Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

Aria's P.O.V.
One month had passed, and Niall and I had discovered a few things about well, everything.
First, there was Noelle, who we had discovered had a knack for knocking things down where ever she went. If you sat her on a counter, she'd knock down some soap. If you carried her around the house while speaking to a friend on the phone, she would try and tear photo frames off the wall.
Another thing was her love for my breastmilk.
She would for my milk every two hours, then drink and drink until she became full and dozed off. She had definitely gotten the love for anything edible from Niall.
Aside from Noelle, we had leanred other things, such as something interesting about Grant.
He had come to visit us about a week ago, and when I basically kicked him out of our house for helping Candace and Daniel, he proved me wrong. He was feeding Candace and Daniel lies to throw them off track. He explained to Niall and I that he had changed the data they were collecting of our previous locations, and gave us a printed copy as proof.
Niall believed him, but I still couldn't trust him.
The same week, Jace called me, telling me that he 'd learned about the birth of Noelle through the magazine covers of Niall and I walking out of the hospital with Noelle in my arms. We spent a good five hours speaking and having a laugh, which still made Niall uneasy.
And the final thing we learned just this morning, was that Maura was coming over.
Today.
It was supposed to be a surprise, but Greg and Niall had been speaking on the phone and Greg accidentally spilled the secret, which meant that Niall and I were up and running around the house, trying to clean up the place.
"Don't put your paint on the carpet!" I scolded Nate, who had a new kind of passion for art ever since he and Nicolette began school. His art teacher had apparently fallen in love with his passion for drawing, and gave him extra tips for his work.
Nicolette was in the living room with Will and her new friend, Annie from school trying to solve a puzzle. It made me a bit worried that Nate hadn't mentioned having any friends, while Nicolette already had a whole group to hang out with.
I straightened the cushions and pushed the chairs into the table neatly, internally stressing out. Niall was upstairs trying to stop Noelle from crying by rubbing her tummy, a magical skill he had figured out.
When the doorbell rang, the house fell silent. Noelle no longer cried, Nicolette and her friends stopped chattering, and Nate... well, he just kept on painting.
"Grandma's home!" Mara cheered, entering the house as I opened the door for her. She smiled at me. "How are you, pumpkin?"
"I'm great." I grinned, hugging her tightly. I had missed her too much.
"Hey mum." Niall called softly, coming down the stairs with Noelle latched onto his body. He held her securely and protectively, like no one was allowed to touch her.
"My baby!" Maura cooed, holding her hands out to him. Niall came in for a hug, but his jae dropped when Maura took Noelle from him instead.
"Rejected." I snorted, nudging his arm. Niall just blinked.
"Oh, she is so beautiful." Maura gasped, caressing Noelle's hair. "Too beautiful." Maura looked up with a devious grin. "Go on, you two. Go to the bedroom and make another beautiful grandchild for me. Just don't be too loud."
I choked on my spit.
Niall took a step away.
"Relax, you silly kids!" Maura grinned, hugging Noelle to her chest. Niall glanced at me, shootig me an apologetic smile. I smirked.
There was nothing better than your mother in law suggesting you to get laid.
Maura fell in love with Noelle within the first few seconds of holding her, constantly voicing that she couldn't believe her newest grandchild was so beautiful and yada yada. While Maura devoted her time to Noelle, Niall and I snuck upstairs and went into our bedroom. It felt good to be able to run up the stairs again.
"Let's do what my mum suggested." Niall smirked, shutting the door behind us. He took me waist and gently pressed me against the door. "Have another beautiful child. Or two."
"Three is plenty." I whispered, pulling him closer so our chests collided. Niall breathed heavily against me, pressing his lips slowly into my neck, nibbling on my skin with his teeth. I tried to wrap my hands around his neck, but he grabbed my wrists and slammed them against the wall over my head, lockig them in place.
Niall sucked the single sweet spot on my neck, provoking a moan from the back of my throat. Niall pressed his groin against mine in response.
"We don't have to have another child." Niall suggested. "We can just make love instead." My mouth opened as he kissed down my neck, tugging down the strap of my tank top. It should have felt good, and on a different day, it would have, but I had had a dream last night.
A really bad dream.
It was similiar to the ones I had had before I gave birth to Noelle.
They involved my dad abusing me, throwing empty beer bottles at my cowering figure, but there was someone new. In my dreams, they appeared as a shadowed face, because I didn't truly know who it was. My suspicions told me it was a man, from the way he assaulted me, and helped my father violate my body.
I knew it couldn't be Niall, or else I would have seen his face. And Niall would never touch me or do anything against my will. But no matter how much I knew it wasn't Niall, everytime he touched me, I seemed to flinch. I was paranoid.
I sighed and pulled his hand away from my strap, dropping it to his side again.
"Stop." I breathed out, pushing him away. Niall lowered his hands and stepped back, looking confused.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking at me carefully. "Does something hurt? Are you tired?"
"I'm okay."
"Then..." Niall's eyes drifted away, then back to me. "What's wrong?"
"I'm just not in the mood." I bit the inside of my cheek. "Not today."
"Hey," Niall stepped forward, grabbing both of my hands. Don't flinch, Aria. "you don't have to be embarassed to tell me that. I respect what you want more than anything."
"Yeah," I took a deep breath. "Yeah, okay."
Truth was, telling him about my dream and my paranoia over anyone touching me would hurt him, becuase then he'd start to think that I believed he was the assulter in my dream. Some things were better kept to myself.
"Tell you what," Niall intertwined the fingers of our hands together, " since my mum will probably be attached to Noelle for a while, we should take a break."
"Like a date?" I cocked an eyebrow at him. The corners of Niall's lips pulled up into a tiny smirk.
"You said it, not me."
"And where would we be going on this date of ours?" I pulled a terrible British accent, pursing my lips in a snooty manner.
"That's a surprise, you should know that by now." Niall winked. He kissed my cheek, stopping by my ear. "And don't speak like that. You sound constipated."
"Would you still love be if I was constipated for the rest of my life?" I questioned.
"No," Niall answered. "I'd probably just let you down easy and then kick you out of the house."
"Feeling the love, man." I held a hand over my heart. "You really are just the kindest man I've ever met."
Niall rolled his eyes. "Go get dressed."
"Well how do I know what to wear if you won't tell me where-"
"Wear something sexy," He shrugged. I shot him a glare.
"Please tell me we're not going to a club." I said in a monotonous voice. The whole world knew I hated clubbing with a strong passion.
"For all you know, we could be going to nude beach but you'll still come because you love me." Niall answered cooly, trying to hide his amused smirk.
"You suck." I reminded him, walkig towards my closet while he watched me smugly from against the wall.
"So do you."
I turned and gave him a nasty glare. "You're disgusting."
Niall grinned.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -.- - - - - - - - - -
Two hours later, I was sitting in the passenger seat on the car with a blindfold over my eyes, while Niall hummed along to a song in the driver's seat.
I was wearing a tight red dress, one that I had missed wearing since I had had such a large stomach during pregnancy. Niall begged me to keep my hair down, claiming that it looked sexier when "those random strands of hair fell into my face and I had to blow them away".
I tried to lift up my blindfold to see where we were going, but my hand was slapped away.
"Hey, you expired jar of mayonaise!" Niall yelled. "Don't you dare try peeking."
I turned towards him. "What did you just call me?"
"The sexiest woman alive." Niall lied smoothly. I snorted.
"You just called me an expired jar of mayonaise."
"Somethig must be wrong with your hearing." Niall accused, flicking my shoulder teasingly. I grabbed his finger and bent it back.
"My hearing is fine." I growled playfully.
"Shit," Niall hissed. "Let go of my finger, you crazy hyena."
"Why can't you just accept that I'm human?"
I really should have choosen my words wisely, because then Niall begame belting out the Human by Christina Perry. I plugged my fingers into my ears until the car finally stopped.
"Are we here?" I groaned, desperate to get out of the car.
"Yeah..." Niall replied. "Just...hang tight. I just need to go do something." I heard the car door open, and Niall stepping out.
"Hey!" I yelled, waving my arms. "You can't leave me in here all alone!" But Niall was already gone. Great. what if I got kidnapped or something? It would be Niall's fault.
I waited in the car for a good ten minutes, wondering when Niall would come back, when finally the passenger door opened for me, and Niall helped me out of the car quietly.
"Where'd you go?" I asked him, itchinf to rip my blindfold off.
"Just had to make sure everything was set." Niall chuckled, shutting the door. He grabbed my hand and led me towards the direction of which I could hear many voices. There was soft, waltz music going on in the background, but as we continued walking, the voices faded away, until I heard silence.
"So..." I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Is this where you cofess you're hatred for me and then slit my throat?"
"How ever could you have known?" Niall gasped dramatically. He laughed warmly and let go off my hand, untying my blindfold.
And damn. Was I in heaven or what?
We were in an empty movie theater, with elegant chendeliers covering every inch of the massive room, huge antique painting hung on the walls. The walkway was covered with red, velvety carpet, and so were the sofas.
Yes, sofas.
I was used to walking into cinemas that had normal, ordinary red seats, as many people would be. Instead of seats, however, the entire cinema room was filled with huge sofas that looked like beds, lined next to each other in rows.
"What do you think?" Niall grinned cheekily from beside me, looking excited. "Are you happy I didn"t bring you to a club?"
"Very." I nodded at him, kissing his lips softly. "This looks amazing."
"Come on, love." Niall grabbed my hand, leading me towards one of the middle rows of seats... or should I say, beds.
Niall picked me up and tossed me gently onto the bed, and I sunk into the sensitive plush in the cushioning. Shit, this was comfortable. I laughed, letting it echo through the large, empty room.
Niall joined me on the sofa bed, laying down beside me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to his chest, pressing his lips into my hair. I snuggled into his chest, placing my head over his beating heart.
Suddenly, the large screen in front of us switched on, and a stream of advertisements began playing. The lights of the theater dimmed until the movie screen was the only source of light in the room.
"It's The Notebook," Niall chuckled, lips brushing over the sensiive skin of my ear. My hairs prickled at the contact.
"Since when did you become such a hopeless romantic?" I teased, looking up at him.In the light of the screen, I could see his bright blue eyes twinkling back at me.
"Since I met you." He replied seriously, reaching for my hand to kiss my knuckles, running his lips across them slowly to take his time. I smiled giddily and reached up to kiss ths bottom of his jaw, before resting back against his chest.
As the movie went on, I slowly drew my vision away from the love story between Noah and Allie, instead resting my eyes on Niall. He was staring at the screen, and seemed to be engaged in watching the movie, until suddenly his averted his eyes down to lock with mine.
"Quit staring at me." he murmured deeply, rubbing slow circles into my back.
"You think our love story is more epic than Noah and Allie's?" I ignored him, wiggling out from under his arm. I raised one leg over Niall's lap, then the other, straddling his waist.
"Yeah," Niall answered quietly. "I think we've been through way more shit than they ever have. He clasped our hands together, kissing eacch of my hands delicately.
"Candace... she's been MIA." I said carefully, regretting it when I saw Niall frown.
"Not tonight, okay?" he pleaded. "Just us tonight, no psychotic crimnals."
"Sorry." I looked away sheepishly, but Niall latched a finger under my chin and made me look at him.
"I love you, Aria." he whispered, dropping my hands and cupping my face. "I love you so much that it hurts."
"Why does it hurt?" I asked him softly, pressing our foreheads together.
"Because seeing you hurt makes me hurt, and that has happened way too much." he sighed, before wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into his body. He breathed shakily into my shoulder, occasionally kissing it. We held each other like that until the sound of thunder crackling in the movie startled both of us, making us jump.
"Woah." I laughed, turning my head to see what was going on in the movie. Noah and Allie were making out in the rain. I never understood the meaning of stage kisses. You could tell just how much more passion there was when a real couple kissed. Movie kisses seemed so overdone and fake.
As I watched the steamy movie scene, I felt a small tug on my hair. I turned back to Niall who had a childish, yet playful look in his eye.
"Hey." The corner of his lips lifted into a smirk. "You look gorgeous tonight."
"Wish I could say the same for you." I lied, silently deciding that I liked the messy hair look that he was trying to pull. My husband was fucking attractive, and there was no denying it.
Nial cocked an eyebrow at me, and I just stared back at him as if testing him. He licked his bottom lip, and I felt my body turning to jelly. I ran my finger over my lip, and felt him shudder. As he continued to stare at me, I felt his hands slide up my legs, rumpling the dress at the top of my thigh. His touch left goosebumps on my skin, and just like that, he had captured my lips in his.
We kissed with a fiery passion that seemed to radiate through the room, a passion that had never left our relationship. Niall's hands rubbed up and down against my thigh, his rough, yet gentle skin meeting mine. My body relaxed against his, arms falling perfectly in place around his neck. He nibbled on my bottom lip, asking for entrance.
Our tongues swirled and the kiss deepened and became more heated, and for once, all I could think about was him. Just him. The sense of relaxation that was rare these days, I finally felt. Niall's lips left mine and attached to my jaw, placing butterfly kisses all the way to my collarbone. Then, the kissing halted, and all that could be heard were our heavy breaths and silent cries to feel loved.
"Aria." Niall whispered my name, keeping his face bruised in the crook of my neck. I curled my fingers into his hair and kissed the spot just behind his ear.
"Yes?" I breathed.
"Aria..." He said my name again, and when my shoulder suddenly felt wet, I realized Niall was crying. I frowned and brought my hands to his cheeks, lifting his face up so I could see him. His arms snaked aroind my waist and he hugged me tightly, shaking against my body.
"What happened?" I asked him gently, wiping the tears off his face. "Why are you crying?"
"No," Niall shook his head, sniffling. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just happy."
"Happy?" I raised my eyebrows in question.
"Yeah," Niall nodded, squeezing my hips. "Sometimes I just wonder what my life would be like if I had married someone else. What would have happened if my children weren't Nate, Colette and Noelle, but three other children. What would it be like if I hadn't had to deal with all the stuff I dealt with through meeting you."
I didn't know where this was going.
"But the more I thought about it, the worse it felt. My life would not be the same. Your presence has shaped me into a stronger, better person, and there is absolutely no one else in this world who I would want to go through all this shit with. No one could handle it better than you and I. No one could have dealt with so much for this long. You are the strongest woman I have ever met, and I value that. I love you for that."
"I love you, too." I smiled with teary eyes. "I love you so much."
"We'll be forever." Niall promised me. "We'll be forever together."
The movie ended shortly after, and Niall dro e us bot downtown. The streets were calm, yet lively all the same. We held hands as we walked down the sidewalks, passing cute boutiques and restaurants. Niall and I stopped at a bakery, where we bought ourselves a load of pastries and treated ourselves to the sugary goodness.
Niall got back on the road after our meal, and drove silently, but suddenly he took a crazy U-turn and drove towards a huge lake, just off the back of a seafood restaurant. He parked on the damp grass and turned the key out of the ignition hole, then looked at me.
"Care to explain what's going on?" I asked slowly, not sure if I wanted to know. I knew what Niall was thinking when he started untucking his dress shirt from his pants, unbuttoning it whilst grinning at me.
"Oh no," I pointed a finger at him. "Oh hell no. I am not going skinnydipping, no fucking way."
Niall just gave me a sly grin. Shit. Once he had stripped down to his boxers, he got out of the car and ran around the front to the passenger side. I went to lock the door, but Niall pulled it open before I could act. He scooped me up in his arms and threw me over his shoulder heading towards the lake.
I screamed, hitting his back repeatedly with my fists as I tried to make him drop me. My legs were high up in the air, and I was practically upside down. "Niall, please!" I begged. "Please don't!"
All I could feel was Niall's body vibrating as he chuckled. I couldn't believe he was amused by this.
"Just let me go!" I yelled, pounding my fist into his back.
Oh, he let me go alright.
Threw me straight into the water.
I held my breath as I hit the freezing cold water, going underwater before coming up for air.
"You idiot!" I screamed, but then I was laughing. Niall began laughing too, walking into the water. "What if I died, you stupid dumbass?"
"I wouldn't let you die." Niall chuckled, shuddering slightly. "Burr, it's cold."
"No shit," I slapped him arm. "And now my dress is all ruined." I slapped him again.
"Well, I guess the dress can come off then." Niall smirked, swimming around me. He unzipped the back of my dress and pulled the sleeves off my shoulders, then tugged the down and off of my body. He balled the dress up and threw it towards the grass, where it landed right by the car.
"So, on a scale of one to ten, how much do you hate me?" Niall laughed, walking towards me. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest.
"About fifty." I spoke into his warm chest, wrapping my arms around him. He was the source of heat on this cold night. "You know I'm going to kill you when we get home."
"Oh," Niall waggled his eyebrows. "A punishment?"
I smacked him on the head. "You're disgusting. How do I deal with you?"
"I just pray to god every night to give me moral support." he teased. "I also go to relationship classes while your asleep."
"Funny."
We didn't stay in the water long, since our toes began to freeze off. Niall carried me out of the water and set my feet on the grass. He grabbed his shirt and slipped my arms through it, then came around me to button up the dress shirt. He tugged his pants on, threw my deress into the backseat, then helped me into the car.
"Today was fun." I sighed happily, leaning my head on Niall's shoulder as he drove us home.
"Well, that was the plan." He kissed my forehead. "I'm glad you thought so."
When we entered our house, it was an hour until midnight. All the nights were off, except from one in the downstairs living room. Niall grabbed my hand and led me towards the livig room, where Maura was seated on the couch with a sleeping Noelle in her arms.
"Hi, mum." Niall whispered, afraid of waking Noelle.
"Why are you two all wet?" Maura ignored his greeting, then shook her head. "Nevermind. I don't want to know."
Niall and I laughed sheepishly, and I carefully took Noelle from Maura's arms. Noelles tiny eyes were shut, her small lips curved into a smile. I kissed her cheek softly, cherishing her warmth.
"Did you two have fun?" Maura asked, standing up.
"We did." I nodded, looking at Niall with a smile. "We had lots of fun."
"Good." Maura eyed the two off us, starting to bak away when Niall smirked at me. She must have sensed something more than PG had happened. "Well, goodnight, you two."
"Night, mum." Niall kissed his mother's forehead. "Love you."
"Mhm." Maura laughed, patting his head as if he were a child. "No funny business, got it?"
"Yeah." I blushed. "Goodnight, Maura."
"And don't you dare wake me up with your screaming-"
"Woah there." Niall cut Maura off, while I looked away, embarassed. He playfully pushed his mother towards the guestroom ."In you go, mum."
Once Maura was in her bedroom, Niall came back into the living room, looking more embarassed than me. "Well, that was something."
"I love your mom." I giggled, hugging Noelle to my chest. "She's amazing."
"Yeah, until she starts talking about sex."
I had to agree with that one. Talk about awkward.

With Noelle in my arms, Niall turned off the living room light, and together we headed up the stairs, calling it a night.

Notes

Hey guys!!!! With this story coming to an end, I'm gettig more and more excited!!! Why? Because it means that I get to start writing the third book! Can't wait!!!!!