Embrace

Prologue

It was just a kiss. That's what Niall had resorted to calling it as he continued lightly inspecting his own lips with the tips of his fingers as if Wills was there still. It was just a kiss. Somehow removing himself by explaining it as mechanical as possible was all he could muster in a meagre attempt to ignore the impression it'd left.

Yet... If it was just a kiss, then why was it comparable to fire? No longer alight, but its presence still burned hot in it's phantom. His tongue was cautious in licking the surface of his lower lip. Daring only to dart out briefly, in a generous sweeping motion, before retreating back into his mouth. Was it his body trying subconsciously to soothe the heat that burned there? Or did it chase after the ghosts his lips had left behind?

In the fractions of seconds that had passed, Niall had gone through so many emotions. Confusion. Happiness. Hunger. Lust.

He'd hardly had anytime to process his cheeks turning as red as the tips of his ears before he was shaken from his daze by the voice of Jess, cackling through the air like lightning with a giddy excitement that petered into cheerful squeals.

"As I live and breathe!" She laughed clutching at the colourful alcoholic beverage, a neon blue, in one hand and replaying the recently experienced kiss both in blessedly burned into her memory and her phones camera. "That's going in the ol' bank that's for sure."

Niall was not impressed now that his focus had returned to the present situation. He was half tempted to wrestle the device from her, but resided himself to a muted scowl instead. Unsure why he suddenly felt so invaded.

Somehow Niall, as with everyone else here apparently, had been roped into joining one of Jess's infamous parties, in an attempt to relive the messy glory days of their teenage years. Which in turn had now led to six mid-twenty-something adults huddled around a mostly empty bottle that spun to decide who would share spit with whom.

Not quite sure of how or why he agreed to such an idea. He questioned whether it might have been the passed four pale ales he had practically guzzled to quiet his nerves at the social setting. In fact, he knew it was because of that. Still, the moment he sat in that circle, that dreaded bottle spinning, it all but immediately sobered him up. The throb of a panicked and nervous heartbeat instantly beating back any of the numbness the alcohol had promised; instead leaving nerves and a swimming head.

Although, there was a part of him, growing like dandelions in concrete, that decided that it had been a good idea. He hadn't realised how starved for physical contact he was until now, and now an awakened yearning for more prickled inside his chest. It had been a very long, and very solitary, passed few years. The idea of contact with someone else had almost seemed repulsive to Niall upon discovering a complete stranger balls-deep and bending Jacky, his ex-girlfriend, over the kitchen counter. But now he couldn't quite explain why it had been so long. Like the reason was a hidden scar in a shaded corner of a room he didn't quite have the courage to illuminate just yet, rather he just had a "feeling" that it had healed.

Will, or to use his loathed, proper, name: Willard, had retreated cheerfully back into his seating position in the circle. Evidence between their exchange still glistening somewhat on his lower lip, a woman sat between him and Niall, who he vaguely remembered from Math class, but currently she seemed unimportant. There was something different, something new. Will was the confident type. Brimming with swagger that beamed from a full chest of defined muscle and strong arms forged from years of labour work. Although with the amount of time one would argue he spent on his appearance, you wouldn't guess that he spent his working time on dust muddled construction sites being a geotechnical engineer. A musk of artificial and natural scents poured generously, although not smotheringly so, from meticulously dotted spots on his open collared shirt. Calloused, yet clean, hands welcomed whatever interaction they were given, like they always wanted to be busy. Whether that was passing the unnamed beverage between his palms absent-mindedly, or the occasional light body contact with whomever he was talking to.