Niall woke up very slowly the next morning, in a bit of a daze with the room slightly blurry. Through the near transparent curtains of the guest room, the morning sunlight seeped into the thin material, shining just at the corner of Niall's blinking eyes.
There's a vague feeling of homesickness deep in his stomach that lurches him awake, realizing that he wasn't back in his dorm in Ireland, sharing a room with his childhood mates, instead that he was in the lonely hotel room in Paris.
Still feeling dizzy, he summons enough energy to pull himself out of bed and walk over to the wall sized glass window and slipped between the light curtains. It was a cool, sunny morning, feeling the cold glass against his fingertips. He somewhat recollects the scenery next to the hotel they were staying in in Paris, thinking about the grand styled museum to their far left.
Though as Niall searched the landscape for the glass pyramid or even the tall Tower in the distance, it hits him that he really isn't in Paris anymore, and that last night really happened.
Or rather very early this morning when Niall helped his alcohol induced boss to bed. He wondered how things escalated so quickly; Niall knew working for Harry would be a challenge, balancing schedules and adhering to requests, but it never crossed his mind that he might have bit off more than he could chew.
Maybe it's due to ill timing, how Niall asked for an interview just days before Harry and Liam's flight to Paris for his conference, but it was really Harry's on-whim decision that the blonde should join them.
Niall groggily rubbed his eyes with the balls of his fists, yawning into the glass pane and seeing it fog up in front of him. The alluring aroma of sizzling bacon and eggs began to fill the young assistant's lungs and he was out his bedroom door.
After washing up, Niall made his way to the large marble kitchen in the heart of Harry's home and saw Liam, of all their staff, cooking breakfast for him.
"Oh, hey Niall. How'd you sleep?"
Niall took one of the seats to the empty dining table and propped his head up with his left hand, "Went well. And you?"
"I dunno if it was a dream or not, but at one point, I heard some glass breaking and people shouting just outside my door. I was so tired, I guess it was all a dream."
The blonde worried his lip. Liam really did hear everything. Good thing the lad was out cold and didn't bother to check out the situation. It went well enough on its own, though Niall had seen more of Harry's rage than he'd wanted.
"Yeah, a dream," the blonde idly repeats.
Liam brought over the food from the kitchen and set the eggs, bacon, and side of strawberries in the middle of the table.
"You know you really didn't need to make breakfast; I could've swung past a fast food joint on my way home," Niall says as he poked a couple of the scrambled eggs to move them on his plate.
"Rubbish, you're our guest," Liam snorts, and continues after seeing Niall's furrowed eyebrows, "and besides, I make breakfast every morning."
"Oh, well then," Niall smiles, "Hello, guilt-free food."
The younger boy grabbed an extra strip of bacon with Liam laughing loudly at his side, bringing them their cups of coffee.
Several minutes pass in silence, quite the usual thing between Niall and Liam since their only topic of discussion was often Harry, so the two boys kept to themselves until they were almost finished with their plates.
"Hey Liam?"
"Yeah?" The brunette answers after sipping his coffee.
"Harry won't be joining us for breakfast?" Niall hesitatingly asked. "I mean, does he usually? You know, ah, come down in the morning to eat?"
