hands off my heart || n.h au

n i n e

"...yeah, I'm still here. Her fever's down now."

Jena catches the tail of the conversation as she wakes on the couch, the dark living room lit by the television that's currently showing the end credits of the third movie they decided to watch and the soft yellow filtering from the windows.

She tries to move but Niall has his hands on her ankles. She somehow managed to slide down the couch in her sleep, her legs curled on his lap. She can feel her cheeks heating up, the close proximity causing her heart to take off in a sprint.

When he realises that she's awake, he looks at her and lets go of her ankles, mouthing the word sorry. Jena sits up, her senses rushing back to her. She pretends to look around for something while Niall talks on the phone, pretending as though her heart isn't seconds away from leaping out of her chest. She can still feel the ghost of Niall's touch on her ankles, the warmth seeping into her veins, making her shiver.

"I have to go. Love you, bye." Niall says to whoever it is he's talking to on the phone before he ends the call and puts the device down. A little line forms on his brow as he asks, "Hey, sorry. Did I wake you?"

Jena shakes her head as she looks around the living room, taking it in. The clock on the wall reads twelve a.m. She's pretty sure the last time she checked, it had just turned ten p.m. There's only one explanation for that. "I fell asleep, didn't I?"

Niall looks amused as he nods, rolling his lips in an attempt to prevent laughter from leaving his throat. "Five minutes after you told me that you're not tired."

Jena hides her flushed cheeks behind her hands. Soon after they'd finished the second Christmas movie Niall chose, she told him that she didn't mind watching another one. Niall had of course insisted that she should go to sleep instead, but she told him that she's not tired. He didn't seem to trust her but he played along anyway, and they ended up watching yet another Christmas movie that they've both seen too many times to count.

...only for her to fall asleep five minutes into the movie. She could've at least lasted for half of the movie.

"Sorry," she apologises.

"It's fine," Niall assures her as he peels her hands off of her face and brings them down to rest on her laps. He doesn't let go straightaway and she finds her eyes straying to their linked hands. Have their hands always fit so perfectly like that? "You needed that rest."

Jena doesn't say anything to that because she did need a rest even though she tried to resist it.

As if he finally realises that he's still holding her hand, he quickly lets go and clears his throat. "How're you feeling, by the way?"

"Better," she answers, swallowing the lump in her throat. Her body still aches and her head hurts when she moves but it's nothing unbearable. He doesn't seem convinced so she quickly adds, "I'm sorry I made you watch that movie alone."

"I wasn't alone," he replies with a shrug, shooting her a sideways look. "Your little snoring kept me company."

"I didn't snore," she counters, brows furrowing, cheeks flaming. Her mum told her before that she always snores when she's sick, but she'd hoped that part of her had gone away.

"How'd you know?" He challenges with an arch of his brows. "You were asleep."

"I just... I don't snore," she sputters, cheeks heating up. And then very quietly, she adds, "I don't think so."

He chuckles, eyes twinkling with mischief. "You're right, you didn't."

"God, I hate you." Jena picks up a pillow from the floor — it must've fallen while she's asleep — and throws it at him, to which he easily catches with his hands. He raises an eyebrow at her as if to say: you could do better than that. But she ignores him with a shake of her head.