Nialls View:
When I woke the next morning, Claire seemed to be sprawled out over the entire bed. Her left arm hanging off above her, over the side of the bed, her right arm wrapped around my waist, her right leg was pulled up to her chest, putting a good amount of weight against my torso, and her left leg was sticking straight out behind her. I could then realize why she had out pillows between us in the first place. I stared at her cute little face, puffy from so much crying yesterday and the day before. She still had scratches and bruises on her face that I rubbed slightly. Her hair was in a super messy braid, but she could still pull it off.

She stirred slightly and I shut my eyes so I didn't freak her out by staring at her. I peeked and saw the realization on her face of what happened the past day, what happened last night with the video, and the decision she made to stick with me and not Harry, who had yet to find out.
"Niall, I know you're awake, I can see you peeking at me." She laughed and I couldn't help but smile. She was smart.
"I couldn't help it. You're too beautiful when you sleep." I laughed.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure." She said sarcastically. I gave her a funny roll of the eyes before kissing her forehead. We lay on our backs staring at the ceiling. We were talking about her visit to see her Nan. I smiled at the happiness gleaming in her beautiful eyes. I never noticed them before and I don't know how. They had this blue ring around the outside, and then she had this vortex of green brown and gold on the inside. I loved how her left eye had little brown speckles in it but her right eye didn't. I could stare into her eyes all day and never become bored. She laughed when she noticed me staring at her intently.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She prodded curiously while poking my cheek. I laughed at her facial expression.
"Because your eyes are so beautiful, I never noticed them before, I don't know why. They're just full of life and color, just like you. You've gotta really colorful personality ya know. You have this love for life and fun. You always seem to be trying to make the world a better place. I love that about you." She smiled as her cheeks turned tints of reddish orange, which was also unusual, but adorable all in the same.
"That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me. I don't even know how to respond Niall Horan." She winked at me.
"That's because you don't have to, all my compliments are free of charge." I smiled cheekily.
"Well, darn because I was beginning to think I'd have to pay you for them." She said sarcastically. We had a little giggle fit before I smelled breakfast and shot up out of bed. I was so hungry!
"Where are you going?" She yelled as I was halfway down the hallway. I turned around and ran back for her; I picked her up and through her over my shoulder. I put a blanket underneath her just so her waist didn't get hurt, it was still really bruised.
We went down the stairs and I set her down at the bottom, a little out of breath from running so early in the morning. The only person up was Jess. She had a big smile on her face as she came over to give me a hug, her baby bump separating us by about 8 inches.
"Mind the bump, its becoming quite hazardous I've realized." We laughed and she turned to give Claire a hug as well, hers was longer and I could tell how much they cared for each other.
"I was half tempted to come get you up this morning, but when I saw how relaxed you seemed I decided to leave you snoozing until you were ready to wake. Claire seemed very umm... Oh what's the word, reckless?" She tapped her chin and laughed as Claire widened her eyes and blushed, pushing Jess's arm for good measure.
"Well, that's alright, we slept well and that’s all that matters." Claire lengthened the word all as she raised her arms in a big stretch, leaning back and looking to the ceiling. I took the chance to tickle her stomach, which I knew she didn't like, but she'd have to get use to it with me around.
"Niall stop...help!" She giggled and squealed as I pushed her to the wall tickling her all over. Jessica took her hand and swatted my head but I ignored and kept ticking Claire 'til she was completely out of breath. "That...was unwanted...torture!" She said between gasps of air. She pushed me to the floor and pinched my cheeks, slapping my right cheek lightly and said quite snobbishly, "But that's okay because I'll just eat your breakfast!" She teased, but I grabbed her leg to stop her, she squealed again as I used her arm to pull myself up, making sure I didn't hurt her knee or her wrist that was still injured. We walked hand in hand to the bar and sat patiently while Jess made us big plates of eggs and bacon and toast. We poured ourselves some orange juice, chugging it down rather quickly. Then we poured another glass and waited to drink it with breakfast.
"Is it almost done?" Niall asked impatiently. Jess sighed dramatically then turned to face us.
"You should be glad I'm making you breakfast in the first place!" She said and waved the egg covered spatula in my face. I laughed and turned to Claire who seemed to be just as eager as I was to eat, she just kindly kept her mouth shut instead. When Jess finally finished, she handed us out plates, and to my surprise, they bowed there heads to pray.
I was in the middle of taking a bite when I felt obligated. Then I realized I hadn't prayed in a long time and it would probably be a good idea to anyway. I took a deep breath and bowed my head.
Saying a prayer in my head felt relieving, I always forget because on the road for tours or when we're getting food from home, I'm so quick to eat, but I know I should be more thankful for what I have. Jess and Claire were smiling at me as I lifted my head and dug into my scrambled eggs. I knew that today was going to be good. Claire and I could spend the entire day together...that is, after we talked to Harry.
After eating and doing our dishes Claire took my hand and led me out back. It was beautiful. There was an enormous yard with a dozen or so trees and a sparkling pool. She carried a blanket that she took from the living room in one hand and my hand in the other. She gave one end of the blanket to me and we laid it across the grass. We lay on our backs and looked up to the clouds.
Claire’s View:
We were silent for what seemed like ages until Niall finally spoke up unexpectedly.
“I’m scared ya know?” He took a deep breath and I rolled on my side, putting my head on my hand.
“What do you mean?” Concern filled my question.
“I’m scared for Harry and me. He’s my best friend and I’m just scared he won’t accept this, I’m scared he won’t accept us.” I could feel the emotion in his voice. I moved closer and put myself on top of him and looked directly into his eyes.
“When I went to visit my Nan last night she told me something that will change my life forever. She said that we can feel all emotions and when we care for someone deeply, we trust them and depend on them with a lot of those emotions. So, when the person we care about dies, or in this case separates himself from us, we feel anger and grief. Emotions that we want to disappear and have replaced by something better. But what she realized through the years is that there's one emotion that will never go away, one emotion that never fails something that outlives any human being… love. I know you and Harry, I know how you are and why you act the way you do. I know that the brotherly love you two share, it’s unbreakable. You two will forever be friends, whether I’m here or not.” I noticed a tear falling from his eye. I wiped it away and looked back to his sun glazed eyes. They looked like the ocean blue shining with prisms of sunlight.
He pulled out the hair tie keeping in my messy braid running his fingers through my hair and gently brought my lips to his. Fireworks erupting inside of me as we shared a passionate kiss, more so than the ones we’d shared before.
“You’re so beautiful Claire, so beautiful.” He said between our kisses. I loved him, more than he knew. I knew our love would never fail just like my Nan said, I knew I would be an Edna and he’d be a Ronny. Maybe that meant that Harry was like Danny, except not a total jerk. We separated, taking deep breaths of the fresh air and staring at each other before relaxing. I stayed on his stomach and chest and eventually fell asleep to the rhythmic beating of his heart and the steady rise and fall of his breathing. I knew this was where I belonged.
Niall’s View:
I waited for her breathing to slow before I stopped caressing her hair, she was asleep. She really did look so beautiful when she slept. I couldn’t help but admire her, I wanted her, and something inside of me yearned for her every time we kissed or held hands. I just wanted to mold to her and never separate, which really meant that I loved her. I just hoped she felt the same way, but I could imagine she might. I suddenly snapped out of my day dream as I heard a window open and using the reflection on my phone, I nonchalantly looked to see Harry staring at us, a smug expression on his sleepy face. I winced at the thought of what he might be feeling, but I knew the feeling all to well. He made me feel that way before when he took Claire away from me and I wasn’t about to let him take her back. She chose me, now we just had to tell Harry that.
“Claire, wake up love,” I moved the bangs away from her eyes as they opened, squinting in the sunlight, “there’s something we need to do, alright?” I didn’t want to wake her from this peaceful slumber but we had to talk to Harry before he got out of control again. She rolled off of me and nestled her face into my neck. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her head. I let her go and whispered in her ear, “Harry’s watching.” She froze and sat up rather quickly, but didn’t look behind so she didn’t give away that we knew he was staring.
“How do you know?” She whispered, I could tell she suddenly felt awkward because she put distance between us.
“Here, use the reflection.” I whispered again while handing her my phone, pretending to point to something and then I laughed. She chuckled at my bad acting before locating Harry staring out an open window from one of the guest bedrooms. She sighed and gave me my phone back.
“What should we do?” She asked wearily, but I could tell she already knew the answer.
“I think you know what we’re going to have to do today, but not until you’re ready, alright? Please don’t over do yourself, not for me, not for Harry, not for anyone. It hurts too much to see you in pain, because Claire, I…” I was about to tell her when I heard the back door open. We both turned around to see Harry walking towards us, wearing nothing but shorts. I looked over at Claire to see her staring at the ground. This was going to be a lot harder than I think we both knew.
“Hey guys, how’s it?” He asked as he walked over then slumped down between us. I could see Claire’s breathing increase. My anxiety rapidly took over. I counted to ten before relaxing and remaining calm. I looked to Claire reassuringly with a smile.
“It’s good actually, did you want to talk?” I tried to move into the conversation naturally, but it didn’t work.
“Oh, now you want to talk. Do you Claire? Are you gonna’ choose now? You know, I’ve had a lot of time to think because a lot of the people I care about have been on me about this whole situation. Even Uncle Simon had a say in it, thanks to you,” he snapped at Claire and I could feel my anger rise, “so, I think that the only reason you left me for him is because you were scared. I think you were scared of the world and Niall was there for you when you were most vulnerable. But did you ever think that if you would’ve just talked to me that night on the beach, if you would’ve just explained how you felt, things could’ve been different. You and I… we don’t have to be like them, remember?”

Notes