His Princess

As Sparrow pulled the Q7 into the drive of my grandparents’ house, where my little sister was happily spending her weekend, my heart jolted in excitement. In the backseat, the guys were all talking quite eagerly about how psyched they were to meet an innocent and sweet fan.

They weren’t the only ones excited about this.

Sparrow put the vehicle in park and took a deep breath. “Alright. Em, you go get her, and I guess we’ll go hide in the treehouse?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

“Holy shit, you’ve got a treehouse?” Harry laughed. “I wanna see it.”

I bit down on my bottom lip as I pulled my seatbelt off. “Well, it’s . . . not a normal treehouse. You sure you remember where it’s at, Spare?”

She nodded. “I got it this time.”

“Okay.”

We all went our separate ways—well, the six of them went towards the treehouse while I casually walked inside. It was hard to act like nothing exciting was going on, but I managed so that no one would be alarmed.

Things were like they normally were in this place. There was an immediate sense of relief when I stepped through the threshold, and everything smelled like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. The air was a comfortable cool, and if I wasn’t so excited about Mika meeting One Direction, I would’ve gotten lost in the comfort of home.

My grandmother stood at the bar in the kitchen with a huge smile. “Hi, Emmit.”

“Hey, Maw,” I said, unable to give her anything less than a warm smile. “I’m not here for long. Just wanted to show Mika something.”

Paw closed his newspaper from his recliner he was sitting in and smiled at me. “Good luck with that.”

She had a TV in her room, but she didn’t usually watch things back there. Only One Direction stuff that Paw had no interest in watching. On normal occasions, he suffered through whatever she wanted to watch, but gossip about One Direction or 5 Seconds of Summer was his limit.

Like I figured when I walked back to her room, Mika was watching a One Direction interview on E! Getting her away was going to be one of the hardest things I’ve had to do lately, but it had to be done.

“Mika, come here,” I said, and so she wouldn’t argue, I quickly explained what I was taking her away for. “I’ve got something for you to add to your collection. Come see it.”

She sighed and paused the interview, right as the woman was asking Harry a question. Though his expression was funny where she paused it, I didn’t want to distract her from following me out to the treehouse.

Like my little sister always did, she listened and followed without complaint. Maybe in her head she was complaining, but she knew that I wouldn’t pull her away from the bright side of her life for nothing.

That’s what One Direction was for her—the silver lining of her life. Though they were much too old for her, that wasn’t what she loved them for. She knew she didn’t have a chance in hell with any of them, but that didn’t stop her from loving them all the same. That didn’t stop her from feeling joy every time she saw them doing something silly, saying something super sweet and kind. That didn’t stop her from dreaming that she might one day find her Harry Styles or Liam Payne.

It wasn’t about being with any of them.

“Why is it out here?” she demanded as we started into the woods, straight for the treehouse. Because of the reason the treehouse was built to begin with, it was right on the edge of the woods. “It would’ve been easier to just give to me.”

“Maybe, but I put it in here,” I agreed, and as we got to the treehouse, I pressed the appropriate button to pull out the number pad for the password into the treehouse. It was just a four-digit PIN that I memorized easily, and when I typed it in right, the doors disguised as a tree slid open, allowing us access onto the elevator.

Yeah . . . it was a storm shelter that served as a panic room or a place for Mika and me to just hide away from the world. The password was to keep us safe in case someone was ever hunting us, and the elevator down was to take us to a place that was airtight and completely safe as a storm shelter for about thirty people. In case the power was out and we needed to get out, there were stairs and a heavy door concealed with dirt and leaves as another entrance, but it was harder to find.

It was only ten feet or so underground, so it wasn’t a long elevator ride. As soon as the doors slid open, I could see no one but Sparrow standing there, a huge smile on her face as Mika stared between us questioningly.

With a smirk, I led Mika off the elevator and over to the couch. “Just close your eyes and hold your hand out.”

Most eleven year old girls would’ve protested and argued, but Mika was the best twelve year old I knew. She had been through more than people should have to go through in a lifetime, and she had only been here for twelve years. So she was definitely more mature than she should be.

Like I knew she would, she did what she was told. Her eyes weren’t squinted, and she wasn’t impatiently waiting for the surprise I had for her. When she realized that it wasn’t a trick, she relaxed a little and even smiled a bit.

When I knew she was good and ready for her surprise, I gestured for the guys to all come out. They did alright, and when they were all set behind me, I gave her a high five and started laughing. “Open your eyes.”

To say she flipped out is an understatement. Like I feared, and warned them about repeatedly, she immediately began squealing loud enough to shatter glass. That might be an exaggeration, but if it was, it was only a slight one.

She nearly tackled Harry in a hug that just looked painful, and to make it even more uncomfortable, she started jumping up and down. Louis thought it was funny, but I think it was hurting Harry.

Nervously, I began trying to pull Mika off. “Still trying to get it through to her that you guys are just people.”

She turned sharply towards me with wide green eyes, green eyes radiating with a bright hope that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Just the sight of so much joy and hope pouring out of that delicate little heart of hers brought tears to my eyes.

“How did you—?”

“Don’t really know,” I interrupted as a huge smile pulled across my lips. “Can’t explain that one.”

“We ran into your sister and Sparrow last night,” Liam informed her. “I’ll . . . let Sparrow or Emmit tell you that story some other time. Anyways, after getting to know them briefly, we heard so much about you and decided that we must meet you before we have to go.”

“And here we are!” Harry laughed. “Hello, Mika. I’m Harry.”

“And I’m Niall,” Niall said, quite proud of the fact that he was Niall. “It’s an honor to meet you, my lady.”

I think Mika was surprised to hear herself addressed that way, and I understood why. She got over it, however, and started doing a little happy dance as she looked to the next guy to introduce himself.

“I’m Louis,” he said, and he held his arms open for her to hug him. Of course, she did, and he laughed while she squeezed him. “Wow. You’ve got quite the grip.”

Liam laughed. “I’m Liam, and it’s wonderful to meet you, Mika.”

“I’m Zayn,” Zayn said, giving her that crooked smile that I had heard her go on about for at least five minutes straight before. “So, your sister tells us that you’ve amassed quite a collection of our CDs. Do you mind if we sign them all?”

Hearing Zayn ask her if they could sign her CDs shocked her so much that she just froze, eyes wide as she looked over at him. The guys found that adorable and amusing, and seeing it from my point of view only made the tears fall faster.

“We must get pictures first,” Harry said, and to Mika’s surprise, he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and squatted down so he could take a picture of the two of them on his personal phone.

She nearly passed out.

Niall gaped at him. “Hey, I wanna take a picture with her, too!” And he got on the other side of her and took a picture of the two of them on his phone.

She was crying now, and oh my goodness, it was beyond adorable to see her just latch onto Niall. He looked so happy as he looked down to her because she wasn’t ashamed of the fact water was falling down her face. These were tears of joy, and she was proud of them.

Sparrow and I wiped the tears from our own eyes when we looked over to the rest of the guys, all of them preparing their phones for a picture with my sister as well.

Niall kept laughing because I couldn’t believe that this was real, but how could I believe it?
With everything that happened last night, everything that had happened already today, this was just something else added to the pile of dreams. Mika getting pictures with the five guys that kept a smile on her face by their choice wasn’t something I ever dreamed would happen.

Maybe that’s how I could realize this was real—this was beyond anything I had ever dreamed.

As Zayn finished up, getting the final picture of them all, Niall looked over at me with a huge and adorable smile that made my heart soar. “Em, can you take one of all of us?”

“Then send it to all of us!” Harry eagerly requested, and he wrapped one arm around Mika’s shoulders yet again.

Niall got on the other side of Harry as Liam put one arm around Mika. Since she made a sixth person, it was impossible to get her exactly in the middle, so instead of having two guys on one side of her and three on the other, Louis went around behind her and made a goofy yet adorable face.

Liam looked to both sides of them and then back to me. “Alright. Is this good?”

I took a couple pictures, just to make sure I had a good one, and then smiled. “Yep. Perfect.”

Mika got another hug from each of them before she ran over and threw her arms around me, something I wasn’t expecting at all.

“You’re the best sister anyone could ever ask for,” she whispered, but I could hear the tears in her voice a she held tightly to me. “No matter what anyone says, you’re the greatest ever.”

That knocked the breath right out of me as tears fell down my face all over again, and with a huge smile, I knelt down in front of her and put my hands on her wet cheeks. “In my book, you’re the greatest ever, and I wanna give you the best life I can.”

“You do, every day.”

Notes

The quote in the description is a quote by Barbara Alpert. :)

So this chapter made me tear up. Like, literally cry. So I hope you guys can feel the emotions I'm trying to portray as well. :)

Let me know what you think! I'm interested in some feedback on this one. :)