Harry was half surprised Niall even knew how to properly dress a horse. He expected to have to help him saddle the horse, but he was actually fairly competent. As was Louis, which came as less of a shock to him. It was only fair for him to give Louis the benefit of the doubt; he may have been pretentious, but he was supposed to be a warrior of sorts. Niall, on the other hand, just seemed beyond lost as he went through life. Fumbling over everything and anything in his path. It just seemed like he was constantly messing something up or nearly dropping everything. He looked like he was about fifteen and it seemed like everyone wanted to treat him like he was five.
“How old are you, anyhow?” Harry finally asked as he tightened the saddle belt.
“Twenty-one.” Niall said quickly as he loaded up a saddle bag.
Harry nearly dropped everything. “You’re twenty- one bloody years old?!” Harry himself was only twenty. How the absolute hell was Niall older than he was?
Oh yes…because Harry had been through absolute hell.
Niall looked over at Harry, brow raised and blue eyes confused. “Is that surprising…?”
Harry shook his head. How to tell him that there was no damned way he was actually twenty- one? “You just look so young.” Harry shrugged. “And, well, not small but…dwarfed by the scale of everything around you.” Niall looked down at his feet and as much as Harry didn’t want to, he was caught trying to make it better. “Perhaps that’s because you look so young. But who knows- you simply do not look twenty- one.”
“How old are you, then?” Niall asked after a moment’s pause. He glanced over his shoulder to see stable boys getting Louis’ horse ready for the journey, rather than letting him do it himself.
“Twenty.” Harry muttered to himself as he grabbed the reins for his horse. “I am twenty as of last month.” Harry said, before stopping and looking off to think. “I think…perhaps it was the month before that.”
“Does alcohol really blur that much together?” Niall said as he put the bridle on his horse.
Harry stopped again and looked seriously at Niall. “If there is one thing I have learned in my twenty years that it seems you managed to not in your extra one, it is that alcohol blurs absolutely everything together. And that, Niall, is the beauty of it.” Niall looked away from the seriousness of Harry’s gaze as Harry continued. “Nothing makes life better than not knowing what day it is or what week it is or what month. The only way you get to know your age is when someone says it to you.”
YOU ARE READING
The Knights of the Winter Kingdom (One Direction AU)
Fanfiction"A prince, a peasant, a kitchen boy, and two thieves are sent to rescue the biggest misfit of the all- the Winter Princess. Now, isn't this a tale to tell children at night?" It's been thirteen years since the raid killed all of the Winter Kingdom...
