For Your Eyes Only

Niall’s POV
I made love to my girl when I got her back to the hotel. I made sure she knew that there was still someone here for her. I touched her and kissed her and loved her until I was certain she knew I was here for only her. She was hurting so much. Her eyes had lost the glint of life that had been so prominent at the wedding. She hadn’t even cracked a smile since the funeral that was only six hours ago. Now I lay here in the dark of night with a broken angel in my arms, trembling and crying in her sleep, and I couldn’t do anything to heal her.
“D-Daddy, s-stop…” she murmured quietly, nuzzling her head into my shoulder, almost as if trying to hide from whatever villains haunted her dreams. I gently stroked her hair, an action which seemed to comfort her, even in sleep. Suddenly she shot straight up and screamed, pushing away from me in terror.
“Annie! Annie, it’s me! It’s Niall! Annie, stop!” I cried, pulling her unwillingly into me. Slowly she began to remember herself and instead of pushing away, she latched her arms around my waist and gripped. She was a small girl, but I knew that even trying to break free would probably result in some good-sized bruises. But I didn’t mind. It only served as a reminder that she needed me as much as I needed her. “Sh, it’s alright, princess. It’s all gonna be ok. I’m here, baby girl.” I whispered, hoping to calm her shaking body. Finally I let myself relax when I could hear her breathing even out, and felt sleep pulling at my eyelids. Moments later, images were floating through my comatose mind, images of Annie.
~
“Ni! Look at this one!” Annie exclaimed, placing another silly hat on her head. It had been three weeks since the funeral, and she’d perked up considerably. Next week was her 19th birthday, and I was taking her shopping to figure out the things she’d want. The hat on her head now was a huge-rimmed floppy hat with an enormous flower on the side, giving her a very princess-like air. But that was ok, she was my princess. “It’s so… Audrey Hepburn,” she joked. She glanced again in the shop’s mirror before turning to me and winking dramatically.
“You’re nuts,” I laughed, sliding the hat off her head and placing a newsboy cap over her hair. She giggled and pulled it straight, gasping at her reflection.
“Oh, I love it! It’s very Dutchess of Cambridge-y,” she said with a completely straight face. Suddenly she pulled it off, gasping as the other boys entered the Hollister outlet. “Your hair!” she cried, running her fingers through Harry’s new close-cropped look. I would have felt jealous, but I’d felt her run her hands through my hair a whole lot more than him, and I knew how hot it could be. He didn’t. She was mine.
“I cut it,” he said with a lopsided grin.
“I see that, Harry. Why?”
“I cut it for a charity. Now I’m going to see how long I can make the fans wait for a picture.” His momentarily nice smile turned quickly into a wicked smirk as we already knew that he was trending because of the teaser photo he’d posted.
“You’re sick. That’s so mean!” she laughed. Her laugh was seriously better than all the music we’d ever recorded. That gave me an idea… I was going to record her laugh, so that I could listen to it whenever I wanted.
“Hey, Annie which perfume do you like better?” asked Cheryl. Annie’d met Liam and Louis’ girls a while back very briefly, but today was the first time she actually got to spend time with them. The three were like monkeys on Red Bull, I swear, buzzing from one place to another. She skipped over to them with us guys right behind her. We wrapped our arms around our girls and smelled the scents with them, giving opinions and leaving Harry standing alone, awkwardly glancing between us.
“Hey, mate,” I said, leaving Annie’s side. “You ok?” He tried to cover up the longing written on his face, but he failed.
“Yeah, I guess, I mean… I just wish I had somebody like you three. I mean, I’ve gone through my share of girls, we both know that, but I haven’t felt anything like you guys seem to have.”
“That’s cause there’s a girl out there waiting for you, mate, and she’s thinking the same thing. Don’t give up quite yet.” He smiled as I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed encouragingly. I’d never heard him talk that way before. Maybe we needed a guys night out…
“I guess. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not like, depressed or anything, but I just wish I had that, you know?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Guys! Come here!” shouted Danielle.
“What?” I asked, walking over.
“Doesn’t this smell amazing?” she asked, holding up a purple glass bottle of perfume that read “Between the Sheets” on the front. Harry and I hesitantly sniffed the strip of paper that was misted and held to our noses. Instantly I imagined Annie smelling like this. It was amazing, and all I could see was my girl running her hands over my body between our own sheets. Stop it, you can’t think about that now. “You like it, don’t you,” she said with a mischievous grin. I nodded, as did Harry. Suddenly Cheryl snatched the bottle from Danielle and proceeded to completely envelope Annie, herself, and Danielle in a cloud of the stuff. Annie coughed and took a step back.
“Cher! You’re… ugh, now my mouth tastes like nail polish remover!”
“You know what nail polish remover tastes like?” asked Louis, raising an eyebrow. She smiled and rolled her eyes.
“When I was five I put a cotton ball in my mouth that was soaked in it. It wasn’t fun.”

Notes

Sorry! this is kind of a filler. I haven't had much time to write lately, and I'm trying to bring this to a close as I have another story in the works that is a drastically different approach than this one.