‹ Prequel: Beneath Your Perfect
Status: Active!

Take Me as I Am

I'm A Mother

Niall mumbled something in his sleep before he rolled over and reached out. I smiled fondly as his hand searched my side of the bed before grabbing my pillow and squeezing it to his stomach. He was like a child while he slept.

I reached from the foot of the bed and poked his hip, hard. He grumbled and swatted my hand away.

“Are you seriously just going to lay in my bed all day?” I had already been awake for over two hours. It was odd to still have Niall here.

“S’tired.” He pushed his face further into the pillow to the point that I wasn’t sure he would be able to breathe.

“I’m not cooking you breakfast.” I warned him before leaving the room and heading back into the kitchen. I had a lot of files spread across the counter that I needed to get through before work tomorrow. Reaching over I turned off my phone knowing that I would willingly let it distract me.

After reading a full client’s work and sending ten emails, Niall finally walked out of my room. He had only managed to pull his briefs on, the rest of his pale skin bare to the midday sunlight streaming through my apartment windows. I watched him, amused, as he walked towards me rubbing the sleep from his eyes; hair sticking up in whatever direction it chose. He surprised me by pressing his lips to the top of my head then moved straight toward my coffee machine.

I watched him speechlessly as he moved around my kitchen like he already knew where everything way. He was normally gone by the time I got out of my room and I had just assumed that he had always made a quick escape. By the way he moved with familiarity made me second-guess my assumption.

I smiled at him cautiously as he walked over and refilled my empty cup with coffee before falling into the seat across from me and promptly buried himself in his coffee. I watched him for a moment longer before deciding to hint at him leaving.

“Don’t you have like a meeting, recording or public appearance to make?” I asked him meaningfully. He shook his head but kept his nose down his coffee cup. I was beginning to wander if he was actually drinking it or snorting it. “You always have stuff on.” I tried to reason further. Niall looked up at me; frowning.

“Today’s a day off.” He explained shortly before letting his head droop back down to his coffee. I sighed and pushed my own coffee towards him. More than one cup of coffee before midday would just result in my coffee crash at the end of the day. And plus Niall looked like he needed it more than me. I watched him until he finally accepted my cup, a smile on his face. He lifted his head up this time and watched me. I pulled a face at him before focusing on the files sitting around the counter.

Niall and everything around me disappeared as my concentration tuned back onto my work. I didn’t have much more left to do. I had read most of the documents and as far as I was concerned everything seemed to be working as planned. The media hadn’t been too harsh as of yet so there was hardly any damage control to do for our client who was just starting out in a career as an actor. He hadn’t appeared in anything major yet but he was apparently on the list for people to watch out for so his agent had asked us to help with public image. It was almost too easy.

“Aria.” Nialls knuckled rapped against the page I was reading. Annoyed, I looked up at him. Why was he even still here? “You’re doorbell rung.” I glanced to the door as the doorbell went off again. I looked back at Niall, seeing him halfway dressed. He had his pants from yesterday on at least. Sighing, I pushed away from the table and made my way to the door. It wasn’t Jade or Sarah; usually they walked right in. The amount of people that would visit me on a Sunday morning and ring the doorbell was quite small. Most people in my life barged in without worry.

“Ally.” I widened my eyes at my sister standing in the doorway with all three kids.

“We would have walked in but Josh wanted to ring your doorbell.” Ally rolled her eyes and pushed past, heading straight into my flat.

“Thanks Joshy.” I grinned, ruffling his hair; Anthony ignored me and went to move past us. I nudged his leg playfully before picking up Joshua and shutting the door behind him.

“I forgot Mum said you were coming over.” I said loud enough for Ally to hear as we moved towards the living room, Joshua chatting in my ear about some new toy that he had gotten.

“Clearly.” I glanced up at Ally’s snort and flushed deeply. I had forgotten Niall was still here; Niall who was smiling widely on my couch, shirtless.

“NIALL!” Joshua yelled from my arms and wriggled free. He ran over and jumped straight onto Niall’s lap continuing the story he hadn’t finished telling me.

“Good to see you Niall.” Ally laughed at them before walking into the kitchen. I was meant to follow. I sighed and looked back at Niall who now had Anthony chatting to him as well.

“I’m just going to. Uh.” I gestured behind me to where Ally had disappeared. I wasn’t sure if Niall could even stay any longer. I had no idea what was happening here. Niall just nodded and barely took his eyes away from the conversation he was having with the boys. He acted like he was actually interested in what they were saying.

“You had sex with him.” Ally hissed at me as soon as I walked into the kitchen. I glanced down at the sleeping Leah in her arms; she’s probably too young to be traumatised by the following conversation even if she was awake. I knew, however, that I probably would be traumatised.

“You jump to way too many conclusions.” I countered. “How do you know that he didn’t just sleep the night or come visit me this morning.”

“He’s shirtless and you have sex afterglow.” I glanced down at my arms. I never knew what afterglow looked like and I was genuinely curious as to how people could see it.

“You’re seeing things.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed down two coffee mugs. I would need that extra coffee now that Ally was here.

“So are you two kind of together.” Ally sat on the stool I had been doing work at and adjusted Leah in her arms.

“No, don’t be stupid.” I snorted at her and filled both cups, placing one down in front of Ally after moving all my work away.

“Do you often spend the day with all your play toys then? Is that a thing you do?” She smirked at me.

“Play toys? Seriously? And no I don’t, he just hasn’t left yet. He normally has by now.”

“Normally? This occurs how often?” I should have known that would be what Ally picked up on.

“MUM!” Anthony slid into the room, his face pale white. Ally and I moved quickly, startled by his screech. Leah woke up with a start and began crying. “Bleeding.” Anthony ran back out of the kitchen towards the living room. I rushed after Ally into the other room. What the hell could Joshua have cut himself on?

“How bad is it?” I asked walking out behind Ally and looking at Joshua intensely. There was no blood. I frowned and glanced from him to Niall who was holding a tissue around his left pointer finger. A tissue that was slowly turning a diluted red. “What on Earth were you guys doing?” I accused them staring at the coffee table where pieces of paper were sitting. They were cut into odd shapes and a pair of scissors sat on top of them. I could see a few drops of blood sitting on the blade and the white pieces of paper.

“It’s not that bad.” Niall shrugged. He winced and glanced down at his hand. Worried, I moved forward and pried his right hand away.

“Let me have a look.” I murmured, moving the tissue away. I frowned at the amount of blood. I couldn’t see the cut properly. “Come on, I have a first aid kit in the bathroom.” Wrapping my fingers around Niall’s wrist, I led him out of the room towards my bathroom. “Sit.” I gestured towards the toilet lid. Niall, instead, moved to jump up on the counter. Ignoring him, I grabbed some cleanser and bandages. I grabbed any size I could find; I didn’t know how big it was.

“It’s really nothing.” Niall muttered, placing his hand under the cold water. The water instantly turned pink and there was a lot of it. I shook my head at Niall.

“That is a lot of blood for nothing.” I countered. “Show me.”

I tried not to laugh as Niall huffed like a child before showing his finger to me. It wasn’t too bad. He wouldn’t need stitches or anything close to that. It seemed to be a shallow cut but it went halfway up his finger.

“Honestly, how does anyone over the age of seven hurt themselves with scissors. Do you not remember the rules from school? No running with them, no waving them around.” I teased Niall while dabbing the cotton bud, wet with cleanser, over the cut. Niall hissed and tensed on the counter but otherwise stayed silent. “You’re lucky the boys don’t puke from blood because I would definitely not be cleaning that up.”

I looked up at Niall’s face after he still didn’t reply. His face was blank of emotion as he stared right back. I frowned at him and snapped my fingers.

“You okay? Not going to faint on me are you?” I grinned as Niall rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this caring.” Niall said suddenly. I flushed and smacked his arm, lightly.

“Don’t get used to it.” I muttered in reply before grabbing a few Band-Aids and placing them over the cut.

“Do I get a kiss for the boo-boo.” I looked up at Niall grinning teasingly. I glanced from his finger to his face before leaning up on my toes to press a kiss to his lips. I could feel his surprise but that didn’t stop him from kissing back almost instantly. His lips pushed persistently against mine but I held back from letting it get any deeper. The door was wide open and anyone could walk in at any moment.

“Come on. Don’t think the boys will let you escape just because you got a little cut.” I grabbed onto his good hand and stepped away from the counter, pulling him off it. He watched me the whole time, surprise present on his face.

“I wasn’t planning on leaving anytime soon.” He replied hesitantly, like he knew my reaction to the words weren’t guaranteed to be good. I hesitated from leaving the room. Niall had wanted to stay here. It was just after midday and he still wanted to stay. Sighing I dropped his hand and ignored his words deciding just to leave the bathroom; Niall followed quietly.

“All good then.” Ally smiled at us both; Niall nodded staring at me disconcertingly. I avoided his eyes until he hunched his shoulders and went and joined the boys again. I watched them for a moment before Ally cleared her throat. I ignored her and moved back to the kitchen. I still had word to do.
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So I know I've been gone for ages! So sorry! And for anyone who reads my Louis story the next chapter should be posted tomorrow!
I had so much studying to do that I go so busy and I get massive writers block while I'm studying, it's a vicious cycle! But I'm on like a two week break right now before I go back for a month then I'm on my four month summer holiday! So if I disappear again without warning I apologise and promise I will be back soon. My last exam is on November 5 so after then I will be writing so much (including new story ideas!!) Sorry guys and thank you for hanging around!

xx Love you all