Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s difficult sometimes.

He doesn’t have enough time. He’s busy working on something new. Someone wants him in for a meeting about that meeting. There's some new merchandise due out and he needs to do some promotional work for it.

There all excuses he’s had to tell Niall recently. Yet Niall, amazingly supportively sweet Niall, still stays with him. Despite all of the drama, and all the rumours and lies, throughout everything Niall’s been there for him.

So Harry feels like he owes him so much. After all if it hadn’t been for Niall then he wouldn’t even be living this dream.

-X-

It had been three years ago now. Harry’s always had a passion for singing and music in general. Niall tells him countless times that he should record some pieces and send them off to local producers to see what they think; Harrys just never had the guts. But this year Niall had finally worn him down after slamming his laptop in front of him opened on the page for signing up for the X-Factor.

He does it of course, abides to Niall’s wishes, and signs himself up. Solo.

However it doesn’t work out like that in the end.

Instead he’s been placed with three other boys into a boyband, an idea that Simon Cowell himself seems to like. He thinks that they would be better together; and he isn’t wrong…

They were an instant hit. Girls throw themselves at them, unable to get enough of the new phenomenon know as One Direction. It doesn’t feel real at first. He’s stood there on the phone to Niall telling him everything that has been happening. Niall just laughs (something he does a lot) and congratulates him while telling him that he absolutely knew he could do it, adding a promise to come and see him at the live shows.

He’s hugs him close as soon as he sees him. Pulling him in and whispering “thank you” and “I love you” like his life depends on it. None of the other boys know at this point about him and Niall, and that (for the time being) is how he wants it to stay. So as he pulls back he simply smiles; desperately trying to convey how thankful and happy he is that Niall had pushed him to do this.

They don’t win.

It’s as simple as that. He feels as if they have failed if he’s honest; like he had let Simon down or something. It’s an awful feeling, as if he is searching for where he has gone wrong. It doesn’t even enter his mind that there is a possibility that any of the other boys have done anything wrong.

Niall is there though, as always. He’s a constant glowing support and gives him hope, telling him that it is under no circumstances his fault. He pulls him up and shakes him out refusing to let him be, because he apparently wasn’t having any of his “mopey ass shit” and that was that. Instead Niall feeds him constant compliments and tells him repeatedly that -“Simon wouldn’t have picked you to go into the group if he didn’t see something in you, because for fuck’s sake Harry he’s Simon Cowell and he fucking knows a good thing when he sees it”

Good news soon comes in the form of Simon himself when he calls them and asks them to come down to the office. He sweats and mulls over every reason humanly possible of why he wants to see them again and draws a blank. Niall seems to think that it will defiantly be something good and that maybe he wants to give them a second chance. Harry doesn’t believe him.

This turns out to be a bad mistake to make…

Niall is right. Simon wants to put them into a band and even better wants to give them a contract. Once again Harry can’t believe his luck. It just didn’t seem real somehow. The other boys are ecstatic and they jump on each other hugging one another laughing and shouting out. He smiles to himself and thinks about how Niall will react when he tells him. He can already imagine the sheer look of pride he’ll have on his face with a cheeky comment about how he had been right the whole time.

“I can’t believe this!” Louis yells after they sign the contracts and walk out of Simon’s office. “Can you believe this?”

He laughs before turning to look at him with a smile.

“No. I never thought this would happen. I thought we were done when we didn’t win” he answers.

Niall gloats when he returns home. He’s been waiting in his living room with the telly on watching some old re-runs of “Friends” with a smile on his face. As soon as he catches sight of Harry however he jumps up and on him with a shout and squeezes him tight telling him once again that he knew that Harry would make it and that this is just beginning.

-X-

He’s right. They’re soon in a studio picking out what they want their first single to be. There are so many songs to choose from all lined up for them to sample like some sort of cakes on a conveyer belt. The other lads are turning to one and another to gauge each other’s reaction as they look over each song and sing a few of the lines. In the end they manage to narrow it down to four different songs and end up recorded each of them. It takes a while, and they may or may not have a few friendly bickers over the final decision, but in the end it seems like “What Makes Your Beautiful” is the winner.

He couldn’t help but sing the verses to Niall to see what he thinks when he gets chance. At first he isn’t as convinced.

“It’s a little sappy though right?” he says while giggling as Harry twirls him around the kitchen. But in the end he comes round and Harry finds him humming the tune while writing out his university applications.

Management is quick to promote their debut single and they’re soon pushed on Ant and Dec’s Saturday show “Red and Black” singing their first hit “What Makes Your Beautiful”. He’s petrified simple as that. Everything is moving so fast and all at once. He knows as soon as the song has finished that he’s messed up. The other boys try to convince him otherwise, but Harry can’t hear them over the sound of his own mind telling him what he feels is the truth.

He’s being pulled into a group hug by the rest of them showering him with excuses.

“Come on Harry. It wasn’t bad”

“It’s our first time doing it live; it was bound not to be completely perfect”

“Don’t think about it. I bet no one else is”

They’re wrong.

It’s everywhere by the time morning comes. They’re in a hotel at the time and Harry purposely goes looking for the hate. Scrolling though the comments he can’t help but feel like they’re right. He had been awful. He’d missed his cue completely and let the other boys down. It’s a simple verse and he’d screwed it up in the worse possible way! He didn’t dare tell Niall how he was really feeling. Niall had already called and told him he’d really liked the performance. He’d known something had been wrong though. But Harry just couldn’t bring himself to tell him, he knew what Niall would say, he’d tell him like the other boys that he had been great. Lies…

Of course he isn’t able to hide forever and Liam soon works out the best way to sort Harry out is to bring Niall into the equation and that’s just what he does. Niall had already met the other boys a handful of times and ended up getting on with them all really well, and they all had ended getting Niall’s number. So it doesn’t take much for Liam to call him and get him to travel over to see Harry and sort him out. No one tells him about Niall’s impromptu visit and so he doesn’t have time to prepare some well thought out lies as to why has been holed away in his hotel room and hasn’t seen the sun in days. Niall takes one look at him and sighs, walks back out of the bedroom and prepares a mug of coffee (for Harry) and a glass of water (for himself), and sits down next to him on the bed.

“I spoke to the lads. They said you haven’t been the same since the performance. It doesn’t matter what people think Harry. Not everyone is going to be nice. You know this already, I know you do. It’s like when you’re at school. You can’t like everyone right? There’s always that one kid you just really, really want to punch. It’s the same here. Except some people like to be horrible and can’t keep their rotten opinions to themselves, because they have nothing better to do then make everyone else’s live a misery because their own life sucks. They just have too much time on their hands that’s all”

By the time he’s finished Harry finds himself already crying and Niall’s already got his arms wrapped around him whispering soft comforting words.

After that Harry decides to tell the other lads about Niall and him. He gathers them all up and they sit in the main area of Harry’s suit. They look nervous, as though Harry’s suddenly going to tell him that he's dropping out of the band. It takes a moment but Harry then clears his throat.

“So… Urm… Well Niall and I have something we want to urm tell you…”

He glances around at them all in turn and then shoots a look at Niall as though asking if he should continue, to which Niall nods and curls his hand round his for support. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Louis who smirks.

“So, well we urm…”

He doesn’t get a chance to finish. Louis chooses that moment to cut in with a cheshire cat smile eyes twinkling with mischief as he glances at their intertwined hands again.

“You’re “together” aren’t you? Like in a romantic couple sort of way?”

Harry does a double take and stares at him wide eyed for a moment not knowing what to say. Because how did he know, were they that obvious about it?

Niall laughs, as always, and Harry can’t help but wish he could act a little more shocked. This isn’t good because if Louis’s noticed then who else has? He wants to tell the boys. Not the rest of the world. He doesn’t know if he’s ready for that yet.

“Yeah” Niall says the word so easily like its nothing. He doesn’t look shocked or worried. He doesn’t look like he cares at all about what the other boys are going to think, about what they’re going to say.

“Okay” Louis answers and Liam and Zayn nod, and well that’s that.

There's no huge discussion on it. There's no third degree and strict code on what they can and can’t do. Paul, their manager, doesn’t really care either he simply wants to know what part of Ireland Niall hails from and how long he’s been over in England; because Niall moved over here when he was 12 when his parents divorced and had chosen to live with his mother Maura.

No one really minds and Harry’s never been so thankful for something in his whole life. He realises he needs Niall after all, now more than ever.

-X-

Things carry on moving quickly. They soon have their first album coming out. He knows the songs off by heart now, having stared and stared at the lyric sheets until they had been burned into his memory and playing the recordings on repeat. He’s not seen Niall for what feels like forever since their over in Sweden recording, but he’s been skyping him none stop and calling every day. Niall tells him not to worry so much and focus on the album so he can come back to the UK soon, Harry stills worries.

America has also taken to them well and their due to go over their soon to start promoting themselves. Apparently their management is talking about having them be the opening act for a group called “Big Time Rush” and although nothings been confirmed yet there is a high chance that they might be. It’s incredible to think that “What Makes You Beautiful” has done so well over there really, but for the moment they have to be thankful for the power of social media for spreading the word. God bless the internet!

“So I got into the university I wanted to go to” Niall tells him one day over skype.

They’re in America now and as they thought their going to be opening up for “Big Time Rush” which is insane because aren’t they like a huge deal in America?

“That’s great!” he tells him, and he genuinely can’t keep the smile off his face.

He knows Niall’s had his eyes on a specific university down in London that’s close to Harry’s new apartment. Not only does it do the exact course that Niall wants to study, but due to it being close to Harry’s flat it means Niall can now move in with him and commute. He’s naturally over the moon since Niall’s always going to be there when he gets back.

“You’re still going to commute though right?” He already knows the answer but he can’t help but ask anyway.

“Don’t be stupid Haz. Of course I will! I’m going to get myself a part-time job and pay half the rent though…”

Harrys grimaces slightly. This is the only thing that they can’t seem to agree on. Niall won’t allow him to pay for anything for him. He’s stubborn and won’t back down from the argument or even compromise despite his view that if Niall hadn’t pushed him to apply for the X-Factor he wouldn’t even be in the boyband. Instead he has to be sneaky and slip gifts into Niall’s pocket or bag whenever he gets the chance.

“I’m not going to argue with you. I know you won’t listen anyway”

“Good! I’m glad you’re finally seeing it my way!”

Silence falls over them for second and Harry can literally feel the sadness seeping through the phone. He goes to say something, break the silence and ask what’s wrong, but when he almost misses Niall’s sudden soft whisper he stops short.

“I miss you…”

“I miss you too…”

He brings Niall over to America shorty after that, because God knows he misses him and Niall’s on a break from university so it all falls perfectly for once. He pays for him to fly first class, after a small argument on the phone about it, and Niall eventually caves. He’s stood in the airport waiting for him shuffling from foot to foot in anticipation. He’s got four of their security guys with him stood around him like a tight protective cocoon.

When Niall’s flight finally lands Harry finds himself shuffling even more trying to get a better look at the people walking off the flights. He feels a smile break over his face once he spots Niall looking around puzzled, most likely looking for him amongst the crowd. He runs. Just bolts away from his minders, who reach out to grab him and pull him back shouting explicits at his retreating form, he doesn’t care because Niall’s here.

He must have hit Niall like a force of nature because Niall goes stumbling back when he plows into him, arms winding round him like vines, just holding him close and rocking from side to side.

“You’re here. You’re here” he chants as Niall laughs into his shoulder, dropping his bags to floor to hold him back.

“I never left stupid”

Management makes it clear they’re not to make any sort of public displays of affection. They make it very clear. No hand holding, don’t hug each other too long and under no circumstances are they to kiss. Harry feels like a child. He’s being told how to act with his boyfriend he’s never heard of anything so ridiculous. But he knows this is how it has to be, no one can find out. He knows this. But that doesn’t make it fair.

They decide to go sightseeing. Security has to go with then naturally, but they keep their distance, which Harry is thankful for. It makes it feel more like it’s just him and Niall. They’re in New York and so of course they have to go and see the Empire State building.

Niall’s so excited, he’s always wanted to go to New York, and he’s already fallen in love with the city. They mess around a lot, run away from their minders and when no one’s looking race into an elevator and Harry takes a chance and kisses Niall on the cheek while holding up his phone camera and snaps a picture. Niall looks at him in shock once he’s done it, he stops laughing, eyes asking if he should have just done that. Harry smiles and hugs him.

“Just once yeah”

“I missed you”

“Me too”

They all go out to dinner that night. Louis suggests it while walking around their hotel room complaining about how they haven’t been out in a while and they’ve got to celebrate Niall being there. Harry just thinks he’s missing Eleanor personally. They’ve been together for a while and Harry knows Louis’s smitten. Liam’s dating someone too, a dancer that he met on X-Factor called Danielle. She’s really nice and Harry knows Liam really likes her and that’s all that matters. The fans seem okay with it too, which is naturally a good thing. He’s happy for them, really he is, he just wishes he and Niall could be so open about their relationship too.

In the end they choose to go down to a restaurant near to the hotel for convenience. It’s really fancy though, not that Harrys going to complain, because Niall likes it so he’s happy.

“Please tell me you’re going to stay awhile. Harry’s been an absolute nightmare recently. He misses you loads, we can tell” Louis tells Niall dramatically making wild hand gestures for exaggeration.

“Hey, he’s not been too bad” Zayn says coming to his rescue while Niall laughs at Louis.

“Don’t lie he’s been like a kicked puppy moping about the place”

“Says you, what was it the other night, “But what if she finds someone else whose better and can be with her more” you’re just as bad Lou if not worse”

“Hey don’t worry Haz I missed you too, you and your lovely curls” Niall jokes while pressing his palm into his hair chuckling. He smiles back and the two continue to watch his bandmates battle each other.

Niall stays for the rest of the week and they do all sorts together. People notice them out and about but the official statement is that Niall is his close friend from back home. The papers and online reports write about the two of them going out and about and fans are soon interested in knowing more about Niall. Where he lives, how long he’s know Harry, what his blood type is. It’s crazy but Niall doesn’t seem to mind. He answers questions when fans come and swarm them while out and lets them take pictures, one even asks for his signature. All in all Harry thinks he handles it quite well considering he hates tight spaces and the feeling of being closed in.

But time flies by all too fast and Harry soon finds himself standing back at the airport in the same place as he was a week ago holding one of Niall’s bags while looking up at the plane departures on the screen above sadly. His eyes are tacked onto Niall’s flight home staring at the departure time and knowing its creeping up closer and closer. He wants to hold Niall’s hand, just hold it and not let go until he absolutely has too. But he can’t, he knows even now that there are paparazzi hiding around corners snapping pictures of the two of them.

“Don’t look so sad, you’ll see me again soon, and we can always call and skype and send each other stupid texts and pictures in the meantime” Niall says from next to him leaning in to nudge his shoulder playfully.

He nods, but doesn’t trust himself to say anything right now in fear that he just might cry. How can Niall be so okay with this? Or maybe he’s not and is just trying to be strong as always for his sake.

“Boys, we’ve got to now, your flights leaving soon Niall” Paul says softly from the side of them. He knows how hard this is right now and Harry can hear the sympathetic undertone in his voice.

“Yeah” Harry says moving to walk forward.

Niall hugs him tightly before he leaves smiling up at him and promising to call once he lands. He presses something into his hand before he turns away smiling and Harry blinks watching him until he completely disappears before looking down to his palm. It’s a black woven bracelet and matches the navy blue one Niall always wears on his own wrist. Harry just stares in shock before a smile works its way onto his face, its small but it’s still there.

Just as he finishes wrapping it around his right wrist he feels his phone buzz from his pocket and pulls it out.

Nialler:
Missing u already. Love you xxxxxxxx

Harry can’t help but keep staring at the picture of them in the Empire State elevator while in the car all the way back to the hotel.

-X-

He’s not really sure how the rumours start or who started them, but one morning he wakes up to find himself on the cover of every well know magazine. He’s shocked at first at first wondering what on earth he’s done to end up there. One look at the headlines tells him everything.

Caroline Flack.

The name says everything and Harry already knows what’s going on. He tears through the pages the feeling of dread is surging through him. Accusations that the two of them are seeing each, pictures of them at a recent party talking to each other, laughing. He knows full well Niall’s going to see the pictures. But the whole thing was innocent. He was only talking to her, maybe he had hugged her. But it had only been in a friendly way. They had performed on the X-Factor a while back and that was when he had first met her. They were friends, nothing more. He has a boyfriend!

But the rest of the world doesn’t know that…

“Wow. People are really stupid aren’t they?” Louis says as he reads the articles over Harry’s shoulder with a sour look on his face.

“Don’t read them Harry. You’re only going to upset yourself. They’re just looking to make a story out of you. Not everyone’s naïve enough to believe it” Liam’s voice chips in with a knowing look on his face.

The boys are supportive as always and they always know what to say these days. They’ve grown really close and know each other inside out. He knows their right. He does. It just hurts knowing that Niall’s the one who's going to have to read all these stupid articles and not know what’s going on.

It gets worse. Local TV stations have picked up on the apparent “closeness” between the two of them and Caroline’s been asked about their so called “relationship” in interviews. One Direction fans are already attacking her on Twitter and sending her death threats. He doesn’t know what to do.

He calls Niall that night after an awful day of gruelling questions and denying the rumours that everyone has now heard. He seems okay surprisingly.

“I don’t believe them. I know you’re not like that Harry. Your just too nice, always hugging people and being polite” he tells him laughing. It’s music to Harry’s ears, but his heart still aches not being able to see Niall to make sure that he’s really okay.

“It would be easier if people knew though. At least we wouldn’t have to hide anymore…”

Harry pauses, takes an intake of breath and just stops.

Niall’s heard him and a moment later he’s laughing nervously and making excuses that he didn’t mean it and he knows Harry can’t do that because of the fans and management and loosing popularity.

“Let’s do it” the words are out of his mouth before he can even think properly. It cuts Niall off dead in his tracks and the line goes silent for a moment while they both process what Harry’s just offered.

“Are you- are you sure?” Niall asks his voices quiet and unsure, a little scared that Harry’s going to pull the rug out from under him again and take it back.

Harry mules it over in his mind. If people knew then silly articles like this wouldn’t be published and no one could keep pairing him up with everyone he so much as speaks to. Niall wouldn’t have to be a secret and he could go out with him without hiding. They could just be themselves.

“If you’re okay with it then yeah, I want to do this”

“Y-yeah! Let’s go for it then!” he calls down the phone and Harry can picture his smile right now.

“Okay, well I’m going to speak to management tomorrow about it” he tells him trying to fight the smile on his face. He doesn’t know how it’s going to go with them. But he’s just glad that Niall’s okay to do this. He really doesn’t want to hide anymore.

He does speak to them the next day in fact. He spots Paul first and asks he could have a word to which Paul agrees, next he rounds up the boys and puts forth his argument that had spent all night thinking about and going over.

They smile watching as he stumbles and stutters over his words simply letting him get out what he wants to say before giving their consent without question. Even Paul seems amused, a small smile curving on his lips.

However he doesn’t for moment think that the rest of management are going to be as easy to win over.

The boys laugh once the discussion is over. They ask why on earth he hadn’t just done it ages ago.

“You might as well have done. The both of you can hardly stand to be away from each other when you’re together” Louis tells, teasing as he always is.

He’s right in his assumption about their management. They aren’t impressed with him, not that he was expecting any different. He’s sat in front of them, Paul at his side, while four of them sit in front of him situated behind a long conference table poised and ready to tear down any argument he might make.

“So you want to endanger any progress you and the boys have made by making your relationship public?” the man, who Harry’s about 98% sure name is Steve, asks while frowning at him.

He twists his hands nervously and wrings them together again going over what he wants to say in his head for what feels like the 1000th time.

“Well, I’ve spoken to the other boys and made sure their okay with it and they said it would be okay. So yeah I guess I want to take the chance and stop hiding” he explains trying to portray himself as being confident while on the inside he’s panicking and praying that they’re not going to drop them from the label.

They watch him for a moment as though inspecting him. Then Lisa whose sat in the middle to left breaks into a small smile.

“So what do you think the fans will have to say about this?” she asks smoothly.

Harry blinks for a moment rolling the question round his mind trying to come up with an answer he’s knows to be true, and yet will please them all the same.

“Well, I know that not all of them are going to be happy about it; and it will definitely loose us some fans. But isn’t it better that they find out now than later. I’d rather be able to tell them myself then they found out any other way. I owe them that much right?”

Lisa simply smiles nodding approvingly.

-X-

He’s soon on the phone to Niall the next day arranging for him to come over to America to visit. He tells him they’ve got the all clear and then has to yank his phone away from his ear while Niall practically murders his ear due to screaming. He wants to know exactly what happened during the meeting and won’t get off the phone until Harry promises to tell him in person. Niall agrees but demands that Harry buys him lunch when he arrives as a compromise.

Niall books the flight for the following day and tells Harry he’ll skype him later before hanging up to go and pack.

Harry grins to himself, he’s nervous, and just wants the news to break as soon as possible so he can spend some time with Niall; without worrying about the possibility of people finding out. It’s all he can think about as he lays back down on his bed staring at the photo of them both in New York. Niall with his wide smile, arm thrown around his shoulder in a friendly one armed hug, and him with a small smile directed at Niall trying to hide a fond look.

The airports busy when he arrives. It’s not unusual, and he beginning to think that he spends far too much time in airports. Paul’s standing threateningly behind him warding off anyone who tries to get too close, and Harry knows that he’s not really too thrilled to be here knowing what’s going to happen when Niall arrives; and if Harry’s honest he’s worried too about the reaction.

He’s actually quite scared. What if people hate him? What if they try and send Niall horrible messages and death threats? He’s heard of people doing that before. The worse thing is he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it either. The thoughts make him all the more nervous and wonder whether this really is the right thing to do. He could potentially ruin everything that the band had worked so hard to achieve. Does he really want to be responsible for that?

All thoughts evaporate when the terminal opens and people come flooding in from flight 204, and Harry hears his heart thundering in his chest when he spots a head of golden locks come walking out of the corridor.

No, there's no time to regret anything. If the fans hate him then that’s their problem. Niall makes him happy… So surly they should be happy too. Happy that he has someone he loves and loves him in return; happy that he’s happy.

His feet move forward and he feels like he did the last time he came to meet Niall, only this time Niall’s spotted him too and he drops his bags when he does and comes running at him. Harry doesn’t even have time to react before Niall literally jumps at him and pulls him into a hug, legs wrapped around his waist as Harry turns them in circles laughing. He places a kiss directly to his lips and smiles when Niall grins down at him, and returns the gesture with a soft “hello” and “I missed you” against his ear. He repeats the words back to him and gently places him down and gathers Niall’s luggage from where he abounded it. Paul takes it from him glancing around at the many people who are suddenly swarming them cameras in hand as they snap multiple pictures of the couple.

Harry ignores them and takes Niall’s hand in his as they leave the airport eyes only for each other and make conversation.

They end up being followed all the way to the car parked outside waiting for them and Harry never says a word to any of the paparazzi, management has already agreed that they will make a full statement on the relationship, and so Harry doesn’t worry. Niall however seems to find the whole thing fairly amusing as he makes faces at them through the tinted windows of the car, laughing when this only seems to make them more furious. He then turns to Harry looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

“That was mad! Are they always like this when you do anything out of the ordinary” he asks getting comfortable.

“Well I wouldn’t say kissing you is anything out of the ordinary for me. I’d say I’ve done it a couple of time before, don’t you remember?” he chuckles watching Niall’s faces twist into a frown.

“Don’t be an arse! You know what I mean” he tells him smacking him round the back of the head and laughing when Harry makes a feeble attempt to grab his wrist and avoid it.

“Are you sure you okay with this though. Things are going to be really crazy for a while. You might get a lot of hate for this and I don’t wan-”

Niall cuts him off by leaning across and places a kiss to his mouth before pulling back and looking him right in eyes taking his hand in his.

“Shut up Styles. I don’t care what happens. I’m in for the long haul. I just want to be with you as sappy as that sounds. You’re not getting rid of me that easily”

“Wouldn’t dream of it”

Louis once again strikes and decides to celebrate the madness that has descended on them by holding a small party back at the hotel. By some miracle he manages to smuggle an abundance of alcohol – which greatly pleases Niall. Paul isn’t as pleased and warns them not to drink too much being as they have an interview tomorrow. Louis ignores him for a moment and then tells him to stop worrying and “Liam’s here so nothing’s going to happen”.

Harry greatly regrets it the next morning when he wakes up to a pounding head and not remembering much of what had happened. Niall’s next to him in bed still asleep and Harry can’t help but take a moment to just look at him. He seems so much more angelic when he sleeps with a small smile playing on his lips. He grins, feeling incredibly lucky and leans down to drop a kiss on his forehead. The action rouses the sleeping boy back into the land of the living and two hazy blue eyes stare up at him.

“Good morning” Harry chirps at him grinning as Niall pulls the blankets back up over his head and buries himself into the pillows beneath him.

“S’not morning yet, can’t be. Don’t lie”

He laughs and moves to get ready for the day. He wishes he could just spend it lazing around with Niall in the hotel room. But he can’t, they have an interview on a popular American breakfast show and a performance after that and then a meet and greet later. However he’s hoping once they’re done he and Niall can do something.

It’s surprising really, but Niall can handle his drink fairly well as long as it’s just beer he’s drinking. He never suffers the next morning unless he starts drinking vodka and mixing up shots. So once he pulls himself out of bed and showers, he’s completely fine.

Once dressed and ready, and maybe a sneaky shower together, they walk hand in hand down to the restaurant of the hotel to grab breakfast.

The rest of the lads come walking into the room looking like the walking dead, apart from Liam who was clearly not stupid enough to get himself plastered.

Louis drops down into his seat groaning and generally looking for sympathy as he cradles his head.

“I don’t know what the fuck we did last night, but my rooms trashed and I blame you fuckers” he states giving them all the evil eye.

“What are talking about?” Zayn asks while staring hazily at the menu in front of him. It’s a well-known fact that Zayn is not a morning person, and it’s really not a good idea to piss him off first thing in the morning.

“When I woke up I found the table overturned and smashed, that ugly looking potted plant things no longer in the pissing pot, and let’s just say the TV’s no longer on the wall. Plus the place is littered with cans and bottles and I don’t even know how we’re hung over because most of the alcohol is on the sofa. Paul is actually going to murder us when he sees the state of the place”

Liam sits there staring at him for a moment open mouthed and horrified.

“Please tell me you’re joking!” he hisses. “I left halfway through and it certainly was not in that sort of state when I did!”

As it turns out Louis wasn’t joking and as suggested Paul is not impressed. They get in trouble for it and have to pay for the damages caused along with a nasty look from the manager of the hotel. Louis simply flips him off as they walk away before sending a bright smile just before they walk out of the door.

Their interviewers, Mary and Robert who host the breakfast show are nice enough and the questions they ask are different from the normal ones. They do however end up asking about Niall and their greeting at the airport. He had already been warned about this by Paul and had made sure to be prepared for it.

“So Harry you were photographed the other day kissing another young man. Can you tell us a bit more about this? Are the two of you dating?” Mary asks with a smile that shows she’s interested in the revelation.

“Yeah, we’ve been dating for a while now, about four years” he says honestly as Mary smiles back at him, obviously glad that he’s prepared to talk about it.

“Wow. So how come you’re only just revealing this? It was thought before that you and Niall is it?” Harry nods. “Were just friends?” It’s Robert asking now and he, like Mary, seems to be interested in knowing more.

“Yeah, at first me and Niall didn’t want to draw to much attention to the relationship and everything sort of moved really fast so we wanted to see how it went with the band first and then reveal it later. So we talked about it recently and we both felt okay with the rest of the world knowing, and yeah, here we are” He explains gaining more confidence as he went.

“How do think the fans are going to react, have you seen much of the reaction so far?” Mary asks and Harry notices she speaks with her hands a lot.

He’s not sure what to say for moment and his brain freezes because he doesn’t want to say anything that might be taken the wrong way. Just as he think he’s going to be called out on not answering Louis chips in and speaks.

“I don’t think it really matter because our fans are really supportive as we’ve seen before. They’re great and of course their opinion matters to us, but if Harry’s happy then really that should be the main thing” the rest of the boys nod in agreement.

Harry’s never been so happy to have such support around him before.

Obviously not everyone is happy about the news and Harry gets a lot of hate on twitter because of it. But he’s surprised, he had had terrible images of a lot more fans abandoning them, but they don’t. He’s also overjoyed by the amount of fans that are happy for him and send him so many supporting messages. Fans also tell him how brave he is and how inspiring it will be for other people who are hiding their sexuality due to fear.

He keeps tabs on Niall once he goes home and make sure to check the news often. People now know about Niall being in university and he tells Harry that a lot of people have been coming up to him more. He’s got twitter himself, mostly for social reasons if anything and has had it for ages, but when he suddenly has a rapid increase in followers he’s shocked.

But with Niall it doesn’t change much, he’s still the same; he calls him most nights and chats on skype showing him all sort of new things he’s brought for the flat. He’s been obsessed with kitchen gadgets recently and brought some gizmo that slices vegetables for you into all sorts of shapes; it’s just more proof that Niall is easily amused to Harry.

“Yeah but it is pretty amazing right? Look at it! It does it all for you and looks amazing!”

“Yeah babe, that’s pretty impressive”

The bands still moving quick too and they’ve got their first tour coming up soon which showcases their albums songs. Harry can’t wait it’s exciting stuff and before they start they get a chance to go home and spend time with family. He and Niall have a holiday booked to go to Spain, which he’s looking forward to, and judging by the fact that Niall’s brought a truck load of new things especially for it, he must be too.

“University’s going well though right?” he asks because he’s genuinely interested.

“Yeah! Just finished off my paper for The Theory of Sound, It’s really interesting actually. I'm glad I chose to take it now. It’s hard at times, you really have to pay attention, and you know what I’m like. But it’s what I really want to do” Niall tells him grinning as he munches away on a bag of Doritos.

Harry smiles he can see that Niall hasn’t cleared up the flat in a while from behind him. There are clothes all over the place and he can see Niall’s papers and books for university scattered all over the sofa behind him. It’s nice to see really, even though he knows if he were there he would nag Niall to tidy up. But right now it’s enough to make him tear up a little. It’s so hard being away from someone you love. It’s hard because of the time difference and his schedule clashes a lot with Niall’s. So they have to make the most of the time they’ve got.

“Hey Harry” Niall says breaking through his thoughts. He glances back to him, watching his smile.

“Yeah?”

“Have you got any mash mellows?”

“Urm yeah I think so. Why?”

“Have you ever heard of the Chubby Bunny challenge?”

-X-

The Up All Night tour is going really well so far and they’ve only just started. The reception to the album was very positive too, with people saying that they’re the new Beatles, not that they ever endorse that. He gets to see Niall loads since he’s in the UK for the first leg of the tour and so Niall comes to a few of the shows.

Their currently in Dublin performing and its one of the last shows in the European leg of the tour, and Niall’s come to see them and is currently watching from backstage. Harry knows he has to put on a good show for everyone who's come to watch, and he does. But on the other hand he still can’t wait to finish so Niall can show him round his home town for the evening.

Niall’s going to take him back to Mullingar to meet his dad, Bobby, and stay over. It’s exciting because he’s only seen Niall’s dad a handful of times and Bobby Horan is always up for laugh. It’s one of the many things that he’s grateful for. Niall’s family didn’t take it badly when they found out that Niall and he were together. Niall hadn’t been sure what to expect from his father, but thankfully Bobby had simply smiled and told Niall that if he was happy then that was all that mattered. It had been a heart-warming moment and yes Harry might have gotten a little teary eyed.

As soon as the lights dimmed down and the lads and he had had their group hug in the centre of the stage he made a run for it and gathered Niall up in a hug grinning.

“What did you think?”

“Amazing as always!”

Harry ends up driving in the end since Niall hasn’t yet managed to pass his driving test. Not that it matters, Harry is happy to drive. But it’s still something Niall complains bitterly about since he doesn’t have enough money to just go for a crash test and be done within a week like Harry had. Of course Harry offers to just pay for it for him but Niall, ever stubborn, declines but still likes to complain anyway. Harry just smiles, not saying a word because he knows all too well that Niall will make a fuss whether he does say something or whether he doesn’t.

Bobby Horan’s home is a very simple place. He doesn’t like clutter and has very few personal possessions on display. But the ones that he does are mostly pictures of his two boys Greg and Niall. They are scattered across the ledge above his fireplace standing proudly in the centre. If there is one thing that he is proud of it would be his two boys. No matter what they did Bobby Horan always thinks of the two of them as his greatest achievements.

Niall, having already got a key to the place, strides in with a loud shout of “Hi dad! It’s me and Harry, you up?” clearly not caring whether his father is awake or not.

Fortunately the man had waited up for them and is sitting in the living room with the TV on low. He smiles when he sees them and ushers them in to take seat while he goes to make them both a drink of something warm.

It’s nice for once to feel and do something as normal as going to see his boyfriends father. He’s been so busy performing and doing promotional work that he hasn’t been able to spend any time with his own family for a while. Of course they had been to his concerts but he hasn’t been able to sit down with them and just talk. It’s the only downside to this life. But thankfully they don’t hold it against him and never talk about how much they miss him, only of what they are going to do when he gets back. He still misses them though.

They end up talking for hours about many things such as how Niall’s university course is going and how Harry is holding up during the tour. Bobby keeps them going with refills of tea and coffee and the occasional beer. But eventually he leaves to get some sleep telling them to not stay up to long seeing as Harry’s got to drive them back in the morning. But the two teens are still wide awake and Harry has yet to come down from his adrenaline high.

“We could always watch a movie. My dad has a pretty good surround sound” Niall suggests when they realise neither of them are feeling sleepy yet.

Harry grins at the thought knowing that they haven’t done that in a while. How long had it been now since they have been able to just sit around and do nothing? Too long, Harry decides.

“Sure what movie were you thinking?” he asks crouching down to sieve through the titles next to Niall.

“Hm… Grease is always a good choice right?”

Harry can't help but laugh. Niall knows his weaknesses well.

However half way through Harry finds himself distracted. Niall has decided to make himself comfortable against his side and is snuggled down next to him with Harry’s arm wrapped around him. He’s dug a packet of popcorn out from his dad’s secret stash and the bowl is currently resting between them, although Niall is mostly eating it.

As he looks down at Niall, who is engrossed in the rendition of “Grease Lightning” he is struck with a feeling of awe for the boy. Despite Harry’s new found fame Niall had still stuck with him and supported him. He’s put up with the press that comes with being Harry’s boyfriend; he’s put up with all the late night calls when Harry finds himself desperate for someone to tell him that he’s good enough, even when he has an early morning lecture. He’s put up with all the rumours that bored paparazzi make up about Harry and all the different woman that he’s “supposedly” dating behind Niall’s back; and the fans who have accused Niall of “infecting” Harry and turning him gay. It’s ridiculous the life that Niall has been pulled into and yet he still puts up with it. Harry’s never felt more underserving. Niall is just too good for him he can’t help but think.

But as Niall looks up at him with clear blue eyes shining with that loving look he realises that maybe he’s just to selfish to let him go. But if Niall’s happy with him and still loves him the way he did when they first met, well maybe it’s okay for Harry to be selfish.

Morning comes too quick for Harry’s liking and when he wakes up tangled with Niall, his phone alarm blaring at him and the title screen for “Grease” playing on loop; he can’t help but feel sour. He hasn’t been looking forward to driving back to the hotel the rest of the boys are staying at, it just signals the end of Niall and his alone time.

He had fallen asleep with his fingers entangled within Niall’s blonde locks last night. It’s not something unusual really. He’s always sweeping his fingers through those locks and Niall always returned the favour; seeing as he’s fascinated with the way Harry’s curls spring back again to where they were. So as he slowly comes round into the land of the living again he finds himself unconsciously twirling his finger around some of the longer stands of Niall’s hair, which in turn makes Niall groan and flicker his eyes open.

“G’morning babe” he slurs tiredly watching as Niall turns away from him and buries his face back into his chest.

He chuckles and finds the strength to pull himself up and away from Niall to go and make a start on breakfast. They have a long drive ahead of them and Harry doesn’t want Niall to complain later about not having eaten anything.

Niall naturally moans and complains bitterly about the heat loss as Harry makes his way into the kitchen, but Harry simply laughs and playfully flips him off. Niall, not to be outdone, decides to retaliate by crawling off the sofa and following Harry into the kitchen where Harry has pulled out ingredients for pancakes. He waits for a moment for Harry to turn away and fetch out a few pots and pans before he grabbing a handful of flour and with one swift movement launches it into Harry’s hair.

Harry stands for a moment processing what Niall has just done before smirking and turning to grab a handful of his own and returning the favour. Neither is backing down and they’re both covered in the white powder from head to toe. But Niall, with his child like nature does not want to admit defeat and Harry watches as his boyfriend’s eyes land on the bowel of whisked eggs.

“Niall… Don’t even think about it” he warns, holding his hands out to placate him.

But it’s too late and once Niall Horan has an idea in his head there’s no turning back.

Niall moves swiftly showing off his natural agility as Harry moves at the same time to grab the glass bowel before he does. Niall’s quicker though and with a laugh dunks his fingers into the bowel before flicking the contents at Harry splattering it across his clothes and face before smearing it onto his cheeks with a sly grin.

“Gotcha!” he cries cheekily as he attempts to move away from him before Harry can retaliate.

But Harry takes advantage of Niall’s momentary slip of defence and curls a hand around his slim wrist to pull him back into his chest, smirking when Niall squeaks in shock.

“I don’t think so…” he whispers hotly against his neck as Niall freezes beneath his touch.

“Harry…?” Niall goes to ask but pauses when he feels Harry’s hand move up his waist slowly, almost in a seductive way slipping under his top and up his smooth skin making his mind race.

Harry won’t do anything sexual in his father’s kitchen right? His dad could walk in at any moment and catch them in the act so surly he’s not stupid enou-

“Ahahahahaha!” the noise passes through his lips before he can even process what has happened.

“See, you didn’t win at all” Harry says teasingly as he digs his fingers into Niall’s sides grinning as Niall squirms and desperately tries to pull away from him.

“Ahaha! H-harry stop. P-please, haha! I’m sorry!” Niall chokes out between laughter still trying to manoeuvre himself away from Harry’s grip as the boy continues to tickle his sides, knowing full well where his weakest spots are.

“Do you promise?” Harry askes in the same teasing tone against his neck blowing a breath of air against the base of Niall’s neck causing him to shiver.

“Y-yeah. I promise”

Feeling satisfied Harry stops tickling his sides, but doesn’t let go of his hold around Niall’s waist as he looks at the mess surrounding them.

“Well… Looks like you two have been having fun”

Niall jerks away from Harry so quickly that he nearly sends the two of them toppling over.

There, leaning ever so casually in the doorway is Niall’s father a slight smirk on his lips; eyes dancing in amusement as he watches Niall’s cheeks fill crimson.

“You’d better make sure you clean this mess up” he tells them before walking back into the living room.

The two of them stand there stupidly for a moment, processing that Niall’s father had just caught them in quite a suggestive stance.

“You’ve got to admit, your dad is pretty cool”

-X-

Once the European leg of the tour is done, the band has around a three month gap until the Oceania leg starts. Although, they do have to some promotional work during these months and there is more recording to do as well, but Harry has worked out that he roughly has around three weeks to do as he pleased. Two of these weeks he plans to spend with Niall and only Niall. The third week he has planned to spend with family (and maybe Niall as well).

The trip with Niall to Spain takes up his two week slot and he has been looking forward to it immensely. It will be his second time going since being on the X-Factor and Niall has promised to take him to all the prime locations he has been to from his own family holidays. He chuckles when he thinks back to Niall forcing him to sit at their table back at the flat hovered over a map with Niall circling differently locations and attractions.

Of course it’s not all plain sailing and as soon as they get to the airport the press are there waiting for them. They’re flashing cameras in their faces as they walk hand in hand through the terminal and Niall pulls his hood up on his hoodie to protect his eyes a little, seeing as he isn’t quite used to the glare from the flash yet. Harry on the other hand keeps his head held high and tries (and fails) to pretend that they’re not even there. He tries to be polite and not give them any fuel to write anything negative about him. But he can’t help the bubble of annoyance that brews within him, because is it really not possible for him to get break at all? It seems almost unfair really.

“Harry! Harry, look this way!”

“Harry is it true you’re leaving One Direction to pursue a solo career?”

“Harry! Are you really you and your boyfriend really getting married?”

“Harry!”

“Harry!!”

“Harry!!”

Needless to say he’s relived when they finally are able to board the plane.

“No offence but was that really necessary. Fuck, I think I’m blind…”

Harry only laughs and kisses Niall’s temple while the blonde rubs the back of his hand across his eyes.

Spain is a really beautiful place, especially since he’s spending his time with Niall. They’re currently staying in a very beautiful villa in Gran Canaria overlooking some stunning views of the beach. Niall’s decided to unpack already and has flung his stuff around the bedroom in a bid to hurry the process along. Harry wouldn’t normally mind, but he’s done the same with his luggage and now he has no idea what’s his and what’s Niall’s (although he guesses this doesn’t really matter due to the fact that Niall frequently steals his clothes anyway).

The location is fairly private really he thinks to himself while standing over the pool, but luckily not the extent that they’re miles away from anywhere. But it’s quiet and that’s the main thing. After all the screaming, shouting and general busyness he’s had over the last months he just wanted to relax and spend some time away from the full on life back home.

Niall seems to agree too because the next thing he knows he’s being barrelled head first in the pool fully clothed.

The first few days pass annoyingly quickly but Harry guesses that’s because they’re both eager to go sightseeing. There's a lot of beautiful places to go and visit, it’s just a shame they decided to do it all in one go.

Harry knows it’s mainly his fault, but he can’t help but feel excited it’s the first holiday he’s been on with Niall and he wants it to be something to remember.

But after that they simply relax and spend lazy days in the villa making pillow forts and sad attempts at home cooking. All in all Harry expected no less of them really, and if he’s honest it’s the best he’s felt in a long while. He wishes so badly that he could just take Niall with him while they’re on tour but Niall has commitments in the UK in the form of university and he would never dream of taking that away from him. He knows how much it means to Niall and how badly he had wanted to get onto the course. He’s just thankful that Niall didn’t decide to go back to Ireland to study.

“So, what do you think? I reckon I did quite a good job with this one” Niall says while showing him his latest attempt at making yet another pillow fort with the excessive amount of pillows that were stacked on their bed.

If Harry’s honest it’s a little lopsided and the pillows are sagging a little on the sides and Harry knows as soon as they attempt to crawl into it the whole things going to collapse. But he knows how hard Niall’s worked on it and he doesn’t want to upset or make him mad - no matter how cute he looks when angered.

“I think this might be the best one yet” he compliments watching as Niall beams at him.

Harry’s brought over sweets and pop and any sort of junk food he can find. They’ve just got back from having a fancy meal out in the village and had decided the perfect way to end a perfect night be to relax and watch a good movie on TV; and what better way to do that then make a huge pillow fort and hide inside? Or so they thought.

Unfortunately being as Harry can’t speak Spanish he has no clue as to what the movie was even about and for the most part was simple guessing. Niall however seems to be enjoying it and Harry had never been more jealous of his ability to pick up other languages so easily.

“So… She’s having an affair with her sister’s man, but he loves her best friend’s daughter and that other guy really likes her neighbour, but she loves him. But the sad thing is their all going to die anyway? Yeah?”

Niall laughs and throws a piece of popcorn at him.

“You have no idea what’s going on do you?”

“Babe I don’t speak Spanish remember?”

In the end they don’t even watch the rest of the movie and Harry’s glad because it didn’t look much good anyway from what he could gather. So he had busied himself in acquainting himself with Niall’s body instead. Which he could defiantly say was a thousand times better than watching any stupid movie. Plus Niall didn’t seem to be complaining. All in all Harry has to say that the holiday was huge success and he frankly feels much more relaxed.

Of course like all things the holiday comes to an end and they are both sad to see it come. But he still has another week before he goes back into his roller coaster life and he knows he’s going to be spending it with his family who have been patiently waiting to see him since the tour had begun.

His mum nearly strangles him when he turns up on the door step with Niall in tow since Harry couldn’t possibly bear to be separated from him at the moment.

“Hello Niall! It’s lovely to see you again. Well come on you two, don’t just stand there Harry it’s raining!” yeah it’s safe to say his mother treats Niall like he’s God’s gift at times.

His family are all perfectly nice though and they make a huge fuss for them preparing an amazing home cooked meal, which Harry hasn’t had in ages since he and Niall had eaten out most nights while away. They show them the pictures of everything they had done though. His mother gushes over them and smiles telling him how beautiful the views look and Harry mentally notes the fact that his mother wants to go one day.

As the night draws on Niall excuses himself and goes to bed feeling the strain of all the rushing around they had done since getting back. Harry’s mum smiles and steers him in the direction if Harry’s room with a soft goodnight. She then comes back down and sits down next to him with a smile.

“So how are things going at the moment? I bet you’re looking forward to getting back on stage right?” she asks giving him a wink nudging his shoulder.

“Yeah, just going to miss everyone while I'm away I guess. I hate having to say goodbye” he tells her honestly, because there's no point even trying to lie to his mother, she always knows when something isn’t right. Just like Niall.

“You can still call though” she says softly giving him a sympathetic look. “I know I don’t really understand all this Sykpe business yet, but Gemma can always hook me up right? Plus you know Niall will keep in touch, you two are definitely for life; that much is obvious”

“Do you think so?”

“Of course! Don’t tell me you’re having doubts?” she asks him looking worried all of a sudden at his abrupt change in moods.

“No, it’s just… Well I worry I guess. I mean I’m not always here now and I know he must struggle, because I know I do. What if he decides he doesn’t want this anymore and finds someone who can always be here when he needs them? I mean I wouldn’t hold it against him because he deserves someone like that. I just don’t feel good enough sometimes…” he explains looking down at his hands solemnly. There's only so much even Niall can take he thinks to himself. What if Niall gets cold feet and no longer wants to be in the spotlight all the time. What would he do then?

“Honestly Harry! You’re really silly sometimes. That boy loves you more than anything! He wouldn’t ever do that to you. He’s stuck by you so far through thick and thin hasn’t he? Why would he throw that all away now?” she says looking at him as he gives a slight shrug. “I know it’s hard and you don’t get to see each other as much as you used to. But Niall’s busy anyway now with his university studies and such, so he has plenty to keep him occupied. Plus he comes and visits you while you’re away and you do the same for him right? I wouldn’t worry love. He’s definitely going to stay. Call it mother’s intuition”

He smiles softy at her conveying his thanks.

“Now if only we could find your sister someone as reliable eh?”

He ends up taking them out as thanks. It’s not much. But his mother won’t let him fuss too much and spend a great deal on them, Gemma’s the same. They don’t want Harry’s money they just want to spend time with him while they can. It’s something Harry is more than willing to give them. They do after all have to put up with quite a lot of bother from the press and fans camping outside their house at ungodly hours of the morning.

But they handle it amazingly well despite everything and Harry’s proud of how they have adapted and coped with it all. Even when all the horrible rumours had been circulating about him, not once had his family lashed out at anyone, despite Gemma’s frequently threats of violence.

Even when the time comes and Harry and Niall bid them a tearful goodbye they don’t complain about Harry’s choice of career. His mum smiles and hugs him telling him to come back and visit soon wishing him good luck for his upcoming concerts. Gemma on the other hand simply smiles and tells him to not get into any trouble and to just enjoy himself and screw all the haters.

He smiles watching his little family as he listens to Niall promising to come and see them soon.

-X-

The rest of the tour goes really well and without incident. He and the boys are stronger than ever and people really seem to like them. It’s all going well as far as management is concerned they’re eager to push them all the more.

Of course it comes as a massive shock when out of nowhere they suddenly announce that they are going to be performing at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

“We think this would be a great opportunity to increase your popularity and promote you to other countries. Remember everyone all around the world will be watching the games” they tell them while they’re sat down for one of their usual meetings.

They’re utterly shocked and Harry isn’t surprised when none of them say anything. It’s a lot to take in. They’re still sort of new on the scene even though it’s been two years now since the X-Factor they’re still sort of new in the world of music.

But Louis, as always is soon to say something, because he can never quite keep quiet for long and sometimes, like now, it can be a blessing.

“So is this definite then? We’ll actually be performing at the Olympics?”

“That’s right. Naturally this is a big opportunity, a once in a lifetime thing. You must take this seriously boys” they’re told. But Harry isn’t really listening.

The only thing running through his mind is “oh shit…” and “Is this real life. Wake the fuck up Harry!”

The performance turns out to be a very real thing. Even though they’re still struggling with believing it they have no choice when they’re faced with the stage they’ll be performing on, and the impending rehearsals. It’s a very tight schedule and their encouraged to rehearse as much as they can with the slots they’ve been given. They all invite their families to come and the other boys invite their girlfriends too. So course Harry only naturally calls Niall and attempts to casually slip it into conversation that he just so happens to be performing at the Olympics and would he want to come watch.

Niall laughs, then chokes and then promptly asks him if he’s joking because “this really isn’t funny Styles!”

But agrees to come once he realises Harry isn’t trying to wind him up.

The experience is unreal. It’s like no concert they’ve ever done. To be a part of something amazing like this, to be taken seriously enough to even be considered to do something like this is beyond anything they could have hoped for. The arena is alight with so many things and there so much going on that Harry wonders how on earth he’s going to just focus on singing and not get distracted. He can’t even find their family and friends in the crowd; everyone just looks like little ants to him. But he’s glad when he realises that they’ve managed to pull it off without anything going wrong, although another part of him wishes it could have lasted longer.

They end up sneaking off once they’re done with their slot, escaping their minders and wandering off into the Aquatics Centre. Louis grinning like a fool and Liam isn’t so sure whether they should even be doing this because “guys this technically breaking and entering” so he says. Zayn doesn’t look like he gives a crap and immediately ignores the “no smoking” signs and lights up a single cigarette looking as cool as they come.

“It feels like this is just the beginning!” Louis yells while running around the place smiling.

Harry couldn’t agree more. It does just feel like the beginning. But there isn’t time for any sentimental thinking because Louis and Zayn between them have decided it would be fun to go and test the water; literally.

They get into trouble big time in the end and their security team go mad at them for wondering off without telling anyone. Liam especially gets a mean look from Paul because he generally views Liam to be more mentally mature than the rest of them. Liam does plead his case however with a very convincing “I did tell them Paul!” But no one really takes notice of it and their shepherded over to their friends, family and loved ones.

He spots Niall, his mother, sister and step dad a mile away waiting for him. They grin and shout over to him when they catch sight of him and soon engulf him in a mass of hugs and kisses, congratulating him and the boys on a great performance. He feels like he has definitely made them proud and that in turn makes him feel proud too.

And so when Niall leans on his shoulder while they watch the fireworks going off above them he knows for sure that he is for certain the luckiest guy in the world.

-X-

However things start going wrong shorty after.

The MTV Awards are coming one and the whole bands excited to find that they have been nominated three times for different awards. They’ve been invited naturally and are very much a hot topic. Things have no doubt been going ridiculously well for them and they’re looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen. They had never even been expecting to be nominated at all. The sheer honour of being invited is enough. Not that they’re stupid enough to complain about the nominations of course. It makes it even more exciting if anything.

Harry has been warned about bad press and not getting involved with anyone he shouldn’t. It’s something that they’re management is keen to keep an eye on. They’ve been told for the most part to keep together and not leave their table; which they don’t. Of course they see people and they said hi, but for the most part they are with each other.

Everything has been going really well. The show is incredible and they end up winning the three awards that they have been nominated for. Of course they have in no way shape or form been prepared for it and the speeches that they give they feel in no way are good enough or show just how grateful they are to their fans. But they manage to get through the night so far.

They perform too which is amazing and is always a pleasure to do. Especially in front of such an audience, what with all the other artists in the room, most of who they look up to as well.

But after the main event of course is the after party.

Now Harry’s known to be a bit of a party animal anyway. The paper knows this; he has been pictured enough times already parting away with his fellow band mates and friends. Plus they have something to celebrate this time. Winning three awards and such has put Harry in the mood to party and just have a good time. However the other lads aren’t up for going all out and they left and headed back to their rooms. But Harry certainly doesn’t feel the same way.

He knows the law and what the drinking age is in America. He does honestly. But he’s Harry Styles for crying out loud and when he asks for a drink, nobody denies him.

Except he carries on asking for more drinks.

He doesn’t really know what is happening at the time, other than the fact that he has been talking to the same girl for a while. Taylor is it, the famous chick who sung the country songs? She’s nice he had thinks and maybe he is hugging her a lot. But he’s happy! Plus he hasn’t been able to call Niall yet and tell him the good news. But maybe he already knows. He does want to call him, but sadly his phone is back at the hotel.

She’s talking to him still asking something he’s pretty sure. But who knows. He’s far too gone at this point and is struggling to make sense of what’s up and what’s down. Maybe he should just go and call a cab?

He doesn’t really know what happened after that. But what he does know is that someone is kissing him, very heatedly. It takes him a moment to realise it and by instinct he just kisses back at first. But then he suddenly sobers up pretty quick once his brain catches up with his body, he shoves back hard pushing Taylor away.

She stares at him in shock, a look of complete horror twisted onto that once pretty face. Then it turns again and she’s angry. In one moment she spins away and storms out of the party.

He’s shocked and still trying to figure out what had just happened. But then he realises he needs to leave, and quick. He’s way too drunk.

He has no idea how he had ended up getting back to the hotel. But he manages it somehow and is out like a light as he soon as he hits his pillow, earlier events forgotten.

When he wakes the sun is shining way too bright. The curtains for some reason are open giving the blinding rays of sunlight full access to his still recovering body. His head is pounding like an alarm in his skull. In that moment he decides there is no way he is drinking ever again.

He pulls himself up and snatches the clock next to his bed to look at the time and grimaces.

15:06.

It’s definitely time to make a move and get something to eat. Something for his head is welcomed too.

Once he had finds something to wear from his suitcase he begins to make his way downstairs to the restaurant in search of food. He has no idea where the other lads are, and for the meantime he is considering that to be a good thing. He isn’t sure if he could handle Louis right now. He’s too cheerful in the morning (afternoon now). Plus there is no way he wants to sit through one of Liam’s speeches on being more responsible with drinking.

His breakfast come dinner ends up being two slices of buttered toast seeing as his stomach is still battling him from the onslaught of alcohol from the night before. He knows he won’t be able to keep anything too fancy down. It was at times like this he wishes he had Niall’s amazing ability to not suffer after a night of booze. Though that gift only applied if he stuck to beer alone.

Speaking of Niall he had never got round to calling him. At least he didn’t think he had. If he was truthful he doesn’t remember much of what had happened last night after leaving the main show of the VMA’s. He makes a quick mental note to call Niall when he gets back to his room he swigs his glass of water and then pulls himself up and makes his way back.

However upon returning his room he finds the other lads and Paul already waiting for him. He inwardly curses Paul always having a master key to their hotel rooms; it’s annoying to think he could just walk in when he pleased.

“Urm… Hi guys” he murmurs keeping his tone down due to the throbbing pain in his head. “What’s going on?”

Paul sighs from his seat on the sofa, and Harry catches sight of the pile of magazines sitting next to him that he knows instantly that they are not his own.

“I think we should be asking you that Harry. Do you remember anything from last night?” Paul asks fixing him with a look that clearly said “this is not good news so don’t play stupid”.

Harry thinks for a moment, knowing that something is obviously not right, and whatever that something is it had happened last night; which he conveniently can’t remember. He looks to the others wondering if they are going to give anything away.

Louis is sat on the opposite sofa to Paul and has his head down engaging the carpet in a one way staring competition; he clearly isn’t going to help him. Zayn is next to him looking at Harry with a steel like gaze that makes Harry instantly look away when he catches it. Liam on the other hand is next to Paul, eyes sympathetic and begging for Harry to say something.

Dumbfounded and at a loss Harry caves.

“No, I don’t remember anything that happened after the main show. What is all this about? Something’s obviously wrong”

The words seemed to trigger something in Louis, and as soon as they leave Harry’s mouth he’s up on his feet.

“What happened? What happened?! You! You happened that’s what!” he snarls bitterly glaring at down at him in a way he’s never seen him. “You just couldn’t keep it in your pants could you?” he seethes and then suddenly storms out of the room.

Harry stands there watching the door that Louis has just walked through with a look of shock. He doesn’t say anything as he turns back to look at the others in disbelief.

Paul sighs again and hands Harry one of the magazines wordlessly. Harry glances it over and feels sick as he does. There on the front page plain as day itself is a picture of him in heated lip lock with none of than country singer Taylor Swift. The picture shows his arms around her and her body joined to his the way couples do. In a way Niall and he do.

“What. No… I didn’t… No I woke up here this morning. I never slept with her!” he cries reading through the article that’s been published way to fast. The comments are there from Taylor’s people saying how he had been flirting with her for months and how they had been seeing each other at events. It paints her out as though he has strung her along somehow. Harry doesn’t understand how anyone can believe it. He’s with Niall. People know this.

“Yeah, but that isn’t how it looks in the photos Harry…” Liam says watching Harry with a sad look on his face.

“The worst thing is that Niall’s probably already seen it” Zayn says out of nowhere shocking Harry once he takes in what he’s said. “Have you even called him yet?” he adds eyes boring into his head harshly.

Harry glances away and looks to the floor.

“No… I left my phone here last night” he whispers suddenly feeling awful. Niall knows what his life is like. He knows that Harry’s way too nice to people sometimes and he forgives him for it because he knows. But this… Harry doesn’t think Niall’s going to forgive for this.

“For fucks sakes Harry!” Zayn shouts getting up as well and running a hand through his hair.

Paul steps in and ushers both Liam and Zayn out of the room quickly before turning back to Harry.

“I’m not going to tell you off. I think you already know where you’ve gone wrong. I know you were drunk. Don’t mind them too much. You know Louis hates any sort of cheating whether it’s you or someone else. Zayns just worried about what other people will think about them. He doesn’t want Perrie thinking he’s done anything. Liam… Well you know Liam, he just worries. They’re all worried in their own little way, for Niall and you. You do need to call him though; and I suggest you do that now rather than later” and with that Paul leaves too closing the door behind him and leaving Harry to his thoughts.

Once he’s thought it all through Harry finds himself gravitating towards the pile of magazines lying on the sofa where Paul was sat. There's a large selection but on all of them are the same incriminating images of Taylor and him lip locked or grinning at one and another.

He’s angry all of a sudden as the memories of last night rush back. He can remember pushing her away after she had kissed him. But none of the paparazzi seem to have taken pictures of that and Taylor’s people seem to have done a good job of painting her out to be a saint to all of the papers. He suddenly feels a rush of sympathy for their own PR crew.

His next thought is to find his phone. He needs to call Niall and explain himself. He doesn’t doubt that Niall will have already seen the mess in the news regarding him. He knows for a fact that Niall checks the internet for all the big events that Harry goes too that he can’t make himself. So he knows that Niall will be aware now.

Scrambling about his hotel room he finds his phone in the pocket of the jeans he was wearing yesterday before he had gone out and swears frantically when he sees the numerous missed calls from Niall. There's other messages and call on there too. Some are from his mum and sister; others include his radio friend Nick Grimshaw and singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran. Gemma’s texts are quite violent and many are questioning his sanity along with threatening to cut off his manhood if he doesn’t call her as soon as he gets her messages. But Harry knows where his priorities lie and he curses himself for not remembering sooner as he frantically calls Niall’s number.

It rings 5 times before someone picks up and Harry pulls in a breath as he waits for Niall to say something.

“Hello…?” his voice is soft and very sleepy and Harry inwardly curses himself again when he realises that there is such a thing as time difference and a quick addition in his head tell him it must be around 11pm back in London. No wonder Niall sounds so tired…

“Nialler, baby it’s me” he tells him equally as soft.

There's a pause and Niall says nothing for a moment and Harry literally feels himself fill with dread. It’s now scarily clear to him that Niall knows about what been leaked to the press.

“What do you want Harry?” his voice is no longer soft and he no longer sounds as sleepy as he did a moment ago. In fact it seems that hearing Harry has made him all to alert and Harry knows that it’s not in a good way.

“I need to talk to you” he says urgently praying that Niall will hear him out.

“No you needed to talk to me about 4 hours ago. You missed your time window”

It doesn’t look like Niall’s in such a co-operative mood and Harry deep down doesn’t blame him.

“Please Niall. I’m begging you. Please just come onto skype so I can talk to you face to face. We need to talk about this” he pleads trying to convey how badly he really is feeling hoping to appeal to Niall’s softer side.

“How on earth is going on skype going to make this any better!?” he hisses down the phone.

“Because it’s the closest I can do to speaking to you in person right now” he explains. “And I really want to speak to you in person. Please Niall!”

He hears a huff at the other end and the rustling of sheets.

“Fine. Five minutes Styles” he offers before the line goes dead.

He practically finds himself flying across the room in order to grab his laptop. Once it’s on and he’s managed to navigate his way onto skype he patiently waits for Niall to appear. It’s a gut wrenching moment and he’s never felt this terrified before.

But Niall’s face does appear and he doesn’t look happy at all and Harry’s heart drops dead in his chest. Niall looks tired and so, so upset, almost as if he’s been crying. That thought alone makes Harry want to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness and yet he doesn’t dare speak a word right now. Niall must notice too because he gives a huff of air and frowns deeply, in a way Harry still finds adorable despite the situation.

“Well, what did you want to say?” he asks coldly crossing his arms and watching him expectantly.

“Niall nothing happened I swear. I was drunk and sh-”

“That doesn’t make it okay Harry!” he snaps out of nowhere cutting Harry off completely mid-flow.

“I know! I didn’t mean for it to happen she jus-” he tries again to explain, but Niall’s not having any of it.

“I don’t want any excuses Harry! I really can’t deal with this right now!” he tells him voice rising as he continues. “I’m in the middle of my first set of exams for the year right now and I need to pass them Harry. I’ve got stupid people constantly hounding me about our relationship and sending me hate because of it and on top of that I’ve got my part time job to balance around my studying. I know it’s my own choice and I bring it upon myself but you pulling shit like this isn’t helping!” he pauses his rant for a moment and takes a moment to calm down. But Harry knows he isn’t done and doesn’t dare to speak.

“I need some time okay? I don’t want you calling me for a while”

Harry feels his world crumble at the words and his brain shuts off abruptly before jump starting again.

“Wha-”

“I mean it Harry. Don’t call me or text me or anything. I can’t do this right now” his words are final and the screen goes blank.

He sits there for what feels like forever. He knows it isn’t and in reality it’s probably only been about three minutes.

What does Niall mean he “can’t do this right now”? Is he talking about their relationship? Have they just broke up?

He tries calling Niall’s phone, but it goes to answer machine straight away. So he calls again, and again, and again. Finally he just decides to leave a horrifically long voice message and prays to whoever is listening that Niall will listen to it and call him back.

“I love you Niall… I really, really love you”

He wishes he had told him sooner.

-X-

It’s becomes a thing since his first voicemail to Niall. He calls his phone every night before he goes to bed and Niall’s phone always hits voice mail and so he leaves a long and detailed message about what he’s done that day and how much he misses speaking to him. He tells him funny stories about things that people have done or said. He treats it like Niall’s actually on the phone to him, like everything’s normal; except when he comes to hang up he repeats the same words he’s been saying for a week now.

“I miss you”

There's something significant about the words. They’re the same words they always tell each other when they’re apart and things are hard. They say them when they see each other again too.

But Niall hasn’t called him back, and he doesn’t even know for sure that Niall is listening to the messages. But he still does it, because there's always that hope inside of Harry that Niall might be listening to him.

One Direction’s management are desperately trying to fight back at the press and redeem Harry’s image from the messy downfall it’s suffered. But the only thing that seems like it will make everything better is for Niall and Harry to rekindle in the public eye. It’s been around two months since the public have seen them out together and now everyone seems to think that they have split up. The fact that the paparazzi can’t seem to get any comment from Niall isn’t helping either.

Harry feels like he’s going to have a mental breakdown at any given moment; and that isn’t helping the band in general.

They’ve each tried to be nice about what has happened and they’ve listened to Harry’s side of the story, and Louis has reluctantly come round and stopped trying to murder Harry with scathingly hot dagger eyes. They naturally don’t think Harry’s completely innocent though; because Harry shouldn’t have been drinking that much in the first place. But they sure as hell don’t think Taylor is a saint either, in fact they believe if anything that this is completely her fault. They also know for sure that Harry hasn’t been flirting with her at all since they’re the ones who have been with Harry throughout all of these events that Harry has supposedly been “flirting” with her at. So they know for sure that that isn’t true and are prepared to vouch for Harry if needs be.

But no one seems to want to believe them and Harry’s now been labelled as a womanizer by the press even though Harry’s known to be in a relationship with Niall. Harry’s beginning to think the world has gone truly mad.

His new label of being a womanizer certainly won’t help with getting Niall to talk to him though.

His band mates have told him to give it time and that Niall is upset and that he’s bound to be. They tell him to let the dust settle and let Niall finish his exams and then try and call him again and arrange to meet up so that they can talk about this.

But Harry just wants to leave America and book a flight back to the UK and go home and grab Niall and hug Niall and, and… Just be with him, tell him he’s sorry, and just tell him that he loves him…

But he can’t. He’s stuck in America doing a heap load of promotional stuff for the new tour next year. Their albums out now, the “Take Me Home” album and Harry can relate to the title because that’s exactly where he wants to be right now.

Niall’s birthday is also coming up this weekend.

It really does suck, because Niall’s still not in contact with him. So he doesn’t even know if he’s invited to the birthday bash. Niall had been planning on going to back to Ireland to see his best friends and go drinking with them, his dad and older brother. But Harry doesn’t even know if he has the right to wish him happy birthday right now.

He’s sent him his gift. He had it delivered a couple of days again now. It’s a promise ring; something so simple, but something that holds so much meaning at the same time. He had seen it online a couple of weeks ago and thought it perfect. But he doesn’t even know if Niall’s got it, doesn’t know if he will even wear it.

He knows in this one moment that he’s never been so miserable in his entire life.

He sits through a total of twenty six separate interviews with different people reporting from all sorts of programs and radio stations. Management wants them to do all of them today and get them over with so that they can focus on other promotional work such as advertisement and he knows that they have got a whole load of different shoots lined up for them over the next couple of days.

He had to physically hold in a groan when the next interviewer walks into the room smiling too brightly. Smiling is a big no-no in Harry Style’s world right now. Smiling reminds him of Niall and anything remotely related to Niall sends him spiralling down into a vortex of doom and despair. So basically everything and anything can set him off. Even Josh, John, Sandy and Dan have to be careful because playing music reminds him of how Niall plays guitar and afterwards Harry had been in the foulest mood that they had ever had the displeasure of witnessing.

“Hello boys!” the woman calls cheerily as she makes herself comfortable in the chair in front of them.

“Hello!” they chorus back to her and Harry wants to be sick over how cheerful this all is.

“So I just want to say I love the new the new album” she clarifies shooting them all that infuriatingly bright look.

“Thank you, we’re glad you like it” Liam says with a cheery grin.

“So everything’s been going well so far for you and you have your new tour starting up next year. But I recently saw a few headlines that weren’t so positive about you Harry. How are things now?”

Harry almost misses the question for a moment. He’s been quiet throughout most of the interviews today and has managed to scrape by only saying a handful of words. But now someone’s actually directing a question at him.

“I urm, yeah it was just a misunderstanding really” he tries to gloss over the question and not got into it. But he knows his answer is half assed and is riddled with opportunities to be exploited. He hadn’t been prepared to talk about what had happened and as far as he had been aware the interviewers weren’t supposed to be asking about it. It was clear that someone hadn’t got the memo.

“So how are you and Niall?” she asks, her eyes are staring into him looking for any signs of discomfort and Harry feels ill and very flustered. He shoots a look at Paul, who makes a signal at one of crew closer to them.

“I think we’ll end it here thank you. You were asked not to pry about the boys relationships”

The woman is moved quickly on and the boys go for a thirty minuet break.

Harry moves so fast in the direction of the toilets that he nearly trips over himself. He moves over to the sinks and splashes himself with cold water before leaning against the sink and staring at his reflection.

Fuck it.

-X-

He’s done some pretty stupid things in his lifetime; but this, this tops everything.

After deciding that he didn’t really give a crap anymore, he had managed to sneak out of the studio that they had been recording in. Once out he had flagged down a taxi back to the hotel they were staying at, and packed a bag before making his way to the airport.

Paul had sent him a text just as he had arrived at the airport asking him where the ever loving hell he was, and telling him to call him as soon as he got the text. Harry simply told him that he had booked a flight back to the UK as urgent business had come up followed by a sincere apology. Paul had probably called him, but Harry had already long turned his phone off. He was on plane after all it was only right that he did.

Luckily no one noticed him as he stepped on the plane, for which he was horrifically thankful for. The last thing he needs right now is to be noticed, especially here of all places. He’d jumped onto the next flight that was due to leave for the UK, and even if Paul turned up now there was nothing he could have done to stop him.

About halfway through the flight he had found himself drifting off to the lull of his favourite playlist on repeat.

A gentle shake on his shoulder rose him from sleep and before he could stop himself Niall’s name fell from his lips.

“Sir? Sir, we will be landing soon”

Definitely not Niall he thought to himself as he smiled at the hostess and thanked her. She returned the smile and moved onto another passenger who had also drifted off.

His gut churned uncomfortably with nerves as they got closer to landing. Would Niall even hear him out this time? Just because he had flown all the way over didn’t mean that he would instantly forgive him. Niall was not an angry person by nature, but once he hit his limit he was not a force to be messed with.

Once the flight had landed and he had managed to locate his luggage among everyone else’s he flagged down one of the taxis parked outside the airport. He made sure to pull up the hood on his hoodie and not make any eye contact with the driver. He knew it must have looked a little suspicious but he really didn’t want anyone knowing that he was back in the UK. He’d never hear the end of it if more stories emerged in the papers. Plus from the last conversation he had had with Niall it seemed that he was also fed up with the attention. Harry couldn’t really blame him; he knew from the rest of the lad’s girlfriends that the stories written about them were never good and that the paparazzi just always wanted to know what the lads were up to whenever they spoke to them. Harry hated the thought that Niall was being used like that. But he knew that there was nothing he could do.

He just hoped that Niall hadn’t moved out from the flat. It was Friday and thankfully Niall didn’t have any classes that he was aware of. So if he was still in the flat then hopefully he should be there.

Grabbing the keys from his pocket he twisted them into the lock and made his way inside.

The flat was dark; curtains all closed and scarily quiet. Harry felt his stomach drop. Niall was always playing music, whether it be from the radio, TV or playing his guitar. The flat was never this quiet when he was home.

He began to make his to their bedroom, leaving his bag by the door. He noted that Niall’s things were still here such as his photos of his family and friends, surly he hadn’t left then. The thought made him more confident as he pushed open the door.

The inside was just as dark, curtain closed again. Clothes lay scattered across the floor, and the whole room appeared to be in disarray.

His eyes found a small lump curled on their double bed and he knew that it was Niall from the blonde tuff of hair peeking out from the covers. The sight made him smile. Niall hadn’t left. He hadn’t gone. He was here. For a second he just let himself believe that everything was fine and that he had simply come home as a surprise. Niall would be happy probably jump into his arms and hug him tightly, tell him that he missed him. God he wished he could hear those words right now. Then maybe after things would get X-rated…

Sadly this wasn’t the case, and Niall was most likely still beyond pissed at him.

He moved over to the side of the bed and knelt down next to it watching Niall’s sleeping face. He reached over and gently brushed away a few stands of stray locks away from his face.

Faintly he wondered whether it was even possible to love someone as much as he loved Niall. He was sure that Niall had no clue.

“Ni” he called softly waiting to see if he would stir. When he didn’t he tried again and watched in festination as his eyes blinked quickly before hazily focusing on him.

“Harry?” he asked tone groggy from sleep.

“Yeah, I'm here” Harry told him stroking his cheek gently.

Niall sat up avoiding his gaze.

“What are you doing here?” he then asked his voice now firm.

“I had to come and see you. We need to talk” Harry explained pulling himself up and moving to sit on the bed.

Niall said nothing this time and Harry took that as a good sign to continue.

“Did you get my messages?” he couldn’t help but ask watching with hopeful eyes.

“Of course I did. I listened to them, all of them. I, I just couldn’t call. It hurt. It really hurt Harry!” Niall’s eyes were filling with tears and his accent became thicker the more emotional his became.

Harry could feel his own eyes start to water too.

“I know. I'm sorry Niall. I’m so, so sorry. I was drunk. I know it’s no excuse but I didn’t even know she had kissed me at first. But I pushed her away when I realised I swear. Her PR people lied about me flirting with her too. I never did. The lads can back me up too. I’d never, never ever cheat on you Niall. I swear on my life I wouldn’t” he told him sincerely desperate for Niall to believe him.

“I know” Niall whispers back..

Harry’s head jerks up in shock.

“What?” he asks staring at him wide eyed.

“I know you wouldn’t cheat; you’re too honest for that. I was just upset. University has been rough lately and I haven’t been able to see you and the paps have been questioning our relationship for a while making up lies and I just can’t sleep with so much going on; and, and I just really, really miss you so mu-”

Harrys heard everything he needs to at that point.

His lips find Niall’s and mould so perfectly against them. He holds him close to him and sinks into the warmth he provides. Niall kisses him back just as desperate and with equal passion. He goes to pull back and speak but his eyes catch something silver glittering on Niall’s hand and a deep smile breaks out across his lips.

“You got it” he breathes pulling Niall’s hand into his and grinning down at the band of silver tracing the intricate design. He hadn’t seen the ring in person and had only been able to look when he had been ordering it online.

“Of course I did” Niall laughs. “I love it. It’s a Claddagh ring isn’t it? Or promise ring to you I guess. You remembered” he says smiling leaning his head to Harry’s closing his eyes in bliss.

Harry grins back and continues to run his fingers against Niall’s in a gesture of comfort.

“Yeah it’s my promise to you…”

Niall’s lips pull into a grin again at the words feeling the ice that seems to have encased his hearts over the last week finally melt and break away.

“I missed you”

“I missed you more”

-X-

Pauls mad, not that he had expected anything less. He had just up’d and left without warning and then turned his phone off when Paul had tried to call him (even if it was in interest of flight control). The lads had worried for him too, although it hadn’t been so much for his physical safety as it had for his mental state.

Management had just been pissed. They had had to re-arrange all of the interviews and promotional work for a later date and it had caused no end of problems apparently.

Harry hadn’t really cared if he had been honest, which he had been.

He’d ended up staying for a week with Niall and had celebrated his birthday with him. Niall had decided against going to Ireland in the end and instead his friends and father had come over to London. Unfortunately they hadn’t been able to keep the press away but they hadn’t crashed it and that was all that had mattered in the end.

Instead the pictures had hit the papers and Harry had found that he didn’t mind because these pictures showed the world that he was with the person he loved. Niall had also worn the promise ring and now the world appeared to be having a mental breakdown because they thought that “Narry” was getting married. Clearly no one had looked into Irish Claddagh rings. He’d yet to set the rumours straight and since he hadn’t warned management neither had they.

He smiled to himself thinking about the morning when he had had to leave to return to America and the way Niall had whined and moaned about the unfairness of life. He’d clung onto him when he had gone to get out of bed and jumped onto his back when he’d opened the door. Harry could only laugh at how child-like Niall really was.

“How do you think I felt when you had to go to your classes all this week?” he’d asked while carrying Niall around the flat anyway.

“That’s different, you’re on holiday and I’m not”

“I don’t think this counts as a holiday babe. I walked out of an interview session and went M.I.A. I'm most likely going to be brutally murdered” Niall had laughed and clung to his back tighter as he span them round. “Hey! Don’t laugh. Do you want me to die?”

“Noooo! Just stay with me” Niall yelled. “Come and enrol in university with me”

“How about you come with me instead? You could join the band and play guitar for us. I know you can sing I’ve heard you singing our songs many times” he says grinning back at him and the more he thinks about it the more appealing the idea seems.

But Niall had just laughed again and buried his face into his neck and shook his head against the soft skin there.

“Nah, I’ll leave all this famous stuff to you thanks” he tells him before placing an appreciative kiss to the nape of his neck.

“I miss you already”

Harry continues to smile at the memory finally feeling content that Niall and him were okay again.

“Are you even listening Harry?” Paul yells across to him.

Harry turns his grin to him and nods.

“Good God! He’s been in La-La Land ever since he got back” Louis supplies helpfully while settling himself comfortably in one of the sofas on set.

They’re currently filming their new music video for “Little Things” and thankfully it’s going well so far. The atmosphere in the room is really chilled out and Harry knows that it’s not going to take long to film. He’s glad because that mean he can get back earlier, which is brilliant because Niall and him have a skype date later and it would be rude to be late.

Only Louis had decided to make it his mission to drink as much tea as is humanly possible and so it seems like it’s now going to take longer than expected due to him having to run off for toilets breaks every five minutes. Harry wonders if the lads sometimes do this to him on purpose just to piss him off…

When they do finally finish, and Louis has emptied his bladder, Harry finds himself practically flying back to the hotel suite to find his laptop. He brings up Skype in what feels like a Guinness World Record time and waits for a moment and then checks the current time against the time in London. Niall is currently on a break and so he’s been staying up until ungodly hours talking to him.

It seems Lady Luck for once is smiling on him and Niall appears a couple of minutes after smiling as always at him and giving him a wave.

“Hey!” Harry calls waving back.

“Hello!” Niall half yells sounding excited to see him.

They end up singing “Little Things” to each other since Harry has it stuck in his head anyway and he finds himself beginning to appreciate the lyrics even more as he listens to Niall sing them back at him.

“I’m going to give you that verse” Harry tells Niall interrupting him mid-flow.

Niall pauses and looks taken aback for a second.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“That verse. You know the one that goes: You’ll never love yourself half as much as I’ll love you”

Niall laughs and shakes his head at him disapprovingly.

“You can’t just give it to me”

“Why not? I sing it don’t I?” Harry questions raising an eyebrow at him and pulling a face to match.

“Yeah, bu-”

“Then I can give it to you. Besides you sing it amazingly. I want you to have it”

“You’re ridiculous”

“Yeah, but you love me, and one day we’re going to get married and live ridiculously happy together”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way”

-X-

Slowly the year begins to come to a close, even though so many other things happen. They end up performing “Little Things” on the Royal Varity Performance in front of the Queen, which is an amazing experience.

Next comes their sold out concert at Madison Square Garden which Harry just can’t get over, and neither can the rest of the lads. They all sit in pure shock while waiting to go on stage. Liam at one point even sits on the floor curled in a ball trying to calm himself before sitting up and deciding to do a few push ups to release his nerves. Louis immediately shows his disapproval by dropping down onto his back and making himself comfy. Liam surprisingly carries on, which Louis finds rude and jumps up and down until Liam falters and goes crashing down. Louis quickly celebrates by making noise and runs off to go and hide from Liam and everyone seems at ease once more.

So by the time Christmas roles round they’re all ready for a much needed break. Harry arrives home to an eager to celebrate Niall who has decorated the flat from top to bottom in Christmas decorations and attempted to cook. He greets him with a passionate kiss and when they break he points up to the mistletoe hanging above the door innocently. Harry grins at him and picks up him twirling him around the room to cheesy Christmas songs that are playing in the background.

“I hope you haven’t been greeting all our guests like that” Harry says frowning down at a pinned Niall beneath him on the sofa.

“No” Niall laughs. “Just you, but only cause your special”

They have a quiet Christmas in before heading to Ireland for the remainder of the end of the year, dropping in on Niall’s father who is hosting most of Niall’s family at the same time. He ends up having a great time or “craic” as Niall keeps reminding him. He loves the Irish. He truly does and he can’t help but want to learn everything about Niall’s heritage. He keeps pestering Niall to teach him some more Gaelic. He still thinks it’s amazing he can speak around three languages and can pick up new ones and make it look as easy as breathing.

Niall’s family always make him feel welcome though and are handing him more alcohol like its water and not going to potentially get him so drunk he falls into a lake and drowns. They never bother them about their relationship either, not even Niall’s friends do. When Niall had told them they apparently hadn’t even battered an eye lid, and when they had met him they had simply pulled him in for full on man hugs. Of course they had all separately given him brotherly warnings of “If you so much as breathe in a way that upsets him we won’t hesitate to slice your cock off and force feed it to you yeah?” Needless to say Harry had been sufficiently terrified and had stayed glued to Niall’s side for the remainder of their stay.

But other than when they were making threats of disembodiment, they were all really, really great people.

They drink and sing and drink some more before all passing out in various places and positions. But Harry and Niall try to avoid getting completely drunk. Harry knows the danger it might bring and he knows he doesn’t have to be drunk to have a good time, if fame had done one thing right it was make him realise that. Plus he wanted to remember this.

He and Niall go outside into the cold night’s air and watch the fireworks go off above them listening to the chanting around them as the countdown to the New Year begins and Niall grins at him widely. He’s tipsy that’s for sure and his irises are blown wide making his eyes look brighter than ever, his cheeks are flushed to a rosy red from the cold and Harry instinctively puts an arm around him to drawn him into his side.

“5…”

“Let’s have another amazing year yeah?” Harry says to him watching the pretty colours light up the Irish sky.

“4…”

Niall giggles and turns his head to him and Harry thinks it’s one of the cutest things he’s ever seen.

“I’ll drink t’ dat. Yeah let’s do it all again, but better” Niall agrees cheering loudly.

“3…”

“Hmm. I want to get a cat too…” Harry says offhandedly eyes drifting back to the fireworks.

“A cat?” Niall slurs.

“2…”

“Yeah…”

“Hmm” Niall goes silent for a moment thinking and then grins at him again. “Okay! Yeah! Let’s get a fucking cat!” he then decides enthusiastically like it was his idea to start with.

“1…”

Harry laughs loudly hugging Niall close, who is now laughing too. They stand there like idiots laughing and hugging each other like nothing else matters and Harry knows for sure in that moment nothing else does. He doesn’t need the fame and the band and the press and their lies. He doesn’t need anything so long as this amazing person in his arms is with him.

“Happy New Year!”

-X-

It turns out that Niall remembers that conversation about the cat and he now thinks it’s not such a bad idea after all. He wants someone to keep him company while Harry goes and tours the world this year on the “Take Me Home” tour. Harry doesn’t mind. He’s always wanted a cat anyway. He likes them after all. They’re just so graceful and elegant and just, just so cat like.

So Harry ends up driving them down to the nearest pet shelter early in the morning to go and pick one out.

When they arrive they find that a litter of kittens have been dropped off earlier in the week when they had been found abounded and Niall immediately turns to Harry and gives him a look that tells him that Niall wants to go and take a look.

It’s love at first sight. It’s the only way Harry can describe it. Niall picks one out instantly, a little Celtic Shorthair kitten that’s sat in the corner of the pen looking up at them with wide eyes. Niall scoops her up and cradles her close to his chest. The little kitten looks up and licks Niall’s hand in affection. Harry literally feels his heart melt as Niall looks up at him with loving eyes and grins.

He can’t say no. So then end up taking her home with them. They name her Darcy and pick her out a collar with her name and their address and number on. She’s been given a bed, food and water dishes, claw scratchers and toys. Niall literally buys everything he can get his hands on and by the end of the day Harry just wants to go home and sleep.

But as he looks at Niall circled on the sofa playing with little Darcy he really can’t help the smile that ever so naturally just falls onto his face.

He watches Niall pull out his phone and snaps a picture of Darcy and posts it to twitter tagging a caption that reads:

“Well me and @Harry_Styles decided to get a kitten. Say hello to the newest member of the family: Darcy! :)”

This is his family.

-X-

It’s time for the “Take Me Home” tour…

They’ve been looking forward to it for ages and now it’s finally here! Harry can’t contain his excitement, just can't get over the fact that they will be performing to thousands of people every night on the tour. It's unreal. He only wishes that Niall could come with him and experience the drama that's bound to ensure. They've been on tour before but this is bigger, better and longer then the last one. Harry knows for sure that touring is the best and worst part of their job. On the one hand they get to meet theirs fans face to face and experience new cultures. But on the other hand they end up being away from their families and friends for months at a time which means that they miss important events. It's sad and most of all it hurts, and so Harry is thankful that he had been able to spend Niall’s last birthday with him.

But the worst thing is that their families are so understanding. They always say not to worry and that they will see them when they get back. He loves and hates them for it.

Thankfully they’re opening the tour in the UK, and then moving onto Ireland, Europe, America, Australia and then Asia. It really shocks Harry that people have actually paid to come and see them sing.

They’re going to be living on top of each other on the new tour bus and Harry is relived that they all get on with each other so well. They’re also going to be joined by another band called "5 Seconds of Summer" who are going to be their opening act. They’re a great set of guys that Louis had found online and their high level of energy reminds Harry of Niall and as soon as he tells them this they are eager to meet him.

The first few nights are the worst for nerves and Harry feels like his heart is going to explode in his chest when he springs onto the stage and hears the deafening roar coming from the audience. It takes him a while to settle into it and always leaves him breathless. But he knows Niall is in the crowd somewhere and although he can't see him due to the lights blinding him and making them unable to see anything beyond their own stage. But he's there and that's all that matters in the end.

But once he's settled into the routine it becomes as easy as breathing, (although it will still always blow him away and even if he's in the most crappest mood ever it never fails to put a smile on his face).

They’re due to go to Africa soon though to shoot for their incoming video and film them going round the villages for Comic Relief. It's going to be an emotional trip, Harry already knows this, and he's really anxious to go and just see for himself what life for them is really like with his own eyes.

Nothing can prepare him when he sees it. It's really awful to even think about anyone living like this. He looks around realising that they haven't got anything like they have back home and yet they seem fairly happy anyway. It drives home the message about being happy with what you have got and not taking anything for granted.

He does maybe call Niall the next time he can just to cry and tell him how much he loves him. But despite that they end up having fun with the local lads and playing a round of football too. They get beaten badly by them and Louis's horrified at how badly they lose, because Louis is actually really good at playing. The shooting for the video ends up being a mash up if all the other trips they have made but includes quite of a lot of this trip in particularly especially from their visit to the children's school, which had brought a tear or two to everybody’s eyes.

They perform on the comic relief show too making a guest appearance and showing the world their experience in Africa and raising money with their latest single. The experience on the whole is something they’re honoured to be a part of and they want people to know that.

Niall’s ridiculously proud of him and makes all his friends buy the single as soon as it hits ITunes. He loves it and shows Harry by sending him a clip of him holding Darcy and dancing around the kitchen. It's funny, that's for sure, and it brings a smile to Harry's face while he keeps it on repeat.

Little things like this get him through the madness whether its witty texts from his sister or motherly messages for his mother, rude pictures from Nick or amusing quotes from Ed. They keep him smiling but more importantly they keep him sane.

They end up announcing their movie, which fans go mad over. Harry's excited for people to see it although they've already agreed for no girlfriends/boyfriends to be shown. Niall pouts when he tells him and whines about how he could have been a Hollywood actor. But he agrees it’s probably for the best since Harry, although with Niall, still has many young female fans chasing him wanting to be with him. Harry doesn't mind as long as people don't take it too far and start giving Niall hassle over it, after all he's been with Niall well before One Direction came together. For the most part people respect Niall and some even go crazier for him then they do for them. It's nice though, and Harry's glad that people like him.

But recently he's noticed that people have been referring to them as the next "power couple". He knows Niall's been with him to a fair few events and has stood with him and even given a few interviews but he's never really seen them as an actual power couple. Surly they don't have that much influence. He's always thought of power couples as people like David and Victoria Beckham and Brad and Angelina. Niall and him are still so young and haven't done all that much to warrant such a thing. But he guesses it’s better than being called "that famous gay couple" he hates the word famous...

-X-

Around the middle of the tour they get another break in America. The UK leg of the tour has gone amazingly well and Niall's brother Greg had got married and had had Niall as his best man naturally and Niall naturally had been honoured and had brought Harry along for the ride too. Fans had turned up in their hoards and a little chaos had ensured, so Harry had made sure to apologise to the bride and groom for the disruption. But Greg had smiled like Niall had and told him not to worry and that he was practically part of the family and couldn't help it. Harry had still felt bad.

His mum had gotten married too! He had been so proud to walk her down the aisle to his step dad. She had looked beautiful and Gemma had made strong threats of violence to anyone stupid enough to crash it. It was just meant to be a small private wedding after all. The rest of the lads had been invited but they had felt it would attract too much attention for them to go and so had stayed away. It made sense to Harry when he looked back on it now and he was grateful that they had decided too. Of course he had sent them loads of pictures throughout the day anyway just to rub it in a little. Niall had come though and they'd slow danced and drunk champagne and tried not to act like the fools they were, (although they had had to pull faces on the wedding pictures, because Harry was crap at formal photos and Niall couldn't keep a straight face for very long).

With the break taking place in Miami Harry drags Niall over yet again cause he doesn't get to spend enough time with Niall while they’re on tour and Niall's all too happy to indulge his wish. He brings with him his "I don't give a fuck" attitude and a smile. It refreshes Harry and lifts his mood before he can even feel down and it's like they haven't even been apart. Niall fills him in on Uni life and tells him how well he's been doing and how he doesn't want 2014 to be his last year because he's genuinely enjoying it still.

They go out shopping on one of the days to go and get more unique items for the flat and Harry knows it’s just an excuse to get out of the hotel. They had spent last night hanging around the flat watching cheesy chick flicks and throwing popcorn at each other trying to catch it in their mouths (and failing). It doesn’t take long for the fans to use their special 1D GPS though and as soon as they make it down one of the main roads they’re swarmed from all sides.

The local paparazzi are there too and their flashing their cameras at them every seconds and Harry’s vision becomes a blur of lights and faces. He holds his arm around Niall’s shoulder and doesn’t notice him shaking due to the screaming and shouting occurring all around him. He faintly catches a shout somewhere close to his ear and is sure it could have Preston or Jag from their security team but he just can’t tell.

There's about a million girls (and maybe guys) squealing at him right now, screaming about how they “can’t believe it’s you!” and “can I have a photo?” and “oh my god please sign this!” and Harry doesn’t know what’s up or down right now, so no. He’s honestly terrified inside, but on the outside he just puts on a small smile and manages to find to words to ask them to move back as he checks on Niall to see how he is and that’s when he notices.

Niall’s reclined on himself and is all hunched over curled into Harry’s side as much as he physically can, and it’s scary just how small Niall is. But Niall’s claustrophobic right? Niall's claustrophobic…

Niall's claustrophobic…

It hits him full force and he can’t help but stare at Niall for a moment curled into his side heaving his breath like his can’t breathe, tears streaking his cheeks and shaking full force as though he's having a fit. That scares Harry; it scares him more than the fact that they’ve been mobbed in the streets. More than anything ever could.

“Preston! Preston, Jag!” he yells over the crowd as loud as he possibly can because its only now that he’s realised that they’ve been separated from them; now of all times. Harrys never wished more that they were here, as opposed to the way they normally try to lose them on purpose, and he promises himself inwardly to never to do that again.

He stares around them hopelessly and feels himself sink to the ground with Niall in his arms, because he just doesn’t know what to do right now. He knows he needs to calm Niall, but he can’t right now. He’s got to get them out of here, this crowd isn’t helping Niall.

“Oh my God! Is he okay?”

“Niall's collapsed!”

“Harry don’t ignore us!”

“Harry you’re not really gay are you?”

“Harry?”

“Harry I love you!!”

“Harry…?”

“Oh my God!! Harry!!”

“Harry please…”

“You’re my favourite Harry!! I love you!!”

“Harry make them stop… Please”

Harry looks down at Niall sharply and realises that he's been calling him, or trying to. He’s turned his head ever so slightly to look at him and he's still crying. His breathing has become even shallower and Harry panics more. He’s having a panic attack; and he suddenly realises that he has no idea what to do. He can only pull him closer and whisper words to him and pray that someone finds him. He curses himself for the hundredth time. Because why, why had he left his phone with Preston to take care of.

A girl to his left then grabs at him out of nowhere and Harry realises that she’s trying to get his jacket. He stumbles and nearly falls over from the force, but his arm shoots out and braces him. This is insane, he can only think.

But his prayers are answered. Preston is there breaking through the crowds with Jag coming after him. They literally have to force themselves through to reach them, which they do and then form a barrier around them as best they can and make enough room for them to stand. Harry pulls himself up taking Niall with him but keeping him as near to him as he physically can all while telling him exactly what he's doing.

“We’re going to go now Niall. We’re going to go back to the hotel. I’m going to find your inhaler and then we’re going to watch movies all night and play scramble”

Niall doesn’t respond but thankfully he keeps breathing, even though it’s far too shallow and way to deep. He moves when Harry tugs him and along and Harry faintly wonders whether he should just pick him up and move him that way. But the thought dies in his mind when Niall goes limp in his arms.

“Niall!” he yells in shock and his arms shoot out to grab him and pull him up. It doesn’t take much considering Niall doesn’t weight all that much with his stupidly high metabolism rate.

He gathers him as best he can and prays that none of the photos being taken will reach the paper because lord knows Niall will be embarrassed later.

Preston steers them towards a car parked on the side of the road and he then focuses on just getting Niall in the car and away from the crowd that is following them.

Preston and Jag (bless their souls) have battled their way through the hordes of screaming teenagers and now have the scars to show for it. Harry can’t thank them enough. Preston’s in the driving seat when they manage to escape. He's taking them straight back to the hotel and then he's going to go and see Paul apparently. Harry stops listening to him after that and gives Niall his full attention.

He's still way to pale – even for him – and he's still not breathing properly. Harry moves his arms up and down his arm and strokes his cheek, making him look at him as he whispers his Niall and tells him positives things. He’s beginning to come round slowly and his eyes are sort of half open looking at him hazily.

“Harry we… We n-need to g-go. Make them… Make them sto-stop” Niall breaks off again and bursts into tears.

“Ni. Niall, babe. Nialler, we’re not in the crowd anymore, we’re in the car. No, Niall look. Babe look, see? We’re not in the crowd no more. I won’t let anything hurt you. I promise” he tells him bringing him into his arms and running his hand through his hair.

When they do eventually get back he places Niall on the sofa and he curls up into a ball and buries himself in pillows and blankets. It takes a while for Niall to properly calm down. It always does. But Niall hasn’t had a full on attack since he was fourteen (and it had scared the shit out of Harry then too). Harry makes his way over to him and pulls him to his lap so he's straddling his waist and Niall instantly responds and grows his arms around his neck and leans his head to his shoulder feeling calmer.

Harry's certainly unnerved that's Niall's had a panic attack. It's not happened for a very long time. In fact the last and only one Harry's witnessed was round Niall's house. Harry had locked him in his wardrobe in retaliation to Niall stealing his last pack of his favourite sweets that he'd been saving – childish he knows. He'd then left to go and get them both something to drink from the kitchen and had only been out of the room for a total of three minutes when he had heard Niall screaming. Both Niall's mum and his brother Greg had gone running upstairs and had nearly taken Niall's door off from the sheer force at which they had gone running into it. Harry had followed more slowly but had been horrified when Maura had pulled her son from the wardrobe. Niall had been very pale, crying and shaking as though he had been having an epileptic fit. He'd never been so scared and helpless before. Maura had obviously been furious with him and he'd been so sure that Greg had been going to hit him from the look on his face. But once everything had calmed down Maura had explained that Niall suffered with claustrophobia and Harry had sworn to take care of him to make sure it didn't happen again.

So now he felt like he had failed big time. Niall hasn't ever reacted like that before though. Sure he had become uncomfortable when the paparazzi had come close before flashing camera in their faces. But Niall's never broke down like that. Harry guesses it was just how close they were. The noise never tended to bother him. Half the time Niall's makes more noise than anyone so he knows it’s not that.

So all he can do for now is just to hold him close and wait till he's all good, which he doesn't mind doing, he gets to hold Niall close and that will always be a plus.

Later on the boys from 5 Seconds of Summer come round to his suite and decide they’re bored and they want to play against someone new on the XBox they lug around with them everywhere. By this point Niall's feeling much better and is instantly on his feet agreeing. Just like Harry had thought they get on amazingly well and have been pranking people ever since Niall had first got there. The other boys love him and Harry has a sneaky suspicion that Niall wants to join their band. He's even brought their merchandise and wore the t-shirt yesterday. They want to know where Harry's been hiding him all of their lives.

Michael and Niall are currently going head to head on Call of Duty shooting everything that comes close to them. Calum’s pretending to sulk on the sofa next to a laughing Ashton. The poor boy had been accidentally shot by a smug Luke and died. It had been funny to the rest of them but Calum had apparently taken the loss hard and refused to talk to Luke until he gave him a hug and apologised; which he has yet to do.

"Ahahahaha! We're so going to win!" Michael yells laughing manically as he angles his controller in all sorts of weird ways as though he was trying to move out of the way or something.

"We so are, wait! Michael, no don't go in yet! There might b-"

Just as Niall’s warning him Michael's character on screen is shot and dies a gory death. In a fit of anger he then launches his controller across the floor and glares at the screen.

"No! How the hell did they see me?!" He cries. "Stupid sneaky people!"

"It's not real Michael don't take it so personally" Calum tells him.

"Ooh are you speaking now Calum?" Luke asks grinning.

"Not to you I'm not" Calum mumbles under his breath.

"Well it doesn't matter anyway. We got to get going" Ashton says cheerily. "We'll see you at rehearsals tomorrow won't we Niall? Will you bring your guitar? We could have another jamming session! Well that's if the other band don't steal you. Josh is always hogging you!" He whines.

Niall grins and gives them a quick "sure" and waves them off.

"See ya Harry! Bye Niall!"

And with that they’re gone.

-X-

It feels like the Kids Choice Awards sneaks up on them. They just come out of nowhere almost. They've been encouraging their fans to vote for them on twitter and such, because hey it's always nice to win something for their amazing fans. They always say in their speeches that the award is for their fans and it is, because if not for them they wouldn't have won it in the first place. Harry's desperate to bring someone with him for the awards too, and so he does.

Cue his perfect boyfriend flying across the lake to accompany him.

Poor Niall is dragged through their makeup and style department and dressed up all pretty by Lou. He looks like part of the band when they’re finished with him and he begs Paul to let him walk down the red carpet with him. Paul sighs and gives him a look.

“He can’t for the first half” he tell him and Harry feels his face fall. “But once the awards are over he can sit with you. We’ve already booked the seats”

The words have him grinning again. Niall’s going to stay with Lou (their stylist) while they wait for them to perform and collect any awards (if they have any), and then join him later to watch the rest of the show.

Their performance ends up not being one of their best. But it doesn’t matter Harry tells himself. Their tired, very tired, and have just finished an 8 week tour of America. Can anyone really blame them for being? Harry doesn’t think so. Plus the songs new and does he really even need to be making excuses right now? Everyone has an off performance every now and then, they’re only human.

But they all still feel bad about it and not even winning the awards for all of the nominations they were up for changes this. Harry wonders if that’s why Liam and Louis leave early with the excuse that they are seriously tired and they really just want to head back and chill for a bit.

So it’s only Zayn and him staying. Not that he minds. He has a beautiful blonde waiting for him. Zayn’s here with Perrie, his long-time girlfriend from Little Mix. She’s lovely and Niall’s apparently been talking to her for most of the evening while she keeps him company. The two of them have the same cheerful smile and personality and Zayn often comments that Niall reminds him of Perrie at times, Harry thinks it should be the other way round but tries not to comment.

He finds Niall keeping their seats warm sitting next to Ed Sheeran and the two of them are already deep into conversation about guitars and Niall appears to be telling Ed about his recent addition to his collection and how Darcy had scratched his old one to death when he had left it lying around the other day. Harry swears that he had warned Niall about that happening.

It doesn't surprise Harry when the two presenters come over to them picking them out in the crowd and ask him to twerk. It instantly makes him feel uncomfortable and he promptly flushes red. He can hear Niall laughing besides him and Zayn snickering behind him. Ed's watching him in shock from the side of Niall, most likely wondering if he's actually going to do it. He feels as though he has to really and when most people around him laugh and begin to ask why he's doing it he can't help but ask himself why they’re so shocked.

Niall isn't, but he does encourage Harry to do through a fit of laughter. Harry does it though for people entertainment. He gets laughed at but they’re making a lot of people do it anyway and so it makes him feel less of a fool. The fans apparently think it’s amazing too and twitter goes into a frenzy as people talk about it.

Both Niall and him are collared again when they leave the TCA's, this time by an interviewer whose seems keen to get to the bottom of all the wedding business. Harry can only laugh internally because if everyone's going mad over the thought of Niall and him getting married who knows how people are going to react when they find out about Perrie and Zayn...

"So we've been hearing rumours about yourselves. Is it true you're really getting married?" The lady who collared them asks.

Harry smiles for the cameras and weaves an arm around Niall's waist to pull him close.

"No, we're not. People think that's what the ring means. But it's not; it's a promise ring I gave him for his birthday." He tells her with another brilliant smile. It's the first time he's addressed the ring and he's sure it's going to shock people.

It gets the reaction he had thought and the woman looks utterly disappointed by the revelation. It's clear she had wanted them to tell her they were getting married, when and where. But Harry isn't going to lie. He knows it’s going to happen one day, because there’s no one else in the world he'd want to marry other than Niall. It's just not happening yet is all.

"Can I look at the ring?" She asks nodding down to the silver ring adoring Niall's finger.

"Sure!" Niall tells her and holds it up for her to see.

"It's very unique!" She comments once she's had a good look twisting and turning Niall's hand to get a better view. Harry's even sure that the cameras have been zooming in just to get the best view for the people watching at home.

"Yeah, it's an Irish Claddagh ring" Niall says smiling when she looks impressed.

"We'll you heard it here first. They’re not yet getting married but there's a high chance it's going to happen one day from the looks of that ring!" The lady tells the camera and Harry realises he still doesn't remember her name.

The fans seem disappointed too. Harry's a bit shocked really, but it seems there are a lot of people routing for them. It definitely puts a smile on his face when checks twitter later.

The movie premiere in Leister Square takes place next. Niall isn't there with him when they arrive or go on stage to greet the fans, and he isn’t there when they have to do about a million interviews down the carpet. He's not allowed to. But Harry knows if he had of been then he would have been by his side the entire time. He's not afraid of the fame and he's not afraid of what people think, he's the most easy going person Harry has ever had the joy of meeting and he thanks God for giving him to him every day.

He does arrive after though walking down the carpet with the other girlfriends bar Perrie who has come with the rest of Little Mix. Harry sees him and immediately finds himself gravitating to his side without thought. Since they’re done with the main interviews and the stage side of things he knows it’s okay for Niall to come and stand with him as they make their way into the theatre, after all the other boys have met up with their better halves.

For most of the movie Niall's either laughing or grinning his head off sending him looks that only he understands. But truthfully he says he's really proud and that it’s a brilliant movie and he should be proud too. Harry is proud, he's just anxious for the fans to like it too.

They end up having to leave early to get the after party early. They don't mind too much and Niall tells him they'll just buy the movie when it comes out like normal people and have a movie night dedicated to it (or they can just watch the whole thing at the New York premiere). There's a ton of paparazzi waiting for them when they leave and Niall decides to be cheeky and pull faces at them as they go, sticking his tongue out at them and scrunching his face up making his eyes go boz-eyed. Harry knows for sure the pictures will be everywhere by tomorrow with some crude headline, but for now he doesn't care and just joins Niall in his childish fun. They always act like children behind closed doors, but Harry tries to keep himself professional in public, but tonight’s their night and he feels like it won’t hurt to act completely ridiculous for once. After all they’re not yet adults and he's sure they could even get away with it when they are anyway.

After parties are always great, but this one is better, mostly because all their family and close friends are here too. They've invited some of their famous friends as well and Harry can spot several people he hasn't seen for a long while that he wants to speak to. They seek them all out though and their family members all tell them how proud they are of the movie and Harry smiles slightly when he sees his mother crying with pride. It’s a really touching moment when he pulls her in for a hug and she cries are she tells him how she’s so happy that’s he's finally had all his dreams come true.

When Niall sees the photo booth in the corner he instantly pulls Harry over even though Harry’s in the middle of talking to some high profile business tycoon that their management invited. Harry splutters out apologies and Niall simple rolls his eyes as he scolds him.

“Photos now, talk to stuffy old men later, as long as you’re not planning on going home with them” he find himself being told by the smaller boy.

As always Niall’s fascinated by the different settings you can have for the photos and scrolls through them for about five minutes before deciding what to have. Even after the through testing Niall had decided to keep it simple and go for the normal coloured pictures with a simple white trim. Harry doesn’t get it, but he knows deep down he doesn’t mind Niall faffing about with the poor machine. He's a patient guy and he’ll never mind waiting for Niall as cheesy as it sounds.

They take a few silly pictures with their tongues out and another of them laughing while looking at each other. The third is of them with their eyes wide and pulling a pout trying to imitate the perfect teenaged girl look and failing tragically. But the last one is his personal favourite. Niall had been in the middle of laughing at their third choice of picture and had been half tuned looking at him and Harry had at last minute before the fourth flash had gone off leaned across to place a kiss on his cheek. It was perfect and Harry had made sure that that picture had been on the half of the strip that Niall had given him.

It had been a perfect night. He’d be surrounded by all the people he loved; his friends, family, fans, brothers and his amazingly, adorably, perfect boyfriend.

What more could he have ever hoped to have asked for?

-X-

He and Niall don’t argue. It’s written into the very fabric of their invisible code that goes with their relationship along with the promise that when they do marry Harry has to wear a grey suit (because it would suit him best according to Niall).

So the whole thing comes completely out of the blue, and Harry had no idea how to deal with it.

He won’t lie. They have naturally had some misunderstandings with each other.
Like when Niall sometimes doesn’t put things back where they belong and Harry hates that because he craves some sort of order in his very complicated schedule, and Harry might have a bad habit of using Niall's university books and papers as coasters for his drinks sometimes.

But they certainly don’t fight like this.

He truly doesn’t know where it’s come from at all and he doesn’t know how to make it better; and that scares him. The thought of losing Niall scares him more than anything, more than even losing his career. In fact that pales in comparison to loosing Niall.

He remembers when he had called him. He's stuck back on tour again in Australia and Niall's most likely home now and so Harry calls while he has a chance to do so. The conversation starts off well enough with them both asking about the others schedules and what they have been up to. But then Niall broaches the subject of when he might be able to see him again, or when he was coming back at all.

Harry sighs because it’s a question he's become familiar with over the last three weeks and he doesn’t know what to say to Niall anymore. They’ve never been apart this long, even when he was in America and what’s worse he hasn’t been able to skype either due to the workload. He’s being giving him the honest answers: they’ve got a tour that night or tomorrow, they have some promotional work lined up, there's a meeting about this meeting. He knows Niall's sick of it now and he can’t bear to tell him yet another, but he has too because he can’t come.

“Look babe. You know I’ve got stuff on and I can’t be there righ-”

“Fine. It’s fine.” Niall says to him abruptly cutting him off with a huff.

Harry doesn’t know if its lack of sleep, or maybe the stress of the tour, or maybe the fact that he just hasn’t been able to be around his boyfriend. But whatever it is he just snaps for a minute without thinking about what he's really.

“For fucks sakes Niall you know I can’t help this right now. This tour is more important okay. Stop being so clingy would you, you’re really pissing me off!” he yell at him scowling for a moment and then staring in shock when his brain catches up with his mouth and he realises just what he's said.

Niall always worries about being annoying and bothering Harry when he's a work or busy doing something and so he's always be careful about when he calls Harry; he likes to make sure first that he's not in the middle of something. So he knows the moment he properly gathers what he said Niall is bound to be upset and most definitely hurt. It makes it worse when a silence passes over them.

“Niall… I didn’t, I didn’t mean that, I swear. I just, it’s just th-” he goes to say stuttering and trying to figure out the correct words so he doesn’t say anything stupid again, but Niall cuts straight through him.

“No. It’s fine. I get it, I really do. Your boy band is more important. That’s fine. Go and rehearse for your tour or whatever shit you’re doing, because that’s more important right?” He doesn’t shout, and maybe that’s what makes it worse. Not the volume of his voice, but the cutting tone that he uses. It makes him feel so small and unimportant.

But then he's angry too. He didn’t mean that at all. How could Niall even think that, believe that? Doesn’t he know that he's all Harry can think about sometimes? Clearly he doesn’t, because if he did he would never believe that he didn’t mean anything. But he's going to fight, especially if Niall's going to throw that at him.

“Don’t be stupid! You know I didn’t mean it like that at all! I’m just stress-”

“I know exactly what you meant! Don’t make me seem so naïve! This fucking tour is all you’ve been talking about recently! I listen though. I listen because I love you!”

Harry boils up again. His adrenalin is running wild and pulse hammering through his veins. It’s certainly not a trill; Harry doesn’t know what he's doing at all. He's completely out of his depth, after all he's never argued with Niall before.

“Stop fucking cutting me off and listen for once in your life!” he roars this time stopping Niall in his tracks. He's had enough of this. “You know as well as I do that I always try and make time for you. There's no one else I’d rather spend my time with! But I can’t always do that and you know it! It’s got nothing to do with you being naïve, don’t you ever fucking try to make out that I care more about my fucking career than I do you. You defiantly know that is bullshit!” he yells again now walking around the hotel suite trying to ease some of the frustration he's feeling.

“Fuck you!” Niall shouts down the phone and then the line goes dead and Harry can only stare at the phone in shock.

Niall hung up on him. Niall hung up on him!

“For fucks sake!” he shouts and launches his phone across the floor before leaving his room.

He needs to go and work out some of this frustration before he went and smashed something.

This goes on for a week. He’s moody and so ridiculously unapproachable. The boys have no idea what’s wrong and no one dares to ask him since he flew off the handle at Paul about it. Paul had only asked to same question that everyone else had had on their minds since Harry had stormed into rehearsals and not spoken a word to anyone nor greeted anyone with the usual smile and wave.

He’d yelled at Paul and told him to “fucking leave it! I’m fine” and that had been the end of it since Paul didn’t want to make matters worse.

Everyone simply tires to act as normal as they can and hope that it’s simply a faze and pray that he speaks to Niall soon. He always seems to be able to calm Harry down when he’s stressed. No one even thinks for a minuet that Niall could be the reason for Harrys sudden 180 spin in mood.

Harry pushes himself into his work outs instead to try and keep his mind off Niall. He's hasn’t called him all week and neither has Niall. It doesn’t matter he tells himself when he catches himself thinking about it and reminds himself that Niall obviously doesn’t care. He always moves on and goes to find their personal trainer instead and pushes his body into overdrive.

This particular morning however he's angrier than normal. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep and worse he had dreamed about Niall and their last holiday to Spain and how happy they had been. It had brought up fear about their relationship and made him miss Niall. This had led him to worrying about whether they would ever make up again…

But he just couldn’t apologise. Niall had been wrong. He’s accused him of not caring for him as much as he did the tour and that wasn’t fair at all, he’d never once implied that had he? No! He wouldn’t doubt himself. He loved Niall more than anything!

He frowns at himself and moves to go and find his current distraction from this mess.

He finds their personal trainer Mark Jarvis around the pool and immediately asks him if he could go through a routine for him. He agrees, seemingly always in the mood to work out. He doesn’t pry at first, but knows for sure something’s wrong, there has been for the last week but no one knows what apparently. He's never seen Harry so determined to run himself ragged.

They both keep up for a good half an hour running full pelt around the block before moving onto press ups and lifting weights before Harry runs out of steam and is lying on the press bench heaving for air. He knows that this isn’t right for him; it’s more of something Liam would do when angry. But he's just needs to feel something right now that isn’t anger, pure frustration or just, just sadness... He's goes to reach for the weight again but this time Mark stops him, grabbing onto Harry’s hand and pulling it away.

“I think you’ve had enough lad. Now what’s wrong? You’re never normally this into your work out, something bothering you?” Mark’s got that gruff sort of voice, but to Harry he actually sounds concerned and genuinely worried.

It makes Harry stop dead in his tracks and sit up sighing. He clasps his hands together wondering where to start all of a sudden. He finally looks at the floor in misery, would Mark just laugh and tell him to get over it? Would he listen and try to understand? Or would he make him go back to lifting weights?

“Is this about that boyfriend of yours?”

Harry sucks in a gulp of air and shoots his eyes to him in shock.

How did he know? Was he that obvious? Have people been saying things again?

“How do you know that?” he asks sounding so unsure of everything.

He laughs lifting the weight away from him with one arm and drops it to the floor without thought.

“Cause you’ve been making the face of a girl who got dumped on Valentine’s Day for the last week. I’m surprised no one else has put two and two together yet! Thought they’ve probably been to scared with that look of thunder on your face”

Harry grimaces and hopes he hasn’t really been that bad all week. He doesn’t want anyone this think bad of him, he hates upsetting people.

“So, come on then. What happened between you and him? Must have been something bad. From what I’ve heard you and him are meant to be the golden couple. Power couple or something”

Again Harry grimaces and looks away. He doesn’t know what happened if he’s honest. He can’t really remember how it had even started. He only knows he and Niall haven’t spoken for a week and a bit now, and that has never happened before, ever…

“I, I don’t even know. We just had this argument and I said some things I really shouldn’t have, and he did too. We, never argue though. This is the first time. I hate it, I really do. I just needed something. Something to take my mind off it and… Fuck, I should have just called him and apologised. I was just so angry, and I didn’t want to just say sorry. I wanted him to call me and apologise for what he had said. But he didn’t… He hasn’t called me in a week. It’s my fault; it’s all my fault for being such an arse…” he feels like crying when he thinks about it like this. He knows he shouldn’t have said what he said. It was the stress talking. He knows he's not been doing well, not sleeping well. He should have never have taken it out on Niall.

“Well what’s stopping you from calling him now?” Mark asks carrying on with his on weight lifting. “It’s never too late to say sorry”

Harry gives him a side glance and frowns thoughtfully. He knows it’s never too late, and he really does just want to talk to Niall. He's a huge part of his life and he knows if it wasn’t for him this amazing opportunity would have never have happened.

He really needs to stop acting so melodramatic he tells himself before pulling himself up and smiling.

“You’re right. Thanks Mark, I really just needed telling”

“Aren’t I always?”

Harry laughs and gives him a wave before jogging off again this time in the direction of his hotel suite.

Once there his finds his phone amongst the mess that has managed to accumulate during his days of hibernation and wallowing in his own self-pity.

The phone rings four times before it clicks off signalling that someone has picked up.

“Hello?” a weary voice asks and Harry mentally kicks himself, because time difference! He hadn’t even thought to check in his rush.

“Hey… Its, it’s me” his own voice shakes slightly. It suddenly hits him that he really, really hasn’t spoken to Niall in a whole week.

“Harry?” Niall asks and he can hear the sudden intake of breath on the other side. Niall must have been just as shocked as he once no doubt.

“Yeah, I figured this had gone on long enough and I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for being such an arse. You didn’t deserve that…”

Niall sighs on the other end and Harry’s worried for a second he's just going to put the phone down on him and not sort this out. But then there's rustling from the other end, and finally Niall says something.

“No. It’s my fault. I was being too clingy and pestering you. I know how busy you are, and I know its tough for you. I shouldn’t have pushed it. I'm really sorry…”

He laughs at the irony of this. He’d called Niall to apologise, and yet here they are both thinking the same thing now unlike before when they both blaming the other. But he's glad and relief washes over him knowing that there's a huge chance they’re going to get somewhere this time.

“So… I was thinking if you aren’t busy, that maybe you can come over next week and I’ll show you all around Australia and we can attempt to go surfing and be completely out done by Louis and Liam’s impressive skills”

“That sounds nice… But only if I get to try one their famous barbeques…” Niall laughs nervously as they begin to move away from all the shit that’s been going on for the last week.

“You can have anything you want as long as we promise not to fall out again, because it’s no fun not being able to talk to you and hear you laughing. It kind of sucks and everyone is currently avoiding me from fear that I explode on them. I’ve kind of been hibernating in my room too and it’s really messy now…” he explains eyes trailing around the room as he realises just how bad it is.

“Yeah? I think Darcy is pretty sick of me moping on the sofa and buying vast amounts of ice cream and crying over romantic tearjerkers on repeat.” Niall tells him.

Harry laughs as he imagines their poor kitten watching Niall crying into a bucket of “Ben and Jerry’s” with an unimpressed look.

“Okay I promise not to fight with you again for Darcy’s sake. The poor kitten is probably frightened out of her wits”

“Yeah… I guess I promise to. Well I’ll try you make it difficult sometimes…”

“Hey! I’m not that bad. Maybe sometimes, but you love me anyway… Right?”

“Of course I do stupid! I’m still with you right?”

“I’m really thankful you are. I don’t know how I’d of done this if you hadn’t of been. I mean I’ve got the guys and stuff, but their no you, and they can only do so much for me. Please don’t ever leave me yeah?” Harry asks feeling more vulnerable than he has in while. He just hopes there's no one around right now listening in on their conversation. He’d never hear then end of it if one of the lads were listening through the door.

“Of course I will. No matter how much I yell at you or disagree with you, it won’t ever change the fact that I love you. Jeez why are you even thinking about this anyway? It’s getting way to deep Harry”

“Hmm… Maybe, but it’s still nice to hear it every once in a while. I love you too!”

Niall sighs on the other end, but he knows he must be relived too. Maybe he’ll stop with the ice cream now.

“Well as pleased as I am that we’re good. I do really need to get some sleep. We can't all lead the rock star life, and I have a paper due in tomorrow. So I’ll speak to you when I’m done okay?”

“Yeah, of course I’ll text you or something”

The call ends with a series of “I love you” and “I love you more” and they end up having to call it a draw otherwise Niall’s not going to get any sleep.

But Harry’s glad. No matter what happens, or how little they get to see each other, he knows Niall’s not going to walk out on him. He feels like he can face anything again. Like no matter if the band was to end tomorrow, he knows for sure Niall would be there with open arms and a smile.

That’s all that matters in the end, as long as he's there.

-X-

So there we have it! If anyone wants any sort of squeal or wants to send me any prompts feel free too! :)