As soon as the phone was hooked back on the wall, the girl with silvery-blue hair turned to the brunette whose face was still holding the look of confusion.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Scarlette mumbled more dumbfounded than ever.
Ocean sensed her tone and wanted to retaliate but knew now wasn't the time, so she simply shook her head and tucked her hair behind her ears as she quickly said, "Just be nice, okay?"
"You're telling me?" Scarlette's lip curled as her eyes widened, unable to comprehend why Ocean was acting in such a bizzare way. Because, frankly, it was bizzare; Scarlette was only ever used to Ocean being angry and even had her fair share of her famous fiery temper, so the fact that it was she who was telling her to be nice this time threw her off completely.
However, before Ocean could say anyhting, there was a knock on the door.
With a pointed look being thrown at Scarlette, Ocean curled her hand around the handle and opened the door. Her features suddenly brightened, as if nothing had gone wrong that day, as if no previous event had tampered her mood.
Blue against blue, their eyes connected for a brief moment without a mutter of a word. It was when Ocean blinked, that her smile widened and let a hasty word of 'hello' stumble from her pale lips.
Niall was mesmerised with the way her mood had blossomed like a flower in spring. The way her rare smile brightened the Winter days around him, and her eyes warmed his heart faster than any burning fire would.
But as his eyes suddenly registered Ocean's sucking of her finger, the confusion he had experienced when he heard her voice through the interphone came rushing back. His eyes turned a misty blue, as concern flamed behind them.
"Wha' happened? You're bleedin'!" He said stepping closer to her, and looking at her bloody finger.
"Oh, it's nothing," She waved it off, "I'm fine."
"It doesn't look fine; let me see!" He extended his hand forward, waiting for Ocean to accept and place her hand on his palm.
"I said, I'm fine." She snapped, keeping her hand close to her chest, "Honestly." She said much calmer, realising the harsh tone she had used.
"Can anybody fill me in? What the hell is this?!" Scarlette's voice suddenly interrupted the conversation, as both parties became aware of her presence in the room.
"You've seen him before Scarlette..." Ocean replied nonchalantly, as if it wasn't such a big deal and as though her flatmate was overreacting.
"But I don't think we've been properly introduced though," Niall twitched before winking at Ocean who rolled her eyes. He then stepped closer to Scarlette and held out his hand to the brunette, "Hello, I'm Niall."
"Scarlette," She replied dryly as she shook his hand, yet her face still looked lost.
"Nice to meet ya!" Niall grinned before allowing the girl to pull her hand away.
"Pleasure." She muttered in the most monotone voice she could muster as her eyebrows raised at Ocean.
When Scarlette's face turned to look at the girl, Niall could see the red mark on her cheek and it was obvious that it was from getting hit, as he could clearly see a faded mark of a hand printed on her soar skin.
"Wha' the hell happened 'ere?" He suddenly asked more forcefully, wanting to find out what had been going on before he arrived.
"Nothing," Ocean muttered a little too quickly.
"That's not true," Scarlette whispered to herself in reflex, but Niall heard the words and instead turned to the brunette, knowing he was more likely to get some real answers from her.
"Did Jasper do this?" Even having to mutter that name, made Niall's blood boil. It was when Scarlette turned to Ocean with worried eyes, that the gesture confirmed Niall's theories.
"He's gonna fuckin' get it!" He spat as his fists clenched automatically and his body turned towards the door again.
Ocean grabbed him by the arm, his intentions making a chuckle to leave her lips. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked mockingly.
"I'm gonna beat the shit out'a him."
"You're gonna beat him up?!" The scoff spilled from her lips as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Of course, his intentions were good and it warmed her heart but she wasn't going to firstly admit that, nor was she capable of allowing him to go about doing it, as she knew it was a ridiculous thought.
"Why're ya laughin'? I ain't jokin'."
"You don't know what you're saying, Niall." Her voice turned serious, leaving all jokes aside. "You don't want to go about doing that, not with him. Plus, you don't know where he is anyway..."
"Don't worry about that, I'll find him." He said firmly before adding, "And I can stick up for meself, Ocean. Wha'? You don't think I can take him?"
"Of course not." She replied slightly too quickly not thinking about how that could potentially be a blow to his ego. Yet, she carried on, "He's not the type of guy you want to mess with. He's trouble Niall, and he'll happily destroy you."
"She's right," Scarlette added, taking in his offended reaction but wanting to reassure him that Jasper was not an easy guy to deal with. "You wouldn't know what you're getting yourself into."
"So wha', I'm just supposed to stand aside and do nothin' about the fact that a guy came into a house with two innocent young girls and cause havoc in the middle of the night?"
His common sense made Ocean's heart warm, but she didn't allow the smile that wanted to crawl on her lips to appear.
"That's exactly what you should do. I've dealt with the problem, Niall. He won't be bothering us again." She reassured him with a small forced smile. "Just drop it okay?"
"But he hurt you." He added through clenched teeth, as his eyes bore into hers.
"He didn't hurt me, for God's sake! I fucking aimed a frame at him and the glass cut my finger when I tried picking it up, that's it. Honestly, just leave it. Don't get involved. Please."
But Niall gave no answer.
So, Ocean placed a gentle hand on his tensed jaw and tried to smile at him again as she repeated, "Please."
There was a moment of silence, as both of them kept looking at each other. Niall wanted to protect her; he felt so attached to her, that knowing that she had been caused pain completely destroyed him. But he saw the desperation in her eyes, and knew that dragging this situation further was just going to push her buttons and he had already experienced the results of her upheaved temper. So, Niall simple nodded once, but added nothing.
"Good." She spoke softly, removing her hand.
"Good." He forced himself to say, knowing the word was becoming their thing and just as he pronounced the word, Ocean greeted him with a small cheerful laugh.
"I'll be right back," She said, as she put her finger back into her mouth and headed to the kitchen to try and clean her wound.
As soon as the girl with silvery-blue hair left the room, Scarlette rushed to Niall's side and began speaking in a hushed tone.
"You really don't want to mess with Jasper; you seem like a nice enough lad and you don't need his torment."
"Did he give you that mark on your cheek?" Niall replied instead, still not happy that he had to agree not to do anything about the situation.
"Yes." The brunette's eyes glanced at the floor as she tried to finding something else to look at rather than the popstar's eyes.
"What did he do exactly?" He asked through clenched teeth again, as scenes of the confrontation started to transform in corners of his imagination.
"He slapped me, obviously. But don't tell Ocean; just drop it."
"You scared of her?" He saw a small similarity of Ocean's personality in Scarlette and wasn't surprised to find they were best friends. The brunette muttered her words harshly, just like Ocean did; however, unlike Ocean, Scarlette was somewhat gentler and knew how to distinguish right from wrong.
There was a scoff, and then the girl shook her head. "I'm not scared of Ocean," her eyes met Niall's blue ones, trying to emphasise on the words, "I'm scared of what could happen to her. She gets herself into situations she could easily avoid, and I'm scared she'll go back to Jasper and to the corruption he's shown her."
"I ain't gonna let that happen." He replied sincerely, taking in every word and making sure his own were just as truthful as the girl was allowing herself to be.
"Do you like her, is that why you're here?" Scarlette suddenly asked, changing the subject completely. To that, Niall merely laughed and folded his arms over his chest as his eyes suddenly looked forwards and away from the girl.
"Is that your theory?"
"Yes. It's the only explanation. I know she's a difficult person to be with, and for a popstar like you, whose life consists of travelling the world and encountering pretty girls all the time, would have already made it easy for you to forget about her. So yes, it's my theory and I think it's the truth."
"So I'm guessing you're studying psychology."
"So I'm right?" Scarlette tested him again, raising an eyebrow waiting for his confirmation. However, in that moment Ocean came in with a scowl shadowing over her pretty features.
"I think I made it worse, for fuck's sakes." She mumbled moodily.
"What did you do to it?!" Scarlette took her finger and examined it, turning her back on Niall, as though he wasn't even there.
"I tried taking the glass splinter, but I think I made it worse." She cursed and then flipped her head to Niall's direction and narrowed her eyes down at him. "What were you two talking about, anyway?"
"Nothing special, just talking about how annoying and dramatic you are all the time-"
"We didn't!" Scarlette cut in immidiately, looking at Ocean with affirmitive eyes. Niall wasn't sure why she was worried, it was obvious from Ocean's reaction that she knew he was joking. Something about that behaviour made him think twice about her answer to his earlier question about being scared of Ocean.
"Yeah we didn't." Niall finally confirmed and smiled at Scarlette who was looking at him with a 'why-the-hell-would-you-even-say-that' look. "She didn't tell me anything; now let me see your hand." He came closer, ignoring the look on her face as he took her finger from Scarlette's grasp and brought it to his face. "How did you even make it worse? Ya're even a danger to yourself!" He laughed obnoxiously as he teased her, but stopped the minute her other hand playfully punched him on the arm.
"Hilarious." She muttered dryly, before pulling in a sharp surprised breath as Niall brought her finger into his mouth and began to suck on her wound.
Scarlette's eyes widened as she saw the heated exchange between them and then looked away saying, "Okay, I'm off to bed." But the couple didn't even listen to her, as their eyes were now fixed on each other and darkening as the seconds ticked by.
Niall then pulled away briefly as he triumphantly grinned at Ocean, showing off the retrieved piece of glass twinkling in between his teeth.
"There," He spat it onto his other hand and placed it on the messy table, while his other was still holding her wounded finger. After the glass splinter was finally on the table, Niall pulled Ocean to him forcefully and tilted her head upwards as he brougth her finger to his lips again and placed a soft kiss on it.
"I guess, I should thank you then." She mumbled trying to keep her voice steady.
"I think tha' would be appropriate." He replied deeply against her wound.
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A/N: Ta-da!
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ily all and sorry about the long wait xo