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They’re in Atlanta and so far pretty much everyone has called Michael ‘sweetheart.’ A burly stagehand goes there and accompanies it with an unnecessary hand on his shoulder directing Michael backstage, and when Michael runs into Harry he blurts out, “Is everyone calling you pet names here, or just me? I don’t think I’ve heard my name once today. It’s all ‘sweetie’ and ‘honey’ and stuff.”
“You’re wearing heart-shaped sunglasses and eating a cupcake,” Harry points out. He darts in to lick at the frosting on the little cupcake Michael bought from the bakery down the street from the venue (the counter lady had called him ‘kitten’ there) and Michael draws it back, then thinks better of it and smushes Harry’s nose in it.
“A fan gave them to me,” Michael says a trifle sulkily. He tilts the sunglasses down a bit, gazing at Harry over the red top of them, and Harry gives him one of those looks like he’s imagining doing filthy things to Michael. Michael doesn’t take it personally, because Harry gives that look to roughly eighty percent of the people he meets and a hundred percent of the fruit selection at catering. It’s still pretty effective though, even with Harry wiping pink frosting off his nose and licking his thumb clean.
“I want them,” Harry says, and darts in surprisingly quickly, reaching for the sunglasses and making Michael squeak a little and feint back, waving around his cupcake like a weapon, which Harry then promptly steals. He takes a big bite, happily chewing it. “Misdirection,” Harry says wisely, his mouth full of cupcake. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
“You’re mean,” says Michael. He forlornly licks away the frosting clinging to his fingertips, until Harry sees what he’s doing and grabs his hands, tongue curling out to get at the last of the crumbs. Michael’s still blinking at him, mouth dropped open in shock, when Niall wanders by.
“I like your sunglasses,” says Niall. “They look really cute on you.”
“Take them,” says Harry, his hands around Michael’s wrists. Michael struggles half-heartedly.
“Cheers, thanks Mike,” Niall says, neatly taking the sunglasses from Michael’s face and donning them. He ambles away, whistling.
Harry grins brilliantly, then gives Michael a kiss on the cheek and bounds away to catch up to Niall, presumably so they can laugh about their shared interest in petty theivery.
Michael slouches down against the wall and moodily tweets @onedirection have taken everything from me. He gets five thousand new followers and an @ reply from Calum offering to beat them up.
But later Harry brings him a whole box of cupcakes, so Calum doesn’t have to resort to fisticuffs on Michael’s behalf. Harry also calls him increasingly sugary pet names for the next week until Michael actually starts answering to ‘honey muffin’. (And Lux ends up with the sunglasses, so Michael can’t really stay mad about that either.)