My Beautiful Fairytale

[19]: Time

[A/N: Friendly reminder that this story was edited and character names have changed! If you are lost you may want to go back a chapter to refresh :)

Kolya is now Kieran
Noah is now Niall
Krish is now Cris
Scorpio is now Sergio]

Kieran POV:

I heard my phone ringing while I was helping Alana with her gymnastics routine stuff (that I knew nothing about, so I basically stood there awkwardly, telling her what looked good and what didn't).

"Okay, next up—"

"Hold that thought Ala," I said. I found my phone on the outdoor table. I accepted the call without looking at the ID. "Hello?"

"Kieran! Thank fucking God! I've been calling you for 20 minutes now!" Cris's voice was on the other line, sounding relieved and worried. "Niall needs you, like now. I know damn well he's too upset to call you himself, so you need to go help him," he said urgently.

"What? Why? What's wrong?"

"I-I don't know," I heard sobbing from the line, it sounded like the twins, panic was rising in my chest. "The twins called me from his phone and said Niall needed help and when I got there..." he trailed off. "He needs someone and I have the twins, Zay is busy. Please."

"What!? Cris! What the hell are you—?" I heard a click on the line. My heart started pounding and fear pierced my heart. What happened to my boyfriend?

"What's wrong?" Alana asked.

"I've got to go. See you later, Lan," I called as I started towards my car, breaking into a run. "Tell you later!"

—

I knocked on the door politely, expecting Ms. Kinney to open the door. Instead, there was no answer.

"Niall?" I called, knocking again. I got no answer and started panicking even more than I already was. His car was in the driveway, but Ms. Kinney's car wasn't, so why wasn't he answering? Cris had made it sound like a life or death situation, so I guessed neither of them would be showering or something.

I opened the door, peeking in. I heard soft sobbing from the living room and stepped in, closing the door behind me. I looked into the living room, and felt my heart break.

Niall was sitting on the couch, knees pulled to chest and his face buried in his arms. He was trembling and I could hear his sobbing.

I was at his side immediately. I wrapped an arm around him, kissing his temple. He leaned into me, releasing his knees and burying his face in my chest.

"It's okay, I'm right here," I whispered calmly. I hugged him tightly, burying my nose in his hair. I didn't know what happened, but I knew it had to be terrible to make him this upset. It wasn't the same as his crying at the beach. This was at a whole new level of heartbreak.

After almost an hour of heartbreaking sobs and fearful, upset tears obstructing his beautiful face, he calmed down enough to speak. Though he refused to. We sat in silence while I continued to hug him protectively, rubbing his back as comfortingly as I could.

"What did I do?" He asked suddenly, weakly wiping his eyes on his sleeve. He looked up to me with broken eyes. "W-why do I deserve t-this?"

"Deserve what?"

He was silent for what seemed like an eternity, at first I didn't think he was going to answer. But he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, showing me the recent contact list. There was an unknown number that said he'd picked up, and I got the hint that he wanted me to look up the number.

I hesitantly opened my own phone and wrote down the phone number, googling who's number it was. As soon as I hit enter, I felt my blood run cold. Any trace of calm probably retreated. The place that came up for that phone number was the hospital. And...if Cris had the twins that could only mean...

"Oh, Niall," I said quietly, looking at him and pulling him towards me, making sure to cradle his head against my shoulder. He fell against my chest, burying his face into my shoulder. "I think you should stay with me for a little," I rested my forehead on his, noticing his worried gaze. "Just for a little bit."

"What about my siblings?" He asked quietly, his lip quivering. "I-I... I'm their legal guardian now," he suddenly laughed humorlessly. "But I-I'm a fucking death magnet I...all I do is kill the ones I love. Like Jackson, and Dad and..."

"Don't say that, Niall," I said tersely. I could feel my throat tightening. What was he thinking!? Like hell he was! "You are not at fault for this, no matter how many times you say it. There are people like me, the twins, Cris, and the guys, who care for you dearly and who all think you are the opposite of a death magnet," I said softly, watching his eyes. "You changed Kyler's life. I could tell by the first sentence you signed to him. You've changed Cris' life, you changed my life. You have affected all of our lives in amazing ways, so do not ever say that."

He was silent. Then he took a sharp intake of breath and let out a sob, sinking to the floor and sitting against the hallway wall. "I can't do this anymore Kieran! It's my fault! I-I'm so tired of this! I-I told her to drive safe every night except last night...why did it have to be after last night? I-I was so happy! What have I done to deserve this!?" He wailed, pulling at his hair. "W-why can't people just drive sober!?" He finally cried, melting against the couch. I sat with my back against the arm of the sofa across from him and took his hands from his hair, pulling him towards me and making him sit on my lap, facing me. Tears were running down his face. I wiped some off his cheek, watching him carefully. He parted his lips, most likely to say something.

I put my hand against his mouth, to make him shut up with all that bullshit. "It's not your fault. Nothing like this is ever your fault. You can not control this. It's no one's fault but the drunk driver," I said quietly. "You can't control the nature of things, Niall. And it sucks, it makes you so angry that time ticks on when all you want is to go back and change things. You so desperately want to go back and just start over even when you know it could change everything. You are never at fault for the things time does, and I will be here to remind you of that every day until you believe it," I said, pressing my forehead against his. "Please, never call yourself a death magnet ever again. I can't bear to listen to you talk about yourself like that."

He said nothing, just sat with his hands in his lap, staring at them. I wrapped my arms around him, encasing him in a protective hug as a sob shook his whole body. I sighed, wishing I could just take the pain away from him.

He pressed his forehead to my shoulder. "T-thank you Kieran," he said, his voice muffled as he took a deep breath. "I-I don't know what I'd do without you," his voice cracked towards the end of the sentence.

"Convince yourself everything is your fault, probably," I said lightly, running my fingers through his hair. "I'm so sorry you're dealing with this, Niall."

He pulled back enough for me to see his face. "Thank you for being here," he said, his lip quivering. "Cris sent you, didn't he?"

"Clearly," I said back, pulling him to hide his face in my shoulder again. "And I'm glad he did."

"I-I'm glad you're here," he muttered, gripping my shirt desperately.