Drunk Confessions of a Best Man (s.m)

Epilogue

Shawn grabbed Niall by the arm, helping him stand steady. He searched Niall's eyes for a moment, a smile peeking at his lips that the brunette didn't understand one bit, but then his expression turned concerned as he looked over to his wife. Niall felt nothing but shame, turning to her as he waited to be yelled at or insulted. But she gave Shawn a small nod and he grinned, tugging Niall's hand. Looking back, he could see a soft smile on her face. Wasn't she meant to be angry at him? Wasn't Shawn? What was going on?

"Uh... Mendes? Why are we leaving? Your wife's back there-" Shawn snorted and Niall rolled his eyes. He already felt overwhelming guilt for what he had done, the alcohol magically drained from his system after that outburst. He wanted out. He pulled his hand out of Shawn's and stared at the floor, folding his arms. "Shawn, stop it. I don't know what you want to do but if you were trying to yell at me in private, I'm pretty sure this car park is empty so you can get it over with."

"Yell at you...?" Shawn stared at him, losing Niall even more when he blinked back some tears and hugged him tightly. Was he tripping? Was this all a dream? Was he going to wake up, soon, in a reality where he never ruined Shawn's wedding? Nothing felt real, anymore. Because if he had to give an explanation of this sudden turn of events, in his view, Shawn was literally pulling a runaway groom and leaving with him. And that sounded like too surreal an experience to be true. He pulled away, noticing Niall was slowly getting frustrated at how confused he was.

"Shawn- I don't- you're being weird, can you just-"

"I want to go somewhere more private than here. The press could find us any minute, now, anyone could take a picture or vid and that'll be even more trouble. I want to really be alone with you." Niall nodded numbly, letting Shawn take his hand once again. Whether this was really happening again, the warmth of Shawn's touch and smile was powerful enough to make him do anything, really.

Shawn's car was a simple red convertible. It seemed like a pretty good just married car, Niall thought with a sad smile. What was he doing? What was Shawn doing? Even in the unlikely event that Shawn wanted to be with him, he'd already married Camila. That would be wrong and not make any sense, either because the man he knew wouldn't propose to someone unless he was truly in love. He was a hopeless romantic like that.

Niall turned to Shawn, smiling when he saw his smile was still on his face. The lucky thing hadn't been anything but happy and giddy since they left while Niall was here overthinking shit. He sighed, resigning himself to his fate being in Shawn's hands and focused on gazing at him quietly while running his hands through that curly dark hair. Shawn started blushing soon enough and Niall pulled away, muttering a soft apology.

"No, no, it's not you. It's just... After what you said, things feel a little different, you know? Like I know we used to do shit like this before but now that I know that you... That you umm..."

"You can say it. It's not like I can take it back, right?" Niall replied, expression downcast. Shawn smiled at Niall once more, then focused on the road. Niall could only sit in his misery. Now that he'd fucked up, was he really not going to be allowed to touch Shawn, anymore? Was this where their closeness ended? He should have kept it to himself, he should have.

He stared on in silence, not able to look at Shawn anymore. He felt tears fill his eyes, feeling like the younger of them both when Shawn stopped the car at his hotel and gave him a concerned look. He wanted to curl up in a ball on his own and cry but for whatever reason, Shawn wanted to follow him into the hotel and into his room. He didn't have the strength to ask why, letting him in and shutting the door behind them both.

Niall looked him square in the eyes, desperately trying to make sense of everything. But Shawn, with all his confidence before, was suddenly full of nerves. He looked away and peered around the room which had a colour scheme blend of reds, whites, golds and beige.