salute [h.s]

it's so good to hear your voice, petal

december 19 - cuddling by the fire

1D fanfic/Salute Extra

Harry/Piper

*

Piper ended up on the floor in front of the fire and she wasn't really sure how. All she knew was that it was warm here, and cozy, and she wished desperately that her flat had a fireplace. At the same time though, she was experiencing a strange sense of longing, a stifling loneliness that didn't make sense, an overwhelming ache in her chest that weighed down on her heavily. There was a void surrounding her that only one person could fill. A person that wasn't here.

She wasn't sure if it was the pain meds that Niall had given her earlier or just the general sense of disorientation that she had been experiencing all day but she couldn't seem to get her thoughts together. She found herself staring at the fire, watching as the smoke lifted up above it and into the flue. The lights danced behind the grate, casting shadows on the wall behind and illuminating the hearth in flickering circles. The light just barely reached her feet, wrapped in Harry's socks, only glancing across the edge of the rug on which she was sitting.

Her mobile vibrated in her hand and she scrambled to flip it over and read the incoming message, hoping and praying it was from the one person she was longing to hear from. She was shattered when it was just her mum, asking about Christmas Eve dinner. She felt a sudden urge to cry, tears burning at her eyes, but she held it off. She didn't want to cry if she didn't have a reason. She didn't want to believe she had a reason yet.

She felt sort of lightheaded, an uncomfortable and unwanted sensation. She reached for the glass of water that Niall had left by her side and found only a sip left, circling the bottom. Instead of drinking it, she let it sit. She didn't want an empty glass beside her.

There was the sound of heavy footsteps on the back stairs and Piper knew it was Niall by the slightly, almost imperceptible unevenness of his gait. He had a bad knee, she'd learned, and tended to favour one side almost subconsciously, teetering just the slightest bit onto his good knee. His bare feet slapped against the hardwood as he crossed the living room toward her.

"I found you a pair of sweats," he was saying as he came around the couch and saw her for the first time. "You shouldn't be on the floor, Pips," he scolded gently as he crossed toward where she was sitting before the fire. "It'll put too much strain on your injury."

"I just wanted to be by the fire," she answered quietly, her voice sounding slow and confused.

"Morphine making you a little loopy?" he asked with a snort as he stopped beside her. She craned her head up and the laugh slipped right off his face as he saw the sadness in hers. "Ah, Pips. You still worried?"

She turned her head back to the fire, her lips settling into a frown as she watched the flames dance. She sensed Niall crouching beside her, one of his knees pressing against the back of her arm. She sort of leaned into him as he placed a reassuring hand on her opposite shoulder.

"He's going to be fine," Niall insisted as he shifted onto his knees and manhandled her so she was tilted away from the fire, her legs stretched out in front of her. "Let's just get some trousers on you so you're not sitting here in your pants all night."

She'd been sitting in the pair of compression shorts that had been helping to stabilize her hip while Niall had helped her with her physio exercises earlier. The physio had hurt more than it had helped, though Niall insisted that if she wanted to maintain range of motion she had to work at it a bit, and she'd been hoping she could get away with just wearing her shorts because the idea of moving her hips enough to put on trousers was unpleasant enough as it was. It had nearly killed her to get down onto the floor from the couch and even now, her hip was throbbing despite the morphine. Niall was right when he said that sitting on the floor was a bad idea but it was too late now. Plus, she liked the fire.