Iridium (One Direction, AU, Niam)

Chapter Seventeen - Anger and Sadness with a hint of Guilt

"Wait, Liam," Niall turned his wide blue eyes onto Liam's. "Are you telling me that..." He trailed off, unsure of the words he wanted to use.

"Yes, my family is dead. They went after my entire family and killed them all. We made them believe I also died in the accident, so they would stop hunting me. And it worked, for awhile. But all good plans must come to an end at some point." Liam turned his copper eyes down to the ground, his mind in the past.

 Niall's eyes widened, his heard almost shattering to pieces at the thought if the tragedy Liam must of gone through, to watch his mother, father, maybe siblings, any relative, die because of somebody's thirst for power.

Niall turned to Liam, "I'm so sorry that happened to you Liam. We'll stop them, no matter what. They will not get to you."

Liam's eyes widened, the sincerity in Niall's voice was uncanny and anything but insincere. A small, choked back sob escaped from Liam's lips, for only a small moment, before he pushed it back. He hadn't cried since the accident and he won't cry now.

"You mentioned an accident, Li. Was it a actual accident, or a planned one? What happened?" Niall questioned before he even knew his mouth was running, regretting his words the moment Liam's face dropped substantially, even more so than before if possible.

Liam opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped because there was a sudden, urgent knock on the front door. Liam sighed in exasperation.

"Zayn really needs to remember his keys before he leaves." Liam mumbled, standing up and walking towards the door, his socked feet leaving soft padding sounds as he went. Niall just watched the door, uninterested. Liam paused just before the door, looking down at the ground, "And his shoes..." He said with an accompanying roll of the eyes at the dirty black converse that lay there. Liam swung the door open and almost turned his back to return to Niall in the living room, but his eyes didn't land on Zayn, nor Harry or Louis for that matter.

They landed on two obviously pissed off girls.

Liam turned back towards the door, an eyebrow raised as he locked eyes with the taller of the two. 

"Uh, can I help you ladies?" He asked polite as usual. The darker skinned one smirked, turning her eyes briefly onto the shorter girl who never took her eyes from the boy in the doorway. She returned her attention back to Liam, the conniving smirk still in place. 

"Hello Mr. Payne. We were here following the trail of Mr Styles and Mr Tomlinson, but it seems we found something much more interesting. May we come in?" The shorter one spoke, her voice was light with a similar accent to Louis'. 

"I really don't think that's a good idea, really." He was hesitant, and cautious. 

Niall stood now, joining Liam's side, but was silent. Liam felt the familiar presence of Niall beside him and relaxed slightly, his body slightly shifting ever so un-noticeably towards Niall's body. 

"My apologies Mr Payne. Where are our manners?" The darker skinned girl spoke, raising a hand for Liam to shake. "My name is Danielle, and this is my partner Eleanor. May we come in for a chat?"

--

 "Louis, do not joke with me." Harry's voice was firm, demanding and strained. He did not expect this. Not at all.

"Harry I would never joke about something like this, you know me better than that." Louis' eyes softened and he placed a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder, for comfort, which Harry melted into, his stiff, rigid body relaxing slightly. 

Zayn watched on with wide eyes. 

"So what do we do now?" Zayn spoke up. The two before him turned, their eyes lit up a bit.