Archive of Our Own ^beta

He reaches over, tugs on a loose curl that Harry has falling out of his headscarf and smiles.  

"Let’s go for a ride." Niall says when Harry looks over, peaking one eye out. Harry smiles despite the roll of his eyes.  

"You’re always wanting to go for a ride." Harry says and moves his head back towards the sun once more. Niall doesn’t want that, wants Harry to be looking at him always. It makes him feel warm and fuzzy when Harry looks at him. Makes him want to kiss him.  

"Just want everyone to know you’re all mine." Niall says leaning up and over to press a slow kiss to Harry’s lips. He feels Harry smiling against his mouth, all sweet like, and leans back, watching the smile grow to be a full sized grin. Niall leans back down and kisses him once more, hand tracing up his thigh before tugging on the shorts he’s wearing. They’re so small, it makes Niall’s brain go numb.  

"Everyone already does, we’ve been together for years now, Niall. Not to mention that you broke Jordan’s nose the other day for calling us ‘fags’ before sticking your tongue down my throat, remember?" Harry says, pinching Niall’s side and making the skin go red. "Which was rude, by the way." Niall squirms under Harry’s touch, sides a bit too ticklish for him to be pinching, but still manages to lean down and kiss him again. Always loving those kisses, Niall is.  

"I’m sorry, doll, won’t happen again." Niall mumbles against Harry’s lips. "Unless they swear at us again, that is." Niall adds quickly before pressing a hard kiss to Harry’s lips, hoping to silence him from trying to tell him it’s not right. Harry’s so against violence and Niall’s so protective of his things that that’s what he’ll resort to if he has to. They’re different in some senses, but that’s what Niall loves most about them. How they still work despite their different views on certain subjects.  

Harry’s pushing at Niall’s sides and whining for him to let up now. Niall feels guilty, so he lets up, allowing Harry to playfully punch his shoulder lightly, but hard enough to get a point across. Niall let’s out a laugh and rolls off of Harry and onto his back.  

He looks over at Harry through hooded eyes, protecting them from the bright light of the sun and thinks Harry can’t be real. Too pretty and all that to be real. Niall reaches over and laces their fingers together, bringing them up to his mouth to kiss Harry’s knuckles.  

"About that ride?" Niall asks and he hears Harry groan, but feels him let go of his hand to start moving to get up. Niall’s still lying down when Harry’s sitting up, causing Harry to lean over and kiss him slowly, slipping his tongue into Niall’s mouth. They lazily kiss like that for a while, tongues grazing against each other barely, but enough to send little shocks and shivers down Niall’s spine.   

"Ready to go then?" Harry asks after pulling away. They’d been kissing for a while, enough for Niall’s lips to turn red and to feel all tingly. He lets out a quiet whine from the back of his throat at the loss of Harry’s lips. Harry doesn’t seem to care though, just gives a small poke to Niall’s nose and a wide grin before getting up and grabbing Niall’s hands to help him up as well.  

Niall tightens his hold on Harry’s hands so he can’t pull away, brings them up and outwards before leaning forward and kissing Harry once more. He pulls away with a goofy smile on his face, he can never get enough of being able to kiss Harry.  

Niall lets go of one of Harry’s hands, lacing his fingers through Harry’s own of the other and starts walking him towards the back porch for his glasses. He grabs them off the ledge and puts them on, self consciously moving the bangs out of his eyes before grabbing onto his and Harry's shirts as well to put on. he starts holding Harry's hand again once the shirts are on them and begins leading him to the side of the house where his bike is.  

Niall grabs the bike, holding it up with one hand before making some grand gesture for Harry to get on. Harry calls him a dick before stepping closer and taking the handle bars from Niall’s own hands and curtseying. Niall nearly combusts from how cute his boyfriend is before climbing on the bike, steadying it as best as he can for Harry to get on.  

It wiggles a little as Harry puts his weight on it, but it’s not too much for Niall to handle. When Harry’s settled he looks back at Niall and grins wide. Niall leans forward and kisses him.  

"The lake?" Niall asks when he pulls back and he sees something flash in Harry’s eyes before he nods widely, more curls falling out from under the scarf around his head.  

Niall pushes them off, Harry leaning back so he’s against Niall’s chest and Niall looking over his right shoulder. A s they bike on they pass a few of their neighbours'. They pass Zayn Malik who smiles knowingly before flicking two fingers in a wave to them. Harry waves back excitedly and Niall moves one hand to grip Harry’s hip tightly before going back to the handlebar. Harry’s just too cute Niall can’t handle it sometimes.  

Harry looks back at him with the goofiest grin Niall has ever seen on his face before. He reaches down between his legs and turns on the wireless radio they taped to the front of Niall’s bike a few summers back. Back when they both rode their own bike instead of only Niall’s.   

Niall lazily pushes up the bridge of his glasses as Big Yellow Taxi streams through the speakers. A  big smile breaks out on both boys faces as the song starts playing, the most recent hit of the summer that both boys love dearly. Niall starts pedal ing  faster in excitement and anticipation for the lake, the song having set an even brighter mood on the day despite the lyrics, sun seeming to shine even brighter.  

Harry looks back at him over his shoulder again, hair flowing all over, scarf barely helping keeping the hair out of his face. Niall smiles back at Harry, all bright and sunshine like, before looking back at the road in front of them. Harry starts singing along to the lyrics, and Niall lets out a few laughs before joining in goofily, mucking up the lyrics and singing way out of key just to get a few chuckles out of Harry himself.  

It works, and Niall can’t seem to get rid of the buzzing feeling in his chest at the beautiful sound.   

"Please!" They both sing along with radio, going as high as their vocal range will allow, letting out loud cackles after holding the note as long as the singer, Joni, does.  

"You’re actually a good singer, Ni." Harry says after calming down from laughing and Niall snorts.  

"Sure, babe. not as good as you, though, seriously. Could become a singer, you know. Voice like an angel." Niall says, slowing down to a stop at the beginning of the trail down to the lake. Harry jumps off and walks over to kiss Niall sweetly for the compliment. He’s properly blushing when Harry pulls away, but he doesn’t feel too bad, Harry having a matching blush on his own cheeks as he turns off  the radio.  

"Race  ya." Harry says before darting off down the trail. Niall let's out a yell , drops the bike and chases after Harry. He’s able to catch up to him from the bit of downhill the trail has and he pinches Harry’s bum as he passes him, blowing a raspberry over his shoulder. "You shithead!" Harry yells at him and Niall cackles loudly, starting to undress as they get closer to the water.  

By the time he reaches it, Harry’s right beside him and they’re both completely naked, having thrown their clothing all over the earth as they ran—Niall had to stop for a few seconds to gently place his glasses on his shirt so he was sure they wouldn’t break before starting up running again, catching back up to Harry immediately . They run in as far as their legs can take them before dropping down to start swimming.  

Harry tackles Niall underwater some parts of a way in, pushing him down a bit harder before pulling them both back up, flinging water every where like a dog. They let out a few giggles, splashing each other like a couple of kids before Niall calmly swims closer and kisses Harry.  

It’s slippery and odd, both of them having to hold themselves above water at the same time as kissing, but it’s still nice. Everything about kissing Harry is nice, in Niall’s opinion. Doesn’t matter if it’s too slippery or too much tongue or too much spit, Niall will love it because it’s Harry who’s kissing him back. As sappy as that is, Niall doesn’t care, he’s too far gone for his boy to have a care in the world about the amount of sappiness seeping from him.  

"Kiss me underwater." Harry says breathlessly when he pulls back and Niall smirks, wiggles his eyebrows at him as his hands find his way to Harry’s hips underwater. Harry pushes water at Niall’s face, making him splutter but laugh all the same. "Not like that, pervert. I mean kiss me, kiss me. On the mouth. Always wanted to try kissing you underwater."  

"Only me? Not just generally, you’ve only wanted to kiss me underwater?" Niall asks and his smirk turns soft, eyes going crinkly in the corners and positively shining. Harry rolls his eyes, but blushes all the same, dunks underwater once more to cool his face and flings his head around when he comes back up before pushing his bangs out of his face. He got rid of the scarf on the trail.  

"Yes only you." Harry whispers as he swims even closer to Niall, wraps his arms around Niall’s waist and pulls him close. Niall has to think of his Nan in lingerie to keep himself calm at being flush against a naked Harry while being naked as well. He’s only seventeen, give him a break. Things like this still get to him. Luckily, though, he’s mastered the art of not coming in his pants from a little friction, he’ll take that.

"Come ‘ere then. Want to kiss you." Niall mumbles and stops idly kicking his legs to sink down with Harry, who also stopped kicking his legs. Once their foreheads hit the water, Harry drags his hands up Niall’s bare back till he reaches his face, grips his cheeks and pulls him a bit closer to kiss him. They both open their mouths though, unthinkingly and choke on water. T hey both come up spitting out water.  

"Well, that failed miserably." Harry whines and Niall reaches underwater to pull him closer before kissing his cheek.  

"Let’s go to the bit where our feet touch, yeah? It’ll be a bit easier on us, and this time no opening our mouths." Niall suggests. Harry smiles at him, dimple popping up and Niall pokes it.  

"But I  want to open my mouth." Harry says quietly and Niall’s grip on his arm tightens unconsciously.   

"Later." He says, and Harry seems to think it fair because he starts swimming towards the more shallow end.  

Their feet start touching some of the dirt and sand underneath the lake and that’s when Niall reaches back out for Harry. He grips his arm again before dragging his fingers down to wrap nicely around Harry’s hand. God, Niall loves holding his hand so much he could die right then and be the happiest person ever. Except, he’d feel bad for leaving Harry like that. He could never leave Harry.  

They step closer again and starts smiling like dorks at each other in anticipation.   

"One… Two… Three." Harry says and they both drop down, tugging at each others arms to get closer to each other before gripping each others cheeks to hold them still as they kiss. This one is better, they don’t choke on water and Niall’s actually able to start sucking on Harry’s bottom lip before they float back up. Niall feels extremely giddy that they were able to do it, but mostly because he knows how happy and excited Harry will be at the fact that they succeeded.   

Harry wraps his arms tightly around Niall’s body and kisses him again hard ending up causing them to drop back into the water from the impact of Harry's body running into his that Niall wasn’t ready for. They both come up laughing, small little giggles coming out that shake their shoulders and having them slumping closer to the other, eyes shut tight.  

They end up getting out of the lake after that, seeing no purpose in being in the water after succeeding in underwater kissing. So they sit on the edge, fully dressed now—after running up and down the trail trying to find their clothes and maybe getting into a tickle fight in the process—but making their clothes a little damp from not properly drying off first. Niall keeps pushing at his wet hair to keep it from dripping down onto his glasses and Harry thinks it’s adorable.  

They kiss lazily after a bit, Niall leaning back against a tree trunk and Harry lying on his chest. When they pull apart, lips swollen red and stattic-y feeling, they just smile at each other, eyes half closed with the sleepy feel of all of it. Niall presses one more quick kiss to Harry’s lips.  

" Wanna play truth or dare?" Niall asks and Harry snorts at him, pressing his mouth down onto Niall’s clothed chest to hide his smile before looking back up.  

"Aren’t we too old for kids games?" Harry asks and it’s Niall’s turn to snort.  

"We’re seventeen, Haz, we’re still kids." Niall says and Harry lets out a few giggles.  

"Shut up, I know. Let’s play then." Harry says rolling off Niall’s chest and tucking himself in Niall’s arm. Niall reaches up and starts playing with Harry’s damp, loose curls. His hair has gotten so long and Niall’s so in love with it. It makes him look so pretty and princess like.  

"Alright, princess."  Niall mumbles into Harry’s hair before pressing a kiss there. He feels Harry dab sharply at his side and Niall just knows Harry’s a blushing mess. "Truth or dare?"  

"Mmm. Truth."  

"How long have you liked me?" Niall asks. He starts chewing on the skin near his thumb after asking this, waiting for Harry’s answer. He’s honestly wondered this for so long because ever since Harry stumbled his way along the driveway towards the house next door to Niall's  when they were twelve and Harry was just moving in, Niall knew he was gone for him. He didn’t know how exactly, sort of thought it was just him wanting to be Harry’s only best friend, which was close in a way, but so far off in another. Until a bit of ways later when he overheard his older brother talking about two boys kissing behind the school one day.  

It sparked an interest in Niall and he wondered if he wanted to kiss boys. He thought about it, thought about himself kissing boys compared to himself kissing girls, found out he preferred picturing himself kissing boys which was scary at first, but then he started thinking about kissing Harry and it calmed him down enough that he—well, he discovered himself very nicely thinking about that stuff, thank you very much.  

"Since the day I saw you sitting in my front yard playing with my cat. I was like, ‘what a cute cat’ then I looked for a little longer through my living room window—not to be a creep or anything, but because I thought you were interesting. You were the only boy I saw who dyed their hair, so I watched you for a bit. Then I noticed it was my cat. You were being so sweet to her that I sort of fell in love. But I was worried you were going to steal my cat from me." Harry explains and Niall listens closely, hands stuttering in H arry’s hair at his slow voice. I t relaxes Niall, but also gets him excited because that was a week after Harry first moved here. It feels so odd to find out that Niall’s crush wasn’t one-sided for majority of it. "Truth or dare."  

"Dare." Niall says. It’s a very safe option for Niall to pick dare when it’s coming from Harry. He usually doesn’t pick anything too daring, just mostly ‘dares’ him to kiss him or something. It’s cute, Niall lives for it.  

" C’mere ." H arry mumbles and Niall listens, despite the fact that it wasn’t a dare or anything. He’ll still answer to Harry’s every beck and call, it doesn’t matter to him. He rolls over, Harry pulling Niall down and on top of him, hands pushing tentatively down towards Niall’s ass to grip. Once Harry’s hands are on his ass, Niall lets out a quiet gasp, feels Harry’s half hard dick against his thigh. "I dare you to make me come in my shorts like I’m fifteen  again." Harry says and Niall literally has to take a few seconds to work on breathing right again.  

"Oh—okay." Niall says and he drops his hips down lower, pressing harder against Harry who lets out a slight hiss at the pressure. Niall feels himself fattening up between his legs at the anticipation and at feeling Harry getting hard against him as well. Harry presses his fingers into the skin of Niall’s ass that meets his thighs, lifting him up a bit in the process and the roll of his dick against his jean shorts and Harry’s thigh makes him whine slightly from the back of his throat.  

This isn’t the type of dare Niall’s used to hearing come out of Harry’s mouth, but the little whines Harry’s letting out as Niall rolls his hips down against Harry’s makes him think he might want Harry to dare him to do more of these things. It’s so hot, Niall might explode.   

Niall’s fully hard now, dick fitting nicely into the slight bend of Harry’s hip, making him let out low groans at the feeling. They haven’t done this sort of thing since they first started experimenting sexually. It was just a way to get off quickly and quietly with the less amount of a mess while Niall’s parents were off to the grocery store. They’ve moved on past this, being able to have more privacy now that Niall’s parents know, but it’s sort of nice going back to this. Thrilling in a way as well, feels like they could get caught any second.  

Which they could, by some poor bastard going by on a boat enjoying the nice, hot summer day since they’re not exactly hidden from view of the lake.   

The thought of being caught makes Niall’s hip speed up, pressing down further with his hips as he can go and whining low in his chest at the feeling. Harry’s full on moaning now, not even trying to hide it and it’s the sounds Harry’s making, low and dragged out like each one means something, that makes Niall come in his pants, eyes squeezed shut as all he sees is Harry’s red mouth opened wide.  

It’s a little embarrassing that he’s finished before Harry, who dared him to make him come in his pants, and because he was sure he mastered this already . He'll have to rethink it, or rethink the level of power Harry has over him.  

Niall still wonders if that was part of the dare though, Harry had to come first or something. But Harry’s still panting, mouth open wide and not telling him he did it wrong , so Niall thinks Harry doesn’t mind much. After he’s calmed down from his orgasm, Niall reaches between them, lifting his own hips up for better access and properly grips Harry then. Harry lets out an even louder moan than the ones before.  

"Come for me, princess." Niall whispers in Harry’s ear and after a few more strokes through his shorts, Harry’s spilling over and Niall rubs him through it.  

"Kiss me." Harry whispers after he’s calmed down and Niall leans over to do just that. They stay like that for a while, kissing slowly, Niall lying on top of Harry and Harry lazily playing with Niall’s blonde hair.  

"It’s getting late." Niall mumbles against Harry’s lips as he notices the darkening sky around them.  

"So?" Harry says as he leans back up to kiss Niall again. Niall chuckles a bit and presses his hand flat against Harry’s chest, pushing him back down.  

"I’m being serious. My glasses may help me see better, but they don’t give me night vision." Ni all says with a laugh. Harry brings a finger up to rub at one of the large lenses. Niall flicks Harry on the nose in payback as he whines at Harry for dirtying his lens.  

"Sure they do, how else are you able to return my blow job when we’re doing it in the back of your dad's car?" Harry says and Niall outright gapes at him. He feels a blush start to come on and he hits Harry’s arm lightly.  

"What’s with you and all this dirty talk, H?" Niall asks bewildered at how blunt Harry’s being. Usually he’s got a blush on when he says these sorts of things, always on the down-low about their sex life and Niall’s not entirely sure what changed, but he thinks he likes it. Harry gives a little shrug.  

"I don’t know. Just like seeing your reactions I guess." Harry mumbles while slowly pulling at N all’s glasses to get them off his face. After they’re off, Harry leans up and gives Niall a kiss before lying back down and putting the glasses on himself. Niall let’s out a few coughs at the loss of breath he got from how adorable his boyfriend looks in his glasses.  

"Let’s get going then, yeah?" Niall says instead, getting up and reaching down to pull at Harry’s hands to help him up.  

When they start walking back up the trail Niall spots a flower in full bloom off to the side and picks it quietly as they pass hoping Harry didn’t notice. He glances over to him, sees he’s smiling secretively and holding something off to his side out of Niall’s view much like Niall is to him. When Ni all stops, Harry does too, looks back at him with a questioning gaze before Niall presents the flower to Harry and Harry positively glows.  

"For me?" Harry asks happily, like a little kid on his birthday, and Niall nods with a wide grin on his face. He steps forward and tucks the flower behind Harry’s ear. His curls—which aren’t back up in the scarf like Ni all thought he would’ve done by now—fall around it, making Harry look even more beautiful than he already is.  

"For my princess." Niall whispers, letting his hands rest on Harry’s shoulders before tippy toeing up to press a kiss to Harry’s lips. When he pulls away, Harry pushes a different flower from the one Niall gave him under Niall's  nose. "Oh?" Niall asks and Harry blushes.  

"For my princess." Harry mumbles under his breath and Niall’s stomach goes into a frenzy of butterflies. He’s so gone for his boy it’s insane.  

"Thank you." Niall says, feels the heat rise to his cheeks as Harry pushes it behind his ear as well. He also pulls off Niall’s glasses from his face, careful of the flower, and gives them back to the rightful owner. Niall feels like he’s on cloud nine when he kisses harry once more after carefully putting his glasses back on .  

They continue on walking, hands linked tightly between them and swinging happily. When they get to the bike, Harry gives him one last lingering kiss before hoping on the handle bars, leaning back to safely to rest against Niall’s chest as he petals off.  

Niall wonders idly  if Harry can feel his heart beating as fast and hard as it is against his chest and Harry's back .  

He feels Harry’s arm start moving against his chest, looks down and sees his hand slowly moving along the metal before resting on top of Niall’s. Niall spreads his fingers so Harry’s can slip in between and when they do, Niall’s chest fills with warmth.  

"You smell good." Niall mumbles into Harry’s shoulder and Harry let’s out a snort.  

"We swam in a lake and laid in dirt, how could I smell good?" Harry asks, glancing back at Niall. He shrugs.  

"I don’t know, it like—your shampoo lingered or something. All I smell is strawberries and flowers. It’s nice." Niall says as they turn back onto their road, seeing all the porch lights on as the sky gets even darker around them. Harry presses a kiss to Niall’s cheek.  

"Want to stargaze tonight?" Harry asks as Niall slows down a bit, biking lazily past their  neighbour's  houses, waving at Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik as they play a bit of basketball with the hoop screwed on top of their garage door. Zayn waves gently back at them and Louis makes vulgar hand gestures  before getting smacked upside the head by Zayn. Bless him.  

Niall let’s out a few soft giggles as they bike on before humming a bit. "Yeah, I’d like that. Getting to cuddle up close to you.” Niall says with a nudge of his shoulder to Harry’s back.  

They pull into Niall’s driveway, stopping on the side of the house where Niall always leaves his bike before they both walk inside and get greeted by Maura welcoming them warmly back inside.  

"Made some cookies, you boys want any ?" She asks and they both jump for the counter where the cookies are sitting on a plate, still nice and warm.  

They push at each other a bit, trying to get to the cookies first before Harry just wraps his arms around Niall’s middle instead and they start giggling together. Niall reaches out calmly and grabs a cookie, bringing it up to Harry’s lips for him to take a bite.  

"You boys are so sweet." Maura says and it makes Niall blush as he takes a bite for himself  and Harry hide his face in Niall's neck.  

" Maaaaa !" Niall whines in embarrassment which seems to always bring her delight, for some reason, because it always causes her to smile brightly and let out a soft laugh before pinching both their sides and leaving the room, telling them their dinner is in the oven so it wouldn’t get cold on them.  

"Your mother is seriously the best." Harry says as he goes to take both their plates out.  

"Don’t try to leave me for her." Niall says jokingly but harry fakes hurt anyway.  

"I would never. Why would I leave you, a stinky teenager who never seems to change his shirt—" Niall interrupts Harry, yelling at him that it was Harry who gave him this shirt so he will cherish it forever, thanks. Harry just continues on with a wide grin. "—for your mother, a super sweet lady who smells nice and bakes." Harry finishes, stepping closer and placing his hands on his hips.  

"Shut up." Niall says, scrunches his nose up before kissing Harry sweetly. They hear the sound of a plate clattering in metal and break apart to see Greg storming off.  

When they came out, Greg was the one who seemed to be against it. Niall was expecting his parents to be angry about it, not Greg, but they were surprisingly super accepting and supportive it turns out.  

It breaks Niall’s heart, though, knowing his only brother might not ever accept who he is.  

"Let’s quickly eat then get changed to go outside." Niall says softly, watching where Greg stormed off and Harry kisses his temple.  

"Yeah. We need to be quick too, been in these shorts too long, it’s starting to feel uncomfortably crusty." Harry says and Niall covers his snort against Harry’s collarbone.  

And so they do.  

They eat, clean up after themselves—and Greg too because he seemed to have just thrown his plate in the sink without washing it—before heading upstairs to Niall’s bedroom to change.  

Harry pinches at Niall’s butt when he’s changing underwear and Niall turns around and whips him on the thigh with his shirt. When Harry let’s out a loud ‘ow ’ Niall apologizes quickly before bending down to kiss the reddening skin. It makes Harry laugh so hard his face turns red as well.  

Harry’s wearing some of Niall’s clothes. They’re a bit too tight in some parts and it causes Niall to stare a little too long. Harry teases him for it by giving Niall an odd little dance to watch.  

Niall’s bent over laughing at the dance move Harry just did—it was some type of mix of swaying his hips and doing the splits at the same time and it looked so funny—when Harry shouts ‘last one to the backyard is a rotten egg’ like they’re a couple of seven year olds  instead of the actual seventeen year olds that they are and race each other down  the steps and out to the backyard.  

They still have the flowers behind their ears as they go, careful not to squish them when they flop down to the ground to cuddle up close to each other.  

It’s quiet for a while.  

Niall’s looking up to the sky and watching all the stars smile down and twinkle at them. He looks over at Harry and sees he has his eyes closed, content smile covering his lips.  

"Harry?" Niall asks, just to make sure hasn’t fallen asleep on him. It wouldn’t be the first time, the kid falls asleep almost as soon as he's comfortable.  

" Mmmm. "  Harry hums making it known he is awake, pulls  Niall closer to his chest and  Niall tucks himself between Harry’s side and his arm.  

It’s comforting, feeling all small and fragile and having  Harry feel so sturdy and large in comparison to him.  

Niall loves these moments the most, the ones where it feels like  Niall’s being protected instead of protecting because sometimes he just likes to be cared for by his  favourite  boy in the whole wide world.  

"Sing to me." Harry fin ally says after a beat or two of silence  and  Niall turns his face to bite Harry’s shoulder for making him blush. Harry laughs and uses his body to push at  Niall.  

He’s a decent singer, but not the best in the books obviously,  not the type of voice to go down in history or anything big like that. He wouldn't get on the news or radio, he bets, although he would love for that to happen. Harry still makes him feel like a star anyway .   

(“Because you are a star!” Niall hears Harry’s voice say in the back of his mind. Maybe it’s not obvious then. It might just be him who thinks he’s  won't become famous like Jackson 5 or Bob Dylan or any of the like. He should work on it.)  

He thinks one day though, as he looks up at the stars covering the night sky above them, one day maybe they’ll both become a star and live in eternity side by side. Niall would love that.  

"So darling, darling, stand by me." Niall starts off quietly and he hears Harry humming beside him happily. He starts tapping his fingers against  Niall’s back along with the beat to the song that’s not playing. It ends up syncing in with  Niall’s heart beat. "Oh, stand by me."  

Harry starts harmonizing with him  instead of usually Niall taking the harmony since he's able to reach higher than Harry, but  it’s  still  lovely, in Niall’s opinion. Their voices go well together, honestly, it makes  Niall feel like he can soar.  

"Whenever you’re in trouble won’t you stand." They sing together now, louder, and  Niall can’t even be  angry  when his dad comes out onto the back porch interrupting them to tell them to quiet down so they don’t  bother  the whole  neighbourhood . Niall’s giggling into Harry’s side as  Harry apologizes to  Niall’s dad for being too loud.  

"It’s alright, Harry. You boys actually sounded good together. Get to bed soon though, I’m not having you two up all hours of the night." Bobby says and Harry says his thanks and guarantees that they  won’t before  Bobby  walks back in side .  

"Good ol' Bobby." Harry says with a sigh and it causes  Niall to go into another fit of laughter.  

"God I’m in love with you." Niall says without thinking and they both tense up. Niall sits up quickly, slides away from  Harry a bit and tucks his knees under chin, arms wrapping around his shins.  

They’ve been together since they were fourteen but they’ve never said anything about love. They only had promises that they’ll be there forever and that was their love; promises and kisses that made them both want to pass out from happiness and sex that was only ever shared and experienced with the other.  

There was never anyone else and all the love that can fit in  Niall’s tiny body is full of Harry’s name written in  Niall’s pretty, loopy hand writing. But it was never said, never brought up as a topic of conversation.  

If it was, it was  n ever truly answered. Like when Harry’s father asked him if he loved Niall after he came out—and before his father up and left, the prick— Harry never really said. All he said was that he cares deeply about  Niall and that’s enough for him to want to kiss the living day lights out of him.  

Niall feels a bit of tears stinging his eyes and he feels pathetic, tries to blink them away and not make it obvious when he starts to sniffle.  

He feels Harry’s hand on his shoulder and he wants to shrug it away, wants to tell him he’s sorry and that  Harry ’s the best thing in his life, and if he doesn’t love Niall back that’s okay. Except it would be a lie if he said it was okay. It would break Niall’s heart because all his heart has been filled with is Harry for all of his teenaged life.  

"Niall." Harry says but  Niall doesn’t turn around. He’s too scared to. "Niall, look at me." Harry sounds more stern, so Niall turns hesitantly at first but still keeps avoiding his eyes. "Did you mean what you said?" Harry asks and he sounds pissed off. Niall looks at him with wide eyes and the tears finally fall. He doesn’t know if he should lie so it wouldn’t be as painful or if he should tell the truth. He opens his mouth, but he can’t do it. He can’t lie to Harry about his feelings about him no matter the outcome.  

"Yes." Niall whispers, pulls his glasses off his face to wipe at his cheeks and eyes to get rid of the tears before putting them back on and resting his head against his arms folded atop his knees. "God, yes, of course I meant it. How could I not mean it, Har? Ever since I was twelve it's been you. Never anyone else. It’s just—always been you." Niall mumbles while gently playing with the flower behind his ear , slowly running his finger down the smooth petals to help ground himself and keep him calm. He kept getting a little louder with his words as he spoke on but not too loud to scare himself.  

"I’m in love with you too." He barely hears Harry say, but he still catches it and he shoots his head up to see that Harry is crying, accidentally making the flower fall from behind his ear in the process.  

Harry's actually crying and it's enough to make Niall’s heart ache with it. He’s never wanted to see Harry cry, which is another reason he’s so protective over him. Wanted to keep him from crying forever.  

But now they’re both crying like two fools and  Niall finds he couldn’t give a shit about it.  

Harry’s in love with him as well and that’s the best feeling in the world. Niall let’s out a small relieved chuckle and it sparks  Harry into letting a few out as well.  

They laugh like that for a while, all small and relieved—secretive almost and it feels safe. Feels like a promise.  

"It’s always been you, Ni." Harry says placing his fingertip on top of  Niall’s left breast, on top of his heart. He traces out a heart shape with his finger over it before dropping his hand  to pick up the flower Niall dropped, gently placing it back behind his ear like it belongs there .  

"It’s always been you, H." Niall says back to him, placing his own fingertip on top of Harry’s heart, tracing out a heart shape with his finger over the spot before reaching over and lacing his fingers with Harry’s, kissing each knuckle of his hand.