Two's Company

Raven sighs and shuts the television off - again. The news is as disheartening as it has been since the whole situation started. She tosses the remote onto the coffee-table, pushing herself to her feet, and ambles to the kitchen. Her city hasn’t been put on enforced lockdown, yet, but she knows it’s just a matter of time. It makes her grateful that she has a remote job which means she doesn’t have to leave her home, but she knows she’s one of the lucky ones. There are many more people whose incomes rely on them working outside of their homes.

She’s just put the kettle on when a knock sounds at the front door. Brows furrowing, Raven heads that way, though she hesitates before looking through the peephole. What the hell?, she thinks even as she unhooks the chain.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you meant to be home?”

“Look, the news is saying this is going to last a while. I’m not about to be stuck indoors for the foreseeable future by myself.” Niall shakes his head and immediately crosses the living room to the desk. “So I’ve come to take over your flat so neither of us go mental from loneliness.”

“You realise this might destroy our friendship, right? I’m a very annoying person to live with - why do you think I go through so many roommates?”

“Bullshit,” he snorts.

Raven blows out a breath when he doesn’t look away from setting up his laptop. “Right, well, I’ve got tea going. Want some?”

He nods distractedly and frowns down at his screen, typing something. Raven rolls her eyes and goes to finish making the tea. She sets a cup next to his laptop then takes a seat in the other chair. His presence in her flat isn’t unusual - he regularly comes over to work so he doesn’t have to be home, either alone or with his roommate and roommate’s girlfriend. She pauses in the middle of typing in her password to log into the system.

“Yvonne is stuck at yours, isn’t she?”

Niall nods and slumps in his seat. “I was hoping she’d be gone by now, but no, she just had to stay another day. As soon as I heard the conference this morning, I knew I had to get out of there or I’d do something drastic.”

“Like locking her out of the house in hopes she’d get arrested for breaking the lockdown?”

“You know me so well.”

“Well, twelve years of friendship tends to lend that kind of knowledge.” Skimming over the queue of incoming calls, Raven reaches for the headset just to the side of her own computer, plugging the jack into the port without looking. “Does Liam know you hate his girlfriend that much?”

“I don’t hate her,” Niall mutters petulantly, raising a finger when a dialogue box pops up on his screen.

Raven settles into her chair further, sips at her tea, and waits for a call to be assigned to her by the system. Working customer service for a major tech company was never in her life’s plan, but she’s learnt over the years that things can go incredibly awry in the blink of an eye. If Niall hadn’t managed to convince the hiring manager that she would be an asset, she wouldn’t have a job that allows her at least a modicum of flexibility, so she is grateful and tries her best to accept her lot in life.

“Okay, ma’am, before we get further into this call, can you please give me your account details?” Raven mutes her microphone to curse under her breath when the woman abruptly launches into a diatribe against technology and the evils of Big Brother having any of her personal details. “Ma’am, I assure you that the government does not have access to your account. It is simply for the company -”

“Don’t be so naive, you know damn well that Obama has his fingers in everything.”

“Obama is no longer president, ma’am, so even if he had had his fingers in this particular pie, they certainly wouldn’t still be there now. Now, may I please have your account details?”

“No, you may not, and I’ll be calling President Trump himself to report your insubordination.”

The line clicks as the call ends, and Raven blinks stupidly at the screen for a moment. People can be ridiculous, but this is by far the most absurd conversation she has ever had with a caller. Before she can think too much - and end up with a headache - she swallows another mouthful of tea and answers the next call which is, thankfully, much more reasonable.

Unfortunately, the following handful of calls are stressful. It’s a toss-up of which is worse to deal with - parents at home with their unruly children having to practically scream over the background noise, office workers who are worried and taking their fears out on innocent people trying to help them, or the elderly who can’t just call one of their more tech-savvy grandchildren due to the lockdown. Raven ends up taking a small break after the seventh call of the morning, though all she does is sprawl across the floor by the desk and mutter to herself quietly. Niall digs through his bag, and a moment later, a candy bar bounces off her belly.

She sits up, peeling back the wrapper, and says a thank you. The allure of chocolate and caramel isn’t enough to ease the frustration that another call is coming in. Raven drags her headset back onto her head, stretches to press the key to answer the call. She sets the Twix aside and clambers back into her seat to access the account for some troubleshooting. She transfers the call to the tech support department after a moment and listens to Niall as he finishes up his own call.

“Hm? Oh, no, sir, I am not in an office, I assure you... I truly appreciated your concern, sir, but I am indeed at - what’s that? That was just my lockdown buddy, and we are doing splendid at the mo’. Yes, sir, I’ll pass the message on. Is there anything else I can help you with? Of course. Have a wonderful day, and know that if you have any further issues, our customer service lines are open twenty-four hours, seven days a week. Thank you.”

“Oh, my god, you got a nice one!”

“I got a nice one!”

Raven giggles and opens the group IM for her department, typing Nialler got a nice one! THE CUSTOMER CARED! He shoves at her shoulder playfully then stands, heading to the kitchen. Raven watches him go; once he’s out of sight, her thoughts take a decidedly different turn.

She met Niall when they were freshman in high school, her new to the state and him new to the country. They found comfort in their newness together, but it wasn’t long before they each made other friends in differing circles - she grew close to the art crowd, while he was accepted into the athletic clique. They always came back to each other, though. It was hard not to. And he was the only thing that really made sense in her life.

If she’s being honest, he’s been the closest thing to a “soulmate” as she’s ever been able to find. She doesn’t quite believe in that whole thing, but as it is, he has never left her on her own. She’s never had to look far to find him. He’s always been right there by her side.

Their friendship has only strengthened with time. Even when he was dating What’s-Her-Face, Niall never pushed Raven to the side, still made just as much time for her as before. Greg had broken up with her - hell, a lot of guys have - because of how close she and Niall are. The fact that he has a key to her place and comes over at least five days a week was too much for her exes to understand, and she hadn’t ever found it odd that the ends of those relationships weren’t nearly as painful as they should have been. She knows why, she just doesn’t let herself think of the reason. It won’t do any good.



The slamming of the door echoes in the otherwise silent flat, and Raven falls face-first onto her bed. It’s been four long days since the lockdown went into effect. Four days of being in close quarters with Niall. She knows he has tried to stay optimistic, but it’s impossible to not notice how frustrated he is all the time. She warned him when he showed up that she’s annoying, he just didn’t listen.

In her defence, she has done her damnedest to not... be herself, she supposes is the best way to put it. But how do you change every single thing about yourself in order to not get on the nerves of someone who means the world to you? Raven has searched desperately for the answers to that particular question for the last four days and is no closer to a solution.

A quiet creaking sound fills the room, sending chills up her spine, and she has no warning beyond that before a body is flopping onto the mattress next to her. Raven doesn’t bother opening her eyes. She knows if she does, she will admit that she’s being rather unreasonable about the teeny, tiny, super-minor argument they got into before she locked herself away in her room.

Stubborn man that he is, Niall’s fingers start trailing along the ticklish spot on the back of her arm, soft as a feather until she’s squirming and struggling against laughter. She sighs and rolls onto her side to face him. His lips quirk into a small smile. She caves.

“I’m sorry. Told you I was annoying.”

“Not annoying. Okay, maybe a little,” he concedes when all she does is snort derisively. “But hey, we’ve been friends for twelve years, wasn’t like I didn’t already know that.”

“Can’t believe we argued over the order of my coffee mugs,” she mutters.

And they had. She demanded that they stay in their positions by logic of pure favouritism, disregarding size, but he wanted to put the larger ones in the back with the smaller ones lined in front of them. His way made sense when he explained it; Raven knows there was no harm in his suggestion. She’s just incredibly stubborn. Besides, it isn’t like he lives here. As soon as the lockdown is over, he’ll be heading back to his, and she’ll be alone. Again.

“It was bound to happen, Ray. We’ve been stuck inside for going on five days now, and you may have tendencies to be a hermit, but nobody can handle being forced to remain indoors all the time.”

“I know, but still… it was a stupid reason to fight.”

“How about this.” He scoots closer, throwing his arm over her side and pulling her into his chest; his chin rests against the top of her skull, and Raven closes her eyes against the feelings that rise up. “We go for a run tomorrow on our lunch break. Get some fresh air, some exercise.”

“That sounds absolutely lovely, actually.”

“Good. Now hush, it’s time to sleep.”

Niall doesn’t leave, doesn’t release her, and Raven really doesn’t want him to. This - this right here is better than she could have imagined. Sure, they’ve leaned against each other - practically cuddled - on the couch while watching television, but it wasn’t quite like this. She draws in a steadying breath, closes her eyes. Even if this is all going to end as soon as lockdown is over, she is going to take what she can and let it hurt like Hell when it’s over.

To her surprise, the streets are nearly deserted the next day. Only a few people remain outside, but they don’t come within feet of the pair jogging along the pavement. Raven follows Niall as he heads toward the park two blocks away. Their footfalls are all she can hear, the even exhales of their breathing almost completely in sync with each other, and she turns her face up to the sun and soaks up the warmth it provides. Niall huffs out a laugh.

“You’re going to fall if you don’t pay attention to where you’re going.”

Her voice is slightly strained, her breathing coming more sharply as they jog up an incline, but she still manages to put on a dramatic air when she says, “If I fall, I shall fall out in the glorious beauty of nature, and you must leave me, find a way to move on with your life.”

“Trust me, Ray, I don’t think that’s possible.”

She slows but doesn’t stop, staring after him. He seems to realise that she has fallen behind, because he glances back over his shoulder. Her heart clenches in her chest, and Raven is pretty damn sure it isn’t because of the sudden cardio after a week of doing nothing but lying about the flat. She swallows down the words she wants to say and forces a grin. His brow raises when she pushes herself faster, sprinting past him. Thankfully, he takes it as the challenge she meant it as, scrambles to keep up as their laughter rings out over the empty trails.

Raven twists her hair into a braid, ties it off quickly, then crawls into bed. Going for the run today was an excellent idea; she feels less tightly-wound, and her body aches pleasantly. Her mind is clearer now, not quite as overrun with the loneliness of forced-isolation. She plugs her phone in on its charging cord then grabs the book on her nightstand.

She’s just gotten halfway through The Frog Prince when her door opens. Her heart kicks up the pace, thunders under her ribs, as Niall crosses the room to perch on the edge of the bed. Raven doesn’t bother looking away from the page even when he slides in between the sheets, lying on his side to face her. She finally glances over at him only to find him staring back at her; the blue of his eyes is almost ethereal in the harsh glare of the light.

Her concentration is gone - she no longer cares about reading any more of the brothers Grimm’s fairy tales, so she marks her place, shuts the book, and sets it back where it belongs. Niall lifts his arm once the lamp is off, the room plunged into semi-darkness. Raven knows it’s a bad idea, but she curls up against him anyway. She has always wondered if this is what it feels like to be loved by him: soft, sweet, and warm.

It becomes a routine over the next few days: The mornings start with her alarm going off and the coffeemaker beeping from the kitchen, signalling the completion of its brew cycle, and they eventually crawl out of bed when the clock ticks over to eight a.m. Niall refused to go back to sleeping on the couch after the first night of sharing the bed. Raven is well aware that she is becoming too accustomed to it, that she should put a stop to it, but... she can’t. It’s everything she’s dreamt of, and the fact that it isn’t real does nothing to dissuade her.

Of course, as with every good thing in this world, things change. The longer she sits next to Niall, both of them doing their jobs, the harder it is to shove feelings back into the dark to never see the light of day again. And it’s not a surprise when everything she feels bubbles to the surface, spills out in a crashing wave.

Niall isn’t even doing anything special when it happens. One second, they are both watching Star Trek: Next Gen; the next, Raven is watching him lick a bit of ketchup from his thumb and being punched in the gut with the knowledge that she can’t go back to being just friends with him. He must feel the weight of her stare, because he turns his head to look at her. She leans forward, closes the distance between them, and -

She kisses him.

The one thing she has wanted to do so many times over the years, even more so since she and Greg broke up, and she does it without thinking of the consequences. Without thinking about how this has the potential to ruin the friendship that’s carried her through life for the last twelve years. Without thinking about what she will do once the world comes crashing down around her.

Raven pulls back after a second, her lips frozen and a small voice screaming at her to run away now. If the situation wasn’t what it is, she would find the expression on his face absolutely hilarious. As it is, she finds nothing funny about how Niall is staring at her. He isn’t even blinking. Her throat tightens until she can’t breathe, and tears burn in her eyes.

Before she can scurry away and nurse her wounded pride in private, his fingers wrap around her wrist and tug her back to him. It’s much better now that he’s a willing participant, and her confusion is drowned out by ecstasy, undiluted and raw and - simply put - overwhelming. The remnants of their dinner go neglected as Raven chases after whatever he will give her.

“Maybe being lockdown buddies was a good idea,” she whispers giddily when they part, and Niall rolls his eyes. He can’t hide the smile, though.

“Best idea I’ve ever had, if I do say so myself.” He pauses, brows drawing together over narrowed eyes. “This isn’t one of those things where you’re desperate for human contact and will settle on whoever is closest, right?”

“Don’t be stupid, Nialler. When have I ever been that way?”

“Rob, Billy, Mason, Greg -”

Raven frowns and flicks the tip of his nose. “You can shut up now.”

“Yeah, I think I will. I have much better plans for my mouth than talking, anyway.”

Maybe lockdown doesn’t have to be so bad, she thinks to herself with a breathless giggle as he kisses her senseless.