Chapter Text
September 6, 2012. That was the day Liam Payne finally met Taylor Lautner. Albeit a rushed affair since he was only given enough time to greet the actor before the rest of the 1D members piled up all the sudden around them for a quick group photo; Liam still got to walk away able to say that he got to touch the actor (arm on the shoulders wankers!). Not to mention that for the pic Taylor positioned his open palm on Liam’s lower back so technically Taylor touched him as well. Cue prolonged showers for the days that followed.
All in all, Liam never got to work an invitation to the gym into the small conversation but at least he mostly got everything he desired out of Taylor in the process. It was one more thing to cross off of his unwritten bucket list. Or at least that’s what he initially thought. Cue March 4th, 2013, when Liam finally and very inconspicuously got himself a copy of Breaking Dawn Part 2. One shirtless scene later and Liam suddenly very vividly remembered that tan hand on his lower back.
And so that was the story of how Niall walked in on Liam with his hand inside his pants and a paused image of a stripped down Jacob Black on the Plasma screen.
Looking back at it, Liam had not caught wind that he had company so Niall could had all too easily walked away unnoticed. He could have pretended he saw nothing and no one would be the wiser. But this was Niall and c’mon, how could he help to do anything but laugh? So laughed he did. Uncontrollably too. And loudly because, well, the sheer comedy of it accounted for it.
Niall laughed at Liam’s startled jump and train of mouthed expletives. Niall laughed when Liam fumbled with the TV remote trying to turn it off and that led to the controller falling off his hands to the floor where its batteries shot out to different directions. He laughed at the thought of telling Zayn, Harry and Louis about Liam’s alone-time rituals. He already convinced himself that this was a daily occurrence and no one could tell Niall otherwise. But most of all he clutched his stomach from laughing so hard when Liam screamed at him to stop laughing.
He did almost gag a little when Liam tried to muffle him into silence because “Eww man your hands were in your pants!!” but overall Niall thought of this as an epic moment deserving of being included in his eventual memoirs. Liam though, who at the moment was ten shades of red, probably thought differently. Unfortunately for him, nothing known between two individuals ever stayed secret. So that was a hatchet he wasn’t going to be able to bury.
Cue light but oh so frequent teasing for the better part of the month.
When one of the other members of the group asked what all the teasing was about, Niall would pass it off as an inside joke, “sorry you had to be there to get it”. And when egged on to tell the story so that they could get it, Niall took one glance at Liam’s murderous expression and replied with “maybe another day” much to the chagrin of the others.
No, he was not afraid that Liam would beat him up and stuff him inside a washing machine if he ever told a soul. Nope, that wasn’t it at all.
So what happens when a month later the 1D boys are dinning in a restaurant Taylor Lautner just happens to be in? Well Niall took immediate notice of course! I mean, what good ol’ lad wouldn’t?
“What’s he doing in Europe?” Harry asked once Niall mentioned it.
“I heard he’s filming his some scenes for his new movie here,” Liam answered casually.
“How do you know?” questioned Zayn.
At that Liam faltered a bit before answering that it was just something that he heard.
“Yeah Zayn” Niall quickly added, though his eyes remained steady on Liam. “It’s not like our chum here has wolf-boy on google alert or anything!” he teased, making Liam shot him a narrowed glare before rapidly stuffing his face with food in an effort to look completely unfazed with the comment. Fortunately for him the others didn’t pay him much attention as Zayn was already forwarding the conversation.
“Maybe we should invite him over so that him and Harry can trade Swift notes. That’d be an interesting talk” Zayn inputted, laughing at his own joke and dodging the garlic bread Harry threw him from across the table. Both boys then started throwing jabs at one another, which came to a sudden halt when Louis called their waitress and exalted the following words:
“Would you mind extending an invitation from us to the lad over there to join our table?” said Louis, trying to sound like an all-proper English man for the occasion. “Make sure to emphasize that the invitation is for him and him only if that’s not too much of a bother.”
As the giggling waitress left, Louis was immediately elbowed in the ribs by Harry. “Why did you did that for?!” he exclaimed in shock. Louis just shrugged and said that he was just being polite, though he couldn’t hide the telltale smirk that prompted Harry to call him a traitor.
“This should be fun,” jested Zayn as he took a sip of his drink. “Oh, he’s looking over here” Zayn announced and Liam automatically glanced at Taylor’s direction. Sure enough the waitress was already at his table relaying the message.
Taylor was accompanied by what Liam thought to be his publicist and his bodyguard. The actor caught his gaze and Liam quickly looked away, but when he did he caught the impish grin Niall sent his way before the blond turned on his seat to waved Taylor over to join them already.
It was only when Liam heard the sound of a chair scrapping the tiled floor that he realized his imminent situation. He and Zayn were the only ones sitting with their backs to the wall while Harry, Louis and Niall were seated at the other side of the table. So that meant that if Taylor were to accept Louis’ their invitation, Taylor would undoubtedly have to sit right beside-
“This seat taken?”
Liam did not mentally combust at the sound of Taylor’s voice nor did he lose all ability of speech. Don’t let anybody tell you differently!!
“All yours” said Louis who by now was the self-appointment host of this little get.
“Well, um, thanks for the invite,” Taylor smiled good-naturedly while sitting down and Liam found himself wondering why he wasn’t the face of a toothpaste commercial already.
“Pfft, but of course we’d invite you,” proclaimed Niall with a grin. “It’s not everyday we get to be under the same roof as Liam’s crush!” That earned him an under-the-table-kick to the left shin, courtesy of Liam truly. “I mean Liam’s mancrush!” Niall amended like if it rectified anything.
Liam could only bump his head against the wall while trying to stifle an exasperated groan. He could already tell it was going to be a long night.
“How come you don’t have twitter?” Harry abruptly cut in while staring at his phone. He might or not have been searching Taylor’s name to compare who had more followers. “Do you have a twitter?”
“I eh, no…” Taylor answered dragging the last word out and looking positively caught off guard by the sudden interrogation. Maybe possibly even second-guessing his choice to accept the invitation.
“You should get one,” interjected Liam, and when Taylor’s eyes landed on him Liam felt the urgent need to explain himself. “F-For the fans I mean. I mean you don’t have to be on it all the time but fans like feeling like they can reach their favorite celebrity and show their support. It’s not terribly inconvenient” Liam added that last part while shoving more food into his mouth in an urgent attempt to stop himself from rambling more.
He also pretended not to notice the grossed out yet inquiring look Louis was currently giving him.
“I’ll um, think about it,” replied Taylor calmly though not convincingly enough to make anyone think that he was actually going to think about it.
“But you totally should!” interjected Niall, raising one finger as if a brilliant idea just popped in his head. “That way Liam won’t have to ask a poser for his invitation to the gym,” and that earned him yet another kick to the shin. “Oww” he uttered sending Liam death-stares he conveniently ignored in favor of trying to shift the conversation away from himself.
“So Taylor,” Liam started with an embarrassed chuckle. “Are you here for work or are you on vacation?”
If Taylor was getting wary of them he did a decent job of not showing it by giving a lopsided smile. “Work,” he answered and then laughed. “My agent is afraid that the world might forget about me if I take a longer break so filming it is.”
“Oh yeah that’s it!” exclaimed Harry, earning himself raised eyebrows from the rest of the table at his outburst. “Sorry, I was just trying to remember the last time we met up and I just remembered it was last year at an award show,” he said, pointing at the actor with his fork. “You were promoting the last vampire flick, right?”
“Yeah” Taylor answered, “I think we had our picture taken.”
“We did,” replied Zayn who for the most part had been busy observing the devious grins Niall had been sending Liam ever since Taylor sat with them. Zayn tried to hold back the goofy grin that wanted to break out on his face as he said the next part with eyes completely focused on Niall. “I remember because Liam later bitched and moaned about how he wanted one with Taylor alone before all of us jumped in there.”
Niall immediately established eye connection with Zayn. With it Zayn gave a look that eagerly asked –Was that it? Is that how we’re going to pass the time?- to which Niall instantly replied with a look that clearly said –Dude, bull’s eye! That’s totally it!- and then they brofisted for no apparent reason. Well not to anyone who didn’t catch their silent eye conversation.
Needless to say that once Zayn caught wind of the game Niall was playing, it took no time at all for Louis and Harry to get onboard as well because, hey, throwing subtle jabs at Liam was sure to be way more entertaining than talking about Swift.
Liam, of course, wanted to die. But like that wasn’t a viable escape at the moment he settled for hiding his face in his hands and wishing he could disappear on want alone.
-_
Two hours later and Taylor finally excused himself from their table, went to join his bodyguard who was the only one still waiting on him, and headed outside.
“You four are a bunch of tits,” Liam muttered curtly as he stood up and left without much preamble. Yeah he was angry at them for putting him on the spot like that but most of all he was mortified with what Taylor might think of them now, especially of him. “Did they have to go as far as to tell him I wanted my kid to be named after him?” he mumbled sourly as he exited the establishment. And forget the similar hairstyle thing.
Once outside he came to a sudden halt as he almost collided with Taylor’s back. “Oh sorry” Liam muttered before he could stop himself and when Taylor turned around Liam became even more self-conscious and apologized again.
“What for?” Taylor asked civilly, though he looked like he was making a conscious effort at not looking directly at the singer. That lowered Liam self-esteem even more.
“Everything” Liam sighed, dejectedly staring at the ground. “Look I’m sorry if the guys made you uncomfortable with all their talk. They’re just jokesters and um, sorry okay?”
“They did kinda gang up on you didn’t they?” asked Taylor, and when Liam lifted his gaze he saw that the actor was no longer trying to avoid looking at him.
“Believe me, if I wasn’t contractually obligated to them as a group I would’ve tied them with bricks and drowned them a long time ago.”
They both shared a laugh at that and Liam was positively glowing at the fact that Taylor didn’t lose his smile afterward. “So where’s, ah, where’s your bodyguard?” Liam asked looking side to side in case he missed him.
“Getting the rental, I’m waiting for him to come pick me up.” And just when he said that a girl and her group of friends rushed toward them wanting to get their pictures taken. Taylor happily agreed to it and when they were done the actor suddenly snaked an arm around Liam’s shoulders and asked one of the girls to take a picture of just the two of them. Liam quickly mimicked Taylor’s action by also wrapping an arm atop Taylor’s shoulder.
Once that was done with, Taylor’s ride came and the actor had to go. But just before Taylor boarded he turned his smile one more time toward Liam’s direction and jokingly extended him an invitation to the gym. They both laughed at that though Liam warned him to be careful with that because he might just take him up on the offer. Sharing one last smile Taylor finally closed his car door and was driven away.
Liam might or might have not stayed up all night browsing the twitter feed in hopes for a certain picture to be posted. And once said picture was uploaded, Liam might or might have not re-tweeted said picture for the world to see. And when Taylor Lautner opened up a confirmed twitter account the very next day and started by only following two people (Ashley Benson and Liam himself), and then re-tweeted the picture of them both; the crush Liam had might or might have not grown into something more.
-So Taylor, where’s my gym invite? #ToldYouIWouldTakeYouUpOnIt-