Little Bird // Niall Horan

Chapter 1 >> A Friendship Starts

~Third Person's P.O.V: 14 years ago~

Ms. Stone walked down the staircase in her expensive silk robe and slip-ons. Her hair was in curlers and a metal nail file was in her hand, filing away at her long, red nails. A short, brunette boy, about 7 years old, followed close behind her, rubbing his eyes.

"Mommy, what is going on?" he asked sleepily.

She reached the end of the stairs and flaunted to the large wooden doors of the orphanage, "I dunno sweetheart. I think we got a new orphan to deal with."

She pulled open the door to reveal a small girl. She had wild, brown, ringlet curls and was wearing oversized jeans with a navy shirt. She had a runny nose and kept wiping her face on her sleeve with a small teddy bear that drug on the ground. She stared up at the threating Ms. Stone and spoke with her tiny, scared voice.

"I-I'm Aspen."

Ms. Stone leaned down in front of the little girl, examining her face. She moved the wild curls out of her face and stared at her deep green eyes before plastering a fake smile over her scowl.

"Hi Aspen. I'm Ms. Stone. Why are you here?"

Simply, little Aspen only shrugged, making the older woman frown quickly. She glanced at the little girl's wrist before quickly pulling her into the dark foyer. Niall watched from behind his mother and smiled at the frowning Aspen. Aspen gave him a small wave as Ms. Stone walked her upstairs into an extra room that Tanya Frayer, now Tanya Reed, once had.

Aspen drug the tattered bear behind her as she examined her new room. Ms. Stone watched her from the slightly opened door and turned to Niall.

"You can talk to her at breakfast in the morning. Let's go to bed now." she said before practically dragging her son off to his room.

Meanwhile, Aspen gawked at the room. It looked like a princess's room. It had a large bookshelf on one side wall, a small window in the front wall, an oak door, and a queen-sized canopy bed on the wall opposite of the bookshelf. She imagined herself as Belle that the Beast just trapped in his castle from the story her mother used to tell her as she twirled around the open area in the middle of the room.

After spinning and twirling, she landed in the middle of the rug and sighed, clutching her teddy bear tightly to her chest. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she tugged off her jeans lazily and climbed into the bed, laying under the red blankets and drifting off to sleep.

~Third Person's P.O.V: 9 years ago~

"Niall! Niall, come read Cinderella with me!" 10 year old Aspen called as she ran downstairs.

Niall was 12 now and Aspen was much more imaginative than he was. She couldn't read well, and since Niall was her only friend in the orphanage, she begged him to read to her all the time. She loved when he read to her because sometimes he would use different voices for the characters.

Niall stood up from the chair he was watching television in as Aspen reached him. She handed him the book excitedly and grabbed his wrist, pulling him upstairs. She opened the door to her room and they sat down on her bed. Aspen grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around both of their shoulders as Niall opened the book and began reading.

"Once upon a time, in a far away land, lived Cinderella and her father. Her father married a rich woman who had two daughters. The daughters and their mother hated Cinderella because she was so beautiful, so when Cinderella's father died years later, they made Cinderella the maid." he read.

After he flipped the page, Aspen rested her head on Niall's shoulder and followed along as he read. He put his head on her head until a loud crash and his mother yell. He jumped up and laid the book on the bed beside her, opening the door and peeking outside.

Ms. Stone was cursing at a boy about Niall's age that everyone called "Ben" because they didn't know his real name. He was looking up at her with fear in his brown eyes and was on the verge of tears. He was shaking and holding a lampshade in his right fist with a shatter lamp to his left. Suddenly, Stone grabbed his ear, making him drop the lampshade and walking him up to his room.

"Ben" never talked much and rarely did anything wrong. He seemed to be a perfect looking boy with his gleaming brown eyes and dark black hair, and Niall's mother rarely thought anything of him. She never griped about him to her male friend named Donny, nor told Niall to stay away from him.

Aspen tapped on Niall's shoulder, "What happened?" she asked.

"Ben broke a lamp or somethin'." he said and shut the door as Ms. Stone and the crying boy passed by the door.

Aspen opened the door and watched woman throw him into his room and slam the door, plaster on her fake smile, and calmly walk back downstairs. She swallowed as Stone walked past her, totally ignoring Aspen's exsistance.

Meanwhile, Niall sat down on the bed again and picked up the book.

"Aspen," he said and she turned around, "Do you wanna continue reading?" he asked.

She nodded, shut the door, and crawled back onto the bed, resting her head on Niall's shoulder and listening to him read.

~Third Person's P.O.V: 2 years ago~

18 year old Niall woke up, nervous. One of his good friends named Liam was 19 now and today was the anniversary of the day he came to Stone, and everyone knows what that means.

Today, Liam was getting kicked out of Stone Orphanage.

Not to long ago, everyone was dreading the day that "Ben" was going to get kicked out, but the morning of his "Moving Out Day", as Ms. Stone called it, a nice woman came and adopted him. He hoped that it would be the same for Liam, but it wasn't.

Niall pulled the covers off of him and grabbed a black t-shirt and slid on some grey sweat-pants. At the bottom of the stairs sat a worried looking Aspen, sitting on the bottom step, staring at the door. Niall sat beside her and rested an arm on her shoulder.

"I don't want him to go either..." he sighed.

She pulled her knees to her chest and nodded, "He doesn't deserve it..."

They turned their heads in the direction that Ms. Stone's voice was coming from, which was from upstairs in the opposite wing of the building. She was yelling, at Liam probably, about his bags needing to be packed faster. Aspen sniffled and leaned onto Niall and he wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulders.

"Can't you do something about this?" she asked him.

He shook his head, "I can't. I have no power."

Suddenly, Ms. Stone quickly came down the stairs with Liam behind her. He was crying and tripping over his own feet, but Ms. Stone made sure to hurry him out into the winter street. He sat his bag down to hug Niall and Aspen, but Ms. Stone grabbed his shoulders and slung him outside, throwing his bags after him.

"Have a nice life, sweetie!" she sneered.

Aspen clung to Niall and cried into his chest and Ms. Stone walked back to her office, dusting off her hands and fixing her hair back. Liam pounded his fists on the door and yelled, trying to get back inside. It was no use. Ms. Stone had bolted the door shut and Lam was left out in the cold.

Niall helped Aspen to her feet and walked her to the bathroom to wash off her face. She sat on the counter as Niall dabbed a cold wash cloth on her cheeks.

"He'll be okay. Calm down." he cooed.

"B-but N-Niall, I'm turning 19 s-soon. I-I don't want to leave an-and live on the streets." she sniffled.

He wiped the remaining tears off her cheeks and made a promise he probably could never fulfill.

"I won't let my mother take you. I'll keep you here, with me. I promise."