Stripper (Narry)

Twelve

Niall's sitting in his office at work and he's thinking. He's thinking about Harry, he's thinking about Zayn, he's thinking about everything really. Niall calls Anne often to check in on her and sees her regularly. He went and saw her before he came into work and had a nice talk with her. He lets her know how Harry's doing and she lets him know that she's getting better and how excited she is to go home soon.

In this visit, they talked about Zayn. Niall talked about what Zayn did to Harry and how Harry is slowly moving past it. Anne expresses her disgust and disappointment she has in Zayn. Niall lets Anne know that he'll take care of Harry, that he won't let anything bad happen to him. Anne lets Niall know how grateful she is for him and how she's happy Harry found Niall. Niall tells her that he can't stay long and he leaves with a kiss on Anne's forehead and some muffins she's been wanting.

Niall hasn't left his office since he's arrived from seeing Anne. He doesn't go and check out the new artists he's signed like he normally does. He's cancelled all of the meetings he's had today and just sits and thinks. He thinks of how he wasn't able to protect Harry, how he's trying to help Harry move past it. Niall thinks of how he feels like he doesn't have control when Zayn is around because Zayn is unpredictable and Niall never knows what Zayn is going to do.

Zayn's unpredictable and knows what he wants and that has Niall worried. It has him worried that Zayn might have something else up his sleeve and Niall should be alert and ready for whatever comes his way. Niall thinks and thinks and thinks and he decides that he should just take the situation into his own hands because that's what you do when your loved one is affected and needs help right?

Right.

Niall calls his assistant into his office as he's getting up to leave, grabbing his jacket, telling her to cancel anything he had planned for today and he leaves. He leaves without giving her a reason and Niall knows he's going to have to apologize to her later for leaving her there to deal with everything by herself but all Niall as on his mind and it's Zayn. Niall's going to talk to Zayn.

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Niall is standing in the doorway of the club and the floor is dirty and it smells of sweat and cheap liquor. He thinks that they could keep this place in better shape honestly and why on earth anyone would want to work in such a dirty environment. He scans the room looking for anyone that could possibly help him. His eyes land on a guy behind the bar, restocking the shelves.

"Um excuse me?" Niall says, leaning over the bar counter.

The bartender stops what he's doing and looks up at Niall and sighs. He stands up, setting the bottle that was in his hands on the table. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah- uh I'm looking for Zayn? He owns this place," Niall replies.

"Yeah down the hall, first door on your left," The bartender says, paying his attention back to the box of liquor on the floor.

Niall says a thank you and walks down the hall, stopping at the door the bartender directed him to. He takes a deep breathe before knocking on the door. He hears Zayn yell "come in" and Niall pushes the door open and walks in. He stares around the room and it's an utter mess. There's papers and boxes over the floor and papers covering Zayn's desk with left over takeout and Zayn is just messy. He's messy and unpredictable.

Zayn looks up from his desk and he's kind of surprised to see Niall here. He was kind of hoping it would be Harry. He's disappointed that it's not Harry honestly, and it starts to pick himself up out of his chair, "Niall-"

"No don't get up," Niall says cutting Zayn off.

Zayn shrugs and sits back down and Niall walks further into the room, finding himself standing in front of Zayn's desk. Zayn watches Niall and gestures for him to sit down but Niall ignores it and puts his full attention on Zayn, "I'm going to talk and you're going to listen."

Niall shifts on his feet, racking his brain on what exactly he's going to say to Zayn. Niall didn't think this out very well but he's good at winging it when he needs to. Zayn sits and waits for Niall to speak again with a small smirk on his face. Niall swallows the lump in his throat and begins to speak.

"I know you some weird thing for Harry but you need to leave him alone. He's your stepbrother not your property or someone you can play around with. He's sensitive and he needs to be loved properly and you aren't the person to do it. All you do is cause Harry pain and I won't stand for it. Leave him alone or I will make sure you do," Niall says sternly.

Niall's proud of himself. He's proud that he stood up for Harry and took control. He's proud he's doing what he can to protect Harry from someone like Zayn. Niall stares at Zayn letting him know that he's serious. Niall's serious and he'll do what it takes to make sure Zayn is never around Harry or Anne again. Niall considers them family and no one messes with his family.

Zayn leans back in chair, emotionless. He's kind of stunned that Niall would come up to the club, to his office and tell him to back off. To leave Harry alone, "Okay."

"I'll leave him alone," Zayn says, speaking again.

Niall's happy, he's happy to hear Zayn say that he'll leave Harry alone, "Thank you," is all Niall says and turns on his heel, leaving Zayn's office.

Niall makes his way to his car and even though he's happy Zayn said he'll Harry alone, Niall doesn't trust him. Zayn is hard to read and no one knows what he's going to do. He's like a bomb waiting to go off and throw something new. Niall doesn't trust Zayn and he knows he'll have to watch and hope. The only person that knows if Zayn will keep his word is well, Zayn.

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