Lightning in a Bottle

Being pregnant brought on a lot of things. Certain smells made me feel sick, my feet and back hurt, my breasts got tender. Most of all I was always hot. Which meant that sleeping with Niall was very annoying, because through our whole relationship, he always ended up sleeping on top of me. Being pregnant didn’t stop that at all. Except now, he was never able to lie across my whole upper body anymore, but that didn’t mean I didn’t wake up almost every morning with him curled up over my chest.

Which is exactly how I woke up this morning, though this time, I didn’t mind. I was hot with him on me, but when I felt his finger ghosting over my 6 month pregnant belly, I didn’t even care. His face was tucked against my collar bone and his breathing tickled my skin as he breathed out but his touch made me feel a whole different kind of warmth. I opened my eyes slowly and watched as his hand rubbed slowly over the tight fabric of my old Ramones shirt, that was so faded it was almost grey and stretched beyond repair, in a random rotation.

He must have known I was awake now because he spoke softly, “Our kids are in there.” He hummed contently, “It still amazes me.”

I placed my hand over his on my stomach and he laced our fingers over my protruding belly button. “I know. It’s still kind of weird,” I laughed quietly.

“I love them already.”

My heart swelled when he said things like that. I feel like I could easily fangirl over his enthusiasm at becoming a father. Every time we talked about our little ones, his face lit up like it did when he was on stage. He was so excited when we finally found out the sex of our twins that he wasted no time tweeting out to the world that soon, we’d be the proud parents of PennyLane Maura and Cieran Nicholas Horan.

I never thought I could possibly love this Irishman more, but seeing how excited he was at all of this made my whole body radiate with love and affection (and it might also be the pregnancy hormones, who knows). He was constantly talking about what color we wanted to paint the, work-in-progress, nursery, and when we wanted to have my baby shower and trying to finish all his projects between now and when the babies were born so he could spend as much time with us as possible.

One Direction weren’t set for another tour until next year, but they still had appearances and interviews and writing their next album. Plus, Niall’s side project; his own line of Gibson guitars. I was so incredibly proud of him yet all he did was stress out that he was missing the ‘important times of my pregnancy.’ Though honestly, I liked that he was busy most days, because all I wanted to do was lay down since everything was either soar or bloated at this point.

“Three months seems so far away for them to grace us with their presence,” he mumbled into my chest before he shifted so his face lay on the pillow next to me. “I’m so ready to hold them in my arms,” he pouted.

I chuckled, “Well I for one am not ready to push them out yet, so the 3 months, give or take, between now and then are much appreciated.”

“I also can’t wait to sleep on you again,” he smirked.

I pinched his chest playfully, “Ass.”

“I love you so much Ayden,” he mumbled around a smile as he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

I cuddled into his chest, “I love you too. Do you have anything to do today?”

He sighed as he wrapped his arms around me, “Yeah, I’ve got a meeting with the lads at Gibson. But it shouldn’t take all day.”

I kissed his chest, “Okay.”

“But Harry’s coming cover so you won’t be alone.”

“You know I don’t need a babysitter.”

He rubbed the back of my neck and kissed my forehead, “I know, but I’m just anxious when I know you’re left alone.”

“I know but you still don’t have to ask our friends to spend the day with me.” I’ve spent so much time with Blue, Harry, Josh and whoever Niall bribed into ‘stopping by’ that it was starting to bug me a little. I actually liked spending time alone!

He scoffed, “Please, even if I hadn’t have asked Harry, he’d find his way over anyway. He might be just as excited about our babies as we are. Plus I think he’s a bit lonely.”

I grimaced at that because it’s what I’ve been worried about for a while now too. Last month, Dakota got a real amazing job opportunity in America that she couldn’t pass up. Harry was being very supportive of his fiancé, but we could see how hard it was for him. He’d never say it out loud, but being home without Dakota was torture for him. She wasn’t home when he was and I think it bothered him more than he’s admit. “He needs a hobby.”

“Or to visit her more.”

“Right? He loves LA, and San Diego isn’t that far from it.”

“They’re ridiculous, always have been.”

I chuckled, “That is such an understatement.” I sighed and shut my eyes, still tired from the constant tossing and turning to get comfortable. Pregnancy was a magical time, but dude, it was a pain in the ass. “All I wanna do today is lay in bed and watch the tellie.”

“You can do whatever you want love.”

I hummed, “Yeah, but I should probably go grocery shopping. Or at least wash clothes. I only fit in a handful of things now and their all dirty at this point.”

“Make harry do all the dirty work,” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“You think I can con him into watching a sappy movie with me?”

“Babe, you can con Harry into doing anything. I think you, Dakota and his mom and sister are the only woman he lets walk all over him.”

“True,” I laughed. “But since I can’t get you to watch A Walk To Remember with me again while staying awake the whole time,” he made a face at me, “maybe Harry will appreciate it.”

“He cried the last time you made him watch it. I imagine it’ll be somewhat of the same.”

“Fingers crossed.” I rolled over and moaned in frustration, “I have to pee. I always have to pee,” I whined.

“Only a few more months baby,” he called after me as I scampered off to the bathroom.

*****

Niall, the love of my life, made me breakfast before he left to do popstar things. I showered, and changed into a pair of sweats and a baggy shirt before I curled up on the couch to watch X-Factor I had recorded the other day. Thanks to Perrie, who’s still obsessed with it, I’ve become obsessed with it as well.

I got through most of it, and was just about to find out who got voted off this week when Harry came in. I can’t even remember a time when he actually knocked on the door, he just walks right in like he lives here too. “Hey, love.”

“Hey,” I said not taking my eyes off the tellie. “One second, it’s almost over.” We sat in silence as I watched who was leaving. I wasn’t too broken up since my favorite was still totally safe. Once it was over I turned it off and started looking for something else to watch. “So what’s up?”

He shrugged, “Nothing really. Tired. How are the little monkeys?” His fingers tapped on my stomach.
“They’re good. I’ve started feeling more movement recently.”

“Any kicking?”

I shook my head, “No, not yet. Any day now according to the baby books.” I glanced at his arm and a new tattoo caught my eyes, “Wait, you got a know tattoo?”

He turned his wrist sideways to give me a better look, “Yeah. It’s the coordinates for where Kota is.”

I traced my thumb over it before I grabbed his hand, “You miss her?”

“So bloody much.”

“When are you going to see her?”

He shrugged, “In a few weeks I think. We’ve been talking about it.” He sighed, “I feel like a bloody knob! Because I made her sit thought so many years of me gone all the time, and now that the tables have reversed, I can’t handle it.”

I hated seeing him so gutted over missing her. “You can handle it. You love her and distance is hard, you just have to get used to it like we all did.”

“I know,” he sighed. “Just… just miss her.” He was quiet for a moment before he grabbed my arm to look at the tattoo he did on me so many years ago. “This is some of my best work,” he said changing the subject.

I snorted, “So full of yourself.” I looked down at my arm; Love. A Difficult thing to say, don’t let it go to waste. It really was one of my favorites. Second to the drunken Irish flag Niall put on me. “Oh god, my Irish flag is so warped now because of these little ones!” I whined as I rubbed my tummy.

Harry laughed, “To be fair, it was fucked from the start.”

I smacked his arm, “Yeah, well I loved it! I still do!” The flag was so shaky and misshaped from the dart, since Niall and I were both a bit drunk with Harry and Kota one night when we decided to bust Harry’s tattoo kit out. Before I knew it, I had an Irish flag with Niall’s signature permanently etched into the skin of my lower hip. “It’s just more of a square right now than a rectangle. I hope it’ll go back once my body gets back to normal.”

“I don’t have an answer for that,” he shrugged.

I sighed, “Yeah, I figured.”

“So these bitty Horan’s still have some cooking time, have you figured out any of the important decisions yet? Like, color of the nursery, when you’re gonna start looking for the Mullingar house,” he listed off. “Or, I don’t know, who the godparents are gonna be?”

I barked out a laugh at his lack of subtlety, “Yes, we may have figured some things out.”

He huffed in annoyance, “Are you saying ‘maybe’ because you don’t want to hurt my feelings because I’m not the godfather? Because I swear to god Ayd, if I’m not the godfather I will throw a Louis Tomlinson sized tantrum! No, I will throw a Darcy Tomlinson sized tantrum!” he pouted. “And we both know that little one can wail.”

“We’re gonna keep it a surprise.”

He looked real offended then, “That’s such bullshit! I’m your best friend!”

“Actually, Blue is.”

He scoffed, “You’ve been saying that for years, but you know at the point, we are on the same level.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Styles.”

“Still think you should tell me.”

I gave him a tired look, “You can wait like everyone else.”

“No I can’t. I have no patients at all, I’m worse than your husband!”

I hummed, “That’s true sometimes.”

“So tell me!”

“Oh my god! Fine!” I exasperated. “You and Dakota are gonna be the godparents of Cieran and Blue and Josh are gonna be the godparents of PennyLane.”

He shot his hands up in victory, “Hell yeah! I can’t wait to tell-”

“No one!” I cut him off. “You aren’t telling anyone! Niall’s already gonna be pissed I told you but keep your stupid mouth shut Harry, I mean it! We have this whole things planned on how and when we were going to tell you, so don’t ruin it because you couldn’t wait.”

Even though I just yelled a rant at him he was all smiles, “Yeah, fine, sure. My lips are sealed. But I’m so excited!”

I chuckled, “I bet you are. But seriously, keep your mouth shut. If you ruin the surprise for Kota I will castrate you.”

“Jesus, calm down!” he absentmindedly grabbed his junk. “I won’t say anything, I promise.”

I held out my pinky, “Pinky swear on our friendship. I can easily replace your godfathership with my brother.”

“You’re hormones are raging today, aren’t they.” I sent him a death glare, “Okay, sorry!” He hooked his pinky with mine, “I pinky promise on our friendship that I won’t say anything.”

“Thank you.” I turned my attention back to the tellie and flipped through something to watch.

“So what are we doing today?”

“Well, I really wanna say nothing, but we have no food in the house, so shopping needs to happen.”

“We can do that. I can have Paul here within the hour to go with us.” I grimaced at the mention have having to call Paul. Even though the One Direction hysteria had died down some, he hadn’t cooled down enough. There were still crowds of fans out wherever they went and security was a must, even for me. Especially now that they were all excited that there would soon be two new ‘baby Directions’ coming, as they called them. I do have to say, the warmed up to me being pregnant way faster than they did when Eleanor was pregnant with little Darcy.

“I need to find something besides sweats to wear then.”

“Why, what you’re wearing is fine.”

I scoffed, “I am all about not giving a shit about what people think, but I’m not wearing dirty sweats out in public when I know the paps will eventually find us.”

He held his hands up in surrender, “Alright, sorry. Do your thing.”

“Thanks but um… Can you help me off the couch?”

*****

“This is the worst time for me to do all the shopping,” I mused as I grabbed a bag of crisps and tossed them into the trolley.

Harry, who was pushing his own trolley next to me, smirked, “Because everything looks good?”

“Yeah, because I’m always hungry these days.”

“When my wife was pregnant,” Paul, who was walking behind us said, “She’d make multiple trips to the market. If I was home, she’d send me,” he laughed.

“Oh, Niall makes many trips to the store, believe me.”

“So do I,” Harry mumbled trying to hide his smile.

I scoffed, “Yeah well, you love me.”

He snarled at me playfully as we continued to shop. It took us over an hour to get all the shopping done because my cravings kept changing and I hand to double back more than I’d like to admit. Harry and Paul were very patient, I’ll give them that.

When we were checking out, Paul left first to make sure there weren’t any paps lurking or a massive crowd, but neither of us were worried. Harry hardly got a second glance from any of the other shoppers and no shrieks of excitement, which was like the call of the fangirl.

“There’s just a small little group,” Paul said when we were getting our bags together back into the trolley. Harry refused to let me even hold one. “No photographers though yet, so we should be fine if we don’t stick around too long.”

Paul took the trolley from Harry and we migrated out of the store towards Harry’s range rover where a group of 5 girls were waiting. They were about 16 or 17, and as excited as they looked they were still pretty calm, which I was grateful for.

“Hi Harry! Hi Ayden!” was the chorus that greeted us as we reached the car. I managed a smile and a small wave before I moved to help Paul load the groceries into the boot. I was used to just keeping back as the lads met with their fans. Of course I always got asked for my autograph or a picture, and I was always happy to if I had the time. But right now, I was tired, super pregnant and bloated so I stood back with Paul and let Harry do his thing.

I was talking to Paul about how his wife and kids were when one of the girls called to me. “Ayden! We have something for you and Niall!”

I looked over and saw a few of the girls had gift bags in their hands, all baby themed. Harry smirked at me and nodded his head for me to come join him. I handed off one of the last bags to Paul before I walked over. “You ladies are sweet, you didn’t have to do that.”

“We were gonna drop them off at the management office, but we lucked out when we happen to run into you!” The handed over the gifts to me all big smiles and giggles. “We’re so happy for you and Niall! His tweets about it are adorable!” one of them said.

“He’s such a cheese ball ain’t he?” I smirked.

“You guys are so perfect for each other!” another one gushed. “You’re so lucky!”

Harry grabbed some of the gift bags from me to help me juggle them. There were 5 of them! “Well thank you.” I honestly didn’t know what to say to any of that to be honest. They were nice and they really didn’t have to get us gifts. “I’ll save these for when Niall gets home so he can open them. He’s big of presents.”

“Ni’s still a bit of a child himself,” Harry snickered.

“We should get going,” Paul said coming over, all groceries loaded.

“Can we get a picture?” one of them shrieked. “With both of you?” I honestly couldn’t say no to them. Especially since they were some of the sweetest girls I’ve met in a while and didn’t hound me with personal questions. So Harry and I weaved our way into their group and posed for a few pictures before Paul ushered us into the car and we had to say goodbye.

*****

When Niall got home that night, he found me in the music room where I had fallen asleep on the couch reading and listening to the latest You Me At Six album (forever a fangirl over my friends. Forever!). I woke up to him trying to push himself behind me between me and the back of the couch. “Niall, what are you doing?” I smiled around a yawn.

“Trying to have a cuddle. You looked so comfy when I walked in.”

“Well I was, until you woke me up.”

He wrapped an arm around me and caressed my belly, “So rude when you wake up.” He kissed my neck, “How was your day.”

“Good. Harry and I spent most of it watching the tellie, but we did manage to go out and get the grocery shopping done.” I pointed over to the other chair, “Some of your fans got us gifts.”

“Gifts?” he lifted his head to look over. “What are they?”

I shrugged and sat up slowly, still trying to wake the rest of my body up. “I don’t know, I wanted to wait until you got home to open them.”

He shot off the couch, “Welp, I’m home, let’s open them!”

I laughed as I leaned back into the couch to get comfortable. “You can do the opening. I’ll sit back and watch.”

He grabbed all the bags and moved to sit next to me on the couch. He beamed at me, “Our first real baby gifts!”

The actual opening of the gifts lasted about 30 seconds with how Niall just tore through the bags. His fans had gotten us 2 baby blankets, some onsies, his and her matching outfits for the twins and a stuffed bear. Plus a long letter, mostly to Niall, about how much they love him and the band and how happy they were for us. It was so sweet. “I’m gonna take a picture of all this and tweet them,” he said reading over their twitter handles at the end of the letter. “This is so awesome, I love the fans!”

I nodded, “It was totally nice of them. They were super nice in person too.”

He piled all the gifts into a neat pile before he snapped a picture and took his time typing a few tweets to gush how thankful he was. This was a lot of the reason it was so easy to love him. He was so thankful and grateful for everything that was given to him and he was just so honest with the world about it. It was why the world loved him almost as much as I did.

Everybody loves Niall. Plain and simple.

Once he was satisfied with his tweets and sat back and warped an arm around me and pulled me against him. “Have you eaten yet?”

I shook my head, “No. I wanted to wait for you.”

As he always seemed to do now, he touched my stomach lightly. “What’s mommy want for dinner than?”

I giggled. He had taken the habit of calling me mommy here and there and even though it was kind of (totally) cringe worthy, I was starting to like it. “I don’t know. Something good. I think daddy should make something.”

He chuckled, “I can do that. I can bust out me old Jamie Oliver cookbook!”

I hummed, “That sounds like a fantastic idea.”

“I love you,” he kissed my temple.

I turned and scrunched my nose at him, “I kind of dig you, I guess.” He rolled his eyes at me dramatically, like he always does when I make fun of him. “I love you too popstar. Now we should totally make our way to the kitchen.” I pointed to my belly, “The three of us are starving!”