Red [S.M] [N.H]

Not in my blood

He paces the floor backstage and I watch him for a moment before walking over to him and putting my hands on his arms gently to stop him.

I could tell he was freaking out by how shallow his breaths were and how wide his eyes were. "Hey, hey, look at me, okay?" I say gently, looking up at him and his eyes meet mine. The nervous look on his face breaks my heart.

"What's wrong?" I say softly. "I-I'm freaking out." He stutters, his breathing still labored. "Look at me, just look at me and listen to me, okay?" I say, and he looks at me and nods shakily.

"This is temporary, this feeling. It's not going to last forever, you're going to go out there and you're going to blow everyone away, just like you always do. You are one of the strongest people I know, and I know you had a short break and this is your first show back, but it's going to be okay. All those people love you. Just follow my breathing, okay? In and out." I say, and breathe at a normal pace and he starts to follow my breath.

I keep my eyes locked on his and we continue breathing like that until his is steady and he's not shaking quite as much. "You okay now baby?" I ask, reaching up and tracing his jawline with my thumb.

"I'm okay, thank you. I'm sorry for freaking out." He says, seeming a little ashamed at his behavior. "You don't have to apologize. Don't be embarrassed in front of me. You can't help it and I don't mind at all."

He grins and then picks me up, making me let out a surprised gasp, and then kisses me sweetly and I kiss him back, putting my palms on either side of his face. Once we break away, he looks at me breathlessly, "you're amazing. I hope you know that when you're watching, I'm going to be singing to you." He smiles.

I feel my cheeks heat up and I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear, "why are you the best?"

"Because you deserve the best." He smiles and then pecks my lips once more before setting me down. "Now go kill it," I smile and he nods, kissing my forehead and then running off under the stage to go rise up.

I smile, heading back to the prep room where Dylan should be. I get back and don't see her anywhere and shrug, assuming she went to the bathroom and plopping on the couch.

5 minutes later, I hear a cluttering and raise my eyebrow. A second later, a very flustered Niall and Dylan stumble out of a room. Niall zips his jeans and then Dylan reaches up in attempt to fix Niall's hair, not worrying about her own. Neither of them seem to notice me watching in enjoyment.

"Hey Niall," I say, and they both jump in surprise, "you're kinda supposed to be on stage in like..." I check my wrist even though I'm not wearing a watch, "5 minutes ago."

"Shit!" He curses and then pecks Dylan's lips, grabs his guitar and then runs out of the room, leaving me to laugh and Dylan blushes before sitting down next to me, I raise my eyebrows at her and she looks at me.

"Well, are you going to elaborate?" I laugh, reaching over and starting to fix the back of her hair as it was standing up and she laughs lightly. "Yea... Niall was a little bit riled up before the show and one thing led to another and there was a closet so..."

I wiggle my eyebrows at her, "Niall really can't keep his hands off you can he?"

She blushes and laughs again, helping me smooth her hair down, "hey, I'm not complaining... and you should talk! I'm pretty sure the entire city heard you and Shawn the other day!" She teases and I widen my eyes.

"Were we that loud?" I scrunch my nose. She gives me a look and then laughs again, "ohhhh yea. The bus driver put his sound thing in between and could still hear."

"Oh my god! That's so embarrassing!" I feel my cheeks turn crimson and I bury my face in my hands. "I mean hey, you're getting some so, no need to be embarrassed. It sounded like you two were having a pretty good time in there."

"We actually really were... he has this crazy side to him." I said, smiling a little. "Really? Little Canadian baby shawn? A wild side? I mean it sounded like something was going on that was pretty wild but i didn't really want to listen." She laughs.

"Yes! He does! It's actually insane. He gets super like protective... which I know sounds bad but, I don't know, I kinda like it."

"Doesn't sound bad at all. Sounds pretty great to me." She smiles and shrugs.

"I can tell you it definitely is..." I laugh a little and she wiggles her eyebrows at me again. "Enough with the eyebrows! You know I don't like it!" I laugh, pushing her side.

This only makes her do it again, making direct eye contact with me to freak me out. "Stopppp!" I laugh, pushing her off the couch and she squeaks in surprise, "hey!!" She comes back and tackles me to the ground and we wrestle around the room till I finally pin her and she pouts at me, she knew I'd always been stronger than her.

"Well this isn't fair... you know, if you were a guy and this was a book, we would totally kiss right now." She starts laughing and I laugh too, actually falling off of her because for some reason that was a really funny thought.

"That's such a typical fanfic thing oh my gosh..." I laugh. "It really is! Like that's usually how the people get together in it and then if it's like a dirty story she'll be sitting on his crotch and then they'll do it."

"That is so accurate oh my god..." I laugh again, my stomach hurting from laughing again.

"He- uh..." we hear a guys voice and sit up, it's one of the stage directors.

"Oh hi, sorry we... fell." I shrug and then look back at him. "Oh okay, I was just wondering if you wanted to go see them perform from the wings? They are going to actually start singing soon."

"Oh yea! That'd be great! Thank you!" Dylan smiles and gets up, then grabs my hands to pull me up. "Alright follow me." He says and starts walking out and we follow obediently