Plain Pain: A Niall Horan Fan Fiction

Chapter 59

I woke up the next morning to find the space next to me on the bed empty. I groggily rubbed my eyes and turned around in the bed to see Niall hunched over next to his suitcase, unpacking. I sat up in the bed and as Niall went to hang something on the coat rack, he saw me and smiled.

"You're up," he said as he hung his coat and stretched, looking lazily at the still half full suitcase and then back at me, "thought I'd do something until you woke up."

I looked at the digital clock on the bedside table and saw that it was almost noon. Jet lag was a bitch.

"You didn't go downstairs?" I asked confusedly, running my hand through my hair to tame it.

He walked back to his suitcase and took a blue shirt out, placing it neatly inside the closet as he answered me, "Nah, didn't wanna risk my mum coming into my room and seeing you."

I moved the covers off of me and dangled my feet off the bed, "Oh, that's right, we're supposed to surprise her."

"Yeah," he nodded, zipping his suitcase back up and probably deciding to just leave the rest for later, "I'll leave you to get changed and you can meet us downstairs for Brunch," he said, already moving towards the door.

"Niall, wait," he stopped in his tracks and I took a deep breath, "about last night..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Last night was the second time that we'd both crossed our boundaries and didn't talk about it. Granted, Niall had been eager to discuss it when it happened the first time whereas I was completely adamant about addressing the subject, but now that it had happened again, I felt like I owed it to the both of us to try and clear things up.

"We don't have to talk about this now," he said, almost too quickly and I furrowed my eyebrows. I thought he'd jump at the chance of finally having this conversation. Did he really want to postpone our talk now?

Still, a part of me was relieved that I didn't have to delve into something as serious as this so early in the morning. I needed to at least have some food and caffeine in me before I could behave as a rational human being.

I smiled at Niall and nodded quickly as I watched him leave the room. I immediately got off the bed and grabbed my change of clothes along with some toiletries before sneaking off into the bathroom, hoping that Maura was downstairs with Niall. Once I was done showering and brushing my teeth, I was all ready to go downstairs.

I took a deep breath and got ready to surprise Maura as I walked towards the kitchen to find Greg, Niall and Maura all sat around the kitchen table in the middle of the room. Maura's head went up as soon as she saw me and she immediately stood up to walk over and hug me. I wrapped my arms around her tightly as we said our hello's and exchanged a couple of "I missed you"'s.

Once I pulled away, I noticed how she didn't seem as surprised as I thought she'd be, and she soon began explaining why without me even having to ask her.

"I'm sorry I ruined the surprise. I came in to check on Niall this morning when I noticed he was taking too long to get up, and I saw you in bed next to him," Maura said sheepishly and I laughed, embarrassed.

It was weird having Maura see me sleep in the same bed with Niall. When we were kids and I slept over at his house, he'd create a makeshift bed on the floor and leave the real bed to me because our parents never let us sleep in the same bed. We'd often break that rule and just sleep in the same bed because Niall didn't fancy sleeping on the floor, but we got in a lot of trouble when we finally got caught.

The nervousness I felt after what Maura said made me feel like I was a little child again who broke the rules and needed to be punished, and I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that Niall and I were adults now, and that our sleeping arrangements were not Maura's concern. I felt embarrassed, like I was pushing my boundaries with her son when it was not my place to do so. I suddenly started thinking about how she'd feel about me doing much more than sleeping next to Niall last night, and I immediately brushed the thought off. I did not need to think about this right now.