Broken (a Niall Horan love story)

Chapter 41

***Niall's P.O.V.***

The first thing that I could register when I woke up was the warm and familiar skin of the person lying beside me in the bed. My grip around her was tight and needy, and I had my forehead resting on her shoulder while my breath hit her back and bounced back towards me. Hadn't she said that I would be sleeping alone? I mean, I wasn't going to take it for granted, but I was curious to know if my nightmare had been the reason that she stayed. Had she forgiven me? She said she didn't mean her words from earlier, but I doubted that she wasn't still mad at me.

After recalling my nightmare-there had been so much blood, god, so much blood-I pulled her closer towards me and let out a relieved sigh. My eyes immediately snapped open when I heard a knock on the door of the door. Trying to keep my grip around Navaeh, I rolled over slightly in order to see who was coming into the room. My mum's head of platinum blonde hair peeked into the room and she curiously looked at the bed before a small and happy smile lined her lips. "I was hoping that she'd change her mind about the second guest room," mum smiled while nodding towards the sleeping Navaeh.

"Yeah," I couldn't help but to smile as well, but it dipped into a frown when I continued, "I think she's still mad at me." A small groan came from Navaeh after that, but she didn't stir or make any more noises as if she was going to wake up so my mum replied.

"You should bite your tongue next time," she scolded me lightly while harboring a look of slight admonishment.

"I know," was my response as I nodded my head in agreement. My eyes caught sight of my guitar that was lying next to my computer and a pile of Kleenex. My plans for the morning ran through my mind and I looked back at my mum to ask her something before she closed the door, "hey, mum, is everyone else up yet?"

"No, but I think Theo might be up soon," she said before opening the door up a bit wider to point an accusing finger at me, "we're going to mass at eight thirty so be ready; don't forget to tell Navaeh too." And with that, she shut the door to the room and left Navaeh and I inside to sleep until the house would be filled with Theo's loud laughter. I didn't plan on sleeping, though; I had something in mind for this morning, but I was sad that it involved pulling away from Navaeh.

Carefully, I slid my arm out from underneath her and then pushed myself up into a sitting position. Navaeh let out a few tired whines of protest, but she went back to her quiet state soon after. I pressed a soft kiss to her temple before sliding off of the bed and heading over to where my guitar was. Even as I was picking the instrument up off of the floor, I ran over the chords to the song in my head and repeated the words. Playing the guitar and remembering lyrics was pretty much my whole job, so I was confident that I could go through the song without any major trouble.

With a yawn, I plopped back down on the bed and then pulled my legs up so that I was sitting Indian style. The Guitar sat comfortably in my lap and I let my fingers ghost the familiar strings on the neck of it before strumming a light tune. I was sure that Navaeh would wake up soon; she wasn't a big fan of repetitive noises. I was right too; after a few times of strumming the same tune, Navaeh let out a long and annoyed groan. Slowly, she pushed herself up in the bed and rubbed at her eyes so that she could see me better. She donned one of her classic, groggy frowns as she faced me and tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

"Niall," she mumbled out with her voice sounding low from just waking up. There was a slight pout on her lips, and my eyes focused there for just a moment. I couldn't count how many times I had wanted to lean in and kiss those lips just in the time that we had been in Ireland. Not to mention yesterday after her shower-I had been beyond pissed-but man, I almost lost my resolve when she walked out in only a towel. "What are you doing?" her question pulled me out of my small trance and I offered a bit of a smile to put her at ease.