She's Not Afraid. (Niall Horan)

Chapter 11.

Marina's POV

"You manage to get it off?" I smirked at Niall as he walked back inside the penguin enclose, a clear wet patch on his shirt. He was still trying to rub the stain off as he paraded back over, his eyebrows furrowing together as he did so.

"No," he muttered before flapping his hands back down by his sides giving up on cleaning up the mess.

"I did warn you." I grinned cheekily.

"About a second before, a little bit more of a warning next time would be helpful," he scowled back.

"Hey, I don't control their bodily functions, if they gotta go, they gotta go." I stated, laughing to myself as I remembered waking up to find a penguin asleep on Niall and within seconds drenching his torso with its bodily fluids.

"You know I didn't quite plan on sleeping in a penguin enclosure that's for sure."

"Yeah, well neither did I." I felt oddly happy this morning. Was it because I woke up surrounded by cute little baby penguins or the fact my throat wasn't dry at all this morning and my eyes weren't crusted over which meant I went a whole night without screaming or crying in my sleep. It might sound weird but that would be the first time in years since that has happened. Almost ten years to be exact.

"How did you sleep?" Niall asked, laying back down on the fake rocks spread about the place, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Great, you?"

"Not too bad for a rock hard floor," his laughter filled my ears. "This is definitely a story tell."

"Are you sure you want people to find out about this?"

"Well we didn't exactly do anything scandalous."

"We broke into a building..." I spoke, raising my eyebrows at him as I propped myself up on my own elbows so our eye levels met.

"Maybe I'll leave that part out."

"Plus if you told anyone, I highly doubt they would believe you."

"We'll keep it our little secret then shall we?"

"Sounds like a plan, best friend," I winked as we linked our pinkie fingers together.

After we let go I leaned back against the cold, hard ground and breathed in deeply, taking in the scent of penguin poop, distilled water and the occasional scent of the cologne Niall was masking. Luckily it was a Sunday and the aquarium didn't open until ten, we still had three hours to hide out and pretend we were doing nothing wrong. I closed my eyes, content with myself for the time being. I still had curious thoughts about the previous night but I was in no mood to let Renae and her odd behaviour get to me. The silence was short lived when Niall spoke again.

"We should play a game?"

"A game?" I repeated, opening my eyes to look sceptically at Niall who was still lying down completely still, staring aimlessly at the ceiling twenty feet above our heads.

"Yeah, so we can get to know each other better. Something like twenty questions."

"Wow I don't think I've played that since secondary school," we both laughed at my statement, it was true however. I normally dived head first into friendships without the whole get to know you thing. "You start."

"Okay. Question one, middle name?"

I silently groaned, I despised my middle name, but don't most people? "Vienna," I admitted.

"Vienna?"

"Yeah, it means wine country, not exactly exciting."

"Marina Vienna. It has an unusual ring to it."