first times in the omc verse. takes place immediately after going to the border
title from the same years & years song (border)
(masterlist of that verse)
—
Niall’s ordering his third beer when Cooper slides up next to him at the bar, real casual.
“You still want to hang out after this?” he asks, quietly.
Niall stares at the bartop. He should say no. He should thank his lucky stars Jack interrupted when he did, kept Niall from doing something he’ll regret.
Except a part of him doesn’t think he’ll regret it at all. A lot of him, actually.
He swallows.
“You won’t say anything, will you?” he asks, voice going small. He has papers for people to sign, to make sure they won’t say anything, but- he doesn’t want to ask Cooper for that. Something about it feels different. Safe.
“About, like, what you told me?” Cooper asks, glancing over his shoulder at the bar.
“About all this. What we’re doing.”
“We haven’t done anything yet.” Cooper sips his beer.
Niall drags a finger through the condensation on the side of his full glass. “If we do, though.”
Cooper’s quiet for a minute.
“I won’t say anything,” he says finally. “M'not that kind of guy.”
Niall chews his lip. Christ, he wants to believe him.
He doesn’t say anything for too long, until Cooper pats him low on the back, lets out a sigh.
“Alright,” he says. “I’ll see you around, bro.”
No, wait, Niall wants to say, but he’s frozen. He doesn’t move as Cooper walks away. After a minute, he grabs his beer and goes back to Deo’s table.
“Mate!” Deo crows, sounding tipsy, as Niall slides into a chair. “There he is. There he is. Listen, Niall. Next proper break you’ve got, we’re going up the coast. Road trip.”
Niall sips his beer so he doesn’t have to answer. Deo’s not listening to him anyway, as one of his Aussie friends goes on about a trip he took to Brisbane and a broken-down car in the middle of nowhere. Niall laughs when he’s supposed to, nods when Deo looks at him.
It’s not like he’ll ever get to go. At least not without a security guard, and he’s not taking bloody security on a lads trip.
He looks towards the bar, knee jiggling under the table, and catches eyes with Cooper, just for a second. It hits him like a punch then, the memory of the pool, cold tile under his arse, Cooper’s big hands and his mouth and his -
Cooper looks away, laughing absently at something his brother’s said, and Niall lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
They’re piling out onto the curb to wait for cabs when Niall steels himself, nudges at Cooper’s hip casually.
“Hey.”
Cooper looks down at him, smiling. “Horan.”
Niall checks - Deo’s distracted, laughing at his phone, and Jack’s got his arms wrapped around his bartender girlfriend, their faces close together. No one’s watching them.
“I want,” he says, and coughs, into his elbow. “I want, like. To hang out. If you want.”
Cooper scrubs a hand through his hair. Looks over at Jack and his girl.
“I-” he starts, just as Deo turns around at the curb, waves Niall over.
“Mate! Got a cab!”
Niall swallows hard.
“Sorry,” he says. “Sorry, fuck. This is stupid. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll come back with you,” Cooper says, putting a hand on his back.
“But Deo, like. Deo’s going with me.”
“Niall!” Deo yells. “C'mon!”
Cooper laughs, and pushes Niall towards the cab. “It’s fine. Let’s go.”
And then they’re in a cab, the three of them, thigh to thigh in the backseat.
“Is your place closer, mate?” Deo says, and Niall tenses up.
“Think we’re gonna chill at the hotel for a bit,” Cooper says, easily.
“Yeah,” Niall says, hoarsely. “You can come if you want, mate.”
Deo’s quiet for a moment.
“I’m good,” he says. Niall can’t see his face in the shadowy cab. “Got work in the morning, so.”
“Alright,” Cooper says. He pats Niall’s knee, just once, and says to Deo- “So, did you hear about the new place opening up on Nicholson? Next weekend they’re doing this big opening day event, free burgers and shit, we should check it out.”
Niall exhales as quietly as he can, stares out the window while Deo and Cooper talk.
He startles when his phone buzzes in his lap. It’s Deo. Niall wrinkles his nose.
are u gonna hook up with Coop
Niall’s neck starts sweating. This was stupid. This was - stupid.
“No, mate, we should totally go,” Deo’s saying. Cooper hums in agreement.
Niall’s got no clue what to respond. His phone vibrates again before he can think of anything.
Its totally cool mate by the way ! seriously
hes a good guy
Christ. Niall looks out the window, knee jiggling frantically.
Another text. Jesus, Deo.
Answer me twat
what u think i care if youre into guys ??
Niall stares at it. Written right out, just like that.
Shut up, he types back, finally.
Were just gona hang out
He deletes Deo’s last few texts and turns his phone over on his thigh, coughs as the cab slows to a stop.
“This is me,” Deo says, unnecessarily. “I’ll see you, uh.”
“Saturday, yeah?” Cooper says, when Niall doesn’t speak.
“Saturday. See you, Ni.”
“Night,” Niall adds, not looking at him. His face is burning.
The car door shuts, leaving them in silence. Niall twitches when Cooper shifts in his seat, a little closer. He’s warm.
“Where to?” the cabbie says, looking back at them.
“Uhh, the Langham,” Niall says, voice cracking.
“You got it.”
He pulls away from the curb, and Niall glances out the window, helplessly. His leg’s shaking. It’s just- he’s thought about doing this a thousand times. Gotten close to it, with that crew member back in California and a bloke at one of Eoghan’s house parties last year.
But this, like. If he does this, it’s happening, and he can’t take it back.
He swallows, and Cooper draws in a breath like he’s about to say something.
Niall’s phone buzzes before Cooper can get a word out. Niall swipes it open. It’s Deo.
Use a condom mate !, followed by a tongue emoji. Idiot.
Niall shoves the phone between his thighs, shudders when Cooper leans in close.
“I can go home if you want,” he says, very soft. “Like, if you don’t want me to come over.”
Niall looks over at him, swallows again, thickly. Cooper’s very close like that. Niall can feel his breath.
He wishes he could say no. But Christ, the truth is - he wants it.
“I- I want you to,” Niall says, unsteadily.
Cooper puts a hand on his knee, warm. “You sure?”
Niall nods.
Cooper smiles, teeth flashing white in the dim backseat, and leans in to press a kiss against Niall’s mouth, soft and open-mouthed. Niall feels his eyes fall shut in pleasure for a long stretched-out second, before he remembers where they are and jerks back, ducks his head. Jesus.
He flicks his eyes up to where the cabbie’s humming along to the radio, tapping the steering wheel, oblivious.
Cooper squeezes his thigh. Leaves his hand there til they pull up to the hotel. After a minute, Niall exhales.
—
Niall unlocks the hotel door once they’re back, lets Cooper in.
“Mind if I use the toilet?” Cooper asks, patting Niall’s shoulder.
“Yeah, course, go for it.” Niall’s voice sounds weak.
The door closes a minute later, and Niall kicks off his shoes, runs a shaky hand through his hair. So he’s doing this. He’s actually, like- doing this.
He shudders, goes back to the door and flips the bar latch. He twists the lock on the knob, too - tests the handle to make sure it’s locked. If anyone walked in on them - not that they would, cos it’s nighttime, but still. Niall would be screwed.
He’s flipping the bar latch again when he feels Cooper behind him, a quiet footstep on the carpet.
Cooper puts a hand on his hip.
“Alright?” he asks, and Niall swallows thickly. Squeezes his eyes shut and opens them again.
“Yeah.” His voice only cracks a little.
Cooper puts his other hand on Niall’s shoulder, turns him, and then they’re kissing, mouths together, and Niall only waits a second before he parts his lips and lets Cooper snog him properly. It feels just as good as it did earlier, in the pool, and then Cooper presses him against the wall and puts a thigh between his legs and it feels even better.
Niall grinds against Cooper’s thigh, helplessly. Makes a rough sound against Cooper’s tongue when Cooper grinds right back, pressing against Niall’s dick in his jeans, a hot pressure Niall wants more of.
“Here,” Cooper says, sounding drunker than he did ten minutes ago, voice hoarse. He’s breathing hard, like he wants this just as much as Niall does. “Can I see you?”
He reaches down between them, til his hand’s at Niall’s zipper.
“Niall?”
“Yeah, fuck,” Niall says, wobbly, hips twitching when Cooper unzips his jeans and reaches inside. He pushes Niall’s briefs down, watches as Niall’s prick bobs up, hard and pink.
“Yeah, bro,” Cooper says softly, curling his hand around it, big palm dry but soft against the flesh. “Look at you.”
Niall’s shaking. He chokes a breath when Cooper’s thumb skims lightly over his slit.
“Was thinking about this all night,” Cooper murmurs. “Since the pool. About touching you.”
He gives Niall a firm stroke, and Niall has to exhale hard to keep his knees from buckling.
“Can I - can I, like, blow you?” Cooper asks, leaning forward to kiss Niall’s neck. “I kept thinking about blowing you, I dunno.”
Niall nods frantically, and Cooper kisses his mouth again, and walks Niall over to the bed.
There’s something dirty and good about it, like a fantasy. How big Cooper is, and how sure of himself. The way he lays Niall out on the bed. For a split second it reminds Niall of Harry, something Harry said, a while back when they were both drunk in a hotel room in America.
It’s fun to make it feel like a film, he’d said, looking cheeky. Like, girls like that.
A film? Niall had said, laughing, but then Harry had rolled over to face him and the laugh died out in Niall’s throat.
Like, see, he murmured, before he reached out to stroke a tender hand down Niall’s cheek, gave him a heavy-lidded look that made Niall force a laugh even as his belly squirmed. Make her feel special.
Cooper’s kissing down his chest now, rubbing a thumb over his nipple, and Niall shakes off the thought of Harry. It’s not hard to do, when Cooper’s sucking a lovebite into his skin, his other hand rubbing soft down Niall’s thigh, big and warm.
“Fuck,” Niall mumbles, putting his hand to his mouth to gnaw on his knuckles, shut himself up. “Fuck.”
Cooper stops at Niall’s prick, his thighs still tangled in his jeans and briefs. Niall can’t open his legs and it makes him harder for some reason, cock twitching.
He looks down at Cooper, between his legs, and Cooper looks back.
“You done this before?” Cooper asks, softly.
Niall doesn’t want that question. He breaks eye contact, looks up at the ceiling. “Done what?”
“Messed around with a guy,” Cooper says patiently, his thumbs rubbing in the hollows of Niall’s hips. He pulls Niall’s jeans down, until Niall’s legs are bare, laid out fully naked.
Niall shuts his eyes.
“I’m asking cos I wanna put my fingers inside you,” Cooper murmurs. “But not if you don’t want me to.”
He kisses the side of Niall’s dick and Niall has to focus on not jerking his hips up frantically. His pulse is pounding harder now.
“I’ve only, um,” Niall says, shakily. He wants to lie all of a sudden, but he doesn’t know what he’d say. “I- only kissing.”
His face goes red. “Sorry.”
“Don’t say sorry,” Cooper says, very seriously. “S'alright, bro. I don’t have to-”
“But I want it,” Niall interrupts, before he loses his nerve. “The- thing you said. I want it.”
Cooper stops. “You want me to finger you?”
Niall has to bite down on a moan. “Y-yeah. I’ve got. Stuff. In my case, if you, um-”
Cooper looks at him steadily. "Have you done that to yourself?”
Niall nods. He can feel how hot his face is. It’s true, but it was only once. In the shower in his London house, fingers slick, reaching back between his legs. It hurt and it felt good, weird.
“Yeah?” Cooper rubs a big hand over his belly. He does those little things, not even touching Niall’s cock, but Niall still feels them all the way to his toes. “Did you like it?”
“Yeah, I- I liked it,” Niall says, jaw clenched.
“Shit, that’s hot,” Cooper murmurs, right before he leans forward to take Niall’s dick in his mouth. It’s so much at once that Niall groans, loose and low, scrabbles a hand into the sheets to hold himself steady.
Cooper lifts his head. “Where’s the stuff?”
“Suitcase,” Niall mutters. “Front pocket. Next to a box of condoms.”
Cooper slides off the bed to fetch it, comes right back, nudging Niall’s legs open without missing a beat. He kisses Niall’s prick, his fingers dragging gently down between Niall’s arsecheeks, and Niall twists up on the bed, choking out a rough sound.
Cooper pulls off his dick, exhaling hard. “Alright?”
“Yeah, Christ,” Niall grits out. “Just. Fuck. It tickles.”
Cooper grins up at him. “You’re so fucking cute.”
“Shut up,” Niall moans, pushing at his forehead, and Cooper leans down to suck him again.
Niall loses himself to it, gasping mindlessly up at the ceiling, barely noticing anything else until he feels Cooper’s finger press against his hole. It makes him catch his breath.
Cooper murmurs around his cock, presses harder. Niall exhales deep, choking when he feels it go in.
“Breathe,” Cooper mumbles, pulling off him. “You feel that?”
Niall pants up at the ceiling, back arched.
“Is it okay?”
Niall nods jerkily.
“Breathe, alright?”
“Breathing,” Niall chokes.
Cooper makes a sound like a laugh. “Alright, bro.”
He lowers his head again, and Niall tries to breathe.
It feels so fucking good, once he relaxes enough that Cooper can get inside him- inside him, fuck, even the words make Niall’s dick throb. He can’t stop thinking about it, running what’s happening over and over in his head. Eventually he’s working his hips down against two of Cooper’s fingers, close to coming, feeling wrung out between the hot suck of Cooper’s lips and the fingers in his arse.
“Coop-” Niall chokes, and he comes in spurts against Cooper’s mouth, leg twitching as he tries to clench around Cooper’s hand. Cooper doesn’t let up, coaxes the last of the come out with a finger rubbing his prostate and his tongue licking soft at Niall’s slit.
When he pulls off and out, Niall lets out a gasp of a breath, blissful. It’s dirty in a good way, and it only gets dirtier when Niall lifts his heavy head sheepishly just in time to watch Cooper grab for the lube and slowly slide a finger back inside him, slick and wet, like he’s not done yet.
Niall shudders, clenching around it. “Sh-shit. Shit.”
“Tell me if it’s too much,” Cooper mumbles, pressing a kiss against the inside of Niall’s knee. “Just wanna see.”
It’s too much already - the finger rubbing inside him perfectly until Niall’s belly goes warm, and Cooper breathing soft against Niall’s fucked-out cock. Niall doesn’t say it, though, because it’s so bloody good. He just lies his head back and focuses on taking it, the overstimulation. Focuses on breathing. It’s already more good than painful, his blood starting to pump again, pulsing hot.
“Fuck,” Cooper mutters. He kisses Niall’s knee again, and Niall looks up blearily. Cooper looks up at him, sucks another kiss against Niall’s thigh, not breaking eye contact.
Niall gives a shiver, right down the center of him. He’s hard again.
“You ever done that?” Cooper says softly.
Niall’s belly is quivering from holding himself off, from getting erect again so fast. He feels overheated, heart pounding. “Fingers?”
“No,” Cooper says, sliding one of his palms up the back of Niall’s thigh, against the grain of hair. Niall feels it everywhere. “No, like. Come twice in a row. No breaks.”
He leans forward to suck the head of Niall’s cock into his mouth. Niall whines, the sound going frantic when Cooper puts his hand on the inside of Niall’s thigh, pushing it steadily to the bed. He tries to rock his hips and can’t, and his cock bobs heavily, flushed and swollen, trying to twitch out a bead of precome.
Cooper moves his hand up, pressing Niall’s hard prick to his belly, and Niall makes an awful sound, rough and wanting.
“F-fuck, c'mon,” he mumbles. “Jesus, just-”
“Think you can?” Cooper asks, but he leans down til his mouth presses against Niall’s dick when he talks. It makes Niall’s foot jump, twitchy and excited.
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, hoarsely, trying to keep his hips still. “Yeah, can, I can.”
“Gonna come twice for me?” Cooper asks, kissing Niall’s hipbone.
Niall’s voice rises, wobbles. “Yes, fuck.”
Cooper grins up at him, and lowers his mouth to snog the head of Niall’s prick.
He nudges Niall’s legs apart and rubs two of his wet fingers over the clutch of Niall’s hole, sucks deep and wet on his cock, throat moving around it. He does that - teases at Niall’s rim, plays with his balls and blows him - until Niall gives in and comes again, moaning and biting his wrist to muffle it, his legs wide open. He barely spurts but Cooper grins anyway, strokes his hands down Niall’s thighs gently, presses his mouth to Niall’s hip.
“Christ, you’re so fucking hot,” he says, against the skin.
Niall’s eyes are closed, possibly for the rest of his life. He lets out a long shaky sigh.
“Is it okay if I-” Cooper starts, as he sits back on his knees and reaches for his cock. “Like, just. Have a wank?”
Niall opens his eyes so fast his head spins. He needs to see it. Cooper’s so hard it looks like it hurts, his dick thick and fat in his big hand, wet at the tip. He’s massive. Niall didn’t notice before how- how massive he was.
“Yeah,” Niall says belatedly, sounding dazed. He swallows around the rush of saliva flooding his mouth, embarrassingly hungry at the sight. “Yeah.”
Cooper strokes himself, fast and tight, staring down at Niall with his eyes wide and dark.
“You’re so hot,” he mumbles. “Shit.”
Niall’s quivering, mouth still wet. He doesn’t just want the show in front of him, Cooper wanking off like it’s porn, like Niall doesn’t get to touch. He wants more.
Cooper reaches down to run a thumb over Niall’s bottom lip, and Niall licks out over it.
“Hey, hey,” Cooper murmurs, when Niall grabs at his wrist, tries to tug him closer. “What d'you-”
“Wanna suck it,” Niall says, quivery and honest.
“You don’t have to, bro, I can just-”
Niall wriggles a pillow under his head, grabs for another one. A girl did it to him like that once, laid under him and took Niall’s prick in her mouth, moaned when Niall accidentally thrust forward a bit. Niall wants it. He wants that.
“Jesus,” Cooper says, low, but he’s already kneeing forward, straddling Niall’s chest. He’s huge. He could crush him. Niall feels a nauseous wave of panic at the thought, but it washes away when Cooper puts a hand on his cheek. Strokes his face for a minute, just watching.
“You alright?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Niall says, swallowing. “Yeah. I wanna suck you off.”
His spent prick gives a weak little twitch at saying it out loud.
Cooper grins. “Lift up a little bit? Makes it easier.“
He slides his palms under the back of Niall’s head, and his prick drags against Niall’s cheek, hot and real. Niall opens his mouth, making a whimpery sound.
"There you go,” Cooper murmurs, using one hand to feed Niall his cock. “Just breathe.”
And then there’s a cock in his mouth. Hot and hard, leaking bitter against his tongue. Niall tries to open wide and nearly gags.
“Shh, sh, s'alright,” Cooper whispers, one hand steadying on Niall’s jaw, as Niall drools helplessly around the head of it. “Fuck, your mouth is so hot.”
Niall moans and goes down on him, trying to fill his mouth.
“Yeah, yeah, shit,” Cooper mumbles. “That’s so good. Use, like. Your hand. At the same time.”
Niall tries. He gets his hand around Cooper’s thick cock, uses his lips on the head. It’s messy, saliva dripping down his chin, the sound of his breathing loud and ragged. It feels fucking amazing. It’s scary, almost, cos Niall used to tell himself he might not like this. That maybe it was just fantasy, or just for certain blokes. Just something he could keep in his head while he wanked.
But no. No, he likes it. Cooper slides a hand gently into his hair and Niall groans around his cock. He likes it too fucking much.
“That’s good,” Cooper says again, voice hoarse. “Fuck, god. I’m gonna- I’m gonna-”
Niall sucks harder, works his hand over Cooper’s dick tight and fast. The first spurt of come lands on his mouth, hot and shocking, and something makes him open his lips around the head to catch the rest inside.
“Mm, fuck,” Cooper moans, as Niall swallows hard, trying not to choke. “Fucking hell.”
Niall coughs, swallows again. Licks his lips. It doesn’t taste bad.
Cooper sits back a bit, on his haunches, rubbing at his softening dick, a flush spreading across his chest. He grins down at Niall, eyes crinkling happily. “Shit, that was good.”
Niall’s getting hard again, from the taste and the feeling, and a bit from the praise. He swallows hard and tries to will it down. When Cooper stumbles off him to go fetch a flannel, Niall sneaks a hand down to his prick and presses down.
Stop, he thinks, leaning over the bed to grab his briefs and wriggling them on, his legs shaky, body fucked-out. Stop getting greedy.
Greedy was two orgasms before Cooper even had his own. Greedy was this whole thing, making Cooper come back to the hotel with him, kissing him in the pool. Niall has to stop or he’ll want all of it.
He rolls over when Cooper comes back, away from him so Cooper won’t suss it out.
“Knackered,” he mumbles, and Cooper says, “What, you’re not gonna brush your teeth?”
Niall groans and waves a hand at him.
After a minute Cooper laughs, and climbs into bed. He presses his open mouth against the bend of Niall’s shoulder and says- “Alright then.”
He lets out a sigh, and Niall shifts his hips just slightly, lets out an unsteady breath. He already knows he won’t be able to sleep for a long while.
–
Niall thinks Cooper’s asleep a half hour later when he feels - slow but deliberate- Cooper’s hand slide over his hip, up to his crotch, until Cooper’s groping Niall’s half-hard cock through his pants. Niall feels caught-out, cheeks flushing in the darkness.
“Sorry,” he says. He swallows. “Sorry.”
“You’re hard again?” Cooper mumbles, sleep-rough. He nuzzles up against Niall’s back, presses his lips to Niall’s shoulder. “Third time tonight?”
Niall shivers when Cooper grazes teeth against the tendon on his neck, letting out a heavy breath. He doesn’t know how to describe it, except that it feels like this is the last time Niall will ever get this. He can’t stop wanting more. “You don’t have to, like-”
“It’s hot, bro,” Cooper says, easily. He sounds awake now. “It’s hot how you like it.”
Niall’s stomach squirms, pleased and ashamed all at once.
“What made you hard?” Cooper whispers. “Was it sucking me off?”
Niall moans before he can stop himself. Cooper’s starting to stroke him slowly, hand too dry against Niall’s sensitive cock.
“It’s hot how you like to suck dick,” Cooper mumbles against his ear. “Bet you’d like it in your ass too, huh?”
“Please,” Niall gasps, eyes squeezed shut.
Cooper rolls his hips behind him, until Niall can feel the hot weight of his prick, pressing against Niall’s arse through his briefs. It’s nowhere close to inside him but the hint of it is there, the pressure against his backside, the body behind him. It makes Niall choke out a breath, imagining it. God knows he’s wanked himself raw often enough, thinking about a cock up his arse.
Cooper presses closer, sucks a kiss into the side of Niall’s neck. He pulls down Niall’s briefs with one hand until his prick is peeking out, embarrassingly stiff even now. Niall shivers when Cooper puts a hand around him.
“S'alright,” Cooper murmurs, into Niall’s ear. He lifts his palm to Niall’s mouth. “Lick it for me?”
Niall moans as he opens his mouth, gets Cooper’s hand wet. Cooper puts it around Niall’s prick, starts to tug him off, and it’s so much Niall can’t stop squirming in his arms.
“Shit, shit shit,” he babbles, not sure whether to roll his hips forward into Cooper’s hand or to press back against that solid weight behind him. “Shit, fucking hell, fuck - fucking hell-”
“You can do it,” Cooper says against his ear. “You can.”
“Nghh, can’t, can’t,” Niall whimpers. He can’t stop shaking. Cooper’s gonna kill him. Niall’s gonna fucking die, before he even gets a chance to get properly fucked.
“Yeah, yeah, I can feel you.” He spits in his hand and wraps it back around Niall’s dick, gives him a slick hot pull. “Gimme another one, it’s alright.”
“I can’t, fuck,” Niall chokes, but even as he says it he’s coming in dry pulses, trying to breathe. Nothing comes out of him but he feels it everywhere, his body shuddering. “Jes- Jesus, fucking hell-”
Cooper’s panting against the back of his neck. “Fuck, yeah, that’s good, that’s so good.”
Niall can’t respond to that. His brain’s melted. He just sighs.
Cooper laughs, suddenly, a fond laugh in the back of his throat. He wriggles forward with an arm wrapped around Niall’s waist, and Niall can feel his dick, hard against his back.
“You want me to-” he starts, and Cooper kisses the side of his neck.
“Nah, bro,” he murmurs. “Go to sleep.”
Niall doesn’t know if that’s good or bad, but he’s too shagged-out to worry about it.
—
He wakes up to Cooper snoring on the other side of the bed, one arm thrown out to the side.
Niall watches him for a minute, quietly, rubbing his eyes with one hand. Cooper’s eyebrows are furrowed in sleep, his lips parted. He has a tattoo on the inside of his arm, a feather. Another on his wrist- dark blocky Roman numerals. Niall squints at it. VII.IV.LXV.
He’s staring at the rise and fall of Cooper’s muscled belly when he hears, hoarsely, “Morning.”
Niall jerks to attention, face red. Cooper’s watching him, mouth curving up sleepily.
“Hey,” Niall says, swallowing hard.
“Hi.” Cooper reaches out a lazy hand, tugs Niall down against his side, and Niall’s breath catches as he settles in, right under Cooper’s arm. He feels small like that. Niall’s almost scared of how much he fancies it.
“Good morning,” Cooper murmurs. Niall can hear his voice vibrating under Niall’s cheek.
“Morning,” Niall says. His eyes are falling shut again.
Cooper hums, presses his lips against the top of Niall’s head. “Sleep alright?”
“Yeah.” Niall lets out a slow breath. “What’s that tattoo on your wrist?”
“Mm.” Cooper turns his head to cough into his elbow. “It’s my mum’s birthday. Corny, I know.”
Niall huffs a laugh. “Cute.”
“Yeah, shut up,” Cooper says, sounding fond. “I’m a mama’s boy. Jack’s got the same one.”
He sighs, pulls Niall closer.
“You got any?”
“Hm?”
“Tattoos.” Cooper yawns.
“No.” Niall thinks of the others, the ink scribbled all over Harry’s body, the ZAP! on Zayn’s wrist. “Never wanted one.”
“You should get one,” Cooper says, amused. “You should get a shamrock.”
“That’s original, mate.”
Cooper laughs. “A leprechaun? A pint?”
“How about a stamp,” Niall says, inhaling, biting down a grin. “That says Made in Ireland.”
“Right on your ass,” Cooper says, with a snort.
Niall laughs into his chest. “I’m up for it.”
“Long as I get to see it.”
“Guess you could.”
“Mm, then I say go for it,” Cooper murmurs, reaching a hand down to cup Niall’s arse in his briefs. Niall wriggles closer, turns his face up, and then they’re kissing, morning breath and all. Cooper’s tongue is broad and hot when it slips into Niall’s mouth, his hand stroking down Niall’s side.
Niall shuts his eyes and savors it. He doesn’t know when he’ll get it again- if he’ll get it again. Shit, the last time he kissed a bloke before this was a full year ago, after a half-bottle of vodka on the tour bus in Europe. It was Harry, cos it’s always Harry. They were playing spin the bottle, and Harry did this horrible thing where he put his hand around the back of Niall’s neck when he kissed him, laughed low against his mouth. It gave Niall a hard-on. He had to adjust himself in his sweats after, Louis looking knowingly at him with one eyebrow arched as Niall settled back into his seat.
Cooper breaks away, letting out a breath.
“Shit, wait,” he says, reaching over with one hand for his phone on the nightstand. “I literally just remembered I-”
He checks the phone. “Fuck. I’m playing tennis with my friend from uni and I was supposed to be there ten minutes ago.”
He drags himself upright, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “Shit, bro, I’m sorry. I know that sounds fake but I swear it’s not, look.”
Niall looks at the phone being shoved into his face.
Julia Wentworth: Where are you !!!
The text is followed by a selfie, a girl with a bleach-blonde ponytail and a tennis visor, making a face at the camera, eyes squinting against the sun.
“She’s gonna kill me,” Cooper says, laughing. “Damnit.”
He hunches over his phone, and Niall watches him tap out - Be there in 15 SORRY missed my alarm. I’ll buy lunch after promise!!
Niall sits up, tugging the duvet up over his hips. “Uhh-”
“I’m seriously sorry.” Cooper looks up from his phone. “I totally blanked.”
“It’s fine.” Niall forces a smile. “No worries, mate.”
“Here.” Cooper hands him his phone. “Gimme your number if you, um. If you want? I’m gonna wash up.”
He pads into the toilet, barefoot and naked, and Niall watches him go.
The sink turns on, and Niall peers down at the phone. He gives Cooper his number, puts himself under Niall- no last name, just in case.
The sink’s still running when Niall guiltily clicks on Cooper’s messages. It’s the stupidest shit. He’d never do it with a girl, but then- a girl’s not gonna mass text everyone in her phone saying Niall Horan likes cock.
He has to know.
The first one’s from the tennis girl. Hurry uppppp cooooop
The second one down is from Jack, and Niall taps on it, looking up to check the toilet door is still closed.
Last night Jack sent him - Did you go home with niall?
It sends something shivery through him. He needs to be more bloody careful.
Cooper wrote back, five minutes later- Were just hanging out at the hotel . Are u and sas coming over fri nite still ??
Niall scrolls down to see Jack’s reply, the most recent text in the thread. Hanging out lol alright. And yea what time ? 7?? Need me to bring anything
Cooper didn’t respond to that one. Probably cos it was sent at half-one, and they were already asleep by then-
The toilet door opens and Niall tosses the phone down, heart pounding.
Cooper slips into his briefs. “You get it in there?”
“Yeah,” Niall says, wobbly. “Um. I’m leaving Australia tomorrow, though. Just so you know. Not gonna be back for a while cos I’m, um, gonna be on tour in Europe.”
“Deo said your job is nuts. I don’t really, like, keep up with that kind of- no offense. It’s cool what you do, I just- my little cousin loves you guys. She’s obsessed with the curly-haired one. Henry?”
Niall huffs a laugh. “I’ll tell him.”
“Cheers,” Cooper says, grinning. “So, um, just call me when you’re in town if you wanna hang out.”
He leans down to grab his shirt, ruffling Niall’s hair on the way back up. “Or, like. Whenever.”
Niall nods again, as Cooper tugs on his jeans. There’s something hot about it, sitting half-naked in bed and watching a bloke put his clothes on. Niall’s knee starts to jiggle, restlessly. He might never get this again. Christ, he hopes he got it out of his system. It’s fine, he’s fine. He’ll just wank off thinking about this night for the rest of his life. He can handle that.
Cooper grabs his phone, curses to himself. “Shit. Jules is gonna kill me. I’ll, um. I’ll see you- or, talk to you, whatever.”
He leans down and kisses Niall. Niall goes still, lets his mouth open. Cooper tastes like toothpaste.
“Take care, yeah?” Cooper says, softly. “Text me.”
Niall nods, and Cooper kisses him again, lips grazing the side of Niall’s mouth. Niall has to fight to not beg for more.
“See you,” Cooper murmurs, rubbing his thumb gently over Niall’s bottom lip.
“Yeah,” Niall says, strained, and he watches Cooper turn away.
The door falls shut with a thud, and Niall sits there for a second, frozen.
So that’s that, then. Niall shivers hard, and slides helplessly back down into bed, until he’s cocooned under the covers, breathing in the smell of sex and sweat. He did it. He properly did it, hooked up with a bloke.
He takes a deep inhale of that scent, shuts his eyes and slides his hand into his briefs.