Stranded with Niall Horan || n.h.

Chapter 10 - Niana's Finest

I went from leaf to leaf, greedily taking all the water they held, and I was rewarded with two full coconuts shells. I briskly walked back to the cave, careful not to spill any precious drops. As I reached the entrance, I saw Niall sitting by his second successful fire. He looked up at me, flashing his brilliant teeth.

“Niall make fire.” he said in a Tarzan-like tone. I smiled as I walked closer to him, the heat of the fire more evident with every step.

“Nina happy. Nina bring Niall gift.” I said as I showed him the half shell in my hand.

Niall scrunched his nose as his voice returned to normal. “I don’t know if I can have another coconut today. I just went to the bathroom and-”

“-Whoa, Niall…whoa. Spare me the details,” I said as he accepted the drink. “And for your information, what you are holding in your hands is a little thing I like to call H2O.” His eyes darted from me, to the shell, to me again.

“Salt water?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, as he peered into the shell.

“No, silly. I’ll prove it to you,” I said as I took a swig of his water and let out a satisfied sigh. “Trust me, Niall. It’s just water.” Niall took a hesitant sip and his eyes widened.

“Oh…my God,” he said as he gulped the rest of it down. “You found water!”

“I found water!” I exclaimed right back, setting my empty shell down by my feet.

He got up in front of me and asked “How’d you do it?”

“Leaves!” I said happily. He tilted his head in confusion, but shook it off after a moment. It didn’t matter. We had it. We had our liquid treasure. “I did good, right?” He got up next to me and tucked some hair behind my ear.

“You did great, kid.” he said as he wrapped his arms around me, his tight embrace making me feel more accomplished than all the water in the world could. As I soaked it all up, feeling prouder by the second, he pulled out of the hug and looked me straight in the eyes. I could see him, inching closer, switching his gaze from my eyes to my lips.

And then, my stomach rumbled. Great timing, tummy. Water wasn’t good enough for you? Niall looked down and laughed.

“I guess that’s nature’s way of telling us we need some grub.” he said, smirking as he grabbed another stick of fire.

No, it’s nature’s way of ruining a perfect moment. But I just nodded and followed Niall out of the cave and back into the jungle. A perfect moment isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime-thing after all. My time with Niall would come sooner or later, preferably sooner. My hand found Niall’s and he held it securely as we walked side-by-side.

It was sort of a tradition of ours now: holding hands wherever we went. I liked feeling protected, and he liked protecting me. I glanced up at him, my eyes full of admiration and gratefulness, as we continued on.

“Eureka.” Niall said as we stopped in front of a fallen tree. I sat down on it with a big sigh of relief. He looked down at me, eyebrow raised “What are you doing?”

“I need a break. Come and sit with me.” I said as I patted the spot to the right of me.

Niall chuckled as he pulled me up next to him. “It’s not for sitting; it’s for eating.”

I looked at him as if he had gone crazy. “Right, because bark is just ever so tasty. Sorry, it must have slipped my mind.” He sarcastically laughed.

“I wasn’t talking about eating bark. I was talking about eating this…” he said as he turned the log over, revealing a plethora of the most hideous insects I had ever seen. I could taste the half-digested coconut milk slowly creep its way up my throat. “I found it when I was searching for firewood. Isn’t this great?! We have food now!”