When Love Heals - A Niall Horan Fanfic

Chapter Seven.

 "Hey, be quiet!" Lydia giggled as they tiptoed into the pitch black house. Her mum must have already been in bed, and it was way past Carmen's bedtime. Niall had just tripped over his own foot as he tried to pull off his shoes.

"Sorry!" Niall chuckled, grabbing on to Lydia's hand so she could guide him upstairs. (Okay, he didn't really need help climbing the stairs; it was really just an excuse to touch her.)

Lydia led Niall across the dark landing and into her bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her and turning on the light. Niall had to hold his hand up to his eyes for a second before his eyes adjusted and then he took a proper glance around the room.

The walls were pale pink, with a window on the back wall overlooking some... dumpsters. Nice. The furniture was cream and her wardrobe door decorated with photos upon photos of Lydia and her closest friends and family. The double bed could only just fit into the small room with everything else, and it was crammed in the middle, covered with a polka dot duvet cover and about fifteen differently patterned cushions.

The room suited Lydia, Niall thought. Girly but not overwhelmingly so, pretty and calming.

"I didn't realise it was so late," Lydia admitted as she flopped down onto the bed, patting the space beside her which Niall promptly jumped on, bouncing Lydia up and down as the mattress adjusted.

"Watcha wanna do?" Niall asked, lying down on his back with his head propped up on the cushions. He glanced over to Lydia who looked like she wasn't listening.

And it looked like she wasn't listening, because she wasn't listening. She was suddenly worried that she may have given Niall the wrong impression. Inviting him up to her room in the middle of the night? After a date? Er, maybe it hadn't been the best idea.

"Um, can we just watch a movie or something?" Lydia asked, still frowning slightly.

"Yeah sure," Niall said, but sat up. "Lyd, is there something wrong?"

Lydia would have been overjoyed at the sound of her nickname rolling so naturally over Niall's tongue if she wasn't so nervous about what she had to say.

"Um, Niall..." She trailed off, crossing her legs and looking down at her feet.

"Tell me," Niall chuckled quietly, taking her hand in his to try and reassure her.

"I just don't want you to think that I invited you up here to sleep with me because I'm not like that at all and I feel like you should know that right now before you're under false pretences. I'm not like that and I never will be so I'm sorry if that's why you thought I asked you inside but I honestly just invited you in to hang out, I had a really good time tonight and I -" Lydia paused since she had literally blurted all that out in one breath and had run out of air.

"Woaaaah!" Niall halted her, intertwining her fingers with his. He couldn't believe she had thought that all he wanted was to have sex with her. "Lydia, I didn't think that at all. I really like you and I just wanted to hang out. Honestly, I'm not like that Lydia and I really like you. I just want to get to know you better." Niall was a bit embarrassed. Of course he wouldn't just come inside to sleep with her. It hadn't even crossed his mind!

"Oh," Lydia breathed, finally looking up to meet Niall's eyes. "Sorry."

And then they both laughed a little. Neither of them wanted to rush into anything and they had both stressed about this at some point when it was completely pointless.

So they spent the rest of the night doing just that - getting to know each other better.

They turned on a cheesy rom-com but spent most of the night looking at each other rather than the telly.