Intrepid » n.h. au

Chapter 50

"Honey, I'm home!" I call as I walk into my apartment, barely resisting the urge to laugh at myself while I shrug my jacket off. "Are the kids alright?"

"None of your TV shows got cancelled, Niall, they're alright." I walk over to the closed door of the bathroom, leaning against it with a grin on my face.

"Are you gonna come out soon? We have to leave in an hour."

"I know, give me another minute!"

"Alright," I mumble to myself, sighing, and walk over to the kitchen. The clock I hung above the sink says it's 6:13; so we actually have a little over an hour left. Besides, why do I always wanna be at the airport three hours before my flight?

I get myself a can of coke from the fridge – which reminds me, I need to tell Louis to buy more beer or I'll die from the drought – about a second before I hear the bathroom door open, making me contemplate whether I should leave it for later or open it now. "Hey, tell me-" I hear Freya's voice, becoming louder as she approaches the living room slash dining room slash kitchen, "Is this a good look on me?"

I shove my left hand into my pocket and turn around from the counter, with an opened coke can, and laying my eyes on her makes me stop raising the can to my mouth midway. White converse, blue jeans, that same cuddly grey and white sweater she wore yesterday- not an outfit I could ever imagine seeing on her.

"You look-" I stop talking, as well as bringing the soda to my lips again, when my eyes travel a little higher- not only the outfit, but she also toned her make-up down to just mascara and lipbalm. The cherry on top of all of that is her straightened hair in a ponytail. "I'm sorry, who are you and what have you done to Freya?"

"Well," She starts, in a deep voice, walking over to me, "I realized that the usual Freya is not someone you'd want to introduce to your mother. She's more of a person that-"

"-I'd wanna fuck in the back seat of my car to the rhythm of a Fall Out Boy song?"

"Exactly," She agrees in less than a heartbeat, almost making me spit out my soda. "And we don't wanna make your mother think you chose to be with someone who would willingly have sex in a vehicle. And hey, is my hair okay like this? I haven't straightened it in ages."

"Yeah, it looks... it requires some getting used to but it's nice," I breathe out a laugh, shaking my head, trying to think of the right words to say to her first sentence. "Babe, you... you don't have to change your entire appearance so my mum will like you, I told you, at the end of the day, her opinion doesn't even matter."

Groaning, Freya throws her head back; she knows I'm right, but I understand that she can't fight the feeling of wanting to be liked. "Okay, well, maybe I could... can I wear my leather jacket? Or is that too punk for her?"

I don't know if her asking for permission to wear her favorite piece of clothing is funny or sad. "Well, I also own a leather jacket," I shrug, seeing her eyes light up at my words- the hell, she already knows I have it? "So... yeah. You can totally wear your-"

Her hands are on my face and her lips on mine before I can finish my sentence; all I can do is smile into our kiss and think about how I should do more things that would make her this happy. Even though that's kinda my duty now. "Great!" She squeaks, still grinning from ear to ear, and turns around to walk to the other side of the room, probably to the bedroom. "Tell me what else I can wear, I want her to like me but I don't wanna feel like an alien in my own skin."

"Well..." I leave the can of soda on the counter and reach in my right pocket, "You could try wearing this?"

Freya swiftly turns around, probably having expected me to be holding some piece of clothing, but she ends up freezing in her spot and widening her eyes when she sees me holding a box in my hand. Much smaller than the one that contained a necklace I gave her a few months ago. This one is also square.