Confessions of a Gay Prince

seis

niall didn't understand harry's sudden change of heart. harry wasn't an angel to niall, sure, but he was nice. nicer than a pirate captain should be. 

today marked a week since niall had been kidnapped and he was on the deck, playing cards with gabriel and tarkyn. "honestly, zero, can you stop cheating?" tarkyn grumbled. niall found the nicknames fun, he really loved how everyone had reasoning behind them and how it was all so normal for them. and now that niall thought about it, he was actually kind of sick of being called 'your majesty.' 

"i'm not cheating, ziggy!" gabriel furrowed his eyebrows and his hazel eyes flickered in the sunlight. niall rolled his eyes playfully because of course gabe had to make a nickname out of a nickname. the two argued for a while, and tarkyn swore up and down the walls gabriel was cheating. he was, niall could see his cards, so while they were arguing, niall managed to win. 

"move over, zigzag." zayn jumped in between niall and tarkyn, smiling at everyone , especially gabriel. "princey, iron's got the hots for you." niall's head perked up, he tilted it, blinked a few times then laughed it off. 

he looked around to see if anyone else was laughing as well but tarkyn seemed to agree and gabriel was too busy watching zayn smile.  

"shut up." was all niall could muster and suddenly he felt like a highschool boy all over again, the blushing, the giggling, his heart racing. of course, if it was any other boy, he thought he would be just fine, but since it's harry, he can hardly contain himself. 

stockholm syndrome alert. 

"shut up?! why do i gotta shut up for telling the truth?" zayn huffed then laughed, niall looked over at gabriel, and the moment zayn laughed, niall could almost physically see gabriel's heart jumping out of his chest. niall found it as a distraction to avoid responding to zayn's accusations that harry liked him. this was zayn, a pirate, pirates lie. 

"gotta go!" niall jumped to his feet then rushed to harry's quarters which now they used the term 'sharing' instead of 'stuck here' when they referred to it as their quarters. niall happily bounced through the doors, catching harry by surprise. 

"slow down, princey. did you see a mermaid or something?" harry chuckled raspily, niall giggled quietly. 

"no! but i think ga- zero has a crush on x-ray!" niall smiled, sitting on his hammock that liam was able to convince harry to install beside his own. 

"finally using the nicknames," harry avoided niall's statement, in a tone that told niall he already figured it out. and harry did, harry knew because he had heard the several conversations gabriel had with tarkyn late at night when he would walk past the cabin that gabriel and tarkyn begged to share. he heard them talk about how much gabriel liked zayn, and harry had also been lucky enough to have gabriel tell him about it. 

tarkyn was asleep, he had drunk way too much the night before and slept it off the entire day, so gabriel came running to harry with little tears in his eyes, complaining that zayn would never like him back and he just wanted to kiss him but he'd be forced to sleep a cabin away from zayn and have to see his face every single day knowing he'd never be able to make zayn his. 

harry felt bad for the kid, he was glad he had tarkyn. tarkyn was his saving grace. 

niall nodded. "yes, i am." niall bit his lip, thanking the lords above that harry hadn't figured out niall was totally head over heels for him because he was apparently so good at noticing those things. 

harry sat in his own hammock and unbuttoned his shirt, moving his collar and that's when niall saw them. there were hickies on harry's neck. a couple days ago, they had stopped at a village because harry 'needed to visit someone.' is that where he got them from? niall wondered what it must feel like, to have someone like you so much that they want to touch every part of your body. what it must feel like to have someone be so in love with you that they want to leave a mark on you to let everyone know they love you. niall wanted to know so bad, but he didn't. 

"what is it?" harry caught him staring. niall stumbled on his words then spit something out along the lines of, 

"what's it like?"  yeah, he had to explain himself to harry and once he did, harry choked a little on his water. 

"love?" he laughed. "i wasn't in love. i just needed a quickie and he was there." 

he! he! harry's gay! niall's little heart was so happy to think he might have a chance with the captain that he completely disregarded harry's cruel sentence. 

"i don't know what love's like. like, true love? nah. the only love i've ever felt is for x-ray, magnet, tommo, zero and zigzag."

then niall's brain produced a thought he knew his lips wouldn't dare say. 

you could love me.