Collide, Ignite

For New Year's Eve, Reilly had planned for a night in with Maisie that included movies and tons of junk food. It had been going really well until about nine when Maisie fell asleep. The girls had spent the day out in London, shopping for appropriate clothes for Maisie to wear to the dance classes she had and Reilly were starting in only a few days. They'd also had lunch and gone ice skating. There hadn't been any time for a nap. When she'd been asleep for nearly a half hour, Reilly carried the little girl upstairs and tucked her into bed.

She stirred as Reilly was covering her with a blanket. "I'm not sleepy," she mumbled.

Reilly laughed softly. "It's okay Little One. Just go back to sleep," she said, pushing her little sister's long hair away from her face.

"Just a nap," she said quietly, her eyes still closed.

"Okay," Reilly agreed. "Just a nap."

Someone was knocking on the door when she came back down the stairs after changing into her pajamas, which in reality was leggings and an oversized tshirt. Everyone had plans for the evening. Lexie and Harry were at Louis' party, as were the rest of the boys. Owen was still with his family, though he had suggested he could come home early when they'd talked earlier in the day. Reilly shot down the idea and told him about her big plans with Maisie for ringing in the new year. It was possible he had decided to come back anyway. Except that he had a key to her house and could just let himself in.

She didn't bother to check who it was before opening the door. She'd figured out as she got closer to the door that it was Niall but was still a little surprised to see him standing in front of her wearing a wide grin and holding bags that appeared to be from a Chinese restaurant. "I thought you were going to Louis' party?" she asked, stepping to the side so he could come in.

He placed a quick kiss on her cheek as he moved just past her into the house. "Yeah, I was. I did," he said. "I was there for a bit, but I wasn't really into it tonight." He shrugged. "Thought maybe something a bit quieter would be good. Hope it's okay I stopped by?" he asked and Reilly nodded. He looked around quickly but he couldn't see much of the house since they were still by the door. "Where's the little one?" he asked.

Reilly let out a soft laugh. "Well, you see, we had this big movie marathon planned, and she fell asleep about fifteen minutes into the first one. I took her upstairs. She promised she was just taking a nap, but I don't really expect her to wake up before morning. We had a long day," she explained.

His face changed as a shadow of uncertainty fell across it. "Oh," he said after a moment. "Should I, uh," he paused. "I thought it would be the both of you. I don't want it to be weird. I can go, if you want," he said, his voice mirroring his face.

But Reilly shook her head, reaching for one of the bags in his hand and taking it from him. "Don't be ridiculous. Why would it be weird?" she asked, motioning for him to follow her as she headed for the living room. He shrugged when she looked over her shoulder at him and she flashed a smile. "I have insane amounts of junk food that I couldn't even dream of eating on my own. You can help me."

She set the bag down on the coffee table among the candy and bowls of chips and popcorn. Niall did the same and looked around. "Nice place you got yourself," he commented.

"Thank you," she replied. It dawned on her after a moment what he meant. "Oh. You haven't been here before," she said. A grin drew across his face as he shook his head slowly. "Right, would you like the grand tour, or," she let her thought trail off.

"Actually, if you could just point me in the direction of the nearest toilet, I'll be a happy lad," he said.

She breathed out a quiet laugh. "It doesn't take much, does it?" she questioned, but didn't give him a chance to respond. "Nearest bathroom." He nodded, maybe at her to go on, or maybe in response to her question. It was unclear, but she continued anyway. "Out the front door, down the street. Hang a left at the corner and go down about two blocks, there's a convenience store that will let you use their restroom if you buy something." The look of confusion on Niall's face by the time she finished was classic, and she burst out laughing. "I'm joking," she told him.

He rolled his eyes at her, but a smile cracked through as he shook his head. "Cheeky," he said and she laughed.

"Down the hallway, on the left," she said. He thanked her and headed out of the room, but she called out to him before he got far. "Hey." He stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at her. "How'd you know where I live?" she asked.

"Found out from Lou," he said. Reilly studied his face for a moment and then nodded. He cocked his head to the side and then turned to go down the hall. On his way out, he looked over his shoulder. "That my shirt you're wearin'?" he asked of the blue Eagles shirt she had on. She looked down at it and her cheeks immediately tinted pink. She couldn't quite remember how it had come to be in her possession, but now that he'd mentioned it, she was pretty sure it had been his at one point. "Thought so," he said, a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth as he disappeared from sight.

While Niall was in the bathroom, Reilly pulled the Chinese food containers out of the plastic bags and set them on the coffee table. The smell made her stomach growl, but she curled up on the couch to wait for him to come back before she started eating. For a brief moment she wondered once again if spending time alone with Niall was wrong. But they were friends, or at least they were working their way to that point, and spending time her other friends wasn't wrong. With that reasoning, she pushed the thoughts from her mind.

Moments later, Niall made his way back into the living room, much to Reilly's relief. "The smell of the food you brought over has me starving," she told him.

"Eat then," he said with a laugh. "You don't have to wait for me." He fell onto the couch to her right but left plenty of space between them. "What's on the TV?" he asked, motioning to the paused winter scene with a girl, a mountain man-looking character, a reindeer, and a snowman.

"Frozen," she told him, opening one of the boxes and smiling happily. She reached for a pair of chopsticks and handed it to Niall and then grabbed one for herself. "Do you mind if I eat it right from the box?" she asked. He shook his head and grabbed one of the boxes.

Niall opened the box he'd picked up, and then closed it again and reached for a different one. Satisfied with the one he chose, he slid the chopsticks from their wrapper and broke them apart. "You're really spendin' New Year's Eve watching a cartoon?" he questioned.

Reilly stared at him incredulously. "Excuse me? This isn't just any cartoon," she said. "Frozen is a masterpiece," she informed him.

He let out a sound that was something of a cross between a grunt and laugh. "I wouldn't know. Haven't seen it," he admitted.

"Are you kidding me?" Reilly said. "You have a niece and a nephew and you've never seen Frozen?" He shook his head. "Oh, no. We're going to fix that right now." She reached for the remote and he opened his mouth, presumably to protest. "Don't," she said, holding her hand up to silence him. "You were skeptical about The Corpse Bride, but you said you loved it after we watched it," she reminded him.

"Alright, alright, alright. You're right," he said. "I won't say anything else until it's over. Turn it on," he said. She smiled triumphantly at him. He rolled his eyes and stuck his chopsticks in the container he was holding, trying, unsuccessfully to pick up food with them. After four attempts, he huffed loudly and tossed the chopsticks on the coffee table. Reilly looked over at him after restarting the movie and giggled at the defeated look on his face. He glanced up and caught her gaze. "Sure, you think it's hilarious that I can't pick anything up with them damn things," he said.

She giggled again and nodded at him. "Tickled pink," she said and stood. "I'll go get you a fork. Do you want anything else from the kitchen? Beer maybe?" she asked.

He shook his head almost immediately. "Water's fine," he said and she gave him a curious look. "No, it's just," he paused for a brief moment. "Might try to do something I shouldn't do if I drink a beer or two," he said. Blush overtook Reilly's entire face and her mouth formed into an o, but no sound came out. "Twice in only a few minutes. Just like old times," he commented with a laugh.

The blush only deepened as she walked out of the room. In the kitchen, she took a moment to compose herself. Her heart was racing in her chest, but she hadn't even realized it until she tried to slow it down with deep breaths.

He was right, it was like old times, but old times before things between them turned complicated. When he would look at her and smile and her heart would flutter and her cheeks would turn pink. When he would give her a subtle compliment and she wouldn't know how to respond because no one had ever done that before him. When his presence was calming and exciting at the same time. And maybe it should have scared her like it did when they were teenagers, but it didn't. She realized, as she pulled a fork from the drawer and grabbed two bottles of water from the refrigerator, that she had been longing for this since before they'd fallen out.

She headed back into the living room and handed over the fork and a water bottle to him. He was sitting at the end of the couch, and she stepped between him and the coffee table and fell onto middle cushion. He quirked an eyebrow at her, and she just smiled at him.

"I want to see your reactions to the movie," she said, reaching for the container of Chinese food she'd chosen earlier.

"You're going to watch me instead of the movie?" he asked

Reilly shrugged and hit play on the remote. "Does that make you uncomfortable?" she asked, and he gave a slight shake of his head. "I've seen this movie a hundred times, anyway," she commented.

A comfortable silence settled between them when the movie started. Reilly found herself watching more of the movie than of Niall's expressions and reactions. But every once in awhile, he would mutter something under his breath and she would glance over at him. He seemed very focused. Even when she kept her gaze on him for more than just a moment, he wouldn't look over at her.

About halfway through the movie, little footsteps sounded in the hallway. Moments after Reilly heard them, a still half-asleep Maisie padded into the living room, her long, dark hair messy from being pressed against a pillow. Her entire face lit up when she saw Niall sitting on the couch. Rubbing her eye with one hand, she walked over and climbed up onto his lap, but he had been so focused on the movie that he hadn't heard her, and jumped practically out of his skin at her touch.

She smiled up at him when he looked down at her. "What are you doing here?" she asked him quietly.

Niall beamed down at the little girl on his lap. "Well, I came to see you, of course. But you were sleepin' when I got here. So I thought I'd stick around and see if you woke up," he told her.

Maisie smiled from ear to ear and wrapped her little arms around him, resting her head against his chest. "Ooh, this is my favorite part," she whispered when she looked at the TV and saw Princess Anna trying to climb a mountain. Niall put one arm around her and continued watching the movie. "If I was falling, would you catch me, Niall?" she asked after Anna jumped down from the side of the mountain.

"Every time, Little One," he said, giving her a small squeeze. She snuggled in closer to him and fell quiet as she focused on the movie.

Reilly couldn't help but smile at how good Niall was being with Maisie. When she removed her emotions from the equation, it was easy to see how he could think that she could have been the product of the entanglement between the two of them. For being only half siblings, the resemblance between them was incredible. In fact, Maisie and Reilly looked more alike and Reilly and Fallon did.

By the time the movie ended, Maisie had fallen asleep on Niall. Both of his arms were around her, cradling her to him. When she offered to take Maisie upstairs, he shook his head at her. There was a look of contentment on his face, but also a shadow of something Reilly couldn't quite place.

After watching the credits roll for a few minutes, Reilly turned to him. "So," she said quietly. "What did you think?" she asked.

"It was," he paused, searching for the right words. "Not what I was expecting," he said finally.

Reilly raised an eyebrow at him. "In what way?" she inquired.

He gave a slight shrug and glanced down at the sleeping girl in his arms. "Which of them girls do you think is you?" he asked her after a moment, still looking at Maisie.

Her forehead scrunched as she pulled her eyebrows together. "Beg pardon?" she asked.

He looked up again and made eye contact with her. "Do you think you're the girl who has to push everyone in her life away because she's scared of people seeing what's inside her, or do you think you're the girl who is going to fall in love with someone who pretends to love her back but has massively screwed up motives?" he asked. "I know you, Reilly. I know when you love something as much as you clearly love this movie, it's because you relate to one of the characters," he told her.

Reilly looked down at what little bit of couch was between them. Her heart was pounding in her chest so loudly she was sure Niall could hear. She should have known better than to show him this movie. She should have known he would ask that question.

"What makes you think I only relate to one of them?" she asked quietly, playing with her hands while refusing to look at him. Her blunt honesty maybe should have scared her, but it didn't. She had always been able to tell Niall the truth.

Niall hummed in response. "Tell me how you met Owen?" he said and she shook her head a little at the request. He reached over and lifted her chin, but she kept her eyes cast down. "Reilly, come on," he said and after a moment she looked up at him. "Tell me how you met him," he repeated.

She sighed heavily. A part of her wanted to ask him why he wanted to know, to tell him that it didn't matter because he'd already shared his opinion without even knowing anything about her fiance. But deep down she knew why, and it wasn't because he actually wanted to know. It had to do with her response to his previous question.

"He lectured in one of my Psych classes," she finally breathed out. She hadn't even realized she'd been holding her breath until she opened her mouth to speak.

"He's your teacher?" Niall questioned.

Reilly shook her head. "Not, no," she stammered, searching for words. "Guest lecturer," she said after a moment. "I spoke to him briefly after class to clarify something he'd said," she continued. "And then I didn't see him again after that until I went to Italy to study for a summer. He was teaching a class there. Not one I was taking," she said quickly. "And, I don't know, it was nice to see a somewhat familiar face. I didn't know anyone else there, so I guess I just kind of got to know him. Turned out he teaches and lectures about a lot of the subjects I was studying. He was a great resource," she told him.

Niall nodded at her. "And then, what, you two just started dating, or what?" he asked.

She shrugged and stayed quiet for a moment, letting her eyes fall away from his face. "I don't really know when it went from just kind of picking his brain to being more than that. But we've been together for over three years now, so that has to mean something, right?" she asked, shrugging again.

He hummed, but didn't say anything. Her heart was still pounding. Her head was spinning from the thoughts racing through it. Something didn't seem right with the words she was saying. They tasted bitter coming out of her mouth now when they never had before.

The sound of keys in a lock and a door opening came from down the hallway. Reilly could feel Niall's gaze boring into her and she drew in a sharp breath as she looked up at him. Footsteps sounded in the hallway.

"Reilly, Love, are you home?" a voice called out.

Moments later, a man entered the room. Niall looked over at him, trying not to disturb the sleeping girl in his arms. He was approximately the same height as Niall, and nearly the same build, though not as thin at the waist. He had short dark hair and friendly blue eyes a few shades lighter than Niall's, and distinct Irish features.

"'Lo, there, Mate," he said upon seeing Niall, and then looked past him to Reilly. His accent was British. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Love," he said walking across the room and around the coffee table. When he reached her, he pressed a kiss to her lips and she smiled up at him. Niall couldn't help but notice that it was different from the way she smiled at him. "Who's your friend? I don't believe we've met," he said, sitting down next to her and sliding an arm around her waist.

She blinked as the shock of having the two of them in the same room finally wore off. "Right. This is Niall," she said, and then turned to Niall as Owen stretched his arm out to offer a handshake. "Niall, this is Owen."