In Other Words (Niall Fanfic)

Chapter Seventy-Six

In Other Words…Chapter Seventy-Six 

Niall’s POV

The shows have been incredible, enough dates under our belt to where we’re able to goof around a bit more onstage without running too much of a risk of missing our cues or catching on fire from the pyro cannons. And already we were settling into the whole touring routine; promo in the mornings, the afternoons basically free, crew dinner catered at the venue, show time then sleep. Except for me that last part never came easy.

I lay atop the duvet, hair still wet from the shower, my fingers drumming out the rhythm to some song that was stuck in my head but I couldn’t place. I could call her again, but I knew she was trying to make some headway with our paperwork today, getting the contracts in order with the blokes who would be doing the renovations on the pub, filing for our licenses; none of the fun stuff I was interested in, mostly.

It wasn’t just her voice that I wanted; I wanted to feel her legs caught between mine, the cotton shorts she so often slept in ridding up over her thighs, exposing that soft skin with the tiny blonde hairs you could only see when the lighting was just so. I wanted to watch her pretend to not be falling asleep as I blathered on and on, her eyelids drooping and then flinging back open quickly. Fucking hell. It was just too quiet in here. After a solid three hours of one hundred decibels the near silence of the hotel room (minus the irritating humming of the mini-fridge) was almost maddening. I think I may just ask one of the lads to start bunking if neither of us had plus ones. Even Zayn’s snoring would be better than this.

With a quick glance at the clock on the table, I got up and tugged on my trousers. There was a bar in this hotel, and I was hoping they’d still be serving.

Roxy’s POV

Thirty minutes to kill before my meeting with the contractors, and I was never more thankful.  I needed to grab something to eat, and spare those guys from dealing with me in my hungry state. Tesco’s would have to do. I hurried to the case in the back and chose a tuna sandwich until thinking better of it and tossing it back into the pile. Turkey is probably a safer option.

The woman in front of me in line loaded her items onto the belt at an excruciatingly slow pace.  I was tempted to peel open the wrapper and begin eating, until one of the rag mags on the stand in the aisle caught my eye.  Spring Nuptials for Blonde Boybander said the headline, with the grainiest picture of my ring plastered beneath one of Niall looking absolutely stunning.  As happy as I was that my less picture-perfect face was missing from the page, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes a little and thumb at the corners, not wanting to actually remove the paper from its stand, but curious to see a little of what had been written.

The “source” had given all of the intimate details of our wedding ceremony, from the location down to the type of flowers that I would carry in my bouquet.  I actually considered buying the fucking thing because it could save me the trouble of having to plan this event myself. I hadn’t even begun to think about a date let alone what color napkins to use. How exhausting. 

“Don’t give your money to those blaggers, love.” Said the kind-faced woman behind the cash register as she quickly scanned my sandwich and read my total.

“No? Looks like some quality journalism in this issue.” I smiled, leaving the paper on the shelf and handing her a few bills.

Strangely enough, with all of the shit on my plate at the moment, I wasn’t feeling the least bit overwhelmed. We were in a good place with the pub, all of the date and budget forecasts turning out to be nearly spot-on thus far. I kept my fingers crossed we wouldn’t run into any snags, especially over the next couple of weeks, since my parents were coming to stay- Dad getting a last minute offer to trade vacation time with a colleague.  I knew it would be a treat to have them here to keep me company, and I was really looking forward to showing them around London; perhaps we’d even take the train to Paris for a day or two. But at the same time I was really pretty bummed that Niall wouldn’t be around for any of it.