Lessons Learned

Part 18

Dedicated to CupcakeMosnter

Niall silently stood up, taking my hand and tugging me to my feet. He pulled me out of the tent and into the rain, silencing me with a look when I began to protest.

He stopped us in the middle of the yard, bringing on hand up to cup my cheek. The rain poured down around us, plastering our hair and clothes to our bodies. Niall didn't move and neither did I. I didn't know what he wanted but I couldn't bring myself to leave. My teeth began to chatter as the rain fell harder.

"N-Niall? What are you doing?"

"Have you ever seen The Notebook?" his thumb brushed away a few drops that were clinging to my eyelashes.

I nodded. It was an old movie but I had watched it with my grandmother. It was easier to live in her world than it was to live in my own.

"Haven't you always wanted a passionate kiss in the rain?" He didn't give me time to answer, catching my waist with his arm as he smashed his mouth to mine so hard I forgot how to breathe. I melted into him, my legs hooking around his hips as he kissed me deeper. Everything that I had ever been and ever would be did not matter. Everything that ever was lived in this moment in Niall's arms.

I slipped my legs from around his waist when we broke apart, falling into him as I tried to secure my footing on the muddy ground. He caught me, cradling me gently as he bent his forehead down to rest against mine. "Please don't leave."

Looking into his precious eyes, I had no choice. "I won't

"Good," he gave me another kiss, his lips smiling against mine for a few seconds before he pulled away. "Now we can have some fun."

"Fun?" I questioned as he dragged me across the yard to the fence. "What kind of fun?"

"The fun kind," he grinned before taking a running start and diving chest first onto the muddy ground. He slid for a few feet before coming to a stop on the wet grass. When he sat up there was mud streaked across his bare chest, grass in his hair, and the biggest grin I had ever seen on his face. "Come on."

I took a few tentative steps before gaining speed and throwing myself to the ground. I slid on my belly, crashing into where Niall was still sitting. He tumbled backwards as his laugh overpowered the sound of the pouring rain. Grabbing my hand he tugged me up and started to run, planting his heels in the slippery mud and sliding that way before falling. I landed in his lap, the mud squelching underneath us. He casually picked up a handful of the gooey substance and dropped it on my head before planting a sloppy kiss on my muddy cheek.

Niall pushed me off him and laid me down in the mud, bracing himself over me as the mud began to seep into my soaked pajamas. He wiped a drip of mud off my mouth before kissing me, my arms going around his neck as I started to giggle. We rolled around in the rain soaked yard, throwing mud at each other in between the stolen kisses.

"Thank you for staying," Niall sat up, his face sobering up after a few minutes of wild laugher over our mud fight. "I know you think you're the only one benefiting from," Niall waved his hands vaguely, "whatever this is, but you're not. You're helping me too."

I reached out and tenderly wiped away a line of mud that trailed down his face like a tear. The rain was slowly beginning to wash the mud out of his blonde hair, returning it to its normal color. The blue of his eyes was stunning against the deep gray backdrop of the stormy sky. I was suddenly hit with an overwhelming feeling of contentment. It was something I had never felt before. I was sitting in the mud as rain soaked me from above, wearing a baggy pair of pajamas weighted down with enough water to fill a small pond, and I knew I must look absolutely ridiculous. But in that moment, with Niall smiling at me as his eyes danced with the light of the falling drops, I felt truly happy. I felt that, for once, I belonged.

"How do you do that?" I murmured as I began to shiver.

Niall gave me a confused look, pushing his damp hair away from his forehead and making it stand on end. "Do what?"

The rain came down harder and I lost the vision of blonde boy in the blinding rain. I could see nothing but my hand in front of my face, yet I knew Niall was there. It was his presence that made all the difference. It was the knowledge that there was someone who cared for me, somewhere, even if I couldn't see him that brought a slight smile to my face. I had answered my own question. It was that little whisper at the back of my mind, telling me that somewhere in the echoing emptiness that had become my life, I had someone looking over me.

It was in that moment that I knew I would survive. I knew that when I had learned all my lessons I would wake up in a hospital bed somewhere, bandages wrapped around my fresh wounds, and the heat of Niall's smile etched into my brain. I wouldn't remember him, but I knew I would remember this feeling. It would be enough to get me through my darkest days, the smallest knowledge that someone out there wanted me to be the best me that I could be.

I knew Niall would keep his promise and look over me. I knew that he would be there, a fuzzy memory that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I knew that I could recover. I knew that when forever came around, I would look back on my life and know that it hadn't been a waste of time.

The driving rain washed away all that I had been and when I looked into Niall's smiling eyes, I knew I had been reborn.