Black And White //N.H

61.

I pull on a pair of jeans the morning after, while Niall is standing over by the door, waiting for me anxiously. It's still dark outside, a sign that we should be asleep, but it doesn't seem like Niall cares. He's as energetic as ever. When I'm dressed I walk over and he takes my hand, almost skipping downstairs.

"Of course," I mumble to myself when Niall stops the car in front of a big brick building, with the letters 'Mullingar Golf Club' over the entrance. "Don't say that! I want to show you something," he tells me, getting out of the car and I do the same, making him huff when he sees that I'm out of the car before he had the chance to open the car door. I take his hand, feeling him caress it gently over my glove. "This is where I learned to play golf," he tells me, bringing out a set of keys from his pocket and walking over to the door. He unlocks it, and I give him a weird expression, wondering why he has the keys to the resort. "I got to borrow them for today," he tells me and I nod.

"Now keep an open mind, ok? This is just a suggestion, and I get it if you say no," he tells me and my eyebrows drop in confusion, not knowing where he wants to go with this. "This place is important to me, you know. I know the inside here looks pretty bad and old, but during the summer it's beautiful outside," he continues, guiding me over to a window. "What are you thinking about?" I ask him, and he bites his lip, before leaning against the window. "Say no if you don't want to, please. But I was thinking, our wedding, if we're having it in Ireland that is, how would you feel about having it here?" he asks me and I raise my eyebrows, a little shocked. I look around the room, looking at the green wall, and purse my lips a little. "We would have it outside, of course. It's pretty ugly in here," Niall says when he sees my expression. "But if you don't like it we won't have to do it," Niall continues quickly, avoiding my gaze. "Niall, we don't have to decide that now. If you want to have it here we can definitely talk about it, I just kinda want to see it during the summer first," I tell him and he turns his head to look at me so quickly I'm scared he'll get a whiplash. "Really?" he asks me and I nod, making a big grin appear on his face. "We'll go here this summer, to see if you like it," he tells me, wrapping his arms around me. "For sure," I tell him, kissing his cheek. "I thought you would say no," he mutters, looking back outside at the snow. "I want you to be happy, Nialler. Weddings aren't only about the bride," I tell him, pushing some hair behind my ear. "You're the one that's gonna blow everyone away," he tells me, and I roll my eyes at him. "Yeah, because you aren't a sexy fucker," I mumble sarcastically and a loud laugh escapes his lips. "I am, but not on the same level as you," he says and I nudge him lightly, before he looks down at his watch.

"We should probably head home, we need to get to church. Mom is gonna kill us if we make her late," Niall says. When we get back home we switch up our clothes, as Niall has a pep talk with me about meeting his grandmother. "She can't be that bad, Niall. She's not gonna scold us for 'sinning'," I say with a small laugh, as Niall is stressing out about the fact that we have sex and are not married. "Yeh, she will, wait and see." He's pacing around the room in a white button up shirt and a pair of chinos, as I'm getting ready in a dress Niall deemed church material when I was packing. "How would she even know that we're sexually active? You don't talk about that stuff with your grandmother," I tell him, trying to soothe him a little. "She knows everything. That little stunt you pulled in Switzerland didn't really help either," he tells me and I bite my lip to stop myself from smiling. Someone snapped a photo off us leaving that store in Switzerland, and people quickly figured out what kind of store it was. "Relax, ok. It will be fine," I tell him, taking his hand and pulling him a little closer to me, but I was wrong.

When we're starting our third hour in church I notice that I'm starting to get restless. My knee is bouncing up and down, while I'm looking around trying to find something to focus on. This is a lot different from the ceremonies in Manchester, and I'm starting to get pretty done with songs and stories from the bible. Niall notices and puts his hand just above my knee to still my leg and I let out a small sigh. "It's not long left," Niall whispers to me, and by his voice I can sense that he's pretty done as well. I nod, trying to pay attention again, as I don't want to be disrespectful. Suddenly everyone stands up and I do the same, thinking we're done, but then some kid comes up and starts singing, everyone in the big room joining in as well. We go through about three or four other songs and stories before we're done, and I swear I almost fell asleep when the priest started talking about some friends of Jesus waking up from the dead. I thought that was something we saved for Easter, but apparently not.

"Did you enjoy the service, Emily?" Niall's grandmother asks when we're outside, and I take a deep breath as I feel a little dizzy from sitting inside for hours. "Yes, it was really nice," I tell her, and I look at Niall who has turned his head away, laughing a little at my very obvious lie. "Are you baptized?" she asks and I nod, telling her yes. "That's good. To get married in church you need to be baptized," she continues and I smile. "Yeah," I tell her, not really knowing where she wants to go with this. "You two are getting married in church, right?" she asks us and Niall looks at me pursing his lips. "We haven't talked about that yet, grandma," Niall says and she scoffs. "You need to get married in church. You have to do something to make things good again after sinning for years," she scowls and I look up at Niall who's rolling his eyes at her statement. "Yeah. I don't know if that is what's gonna make up for it," Niall tells her, and puts his arm around my shoulder. He pulls me a little tighter and rubs my arm a little, trying to get some warmth back into my body as we're standing outside of the church. "Mother, don't bother them about this," Maura says as she walks over to us, hearing the last bit of our conversation. Niall sends his mother a grateful smile before kissing my temple. "We'll meet you guys back at the house," he tells his family, before guiding me towards the car.

"I said she would say something, but I'm sorry," Niall apologizes as soon as we're in the car. "Don't think about it," I assure him, taking on my seatbelt. "Sorry about the long service as well. I forgot about that," he continues and I shake my head. "It was nice," I try, but he only laughs. "You're a terrible liar, sweets." I laugh a little, before leaning my forehead against the window. "Are you ok?" he asks me and I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little dizzy," I tell him and he frowns. "Are you sick? It's christmas eve, you can't be sick," he mutters, holding a hand up against my forehead. "No, I think it was the thin air inside the church," I explain and he nods, but still has a worried expression on his face.

"Time for presents!" Maura says excitedly later that night, after dinner. It's still not late, as Theo is only seven years old, and can't stay up to late. To my surprise I got a gift from both of Niall's parents, and his brother. When the only gifts left is my gift for Niall and his for me, he excuses us, and to my surprise guides us upstairs. "What's up?" I ask him, not really knowing why we're leaving his family. "I want to give you your gift in private," he says and I smile a little. He sits down on his bed, finding a package from under his bed. I have mine in my hands, and I hand him it. "Can I go first?" he asks me, eying the box. I nod and he takes it, opening the lid. He pulls out a smaller box inside, and opens it up. I bite my lip, not knowing how he's gonna react to this. It's a gold necklace, with a small coin on the bottom. He slides his thumb over it, before looking at me. "It's beautiful, I love it." I nod towards the other box and he opens that as well, revealing a matching ring. "That's amazing," he mumbles, leaning in to kiss me. I hum a little, but he pulls away way too quick for my liking. I pout at him, but he just hands me my present, resting his head on his hand while smiling up at me. I start removing the wrapping paper, pretty confident about the fact that it's some sort of book. When the paper is gone I realize what kind of book it is, it's a photo album. On the front it says black and white, making me grin. "Niall," I mutter as I open the book. There's pictures through our whole relationship, of us, where we were and what we were doing. Under each picture it says something. "I know it isn't filled up yet, but I wanted to keep some space so that we can add to it," he tells me, as I reach the middle of the book. "That's an amazing idea, Niall. I love it," I tell him, and he pulls me into his side.

"I actually have one more thing for you," I tell him when we're lying in bed, cuddled up against each other. "What? A blowie?" he jokes and I roll my eyes at him. "You wish," I mutter, getting up from the bed and finding the rectangular box that I wrapped in earlier. I give it to him and sit down across from him, chewing on my lip nervously. I have absolutely no idea how he's going to react to this.

He unwraps the present, and sees that it's another box. "What's with you and boxes this year?" he jokes, keeping eye contact with me while he takes the lid off. "They're practical, I guess," I mutter and he smiles at me, before looking down on the item inside the box. He gets a confused look on his face, before it changes to disbelief as he looks up at me. "Are you joking?" he asks me and I shake my head. He throws the box away and jumps over to me, pulling me into a bone crushing hug. "We're having a baby?" he asks and I smile into his neck. "We're having a baby, Niall."

AN//This was a long one, at least for this story.