One Direction Sickfics + Hurt Imagines

12| Sore knee (Niall)

Niall has always had problem with his knees, even meaning he had to have an operation. But that didn't necessarily mean everything was okay and went back to how it should be. Niall has good days and bad days. Good days were when he barely felt any pain with his knees, a slight wrong move may jolt them but other than that he was fine. Bad days were horrendous, pain showing with every movement, his knees hurting so bad he can barley walk. It sometimes made him embarrassed that something which most people were able to learn by the age of 2 was sometimes a struggle for him.

Today was a bad day.

Niall groaned as he lay awake, his knees were already playing up. More so his left than right, even if it had been operated on. He guessed he just didn't seem to get any of his Irish luck with that part of his life.

His knees almost buckled underneath him as he stood up out of bed. The pain was so bad niall felt tears prick at his eyes. He swallowed hardly and slightly shook his head, sighing. He wasn't going to let his knees ruin his day. He managed to get dressed without putting too much strain on his worse knee.

Walking down the stairs was a completely new level of pain. Niall winced as he walked downstairs slowly, his knee suddenly clicked, which wasn't unusual to Niall, but still felt uncomfortable every time. "Fuck sake." He mumbled too himself, hand tugging at his hair annoyingly.

Niall was happy to have reached the sofa, sitting down carefully, eager to rest his knees. He sighed and rested his head back against the sofa, he seemed tired out after practically keeping weight entirely off his left knee. "Alright there mate?" Louis asked, waltzing into the living room with a bag of peanuts in his hand. "Yeah, just my dodgy knees again." Niall breathed, wincing as a random pain shot through the front of his leg. "Both?" Louis asked, eyebrows raised. He knew how much Niall's could struggle with his knees. "Well, not really, mainly my left one...but both aren't great." Niall explained to Louis, watching as his mouth made an 'o' shape. "Want me to get you anything for it?" "Nah thanks mate, I'll handle it." Niall said, appreciative of Louis' ask. "Well, at least join us for breakfast then." "But you're already eating..." "yeah, I was hungry." Louis chuckled, finishing the rest of his peanuts before heading to the kitchen. Niall smiled, shaking his head at the lad.

As he again stood up, he'd seemed to forgotten how stiff his knee was. He was really having a bad day, usually they weren't this bad though, he thought. Niall limped into the kitchen, unable to straighten his leg out fully to walk. He was sure he looked like a right idiot, hobbling all over the place. "Morning boys." Niall said, nodding his head towards where the others were situated.

They all immediately noticed how Niall was acting, they too understood Niall's condition. "Louis said your knees playing up again." Harry said, pointing to Niall's leg, "yeah, same old, same old." He lightly smiled, trying to avoid the thought of his knee now completely. "Sorry to say mate, but we've got a busy day today. Gotta practise our stage routines and stuff." Liam told him sympathetically. Niall mentally cursed, of course his knees had to take a turn for the worst on a day he needed them to be at their best. "Great." He said sarcastically, slowly walking over to start boiling the kettle and make himself a drink.

The boys all watched closely as he walked or more like struggled to get to the kettle. "What?" Niall asked, feeling all eyes on him. "Oh, you want a cuppa?" He asked them, to which the others shook their heads and muttered "no thanks." Sharing worries glances to one another unsure of how the day would go.

Time skip...

The boys were nearly at where they had to be for stage practice. Niall's knee pain had doubled if not tripled since the morning. Every time the car ran over a bump in the road, Niall's knee shook along with the car, causing him to groan and whine. "You can sit out if you want to." Zayn told Niall, all the boys agreed too. "Thanks, but no thanks. I can usually handle it, it just feels a bit different to last time." Niall told the others, giving them a reassuring smile, but secretly trying to massage his now swollen knee through his jeans.

Niall got out of the car, breathing in some fresh air. It'd been all stuffy in the car, he hated feeling like he was trapped or stuck. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Harry, "sure you're alright Niall?" "Mhm." Niall nodded, before moving and walking to where people were waiting to tell them where to go. As much as he loved the lads, he hated them asking him all the time about his knee. Yes, he knew they just wanted to make sure he was okay, but he honestly wanted to forget about his knee problems and just tried to get on with what he was doing.

The group of five were instructed where to stand and what to do as music played. Unfortunately, Niall was first situated at the top of some very steep stairs. He knew they would be a nightmare to climb down.

The song began to play, music sending vibrations through the floor as it echoed around the pretty much empty arena. Harry started singing first, immediately everyone's ears perked up at the sound of a voice singing. Niall thought It was wonderful to have such talented people around him, he always looked up to them, working on ways to improve his voice.

Soon it was Niall's solo, it was also time to begin teaching down the huge stairs. He cautiously looked at his feet, watching every step. He sang to his best ability, ignoring every wave of pain that flooded his knee area. The last few steps were approaching and Niall almost wanted to kiss the floor at the fact the scary stairs were almost over.

"I- aghh!" Niall screamed in pain as his knee suddenly collapsed under his weight. He'd stepped wrong and an agonising popping sound occurred. It was so loud even the boys heard it over the music. All music was cut off and the boys rushed to Niall who sat at the bottom of the stairs. Tears brimmed his eyes as he clutched his sore knee. His microphone was sat next to him, completely forgotten about.

"Niall!" Liam shouted, rushing to his Irish bandmate. He hurried down beside Niall, panicked expression. "I don't know what happened, i just- ahh, Liam what are you doing?!" Niall cried, as Liam pressed on his knee, immediately pulling back when he heard Niall whimper in pain. "Trying to see where the pain is." "It's fucking everywhere Liam!" Niall shouted, face turning red when he realised he just screamed for no reason. "Mate I'm so sorry-" "no, it's alright. I should've known." Liam mumbled, stepping away and letting the others move to Niall.

Niall now felt both helpless and guilty, he'd never shouted at Liam with purpose before so he felt pretty shit about it. "Can you stand? Do you think you can stand?" Louis asked, crouching next to Niall. "I...I don't know." "No he shouldn't walk." Harry jumped in, "yeah, I just heard his knee crack from the other side of the stage." Zayn joined in the conversation. "I'll go get someone to help." Liam said, walking away silently.

It may have seen a bit silly to anyone else, but Liam walking away made Niall feel ten times worse. "Right, lets get you up mate." Louis said, grabbing under Niall's arms, Harry the other side. "I'll just follow." Zayn said awkwardly, unsure of how he could help lift Niall.

The boys technically carried Niall to a sofa, his feet barely touched the floor. Occasionally a groan or hiss left Niall's lips as his knee got knocked. The boys apologised but Niall assured them it was okay. Once Niall was sat down, Zayn helped prop his leg up a bit. Liam soon arrived with someone behind him who seemed to know what he was doing.

He prodded and poked at Niall's knee, causing him to hiss and swear under his breath. "Please stop doing that." He groaned multiple times, even though he knew that the man was only doing his job. He clutched onto both zayn and Liam's wrists as the man moved his leg around in the most uncomfortable of ways. Niall wasn't so sure he'd ever had to try and control his swearing so much in his life.

Eventually the man ruled out that Niall's knee still wasn't used to the operations work. He advised to constantly go on walks and even better ride a bike to build on his leg muscle and help heal his knees. For now he gave Niall so medication to take when the pain was completely unbearable as it had been that morning.

"Listen, Liam, I'm sorry for snapping. I- well my knee was really annoying me and I-" "mate it's alright, okay." Liam assured, holding a hand to Niall's shoulder and bringing him in for a hug. "Just make sure you tell us when your knees playing up, we'll get you to go ride a bike or something." Liam chuckled, "yeah I will do." Niall smiled patting Liam on the back. He hoped his knee would never be as bad as that again.

Hope you enjoyed!!