minute, handing Liam and Niall earpieces instead of full devices. “Here. Now you can both keep in touch with us out here. Is everyone clear on the plan?” Everyone nods. “If there are any problems -- if you’re too tired to go on, if something goes wrong, anything -- you tell me right away.”

Everyone nods again. Louis puts his hand in the middle of where the five of them are huddled up. Liam puts his on top, understanding instantly. Niall’s goes on top of his, then Zayn, then Harry.

“One, two, three… break!” Louis says and they break apart. Niall keeps hold of Liam’s hand, pressing his fingers briefly against the pulse point of Liam’s wrist before letting him go and kicking up into the air.

Before

"So, what? Is Niall like your boyfriend now?" Melanie asks. They've fallen into the habit of Liam walking her home from school every day. Her mum seems to have warmed up to him as well, now that she knows he isn't going to turn her daughter in for being a Special, at least that's what Melanie says. They're sitting on her porch now, eating chocolate biscuits that her mum had left out for them.

Liam shrugs, stuffing his mouth full of biscuit and scooting his chair out of reach when Melanie swipes at him in an attempt to see into his head. He's used to it by now, evades her easily.

"Come on, Liam," Melanie complains. "I already know that you kissed, what else are you hiding?"

"None of your business," Liam tells her.

"Do you looooove him?" Melanie teases. Liam throws a bit of biscuit at her.

"Of course not," Liam says, "not yet, anyways. It's not that easy, don't listen to what those Disney movies tell you."

Melanie huffs at him and Liam smiles, knows how much she hates it when he talks to her like she's actually her age. The ability to get into people's heads, to see and experience what they do had boosted her mental age. That's what she'd told him, anyways. It had been true so far. Melanie was mature beyond her years. Sometimes it seemed like she understood what was happening in the world better than Liam did.

"I think you'd really like him, actually," Liam tells her, nudging the last biscuit closer to her. "He can kind of do what you do, but less specific. He can like, feel what other people are feeling and change it."

"That sounds very, very different," Melanie says.

Liam laughs at her tone. "Would you like to meet him?"

Melanie chews and thinks it over, but Liam can tell she's just pretending. Liam knows from the small glimpses he gets when Melanie's in his head that she wants to meet Niall and the rest of them. She's curious about them and their powers. She knows the basics, but Liam can tell that she wants to know for herself, wants to look inside of their heads. "I suppose, yeah. They're nice to you, right?"

"Very nice," Liam says and it's the truth. He's been hanging out with them for a few months now and they haven't gotten bored of him. It seems to be the opposite, in fact. At least two of them are always texting him. Harry asks him once a day when he's coming over next, does he want to come over right now? They have plans to go see Louis in his uni's production of Macbeth next month. It's taken some getting used to, to say the least. Liam went from no one wanting to spend time with him, to four boys insisting on living in his pocket; from people only getting close enough to him to knock his books out of his arms to four boys who exchange hugs and cuddles like some kind of secret currency. That isn't even an exaggeration. Liam definitely heard Louis say he would cuddle Harry one night if Harry did the washing up after lunch. It's different and Liam loves it. He's never felt so wanted and loved and worth something.

"Good. Because otherwise I would have to turn their brains to mush," Melanie says matter-of-factly.

"You can't do that," Liam says.

Melanie shrugs. "I don't actually know that I can't."

Liam rolls his eyes at her, but she doesn't laugh like he expects her to. "Wait, are you serious?"

She fidgets with her jumper, pulling at the sleeves like she's nervous. “I don’t know. Every time I go into someone’s head it feels like I’m getting stronger, like I can do more than just look.”

“Can you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to hurt anyone testing it out.”

Liam nods, not sure what to say to a little girl who may or may not be able to melt the brains of anyone she comes in contact with. They sit in silence for a few moments and then Melanie says, "Did you watch the debate last night?"

Liam had, of course. Most of the country had tuned in to watch their leaders debate over what to do with the increasing number of Specials that were appearing. They'd been left at a stalemate yet again, to the surprise of no one. It felt like they were just going around in circles now, the public debates just a way for them to keep citizens thinking they were doing more than they were in controlling the Specials.

"Yeah, I did. Doesn't look like they're going to come to a decision anytime soon."

Melanie hums and Liam raises his eyebrows in question. She shrugs. "I just have a feeling that things are going to start changing for people like you and me."

Liam doesn't have to ask whether she means in a good way or bad way. He's been feeling it, too. For all that Parliament is unable to pass any kind of law about Specials, there's a sense of foreboding in the air. Niall's been feeling it more than anyone lately, unable to go into crowds alone anymore because of the overwhelming feeling of unease that everyone gives off. "Me too."

Melanie reaches out and takes his hand. "You're not gonna leave me, right?"

Liam can feel how tightly wound she is as she holds herself back from slipping into his head. He realizes, suddenly, that she's giving him the chance to lie to her. She's afraid that he'll say yes and mean no and she doesn't want to know the truth. That's dumb, though. Of course Liam isn't going to leave her.

"You can look," he tells her. "My brain will tell you the same thing. I'm not going to leave you, Mels."

She slips into his head for just a second, too short for Liam to even get anything in return from her. She squeezes his arm tightly and then lets go.

"I'm scared, Liam," she whispers.

Liam's glad she's not touching him anymore because he’s not actually sure whether or not he’s lying when he says, "You've got nothing to be afraid of."

After

Liam finds Niall out in the field where Niall first took him flying. The whole thing is washed out in moonlight, the trees smudged against the night sky. Liam feels exposed, but he feels that way a lot in open areas these days. He's used to slinking through shadows, keeping his head down so no one can tell who he is. Niall is sitting on a rock near the small creek that cuts through the field, his back to Liam.

"Do you know you're levitating?" Liam asks when he's close enough. Niall startles and falls down the few inches until his arse is back on the rock. He rubs at it as Liam climbs up to sit beside him, laughing.

"Could give a guy some warning," Niall grumbles but there's no heat behind it.

Liam reaches over and gropes his bum a bit, mumbling a "just checking for injuries" against Niall's lips as he leans in to kiss him hello as well.

“Missed me, have ya?” Niall asks when they break apart after a minute.

“Always,” Liam answers honestly. His missing Niall feels like a bruise. They haven’t seen each other in almost two months now, since the lines were drawn with Liam and Niall on opposite sides. Increased patrols have been forcing Liam to stay in hiding more often than not, relying on brief phone calls on burner mobiles to even speak to Niall in recent weeks. He sneaks out to do food runs and pick up anything Zayn needs technology-wise, but that’s it. Everything else is too risky.

Niall reaches over and laces their fingers together. Liam relaxes at the touch, shifting closer to Niall until their shoulders are pressed up against each other. They sit there for a few minutes, watching as the creek flows past and Liam would be worried, would feel awkward and like he needed to fill the silence after not seeing him for so long, but this is Niall.

“I’m scared, Li,” Niall whispers.

“Why?”

“Things are like, escalating or whatever. They won’t stop trying to find you and Haz and Zayn. They think that if they can capture the three of you it’ll stop the whole resistance, make them lose hope or summat. And the resistance is growing stronger. We’re gonna have an all-out war soon.”

“And that scares you?”

“Of course it does, and don’t lie, I know it scares you, too. I can feel it.”

“I’m scared of a lot of things right now.”

“Are you scared of getting caught?”

Liam shrugs. He is, honestly. He’s scared of some big wig from the government showing up on the front door of the headquarters he’s built for himself and Harry and Zayn and dragging him off to some lab to be experimented on. But that’s not what he’s most afraid of, and he knows that that is Niall’s real question.

“I’m afraid that Zayn and Harry will get caught. I’m scared that Harry will get tossed back into some lab and that he’ll never get out. I’m worried about Louis and how much control the government have taken over him. I’m terrified of losing you.”

“I don’t want to lose you, either,” Niall says, and then he’s pulling his hand free of Liam’s so that he can cradle Liam’s face between both of his hands, turning Liam’s head until their foreheads are pressed together. Liam brings his hands up to hold on to Niall’s wrists, to anchor himself and Niall, who looks a bit desperate right now.

“Things are going to get hard, Liam,” Niall continues. “Harder than they already are, which I know seems pretty fucking impossible. But I need you to know that I am going to be here for you no matter what, okay? I’m not going to let a little war change how I feel about you.”

“I love you.” It slips out, but Liam figures it’s about time that one of them says it.

Niall’s eyes fill with tears, which he blinks back rapidly. “It’d be easier if you didn’t.”

“I know. I love you anyways. I love you because of it.” Liam feels more vulnerable now than he did when he was walking across the field. He also feels safer than he ever has in his life. He is laid bare in front of Niall, but still totally and completely shielded by him.

“I love you, too.” Niall kisses Liam firmly on the mouth, like he wants to press the words against Liam’s lips and make them stay.

Before

The sun is rising on a new day by the time the five of them make their way into Louis and Harry’s house. They’re all covered in soot and Liam is so tired that he’s pretty sure he could fall asleep standing up right now.

“Li?” Niall’s voice breaks through the haze Liam’s been struggling to push through for the past few hours. “Come on, babe, let’s shower and get in bed, alright?”

Liam nods weakly, his throat too destroyed by all the smoke he’d been inhaling to even speak. From the living room he can hear the sound of Harry crying.

“There were just so many,” he sobs out. “I couldn’t save them all. I wanted to. There were just so many.”

Liam wants to go to him, to hold him and comfort him and tell him that it isn’t his fault. He saved so many lives today, healed dozens upon dozens of injured people that they found in the street or pulled out of collapsing buildings. Liam can hear Zayn saying all of these things to Harry already, though, so he doesn’t resist when Niall leads him up the stairs towards the shower.

Zayn had been great today, too. His machine had helped them find countless people who had been trapped in their offices and homes due to fire or debris or just flat out fear of leaving. Liam knew that he’d felt pretty useless, unable to do anything really besides watch as Liam, Niall, and Harry raced from building to building to rescue people; stood back and watched as Louis singlehandedly stopped fires from killing hundreds. He’d been the most helpful of them, however, when they’d finally made it to the hospital. Zayn had jumped right in, fixing broken machines so that the doctor’s could have more tools and rattling off diagnostics to nurses who were clearly overwhelmed. He’d even built some of the patients robotic limbs to replace the ones they’d lost in the blast and aftermath.

Niall had been their eye in the sky, swooping down to help people who were injured in alleyways and side streets. He’d rescued people from the top floor of ten storey office buildings, floors Liam never would have been able to make it to no matter how physically strong he was. The smoke and heat would have stopped him long before he could get anywhere near those people, but Niall had gotten them out no problem. He also transported some of the severely injured over to the hospital, saying that flying was much faster than waiting for emergency services to get their shit together. He wasn’t wrong, but it had obviously taken a lot out of him, flying so much while carrying another person.

Louis, though. Louis was truly the star of the hour. He’d been amazing. Despite being obviously tired, he’d pressed on, helping to stop the flames from instantly consuming dozens of buildings. He, more than any of them really, was responsible for saving probably hundreds of lives. All of their powers would have been useless against the disaster of the day, if Louis hadn’t been there. Louis was every definition of the word hero.

As Niall guides Liam towards the bathroom, they pass Louis’s open bedroom door. Louis is sitting on the edge of his bed, elbows braced on his knees and his head in his hands. There are bags under his eyes and it looks like it’s taking everything he has not to just fall back and go to sleep. Liam wonders why he doesn’t. He’s more than earned it.

“I’ll meet you in there in a second, yeah?” Liam says to Niall, pulling out of his grip to drift towards Louis’s room already. “‘m just gonna check on Lou.”

Niall looks between Liam and where Louis is sitting and nods. “Sure. Don’t take too long, you know how the hot water is and I don’t think Louis is in any shape to heat up some more for us.”

Liam gives him a small smile and waits until the bathroom door is shut between them before he turns and goes into Louis’s room, sitting down beside him on the bed. “Hey, Lou. What’s up?”

Louis doesn’t answer, doesn’t even move. It worries Liam and he suddenly wishes that Niall had agreed to come in here with him. Louis has always been hardest of them all for Liam to read and he could use a little help from Niall’s powers right about now. But Niall isn’t here and Louis is his friend, so Liam reaches over and wraps a hand around Louis’s wrist to show him that he’s there for him. Liam doesn’t really know, he’s just playing it by ear, honestly.

“Tell me I did a good job today, Liam, please.” Louis’s voice cracks over Liam’s name and his breath hitches sharply. Liam doesn’t need Niall’s powers to know that Louis is struggling to keep from crying.

“You did a fantastic job today,” Liam says, “and I’m not just telling you that because you asked me to. You saved so many people today, Louis. You were incredible.”

“It wasn’t enough, though, was it?” Louis’s voice is so quiet that Liam has to strain to hear it. “Hundreds of people still died. That little girl still died.”

“You can’t save everyone, Louis,” Liam says.

“Then what’s the point of having these powers?” Louis bursts out, standing up suddenly. He paces and back and forth in front of Liam, running his hands through his hair. “What’s the point of any of this if we can’t save people?”

“You did save people.”

“But not enough! What if I’d been faster, less tired? What if I knew how to control my powers better? How many more people would I have been able to save today?”

“How many more would have died if you didn’t help at all?”

Louis stills at that, looks to Liam with eyes full of tears and, for the first time since they met, Louis is an open book to Liam. Liam sees all the insecurity, the fear of failure, the guilt. Everything. He knows that Louis must see all the same in him because for all of his talk, Liam feels exactly the same that Louis does. What if he’d been just a bit faster, what if he’d carried just a few more people? What then? How many more people could they have saved today?

“We did what we could today, Louis. We helped as many people as we could and I think we did a good job. Yes, people still died and it’s awful to think about, but I just keep picturing that woman and her baby from the first building. I keep thinking about what would have happened to them if we hadn’t been there. But we were there and we helped. We might not have saved everyone, but we saved everyone that we could.” Liam stands then, reaches out to Louis, who collapses against his chest. He doesn’t shed a single tear, but his body shudders with sobs. Liam just cards his hands through Louis’s hair and makes soothing noises, until Louis’ sobs subside. Liam tucks him into bed, then kisses his forehead gently, and closes the door on his way out.

He heads over to the bathroom and is surprised to still hear the water running. Liam figured that Niall would have been long done by now. He closes the door behind him softly and strips out of what’s left of his clothes. He pulls back the shower curtain and Niall startles a bit, but is silent, holds out a hand for Liam to take as he steps over the side of the tub and into the spray of water. It’s still warm, miraculously enough, Liam notices as he closes the curtain and steps closer to Niall.

“Figured you would have been done by now,” Liam says softly.

“Nah,” Niall says as he moves back a bit so that Liam can step under the spray completely. The water feels amazing against his aching muscles. He tilts his head down and watches the water turn black at his feet before it spirals down the drain, washing away all of the ash from the day. “I washed up and everything, but I wanted to wait for you.”

“You didn’t have to,” Liam protests, but it’s weak. “You could have gone to bed, you’re just as tired as the rest of us.”

“I’m okay,” Niall says and he’s lying, Liam knows he’s lying, but he doesn’t call him out on it. “Here, let me wash you up, yeah?”

Liam wants to protest again. Niall doesn’t have to do that, he’s done enough today. He should go and climb under some blankets and Liam will finish up here and then join him, he deserves to rest. Instead, Liam just hands Niall the shampoo bottle with a small, “Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” Niall says. He squeezes out a generous amount of shampoo into his hand, much more than he’ll need to wash Liam’s short hair, before putting the shampoo back on the shower caddy they have set up. He rubs his hands together and then runs them through Liam’s hair, really working the shampoo in. He massages at Liam’s scalp and Liam can’t help the tiny moan that escapes him. It just feels so good. Niall lets out a low chuckle. “Good with my fingers, yeah?”

“You know you are,” Liam says. He leans his head forward, further out of the spray of the water, to rest it against Niall’s shoulder. Niall cards his soapy hands through the hair on the back of Liam’s head, suds running down Liam’s neck and over his shoulders. Niall nudges him up after a minute or so, and rinses Liam’s hair out for him.

“How’s Lou?” Niall asks as he pours soap onto a flannel. Liam is far beyond protesting at this point.

“He’ll be alright.” Liam shrugs as Niall presses the cloth to Liam’s chest and moves it in soothing circles. “Blames himself a bit for all the people we couldn’t save, same as Harry, I think.”

Niall just hums in response as he works at washing Liam’s body free of the soot and sweat of the day.

“What about you?” Liam asks. “Do you blame yourself?”

“I learned a long time ago that blaming yourself does nothing but make you feel bad. You can’t go back and fix it, so there’s no point in holding onto it, really. You just have to do what you can and accept that it might never be enough.”

“You sound like you’ve been through this before.”

It’s Niall’s turn to shrug as he gestures for Liam to face the other way so he can do his back. “Wasn’t easy being able to control people’s emotions and still watch your mum be sad because your da left when you were five. I could make her happy, but never for very long. Eventually, I just had to give up and let her figure out how to be happy on her own.”

Liam turns around (slowly, so he doesn’t slip). He cups Niall’s face between his hands and draws him into a gentle kiss. Niall hrumphs, like he’s grumpy Liam has distracted him from their shower, but he doesn’t pull away. Liam kisses his lips briefly a few more times, just small chaste pecks, and gives Niall his back again.

Niall pulls Liam back into the spray after he finishes scrubbing him down, pressing himself up against Liam’s back even as the soap slides off. He kisses at Liam’s shoulder and asks, “What about you? Do you feel like Harry and Louis do?”

“A part of me does, yes,” Liam says slowly, thinking it over. Truth is, he’s pretty jumbled up inside about the whole thing. “Another part of me knows that I did everything I could. We all did. There was nothing else we could have done to help today, or we would have done it.”

Niall just hums into Liam’s skin before disappearing to shut the water off. Liam steps out of the shower, grabbing a towel off one of the hooks. Louis and Harry won’t mind. He dries himself quickly and wraps it around his waist. He takes one of the other towels that’s hanging there and waits until Niall steps out of the shower. He dries Niall off thoroughly, stopping for a few kisses in between rubs. By the time the towel is secure around Niall’s waist, Liam is feeling much better. The shower and time with Niall had been just what he needed to calm down after this awful, awful day.

When they step out of the bathroom, Zayn is sitting against the wall of the hallway opposite. He has his head tipped back against the wall and his eyes are closed. Liam thinks him asleep until he cracks open one eye as they step out into the hall.

“Took you long enough,” Zayn says, smiling just a little. “Was starting to think I’d have to sleep covered in all this ash.”

“Where’s Harry?” Niall asks. He extends his hand out to Zayn and helps him off the floor.

“In with Louis. He pretty much cried himself out and I don’t think he would have wanted to wake up alone tomorrow.”

“Good idea,” Liam says. Zayn’s lips quirk up again, like he likes the praise. Liam thinks they could all use a little more praise after today. “You were amazing today, Zayn. Like, absolutely insane.”

“You too, mate. Both of you. We couldn’t have done anything without you guys, really.”

“And we wouldn’t have saved nearly as many people if you hadn’t been leading us,” Niall says, tilting his head and studying Zayn. “We needed you just as much as you needed us.”

Zayn’s smile turns grateful, though he quite obviously tries to tamp it down. “Get out of my feelings.”

Niall raises his eyebrows up and down almost suggestively and Zayn lets out a breath of laughter. “Yeah, alright. You two should get to bed.”

“What about you?” Liam asks.

“I’ll shower and then go.”

“You can come in with us,” Liam offers. “I’m sure you don’t want to wake up alone either.”

“Are you kidding me?” Zayn asks, but his tone is light, teasing. “That’s all I want right now. Just some time in my own head away from you crazy people. You realize you ran into like, twelve burning buildings today, right? I need some time to process that.”

They all chuckle a bit, but its weary. They really should get to bed. Today was long and Liam isn’t sure that tomorrow isn’t going to be just as bad. Sometimes the aftermath of a disaster can be just as bad as the disaster itself. He takes Niall’s hand and they slip past Zayn, who heads into the bathroom now that they’re not blocking the doorway. They go to Niall’s room, each pulling on boxers. They leave their towels on the floor, much too tired to care. Niall pulls back the sheets and they collapse into the bed, pulling the duvet back up to cover themselves.

Niall presses in close to Liam, their noses practically brushing. Their legs tangle together beneath the sheets and Liam searches until he can hold Niall’s hand in the space between their chests.

“I was so scared today,” Niall whispers after they’ve been laying there for a while, just taking comfort in each other. “Everything was happening so fast and everyone was so scared. It was like an overload, you know? And usually I’m pretty good at being able to find you guys even when you’re far away. I like, pick up on your emotional signature or something, but there were too many people feeling too many things. I couldn’t find you and I was so scared that you were hurt.”

“But I wasn’t.” Liam isn’t sure what else to say.

“No, you weren’t,” Niall agrees. “God, Liam, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in me life.”

Liam doesn’t know how else to reassure Niall that he’s right here, that he’s fine, except to pull him into a deep kiss, more heated than the ones they’d been exchanging in the shower, but still not a kiss that felt like it would lead to anything else. Liam just tries to put everything he feels for Niall into the kiss, tries to show him what he couldn’t give to him in words. Niall seems to understand, taking what Liam gives him and returning it to Liam just as strongly.

“I will always find you,” Niall says when they finally break away. “No matter where you are, I will come for you.”

“Don’t have to find me,” Liam says, words starting to slur as his body gives in to the comfort of the bed and the warmth of Niall. “‘m always gonna be right here. With you.”

“Go to sleep, Li,” Niall says. Liam’s nose rubs against Niall’s as he nods and lets himself slip away into sleep.

After

“Thought I might find you here,” Liam says as he walks up behind Louis. Louis doesn’t startle, doesn’t even turn to look at Liam.

It’s been a year to the day since Lucy McMillian combusted in a school yard. Liam settles in beside Louis, their shoulders brushing as they both stare at the memorial that was built where a school had once stood.

“I can’t believe it’s already been a year,” Liam says when it becomes apparent Louis isn’t going to say anything. “It feels like it was just yesterday.”

“Feels like it’s been forever,” Louis says, voice terse.

“I miss you,” Liam admits, because if he’s going to do this, he isn’t going to half-ass it. He hasn’t seen Louis in months, let alone gotten a chance to speak to him.

“You miss Niall, you mean.” Louis corrects him and Liam can see what he’s trying to do, but he’s not going to let him. He’s come a long way in understanding Louis from that night a year ago.

“No. I mean I miss you.”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

“It doesn’t have to,” Liam says. He’s keeping his voice low and even, like he’s talking to some animal he’s afraid of spooking instead of someone who used to be his best friend. “It’s still true.”

Louis is quiet for a few minutes, but Liam doesn’t move from where their shoulders are still pressed together. Liam is taller than Louis now, has really filled out into his strength whereas Louis is all slim muscle and narrow shoulders. He wonders when that happened, when the differences between them became so noticeable. Liam thinks back over the last year, but he can’t pinpoint an exact moment that either of them grew into this. He knows when it started, but he doesn’t know when it really and truly happened. He wonders if Louis does.

“I miss you, too.” Louis finally admits, nudging his shoulder up against Liam’s.

They meander away from the monument. It’s much too exposed for Liam’s liking and Louis seems to get that, nodding towards a sidewalk cast in shadow for them to walk down.

“How are you?” Liam asks.

Louis lets out a huff. “I’ve been better. But I’m sure Niall’s told you.”

“Yes.”

Louis stops suddenly and whirls to face Liam, panic across his face. “What if I chose the wrong side? What if I threw it all away for nothing?”

“If anyone is throwing anything away, it’s me,” Liam says. “You’re not the one with a bounty on his head.”

“They wouldn’t ever hurt you.”

“I know. If they do anything to me, I become a martyr. But that doesn’t mean I want to suddenly be best buddies with the people who want to experiment on me.”

“What if I put everyone in danger by registering? What if you’re right, what if they use it to hunt us down later?”

“What if they don’t? What if they use it to save hundreds of lives and I refused to even hand over my mobile number?” Liam counters. “We picked our sides, Lou. For better or worse, this is what we’ve chosen.”

“You wonder too, though?” Louis asks and there’s a vulnerability in his voice that Liam hasn’t heard in a long time. The Louis who comes on television to encourage Specials to register their powers with the government is all bravado and confidence. Liam had been pretty sure it was an act, but this confirms it. Louis is just as unsure of all of this as Liam is.

“All the time,” Liam tells him honestly. He doesn’t care if it puts another chink in his armor. There are so many at this point, it’s practically see-through. If Louis or Niall were going to use Liam’s fears and insecurities against him to get him to change sides, they would have much more to work with than Liam sometimes doubting that he chose the right side in all of this. Despite everything, Liam knows that Louis’ first loyalty is to him. Him and Niall and Zayn and Harry. The same way Liam’s loyalty is theirs, first and foremost. They might be on different sides of this war, but they are not enemies. Niall had been right about that from the start.

“I hate feeling like I’m keeping him from you,” Louis says softly as they resume walking again. Liam is glad for it. Standing in one place for too long is asking for trouble.

“You’re not,” Liam assures him. “I see him whenever we can both get away. It’s dangerous, a lot of times he doesn’t want to risk exposing me.”

“Still,” Louis protests.

“Still nothing,” Liam says. “Niall and I are adults. If we weren’t okay with how things are, we’d fix it. It’s not ideal, obviously, but I still see him. I still love him and he still loves me and that’s all that matters, if I’m being honest.”

“How’s… How’s Harry?” Louis barely gets the words out.

“He’s alright. He asks about you a lot. Every time I get back from seeing Niall the first thing he asks is how you’re doing.”

Louis smiles softly.

“You could just talk to him, you know,” Liam says. “He wouldn’t push you away.”

Louis’ face goes hard again, closed off from Liam. “No. It’s easier this way.”

“Are you sure? I don’t know what I would do if Niall suddenly cut me out. I’ve needed him so much this past year, I can’t imagine doing any of this without him, even if he’s not exactly on my side.”

“I won’t do it to Harry,” Louis says with an air of finality and Liam knows that this is the last thing he’ll say on the topic, at least for tonight. “What you and Niall have is great for you guys, but Harry and I? I’m so far in the spotlight, Liam, that my shoes have their own Twitter account. I won’t drag him into that. He deserves something more. Someone more.”

“But he wants you.”

Louis doesn’t say anything, but Liam didn’t expect him to.

They walk a bit further and Louis asks, “Zayn?”

“He’s good. Still tinkering away. He’s made such cool stuff, Lou. You should stop by and see it.”

“You make it too easy, Payne. You’re inviting the enemy into your safe house, which isn’t all that safe seeing as both Niall and I know exactly where it is at all times, to look at all the new weapons and whatever that your technopath is inventing.”

“I’m not inviting the enemy into my safe house. I’m inviting my best friend to come look at all the cool shit our other best friend makes out of spare car parts and old computer monitors.”

Louis throws his head back and laughs. “I really do miss you, Payno.”

“Me too, Tommo.”

“We’ll sort this all out soon, yeah? War can’t go on forever.”

They walk a bit in silence before Liam works up the nerve to ask, “Have you found her?’

Louis shakes his head and Liam can see the genuine sadness and sympathy in his eyes. “They’re airtight about her around me. They know that I still sometimes have contact with you and they’re being careful. I’m sorry, Li. I promise I’ll keep trying.”

“I know you will,” Liam says. It’s just that she’s been gone for almost a year and Liam still has no idea where she might be. For all he knows, they moved her out of the country the same day they took her from her front yard.

They walk the rest of the way to Liam’s safe house in silence. Louis leaves him at the gate, eyes flickering to where a curtain is quickly being closed. From the pained expression on Louis’ face, Liam knows exactly who was peering out that window. He doesn’t push it though, just accepts the hug that Louis gives him and tells him he loves him, before going inside and letting Harry curl up against his side and cry.

Before

The day after the accident, Liam is woken by Zayn shaking him and Niall awake, panic clear on his face.

“Wake up!” Zayn’s hissing at them. “Wake the fuck up, c’mon you guys.”

“What’s wrong?” Liam sits up immediately. Niall grumbles, curling into Liam’s side, trying to tuck his head in Liam’s lap.

“You need to see this. We’re in trouble.”

Liam is out of bed in an instant, with Niall right behind him, trying to shake off the sheets he’d managed to tangle himself in.

Zayn leads them downstairs and into the living room. He waves his hand and the television unmutes itself from where it is playing footage from yesterday on a loop.

"Is that..." Liam trails off because it's a stupid question. There's absolutely no doubt as to exactly who it is on the screen. Even if they hadn't gotten such a clean shot of his face, his tattoos would have given him away.

"I don't know what to do," Zayn says, muting the television again. "They asked anyone with information to step forward, so they must know who he is by now."

"Where is he?"

"Still asleep. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know yet," Liam answers him honestly. This is bad. This is very, very bad. "Is Harry still asleep, too?"

Almost like he heard Liam say his name, Harry stumbles into the living room, rubbing at his eyes. They all turn to stare at him and he freezes. "What?" he asks, voice even slower this early in the morning.

His eyes flicker to the television and Liam watches as pure panic envelops Harry's body. His shoulders rise up defensively and he takes a step forward. His mouth drops open as he watches the events of yesterday playback on the screen. He turns to Zayn after a moment and says, "Explain."

Zayn does, telling Harry about how he'd gotten up to piss and had turned the TV to see what was going on with clean up and that every station was just playing a video of Louis controlling fire on loop.

"What about the rest of us?" Harry asks. "Are any of us in the video?"

"There's a second where we almost see you, but no. It's just him." Zayn sounds bitter, like he wishes it were him on the video instead. Liam can relate.

Niall steps up, his hand finding Liam's where it's limp by his side. He squeezes it and says, "We need to tell Louis. He's the one who needs to decide what happens next."

They all nod, but Harry is the one who moves toward the stairs. When Zayn goes to follow, Harry just holds up his hand. It's probably best to let him handle this part. Liam tells Zayn as much.

"I know," Zayn says. "I just can't stand the thought of being so fucking useless. I've already tried to jam the signal for the news stations, but they're streaming this thing worldwide, not to mention it's all over the internet. It's everywhere, I can't do anything."

"It's alright," Niall soothes. "We know you tried."

Zayn's hands clench and unclench by his sides and his jaw works. Before he can say anything though, Louis is thundering down the stairs, Harry on his heels.

"The boy has been identified by authorities, though his name is being withheld at this time,” the women on the tv reports. “We have been told that officials are en route to his location in order to assess the danger of the boy. Based on his actions from yesterday, authorities believe that he is not a threat to public safety at this time.”

“At this time,” Louis mocks and nods at Zayn, who shuts the TV off.

“What do we do?” Niall asks, looking at Louis.

Louis closes his eyes for the briefest of seconds and then opens them with a determination Liam’s never seen outside of their footie matches in the backyard when Louis is down by two goals with less than ten minutes of play.

“We are going to get dressed and we are going to be ready for whoever the fuck they’re sending to get me. None of you are going to say a goddamn word about your own powers and when they ask you about mine, you are going to lie and say that this is the first you’ve heard of them. Until we figure out what they want, I am the only person in this room who is a Special, got it?”

“Louis --”

“Harry, no,” Louis interrupts. “I’m not putting you all in danger because we were too dumb to check for cameras before waving our powers around like absolute morons. I am the only person in this house with powers, is that understood?”

They all nod. It leaves a sick feeling in Liam’s stomach, knowing that they are essentially throwing Louis into a pit of wolves all on his own. Liam wants nothing more than to stand beside Louis and protect him, but he looks at Louis and he knows that Louis would never forgive himself if anything happened to any of them because of him. The best thing they can do for him right now is to listen to him, to let him have control over this as everything else spirals away.

“Good. Let’s get dressed, I don’t fancy meeting MI5 in my pants.”

When the doorbell rings almost a full hour later, all five of them nearly jump out of their skin. They’d long since finished getting dressed and had even made and eaten a full breakfast. They’ve been sitting around in the living room, doing anything except watching the news, while waiting for whoever was coming to finally show up. Still, after waiting for so long, the doorbell came as something as a surprise. Liam had almost hoped they’d forgotten about Louis, that they’d realized it was dumb to pursue someone who was clearly just trying to help. But apparently not.

They had decided that Niall would be the one to open the door. That way he could try to get a read on whoever they sent.

“No one would ever dare to hurt you,” Louis says. “I mean, look at that face.” Niall had glared at Louis for the comment, but agreed to get the door nonetheless.

He comes back into the room now, a puzzled look on his face and a young woman behind him. “This is Heather, she’s from the Specials Division of MI5. This is Liam, Zayn, Harry, and, of course, Louis.”

“A pleasure,” Heather says in a tone of voice that implies that meeting them is anything but. Niall gestures towards the armchair they’d left empty for her and comes to sit beside Liam on the sofa. Liam reaches over and squeezes his thigh in reassurance and Niall’s hand comes down to cover his. Niall doesn’t lace their fingers together or anything, just presses their hands against his thigh firmly. The puzzled look hasn’t left his face and Liam begins to worry, just a bit, about what that means.

“So, Louis, you must know why I’m here,” Heather says, eyes focusing on Louis and just Louis. Liam has the urge to throw a couch across the room just to make her stop looking at Louis like that.

“Yes,” Louis answers simply. He had opted to sit in the other armchair, directly across from the seat that they had left open for their visitor. Liam, Niall, and Harry were all seated on the edge of the couch, leaning forward intently. Zayn was leaning up beside the doorway that lead to the hall, arms crossed and brow furrowed as he studied the back of Heather’s head. When Liam had asked why he was choosing to stand behind where their visitor was going to sit, Zayn had said that making sure he could stop whoever it was from leaving was more important than him being able to make eye contact. Liam wishes that he had followed Zayn’s lead. He didn’t want to be able to see Heather as she studied Louis and he certainly didn’t want that gaze turned on him.

“Then we won’t waste any time,” Heather says. She pulls a folder out of her handbag and sets it on the table. “This has been something that’s been in the works for a while, but it couldn’t seem to make its way through Parliament. In light of recent events, it’s found itself expedited. It will formally get passed tomorrow morning.”

“What is it?” Louis asks, not moving. He simply raises his eyebrows at the folder and leaves them raised as he looks back at Heather.

Heather doesn’t even seem phased by Louis’ refusal to look at the file. Liam has a feeling someone warned her about how Louis could be before she got here. “It’s a Special Registration Order. Anyone with any… synthetic gifts or skills will be required to step forward and register with the Specials Division. It’s more precautionary than anything else. It will allow us to test each person’s abilities in a safe, contained area, and will also alert us to threats early on so that we can stop someone else from combusting in the middle of their schoolyard.”

“And you want me to register?”

Heather laughs and Liam’s skin crawls. Niall’s grip tightens on his hand and when Liam looks over at him, Niall is looking back at him. He gives Liam a small smile, but it makes Liam frown. Niall is never this hard to read, not for Liam. Niall, as a general rule, is an open book with his emotions, at least around the four of them. Right now, though, Liam has no idea what’s going on in Niall’s head. “Oh, that part isn’t negotiable. All Specials will be required to register by law after this passes. What we want, Mr. Tomlinson, is for you to publicly support the Order. Be the first in line to register. We’d prefer to have as many voluntary registrations as possible.”

“Don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” Louis sits back, crossing his arms.

“Not in registering, no,” Heather says, “but in how you register, yes.”

“And what if I think this whole thing is bullshit?”

Heather sits back, mimicking Louis. Liam watches Louis’ jaw clench. She crosses her legs and says, “Then you’d be missing out on a valuable opportunity to redeem yourself in the public eye.”

“Didn’t think I needed redemption.”

“Of course you do.” Heather laughs again. “You are a confirmed Special in a world that is three seconds away from declaring a witch hunt on anyone even remotely different from them. You’ll be the first they come for. We can stop that from happening. We can protect you. The Registration Order will help us protect all Specials.”

“And why do you care about what happens to us?” Louis asks.

“Because she’s a Special, too,” Niall says and Liam startles. Niall’s fingers stroke over his hand as he asks, “Aren’t you?”

Heather is smirking when she turns her gaze on Niall. Liam wants to physically recoil from the cold calculation in her eyes. “And how, dear boy, do you know that?”

Niall shrugs, pinking up a bit under her scrutiny.

Her gaze hardens. “Don’t just shrug, come on now. How did you figure it out? Is it because you have powers, too?”

“I just guessed. Don’t know why anyone who isn’t a Special would care so much about this dumb law getting passed.”

“Yet here you are, camped out on the sofa to listen in on this meeting.”

“I’m here for Louis.”

“Louis doesn’t need you,” she says. “He’s more than able to handle himself, or haven’t you seen the footage? We can put it on, if you’d like. It’s on every channel.”

“I just made a lucky guess, that’s all,” Niall says and if Liam didn’t know him so well he would think that Niall was unaffected by all of this. But Liam does know Niall and he can hear the way his breathing has gone a bit shallow, his palm gone slick with sweat on top of Liam’s.

Heather tilts her head, like she’s considering something, and then shakes it. “No, I don’t think so.”

Before Liam can even blink, Heather is standing up, her hand outstretched, and Zayn is pinned against the wall he’d been leaning up against. Zayn makes strangled noises and it only takes Liam a second to realize that he can’t breathe. He shoots to his feet, but he’s unsure of what to do from there. He can’t see what she’s using to hurt Zayn with and he can’t be sure that going after her won’t make her kill Zayn. So he clenches his fists by his sides and watches as Zayn begins to slide down the wall, sputtering desperately. Liam can feel Niall standing by his side, but he makes no move either.

“Let him go!” Harry yells, but he is frozen in place as well. Louis is sitting at the edge of his chair, eyes narrowed and hands smoking against the upholstery.

“Why don’t you tell me how you knew I was a Special?” Heather says it calmly, like she’s requesting sugar in her tea, rather than holding the fate of their friend in the palm of her hand. “Do you have a power? What is it?”

“I’m super strong!” Liam can’t just do nothing anymore. If admitting that Louis isn’t the only Special in the house saves Zayn, than Liam will take one for the team.

Heather tilts her head and studies him and then makes a tsk-ing noise. “That’s very interesting. But I didn’t ask you, I asked him. And I’d tell me pretty quickly, it doesn’t take long before the lack of oxygen will start killing off brain cells.”

“I’m an empath!” Niall shouts. “I knew you were a Special because I couldn’t read you. I’ve never met someone I couldn’t read unless they had a power that stopped me from doing it.”

Heather lowers her hand and Zayn collapses onto the floor, breathing in deeply. Harry makes to move for him, but Zayn holds up a hand to stop him.

“What did you do to him?” Louis demands as Heather drops back into her chair, like she hadn’t done a thing.

“That was just a small demonstration of what I can do,” Heather tells him. “You didn’t really think they’d send a regular person to speak to you, did you?”

“No,” Zayn says and his voice is hoarse, but strong, “we didn’t. Forcefields, yeah? That’s your power.”

Heather looks mildly impressed for a second, but she schools her expression quickly. She looks around at all of them. “Why don’t you take your seats again? As long as you all continue to be honest, there’s no reason that we can’t be civil to one another.”

Liam is practically vibrating with anger at this point. He feels so helpless. He could throw Heather through a window and not even break a sweat, but he’s powerless against her as long as she can hurt one of his friends. God, he never really understood what it felt like to not have complete control over his powers until now. Louis had tried to explain it to him once, how he could accidentally incinerate something or someone if he let himself get too out of control, but Liam had never really had that problem. Now, though. It felt like his powers were humming under his skin; his muscles starting to ache from the sheer force he’s exerting to hold himself back.

Niall must sense it because he puts a hand on Liam’s forearm and pulls him down onto the couch again. They are all back in their original positions, except for Zayn who is sitting instead of standing. The tension in the room feels almost electric, it’s making the hairs on the back of Liam’s neck stand on end.

“You didn’t answer Zayn’s question,” Niall says. “Do you use force fields?”

Heather nods. She doesn’t even bother to look back at Zayn when she asks, “How did you know?”

“You don’t touch the furniture,” Zayn says. “It’s almost impossible to see, but I was paying attention. You don’t actually touch anything. I’m betting that that’s why you didn’t shake our hands when you got here. And when you just, yeah. There was pressure but nothing visible, which means that you can basically just extend the force field.”

“Very good. I assume that your superior intellect has something to do with you being able to draw these conclusions?” Heather asks. They all stare at her in shock and she smirks. “Oh, please. Of course I knew. I know about all of you. We’ve been watching you for a while now. This many Specials in one place? You give off a very distinct kind of energy, makes you very easy to track.”

“So all that shit with Zayn was just you, what? Trying to scare us?” Liam demands.

“I don’t need to scare you. I just need you to know that I am more powerful than any of you, probably all of you. I’ve had years to test and experiment with my powers, which is why they sent me. Five boys with powers they barely understand? Please.”

“You’re sick,” Louis says. “That’s twisted.”

“Maybe so, but it gets the job done. We are offering all of you the same thing we are offering Mr. Tomlinson. Come forward and publicly register tomorrow, identify yourselves as the heroes from yesterday, and we’ll make it worth your while.” She stands then, nods coolly, and leaves. None of them move to see her out; they just sit in silence until they hear the front door close and then even longer until Zayn looks out the window and confirms that she has truly left.

“Well, that was interesting,” Louis says, letting out a humorless laugh.

“Zayn, you should let me look at your neck,” Harry says. He moves across the room quickly -- narrowly missing slamming his shins into the table -- and presses his long fingers against Zayn’s throat.

“I’m okay, Haz,” Zayn insists. He looks over at the rest of them as Harry takes a few steps back. “I’m fine, I promise. I stood over here on purpose. The farthest away from help from any of you? I was the easiest target in the room.”

“You knew she would do something like that,” Liam says.

Zayn shakes his head. “No, but I knew it was a possibility.”

Niall’s up and in Zayn’s face before Liam even realizes he’s moved. Niall fists his hand in the front of Zayn’s shirt. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again. Don’t you goddamn dare put yourself in harm’s way without at least telling us.”

Of all the things that have happened this morning, this might just be the most shocking; Niall is terrifying in this moment. Zayn must feel the same way Liam does, a strange mix of shock and terror, because he just swallows and nods. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to protect you guys the best I could. I’m not really good on the offense, so I figured it would be easier to leave any actual fighting to you guys. I make a pretty decent distraction, so I just went with it.”

“Fuck you, you’re not good on offense,” Niall says, hauling Zayn in by his shirt until he can wrap him up in a hug. “No one builds a stun gun from a paper clip and some fridge magnets better than you.”

Zayn laughs as he hugs Niall back and Liam feels the tension drain from the room. From over Zayn’s shoulder, Niall throws him a wink and Liam knows that Niall has something to do with the lighter mood that has settled over them.

“So what do we do now?” Liam finally asks, mostly because someone has to. They have to talk about this.

“Doesn’t seem to be much of a choice,” Louis says. “We either register voluntarily or we get forced into it. She was right. She’s much more powerful than we are and I’m sure they have more just like her waiting for us to resist.”

“You think we should go peacefully, then?” Harry asks. He crosses his arms over his chest, hugging himself tightly. Niall’s brow furrows and he moves from Zayn over to Harry. “You think I should go sign up to get thrown back into a lab so I can be treated like some kind of experiment instead of as a person?”

Louis blanches. “Fuck, Haz, you know that’s not what I --”

“But that’s what it is, isn’t it?” Harry interrupts. “We go put our names on a list and spend who knows how long getting poked and prodded until they decide we’re safe enough to be a part of society. And who knows if she was even telling the truth. They might just execute us on the spot the minute we sign our names.”

“Harry’s right,” Zayn says. “We can’t be sure that they’re telling the truth. We might be registering for cemetery plots.”

“So, what?” Louis demands. “We don’t register? They know where we live they know who we are. That means they know who are families are. They’re not going to just let us keep living here all on our lonesomes, especially because there are so many of us. We are going to have to register for this whether we want to or not.”

“But we don’t have to make it easy for them,” Harry says. “We can show them that we don’t agree with this.”

“And become the villains?” Louis scoffs. “If we don’t show up tomorrow all smiles and signatures they are absolutely going to label us a threats numbers one through five. Then we’ll be forced to register anyways. I don’t want to live like that.”

They’re all silent then. Liam looks at Niall, who meets his eye briefly, before looking down at the floor. The only two making any kind of eye contact are Harry and Louis.

Harry’s voice is dark when he says, “You know. You fucking know what I went through, Louis. I told you everything. No one else knows the hell that lab was and you’re going to just stroll into one? After everything they did to me, you’re going to go there and let them experiment on you?”

Louis doesn’t say anything, crosses his arms and presses his lips together into a thin line, though his eyes are full of concern as he looks at Harry.

“Maybe we should all take some time to think about this and figure it out later over dinner or summat,” Zayn says finally.

“That sounds like a great idea!” Liam agrees, too quickly and too enthusiastically but he doesn’t care. He wants out of this room. Even with Niall’s help earlier, the tension is already curled back around them tightly. It feels a bit like he can’t breathe. Liam immediately moves for the back door, can feel Niall following closely behind him. When he throws a glance over his shoulder, he sees that Harry hasn’t moved, but that Louis has disappeared. Zayn has a hand on Harry’s shoulder. Liam turns forward and continues down the hallway and out the door into the yard.

“Liam?” Niall’s voice comes. Liam turns and sees Niall stopped in the doorway looking hesitant. “Your emotions are kinda… all over the place right now. I can’t tell if you want me to stay with you or go.”

“Stay,” Liam answers without hesitating. He isn’t exactly sure that he doesn’t want to be alone right now, but the thought of being without Niall makes his heart clench so the choice is pretty clear. “Always stay.”

Niall’s face lights up as he trots over to where Liam is. Liam opens his arms and pulls Niall in, wrapping his arms around Niall’s shoulders as Niall’s find their way around Liam’s waist. They stand there for a few moments, Niall tucked in against Liam, his forehead pressed to Liam’s jaw.

“What are we going to do, Li?” Niall asks finally.

“I don’t know,” Liam says. “It doesn’t sound like we have much of a choice, which scares me. If they’re taking away our choices, it’s because we’re not going to like whatever it is they’re forcing on us.”

Niall hums. “Are you going to register voluntarily tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” Liam answers. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. Everything is… It’s all such a mess.”

“I know what you mean.”

“You always do.”

“Don’t get sappy on me, Payno,” Niall says, but his voice is fond and warm and he pushes in even closer to Liam. “We don’t have to decide right now, I guess.”

“We have to decide in less than twenty-four hours,” Liam responds. “What’s the difference between now and then?”

"Twenty-four hours?" Niall volunteers, huffing a small laugh into the side of Liam's neck.

"What are you going to do?" Liam asks, not sure he actually wants to know. He doesn't know what side of this he's on yet and he's not sure that he won't just pick Niall's side no matter what. He can't imagine being separated from Niall, can't imagine fighting any kind of battle without Niall by his side anymore. It's scary, how fast and easily Liam is falling for Niall, but not as scary as not having Niall with him through whatever it is they're about to face.

"I think I'm going to register," Niall says, voice thoughtful. "There's a lot of stuff to be afraid of in this world, I don't want to be one more thing for people to fear. I want them to know that I'm not going to hurt them, that all I really want to do is help."

"That's as good a reason as any, I suppose," Liam says.

"Yep. Now put those big, strong arms to good use and hug me tighter."

Liam is more than happy to comply.

After

"This is so, so dangerous," Harry says for what must be the millionth time. "Dangerous and stupid."

"We know, Haz, but it's Niall's birthday and it doesn't feel right being apart from him today," Zayn says.

"We celebrated Liam's birthday just fine." Harry's pouting and Liam can sense Zayn rolling his eyes. It seems like Zayn is the only one immune to Harry's puppy dog eyes. Well, Niall was too, but Harry just threw feelings of sadness at him until Niall agreed to do whatever Harry wanted just so he'd stop.

"Niall wants to see you, stop being a prick because he's bringing Louis."

Harry falls silent and Liam frowns at Zayn, who just shrugs.

"You should try to talk to him while he's here tonight," Liam suggests.

"He's made it very clear that he doesn't want to speak to me," Harry’s voice breaks on the last word.

"Let's just try to have a nice night all together," Zayn says.

Liam doesn't need Niall's powers to see how excited Zayn is about seeing Louis again. Niall is over pretty regularly to see Liam and smoke up with Zayn or laze about with Harry, but Louis has kept his distance from all of them. The only time Liam sees him is when he manages to corner him in some dark alley when he's out walking sometimes. Zayn hasn't seen Louis at all. Neither has Harry, but that's more of Louis' choice than Harry's.

Niall and Louis show up a few hours later, beer and weed in tow.

"Happy birthday, mate!" Zayn says, pulling Niall into a hug. He pulls away and wraps his arms around Louis. "Good to see you, Lou."

"Miss you," Liam hears Louis breathe out into Zayn's hug. "Miss my partner in crime."

Zayn laughs and lets go, moving back to let Harry have a chance at Niall and Louis.

Harry hugs Niall with no hesitation and plenty of enthusiasm, singing 'Happy Birthday' loudly in his ear.

"Get off, you twat, you're gonna make me drop the beer." Niall wriggles out of Harry's grip and slots in against Liam's side. "Hi, Li."

"Hi, babe." Liam turns his head and kisses Niall's temple fondly. "Happy birthday."

"Hey, Haz," Louis' voice carries across the quiet room. Zayn and Niall aren't even pretending not to watch so Liam figures it won't make a difference if he watches too. Louis opens his arms just the slightest bit in invitation. Harry lets out something of a sob and pours himself into Louis’ arms. Louis wraps him up tightly and despite the fact that Harry is almost a whole head taller than Louis at this point, Louis seems to surround Harry.

“Happy birthday to me,” Niall whispers in Liam’s ear. “Maybe now they’ll stop bitching so much about how they miss each other.”

Liam laughs and pulls Niall into a kiss, he loves the way Niall tastes when he’s smiling. He draws away and says, “Hey, Harry, how about giving the rest of us a chance to see Lou, yeah?”

Harry pulls back with a little giggle, wiping at his face with the hem of his shirt. Liam takes his place in Louis’ arms, making sure to ruffle Louis’ hair when he steps back. Louis glares at him, but Liam doesn’t care. He’s too happy having all of his boys here in one place to care about anything else.

“Are we having cake?” Niall asks, pulling himself up on Liam’s back. Liam grips him under the thighs to keep him balanced, boosts him up a bit so Niall can wrap his arms around Liam’s neck and lean over Liam’s shoulder to press their cheeks together.

“No, Niall, we decided to throw you a birthday party but without any cake,” Louis says and Liam can practically hear him rolling his eyes.

“You tried to get away with not making me waffles this morning,” Niall says and Liam is affronted on his behalf. “Wouldn’t be surprised if you tried to get away with no cake, too.”

“Nah, I like cake. Not big on waffles.”

“Selfish twat,” Zayn chimes in, but his voice is happy. Liam has this tingling warmth building up from somewhere between the slats of his ribcage. It almost feels like the start of a really good bout of laughter, the way he feels after a really good cry, the way he felt the first time he flew with Niall. It feels like the day he snuck out to apologize to his mother for everything that had happened since his powers were revealed and instead of turning him in or turning him away she had just gathered him close and whispered about how he would always be his baby. Liam doesn’t know any other feeling like this in the world.

They trample their way into the makeshift kitchen that Liam, Harry, and Zayn have set up since moving in.

“Really like what you guys have done with the place,” Louis comments as he drops into a chair at the table.

“Shut up, Lewis,” Harry says, plopping down into his lap. If Liam didn’t know better, he’d have no idea that they hadn’t spoken in over a year. “Some of us are in hiding.”

“And whose fault is that?” Louis snaps.

“Can we not do this tonight?” Liam asks, feeling some of the tingly goodness leave him. “Please?”

“Sorry,” Louis says. He wraps his arms around Harry’s waist as Harry goes to move away from him. “No, don’t. Stay.” Harry looks conflicted, but ultimately settles back against Louis, who keeps his tight hold around Harry.

"Is there pizza? Tell me there's pizza," Niall says, turning to Liam.

"Of course there's pizza," Zayn answers in Liam's stead.

Niall cheers loudly and everyone smiles; Liam feels his chest grow warm again. He tangles a hand in Niall's hair and reels him into a kiss.

"Excuse me, Liam, Niall said he wanted to eat pizza and cake, not your tongue," Harry interrupts loudly. He grins when Louis laughs and lets him go long enough for a high five.

“I’ll eat more than just his tongue later tonight,” Niall says. He waggles his eyebrows at Liam and Liam bursts out laughing. He’d somehow forgotten how lame his boyfriend could be.

“No!” Louis exclaims. “Absolutely not. Niall, how could you? You don’t even have the excuse of hanging out with Harry all the time.”

“Someone has to be responsible for the bad jokes on our side,” Niall says. “Now, can we eat some fucking pizza please?”

Liam and Zayn dish out the pizza and they all sit down to eat together, Niall insisting on sitting in Liam’s lap because “we won’t be goddamn outdone by these two idiots. They’re not even together.”

They laugh and they don't stop laughing all the way through pizza. They watch the new Channing Tatum/Jonah Hill movie and make their way through their supply of beer and laugh even more. It's the most fun Liam's had in ages, really. It's not like he wasn't aware of how much he missed having all of them together in the same room -- he's pretty much always constantly aware of that -- he's just made more aware of it now that he has it back.

After the movie’s done (and they can gather enough energy to actually move from the couch), Niall and Liam tumble into Liam’s bed, curling up together in the middle of it, facing each other.

“Tonight was nice,” Niall says.

“It was,” Liam agrees easily.

Niall’s eyebrows furrow for a second and then his face smooths out into a smile. “Harry and Louis are sorting their shit out.”

“Happy birthday to all of us,” Liam says. Niall laughs and shifts until Liam isn’t sure there’s a single part of him that isn’t touching Niall.

“Speaking of birthdays…” Niall trails off as he rolls so that he’s lying on top of Liam, chin digging into Liam’s chest. Liam smiles, already knowing what’s coming. Niall finishes, “Where’s my present, Payno?”

Liam presses a kiss to Niall’s nose and goes to slide out from underneath him.

“Whoa, wait,” Niall says, wrapping himself around Liam like some kind of human octopus. “Where are you going?”

“To get your present,” Liam says, a bit confused. “It’s in the hall cupboard.”

Niall pouts at him. “I thought my present was gonna be you sucking me off.”

“You can have that, too,” Liam promises, “but I got you a real gift as well.”

“Your blowjobs are a real gift,” Niall grumbles, but he moves off of Liam.

When Liam comes back into the room Niall sits straight up in bed, eyes wide as he lets out a string of swear words. “What the fuck? Liam, are you serious, mate?”

Liam places the guitar into Niall’s outstretched hands. “Called in a few favors and tracked him down in his safe house.”

“MI5 has been trying to track him down for months,” Niall says, clearly still in awe of the guitar he has balanced across his knee, “and you find him to sign a guitar.”

“Little bit easier to track down rebels when you’re the rebel leader, I think,” Liam jokes. “It isn’t just a signed guitar, either, it’s one of his. He used it in his show last weekend. Told him it was my boyfriend’s birthday and he was more than happy to give it to me.”

(Ed Sheeran had been hiding since the Big Weekend incident, where Specials Division agents had come after him in the middle of his set, hoping to make an example of him. Ed had managed to escape into hiding and spent his newfound free time writing songs in favor of the resistance, hacking into radio to play them. It was driving Grimmy nuts.

“I’ll play his bloody songs, he knows I will,” Grimmy had complained to Liam over the phone. “Tell him to stop interrupting my show and send me an mp3 like a sane person.”

Ed, of course, does no such thing.)

“Harry’s the one who found him, really,” Liam explains after Niall remains silent. “I just followed his leads.”

“You got me a fucking Ed Sheeran guitar for my birthday,” Niall says. He’s beaming when he looks up at Liam. “I love you. Not just because of that, but, like. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Liam says back, laughing. “Much better than a silly blowjob, yeah?”

“There’s nothing silly about your blowjobs,” Niall says immediately. He holds out the guitar for Liam to take, which he does, setting it on the floor by the wall so it will be safe. “Now come here and let me get your dick in my mouth.”

“I thought I was sucking you off.” Liam knee-walks his way across the bed to settle in between Niall’s legs. Niall sits up straighter, hands already working at Liam’s flies.

“It’s my birthday,” Niall says, “and if I want to blow you, I’ll blow you.”

“It’s technically not your birthday anymore,” Liam points out even as Niall gets Liam’s cock out and starts stroking it to hardness. Liam pushes his trousers and pants down and manages to get them off without Niall breaking contact.

Niall just rolls his eyes, grabbing at Liam’s hips and flipping them so that Niall’s on top. “Do you want me to suck you off or not?”

“Well, I’m not going to stop you, mate,” Liam says, leaning up a bit to bump his forehead against Niall’s.

“Don’t call me mate when we’re about to fuck, please,” Niall says. He tugs at Liam’s shirt until Liam sits up enough to pull it off.

“Why do you still have clothes on?” Liam whines even as Niall starts kissing his way down Liam’s body.

Niall glares up at Liam from where he is hovering just above Liam’s dick, which is all the way hard and leaking precome against his stomach. “Teasing me do it for you, babe?”

“You do it for me,” Liam says because he can’t resist. He sends intense feelings of fond in Niall’s direction, can tell he gets them by the way he blushes.

“Stop that,” Niall says. He ducks his head down and licks a stripe up Liam’s dick.

“I love you,” Liam whispers. “I love you so much.”

Niall surges up to kiss him, tongue hot and insistent where it presses into Liam’s mouth and suddenly it feels like too much. He feels so much for this boy. It goes beyond anything he’s ever felt before and he’s pretty sure he’ll never feel anything else like this ever again.

“I can feel it,” Niall murmurs. “I can feel you.”

Liam lets out something that sounds a bit like sob, everything from tonight -- from having his boys back together -- bubbling up and boiling over. He wraps his arms around Niall, one of his hands coming up to cradle the back of Niall’s head. He just wants him close, doesn’t want to let him go in this moment. He can feel their heartbeats line up as Niall presses himself closer.

“Like this, yeah?” Niall asks, moving his hips against Liam’s so their dicks catch.

“Yeah,” Liam pants out.

They move like that, bodies rolling together and apart, the friction so so good and not quite enough.

“Want my hand?” Niall asks.

“No,” Liam says. He slides one of his hands down to Niall’s lower back, pressing him down so the friction is constant. They both moan and Niall brings their lips together again.

Later, they’re lying curled up on the bed facing each other. Liam is playing with Niall’s fingers where they’re resting on the bed between them, their other arms tucked under their heads. Niall knocks their knees together and Liam tears his gaze from their interlocking fingers to look at him properly.

“I love you, too,” Niall says, voice serious. “I know that you can’t feel how I feel the way that I can for you, but I want you to know that I love you back. Just as much. Maybe more.”

“Not possible,” Liam says. He squeezes tighter around Niall’s hand.

“We’re five young boys with superpowers and are currently fighting a war that will decide the future of how people with powers are treated and me loving you more is what’s not possible?” Niall asks, laughing a bit.

“Yes,” Liam says, firmly. Then, a little quieter, “Yes.”

They gather around the kitchen table that night, but it’s not like any other night. They’re all quiet and tense as they take their seats. Liam reaches for Niall’s hand under the table and is relieved when he links their fingers together and squeezes. There isn’t food, but Liam isn’t hungry and he doesn’t think the rest of them are either.

“Well,” Louis says. “I guess we should talk about what we’re going to do.”

“I’m not registering,” Harry says immediately. “I can’t.”

Liam watches Louis as Harry speaks. He sees the sadness cross Louis’ face before it’s replaced with a kind of resignation. Liam knows that Louis would do anything for Harry and anything includes never making him go back to the life that broke him so apart before.

“Niall?” Louis turns to him next.

“Registering,” Niall says. He doesn’t offer up an explanation the way he had earlier with Liam. He says it with purpose, finality. Liam watches Harry’s head snap up and his expression grow a bit panicked.

“Niall,” Harry starts.

“No,” Zayn interrupts him. “We just have to say it. No trying to change each other’s minds. That’s the only way we’re going to make it out of this okay, the five of us.”

“What are you choosing, then?” Harry asks.

“I’m not registering,” Zayn says. He looks down, tracing some of the ink on his arm instead of looking at them. “Turns out Saafa has powers, too. Mum’s already moved the whole family into hiding. I don’t want to register and bring attention to them.”

“You think not registering will protect them any better?” Louis demands.

“No trying to change each other’s minds,” Liam echoes Zayn quietly. “Please, Lou, this is hard enough.”

“We all know what I’m choosing,” Louis says. “So that just leaves you, Payno.”

“I…” Liam starts and then stops. Niall squeezes his hand again and Liam takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what I choose.”

“Not choosing is still choosing,” Niall says. “If you don’t choose to register, you’re choosing not to register. That’s how they’re going to see it.”

“I don’t care how they see it,” Liam says. “I only care about how the five of you do. I’m not choosing a side.”

Louis scoffs. “Taking the easy way out, huh?”

Liam flushes. He’s reminded, violently, of what it was like when he and Louis were still trying to navigate each other in the beginning of their friendship. They’d kept butting heads, arguing about everything: how best to train with their powers, what their powers should be used for, how much sugar was too much sugar in a cup of tea. It had taken a lot of work for them to get to where they were now and in an instant, Liam felt that all being pulled away from him, which is exactly what he’d been trying to avoid by not choosing.

“None of this is easy.” It’s Harry who jumps to Liam’s defense. “Do you think any of us want to make this choice? Do you think I want to choose to be on a different side than you?”

That shuts Louis up for a moment. The he murmurs, quiet and just for Harry, “Where do you want to sit?”

Harry’s voice is thick and Liam doesn’t need to be an empath to be able to tell that Harry is about to cry when he says, “Right next to you.”

“That’s that, then,” Zayn says. “We’re decided.”

“They’re going to tear us apart,” Niall whispers, his voice hoarse. “They’re going to turn us against each other.”

“No,” Louis says viciously. “I won’t let them do that. You are my boys. You’re my family.”

“What good will that be? We’re about to go to war,” Niall says.

“Niall…” Zayn trails off.

“I know,” Niall says. He lets out a humorless laugh. “I don’t like it anymore than all of you do.”

“Let’s make a pact, then,” Harry chimes in. “No matter what happens, we’ll still be a family. No matter what, it’s the five of us.”

Liam is skeptical, can tell that the rest of them are, too. But he can also hear the desperation in Harry’s voice, can feel it rolling off of Louis in waves; they’re all desperate to keep what they’ve built from shattering apart.

“I’m in,” Liam says, surprising even himself. “The five of us. No matter what.” He puts his hand in the middle of the table, looks around at them.

Harry places his hand atop Liam’s and the two of them wait. Niall tugs his hand free of Liam’s grip to add it to the pile. Zayn follows. Louis hesitates for just a second and then nods, putting his hand on top.

“No matter what,” Louis says. They don’t break their hands apart, leaving them there together in the center. They stay like that for a few long moments and then Niall hisses and pulls back to cradle his head in his hands.

Liam pulls his own hand back almost instantly, sliding out of his chair to kneel beside Niall on the ground. “Babe? What is it? Are you alright?”

Niall keeps trying to take deep breaths, only to abort them in the middle before they can do him any good.

“Focus on me,” Liam tells him, remembering back to the time when Niall told him it’s easier if he’s only focusing on how one person is feeling. “Niall? Just focus on me, okay? Feel me.”

It takes a minute, but Niall’s breathing steadies and his eyes blink open. There’s panic there, barely contained. “Turn on the television.”

“What?” Harry asks even as Zayn brings the television to life in the living room. They all spring from their chairs, Liam helping Niall up from his own. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t think we have twenty-four hours anymore,” Niall says.

They all race into the living room, Zayn turning the volume up a bit as they go. Liam freezes when he sees what’s on the screen, Harry slamming into his back.

Up on the display is a familiar house, overrun by police officers and MI5 agents. There’s a woman from the news standing there as well, but Liam can’t hear anything she’s saying over the roaring in his ears.

He doesn’t even realize he’s started running until he’s out the door, ignoring the boys’ confused shouts as he sprints down the driveway and out into the street. He has to hurry.

Before

Liam feels like he’s in a bad movie as he makes his way down the stairs. Niall is at the foot of them, snapback turned backwards and staring at something on his phone.

Harry, Louis, and Zayn are all gathered in the doorway to the living room. Liam thinks that they think they’re being subtle. They’re not. Zayn clears his throat loudly and Niall looks up, catching sight of Liam. A grin stretches across his face.

“You look hot,” he says, giving Liam a slow look up and down.

“I wear stuff like this all the time,” Liam protests, a blush spreading across his cheeks.

“And you always look hot,” Niall says.

“Smooth,” Louis says appreciatively, holding his hand out for a fistbump, which Niall gives him.

“Can we go?” Liam asks, having been embarrassed enough already. He comes down the rest of the stairs and stops beside Niall. “We’re going to miss the movie if we don’t leave soon.”

“You can’t leave before I take a few pictures!” Harry exclaims, stepping forward with his phone at the ready. “Little Niall and Baby Liam’s first date. This is something we’re going to want to remember.”

“Are you serious?” Liam asks even as Niall lets out a chuckle and says, “Okay, Mum.”

Harry narrows his eyes at the both of them and then holds up his phone. “Stand closer together, please. Make it look like you like each other.”

Niall wraps an arm around Liam’s waist, leaning in to whisper, “Better to just get it over with, yeah?”

Liam pulls back so when he turns to look at Niall he doesn’t headbut him or do something else equally mortifying. “Yeah.” His nerves and embarrassment melt away under Niall’s soft look. It’s just Niall. There’s no reason to be nervous. He furrows his eyebrows. “Are you fucking with my feelings right now?”

Niall blushes and turns away. “If I am, I’m not doing it on purpose.”

“Okay, let’s do one posed photo and then you can go,” Harry says, studying whatever picture he’s got up on his phone. “These candids are great. We’ll definitely have to print one of them and send it along to Maura.”

“Maybe let them go on their date before you start sending their mums stuff, Haz,” Zayn says from where he’s still leaning up against the doorway.

Harry shrugs, like he’s considering it and waits for Niall and Liam to both square off and smile before he presses his thumb down approximately five million times.

“Want to make sure we get a good one,” he mutters to himself as he scrolls through the pictures. Liam takes that as their cue to get the heck out of here.

“Goodbye!” Liam calls to them as he physically drags Niall from the house. He doesn’t even have to use his super strength as Niall seems just as eager to go as he is.

“Have him home by eleven, young man,” Louis calls after them. “And no funny business!”

“I don’t even know which one of us he’s talking to,” Niall admits as he slides into the driver’s seat. Liam buckles up on the passenger side.

“I don’t particularly care,” Liam says. “We’ll come home when we come home.”

“And we’ll do funny business if we want to do funny business?” Niall says. He throws the car in reverse and backs out of the driveway, but not before waggling his eyebrows at Liam.

“Kind of planning on a little funny business if I’m honest,” Liam admits because he’s sure Niall can read it on him anyway.

Niall smirks as he starts driving down the road. “I can still turn this car around. We can head back inside… I’m sure Harry would love some action shots.”

“Keep driving, Smiles,” Liam tells him, laughing. “I have a very romantic night planned for us and I won’t let you muck that up.”

“You started it,” Niall says, still smirking a bit. He leans over and turns on the radio.

They chat companionably as they drive to the cinema, Niall telling Liam a hilarious story about a time that Harry fell asleep and they drew dicks all over his face not realising that he had an interview for a job the next day.

“What did he do?” Liam asks between giggles.

“He went to the interview anyway,” Niall says. “Charmed his way into a goddamned job with massive dicks all over his face.”

They’re both still laughing as they pull into the parking lot of the cinema. Liam jumps out of the car quickly and races around to open Niall’s door for him. Niall gives him a strange look when he climbs out.

“You know I’m a sure thing, right Payno?” Niall asks, linking their hands together. “You already know how much I like you.”

“Romantic night,” Liam reminds him, giving his hand a squeeze. “We’re going to do this proper.”

“Alright,” Niall says. He rolls his eyes, all faux-exasperation.

“Maybe if you’re good, I’ll feel you up during the film,” Liam says just to make Niall laugh, which he does.

“I’ll be on my best behavior, then,” Niall promises.

“Good,” Liam says as he holds the door open for Niall to go in ahead of him. “One of us should be.”

After
By the time Liam gets to Melanie’s house, there’s already a crowd gathered around. They’re being pushed back by officers in uniform while a squad of MI5 operatives swarm around the house, armed.

“Melanie Thompson!” a man with a megaphone yells. “Come out of the house with your hands raised.”

Panic seizes at Liam’s throat, making it hard to breathe. He blacks out for a second, barely registers someone yelling, “You can’t come through here! Sir? Sir!”

He doesn’t realize he’s moved through the crowd until an officer grabs at his arm and Liam stops, eyes still fixated on Melanie’s front door.

Suddenly, there’s a loud bang from the back of the house. Liam can hear screaming from inside and he’s pulling away from the man who is holding him even as the front door bursts open and two MI5 agents drag Melanie from her house while another two follow with Melanie’s mother.

“Let her go!” Melanie screams. “She doesn’t have powers, just me. Let her go!”

Liam surges forward then, launching himself at the men holding Melanie and her mother.

“Liam!” Melanie says when she figures out that he’s the one pulling at her. “Liam, help us, please!”

“I got you,” Liam tells her, even as one of the agents lands a blow to his stomach. “I’m not going to let them take you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Melanie is sobbing as her mother repeats over and over, “It’s going to be okay, baby. It’s going to be okay.”

Liam picks up one of the agents and bodily throws him across Melanie’s front lawn, punching another in the face. More and more agents are descending on him, yells for him to cease and desist growing louder.

“Liam! Liam Liam Liam Liam,” Melanie is still screaming, but there are too many now.

Something presses into Liam’s back and an electric shock runs through his body. He pushes through the pain and the desire to freeze up, adrenaline and his powers giving him an extra boost as he struggles still to get to Melanie and save her.

Another shock passes through him and he falls to his knees, just barely able to watch as they put Melanie into the back of a van.

“No,” Liam says even as he’s zapped again. He collapses over onto all fours, body shaking from the shock.

“Let him go!” Liam hears Louis’ voice ring out. He tries to push himself out, to tell Louis and the others to stay back where it’s safe.

Before he can do anything, Heather is crouching down in front of him.

“Hello, Mr. Payne,” she says pleasantly. Liam’s stomach turns. “I didn’t think we’d see you so soon.”

“Where are you taking her?” Liam demands. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“The new registration law states that all minors who exhibit any kind of special behavior are to immediately be brought in for testing, with or without consent of the guardian.”

It dawns on Liam, then, that this isn’t about Melanie. Not in the slightest.

“You could have taken her quietly,” he says. “You could have picked her up on her walk home from school or… or something. You wanted to see how powerful we are. How powerful I am.”

“Nothing ever works quite like fear, Mr. Payne,” Heather says with an almost wistful kind of sigh. “If the public see that even someone as strong as you cannot beat us, they’ll be more likely to register voluntarily. In order for the public to see that, well. It required a bit of flare, I suppose.”

Liam gets to his feet then, faster than even he thought he could with the way his body is still humming with electricity. The soldiers around him go to zap him again, but Heather holds up a hand as she stands up.

“Wanted the whole world to watch, huh?” Liam asks her even as he pushes through the circle of the soldiers to look out over the crowd. “I’ll bloody give them something to watch.” He clears his throat and then raises his voice, body tense with the expectation of being brought down again. He says it all anyways.

“What you saw today… What you saw today is a glimpse of the future. You just watch a little girl get dragged from her home, away from her mother, because she’s a bit different than the rest of you. And that’s all you’re going to see if we let this registration law pass. Anyone who doesn’t register voluntarily will be dragged into the streets. It’ll become a bloody witch hunt if we let it. Well, I’m not going to let it. My name is Liam Payne. I am Special. And I am not registering.”

He sees movement out of the corner of his eye, a soldier raising his electrified baton again. He sees other soldiers hurriedly commanding that newscasters and camera operators stop their broadcasting. He sees Harry and Louis and Zayn and Niall, all looking at him as if he’s gone half-mad. He sees Melanie’s mother, standing tall in front of the house, arms empty of her daughter.

And then he runs.

After

Liam’s breathing heavily when he finally comes to a stop at the edge of the barricade. Soldiers in black uniforms with very large guns are trying to force the crowds back. Liam feels Harry press in against his back.

“Liam,” Harry says. “Liam, we shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous for us to be out in the open like this.”

“She needs me,” Liam says. He stands up as tall as he can -- wishing, just for a minute, that Niall was here to lift him up and over -- so that he can see beyond the soldiers into the area they’ve quarantined off. He can see her, then, kneeling on the ground, hands outstretched in front of her with a look of absolute terror on her face. “I have to get closer.”

“That’s suicide, mate,” Zayn says from where he’s managed to push through the crowd and join them. “You can’t help her if you’re dead.”

“She won’t kill me,” Liam says with authority, even though he isn’t completely certain.

“You don’t know that,” Zayn says, seeing through Liam immediately. “How do you expect to even get to her? There’s a literal army between her and us and we’re only three dudes, Li.”

“I can’t just leave her,” Liam answers, voice vicious. “I can’t leave her again. She needs me.”

There’s a shout from the crowd then, a cry of, “Up there!” and Liam feels a shadow pass over him. He looks up sharply, watching as Niall deposits Louis into the thick of the group of soldiers before he shoots back up and scans the crowd. Niall’s eyes find his and Niall floats over, landing softly in front of Liam, on the other side of the barrier.

“We’re going to help her,” he says, reaching out to wrap his hand around the back of Liam’s neck. “I promise, we’re going to help her.”

“I can help her!” Liam exclaims. He wants to cry. Up until this point, he’s been running on sheer adrenaline. He’d heard it on the police radio Zayn had set up in the base; a young girl matching Melanie’s description had escaped from her holding lab and was wandering through the streets, barely in control of her powers. Liam had been up and out the door before they’d even issued the evacuation order. Niall’s hand on the back of his neck makes him deflate a bit, makes him feel the panic gripping his heart and how frustrated and sad he is at feeling so helpless when Melanie is right there.“Please. Just let me see her. I can help her.”

“Louis’ working on it,” Niall assures him.

A minute or so later, Louis is stalking towards the barricade, leading a small group of soldiers, who look both angry and fearful, two qualities Louis brings out of people in spades.

“Hey, bro,” Louis greets him. “We’re going to bring you through to see if you can talk to Melanie, try to get her to calm down and regain control of her powers.”

“What about them?” Zayn demands, a hand sneaking out to grip Liam’s arm to keep him from moving forward. Liam knows that Zayn couldn’t actually stop him if he wanted to move, but he stays still under Zayn’s fingers, knowing that Zayn’s right -- he won’t be any use if he dies before he reaches her.

“They’ve been ordered not to touch any of you while this gets resolved,” Louis says and there’s an undercurrent in his tone that Liam doesn’t have the focus to decode right now. All that matters is getting to Mel and helping her. “I’ll work as your liaison between MI5.”

“Thank you,” Liam says, eyes back on where Melanie has curled into a ball on the ground. She must be doing something, still, because no one will go within fifty yards of her. “Just let me through, please.”

Louis nods. “Come on.”

Liam hops the barrier quickly, Harry and Zayn following him over easily. It takes everything Liam has not to sprint across the open road, in between soldiers and scary military vans, and gather Melanie in his arms.

“She’s emitting a kind of brain wave that renders you unconscious if you get too close,” Louis tells him. “She’s gone a bit hands free since the last time you saw her.”

They get up to the front line of soldiers and everyone stops.

“We haven’t been able to get closer than this since we got here,” one of the soldiers says, quite obviously only speaking to Louis and Niall. “One more step and you’ll go down.”

“Move them back,” Liam says, quietly. “Order them to retreat. It needs to be just me.”

“Liam, are you sure that’s safe?” Niall asks.

“I’m sure,” he tells him. He looks away from Melanie to give Niall a quick smile, to tell him with his eyes to trust me, I got this. Niall nods at him and then again at Louis. Louis starts shouting orders.

“You guys, too,” Liam says when all the soldiers have backed far enough away. Zayn claps him on the shoulder before stepping back, as does Louis. Niall kisses his cheek gently.

He whispers as he steps back, “She’s going to be fine. I can feel it.”

Harry doesn’t move. He keeps his eyes on Melanie and Liam waits, knowing that Harry wants to say something.

“You need to be careful,” he says, his voice surprisingly cold. He crosses his arms over his chest. “Places like where they kept her… You don’t know what it’s like, but I do. It changes you, Li. It fucks with you like you wouldn’t believe. She might not be the little girl you used to know. Please be careful.”

“I will,” Liam promises. “I’ll be careful. But I have to try, Haz. I can’t just leave her here.”

“I know,” Harry says. He turns to give Liam a watery smile. “Heroes club, remember?”

And Liam does remember. That day in the kitchen seems ages ago now; it feels like two lifetimes have passed since they all sat around joking about being heroes.

“I have to admit,” Liam says, voice light, “I rather expected heroes club to be a bit less hiding in underground bunkers.”

Harry laughs, just as Liam meant him to.

“I’ll be careful,” Liam assures him again. Harry gives him a hug and then steps back to join the others, who are far enough back to be safe, but closer to him than the soldiers.

Liam turns his back on them and lets his gaze zero in on Melanie again. He can see from here that she’s sobbing, hands clutching at her head like Ruth used to do when she got really bad headaches.

“Melanie!” he shouts, trying to keep his voice gentle even as far as he is from her. “Melanie, sweetheart, it’s Liam.”

Her head shoots up, then. Her eyes are wide, like a rabbit that’s been spooked. She looks around frantically before she’s able to concentrate on him.

“Liam?” she says, just loud enough for him to hear. “Is that really you?”

“Yeah, love, it’s me.” He swallows around the lump in his throat just from hearing her voice.

“Liam, I’m so scared,” she chokes out. Liam almost misses it, her voice has dropped so much.

“I know you are,” he calls back. “But I’m here to help you. Can I come closer?”

She seems to think about it for a minute, then nods. “I won’t hurt you. My powers they… They don’t want to hurt you.”

Liam takes a cautious step forward and then, when nothing happens, nearly runs to Melanie, dropping to the ground and wrapping his arms around her.

“Liam, Liam, Liam,” Melanie is sobbing into his chest.

“Shh, Mel, shh,” he rocks her back and forth, trying to soothe her. “It’s going to be alright, love.”

“I can’t,” she hiccoughs. “I can’t control them. I can’t make my powers stop hurting people. I don’t know what to do.”

“That’s okay,” he keeps his voice gentle. “You just need to calm down a bit, yeah? We’ll get it all sorted.”

“I don’t want to go back there,” she bursts out suddenly, pulling back to look up at him with tears in her eyes. She looks determined, too, a spark of the girl Liam saved that day instead of the girl they’ve tried to turn her into. “I won’t go back there.”

“No way,” Liam tells her. “You’re never going back there, not ever. I’m going to take you somewhere safe, okay? We’re going to find your mum and we’re going to make sure no one hurts either of you ever again.”

“My mum?” Melanie sniffles out. “She’s okay?”

“She’s been brilliant,” Liam says. “She misses you like mad and she’s been working really hard to stop the government from doing to other kids what they did to you. She’s sat outside Buckingham Palace every day, says she won’t move until she has you back.”

Melanie buries herself in Liam’s chest again, a fresh round of tears soaking into the front of his shirt.

“I’m so sorry, Mel,” Liam whispers, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you that day and I’m sorry it took me so long to save you now.”

“‘s not your fault,” she says. “Took me forever to escape from there, it was so far underground.”

Liam lets out a little chuckle, even though nothing is really funny. “Would you like to meet Niall?”

Melanie thinks for a second, presses her hand to Liam’s wrist. He sees how nervous she is to hurt Niall, sees how far gone she is from the little girl he knew who barely knew what her powers did. He doesn’t know what she gets in return, but whatever it is makes her frown.

“You’ve had to hide because of me,” she says.

“Yes,” Liam answers honestly, mostly because she already knows the truth, “and I’d do it all over again if it meant I had saved you that day.”

“I don’t want to hurt him,” Melanie whispers, ignoring Liam’s comment, though Liam can tell she’s not done talking about it with him.

“I don’t think you will,” Liam tells her. “You’re a good person, Melanie, you wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose. Just take a deep breath and focus, okay?”

Melanie nods and follows his instructions, taking a deep breath in through her nose and breathing it out through her mouth. She stares at her hands for a moment and then says, “Alright. He can come closer.”

“Niall!” Liam yells without turning away from Melanie. “Come here for a mo, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

Niall approaches without hesitation, trusting that Liam's made it safe for him. Liam feels a quick swell of affection underneath everything else and lets himself bask in it for a second before focusing back on Melanie and the situation at hand.

"Hi," Niall says. He crouches down beside Liam, looking Melanie directly in the eye. "'m Niall."

"I know," she says. "Liam used to tell me all about you."

"Hey," Liam complains, playing it up a bit until Melanie lets out a small, wet laugh. "Don't you two go getting in cahoots now."

The two of them ignore him completely.

"Does he think I'm cute?" Niall asks, lowering his voice conspiratorially.

"Yeah," Melanie says. She lets out a giggle, a genuine smile spreading across her face. "He used to think about marrying you sometimes."

"Melanie!" Liam says. Her and Niall just laugh.

"It's okay," Niall says. He looks away from Melanie and instead locks eyes with Liam. “I think about marrying him sometimes, too.”

Liam blushes, knows that Niall can feel the embarrassment and love radiating off of Liam in equal measure.

“Niall’s going to take you away from here.” Liam turns to look back at Melanie. “He’s going to take you somewhere nice and safe and then I’ll come and bring your mum to you, alright?”

Melanie looks around. “Will they kill you?”

“They might try,” Liam tells her. “Won’t let them though, now will I?”

She holds out her hand again and Liam takes it. He sees that she’s scared -- for him, for herself, for Niall, her mum -- and he knows that she sees that he’s scared, too. She lets go of his hand and smiles a bit at him. “Be careful.”

“Fly fast and fly far,” Liam says to Niall. “We’ll do our best here to keep them from following you.”

Niall nods. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Liam responds.

They hold each other’s gazes for a few beats and then Niall, fast as lightning, is scooping Melanie up and taking off into the sky. They’re out of sight within seconds.

Seconds later, every gun in the vicinity is trained on Liam.

“Whoa, whoa,” Harry says. He steps forward, hands raised, in between Liam and the soldiers. He flashes everyone a smile. “There’s no need to resort to violence.”

“Stand down,” one of the soldiers commands.

“Not gonna let you shoot my friend, mate,” Harry says, his voice noticeably sharper, though his smile doesn’t leave his face.

“Stand down,” the soldier repeats, “or I will be forced to consider you hostile and take you down myself.”

Louis strides forward at that, placing himself in front of Harry protectively. “You touch him and it will be the last thing you ever do.”

“Captain Tomlinson,” the soldier says, weapon still raised. “Requesting that you move out of the way, sir.”

“Request denied,” Louis says. “Lower your weapon.”

The soldier seems a bit conflicted at that and Liam thinks that Louis’ done it, he’s saved them, but the soldier’s arm doesn’t waver.

“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t,” he says. “We have two potentially hostile Specials in range.”

“Make that three,” Louis nearly growls at him.

“Fuck, let’s just make it four,” Zayn says, stepping forward as well. “And if you don’t want to lower your weapons, that’s fine. I’ll just do it for you.” He raises his hand and twitches his fingers and the clips of all the guns drop out. The soldiers scramble for them, sliding them back into their weapons and aiming them again.

“Where is he taking her?” the soldier demands once he’s got his gun trained on Liam once again.

“Don’t know,” Liam says honestly. “Just told him to take her away from here.”

“She is extremely dangerous,” the soldier says.

“Only people here who are dangerous are the ones with guns,” Liam responds. Some of the other soldiers are working to push back the civilians now, which Liam is grateful for.

“I am ordering you to stand down,” the soldier shouts. “Now turn yourselves over or you will be considered a threat.”

“Guess we’re threats then,” Louis spits at him.

That’s all the guy needed, apparently, to open fire.

“Holy shit!” Liam hears Harry shout as they all run and duck for cover as the entire unit starts shooting at them.

Liam ducks between two buildings, Zayn crashing into him a moment later.

“Didn’t think they’d actually start shooting, what the fuck,” Zayn says.

“Can you do that thing you did again?” Liam asks. “Can’t shoot a gun if you don’t have bullets.”

“Developed mind-reading powers, have you?” Zayn gives Liam a soft smile, before stepping out around the corner of the building and disarming all of the soldiers. “Only slows them down. How do we stop them?”

“I don’t think we can,” Louis says, coming at them from around the other corner of the building, Harry hot on his heels. “Not without fighting back.” He looks at Liam, gaze loaded.

Liam stops and thinks for a second. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, that’s been the whole point of this. But then he thinks about Melanie and what they did to her, what they’re probably doing to other kids just like her right now. He thinks about what they did to Harry and how he still goes quiet sometimes and shakes at the thought of having to go to the doctor’s. He thinks about the last year and a half that he and so many others like him have spent in hiding, leaving behind everything they know to live in fear and terror of a government that never even tried to understand them. He thinks about the kind of future he wants to have.

“So we fight back,” he says finally. “We’ve done the peaceful thing for over a year and it’s not working. We tried. I’m not letting anyone else I care about get hurt.”

“Alright,” Louis says, clapping Liam on the shoulder. “What’s the plan, then?”

“Don’t really have one,” Liam admits. “Figured we could just go out there and start messing with shit?”

“That’s the best plan I’ve ever heard!” Louis exclaims. “Let’s fucking go, lads!”

Zayn counts to three and they all race out from their hiding spot, Louis already shooting fire out of the palms of his hands.

Cars on the street spring to life as Zayn touches them, cutting soldiers off as they advance towards them and revving their engines menacingly when anyone gets too close. The soldiers eye them warily and Liam can tell from the look in Zayn’s eye that they’re right to be wary; Zayn does not look like he is fucking around.

Harry is all over the place: making magazines fall out of guns, setting things on fire, lifting up the tanks that are set up in the streets and turning them upside down.

Liam himself is pretty busy with some hand to hand combat, soldiers who weren’t cut off by Zayn’s ring of minivans and sedans and who are brave enough to face him head on. He decks one guy and then flips another one onto his back. They’re neverending, though, and Liam can feel himself beginning to tire, just a bit.

He looks up at one point and notices that Niall has joined the fray, picking soldiers up and dropping them onto each other. He spares the breath for one huff of laughter, Niall’s eyes darting to his quickly, and then returns to fighting off the men in uniform.

The tide seems to be turning, the five of them slowly but surely pushing the soldiers back or leaving them unconscious in the street. Their weapons have been rendered all but useless between Harry and Zayn, and Liam thinks for the first time that they might be able to win this.

And that’s when a searing pain rips through his shoulder and everything goes black.

Before

Liam wakes up in an unfamiliar room with sun shining in his eyes. He rolls over to find a still sleeping Niall.

Niall is lying on his stomach, arms cuddling his pillow to his face. He has blankets tangled around his ankles, but that's it, freckles on his back stark in the harsh morning light. His boxers hug his bum and the muscles in his thighs twitch in his dreams. Liam finds himself smiling, reaching over to brush Niall's hair off of his forehead where the pillow has pressed it flat.

Liam disentangles himself from the blankets and quietly gets out of the bed. Niall makes a snuffling noise in his sleep and shifts and Liam freezes where he is by the door. He waits until Niall settles back down before he slips out the door. He pads down the hallway, yawning and stretching his arms over his head, joints cracking loudly.

Harry is already sitting at the table when Liam makes it to the kitchen.

"Good night, then?" Harry asks, waggling his eyebrows at Liam over his cup of tea.

Liam flips him off as he grabs the electric kettle and fills it up. He turns it on and roots through the cupboards until he finds the only two frying pans in the house.

"Are you going to cook?" Harry asks. "I thought the night went well, why are you trying to poison him?"

Liam turns from the fridge to flip Harry off with both hands before reaching in and pulling out the eggs and some bacon he'd hidden in the back last week. He turns the stove on and rips open the bacon packet.

"Okay, that's enough," Harry says. He hip checks Liam out from in front of the stove, taking over.

"I love you," Liam tells him. He takes Harry's seat at the table, sipping at Harry's tea.

"I love my house," Harry retorts. "Shame for it to burn down."

Liam sips loudly at the tea and flips Harry off when he turns around to grin at Liam.

"Do I smell bacon?" Louis says, coming into the kitchen.

"It's not for you," Harry replies. "This is love food."

"And here I thought you loved me," Louis says. He tucks himself up against Harry's side. It's the that he notices Liam. "Well, well. Look who spent the night. Have a good first date, did we?"

"It was great," Liam says. He fights to keep the grin off of his face, knowing that Louis won't do anything but mock him for it.

He must not do a very good job because the next minute he has Louis in his lap, pushing at his cheeks. "Aw, look at that grin. Should I start planning a wedding?"

"No, but you should fuck off."

Louis just squeezes his cheeks again. Liam bats his hands away, but it's half-hearted at best.

Zayn stumbles into the kitchen as Harry slides the eggs onto a plate beside the bacon and Liam is putting the two cups of tea he made onto a tray. Harry hands him the food and Liam puts that on the tray as well.

"Where is he going with that?" Zayn demands, collapsing into the chair beside Louis and leaning against him, eyelids droopy. "I want eggs."

"So make some," Liam tells him. He drops a quick kiss to the top of his head as he leaves the kitchen, hoping that Niall is still asleep.

He isn't.

Liam gets back into the room to find Niall sitting up against the pillows, phone in his hand.

"Morning," Liam says. He can hear the way his voice goes soft around the word.

"Morning," Niall answers back. He tosses his phone aside and gives Liam a wide grin.

"Thought I would wake you with some breakfast," Liam says, placing the tray down across Niall's lap and sitting beside him on the bed.

"Very thoughtful," Niall says, voice a little bit mocking but mostly fond. "Usually can't sleep when more than one of you is awake, feed off your emotional energy and all that. Worse if you're the one who’s awake and you're always up the earliest."

"Sorry," Liam says. Niall takes a bite of his eggs and shrugs.

"Don't care much," he says. "Kind of like it. That way I can keep an eye on you when you're running and make sure you don't keel over in a ditch somewhere or summat, yeah?" He faces the door and yells, "Thanks for the food, Harry!"

"You're welcome!" Harry calls back. Niall laughs.

Liam pouts at him. "I was going to cook for you, you know."

"I know," Niall says. He leans over to give Liam a quick kiss.

Liam grumbles, but is satisfied, taking his tea off the tray and gulping about half of it down.

"Last night was really nice," Niall says after a moment or two of silence. He isn't looking at Liam anymore. "And this breakfast is really nice, too."

"I had a good time," Liam tells him. "I'd, um. I'd like to do it again, if you'd like?"

Niall looks up at him then, practically beaming. "I'd love that."

There's a pitiful knock on the door, then, someone letting their hand slam against the door and then drag down it.

"Niall," Louis is whining from the other side. "Niall, my love, my darling."

Niall rolls his eyes at Liam and says, "Yeah, come in, I'll give you a piece of bacon."

The door flies open and Liam barely has time to lift the tray off of Niall's lap before Louis is splayed across the bed with them. Zayn comes in next, sitting himself gently on the end of the bed. Harry comes in last, four plates of eggs balanced in his hands and on his forearms.

"Take your food, please," he says to them. Liam places Niall's tray carefully back in his lap and then takes a plate from Harry. Harry sits down next to Zayn at the end of the bed.

"Did you have sex in this bed?" Louis demands a minute later, mouth full of egg and a look of absolute disgust on his face.

Everyone bursts out laughing.

After

“Where’s Harry?” Liam can hear Niall yelling but it’s become way too much of an effort to open his eyes so he just. Doesn’t. “Zayn, where the fuck is Harry?”

“He’s coming!” Zayn answers. “There are too many soldiers, I don’t know if he’ll make it.”

“Oh, he’ll make it,” Niall says and his voice is more determined than Liam has ever heard it. “Stay here with Liam. I’m not about to let him bleed out in some street because some arseholes won’t let Harry through to heal him."

Liam senses when Niall leaves his side and Zayn takes his place. Zayn’s hands feel different, cooler than Niall’s, as they smooth over Liam’s forehead. Liam misses Niall fiercely. He loves Zayn, he does, but not how he loves Niall. Right now, all he wants is Niall’s hands stroking him and his voice telling him everything will be alright. Without him, Liam feels on the verge of a panic attack. He just got shot for fuck’s sake. He’s obviously not as invincible as they thought he was.

It feels like hours have passed by the time Niall returns. Harry’s voice filters in then.

“Liam? Liam, mate, I’m gonna try to heal you, okay? You’ve lost a lot of blood and the bullet did a lot of damage so this is probably going to hurt a lot. I’ll try my best to stop the pain, but it’s not going to feel nice.”

Liam groans, musters up the effort to let a “just do it” roll off his tongue. He hears Harry chuckle a bit and then Zayn’s hands are gone and Harry’s are pressing against either side of his ribs. Harry tells him to take a deep breath and as soon as Liam does the pain starts.

It’s worse pain than anything Liam’s felt in his life, and that includes the bullet going in. After a minute of it, his body all but shuts down, trying to go numb to block out the sensation. It makes his mind more acute, makes him more aware of what is going on around him. It’s like his brain is trying to find anything at all to distract itself from thinking about the pain that Liam’s body is experiencing. Liam happily lets his brain do its thing.

“We’ve got to move you, babe,” Niall’s voice is back, pulling Liam back into the present. “We’re going to go back to your base, okay?”

“Melanie?” is all Liam asks, even as Niall picks him up. The pain in his shoulder spikes and Liam lets out a whimper that makes Niall frown.

“She’s safe. Now, let’s go.” He kicks up off the ground and Liam goes dizzy with how fast they get into the air. “Harry’s going to follow us with the other boys as soon as Louis puts out that gigantic fire he started when you got hurt.”

Liam giggles, his head feeling light. “Good thing I’m fireproof.”

“You’re not,” Niall says, voice serious. “And you’re sure as fuck not bulletproof.”

They’re silent for the rest of the flight back to the base, Niall getting Liam set up on the couch as soon as they get there. Liam hears the other boys come in a minute or so later.

Niall is on Louis almost as soon as they’re through the door.

“He could have fucking died, Louis!"

"I know!" Louis shouts back. "You think I don't know that?"

"Was it worth it? Was any of this worth it? Was it worth it if it means that --" Niall cuts himself off.

“Hey, Liam.” Harry is back, big hands coming to rest over Liam’s shoulder and heart. “Gonna finish taking care of you, yeah?”

“I didn’t know this would happen, Niall! You know that I didn’t. You think I want to watch my best friend die?” Louis snaps, but Liam can tell that he’s scared.

“Don’t you dare,” Niall warns, voice colder than Liam has ever heard it. Based on the way Harry’s hands falter, this is the first time Harry’s heard Niall speak like this as well. “Don’t you dare use that word right now. He’s going to be just fine. Harry is going to take care of him.”

Liam hears the desperation in the last part of what Niall says, knows that behind his anger Niall is terrified. He comes back to himself long enough to force his jaw into motion, just enough to croak out a weak, “Niall.”

“I’m right here, babe.” Niall is by his side in an instant, one hand rubbing at the short hairs on Liam’s head. “I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere, okay? I’ve got you.”

“I know,” Liam pushes out. The pain in his shoulder increases as he sucks in enough air to keep talking. “Always gonna be with you. I promised, remember?” It was so long ago that Liam wonders if Niall will even remember the first time he said those words.

But Niall does. Of course he does. “Yeah, you did. Don’t you dare break that promise, Liam Payne. I swear to God, don’t you dare.”

Liam feels his face twitch into a grin, and that’s the last thing he feels as he finally gives in and slips back into unconsciousness.

After

Liam opens his eyes slowly. He's in his bed at the base, but he doesn't remember how he got there.

"Hey, Payno," Louis' voice comes. Liam turns his head and finds Louis sitting in a chair beside the bed.

"Hi," he says. He shifts, trying to sit up a bit, and his shoulder bursts into flames.

Well, not really, but that's what it feels like.

"Jesus fuck," Liam swears vehemently.

"Yeah, I wouldn't try to move just yet," Louis says, moving to help Liam get one more pillow behind himself so he's up just a little and more comfortable. "Harry did what he could, but he said it could still be a while until you're up to doing anything again."

"Surprised Niall let you in here with me," Liam tries for a joke. It falls flat and Louis looks away, something part-sad and part-unreadable on his face. "Lou, that was a joke."

"I know. You're very funny, Payno."

“You never answered Niall’s question,” Liam says.

“Which one?” Louis asked. “He’s asked quite a few since someone put a bullet in you. Mostly what the prison sentence is for murder of a government agent.”

Liam doesn’t take the bait. “Was it worth it? This whole thing. All this fighting or whatever. Is it still worth it?”

Louis is silent for a long time, so long that Liam thinks he isn’t going to answer. Finally, Louis reaches out and puts his hand over Liam’s where it’s resting on top of the blankets. “No, it wasn’t. It isn’t. Not if it costs us you.”

Liam smiles at Louis, flips his hand over to squeeze Louis’s fingers tightly in his palm, knowing that Louis will understand it as forgiveness. Louis traces his nails over Liam’s palm and Liam is granted his own forgiveness.

"Where are the boys?" Liam asks.

"Zayn is basically erasing us from existence," Louis says. "You think you were undercover before, it's fucking nothing compared to how far off the grid we're going this time."

"What about all the other Specials out there? They're still going to be hunting them."

"Harry figures we can do more good if we're ghosts. We're going to somehow leak that you're dead -- they have footage of you getting shot, anyway -- and then we're going to get the fuck out of here. He's somewhere with Zayn working on that right now.”

"And Niall?" Liam asks. He's trying not to sound totally desperate but he really, really would very much like to see Niall now, please.

"He just stepped out for a second to make sure Greg, Denise, and Theo have gotten somewhere safe. I give it thirty more seconds before he’s storming into this room. Surprised he isn’t already here, to be honest.”

"Figured I'd give you guys a few minutes," Niall says, suddenly appearing in the doorway. "Louis was feeling apologetic, which isn't a feeling I've ever picked up from him before."

"Shut up," Louis says, but there's no heat behind it.

"You two made up then," Liam says. Niall crosses the room and very, very carefully climbs into the bed with Liam, propping himself up on his elbow so he's looking down at Liam just a bit.

“Can’t stay mad at him,” Niall says, eyes searching Liam’s face. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got shot, mostly,” Liam replies, “but otherwise pretty good.”

“Thought I was going to lose you,” Niall whispers. Out of the corner of his eye, Liam sees Louis turn away and pull out his phone, giving them some privacy. “Fuck, Li, I thought you were going to die.”

“Not dead,” Liam says, smiling up at him. “Couldn’t leave you, could I? Made a promise.”

“Yeah, you did,” Niall says, face going soft. He leans down and kisses Liam gently. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Liam responds.

Harry and Zayn come in, then, and Niall’s gaze snaps to them. “Everything alright?”

“All good,” Harry says, sitting himself down on Louis’ lap. "We can leave pretty much whenever. Grimmy has a pal with a plane that we are going to use. We just have to give them a heads up when we want to use it."

"Where are we going?" Liam asks. Zayn sits down gingerly at the foot of the bed. Liam smiles at him and nudges him with his foot. Zayn smiles back and wraps his hand around Liam's ankle.

"Thought maybe America," Zayn says. "Big enough country that we can get lost in it and we've got some supporters over there who have agreed to hide us."

"Can't believe there are people in America who know who we are," Liam says because it's really fucking weird, actually.

"People all over the world know who you are, Liam," Louis says, sounding a bit exasperated. "You're the leader of a worldwide rebellion."

Liam feels himself turn bright red, Niall's hand cool to the touch when he lays it against Liam's cheek.

"We'll leave first thing tomorrow," Niall says. Harry hums in response and pulls out his mobile.

"Can Melanie and her mum come with us?" Liam asks.

"Their suitcases are already packed and ready to go," Niall answers. Liam pushes himself up just enough to give Niall a quick kiss before collapsing back down and groaning at the twinge in his shoulder.

"Don't do that, please," Harry says. "I worked very hard on keeping you alive, I'd prefer you didn't ruin it."

Liam giggles, pressing his face into Niall's ribs instead. He closes his eyes and breathes Niall in. He loves him so much. After everything -- in spite of everything -- Niall has stuck by him. Liam cannot imagine going through any of this without having had Niall by his side (even if Niall was not technically on Liam's side).

"That's our cue to leave, I think, lads," Louis says. Liam opens his eyes and turns his head enough to see Louis pushing Harry off his lap and standing. Harry wraps his arms around Louis from behind, latching on to him still. "You're too big to hang on me like this," Louis grumbles, but he makes no move to detach Harry.

"Weren't complaining about my size the other night," Harry quips. Louis just rolls his eyes and pulls at the collar of Zayn's shirt until he gets up off the bed and follows them out of the room.

Liam tugs at Niall until Niall lies down beside him. Liam lays his head flat on the pillow so he can look right at Niall when he says, "I love you."

"I know that," Niall says, but he's grinning. "I love you, too."

"Never gonna leave you," Liam promises. He can feel his eyes slipping shut, still so tired from almost dying.

"You better not," Niall whispers.

"Never, never, never," Liam chants.

"Go to sleep." Niall kisses Liam on the forehead gently. "I'll be here when you wake up."

Liam makes a small noise of contentment as Niall wraps an arm across Liam's waist and cuddles closer to him. He falls asleep to the sound of Niall singing.