Archive of Our Own ^beta

Liam didn’t know why he was doing this.

He and Gemma had broken up almost a year ago, he didn’t owe her anything.

But here he was; opening his front door to a tall geeky looking kid with a mess of dark curls and the world’s most depressing greeting face he’d ever seen. Obviously this kid didn’t really want to be here either. They had that in common at least.

But this kid had to be here. Because he’d apparently been kicked out of his best friend’s apartment, and Gemma didn’t want to admit that she cared enough about him by letting him stay at her place with her and her new boyfriend. So Gemma had asked a favour. Of Liam. Who now had to apparently be a ‘good strong role model’ for this homeless nineteen year old and a ‘positive influence’ and all that other crap. Liam honestly couldn’t be bothered with any of that.

He didn’t know this kid.

Well, he had, but only through awkward ‘family dinners’ and brief meetings from when he was dating his sister. So overall he didn’t technically know anything about Harry. Nothing that mattered when it came to having him as a roommate at least.

Harry flashed Liam a nervous smile and trudged through Liam’s front door, past Liam, and into the living room of his new home. It was nice, at least. Nicer than his old place. Mainly because Jackson wasn’t there, but still.

“So uh, your room’s around here and to the left...” Liam mumbled. When he’d gotten to the door to the passage off to Harry’s left Harry didn’t know. But Harry was having a rough week so Liam didn’t really care how zoned out or closed off he was. This was weird for the both of them after all.

“Ah... thanks.” Harry mumbled; adjusting his bag strap over his shoulder and slowly stumbling down the hallway towards his new niche. He heard Liam call out something about letting him get settled in and then Liam was gone. Harry dumped his bag of practically nothing on the floor of his room and just stood there for a while and taking it in. He had a lot of closet space which he wouldn’t need, a desk for writing and a laptop which he also wouldn’t need, and a couch in the corner, which again he probably wouldn’t need. The only thing he was going to really use in this room was the king size bed. Harry actually smiled at the sight of it. A bed that was actually big enough for him was definitely a silver lining to this, if not the best thing about it.

When Harry had eventually plastered on a brave and a more welcoming smile he stumbled back out into the living room; ready to face Liam and get the introductory stuff over with, but after a few twirls in his spot and a few shouts of his name, Liam was nowhere to be found.

And once again for the millionth time in his life, Harry was alone.

Things never really got much better there for a week at least. Liam was always out or working or out working out, and Harry was just there. In their apartment. By himself. Left alone with nothing but the TV and his now completely boring thoughts. Harry worked too, sure, but he was on a two week leave of absence to get his life together, and even though it was probably the last thing he needed right now because he really, really hated to be alone, his boss hadn’t given him a choice.

So Harry was left alone, again.

Always.

Until one day after about a week when Liam was home and Harry had been the one out for a change, Harry came back with a terrified little kitten cradled against his chest and was begging Liam to let him keep it. Even though it lasted for about five minutes, that was the longest conversation the two of them had had so far:

“Harry, you... where did you get that..?” Liam asked slowly. Liam wasn’t really a fan of cats.

“Ah, I uh, I found him outside, in the street.” Harry mumbled. “He was trying to cross the road and he was about to get himself run over.”

“So you didn’t buy him..?” Liam asked. Harry nervously shook his head. The cat buried itself into Harry’s jumper.

“I don’t have enough money to buy him.” Harry mumbled. “I don’t even know if he belongs to someone but if he doesn’t, can I keep him?”

Liam frowned as if he was in deep thought, but Harry didn’t give him the chance to think about it.

“I’ll feed him and train him and clean up after him and take care of him, you won’t have to do anything at all I promise.” Harry begged. “I can’t just let him go he’ll die out there, please, Liam, please.”

That was actually the first time Liam had heard Harry say his name. It felt... forced. But never mind that, Liam was apparently a sucker for Harry’s begging. Liam didn’t really care about what this kid thought of him, but he at least didn’t want him to hate him. He found himself slowly nodding and giving Harry his most serious face.

“Okay... It can stay...” Liam said. “...but it’s your responsibility, alright? If you forget to feed it, then don’t expect me to do it for you, okay?”

Harry nodded furiously.

“Of course! I won’t! He’s all mine!” Harry agreed. Liam hid back a smile at this kid’s eagerness. “You won’t regret it, Liam, I promise!”

Second time, slightly less forced.

Liam rolled his eyes and went back to watching the TV, and Harry just stood there staring at him for some reason as if he was expecting something else from Liam.

“...was there something else..?” Liam asked after he’d started to feel uncomfortable. Harry seemed to snap out of his trance.

“Ah, no, nothing else, thank you so much.” Harry mumbled. Liam glanced up again to have another look at the cat but Harry was already off to his room with it.

Liam’s opinion of Harry started to change from there. Because Harry spent almost his entire days with that cat, and he worshipped it to pieces, and Liam kind of started to realise that Harry was on his own. He never brought any friends over, he didn’t have a phone to text or call anyone with, and he never went out anywhere unless it was to work.

Liam still thought Harry was geeky because he’d named the cat ‘Rupert’ of all things, but Liam could also tell from when he saw Harry with that cat that Harry was actually a sociable person, who probably wanted nothing more than to find some friends of his own that weren’t animals or complete assholes. Liam had decent friends of his own, and he kind of wanted to introduce Harry to them just because he felt bad for the kid, but that’d be weird. Liam’s friends were all in their mid twenties after all, like he was. Plus Liam’s friends could be really overwhelming, especially Louis.

Moving on though, that cat seemed to have it out for Liam. Once Harry had started work again and Liam was occasionally left alone with the damn thing, it’d flock straight to him and weave around his feet to trip him up and meow as if it wanted something which Liam could never figure out what and wake him up in the middle of the night by sitting on his face and more of just constant meowing.

Liam was at his limit.

And it had only been another week or two.

So when Rupert had wandered into his room at some ridiculous hour of the morning and just wouldn’t. Stop. Meowing. Liam was extremely determined to throw the damn thing on Harry and let it tear some of his hair out on the off chance that he’d be able to sleep peacefully afterwards. Liam took the time to just lay there for a bit, until the darn cat was close enough, but then when he suddenly sprung up and lunged for it Rupert bolted off and left Liam clutching rather tightly onto a burning hot lamp on his bedside table. Liam hissed and almost smashed the thing to pieces before leaping to his feet and bolting to the bathroom to run his hands under cold water before he got blisters. The damage wasn’t actually that bad but Liam was always cautious when it came to his health and body, as well as anyone else’s. But anyway.

Eventually Liam finally returned to his bed and was literally seconds from sleep when Rupert started meowing yet again, this time from Liam’s doorway. Liam honestly wanted to cry now.

Why did this stupid thing hate him so much?

He’d done nothing wrong to it.

He’d even let it into his home for crying out loud.

Liam just didn’t get it.

Until he noticed that the cat kept glancing out into the hallway as if it was trying to tell him something. But that was stupid, right? What on Earth could this darn cat be trying to tell him anyway?

After another ten agonising minutes though Liam decided to humour the damn thing, and was actually surprised that when he got up the cat ran off down the hall and stopped halfway down to wait for him. Liam actually smiled at that. Because hey, even if it was the devil incarnate it was still pretty cute. Liam started heading down the hall after Rupert and it ran off again; this time stopping very nicely in front of Harry’s door, which was for some reason always open. Liam sighed and slowly approached Rupert once more, sighing again at the ridiculousness of this, and once he was near enough Rupert ran into Harry’s room and out of sight from Liam.

Liam frowned.

He didn’t want to go into Harry’s room.

He hadn’t been in there once since he’d moved in.

It’d be creepy.

But then his eyes started to slowly adjust to the darkness and he noticed that Rupert was sitting next to Harry’s head on his bed and nuzzling his face into Harry’s; as if he was trying to wake him up, and Liam was actually shocked to notice that Harry was having a rather bad nightmare. He was tossing and turning in his sleep like a mad man, and he kept gasping and groaning and twisting his face into one of discomfort, and then one of pain, and then back to discomfort.

Rupert was still nudging against Harry and trying to snap him out of it but it wasn’t working. The damn thing actually looked up at Liam as if it was asking for help.

Liam was still shocked that Harry had managed to find such an intelligent creature.

Then he realised that he wasn’t going to ever get back to sleep until he did what the damn thing wanted.

Liam sighed and slowly crept into Harry’s room, ending up having to sit down on Harry’s bed because Harry was all the way on the other side and near the wall, and reached out to start nudging Harry awake. Harry annoyingly frowned before Liam’s hand reached though, and turned away on his side to face the wall. Liam rolled his eyes.

Rupert was still trying to nudge Harry awake.

Liam very awkwardly slid closer until he was practically in Harry’s bed as well and reached out again to grip Harry’s shoulder and start trying to shake Harry awake. It didn’t work though. Liam tried again, and again, and again, but Harry was stuck in that nightmare of his.

Liam sighed and gripped Harry’s hip through the blankets to try and roll him over so that he could give him a good slap in the face to wake him up, but Harry seemed to have a different reaction to that. Harry did roll over, but then straight into Liam; latching onto his shirt and pulling him down with him until his face was nuzzled into Liam’s neck and his fists were balled tightly around the fabric across Liam’s chest.

Liam didn’t know what to do.

This kid Liam barely even knew was snuggling him in a bed that he really shouldn’t be in and-

Harry tightened his grip and frowned into Liam’s neck, then let out what was probably the cutest little murmur Liam had ever heard, and nuzzled further into Liam.

Yep, Liam should be running. Before Harry wakes up. If just entering Harry’s room while he was asleep was creepy then Liam didn’t even know where on the scale to put this. But Liam could kind of tell by the way Harry was clinging to him that he’d probably have to take his shirt off if he wanted to break free, and even then even that might not work. Liam decided to just give up. He’d been working out for three hours before going to bed and had had a twelve our day at work and just honestly couldn’t last another second anyway. Liam let his head fall back into Harry’s second pillow and Harry tightened his grip and snuggled even closer.

God he was heavy.

Liam looked down over Harry and was honestly quite surprised by how in shape this kid was. He’d only ever seen him in woolly jumpers and his work jacket, definitely not the tight black t shirt he was wearing now, and since Liam was a personal trainer it was reasonable that he slid an arm around Harry’s waist to get a feel of his abs up against his own stomach. Okay it was really awkward but Harry was asleep and Liam didn’t really give a fuck.

Wow this kid had great muscle tone.

Liam nodded appreciatively as if he were inspecting a new client. Then automatically slid his other hand up and gripped Harry’s bicep to get a feel of that muscle too. Very nice. Harry could probably bench eighty kilos no problem. Again, Liam automatically slid his hand over Harry’s back and gripped his other bicep to make sure they were even. They were. Liam didn’t move his hand away though. So now he was sort of accidentally hugging Harry back.

After a moment or two Harry seemed to stop stirring, and it took Liam a moment to realise that it was probably because of his grip.

Harry hadn’t had decent human contact in over three months after all, not that Liam knew. Of course being clutched to someone’s chest in the middle of his nightmare would help.

Liam sighed.

Harry was still frowning and now probably digging holes into his shirt though. And then...

“...mmm... you came... ba..ck...” Harry breathed. “...missed you... Jack..son...”

Harry was smiling now, because Liam was warm and comfy and apparently being a replacement ex-roommate.

Liam sighed again. Rupert was sitting next to Harry’s head and the two of them still; watching Harry intently as if Rupert were ready to go off like a fire alarm if Liam let Harry go and made him start tossing and turning again. Rupert was Harry’s guard dog apparently.

A guard dog to keep Liam there, to make everything better.

Liam ran a hand through Harry’s hair to soothe him and then gave the cat a look as if to say “okay okay, fine, see?”, then sighed again.

Harry smiled wide and nuzzled into Liam’s neck again. If Liam was the type to be self conscious he might have blushed. But instead he sleepily leant his head to Harry’s and awkwardly and eventually drifted off; very thankfully being woken up by the sun the next morning, instead of an incessant Rupert.

Okay this was now the longest conversation they’d ever had:

When Harry woke up the next morning Liam was sprawled out beneath him, he was using Liam’s chest as a pillow, and had a hand fisted around Liam’s shirt. Oh, and Liam had an arm around Harry too.

Fuck.

How the hell di-

“Aghh... my arm’s asleep...” Liam grumbled. Liam sloppily let his arm slide off of Harry and flop down onto the mattress. Harry just kind of froze, still on Liam, too completely terrified to move.

Howhowhowhohwhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhow-

“You awake yet..? Or are you planning to become permanently attached to me?” Liam mumbled. Harry’s eyes were wide. Oh so wide. He tried to speak.

“...ah...I-I...”

Yep, that was productive.

“You..?” Liam mused.

Harry flushed bright red and clenched his eyes shut. Then did probably the worst thing imaginable and buried his face into Liam’s shirt to hide his embarrassment. Harry was one blow away from being completely finished off. He held his breath. Then realised Liam was waiting for him to say something.

“I...”

“You were having a nightmare last night. I tried to wake you up but you latched onto me and wouldn’t let me go, so I eventually gave up.” Liam explained. Oh look more embarrassment. And oh god why couldn’t Harry get off of and let go of Liam already. “...at least you smiled once I was here.”

Now Harry was blushing for a totally different reason.

Liam seemed to notice.

“Well, you smiled into my neck and squeezed me tighter.” Liam added. Harry had one foot in the grave now. Surely he couldn’t make this any worse.

“My name isn’t Jackson either.”

Ah. That’d do it.

Harry pulled away from Liam and sat up; slumping over Liam and running his hands through his hair with a yawn. Harry tried to look genuine even though he was blushing from head to toe.

“...Thanks.” Harry mumbled. “...for staying.”

Rupert who had been sleeping at their feet at the end of the bed until now meowed in agreement.

“You saved me from a rough night.”

Harry was kind of expecting more teasing but it didn’t come. Instead Liam just shrugged as if it was no big deal and got up; stumbling out the door and ruffling his hair as he went. It took Harry a good ten minutes to calm himself back down again and assure himself that he wasn’t going to be kicked out.

When Harry had finally collected himself he decided to stop being such a mess and to at least try and make an effort with his flat mate. Liam was obviously a decent guy, Harry just needed to show him that he was too. With breakfast.

Breakfast was decent.

Since neither he or Liam were working this morning, Harry decided to make a nice Hot English breakfast for the two of them. He got changed, grabbed the last twenty pound note he had for the week, and bolted out of the flat to go buy some bacon and eggs and everything else. By the time Harry had bought everything, gotten back to the flat, prepared and almost completely finished cooking everything, it was around nine am. And Liam was suddenly bursting out of the hallway and into the kitchen to start skulling half the carton of orange juice.

Liam took in the smell of crisp bacon, fried eggs, French toast, roasted sausages, cooked mushroom and tomatoes, and breakfast muffins and started drooling a little at just the thought of it. He hadn’t had a hot breakfast in months. Harry held his breath in anticipation. This wasn’t too much, right? Surely it wa-

“Wow, you must be starving.” Liam mused. He screwed the cap back on the orange juice and threw it back into the fridge.

“Ah, it’s not all fo-“

“Jessica just called and asked if she could move her work out up to nine twenty, I gotta bolt.” Liam cut in. He was already adjusting a bag he’d had over his shoulder that Harry hadn’t noticed until now and grabbing his keys from the bar. He started jogging for the door and Harry went to call out and stop him but the words just seemed to get caught in Harry’s throat and refused to let him throw them up. Harry heard the door slam and then the flat was silent. Apart from the sound of sizzling protein and poultry and the oven fan whirring away behind him.

Liam was gone.

Harry felt his heart practically shatter to pieces.

And once again he was left alone, in their apartment, with his last twenty pounds worth of bacon that he didn’t really want to begin with.

Later that day Liam came home to find Harry cuddling Rupert on the couch; surrounded by blankets and the laughter from some stupid nineties sitcom that Harry was mindlessly staring at. Liam thought Harry was acting kind of weird sitting in the dark like that but hey, Harry was always acting kind of weird. Liam shrugged and went to go shower and change and all that, and when he came back he ended up plonking himself down next to Harry and Rupert on the couch with a freshly microwaved bowl of what he thought was left over take out. It wasn’t.

Harry’s eyes went wide at just the sight of it.

Shit, he’d forgotten to mark the sautéed chicken he’d cooked as his like he was supposed to. Liam and Harry’s food system currently consisted of a ‘if it’s not marked, it’s fair game’ kind of deal. So of course this was Harry’s fault. That didn’t stop Harry from internally freaking out though. Only about two people in his entire life had tasted his proper cooking. Bacon and eggs was one thing, but a peanut sautéed barbeque dish that he’d made from scratch was something completely else.

Harry held his breath and bit his lip, and watched as Liam almost painfully slowly took a bite of his creation and swallowed it practically whole. Liam seemed to freeze for a moment, and all Harry could think of was “Shit, he doesn’t like it, I knew he wouldn’t, fuck fuck fuck fu-“

“...what take out shop did you get this from?” Liam asked slowly. Harry was so busy focusing on trying not to blush like an idiot that he almost forgot to answer.

“Ah... A-Ah, I-It’s not bought, I-I made it.” Harry choked. Brilliant sentence there, Harry. Harry watched in fear as Liam’s eyes grew wide. Here it comes, the fake acceptance, the sympathy smile and baby bites of forcing it down, the-

“You made this?” Liam frowned. Okay, slightly more rude than Harry had predicted bu- “How the hell did you make this..?”

Huh?

“Huh?” Harry asked; dumbfounded. Liam seemed to be in deep thought.

“There was like, nothing in the pantry, or the fridge... how the hell did you get this from that?” Liam puzzled. Harry was taken aback. That almost sounded like a compliment.

“I just threw together whatever I could find..?” Harry mumbled. Liam seemed to think even deeper. He went silent for ages.

“If... If you had like... proper ingredients... like... fresh vegetables and meat and stuff...” Liam said. “Would... would you be able to make more stuff like this..?”

“Uh... yeah, I guess?” Harry answered. Liam nodded to himself then set his bowl down on the table and got out his wallet.

“How much do you need? Seventy five? A hundred?” Liam rambled. He took out two fifty’s and stared at Harry until he put his hand out and took it. Harry just stared because wow no one had ever given him so much cash in his life. “Ah shit, that’s no good, is it? Here, two hundred then.”

Liam added another two fifties and Harry thought he might pass out.

“Uh...”

“Get whatever you need and anything you want, unless you’re allergic to stuff, don’t get that, but yeah just get whatever you need okay?” Liam went on. Harry managed a nod. Liam nodded to himself and brought his feet up onto the couch to sit cross legged and started wolfing down Harry’s chicken; only bothering to glance up and see the TV between bites.

Harry felt a little spark of hope come back. This morning’s set back hadn’t been Liam’s intention anyway. Harry just had to be persistent.

“You’re not allergic to anything, are you?” Harry asked. Liam shook his head and swallowed his mouthful.

“Nope, but please don’t buy any celery I can’t stand it.” Liam urged. Harry tried to hide his smile because he hated celery too.

“Okay then...” Harry answered. “All good.”

“Brilliant.” Liam breathed.

And it was brilliant, because Liam ate everything and anything Harry cooked and was always groaning and smiling in satisfaction. Harry was over the moon to get this kind of response, which meant Harry was more cheery, which meant Harry cooked even more, until Liam actually had to ask Harry to limit him to three-four meals a day because he was worried about getting fat.

But Harry didn’t mind, because his cooking had somehow taken the awkwardness out of their relationship. Well, Harry didn’t mind until his newfound comfortableness around Liam came back to bite him in the ass.

“Ugh, work sucked.” Harry groaned. He’d just came trudging in through the front door and was now stripping off his jacket and throwing it onto a nearby chair. Liam rolled his eyes and gestured a beer towards Harry from the fridge to ask if he wanted one. Harry shook his head, like always.

“Any reason why it sucked or..?” Liam mused. Harry pouted.

“Some creepy old guy in a suit kept hitting on me.” Harry sulked. “I had to take his number just to get him to back off.”

“You don’t have a phone though.” Liam smirked.

“He doesn’t know that.” Harry smirked back. Liam chuckled and took a seat on the couch.

“He’ll probably show up again when you don’t call.” Liam mused. Harry frowned.

“Then I’ll run.” Harry pouted.

“What if he follows you?”

“Then I’ll run faster.”

“What if he’s faster.”

“I doubt he’ll make it all the way back here.”

“What if he does?”

“Then I’ll call the cops.”

“What if they come too late?”

“I’ll die then.”

Liam laughed and took a sip of his beer. Harry collapsed into the couch next to him; still pouting. Liam laughed again.

“If he comes here then I’ll protect you.” Liam mused. Harry raised an eyebrow. “What? I can be dependable.”

Harry smiled.

“Okay Clark Kent, I’ll leave it up to you.”

And Harry honestly thought that was the end of it.

Until one night Liam invited his friends over because he’d been boasting about Harry’s cooking to them for three weeks and they wanted a god damn taste already.

When Harry opened the front door to their apartment he wasn’t expecting to see the old guy from work before him, this time clean shaven with his hair styled up and in decent casual attire instead of an apparently very oversized suit.

“Ah.”

“Ah.”

Silence.

“LIA-!”

The guy lunged forward and clamped a hand over Harry’s mouth, then pinned him to the wall inside his and Liam’s apartment.

“Fuck! You were Liam’s new roommate?! Shit, please, you can’t tell him I was hitting on you I’ll never hear the end of it!” The guy begged. Harry was struggling like mad to get free but he was kind of distracted because wow this guy looked at least five years younger and was actually kind of cute.

“Niall! What the fuck are you doing?!” Liam shouted. Harry and Niall both froze and glanced down the hall to see Liam stomping towards them like a raging bull from the kitchen.

“Please.” The guy now known as Niall whispered. He let Harry go just in time for Liam to grab his collar and fling him against the opposing wall. Niall started laughing and Harry was getting really worried for this guy’s sanity. “Liam, it’s fine, we know each other...” Niall gasped.

Wow, this guy could act.

“Tell him Harry.”

Harry wasn’t sure if he should be outing this guy or playing along. Then Harry reasoned that if Liam trusted him then he was probably alright.

“Yeah, Niall’s a regular at the diner.” Harry mumbled. Niall smiled so brightly Harry almost had to wince away from him. Liam rolled his eyes and grabbed Niall’s sleeve and dragged him into the living room. Harry went back into the kitchen to continue on with dinner. More of Liam’s friends arrived but these ones didn’t abuse Harry. They just joined the others in the living room with idle chit chat whilst Harry slaved away. Harry could hear everything.

“So, how’s married life?” Louis mused. Liam rolled his eyes.

“Peachy.” Liam pouted. “You jealous?”

“Nope.” Louis said; popping the p. Zayn rolled his eyes, something he picked up from Liam by the way.

“You two are the ones that always act like you’re married.” Zayn mused. “Or like you’re kindergarteners with crushes on each other.”

“Ew.” Liam and Louis both answered. Niall laughed.

“See?” Zayn added. Harry tried not to laugh from the kitchen. “Just don’t make out in front of Harry, you might creep him out.”

Ah.

“...I don’t know man, I reckon he’s Bi.” Niall murmured. Liam frowned.

“What makes you say that?” Liam puzzled.

“Dunno, just thinkin’.” Niall shrugged. Louis picked straight up on that.

“Ugh, you wanna shag him, don’t you?” Louis groaned exaggeratedly. “Christ Niall, he’s way too young for you.”

Niall got all jumpy.

“Shh! What if he hears you?!” Niall hushed. “Don’t freak him out! And he’s only what, twenty? Twenty one?”

“Nineteen.” Liam mused. Niall went bright red because shit he’d been hitting on a nineteen year old. Sure, he was only twenty five but still, Harry was still too young to not notice a difference like that. “And please don’t go after him, I don’t wanna have to accidentally see your cock again if I can help it.”

Harry threw a hand over his mouth to stop himself from bursting out into his hideous hysterical laughter and accidentally knocked the saucepan and sent three table spoons of boiling hot oil all over himself.

“Shit!” Was all the others could hear from the kitchen.

Harry quickly stripped his shirt off before he got burns and frowned down at his shirt. It had been his favourite. Damn, he probably wouldn’t be able to get that out.

Harry quickly put everything he had to monitor on the stove on hold and went to go put on a clean shirt, but froze before he stepped out from behind the bar that was blocking everyone’s view of him. Oh what perfect timing, just when they were talking about Niall shagging him. Harry sighed and stepped out; running a hand through his hair and very casually and quietly trying to make his way towards the passage to get to his room.

Unlucky for Harry, Louis was the first to lay eyes on him. Louis let loose an exaggeratedly loud wolf whistle; keeping his eyes glued to Harry as he walked, and thus cued for everyone to turn around and see what Louis was staring at. Harry tried not to look back at them for more than a few seconds but it was definitely long enough to notice Niall biting his lip as he scanned him up and down. Harry tried not to blush until he was in the safety of their nice, dark hallway.

Everyone turned back around. Niall was still biting his lip.

“Well, that didn’t look nineteen.” Zayn pouted. “Damn Liam, you been training him three times a day or something?”

“Actually... I haven’t done anything. He was like that when he got here.” Liam frowned. “I haven’t even seen him work out once since he arrived either.”

Niall was still biting his lip.

“Damn, now I want a crack at him.” Louis added.

“You’re not even gay!” Niall grumbled. Louis shrugged.

“Anything to piss you off.” Louis smirked. Niall threw the remote at him.

Harry re-emerged from the hallway in that nice tight black t shirt only Liam had seen him wear. Niall practically leapt to his feet with a pirouette.

“I’ll go see if he needs any help!” Niall called. Before Liam could protest Niall was already calling out to Harry and he couldn’t really stop it. Louis started rambling on about something to do with unfair genetics and Niall blushed once he got into the kitchen and realised that Harry had probably heard every single word.

“Ah... sorry about that...” Niall mumbled. Harry smirked.

“I already knew you wanted me.” Harry mused. Niall smirked back. “It’s not like you’re subtle or anything.”

“Well, I really wanted you to have my number.” Niall defended.

“I told you I don’t have a phone.”

“What? Really?”

“I wasn’t lying.”

“Well aren’t you mysterious then.”

“That’s the idea.”

Niall laughed at that.

“So can I help or do I have no chance in hell?”

“Hmmm... I don’t know...”

“Yeah, you do.”

“No, I don’t. You looked thirty that day and now you look twenty three. I don’t know if I should trust a witch.”

“A cute witch.”

“Who said I think you’re cute?”

“I did.”

“Well then.”

“I’m right though.”

“Persistent, aren’t you?”

“Yup.”

About halfway through this little battle Louis had nudged Liam and Zayn to alert them of Harry and Niall’s apparent bonding.

“Oi... they’ve got a pretty nice air around them, don’t they?” Louis whispered. Liam twisted in his seat and frowned at the two of them. It’d taken him almost two months to be able to talk to Harry that much.

“I don’t see any air.” Liam grumbled.

“I do.” Zayn whispered back. “I reckon Niall’s got a shot.”

“Damn, little bastard’s confidence is working for him again.” Louis groaned.

“It’s only because they already know each other.” Liam defended. Louis raised an eyebrow.

“What? Really? How?”

“Apparently Niall’s a regular at the restaurant Harry works at.”

“Ooooooh...”

“What?”

“You think they’ve had one of those really flirty yet no one takes it further kind of things?”

“How would I know?”

“You live with him don’t you? He doesn’t mention stuff like that to you?”

“The only guy he’s told me about from work was some old dude who forced him to take his number.”

“How old?”

“How would I know?!”

“Touchy, touchy.”

“Shut up.”

“Oi, lovebirds.” Zayn interjected. Louis and Liam both looked up to see Harry and Niall watching them from the kitchen bar; elbows neatly placed on the counter with their chins resting on their palms as they watched Liam and Louis bicker. Fuck.

“Dinner will be ready in five.” Harry mused.

“You didn’t get distracted making out and burn it, did you?” Louis retorted. Niall took a leap and put his arm around Harry’s waist where the others couldn’t see it. Harry surprisingly didn’t shake it off.

“Maybe next time.” Niall smirked.

Harry seemed to make it through most of the night okay after that. Everyone loved his cooking, which made him kind of euphoric, and Niall backed off a bit because he apparently did know not to push it.

Everything was going great until they were all sitting in the living room sipping fancy ass cocktails Harry had made with all kinds of liquor and fruit and Louis decided to have some fun.

“So Harry, what’s your situation? You married? Single? Widowed?” Louis asked. Niall almost choked on his drink. “I’m sure a catch like you wouldn’t be on the market very long.”

Liam rolled his eyes.

“Single.” Harry mumbled. “Slowly turning into a man with six cats and a hump.”

“Huh? Cats?” Louis asked. As if on cue Rupert appeared and jumped up onto Harry’s lap. Liam smiled at the two of them. Harry was always so gosh darn happy when that thing was around. “...the fuck? Liam, you hate cats!”

Harry’s eyes widened for a moment and both he and Rupert looked up at Liam mid-pat.

“I don’t hate them, they hate me.” Liam pouted. Harry smiled and went back to petting Rupert.

“Still.” Louis continued. Liam shrugged and leant over to pat Rupert as well. Rupert started purring instantly and leant into the touch. Louis scoffed.

“You three look like a real couple.” Louis mused. Zayn shook his head with a laugh.

“Jealous again, I see.” Zayn added. Louis raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not, but Niall over there definitely is.” Louis smirked. Everyone turned to Niall who was suddenly very interested in Liam’s sneakers. Harry fought back a smirk. “Ain’t that right Niall?”

“Huh? What?” Niall faked. Louis rolled his eyes. Ah, a group trait apparently.

“You’re jealous that Liam gets to be all cosy with Harry while you’re stuck over there making faces at their cat.” Louis pushed. Niall shrugged.

“Harry can do what he wants.” Niall answered. Louis got that infamous evil little glint in his eye. Niall gulped.

“So if Liam were to kiss Harry right now then it wouldn’t bother you?” Louis mused. Harry’s hand froze on Rupert’s head. Suddenly Harry was remembering waking up practically in Liam’s arms and the stupid memory wasn’t going away. It was flooding his mind and consuming everything else he tried to block it with like a tsunami devastating a city and-

“Harry?” Liam called. Harry glanced up from Rupert and saw that everyone was staring at him. Shit, he’d zoned out. What the hell did he miss?

“Well? You up for it?” Louis smirked. Harry frowned.

“Up for what?” Harry asked. Liam slung an arm over the back of the couch and behind Harry, but Harry was too frazzled to notice.

“Me.” Liam mused. Harry’s eyes went wide.

“H-Huh? Why would I be up for you? We live together, it’d be...” Harry defended. Rupert jumped off of Harry’s lap to leave he and Liam alone. “It’d be weird.”

“I thought you were single..?” Louis smirked. “Unless you don’t want Niall to see you two together...”

Ahh, shit. Harry didn’t want to give Niall that satisfaction. Definitely not. But kissing Liam was-

“Harry.” Liam murmured. Harry turned to look at Liam for help but was instead met with a pair of lips catching his own. Harry froze up. Liam closed his eyes and pushed forward a bit and Harry seemed to lose any sense he’d just had. He closed his eyes and hesitantly kissed back; nudging his lips slowly and delicately against Liam’s until Liam pulled back and left him kind of just hanging there.

That was... well, nice. Kind of.

Harry opened his eyes and saw Niall looking like a kid who’d broken his brand new toy five minutes after opening it on Christmas.

Liam did his signature eye roll and turned his attention back to Louis.

“Now shut up and leave him be.” Liam said. Harry’s eye caught Niall’s and Harry bit his lip.

“Brilliant! I’m gonna love screwing with this kid!” Louis chimed. Niall threw the remote at Louis again. Harry kind of zoned out for a while after that. He only really came back to his senses when Zayn and Niall were getting up to leave and Liam was walking them out. Liam started saying something to Zayn so Harry took the chance to jog up to Niall before he left. Niall looked kind of really happy to have him all to himself for a moment.

“Tonight was... exhausting.” Niall breathed. Harry smiled and nodded.

“Is he always that demanding?” Harry asked.

“What, Louis?”

Harry nodded.

“Yeah, but tonight he’s just doing it because Liam specifically asked him not to screw with you.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, he’s an ass.”

“That’s kind of mean.”

“So is he.”

“You’re right.” Harry smirked. Harry caught Niall off guard and leant in and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I hope this makes you feel better.” Harry whispered. Niall turned his head to catch his lips with Harry’s, and Harry let him for a moment before pulling away. “...call me.”

“You don’t have a phone.” Niall mused.

“Well that’s your problem, isn’t it?” Harry smirked. Niall went to retort but Zayn was already grabbing his hand and dragging him away from Harry. And Liam, who’d looked up from Zayn just in time to see Harry and Niall’s little intimate moment.

“Nice meeting you Harry! We approve!” Zayn called out.

“Yeah! Maybe you could make me breakfast next time!” Niall called. Harry rolled his eyes and watched as Zayn hit Niall in the back of the head. “Later!”

“Later!” Liam called back, then shut the door before they found an excuse to stay. Harry and Liam’s eyes met for a moment and Harry thought Liam was going to say something but he didn’t. So Harry just shrugged and stumbled back into the living room to face a bored Louis.

“You leaving too or did you want to watch us make out some more?” Harry asked. Liam snickered to himself and Louis looked almost offended. Almost.

“I like him.” Louis said. Obviously to Liam. Liam smiled and nodded, which made Harry feel kind of all warm and fuzzy inside. “He’s a nice little housewife for you, Liam.”

Liam rolled his eyes, and Harry couldn’t help but laugh because he’d learnt that this was practically the way things were with Liam’s mates. Louis and Liam froze for a moment and just stared at Harry, because that was actually the first time either of them had seen him smile. Like, properly smile, with dimples and eye crinkles and a big bright set of white teeth and everything. An amazing, brilliant, heart warming smile. The second Harry saw that Louis and Liam had frozen up though it disappeared. Because Harry hadn’t meant to let anyone in his new life see his smile.

His smile always seemed to bring a fuck load of trouble with it.

“Ah... I uh... I’m gonna get started on the dishes...” Harry mumbled. Liam and Louis would have offered to help but they could tell Harry was trying to be alone for a bit. Harry left, and Louis’ jaw actually dropped when he saw Liam’s face.

Liam was blushing bright red, a hand covering his mouth, his eyes fixed to the floor in the opposite direction of Harry, and wearing probably one of, if not the most shiest expressions Louis had ever seen Liam make.

Liam swallowed a lump in his throat.

“...shit, Liam.” Louis mumbled.

The room fell silent for ages. Absolutely ages.

“...I know.” Liam whispered.

The next morning when Harry was trying to leave for work, Rupert wasn’t letting him out the door. So Harry had to call Liam and get him to pick the damn thing up so that he wouldn’t get out.

“This cat will be the end of me.” Liam grumbled. Rupert was now getting comfortable over Liam’s shoulder and starting to fall asleep there. Harry just smiled softly and reached up to pat Rupert goodbye. He felt like a mother abandoning her kid to go to work and leaving it with the baby sitter.

“He loves you.” Harry mused. Rupert nuzzled against Liam’s neck and Liam had to make a conscious effort not to smile at how cute the damn thing could be. “I’ll see you later, the both of you.”

“Yeah yeah, get going already.” Liam groaned. Harry smirked and shook his head; jerking the front door open and freezing mid step when his eyes caught sight of someone being about to knock on his face. When the hand was gone and Harry’s eyes had recognised the person in front of him, Harry fumbled a hand to Liam’s chest somewhere behind him and pushed him behind the door and out of sight of Jackson.

“Hey Harry.” Jackson mumbled. Harry felt like he’d just been kicked in the stomach. He knew exactly what Jackson was here for. Liam was currently squished between the door and the wall and was wondering why the hell he wasn’t allowed to show himself.

“...the fuck are you doing here, Jackson?” Harry croaked. Liam picked up on the tone of Harry’s voice instantly. Jackson clenched a fist.

“Give... Give back Gilbert.” Jackson ordered. Harry frowned. “I know you took him from me! Now give him back!”

Liam frowned too, because who the fuck was Gilbert? Had Harry stolen this guy’s boyfriend or something?

Harry tightened his grip on the door.

“He’s not yours.” Harry answered. “You don’t give a fuck about him to begin with.”

“I do! Give him back Harry, I swear to god... if you don’t I’m calling the police!” Jackson snapped.

Okay, unless Harry had kidnapped someone then they weren’t talking about a boyfriend.

“I’m not fucking around here! If you don’t give Gilbert back then-!“

“Rupert.” Harry cut in. Jackson’s face went blank. “His name is Rupert, not that you’d have been sober enough to notice anyway.”

Huh?

“I-It doesn’t matter what his name is... I bought him, paid for his vaccinations and everything, he belongs to me..!” Jackson countered. Harry tightened his grip on the door again and Liam could see Harry’s knuckles turning white.

“He was a present, for our third year anniversary, from you, Jack.” Harry gritted. “Or do you not even care about what we had anymore? Has the whisky drowned that out of you too?”

“Stop accusing me of things! I don’t deserve to be looked down on by you like this!”

“I’m not looking down on you Jack. I’m pitying you. Plain and simple.”

“It’s the same fucking thing! Now hurry up and give back Gilbert!”

“Rupert.”

“It doesn’t matter!”

“It does matter!” Harry screamed. “I’ve had him for almost six weeks and you’ve only now just noticed?! He’d be fucking dead if I’d left him with you!”

Liam was getting on edge because Harry never raised his voice like that and Rupert really didn’t seem to want to leave Liam’s arms and see his ex owner and-

“Ah... I-I did notice... so just give him ba-“

“No! You didn’t! And you’re not getting him!” Harry screamed. Liam could feel the entire door vibrating; being rattled away by Harry’s shaking grip. “What the fuck are you even doing here, Jack? I mean it’s nine in the fucking morning and you show up here with what? Three? Four drinks in you already? Asking me to give you back the one thing I actually liked in that stupid run down flat of yours? Fuck off!”

“Oi Harry, just calm down for a mome-“

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down after all the shit you’ve put me through! I put three years of my life behind you, Jack! And in just three months you destroyed all of it! Just three months!”

Harry was border lining hysteria now. Once he’d started letting this stuff out he just couldn’t seem to stop it. It kept coming and coming like word vomit and he couldn’t get a handle on himself. What’s even worse is that he could see the inner Jackson that he’d fallen in love with behind the alcohol; getting crushed by every letter that left his lips.

“And what’s even worse is I let you drag me down with you! I defended you Jack!”

Now his voice was unstable.

“Everyone else left but I stuck by you! But you went and made me look like a bloody idiot!”

He didn’t want to give Jackson’s addiction the satisfaction of this break down but it was pouring out regardless.

“I lost everything for you!”

Harry needed help.

“Then you took everything we were and smashed it to pieces!”

Why didn’t he ever have someone to help?

“I can’t even look at you when you’re like this! Actually, I can’t even look at you when you’re sober either! So don’t show up here drunk off your fucking face and demand tha-“

Liam slammed the door shut and let go of Rupert to let him run off down the hall and away from the noise, then latched tightly onto Harry and refused to let him go. And after Harry had finally realised that Liam had stopped him and had accepted the fact that he was still nowhere near ready to be dealing with Jackson yet, he gave in and let his body collapse into Liam’s; wrapping his arms as tightly around Liam as they could go and hugging him back with all his might. Harry fisted both hands around the fabric of Liam’s shirt and felt Liam’s hand weave into his hair and bury his face into the crook of Liam’s neck. Harry hadn’t realised until now that he was shaking. Liam held him tight, and squeezed him even tighter when Jackson started yelling at him from the other side of the door. Eventually Jackson left.

Liam stayed.

Harry was still trembling.

“Shh... it’s okay, I got you.” Liam soothed. Harry sucked in a choked up breath and squeezed Liam even tighter.

Liam could tell Harry shouldn’t be going into work today.

Harry could tell that once again he was letting someone get close to him that he probably really shouldn’t.

But Harry wasn’t strong enough to be alone right now.

“...what’s your boss’s name? I’m calling you in sick.” Liam murmured. Harry shook his head but Liam ignored him. Liam got his phone out and dialled Harry’s work (he only had it in there in case of an emergency) and after five minutes of being put on hold he finally got through and told them Harry was out cold with food poisoning. Liam hung up and Harry went to let Liam go but Liam wasn’t okay with that. Liam wrapped his arms back around Harry and gave him no choice but to stay put. And strangely enough the silence was comfortable enough for Harry to be okay with staying in Liam’s arms for another five minutes.

“...I’m sorry I lied about Rupert.” Harry mumbled. Liam smiled and started running his fingers through Harry’s hair.

“It’s fine, you did what you had to do.” Liam breathed. Harry nodded and suddenly Liam was finding him extremely cute. Not in the big brother way like he was supposed to. Liam let Harry go before he could give that thought a chance to fester.

“I uh... I’d really appreciate if you could not tell Gemma about that... she doesn’t know we were dating.” Harry added. Liam still found him absolutely adorable; standing nervously before him and avoiding looking him in the eye. Liam pinched himself behind his back to discourage the thought.

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” Liam assured. Harry smiled, softly and brokenly, but still genuine, and Liam had to swallow a lump in his throat again.

He wasn’t okay with letting himself notice anything along those lines to do with Harry yet.

“Well then, for the first time since you moved in we’ve both got the day off.” Liam said. “What do you wanna do?”

Harry started chewing on his bottom lip and god damn Liam had to pinch himself again.

“Make pancakes.” Harry smiled.

Liam and Harry made a lot of progress from there. Harry allowed himself to smile around Liam, and occasionally Louis, and to his surprise it hadn’t gotten him into trouble yet. But there was always a chance for that so Harry was still on edge. Liam however was also put on edge when Niall randomly showed up one afternoon.

“Hey Liam, is Harry here?” Niall asked. Well then, polite greetings weren’t shared amongst friends anyway. Liam glanced over his shoulder even though he knew Harry was taking a nap.

“Kinda...” Liam answered. “I can go check if he’s awake if you want.”

“Ah, he’s sleeping, huh? Long shift?”

“He was gone when I got up this morning so I guess.”

“Well that’s no fun then.”

“Go find fun somewhere else then.”

“But I want fun here.”

“Well the fun here is asleep so.”

“Maybe I should join him.”

“You don’t want to sleep with him, he’s heavy.”

“Wait, what?”

“Nothing.”

“Liam.”

“Niall.”

“Liam.”

“What?”

“...nothing.”

“Go away.”

“Aw don’t be like that, I can kill time with you.”

“Wow, I’m flattered.”

“You should be.”

“Well I’m not.”

“Too bad, now let me in.”

Niall shoved past Liam and into the hallway, then once he’d affirmed Liam wasn’t going to haul his ass out he went into the living room and collapsed dramatically on the couch. Liam rolled his eyes and took a seat on the opposing couch. He stared Niall down for a moment then shook his head. Niall was one of his best mates. He should be more relaxed. But he wasn’t.

“So how’s work?” Liam asked absentmindedly. Niall frowned at the TV which was switched off.

“Boring as fuck. The only thing that gets me through the day half the time is my lunch break at the diner.” Niall pouted. “And Harry doesn’t even work every day, so even then I’m still miserable half the time.”

“Wait, you’ve been seeing him since that night here?” Liam asked. Niall nodded all happy and gleeful like.

“Yup. He even gives me a discount.”

Liam felt like he was about to be sick. But he pushed it aside.

“Hey... what’s with all the noise out he-“

Harry cut himself off when he saw Niall sprawled out on the couch and froze in the doorway; still rubbing the sleep from his eyes in nothing but that favourite tight black t shirt of Liam’s and a pair of boxers. Niall very happily looked Harry up and down. And Harry blushed.

Liam felt sick again.

“I umm... I’m gonna go lie down...” Liam mumbled. He got up and started stumbling towards the hallway where Harry was and Niall made no effort to stop him. Harry gave Liam a weird look but Liam refused to look Harry in the eye so he didn’t see it. Liam disappeared into his room and Harry was left to entertain Niall all by himself.

“Hey.” Niall smirked. He shamelessly looked Harry up and down again and Harry bit his lip.

“Hey.” Harry answered. Niall patted the couch next to him but Harry instead took a seat where Liam had been sitting. The room fell silent for a bit. “...did you need something?”

“You.” Niall mused. Harry rolled his eyes, guess who he picked that up from? “What?”

“Always the charmer, aren’t you?” Harry groaned. Niall laughed and got up and came to sit next to Harry on his couch. Harry just smiled back. Not that genuine smile he reserved from strangers though. Just his normal fake one.

“You like my charm.” Niall mused. Harry and Niall were now twisted in their seats to face each other, Harry with his leg on the couch and Niall doing the same, Niall with his arm over the back of the couch next to Harry, Harry biting his lip as he took in the fact that Niall was edging closer.

“And you think I’m cute.”

Yep, definitely closer. And smiling all charming like as he leant forward.

“And I think you don’t want us to be pressed for time this time...”

Harry started leaning forward too. Niall closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side and just whe-

SMASH

Harry and Niall jumped apart like two teenagers getting busted by their parents and looked up to see no one there. Niall frowned, and so did Harry. Then Rupert came scurrying out of the kitchen and jumped straight into Harry’s arms looking more terrified than Harry had ever seen him. Harry sighed and smiled softly at him then got up to go see what he’d broken. Niall groaned and collapsed back into the couch. Rupert gave Liam a “I got this.” kind of look from over Harry’s shoulder. Liam was currently hiding in the darkness of the hallway and wondering why on Earth he was spying on two of his mates making out at age twenty six. Okay, he knew why but he wasn’t going to admit that. Liam briefly disappeared into his room and called Louis.

“Hey Lou, can you come over? Like, right now?” Liam asked. Louis groaned.

“I don’t wannaaaaa...” Louis whined.

“Please, it’s urgent.”

“But Liammmm...”

“Please, Lou.”

“Well I can’t, I’m in the middle of cooking dinner.”

“Can’t you pause it?”

“I don’t wannaaaa...”

“Louis.”

“Liammm...”

“...can you call Niall then..?”

Louis fell silent for a while. Then groaned so loudly Liam had to wince away from the speaker.

“He’s over there hitting on Harry isn’t he? And you’re jealoussss..!”

“I’m not jealous.”

“Yeah you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yeah you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Why did you call me then?”

“Because I want to see you.”

“Then why did you want me to call Niall?”

“Because...”

“Because you want to be a cock block, that’s why.”

“I don-“

“You’re sacrificing Niall’s dick for the sake of your own.”

“Loui-“

“Liam wants to shag Harryyyyyy!”

“Loui-“

“Tie him to his headboardddd!”

“Loui-“

“Give it to him repeatedlyyyyy!”

“Loui-!”

“Make him scream his naaame!”

“LOUI-“

“Adopt a little fami-!”

“Forget it, I’ll figure it out myself.”

Liam hung up, and Louis was left pouting at his phone because he wanted to tease Liam for another good hour or so.

Liam put on a brave face and walked out into the living room to pretend to be interested in whatever it was Rupert broke.

“What was that..?” Liam mumbled. He was nonchalantly rubbing his head and trying to act innocent. They seemed to buy it.

“Ah... Rupert knocked a glass over... Sorry.” Harry mumbled. Liam wanted to slap Harry when he saw him being about to bend over and start sweeping up the broken glass barefoot.

“Oi, Oi, give it here.” Liam ordered; shoving Harry off to the side. “Are you stupid? Go put some shoes on first.”

“Ah...”

“Go on, go get back to Niall, I got it.”

“Yeah but-“

“Harry.”

“Ah...”

Harry hated being a burden though. So he quickly scurried off and put on some sneakers then came back and bobbed down to help Liam. Niall was left still groaning to himself on the living room couch.

As Harry and Liam very delicately picked up the broken glass piece by piece, Harry’s leg nudged against Liam’s, and suddenly Liam was letting his thoughts slip and regretting every syllable.

“...you’re actually considering him, aren’t you?” Liam mumbled.

He’d caught Harry off guard.

“What?” Harry asked. Liam hesitantly picked up the last piece of glass and stood up. Harry was still giving him a confused look from the floor.

“...nothing.” Liam mumbled. Before turning and fleeing to go find the vacuum cleaner.

Harry was left crouching there frowning to himself.

Then Niall got a little too convenient call from Louis and had to leave because of a “very embarrassing emergency” that Louis apparently didn’t want Liam to know about.

Things seemed to stay frozen between Liam and Harry for a while after that.

Nothing major seemed to pop up for over a month, so the two of them ended up going about their normal ways. Harry, with his still completely dead social life, and Liam, with his ridiculous work hours and constant exhaustion. Actually, Liam had been working even more than usual. And if Harry hadn’t forbidden himself from looking Liam up and down from the moment he’d first entered Liam’s flat, he’d have noticed that Liam had become even more ridiculously fit as a result.

Actually, part of that was a lie.

Because Niall had very nicely slotted himself into Harry’s social life. As a mate. Thing. Kinda.

Niall knew Harry was on the rebound and didn’t want to scare him off or screw this up. So he’d decided to take it slow with Harry, try to get their personalities to match up first, and assure himself that Harry wasn’t that creeped out by their age gap.

But the rebound aside, Niall’s window of opportunity before he was flung into the friend zone was closing. He knew it. And Liam knew it. And hell Harry probably even knew it too but he was still way too unstable to be able to voluntarily make the first move with anyone yet.

So since there was no development Rupert decided he had to step up. He couldn’t have his masters feeling lonely after all.

Liam had just finished working out and was about to leave his home gym room when Rupert snuck in; knowing that Liam would pull the door shut and he’d be trapped. Liam didn’t notice, so he went to have a shower. Harry was on the couch in the living room when Rupert’s meowing started up a few minutes later.

When Harry finally located the source of the meowing he froze up. Because the gym was the only room in Liam’s apartment that always had the door shut and Harry really didn’t think he was allowed in there. He and Liam still had certain unspoken boundaries that they just assumed the other knew, and Harry figured that he wasn’t allowed in Liam’s gym was one of them.

Harry quickly scanned the hallway for any signs of Liam, and when he saw it was clear he quickly and quietly jerked the door handle down and jarred the door; expecting Rupert to come scurrying out straight away. He didn’t. Harry groaned. He had to go in.

Another quick scan of the hallway then Harry summoned his courage and quickly poked his head in. The room smelt of sweat and cold steel and of all things, Liam. Harry felt kind of giddy. Because Liam had a nice scent and-

Ah, it just wasn’t his day.

Rupert had gotten ‘stuck’ on top of one of Liam’s weight machines. You know, the tallest one in the room with a thousand levers and pully’s and-

Ugh, Harry wished he had money to afford stuff like this.

Anyway.

Harry sighed and stumbled in, leaving the door wide open, and reached his hands up to grab for Rupert. When he did he found himself extremely thankful in this moment for his excessively long limbs for the first time in his life. And once he’d gotten his hands on his beloved pet and was lifting him back down, Rupert of course had to start howling like he was about to croak and needed to alert his pack. Which he kind of did. Because Liam then came hurrying into the room in nothing but a towel to find out what the hell was wrong.

By now Harry had hushed Rupert, but now he’d been caught and was left standing in the middle of Liam’s forbidden room with no hope of escape. Liam stared at the two of them for longer than necessary. They were both really cute gaping back at him with wide begging eyes and timid mouths.

“...what the hell are you doing?” Liam frowned. Rupert helpfully nuzzled into Harry’s neck like nothing had been wrong to begin with. Harry was left on his own.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to- I-I mean, Rupert got locked in and... and got stuck and- and yeah so I came to help him but then he started making that sound and- fuck, Liam I’m really sorry I didn’t mean to-“

“Harry.” Liam interjected. Harry bit his lip. “Calm down.”

“Ah...”

“Why are you so frazzled? You didn’t break anything did you?”

“Ah... n-no...”

“Then why are you so terrified? I’m not gonna bite.”

“Ah... it’s just... I didn’t think I was allowed in here...” Harry mumbled. Now he’d flushed bright red, because he was really flustered and nervous and not terrified but still panicking and Liam was giving him this judgemental look and-

Liam stifled a laugh. Making his shoulders hunch and body tense in places that Harry had forbidden himself from noticing. Liam stumbled in awkwardly in that awkward towel shuffle people do and up to the apparently not done for duo and gave Rupert a stroke.

“Why on Earth would you think that?” Liam mused to himself. Harry watched as a drop of water rolled down the side of Liam’s neck and over that huge bulging chest of hi-

No. Harry watched nothing.

Harry wasn’t meant to be seeing that stuff of Liam.

Liam raised an eyebrow at Harry to ask for an answer and Harry tried to relax himself a bit.

“Because, the door’s always shut so I just figured that uh...” Harry mumbled. Liam chuckled.

“I keep the door shut to keep the man stink localised to this room only.” Liam mused. Harry bit his lip. He didn’t think it stank. He found it rather pleasant. Kinda. In a non-weird way.

“S-So you’re not mad?” Harry found himself choking out. Liam raised an eyebrow again; a much more attractive gesture than his signature eye roll, Harry thought.

No. Harry didn’t think anything.

Damn it Harry.

“Unless you’re Louis it’s actually very difficult to make me mad.” Liam smirked. Harry didn’t really get that. Liam seemed so much more intimidating to him than Liam’s other friends and made him way more nervous and edgy than most people did. Harry then thought back over their past few months and realised that Liam hadn’t gotten mad when Niall had broken his window when he’d missed Louis’ head when he’d flung the TV remote, or when Rupert had broken that glass, or when Harry had clung to him in his sleep, or when Zayn had shown up at six am drunk off his face and flinging take-out Chinese noodles at their apartment door. Harry realised that maybe Liam was right.

Harry sighed and actually let himself relax this time.

“You’re allowed to use anything in here anytime you want, actually.” Liam added. “As long as you know what you’re doing.”

Harry’s eyes grew wide and he took another look around the room at all of Liam’s shiny new toys. Then Harry blushed. He didn’t know what any of them did.

“Th-Thanks.” Harry mumbled. “But I uh... I don’t really know what I’m doing with any of them.” He admitted. Liam was actually taken aback by that. He’d never asked but he’d assumed that Harry had a gym membership somewhere else where he kept that overly developed body of his in brilliant shape. He didn’t. Harry actually just did push ups in the kitchen whenever he was waiting for something to cook, or when he had an extra ten minutes to spare before work, or whenever he felt like calling Jackson which recently hadn’t been that much.

“What? Really?” Liam wondered. Harry bit his lip again and nodded. Liam made a note in his mind that he’d have to figure out some way to stop Harry from doing that. “But you’re so-“

Harry felt his ears perk up. Liam didn’t continue.

“So what?” Harry bewildered. Liam swallowed a now familiar lump in his throat.

“So in shape.” Liam managed.

Oh.

“Th-Thanks.” Harry mumbled; embarrassedly running a hand through the hair at the back of his head and glancing down at Rupert. Rupert meowed back. The room fell awkwardly silent for a moment. Harry decided to do something other than flee for once. “I-If you could show me sometime then that’d be great.”

Liam felt his ears perk up at that. He was a trainer after all, it was what he did. Helping people stay fit, that is. He found himself smiling back at Harry and giving Rupert another stroke.

“How about now then?” Liam asked.

What?

“What?” Harry slipped. Liam gave Rupert another stroke.

“How about now?” Liam repeated.

They were going to be doing something other than watching television together? Or eating? Or cooking? Or paying out Louis?

Harry wasn’t sure if he could handle this sudden branch of extended friendship. But Liam’s smile was warm and sincere and Harry really wanted to say yes anyway and he really did like the smell of this room. Harry nodded. And Rupert jumped down from his arms and started weaving himself in between Liam’s legs and brushing up against them.

“Let me go get changed then.” Liam breathed.

Harry was actually quite surprised by how much he enjoyed learning everything Liam taught him. He liked figuring out the ways that the weights slotted together and could be lifted or pulled or adjusted or removed and what he liked even more was finding out about all the different muscles he could train that he didn’t even know he had. And Liam liked teaching him. Because Harry paid so much attention to his every word and he’d honestly missed having someone seem that eager to not just get started but to also understand how much he enjoyed what he did.

Harry really understood that.

Harry loved the way Liam’s face lit up when Harry got a changing of weights right or an adjustment of the seat or pedals or whatever else there was to change. Harry didn’t really care that whatever he did was just something trivial, he just loved how Liam made him feel like he’d done something magnificent every single time he got something right.

Nothing was a better feeling for Harry than the feeling he got when he could listen and watch someone talk about what they were passionate about. And Liam was really, really passionate about this. After they’d gone through all the complicated machines, Liam finally brought Harry to the simple bench press bench, and was kind of really taken aback when he saw that Harry was giving him that brilliant smile of his yet again. Liam didn’t really get why. He hadn’t made any jokes yet.

“What’s that look for?” Liam found himself smirking. Harry realised he was smiling like an idiot and shook it away. Liam fought back a smile at how cute that was.

“Nothing.” Harry breathed. “It’s just nice to see you so passionate about something.”

Stupid Harry, Liam was trying his hardest and didn’t really need that.

Liam smiled just as wide and laughed to himself and ran a hand through his hair as he glanced down at the bench. Harry thought that humility was a beautiful thing on Liam.

No. Harry didn’t.

Okay, he did.

He could let that one slide.

Liam gestured for Harry to take his spot on the bench and once Harry did, Liam got out some weights and showed Harry how to balance them and put them back in order and all that. Then Liam got curious.

This kid didn’t go to a gym.

How much could he do?

“ I wanna try something.” Liam said. Harry glanced past the bar and up at Liam and raised his eye brows. “Wanna see what your starting weight is?”

Harry felt nervous at that. Liam’s confidence in Harry’s body wasn’t shared by Harry. He was worried Liam would give him too much and he’d get crushed to death before Liam could stop it. But Liam was so happy and Harry couldn’t ruin that.

“Okay but um... I doubt it’s going to be much... can we start with the lowest?” Harry managed. Liam smiled and nodded.

“Start with two sets of five then?” Liam asked. Harry thought that sounded like a lot for some reason. He panicked.

“Ah, h-how much is the bar?” He choked. Liam raised an eyebrow.

“Ten kilos.” Liam answered. Harry bit his lip. Liam really hoped Harry wouldn’t do that when he lifted.

“C-Can I just try the bar then first?” Harry mumbled. Liam smiled and shook his head at Harry’s ridiculousness but humoured him and held his hands out under the bar to spot Harry regardless.

“Whenever you’re ready.” Liam smirked. “Just focus on your breathing, remember?”

“G-Got it.” Harry mumbled. God damn this kid was adorable when Liam expected it least.

Harry lifted the bar out, down, and up, straight away. When Liam guided it back Harry blinked a few times in disbelief. Liam laughed.

“More?” He smirked. Harry nodded. Liam added five kilos to each side. Now Harry was doing twenty. Once again Harry pulled the bar out, down, and up. Liam guided it back again and Harry frowned up at the bar. Liam stifled a laugh. This kid really had no clue how much he could do, could he?

“More?” Liam asked. Harry nodded again. He was starting to get his confidence. Liam added two tens and then put the fives back on. Now Harry was doing forty. Harry went through the same motions as before without really needing to focus at all. Liam smiled.

“More?” Liam asked. Harry nodded. Liam took off the fives and added another two tens. Now Harry was doing fifty. Nope, Liam doubted that’d be hard either. He added the fives back on as well. Now Harry was doing sixty. Harry gave Liam a look to check that this was alright and Liam nodded. Harry felt the strain this time. But not by much. And he hadn’t been paying attention to the number so he just assumed they were still taking this slow.

“More.” Harry asked. Liam switched the weights around for bigger ones so that Harry was doing seventy. This time he actually braced himself to help Harry out. But Harry didn’t need it. Harry managed seventy alright.

Then suddenly Harry sat up and pulled off his shirt.

Liam really didn’t need that.

They kept going; Liam now having to focus a stupid amount of his attention on the weights instead of Harry’s contracting muscles, until Harry had found his limit. Ninety five kilos. Liam couldn’t believe it.

Harry sat up again.

“How much did I do? Fourty? Fourty five?” Harry asked. Liam stifled a laugh.

“Ninety five, mate.” He smirked. Harry’s jaw actually dropped. Liam laughed and handed him his shirt. Harry really needed to put that back on for everyone’s sake.

To Liam’s surprise Harry snatched the shirt and whacked Liam with it. Liam flinched and jumped back; stunned.

“You tricked me!” Harry yelled. He wasn’t actually mad. He was playful mad. Liam instantly decided that he loved playful Harry. Liam found himself smiling like an idiot. Harry got madder. “It’s not funny!”

“It’s kinda funny.” Liam smirked. Harry hit him with his shirt again.

“It’s kinda not.” Harry insisted. Liam rolled his eyes.

“Okay, really funny.” Liam mused. Harry stood up and went to hit Liam again but this time Liam dodged it and fled the room. Harry chased after him.

“Come back here you lying prick!” Harry yelled. Liam’s laughter could be heard ringing throughout the hallway. It made Harry kind of dizzy for a moment. Then he recomposed himself and managed to corner Liam in the living room between a couch and a lamp. Harry raised his shirt above his head ready to strike and started closing in. Liam shielded himself the best he could. Harry was a foot away when suddenly there was a knock at the door. Liam stupidly relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Harry whacked him right on the shoulder; clipping Liam’s ear on the way too. Liam yelped.

The knock came again but this time more impatient. Liam snuck his way around Harry and hid under the coffee table and made it very obvious that Harry would have to answer the door. Harry was laughing like an idiot at all of it and pulled his shirt back on as he headed for the door; still adjusting his shirt as he swung it open.

Harry froze.

And Jackson stood there with wide eyes as Harry pulled his shirt completely in place and let his smile drop from his face.

They both just stood there in silence. Until Jackson swayed a little and almost stumbled into the doorframe and tried to recover.

“Harry...” He slurred. He was evidently more drunk than last time. Far more. “I- I bought you your shirt back..!”

Jackson held out a shirt Harry had given him for Christmas one year that could’ve been soaked in alcohol for all Harry knew. It smelt revolting.

“That’s yours, Jack.” Harry said. Jackson frowned and shook the shirt at Harry for him to take it again. He didn’t.

“No it’s not!” Jackson yelled. “Take it!”

“I’m not taking it, throw it away.” Harry insisted. He folded his arms across his chest and leant against the doorframe; exhausted at the mere sight of an all too familiar scene. Jackson threw it at his feet.

“I came all the way down town, through-through the streets, to your new place and you don’t even want it..?!”

“You came up town, Jackson. This area’s way nicer than yours.”

“Don’t sass me, you stupid fuck! Now bend down and pick up the shirt!”

“Just go home, Jack.”

“Take it!”

“No.”

“Take the fucking shirt!”

Harry groaned and nudged it behind him and into his and Liam’s flat with his foot. Jackson stumbled a step closer.

“You think you’re so much better than me, now that you’re slutting around on the upside of town, don’t you?!” He hissed. “What? My dick and everyone else’s you sucked back on our block not fancy enough? Needed a cock more refined to ride instead..?!”

“For the thousandth fucking time Jackson, I never cheated on you!” Harry growled. Jackson took a step back.

“Well thennn, if that’s all cleared up then, then you should come home! Eggbert misses you!”

“Rupert.”

“What about him?”

“Nevermind.”

“I miss you Harry... no one can ever replace y- *hick*-ou...”

Dear lord Harry wondered how he’d lasted out that last month with Jackson at all.

“You replaced me just fine with whisky.”

“I-! I didn’t replace you with anything! Now stop this madness ‘break’ crap and come home!”

“We’re not on a break Jack, I left you.”

“Liar!!!”

“Go home.”

“Fine! But you’re coming with me!”

Jackson reached out for Harry’s wrist but Harry dodged it. Jackson tried again and almost fell over this time. His third attempt resulted in him managing to catch a fistful of Harry’s shirt and him almost ripping it as he tried to yank Harry back down the hall with him. Harry didn’t budge.

“Stop fucking around and come on!” Jackson ordered. Harry tried to push his hand away but Jackson grabbed his wrist with his other hand and started to pull Harry with that too. Harry dug his heels in. “Har- Harry what the fuck?!”

“Let go, Jack! I’m not going!” Harry insisted. Jackson snarled in response and pulled harder. Harry had no choice but to twist Jackson’s arm and push him away. Jackson didn’t like that. He grabbed Harry’s collar and slammed him up against the door frame of Harry and Liam’s apartment; Harry’s head making a nice loud thud as it hit the edge of the cornered surface. Harry hissed and tried to pull back but Jackson now had his forearm crushed against Harry’s throat and Harry couldn’t risk moving in case Jackson increased the pressure.

Great, now they were back at that night when Harry had left and Harry was border lining a break down again.

“First you start telling me what to do around the flat; yelling “You’re drinking too much! Stop getting drunk! Stay in for once!” and all that shit! Then you start withholding sex! Then you threaten to leave me! Then you call the police on me, twice! Then yo-“

“The sex stopped because you were always too drunk or hung over and never wanted to touch me!” Harry screamed back. “I called the police because you started throwing bottles at our door at four in the morning and I was terrified that we were about to be robbed! I begged you to get your fucking act together but then you show up at my fucking work birthday party, drunk off your face, and see all my friends and accuse me of sleeping with them all! You called me a slut and your bitch and a thousand other insulting and degrading names under the sun in front of everyone I cared about! You nearly got me fired! I’m sorry that you couldn’t get your stupid shit together but don’t you dare try and pin one minute of us on m-“

Liam was suddenly leaping in front of Harry and shoving both hands to Jackson’s chest; slamming Jackson back a good metre or so. Harry froze a second time.

Liam looked pissed.

Not just mad, or irritated, but pissed. He was absolutely furious.

“Don’t you fucking touch him!” Liam screamed. Jackson should’ve been scared but he was way too gone to realise that. He ignored Liam completely and started coming for Harry again, but Liam fisted his hands around Jackson’s collar and held him back.

“Who the fuck is this, Harry?! Your newest conquest?! Does he fuck you as good as I did?! I bet you take his cock right down your throat every morning just to pay the ren-“

Liam punched Jackson in the stomach and waited for him to crumple over before slamming him up against the wall of their hallway and pinning him in place with his forearm the way Jackson had done to Harry. Liam was right up in his face and practically boring his forehead into Jackson’s.

“Say that again, I fucking dare you!” Liam growled. “Say one bad thing about him ever again and I’ll put you in the fucking hospital, you got that?!”

Harry was terrified now.

Not of Liam.

Terrified that Liam would get hurt, or in trouble, or even arrested because of him.

Harry hated that he’d gotten Liam into a situation like this.

Liam didn’t care about getting himself involved though because Harry was important and sticking up for Harry was important and punishing people who hurt his beloved Harry was very, very important. All that and Liam was honestly seeing way to much red to even think about controlling himself or his actions at that moment anyway.

That blow to Jackson’s stomach seemed to sober him up a bit. For a minute or so. Once Jackson finally stopped kicking at Liam, Liam dug his arm further into Jackson’s throat.

“Say you’re sorry.” Liam snarled. Jackson clawed at Liam’s arm to get it away but this guy had nothing on Liam. “Say it!”

“Khh... s-ssorry...” Jackson choked. He was turning red now. Liam’s arm eased back slightly. Nowhere near enough for Jackson to have any hope of getting free, but enough so that the colour in his face started to turn back to normal.

“Now say something nice about him.” Liam growled. Jackson hesitated for a split second and Liam was crushing his throat again. “Now!”

“Khh... he-he’s... he’s a great kh-cook...” Jackson choked. Liam dropped his arm and took a step back. “...because he struggles to find something he likes to choke down more than my spunk.”

Liam had been in the middle of turning away from Jackson but nope.

Nope.

Nope.

Liam spun back around and punched Jackson in the stomach again, and once he crumpled to the floor Liam grabbed his shirt and flung him onto his hands and knees further away from Harry and kicked him full strength; delivering the blow right where that hopefully already destroyed liver of Jackson’s was. Jackson convulsed as if he were about to throw up but didn’t manage it. He just tried and failed to get up as he tried and failed to suck in air through the burning pain in his lungs.

Liam had been halfway back towards Harry and ready to slam their door shut but nope, he was still way too pissed. He turned back around and kicked Jackson in the side this time; sending a sharp shooting pain through his body via his hip and causing his very bones to resonate dull, agony ridden vibrations until he’d almost passed out from it.

Liam grabbed Harry’s arm as gently as he could manage at that moment and guided him back into the flat, then slammed their door behind him and collapsed himself against it and locked it shut. Liam could still hear Jackson’s groans from out in the hallway. He honestly hoped Jackson would have to crawl his way out of the building and end up passing out on the sidewalk.

Who on Earth could create such a vile excuse of a human being? And why on Earth was he permitted to be in even the same hemisphere as Harry?

Harry just stared at both Liam and the door, still terrified.

Eventually Liam took enough deep breaths to calm himself and managed to pull his face out of the door and turn to face Harry. That wasn’t a good idea. Harry’s face was absolutely heart breaking. Liam straight away staggered forward and wrapped his arms as tightly around Harry as they could go and crushed him against his chest. Harry melted straight into Liam and held him back.

Harry was now more terrified that if Liam let him go he might disintegrate. And that Jackson might go to the police, or the neighbours might evict Liam, or that Liam would realise he wasn’t worth the trouble and kick him out himself.

Liam made a vow somewhere inside of him to never let anyone lay a hand on Harry ever again. Liam also hated himself for being stuck under a coffee table at age twenty six when his roommate was being abused by his ex out in the hallway. Liam also couldn’t stand to think of what else this kid had been through. Harry deserved none of it.

“They’re putting an electronic lock system on the main door downstairs next week. He won’t be able to come up here anymore.” Liam murmured. Harry squeezed him tighter because thank god Liam was still okay with him being here. “If he comes to your work let me know, if you see him on the street let me know, if he even looks at you again, you let me know. Alright? Louis’ sister’s a lawyer. We’ll get a restraining order and you’ll be okay, alright? Just breathe, Harry, it’s alright, just breathe.”

Harry hadn’t realised that his throat was doing that horrible staggered gasping for air thing it did when he felt he was about to cry until Liam had said that. Harry started taking deep breaths to try and calm himself and Liam wove his fingers into Harry’s hair and squeezed him tight.

“I’ll protect you, alright? Just stay with me and I’ll keep you safe.”

Liam hadn’t realised he was shaking because he thought Harry was going to leave and go somewhere where Liam couldn’t protect him. Liam didn't know though that Harry had seen Jackson get beaten up a hundred times drunk or not and that he was completely fine with it at this point.

Thankfully everything Liam had just said had wiped away all of Harry’s fears from a moment ago though. Harry somehow had this feeling that Liam meant every word and that he would be alright if he had Liam to get him through.

As they stood there Liam took the time to imagine that Harry wasn’t interested in Niall. That he’d often caught Harry staring at him, or that Harry always touched him unnecessarily. Liam took the time to imagine that this was a big deal for Harry in a way other than friendship. He imagined taking Harry’s face in his hands and walking him back until he was pressed up against a wall, nudging those damaged lips apart, running his fingertips over the endless muscles of his torso, feeling Harry’s breath hitch in the back of his throat as their bodies rutted together.

Then Liam’s brief fantasy ended because Harry was almost eight years younger and would probably be creeped out by Liam to begin with and Liam could feel something warm trickling down his fingers in Harry’s hair. Liam freaked. He slung Harry over his shoulder and carried him straight into the bathroom; plonking him down on the edge of the bathtub and beginning to rake through Harry’s hair to find the source of the bleeding like a monkey looking for bugs. Now Harry freaked.

“Wha-Wha-What are you doing?!” Harry panicked. “Li-Liam?!”

“You’re bleeding!” Liam growled. “I should’ve kicked the bastard harder! And broken a rib or two! And-”

Harry winced and Liam stopped yelling. He’d found the cut and the moment he saw it he breathed a sigh of relief. It was tiny.

“...does it hurt? Are you feeling dizzy?” Liam mumbled. Harry shook his head.

Honestly Harry felt kind of stupid being taken care of like that. He saw himself as big and gangly and he had huge limbs falling everywhere and a mess of hair and he just didn’t get why Liam would think he needed protecting. Harry could have taken Jackson on just fine if he wanted to. All that aside though Harry loved the attention. He didn’t understand it but he loved it. He loved having someone let their walls down for him and willingly show him how much they cared instead of hiding it behind small gestures and a bit of extra money. He felt like a kid again with a big broth-

Nope.

Liam didn’t feel like a big brother. Or a father figure. Or a mate or a cousin or even an uncle. Liam just... felt like Liam.

...

Harry really liked Liam.

A month or two passed from there and Jackson never came back. And although Harry still kind of wished he’d get his act together and turn back into the guy he’d fallen in love with, he knew it wouldn’t happen. Jackson was probably terrified to come near Harry now anyway. Liam had made sure of that, and Harry was actually thankful for it. It forced him to move on at a faster pace after all.

Niall had decided to up his game and gave Harry his old mobile phone so that they could text, and that’s really all Harry did with it. Text Niall. Because his only other numbers in his phone were work and Liam. And why would Harry need to text Liam if he was just a door down most of the time?

Liam endured it.

For a bit.

But one night when Liam and Harry were finally both home for once, and Harry sat on the other end of the couch in nothing but Liam’s favourite tight black t-shirt and his boxers; texting Niall the entire time while they watched a movie together, Liam started to reach his limit.

“...you texting Niall again?” Liam mumbled. Harry glanced up at Liam from his phone with innocent eyes. Liam cursed himself inside his mind for wanting to taint that look himself.

“Ah, yeah. Who else?” Harry mused. Liam shifted further back into his seat to lean back against the couch and rested his arm on the arm rest.

“Have you two uh... are you still just friends or..?” Liam asked. He didn’t really want to know but it’d seem awkward if he’d stopped talking after that first question.

“I don’t know we flirt and stuff but, nothing uh, nothing worth mentioning.” Harry murmured. “Uh, yet.”

Yet.

Liam was right he really shouldn’t have asked. He grabbed at the end of the armrest and gripped it tight.

Liam didn’t really care if Harry thought about him or not but Harry thought about Niall and that really bugged Liam because he was better for Harry than Niall and-

“Mmm.” Liam mumbled. “Alright then.”

What Liam didn’t realise though was that Harry was extremely aware of the fact that Liam was about tear off a chunk of couch and was frantically trying to understand why. And just like that Harry’s mind flashed back to that moment in the kitchen when they were picking up glass, and everything clicked.

“...you’re actually considering him, aren’t you?”

Harry couldn’t believe it.

Because Liam wasn’t- Harry meant he’d- but Gemma and-

What?

Once again Liam had managed to knock down one of those walls between them. But this time it was a really important one. The one that Harry had forced up and fortified himself to stop himself from noticing that side of Liam. Liam’s grip on that armrest tore this wall to shreds.

Harry snuck a sideways glance at Liam and let his eyes roll over him up and down; taking in the huge broad and muscular shoulders that steadily rose and fell as Liam breathed, the bulging biceps that seemed to only increase in size as Liam felt Harry’s gaze on him and squeezed the couch even tighter, the way that Liam’s stupidly cut abs were somehow outlined to look even better than they probably were beneath Liam’s thin shirt, and the most important part of all, Liam’s lips.

Oh god Harry wanted to feel those lips again. Harry wanted to run his fingers through Liam’s hair and make low groans slip through his mouth and into his own and grind their bodies together and feel Liam’s huge muscles for himself and above everything have Liam take control like he knew Liam could.

Then Harry’s phone vibrated and he was snapped back to reality and reminded of Niall. Ah, that’s right, Harry had Niall. Niall was- Oh who was Harry kidding, Harry would’ve jumped Niall three months ago if his body was anything close to Liam’s. But it wasn’t.

Liam’s was close to Liam’s.

Liam was sitting only a metre away and was probably a writhing pile of jealousy at just the thought of Niall with his hands on Harry.

Liam wasn’t a risk in the way Niall was.

Liam had stuck with Harry through everything so far.

Harry could smile around Liam.

Harry made his choice and decided in that very instant that Liam’s hands should be gripping his thighs instead of that couch.

Harry decided to act.

Harry sat up and set his phone down on the coffee table in front of them, then picked up the remote, switched the TV to mute, and set it back down again. Liam had been focusing very hard on the movie to try and keep himself together so he was kind of mad when Harry did that. He turned to face Harry with a frown on his face.

“Hey, what was that fo-“

Harry was kneeling next to Liam on the couch and crawling closer. Liam cut himself off. Harry gripped Liam’s shoulders with both hands and swung his leg over Liam’s waist so that he was straddling Liam in his seat. Liam’s frown vanished. Harry sat down properly on Liam’s lap and gave his shoulders a squeeze. Their faces were suddenly three inches apart and Liam had no idea what to do. Harry’s head was blocking out the light from the television which was currently the only thing lighting the room. Liam was forced to rely on his other senses.

“...I’ve never thanked you for everything you’ve done for me.” Harry mumbled. Harry leant closer and nuzzled his nose into Liam’s cheek; letting his lips linger as close to Liam’s as he could without closing the distance, testing. When Liam didn’t pull back Harry closed his eyes, and Liam did the same and nuzzled back. Harry heard Liam’s breath hitch in the back of his throat and he went for it.

Harry slowly pressed their lips together, then got cold feet and pulled back a second later and bit his lip as he gauged Liam’s reaction.

He could’ve had it wrong.

He could’ve had everything wrong.

Liam could be about to punch him in the stomach and throw him off of his lap and onto the floor and kick him out the door and never let him back in again.

Harry could’ve just made a horrible, horrible, terrible mistake thanks to his stupid sex deprived mind an-

Liam gripped Harry’s waist and pulled him forward and touched their lips back together.

Harry’s heart started to do little flips inside his chest.

Harry hesitantly closed his eyes and started nudging his lips against Liam’s, this time hesitantly pressing forward and bringing a hand up to cup Liam’s face as he moved Liam’s lips apart. Liam kissed back, then absolutely lost it.

Because Harry’s lips were soft and warm and stole the oxygen right out of Liam’s lungs and prevented Liam’s brain from making the right decisions. Harry took the lead and pushed forward into Liam’s mouth and bit down on his bottom lip and squeezed his shoulders tighter, and Liam reasoned that he should be going for it too.

Liam fought Harry back and once he’d taken control he slid a hand down over Harry’s ass and started squeezing it, causing Harry to gasp against Liam’s lips and start kissing him even more urgently and earn those brilliant groans he’d imagined to slip from Liam’s mouth and into his own.

Liam gripped Harry tighter. And Harry loved to have Liam’s hands on him like that. The feeling of Liam’s fingers digging into his waist and massaging away at his skin made him almost euphoric. He slid closer and started writhing his body up against Liam’s and groaned into Liam’s mouth at the feeling of the hard muscle against his crotch. That drove Liam nuts. He groaned back and slid his other hand to Harry’s ass and pulled him forward; guiding Harry’s hips to roll harder up against him than they’d been doing already and groaning again when he felt Harry start to harden up.

Harry was only nineteen after all, he couldn’t help himself. He still had raging hormones and urges and they were all screaming at him for Liam. Harry was more than fine with that anyway. If anything he wanted this to go even a bit faster.

“...mmph... are you still just thanking me..?” Liam gasped. Harry matted his hands into Liam’s hair and shoved his tongue practically down Liam’s throat. Then started to grind even faster.

“I stopped thanking when you kissed ba-”

Liam squeezed Harry extra tight.

“-Ah..!”

Liam wasn’t sure if he should keep going. He knew he wanted to and it’d be the worst thing in the world to say no to Harry but, well, he wasn’t quite sure if Harry wanted to keep going. And he didn’t want to spook the kid. But when he hesitantly slid his hand below the hem of Harry’s boxers and started groping bare skin Harry became a mess. And this still wasn’t going anywhere near fast enough for Harry or his hormones.

“Ah... I wanna... wanna try something...” Harry gasped. He’d pulled back from Liam’s lips to get that sentence out but then Liam had veered off and was now kissing down the side of Harry’s neck instead. Harry moaned and tangled his fingers deeper into Liam’s hair then realised he’d gotten distracted. Harry reluctantly climbed off of Liam for a moment and stood up to awkwardly tug his boxers down to his ankles.

Now Harry really wished he’d turned the TV completely off. Because Liam seemed to be just staring at Harry as he tried to take in the situation and probably just the age gap alone had Harry suddenly way more nervous than he should’ve been. Liam wasn’t trying to stare on purpose though, he was just taking a bit longer than needed to reassure himself that Harry wasn’t saying no. When Liam finally registered that, he reached up and Harry stepped forward to have Liam grip his hips again and pull him back down onto his lap.

Their lips re-met and as Harry started up with the grinding again Liam slid both hands down and started groping Harry’s ass, but then decided to pull one back up and force two of his fingers straight into Harry’s mouth instead. Harry almost choked then groaned and closed his eyes and grabbed Liam’s wrist with both hands and started sucking his fingers all over. Liam had to stop everything to watch that through the darkness though because god damn Harry looked like he really wanted it. When Harry was done he fluttered his eyes back open and stared right back up at Liam through his eyelashes and Liam almost passed out.

This thing was no kid.

This thing was someone who wanted Liam to do extremely bad things to him and was absolutely not afraid to show it.

And the fact that they were sitting on Liam’s couch in what still kind of seemed like Liam’s living room with nothing but the glow of Liam’s TV shining light on them and that Harry was in only Liam’s favourite t-shirt and rutting against Liam like in Liam’s dreams had Liam feeling really dizzy. Because at that moment Liam was the object of Harry’s undivided attention after so damn long and Liam was suddenly really determined to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Their lips collided and Liam gripped Harry’s ass tight and started to slide his fingers in, and straight away Harry tilted his head back and moaned as if Liam was the best thing in the world for him. Which he was. Because Liam seemed to find Harry’s good spots instantly and turned him into a quivering mess as he loosened him up and kissed every available inch of skin on his neck that he could get his lips on.

Harry gripped Liam’s shoulders tight and started to rock his body back and forth; rolling his hips and body up and down as much as he could onto Liam’s fingers to feel them deeper and to urge him to stretch him out faster. Harry was impatient though so as he kept up with that he dropped his forehead and rested it on Liam’s shoulder, then let his hands dive to Liam’s jeans and start fumbling to get Liam’s dick out into the open so that he could see what he was getting himself into. Harry groaned the second he laid eyes on it. Then instantly brought a hand up to his mouth, licked it all over, and brought it back down to Liam to start jerking him off to get him ready. Liam groaned and clenched his eyes shut.

“Oh god Liam I’m not gonna last two minutes with you.” Harry gasped. “Hurry up an-Ahh...”

Liam had yanked Harry forward and was forcing his hips down; spreading Harry’s legs further apart and lining them up. Harry matted his hands back into Liam’s hair and kissed him deep. Then Liam was replacing his fingers with himself and Harry was letting every wall he’d put up between him and Liam fall down around them, maybe for good. Liam on the other hand was more overwhelmed than Harry, because Liam should’ve honestly been warned beforehand about Harry’s dirty mouth and complete and utter lack of self restraint. When Harry was in bed and under the sheets he was a totally different person to the one that’d cuddled Liam in his sleep and made Liam hot chocolate when Liam got home from a rough day at work. This Harry was impatient and lust filled and never seemed to get quite enough of Liam in him hard enough.

Harry hadn’t even bothered with easing into it. Straight away he’d clamped his hands down on Liam’s shoulders and had begun rolling his hips in sync with Liam’s until just the feeling of Liam had him trembling and begging for more. And Liam had let Harry ride him as much as we wanted, until Liam had suddenly stored up all of this repressed energy for Harry and needed to let it loose.

Liam gripped Harry’s ass tight and struggled to keep himself together as he fucked into Harry and made Harry even slutty-er. With Liam’s hands on him like that Harry wasn’t afraid to press his lips to Liam’s ear and tug on the lobe and drag his fingers down Liam’s chest as he got shagged properly and to whisper things like “Fuck Liam...” or “...big... r-really big...” or “Oh god, just like that.” Or Liam’s personal favourite “Liam m-more! Li-Ahh..! Ahh..! Ahh..!”

Liam groaned and slammed his lips back onto Harry’s to shut him up so he could keep himself together long enough to last, and gripped Harry’s ass even tighter as he began rolling Harry up and down onto him and going as deep as Harry could take it. Harry cried out into Liam’s mouth and tried to roll his hips with Liam’s hands but he was already a total mess.

“Ah... Liam I can’t take you... t-too much...” Harry gasped. Liam gave up on trying to pace himself because if Harry wasn’t going to be quiet then he was a lost cause anyway. Liam growled and bit down on Harry’s bottom lip and tugged on it, then suddenly started slamming into Harry and causing Harry to cling to him for dear life. Harry hadn’t been teasing earlier, he really was already at his limit. He pulled his face out of where it’d at some point found a home in the crook of Liam’s neck and tilted his head back; all the while still choking out encouraging words that made Liam’s head spin. Liam felt like he was being worshipped to pieces when he was the centre of Harry’s universe like that.

“C’mon Liam... Give it to me... Give it to me..!” Harry choked.

Liam went even harder and Harry was almost numb with pleasure at the feeling of Liam fucking into him like that.

“Oh god Li-“

“Shut up.” Liam growled. “Just sit there and take it.”

Liam had finally gotten that Harry loved to have someone overwhelm him with hands and muscle and hot breath and orders and the feeling between his legs. And he knew just what to do now to make Harry feel what he was gasping for.

Harry gasped and buried his face into Liam’s neck; taking in Liam and his words and revelling in how good they made him feel, but Liam didn’t give him time to take it in. Liam nuzzled his head against Harry’s to get him to pull out of his neck and get their lips to find each other’s again, and once they did Harry started choking Liam’s name out in between kisses but Liam wasn’t giving him much time to breathe either.

Then suddenly Liam found that one spot inside Harry that set his body on fire, and everything was over. Harry only just had time to pull his shirt down over himself with both hands, throw his head back, and scream half of Liam’s name before he was seeing white as Liam clutched him tight and forced him into heaven. Liam went all out and drove into Harry over and over again to drag him out, then when Harry finally finished and collapsed into Liam’s muscles; his head coming to rest on Liam’s shoulder, he was left to sit there and gasp and struggle to breathe as Liam kept going until he was joining Harry in the clouds.

As Harry laid there in Liam’s hands and struggled to get a grip on himself he wondered how long the bruises that he knew he’d have on his ass tomorrow would stick with him.

As Liam let his head fall back and slowly tried to get his eyes to refocus on the ceiling he wondered if Harry would ever be able to cling to him like he was now and not be able to send his body into an absolute fit.

When Harry’s gasps had eventually turned quiet and soft, Liam lifted his head to sit upright again, and Harry met Liam’s lips with his own the moment he felt Liam’s eyes on him. And Liam was kind of startled by that. He wasn’t sure about anything right now but he really hadn’t thought that Harry’d attempt to stick around afterwards. Neither the less he smiled softly and kissed Harry back, until Harry was gasping and sitting up to get Liam out of him and matting his hands back into Liam’s hair and guiding Liam’s lips back towards his neck.

Oh god did Harry want to go again?

Liam groaned and wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist to cradle Harry’s body against his chest, and Harry smiled softly back at Liam’s warmth and nuzzled his head against Liam’s to get their lips to connect again. Harry didn’t really know what he’d been expecting but wow Liam was a really good kisser. Out of everything that was swirling around in Harry’s mind about sleeping with Liam at that moment, the only thing Harry really cared about was that he couldn’t figure out where he wanted Liam’s lips to be most. And he was just about to start up with the grinding again and let Liam decide when he realised his shirt was stuck to his stomach and that it wasn’t one of the best feelings in the world.

Harry very reluctantly pulled back and started to stand up but Liam caught his waist half way and kept him from leaving. And Liam just had to look up at Harry with these stupid puppy dog eyes that begged him with all their might for him to stay. Liam hadn’t gotten anywhere near enough of Harry’s attention for the night. Harry could feel himself starting to harden up again though at just the sight of Liam waiting beneath him with his dick still out. Harry had to flee.

“I gotta have a shower...” Harry mumbled. “...my shirt’s sticking to me.”

“Take it off then.” Liam argued. He’d already pulled Harry back down onto his lap again and his lips had reconnected with Harry’s neck. Harry groaned and wove his fingers back into Liam’s hair.

“Then I’ll get you all sticky.” Harry mumbled. Liam started on a love bite and Harry gasped and tightened his grip.

“Then go, then.” Liam growled. Harry tried and failed to find the will to move. He gave up for a bit and started making out with Liam again. Minutes passed.

“Ahh... right, gotta... gotta shower...” Harry reminded himself. This time he managed to slip out of Liam’s hands and get to his feet before Liam could react. “Hah... damn it.”

Harry ran a hand through his hair and sighed then started heading for the bathroom just like that, and this time Liam let him go. Liam didn’t want to be pushy after all. And Harry might’ve just been trying to be polite by sneaking off that way anyway.

But Liam was still really turned on and he knew Harry was too and even though they probably should stop it here, Liam couldn’t help himself when he saw that beautiful ass that he’d just pounded walking away in the opposite direction. And anyway, Harry liked to be taken charge of, right? Harry apparently liked someone who was aggressive.

Liam could be aggressive.

If he wanted to.

If Harry wanted him to.

But he wasn’t sure if Harry wanted him too.

Ugh, Liam wished he’d paid more attention to Harry and his mixed signals.

Liam then reasoned that if Harry didn’t want him then he’d just say no and that’d be that anyway.

Liam got up and went to go join Harry in the shower.

When Liam got to the bathroom door he was relieved to find it unlocked. Because that was a good sign, right? But then again Liam had never tried to open the door when Harry was in the shower before this so Harry could’ve always left it unlocked. Liam sighed and took a leap and snuck in, took his clothes off and added them to Harry’s pile on the floor, and held his breath.

Liam was stealthy, so Harry had been really, really surprised when he’d felt Liam’s naked body suddenly press up against his own. Especially since all at the same time Liam’s arm had slunk around his waist, Liam’s other hand had grabbed onto his hair and was pulling his head to the side, and Liam’s lips had reconnected with his neck and were beginning on a series of love bites.

The moment Harry registered what was going on he groaned and span around in Liam’s arms and slammed their lips together again. Within mere seconds Liam had Harry pressed up against the wall and was earning those favourite words of encouragement of his from Harry’s lips. Harry had his arms wrapped tightly around Liam’s neck and was struggling to keep his eyes focused on the ceiling as Liam made love bite after love bite everywhere he could find.

“Ah... h-hey.” Harry gasped. Liam was now grinding Harry into the wall and panting hot and staggered into Harry’s neck.

“Hey...” Liam gasped back. Liam bit down on Harry’s pulse point and Harry cried out, clenched a fist around Liam’s hair, and brought him back up to force their lips together again.

“I thou-“

Liam slung Harry’s leg over his waist and actually giggled into Harry’s ear when Harry gasped and clung to Liam to hold himself upright. Oh god Harry loved a playful Liam in bed more than anything he’d ever encountered. Or in shower, in this case.

“You’re way too young for me if you think I’m letting you stop here.” Liam mumbled.

The feeling of having Liam’s hard on grinding his own against his stomach drove Harry nuts.

“Ngh... you’re not giving me much of a choice...” Harry gasped. Liam was an inch away from sliding back into Harry when Harry tried to hold Liam back to catch his breath.

“Ahh... c-condom...” Harry choked. “This time we should probably...”

“They’re all in my room.” Liam groaned. “I can’t wait that long.”

That made Harry all dizzy and even more turned on than necessary.

“Just let me shag you here.”

Yep, Harry was in heaven. In Liam’s arms with Liam between his thighs.

“Too... too big.” Harry argued. “I won’t be able to stand with you... You’ll have to pick me up...”

Jesus Christ Harry was asking for it.

And Liam was suddenly over flooded with jealousy at the sudden idea that Harry had probably begged that drunk for it just like he’d begged him. Liam hauled Harry into his room, still completely drenched, and threw him down onto his bed and watched as Harry laid there all confused and dazed from over his shoulder as he rummaged for a box on condoms. By the time Harry really knew what was happening again Liam had him on all fours and was slipping his fingers back into him. Harry cried out and clenched his fists around Liam’s sheets then dropped his head down so he could focus on not collapsing. Now Liam was aggressive because he couldn’t help it. Liam was now planning on driving into Harry until Harry forgot about anyone else he’d ever been with.

“You’re not leaving my bed tonight.” Liam mumbled. “You got that?”

Harry gasped and bit down hard on his bottom lip. Liam yanked his fingers out then surrounded Harry’s body with his own from above and behind.

“Answer me...” Liam urged. Now he was trailing kisses down Harry’s spine and rolling his hips and dick into Harry’s ass. Harry couldn’t help but glance at the clock and groan when he saw that it was only eight forty five pm. Groaned in anticipation, that is. Because Harry was more than happy to give himself to Liam for the entire night and didn’t even plan on thinking twice about it. Because Harry liked Liam and wanted to make Liam see as many stars as he could with his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

“Hurry up and stop teasing then.” Harry panted. “Make me feel i-ahh..!”

Liam was bottoming out inside Harry already and Harry almost collapsed just from that. Now Liam didn’t even bother to wait, he just started rocking Harry back and forth by the grip he had on his waist and fucking into him until he found his sweet spot again. Harry was already on fire and struggling to breathe. Liam definitely hadn’t been in this deep on the couch.

“Oh God Li-”

Liam sped up.

“Ahh..! ha- ah..! ah..! ah..!”

This wasn’t good enough. Liam needed to see Harry’s face. Needed to know Harry knew it was Liam he wanted to shag him most. Liam pulled out, flipped Harry over, gripped his thighs wide apart, and slid right back in again. Harry arched his back off the bed and bored his head into the pillows.

“Ahh!”

Liam’s mouth somehow managed to cover Harry’s and muffle the gasping as he slammed into him, until Harry was weak at the legs and dragging his fingernails down Liam’s back and struggling to keep his eyes open. Liam then buried his face into the crook of Harry’s neck and started on love bite after love bite as he drove Harry closer to the edge. All Harry’s filthy mouth was managing to get out now was Liam’s name; choked and broken, repeatedly as he started to come undone. Liam had never heard something so beautiful.

“You close..?” Liam mumbled. “Come on Harry... come for me.”

Harry wanted to last longer the second time around but god damn Liam was obviously way fitter than he was, he’d never run out of energy. Energy that he was currently using to send Harry into heaven once again relentlessly without holding back. Harry fumbled his hands up Liam’s neck and into his hair and brought their lips back together again. This time he didn’t bother with Liam’s name, because Liam’s mouth was wide open and enveloping his and warm and addictive and soft and gentle and-

Oh god this wasn’t just a shag anymore.

This was something more profound. Or something.

Definitely something better than just a shag.

Then suddenly Harry felt his body tightening up and just like that he was practically passing out at the pleasure that was ripping through him. Harry moaned, soft and breathless, as he tightened his grip on Liam’s hair and re-found heaven, and Liam smiled just as softly against his lips and rode him out until he’d found his way there too.

At some point afterwards Liam had rolled them over so that Harry could use his chest as a pillow, and Harry only really came back down and noticed that that feeling he’d had before just now was still there. Lingering. Somewhere in the back of either his mind or heart.

That feeling of something different when making out with Liam.

Harry wanted to know if that feeling was planning on sticking around, but he was too happy and dazed to bother with it at that moment.

Eventually Liam tried to compose himself and started to sit back up. He wasn’t aggressively jealous anymore. Just normal protective Liam.

“Ah... that was... that was definitel-“

Harry grabbed Liam’s shoulders and slammed him back down onto his back and into the sheets. He slid Liam out of him then shifted forward to sit on Liam’s stomach, then bent down and touched his lips to Liam’s yet again. Liam groaned at the contact.

“More...” Harry gasped. Harry started to push his way into Liam’s mouth and Liam struggled to kiss back and breathe at the same time. “Oh god Liam give it to me more.”

Liam was in the middle of figuring out how to stop that mouth of Harry’s from working it’s magic when he realised he’d already flipped them over and was laying on top of the kid and was yet again rolling him into the mattress.

Harry smiled and wrapped his arms around Liam’s neck and groaned in satisfaction as Liam slid his hand up and down his side and started feeling him up again. Liam groaned back.

“You’re way too old for me if you think I’m letting you stop here.” Harry smirked. Liam veered off from Harry’s mouth and started on a love bite just below his jaw. Harry gasped and tightened his grip.

Liam had gotten his wish. Harry longed for him and only him. Repeatedly.

“...you’re not giving me much of a choice.” Liam mumbled.

The next morning Harry woke up in Liam’s bed, completely naked and way more relaxed than he should probably be for someone who’d just slept with his roommate; repeatedly, and sighed breathlessly and attempted to roll over onto his back. He failed. Liam had an arm draped over his waist and seemed to be able to hold him down with just that. Harry groaned and lifted Liam’s arm up then rolled over and set it back down again. Liam frowned in his sleep and pulled Harry sideways across the bed until Harry’s side was flushed with his own. Liam smiled at the warmth and squeezed Harry tight.

“...mm..m... morning...” Liam moaned. Harry had never heard such a brilliant morning voice in all his life. He needed to hear more before Liam’s body woke up.

“Morning Li.” Harry breathed. Harry felt Liam’s arm stiffen around him.

“...did you just call me Li..?” Liam mumbled. Harry flushed bright red. “...Harry?”

“Maybe.”

“...you did.”

“I said maybe.”

“...you called me Li.”

“Shh go back to sleep.”

Suddenly Liam was sitting up and towering over Harry; hands pinned on either side of him as he stared him down and blocked out the light. Harry bit his lip. Liam was definitely awake now.

“How can I sleep when you go and say cute things like that?” Liam mumbled. Harry frowned. Liam came closer. “Please... Tell me why you’d call me something so adorable...”

Now Liam was dragging his lips up the side of Harry’s neck and coming to a stop below Harry’s ear.

“Explain it to me.” He murmured. “Exactly what about me is cute to you..?”

Liam tugged Harry’s ear between his teeth and started on a love bite. Harry gasped and let his eyes fall shut.

“Ah... n-nothing...” Harry mumbled. “It just...”

Liam wrapped an arm around Harry’s waist and rolled onto his back; dragging Harry with him. Harry had to brace himself with both hands to stop himself from crushing Liam as he worked on his neck.

“Just what?” Liam muffled.

“It just felt...” Harry tried.

Liam slid a thigh in between Harry’s and started grinding it into him.

“Ngh... it just felt... right.” Harry mumbled. Liam’s leg stopped moving. Liam thought Harry really shouldn’t be allowed to speak in the mornings until Harry was wide awake. Because that was definitely not something Harry would say when he was completely awake.

Was it..?

Harry felt that familiar awkwardness of their beginning relationship come back.

“Nev- Never mind though... If you don’t like it then I won’t call you that again...” Harry added. Liam pulled out of Harry’s neck and brought a hand up to Harry’s face and brushed some of Harry’s hair away from where it’d been about to fall in front of his eyes.

“No... I like it.” Liam mused. “But only from you.”

Definitely not from Louis.

Harry flushed bright red. Because Liam was smiling up at him all sweet and gentle like and oh wow he had no idea Liam was capable of saying something so cute himself.

“Ah...” Harry managed. Great job Harry. Harry tried again. “...Y-You’re in a good mood, huh?”

Liam raised an eyebrow and said his next sentence like it was the most simple and easiest thing in the world.

“You let me shag you for two hours straight, of course I’m in a good mood.” Liam answered.

Ah.

Harry didn’t know what to say to that. He was great at flirting but this was Liam and Harry honestly had no idea how to flirt with Liam. Actually Harry wasn’t that good at this ‘morning after’ stuff at all. Harry was good at blow jobs though. And Harry felt that Liam, really, really deserved a good blow job after last night.

Harry scrambled off of Liam and onto the blanket covering his legs instead and started kissing down the side of Liam’s neck. Liam moaned and let his head fall back into the sheets to give Harry more room and just so that he could genuinely enjoy the feeling of having Harry’s mouth against his skin. Then Harry started going lower. First over Liam’s collar bones, then his chest, then down over his stomach, until-

“Ngh... Harry wait, we don’t have time.” Liam mumbled. Harry smiled into one of Liam’s hip bones and his lips found their way to Liam’s dick. He started kissing all over that too. “Ah, Harry seriously, I’ve gotta be at work in half an hour... I’ve gotta get rea-ahhh...”

Harry had shifted to all fours and was licking Liam into his mouth.

“...get ready then.” Harry mumbled. “I’m not stopping you.”

Harry wrapped his tongue around Liam and started to suck and bob his head up and down onto Liam’s dick. Liam sat up and wove a hand into Harry’s hair to encourage him not to stop.

“Oh god you’re good at that.” Liam mumbled.

Harry sped up and started taking Liam right down his throat.

“Ah... I guess I can be five... five minutes late...” Liam gasped. Harry smiled around Liam and started taking him deeper until his forehead was pressing into Liam’s stomach and he had to tilt his head to the side to get him all in. Then Liam tightened his grip on Harry’s hair and started trying to rock more into his mouth, and Harry gasped and pulled back and wrapped a hand around Liam instead.

Something about how quiet Liam was being about this made Harry feel like he had to do more. He ran his tongue over Liam’s tip and gasped again.

“...you taste good, Li.” Harry mumbled. Liam groaned and tried to get his eyes to focus on Harry and his slicked up lips.

“You’ve got a filthy mouth, you know that?” Liam groaned.

Harry smiled and shifted a bit closer, then took Liam right back down his throat again and started rolling his entire body with every motion that he made to get Liam in and out. Liam had to clench his eyes shut. Because he had a beautiful nineteen year old fucking his mouth with his dick and the creature seemed to be actually enjoying it. Harry started moaning and adding more tongue and Liam’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he balled a fist around his sheets. He started choking out Harry’s name to try and warn him he was close but Harry didn’t seem to care. Harry just went faster and faster and deeper and deeper until Liam’s head was spinning and all he could see was white as that surging heat coursed through his veins. Liam clenched Harry’s hair tight and tilted his head back and Harry made sure to keep Liam’s world spinning for what felt like hours as he dragged him out.

When Liam finally came back down Harry was snuggling back under the sheets and using Liam’s thigh as a pillow. Harry nuzzled into Liam’s skin and smiled his bright and wide only for Liam and occasionally Louis smile. Liam sighed and let his eyes fall shut. Harry kissed Liam’s hip.

“You could always call in sick.” Harry murmured. “I wouldn’t mi- I’d be up for it.”

Harry had the day off.

Harry really wanted Liam to have the day off too.

Harry wanted to make Liam pancakes and suck him off under the table and have Liam leave another seven love bites down the side of his neck as Liam shagged him on the living room rug.

Liam prided himself on the fact that he’d never taken a day off in his entire life though. He couldn’t have people teasing him that his winning streak had finally come to an end. He needed to have something to brag about to his customers to convince them to listen to his bodily advice. And ‘having never missed a day of work due to sickness’ was more enticing than ‘almost completely never sick’. Liam groaned and started to get up.

Harry sighed and buried himself amongst Liam’s sheets.

Liam really hoped he’d still have a stunningly naked teenager in his bed; still wrapped in his scent, when he got home nine hours later.

After Liam left Harry eventually got up and went to go give Niall his phone back. It wasn’t right for him to keep it anymore. And Harry also had to go through the arduous task of breaking the news to Niall that there was kind of sort of maybe even though he had no idea what or who they were to him type of a someone else. On the plus side though Niall had taken the news a lot more well and calmly than Harry could ever have hoped for. Harry even managed to make pancakes that afternoon to cheer himself up a bit because he was surprisingly dealing quite well with the sudden flip upside down his life had taken.

But Harry hadn’t even gotten to measuring out the ingredients yet when Liam suddenly came home.

Liam’s last appointment had cancelled and Liam had practically ran back to the flat to see if Harry was still in his bed or not. That meant a lot to Liam. So much that Liam completely blew past Harry in the kitchen and didn’t even notice his presence what so ever as he bolted for his room.

Liam obviously opened his bedroom door to sheer, utter disappointment.

And Harry was left clutching rather tightly onto a wooden spoon and the hem of his apron. Because from Harry’s point of view Liam had just avoided his entire existence and obviously didn’t want to even lay eyes on him.

Now Harry really needed those pancakes.

They were the only thing he could think of at that moment to help keep himself going.

Liam very slowly and sadly changed his clothes then stumbled out into the kitchen to find something to eat. Then he saw Harry.

Harry who was still in his apartment and carrying on like nothing was wrong what so ever.

Liam’s hopes skyrocketed.

So who could blame Liam for sneaking up behind Harry and wrapping his arms around his waist and kissing his neck to death? Who could blame Liam for smiling the moment Harry moaned and tilted his head to the side for more? And who could blame Liam for picking Harry up and carrying him back into his bedroom and shagging him senseless again then falling asleep in complete and total bliss?

Harry for one, didn’t.

And after Harry waited for Liam to fall asleep, Harry got up and went to go finish off his pancakes.

But this time before Harry could even start the berry sauce, Liam was wrapping his arms around him again, this time completely naked, smiling into his neck, and dragging him back into the bedroom.

When Liam went to have a shower afterwards, Harry waddled out into the kitchen this time and tried to continue on with his pancakes.

This time, Liam let him finish.

This time, Liam waited until Harry was about to take his first bite and bring Liam a plate of his own to throw him down on the kitchen table and make Harry scream for it.

Pancakes came after.

The next two weeks were a whirlwind after that. The two of them managed to cram every single minute of time they had together inside their apartment with sex, and neither of them ever, ever wanted it to end. Harry’s favourite was when he’d come home from a rough shift and Liam would meet him in the hallway with open arms and mouth as Harry wrapped his limbs around him. Liam’s favourite was when Harry showed up at Liam’s gym once in a god damn jock strap and made Liam lock the door and screw him against his locker.

Neither of them wanted it to end.

But then it had to end.

Because it’d been two weeks and the two of them finally both had the weekend off for the first time ever and Liam really, really had to make this happen.

Harry had just finished riding Liam until his legs had gone weak and was collapsed into Liam’s side when Liam decided the time was right. Liam slung an arm around Harry’s shoulders and pulled him close, then decided to wait for their breathing to even out first. It took a while. Eventually Liam had to speak though:

“So um...” Liam started. Great job Liam. Nice and confident. “I’ve got the weekend off, and the restaurant’s closed for renovations, right?”

“Mmm...” Harry gasped. Harry obviously wasn’t quite all together yet.

“I um... so this weekend I wanted to try something.” Liam continued. Harry grinned like an idiot.

“I’m up for trying anything.” Harry beamed. Liam swallowed a lump in his throat. Here goes nothing he thought.

“I um... I was thinking we could um... you know... um... not, this weekend.” Liam managed. Jesus Christ Harry had Liam’s balls in a jar and the kid didn’t even know it. “Like, not have sex.”

Harry stopped gasping and sat up.

Was Liam done?

Was he about to be kicked out?

Was he not giving Liam enough?

Liam noticed the fear in Harry’s eyes and his heart started to do little flips inside his chest.

“Like, do other stuff.” Liam clarified. Harry was still really, really worried.

“...what kind of other stuff?” Harry managed. Liam sat up too and wrapped his arms around Harry’s shoulders and kissed his neck.

“Like, other stuff... non-sex related.” Liam mumbled. Harry’s blood still hadn’t quite reached his head yet.

“Li-Li, you gotta tell me... wh-what are you..”

“Dinner.” Liam mumbled. He was forcing his confidence to the surface now for hopefully Harry’s sake. “Fr-Friday night, I’ll make dinner.”

Harry finally caught up. He fought back the smile tugging at his lips.

“You don’t know how to make dinner.” Harry breathed. Liam tightened his grip.

“I’ll make dinner.” Liam affirmed. “And we’re gonna watch a movie. Together. And Louis and the others are coming over on Sunday and we’re not gonna shag in the closet halfway through dinner like I’ve been wanting to all month.”

Oh.

“Oh.” Harry answered.

Harry hadn’t really known Liam had been wanting to shag him in secret at a dinner party all month.

“Okay?” Liam asked. Harry wasn’t quite sure why they couldn’t still have sex and do that stuff but Liam seemed to be serious and Harry still didn’t want to argue with serious Liam. And Harry was turned on again now because of Liam’s mentioned and denied suggestion. Harry twisted in Liam’s arms and pressed their lips together, then sank lower and buried his face into Liam’s neck and kissed that too. When Harry smiled into Liam’s skin Liam felt kind of dizzy and warm and fuzzy inside. As usual he tried and failed to swallow that feeling back down.

“Mmm... but we can have sex until then, right?” Harry mumbled. Now Harry was kissing Liam’s neck all over and Liam was hugging Harry close and weaving his fingers into his hair. Harry pushed Liam back down onto his back and shifted to straddle his waist again.

“Oh god, do you have to ask?” Liam gasped.

Harry was still uneasy, but he was hoping Liam’d fuck it out of him.

That Friday night Liam did cook dinner. Granted it was store bought sauce and pasta, but neither the less Liam still managed to blush when he served it to Harry who was waiting eagerly at the dinner table with knife and fork already in hand. Harry thought Liam was absolutely adorable and made sure to wolf down his entire bowl within minutes and beg for seconds and even thirds.

After dinner Liam had put a movie on and had invited Harry to come sit next to him on the couch, and Harry had to try really, really hard not to remember shagging on it not even three days ago. They were about halfway through the movie when Liam spoke up:

“You alright?” Liam mumbled. Harry glanced up from where he’d been anxiously staring at his feet and bit his lip. When Harry didn’t respond Liam went on. “You’re sitting really far away is all.”

Harry still didn’t say anything. Liam sighed and stretched his arm out to invite Harry forward.

“C’mere.” Liam mumbled. Harry looked Liam over then hesitantly slid closer and under Liam’s arm, but once Harry was close enough Liam pulled him right into his chest and squeezed him tight. “...better?”

Liam was wearing a light grey long sleeved cotton shirt which clung to every muscle in his body and made Harry stupidly frustrated every time Liam wore it. Harry sighed and snuggled into Liam’s chest and kissed one of his pecks.

“...who’d have thought you were the snuggling type?” Harry murmured. Liam tightened his grip.

“Says the kid who latched onto me in bed for dear life during his third week here.” Liam scoffed. Harry would’ve blushed if he hadn’t remembered it was because he’d mistaken Liam for Jackson. Still, Harry played along.

“Shut up.” Harry mumbled. Liam smiled and ran his fingers lightly though Harry’s hair. Harry groaned and buried his face further into Liam’s nice soft shirt. Then Harry started kissing one of Liam’s nipples through the fabric and Liam gasped and tilted his head back.

“Hey, what are you-“

“Just a little sex is fine, right..?” Harry mumbled. “It’s technically not the weekend yet anyway... we can start not doing it tomorrow, right?”

Harry went overboard.

He started kissing all over Liam’s chest; his pecks, his neck, his shoulders, those huge bulging arms, more pecks, then more nipple, then more pecks. Harry was over excited because he could finally do what he wanted to Liam in that damn shirt and bury his face into his chest and feel his muscles and feel his pecks and more snuggle-y, warm, muscle with a great jaw line and beautiful eyes and soft, warm lips, and-

Oh god Harry was making out with Liam now and he felt absolutely terrible.

Liam had been adorable all night and was warm and cuddly and sweet and here he was trying to corrupt such a rare, timid, and maybe even a little vulnerable thing. Harry gasped against Liam’s lips and pulled back and tried to act like it wasn’t the hardest thing he’s ever had to do on this Earth. Liam flashed him a smile that made his heart ache. Harry swallowed a lump in his throat and nuzzled his face back into Liam’s chest and squeezed him tight. Liam hummed and started massaging small circles into Harry’s back with the palm of his hand. Harry really loved that.

“...you’re warm, Li.” Harry mumbled. Liam tried not to smile his face off and hummed again to cover it up. Because Liam really, really hoped Harry would accept this and let moments like this happen all weekend. Because again, Liam really, really had to make this happen.

At some point of the night Harry had dozed off in Liam’s lap like that, and Liam had tried to carry Harry to bed once the movie was finished both as quietly and as gently as possible. Harry’s kinda huge though so that’s an awkward thing to do when you’ve been cuddling all night and am also ready for sleep. Liam didn’t want to push anything with Harry what so ever but he was tired and really just wanted to feel this kid smile into his skin once more before he drifted off. Liam ended up laying Harry down in his bed and hopping in next to him; smiling way more than he thought he should allow himself when Harry latched onto him and wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face into his shoulder and squeezed him oh so tight.

The next morning when Harry woke up with Liam’s arms tight around his waist and Liam’s face nuzzled into his chest, Harry had to swallow another lump in his throat. Because Liam was a great kisser and mind blowing in bed and now an adorable snuggler too? Plus he was sweet and caring and honest and up front and protective and warm and hot and strong and snuggle-y and-

Ugh, Harry wasn’t awake enough to care about any of that shit.

He was awake enough however to snuggle back down into Liam’s arms and squeeze him back just as tight.

Later that day when Harry was fully conscious though, he ended up deciding that he probably still needed to make up for trying to seduce snuggle-y Liam last night to either Liam or himself. He wasn’t quite sure which yet. Or maybe even both. Anyway, that night Harry had asked Liam to come to his room, which was a big deal by the way since they’d never done anything at all in Harry’s room apart from cuddle that night three weeks after Harry had moved in so many weeks ago, and patted the bed in front of him and told Liam to have a seat.

That night the two of them had ‘the talk’.

But not the relationship talk.

The other talk.

The talk where they stayed up all night talking and rambling and giggling about everything and anything until their voices were tired and raspy, and even then they didn’t stop. Liam told Harry about his trips to Australia with Louis and that he’d someday love to retire there and spend his last years surfing them out on the crystal blue waters and golden sand. Harry had told Liam that when he’d laid eyes on him for the first time he thought he was a bit of a douche. Because Gemma had been hanging off of his arm like he was the best thing in the world and Gemma did that with every douchey guy she dated.

Liam had responded to that by tackling Harry into the pillows and lazily making out with him between goofy giggles and smiles until they ended up falling asleep at quarter to seven the next morning against each other’s lips.

Everything had seemed absolutely perfect for Liam up until there. He’d gotten alone time with Harry and had enjoyed every damn second of it and he couldn’t see how in any way, shape, or form, that this weekend could be ruined for him.

Until Louis showed up.

Louis had torn Liam’s beautiful weekend with Harry to pieces with just the first, three simple words that left his lips when he stepped in through the door.

“Happy Birthday, mate!” Louis had beamed; shortly before enveloping Liam in a tight hug. Liam heard Harry drop a saucepan in the kitchen and that sent his perfect world shattering to pieces.

That’d been what this magical weekend had been for, after all.

Liam had gotten the weekend off because it was his birthday. He’d invited his friends over for a meal. And he’d tried to soak up every single drop of Harry’s undivided attention before Harry realised he was sleeping with a twenty seven year old and bolted for the door and never looked back.

An almost eight year gap was huge after all. Between a nineteen year old and a twenty seven year old it was, at least. Liam was supposed to be a brother figure to Harry, yet here he was making him cook for him every day and shagging him every night.

Liam was a terrible human being who probably deserved Harry running off to atone for his sins.

In Liam’s eyes, at least.

Zayn and Niall had shown up shortly after that, and even though it’d been kind of awkward at first, Niall had only needed one look at Harry to see that Liam had been his someone important. Kind of. Thing. Niall chose to accept he’d lost in grace and shifted his attention to annoying Liam for most of the day instead.

Liam however didn’t even notice. Because even though he’d been expecting it and he knew it was inevitable, he’d been feeling Harry’s eyes on him ever since those three words had left Louis’ lips and it was driving him absolutely mental.

Was Harry waiting for them to leave so he could scream and storm off?

Had Harry drugged his food and was planning on sneaking out of his bed in the middle of the night never to return?

Was Harry weighing up his options between a shelter for the homeless, Liam’s, and Jackson’s?

Liam hated every one of those and he hated himself even more for imagining them.

Eventually round came five o’clock and Niall had to go to work to run over numbers or something, and suddenly Liam felt that Harry’s gaze had gotten less intense. Liam decided he might as well rip the Band-Aid off now and get it over with. Liam snuck up on Harry while he was in the kitchen doing dishes and the others were busy chatting away on the couch, and wrapped his arms around him for probably the last time and squeezed him tight. Harry dropped the plate he’d been washing back into the water. Liam kissed Harry’s cheek and just stood there; waiting. This was it.

Moments passed.

Silence.

...

“...Li?” Harry mumbled. That sent sparks shooting throughout Liam’s entire body. He definitely never thought he’d hear that again. Liam couldn’t help but brush his lips against Harry’s. And Harry kissed back. Liam tightened his grip and swayed their bodies back and forth a bit as they kissed but couldn’t manage a smile to cross his lips. Again, Harry really liked that. “Why... why didn’t you tell me?”

Liam pulled back and touched his forehead to Harry’s. He still wasn’t sure if Harry was going to stay or run yet.

“...if you’d given me some notice I’d have been able to save up and get you something.” Harry added. Liam squeezed Harry a little tighter. Harry slipped one of his hands out of his dishwashing gloves and grabbed Liam’s arm. “Tell me.”

Liam sighed and kissed Harry again, but this time Harry kept their foreheads together. He was starting to guess what the reason was and didn’t want Liam thinking it what so ever.

“...old.” Liam mumbled.

Yup, Harry guessed right.

“Sexy.” Harry countered.

Liam raised an eyebrow at that.

“Still, old.” He defended.

“Hot.” Harry added. Liam chuckled and Harry cut him off with another kiss. “Strong.”

Harry started listing everything he thought of Liam with every kiss.

“Protective.”

“Honest.”

“Smart.”

“Dedicated.”

“Courageous.”

“Sweet.”

“Stupidly fit.”

Liam relaxed and kissed Harry’s cheek and smiled wide.

“I’m sorry for leaving you out of the loop.” Liam murmured. Harry smiled back.

“All good.”

When Liam pulled himself away and went to go take a seat on the couches with Louis and Zayn he ended up zoning out. He could still feel Harry’s hand gripping his arm like burning fire and he never wanted it to leave.

“-iaammm? Liam? Liam! Lia-?!“

Louis’ voice cut into Liam’s thoughts. Liam shook his head and glanced up at Zayn and Louis who’d seen him and Harry being all intimate in the kitchen and had been staring at him from the moment he'd sat down.

“You alright, mate?” Louis asked. Liam smiled and gave Louis a nod. Louis pounced. “So what was all that about then?”

Louis had gestured with his thumb over his shoulder at the kitchen behind them during that sentence. Liam didn’t know what to say.

“You saw that, huh?” He mumbled.

“Yup.”

Liam didn’t say anything else.

“...well?” Louis asked.

“Well what?” Liam mumbled. Louis rolled his eyes.

“What are you uh... how is it..?” Louis pressed.

Liam bit his lip and glanced down at his hands in his lap. He could still feel Harry’s burning touch on his arm but honestly he didn’t want it there. He wanted it in his hand. Liam wanted to have Harry take his hand in his and interlock their fingers on the couch as they watched a movie so that Liam could bring them up to his lips and he could give Harry’s hand a kiss and have Harry smile back at him. He wanted to be able to hold Harry’s hand in public as tight as he wanted and be able to make sure no one could take him away. Liam wanted Harry’s warmth whenever he could have it.

Sadly though Liam was extremely aware of the fact that Harry was nowhere near that and that he might never be. It was one wall between Liam and Harry that Harry had to break himself and Liam honestly had no idea when Harry would smash it down, if ever.

Liam then remembered everything else up until then over the past few weeks and squeezed his hand into a fist. God he really wished Harry would take that stupid hand of his. All that aside though Liam found himself smiling to himself. He didn’t look up from his fingers as he spoke:

“...it’s nice.” He murmured. “Just... It’s nice.”

That night Harry didn’t really know if he should go to sleep with Liam. They’d slept together every night for the past two weeks because there was always sex involved, but tonight there wasn’t allowed sex and Harry didn’t know if it’d be weird or not to just stumble into Liam’s bed and pass out with his arms around Liam. So Harry ended up going to his room instead of going to join Liam in his.

Rupert wasn’t okay with that.

Rupert didn’t want Harry alone ever again.

Rupert lured Harry to Liam’s door the same way he’d lured Liam to Harry’s all those weeks ago, and jumped up onto the foot of Liam’s bed and started making himself comfortable for sleep. Harry was left standing dumbfounded in Liam’s doorway with Liam staring back at him from where he’d been in the middle of changing next to his cupboard. Harry didn’t know what to do.

Shit he felt awkward.

“Hey you.” Liam murmured. “What took you so long?”

Ah.

Liam had been expecting Harry the entire time.

Harry then realised that Liam had chosen to spend his entire birthday weekend with Harry almost entirely alone, and without sex, and that that meant something important. Harry sighed and flashed Liam a smile then climbed around Rupert and under Liam’s sheets. Liam joined Harry after he’d brushed his teeth and wrapped an arm around Harry’s shoulders and held him close. Harry nuzzled his face into the crook of Liam’s neck and smiled at the warmth.

“Hey Li.” Harry breathed. Liam kissed Harry’s forehead. Harry kissed Liam’s neck. “...Happy Birthday.”

Rupert meowed from somewhere at their feet.

“Thanks.” Liam breathed.

The room fell silent for a bit and a thought suddenly popped into Harry’s head.

“...you really don’t want birthday sex?” Harry mumbled. He felt stupid the moment he said it. He knew the rules or whatever. He laid there in silence praying that Liam had fallen asleep already. Liam hadn’t.

“You stupid?” Liam answered.

Oh.

Well then, Harry felt even stupider now.

“Of course I want birthday sex.” Liam went on.

Oh.

Harry didn’t know what to feel now.

“But it’s still the weekend and I really didn’t think this through, did I?” Liam grumbled.

Harry still didn’t really know what to feel but he felt that Liam was still being adorable like he’d been doing all weekend and Harry decided to go from there. Harry sat up and hunched himself over Liam and started nudging his lips apart. Liam groaned and kissed back.

“Birthday make-out okay then?” Harry breathed. Liam smiled against Harry’s lips and brought a hand up to cup Harry’s face and pull him closer.

Now that Liam had Harry all to himself again he realised he’d been kind of stupid to think Harry would just up and leave. Because Harry was a really, really good person and Liam should’ve expected better to begin with.

Liam rolled them over and started sliding a hand up and down Harry’s side as they kissed, and Harry smiled into Liam’s mouth and wrapped his arms around Liam’s neck to keep them close.

Yeah, Liam felt really stupid. Harry was someone precious to him after all.

And Liam saw him as precious for a reason.

Liam groaned and started attempting to pull back and Harry giggled and pulled Liam even closer than he’d been before.

Yep, for this reason.

Liam laughed and kept kissing back.

Monday morning Liam had work again, and for some strange reason this time he wasn’t expecting Harry to jump him the moment he set foot back inside their flat like normal. He hadn’t been expecting anything really. He definitely hadn’t been expecting to see Harry in the supermarket window on his way home.

It was a weird thing, really. Apart from that time Harry came to visit him at work, he’d never actually seen Harry outside the flat. And as Liam looked Harry over in secret, he thought Harry was kind of really adorable in public. Harry was standing in the middle of an isle with a shopping basket gripped with both hands. He had one leg crossed in front of the other, and was biting his lip as he tried to see through his beanie and curls and decide on which type of pasta Liam would probably like most. Liam couldn’t help himself. He ducked into the store and snuck up on Harry who was still choosing and snatched the basket right out of his hands.

“Jesus Christ Harry, this weighs a ton!” Liam gasped. Harry was currently leaning against a shelf and clutching at his heart and trying to find his breath again. Liam stifled a laugh.

“Wha... where did... how did...” Harry choked. “What..?”

“I saw you from the window;” Liam smirked. “Way too defenceless not to take advantage of.”

“B...Bastard...” Harry gasped. Liam tried to replace his amusement with sympathy and took a step closer.

“Forgive me?” Liam pouted. Harry looked Liam over and shook his head. “I can help with groceries? I can carry the basket?”

Harry instantly smiled and grabbed two packets of pasta and threw them straight in. Liam realised he’d been tricked. Harry laughed and ran further up the aisle and disappeared behind a tower of cereal. Liam rolled his eyes and followed him into the fresh fruit and veg section. Liam ended up holding the basket for a good five minutes while Harry struggled to decide between red or yellow capsicum.

“Hey um...” Liam mumbled. Harry glanced up at Liam from his two pieces of produce and Liam found him absolutely adorable. Liam found himself choking things out before he could hold them back. “Look, um...”

Harry bit his lip. Liam took a deep breath.

“Look, I uh, I know you’ve got stuff to sort out and that you’re probably still on the rebound and that there was that whole thing with Niall but-“

Harry had let his hands with fruit attached drop to his sides and was giving Liam his absolute full attention.

“-but uh... w-we could uh... if you wanted to, that is...”

Liam was struggling. He hadn’t thought this through. He didn’t know what he was saying. Harry was staring at him with giant green eyes and-

“We could be a thing.” Liam mumbled. “I-If you wanted... w-we could be a thing.”

Yep, that was a total wreck.

Liam was about to drop the basket and run when Harry threw both capsicums in and took Liam’s hand in his and intertwined their fingers. Liam stopped breathing. Harry gave Liam’s hand a squeeze and started leading him down the aisle towards the ice cream section and past the cheeses. Once Liam didn’t look like he’d been shot and they were walking side by side, Harry rested his head on Liam’s shoulder and squeezed Liam’s hand extra tight.

“Yeah...” Harry mumbled. Harry nuzzled his face into Liam’s shoulder and smiled into it.

Liam was warm.

“...We could be a great thing.”