Inked Armor (Punk Niall)

Chapter 16

A thick white sheet of snowfall had graced the streets of Wolverhampton since this morning, giving me a childish excitement and anxiousness to get out of school so I could enjoy the peaceful wintery day. I didn’t have work, so I thought it would be perfect for Niall to come over and the two of us to just spend time together, being that we both had been busy all week and only saw one another at school.

I immediately texted Niall as soon as I got home, getting a reply from him that confirmed he would be over in an hour or less. Since I had quite a bit of time, I made some gingerbread cookies and chamomile tea, setting out some films for us to choose from when Niall got here.

The day had really been a busy one, full of tests in almost every class that was beginning to make my brain ache. I felt the full effect of my bustling schedule hit home when I changed into some joggers and a sweatshirt, not the most attractive thing in the world but definitely the most comfy.

After I sat down with Lucy by my side, a quarter to five flashing on the clock in front of me, I realized that all I had left to do was wait for that blonde boy to show up on my doorstep. Despite myself, I also realized that it was almost two weeks since the night Niall confessed everything to me, since I learned the real truth from his past and how it solidified us together more than touches could.

It had been on my mind on and off for the next weeks, thinking in depth of how hard it must have been for Niall to have to endure so much change at such a young age and move on from everything. I felt lucky to be with someone like Niall because he kept me on my toes, being brood one moment and the next changing into a gentle lover. His personality would change and I finally understood why.

Niall was taught to never trust anyone and to be on guard at all times, he had to act defiant when he was afraid and careless when he was worried. He couldn’t speak with his own words because they wouldn’t let him, he had to be on his own. They took away his pen and paper. They took away his speech. So it’s really not his fault his skin became his diary.

I began to write about Niall like I had before we officially met, except now I had more information and the poems that blackened the pages were the feelings that Niall never got to show. They were about a little boy never having a childhood to fall back on. Tattoos that marked pure skin and holes that pierced innocent hopes.

I always dream about the first time I touched Niall’s bare skin, how exhilarating it was to feel his warm flesh under my palms. That fire inside the pit of my stomach was engulfed once again as I imagined what it would feel like if his hands were all over my skin, like they had been weeks before, and what their abilities were. I knew that I wanted to wait until I was ready to do anything extreme, but that doesn’t mean I still longed for Niall’s touch and the way his eyes went black with lust every time we kissed.

It always gave me some sort of shameful excitement when I thought about Niall completely taking over my body, taking the gold locked up deep inside and marking every part of me as his. Because that’s all I ever wanted to be; his. No one else made me feel the way he made me feel, like I was loved and desired and the only one for him in the world. Like Niall was the only person for me, and I was the only person for him.

As my mind wandered aimlessly I was beginning to wonder when Niall was going to show, it was nearly six and Cale would be home any minute. I phoned Niall a few times, but it kept going to voicemail and it only increased my curiousness. I brushed off his absence so I wouldn’t think anything too drastic, he’s been busy lately trying to lay low and keep his dad from finding out where he was, so I only expected that something came up and he wasn’t able to call and cancel.

I kept that thought fresh in my mind as I made supper for Cale and me, the gingerbread cookies on a Christmas plate and set on the counter as an edible centerpiece. It was a sort of reassurance that everything would be fine and I shouldn’t worry too much, I had always worried too much.