Home Bound

Chapter 3

"You can sleep here with me tonight," Harry announces, opening the door to a large room. It was three times the size of the one I had back in my old house. I don't think you could call it a home, exactly.

I step inside, immediately regretting the words that left my lips. "May I bed with Niall?" A blush tinted my cheeks. The words had sounded so promiscuous leaving my lips.

Harry gave me an incredulous look. "What?" Right now, I could see all of our similarities. Our large green eyes, moppy messes of brown curls, deep smiling dimples, fair skin, lean frames, and high cheekbones. We were identical, given a few gender bound features.

"It's just... nothing against you or anything. In fact... I would like to be with both of you. Niall makes me feel comforted and safe. I've never felt that before. But you're... my brother and for some reason, that's enough."

"Both of us?" He says that as if the words are distasteful in his mouth.

I nod, bobbing my head a few shy times. My hair bounces around my shoulders. "I trust both of you the most, no offense to the other boys."

"But why Niall?"

I open my mouth before stopping short. I furrow my eyebrows and look at him. "I... don't know. I think it's the way he brought me here. Took care of me as I was desperately trying to run."

Harry nods, sighing. He runs a hand through his messy curls and leads me to a room further down the hallway. He raps the wooden door twice and waits a moment, before a disheveled Niall opened the door. His dark, wrinkled shirt said The Beatles, which was odd to have a shirt that referenced a populous, but useless bug, and long, bright red plaid pajama bottoms. His hair is a mess and his eyes are tired. He yawns. "Yeah?"

"She wants to bed with you." I blush as he says it almost suggestively. Niall's eyebrows shoot up into his hair. "Well, both of us, actually."

A sinful smirk grows into his lips. "Aw, Harry. If you wanted to sleep with me, you really didn't have to get your sister to play along." My cheeks hurt from stifling my giggles. I let a few escape, only for Harry to give me an unamused look.

"Haha. Hilarious. Get out of my way."

Niall laughs, bellows actually. But his laughter is so infectious that I can't help but grin widely at him as he squeezes his eyes shut. Harry pushes past him, grumbling, flinging himself on the large mattress that was against a corner on the far side of the room. The bedsheets are a dark navy and the pillows are white and gold. The furniture is a dark stained, grand wood set. The floors are real oak and the walls are a cool dark blue, almost black.

"C'mon, love." I look at Niall to see him inviting me inside. Tentatively, I put one foot in front of the other, making my journey to his bed. Climbing in, next to Harry who is closest to the wall, I crawl beneath the covers. They are warm against my bare feet and they smell like Niall, like cologne and soap and a hint of spearmint gum.

In the last few hours, I'd come to find comfort in both Niall and Harry's scents. They made me warm and happy. Like Desmond couldn't reach me to hurt me ever again, as long as I was with these men. A ludicrous thought, I am aware.

After closing the door and turning off the overhead lights, Niall joined us, slipping beneath the covers. With a click, he turned off the lamp on the nightstand.

The bed jostled as he and Harry both got comfortable. I was startled as Niall threw an arm over both of us.

"Can't keep your hands off me, Horan?" I could hear the amusement in Harry's voice as he teased the Irish boy, whose accent made my skin tingle. I once knew a Turkish fellow from school who had the same effect. Foreign accents, I suppose.

"Well, you Styles' sure are hot stuff. Got two in my bed, wouldn't mind making room for Gemma, too. Right fit, she is."

I was bursting at the seams, tipping my head back and laughing ecstatically. I could hear shuffling before Harry leaned over me, punching Niall in the chest. "Oh, fuck!" It only seemed to tickle me further. I turn to bury my head into Niall's injured chest. "At least one Styles can't seem to get enough," he sighed teasingly, before placing a kiss on the top of my head.

"Oi," Harry groaned.