Iridium (One Direction, AU, Niam)

Chapter Ten - Wounded

It was evidently the quiet sound of a kettle that initially woke Niall up the first time. But his head was so groggy that he was unable to keep his eyes open or to even stay awake long enough to take two breaths. So he fell back into his comfortable slumber.

The second time he awoke, was to the smell of hot cocoa and the bed sinking near the foot of it. He breathed in deeply, as if he hadn't properly breathed in months and his eyebrows scrunched together due to the sudden pain pounding through his head. Niall slowly opened his eyes when the pain stopped pounding as hard. He knew he was in a bed because of how wide and comfortable it was. The lights were off in the room, but the sun outside was shining bright, lighting up the room well enough to be able to see everything in it, but not enough for it to hurt his eyes.

His second thought after waking up was, where was he? He was trying his hardest to remember, but all he remembered was running away from the guy in the alley, and then just bleeding everywhere. He was sure he was never going to wake up again.

Niall suddenly remembered the little fact that somebody was sitting at the end of the bed. He tilted his head so his chin was resting on his collarbone and he looked down his nose, over the black covers he was carefully tucked into and down to the figure sitting at the end, leaning against the tall, wooden foot-end of the bed, knees brought to his chest to not take up much room, and quietly sipping on a cup of hot cocoa, with a forgotten book laying beside him, was Liam.

Niall gasped as everything returned to him. Landing on the rooftop of Liam's flats, finding his bent railing, and knocking on the glass door, then eventually, passing out and falling into Liam's arms.

Liam didn't say anything as Niall evaluated his injuries. His left arm was completely wrapped up, and his right forearm was as well. He couldn't see much past that due to the covers. He felt his head and noticed a bandage wrapped around his forehead and something taped across his nose, probably to keep his nose set into place, which he was sure was broken.

Niall slowly rested his arms back onto the covers and just stared down at Liam, who just calmly took another sip of his warm drink. A silence passed the two as Niall contemplated what to do before deciding to get some questions answered.

"Thank you..." He began, his voice scratchy from no use. Liam just smiled and set his now empty cup on the floor and putting his full attention towards Niall. "How long was I out for?" Niall questioned.

"About two and a half days." Liam answered simply, with a small shrug. Niall's blue eyes widened. There was no way he was sleeping for that long.

"How badly was I injured?" Niall continued his questions.

"The worst was your broken nose and your fractured rib cage, but I got those set back into place for you and everything else were just some cuts and a lot of bruises. What happened anyways?" 

Niall shifted uncomfortably in the bed, not wanting to answer the question, so he just shrugged it off nonchalantly. "Nothing really. Did you take care of me the entire time?" He brushed off Liam's question.

Liam was a bit upset the boy in his own bed wouldn't tell him any details. But it wasn't his place to pry into one's buisness. So he just opted to wait for his own answers and answer the blonde haired boy's questions, whom he still didn't know the name of, only that the first initial was, 'N'. "Yeah basically." Liam shrugged, "Missed a day of school, but what can you do." He got up and picked up his cup off the floor and walked towards the door. "Are you hungry mate?"

A shocked look crossed Niall's face for half a second. This stranger took Niall in, bandaged him up,  set his bones back into proper order, missed a day of school and now was offering him food. Was he for real?