Another update! I'm really loving this story, hopefully I can make these updates a bit longer too!
Thank you all for the lovely feedback, and for reading!
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"Well spotted." He said, smirking a bit at the shocked boy. Harry had been caught out, discovered, so he reckoned turning on the charm would work better than running away. He was Harry Styles, town freak, but he didn't run away. Not from humans and adorable boys with stunning blue eyes at least. There were things he did run from, but Niall would not be one of those things. The blonde took a step backwards, mind trying to process everything.
"It wasn't a dream?" He questioned softly, more to himself than anyone else, but Harry shook his head anyways. Niall clutches at the air near his neck, forgetting of the loss of his necklace was the reason he was here again. Harry caught the movement, hand reaching into his pocket clutching at the cool metal in his pocket, a token he had found the day after Niall had disappeared through the doorway. A reminder of the perplexing lad he had spared. But it seemed to him now that it was something of value to the lad, who was now close to hyperventilating.
"Why do you keep clutching at your neck?" He asked curiously, wondering if his guess was correct. He wondered if the lad was hurting, and for some odd reason he hoped he wasn't. This lad was too pretty to be hurt.
"My-my necklace, it- I lost it." He stuttered, and Harry took a careful step forward. He had seen this before, in a deer that he had found in the forest surrounding the town. It was scared of him, and any sudden movement would set it off. A creature of beauty, untrusting of strangers, of humans and the monsters that tried to hurt it. Niall reminded him of that innocent little deer. Niall wasn't someone he wanted to scare off. He reached into his pocket, wrapping his hand around the necklace in a fist, and gently showed it to Niall. Niall flinched slightly, but when the hit he was expecting didn't come he looked at the fist. He was confused, eyes locking with stunning emerald that somehow calmed him, and when his heart didn't race as fast from fear, he took a careful step forward.
Harry's lips quirked up, almost resembling a smile. A real, genuine smile, something he hadn't worn in such a long time that it felt foreign to him. He opens his hand, revealing the necklace, watching as Niall's face lights up with recognition. He slowly reaches for it, as if he's scared that Harry will jerk it away, tell him it was all a cruel joke. Harry doesn't, and Niall happily pulls the necklace out of Harry's hand, holding it in front of him, a thankful smile on his face.
"Thank you." He whispered, smiling brightly. He slipped the necklace on, clutching at it, smiling widely. But then something caught his attention, Harry's hand to be exact. "I thought you had claws?" He asked, and just as the question left his mouth, claws extended from his fingers. Niall watched shocked, but also slightly in awe.
"I do." Harry answered gently, watching the blonde with fascination. "Does it frighten you?"
"No." He answered, gently running a finger over the sharp nail, awed at what had happened before him. Harry watches, a swirling in his stomach making itself known. But then his fingers travel over his hand, caressing a scar on his wrist, and all Harry can see in Niall's eyes is curiosity and caring. This lad was different, and that frightened him. The feeling in his stomach frightened him, the knowledge that he doesn't feel even the slightest desire to kill the blonde frightened him. He was scared, so scared, and that feeling in itself scared him more, because there was a very short list of things that frightened him. At the moment, Niall was at the top.
He stepped back, hiding in the shadows, his green glowing eyes all that was visible of him to Niall. For some reason Niall was no longer scared of the man that was stood before him. He wasn't a monster, he looked like it, but by the way he had acted towards Niall he couldn't have been.
Niall makes a move to step forward, but a ring pierces the air, a Joy Division song echoing through the room. Niall stops in his tracks, digging out his phone from his pocket, sighing when he sees the caller ID: Louis. He answers with a simple hello, hiding the slight annoyance he felt for his mate.
"Where are you? I'm at your place and you're not here, and Li is with Zed so you're not with either of them." Harry can hear it through the speaker, noticing how worried Niall's mate actually sounds. He decides none of them know where he's wandered off to, he thinks that it was a bad idea for Niall not to delve that information. He could be dead by morning, and his mates wouldn't know where to look.
"I'm- erm." He starts, wracking his brain for an excuse, knowing he's caught out but he doesn't want his mates to worry.
"Niall James Horan, don't you dare lie to me. We are worried sick, I was about to call the damn police!" he all but yelled, causing Niall to pull the phone away from his ear.
"You didn't even call me before this."
"Doesn't matter. You do nothing but work and watch the telly with a few pints. Excuse me for worrying when you're not at home on a Thursday evening."
"I'm fine Lou."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"What question?"
"Niall James where the hell are you?" Niall sighs, knowing there would be no use in arguing with him, there was no way he would win.
"I'm at the house."
"Whose house?"
"The one on the hill." He mumbles it, but from the way its silent on the other line he knows Louis has heard him. There's an angry hiss, air escaping rapidly through the space between Louis' lips, and it's then that Niall knows he's in trouble.
It's not like Louis is his father or anything, but making Louis mad was a bad idea, and Niall knows he's pissed him off. Knows that Louis is going to tell him that it was stupid, dangerous, reckless. That Niall could get himself killed by pulling stunts like this. He knows that Louis is just worried, that he cares, and Niall hopes that he won't tell Liam and Zayn, knows that having all three of them angry and worried wouldn't be a good idea.
"You're one of the only people that has ever survived a night in that house and you go back?! Are you fucking suicidal Niall?! I'm coming to get you, I swear to god you better be fine and waiting for me. I'll be there in 5." He hisses, and Niall can hear the rustling in the background, the slam of a door and the rev of the engine, and then the line goes dead. Niall winces, knows that he screwed up somehow, even though he was never meant to stay this long.
He looks up and his eyes lock with the shining green in the darkness, somehow he can read just in Harry's eyes that he agrees with Louis. He can see the lad thinks him coming was a bad idea. And Harry does, he does think it was a bad idea, one that effected the both of them. Harry knows it was a huge risk letting him live the first time, and now he thinks that despite his mind telling him not to let him live a second time, he decides to just let him go again. The lad has yet to hurt him, yet to send a mob to his home, yet to be like everyone else.
"He's right." Harry says, breaking the silence that had fallen over them, causing Niall to jump a bit at the sudden noise. Niall nods, clutching at his necklace, questions swirling in his mind. "Was that necklace really important enough for you to lose your life?" Niall nods again, scuffing his foot on the floor to try and keep himself from looking up at Harry.
"Why did you let me live?" He asks, voicing the question prodding at the edges of his mind. He seems to have hit a nerve, because he can see Harry go ridged, he thinks that now wouldn't be the time to focus on the slight outline of his muscled chest, taunt and tense.
"I don't know." Harry replies honestly, because it's a question that's been running through his mind for since the night he let him live. The truth of it seems to hit them both hard, realizing that it could have turned out differently. They're both at least a little happy that it didn't.
"You've killed everyone else, haven't you?" Niall questions again, knowing he shouldn't but the thirst for knowledge and answers is taking over his mind and his mouth. He looks up, searching Harry's eyes. He doesn't know if he wants to know really, doesn't know what answer he would prefer, or how he'd react when the answer is revealed.
"Truthfully?" Harry questioned, unsure of what the lad was truly asking for. Was he asking for the truth, or was he asking for a lie that would make him feel better, feel safer? And was Harry the one to really give those answers to him? He had a hard time reading things like this, years and years of minimal human interaction had taken those skills away, or at least, chipped at them, fading them. Honestly, neither really knew what Niall was asking for, neither knew which answer would be the best to give or receive. So Niall nodded, albeit a bit unsurely, but the question had already been asked and there was no going back. Not truly anyways.
Ignorance is bliss they say, Niall had never really understood that as much as he did as he awaited an answer he wasn't sure he was ready to hear.
"Most of them." Harry answered, Niall could see the small movement of a shrug in the darkness. He didn't really know what to say, and he kind of wanted Harry to elaborate. The answer had been vague, but also very very heavy with what it meant. He didn't have to respond, didn't have the chance because there was a honk, slightly muffled by the walls of the house surrounding him. He had forgotten the phone call with Louis, until now. He knew that he was impatient, and if he didn't move now Louis would come up himself.
He turns to glance at the door, and when he looks back at Harry- or the space harry was- he's gone and the air feels a little colder and darker. He thinks of what Harry had said, thinking that maybe he had been lucky, but maybe Louis wouldn't be.
A loud banging echoes through the house, pounding on the door but before he can even move to get it, it swings open. A frantic Louis standing in the doorway. He locks eyes on Niall, who is in one piece thank god, and he rushes over, looking over him to find any injuries. When he doesn't find any- new ones- the worry fades and anger settles over him. He hits him in the arm and drags him out, ranting all the while about how worried he was and how he had the right mind to not call Liam until he knew Niall was dead.
Niall tried to listen, really he did. He caught about every other word, but his mind was still back in that house with Harry.
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IT'S LONGER I'M SO HAPPY!!!!
What does Harry mean most of them?
Will Niall risk it and go back again?
Will the other lads get hurt because of it if he does?
How does Niall feel about Harry and everything?
How does Harry feel about Niall and everything?
How does Harry feel about Louis' reaction?
32 comments?
Val xx
{Just posted a coming soon story that will be awesome I think, a little darker. So check it out if that sounds like something you may enjoy.)
ACgAoAKS9