little do you know // niall horan au

chapter 1; it's about us

Before she could get another word in, Mona was stalking towards the door, her bowl of dry cereal clutched tightly between her hands. "Wait," Harlow squealed, and Mona turned around only to see her whip around on her stool, almost falling off in the process. "Where are you going?"

Mona grumbled. She considered being dramatic and responding with an 'Away from you', but honestly, that wasn't her thing. "To get milk for my fucking cereal," she said instead, huffing as she grabbed Niall and Liam's spare key from the hook beside the door, slipping her feet into her blue, fluffy slippers before making her way to the door across the hall.

"Mo, you look dreadful," was what Liam greeted her with, and Mona didn't even care to respond because she figured he was probably right. With her ratty hair pulled into a messy bun onto the top of her head and the bags beneath her eyes, her appearance was nothing short of untidy.

"I need milk," she groused, nudging an equally scruffy Niall, who'd been standing in front of the refrigerator, with her hip and immediately reaching for the carton, pouring the last of it into her bowl before tossing it into the bin. "Thanks."

"Mornin' t'you too." Niall sent her a small smile, which she returned; the sound of his voice, still groggy from sleep, caused the annoyance she felt towards Harlow to ebb away. He immediately fell into stride with her, plopping down onto one of the chairs beside the small table he and Liam kept tucked away in the corner of the kitchen, Mona taking a seat on his lap, allowing herself to smile at the way Niall's skin still clung to the smell of sleepy boy and toothpaste.

When his arms wound around her waist and his head lolled forward to rest on the back of her shoulder, Mona tried not to think about Harlow's words or the fact that this all just came so naturally. She wasn't able to dwell on it for too long, though, because then Liam snorted, watching them over his mug of steaming hot coffee with a small smirk playing along his lips. "You two are sickeningly sweet."

Mona groaned, rolling her eyes for what seemed to be the millionth time that morning. "Can we not start this?" Behind her, Niall chuckled, and she placed her bowl on the table before turning around to face him. "They're all conspiring against us, Niall, this is not a laughing matter."

Niall only grinned, lips pressed tightly together in order to suppress another laugh. "You're being dramatic, Mo." She scowled at his lack of response, returning to her Oats with a frown but allowing him to nuzzle into the curve of her neck, his warm breath fanning across her skin, and it was the sole fact that she was surrounded by any and everything Niall that she took comfort in. "'sides," he murmured, low enough for only her ears, fingers rubbing soothing circles into the bare skin of her thighs. "If you walk around in nothing but my clothes then they're bound to ask questions, don't ya think?"

She glanced down and sure enough all she was wearing was a pair of barely there shorts and the flannel Niall had tossed on her floor last night. She glowered at him again. "I hate you."

But Niall simply smiled, and if Mona was being honest, she couldn't be too bothered by it all. It wasn't that she didn't like Niall, because she sure as hell did considering she was sitting in his lap and letting him press his lips to the juncture of skin where her neck met her shoulder, but she wasn't interested in a relationship, at least not in the way everyone was expecting her and Niall to have. She was perfectly content with what they had now. It was comfortable and fun in a way she hadn't had in a while.

From January to now, in late-August with summer slowly coming to a close, she and Niall had shared moments that meant more to her than her past relationships, and she didn't want to ruin it with the prospect of defining whatever it was that they had. So she let Niall's fingers stroke the expanse of her thighs, and she let him fiddle with the hem of the flannel, his touch passing the barrier of her clothing to flutter across her skin.