Zianourry: Isolation

"We have food!"

Zayn looked up from the texts he was reading to see Niall and Louis at the front door, several bags of McDonald's in their hands. He reached for the remote and shut off the television, before tapping Harry, who had curled up into a ball and rested his head on Zayn's lap. "C'mon, time to get up Haz."

Harry let out whine, as he stretched his lithe body all over the couch and Zayn's body. The curly-haired lad reached for Zayn's face, with his eyes still closed, pinching and palming the smooth features, trying to decipher who woke him up, so he could seek revenge later.

"Where's Liam?" Niall asked the two boys on the couch, setting his bags on the table.

"Still in his room," Zayn replied, trying to avoid Harry's hands and shake the youngest off of him.

"Probably still in his room," Louis told the others, following Niall suit.

"Liam!" Harry screamed, tired of everyone talking and hoping everyone would shut up.

A door could be heard opening from somewhere down the hall. Liam stepped out, still in his pajamas. "Yeah?" the brunette asked shyly.

"We have food!" Niall exclaimed excitedly.

Liam just nodded and made his way to the table, where the other boys were gathered. As the other boys chatted amongst themselves, except for Harry, who was still grumpy and tired, Liam searched through the bags and grabbed himself a few cheeseburgers and a handful of fries, before heading back to his room.

"Doesn't Liam seem off to you guys?" Niall asked the other three after waiting for the sound of Liam's bedroom door shutting.

"What do you mean?" Louis chewed his food before continuing. "I mean, doesn't he always act like that?"

"Well, it's not exactly normal," Harry butted in. "If we're going to be a band, he can't keep isolating himself like this. It can't be Liam and One Direction."

"Well, how about we go talk to him," Zayn suggested. "Best way to integrate him into the group is through communication."

Harry sighed, not really wanting to get involved, since he was tired. "How do we go about this without making it awkward, though?"

Zayn shrugged. "It's just talking. Since he isn't very open with us, it won't be that hard to find something to talk about."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Louis blurted out.

With that, Zayn, Niall, and Louis, who was dragging Harry with him, made their way to Liam's room. When they entered, Liam was sitting on his bed, his back against the wall. His legs were tucked in, as he looked at his phone, ignoring the presence of the other four.

"Hey, Liam," Zayn softly greeted, sitting on the bed next to Liam, followed suit by the others.

Liam looked up from his phone and shifted his eyes warily between each boy. "Hey," the lad said quietly, going back to his phone.

"Um, is something wrong, Liam?" Zayn continued.

"No, why?" Liam asked, not bothering to look up.

"Well, you don't talk to us."

"Ever," Louis added, earning a slap from Zayn.

"Point is," Zayn started, "this band isn't going to work out if we aren't close with each other."

"Sorry," Liam muttered quietly, frowning in response. "I'll try harder, I promise."

Truth was, though, Liam wasn't really the best at making friends. This was already obvious to the other boys, but the reason behind it wasn't. Throughout his childhood, Liam was constantly bullied, making it difficult for the young lad to befriend anyone. Once he was put into One Direction, the brunette thought that would finally change, but when he started finding bonding with the rest of the band to be difficult, Liam began to seclude himself, not wanting to waste his, or their, time.

"Hey," Louis interjected, noticing the frown, and poking the younger lad in the stomach, "can't make friends if you're always so mopey."

"Okahay," Liam let out a small giggle and squirmed where he was sitting.

Louis shot the others a mischievous smirk. "Heh, looks like we got a ticklish one, lads," the oldest said, poking at Liam again.

"Nohohoho," Liam giggled again, kicking his legs out and trying to squirm away, but the way the others surrounded him prevented the brunette from doing so.

Niall decided to join in and grabbed one of Liam's legs that he kicked out. Gently, but firmly, he put the socked foot in a headlock and began slowly dragging his dull fingernails over the twitching foot.

Harry, who was planning on not getting involved at first, watched on as Niall and Louis turned Liam into a giggling mess. Normally, most, if not all, tickle attacks were directed at him, but since he wasn't the target this time, the the curly-haired lad decided to join in. He took a seat by Liam's other leg and began prodding his knee, causing Liam to flail his other leg in response.

"Ahahahahaha! Guhuhuhuys!" Liam wiggled and squirmed as much as he could, but the fingers followed him no matter what he did. Also, Niall was holding one leg, so movement was restricted.

Zayn sat there, observing as Liam was gang tickled by his bandmates. On one hand, this wasn't how the raven-haired lad expected to bond with Liam. Sure, him and the others, except Liam, would tickle each other frequently, but Zayn thought they would start doing that sort of stuff once Liam became more comfortable with them. However, as Zayn was observing his band mates, he noticed that throughout the whole time, Liam wasn't begging for them to stop. It could be because he didn't have enough breath to spit out words, even though the tickling wasn't that intense, but usually, the other boys would be pleading before the tickling even begun, which led the Bradford boy to believe that Liam perhaps liked the tickling, or at least enjoyed receiving attention from the others, something Liam had been greatly deprived of. If Liam didn't consider the tickling to be a bad thing, then Zayn assumed it would be okay if he were to jump in. Hesitantly, the older lad began poking at Liam's ribs.

Liam let out a squeal the second Zayn's fingers made contact. His arms involuntarily tried pushing the others away, but they persisted. "Zahahahahayn! Ahahahaha!"

Zayn let a small grin grow on his face. Realizing he had found a sweet spot, the Pakistani lad teased the ticklish spot, watching Liam let out helpless squeals. "Tickle, tickle," he taunted.

Louis actually found the thought of Liam being ticklish kind of adorable, since the younger lad was always seen as kind of serious and solemn to the others. Plus, Louis was the oldest, so they were all cute younger brothers to him. The feather-haired lad lifted up the hem of Liam's shirt slightly and blew small raspberries, eating him several yelps and a healthy stream of giggles.

Down at Liam's captive foot, Niall had begun peeling off the cotton sock, dragging his nails up the sole as the fabric was removed. Once the sock was popped off, Niall gently pried back the toes and began squeezing and tickling each one, noticing Liam's laughter grow slightly when he did.

Over on the other leg, Harry started moving up from the knee to Liam's thighs. The curly-haired lad squeezed a particularly sensitive spot dangerously close to Liam's crotch, causing the lad to involuntarily kick his leg up, nearly hitting Harry in the face. "Should be more careful," Harry said in a mock-condescending tone, restraining Liam's other leg like Niall. He immediately discarded the sock and began scratching small circles in the boy's arch with the hand that was holding Liam's leg, using his other hand to reach behind and squeeze the underpart of Liam's knee.

"Guhuhuhuys! Gahahahaha!" Instead of trying to push the ticklers away, Liam tried curling into a tiny ball, his whole body quivering against the wall.

Niall still kept Liam's toes pried back, but decided to just let his fingers slide against the cream-colored sole. At one point, Liam was able to free his leg from the blonde, but Niall just grabbed him by the ankle again and restarted the tickling, giving the wiggling toes attention like before.

Harry, being the devious lad he is, took Liam's comb, which just happened to be so conveniently close to him on the bed, and started gliding the tool across Liam's other foot, the teeth of the comb each sending tingling sensations up to the brunette's brain.

Louis was bored of blowing raspberries into the soft tummy, so he resulted to a method that worked perfectly well on people like Harry. He took his index finger and, ever so slowly, began circling the rim of Liam's bellybutton. As he circled in on the navel, Liam's laughter and struggling grew stronger, until Louis dipped his finger into the bellybutton, causing Liam to buck and squeal.

Zayn waited for Louis to finish the process, knowing that Liam would start spazzing after the feather-haired lad was done. When Liam had calmed down, Zayn began fiddling with Liam's ribs again, playing each bone like a piano. He spidered his fingernails over the sensitive area, contributing the most to the stimuli washing over Liam's body, increasing the husky laughter more than the other boys could.

"GUHUHUHUYS! OKAHAHAHAY! STAHAHAHAP!" Liam finally pleaded, the tickling becoming too intense for the lad.

Doing as they were told, the four ticklers moved themselves from Liam's exhausted body. The brunette laid on the couch, panting for breath to recover from his ordeal. As he felt his lungs fill up with oxygen, Liam sat up, wiping the sweat from his brow and his hair out of his eyes, looking at the other boys.

"Um, you're okay, right?" Zayn asked the younger lad, fearing they might have gone too far.

"Yeah, of course," Liam giggled, giving them a small smile. "It was actually kind of fun."

"Really?!" Harry said, eyes wide. "Tickling's kind of the worst torture possible, just saying."

"Haha, I didn't really mind, though," Liam responded. "You guys were kind of cool about it."

"See?" Louis chimed in. "We're not that bad! Since we ganged up on you, it means that you're officially part of the group!"

The shaggy-haired lad chuckled at Louis, as did everyone else. "So, what else does do you guys do?"

"Well, after we tickle each other," Louis began, "we choose the next victim."

Liam nodded, thinking of who attacked his most ticklish spot. He turned to Zayn with the most devious grin, followed suit by the other.

"No, guys, stohohop!" Zayn giggled in anticipation as he was backed into a corner.