Work Text:
Niall’s just wrapping up a round of golf on an uncharacteristically sunny Monday afternoon when he gets a text from Eoghan:
Champ! You free for lunch tomorrow? Will be in old London town. Have an interesting offer to discuss.
Niall texts back almost straight away:
mate, im on hiatus ! free for lunch everyday. lock it in. the usual spot ?
It’s actually not true at all, he already had plans to meet Roch for lunch, but he can easily switch that to later in the week. It’s not every day that Eoghan drops by London. With an ‘interesting offer’ on the table. Niall’s pretty sure it can only mean one thing: he’s been offered a job back in London. And Niall’s going to do everything in his power to convince him to take it.
Niall’s bursting with excitement when he gets to their favourite Japanese restaurant, 15 minutes early, and orders a peppermint tea to try to calm himself down. He jumps up from his seat when he spots Eoghan enter the restaurant, and throws his arms around him as soon as he gets to the table.
“Good to have you back in London, mate,” Niall says, as he lets him go, and slides back into his seat. “Happy to be back?” he asks, expectantly.
They make small talk as they scan the menu, catching up on the past few weeks, but as soon as the waitress takes their orders Niall is ready to get down to business.
“So, you said you had an offer to discuss?,” Niall says leaning forward, arms crossed in front of him on the table. “Is it the sort of offer which means we’ll be having a lot more lunches here together in the future?” Niall asks, raising his eyebrows with a hopeful smile on his lips.
“Oh, mate, no, no, that’s not it,” Eoghan replies with a small smile as he shakes his head and bites his lip. “You know I’m really happy in Dublin right now.”
Niall nods and tries not to look too disappointed, but he can feel himself kind of deflate as he leans back into his seat.
Eoghan goes on, “but maybe there’ll be more lunches for us together in Dublin, if this offer interests you?”
Niall’s confused. “What? The offer’s for me?”
Now it’s Eoghan’s turn to grin and raise his eyebrows at Niall. “Well, for the two of us.”
Niall shakes his head, eyes wide with curiosity. “Well, go on, out with it.”
“OK, here it is: RTE want us to to host a program together during the Rio Olympics.”
And if Niall’s eyes were wide before, they’ve now at least doubled in size, and he’s blinking rapidly, as if trying to stop them from popping out of his head.
“What they have in mind is kind of a late night talk show format, just us having some chats and bants with the Irish athletes after they’ve competed in their events. The working title is ‘The Last Lap’.”
“Are you kidding me?” Niall says, smiling but shaking his head in disbelief. “Is this a joke? They want ME?”
Eoghan’s smiling widely and nodding vigorously. “C’mon, of course they want you! In fact, I think they need you on board to greenlight it.”
Niall rubs his forehead with the back of his hand, smile getting wider and wider. “ME? Really? But why?”
Eoghan snorts. “I don’t know, could be something to do with you being the most popular man in Ireland? Who really, really loves sport. And Ireland. And has a bit of time on his hands right now. All top shelf reasons, I’d say.”
Niall still can’t quite believe this is real as Eoghan lays out the details. “So it would mean about three weeks in Rio in August, but you’ll need to come out to Dublin for some pre-production meetings leading up to it, and we’ll probably pre-record some segments in Ireland too.”
“Really? They want me?” Niall says again, laughing softly.
Eoghan grins and rolls his eyes. “I don’t know how many times I have to repeat it, but yes, they really, really want you,” he says, as he pulls out a thick envelope from his bag and slides it over to Niall. “All of the details are in there, hopefully that will convince you it’s legit.”
Eoghan goes on, “if you’re interested, RTE want to fly you out to Dublin later this week to meet the team and talk through the details. What d’ya say? Will you think it over?”
Niall laughs louder this time. “Mate, what’s there to think over? I’m in. I mean, I’d pay good money to get to go to the Olympics again. Christ, the last Games were sound, weren’t they? And to get to go back to Rio, I mean, wow, this is just... unbelievable! To get paid to go back there...”.
Eoghan laughs. “Well, it’s not that much money, it’s RTE after all, probably not the sort of pay cheque you’re used to. But it will be bloody good craic, that I can guarantee. Anyway, read through the contract, run it by your management. Maybe run it by your significant other, too?”
Niall smiles and nods. It’s weird to think that this is the sort of thing he needs to discuss with Harry, but he can’t imagine he’d be anything but supportive.
When their food arrives a few minutes later Niall is still beaming, like the happiest man to have ever had a plate of salt and pepper squid laid in front of him.
∞∞∞∞
Niall reads through the contract that afternoon, and sets up a meeting with Modest the next day to discuss it. He then calls Harry in LA, and fills him in on the offer.
“Niall, that’s incredible!” Harry says with delight. “You’re going to do such a good job.”
“You think?” Niall asks. “It’s going to be a bit strange to be on the other side of the interview, you know, to be the one asking the questions.”
“You’re going to nail it,” Harry assures him. “It’s like you were born for it.”
“I still can’t quite believe they want me for this,” Niall goes on.
“I can,” Harry says firmly. “I can’t think of anyone better for the job.”
“So,” Niall says slowly, “August? Any chance you can join me in Rio?”
Harry sighs loudly. “At this stage, it looks like I’ll still be in France. Filming’s scheduled to go through August. And that’s assuming everything does go to schedule. But if there’s any way that I can get away to join you in Brazil, you better believe I’ll make it happen.”
Niall doesn’t want to sound greedy. Getting to go to the Olympics, and support the Irish team, and work with one of his best mates, and spend time in Rio, is already more than he ever could have wished for. But to have Harry there too alongside him, well that would be the icing on this very, very sweet slice of cake.
He gets a message from Harry a few hours later, just as he’s about to go to sleep, with a link to YouTube. He clicks through to the video to see Hugh Jackman in some sort of Broadway production, surrounded by showgirls in skimpy, Carnaval-style outfits, shaking maracas with gay abandon as he sings about going to Rio.
“When my baby,
When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio,
De Janiero, my-oh-me-oh,
I go wild and than I have to do the Samba,
And La Bamba.”
The song is in his head as he falls asleep and dreams the sweetest dreams of beaches and waves and fresh coconuts and dancing through the night with someone tall and tan and young and lovely in his arms.
He’s still humming the tune to himself when he boards the flight to Dublin early Friday morning. He’s never been more ready to sign on the dotted line.
∞∞∞∞
He spends Friday with Eoghan at RTE, meeting with the production team, and the head of the ‘Olympic Taskforce’, and the head of the sporting division. The new Director-General even drops by during a tea break, and quietly asks if Niall would sign something for his daughters. Niall happily obliges.
Their producer is a woman called Eilis. Niall guesses she’s in her early thirties, with a head full of serious curls, and she seems like she’ll be a lot of fun to work with – but also more than ready to crack the whip and pull them into line when necessary. She explains that The Last Lap will be broadcast at 11pm nightly over the course of the Games, but it will also be broken down into shorter segments to go up online – with the goal of producing fun content that goes viral and brings exposure to the Irish Olympic team, both within Ireland and beyond.
Niall nods and jots down notes in a leather notebook Harry gave him for Christmas:
short, fun segments.
VIRAL.
exposure: Ireland & beyond.
They’ve secured a studio space inside the media village, directly adjacent to the athletes' village, and she shows them the preliminary set designs. She then talks them through the pre-production schedule, everything that’s already been locked in for Rio, and what’s still to be confirmed.
Eoghan has to leave for his drivetime show mid-afternoon, but Eilis takes Niall upstairs to the temporary office space being used by the Olympic Taskforce, and introduces him to the team. There’s a whole row of desks along one wall being used by the research team, or in other words the interns who’ve been tasked with preparing bios for every athlete who will compete in the Games. Not just the Irish athletes – every athlete. All 10,000 of them.
Niall imagines that if infinite, multiple universes do exist, in one of those universes he might well be an intern right here, counting down the days until graduation while trying to get a foot in the door to the media industry, surviving on pot noodles and shifts at the pub until he gets a real, paying job. He invites the research team out for an after-work drink, his shout, and resolves to do that every time he comes to Dublin for meetings – which will be weekly in the months leading up to Rio.
One drink at the pub turns into many drinks at several pubs, and they’re joined by various Dublin friends along the way. The interns seem neither impressed nor unimpressed by Niall’s celebrity status, and Niall realises just how much he’s missed spending time in Ireland. The night ends with dancing until the early hours of the morning. Or technically it ends with Niall falling asleep on Eoghan’s couch, a half-eaten kebab still in hand.
He drives up to Mullingar the next day to put in some family time, and gets everyone together at Bobby’s house for dinner on Saturday night to explain what brought him to Dublin. Maura tears up a bit, and tells him over and over again how proud she is of her baby. Bobby says that 11pm is pretty late, especially with his early starts, but he’ll be sure to record every episode and watch them the following evening with his tea. Greg doesn’t say much, but Denise says she speaks for both of them when she tells him there’s no one they’d rather see on RTE than Niall. Except maybe Colm Hayes, she’s always had a bit of a soft spot for him. Theo, for his part, just waves his plastic fork around and yells out ‘lympicames!’ at irregular intervals, but Niall’s pretty sure Theo’s proud of him too.
Niall waits until after they’ve finished dessert before making his other announcement: that he’s been seeing Harry for the past few months. And by seeing, yes, he does mean dating. If he hears Greg mutter ‘fucking’ under his breath, Niall chooses to ignore it. Bobby breaks into a big grin, and says Harry Styles is quite the catch, isn’t he? Maura kicks him under the table, and insists that Niall is the catch, but she’s happy that Harry is the one to have reeled him in. And that she hopes Niall will bring Harry up to see them, it’s been far too long between visits. Theo just hugs Niall’s knee, as soon as he’s let out of his high chair.
∞∞∞∞
Niall gets a call from James the following week congratulating him on the gig, and inviting him to spend some time shadowing him on The Late Late Show set, to get a feel for what it’s like to host a late night show. He suspects Harry has had some hand in orchestrating this, but it’s an excellent idea nonetheless, and he flies out to LA for a week. If he gets to spend his spare time in LA shagging Harry, well that’s a very enjoyable bonus.
Niall’s spent time at CBS before, but he’s always just been messing around with James and Ben. This time he’s here to learn. He approaches it with the seriousness of a straight A student, assiduously taking notes as he watches James prepare for the show each day. Of course, there’s no final exam – but the price of failure will be embarrassing himself on national television, something he desperately wants to avoid. James keeps telling him not to take it so seriously, that it’s called light entertainment for a reason, but Niall doesn’t miss how hard James works to make it look easy. He just hopes some of Ben and James’ creative genius rubs off on him.
Harry schedules The Big Cut, as they’ve taken to calling it, for when Niall is in LA.
The night before, Niall asks Harry to fuck him.
“What, are you sure?” Harry asks, already naked and raring to go.
“Yes, I’m sure!” Niall insists, as he sits on the edge of the bed to wriggle out of his jeans and pants.
“No, but are you really, really sure?” Harry asks again, pushing Niall down so he’s flat on his back, then straddling his waist.
“Yes! I mean, only if you want to. Do you want to?”
“Fuck, yes,” Harry blurts out. “But only if you’re really sure you want to?”
“Harry,” Niall sighs, grabbing Harry’s right hand with his own and placing them on his chest. “I think we’ve already covered this. Hands on my heart, I want this. So just get on with it, before I change my mind.”
“It’s just... if you might change your mind, then maybe you’re not ready for...”
Niall cuts him off with a kiss, pulling Harry down so he’s stretched out on top of him, soft curls framing his face and tickling at Niall’s neck.
“You’ve no idea how ready I am for this,” Niall says, when they break apart. “And it feels like you’re pretty ready too,” he adds, as he gets a hand on Harry’s cock.
“Fuuuuuuuuuccccckkkkk,” Harry gasps. And when he’s capable of articulating words again, he adds, “Just want to make sure it’s good for you.”
“Everything’s been good so far,” Niall grins up at him, as he continues to play with the heavy weight in his hand. “Pretty sure you know how to show a boy a good time. And if I don’t like it, I guess we don’t have to do it again.”
It turns out Niall does like it. A lot.
He almost comes from Harry’s fingers alone, so long and insistent, making him feel things he’s never felt before, leaving him completely incoherent as he writhes about in some strange mix of pleasure and pain. And they’re only just getting started.
By the time Harry is moving inside of him, Niall feels impossibly full, like the warm air in his throat and chest has taken on solid form. But instead of being suffocating, it makes him feel complete, like this is something that has been missing from his life, and now that he knows it exists, he’s never going to be able to live without it.
And the view, the view of Harry above him, biting his lip as he thrusts into Niall, hair matted with sweat, is something Niall wants to grab onto and hold forever. He settles for grabbing onto Harry’s hair, gently at first, and then harder as he gets a sense for how far he can take it. It’s never going to be like this again. Even if Harry does grow his hair back, they’ll be different people by the time that happens, a little bit older, hopefully wiser, and it won’t be so new and maybe not quite so overwhelming, at least for Niall. Because he has no doubt they’ll be doing this again. As often as possible, if he gets his way.
∞∞∞∞
When Niall gets back to Harry’s house from CBS the next day, Jase’s motorbike is already in the driveway, and he finds scissors and an electric razor and various other equipment laid out on the table on the terrace. Harry and Jase are messing around down by the pool with the hoverboard Harry was given last year. Niall’s pretty sure it’s only a matter of time until one of them ends up in the pool – his money’s on Harry. Niall calls out to them, and they come up to join him on the terrace, abandoning the hoverboard – much to Niall’s relief.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Harry says, grinning, as he pulls his hair out of its bun and shakes it out.
Niall’s not quite sure if Harry’s genuinely unfazed by The Big Cut, or if he’s just acting nonchalant – he’s apparently a much better actor than anyone ever gave him credit for.
“Come here,” Niall demands, and pulls him into a kiss, running his hands through Harry’s long locks one last time.
When Niall lets him go, Jase sits Harry down in a chair next to the table, and wraps a shiny gold cape around him.
“I like your style, Jase, always go for gold,” Harry says, laughing, as he holds up a hand for a high five. Jase obliges, before selecting a pair of scissors to get to work.
Niall grabs his phone and presses record. He zooms in on Harry’s face to start with, and Harry pulls a range of silly expressions, hamming it up for the camera. Niall then steps back and circles around them, filming from in front and then behind, from above and from below, as Jase snips and snips and snips away, and the pile of locks on the terrace floor gets bigger and bigger. Harry jokes around with Jase and Niall, and occasionally sings along to songs on Radio 1, streaming through the outdoor speakers. Niall’s seen him like this before, impossibly calm and composed as he gets tattoos, never letting on that it hurts.
When all of the long locks are gone, Jase puts the scissors down, sweeps the pile of hair into a clear plastic bag, and seals it up.
Harry runs a hand through what’s left of his hair, and grins at Niall. “How’s it looking?”
Niall grins back, and gives him a big thumbs up. He’s never seen Harry with hair this short before, not even in photos from when he was a kid. And it’s about to get even shorter.
Jase picks up the electric razor, and fiddles around with the attachments. “Number 2, yeah?” he asks.
Harry shakes his head. “Number 1, baby! Let’s go all the way.”
“You’re the boss,”Jase says, grinning, and gets back to work.
When it’s really all gone, Jase puts down the razor and hands Harry a mirror. Harry holds it out in front of him, and turns his head to the right and to the left, and then to the right again.
“I feel like a brand new me,” he says, laughing, as he hands the mirror back.
Jase dusts some stray hairs off Harry’s neck, and then pulls the cape off him with a flourish. Niall stops recording, and puts his phone down as Harry stands up.
“Come here,” Niall demands, for the second time that day, and pulls Harry in for another kiss, this time running his hands over the prickly stubble covering his head.
“Wooooow,” Niall says, laughing, when they break apart. “That feels... different.”
“Different good or different bad?” Harry asks, sounding strangely serious.
“Different... just.... different. I like it. It’s just... different,” Niall says, completely failing with words.
“I’m going to leave you bros to it,” Jase says, as he finishes packing up his equipment.
Harry thanks him profusely as he shows him out, handing him an envelope of cash. He then insists that Jase take the hoverboard with him, and Jase graciously accepts it – much to Niall’s relief. Harry’s never shown much interest in it, but just being in his possession makes Niall a little nervous, as if Harry could end up with a broken wrist just from being in the same room as it.
When it’s just the two of them, Niall pulls him into a hug, and runs a hand over Harry’s head again.
“Are you OK?” Niall asks, and he feels Harry nodding into his shoulder.
“Good. Great. Excellent,” Harry says. “It’s just hair, you know, it’ll grow back, it’s no big deal.”
But when Jeff and Glenne come over for dinner that evening, Harry is quieter than usual. And when they go to bed that night, Harry confesses in the dark that he feels a little naked with it all gone. Niall resists the urge to joke about Harry actually being naked, under the sheets. Instead he wraps himself around Harry and softly kisses the back of his head until they both fall asleep.
The next day at CBS, Niall borrows Ben’s office to spend half an hour editing the video of The Big Cut down to a three minute highlight reel, and then adds a soundtrack: Buzzcut Season by Lorde. He sends it to Harry, and Harry forwards it on to his mum and Robin, Gemma, Nick, Lou Teasdale, and a few other select friends, copying Niall into the email:
It’s all gone! Wanted you to be the first to know. Looking forward to being back in London soon, so you can see (and feel?) for yourself. Much love x H
∞∞∞∞
When Niall returns to London, he slips into a comfortable routine: training with Mark first thing in the morning, followed by a round of golf most days – making good progress on his handicap. Then meeting friends for lunch, soaking up TV presenting tips from Olly, Jack, Roch and Marv, among others – or at least learning from their hilarious stories about what not to do on live TV.
Afternoons are for Modest! Golf and preparing for the charity event. And in the evenings he goes down to the pub with Willie, or out to the O2 or the Roundhouse or the Brixton Academy once or twice a week, always infinitely impressed by the musical talent of others.
He flies out to Dublin on Friday mornings, very early, and spends the day at RTE with Eoghan, meeting with the production team to talk through new ideas for the program, and with the writing team – who’ll be preparing the monologues and interview questions, and filming promo spots that will air in the lead-up to the Games, and practicing in front of the camera.
And then more often than not he stays on in Ireland for the weekend, playing a round of golf with Bobby at the local club, babysitting Theo on Saturday night - so Greg and Denise can have a date night, and joining Maura and Chris for a Sunday roast before he flies back to London. There’s not time to do much of anything during the short flight between Dublin and London, but Niall usually finds himself scribbling in the back of his notebook, a couple of lines here and there that one day might turn into a song.
He’s always busy, but in a way that feels invigorating rather than exhausting – because he’s the one calling the shots. He feels like he’s ticking all of the boxes for what he wanted to do during the hiatus. And even ticking new boxes for things he didn’t realise he wanted, but now can’t imagine living without.
Harry spends a week in London before filming starts, and slips effortlessly into Niall’s life – joining him in the mornings for training (although Niall knows he never trains quite so hard when Harry is there, inevitably distracted by watching him lift weights, or run on the treadmill without a shirt on. And Harry takes great delight in distracting Niall). They play golf together, and go out to lunch together to catch up with Harry’s friends and family – Grimmy definitely has the funniest stories about what not to do when presenting on live TV.
They spend afternoons side by side on Niall’s couch – Niall reading through the bios of athletes he’s likely to interview in Rio, the greatest medal hopes and the crowd favourites, while Harry reads through his script for the umpteenth time, marking up notes as he goes. When Harry’s finished with the script, he switches to The Miracle of Dunkirk, resting his head in Niall’s lap as he reads. And where Niall would once have combed his hand through Harry’s hair, casually twisting a curl around his index finger, now he holds Harry’s head in his palm, moving his fingers in tiny circles over the soft fuzz.
Niall’s still a little surprised when he wakes up each morning, expecting to see a pile of curls on the pillow next to him. But he’s not so surprised that sex is just as much fun, even without Harry’s hair to grab onto. This new era of Harry’s hair is starting to feel normal, even if Harry does still occasionally tilt his head forward, shake his head and run his right hand through what’s left of his hair, as if reaching for a phantom limb that’s been lost in a war.
Even when Harry leaves for France, things feel easier – because he’s only hundreds of kilometres away, rather than thousands of kilometres. And they’re in almost the same time zone, which means they can talk over breakfast in the morning and before they go to sleep at night. Whenever there’s a few days in a row when Harry isn’t needed on set, he flies back to London to see Niall. He even makes it out to Dublin in mid-July, and they spend the weekend in Mullingar together, celebrating Theo’s third birthday.
And Niall joins Harry on set for a few days the following week, awestruck by the enormous production going on around them. It feels a little like being on tour – with historically-accurate sets the size of stadiums, and a cast and crew of hundreds standing in for their tour family. Harry has apparently spent time getting to know each and every one of them, and proudly introduces Niall around as he greets people by name each morning, asking after their kids or their partners, or about who cleaned up at poker the previous night.
Niall is given a seat in prime position, just behind the director, as they film a key battle scene. Watching the carefully orchestrated chaos take place on the monitor, Niall can’t help but smile at how seriously good Harry is, more than holding his own against the other young actors. But then between takes he’s anything but serious, laughing along with the other lads – or perhaps making them laugh with his stupid jokes, Niall can’t really tell from afar. When Harry catches Niall’s eye, grinning and giving him a thumbs up, Niall hopes Harry can tell from afar just how proud he is of him.
∞∞∞∞
From France, Niall flies straight to Dublin, and spends the last week of July there, immersed in final preparations for Rio. RTE are very happy with the buzz that’s been building about The Last Lap, and the promo spots have drawn several million views apiece on YouTube. Interest is particularly strong among the AB demographic, which apparently is crucial, and a very good thing.
On the last afternoon before they fly out, Eilis sits Niall and Eoghan down and plays back for them the first test run they recorded, back in early June. Niall finds it excruciating to watch – he was practically palpitating with nerves, stumbling over his words and awkwardly interacting with Eoghan. Watching it back, Niall keeps covering his eyes and groaning loudly at each missed cue. He’d suspected that he’d gotten off to a shaky start, he just hadn’t realised quite how bad it had been.
“Love, I’m only showing you this so you can see how far you’ve come,” Eilis says, patting him on the shoulder.
And then she plays them the last test run they recorded earlier that week, Niall cool and confident throughout, the banter with Eoghan as natural as a night out at the pub. He seamlessly delivers the jokes that have been written for him, and his off the cuff comments are often just as funny as anything that’s been scripted.
“Lads, I think you nailed it,” Eilis says, smiling like a proud older sister. “I think we’re ready for Rio.” There are high fives all round.
∞∞∞∞
Niall’s phone buzzes the next morning, just as he’s boarded their flight. He finishes stashing his guitar in the overhead bin, and then pulls his phone out of his pocket to check the message. It’s from Harry – a photo of his thigh, with a message in Sharpie scribbled above a familiar tattoo. It’s upside down, and Niall twists his head around to try to read it – before he realises it might be easier to spin his phone around instead.
I hope you have
the best time in...
BRASIL!
And then a second message:
If there was a gold medal for Olympic coverage, I know you’d have it in the bag x H
Niall texts back:
the only thing that could make it better is if you were coming with us !
( Eoghan never lets me be the big spoon *winking face emoji* )
He switches his phone to airplane mode, leans back in his seat, and grins at Eoghan sitting next to him. Then he rests his head on the back of the seat, and smiles to himself as he looks out the airplane window. He never imagined his life would feel this full on hiatus. And even without Harry beside him, just knowing that he has someone who believes in him with all his heart makes Niall feel complete.
Ready for Rio indeed.