Zayn's POV
I turn my head once more towards the curtain that Hannah peeks out from. Instead, she's running farther out backstage.
My hazel brown eyes soften as I gaze after the blonde. Already knowing that she needs me, I quickly race backstage after her.
As I enter the far side of the backstage, I heard a muffled voice from behind a armoire.
I quickly follow the sound to reveal a depressed looking Hannah. Her face is wedged in her hands as she continues to sob.
"Hannah?" I whisper to her as I bent down to sit next to her on the rough wooden stage floor.
She looks up, her face already swollen and tear stained.
"Zayn?" She blinks back a few more upcoming tears, but one manages to escape down her cheek.
I reach out and gently wipe it away with my thumb. Again I felt that electrical shot bolt through my veins whenever my hands make contact.
But before she can ask what I'm doing here, I answer, "I couldn't just leave you. Normally I would leave someone to grief by themselves, but you're more important to me than anyone else on tour."
I raise her face to meet mine slowly and place a light kiss tenderly on her lips.
Immediately her frown breaks into a small smile as I pull away, my forehead resting against hers.
"It hurts me to see you upset. What happened?" I ask her gently.
Her smile slowly fades away as her cheeks started to tremble slightly.
"It's all my fault," she moans.
"No--no Hannah! None of this is your fault," I reply comfortably, pulling her into a side hug.
"Yes it is!" She protests back, more tears spilling from her eyes which wets my favorite black t-shirt, but that doesn't matter right now.
"If I hadn't wandered out of the safety of my house, we would have never met and all this craziness wouldn't be happening right now!"
"Hannah Jane Horan! Don't ever speak like that again. And you know what," I add. "I'm glad I met someone who's sweet, kind, and amazingly beautiful."
"But Zayn," she starts. "Even if all of those things are true about me, it won't do any good about right now."
Her eyes are still red from crying so hard, and I can also see that a few more tears slid down her cheeks.
"Hey," I hug her tighter, rubbing soothing circles on her back to comfort her.
"None of this is your fault," I repeat.
"You're right. None of this is her fault," a voice agrees.
I jump, before turning around. Niall comes in unheard.
"And for your information," he goes on. "I told you to stay away from Hannah. And that was your last warning."
I look back to see Hannah's cheeks trembling again, but not in depression. She. Is. Furious. In all her months with me on tour, I can't remember if I seen her quite so angry. Maybe Hannah has never been this angry before.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, NIALL??!!!!" She screams, not caring if she was being loud in the middle of a show. He freezes.
"How come you're always butting into our business when you know it isn't?!?!"
And at that moment the Horan twins both loose their temper.
"It is my business!!" Niall protests. "As an older brother, it's my job to protect you!"
"I can date whoever I want!" Hannah protests.
"But not when I'm 10 seconds older!" Niall sneers.
"Just because you're 10 seconds older doesn't mean you can boss me around for the rest of my life!"
"Um, yeah I can," he mutters to himself, I think.
"Whatever! I don't have any time to cope with all this stuff."
"Anyway, Hannah, you have to listen to me!! He's no good for you!" Niall points directly at me. Wow. Talk about keeping your hands to yourself.
"How do you know that?!!" She screams back.
"I can sense it!" He screeches. "You have to listen to me—"
"I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LISTEN TO YOU!!!!" She yells, shoving Niall back so hard that he fell over!
Immediate silence hangs over all of us as he regains his balance. Hannah takes three big breaths to calm the redness of her anger.
Niall, clearly hurt and angry himself, adjusts the collar of his shirt without another word. "Well, I'd best be off then." He throws us one more dirty look before stomping back to the stage.
Hannah and I both stare after him. She looks at me.
"You ... didn't have to do that for me," I finally answer.
"I chose to," she answers. "Niall has been abusing you for months. I had to do something about it."
"What I'm saying is you didn't have to lose your temper on your older brother. He was just trying to protect you, just how older brothers would," I tried to reason with her.
"Well instead he turns out just to be as stubborn as my mother," she snaps.
"Your mother?" I ask, quirking up an eyebrow.
"She was as stubborn as the day she left us, when we were only five."
"That must have been ... hard."
Hannah swings her head around to face me, her long blonde braided hair whipping behind her angrily.
"You don't understand how it feels to lose a mother."
"Hannah, I do, I really do." I run up to her and hold her tightly in my arms. "I feel just the same when Safaa passed away."
Hannah continues to cry again in my arms. "You're not alone," I coo.
"I really hope so," she says, the sound of her voice muffled by my arms holding her closely ever so much.
"You're not alone," I repeat, my chin resting on the top of her head.
YOU ARE READING
The Horan Twins (A Niall Horan fanfic/Zayn Malik love story)
FanfictionA/N: I wrote this book when I was 10 years old so beware of cringe. 👫👫👫 What would you do if you were taken by four teenagers? Well, you mostly scream, try to get away from them or call for help. But what if these four teenagers were famous, alwa...
