Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

Niall’s P.O.V.

A whole month had passed. Nothing odd had happened. No text messages to Aria’s phone, no birds crashing into the window, no bullets, no glass shattering, and no nothing. Everything was perfectly perfect. The kids slept in their own rooms again, and Aria didn’t seem scared.

But I was freaked out.

Sure, nothing bad had happened. I should have felt safe. I should have felt secure. But I didn’t. I felt as if something were watching, waiting for the perfect chance to pounce. Call me a hypocrite, but I had been receiving messages to my own phone. They were short messages that didn’t make sense, only left me more confused each read. I didn’t want to show them to Aria. She was so peaceful, so calm without so much stress on her back.

Corryn and Harry had decided they would be getting married sooner than anyone had thought, precisely two months from now. Aria had just entered the house after a day out with Corryn to help her choose out necessary accessories and such for the wedding.

There was a knock on my office door, and Aria stepped inside shortly after. She grinned and stared at me. I stared back at her because I didn’t know what else to do, and also because it was all I could do. Standing at my door, hands on her hips, crystal blue eyes shining bright, there was nothing else more beautiful to see.

“Why are you staring? It’s rude.” she asked abruptly, sitting down on the carpet floor right by the door.

“Well then, don’t be so damn attractive.” I shrugged, turning my back to her.

“Geez,” Aria whistled. “When did I agree to marry such a rude person?”

“When I proposed to you and you said yes.” I smirked, keeping my eyes on my papers. Aria snorted behind me, but a small sigh followed.

“That was probably the best day of my life.”

I spun around in my chair to face her. “That was definitely the best day of my life.”

Aria smiled lightly and picked at her nails, then began playing with the wedding ring on her ring finger. Clearly, she wasn’t telling me something.

“Come sit.” I opened my arms out to her. Aria stood up and came over to me, sitting down on my lap. Her back pressed against my chest and she sighed into my neck.

“Something is clearly wrong.” Aria gulped, lacing our fingers together. “It happened all at once. Chrissy being shot, then the dead bird, and then the bullet. And suddenly, nothing. That’s definitely messed up. I’ve been trying to hide it, pretend like nothing’s wrong, but I’m still so scared.”

“I thought you didn’t notice,” I admitted, my hands resting on her stomach. Her baby bump was starting to show more, now that she was nearly four months into her pregnancy.

“Of course I noticed.” she replied. “It’s just about all I’ve been thinking about. I’m still not quite sure about having the kids sleep in their own rooms.”

“They’ll be fine.” was my only answer. We sat together in silence, and though we should have been happy, though we should have felt safe, we weren’t. She and I both knew that.

The silence was broken when Aria started to cry. I could tell by how muffled her sobs were, that she was trying to hold it all in. All I could do was wipe away her tears and hold her tight, because just about anything encouraging would probably be deemed a lie.

Aria became weaker the longer she stayed in my arms. Her tears consumed her energy, took her life away, drop by drop. I grabbed her hand tightly and squeezed it, kissing her hand gently.

“Why can’t we just be left alone?” she whispered hoarsely. “Why do we have to worry all the time? I hate waking up every morning, crossing my fingers that Nate and Colette are still in their beds. I hate that when I go shopping with Corryn, half the time I’m distracted by watching for unusual people stalking me. I hate this, all of this.”

My heart broke over and over again with each word.

“I hate this, too.”

“What if I just leave?” she suggested, and immediately, I tensed. “Maybe the kids would be safer without me.”

“Let’s be real for a second.” I tried to be gentle with my words when in reality I wanted to yell at her and tell her how stupid she was to suggest such a thing. “The last time you left thinking that you were helping the people around you, you got kidnapped.”

“But it’s different this ti-”

“How is it different?” I cut her off. “Aren’t you still being threatened? Aren’t you still crying when you think I’m not watching. Aren’t I still worried about you? Aren’t there suspects? It’s just like five years ago. And if you leave, things are only going to get worse. And don’t even think for a second I’m going to let you go off on your own when you have a baby inside you.”

“Whoever sends me those text messages knows that I’m pregnant.” Aria chirped suddenly. She sighed and wiped her face clear of tears.

I had literally given up on everything security. Whoever was devoting their lives to ruining this family knew their way around anything and everything.

“The day when Chrissy got shot, one of the officers gave me a number for an agency.” Aria informed, putting her hands on my shoulders. “I think we should get help. That’s something we should have done much earlier.”

“Agreed.” I nodded. My foot bounced up and down at my anxiousness, and the chair slowly turned due to it. Aria cocked her head to the side and smiled at my desktop background. It was a picture of Nate, Nicolette, Aria and I standing together on a beach.

“We’re a cute family.” she laughed into my shoulder. “Don’t you think?”

“The cutest,” I pinched my fingers together and batted my eyelashes at her. Aria laughed, the beautiful sound escaping her mouth. It was a real laugh, one I hadn’t heard in so long.

“Oh, and guess what tomorrow is,” Aria’s eyes became wide as she turned back to me.

“The day I prove you wrong.”

“The baby is going to be a girl.” Aria declared, crossing her arms over her chest. “I can just feel it.”

I raised one eyebrow at her and leaned down to press my ear to her stomach.

“Hey, kid,” I whispered to her stomach. “You’re a boy, aren’t you? Come on, we got to prove mommy wrong.”

Aria sat still, trying not to snicker while I kept my ear pressed to her belly. I suddenly felt a tiny push from the inside of Aria’s stomach.

“I think it’s kicking,” Aria and I said together. I lifted Aria’s shirt up and pressed a hand to her belly and felt another kick or two. Aria was grinning and I felt a surge of happiness that brought tears to my eyes.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever felt her kicking.” she said quietly. I noticed how she said ‘her’. “Feels a bit odd.”

“Well, that confirms he’s a boy.” I grinned, kissing her belly. Aria rolled her eyes and pulled her shirt down.

“Aren’t you confident.” she muttered, ruffling my hair. I pushed her hand away and ruffled her hair back. Aria poked my cheek and a small giggle erupted from her throat, and she poked my cheek again.

“You have fat cheeks.”

I blew my cheeks up and crossed my eyes, making her giggle more. I loved being able to make her laugh. She looked like she was eighteen years old again, wrapped up in my arms after a nightmare, smiling like when I had first told her I loved her. It was hard to believe that was seven years ago. As Aria laughed in my arms now, I watched her with a smile, glad that she was the girl I had met seven years ago.

I couldn’t imagine a life without her.



Aria’s P.O.V.

Niall’s knees bounced up and down as he sat next to me. Even when I set my hand on his knee to try and calm him down, it just kept bouncing. I chuckled, wondering if he were really that anxious to prove me wrong.

He probably was.

I grabbed his hand and pulled myself towards him, my lips hitting his ear.

“Calm the fuck down, Niall.” I giggled quietly into his ear. He looked down at me and stuck his tongue out, but stopped bouncing his knee.

“Aria Horan.”

Niall and I both looked up at the sound of my name being called. I smiled and pulled Niall’s hand, taking him with me. A nurse stood at the entrance to the check-up rooms, a cute smile on her face.

“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Horan.” She nodded at me, then at Niall.

The nurse took us to a smaller room and recorded my height and weight, then handed me a hospital gown type cloth to get changed into and took us to a different room. Niall sat in a chair by the bed while I changed into the gown, humming softly. Minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Dr. Feingold stepped inside.

“ Hello.”She grinned when she saw Niall and I. “How are the twins doing?”

“Fine,” I answered, my thoughts drifting to my children. I prayed they would be safe with Harry and Corryn for the time we would be gone.

“Okay,” Dr Feingold clapped her hands together. “So you’re about four months along, correct?”

“That’s right.” I nodded.

“I believe then that we can notify you with the sex of the child.”

“It’s going to be a boy.” Niall told Dr. Feingold confidently.

Dr Feingold raised her eyebrows and laughed gently. “We’ll see about that, Mr. Horan.”

I laid back on the padded bed and let Dr. Feingold apply the familiar cold goo to my stomach. I looked down and watched her move the small device over my stomach, the readings going straight to the large screen ahead of us.

“There’s your baby.” Dr Feingold pointed to the screen. A small figure, still barely human moved slightly on the screen. An involuntary smile grew on my lips. Dr. Feingold, wrote a few things down on her clipboard, and took a few shots of the screen picture.

“The baby seems to be doing fine.” She told me. Niall grabbed my hand and squeezed it. His knee was bouncing up and down at an irregular pace. I giggled lightly and nodded at the doctor. “If you’ll just wait here, I’ll be back with results for the gender.”

“Boy, boy, boy.” Niall whispered. I slapped his arm.

“Shut up, Niall.”

Dr Feingold smiled, probably at how immature we were, and left the room.

“It’s so pretty,” Niall gasped, once she was out of earshot. I snorted at his comment but looked at the screen and agreed with him.

“Beautiful.”

“It will be beautiful,” Niall agreed with a short nod. “Especially with a mother like you.”

“However, there’s a chance it might be ugly with a father like you.” I shot back skillfully. Niall let out an exaggerated gasp but ended with chuckling along with me.

“Remember, being here in this office, looking at two babies on the screen?” I sighed, watching the unborn child wiggle on the large screen.

“I was so scared,” Niall admitted. “Like, I was so excited to be a father, but scared for the exact same reason.”

“I know what you mean.” I assured. “That moment might have been the most nerve-wracking, terrifying one of my life.”

Niall squeezed my hand tighter. “But look where we are now.”

“It’s unbelievable.” I breathed out slowly, running a hand through my hair.

“But at the same time it is believable.”

Dr. Feingold appeared in the doorway, holding her clipboard close to her chest.

“Bad news, Mr. Horan.”

Niall’s face dropped and I was suddenly a little worried, but Dr. Feingold’s next words were words I would forever rub in Niall’s face.

“Congratulations.” Dr. Feingold smiled at the both of us. “It’s a girl.”

I expected Niall to pout or whine or something, but instead, a huge smile swept across his face and he leaned down to press a long kiss to my lips. I could feel his smile in the curve of his lips, but I pushed him away because Dr. Feingold was still watching.

“This is amazing.” Niall exhaled, hesitating to catch his breath.

“And here I was thinking you would be mad at Aria for a month.” Dr Feingold laughed lightly and informed us when the next check up should be, and other necessary information. Once I had changed back into my clothing, Niall drove us to Harry’s house, where Harry and Corryn were hopefully taking care of Nate and Nicolette.

As we stood at the doorstep, we could hear Nicolette screaming and Nate laughing loudly. I gulped, wondering exactly what was going on in there.

Harry opened the door completely out of breath. He held up a finger and put his hands on his knees, bending down to catch his breath.

“Hi,” he gasped lightly, blinking at us.

“How bad were they?” Niall smirked, doing some manly handshake with Harry that only men could do.

“I wouldn’t call them bad,” Harry gave a slow grin. “But this is just about the most amount of exercise I’ve done all year.”

“In other words, they were pretty bad.” I laughed as Corryn came up behind Harry. I could hear Nicolette singing Ninety Nine Bottle of Beer loudly in the background, and Nate joined in.

“Why that song?” Corryn sighed. “Of all songs you could have taught them, you taught them the one that involved an alcoholic beverage. I thought you were my idol, Aria.”

“Come on,” Harry stepped aside to let us in. There were nerf guns and assisting bullets lying on the ground, and plastic bowls filled with cake and what looked like nutella were half full on the table.

No wonder why the kids couldn’t sit still.

“Is that what you morons fed them?” I pointed to the cake and nutella. Corryn and Harry both nodded.

“Cory,” I groaned. “I told you not to give them too much sugar.”

“Oh,” Corryn scratched her chin. “You did?”

“You guys were literally asking for them to become uncontrollable.” Niall added, but he was clearly amused by the obliviousness of Harry and Corryn. I had to admit, so was I.

“You can’t keep them away from all that good stuff forever.” Harry shrugged. “I think kids deserve some sugar once in a while.”

Not our kids.

“How about Niall and I,” I grabbed Niall’s hand, “go out, and while were gone, you two can find the kids?”

Harry crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. Seems fair enough. We’re going to have to get used to this anyways.” He gestured to Corryn.

“Have fun, wherever you two are going.” Corryn waved as I pulled Niall out the door.

“Smooth way of getting out of that.” Niall complimented as we made our way to our car. I grinned, knowing that I was one amazing human being.

Niall and I drove around the city, talking and laughing about stupid things that any normal person would never understand. We ended up walking around the mall, a Mc Donald’s burger in Niall’s hand and the fries in mine. We walked into a Burberry store and started pulling at everything.

Niall grabbed a Fedora and placed it on my head, took a picture, then replaced the fedora with a snapback and took a picture of that. A small child, maybe around two or three started to cry for no reason, so I handed him a frie to shut him up.

Mc Donald’s fries could do wonders.

“Let’s go in there.” I waggled my eyebrows at Niall, nodding towards Victoria’s Secret.

“Let’s not.” Niall protested, trying to get my hands off of him.

We ended up bickering in the middle of the Burberry store and got kicked out by one of the employees. Niall gave into my nagging and followed me into Victoria’s Secret. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been in here with him. I did however remember the last time I had been in here with Harry. Corryn was looking for underwear while Harry and I went around sticking panties into people’s purses. It was extremely hilarious, even when we got caught.

It was only when I had entered Victoria’s Secret that I realized was actually was in need of some new underwear. And Niall was here to help me choose.

I dragged Niall along behind me, ignoring his constant whining about how he didn’t belong in here. I told him to behave like the other men in the store who were patiently waiting for their spouses to buy their necessities instead of acting younger than our children.

“But this is boring.” Niall groaned, then wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and pressed my back to his chest. “And it’s giving me ideas.”

I turned around and gave his a quick kiss before walking away. I headed to a rack of bra and panty sets and started going through them. Niall came up beside me and started looking through them as well. I stopped and watched him go through the underwear intensely. He stopped then too, and held up a black and white polka-dot lace set.

“This one.” Niall said, thrusting the underwear set towards me. I raised my eyebrows, but took it from him. A small smile played on his lips, but he turned away before I could see it get any bigger. He moved down to another rack which held the more expensive, attractive underwear. I didn’t know if it was wrong to feel more uncomfortable at the moment than Niall was.

“This one too.” Niall handed me another set. This one was way out of my comfort zone. It was practically see through, with really thin black lace and barely padding on the bra. It was rimmed with black fluff and pretty much nothing to cover up.

“No,” I handed it back to him. “No way.”

“Try it on.” Niall grinned. “I’m not going to take no for an answer. You take me in here, this is what you get in return.”

“Fuck my life.” I muttered, giving in. I could feel Niall’s eyes on me as I headed to the fitting room. The employee allowed Niall to come into the fitting area with me, but told us only one person was allowed in the room at a time, so Niall just stood outside the curtain. I tried on the more comfortable looking one first, and took a liking to it. Both pieces fit perfectly on my body, except they really emphasized my growing baby bump.

Frustrated with my body almost instantly, I pulled on the other set, the black, sexier one, in hopes that the darker color would make me look skinnier. The fluff really just added more thickness to my body. I pulled my clothes back on in discontent and pushed the curtain open.
Niall peeked in and the smile on his face instantly dropped. I tried to walk past him, but he grabbed my hand.

“Why aren’t you wearing them?” he nodded at the underwear in my hands.

“I already tried them on.” I shrugged. “I don’t like them.”

“But they both are perfect for you.” Niall frowned. “I’m mean sure, the second one may be a little out of your comfort zone, but I know you’d grow on it.”

“I don’t like them.” I sighed. “They aren’t right for my body.”

“But I picked out your size.” Niall protested, checking the tag on the to make sure. “See, they are your size.” He wasn’t going to give up, was he?

“For god’s sake, Niall,” I gulped. “I’m too fat for fucking lingerie.”

“Oh, come on.” Niall just groaned. “Not this again.”

“You can see my baby bump.” I hissed, trying not to shout at him. “Sure, the underwear is pretty, but I’m not.”

“You’re beautiful.” He looked at me, disappointed. “I thought we were over you calling yourself anything but. Please get over your insecurities because all they do is bring you down.”

“Okay.” I mumbled, putting zero percent heart into my words. Niall gave me a slight push towards the fitting room stall.

“Go try them on.” Niall smiled. “And don’t hide from me this time.”

Naturally, I gave into his annoying yet irresistible charm. I changed back into the polka dotted lingerie and tried to suck in my stomach a bit before opening the curtain for Niall. His eyes traveled from toe to head, then back down.

“Damn, you look sexy.” He said simply. “Though I think you’d be much more comfortable if you weren’t sucking your stomach in so much.”

How the hell had he noticed that?

I rolled my eyes and pushed him out of the room to change into the next one. Again, it was extremely fancy, and I know why Niall had chosen it. He seemed to have a thing for black lace. I felt like it showed too much, but then again, if I sucked my stomach in a little, it didn’t look too bad.

Niall poked his head in while I was still facing the mirror. I was startled, earning him a slap on the arm.

“Don’t fucking scare me like that.” My heart literally jumped out of my chest.

“Don’t say ‘fuck’ while you’re wearing that or things will escalate accordingly.” He teased, but the sudden dark reflection of his eyes told me he wasn’t all kidding.

“Do you think it looks alright?” I asked, looking at myself in the mirror.

Niall leaned in further and planted a kiss on my neck.

“You look beautiful.”

“If only my stomach-“

“If only nothing.” He cut me off. “You’re perfect just the way you are. Don’t say anything degrading about yourself or I will serenade you in the middle of the mall and embarrass you to death.”

I gave him a twisted grin that wasn’t fully a grin and pushed him out of the room again. After I was dressed, we headed to the cash register. I kept questioning Niall and questioning myself, wondering if I should buy the underwear or not. Niall whispered a few things in my ear that set my decision in place.

We left Victoria’s Secret with two newly bought pairs of underwear.

Shortly after we exited the store, Niall’s message tone sounded from his back pocket. One hand clasped with mine, he took his phone out to read the message. I watched his eyes run over the screen, and then he stopped. He looked around frantically, his head turning everywhere.

“Niall, what happened?”

Niall handed me his phone. “Read it.”

Unknown: I bet you like that black lace on your little princess.

Notes

Wow.. seventeen days is too long of a time to not update.... sorry for the delay!!!!