all strings attached || n.h au

part two

Nearly two months had passed since Eliana's first birthday party and things had been going great for both Niall and Kyra. Their definition of great was this: no one suspected a thing about their relationship so they were safe from having to come clean about their secret for another month and they had developed a system wherein Niall would stay at Kyra's place from Monday until Wednesday and she would stay at his from Thursday until Sunday.

It's Friday night and Kyra was sitting cross-legged on Niall's couch with her laptop on her lap as she still had a few work related things to do even though she's out of the office already. Meanwhile Niall was mindlessly scrolling through Netflix as he didn't know what to watch and nothing seemed to catch his attention. He and Kyra finished a show two nights ago and he thought it'd be a good thing to start a new one.

"Have you found anything interesting?" Kyra asked, her eyes fixed on her laptop still. A groan was what she received in reply. She patted his knee before she returned her fingers back on the keyboard. She had one more email to send, one that she had been dreading because it's for the client that she's not too fond of, before she could sign off for the night and enjoy her Friday night in with her boyfriend.

Niall had just found something interesting to watch and was about to click play when a knock on the door interrupted him. He's not expecting anyone and his colleagues knew better than to come over to his place unannounced. So he turned to Kyra. "Is that for you?"

She shook her head. "No one knows I'm here."

"Right. Of course no one knows," Niall muttered under his breath. Kyra opened her mouth to ask him to repeat himself when he cursed. She kinked an eyebrow at him. "I think it's Travis."

"No."

"Apart from you, he's the only one who insists on knocking instead of using the doorbell," Niall said. Kyra's face paled in horror. "So yeah, I think it is him."

"Okay don't panic–"

Niall squinted his eyes at his girlfriend. "Not a problem for me," he said because he's not panicking at all.

If it were up to him, he would march up to the door and let her brother in so he'd know already. Each time he met up with Travis, the itch to come clean got stronger and stronger. Surely Travis would understand. He was, after all, serious about Kyra. He's not one for casual relationships – Travis should know that by now and he should also know that Niall wouldn't do anything to intentionally hurt his sister. But since Kyra insisted that they should still keep it a secret, he kept his mouth shut, swallowed the words whenever they threatened to leave his throat.

Kyra glared at him as she pursed her lips. She had something else to say to him but not when her brother was waiting outside. "I'll hide in your room. Don't let him go in there."

She didn't wait around to hear what else he had to say as she picked up her belongings and went to his room. She closed the door, put down her laptop on his bed before crawling onto it a second later. She heard his footsteps growing farther and farther, and then there's muffled voices coming from the hall. She couldn't hear what they're saying even if she tried so she waited until they're in the living room to eavesdrop.

"Have you heard from Kyra?" Travis asked. "I've been calling her but she's not picking up. And when I went over to her place, it's dark. So I thought she'd be here because she's always hanging out with you."

Kyra looked around Niall's room for her phone and found it on the nightstand. It was dead the last time she checked it and whilst she had reminded herself to charge it as soon as she got here, she forgot all about it when Niall welcomed her with a kiss. Kiss that turned into something much, much hotter as they got carried away. From the living room, to the bedroom and then to the bathroom. No doubt she'd be needing an encore of that performance soon.