Tainted | narry au | sequel

Chapter 27

"Whats bugging you?" Harry whispers. It was early morning; it was still dark outside. Harry woke from Niall tossing and turning.

"Nothing." He hears Niall whisper, and Harry notices that he sounds far way. Harry opens his eyes, letting them adjust to the darkness before he moves them near the window where he can see Nial's silhouette. Harry sits up, pulling the blanket off his body before he moves out of bed and walks up behind Niall. He wraps his arms around his waist, laying his head on his shoulder.

"Whats wrong?" He asks again.

"Nothing..Just thinking."

"About what?"

Niall opens his mouth to speak, but quickly closes it again. He didn't know what to say.

"Babe..Spit it out." Harry urges, tightening his grip on Niall as his heart races.

"I'm just thinking about things. Things from the past." Niall whispers.

"Like what?"

"Why did you leave?" Niall rushes out.

"What?" Harry asks, caught off guard. "Why are you asking this?"

"Because I need to know..You can't expect me to get back with you forgetting about you leaving."

"Do you really want to talk about this right now? I mean its only, - " His eyes cast to the clock on the night stand, "four am. Why are you even awake? How long have you been awake for?" He tugs on Niall's arm, but he rips it out of Harry's grasp, and turns to look at him.

"Why are you avoiding the question?"

"Because I don't want to talk about this right now when we should be sleeping." He answers rather harshly. He turns away from Niall and makes his way back to the bed. "Now, come back to bed please."

"Not until we talk about this." Niall steps forward, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Damn it, Niall! I don't want to talk about this right now. Just drop it and ask another day."

Niall leaves the room, not turning around to look back at Harry who watches him with his mouth hanging open.

--

Niall avoids Harry the next day. He didn't get much sleep, so he filled himself with coffee and then left before Harry was awake.

"Daddy, where is Dada?" Bella whines, rubbing her eyes as a yawn escapes her lips.

"I don't know.." He stretches, then ruffles his hair out of his face. He picks up Bella, and sets her on his hip as he walks down to the kitchen. He sees Maura.

"Is Niall here?" He asks.

"No, he left early this morning to the hospital." She gives him a small smile. "He said he didn't want to wake you. You had a rough night, he said?" She turns around to pour Harry coffee. "He said you didn't get much sleep so he wanted you to sleep in as long as you needed."

"Oh." Harry whispers, feeling his heart drop. Niall was still mad at him from last night.

"I'm about to leave for the hospital, you're welcome to join me."

"Sure, we're just going to get ready."

--

Harry follows after Maura, Bella in his arms. He's nervous to follow. He's afraid to see Niall. Niall hasn't answered any of his messages or calls and he is afraid Niall will tell him to leave. He doesn't want that to happen. They step out of the elevator, and at the end of the hall is where Niall is standing. Bella sees him first, squeals, and squirms out of her fathers arms. "Dada!" She yells, running after him.

"Hey, sweetheart." He mumbles, ruffling her hair before turning toward his mum. "Shes awake." Maura nods, and then leaves them alone in the hall so she could greet her mother.

"Niall, about last night -"

"Just drop it." He says harshly, following after his mum. Bella turns toward her father, and stares up at him.

"Dada mad?"

"No, of course not sweetheart."

Harry doesn't say anything else as he grabs Bella's hand and they walk into the room. He doesn't make themselves known, he just sits in the back chair with Bella on his lap. He watches them, observes Niall's body language and can tell he is running on little to no sleep. His moves are slow and sluggish, his head is swaying and he can see his eyes dropping every once in awhile. He also has dark circles under his eyes.

Bella squirms in her seat, whining. "Daddy I hungry." Her voice makes the older lady in the hospital bed stop talking and look toward them.

"Who is this?" She asks Niall.

Niall looks from his grandma to Harry, just staring at him. He doesn't say anything, he wonders if he should and if his silence is bad.

"Niall?" Maura questions, snapping Niall out of his thoughts.

"That's Harry, and his daughter, Bella."

"Dada, I hungry."

"I'll take you to get something to eat." Niall says, ready to step away to grab her but his grandmas voice stops him.

"She calls you Dada? Did you adopt her?" His grandma's expression doesn't look approving and Niall looks around frantically. She has never approved of him being gay.

Niall opens his mouth but Harry steps in before. "No, but she is young so she doesn't understand yet. We've tried talking to her about it but she insists on calling him that. She calls a lot of people Dada.." Harry trails off, shrugging, as he chuckles nervously.

"I see." His grandma whispers, sharing a look with Maura.

"Well, she's beautiful." She gives Harry a tight smile, and then looks at Niall with disapproving eyes. Niall quickly looks away, his gaze on the ground as he hurriedly moves away and toward Harry.

"Come on, lets get something to eat." Niall doesn't wait, or look back to see if Harry is following after him. He just wants to leave.

--

Niall doesn't say anything as they sit in the cafeteria. He hasn't looked at Harry once, his gaze has stayed down. Niall never wanted Harry to meet his grandparents. His grandparents were members of the church, and they believed gay was a sin. Everytime Niall saw his grandpa he was always given a lecture about being gay.

"Gay is wrong. You'll go to hell."

"Come to church with me and we'll wash away your sins."

He doesn't hear the end of it.

"What happened back there?" Harry finally asks.

"My grandparents aren't happy with gays." He whispers. He doesn't look up to see his reaction.

"Why would you bring me to a homophobic house then?"

Niall looks up, shocked at the hard tone in his voice.  "Because...because I didn't want to be alone. I..I needed you here with me."

"You didn't stop to think how this would affect me, or Bella? Thats selfish. I don't want her around these kinds of people."

"Harry, I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say."

"I'm getting a motel room for Bella and I, you are welcome to join us, but I refuse to stay in the same house as them."

Niall runs his hand through his hair, and then over his face. "Okay...okay." He whispers. He doesn't look at Harry. He knows Harry is mad at him; they're mad at each other but Harry was still his boyfriend and they would find a way to get over this. He hoped.