Assault With a Deadly Weapon || N.H / 1D

66.

Song recommendation: All I Ask by Adele
-

I promised Niall that I wouldn't leave until he'd recovered. He protested, like the stubborn man he was. He claimed that I needed to go home immediately to keep myself safe. I refused, so I stayed as long as he needed me to. There would've been nobody else to help change his bandages, and I knew for a fact that Harry would not have helped him get into the bath like I did.

"Join me?" He'd look up at me after I'd turn on the water, making sure it was at the right temperature to soothe his aching muscles, but not sting his wounds.

"Not tonight." I ran my hand over his hair, pushing it back so I could lean down and kiss his forehead.

"Philly I'm feeling better." He sighed, leaning his head back on the edge of the tub. " I promise."

"Until you can get into this tub by yourself, I can't." I shook my head, kneeling beside him, propping my head up on the side of the tub so that I sat a little bit lower than him. "I don't want to hurt you."

"But when I'm better, you're leaving." He brought his hand around to the back of my head and tangled his fingers in my hair, massaging my scalp slowly. "I just want to make it up to you."

"Make it up to me?" My eyebrows scrunched together. His hand dropped from my head, down to my back. "You don't have to make anything up to me."

"You've gone so many weeks without me, I just want-"

"Without you? You've always been here."

"I've been here, but I wasn't really here." He closed his eyes and took a breath. "I don't know what's happening to me, but I don't want that to reflect on you."

I took a moment to think. I'd noticed him changing, even if I didn't want to admit it. His eyes were more sunken in, like he hadn't been sleeping well. His smiles had become forced, and he seemed to be living on autopilot lately. I guess he hadn't been here for a while.

"I'm sorry." I looked up at him, still resting my chin on the side of the tub. "Sometimes I forget that normal people haven't experienced grief their entire lives like I have. I've gotten used to it. I had deemed life unbearable... then I met this ray of fucking sunshine that wouldn't leave me alone." I smiled at him. "I don't want you to turn into me, okay? Because life is so much easier when you love someone."

"What if I don't make it out?" He looked at me with something new in his eyes. Something I'd never seen before- fear.

My heart sank slowly. It didn't give the same feeling as a plummet. This wasn't a rush of shock or sadness. This was a slow realization. He'd lost hope.

There was a long moment of silence, but my brain was anything but quiet.

"I'll stay." I whispered. "I will stay right here and make sure that you get out of here alive."

"No." He sat up, making the water shift around him. "Absolutely not. You will not stay in this house any longer than you have to."

"Niall I'll stay-"

"No." He stopped me with a stern voice.

"Bud..." I replied in protest, softly.

"I promised to keep you safe, didn't I?" He gave me a look. "From the very beginning. The best way to keep you safe is to keep you as far away from this house as possible, even if that means keeping you away from me."

I thought for a minute.

"I'll be your handler then." I told him.

"What? I'll be with Harry. You're supposed to rest." He shook his head.