Perfectionist (Narry AU)

Chapter Twenty-One

The long awaited chapter of why Harry is living with Liam. This chapter is my favorite so far, so yeah. I hope you enjoy :) Dedication because they were practically right about why Harry is living with Liam on the last chapter :)

Niall stared at Harry expectantly. He couldn't believe that Harry was finally going to tell him why he'd come to live with Liam.

"First, I need to show you something," Harry said, sitting forward in the chair.

He gave Zayn and Liam a pointed look, and Liam muttered, "Come on Zayn, it's obvious we're not wanted here." They both slumped back upstairs, and Harry turned back to Niall.

Then, Harry lifted his shirt up, and Niall caught his breath. There, stretching from his chest down to his belly-button was a huge scar. It was faded, but it was still obviously there.

"H-how," Niall said, through his breath. He was still a shaky after what had happened with Louis, but this was intriguing.

"My father," Harry replied. "I could never please him. This scar here, it was from a rather nasty incident with a knife after coming home two minutes after curfew. My mum could never stand up to him, because he would go after her. It wasn't as though he didn't already though."

Niall couldn't believe this. Harry had been abused by his father. He instantly felt bad for him. Who knew how many times he'd gotten abused, and here Niall had only gotten beat twice by Louis. The second time was worse than the first and all, but still. He should feel worse for Harry than he did for himself.

"The worst part?" Harry continued. Niall started listening again, as he had thought Harry was finished. "The absolute worst part was that the one day, my mum must've had enough of watching me get beat, because she told my dad to knock it off, and she stood in front of me..." Harry choked off, starting to cry at this point. However, he choked back the tears, and continued, "My dad told her to move, so he could punish me, but she refused. He...he beat her so hard, and then he took the knife he carried with him, and jabbed her. There was so much blood..." Once again, he trailed off. This time, though, it was several minutes before he regained composure. Once he did though, he continued on with his story. "My dad is in jail now, Niall, where he belongs. You know how hard it was for me to testify against my own father in court? It wasn't hard, okay. I stood up there, repeating exactly what I told you. My mum is dead, and now I live with Liam. They were the only family who'd take me in."

"I-I-I'm sorry," Niall whispered.

"Don't feel sorry," Harry remarked. "There's nothing to feel sorry for. I remember someone wise once telling me 'It's the past. What happened there can stay there.'"

Niall smiled, because that had been there. That had been back when Harry had first moved here, and Niall couldn't stand him. Look how much things had changed now. Harry was probably Niall's closest friend, again, and they could easily tell each  other things.

"You wanna talk about what happened now?" Harry whispered to Niall. "We can wait, but sometimes your memory blocks things out over time. If you don't want to talk about it, though, can I at least ask one question."

Niall thought a bit. "I don't w-want to talk about it," he murmured. "But ask me the question."

"Has Tomlinson done this to you before?"

Niall nodded once. "One time before," he whispered. "It was nowhere near as bad though."

"My poor, poor Niall," Harry murmured, kissing Niall on the forehead, one of the few places that didn't ache. And, even though Niall wasn't sure if he wanted to date Harry yet, he didn't complain, because it felt nice to be showered with love.

The weekend passed by quickly, Niall had called his mum to let her know he was staying at Liam and Harry's house, knowing she wouldn't complain, seeing how he was eighteen, and could basically do what he wanted.

Niall didn't want to go to school Monday, because he still looked super horrible. He begged Harry, Liam, and Zayn not to tell anyone about what Louis had done. He asked them to make it seem as though he just tripped. It wasn't as though they could see any of the bruises on his stomach and knees anyway.

His face was extremely purple, but Harry said that he still looked beautiful. Niall had smiled at that. Maybe once the bruises all went away, he would start to date Harry. He just didn't want to date anyone right now. However, most people would most likely assume he and Harry were dating because Harry tended to stick by Niall's side during Monday. That was a little hard, considering how they only had one class together, but most of the other classes, Niall had either Zayn or Liam in the class, so they also protected Niall.

At lunch, when Louis walked by the table where Niall, Harry, Zayn, and Liam were sitting, the other three boys all gave Louis a glare down, who walked away rather quickly.

When it came to the class Niall had right before his last hour, which also happened to be the only class he didn't have with any of the three boys, he was hearing things.

One of the girls in the class whispered, "Did you see how Styles, Malik, and Payne all glared at Tomlinson during lunch? And it seems like you can't go anywhere without seeing at least one of them by Horan. Do you think Tomlinson created those bruises? After all, they'd been dating last Friday. Now it seemed as though they've broke up."

Her friend, a boy, whispered, "Maybe, I could see that happening. Tomlinson has always been rather violent. I don't even know why they started dating in the first place. They've always hated each other."

"Have they?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, sorry, I forgot you're new here."

"Huh," the girl said.

Niall couldn't believe that people had figured out about what had happened. He'd thought that no one would ever suggest that Louis had hit him. It struck a deep blow to him to realize that some people would just be able to figure it out. He guessed it was a good thing they couldn't see all the other bruises on him.

After school, Harry led Niall to his car, which would take Harry, Niall, and Liam back to Harry and Liam's place. Niall was still staying there, something his mum was well aware of.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked Niall, as he helped the blonde into the front seat.

"Yeah," Niall said, trying to smile, but even that hurt. The pain was slowly starting to go away, but it still hurt incredibly.

"Don't strain yourself, mate," Liam said from the backseat. "You just need some good ol' rest."

"And he'll get some once we get back to the house," Harry stated.

Niall couldn't help but letting out a groan. It was nice to have Harry doing things, but Niall wanted to be able to do things.

"Don't groan at me," Harry said, looking at Niall, a smile tugging at his lips, "you need the rest."

"You just like babying him," Liam said, and Niall wished he could turn around to see his expression, because he sounded like he could be smiling. Niall wanted all this pain to go away sometimes, well most of the time. He wanted to be able to do whatever he wanted to do, by himself. Yeah, it was nice having Harry babying him, but Niall was an independent kind of guy. He liked doing things by himself, and wasn't one to rely on people.

He sighed, because if his healing rate continued how it was, then he would have to deal with Harry babying him so much.

There :) New chapter of Perfectionist. What did you guys think? I, myself, liked this chapter. It was a little sad at the beginning, but who knows. I think it had a good ending. Okay, so as I said in the last chapter, there's only about nine chapters left of this book. And, I am promising you one thing, WE HAVE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF LOUIS! Nope. Heehee. Okay, so do me a favor, think back onto that Prelude. The one at the WAAAAAY beginning of this book. Yeah, that one. Okay, so what do you think will happen, based on that? And if you don't remember the Prelude, then what do you think of me writing a sequel? Because I might. I'm not sure yet. It depends on what you guys think :) Okay, let me know. I'll dedicate the next chapter to my favorite comment.