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I looked up when I heard the doorbell ring and I got up from the couch, closing the laptop in the way before walking towards the front door and opening it, leaving it open for Harry to walk in.

He did, the strap of his gym bag on his shoulder, his hair slightly damp and resting across his forehead messily, closing it behind himself. He put the bag down next to the door momentarily as he took off his coat and hung it next to mine before taking his shoes off and grabbing the bag and walking upstairs wordlessly to leave it in my room.

I rolled my eyes when I noticed that sometime after leaving the house he'd removed the bandage from his left hand, and quickly understanding what had happened I walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer, grabbing the first pack of something I saw - which turned out to be peas - and wrapping a paper tissue around it.

Harry came back downstairs as I was walking to the living room, and he shot me a confused look, his eyebrows slightly furrowed when he saw what I was holding. "Peas?" He asked quietly, sizing the pack up with a frown on his face.

"I know you went boxing" I replied, "even with your hand." I handed it to him and he took it while sitting on the couch, carefully putting it over his knuckles, inhaling sharply when it slipped from his hand a bit and landed a bit more roughly than it should've.

I took the laptop and put it on the floor before sitting down next to him, putting my feet up on the cushion as I eyed him carefully. He was looking down at his hand, but glanced up when he felt my stare on him, our closeness being enough for me to spot the few faint freckles scattered across his nose.

I looked away quickly, nonchalantly shifting to the side and putting a little distance between us, knowing that I wouldn't have managed to keep my sanity if I'd stayed that close to him for too long. "Your hair is wet" I commented giving it a little glance. It was dry enough not to drip water down his neck, but it seemed somewhat matted, and I was pretty sure that if I'd touched I would've found it damp. It certainly wasn't the kind of hair someone should've had while being outside in a cold evening of mid-January.

"I showered at the gym" he replied softly, his gaze not leaving mine as he spoke. He cleared his throat quietly, pushing his hair back and glancing down again as he slowly lifted the pack of peas to check what his hand looked like.

"How's your hand?" I asked him gently, watching him and resuming my previous position a bit closer to him. The conversation seemed somewhat tense, as if we were both purposely trying to avoid a burning topic - which, in a way, we were. Or at least, I was.

He shrugged, covering it with the peas again. "It hurts" he simply said, acting as if it wasn't that much of a big deal at all.

I nodded slowly at his words. "You shouldn't have gone boxing today" I told him, even though the comment felt more circumstantial than anything else.

"I know" he said quietly, leaning back against the corner of the couch and closing his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

"Dinner?" I asked, a hopeful look in my eyes, wanting to have something to do to ease the tenseness of the moment.

He sighed, but didn't move from his position. "Maybe later, I'm feeling a bit nauseous at the moment" he shared quietly, covering his eyes with his hand, and I nodded slowly.

I stood up quietly and made my way into the kitchen, taking a glass out of the cupboard and filling it with water halfway through before grabbing a lemon from the basket next to the fridge and cutting it in half, putting a half aside and squeezing the other into the glass, making sure that no seeds would've ended up in the water. I took it and walked back to the living room, putting the glass down on the little table in front of the couch.

Harry removed his hand from his eyes as soon as he heard the sound of the glass being put down on the wooden surface, and gave its contents a suspicious glance from where he was sitting.

"If you're feeling nauseous this might help" I told him quietly, tapping the side of the glass. "It's just water with lemon" I added, not wanting him to think that I was trying to give him something weird.

He nodded, leaning forward to get a hold of the glass before resuming his previous position. "Thank you" he murmured as he took a sip from it, scrunching his nose up a bit as the sour taste hit his tongue.

I gave him a little nod at his words, pulling my knees up to my chest and giving him a little glance as he finished drinking, standing up when he was done and taking the glass from him before going back into the kitchen and washing it quickly before returning to the living room.

The rest of the night went by equally as quietly, but for some reason, the more time passed like that, the more I got used to it again, discovering that I didn't really mind it by the time we finally decided to have dinner.

My attempt at making pasta ended up being a failure as it turned out to be a bit overcooked, but Harry didn't mind it - or pretended not to mind it - and he ate it anyway. Then I washed the dishes and he helped drying them and putting them back in their rightful place on the cupboard over the sink.

We went into the living room, where we turned on the television and watched a random movie we found, even though none of us really watched it. After a while we decided to go to sleep, and we headed upstairs.

I heard my mum enter the house and I told Harry to go ahead as I waited for her, and he nodded, quickly making his way upstairs.

I walked towards the front door just as she closed it. "Can Harry stay here for a couple of days?" I asked her quietly as soon as I reached her.

She stopped in the middle of taking off her scarf and gave me a suspicious look. "Why?" She asked, making it clear that she wouldn't have made it easy for me - understandably so. I just hoped I would've managed to convince her, because I couldn't have possibly made Harry go back to that house while he wasn't ready to.

"He's having some trouble with his family" I replied, supposing that, after all, it wasn't that far away from the truth at all. Other than that, I knew that would've been the only way I could've managed to get her on board with it.

She sighed, and I knew that she'd given up the will to fight against it. "Do you actually know him?" She asked me instead, the question coming quite unexpected.

"Yeah, we're quite close" I replied truthfully, hoping that she wouldn't have understood more than what it actually was.

She sighed again and finally took off her scarf, putting it on the hanger next to the front door, where it was quickly followed by her coat. "Alright."

I smiled, still kind of surprised that she'd actually agreed. I didn't have much experience considering that I'd never had someone over for the night - not that she'd previously agreed to, anyway - but I was quite sure it shouldn't have been that easy to convince her. "So he can?" I asked, trying to make sure that I'd understood her right, and she nodded. "I'll make the bed in the guest room then?" I said, wanting to go along with whatever she would've said, considering that she'd already agreed to let Harry stay for some days.

She shrugged, walking to the kitchen and getting herself a glass of water. "Don't bother, he can sleep in your bedroom."

I stopped in the doorway. "What really?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing, but also being glad that Harry wouldn't have had to sleep alone.

She leaned back against the counter, the glass of water in her hand, sending me a painfully obvious look. "I know you Sierra, and I know you'd never dare to have sex while I'm in the house. And when I'm not, where he's sleeping won't matter much when it comes to that. So what's even the point?" She took a sip of her water nonchalantly when she was done speaking, completely ignoring the shocked look that had appeared on my face at her words.

"Oh my goodness mum, please" I said, feeling myself blush instantly. "Goodnight" I added quickly, not wanting to stay in that room any longer, leaving before she could say anything back.

I leaned against the railing when I got on the upper floor, catching my breath, hoping that Harry hadn't heard anything of it. When I'd managed to get everything under control I went into my bedroom, discovering that Harry had already done anything he needed to do and was now in my bed, on his phone.

I quietly made my way to the wardrobe and took out something to wear before exiting the bedroom and getting into the bathroom, quickly changing in the different clothes and approaching the sink. I momentarily stopped when I noticed that there was a light pink toothbrush next to mine, Harry's. I smiled to myself, taking mine and brushing my teeth before going back into my bedroom and lying down on my bed, turning to look at Harry.

His eyes were closed, even though I perfectly knew that he was awake and aware of every little sound in the room.

I hesitantly put my head down on his chest, putting my hand under my chin not to hurt him, glancing up at him as he opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times in the yellowish light coming from the lamp on my nightstand.

He seemed to be quite taken aback by my action, but he got himself together quickly and the corners of his lips turned up in a little smile. "Hi" he murmured, his voice low, and something inside me melted a little.

I looked down not to let him know that he'd made me blush slightly, playing with the fabric of the white shirt he was wearing, the top of the tattoos on his chest peeking above the neckline. "Hey."

He sighed, staring at the ceiling. "I think I'll have to talk to Zayn tomorrow" he said lowly, a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"Yeah?" I asked softy, gently pulling at the second necklace around his neck, that I couldn't quite recognise, and smiling to myself when I recognised the pendant as the one I'd gifted him. It was odd to think he was still wearing it, especially because I was sure that he hadn't taken it when we'd gone to get his stuff at Niall's house. If he was wearing it, it meant that he'd already been wearing it when he'd first come to mine. I wondered why he'd kept wearing it even after we'd broken up, if it could even be considered a break up.

He nodded slightly. "I'd like to keep our friendship" he murmured lowly, rubbing one of his eyes when tiredness started to get to him. "Come here" he added, pulling me up by my arm. "Can I kiss you?"

My heartbeat fastened against my chest, the unexpectedness of his words sweet. "That's an odd change of topic" I said quietly, trying to delay it to get a hold of myself the best I could, knowing that I would've crumbled up in a ball of nothingness in the second our lips would've touched.

He hummed lowly. "I'm about to fall asleep" he shared lowly, blinking a couple of times as to prove his point, and in that moment I knew I couldn't have resisted him.

"Of course you can" I whispered in reply, and he didn't need me to say anything else.

He leaned in, stopping for a couple of seconds when our lips were so close they were almost grazing, letting me linger in the moment, drink up the faint vanilla smell of his cologne mixed to the faint one of mint of his breath, before slowly but not hesitantly closing the distance between us.

Our lips touched, and it was soft, careful, the anticipation of it forgotten at the back of my mind as I lost myself in the way his lips felt against mine. Then, just as quickly as they'd come together, they were separated again, a little tug on my lower lip by Harry's lips as parting gift.

I leaned back and I looked at him, feeling breathless for no reason, considering that the little but sweet kiss hadn't been enough to take my breath away - but at the same time, it had.

The corners of Harry's pinker lips turned up in a little smile again. "Goodnight" he whispered, before turning off the bedside lamp and hiding the room in darkness.

•  •  •

The next day, I knew that it wouldn't have been easy at all in the moment in which I entered my maths class and saw that Aiden was sitting at the desk in front of mine. I looked around nervously, Harry had left to go talk to Zayn as soon as we'd arrived, and was now nowhere to be seen.

I sighed, deciding to make my way towards my desk and sit down anyway while I waited for Harry to come back, hoping that Aiden wouldn't have felt like talking.

Of course, though, I was wrong, because he turned around in the second I sat down, staring at me with an indecipherable look in his eyes for a couple of seconds. "You look like you think I'm about to assault you or something" he said in the end, his voice lower than the tone he usually spoke in.

I widened my eyes, knowing that it wasn't that far from what I was thinking in that moment, not having expected it to be so evident. I shot a careful look around, furrowing my eyebrows when I realised that Harry was still nowhere to be seen. I didn't know if I should've been glad that he wasn't, considering what he'd thought the last time he'd seen Aiden interact with me, or be upset about it, because he wasn't around to save me.

Aiden sighed at my lack of response. "Listen, I'm gonna be honest with you alright?" He said, stopping to give me an obvious look. "I really don't like you in that way at all."

I let out a little shocked chuckle at the absurdity of his words. Maybe I would've believed him, if it wasn't that he'd tried to go out with me continuously for the last few months, but I surely didn't in that moment.

He rolled his eyes at my reaction. "Really, I just went after you because Ella asked me to" he said with a little shrug. "You know, she's my cousin."

I widened my eyes at his words. "What?" I asked him, shocked, not believing what he was saying. Ella had tried to set me up with Aiden? And even more shocking, Ella and Aiden were cousins? I felt really stupid for a second. She'd played me, again. For some reason though, that time burnt a little bit more. "Why?"

"Harry, come on. You with me means you not with Harry. Easy" he said with a little shrug. "Kinda glad that she told now if you ask me, I have better things to do with my time."

"She didn't tell me that" I replied lowly, feeling the sting of betrayal in my chest.

He widened his eyes. "Oh. Well then I fucked up" he said, furrowing his eyebrows and looking up as soon as he spoke, and I followed his gaze, discovering that Harry had approached us while we were talking, and was now giving him a deadly glare.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked, faintly sarcastic, his voice low and somewhat quiet, but with a hint of threat at the back of his throat.

I shook my head quickly, deciding that it wouldn't have been a good idea for him to attack Aiden the only time he was acting with common sense. "No, we're good. He was just telling me he's done bothering us" I said, and Harry gave me a slight nod, sitting down next to me in a swift move.

Aiden nodded eagerly, turning his head to look at him as he spoke. "Yeah, about that I'm really sorry-"

"Shut the fuck up" Harry said lowly, rudely interrupting him, the eloquent glance he gave him right after letting him know that the only way he would've survived the class would've been by staying quiet.

The teacher walked in sipping his coffee calmly, and Aiden had to turn around before he could say anything - not that he seemed to be wanted to, anyway.

I hid my face in my hands as the teacher started explaining, picking my pen down after a while and starting to write down everything he'd written on the whiteboard, furrowing my eyebrows when I actually looked at what I was writing.

"It's the slope of the tangent line" a voice suddenly said lowly next to me, and I turned my head to look at Harry. He was side-glancing at me, leaning back against the chair, his arms over his stomach, the black sleeves of his sweater pulled to cover his hands partially.

"What?" I asked him quietly, sending a quick look at my teacher, making sure that he wasn't paying attention to him as I spoke.

He straightened his back and leaned forward. "The derivative" he stated, as if that would've made his previous words much clearer. He brushed his hair back and put his elbows on the table, finally turning his head in my direction.

I glanced down at the long formula I'd written down on the paper sheet. "This doesn't look like the slope of the tangent line" I whispered quietly, trying to make sense of it with the new bit of information he'd given me.

"Maths is famous for saying easy things in extremely complicated ways" he simply commented. "Know that's what it is, don't get lost in it."

I opened my mouth to reply but I jolted when suddenly someone slammed their hand on my desk a bit more forcefully than what should've been acceptable in a classroom setting.

"Mr Styles, is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" The teacher said sharply, glaring down at him, his hand still on my desk.

Harry looked up at him, an enigmatic look on his face mixed with a hint of annoyance, but shook his head, not saying a word.

The teacher looked at me, and for a second there I hoped that the bell would've rang, saving me. But it didn't. "Miss Regan, I see you were paying attention" he said giving a quick glance to the notepad in front of me. "That's an unusual occurrence, usually you draw Mr Styles during my class."

I widened my eyes as soon as I took in what he'd said out loud, sending Harry a panicked glance behind the teacher's back as he finally went back to the front of the class. I felt warmth flow to my cheeks, embarrassment rushing through my veins at the realisation that Harry had just been made aware of the fact that I'd spent countless classes drawing him. If I hadn't known we were quite close, I would've buried myself.

Harry gave me a surprised glance, but decided not to comment on it, probably wanting to spare me some of the embarrassment, which I couldn't help but be glad about.

The rest of the class went by uneventfully, mostly because I didn't dare to address Harry in any way for the remaining of the time, not wanting our teacher to spill even more of my secrets just like that, in front of everyone.

"Come on" Harry said murmured in my ear as soon as the bell rang right before standing up and gathering his things quickly.

I did the same, not wanting to slow him down unnecessarily, and followed him as he quickly made his way out of the classroom. I was confused as we surpassed the entrance of the cafeteria, but I didn't dare to ask him anything, resorting to just quickening my step not to be left behind.

My confusion wasn't eased in the slightest when we reached the main door and he pushed it open, stepping outside, his fingers pressing slightly against the cold glass to keep it open for me. I quietly thanked him with a little nod and slid out behind him, immediately putting my coat on and pulling it close when I stepped out in the cold winter air. I widened my eyes when, after giving a quick glance around, I realised that we weren't alone.

Zayn was leaning against the short wall, a cigarette held between his lips as he attentively lit it up, lighter in hand. When he accomplished his task he took in a deep breath, holding in the smoke for a couple of seconds before letting it out against the grey sky and looking at us. "Hey" he said calmly, his gaze focused on Harry, not even sparing me a second glance.

"Hey" Harry replied, leaning on the wall next to him, scrunching up his nose when the smell of smoke hit his nostrils. "Supposed you'd be out."

The raven-haired boy nodded, sighing and looking at me. "Isn't it too cold for you to be outside?" He asked to me, restrain in his voice, mixed with a forced hint of nonchalance.

Harry let out a low chuckle. "Leave her alone" he told him nicely, wrapping the fingers of his right hand around my wrist and pulling me closer to him before letting me go.

Zayn shrugged, making it clear that he didn't really care about what was happening, going back to smoking and staring at the grey sky with a slightly judgemental look on his face. Harry pulled me to stand between his legs and wrapped his arms around my waist in an odd gesture of affection, that I just associated with him wanting to warm himself up, considering that the air around us was quite cold, and for a while we stood there in silence.

All of sudden Harry's phone rang and he sighed, taking it out of his pocket and checking the screen, letting out another sigh when he saw who was calling. "It's Maura" he said quietly. "If I don't answer she'll freak out. I'll be quick" he added before moving from behind me and walking quickly down the stairs as he accepted the call.

I cleared my throat, furrowing my eyebrows when I realised I'd just been left alone with Zayn.

"You're silent now" he simply commented with a little shrug, not even bothering to look at me as he spoke. "I know we got off to a wrong start and I'll be honest, I still don't like you, but Harry clearly does, so we should keep it cool" he added, closing his black coat when a cold wind blew through the street.

I gave him a slow nod, refraining the urge to tell him that the only one that seemed to have a problem with the other was him. I looked up all of sudden when I got an idea. "Niall was the one that put the drugs on him" I told him, and his head snapped in my direction.

"Come again?" He said, throwing the cigarette on the ground and stepping on it, a frown on his face at my words.

"It was Niall" I simply told him. "Could you tell Liam? I'm not close enough to him to do that, and we both know that he'd never believe Harry. He deserves to know." I stopped talking and I looked at him expectantly, hoping that he would've said yes. I knew that Harry missed both his friends, and now that he and Zayn were friends again it would've made me feel a lot better to know that someone as responsible as Liam was with them.

Zayn furrowed his eyebrows. "That's kind of fucked, but I will" he replied, and I couldn't help but be glad at that. "Niall, what the fuck" he murmured to himself, going back to staring right ahead, waiting for Harry to come back.

I sighed and leant back against the short wall, looking up just to notice that Harry was walking  back towards us, his phone back inside the pocket of his coat. He reached us and resumed his position behind me, completely ignoring the little apprehensive glance I gave him.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. x

Miki

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