BURNS » Niam ✔

1 - "Stop"

Liam arrived home late and shuffled inside the front door. He could smell food but when he got to the kitchen, he saw a plate on the stove and there was foil covering over it. So he knew that he missed dinner.

He tossed his keys into a tray on the counter and was a little bit disappointed that Niall had to eat without him tonight. He usually made it home in time, but he had extra work today that made him stay late.

He made his way to the back of the house, where he found Niall, his housemate of one year and boyfriend of seven months, sipping coffee from a mug. He also had his laptop in front of him.

Liam sighed. "You'll be no good in ten years, Ni. You drink way too much coffee."

Niall smiled but didn't look up from what he was doing. "Hey."

"How are you?"

He sat the mug on the nightstand. "I'm fine. Dinner is on the stove."

"I know. I saw it. Thank you."

He only nodded. So Liam crawled on the bed in front of him and pushed the laptop off to the side.

Niall frowned. "I'm reading that."

"I know." He glanced at the screen. "When are you going to be done with school? It seems to be taking up a lot of your time as of late."

"In two months, Li." He groaned and he tried to pull the laptop in front of him, but Liam stopped him. "What do you want?"

"I'm waiting on you to kiss me. I literally just made it home late, which is totally out of the norm, and you haven't asked me anything about it."

Now he folded his arms. "Are you cheating on me?"

Liam chuckled, knowing that he wasn't serious. "Of course not."

"Then, I'm not really worried." Before he could make an attempt to grab his laptop, Liam lunged forward and tackled him backwards. After pinning him down, he kissed him sweetly and then smiled down at him. "Why are you always playing so hard to get with me?"

Niall was still on his back, but he pulled his feet up, so that his knees were bent on each side of Liam. "I don't play hard to get. You already have me."

"Yes, you do. If only you saw yourself."

He shook his head. "No, I do not. Just because I don't kiss you as soon as you step over the threshold, that does not mean I'm playing hard to get. I'm busy. I have work to do. I'm trying to finish up school as soon as possible. You know this."

"Yeah, yeah." Liam groaned. "I know."

"When I'm finished with school, you and I will go out and celebrate. Because I know how patient you've been and I'll reward you for it."

"The only reward I want is you, Niall. That's all."

Niall grinned. "Stop. You're being too sweet."

"You love me for that though, right?"

"Of course I do."

"Good. Because I love you too." Before Niall could react, he leaned down and kissed him again. His boyfriend giggled into it and it told Liam that he liked it, so he kissed him harder. Niall let out a small moan of appreciation for that action and Liam saw that as an invitation to go further. So he pushed one of his hands up underneath Niall's shirt, feeling over his stomach.

At first Niall didn't mind it. He liked the way Liam touched him. But then when he kissed down his neck and tried to lift his shirt up, Niall grasped his hand tightly.

"Stop." He gasped.

Liam frowned. "What?"

"I don't... want to do that. I'm- I'm still not ready."

Liam sat up on his knees and squinted down at him. "Niall, you're worrying me. This is the third time this has happened."

Niall couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"But Liam was still studying him hard. "Is there something you're not telling me, babe?"

He still wasn't looking at him. "I really don't want to have this discussion right now. I'm actually trying to do school and you kind of interrupted me from that. May I get back to it please?"

Liam huffed and reluctantly moved from in between his legs. "Yeah. Go ahead."

He stood up at the foot of the bed and began to take off his shoes since he hadn't done that yet. He looked at Niall who had pulled the laptop back in front of him again and grabbed his mug from the nightstand. He didn't understand why Niall was afraid to go all the way. He let him touch him anywhere. He let him kiss him everywhere and do those types of things as long as they were clothed, but every time it looked like they were finally about to go any further than that, Niall would bail and say he wasn't ready.

Liam had accepted that because he understood that Niall had never really done it before and he didn't want to rush him into anything. But a lot of time had passed now. The first encounter happened about three months ago when they were a little after four months into the relationship. Liam understood and told him he would wait. Four weeks later, when it almost happened again, Niall said the same thing. He told him he wasn't ready. And now, six weeks later than that, Niall was saying the same thing. He was beginning to wonder if Niall would ever be ready.

"Don't forget that dinner is on the stove." Niall said, and he was typing something into the computer.

"I'm not hungry." Liam replied, and Niall looked at him, realizing he had stripped down to his underwear and just threw all his clothes on the floor.

"Why? Because you're mad at me?"

"No." He answered dryly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yep." He came around and plopped down on the bed, then got underneath the cover, turning his back to him.

So Niall sat his mug down and closed the laptop. He lay down behind him and put an arm around him. "I think you are mad at me."

"I said no."

"Yet, somehow, you still sound like you are."

"Well, I'm not."

"And you're lying."

"Ni, I'm trying to get some sleep. And I can't do that if you're trying to start a conversation with me. Can you be quiet please?"

Niall waited a minute, then finally let go of him and sat up. He stared down at his closed laptop with a defeated expression. "Goodnight then." He mumbled.

He knew Liam was upset, maybe more so frustrated with him than anything, but he didn't know what else to do. Telling him that he wasn't ready was all he could think of to say without lying. He loved Liam for sure, but he wasn't ready to go that far. Liam didn't understand.

"I'll put your food in tupperware so you can take it for lunch tomorrow." He whispered so that he didn't make Liam angry. But he at least wanted him to know that.

Liam didn't say anything, but he felt the bed shake when Niall got up out of it. He couldn't help but wonder about what was going on with his boyfriend. He knew that Niall trusted him enough to know he would never try to hurt him, so why was he doing everything he could to keep from going further? What was he really waiting for?

Whatever was wrong, he had a feeling it was something deeper than not being ready. Niall was afraid of something. There was a fear somewhere that he was trying to keep hidden. And Liam knew that there was nothing left for him to do but to try to get to the bottom of it.