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Last One Standing

Chapter Fifty Six

*Emma’s POV*

My eyes fluttered open and my arms moved with the full intention of stretching before I froze in my tracks.I smiled against Niall’s bare chest and breathed in the sent of his t shirt draped over my shoulders.I kissed his pale, bare skin and cursed myself when he rustled slightly.It wasn’t too long before I could hear Ni’s stomach growling.Being careful not to wake him, I stood and went out to the kitchen.

By the time I heard his bedroom door close, I was almost done frying the bacon that I had on the stove.Glancing backwards, I found my sleepyhead Irishman rubbing his eyes at the doorway before I caught his eye.A tired smile came over his face as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants.“Last night was great,” he said groggily.He looked towards the ground and his cheeks flushed, as if he didn’t know of anything else to say.

“I told you… Not seeing The Breakfast Club is a crime against humanity.”I went back to tending to the bacon.

“Hmmmm… breakfast,” and that was the only part that he caught, of course.I just smirked and shook my head as I pulled the last of the meat off of the stove.Turning around, I saw him coming for me.I plucked a cooled piece of bacon off of the plate and held it out for him to eat from my hand.He smiled as he chewed – giving me a kiss once he had swallowed.I handed him his plate and he jumped up onto the countertop of the island, putting his plate in his lap.I had a little more difficulty with getting my bum to the countertop by the stove, but I made it eventually.Looking up, I saw Ni trying hard to contain his laughter.

“Shut up.It’s the short people problems.”He laughed more at this before he took a large bit of his scrambled eggs.I pretended to glare at him as I began to eat mine.


“Careful Love,” he warned as I situated myself.I gave him a look of question.“Oh, Harry basically burnt Hannah’s ass on the burner of the stove.”He looked back to his plate and picked at his bacon as I reached to turn off the stove that had still been burning hot.

“Is that when you started to like her?”His eyes shot up to meet mine before nervously darting around the room.“Babe,” I encouraged his eyes towards mine, “you can tell me.”There was a slight flush that ran through his cheeks before he looked down again.

“It’s not even that I liked her,” my eyebrows furrowed with confusion, “but the way that she had more concern for Harry than she did for herself – even after he just hurt her – was intriguing to me.I guess,” his eyes met mine as he shrugged his shoulders; “I guess I just wanted someone to love me like that.”Hopping off of the counter, I went to sit on the counter next to Ni.I rested my head on his shoulder while chomping at a piece of bacon.

“I love you like that.” It came out as a whisper but I knew that he heard me.Niall sighed and rested his head on mine as we ate in a comfortable silence.With empty plates, full stomachs and not much more to talk about, Ni hopped down from the counter and put our plates in the sink.He didn’t hesitate as he walked back, straight into my arms.His hands clasped around my lower back and he nuzzled his face into my neck.I threw my arms around him and rested my chin in his frazzled hair.I wasn’t sure how long we sat there, but I couldn’t help but think about how in for it I was when I got home.

“What’s wrong?” he asked out of the blue.

“Nothing.”

“Babe, I’m leaning on your chest and your heart rate just started racing.What’s wrong?” he insisted.I sighed before kissing his head.

“You know I have to leave right?” I mumbled into his hair.His muscles tensed as I uncomfortably tried to wiggle free.When he finally gave in, he let me be as I showered and put on a t shirt and some sweats of his.He handed me a hanger to put my dress on and pulled a shirt over his head.“By Ni, I’ll see you soon.”I gave him a weak smile before attempting to close the door.When it wouldn’t close any further, I looked through the crack to see Niall’s white high tops and soon realized that he was opening the door again.His head dipped in to place a long, yet fragile kiss on my lips as his fingers intertwined with mine.“What are you doing?” I laughed as his cheeks ran a light pink and he looked towards the ground.

“If you have to leave,” he looked up again, “then I’m coming with you.”

“No Niall, I don’t want…” I was interrupted with a pair of lips pressed to mine.When he pulled away, every fear that I had had vanished.I was so at peace looking up into his precious blue eyes that I hadn’t noticed that we had stepped into the elevator.I was mesmerized by the beautiful boy in front of me and before I knew it, we were pulling up outside my house.“Niall, I really don’t think that meeting my dad is such a great idea.”Ignoring my plea, Ni came over to open my car door for me.I nervously stepped out and was a little heavy on my feet as he slung his arm around my shoulders.“Why do you want to meet someone so horrible?”He planted a kiss on the side of my temple.

“Maybe if he meets the man that kept you out all night, he’ll hate me a little more and hate you a little less,” he whispered in my ear.I leaned into his side, accepting the comfort that his warm body gave.We walked up to the front porch and I playfully swatted Niall’s hand away as he pretended to reach up and ring the doorbell.Reaching for the doorknob, I nearly jumped out of my skin when the door opened before me.I could feel Niall’s arm tighten around me as we came face to face with Damon.

“Emma,” his tone was full of emotion, but it wasn’t the normal rage and anger.Waves of confusion ran through my mind as I saw his expression looking more worried than I had ever seen it before.“Are you alright?Where have you been?”After this, his eyes finally went to Niall and narrowed quite a bit.Here we go.I looked to Ni and saw that his eyebrows were furrowed slightly with the wonder that Damon hadn’t put a fist to my jaw yet.“Who’s this?”Damon looked back to me, letting a slight smirk pull at the corners of his mouth.He knew that he had caught me.My eyes darted away from his, looking anywhere with the exception of looking into his.

“This is Niall Horan.He’s my… um… well he’s my,” my foot dragged across the pavement of the doorstep we were still positioned on.

“Her boyfriend,” a harsh voice interrupted.I looked up to see Niall with his hand extended towards Damon.I could tell that he was doing everything in his power to keep his muscles relaxed, but his jaw still managed to tense slightly.There was a fire in his eyes; a hatred known to no other man on the face of the Earth.I looked to Damon in time to see his eyes get a bit wide before I grabbed Ni’s hand and began pulling him inside.

“Well,” I continued down the hall, “we just stopped by to grab some of my stuff.Niall’s doesn’t really fit all that well.”I made it to the second step and Ni made it to the base behind me before his voice banged down the hall.

“No, wait!Stay for dinner.”I heard his footsteps padding down the hallway before he came around the corner and leaned against the wall, arms crossed.“Both of you should stay – I obviously have some fatherly work to do.”My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Damon winked at me.My stomach began churning as Niall evaluated the situation.Realizing that it was making me uncomfortable to be trapped here, he turned to my father and nodded his head, saying that he would stay for dinner.

“Both of us,” he said as he squeezed my hand a little tighter before we ascended the rest of the stair case.

~

I sat quietly, picking at the chicken that I hadn’t been forced to prepare.Dinner was mostly silent and I was totally comfortable with calling it awkward.Every so often, Damon would interrogate Niall a bit, putting up the ‘I’m a dad’ act.Niall made his voice calm, but I could tell that he was screaming at him on the inside.“So Niall, I would ask if you have a job but I’m fairly sure the question would be a tad bit redundant.”My eyes widened in surprise as I looked up to see a matching dumbfounded look on Niall’s face.“Come on you guys,” he chuckled, looking between the two of us, “I may not live in a palace, but I don’t live under a rock either.”My mind flashed to the small part of my brain that remembered my father this way – before my mum and I were in the accident.He was always joking and caring and concerned with Mum and me.There was a slight pinch in my heart when I realized that there wasn’t any way that that was the case this time.This was an act – an act that would end as soon as the door hit Niall’s heels, an act that would leave me bruised for weeks, I was sure.

The room stayed silent for a little while longer as we began finishing our meals.Damon was done first and put his elbows on the table, entwining his hands together.He looked like he was going to say something, and I looked to Niall to see that he was trying hard to telepathically tell him to speak up or cut it out.“Are you going to take care of her, keep her safe?”Niall put his fork and knife down as I nearly gagged on the food I was chewing up.

“Excuse me?”After taking a sip of water, I saw Niall looking to my father with a lowly expression of disgust that I had never known Ni to have up his sleeve.Damon placed his hands in his lap and looked like he was playing with his fingers.His voice became much softer with his next words.

“Are you going to treat her well?”My eyes clasped shut as a loud bang shot through the room.They opened slowly to see Niall’s palms flat on the table top, arms bent at the elbows.His nostrils were flaring before he stood up.

“Better than you do!”Despite Niall’s loud voice, Damon remained quiet and composed.That wasn’t like him at all.

“I realize…”

“No!You don’t realize!”Niall stood out of his seat, hands still on the table.“You don’t realize that she won’t let anyone get too close for fear that they’ll see what you’ve done to her!You don’t realize that I can’t hold up my hand to touch her face without her thinking I’m going to take a bloody swing at her!You don’t realize what you have and if you don’t stop you won’t have it anymore.”His voice grew quieter towards the end.“I’m just…” Damon looked up at Niall with soft eyes, “we’re just going to go now if you don’t mind.”

“Niall, please just sit down… This is obviously a talk we need to ha…”

“I don’t have anything more to say to you,” Ni interrupted.

“You’re right, Niall – about everything.You shouldn’t have to sit here obviously knowing what you know, but you’re right.”Damon looked towards me, an almost look of caring bleeding through his expression.“I don’t realize what I have,” his eyes locked with mine, “but I’ve decided to change that.”Now my eyes became a tad bit wide.I looked back and forth between Damon and Niall before finally connecting with Niall’s face that was pleading for us to just leave.He nodded his head in the direction of the door and I began standing up.“Emma, please wait.”Damon stood as well, walking to my side of the table.“Please just stay tonight.We’ll talk and maybe watch one of those old movies you used to want me to watch over and over again.”My eyes focused in on his.They were pleading and sad and I had never seen them this way before.Looking over his shoulder, I saw Niall whose face was very uneasy about leaving me alone with my father.What if he was lying?Then I got one more beating.But what if… what if… he was telling the truth?Looking back to Damon who was searching my face for an answer, I softly nodded my head at him.Walking passed him; I went straight into Niall’s arms, giving him the biggest hug as he whispered in my ear.

“He puts one hand on you and I swear to God…”

“Ni, calm down,” I whispered.Pulling away, I studied his face, running my hand through his hair and letting out a deep sigh.“I know that you’re only a call away.”I smiled before standing on my tip toes to give him a kiss.He nodded his head at me and sent a warning look towards Damon before making his exit.Once I heard the front door close, I closed my eyes – preparing myself for the worst – and turning on my heels.When I opened them, I found Damon facing away from me.

“So… you had the guts to bring a boy home?”There was a certain menace missing from his voice.He tilted his head towards me until I caught his eye and then he faced the rest of his body towards me as well.Without making eye contact, he crossed his arms over his chest and nodded his head slightly.“He seems like a great kid.”What the fuck?Apparently Damon could read my mind.“I’m not kidding Em.He’s really a great catch.I wish I’d gotten to see a little more of the way that he looks at you,” now his face was towards the floor as he stood, talking across the kitchen, “but I was a little to busy seeing the way he looks at me.”His voice dropped off at the end.We stood there in the silence for what felt like forever before I decided to break it.

“So is that all that you wanted to say before you laid into me or was there more?”Halfway through my sentence, he began to shake his head, shifting his weight back and forth.“What’s this?” I imitated his movements.“Niall’s gone, you can stop the act.Just do it already.”

“Emma, sit down.”I looked at him strangely.He sat where he had been sitting to eat and gestured towards my seat for me to follow suit.Slowly and with extra caution, I made my way over to the seat next to my father’s.“Emma, I was completely serious about what I said when your boyfriend was here.”I took in a shaky breath.He paused, as if he were letting it sink in a bit.When I finally gained the strength to look at him, he almost instantly looked down to the tabletop.“It’s been a long time since your mother died, and I realized that I’ve been blaming you for it.”I could feel my eyes beginning to water at the thought of my father’s reasoning for punishing me.“When you didn’t come home at all last night it… well it honestly scared the hell out of me.I thought that I lost you… that maybe something happened to you too.”With soft words and gentle movements, he went to rest his hand overtop of mine before I tugged it away.

“Don’t.”It came out as a whisper, but the shaky breath that Damon drew in told me that he was in the same emotional state as I was.He continued talking as he drew his hand away again.

“It made me realize that you’re all that I have left in this world, and if I screw it up then…”

“You’ve already fucked up with five years of going on like you’ve been doing.”My voice was soft but strong.

“Not anymore.Emma, you deserve to be loved – by me and by that boy.If I loose you completely then I have nothing left.So, even if it takes time, I’m going to fix things and I’m going to love you like I should have been from the start.”

“How am I supposed to trust you?”Damon looked up at me through blurry eyes.

“I realize that you can’t, but I hope that you learn that you’ll be able to from now on.”We sat there for a few more silent millenniums before he spoke up again.“I know that you’ve probably grown out of Blue’s Clues, but do you want to watch a movie or something?I’ll pop some popcorn?”

I looked between him and my hands in my lap many times before hesitantly getting up and walking towards the door.Turning at the doorway, I found that he had his head resting in his hands and his elbows on his knees, raking his hands through his thinning hair.His eyes looked slightly puffy as he wiped his hands down his wetted face.“Secondhand Lions alright with you?” his head snapped up and a tight smirk pulled across his lips.I took a minute to realize that this had been going on for a little over five years and I still remembered his favorite movie. We used to watch that movie all the time.

~

My empty popcorn bowl sat on the coffee table as I threw back the recliner, cuddling into a ball.Damon respectfully sat at the opposite end of the couch that sat next to me – even thought there was an end table between the two.Every so often, I would glance over to see him watching me enjoy the movie that I had seen well over a hundred times already.There was a glint in his eyes, but I couldn’t tell what it was.At one point, I got a little sick of it, turning my head to look back at him before he quickly averted his eyes back to the screen, but I didn’t miss the half smile that crossed his lips.

Eventually my eyelids began to droop, no matter how hard I tried to keep them open.A slight panic rose through me when I heard Damon climb off of the couch.My eyes snapped wide open and watched as he crossed the room, going out of my line of sight.When he came back in, he was carrying the old quilt that he used to use to curl up with me for the late night movies we would watch.Now, he draped the duvet over me singularly and picked up the popcorn bowls and disappearing into the kitchen.I was out with the old scent of his blanket before he returned.

Notes

So what's with Damon's sudden change of heart? Is it real? Are Ni and Em buying into it? Should they be? And yes, the next chapter is about Hanarry, so you'll have to wait for the scoop on Zaley :) How's everyone liking the update? Mom's been hogging up the computer with work stuff so that's why I haven't been able to post lately. Sneak peak, Hannah and Harry go back to Holmes Chapel in the next chapter! p.s. Anne doesn't know about Hannah's.... special condition we'll call it lol I'll update as soon as I can, but I just started school and - though things are going pretty well so far - I already had precalc, honors biology and AP history homework this week... so we'll see how much busier things get.
Thanks to everyone who checked out Here's to the Directioners! I really appreciated the feedback and if you haven't checked it out yet, I'd really enjoy hearing from you. A shout out to the fan that asked me in a message if she could use it as a Tumblr quote! Definitely! Feel free girl! Preach it to the world!
So I went to see This Is Us with about a thousand of my friends and we were fan girling the ENTIRE TIME! I think my ovaries are permanently damaged.... no really. At the beginning when they introduced Harry I thought that my heart was going to stop and then he was talking about having to take a step back and making sure that this is what he wanted to do and then he was talking about how every other aspect of his life has changed except for Holmes Chapel and that's part of the reason that I'm sending Hanarry back there for chapter 57 and... and... and... - slow down Hannah... breathe in... breathe out... - AND THEN THEY PULL HIS PANTS DOWN AND I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They bowed and I was mortified that it was over and teared up a few times but all is well... thanks for reading my rant!
comment, rate, subscribe! and if you do tell your friends, comment and tell me that you told them :) I'll make sure to give you a shout out! As well one would be deserved!
xoxo Hannah <3

Comments

so in love with this one !!! update soon!!!

@HannahBanana16
nope, sorry I'm terrible at that hahahahahah! I like the title already, do you know when you're going to update?

@abear44

any ideas on what my new title should be?

I'M SO OBSESSED PLEASE UPDATE SOON!!!! <3333

Updateeeeee