Mirrors |NH|

Chapter Forty

For the next two weeks, they slowly found a new normal. They spent nearly every single day together, doing something, even if it was just sitting around his house watching movies. And Niall loved it. The only time he felt empty was when she wasn't there. Benny would steal her away from him to which he didn't mind that, he just found that he was at a loss for what to do when she was with her brother. Without being too pushy, he occasionally made her show her arm to him and she confessed she had done this to her back as well, so she would show him that as well to prove that she was no longer hurting herself.

One Saturday afternoon, the first in October, they were at his house and he had been watching golf while she read outside. Even that made him smile. They could be around each other without having to be doing what the other was. It was just nice to have the company; nice to know she was safe; nice to know she was near if he needed her.

Every so often he looked out the window to see her head buried in her book, a small fire going in the outdoor fire pit he had just had installed. He only admitted it to himself, but he only did it for her because he noticed her wrapped in blankets the previous weekend. When she saw it, he did his best to make it sound as if he had already planned to do it.

At some point, he looked outside. It had gotten dark without him noticing and he didn't see her. He didn't think much of it until a hand holding a cupcake with a lit candle appeared in front of his face from behind.

"Happy birthday to you," she kind of, sort of sang spoke from behind. She wrapped her other arm around his neck. "Make a wish," she whispered into his ear. It sent a chill down his spine. Definitely the good kind.

He smiled and brought his hand on to her arm.  He took the cupcake in the other hand and blew out the one candle. "It's not my birthday, Edie."

"Yeah, well, we kind of slept through your birthday and I remembered seeing somewhere that yours was in September so I looked it up," she said as she came around the couch and sat down next to him, swiping her finger across the top of the cupcake and stealing some icing.

"Hey! That's my icing!"

"Yeah, well, mine now!" As she popped her finger into her mouth. "Mmmm, good."

Niall ate his cupcake and she turned to see that he still had golf on. "Ya, know, never in my life did I think I would know as much about golf as I do now, no thanks to you."

"Have you ever even played?"

"Not real golf. Mini golf, sure. And I'm dangerous with even that tiny little putter in my hand. Too competitive."

"Well, maybe you should come play with the big boys and girls, then, eh?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Booooooooo!"

She just looked at him and arched her eyebrow. "You're ridiculous. Just eat your cupcake, ya fool."

"So when's your birthday?"

"March."

"Oh, well, I didn't know you in March, so I missed it. I got you the next go around."

"Well, actually, you didn't."

"Huh?"

"We sort of spent my birthday together. You, me, and everyone else at our meetings. It was the second week we were there."

"Oh, damn. Well, okay, then. I'll make sure your next birthday is better than the last one, then." He finished up his cupcake and tossed the wrapper into his empty glass on the coffee table.

"Just about anything would make it better than this years," she said as she snuggled up next to him.

He instinctively lifted his arm as she wrapped a blanket around them and rested her head on his chest. His arm came back to rest on her side. A few minutes later, her steady breathing told him she had fallen asleep. He reached to turn the lamp off and settled back down, trying not to wake her. He kissed the top of her head and rested his chin there as he went back to watching his show.