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It was the last week of November; they had just gotten back to the UK the other week after having wrapped up the Take Me Home tour in Japan and doing a little bit of promotion for their new album here and there. The weather was starting to drastically change getting chillier as the days went by, soon it would be snowing and Niall’s favorite holiday was just around the corner.
As soon as Niall had a good night of sleep and packed some of his clothes in a duffel bag he took the first plane to Dublin to finally spend a couple of days with family and friends. He came down to Bobby’s house and they spent the whole afternoon talking and watching the sports channel, then at night he met up with the lads at the local pub and slept at Sean’s house. On Sunday his mum welcomed him with tight hugs, sloppy kisses and a delicious brunch. And of course he went to see Greg, Denise and little Theo, bringing with him a few of his old toys he found in his room that the baby was probably too young to play with.
By Tuesday Niall was already back in his house in London; the main rooms of the house were a complete mess, he learnt that packing up for a 7 and a half month tour was not an easy job, everything was all over the place. Niall then spent a whole day cleaning and organizing his things because the mess was already starting to make his skin crawl.
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Niall literally spent two days inside of his house, sleeping, eating and playing video games, leaving only to throw the garbage out and to do the groceries. By the third day he is completely bored. The rain is falling outside so he can’t ride his segway around the block and he isn’t feeling the guitar vibe. He zaps through all the channels on his TV, settling on the sports channel as always; his dad had texted him saying Derby was going to play, but the game doesn’t start until later.
He grabs his phone, deciding to call someone and see if they want to hang out. Niall scrolls down his contacts list stopping at Eoghan’s name but quickly remembering he had tweeted that he was out with Laura and Bressie a few minutes ago, Niall feels a bit jealous as to why they didn’t invite him too but then thinks they probably don’t know he is back in London. He scrolls more, stopping now at Harry’s name. Niall hasn’t heard of him since he went to Ireland, he knows Zayn is somewhere with Perrie because he had sent a text yesterday but except that Niall doesn’t know where the other boys are.
The phone rings four times before Harry picks up. “Hiiii!”
“Hey Haz.” Niall greets him while picking at some threads in his shirt.
“Uh… just wait a… minute Ni…” Harry says sounding a little breathless. Niall nods even though Harry can’t see.
He gets a bit distracted watching the adverts saying they will be passing a marathon of Tiger Woods’ best plays and makes a mental note to watch it tomorrow.
“Okay, I’m back now!” Harry’s voice comes back through the phone.
“What were ya doin’?” Niall asks.
“Was just trying to put my refrigerator on the other side of the kitchen. They moved it to paint the walls and left it on the wrong place.” He tells snorting, “What’re you up to?”
“Just chillin’, I’m quite bored actually.” Niall says, “Was wondering if you’d wanna come over? I’ll make dinner, we can watch something on the telly.”
“Sure, don’t have any food here anyways.” He laughs, “‘m just gonna take a shower. Be there in twenty.”
“Ok then, b-” Harry hangs up before Niall can finish but he saves himself from feeling annoyed, he’ll be seeing Harry in a few minutes anyways.
Niall gets up, sets the TV on mute and goes to the kitchen to start making dinner. He ends up doing his good old stir fry which is the only thing he remembers how to cook without having to look at his Meals for Beginners book.
When Harry gets there he gives Niall a bear hug, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing tight like an octopus, burying his face in Niall’s hair; smile against his head. And Niall laughs, squeezes him tighter, tucks his nose in the crook of Harry’s neck and he feels and smells so good Niall could stay there forever. It’s okay; they haven’t seen each other for almost two weeks
Harry sets the plates while Niall grabs two cans of beer and they eat and talk about what they’ve been doing. Harry tells him about the new furniture he wants to buy for his newly reformed house and Niall can’t stop talking about Theo. And after that they watch the first few minutes of the Derby game then find a movie both of them haven’t seen yet and watch it huddled in the sofa.
When their eyelids start to get heavy and Niall turns the TV off, Harry doesn’t need to ask if he can stay over, “think there’s a new toothbrush in the cabinet you can use it.”
Niall changes his sweats for some shorts he uses to sleep and curls himself on bed, his body relaxing immediately.
After what feels like a few minutes Harry opens Niall’s door and comes in, the light in the hallway is turned on so all Niall can see is the outline of Harry’s body but he pulls the covers away and Harry is quick to curl himself in front of Niall, their knees touching and their faces inches apart.
“Bed’s big… and cold” Harry whispers, searching for Niall’s hand. “I was feeling a little lonely.”
“I feel a little lonely sometimes too.” Niall mumbles and holds Harry’s hand.
Harry asks, “Yeah?” and Niall nods.
“Well… maybe we can come to each other’s houses and hang out whenever we feel lonely.” Harry whispers.
“Sounds good.” Niall yawns.
“G’night Ni.”
“Night Harry.”
It doesn’t take Niall long to fall into deep slumber, Harry’s soft breathing lulling him quickly to sleep. And when he wakes up the next morning, spreading his long limbs all over the bed with the smell of breakfast reaching his nose and the sound of Harry singing some random tune in the kitchen Niall thinks that maybe he wouldn’t mind if Harry wanted to stay there every day.