little do you know: the december drabbles // niall horan au

day 16: making cookies (in which mona has questions but niall makes her nervous)

Niall eyed the almost empty container of flour warily, dumping the entirety of it into the bowl Mona had set in front of him. "Gee, I wonder why we barely have enough flour to make cookies," he said sarcastically, raising his brows at Mona, who'd simply shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe it's because you've baked cookies every night since we've gotten here."

Again, she shrugged, cracking a few eggs. "What can I say. A girl thrives on her chocolate chip cookies." Niall rolled his eyes, wondering how one person can possibly eat so many sweets. He was about to voice his thoughts out loud when Mona was speaking again. "Can I ask you something, Ni?" He nodded, thinking to himself that she could talk to him about anything and he'd listen. "Why did—um. It's...it's a bit personal and I'd understand if you don't want to answer, okay?" Again, he gestured for her to get on with it, wondering what she was on about. "Uh. Why did...um. Remember that night on the couch? When you said—"

"Mo, just get on with it will you." His impatience was getting the best of him, especially given the way she'd framed her words, and he had to remember to breathe every time Mona stalled. He hadn't realized how much time had passed until he was scooping the cookie dough onto the pan, glancing up only to find Mona biting her nails nervously. "Well," he said with a laugh. "Are you gonna ask or what?"

Instead of speaking, Mona quickly scooped the remaining balls of cookie dough onto the parchment and shoved the pans in the preheated oven, laughing nervously. "Uh, never mind."

"Mona."

"No. It's. Uh. Nothing, it's—never mind." She smiled sheepishly at him. "Forget I ever said anything."

Normally, Niall would've let it go, figuring that if she really wanted to ask, she would in due time. However, there was something alarming about the way she fidgeted, glancing at him nervously every so often as if he wouldn't notice. "Mona." Again she averted her gaze. "Namona." Still, there was silence, a nervous energy bouncing about the room, and Niall wanted it to stop. So he grabbed her hands so they'd stop fiddling with everything, a gasp leaving her lips when he pulled her closer, their noses almost touching.

Her eyes were widened slightly in that panicked way of hers, looking everywhere but at his, and he wanted to shake the question out of her, trying not to get irritated. Instead, he listened as Harlow's holiday playlist blared from the speakers in the sitting room, the same Bublé song playing that he, Harry, and Mona had goofily danced to a couple of days before. Wordlessly, he dropped her wrists, letting them fall over his shoulders as his hands wandered to her waist. His nose trailed along the side of her face before he pulled her closer and let her settle into the curve of his shoulder, and he didn't really know what he was doing but, then again, he wasn't exactly thinking about it. "Relax," he breathed, and just like that, her shoulders slumped and her arms tightened around him as he begun to sway to the music. "Do I make you nervous, Mo?"

She chuckled lightly, swaying along with him. "A little, I guess." She elaborated when he hummed quietly. "It's just...I don't know. I just like being able to predict people and you're a bit hard to read sometimes so that's why you make me a bit nervous." He was surprised at her honesty, expecting her to beat around the bush like someone else would've if he'd asked that question.

Instead of saying something else, he simply danced with her around the kitchen, swirling and twirling until they were laughing relentlessly. Niall thought Mona was radiant when she smiled, and he wondered why she didn't do it often. Because there was a brightness to the way her lips turned upwards, a warmth in her laugh, and even though she was basically covered in sugar—because he may or may not have accidentally tossed some in her face when she poked him in his side—she still smelled like mint and he still wanted to kiss her.

They'd kept up with their goofy dance moves until the playlist had ended and the timer was ringing, signaling that the cookies were ready to be taken out of the oven.

"Are you gonna ask me that question now?" he asked as he put the cookies on the cooling rack. "You've got me a bit curious with all of that stuttering you were doing."

Mona huffed indignantly, smacking his arm before pulling out the bread to make the sandwiches for dinner. "Later," she said dismissively, smiling at him, and Niall decided that he'd make her smile more often. "It's really not that important."

So Niall shrugged it off, helping her locate the ingredients necessary for dinner. And yet as he was reaching for the mayonnaise in the fridge, he couldn't shake off the nagging feeling that maybe that question was important, at least to Mona, and he hoped she felt comfortable enough to ask him soon.