Chapter Text
Niall walks to his car, the one his parents bought him last September for his sixteenth birthday. It still looks new, and he’s pretty proud that he’s able to have the only car out of all of his friends. Speaking of, he’s picking up the rest of the boys for a night out, it’s February and they’re all going out for Harry’s birthday. It had snowed last week and there were still patches of ice everywhere, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary in Michigan for this time of year.
He looks down at the pamphlet of a culinary school he just received in the mail and smiles, unlocking the door and getting in. He’d been interested in this school since he and Harry had done some research about it a few years ago, and now that he had the glossy pamphlet in his hand, he wanted to know what the guys thought about it.
Quickly sending a text to Louis that he was heading his way, Niall started the car and backed out of his driveway, heading to school to pick Louis up from practice.
Meanwhile, Louis is sitting on the couch in the coach’s office when he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. The coach is discussing a baseball scholarship to a college he wants to go to. He’s excited because this means he’ll be living his dream and he can’t wait to tell the guys about it, they’re going to be excited.
“Keep that right arm strong and you’ll go far.” His coach says as he’s dismissed. Louis takes his phone out to see the text from Niall. He smiles and sends a response of ‘k’ and then texts Liam that they are coming.
Liam is fiddling with his camera, making sure that the camera is loaded and he’s got plenty of extra film for the night. He checks his phone every few minutes, wondering when the rest of the boys are getting here. They’ve planned a surprise get together for Harry, something special for his sixteenth. After a few moments, he hears the ding of a new text message, clicking his phone off after seeing that it’s a text from Louis, he jumps off the couch in Harry’s living room as he wanders into the kitchen, where Harry’s fixing a salad.
“Hey wrap that up, Louis just texted. Niall needs us, his gold fish just died. Let’s go.” Liam thought up a quick lie to hurry Harry out the door.
Harry rolls his eyes. He knows that the boys have been planning something for his sixteenth birthday because they aren’t very good at hiding things, but he goes along with it anyhow because it’s the thought that counts.
“Oh right, his goldfish…” Harry pulls out some plastic wrap and wraps the bowl of salad up and sticks in the refrigerator before being shooed out the door by a very obvious Liam, camera in hand. Harry knows Niall doesn’t have a goldfish.
Once Niall pulls up with Louis in the car, Liam gets in the back seat behind Niall and Harry takes his place behind Louis, who gives the two boys a cheesy smile.
“Sorry about your goldfish.” Harry looks at Niall, trying his best comforting look.
Niall’s face contorts in a confused expression before answering. “What goldfish?”
Liam smacks him in the back of the head and everyone laughs. Niall catches on a moment afterwards and a light hue of pink scatters across his nose, cheeks, and neck. If Harry guesses, it has probably went all the way down below the material of his tee shirt too.
“Oh, yes,” Niall puts on a solemn face, like someone had just died, and shakes his head like he’s about to cry. “Oh yeah, my poor Tootie Fruity.”
Louis shoots back a funny expression at Niall, as if to voice ‘what the hell?’ because everyone knows Niall can’t act worth a damn.
Before Harry could come up with a witty comeback to Niall, Louis has turned around and thrown some sort of pink confetti all over him and yells: “Surprise, Happy Birthday Harriet!”
Harry shakes his head, trying to get the confetti out of his hair and notices that it’s shaped in little pink hearts and he shouldn’t be surprised because it’s Louis. What really surprises him is that Niall let Louis throw it in his car, but then smiles because it’s also Niall. But looking down, Harry can see the floorboard is covered, and even if Niall had agreed, he’s not going to be happy.
Liam has been taking pictures the whole time of the boys, and doesn’t miss the moments between Harry and Louis, his eyes crinkling shut because he’s laughing so hard. “Where do you wanna go?” He asks Harry between laughs.
Harry is looking at Niall with an amused expression as he very proudly states: “Let’s go to a sushi bar. I’m in the mood for some fish.”
Niall frowns a bit before catching on and laughs hysterical as he puts the car in drive. The other boys are in a fit of laughs, poking fun of Niall until they reach the restaurant that has been Harry’s favorite. It’s an a little Italian restaurant with the best breadsticks in Michigan.
They make a big deal to the staff that it’s Harry’s birthday, and embarrass him fully when they join in when the staff is singing to him in front of the whole restaurant. Harry doesn’t mind, because this is probably one of the best birthday’s he’s had.
Liam doesn’t miss taking pictures of Harry’s laugh as Louis shakes his ass to the music they play when they’re singing, and he doesn’t miss him blowing out his candles and his surprised face when Louis throws more of that pink heart confetti at him.
Later the boys go to the local go cart racetrack, racing a few laps. Louis wins in the end cause he’s cheated by running everyone off the track at least twice.
It’s now 9 o’clock and the groups decided to head back to Harry’s place to have a movie night with all the best action movies they own.
Niall throws an arm around Harry’s shoulder, pulling him close to plant a soft kiss on his cheek, a smile beaming from both boys. “So Hazza, how does it feel to be sixteen? You lived this long.”
Louis interrupts them before Harry could respond. “Oi! You love birds, not in public! There could be perverts lurking about… like me!” he runs and jumps on them.
Liam laughs, snapping pictures as fast as his camera could take. It’s a rather old one, as he prefers film instead of a digital, but he couldn’t part with it if his life depended on it. It had been a birthday present from the guys two years prior.
They all pile in the car. The atmosphere is full of laughs and jokes and pictures as Liam wants to document every moment of Harry’s birthday.
Niall starts the car and heads in the familiar direction of Harry’s house. They come to a stop light as the two boys in the front seats start to argue.
“I’m not vacuuming your car, you agreed to the confetti.” Louis retorts, crossing his arms in a mock pout. “I thought leprechauns loved glitter anyway.”
“That’s fairies you twat!” Niall protests, rolling his eyes at his friend.
While the boys continue to argue about who’s going to clean Niall’s car tomorrow, Harry has an amused expression as he’s watching them. Liam is smiling and leans over, poking Harry’s leg softly to get his attention.
“Having a good birthday?”
Before Harry can respond to that question, he hears Niall grow quiet in midsentence as he’s looking at his rearview mirror, eyes wide.
Louis is about to ask what’s wrong when all four of the boys feel the car being shoved forward violently into oncoming traffic.
Niall’s knuckles are white as he’s gripping the steering wheel firmly. “No no no no no…” he trials off as they seemed to have hit a sheet of ice and now are swerving around in arch.
Niall is trying to gain control of the car; all he’s focused on is getting the boys to safety. His heart is hammering in his chest and all he can hear is the blood pounding in his ears. The only thought in his mind is that all the boys better make it out alive before another impact has him slamming his head against his window, and everything goes black.
When Niall grows quiet, Louis looks at him confused, unsure what exactly is going on. He’s about to ask what’s wrong when the car lunges forward. He braces himself, resting his right hand on the dashboard and he’s pretty sure he’s broken his wrist, but there isn’t time to worry about that right now as their car is tail spinning out of control.
There is a split second when they finally stop. Louis is in the process of turning to look to see if the rest of the boys are okay when he spots it. All he sees is headlights and hears tires screeching, but he’ll later come to find out that it was his own screams. He comes to the realization that it’s going to hit Harry. All he can do is call out Harry’s name before the car hits them. He tries to brace himself for another impact and he feels the sudden jerk, something hard hits him in his right side, jerking his head backwards, hitting it against the glass. The last thing he sees is the blood gushing out of Niall’s forehead.
Harry is in the process of turning his head to respond to Liam when he catches Niall’s face. Harry can see the lights in Niall’s eyes. Before he can tense, they’re hit. The car slides forward and he’s got his arm against the door trying to keep him from hitting his head as they are spinning.
For a brief moment, Harry looks out his window and his eyes go wide. The car is coming impossibly fast, and Harry knows it’s going to hit his door head on, there is no way the car can stop in time. Niall’s voice is ringing in his ears ‘you lived this long’ because he knows ‘this is the moment I’m going to die.’
Moments before the impact, however, he feels arms wrapping around him and pulling him backwards. A body engulfs him, and he knows it Liam. The last thing he hears is Niall saying what seemed to be ‘no’s’ and a scream that must be coming from Louis and everything is silenced.
Liam realizes something wrong, but before he can warn any of the guys about the truck behind them barreling towards them, it hits, sending them forward. He has no time to think because in his mind it’s allharryharryharry. He’s fumbling with his seatbelt, trying to get it off before he has the breathe knocked out of him.
He’s got to get to Harry, that’s all he can think about. He’s worried about the others of course, but Harry is the baby, he always needs protecting. He finally gets his seat belt off and flings himself on Harry, pulling him under and against him, shielding him from the next impact seconds before it hits. The last image Liam see’s before everything is wiped away and everything goes silent is Harry’s face; white and wide eyed.