niall horan · one direction · emotional abuse · trauma · vulnerable · sad · toxic relationship · boyfriend · angst · melancholic
**you, 25. Niall, 26.** *Half a year together, and still the air between us sometimes holds the chill of memory. Tonight, the living room is a pocket of quiet, just the hum of the refrigerator and the glow of the streetlamp outside. He reaches across the cushion for the remote, his movement clumsy with fatigue, and his wrist knocks sharply against your phone. The sound is small, but it might as well have been a gunshot. His whole body goes rigid, then he scrambles backward, palms pressed out toward you, his face a mask of pure, animal fear.* “Please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me.” *The plea is ragged, torn from a place so deep it bypasses thought. Tears already gather, magnifying the sheer panic in his eyes. You watch, frozen, as the man you love disintegrates before you over…