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Harry is stunned. He heard Niall say he was in love with him but he must have been imagining it. There’s no way Niall was in love with him. He’d been in love with Niall for years. Literally, years. Niall shook him out of his daze with a light touch on his shoulder and a gentle, “Haz? Haz did you hear me? Are you OK?”
Looking at his best friend, Harry can see the fear building and asks, “can you repeat what you just said please?”
Niall chews his lip for a moment, as though he’s debating, and then says softly, “I might be in love with you.”
Harry leans in towards Niall with a little bit of a smirk.
“You might be, huh?” He asks teasingly, with a bit more confidence now that he’s heard it twice.
Niall backs away and says quickly with a frown, “you don’t have to be an arse about it Harry.”
Harry realizes his mistake and pushes himself further into Niall’s space. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be. I love you too, Niall.” As soon as the words are out of his mouth, his face heats up and he realizes he admitted a bit more than Niall did. He said he was sure because he was but Niall seemed to be still figuring out his feelings.
Harry looked at Niall’s face and he looked flabbergasted. “You’re in love with me?” he asked, his voice rising on the last word.
“Incredibly,” Harry confirmed. “I’m not even sure how long I’ve been in love with you but I know I am. So, um, how do we find out if you’re really in love with me?”
Niall’s cheeks are a dark shade of red and he tells Harry softly, “I’m sure. I’ve been in love with you for awhile but I wasn’t sure that you felt the same. I mean, I’ve dropped enough hints. You’re kind of daft apparently.” Although Niall’s face was still lit up, he looked happy to be teasing his best friend again.
“I guess if I’m daft, so you are you!” Harry said with a quick tickle to Niall’s side.
“Hey now! I organized a whole surprise birthday dinner at a fancy restaurant with all your friends two months in advance,” Niall reminded him.
“Are you forgetting your own birthday Nialler?” Harry asks with his eyebrow’s raised in question.
Niall’s eyes get wider as he remembers how Harry took care of him. He woke up early and made him breakfast and lunch for work. When Niall got home, he had his favorite meal cooked by his mother waiting for him. Harry would never explain how they made that happen since his mother lived in another country, but it was amazing. Harry also arranged a night out with the lads to do karaoke, which most of them didn’t actually enjoy. They did it all for Niall and Harry. “OK, I guess you spoiled me a bit. Gonna tell me how you got me ma’s cooking here yet?”
“And spoil it? Never! I prefer that you think I’m a magician,” Harry exclaims with a laugh.
“I don’t think you’re a magician,” Niall deadpans but then adds, “OK, OK, we’re both idiots. Point taken. Sooo, where do we go from here?” Niall asks a little scared. He clasped his hands together and started to rub them with his thumbs
“I think this is the part where we’re supposed to kiss,” Harry says as he shifts his body closer to Niall on the couch, his knee touching Niall’s.
Niall swallows and says, “yeah, OK, that makes sense. Um, maybe you can, uh, yeah, do that.” As Niall finishes his mumbling, Harry leans in and closes his lips around Niall’s top one while his hands slide behind Niall’s back, pulling him closer. Harry takes it slow, not wanting to rush Niall since they’d never had this kind of relationship before but he seemed to disagree with the speed because he pushed Harry back so he was laying on the couch. Niall straddled his body and leaned down so they were chest to chest and then proceeded to dominate Harry’s mouth with his tongue, his lips, and his teeth. Harry couldn’t keep up. All he knew was that he was overwhelmed but so, so happy.
He pulled away a minute later just to tell Niall, “I have a new resolution.” Niall raised an eyebrow in question, also wondering why they’d stopped kissing. “I want to do this at least once every day. Every. Single. Day,” Harry said with a kiss for emphasis on each of the last three words.
“I can support that,” Niall agrees. “It’s way better than this whole gym thing.” Niall went back to kissing Harry until he pulled away again. Niall growled at it this time. “What now?!” he asked grumpily.
“Are you going to be OK with me going back to the gym? I don’t want to stress you out or anything,” Harry said concerned.
Niall sat back up and sighed. “I don’t like him but I trust you. Especially since I know you love me too so, yes, you can still go to the gym. Besides, I’m kind of liking this whole stronger, musclier you.” Niall offered a smirk before he realized he sounded kind of pig-headed, so added quickly, “but I love the softer you too so if you ever give up the gym, I’ll still love you. I mean, I did love you before the gym. So, you know, remember that.” Niall’s face was heating up in his rambling embarrassment. Harry leaned up with soft, caring eyes and just continued their make-out session without words.
This time Niall pulled away to declare, “we’re still eating junk for the rest of the week. I get two more days of watching you eat lots and lots of cheese and butter.”
“Really? You stopped kissing me to tell me you want me to eat more butter right after telling me you liked the stronger version of me?” Harry’s mouth hangs open a bit waiting for an answer.
Niall just nods, “yep.” He leaned back down and started running his hands under Harry’s shirt, slowly moving up and down, feeling his new abs.
“I feel like we need to stop or we won’t,” Harry says pulling away again.
The pout on Niall’s face is almost enough to pull Harry back in but they’d just confessed their, probably too strong, feelings for each other and he didn’t want to rush anything. “I guess we can eat then.” Niall gets off of Harry’s torso and slides back to the other side of the couch, picking up his dinner that he’d barely started. “What else do you have in mind for resolutions?”
“I was thinking maybe I could take you on a date,” Harry said into his own dinner.
“I’d like that,” Niall agreed with a small grin. “When do you think we could do that?”
“Well, we’ve got lads night tomorrow night and then we don’t have any other plans until the Coldplay concert in a couple weeks, right?” Harry pauses his eating to look up at Niall for confirmation.
“Right, aside from that whole working thing.”
“Eh, yeah. So, maybe Saturday night? It’ll be a new week so I can officially make it a resolution,” Harry said laughing. He might have been ready to take a break from this whole resolution thing.
“Sick of the resolutions already then?” Niall asks.
“Maybe. I mean, I still have a good list of things I want to do but maybe I don’t have to choose something new every week,” Harry said with a shrug. He could stick with the kissing Niall resolution and the date thing, but he wasn’t ready to dive back into learning something new or pick up new habits. It’s hard work to pick a new resolution each week!
“Wow, you’re lazy,” Niall teased. “What about the whole cleaning the flat thing?”
Harry considered his suggestion and didn’t know how to respond. They really should keep their home in better condition. It’s just such work to get it to a good starting place.
“How about this?” Niall suggests. “I will help you clean it tomorrow before the lads get here and then Sunday we’ll get it all nice and pretty. After that it’ll be easier to maintain, right?”
“You’d do that for me?” Harry asked with a soft smile.
“Only for you,” Niall clarified. “Only for you pet.”