Niall came in for the last interview slot at his new show and hung around after for a few minutes to wait for Nick so they could head to the car park together. He probably regrets that now, Nick thinks after the elevator stops with a jerk and Niall’s breathing immediately goes flat and way too fast, and he looks at Nick with wild eyes when he asks, “What was that?”

“Think we might be stuck, love,” Nick says, aiming for cheerful. He presses the SOS button, holds it down for three, four, five seconds to be safe.

“Fuck,” Niall gasps, and Nick shoots him a worried glance. “I’m claustrophobic.”

“Fuck,” Nick agrees wholeheartedly.

So that’s where they are now.

“What can I do?” Nick asks. “Niall, breathe. Like, can you breathe with me?” He starts breathing loudly, tries to make it as even as possible. How does one even breathe normally? He’s suddenly not sure.

Niall makes a valiant effort, it seems, he takes a breath every time Nick does, but it’s not deep enough so he ends up sort of gasping for air regularly.

Nervously, Nick tries to press the SOS button again, hiding the movement from Niall. Not that Niall’s in a state to notice anything right now.

“Do you want to sit down? Put your head between your knees?” Nick asks, watching worriedly how Niall’s wringing his hands, grasping at nothing. He doesn’t know much about how to deal with this sort of thing, but he knows that pose helps people calm down in quite many situations.

Niall nods jerkily and slides down the wall until he’s sat on the floor. Nick sneaks a look at his phone - no reception, of course. He presses the button once more and sits down next to Niall, two hand’s breadths apart.

“It’s alright,” he tries again. “This has happened before, they’ll get us out of here in no time.”

“What if they don’t,” Niall gasps out and Nick’s heart aches in sympathy. He doesn’t like being stuck here, obviously, but he also doesn’t fear for his life.

“They will,” Nick says with as much surety as he can muster up. “Hey, Niall, can I touch you? Or will that make it worse?”

Another jerky nod. “Y’can.”

Carefully, Nick slides closer to him and takes Niall’s hand.

“Listen,” he starts explaining, “I’m gonna put your hand right here above my heart, yeah? Can you feel my heartbeat?” He presses Niall’s hand to his chest, warm and trembling, and covers it with his own to still the shaking. Niall nods. “Good. Now focus on that, yeah? Feel how calm it is? Focus on my heartbeat and nothing else.”

Niall stills, a stark contrast to his usual fidgeting that was impossibly heightened in his panic. He’s just sitting there, staring at their hands on Nick’s chest, and just when Nick starts worrying this might be weird, Niall drops his head onto Nick’s shoulder and closes his eyes. His breathing has calmed down noticeably and Nick smiles. He did that.

Niall’s hand is warm beneath his and Nick wonders when this will start feeling awkward, because they’re friends but not the kind of friends that hold hands, but it doesn’t happen. It’s almost comfortable, at least as comfortable as it can be when you’re stuck in an elevator ad one of you has just had a panic attack.

“Better?” he asks softly, and Niall nods against his shoulder before lifting his head and smiling at Nick. It’s not as bright as his usual smiles, still a little scared, but at least he’s not terrified anymore.

“Yeah,” Niall says, “Thanks.”

“Of course,” Nick says. “D’you want your hand back?”

“Nah,” Niall shakes his head, looking away from Nick’s face. “Not yet, if that’s alright.”

“Sure.” Well then. Nick only has to be careful not to show Niall that he’s really kind of starting to like this.

Niall’s fingers twitch against Nick’s chest, but not panicky like earlier. More nervous, maybe.

“Feel like anyone else would make better use of being stuck in a lift with someone they fancy,” he says without looking at Nick, and Nick almost chokes.

Right now it’s very inconvenient that Niall can probably feel his heartbeat speed up under his hand because it completely ruins the calm and cool impression he wants to make when he asks, “Is that so?”

The corner of Niall’s mouth jumps upwards like he wants to smile, but he’s still not looking at Nick.

The elevator jerks to a start again, and Niall jumps, his hand clutching at Nick’s shirt in panic for a second before he realises they’re moving again and this means they’re about to get out of here. He lets go of Nick’s shirt and removes his hand - Nick’s chest feels strangely cold, now - to press the heels of his hands to his eyes.

“Fuck,” he says, shakily, and Nick reaches out to cup the back of his head, sliding his hands into Niall’s hair.

“We made it,” he says, and Niall’s eyes are wide and bright when he finally looks at him again.

“Yeah,” he says, watching the doors slide open and then pushes himself up and almost launches himself through them and onto safe ground.

Nick follows more slowly, watching as Niall stands there in the hallway, one hand pressed to the wall, breathing deeply.

“Hiya,” he says, stepping up to Niall and wrapping two fingers around his wrist. Nick can feel Niall’s pulse still race against his fingertips, but he seems composed now.

“Hey,” Niall says back. “Sorry about,” he takes his hand off the wall to gesture vaguely, keeping the hand that Nick’s got in his grasp still, “all that in there.”

“It’s no problem,” Nick assures him. “So. What you said earlier - do you want to, maybe, have a drink with me and discuss that further? If you meant it?”