i have a topic of discussion for the institute of niall studies, what does niall miss most now that he's on hiatus that he didn't expect to miss? i wonder if niall is the sort of person who enjoys passive company. you know just doing your own thing in a the same space as someone but not really actively hanging out. or maybe he just misses a pair of socks that got packed up in harry's stuff and he hasn't had a chance to swing by and pick them up.
WELL. Well. Let me tell you a thing.
We know for certain that Niall misses the regimen. He misses his days being mapped out ahead of him and knowing where he’s meant to be and when he’s meant to be there. He misses the floaty exhilaration of bending the rules, not being where he’s supposed to be, doing something he’s not meant to do. When you’re living your life without any real schedule, taking moments for yourself and doing what you want loses its sheen. It doesn’t feel as special when there’s not a hundred people making demands on you all the time.
Maybe life feels a little too BIG and vast and open-ended right now and he misses the way things used to be small so much of the time. Small rooms, small bunks, small chunks of time, small tables backstage he’d sit around with small groups of friends, small hotel rooms that used to make him feel trapped but were a comfort in a weird way too. Niall gets claustrophobic but maybe what he misses most is confined spaces.
And YES. I absolutely imagine that Niall appreciates passive company. It’s why he’s never lived alone. Why he’s got a roommate even though he absolutely doesn’t NEED a roommate. Sometimes I imagine Niall as the sort of person who can’t really relax unless there’s someone else there, existing in tandem with him. On tour, it was Harry. Harry was always just there, loitering in Niall’s hotel room, mucking about, making a nuisance of himself because Harry doesn’t like being alone either.
Niall has Willie back home, and I’m sure that’s a comfort, but maybe he misses the particular way that Harry occupies the space next to him. The way Harry would tell long rambling stories that didn’t require any actual attention from Niall...that became a sort of soothing white noise in the background. He misses the way Harry would sit in the bathroom while Niall showered and drone on and on about his shoes or something he ate or a conversation he had that morning or his favorite scrabble words.
Anyway, YES. Basically Niall misses Harry. I feel it in my deepest heart of hearts, amen.
