"Listen, I know you miss him, but have you even considered me?"

"Harry, that's ridiculous."

"Is it?"

In an instant, his own lips smashed against mine. I found myself unable to move, feeling trapped in his embrace. His hand pressed against my back, pulling us closer until I was practically touching him in every way possible.

"Pippa?"

A voice. Niall's voice. I tried to pull away, I tried to search, but my efforts were useless. I was stuck.

"Pippa! It's me! Please look at me!"

The sorrow in his voice was evident, I guessed he was crying. I wanted to bad to pull away.

"Please, please."

"Hey, can you shut up?"

I jolted awake, sitting upright in my bed. Zayn was at the door, arms folded and eyes droopy.

"You've been talking in your sleep," he confirmed.

"I'm sorry. I had a nightmare," I sighed, wiping a tear off my cheek that I had just noticed. His expression softened a bit, and he took a step inside.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"It's okay, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Now you have me worried," he frowned. He walked over to my dresser to flick on my lamp before sitting on the other end of my bed.

"I'm listening."

"It's embarrassing."

"You know plenty of things that aren't very manly of me."

These nightmares had been going on for about a week now, but never to the extent of waking anyone else. How would I tell my brother that his friends were giving me nightmares about the boy I have been willingly ignoring for over a month now?

"It's about Harry. And Niall," I warned. He furrowed his eyebrows for only a second before nodding me to continue.

"Well, basically, Harry just like, kisses me, and then I can't move, and all I can hear is Niall crying out for me. But I'm stuck."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I know it's dumb. It's been going on for like a week. I didn't know I've been talking out loud though. Sorry."

"Does Harry really bug you that much? I mean, I'm not really close to him. I can tell Louis to stop inviting him over," he suggested.

"Honestly, Harry really isn't bugging me as much as Louis is."

"Do you think he's the problem?"

As much as I wanted to blame all of the world's problems on him, I knew I couldn't.

"No," I sighed, "I think Niall's the problem."

"I haven't heard you talk about him for a while."

"That's because I haven't talked tohim in a while. I've been avoiding him."

"Why?"

I looked up from my hands to see Zayn looking honestly concerned. I loved him so much. I missed him always acting like this, caring and willing to listen to all my dumb stories.

"Because I'm your stupid little sister who is too immature to handle situations properly."

"Pip," he cooed, opening his arms in an inviting hug. And just when I thought I'd gotten my act together, I began to cry again.

~~

"Hey, Niall. It's me, Pippa. Call me back," I spoke into the phone. Funny, he never let his phone go to voicemail. I wondered if he really had moved on.

"At least now you've made the first move. All you have to do is wait now," Zayn said after I hung up. After we talked the night before, he'd promised to try and help me out.

"What if he never calls back?"

"Give him the rest of today and tomorrow. If still nothing, give him a visit."

And sure enough, no call was returned, so I ended up driving up to his house. I felt nervous as I pulled into his driveway. What would he say to me? Would he even answer the door?

I slowly walked up to his porch, hesitantly knocking. Every second I waited felt like minutes, and I considered going back to my car. That was, until he actually opened the door.

"Pippa?"

"Uh, hi."

"How've things been? You want to come in?"

"Sure, um, did you get my message?" I asked, inviting myself to sit on his couch.

"Oh no, I'm sorry. My phone's been in the shop getting fixed. I didn't bother to get a backup, no one was really texting or calling me."

"Oh."

"So... what brings you by?"

"Well, you know. It's been a while."

I thought I had everything planned out. Zayn had told me to bring up where we currently stood. He suggested that (if I felt the need) to apologize for not being that so great a friend. But for some reason, the words didn't want to come out.

"No kidding."

I guess I had to force them out.

"Niall, I've been keeping some things from you," I admitted. He just stared at me blankly, urging me to continue.

"I was angry. Not just at you, but myself also. Someone was just convincing me to think that if we weren't, 'speeding things up', I guess, then we weren't going to go anywhere. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," he said thoughtfully, sitting down by me.

"And then when I overheard that call, I guess I just wanted to prove that I wasn't obsessed with you. And when I was at home, I started to miss you a lot, so I started doing things to get my mind off you. And I know that's dumb. I'm just sorry for acting so weird and rude."

"It's okay, I kinda deserve it. I have to tell you something too."

"Yeah?"

"Well, you know how you overheard me on the phone with my job?"

"Yeah."

He looked extremely anxious, more so than I felt as I approached his house just minutes before.

"I don't work for UPS. Or anything else I've told you before. I work for an agency where they send out people with... 'supernatural' abilities to watch over those potentially in danger."

I felt my face scrunching up. Was this some kind of a joke?

"Just hear me out. I was sent here to look out for you. And I know it sounds crazy, but I don't really know all the details. All I know is that my company does background searches on people who could potentially be villains, whether they be in hiding or aspiring. And when they found Harry, they pounced."

"Wait, wait. Harry is a villain? What?"

"That's what I've been told. And I've been living on the basis of that statement ever since. He records show odd history, and they suspected he'd be onto you after they did research on your brother. It was actually the day after he met Louis that they found all this out."

"Did they try any background searches on me? I can fend for myself, Super Boy," I snapped, a bit harsher than intended.

"I don't know. They just gave me a specific order to keep you away. And in the process, I fell in love with you. That's why they called me. They didn't want you distracting me from the real mission."

I sat back in wonder at the confessing mess that was only feet away from me. What was even going on? Was he crazy? Is he on new medication? Or did I just happen to meet a person with multiple personality disorder?

But, he loved me.

Notes