Dealmaker: Ch. 2

"I found his Facebook!"

Niall turned to look at his friend, already beginning to judge him. "Um, aren't you going a bit too far with this?"

Harry didn't seem to hear the question because he kept babbling about it as the two walked to their respective homes together. "He has everything on his profile set to public, so do you think I should add him? He doesn't know me, though. Hey, maybe you can add him on Facebook and let me go onto your account."

"Ugh, no, you're weird," Niall told the younger boy. He wasn't even sure how he got wrapped up in this kind of situation.

Eventually, Harry stopped coming up with different ways to stalk Niall's football coach, much to the Irish boy's relief. The two eventually fell into small talk and gossip, chatting about their day and laughing as they walked together.

"So, do you wanna come over today?" Harry asked, his dimples showing on his face.

Niall hesitated, not really sure what to say this time. "Um, I'm busy today."

"But it's Friday," Harry whined.

"Sorry, Haz, I have make-up work to do." Niall wasn't meeting with Zayn today, but he just wanted to lock himself up in his room and finish the current tickle story he was reading.

"Whatever," Harry muttered.

"We can hang out soon," Niall reassured the green-eyed boy.

"Yeah, okay," Harry responded, getting ready to split ways with his friend. "See you Monday!"

"See you, Haz!"

---

"You're paying this time."

Louis scrunched his face in puzzlement as he parked his Smart car. "I thought it was your turn."

"No, I already paid last time," Zayn said, getting out of the car and heading to the Italian restaurant where the two friends would be eating at.

"Gah, whatever," Louis muttered in defeat.

The two entered the small, yet cozy, building, a waft of different aromas hitting their nose. They followed the expected protocol and got in line, ordered and paid for their food, and began looking for their seats.

"Hey, what's up?" Louis suddenly said.

Zayn turned to Louis, thinking that the older lad was talking to him, which would have been strange. However, the Pakistani lad noticed that in fact Louis was indeed not talking to him, but to what seemed like a small family. It took Zayn a while to notice that the person Louis was talking to was Niall. The Irish boy was accompanied by an older woman, who Zayn assumed to be Niall's mother, and an older boy that didn't look remotely similar to the other two.

"Um, hi, nothing much," Niall responded shyly to Louis, his eyes darting to Zayn and back to Louis.

Zayn fidgeted in his spot awkwardly. Instead of looking at Niall, he looked at the ground, staring at his shoelaces, hands in his pockets.

"How are you, coach?" Niall's mom asked Louis, wiping her face with a napkin for any sauce that might have missed her mouth.

"I'm doing fine. Just spending my Friday evening with my friend here," Louis replied, nudging Zayn with his elbow. "Oh, and out of school, you can just call me Mr. Tomlinson."

Mrs. Horan nodded her head. "Alright, Mr. Tomlinson, how's Niall been doing at football?"

Niall immediately turned a bright tomato red at the sudden subject switch to him. He looked up at Zayn, who had looked at Niall at the same time, causing the Irish boy to look down at his food and burn a brighter food. He started shoveling his pasta into his mouth, praying that his mom would stop talking about him.

"Niall is the star player on the team," Louis said proudly. "None of the other boys can compete with him."

Niall could feel himself burning up in his seat. He really didn't feel comfortable when people talked about him right in front of him. Plus, Zayn's presence didn't help.

"By the way," Louis started, turning to the older boy that was sitting across the table from Niall, "are you Niall's older brother? If so, you must be good at football too, right?"

The whole time, Liam had been ignoring the conversation and awkwardness going on between the people around him. When Louis finally addressed him, Liam gave the older boy a bored look and responded with a simple and monotone "no". After that, he went back to finishing the rest of his food.

"Ugh, Liam," Mrs. Horan muttered, her head on her forehead with her elbow on the table, clearly embarrassed with the way Liam was acting.

Despite the small exchange, the first thing Zayn noticed was that Liam's English accent didn't match up with Niall and his mother's Irish accent. Combined with the fact Liam didn't look like either of the two, Zayn came to the conclusion that Liam wasn't related to Niall, or at least Niall's biological brother.

"Um, okay," Louis responded awkwardly, not sure whether the "no" meant he wasn't Niall's brother, or if it meant he wasn't good at football. "Anyway, we should probably find our table, since they might deliver our food soon. Let's go, Zayn."

After they said their goodbyes, Zayn and Louis went over to a table and set their order number down. Even though he couldn't see him, Zayn could feel Niall's gaze.

"So that kid is part of the football team at that school you teach at?" Zayn asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Yeah," Louis nodded. "He doesn't look like it and he's really awkward, but he's top-notch when it comes to football. Smart kid too."

"Hm, yeah. I gotta tell you something later, though," Zayn told his older friend, watching as the waiters set the delicious food down in front of them.

---

"Haha, I can't believe you actually agreed to that sort of thing!"

Zayn blushed, questioning his decision to tell Louis about the deal he had made with Niall. "Well, I had no choice, okay?"

The two young lads were spending the night at Louis' flat. It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was home to the Doncaster lad. Zayn lived in the same flat complex and his flat was similar with a small couch, television, coffee table, tiny kitchen, bathroom, and passable bedroom. Although they were both practically broke, they both had just enough to get by.

Louis took a swig of his alcohol, finishing off his third bottle. "So, why exactly are you telling me this?"

Zayn set down his bottle, not in the mood for drinking. "I was wondering if you had any ideas to get me out of this."

Louis put his elbow on the armrest, tapping the side of his head with his finger, his words coming out a bit slurred. "Well, find out if he, uh, has another kink. Maybe then, he'll change the deal to something else."

Zayn thought about the suggestion, before responding. "Well, if we changed the deal because of that, the new deal would probably involve the different kink."

Louis scratched his chin, feeling the little stubble. "Well, maybe use tickling against him."

"Lou, he likes that shit," Zayn reminded the older boy, answering as if it was obvious enough.

The brunette shook his head. "No, what I mean is get him so bad that he no longer likes it. When I was part of my school's football team, I'd always give the coach attitude, but now that I'm the couch, it drives me crazy when someone gives me back talk. If I knew how annoying I was back then, then I probably would have shut my mouth."

Zayn nodded, finally understanding what Louis was saying. "Well, if we do tickle him, wouldn't he just figure out that I'm involved in the plan? If he does, he'll just change the deal and force me to pay for the damages."

"True," Louis replied. "We can think about what to do later. In the mean time, try to befriend him and find out where's most ticklish. That way, we can make it as bad for him as possible."

Zayn grinned, glad he told Louis about the situation. "Little fucker won't know what hit him."

Louis smiled contently, kicking his feet up on the small table. "How do you get yourself into these kinds of situations?"

"Shut up," Zayn growled. "It was an accident."

"Tickle, tickle," Louis teased, wiggling his fingers towards Zayn. However, instead of tickling the younger lad like what was intended, Louis ended up jabbing Zayn in the arm because he was so uncoordinated.

"Alright, you're asking for it!" The constant jabs provoked the younger lad, causing him to fire off his own tickle attack on the older man.

"H-Hey!" Louis yelped, trying to push Zayn's hands away from him. In doing so, though, the brunette ended up sliding off the couch and onto the ground.

Zayn took the chance and hopped off the couch, straddling Louis' waist. He grabbed for the smaller lad's wrists, which was an easy task, considering how uncoordinated Louis was at the moment, and pinned them above the older boy's head.

"Zayn!" Louis whined, flailing his legs in a desperate attempt to escape. He was about to start releasing a slur of curse words at the younger lad, but let out a high-pitched yelp when he felt fingers digging into one of his armpits.

"Tickle, tickle!" Zayn taunted, eliciting schoolboy giggles from his older friend. The Pakistani boy had to admit that tickling was kind of fun when you were the one dishing it out.

"God dahahamnit!" Louis giggled, struggling under the heaver lad. He never knew he was ticklish and he certainly wasn't enjoying it.

Zayn moved his free hand down to Louis' sides, deciding it was time for a new spot. When he let his fingers squeeze the pudgy side, Louis let out another ear-splitting shriek, followed by more giggling.

"Shihihit! I'm gonahaha kihihill you!"

Zayn ignored the empty threat and continued to torment the Doncaster lad. When he ghosted his fingers over the soccer player's stomach, though, was when Louis lost it, almost bucking Zayn off of him. "Ticklish here, aren't we?"

"N-No, Zayn! StoHOHOHOHOHOP!" Louis went absolutely ballistic when he felt Zayn's fingers drill into his ticklish tummy, which Louis was guessing was his worst spot.

Zayn made sure to tickle Louis' stomach a little longer, before giving the older lad a needed breather. After Louis' breath was recovered, Zayn finally got off of him, blocking a swing from Louis.

"You're a dick," Louis grumbled, shoving his friend.

"Was I any good?"

"At tickling?" Louis nodded fiercely. "Hell yeah you were."

Zayn smirked, his eyes ablaze with mischievousness. "Then revenge will be so much sweeter."