Work Text:
Niall had just gotten back to his hall from a long night of studying and was more than happy to be able to pass out on his bed. But when he walked out of the elevator and onto his floor, he saw someone trying to get into his room down the corridor. Startled, Niall stepped back and reached for his mobile to call campus police, but then the guy kneeled down to the floor and started...talking? Talking to his door? No— whispering.
It was the cute guy named Harry who lived in the dorm next to him that always played Shania Twain too loudly (Niall wasn't even complaining though if he's being honest—he's found himself on more than one occasion singing along through the wall while he's cleaning his room), and left his door open at the arsecrack of dawn in case anyone wanted to join him in his daily yoga stretches.
Niall only knows the latter because one morning when he was leaving for work, Harry called out to him and invited him in with a wink while he was in warrior pose. Niall politely declined, but the rest of the day while he was in the caf serving food he couldn't help but think about what it'd be like to do a sun salutation with harry.
Harry caressed the door knob and whispered, "Please— Door. Please this is very portant. Dunno if its Key or You thats making things difficult, but make up right now this instance, please. I just wan sleep," and while pouting and looking down at the betraying object in his hand he said, "And you...stop being such a....donkey."
The stumbling over words and mispronunciations cued Niall in on Harry's inebriated state, and with newfound amusement he walked down the hall towards his room and leaned on the wall across from The Key Whisperer to see when he would realize he was at the wrong door.
Watching as Harry flipped his key this way and that, trying to maneuver it into the lock was incredibly funny, but Niall felt bad and knew now was the time to let harry down gently and tell him the room wasn't his.
Still leaning against the wall, Niall stuck his leg out and poked Harry with his toe, said boy screamed, closed his eyes and threw the only thing he had in his hands at Niall; The Key.
Standing up straight and rubbing his neck, he yelled, "Ow! What'd ya do that for?"
He's probably gonna have a red mark there tomorrow and'll have to deal with louis asking him if he pulled last night. Ha, Niall thought, far from it.
Harry opened one eye. Then opened the other. Then both eyes stared in confusion at Niall.
"Niall? What in the hell ya doing here? And why are your shoes so hurty?" he grumbled while rubbing his back.
Niall held back a smile and pointed to the door harry had spent so long whispering to, "i'm here because this is my room."
Finally standing up, harry looked at the door in question, squinted his eyes, looked back at Niall, looked at his actual door, looked back at Niall's door, and repeated the whole process three more times.
"Well. Sappears we've got a mysterlee on our hands. Because I definitely completely saw the number 604 when I got here." Harry said while trying to appear as if he wasn't drunk off his arse. Harry, with one hand on his hip and one hand fisted under his chin, wasn't anywhere near his goal but he looked really adorable so Niall wasn't going to burst his bubble.
"It sappears that you've had quite a lot to drink tonight, so if you don't mind, i'm gonna take the key you so graciously threw at me, and open the right door for you. That alright?" niall asked with raised eyebrows and a soft smile.
Harry's face broke out into a grin and he just looked at Niall for a bit. A long bit. Long enough for Niall to clear his throat a few times. "Right. Yeah, 'course, thank you Niall," Harry tipped an imaginary hat.
Niall laughed and faced towards the door. With two quick turns it opened right up and immediately Harry attached himself to Niall's back and mumbled, "will you tuck me in Niall my savior? my kite in shining armor?," he reached down and grabbed Niall's hand that was holding his room key and lifted it up as if it was Simba, "the key to my heart?"
Niall carefully disentangled himself with koala styles, and held him at arms length while steering him to the bed. If he kept all this groping up Niall's not sure he would make it out of here without—
Niall shook his head and got back to business, "alright let's take care of these boots then," he said while coercing the glitter contraptions off, "and you can take your own clothes off, i'll just— i'll wait over here."
"Such a gentleman." Harry said while wiggling his eyebrows. He bumped himself in the ribs and eye a few times while discarding his jeans and shirt, but came out relatively unscathed. Crawling under his blanket and lying down he said, "kay, now tuck me in reeeeal tight Niall."
"Please," he added with a cheeky grin.
Niall was quickly realizing that there was little to nothing Harry could ask him that he wouldn't say yes to, so without hesitation, he leant down and pushed his fingers under harry to wrap him up tight in his blanket like he asked.
God, Niall thought, a smile and a couple bad jokes and suddenly i'm at his mercy.
Apparently Harry was really sleepy cause by the time Niall was finished and ready to say g'night and get out of there without tripping over any of his crazy boots, he was snoring.
Harry's hair was fanned out across his pillow and his mouth was slightly open and his cheeks were more than slightly flushed and Niall kinda just. He just. Wow. He was just so pretty wasn't he?
He quickly looked for a piece of paper and a pen on harry's desk to leave a note for him. When he was finished he walked out and closed the door softly behind him, but not before getting one last glance of Harry sleeping soundly.
—
When Harry wakes up and finds a note taped to his mirror that says "hope you had a good rest. when you get over your hangover we should meet up for coffee sometime ! my number is 506-6726. sincerely, your kite in shining armor xxx", he scrambles for his phone and calls the number immediately.
"So," harry says with a raspy just-woke-up voice, "coffkey?"
Niall's laugh into his ear might be one of the prettiest things he's ever heard.