this // narry au

15. sheerio, cheerio

A/N: i wasn't going to update until next week but then we fuckin got 100+ vOTES AND COMMENTS LIKR WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK I DIDNT KNOW THERE WAS THAT MANY OF YOU HI IM SARAH HOPE YOURE ENJOYING THE BOOK DAMN

15 - Sheerio, Cheerio

After that, Niall just drives us home silently; me minding my own business and staring at the window, watching the cars pass by and Niall clenching and unclenching the car wheel, as if he had a reoccurring bad thought.

"Hey, are you alright?" I ask him as we step into my apartment.

"What?" He looks up at me. "Of course, why would you think I'm not?"

"I don't know, in the car you were pretty tense." (I'd be tense too if I switched my plate number in a public parking lot full of families.) "And you had a scary death grip on your poor car wheel."

"Really? I was just thinking." Niall strides towards me.

"About?"

"About if I kissed you right now, would you snog me or push me off." Niall murmurs, towering over me.

"Oh." I whisper, not even having the registered mindset to say anything else.

Niall laughs lightly and skims past me, walking into the washroom.

"You're always so flustered. It's so endearing."

"Don't say it like it's my fault." I mumble. "I don't talk to anybody and you just appeared into my life, grinning and obsessed with finding ways to make me blush."

"When you blush it's cute though." Niall praises. "I love your blushing too."

"Stop saying you love things about me!" I try to make it sound intimidating and threatening but it comes out small.

"You sound like an upset puppy." Niall cackles, ruffling my hair before crashing on my couch.

"You haven't even been here for two weeks and you're treating this place like you've been here all year."

"I don't have a home." Niall throws his arms behind his head and sighs, "Home is where the couch is."

"Home is where the couch is." I repeat. "Seems like something Ed Sheeran would say."

"You're a sheerio?" Niall hums.

"What in the blue hell is a sheerio?"

"That's what his fans call themselves. Sheerios."

"Sheerio sounds so.."

"Weird?"

"No, it just sounds like Cheerio, which is odd."

"How is it odd?"

"American's are extremely quick to stereotype British people."

"How do you know Ed Sheeran didn't come up with the name?"

"I know Ed Sheeran isn't dumb, which is good enough."

"Look at you, government official Mr. Harry Styles," Niall laughs.

"I was just saying." I defend.

"Are you trying to tell me you have never used the word Cheerio in all your years of living?"

"Yes, that is what I am trying to tell you actually." I retort. "Unless we're talking about the cereal."

Niall glances back up at me again before a huge smile breaks out onto his face.

I furrow my eyebrows at him and he raises an eyebrow back.

"What?" I ask.

"I made you come out of your shell. Now you're so talkative and,"  He attempts to hide his smile by biting his lip. "That just makes me so... happy."