Work Text:
“I got you a soda,” Niall whispered as he clambered over Nick’s lap to get to his own seat, a tangle of long, pale limbs.
“Shh!” Louis grumbled from Nick’s other side, prodding Niall in the stomach as he passed. “Some of us are trying to watch the movie.”
And some of them were trying to go on a date, Nick thought forlornly, gazing over at Harry, three seats down. When he had asked the boy to the movies, he had imagined finally getting him alone, cuddling close in the dark, their hands brushing as they reached for the popcorn.
Now the only popcorn Nick was having was the one he was sharing with Louis. The only brief touches that were happening were the accidental slide of Zayn’s fingers against the back of Nick’s neck, his arm draped over the top of Niall’s seat.
And the only cuddling going on in their row was the way Harry’s head was tucked onto Liam’s shoulder as he gazed up at the screen.
It just wasn’t fair.
“Gummy?” Niall asked, pressing a sweet against Nick’s lips. Nick had long ago become used to the strange culture of constant touching among the boys, and so didn’t think twice as he let his mouth drop open. He might as well get fat, since he couldn’t get a proper date, Nick decided miserably.
~
“There’s this new restaurant I’ve been dying to try,” Nick said, tucking his phone against his shoulder as he left the studio. “Pix says it has great ambiance.”
Actually, what she said was it was posh enough to get an ogre laid, but Nick wasn’t exactly going to repeat that to Harry.
Besides, he thought he was at least a few steps up from an ogre, even if he had started to worry about how much time he spent standing next to five of the best looking boys in the country. It probably wasn’t doing him any favors.
“Yeah? That sounds good,” Harry agreed and Nick felt his heart leap.
“Fantastic. What time should I pick you up?” This was going to be a proper date, Nick decided. He’d open doors, he’d pull out chairs. Hell, he’d even buy the kid flowers if it would guarantee that they both knew they were on a date.
“Hmm…Can we meet there?” Harry mumbled. “We’ve got a long afternoon doing…stuff. Interviews? Maybe pictures?”
“The life of a popstar,” Nick groaned. The few times he had been interviewed or had promo shots done, he had spent ages preparing and, like, moisturizing.
Before he had started hanging around with Harry, Nick had had delusions that he was a celebrity himself. How wrong he was.
“Yeah, yeah.” Harry laughed. “See you at the restaurant at nine?”
“Yeah, okay,” Nick agreed. He cleared his throat, feeling himself flush. “I’m…really looking forward to it.”
“Me too,” Harry agreed amiably. “I hope the place is as cool as Pixie said it was.”
“Not quite what I meant,” Nick grumbled as Harry disconnected the call.
Still, he should be happy. He finally, finally had a date with Harry.
~
“Nick!” a voice rang out behind him.
“No,” Nick said flatly, refusing to turn around. The hostess in front of him raised a questioning eyebrow.
Nick looked down at the list of reservations on her podium with a dramatic sigh. “I don’t suppose I could get a table for six instead of two?” he asked, resigned, at the sound of One Direction piling into the restaurant behind him. All of One Direction.
The hostess snorted. “You’re kidding, right? Does it look like we have a table for six just sitting emp—” She broke off abruptly as someone sidled up to Nick’s side.
“Alright, love?” Louis said, curling an arm around Nick’s waist. Nick closed his eyes, praying for forbearance.
“You’re—” The hostess stuttered, suddenly looking less like a sleek, sophisticated bitch, and lot more like a hormonal preteen. It was a look Nick was becoming fast familiar with. Sometimes he even saw it reflected in his own mirror.
“Louis Tomlinson,” Louis said smoothly, flashing her a cheeky grin. Nick groaned. “Is our table ready?”
“Of course!” the girl gasped, glancing down at her reservation list and furiously crossing one out. “Not a problem at all!”
“I’m starving,” Niall said, appearing at Nick’s other side.
“You’re always starving,” Zayn scoffed. He glanced around the restaurant and gave a low whistle. “This is a pretty swank place, Grimshaw. You sure know how to spoil five guys.”
Nick laughed weakly. They better not think he was treating all of them to dinner. Not when they were all millionaires. Millionaires who were horning in on his date. Speaking of which…
“Where’s Harry?”
“Hmm? Oh, he had to make a stop. He’ll be here eventually,” Louis assured him.
“Fantastic,” Nick grumbled. Now he was on a date with all the members of One Direction except the one he wanted. Not that there was anything wrong with the other four, he admitted. They were all astonishingly good-looking, and nice lads to top it all off. It was almost annoying.
“Come on, darling,” Louis said, giving a gentle tug around his waist. “You look like you need a drink.”
“I really do,” Nick agreed, allowing himself to be lead deeper into the restaurant. The band piled around the table, laughing and shoving and generally creating the chaos that always came with One Direction. Nick had to laugh at the faces of the people around them. Half of them were sneering at the ruckus, and the other half looked like they were working up the nerve to ask for a picture.
The boys were fun, at least, he had to admit. And when Harry showed up, pink-cheeked and breathless, apologizing for being late, Nick almost didn’t care that he was stuck between a giggling Niall and a slouching Zayn, and still not within touching distance of the boy he wanted.
Almost.
~
“So then he goes, ‘no, seriously, I named my daughter John. Look, can I have the autograph or not?’”
Nick laughed helplessly, tucking his head against Zayn’s shoulder as Louis held court across the table. Zayn’s fingers scratched gently at the short hairs at the base of Nick’s neck as Niall pressed close on his other side, his face red with laughter.
A couple of bottles of wine into the evening, and Nick had to admit he was having a lovely time. Partially because of the fond, grateful glances Harry threw him every time he was nice to one of his bandmates, but also because the lads themselves were an awfully good time, once Nick got past the way they kept spoiling his dates.
Although, it might not be entirely spoiled, he thought, glancing up and meeting Harry’s eyes. The boy grinned at him, biting his lip and ducking his head to let his curls fall into his eyes.
It was a look Nick had teased him for in the past, but now, directed right at him, he had to admit it was damn effective. He felt himself flush, his pulse racing, and hoped none of the other boys noticed.
“Ready to call it a night?” Harry asked. The last of the wine had been drunk, the last of the desert eaten (with Niall practically licking all their plates clean), and there was no reason to linger any longer. Especially not if Harry was going to let Nick take him home.
The waitress dropped the bill on the table, and before Nick could start to have a mild heart attack, Harry dove for it, waving off protests from his bandmates and Nick alike. “I’ve got it, don’t worry,” the boy assured them, flashing Nick a wide grin.
“Such a gentleman, Harry Styles is,” Louis teased, shooting Nick a knowing grin, and Nick felt himself flush.
Bill paid—and a generous tip left for the general mayhem they had caused—the boys all rose from the table, steeling themselves for the paparazzi that were inevitably outside. In the melee, Harry slipped up to Nick’s side. “Fancy a nightcap at my place?” he asked lowly.
Nick felt his mouth go dry. He had been on a campaign to get into Harry’s trousers for months now, and had been blocked at every turn—not the least by the rest of the band. He almost couldn’t believe he was finally going to get Harry alone. “Sounds perfect,” he agreed.
Harry flashed him his signature lopsided, dimpled smile, the one that got teenage girls’—and apparently twenty-something DJ’s—hearts pounding, and slid a hand down to the small of Nick’s back, gently guiding him towards the door.
“I drove,” Nick said regretfully as they reached the door. “Meet you there?”
“Probably safer for you, anyway,” Harry agreed, nodding to the crowd outside.
“You know I love getting papped with you,” Nick laughed. “Makes me feel famous.”
“You are famous, you oaf,” Harry laughed.
“Just not as famous as us!” Louis crowed delightedly behind them.
“That’s enough of that cheek, Tommo,” Nick complained, but he was grinning.
“You love it,” Louis shot back. Nick gave him a supremely unimpressed look over his shoulder and then threw himself out into the crowd outside.
Predictably, once the fans and paparazzi realized he was alone, they turned their sights elsewhere and he was allowed to slip off into the night, unmaimed.
If only they knew, he thought with a smug grin, just where he was headed.
Nick stopped off at a Tesco on his way, picking up a bottle of wine, condoms, and lube to complement his wishful thinking, and giving Harry enough time to beat Nick to his ludicrous mansion. Harry’s range rover was out front when Nick pulled up and he felt his stomach flutter with nerves as he checked his reflection in the rear-view mirror. He looked…basically like himself, Nick decided, but Harry seemed okay with that. Enough to invite him home with him, so Nick couldn’t really complain.
He slid out of the car, his heart hammering even though he had been to Harry’s house a hundred times before, and knocked firmly on the door.
He grinned as it was wrenched open.
Grinned, and then froze.
“Bout time, Grimshaw,” Zayn complained, his dark eyes sleepy. “Thought we were going to have to start without you.”
…And maybe Harry really meant a nightcap when he said a ‘nightcap’, Nick thought, heart sinking. He gripped the bag in his hands tighter, praying no one would ask him what was inside.
Inside, the five boys were curled together on Harry’s massive sofa, a pile of limbs and nuzzling faces. Nick felt…very out of place, standing there awkwardly clutching his Tesco bag as Zayn dove into their midst.
“Did you bring wine?” Harry asked, face lighting up. He extracted himself with some difficulty from the puppy pile and bounded over to Nick. “Thanks!”
“You’re welcome,” Nick responded glumly, because his mother had raised him right, even if his hopes and dreams were currently being dashed.
“You alright?” Harry asked, guiding him into the kitchen with a large hand pressed to his back. “You seem…annoyed.”
“I just,” Nick sighed, glancing over at Harry’s hopeful face, and clinging to the last of his liquid courage from the restaurant. “Your band is a massive cockblock!” he blurted out.
“What?” Harry barked a laugh, eyes dancing with amusement.
“I’ve been trying to date you!” Nick said helplessly, waving his arms with a bit more fervor than the small room really allowed. “I’ve been trying to date you for weeks, but every time I ask you out your whole band shows up. I even bought condoms tonight because I thought we’d finally get a chance to be alone, but here they are! We go to the movies and they’re there, we go to dinner and they’re there, we go to the pub and yep! The whole band comes. I try to spend time with you and I end up sharing sodas with Niall and popcorn with Louis, and have Zayn’s arm around my shoulders and Liam’s hand on my knee and Louis practically sitting on my lap. I feel like I’ve been dating all five of you!”
“Oh, Grimshaw,” Louis’ amused voice rang out from the doorway. “You fool.” Nick turned slowly to find all four boys stood in the door, watching him with various degrees of amusement and pity scrawled over their faces. He might as well just kill himself now, he thought forlornly. There was no way this wasn’t going to end up being a staple of One Direction interviews, just like that poor bin girl. Maybe he should find her and they could run away to the country together, hiding out and never looking at any form of media again. He wondered what it would be like spending the rest of his life with a girl who had hid in a bin. Smelly, maybe?
Louis sauntered forward, an exaggerated swish to his ridiculous hips. He stopped in front of Nick, cocking an eyebrow and rising to his toes to whisper in Nick’s ear. “You have been dating all of us.”
“I—what?” Nick wasn’t sure if he was more confused by Louis’ words or his proximity. Or his own reaction to Louis’ proximity—the boy’s thick thighs pressed against his own, his hand curled tight around Nick’s shoulder, and Nick found his breath coming a little shorter, his face heating.
Niall let out a bark of laughter that didn’t really help matters but Harry ran a reassuring hand down his arm. “I can’t believe you didn’t realize this whole time,” he said, a smile in his voice. Nick looked over at him helplessly.
“Realize what?”
“That we’re kind of a package deal, mate,” Zayn grinned, stepping closer. Liam and Niall followed closely behind.
“A package deal?” Nick gulped. Nothing in his wild party boy past had prepared him for this moment, he decided. “Like…?”
“Like when it feels like you’ve been dating five guys at once, then you probably have been dating five guys at once,” Harry supplied. They were all…awfully close, Nick thought, a little lightheaded. But then Harry grinned—not the cheeky one that drove girls wild, but the wide, warm one that spoke of unbelievable fondness—and leaned in, pressing a teasing kiss just to the corner of Nick’s mouth.
“And when five guys ask you home for a nightcap…” Louis trailed off suggestively, leaning in to nip at the other side of Nick’s mouth. It felt different from Harry, but just as nice.
“Well, let’s put it this way,” Niall said, stepping forward and caressing down the length of Louis’ back where he was still pressed up against Nick. “This is probably going to come in handy,” he grinned, plucking the Tesco bag out of Nick’s hand and giving the condoms and lube inside a rattle.
Liam was the only one not crowding right against Nick. He tipped his head, looking at Nick with consideration. “Is that alright?”
“You’re asking me if it’s alright that I’ve been dating you all without realizing it?” Nick asked, thinking back to the soft brush of Zayn’s fingers against his neck, or the way Niall was willing to share his snacks, or the ridiculous comments Louis whispered in his ear. He thought of the warm smiles Liam bestowed on him, and Harry’s dimpled, flushed cheeks. He thought of the fun they’d had that evening, talking and laughing and joking and—now that he was willing to admit it—flirting with each other. “No,” he said.
The boys drew back with a collective intake of breath.
“No?” Harry asked, big eyes shining with hurt.
“No, from here on out I’d rather be a more active participant in all this dating we’ve apparently been doing,” Nick decided.
“You arse!” Louis laughed, hitting him lightly on the arm and then snuggling close. The other boys piled on, arms and hands and lips everywhere as Nick gave up on figuring out who was touching who and who was kissing who. All he knew was that five of the best looking boys in the country were currently in his arms. Who would object to that?