Take Me Home (One Direction Fanfic)

Part 3- Niall

Part 3.
Niall.


“Hello my lovely.” Niall crooned as he walked through London’s massive mall, holding a taco. What he really wanted was some Nando’s but the taco shop was closer, and his stomach needed food asap.
“I’m sorry I have to eat you, but I paid for you, so I have the right.” He said to it smiling, then he took a massive bite out of it.
He probably looked like a weirdo, talking to his food, but he couldn’t care less, there was nothing else to do, Zayn and Liam we’re busy having fun with girls and Louis and Harry, were somewhere, still sleeping probably. Sometimes they didn’t get up till one in the afternoon.
He was so caught up in eating his taco that he didn’t notice the girl walking in his direction, carrying a stack full of boxes, so she couldn’t see where she was going, and a few seconds later Niall felt something hard slam into him, making him fall backwards on the shiny marble floor.
“Crap!” said the girl who slammed into him, she too, was on the floor but she was kneeling now, looking down at him. She was slender and had long black hair that was tied back from her face in a top knot bun, her brown eyes looked concerned and she looked really guilty for knocking him over.
“It’s ok, I’m covered in taco aren’t I.” He replied, feeling like a complete idiot.
“Uh, yeah.” She said, and then covered her mouth as a little giggle escaped her lips.
“It’s ok, you can laugh if you want.” He replied, not wanting to come off as rude.
“Need a hand?” she asked, holding out her lightly tanned arm, Niall took hold of it.
“Thanks.” He mumbled, brushing himself off as he regained his composure.
“Need help with those boxes?” he asked her.
“Yes please, and then I’ll buy you another top, because your taco stained it when I pushed you! Uggh, I’m so, so, so, sorry!” she replied picking up two of the four boxes she was carrying.
“You don’t have to buy me a new top!” he protested, picking up the other two boxes.
“I do! I feel really bad! And the top you are wearing was really cute, before it was stained.”
“Hey..” He looked at her name tag which read *Courtney Burnell, Retail Assistant.* “...Courtney, I have loads of tops at home! I’m fine, really.” He said comfortingly as they walked through the mall, back to the shop where she worked.
“I bet you do! But I’m feeling guilty right now, and thats something I don’t want to feel.” She replied turning to look at him.
“And what do you mean by, ‘I bet you do’?” he asked.
“Because you’re Niall Horan, silly! Even though your a guy I bet your wardrobe has ten times more clothes than mine.” She said grinning. Niall was shocked for a few seconds.
“You know who I am?” he asked.
“Uh yes, who else would grace the presence of this mall with their adorable blonde head at ten o’clock in the morning, eating a taco?” she answered, giggling a little.
“It was a good taco! And I was hungry, also, why didn’t you freak out when you saw me?” he asked as they stood on an escalator still carrying the boxes.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Niall! Well for a start, I couldn’t see you at first, with all the boxes, and when I banged into you I saw who you were before you looked up and had just enough time to calm my fangirling self down!” she said blushing a little at the last part.
“You were fangirling?” he asked, a little surprised, this cute girl had a fangirl moment over him?
“As much as I’d like to deny it, yeah. Please don’t get creeped out and leave though! I’m not going to pin you down on the floor and get you to sign my face.” She stated and they laughed a little.
“Don’t worry, I’m not creeped out, I think it’s sweet that you fangirled!” he laughed.
“Ok then, well on that note, once we’ve dropped off these boxes, it’s my morning break, so you wanna go grab something to eat, and get you a new top?” she asked, sounding a little shy.
“Sure! Why not, I love food, and my taco is gone now. So I’ll take you up on that.” he replied.
A few seconds later they reached the clothing shop that she worked at, it was a popular teen girls shop, and they stopped out the front.
“Uh, how am I going to go in there without getting mauled to death?” he asked her warily, because the shop was full of, you guessed it, teenage girls.
She handed her boxes over to him, “If you carry all four of these, no one will be able to see your face.” She said, sounding pleased with her idea.
“Ok then.’”he replied, and they stepped into the shop.
“Follow me.” She said, and he followed the sound of her voice, because he couldn’t see over the boxes either.
“Hey Mandy!” he heard her say, she must have been the manager.
Then Courtney was leading him over to a door at the back of the shop, must be the store room.
She opened the door they both walked inside, managing not to get spotted by any of the customers.
Niall grinned as he set the four boxes down. “Your idea worked!” he told her and she smiled happily.
“Yup, but now we have to get you back out of the shop.” She said, biting her bottom lip whilst thinking. Niall thought it was cute, it’s what Zayn did when he was nervous, but he never found Zayn cute, ‘Must only look cute on girls.’ He decided to himself.
“Well, I could put on a hoodie or something.” He offered.
“Niall in case you haven't noticed, this is a girls shop, and do you really want to be seen wearing girls clothes?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Nope! But I need food! So I’ll do anything I can to get out!” he replied.
“You really do love your food.” She remarked, sighing.
“Shall we just make a mad dash for it?” she asked him.
“Yeah, seems like fun!” he said grinning.
“Ok then.” She said, heading over to the door that lead out of the storeroom and back into the shop. Niall came up behind her and stood patiently, waiting for her word.
“On the count of three.” She whispered, going all mission impossible, on him.
“One...two...”
“Three!”
She threw open the door and then both sprinted through the shop, at first receiving weird looks from the girls, but then hearing squeals.
“Shoot.” Niall muttered under his breath.
The girls in the store instantly recognized him and as they did so they dropped the clothes they were holding and dashed after him and Courtney.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all!” he said to Courtney as they left the shop and dashed over to the escalator that lead to the ground floor.
The yells of the girls behind them were getting louder, and he could hear other people in the mall yelling “Hey! Thats Niall Horan!”
Luckily, Courtney knew what she was doing and they both must have said “Excuse me! Coming through!” about a hundred times as they ran down the escalator.
When they finally reached the ground floor Courtney snatched his hand and pulled him in the direction of a *staff only* door.
When they reached it, she grabbed a card out of her pocket and swiped it to make the door open, and a few grueling seconds later the light above flashed green and they dashed out the back of the mall.
He could hear the screams of girls from the other side of the door, as he and Courtney came to a stop, a little out of breath.
“Woah, now that was something!” she said breathlessly.
“Yup, you feel sorry for me now?” he asked her raising his eyebrows.
“No! You sound like you think your job is a hardship! You don’t know how lucky you are!” she snapped, making Niall straighten up in surprise.
“Sorry.” She mumbled, realizing that she may have come off a little harsh.
“I shouldn’t have said that.” She said.
“No it’s ok! I shouldn’t say bad things about my job, I do love the fans, they’re the reason I have a job, it’s just that sometimes, I wish all the mobs would just go away, and I’d love to walk through a mall without being noticed again.” He said giving Courtney a sweet smile.
“I see where your coming from, that must suck, but shall we continue this conversation over a bite to eat?” she asked.
“Do you even have to ask?” he replied grinning, and Courtney giggled a little.
Her laugh was so cute, so contagious.
“Oh! Wait! Your top, it’s still covered in taco.” She said, giggling a bit more.
“Oh, right.” Niall looked down at himself. “In that case, how about we get takeaway’s and eat at my place so I can get changed.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She said under her breath, but Niall still heard it.
“No, I’m serious, you helped me escape the mall! Come on, let’s get going I don’t want the paparazzi catching me in this top!” he said, grabbing her hand.
“But I have to go back to work in an hour!” she protested.
“Oh really?” he asked, “Give me your phone please.”
She reluctantly handed over her phone and he scrolled through the contacts, eventually finding the name he was looking for, Mandy, her manager.
He quickly pressed the call button and held the phone up to his ear.
“Hey Courtney! Whats up? I saw you run out of the shop with a blonde guy a minute ago, are you ok?” Mandy asked on the other end of the line.
“Hi, it’s the blonde guy, yeah she’s fine.” Niall said cheerfully and he saw Courtney pout at him out of the corner of his eye, he turned and flashed a cheeky grin at her,
“Oh! So whats up?” replied Mandy.
“I was just wondering if it would be ok to let Courtney have the rest of the day off?” he asked, pouring on the charm in his voice.
“Uh, I don’t see why not, we’ve got enough staff to cover her and she’s a good worker, she usually works late even when she doesn’t have to, tell her to have a good time.” Mandy replied sounding happy.
“Will do, thanks Mandy, have a nice day.” Niall said and then ended the call, handing the phone back to Courtney, who took it and put it back in her pocket.
“Well, guess what! You have the day off, can we go to my place now?” he asked.
“Thanks Niall, you didn’t have to do that!” she replied.
“But I did.” he smirked, taking her hand once again, leading her over to where he’d parked his car.

“Nice apartment!” she remarked as they entered the lounge, it was big and open, with a comfy sofa and T.V. and huge windows on one wall.
“Why thank you!” he said happily.
He lead her into the kitchen and she took a seat on one of the bar stools around his kitchen counter as he put the takeaways down.
They’d gone to Starbucks and brought two iced chocolate’s and some baking to takeaway.
“Yum! This looks great!” Courtney remarked, eyeing up her iced chocolate.
“Dig in!” Niall stated, taking a seat on the barstool next to her, grabbing his iced chocolate at the same time and taking a huge sip out of it.
“Ok then!” she said grabbing her’s to take a sip too.
“So Courtney, do you like working in retail?” Niall asked as they ate and drank.
“Yeah, it’s not my career though, I’m just working there to pay my way though university.” She said sighing a little at the end.
“What do you want to do for you career?” Niall replied.
“I’d love to own my own boutique, where I could sell off my own designs, thats my dream.”
“Wow, sounds awesome!” Niall said, impressed, that was a hard thing to achieve, but he knew if any one could do it, Courtney would.
“Thanks, so whats your job?” she asked cheekily, even though she already knew.
“Oh ah, I’m a professional eater!” he said, munching away on a cookie.
“How could I not have known?” she cried, then they burst out laughing.
“What are you up to at the moment then? If I may ask.” She said.
“Not much, we’re taking a break right now after finishing our world tour, but we’re going to start recording our new album in a few days time.” He told her happily.
“Wow! Really? Do you know what it’s going to be called?” she asked.
“Nope! Not yet, we sill need to come up with a name for it.”
“Maybe you should call it carrots, Nando’s, mirrors, cats and spoons.” She suggested, smirking.
“Thats an amazing idea! We’ve already tried suggesting things similar to it a few times, sadly management keep saying no, they want us to come up with a name that comes from the heart.” He said.
“Wow, thats deep.” Courtney sighed, resting her head in her hands as she laid against the counter top.
“Aww, so do you come from London?” he asked her.
“Nope! I’m from Southampton.” She replied happily.
“Cool! Well you probably already know that I’m from Mullingar.” He said cheerfully.
“Aha, I did, now that I say that I sound really stalkerish!” she said.
“You don’t seem like a stalker!” he replied.
Then she got up off the barstool and headed into the lounge, Niall quickly got up and followed after her.
“Sorry, I saw this when we first came in, I just really want to try it out!” she said taking a seat on the stool in front of the piano in Niall’s lounge, he played the guitar, but he had the piano so Liam could play when the band had jam sessions together.
“Sure! Go ahead.” He said, and she stroked the ivory keys of it.
“Ok then, I wonder if you know this song!” she said and began to play.
Her fingers flowed across the piano and she looked like she knew the chords off but heart, it was amazing to watch and it sounded mesmerizing, and then he realized what song it was.
It was Moments.
He listened to her play for a bit until it got up to his solo in the song.
She looked up at him expectantly and he opened his mouth and sang his line.
“Close the door, throw the key, don’t wanna be reminded, don’t wanna be seen.”
She smiled up at him, happy that he was singing along.
“Don’t wanna be without you, my judgments clouded like the night sky.” He sang, looking down at her.
Something clicked in his mind as he sang that line, he was having an amazing time with Courtney and he realized that he didn’t want to be without her.
He must have lost track of time thinking because she soon finished the song and looked up at him.
“That was beautiful.” He said sincerely to her.
“Glad you liked it.” She replied and then added, “What were you thinking about?”
“Just how amazing you are, and that I don’t want you to leave.” He said, realizing how cheesy it sounded once he’d said it.
“Aww, well I do have to leave soon, sorry!” she replied smiling.
“That’s sad, but just wondering...” He asked.
“Yeah?” she asked curiously.
“Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?”
“Really? Wow! Yes!” She said, getting up from the piano to give him a hug.
Niall hugged her back, he couldn’t wait until their next date.