“Hurry up Haz, he’s gonna be leavin’ any minute!” Harry grinned at the mischief glowing in Louis’ eyes, a layer of amusement folding over his own green eyes. Under Louis’ arm tucked away snug was a skateboard Stan had left by accident on his last visit to see Louis. Harry liked Stan, sure, though he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous when he saw how close and buddy like they were in person. He shrugged off the thoughts and crouched behind Louis behind their couch.

They were waiting for Niall, and Louis had come up with a humorous way to keep them entertained, despite the expense of hurting their friend and band mate. Louis hushed the giggling Harry behind him, though his grin didn’t falter. He positioned the board on the ground, waiting for the perfect moment to slid it across the wooden floor and have it make its way right under Niall’s foot.

The second Niall appeared from the hallway he pushed out the board, his plan working successfully as Niall’s foot stepped onto the striped decoration. Losing his balance he rolled forward, his body weight causing him to fall face first with his ankle twisting painfully under him. 

“Owww!” He groaned, rubbing his now bruised elbows and sitting up to rub his ankle. He winced deeply, the pain far worse than what he assumed was just a sprain. Niall had been so concerned about catching himself he hadn’t noticed he knocked over the bookcase against the wall. He’d only noticed because Zayn came running out of his room and upon seeing the mess had asked what had happened. Then his eyes fell on the blond on the floor, clutching his ankle in pain. “Niall? You alright mate? What happened?”

Niall pointed to the skateboard that was now upside down, wheels still spinning, just a few feet away from them. “I stepped on that bloody fuckin’ thing and fell. Think I twisted me ankle mate.” Zayn frowned and pulled up Niall’s pant leg, his frown deepening at the dark purple and blue quickly forming around his foot. 

Snickers caught his attention and Zayn turned his head to see two pairs of feet kicking comically behind the couch. “Did you twats have something to do with this?” The kicking stopped and two heads popped out, grins on their faces. They shook their heads before running up the stairs and out of sight with their hands entwined together.

Zayn sighed, “Niall. Put your arms around my neck yeah? We’re taking you to the hospital.” Niall whimpered at the movement on his leg and did as he was told. “It hurts Zayn.”

“I know.”

He carefully made his way into the lift, asking Niall to push the down button. “You’ll be alright Ni. Just a little sprain.” He knew it wasn’t, but Niall was near to the point of tears and Zayn couldn’t have that. He just couldn’t. He hated seeing Niall upset. It was like finding a neglected puppy that was abandoned by it’s owner. It wasn’t pretty.

“Ow, Zayn!” Niall clutched onto his neck when his foot accidentally collided with the car door. “Sorry, sorry.” Zayn kissed the boy’s temple, anything to keep him calm and relaxed. “Sorry.” He said again, closing the door and hopping into the driver’s seat.

When they arrived at the hospital, they had rolled Niall away in a wheelchair and had given him X-Rays. Zayn was told quickly that Niall would need surgery to patch up the bones that had fractured and broken in his foot. Not only was his ankle broken, but one of his veins had popped. Fucking wonderful. So now Niall was in surgery. But Zayn wasn’t stupid. He had called Louis and Harry and told them to come down because he knew they had something to do with this.

When they showed up, Zayn was furious.

“You know he’s in there getting fucking surgery done on his ankle because you tossers decided to pull a stupid prank?” His tone was dark, and eyes were narrowed in anger. He was plain sick and tired of Louis and Harry fucking around like this.

Harry stepped behind Louis, obviously feeling a bit frightened.

“Think before you fuckin’ act yeah? Another prank like this that goes wrong and I’ll make sure it’s you two in the hospital as well, got it?” He had gotten into Louis’ face, nose to nose and his ragged breath hitting Louis’ jaw. He swallowed and nodded. “We’re sorry Zayn. We didn’t mean for him to get a broken ankle.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, “Just go back home and wait for me to call with any updates.”