Niall woke up with a start because his alarm was blaring near his ear. It was already 7 am. He hurriedly brushed his teeth, took a quick shower, made a light breakfast of bread and omelette, gobbled it, grabbed all his necessities and left his apartment. He started his car and backed away, ready to go to his hospital.
He tried to put on some music to drown out the sounds of traffic but it did nothing to distract him from his confusing, ever present thoughts of the boy he had met the night before.

Niall shook his head, and turned up the volume, drowning himself in Michael Bublé's amazing voice. He made up his mind to concentrate on his work, come what may.

Luckily, it was a no traffic day and he reached his workplace within 10 minutes. He opened his cabin, put his bag safely in his locker, wore his coat and stethoscope and stepped out for his morning coffee.

He walked a few steps towards the canteen, but suddenly stopped, deciding to check on his patient from yesterday. He slowly tiptoed into the private room they were in to not disturb them in case they were sleeping. His eyes first zoned in on the curly haired boy cuddled in the arm chair near the bed.  His face was slightly buried between his two arms and he was turned to his left and had cocooned himself in the chair. A little brown curl fell onto his forehead. He looked so young and peaceful while he was sleeping and Niall started moving towards the chair without thinking. He didn't even have time to ponder over what he was doing before he gently brushed Shawn's curl away from his forehead. Shawn stirred a little and opened one eye. Their eyes locked and Niall's hand was still on Shawn's forehead and time froze for a second, before Niall immediately took his hand away like he had got burnt on a hot iron.

He cleared his throat, avoided eye contact and pretended to check on the boy's grandfather and tried to act normal by starting some general conversation.

"Was he okay last night? Did he have any difficulty breathing?"

He did not hear any answer to that, so he turned a bit to see if Shawn was going to say something but that was a wrong move because their eyes locked and Shawn was staring so openly at him with a tiny smile that an involuntary blush appeared on his face and he was flustered.

But he tried to smoothen his features as fast as he could.

"Yeah he was okay. Were YOU okay though?" Shawn asked with a impish grin and Niall gasped without realising.

"Of course...I was. I don't have any problem," Niall replied.

He knew very well how his state of mind had been and he knew this boy had noticed it but he wasn't going to give him that satisfaction of admitting it to him.

Instead, he just waved to Shawn, said he was going for a morning coffee and left. What he didn't expect was Shawn saying "I will come with you"
And somehow this time he couldn't stop himself from what was happening.

He just lightly nodded and started walking fast.

"Hey, wait up!"

He sighed and slowed down a little for Shawn to catch up.

"What's with you Dr. Horan? Why are you running away from me, when you clearly don't want to?"

"What on earth is that supposed to mean?"

"You know very well what I am talking about.."

"No I don't. I do not talk in riddles, neither do I understand them."

"Fine. Be like that. Whatever. If you don't want me here, I will go. Looks like I make you uncomfortable. You're not even looking me in the eye."

That's when Niall responded. Shawn knew which nerve to hit.

He sighed and looked up, right into Shawn's eyes and smiled.

"Nothing like that. Come on, you're imagining things. Why would you think that? I hardly even know you. Let's go."

Shawn smiled. Mission accomplished.

They started walking towards the counter to order when surprisingly Dr Horan decided to fill the silence.

"So Shawn, what did you actually want to study when you were little?" he asked and Shawn was a bit taken aback by the question, cause he was actually asking him about his childhood.

"A doctor," Shawn replied. "Somehow I loved the idea of getting to treat people. Little me did not know that it wasn't as simple as playing doctor doctor though," Shawn replied, when he heard a laugh.

A perfect laugh. A small laugh but so infectious that he started laughing too and couldn't stop.

Dr. Horan suddenly looked way younger than his actual age and Shawn had the sudden urge to know how it would feel to have his head on his lap and run his fingers through his stubble.

He blinked and shook his head to get rid of his dangerous thoughts. That couldn't happen.

They both stopped laughing and Dr. Horan smiled.

"So.....," he said, looking at Shawn again. "What exactly made you change your mind then?"

"My dad actually. He wanted me to do engineering and I just went with it. It wasn't like he forced me into it, but I was okay with it too, because I ended up choosing biomedical engineering."

"Oh I see. So you don't have any interest in medicine right now?"

"No, nothing like that. I am still quite fascinated by it actually. I would love to do a small course in the near future related to healthcare."

"Interesting." Dr Horan said and left it at that. Both of them collected their coffees and sipped at it in an awkward silence. None of them knew what else to say so they just looked into their cup.

After they finished, they dumped their plastic cups in the garbage bin and went back to the room.

Niall stopped on the way.

"You head back to the room. See if your grandad is awake. I will send in a nurse to check the vitals. Need to check on something," Dr. Horan said and turned the corner.

Shawn nodded and went inside the room. He had got a juice for his grandfather and he kept it on the side table.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked, when he noticed his grandpa sitting up in bed.

"A bit better but still a little breathless and weak."

"I feel like Dr. Horan is one of the best. You will be okay in no time."

"What's with you and that boy?"

"What?" Shawn asked. He hoped he hadn't heard what he had just heard. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how do you suddenly admire him so much now? Did you know about him before you brought me here?"

"No grandpa, nothing like that."
 
Phew. Thank god his grandpa hadn't caught on. He doubted he'd be impressed if he realised he was crushing on his doctor.

He was avoided from saying further by a nurse entering.

"Good morning, good morning," she said cheerily. Her badge read Megan.
"You look healthier than you did yesterday sir, feeling better?"

"Yes, a bit."

"Very well. I will just check your BP and your Pulse for now."

She quickly finished her duty and left the room after telling Shawn that there was nothing to worry and that all the readings seemed alright.

Dr. Horan came in five minutes later, looking extremely professional.
"So it looks like it was a temporary momentary anoxia that was caused due to a slight block in one of the supplementary minor vessels. We will put him on blood thinners for a while. There's nothing to worry. You can take him home. Also, if this kind of episode repeats, please do come back. Also, I would like to see him after a week."

Shawn nodded and shook his hand and was about to leave(his grandpa was in the visiting chair in the reception already) when he turned around because Niall had put an arm on his shoulder.

"Umm.."

Shawn was surprised. It was one of the first times, when he was awake, that Niall had initiated physical contact.

"Yes Dr Horan?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to work as my assistant, get a bit of experience in a hospital setup, maybe like a small internship experience..I am sure it will help with your biomedical engineering course."

"Really???" Shawn's eyes lit up and they were glowing and he had the biggest smile on his face and he felt like he was about to combust.

"Yes, really," Niall said, and he laughed. And Shawn would have swooned right there if it wasn't for the wall he was standing against.

"Omg you're serious aren't you? Omg!" he said and found it hard to control his excitement.

Niall just looked at him with an endeared expression.
"You can start tomorrow if you want and oh here's my number," he said and rattled off his number to a giddy Shawn who just took it down as fast as he could. "Alright see you tomorrow," Dr. Horan said and gave a friendly pat to Shawn's back but Shawn just enveloped him in a hug. It felt so warm. He wrapped both his arms tightly around Niall's shoulders and then let go.

He stepped out of the hold, waved goodbye, and left with a weird feeling in his stomach.

He didn't know what had just happened. What on earth had happened to Dr. Horan? Where did all the shyness and vulnerability go?

He had actually given him his number, so casually and had even offered him an internship. Should he look deep into it or just think of it as something he would do for anybody? He seemed to be extremely caring and kind. Maybe he was just nice.

But Shawn had read the signals right. And he was half awake and coming to, when Niall had brushed his curl away and he knew there definitely was something and maybe Niall did feel a thing or two for him.

He had to wait and watch.

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Yessss I finished chapter 2 and I feel good. Hope you like it as much as I did, writing it :)

Love,
Hershey