Imagines with Niall Horan

32. You play hide-and-seek

"...99, 100!" I lifted my hands from my eyes and turned away from the corner I was counting in. I immediately began looking for clues, a possible trail that would lead me to victory. I knew the living room would be clear because I was there, and neither Niall nor Nathan would be silly enough to try and hide in there.

Leaving the living room behind, I headed for the kitchen; in previous games, Nathan had managed to hide in various cupboards, but he was bigger now and I doubted that he would try that again, but I checked just in case. With the kitchen empty of Nathan (there was no way Niall would hide in there), I made my way through the dining room and the study. I knew they weren't downstairs, because I couldn't hear any giggling. It was rare for Niall and Nathan to split up and hide in separate rooms (they never seemed to learn that this made them easier to find), which meant that, whenever I would get close to their hiding place, one of them would start to giggle. Which was why I always won at hide-and-seek.

Making my way upstairs, I mentally located every hiding place that allowed the two to stay in the same room. Niall would most likely be in a cupboard and depending on how Nathan was feeling, he'd either be with him or hidden somewhere across the room.

I was at the top of the stairs when the giggling started. It came from my right, which narrowed their location down to the master bedroom, the closet, or the study. Another giggle told me that it was definitely in the bedroom. I pushed the door open gently, careful not to make a sound as my bare feet padded across the carpet.

The giggling ceased now, and so I had to concentrate on any other noises that would indicate where they hid. My eyes scanned the room but my feet were already taking me to the closet doors. I paused when my hands wrapped around the handles, a momentary seed of doubt in my mind telling me no one was hidden in here, before I pulled the doors open.

My back hit the mattress of the bed before I realized what was happening. All I could do for a few seconds was blink before I registered the weight on my chest, and when my eyes focused I saw Niall grinning above me. Niall was now sitting astride me, holding my hands up at shoulder height against the bed; a position that, at another time, might not be so innocent.

Niall leaned down and pecked me on the nose before turning back and hollering over his shoulder, "I've got her, Nate! Run!" With Niall on top of me, I couldn't see out into the corridor but I could definitely hear the closet door flying open and a pair of tiny feet carrying a giggling five-year-old along the corridor and down the stairs.

"You planned this, didn't you?" I asked my husband with a smile, impressed. Niall beamed, leaning down and rubbed our noses together before planting a chaste yet tender kiss on my lips.

"No," Niall whispered against my lips, so that my eyes could down in ocean-blue. "I didn't plan this, Nathan did."

"Really?"

"Yep," Niall nodded, a proud smile lighting up his face. "Our son is learning how to use me as a distraction already," he waggled his eyebrows teasingly, making me laugh.

"Well you can distract me later," I promised with a teasing smile and wink, "but right now our son is running loose around the house and neither of us are supervising him."

Niall's smile faltered before he pressed a quick kiss to my lips."I'm on it," he grinned, jumping off the bed and running out the door, his steps audible as he ran down the stairs. I sat up to take a deep breath, listening as Nathan screamed with glee once Niall caught him.

Sometimes I felt like the only adult in this house.