Moments

Civilian Again 2017

Back to civilian life for me. Us SA people are being flown back to London. It's a long flight, believe me. I wrote another few letters to Niall between Flynn recovering consciousness and returning. He wrote back, excitement clear in his writing.

Dear darling,

I'm shaking like a leaf right now as you can tell. Oh, and Louis thinks I'm crazy because I'm so happy you're finally coming home. Liam moved back to Wolverhampton and he's also being moody with the fans. He's at it again, Annabelle. He's with a different girl every time I see him. Talk to him, okay? He won't listen to me or Louis, he's becoming another Harry. He doesn't usually do this. Talk to Danielle a bit, and Eleanor, see what you can do about it. Because I think that's it. I'm going to take you to the park when you get back. No one will know we're there, we won't get mobbed or anything. I checked the surrounds, it's all good. Zayn and Perrie go there if they don't want to be seen and they've never been found, neither have Louis and Eleanor. Zayn found it when he went strolling a few weeks ago. I know they don't like you and I know you don't like being seen with me because it results in an explosion on Twitter. But they're changing. They know about you more than ever and it's decreasing. Nothing terrible ever lasts very long, they get sick of it and they stop sending you hate. Especially because you don't respond upset. You don't even respond. But they are saying we might not be having an actual relationship because we aren't seen together much. After you come back, I hope we can go out more often. Don't worry about management. I really want to go out and tell them that we have a genuine relationship because right now, everywhere I look they're shipping me with Demi again. I don't think of her like that, trust me. She's a nice girl and all, but she's just a friend. Don't pay any attention to the tabloids either, they talk shit.

Niall

That was the last letter sent between us, the very next day I was flying back.

I glance at my watch. Only 4 hours now. 4 hours until we land in London. Patience, Annabelle. You can't get there any faster than by plane. The last thing we need is both of you getting impatient among other things at the airport in the public eye. Niall did say intimacy was good, but it's unspoken logic to not suddenly be glued to him. It looks silly and the fans will have a ball making up things. At least it looks silly when you attempt it, Annabelle. Whereas Niall's something of a natural at it. I bet there's something that switches on the 'I look good when attempting intimacy' in the system that I don't have. Might just be a start-stop sequence meaning it gets nothing done. That would just be so weird. It's not that I don't feel any of those feelings, I do get those feelings and I know what I'm talking about. I just look stupid trying to show those emotions and so I opt out of embarrassing myself. It's much better that way. It also means we look like stiff strangers at times.

"Annabelle!" I jog over to Niall. "Annabelle, how are you?"

"I'm still in one piece, haven't been more excited to get back to the clouds in ages."

"What? The flight or being back in England?"

"Being back in England, definitely. I've never been a big fan of flying," I say as we start walking out.

"Oh yeah, t'ere might be a few cameras outside."

"No problem. I don't see any issue with that." I'm more concerned with getting to bed.

"They might ask all sorts of questions, that's what I mean."

"Oh yeah, alright. Easiest option is to charge straight through. Gimme the bag, you can take the rolling one." There's my bag that Niall got for me, and there's a separate bag supplied by the military both for this deployment and future ones as well. Does Niall know that there are future deployments? Not yet. If I had told him when I explained the letter, he would have freaked out for sure. I'm going to tell him later. It's not really something you tell your boyfriend right after you've just come back from a deployment and your partner's been injured rather badly. She's recovering fine, but Niall hardly takes that into account. I wrote a letter to Flynn's family, I haven't seen a reply yet. She hasn't been able to write just yet, but she can type single-handedly and quite rapidly too.