"Hey guys, you're back!"
Louis greeted with a beaming expression on his face.
He already opened the front door to be finally met with Zayn and Nova after a couple of days of not seeing the two.
Harry, Niall, and Liam were also behind with smiles on their faces as they saw their little girl and band mate.
"Yep, finally back, was only for a couple days, but you know"
Zayn chuckled, having Nova walk in front of him first into the house.
He immediately dropped their bags on the ground from holding on to them for a while.
"Still, that's enough for us," Louis smiles.
"Hi baby, dada missed you" He continued with a grin, now bending a bit so Nova and him could be at eye level.
Nova then finally glanced at Louis, adding a small and forced smile.
"Hello" She greeted back quietly, before also peering at the rest of her care takers behind Louis.
She didn't sound very happy greeting them which was a little surprising knowing she normally would be.
Now if it wasn't for the men getting to know Nova's characteristics and habits for whatever her emotions were, they would be confused.
However, right now Louis and rest of them could tell easily that her smile didn't reach her eyes as it usually would.
"How was it babe? You have fun with daddy z"
Harry added in, stepping close to the younger girl.
Nova nodded, "it was good, I liked being in New York so that was fun, it was nice," she answered back honestly.
All of the guys, well except for Zayn, widened their eyes a bit, definitely not expecting her to talk so maturely.
That sentence would be rare if she was in a deep headspace or just one at all, Nova's not that wordy on a normal basis.
Another thing was that Zayn didn't look very much surprised so there was probably something he knew that the rest of the guys didn't.
"... Well that's great, love" Harry responded, peering down at her before glancing at Zayn.
"Yep..." Nova mumbled, trying to look in different places except their eyes.
She started to look more uncomfortable by the small talk so Harry decided to just shut it.
It was silent for only a second or two before Zayn spoke up again.
"Here, why don't we start settling in, these suitcases need to be unpacked" Zayn said, changing the subject.
He then gave a distinctive expression to the boys as he was behind Nova and could do so without her seeing.
The look in his eyes basically expressed a mixture of "I can tell you later" and "I know you're confused too.
"Do you want to play with anything in your basket, Nova?" Liam asking, gesturing to the toy bin that was some feet away from them.
Liam and Nova were actually in the living room just hanging out while the rest of the guys were all over the house.
"No, I'm good" Nova answered, leaning back in one of the recliners and casually crossing her arms,
She wasn't really in the mood to play with toys, and Liam could now tell.
And if it wasn't more obvious when Zayn and Nova first arrived, then it's definitely more clear now.
Nova was without a doubt out of her headspace, for the first time with out having the men having to ask for her to do so.
It was different, very different as they were so used to one type of Nova,
and not the more grown one for over a certain amount of tome.
However, they were the ones to allow her to explore her feelings and allow her self to be big or little whenever she felt like it.
So they were just go to respect her wants and not give much of a reaction as that would make her uncomfortable and second-guess her feelings.
"Can I watch some tv, please " Nova asked, pointing to the flat screen that was turned off.
"Oh yeah, of course" Liam quickly responded back, leaning forward from the couch to get the remote on the coffee table.
He then turned it on before looking over at Nova again.
"Do you want watch your usual of Nick or Disney-"
"No, not in the mood for that ... it's kind of childish. Is there something else?" Nova interrupted right away.
"Well there's a lot more channels, unless you want to go on Netflix" Liam offered.
"Yeah I think I'll just choose something on Netflix" Nova answered, shrugging.
Liam nodded slowly, a little weary of her watching just anything on Netflix as that parental mode built in him.
Although, he decided to just suck it up and let her.
"Here, you can have the remote so you can choose, love" Liam said, reaching to hand it to her.
Nova got the remote from his before scrolling over the recent popular shows.
Nothing really got her attention so she decided to go to one of her favorite genres, horror.
"Found it" Nova mumbled to herself as she found one of favorite movies in the selection.
Orphan
Liam was a little taken back from not expecting her to pick something like that, or really anything scary to begin with.
He understood she was a teenager who probably liked stuff like that, however, Liam just didn't want her to get scared later on and have nightmares.
"You sure you want to watch that, Novie? I'm not saying you can't. I'm just asking" Liam assured, peering over at her.
"I'm sure, I watched stuff like this all the time, it's not scary. I am 17, I can handle it" Nova defended.
"Okay then that's fine, do you want me to stay or.."
"You can leave, I'm good" Nova responded, getting the white, throw blanket, and spreading it on her legs.
Liam nodded, before standing up from his seat. He took one glance at Nova before leaving the living room and shutting the door.
A couple hours later
Niall was in the kitchen, standing in front of the counter as he was on his MacBook.
He was concentrated until he saw his baby actually walk past the room.
"Hey Nova, is your movie done?" Niall called out, starting to make his way over to her as she stopped in her tracks.
"Yeah, I finished it. I'm just going to the bathroom now" Nova explained, gesturing to the hallway.
Niall nodded, understanding but was a little concerned. Only because Nova hasn't went to the toilet normally in a long time.
Plus she still had a diaper on right now from this morning so he didn't know if she would still keep it on or toss it. Or if it was even used or not.
"Okay, do you need me to help you because I definitely can. I know you haven't went-"
"I can do it by myself" Nova quickly voiced out, feeling a little embarrassed already.
She knew how to use a toilet, she couldn't just forget.
"Well you can go ahead and do so, babe. But why don't I just stand outside the door, so you can give your diaper to me and I can throw it out" Niall explained.
"Okay, but what do I put on after that? I don't want another diaper" Nova confessed, shaking her head.
Her cheeks were feeling very warm.
Nova really didn't understand why she felt like this, this was what she wanted. To at least try to be out of her headspace.
She could be a big girl.
"We have some undies in your room, in case this happened. I'll get you a pair, babe" Niall assured, working this out with her.
Nova nodded, before walking up the stairs with him behind.
"Here's the diaper" Nova said, finally coming out of the bathroom, and switching the light off in there.
She then gave the folded up material to Niall.
"Okay, I'll toss it out, you doing okay?" Niall asked, just wanting to make sure.
Nova's face showed annoyance as she didn't like when people asked her that, especially when she wasn't okay.
"I'm fine" She slightly grumbled, before adding a tight smile to show she was 'okay' even though she wasn't.
Niall just nodded, before Nova spoke up again.
"I'm going back down stairs" Nova said,
"Okay, that's fine. The guys and I will be upstairs if you need us" Niall responded.
Nova mumbled an 'okay', before walking down the stairs.
Niall turned back around, getting ready to obviously throw this diaper out but also ready to meet his band mates in their upstairs office.
After doing so, Niall opened the door to the room being met with the guys.
He also shut the door, after he walked in so no words were loud enough to hear for Nova.
"I know, I know. I should have told or warned you guys earlier that Nova wasn't going to be in a headspace"
Zayn immediately admitted, being the first one to speak out of the five.
"But I don't know either if that's what you're wondering"
Zayn also added, referring to why Nova was acting different.
Happy 10 years to this amazing band! So many emotions and feelings :)
-Tayiah