Love Me Like You Do (z.h. mpreg)

chapter twenty-one

"From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

'After all this time?'

'Always,' said Snape."

-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

-

The thing was, was that Niall wasn't nearly as sad as he thought he should've been. His mother was just that. A mother. The woman had given birth to him and nothing else, except plagued his life with darkness and no chance of a childhood. The word, in that sense, held no meaning, as it was empty. Tricia was his mum, Maura was his mother.

"How long?" Niall asked, a sort of soft anger in his voice. His usual mirth had left his eyes long ago.

"I-I meant to tell you, Niall, I really did, but-"

Niall sighed sharply and refrained from rolling his eyes in annoyance. "I mean how long has she got, Greg, not how long have you known."

Shame and embarrassment flooded Greg's features as he blushed rosy pink.

The fact that Greg hadn't told him right when he found out did piss him off, but there was a problem much bigger than that. It was more of how this, dare he think it, burden that he had bore for most of his life, might be lifted. Niall immediately shook those thoughts out of his head. He shouldn't be thinking of his mother like that, as a burden, no matter if she had been absent for a majority of his life.

Greg shuffled his weight around sheepishly and gripped the back of his neck. "Doctors said a few months with the breast cancer, maybe. Five or six." He admitted lowly.

Niall softened his glare for a moment and comforted his older brother by caressing his arm. He had forgotten that this was even harder for Greg, seeing as he and their mother had a far better relationship.

Greg opened his arms for a hug, something Niall gladly accepted. Niall let some tears fall down freely; he was exhausted and absolutely full of mixed emotions.

"I'm so so sorry,"

"I know," Niall admitted. He gently rubbed Greg's back like he did with the boys when they were upset, but Greg just drew a still slightly angry Niall closer. "I think we're both exhausted, though. Let's go to bed and we can talk about it tomorrow when our heads are a bit clearer, yeah?"

Greg nodded and hastily wiped at the corner of his eye. He threw his brother one last reassuring smile before turning right to go to his own room. Niall quickly stepped in to say goodnight to the boys. As they were already asleep in their beds, Niall just stepped in for a minute and then closed the door so that only a crack of light shone through. His pissy mood, however, bubbled up in the pit of his stomach again the longer he concentrated on it.

He scrubbed at his eyes drowsily. His mother had cancer and she had just months. Five months would not make up for all the years she was absent from his life, no matter how hard she begged to be forgiven, if she even attempted that.

Harry was alseep as well, so Niall quietly changed and shuffled into bed. Zayn lay beside him, texting what seemed to be his parents. Niall got comfortable laying on his side, facing away from his husband. Zayn must have noticed his slightly pissed off attitude however, as Niall heard him sigh and put his phone down.

"How was your talk with Greg, baby?"

Niall really didn't want to talk about this right now. He needed to figure out his emotions first. One, he was angry with his brother for not telling him right away. Two, he was angry at his mother for not being there for him like she should've been, and three, he was rather irritated with himself because he felt like he wasn't as sad or as angry he should've been. His mother was currently dying, and his first thought was 'good'. "It was fine, Z," he said, flipping to face Zayn.