The Champagne Lovers

Ten

Niall had the most unusual eyes.

People talk about ocean eyes, there's even songs about them, usually referring to the iridescent colouring, the depth and richness of the blue reflecting the idea of ocean waves, but no pair of eyes I'd ever seen truly encompassed the meaning of ocean eyes more than Nialls.

I'd seen photographs of tropical seas, I've even been lucky enough during the Australian leg of the last tour to spend a few days exploring the east coast and dipping my feet into the most beautiful waters I've seen, and still these paled in comparison to Nialls eyes.  

There were specks of gold the exact colour of sandy beaches spilling from his dark pupils, the soft edges of yellow melding into turquoise and blue like swirling waves caressing the coastline, edged by a deep navy separating the vibrant colour from the bright white

With Louis' words still floating in the air of Niall's dressing room, the commotion of everyone heading to stage ready for the show to start now audible from the corridor beyond, I sat back, my legs still draped over Nialls lap, he had one arm resting delicately over my shoulder keeping me close, his fingers softly grazing across the nape of my neck, his other hand wrapped around my thigh giving me a gentle squeeze as he looked down at me, the surprise evident in his wide eyes.  Stifling the chuckle with my fingers over my lips I looked up at him meeting his gaze, his eyes remained unblinking.   

"what the hell Lizzie" he said with a grin

lowering his voice and dipping his head toward me slightly he continued playfully pinching the inside of my thigh making me squeal 

"what happened to rule 5, not telling anyone, Harry was one thing but now Lou knows"

"firstly I didn't technically tell Harry, we just got a little lapse at hiding things and he figured it out, and secondly it wasn't me ripping my shirt and jacket off in the hallway of your hotel!"

"oh yeah I remember, and I'll gladly take credit for that, but what's that got to do with anything?" he smirked, his lids hooded as he dipped his lips down to meet the skin on my collarbone briefly before I playfully pushed him back

"well as it turns out Mr Horan, it wasn't housekeeping that collected my stuff as we thought, it was Louis!  He also clocked that I was wearing your shirt, the polka dot Paul Smith one, yeah he recognised it and I guess it didn't take a genius to figure the rest out, I think all the boys suspected something had happened with us after that first night in the studio anyway"

"yeah I guess we've not been so careful lately have we" he said with a soft smile, moving my legs softly off his lap and standing helping me to my feet, my hand in his

"Sorry Angel, I really gotta get to stage" he stopped and turned back to me as we reached the door all humour in our exchange gone and a serious look on his face

"are you going to be ok, I don't want to leave you if your still going to be upset?" his words were barely a whisper at this point, his fingers tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, his thumb moving to gently rub over my bottom lip, softly pulling it from between my teeth

I nodded without a word, looking down at the floor between us, before looking up to meet his gaze once more, 

"I'll be fine Ni... thank you for today though, I really didn't mean to lay all that on you, its kind of not what we do right...?"

he didn't say anything after that but just traced his eyes over my face, and before I really had time to think about it, I reached up on tip toes and placed my lips on his, my hand grazing the stubble on his jaw as we fell back into the sensation of our earlier kiss, the softness, the stillness, but with the passion that was always flowing through every touch, I lifted both arms onto his shoulders to momentarily deepen the kiss, trying to portray to him without words just how much his support meant to me.