Never • Say • Never § a Niam Horayne collab fanfic [AU]

Chapter Twenty-Two - Trust

(by butterfliess)

Liam's POV

Even though the gun was tucked away, my gaze followed down and was stopped at his backpack. I patted mine, which was stuffed with everything I could throw in, and looked behind me. "Um, nothing." My eyes lifted. "Just..." I paused, awkwardly nodding. "Thanks. I probably would have been dead had you not stepped in to... you know... save me."

He nodded too, the area around us flushing with awkward silence. "No problem." He broke it, his soft tone putting me at a little bit of ease. "I did save you, didn't I?" He looked at the ground, watching his feet alternate. I smiled. "Yes, yes you did." The mood lightened. 

"Then you totally owe me one."

---

I stopped Niall once we got to the hotel. "Let's drop our stuff inside and... go for a walk..." I suggested. He shrugged, curious. We tried to ignore the people in the lobby and the hallways that were staring at my shaking hands and bruises. My hand felt around my face and as soon as it hovered above the huge bruise on my cheek, I howled in pain. "Are you sure you want to go out...?" Niall asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I don't care what people think." 

...That wasn't true. I cared a lot about what Niall thought of me. I didn't want to seem weak, that's only doubling the possibility of him turning on me. I was completely vulnerable, he could shoot me right then and there. But he didn't. I wanted to trust him, and trust was slowly forming, but it wasn't quite there yet. 

We had made our way, empty handed, to a highway. We walked along the dirt road, hands-in-pockets, and I gestured to the meadow. "Let's go sit." I smiled cheerfully. He gave me a look, brows raised, and sighed. Not a bad sigh, though.

"There's ticks and stuff out there though..." He pointed out. I shrugged. "Who cares? Bugs are the least of our problems right now."

He mimicked my smile and gestured to the meadow. We fell against the soft, tall grass and onto our backs. My arms crossed and I occassionally moved them away to point out clouds. The grass was so tall that no one could spot us out here, anyways. 

"This is wonderful, Niall. Just being out here with someone I..." I hesitated. "Trust." He looked over at me and returned the favor of a beautiful smile. 

"You trust me?" 

"Yeah, I do. I know I can now, obviously, after you saved me. I think I can get past my trust issues, for you. You're an exception, since you were... brave enough to pull a gun on my dad."