The one where it all began

The boys stared at the man standing in front of them, his eyebrow had a very unappealing cut on top and plus, the frown etched on his face was nothing more than downright scary. Niall slightly shivered in his chair with the cold feeling running down his spine. He could only imagine why all of them were sitting here, in his spacious room filled with just a simple wooden desk and surrounding leather covered chairs. It was almost too neat to be called an office, Niall wondered.

"The reason you're all here," The man began, his voice filled with nothing close to sympathy or concern. In fact, Niall dreaded that this strangely ugly man didn't even want them here with him, in this room. "Is because in the recent rankings which came out, One Direction was no where in the top. Moreover, you boys have successfully failed in the sales in competition with your own ex-band member." Niall flinched, watching the venomous way in which this cold looking stranger muttered ex-band member.

Just call him Zayn, Niall thought to himself. He could not see why these people hated Zayn so much. Was it the fact that he was doing so much better without them? Or was it that they were losing the money? It was probably the second option but all Niall wanted right now, was to leave this surprisingly cold room and just watch the Friends re-runs.

"And...?" He raised his head and watched Liam face the gruff man. For a second the blonde felt an overwhelming feeling of pride at his best mate. Liam was always standing up for them, taking over the dead conversations, protecting them as much as he could from the management. Niall knew that Liam was the only one who actually had a pretty good relationship with the guys working in Modest! He himself chose to avoid their company, simply because he didn't want to turn into a conniving little minx like these guys.

"And we need to push the sales up," The man answered, placing his fat face on his hands. Niall wanted to leave this room but that didn't seem possible. Not right now. He looked around at the faces of his band mates, hoping to find some sort of a reaction. He noticed that Louis looked completely interested, as if he didn't want to be there and Niall was tempted to release a mocking chuckle. He knew exactly how grouchy Louis got at all these meeting. He stared at Liam's clean shaved face, taking in his puppy brown eyes and those almost perfect hair which were no longer there. He wondered why Liam was always so intent on getting his chair chopped off. Then his gaze traveled to the guy sitting next to him and Niall couldn't help but frown.

"How are you gonna do that?" Louis asked running a light hand through his fringe. It was too cold in the room yet he could feel his temperature heating up.

"By making one of you guys fake date someone famous of course," The man passed them an evil smile, causing all of them to shiver in disgust. They were definitely not very big fans of fake dating but only one of them always had to suffer the brunt of this.

"Who is Harry going to date this time, 'aye?" Niall gave a loud laugh, watching Liam shake his head with a fond smile and Louis snort in reply, while the man in question was simply glaring at the blonde's pretty head.

He saw the gruff old man stare at him and then back at Harry. For a second, Niall wondered if they had caught on to the bad relationships going on in the band. Him and Harry weren't particularly fond of each other. They only ever smiled or looking at each other when it was absolutely necessary.

"Yeah. Who am I going to date this time?" The slow English accent drawled, his green eyes lodged in a staring battle with the sea blue ones. Harry couldn't figure out where this burning hatred for the Irishman had started in his heart but it was there. Oh it was there all right and Harry would never skip out on any chance to show the blonde his place. "We all know I'm the only date worthy member in the band. Niall couldn't be expected to please the ladies, especially since his best friend in five years has been nothing but his...hand."

Niall flinched visibly, glaring at the curly haired monster who sat in front of him. That's what Harry was to Niall- a monster, a very very attractive monster whose lips were probably very kissable but a monster nonetheless.

"At least I'm not some fuckboy," The blonde replied, wrapping his arms around his short frame as he tried to protect himself from the coldness prevailing in the room. The air conditioner was on high, and Niall really didn't understand why. It was March for god's sake. It wasn't even that hot outside.

Liam watched the two banter and before the argument could proceed any further, he decided to intervene.

"Exactly which one of us is going to date someone?" He smiled at the man who sat behind the desk. At least one of them had to act civilized.

"Recently, it seems like in-band romances are quite in trend," Niall raised a confused eyebrow at the man's sudden comment. Did that mean Larry Stylinson was going to be made real? They all knew that was the only one bromance people actually cared about. "So we've decided that we're going to make two of the band mates date each other."

Niall and Liam both stared at each other, before turning around to look at their respective seat partners. The blonde could see Harry looking like a confused little dog but he said nothing to ease the curly haired brunette out.

"So which bromance are we bringing to life?" Louis asked suddenly, getting tired of Liam's curious gaze flicking back and forth between him and Harry. Honestly, the feathery haired brunette wanted to do nothing more than leave this entire place and just spend some time with his kid.

"Yeah, which one of us is going to be paired with Harry? Louis-"

"You," The gruff voice rang out, filling the room with an uncomfortable silence. Niall stared at the man stupidly and then back at Harry, who was already staring (more like glaring) at Niall.

"Me?" He questioned, pointing a finger to his face in a confused and dizzy manner. They really needed to turn the air conditioner to low or to just fucking turn it off. Niall was literally freezing and the situation wasn't really helping him out.

"Yes you. Turns out Narry- that's you and Harry- is quite in demand. We can't put Louis on the front because he had a child now," Louis returned the cold glare which the grim man was passing him.

Niall stood up abruptly knocking his chair to the floor and walked out of the room. The cold was too much, the tightness was too much, the manipulative methods of the management was too much. And he wished Zayn were here, to hold in and give him a tight hug.

"Blondie, what are you doing leaving the meeting like that?" Niall snapped his head to the source of that awkwardly slow voice and he could feel his heart dropping. Why couldn't this happen to somebody else? Sure not Louis, the older man already had too much on his platter. But there was always Liam. But then again, Lirry wasn't really that famous.

"You know why. I'd rather jump off a cliff than have to date you Styles," He sneered, watching Harry's cocky smirk settle on his lips.

"And I'd rather poison myself than date you but I really don't want to put my mother through the pain of looking at her lovely son's dead body."