Reminisce [ A Niall Horan OU ]

iii. even ten years from now

The funny thing about time is that is passes by quickly when you want it to slow down and when you want it to fly by, it moves at a snail's pace. For a musician, the notion is even more amplified. Life on tour goes by too fast and the time between tours too slow, but it's a balance that every musician masters in one way or another.

For Niall and Meera, time is measured in this way, but also by  how much of it they can spend together. By the summer of that year, Niall is back from his backpacking trip with a tan and a notebook full of ideas to share, while Meera has just finished and released her first full album. Yet again, Niall realizes  how much can change in such a short amount of time.

While he was recovering from his broken heart, Meera was letting herself fall in love all over again. Niall had met the guy and wasn't shy of making it clear that he wasn't a fan of his. The difficult part wasn't the fact that he didn't like this guy, it was that he couldn't pinpoint exactly why. There was nothing apparently off about him, it was just... well, to be frank, the vibe Niall got around him. He had a hard time watching Meera with this guy; the way she gravitated towards him made something prickle deep inside Niall and he wasn't sure what that something was exactly.

He thinks it's because it's been so long since he got time alone with just Meera, his best friend and the only person in the world he actually wanted to keep in touch with when he subsequently dropped off the face of the planet  in the beginning of the year. Now that he was back in LA, and Flicker was set to release in October, he had nothing on his plate. All the feelings he'd harbored for the past few years were out and in his humble opinion, wrapped up perfectly in his first solo album. Now he just wanted to live, relax, before he and Meera were both back on their own individually touring their new albums. It had taken him a long time to recover from his last breakup, if you could even call it that, and now that he was back on his feet Niall had a renewed optimism concerning life. For the first time in forever, he was entirely in charge of how his life worked — and he wanted to spend as much of it as possible with Meera.

Even if it was in small moments, like now, with her snoozing next to him on his massive couch. She'd insisted that they have a tv marathon for a new show she'd gotten into while he was gone, yet 20 minutes into the first episode she'd fallen asleep. The show, of course, was still running because Niall was curious to see what made her love it so much. It was the first entire day they'd spent together, and alone, since Niall got back from Asia. He didn't mind that she'd fallen asleep, though. How could he when she looked so peaceful?

Her head is settled on one of his legs, her hair tickling his skin as she sleeps. A faint smiles tugs at Niall's lips when he hears her snore ever so softly, before shuffling around and falling quiet again. His living room is dark, as usual, and cool — giving them a much needed escape from the summer Californian heat. He debates getting up to go get a beer but he decides against it, worried that he'll jostle Meera awake.

As he gets into the show, it's only a while later that he hears insistent buzzing. He frowns and grabs his phone, glaring at the screen. When he realizes it isn't his, he leans over and sees Meera's phone wedged under her arm, the bright blue case moving even so slightly. It's vibrating  over and over again, and he knows that it'll wake her up if he doesn't move it. He carefully leans over her, glancing down to make sure he doesn't wake her as he moves the phone away.