i.
Y/N questions a lot of her own decisions.
Second guesses herself after the fact quite a lot actually; for example, why did she go and bring in a stray cat who obviously wanted nothing to do with her and treated her as a chew toy, not mentioning an additional mouth to feed? She couldn't tell you, other than it looked at her, mewed really deep, nipped at her fingertip, and for some reason she lugged the thin little guy up a few flights to her apartment. Or why did she think it was a good idea to work for a florist who seldom had a smile on their face and somehow weaseled her into working a 40 hour week once? Beats her, because even having taken that botany class in high school never helped her answer whether a carnation or a marigold would suit a dinner table best (however, she could go on extensively about plant reproduction but nobody wanted to hear it). And what about the fact that she'd somehow agreed to being carted halfway across the globe to a remote little England town at the bottom of a mountain so that Niall wouldn't have to help his understaffed Nan's bakery alone all summer?
Well, this one just takes the cake really.
She can't even say it's because she's a good friend – her and Niall were lab partners during the Spring Semester and spent many a night cramming for their tests and stuffing their faces with baked goods scent from his Nan sent from "over yonder" as he would say, but they'd just met that year. There was no loyalty she had to abide by, nor was there a true reason she should have said yes to his pleading, pouting face at the library, but she also didn't really have a reason to say no either. He had been nice enough to write out her whole lab report in a different way than he did his own once. And once he bought her a dozen buttercream frosting cupcakes when she let him cheat off the test he didn't know they had. Plus her family was going to be away on a cruise all summer that she politely declined on going in favor of not being stuck on a boat and fearing every night that Titanic: Part 2 would occur before she went to bed. And she really had nothing else to do anyway, so maybe she was a little bored – the year as a whole had been boring thus far, it would certainly spice it up in a way.
So after four times of him asking and Y/N saying she would think about it, she finally says yes when he says all expenses paid for, they get a paycheck, and stay in a cute little cottage with wifi and the whole nine. He also flattered her with the old, "You're dependable and really funny – my first choice to ask even! We'd be helping at her bakery too, so sweets 24/7, no restraints, and we learn some baking tips along the way. Come with me, pretty please?"
(It helped that he brought her raspberry jam tarts as his final offering.)
She began second guessing this decision a little too late – like when they're landing in the airport in London, to board a train, to arrive at this town that she had never heard of before now. Hoping that this wasn't a treacherous mistake, but Niall is practically kissing her feet for flying out all this way for him and committing to this so she can't turn back now. Not when he's promising back massages and cooking her breakfasts, lunches, and dinners as a thank you (which she sees is a longshot, that lazy lug, but the thought is nice at least). The plane ride was fun and the train ride there was pretty damn fun too; Niall had a very easygoing way about him, so she wasn't worried about them getting along. She thinks, if someone can find someone who can handle them at their pre-test panicked cramming, then they could handle just about anything.
And Niall's Nan was an absolute doll; squeezed her tight and pinched her bum, giving her a warm chocolate chip cookie in stereotypical grandma fashion and told her explicitly that she's to call her Nan because she's apart of the family now. "Niall tells me y'a aren't datin' n'thank god for it, he'd ruin ya."
"Oi, leave me name out of it!" Niall had grumbled when she pulled him into her for a hug, receiving the same pinch on the bum, "Missed you Nan."
It was a happy little reunion, they got to go to the cottage and picked their rooms – the beds were king sized, plushy and soft, the living room with a fireplace and a rather large tv, a coffee table with the wifi passwords and the alarm codes, a nice, clean, pristine looking kitchen and two big proper bathrooms. For a "cozy little cottage at the base of the mountain" Niall's Nan is making bank on her bakery. The only part she would fault on it is that it's at the base of a mountain, and her own predisposed, illogical fears from movies means the view she gets of the trees out of the window is not as appreciated as it could be. But other than that everything else was fine; great even – she had no complaints the first night, when she's all showered and cozy on the couch, them watching reruns of some reality show with Niall in the living room over a dinner he had "expertly made" (it was merely pasta, but she bites into it and acts as if the taste is orgasmic anyways, and Niall smiles wide), then curling up in a huge, King-sized bed and sleeping soundly until the next morning.
