little do you know // niall horan au

chapter 11; falling slowly (part ii)

Mona felt like her lower back was being stabbed repeatedly with a blunt object.

When she opened her eyes, the pain simmered down to a low throb which went away completely when she simply shifted her position a little to the right, the weight on her chest shifting with her. It took a lot of blinking and drifting in and out of that sleepy haze for her mind to register that she was not in her room and that weight on her chest was Niall snoozing away peacefully, tiny puffs of his breathing fanning across her skin and leaving goosebumps rippling in its wake.

She didn't know how exactly they fell asleep like this, with her fingers in his hair and his arms literally enveloping her, his leg tucked between both of hers. Somehow, they'd ended up with a blanket draped over their bodies, their body heat trapped underneath it ensuring that they couldn't feel the slight early morning chill that usually settled in the sitting room area. (Harlow didn't see the point in keeping the heating in the sitting room on during the night since they had the fireplace). Mona glanced over to it now only to see that the fire had died down, only glowing embers of it left, and she was surprised it kept up so long since usually it would be completely out by the time they came down to prepare breakfast.

She tried to remember how they got here, falling asleep on the floor in front of the fireplace, and as she slowly woke up, bits and pieces of last night started to come back to her. She remembered Niall's laughter in her hair as he carried her to the kitchen because the floor was cold and she'd forgotten her fluffy slippers upstairs, remembered him smiling into her skin as he sang her favorite song to the beat of the leaking tap and the creaks the floor made every time he made a step, remembered him asking her to dance and her blushing and laughing because his eyes twinkled as he pulled her off the counter and told her to step on his feet since the tile was too cold for hers.

Mona glanced over to the fireplace again only to see their empty mugs sitting near it, and she remembered sitting here with Niall until their hot cocoa was gone and the numbers on the clock became blurry from their exhaustion. They talked about nothing and yet everything all at once and Mona relearned everything about him that she'd somehow forgotten: that he was so smart and knowledgable about everything and that he could sing like an angel and that he flushed a pretty pink whenever he was praised. Last night, there wasn't a single moment when Mona felt down.

Now, with Niall sleeping peacefully on her chest and his arms keeping her body close to his, she was overwhelmed, her feelings for him growing tenfold overnight. She didn't want to feel this way, not when there were so many other things she had to sort through in her mind like going back to San Francisco and facing her mom and Nick, not to mention going to school and getting her degree and working double shifts to be able to pay rent for her and Harlow's shared apartment and—it was all too much.

In that moment, Niall let out a tiny groan as he shifted, his hands moving to trail from her shoulder to her wrist where her fingers were twirling through the strands of his hair. "God," he mumbled into her skin, sleepily blinking up at her before letting his head fall onto her pillow. He was so close the tips of their noses almost touched, and Mona felt those butterflies floating around in her core again. "It's like your brain never turns off. As soon as you're awake your heart starts beating twice as fast because you think too much."

Mona breathed out a laugh as she worried her lower lip between her teeth. "Sorry." Her voice cracked a little, and she wondered if all the words she hid in her throat could be heard through the gaps. Her fingers itched to reach out to him, to trail over the scruff that littered his jawline and trace through the freckles that were splattered down his neck, but she held back. She couldn't let herself get carried away anymore. "Sleep well?"

Niall hummed through a tiny smile, his sleepy eyes glimmering at her. "As best as I could on the floor." Laughter was threaded through his words and it was contagious because Mona couldn't help the breathy giggle that bubbled from her lips in response. "You make a nice pillow," he said, and then his nose wrinkled, "even if you are a little bony."