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“I like you,” Those three simple words made Niall’s world stop. How could a simple little confession mess with his mind so much, he would never know. It wasn’t even supposed to happen this way from the way that his best friend Harry’s face was anything to go by.
The poor bloke was bright red, everyone at the lunch table was either laughing at the situation or staring intently at Niall. And well, they had every right too. Louis just had to be a blabber mouth and call Harry out on his apparently very obvious crush on Niall.
Just normal stuff in the life of Niall.
He stared into Harry’s eyes, trying to gage something, anything. He didn’t know what to think, this was all a surprise.
“It's so obvious Niall, he definitely likes you!” Louis had mentioned, before the shock had set in. Harry continued opening and closing his jaw like a fish out of water. Niall could only imagine how he must have felt.
More times than not, Louis had blurted out Niall’s crush to said person over the years. It was something he learned to deal with the small adult. But Harry was different, he was new to the group and wow since when had his eyes ever been this green before?
Niall liked Harry, he knew as much. Not debating exactly how much he felt for the lad, there was definitely an attraction to him. Harry was smart, sweet and over a great friend. They just didn’t know each other as well as Niall knew the rest of the people at the table. He’d known Louis since they were in diapers, Liam had moved in next door to Niall in secondary school, and Zayn was just the loner that somehow found his way into the group.
Harry was the new kid as of this year. Niall knew his story well enough, it was disheartening to hear that his father had cheated on his mother with another woman, forcing his mother to take everything, including Harry, and move.
He was tempted to reach over and grab Harry’s hand, anything to sooth the boy. But no, Louis continued to crack jokes and remind Niall how painfully oblivious he is to people’s feelings. That part was true, unfortunately, Niall was known as the heartbreaker for the sole reason that he was a tad dense.
He blamed primary school where he just had Louis and Liam, and was always stuck alone whenever those idiots decided to leave and let Niall fend for himself. He was used to being second choice, he was overshadowed by his ever so perfect brother for heaven’s sake. So yeah, there were times where he intentionally pushed people away to save himself the trouble.
The only person that really understood that was Harry.
Niall looked at Harry again, unshed tears dotted the corners of his eyes, and Niall felt like he wanted to punch something. Or someone, hint Louis. But in the moment, all he did was scoot closer to the brunet and lay his head on his shoulder.
“So, you really like me?” Niall muttered, still unbelieving the situation at hand. Harry took a shuddering breath and nodded, his bony shoulder digging into Niall’s cheek but he didn’t mind.
“Well yeah, you’re really amazing Niall.” He couldn’t help but blush, butterflies fluttering in his chest and the knowing stare Louis was giving him was not helping him.
“You’re not too bad yourself Harry,” That got a soft chuckle out of Harry, and Niall had to look at him, he just had to. Wow, maybe he was in this deeper than he originally thought.
Just moments earlier, when the whole confession came to light, Louis asked him if he returned Harry’s feelings. Maybe it was because of shock or just not fully understanding the whole situation, but at first Niall said no. Maybe he was just trying to get Louis off his back, maybe he wanted to protect Harry from Louis, he wasn’t sure what the correct answer was.
But lately, all of the texting that they had done, it brought Niall to a wide smile. The good morning texts, the stupid puns that made him smile like a goddamn idiot, everything sent his heart into rapid beats and he couldn’t even deny it if he tried.
So yes, he liked Harry back. But he couldn’t just tell him yet, no, Harry was still in shock as was he. It was almost like he wanted his heart to calm down, anything that would tell him that this was all just a misunderstanding, that it wasn’t meant to be.
But he didn’t want that to be the case. That had been the case for far too many people he cared about, Niall was a little broken from it all. He always loved far too hard for people to replicate equally. More often than not, Niall was the one left heartbroken.
It took nearly all of lunch, but the table had calmed down by the time Niall nudged Harry’s side, asking him to get up. Harry looked at him confused, but complied easy enough when Niall also grabbed his things and got up.
Niall ignored the wolf whistles Louis tossed his way, he would get his best friend back, knowing someone for the majority of your life brought fabulous blackmail material. He would definitely find a way to get back at Louis, mark his words.
The two of them made their way to the courtyard where a few students were already standing around but not enough to worry about overhearing their conversation.
It was now or never.
“For the record, I like you too.” Niall looked up at Harry, awaiting his reaction. It took moment, but he easily broke out into a smile.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Niall nodded his head bashfully, hoping that his blush wasn’t as bad as he thought it was. His ears were burning already, and he had just simply admitted his crush. Yeah, he was definitely in this deep. But it was worth it when Harry leaned down and wrapped him up in a hug.
Harry felt warm, and unbelievably safe. Niall couldn’t remember the last time he felt all of his troubles just melt away with a simple hug. But Harry was doing just that, and it was just what he needed.
“Wow okay, just wow.” Harry breathed out, pulling away from the hug and Niall felt the same way. It was a honest breath of relief, and in some stupid way, he had Louis to thank for this.
He would never admit that, he would never hear the end of it. Louis would do something annoying like bet on them, he’d done things like that in the past, or tease them when they were getting married.
“Yeah,” Niall smiled at Harry, who returned the gesture just as quickly. This was nice, he never wanted this moment to end.
“Can I ask you something Niall?”
“Of course Harry.”
“Will you go out with me?” And if Niall answered with a kiss, that stayed between them.
“Hey when are you idiots getting married?”
“LOUIS!”