Embrace

Chapter 9

It had felt like an eternity since that metallic thunder had come ripping through the house. In truth it had been about five minutes, but as Niall and Will clutched each other, gazes locked on the door at the top of the stairs, they knew it was only a matter of time before this moment of being frozen in place would come to an end.

Niall swallowed hard at the lump in his throat, the noise seemingly breaking the bated spell and calling their focus back to the present, shaking them into some form of action.

Will was tempted by the urge to call out for Jess to see if she was alright, and yet somehow he already knew the answer. Everyone at this point has seen too many horror movies to know what was expected, what was going to happen, and yet no one really knows how to react when you suddenly find yourself in one.

"I don't suppose we can hold out here and wait for all of this to blow over?" Niall whispered, his voice barely audible above the sloshing of water below. In a grim display of humour, Will couldn't help but give a stifled chuckle at the situation and Nialls words. He suddenly found himself in a midst of confusion with a very, very, prevalent streak of unfairness.

Regardless of whether Niall means his actions, or is just acting out because he doesn't want to be slaughtered while single, for the first time in ever he reciprocated Wills feelings. He accepted him and kissed him back, kissed him first in a manner that struck like the time at the party but thousands upon thousands of times more wanting. Like lightning in the dark, and he held him. They clung to each other not only like it was the last thing they were going to do, but because it was the only thing they wanted to do. So Will should be ecstatic. And he was. The only way he could be happier was if the pair of them weren't at the heart of a massacre and were patiently waiting for their time to die.

But that was the point. They are at the heart of a massacre. There was someone up those stairs giggling as the light left the eyes of his friends, and they were waiting. They were prepared, on home turf, and undoubtedly new the pair were down here.

Will was frightened. Although curiously, he was not as frightened as he thought he would be. It was a low tremor, an echo from a distant room, reminding him of what might be lost should he die. It struck deeply, vibrating his bones. But equally as vibrant was courage. Or was it purpose? He couldn't be sure, he just knew there was a confidence now. A certainty in his need to protect the man in his arms. He learned in that moment that he was quite happy to die for that. To die trying. If he had the time, he would ponder on the strangeness that came with an acceptance of his own, possibly soon, death. On what it meant.

Niall found comfort here. Despite the situation; the throbbing of his mangled leg, the knife wielding, trap-making, maniac upstairs: Niall found himself almost at peace. He couldn't quite place it, but he had a strange feeling that it was Will that made him feel this way. His hand just seemed to fit perfectly with his own, his arms the perfect length to be snug but not restricted within. The weirdness Niall felt didn't seem to go away in the slightest. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't an idiot, he knew he had feelings for Will. In a horribly, daunting way that the time passed, by folding in on itself all up to this moment: he felt like he always did. The feelings were always there, like the near silent ringing of silver bells at the base of his skull. Probably right next to the sign that read: "You're an idiot."

It all seemed to come so natural. To fit so perfectly, that he hadn't even thought about the implications of the pair of them being men. While this was by no means a weathered relationship, or even if it was a relationship at that, he expected a little more awkwardness about these sorts of things. Being as they're both men, he thought their would be a subliminal, silent, fight for a certain type of unspoken dominance. There were things you were expected to do, expected to say as a man. Kiss first. Take the lead. Pretend you know what you're doing at all times. Yet, he felt none of that from Will, and found that he himself wasn't leaning to do it either. It just didn't seem needed. They just were.