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Nick clicks open the “Legends in the Making” group chat and sees that Fiona’s already texted him several times. Her tone has progressed from playful (three rising sun emojis) to worried (the emoji of two pints followed by a question mark) and finally to stern (no emoji, just NICK). He sends back his own string of emojis to let Matt and Fiona know he’s on the way – or at least that’s what he hopes a smug moon and a puff of air convey. He would’ve added a Christmas tree to make it a bit more festive, but it won’t show up in his recently used page for some reason, and he can’t be arsed to scroll for it.
Matt and Fiona probably think he’d gotten on the beers last night and pressed snooze a few too many times this morning, but the real reason he’s late is sat right next to him in the cab – he looks over to Harry, who is currently scrolling through Twitter with his eyes closed.
Nick had woken up just fine – made a coffee, let the dog out, even had a quick shower – but he couldn’t bring himself to wake Harry, wanted to let him sleep - safe and warm and drooling on Nick’s favorite pillow. He had been just about to slip out the door when Harry shook awake on his own, muttering that he was ready already as he pulled on a pair of joggers and a jumper on his way to the door.
“Fincham is gonna be livid,” Nick says as he holds the door open for Harry.
Harry just shrugs sleepily, “I never get to visit you at work. ‘Sides, I’m too sleepy to mess up the mics anyway.
And sure enough, as soon as they walk through the door, Matt’s little face is all scrunched up in anger. Nick thinks he maybe should have warned the team he was bringing Harry in, but no one knows Harry’s here and he’s not going on air, so as far as he’s concerned it’s just going to be a normal show. Luckily for Nick, he’s late enough that he has to go directly into the opening link before Matt gets a chance to tell him off.
And then during the first pair of songs, they’re busy getting their Christmas sweater situation sorted so they can tweet a picture.
“Are you boiling hot in that jumper? I’m well hot,” Nick says, tugging at the collar. He turns around to face Harry, “This is why I have to get here before Fifi, or else she turns the heating way up.”
“Oi,” Fiona calls from the other side of the desk, where she’s trying to figure out how to turn on the lights on Matt’s jumper, “If I get here after you, it’s bloody freezing.”
“Well, put on a sweater then,” Nick says, sliding his headphones back on for when the news ends. Nick likes having Harry here, likes having Harry be present for this part of his life, even if he is just stood in the way back of the studio smiling into his cup of tea (Matt had been adamant that not even popstars are allowed to bring drinks into the studio, not even if it’s Christmas).
During the next song, Nick looks down at the screen of what they’ve got queued up and turns around to Harry again. “We’re only allowed seven Christmas songs during the show, and no one here takes it seriously. They’ve gone and put Mariah first – before Slade and The Pogues – no respect for building momentum at all.” Harry is smiling so wide, it looks like his face might crack in half.
Nick spins his chair back around dramatically and leans in to the mic, “Can’t believe we’re playing Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ right now. I feel like it’s too early, I feel like we should have teased that for about three days like a proper feature – a couple hours at least. But no, here we go, playing the best Christmas song of all time casually at 6:46AM.”
Nick tries to stay huffy as he fades up the record, but he can feel the spirit of Mariah Carey compelling him to do the opening riff. Harry’s dissolving in a fit of giggles from his place at the back of the studio, and even Matt is cracking a smile, pulling out his phone to take a video.
Before the second chorus has even kicked in, Nick’s got his sweater off – tossing it at Harry’s feet and waggling his eyebrows. He hopes the gesture says “glad you came with me” but also “I want to fuck you in front of the Christmas tree later.” He’s pretty sure Harry gets it.