Sunday June 3, 2012
Los Angeles, CA

Niall leaned his head back as the plane began to descend. It had been a fairly decent flight, all things considered. Brittany had sat with Harry, but as soon as they’d reached cruising altitude, she had promptly fallen asleep with her head against the window.

Spending the week in Los Angeles was going to be very different than the tour had been so far. They’d be in a hotel for the entirety of their stay, so there would be no more crowded bus to deal with. Niall and the others were thankful for their alone time as they would each have their own rooms.

Of course, Brittany and Harry had opted to share a room. That was typical. Though Niall was glad that he wouldn’t have to witness them as much with this arrangement, he also seethed with jealousy.

He only hoped his room was nowhere near theirs.

As was usually the case, they were the last ones off the plane. Everyone else was allowed to leave, but their group was always left waiting while security made sure the area was safe. It was always the same, the area was never perfectly safe, and they always had to end up rushing out as quick as possible.

Niall pulled out his phone and updated his twitter while he waited.

NiallOfficial: just landed at LAX! Can’t wait to spend a week with all of you lovely LA ladies!

And of course, as soon as he did so a bunch of replies came barreling in.

1Dsuperfan: @NiallOfficial we are waiting for you! Can’t wait to see you!!!

climbmywallsniall: @NiallOfficial omg I wish I was in LA right now! Love u!

BrittCooperMusic: @NiallOfficial it was a really short flight!

Niall glanced over to where Brittany was sitting. She gave him a little grin and he shook his head.

NiallOfficial: @BrittCooperMusic that’s because you slept the whole time…

Before Brittany had the chance to respond to his message, security showed up and began hauling them off the plane.

“We can’t go out the back way,” Paul said to their group irritably. “They’re doing something back there and won’t let us use the exit. We’ll have to use the front. Keep your heads down and don’t stop for any fans… that means you too, Louis,” he finished, eying the oldest member of the group.

“You know, they wait all day for us, the least we could do his say hello!” Louis protested.

Paul sighed. “They don’t have to wait all day for you and if you said hello to all of them we’d be here all day long. We’ve got to get to the hotel and we can’t keep the airport crowded. The sooner we leave the sooner they will. So let’s get going.”

Niall put his hands in his pockets and gave Louis a small shrug as they left the plane and walked through the security area. He hated not being able to stop for the fans as well, but what could he do? If he disobeyed, Paul would carry him away and kick his ass.

He looked up and saw Brittany and Harry in front of him. She grabbed his hand and looked up at him, whispering something that Niall couldn’t hear, but certainly made Harry laugh. He saw Brittany smile, looking pleased with herself.

“Guys, we’re leaving security now, walk quickly,” Paul instructed.

“We’re already going as quick as we can,” Niall muttered, and Louis laughed.

Just as Paul had said, there were tons of fans waiting in the common area of the airport. They were roped off, and police were on hand trying to keep them tame, but as soon as they saw the boys, chaos ensued.

They screamed so loudly that the group could hardly hear themselves think. They couldn’t even hear what they were screaming, if anything, they were just screaming.

Brittany squeezed Harry’s hand harder, not used to the attention. This was the first time she’d actually been in such a situation with him, and it was the first time the fans had actually seen her and Harry together. She kept her head down as instructed, but of course Harry had to look up at the fans and wave to them.

This only served to cause more screaming. Now Brittany felt she couldn’t just ignore everyone who was waiting there. True, none of them were probably waiting for her, but she didn’t want to appear as rude. She looked up and offered the girls a small smile as she continued to walk hand in hand with her boyfriend.

Niall looked up at the two of them with disdain, but he tried not to show it on his face. The last thing he needed was for the fans to figure it out before everyone else did. Harry and Brittany were the very picture of a pop star couple, and they had been dating for what, a week? It sort of made him sick how fast their relationship had moved along, but he supposed that was how things always went with Harry. He always got what he wanted, and he always got it quickly.

And still, Niall couldn’t believe his horrible luck that Brittany was who he had gone after.

After leaving the airport, they were rushed into the car, rushed over to the hotel, rushed out of the car, and rushed up to their rooms.

And it was only once Niall was safely in his own room that he felt he had a second to breathe.

They were staying at the Four Seasons, which was quite a nice hotel to put it mildly. Niall placed his luggage in the corner and flopped down on the queen size bed. The mattress was heaven compared to the uncomfortable airplane seat he’d been on for the past five hours. He clutched a pillow to his chest and intended to spend the entirety of their day off napping.

That is, until there was a knock at his door. Niall glanced at the clock, he’d only been asleep for an hour! And it was a dreamless sleep at that. Lately, those were the best kind. Sighing, he rolled out of bed, walked towards the door and looked out the peephole to see who it was that was insistent on bothering him.

Brittany.

What did she want? Niall quickly ran a hand through his hair and tried to answer the door nonchalantly. “Hey Brittany,” he said.

She glanced up and him and giggled. “Hey… sorry, were you sleeping?”

“What?”

She merely pointed at his disheveled hair, which Niall ran his hand through again. “Oh, uh, yeah,” he stammered. “Yeah, I was just having a nap.”

Obviously, Brittany didn’t seem to care much that he had been resting. She sauntered into his room, figuring that since he was awake now, he wouldn’t mind. Niall just watched her.

She glanced over at the bed. “You must be a restless sleeper,” she said, pointing to the mess of sheets.

Niall just shrugged. Thoughts of Brittany and his bed were too much for him as it was.

“Sorry,” she sighed, sitting down on the bed. Niall gulped as she continued. “Harry’s asleep, so I thought I’d come see what you were up to.”

“Why me?” he asked. Why couldn’t she have gone to bother one of the others? There were a lot of people on the tour. Not just the three of them… even though it certainly felt that way sometimes.

Brittany gave him a cheeky grin. “’Cause… you said you’d teach me your super guitar skills… remember?”

Niall looked over to where his guitar was sitting amongst his pile of luggage. Yes, he did remember that. He hadn’t the faintest idea how he was supposed to teach Brittany something he seemed to have known how to do all his life.

Nevertheless, she was in his room, waiting, asking, and he had promised. So he picked up the guitar and handed it to her.

She grinned and gladly took it from him. He didn’t say anything as he adjusted it in her lap, and placed her hands the right way. If he just concentrated on what he was supposed to be doing, and not that fact that she was inches away from him, and he kept touching her hands, he’d be fine.

So he knelt down in front of her, and explained to her all of the different parts of the instrument and what they did. Brittany listened to him intently as he talked. She didn’t appear to be bored or anxious for him to get on with it. She simply looked down at him and hung on his every word. She seemed genuinely interested in what he was saying.

Niall on the other hand tried his best to avoid eye contact with her while he talked. Instead he talked straight into the components he was speaking of. He knew that he was probably blabbering on about nothing that important, but constantly having something to say kept his mind from wandering. It allowed him to get used to the fact that he was going to be so close to her, and yet unable to do anything.

He lightly touched her fingers and positioned them over the strings. Her hands were so small and delicate, and her manicured fingernails were hard for him to not notice.

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?” he muttered.

“What?” she asked, careful to not move but looking at him all the same.

“That,” he pointed to her fingernail, that had a perfect flower painted on it, with some sort of fake stone in the center. All of them were like that, actually.

“Oh,” she said, looking over at her hands. “Yeah, my stylist and I went and got them done together. Aren’t they cute?”

Yes, Niall did think they were cute and that they suited her perfectly. “I guess,” he said, because he most certainly was not going to give her the satisfaction of telling her what he actually thought.

Brittany laughed a little. “I guess guys just don’t understand.”

“I guess we don’t,” he laughed, then quickly changed the subject back to what they were supposed to be talking about. “There,” he said, pointing to her hand. “That’s C. Play it… like I showed you.”

She did, and looked up at him with a smile.

He nodded. “Not bad… here, let’s try a different one.”

So he continued to show her a few different chords, she would play them., he would reposition her hand, and she would play again. This went on until there was a light knock at the door.

Brittany and Niall glanced at each other, and then over at the clock. They hadn’t realized they’d been at it for nearly two hours. Niall sighed and stood up to answer the door.

He wasn’t surprised to see Harry standing there.

“Hey,” Niall said, somewhat disappointed, but ushering him into the room all the same. It seemed his afternoon with Brittany was over. He’d been so focused on enjoying the time he was spending with her, he’d nearly forgotten about Harry.

“Hey,” Harry said, looking at Brittany who was sitting on the bed with the guitar in her hands. “Look at you, you look like a little Dolly Parton,” he laughed.

Brittany giggled and handed the guitar back to Niall. “Thanks,” she said to him. “It was really fun.”

“Yeah,” Niall nodded as he watched her give Harry a kiss on the cheek. In his own hotel room. Now, he wanted nothing more than to get rid of the two of them.

“Hey,” Harry said softly to Brittany. “I’m going to take you out tonight… we’re going to go to Koi… so wear something nice,” he winked.

“’Kay,” Brittany grinned, taking his hand as he led her out of the room. She looked back for a second. “Bye Niall.”

“Bye,” Niall replied, shutting the door behind them.

Once again, he laid down on the bed. It was worse now, the whole room smelled like her lilac perfume. He kicked the sheets to remove any evidence that she’d been sitting there. He looked up at the ceiling. As he wasn’t the one taking Brittany to Koi, he’d have to make other plans for dinner.

He got up from the bed and glanced at himself in the mirror before he left to go find the others. At least he wouldn’t have to get dressed up for dinner like Brittany and Harry would. So there was a silver lining to all of this. A small one, but it was there.