#niallfluff

You and Niall both concluded that self-isolation was truly a test of patience. Claustrophobia was Niall’s number one fear, and he did not willingly wedge himself in tight spaces often. But as the days passed on, his two-floor condo felt like it was shrinking by the minute. And with your job now placing you at home, your feet patting on the hardwood day and night was a tell that being locked inside was driving you to the edge. Even your dog, who you and Niall decided now needed a limit on walks, was whining to sniff the grass as if he had not seen the outside his entire life. In reality, his last stroll was only a few days ago. But you admit that on the inside, you were fighting the urge to break out just as much.

You reach down to scratch Leo behind his ear, temporarily distracting him from his want to leave the house. You turn to see Niall, watching the two of you with a small smile. His attention the golf match on the television was slowly waning at the view of the clear skies through his window. “You want to go for a quick walk?” You propose, Leo’s ears perking up at the last word.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Niall heaves himself up off the couch and walks to over to his tennis shoes, which were haphazardly lying near the door. Leo began spinning as you went to go retrieve his leash, and it made you let out a few giggles. He needed to get out just as much as you and Niall did.

As you two were walking around your neighborhood, you held onto the leashes handle, while your other hand was occupied with Niall’s, his fingers laced through yours. While you admired the greenery along with Leo (who needed to stop and sniff every inch of certain plants that caught his eye) Niall brought the back of your hand up to lay a kiss upon it. You turned to him and smiled lovingly, his piercing blue eyes distracting you from a flash in the distance.

“Can’t wait til’ the stores open back up. I can finally put a ring on this finger.” He announces proudly, making you flush red.

“Is that a promise?” You ask with a raise of your brows.

“I’ll give you the damn vows right now, petal. Might as well have a ceremony right here. Who knows how long we’ll be stuck together.” He remarks, letting your hand fall from his so his arm could pull you closer to his side. This elicits a small laugh from you.

“I’ve been stuck with you four years now, Horan. I think you can last another few months.” While you continue your stride, it comes to a halt seconds later when Niall spins you to face him. His hand takes ahold of yours, the leash still wrapped around it, and he is grateful Leo is mesmerized by another type of flower so he can’t tug you away.

“I’d wait a million years to see you walking down that aisle to me, princess.” Your faces were so close that Niall’s warm breath came in contact with your skin and made shivers light up your body. He leans in and gives you a kiss that you do not hesitate to return, and neither of you could wipe the smile off of your faces from that point. Niall clears his throat afterward and makes it a goal to stay behind you for a few moments.

“What are you doing?” You wonder aloud, as Niall stays as close behind you as possible.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” His behavior was unusual, but you decided to listen and not comment on it further. That was, until he got closer to your back, and wrapped his arms around your waist. Soon then, it was very clear as to what he was shielding.

“Oh my god. Do you have a–”

“Don’t say it.” Niall cuts you off, voice straining. You laugh a little louder than Niall wanted you to, so loud that one of your hands had to come up and muffle it.

“I can’t believe it! All I did was kiss you.” Bewildered, you continued moving down the sidewalk while Niall tried his absolute hardest (no pun intended) to get his friend down.

“It wasn’t that. I was thinking of how you’d look in your dress, hair all done up. And then what would happen after…” He admits the last part as a whisper in your ear. And although the thought was endearing, it also made you feel as bothersome as Niall was moments ago. It was easy to agree then that you both had walked enough for the day.

Throughout the rest of your ten-minute meander, you would turn to place a light peck on his shoulder, and lean into him further. Despite being outside in the midst of a worldwide panic, you two felt like you were still in your own little bubble. So much so, that the cameras in the distance were never seen by either of you once.

Later on, neither of you could hold back your scoffs of disbelief a few when the pictures were posted online and brought to your attention by twitter.

“I get that the fact that they love you and all, but does anyone really care about us kissing? I mean there’s a worldwide pandemic going on, last time I checked.” You comment with a shake of your head, scrolling through even more pictures. You thanked every deity that you at least looked decent during the walk.

“Apparently they do,” Niall replies as he brings his phone up in front of your eyes for you to peruse all of the responses to the light display of affection. Many hearts overtook the screen, as well as questions to when you both were finally going to get married. You two were not the only ones thinking about it. The responses that were solely strings of random letters made you laugh a little bit to yourself, like usual. In curiosity, you switched over to Instagram to find many fan accounts already reposting the photos with even more hearts and hashtags of how “goals” you two were. Some even went as far as to call you their “parents”, which slightly concerned you. But then you stumbled upon an array of photos where Niall failed to hide his growing affection for you, specifically in his jeans. And the whole scenario just sent you into another laughing fit, while Niall could only shake his head.

“At least they’re okay that it’s for me. I remember at the beginning being terrified that I’d be ripped to shreds for even talking to you,” Your words did not do well to console Niall and his red cheeks, though.

“Yeah, but then they realized how cute we are together,” Niall replies, sliding your body closer to his.

“You think we’re as cute as they say we are?” You lean your head down to rest on Niall’s shoulder, as he sets his phone aside, placing his now free hand back in yours.

“Absolutely! But that might also be because Leo was with us. You know nobody can resist his lil’ face.” Niall muses while Leo’s head perks up from his dog bed at the sound of his name.

“He should be the ring bearer. I’ve seen some videos of dogs doing that.” You suggest, Niall delivering your hand a squeeze.

“Already planning,” Niall murmurs, placing a kiss to your hair, “haven’t even popped the question yet, love.” He sounds shocked by how eager you are, but his smile against your temple is something you did not ignore.

“So? It can’t hurt to plan early, can it?” You ask, slouching down further until your head was resting comfortably in his lap. Both of you knew anyway that there was no way in hell Leo could be trained to do such a thing. If you tried, he would probably eat the rings before even making it down the aisle.

“I guess not.” Niall approves, bringing his hand to your tendrils splayed about on his sweatpants to fiddle with. “What would our song be?” He poses, making you tilt your head in contemplation. You hum to yourself for a moment, and as your lips opened to reply, Niall cut you off before a word was even said.

“Don’t say ‘Black and White’.” And when you close your mouth to huff, he can only laugh at you. “I love the song as much as you do, petal but when I said it was a tune for a wedding I didn’t mean ours.”

“Alright, what do you have in mind?” You fire back, crossing your arms over your chest, and giving Niall a smug look. For a moment, he stares off, flipping through the imaginary jukebox in his head. As soon as he sucks in a breath, your quick to make him bite his tongue.

“And nothing by The Eagles.” You point, which made Niall simply roll his eyes.

“I was gonna say, why don’t we get back to the song another day. Let’s move on to something else instead.” He suggests, as his hand travels down your side. You pay little attention to the small hug his hand gives your hip, and the obvious darkening of his eyes. You were too busy questioning him, “oh? Like what?”

At this, he moves his hand horizontally, to the inside of your thigh, a small smirk overcoming his face. While your eyes now take notice of his wandering hands, his gaze remains trained on your expression. His other hand, not currently occupied comes up to bump your chin and direct it to focus back on him.

“Oh,” you mutter in recognition, as he plants a soft, meaningful kiss to your lips. You slowly sit back up and situate yourself on his lap, bringing your arms up to link around his neck. You felt a lump forming below you, knowing his friend was returning. “Yeah, I like this much better.” You stagger out through shared kisses. The talking stops as Niall’s lips travel downward to your neck, and then even lower.

Who said you two couldn’t practice parts of the wedding either?