I'd spent the last two days doing nothing but sniffling, coughing, sneezing, and complaining. My eyes itched constantly, my throat was on fire eighty percent of the time, and I'd blown my nose enough time to make the skin raw and painful. No amount of painkillers could ease my headache and my face down to my chest just felt hot and thick with congestion.

To make matters a hundred times worse, I was currently on stage performing. Thank the lord we were on our final song because I didn't want to sing another word. The whole show had been somewhat of a disaster considering the whole lot of us were struggling to sing past scratchy throats and plugged noses, it had felt like an eternity up there under all those hot lights.

"Sorry for the mess of a show guys, hopefully we can come back one day and show you what a real One Direction concert is like," Harry rasped, his head warm resting on my shoulder.
"Thanks for having us." Liam waved. My head throbbed at the screams that echoed throughout the arena as we finally headed backstage.

Louis collapsed onto the floor with a dramatic sigh the second we reached ground floor and were out of view. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling with misty eyes, "that was awful. We sounded like shit."
"You'll catch something worse than a cold if you stay down there on that rank floor," Liam croaked warningly. Louis just shrugged, "if I get some foreign disease that almost kills me at least management will give us the break we've been asking for."
Harry rolled his eyes and grunted in exertion as he pulled Louis up off the ground, "you have a cold Lou, we don't even need a break."
"Speak for yourself," Liam said, yawning widely and wincing as his throat stretched.

"Can we just stop talking and go back to the bus?" I whined impatiently. Now was definitely not the time to be messing around.
"Agreed," Louis coughed.
The pace wasn't exactly quick, but thankfully we all made it back to our temporary road home all in one piece. I almost fell on my face when Liam gave me a boost from behind to get me up the stairs but other than that it was all smooth sailing.

Once sitting down, Liam instantly began sneezing into his hands.
"One-" the rest of us counted, "two-three-four-five-six. . ."
Liam glared up at us with watering eyes and twitching nostrils.
"Seven, and eight!" Louis laughed. I grimaced and leaned away as he started coughing wetly into his fist. Harry biffed over what must've been at least the fifth tissue box we'd gone through and both Liam and Louis dug out a handful to clean themselves up.
I took one too sat back into the couch, holding it to my running nose. At this point blowing hurt like a bitch and I didn't want to wake myself up further, knowing I was so congested it was going to be hard to sleep at all.

Harry rubbed his nose and stood up with a groan, "I'm gonna hit the hay."
"Take me with you?" Louis held up his arms as if Harry would pick him up and carry him to his bunk. Harry just scoffed and sauntered past, plucking himself a pocketful of tissues on his way past. Louis complained after him and rolled onto his feet to shuffle behind him.

"Do you want something to drink Ni?" Liam said in a crackly voice as he stood to road the fridge.
"Something hot maybe," I murmured. Talking tickled and made me sneeze a couple of times, causing a strained bless you to come from Liam's mouth,
"Yeah, there's not much in here. . ." Liam sighed, swinging the fridge door closed and switching on the electric jug.
"Tea?"
Liam rubbed his forehead and nodded, "yeah, that's what I'm having,"

I had to stop Liam when he tried to hand my drink to me. The tickle from my nose had moved to my throat and chest and it made me need to cough. If I tried taking it from him I was going to spill it everywhere. Liam looked confused until I started hacking under the collar of my shirt, knees up.

I came up red faced and still ticklish but hopefully the tea would help get rid of the last remnants, my throat hurt too much to do any more coughing and it was already giving me a headache.
"Easy," Liam said as he passed me the steaming mug.
"Thanks," I murmured.

"Your voice is practically gone Ni," Liam said, frowning as he sat down. "We have another show tomorrow and you can hardly even talk."
It was true, unfortunately. I'd thought about it myself, and really my only saviour would be if I happened to wake up in the morning feeling a hell of a lot better than I do now. Or at least with my throat feeling alright.
I nodded in response to Liam and took a sip of my drink. It was way too soothing running down my throat and through my stuffy chest, I ended up chugging the thing. It was gone in three minutes, tops.

I nodded a goodbye to Liam and put my cup somewhere where it wouldn't fall and smash before trudging to my bunk, more than ready to rest my throbbing head on my thick feather pillow. I tugged my bent off, then off came my jeans. They landed in a hazardous pile on the floor and I pulled on a pair of sweat tiredly, leaving my jeans where they were. The excuse I told myself was that the sound of my suitcase would wake Harry and Louis but really I was just too lazy to do anything with them.

I rolled into my bunk with a wet sniff and grabbed a tissue from the box I had sitting against the wall from last night. Holding it to my nose I shifted onto my side and let my eyes flutter shut, hoping that I'd just fall right asleep and wouldn't wake until morning. Below me, Louis sneezed and swore, then the sound of blankets rustling as he rolled around. The smell of Vix hit me as I turned and it made me cough roughly.

My chest soon settled and I fell asleep.

At five am when I woke up it took me a solid five minutes to recognise the bubbling feeling in my stomach. Nausea. Cautiously I sat up, my head feeling as if it was about explode with congestion. My heart began speeding up as the sickening lump in my raw throat expanded and my stomach churned even more harshly. That's all it took for the panic to start. Tears leapt to my dry eyes.

"L-Liam," I croaked, or tried to. My voice had been hardly there last night but now it really was nothing more than a broken whisper. Add the wobbliness from the fact that I was trying not to cry and all that came out was a warbled sound that could've been just about anything.
I gave a high pitched hum and triggered a fit of painful coughs that just made me feel even more queasy, and even more panicked. Puking for me was a traumatic experience. Well, maybe not quite that over dramatic but I didn't manage well. Usually I don't even drink more than a couple of drinks because I'm too scared of spewing the next morning. I just prefer to avoid it, and when I can't, I'm a disgusting mess.

A sob tore free as the bus rounded a corner and my stomach was sent reeling. I wanted to figure out why I was feeling sick like this from a cold but the thoughts had been pushed to the back of my head where I couldn't reach them and the only thing on the surface was my inner child crying his heart out.
Somehow, the coughing must've loosened things up in my throat and I got out a couple of syllables that sounded similar to Liam's name.
I was too frozen to do anything but sit there and shake, hoping to god that my insides didn't come pouring out my mouth the next time we took a turn.

"Niall?"

My curtain slowly opened, revealing a shadow of a figure.
"What's wrong?"

"Let's go out so we don't wake the others," Harry suggested when I didn't respond. He reached out and took my stiff hands to help me down from my bunk. I locked my lips shut tightly and whimpered as I my feet hit the floor. Harry frowned and tugged me into the other room.

"What's got you like this?" Harry said scratchily, rubbing his neck with a worried look. He took one of the blankets we'd left strew out on the couch and chucked it over me. He sat down and peered at me.
"I don't feel well," I hiccuped.
Harry flinched and grimaced, "your throat must be killing you, no wonder you're crying."

"Not that," I whimpered, curling over on top of my legs. My throat was killing me, but the lump in it was what was making me flustered.
The bus made a sharp right and I squeezed Harry's arm tightly, tasting stomach acid at the back of my mouth. It burned my throat. Harry yelped at the pressure and turned away to cough as I stared at the floor in front of me, convinced it was about to be covered in the contents of my stomach.
"Ow, Ni," Harry complained raspily.

"Feel sick," I stuttered? Under my hand my stomach was rolling around like a pot being stirred.
"As in sick, sick?" Harry paused. He hummed, finally understanding, as I nodded stiffly.
"I used to get nauseous with colds when I was little, apparently it's phlegm build up in your stomach," Harry explained.

My bottom lip wobbled as my stomach clenched.

"Let's go sit in front of the toilet just in case. I don't think you'll be sick, if that eases you at all," Harry offered as we stood up. I let out a loud cry as a gag slipped past my defences and Harry swore. He shoved me into the bathroom and I gagged a second time, although still nothing was coming up.
"Don't wanna, no, no, no," I whispered hurriedly as my breathing grew heavier and I fell into a deeper panic. I hadn't thrown up in years, I didn't want to now.

Behind me Harry was coughing again and I heard him strain out that he would be back as I tried desperately not to gag again. Regulating my breathing seemed to help so I took slow and steadying breaths, swallowing hard whenever I got that queasy feeling again.
"Haz, here, drink."
I heard much huskier version of Liam's morning voice behind me and glanced back for a split second. Sure enough there he was coaxing Harry out of his fit looking pale and tired just like the rest of us.
It was enough of a distraction to pull me out of the nausea suppressing habit I'd started and I gagged again with a loud sob. My throat screamed out but it was really the least of my worries.
"Damn it, Ni, I know you don't like it but if you keep crying you're gonna make it worse," Liam croaked, towering over me from behind.
Another fruitless gag. Maybe Harry had been right and I wasn't going to spew, but being halfway there was almost as bad and I still felt like I was going to.

"You'll be alright if you just breathe, I promise, lean back," Liam murmured. He crouched down behind me and pried my hand off the toilet. A hand on my chest he gently pulled me away to sit against him. There was a lot of trust flitting between us, he could feel my chest heaving with ever constriction of my stomach and I could soon enough puke all over him, and I had to trust that he and Harry were right and I wasn't going to be sick.

I moaned and tilted my throbbing head forward between my legs.

Liam must've told Harry to go back to bed because by the time I felt okay enough to pick myself up off the floor he'd disappeared. Liam was sat behind me trying not to fall asleep. I didn't know how long I'd been in the bathroom for but I felt bad that Liam was up with me.

He stood up with me and drowsily checked me over, as if he didn't look like hell himself. "Better?"
I swallowed and nodded, not trusting my voice. Also, I might be able to keep from coughing and sneezing so much if I keep chatting to a minimum.
An unsure on my stomach I let Liam lead me back to my bunk. I didn't know what my stomach was doing anymore. I didn't know if the nausea had let up some or if it hadn't been actually that bad in the first place and something about it still being dark outside and me being exhausted made it seem a thousand times worse. It was still there, but it was tolerable.

"We've got another couple of hours," Liam said with a soft smile, "try sleep some more."
"You too."
Ew. Okay, definitely no more chatting.
My hand moved to my throat as Liam shot me an empathetic look and closed my curtain again.

Crying had made my blocked nose run like tap so I didn't end up getting any more sleep before Louis was peering between my curtains with a familiar sparkle in his eyes.
"Good morning," he whispered, but his voice was clearer than it had been in days.
I blinked at him. It was definitely not a good morning. I didn't feel any better now than I did up on stage and that was merciless. I had the worst headache from bawling my eyes out earlier, it was touching the edge of migraine territory and I could hardly move without wanting to dig my eyes out. Add the uncomfortable nausea and the disgusting congestion, and I didn't really feel like breathing any more.

"I heard you had a rough night, but we've, well, I've, made soup for brunch and I thought you'd be interested," Louis said.
I couldn't shake my head because it was squished into my pillow, "no."

The sound of my voice had everyone flinching away as I'd screamed. Jokingly, Louis touched a finger to his ear and checked for blood, "man, that's a new one Ni."
I glared as best I could and shuffled down further under the covers, hiding the face as a series of sneezes rattled through me.

Louis coughed, cleared his throat, and then I listened to his footsteps pad away.
Unfortunately, he came back.

"Niall."
"Ni."
"Come on, I've got something for you idiot."

"Fine, I'll just go give all this medicine to Liam and Harry then. I'm sure they'll appreciate it."
I poked my head out to meet Louis's cheeky grin. My eyes drifted to the bottles and boxes in his arms and I gave some grabby hands.
Louis dumped everything on his bunk underneath mine. I began to sit up as he measured a capful of cough syrup to start me off. Due to the headache everything swum for a second and I whimpered as the nausea set off again, Louis paused, "you good?"
If I sat still it dulled again so I nodded and took the cap from him and downed it before I could think about how much it was going to hurt going down.
"Decongestants. . ." Louis breathed as he passed that on too. Down the hatch, along with a painkiller and some throat spray.

"Come out for some soup Ni," Louis said, "you're cold, it'll warm you up."
It seemed it would take more effort to argue with him than to just do what he said so I held my arms out, silently asking for a hand. Louis smiled and helped me out.

"You don't look any better than you did earlier," Harry said as I stumbled into view, rubbing sleep from my eyes. Liam hit him lightly. Deciding that he seemed more on my side than the others I sat beside him and drew in on myself, shivering. My fingers and toes had already gone numb it was so cold on this damn bus. Liam shifted my hands from my lap into my hoodie pocket.
I gave him a thank you smile, or grimace, and Louis handed me a steaming bowl of soup with a spoon.

He sucked on his own spoon as I stared down at the bowl on my lap. I wasn't even hungry.
Harry blew his nose and started coughing a heap, when Liam took his bowl from him he stood and left to hide in the bunk area. It wasn't much use, we could still hear him hacking up a lung, and soon when we figured it had been long enough he'd been dying alone Louis went after him.

Liam sniffled miserably and swallowed a mouthful of soup, "aren't we just in perfect health?"
I sighed and gingerly lifted a spoonful to my lips. Not a lot made it, I was too cold and my hand was shaking with shivers.
It felt good though. Not so great for my stomach but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I got through most of it before having a fit of coughs that made my face go red and my head turn to slush.

Liam patted my back throughout but he was sick too and it wasn't overly long before I was trying to coax him out of his own fit. Stupid colds, it really was like we were dying. I just hoped they went away soon, because our shows seemed to be getting worse and worse at the moment. At least Louis was better, and with all the medicine we were all on we were bound to start seeing the other end of this soon.

"Sound check doesn't start until three, which means you two should go back to bed until then." Louis marched back out.

Liam complained but I stood up, more than happy to spend the day sleeping. Or trying to.
I staggered and caught myself on the wall as the pain in my head spiked and a pair of arms wrapped around my waist, "let's go back to bed Ni. . ."
I let Louis practically drag me back to bed and rolled happily onto my bunk, crowding myself with blankets. After eating and taking some thing I was drowsy enough to drift off just like that.

The concert that night, another mess. It wasn't as bad of a mess because Louis was there to lighten things up with a voice that didn't cause the microphones to spazz out but I was so relieved when it was over again. And the good thing was, there wasn't a show the next day! It was all driving which meant I could just relax and sleep, and hopefully get Louis to make more soup.

"Back to the bus," Louis said as he ushered the three of us out the doors and into the cold. His voice had gone a bit raspy again due to performing and stuff but he seemed to be okay, even with the lingering cough, so I sagged into him and made him carry me back. It was a struggle and I had a moment where I regretted it because he was so close to dropping me it wasn't funny but then he figured out piggy backing was easier and we had it sussed.

"Drugs for everyone, then you can sleep! Liam, open your eyes!" Louis threw a sheet of pills at Liam, causing him to squawk.
The boxes and bottles passed down the line and Louis took a swig of cough medicine before all of us retired to our bunks where I doubted we'd be doing much moving from in the next twenty four hours.

Or at least not if I had any say in it.

Geez, this one came a bit slow, I'm really sorry! It is longer, so that's something, but I really am sorry for how long it took to get up! I was going so well with daily updates and then I missed it twice haha, sometimes stuff gets in the way I guess.
Sadly, it's stuff like maths exams, so wish me luck for tomorrow because I'm going to need all of it hahaha.

The next request is for: xoxojanineoxox but she changed her username and I can't remember what it was to, I'm sorry!