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It was a pretty normal day. After the almost fail of a birthday Harry had spent the night at my house, and had woken up as hungover as I'd never seen him. We'd spent a quiet day in in an attempt to make him recover enough to manage to go back to his house without anyone questioning what he'd been up to, and then he'd gone back home in the afternoon.

It was a quite freezing morning of Monday, and I was walking on the pavement, looking down not to accidentally trip over anything, my pace quick as I tried to get to my classes on time. I'd waited for Harry to pick me up for a little longer than I should've, and I was definitely risking to run late. I'd tried to call him, but the call had gone straight to voicemail, making me understand that he'd probably forgot to charge his phone, and that he probably still wasn't feeling well, and that was why he hadn't shown up.

I was about to cross the street when my phone suddenly rang, and I immediately stopped in my tracks, getting it out of my pocket a bit more eagerly than I should've, answering it without even looking at the caller ID. "Yeah?"

"Sierra."

I furrowed my eyebrows instantly as I took in the voice that had spoken, a sudden wave of disappointment washing through me. "What do you want, Niall?"

He didn't waste time in replying. "Is Harry with you?" He asked, a hint of something in his voice.

"No, why?" I asked back, starting to feel a bit nervous for some reason.

Niall sighed. "We haven't seen him for almost two days and my mum is panicking."

I frowned. "We were together yesterday, he went home at around five" I said slowly, the nervousness in my chest suddenly seeming to have a real reason to exist.

"Well, he never arrived at home."

I felt something turn inside my chest as I registered the words, worry suddenly overcoming me. "What do we do?" I said quickly, trying my best not to panic at his words, immediately doing my best to shut down my mind, because I knew that if I hadn't it would've gone in overdrive, which wouldn't have been helpful in that moment. What did he mean with, he hadn't gone back home? If he hadn't, where was he? Had something happened to him? What if he was hurt?

"I tried to call Zayn but he blocked my number" Niall replied, and I nodded, knowing what I had to do.

"Text me his number, I'll call him" I told him, too worried about Harry to even care about the fact that Zayn probably wouldn't have enjoyed me calling him, considering that he disliked me a lot for some reason.

"Right now" he simply said before closing the call, leaving me with a confused stare on the side of the road.

Not even a minute after my phone rang with a new message, and I unlocked it quickly, discovering that Niall had indeed sent me Zayn's phone number. I quickly saved it and called it, nervously biting my lower lip as I waited for him to answer.

At last he picked up, and I could tell in the second he spoke into the phone that it wouldn't have been nearly as easy as I'd hoped. "If it's you Niall, I swear..." Even though he let the sentence drift away, it somehow didn't make it any less threatening.

"It's Sierra" I said, fearing the answer.

"Sierra? What the fuck?"

I sighed, not wanting to waste time making useless conversation. "Niall called me because he hasn't seen Harry in days, I haven't heard from him since yesterday afternoon and he couldn't contact you so he gave me your phone number" I explained quickly. "Is Harry with you?"

There were a few seconds of silence on the other side. "I haven't seen him since his birthday" he then said lowly. "Where is he?"

"I don't know" I replied, trying not to let panic overcome me, even though it was getting harder and harder by the second. "He's disappeared! What if something happened to him?" I said in the end, finally able to voice my concerns with someone that actually cared about him.

"Don't panic" Zayn said, surprising me by using a gentler tone. "Where are you?"

"I was walking to school."

"Alright" he said. "So here's what we're going to do, I will call Liam, we'll check the places he usually goes to and if we can't find him we'll just roam the streets, I suppose. You check the places he usually goes to with you, alright?" He continued, quickly coming up with a plan. "We'll find him, don't worry."

"Okay" I said, my voice a bit shaky, closing the call quickly and starting to do as he said.

I went to school first of all, wanting to make sure he wasn't there, quickly leaving when I discovered that he wasn't. I walked to the park, trying to be as quick as possible, a weigh falling on my chest when he realised that he wasn't there either.

I checked my phone, hoping that there would be some sort of update from Zayn or Liam, but there were none. At that point it had been almost an hour since Niall had first called me, and Harry was still nowhere to be found. What if something bad really had happened to him? I felt a little wetness in my eyes, the weigh on my chest growing heavier and making it harder to breathe at the simple thought.

I shook my head, not wanting to think about something like that as it would've been nothing but counterproductive in that moment, and I decided to call Harry's number again, hoping to get an answer. My wishes were ignored though, because once again, my call went straight to voicemail. Where was he?

I started walking to the cafe, it being the only other place I'd seen him at, not being able to push away the bad feeling in my chest. Something had happened and it wasn't good, because Harry wouldn't have disappeared all of sudden, just like that. Something was wrong, and I just wished I could've known what it was, because my mind was already jumping between the worse options, making it harder and harder to keep my calm.

I finally arrived at the cafe, and a wave of panic hit me when I realised that he still was nowhere to be found. I had to lean against the wall and close my eyes, taking a deep breath while trying to calm myself down. I opened them and stared ahead, trying to decide what to do. My phone was still dead, meaning that nobody else had had any luck. I couldn't call them and tell them I'd checked all the places, and found nothing.

I sighed, detaching my back from the wall and continuing down the road, trying my best to push all the scary thoughts away. I knew Harry knew how to take care of himself - I hoped so, at least. And yet, I couldn't help but wonder, what if he'd overdosed somewhere and nobody had helped him? What if he'd had an accident while going back home? Every thought made me panic a bit more, and they all drove me to the decision of not giving up. Zayn had said he would've just gone around if he hadn't found him anywhere, so I could've done the same thing, and maybe I would've got lucky. I just hoped I would've found him somewhere.

I ended up walking around the city for hours, until my feet started to burn and beg for me to stop, and yet I didn't. A couple of hours after Niall had called me, Zayn called me again, telling me that he hadn't had any luck, but that we had nothing to worry about, but how could I believe him when his own voice seemed unsure?

An hour after that Zayn called me again and told me to go back home and that he and Liam would've taken care of it, because they didn't like the thought of me walking around alone and they were sure Harry would've hated it if something had happened to me. I initially resisted, but then he told me that they'd known Harry for much longer than I had, and that I had nothing to be scared about, because they would've found him. I knew they were right, and I also knew that at that point it would've been better for me to be at home with a fully charged phone in case something had happened, even though I hated the thought of being there, doing nothing, while Zayn and Liam were out trying to find their friend.

At that point it was early afternoon, and I hadn't eaten anything since that morning, but I couldn't bring myself to, I felt sick at the simple thought of food. Considering how far away from home I was at that point, I decided to call a taxi, seeing it as a better option than walking around for hours trying to find my way back.

The ride back home was - of course - silent, and I thankfully managed to have just enough money on me to pay for it. I thanked the driver and got out, standing on the pavement for a few seconds as he drove off, starting to feel tears in my eyes as the realisation of my failure hit me along with my fear of something having happened to Harry. I wouldn't have been able to handle it, if that was the case, I knew that.

I turned around and started to walk towards my house, looking up and stopping in my tracks when I suddenly noticed that someone was sitting on the part of the sidewalk that was right in front of my front door.

"Harry?" I asked, walking towards them slowly, and then starting to rush towards him when I was close enough to see his features. "Harry!" I called him again as I reached him and knelt down in front of him, furrowing my eyebrows when I took in his state.

He wasn't wearing a coat and he was shivering like a leaf barely hanging onto its branch against the cold wall of my house, his hair was messy and his eyes red. He looked up, seeming to barely register my presence before talking. "Sierra, hi" he slurred, and I frowned, quickly realising that he was drunk.

"Come on, let's go inside" I said instead, standing up and urging him to do the same, just to quickly realise that his balance was almost nonexistent and that he was shivering too much to even put two steps together, which made me wonder when he'd lost his coat. "Harry, where's your coat?" I asked him, voicing my worries, and he shrugged.

"In my... car" he mumbled, his drunken tongue mixing together with the shivers that were running down his body and making his reply almost impossible to understand.

I gave him a little nod. "Stay here" I told him before quickly taking my keys out of my pocket and unlocking the door, entering the house and rushing upstairs without bothering to take my shoes or coat off, taking my burgundy blanket from my bedroom and running back out of the house just as fast, unfolding it and quickly wrapping it around his shoulders, hoping that it would've managed to give him some warmth. "What were you thinking?" I said gently as I closed it on the front to keep air from blowing right through the thin shirt he was wearing, giving him a worried glance. "Come on now, up you go" I told him, standing up and helping him up the best I could, wrapping my arm around his waist as we took the few steps into my house in fear of him falling down.

We made it to the couch and he sat down on it, and I kneeled in front of him, trying to understand what was going on. It wasn't the first time he was drunk in front of me, but he'd never drank in the afternoon before. It was way too early for him to be that drunk. Needless to say, he'd also disappeared for almost a whole day, and nobody knew what he'd done, or where he was coming from.

"Harry, where's you car?" I asked him gently, putting my hand on his knee in an attempt to get his attention, but when he just hummed at me, giving me a spaced out glance, I realised I wouldn't have managed to get much out of him if I didn't let him sober up a bit first.

I sighed, standing up and walking back to the entrance, finally taking off my coat and shoes before making my way to the kitchen, just to stop in my tracks and walk back to my coat when I remembered that Zayn was still searching for Harry.

I took my phone out of the pocket of the coat I was wearing and called him quickly, walking back into the kitchen as I waited for him to pick up.

"Yes?" He finally said right when I thought my call would've gone to voicemail, worry evident in the tone of his voice, which told me he still hadn't given up on his search.

"Harry's here" I told him fast, and for some seconds my words were only met by silence.

"How's he?" He asked in the end, the dull sound of a car engine running in the background.

I turned my head, staring at him through the two doors of the kitchen and the living room. He was still sitting on the couch, the blanket still on his shoulders, but his position had relaxed, and he was leaning against the cushions. "He's wasted."

"I'm coming."

I shook my head quickly before remembering that he couldn't see me. "Don't, he isn't really talkative right now. He's drunk and exhausted, he barely replied to me."

Zayn huffed. "I'll come by later, then" he said, and that was the last thing he told me before he closed the call.

I sighed, putting my phone down on the kitchen table and taking a glass from a cupboard, filling it with water before walking back to the living room and handing it to Harry. "Drink it, it'll help" I told him, tiredness in my voice, sitting down next to him, ready to catch the glass in case he'd dropped it.

Thankfully he didn't put up much of a fight, and started drinking the water, a bit slowly but I let it go, considering that it was still better than nothing. After a while he stopped drinking and turned his head to stare at me. "I missed you" he slurred, and I sighed, ignoring the way my heart fluttered at his words.

"Keep drinking" I told him instead, not being able to help the resentment I was feeling due to his actions. He'd completely disappeared without a care for me or everyone else, not even caring about answering calls, to the point that we'd feared something bad had happened to him. But there he was, and the only thing that had happened to him was that he'd got drunk and then somehow decided to disappear for a while.

He finished drinking the water and I took the cup from him as soon as he was done, not wanting him to accidentally drop it while trying to put it down as he'd done not many days before.

I walked into the kitchen and put the glass on the table, leaning my weight on my hands on the counter and sighing, closing my eyes for a few seconds, not being able to brush away how weird it all was. On one side, I wanted to think that what happened wasn't like Harry, but on the other, I couldn't help but realise that that was definitely something I would've expected him to do.

I shook my head, leaving the cup there and going back into the living room, a surprised look on my face when I realised that Harry had somehow managed to fall asleep in the little time I was in the other room, and his head was leaning on the armrest.

I sighed, nearing him and taking off his shoes before putting his legs up on the couch and covering him better with the blanket before cuddling up on the armchair next to him.

• • •

The next time he came to his senses it was hours after that episode, and the early afternoon had quickly started to turn into late afternoon.

I stared at him as he sighed and opened his eyes, blinking a few times as he assessed his surroundings, slowly pushing the blanket off his body but not daring to move aside from that.

"Harry" I said gently, glancing at him as he stared at the ceiling.

He made no move to look at me, but he still gently hummed, letting me know that he was listening to me.

"What happened?" I continued, not being able to mask the worry in my voice again. "You told me you were going home?"

He sighed, slowly trying to sit up, but lying back down quickly right after and covering his eyes with his arm. "I decided to go to the gym instead" he said, his voice rough from the little sleep he'd had, "and then I went out to drink. I'm sorry."

"I was worried for you" I replied, for some reason feeling a bit betrayed by his actions. I'd thought we were a team at that point, and that he would've told me if something was wrong, instead of going out to get wasted.

He sighed. "I didn't mean to make you worry. I'm sorry." There were a few seconds of silence before he spoke again. "Sierra? Do you have an aspirin or something I can take? My head is killing me" he said faintly, his eyes closed, and I nodded.

"Sure" I said, paying attention to keeping my voice low now that I knew he had a headache, before standing up and walking to the kitchen. I found a package of aspirin in one of the cupboards and filled a glass with water, taking it with me back in the living room.

Harry slowly sat up as he heard me come into the room, sending me a little glance as I made my way towards him. I handed him the glass and the medicine before going back to sitting on the armchair, looking at him as he put a couple of pills into his mouth, easily drinking them down with water before putting both the empty glass and the package on the coffee table.

"Thank you" he said quietly, not daring to look at me in the eyes. "I really am sorry, Sierra. For scaring you. I didn't think."

I sighed, already knowing that I would've never managed to stay mad at him. "You should probably brush your teeth" I told him gently, considering that I could smell the alcohol in his breath whenever he spoke, and I knew it couldn't be comfortable for him either. "The spare toothbrush is still in the bathroom."

"Okay" he said, slowly standing up and stopping in his tracks for a couple of seconds as soon as he did before walking out of the living room and supposedly up the stairs.

I stood up as well, taking what he'd left on the coffee table and bringing it back to the kitchen, taking it as my chance to wash the two glasses he'd used and put them back in the cupboard. I checked my phone quickly, discovering that I had no new messages, before walking into the living room again.

Harry returned not long after, seeming way more battered than before even though it was painfully clear that his headache still hadn't subsided. For that reason, I decided to stay quiet, deciding that we could've talked better about it all when he would've felt better.

Barely a few minutes had gone by when the doorbell rang all of sudden, a bit more insistently as I would've appreciated.

I stood up when I realised that whoever was on the other side of the door wouldn't have stopped without getting an answer, quickly making my way towards the front door and opening it, discovering that Zayn was in front of my house. "I told you later was better" I told him quietly, wondering if I would've managed to make him go away before he could bother Harry, that didn't seem to be up for much conversation in that moment.

"This is later" he simply replied, "now it's time to talk."

"Listen, I really don't think it's a good idea-" I started to say, but I was quickly interrupted before I could finish the sentence by Zayn simply shaking his head to let me know that he wouldn't have dropped it.

"What the hell, Harry?!" He exclaimed, pushing past in and entering the house, walking fast towards the living room, where he could see Harry sitting on the couch.

I sighed, knowing that there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening at this point, and I closed the door, slowly making my way to the living room but resorting to standing near the entrance, wanting to give them some privacy - even though Zayn was almost shouting and in my own house.

"Do you know how worried we all were?!" Zayn continued, completely ignoring the very clear exhausted glance Harry sent his way. "Maura thought you'd got hurt! Sierra had to be contacted by fucking Niall and we all lost a day of school just because you decided you wanted to disappear for a fucking day and get drunk and probably high too, considering the fucking smell on your clothes." He shook his head. "I try to be on your side Harry, I try really fucking hard to be, but you can't pull shit like this!"

Harry sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his index and thumb and closing his eyes, a stressed look on his face. "I'm sorry" he said quietly, so low that I struggled to hear what he was saying.

Zayn huffed. "Being sorry won't fix this, Harry! You can't disappear for a whole day without telling anyone and not answering your phone, there are people that care about you" he replied, anger evident in his voice even though he tried to tame the tone of his voice.

"I forgot the phone in my gym bag, I don't have it on me" Harry told him faintly, the choice of loudness making it clear that his headache was far from gone. I looked down at his words, but I couldn't help but be a little happy when I found out he didn't have his phone, because I'd hated to think that he was ignoring me.

"That's even more irresponsible Harry! What if something had happened? You wouldn't have been able to call anyone!" Zayn hissed at him, and I could surely realise where he was coming from. Going around in the middle of the night alone with no phone didn't sound like a very good idea, but then again, I highly doubted Harry had stopped for even just a second to think about what he was doing when he'd done that. "What even possessed you to act that stupid?"

Harry glanced at him, an exhausted gaze in his green eyes. "I just want to sleep" he said lowly, completely ignoring his question.

Zayn rolled his eyes at his friend's words. "You always do, but you know what? You can't sleep all your problems away, sometimes you have to face them!" He told him, seeming to quickly realise why Harry had ignored his question.

Harry looked up at him, and for a few seconds there was only silence, in which they just stared at each other, seeming to be silently evaluating things I didn't know about. "I don't think I can" he said in the end, his voice so faint it almost went unheard.

The reply came a couple of instants after. "You better get your shit together Harry, and do it quickly before it's too late" he told him, before turning around and storming out of my house, leaving us alone in the living room.

I glanced at Harry, he was looking down, an unreadable expression on his face, his fingers tapping nervously on his elbow, his arms wrapped around his middle. "What was he talking about?" I asked him gently as I made my way towards the couch, sitting down next to him when I reached it.

He gave me a side glance, the enigmatic look not leaving his eyes, a frown on his face. "Nothing important" he replied quietly, and I just nodded even though I knew that it held some importance to him as he wouldn't have been that visibly upset if it didn't, figuring out that he would've told me whenever it would've felt right to do so. "You know I love you, don't you?" He asked all of sudden, surprising me.

"Of course" I told him, furrowing my eyebrows at his odd question. If there was something I was certain about it was that he loved me, because I knew he wouldn't have told me repeatedly - even when he'd feared my feelings for him weren't the same as his for me - that he did, and I knew he never lied.

He nodded. "Then kiss me, Sierra" he murmured, his words almost coming out as a supplication. "Make me feel it."

The confused look didn't leave my face, but I still leaned closer to him, hesitating a bit before pressing my lips against his. He leant in the kiss as if his own life depended on it, surprising me with his intensity, compared to the shitty way I knew he was feeling.

His hand gripping my waist harshly, he deepened the kiss, the sour taste of regrettable choices still lingering on his tongue and making me pause for the shortest second before I decided I didn't really mind. He let out a low moan into the kiss, and for some reason I felt like crying, and I couldn't help but pull him closer to me even though his body was already pressing against mine.

Somehow we ended up walking up the stairs, his hand holding mine, a quickness in our step due to the late hour in the afternoon mixed with the fear of being discovered.

He closed the door and pushed me against it as soon as we entered my bedroom, leaving a trail of wet kisses down my neck, a shiver running down my spine, my skin hot under his touch.

He detached himself from me just enough to be able to give me a little glance. "Should I lock the door?" He mused, shortness in his breath, and I nodded quickly.

"Please do, you know where the key is" I replied, my head spinning, taking the little break as a chance to get myself together a bit.

He nodded, opening the drawer of my nightstand and taking it out quickly before closing the door just as fast, leaving the key in as he looked down at me again. "Where were we?" He said lowly, pressing his lips against mine again without giving me time to answer.

I stood on my tiptoes, my hands on his shoulders as he kissed me, his fingers gripping the soft fabric of my shirt. I let out a surprised gasp when his hands traveled down my back to my lower half, and before I could even register what was happening he lifted me up, pressing me harder into the hard wood of the door. I wrapped my legs around his waist, a bit concerned about him accidentally dropping me, but not enough to tell him to stop.

He kissed up my neck and jawline, stopping for a few seconds to savour the moment before pressing his mouth against mine, his lips soft and somewhat rushed on mine. He finally let me down and slipped his hand in mine as we took the couple of steps that separated us from my bed, pushing me on it when we reached it before climbing on top of me, automatically sliding between my legs as he left a kiss on my shoulder.

"What's up with... this?" I asked him, my voice broken, trying to make sense of his sudden eagerness.

He paused, his warm breath hitting the skin of my neck and making it tingle. He let his lips brush against me, a faint hesitation in his action, before looking up at me. "Am I still your muse?" He asked, his voice as faint as the request was unexpected.

I put my index under his chin and lifted it gently. "My angel" I whispered against his lips, before leaving a soft peck on his mouth.

He hummed, the sound vibrating against my fingertips. "I'm no angel" he murmured, something I couldn't define left on hold between him and the reply.

"I know" I breathed against his jawline. "But you're still a butterfly to me."

"I know" he replied, his voice sounding almost pained, before leaning down and kissing me again.

My breath stopped in my throat when he sat up, quickly taking off his shirt and throwing it on the floor. I put my hand on his chest, smiling as goosebumps that formed on his skin at my touch, letting my cold fingers travel up to his neck before pulling him down into a kiss. He groaned into my mouth, pushing his hips against mine, the air trembling out of his throat.

"Mark my skin, make me yours" he said shakily as he tried to unbutton my shirt, his fingers fumbling with the buttons as he breathed against my neck. "Please, I need it."

I covered my hand with his, encouraging him to move it away so that I could get rid of my shirt myself. He turned us around with a flick of his waist and put his head on the pillow, staring up at me as I slid the fabric off my shoulders. I threw it on the ground next to his and lowered my body on his, hesitantly leaving a trail of kisses down his neck, sucking gently on the skin under his jawline, enjoying the way his breath died in his throat at my action. I brushed my lips past his collarbones and down his chest, but he sat up before I could go lower, leaving a kiss on my chest as he reached behind me to take off my white bra. I let him do it and threw it away too, hoping that it would land on my couch.

I reached down with my hand and undid the button of his jeans, pulling the zip down, and he sighed against my ear before turning us around again and kicking them off his legs again. I pulled him towards me another time, grazing his soft pink lips with my thumb, and they parted under my touch.

He kissed me again, clasping his fingers on the waistband of my sweatpants and pulling them off my legs before parting my thighs and sliding between them, brushing my cheek with his thumb, a roughness in his touch, something I couldn't define in his green irises, but that I know would've made my knees go weak if I'd been standing.

"I love you" he murmured before connecting our lips again in a soft kiss, slowly pulling down my underwear as he deepened the kiss, his tongue gently delving into my mouth.

I hummed into the kiss, not replying right away but trying to communicate him the way I was feeling through our kiss. He gently sunk his teeth into my lower lip as we broke apart, the action communicating a hint of passion and urgency that hadn't really been ours before.

"I love you too" I whispered in reply, a low hum leaving his lips in reply. "Wait, do you...?" I added quickly, instantly realising that he'd barely seemed to have anything on him when he'd first entered my house.

He sat up, reaching to the side to open the drawer of my nightstand. "I think I've left something here" he said quietly, rummaging through its contents before finally pulling out a small package out of it. "Here."

I widened my eyes. "Oh my goodness, why didn't you tell me? My mother could've seen!" I told him, mildly freaking out as the possibility of my mum having actually seen it entered my mind.

He closed the drawer and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. "Even if she has, it's normal to have sex at your age and I'm sure she knows it" he reassured me quickly between broken breaths as he left some kisses up my jawline.

I rolled my eyes, brushing my fingers through his dark hair a couple of times, enjoying how soft it felt under my touch. "It is until she tells my grandma, and then things get awkward."

He let out a little chuckle against my ear. "We're about to have sex and you mentioned your grandma, I don't think it can get more awkward than this."

I laughed as well, feeling my cheeks get warmer all of sudden. "I'm sorry, did I ruin the moment?"

"Not yet" he replied, shaking his head. "Just please, don't do that ever again."

I nodded. "Okay, I promise."

He seemed satisfied with my reply, because he leant down, connecting our lips again as he pushed his hips against mine, his eagerness starting to drip from his actions like honey.

He got rid of his boxers once they became too tight, sitting up and rolling the condom on before lowering his body on mine again and making me his for the second time.

It was nothing like the first time. It felt intense, way too intense for it to be just what it was meant to be, making my heart ache for some reason I couldn't understand. His hands explored my body as if he was seeing me for the first time, sparkles rising on my skin under the gentle touch of his fingertips making my heart flutter in my chest. He let himself go, leaving faint bruises on my hips as he gripped me a bit more harshly than he'd ever had before, moaning against my neck as I let my nails travel down his back. He touched me as if he was scared I would've left him forever right after our moment, whispering into my ear how much he loved me and sweet nothings that for some reason he deemed important enough to be shared.

I looked up at him, there was an unreadable look into his eyes, and I wished I knew what was going through his mind in that moment. He kissed me as if he was trying to convince me of how much I meant to him, intertwining our fingers above my head, sighing against my lips as we parted. He held me impossibly close to him, a smell that I could define as just him invading my senses, it being one of the rare times he wasn't wearing any cologne. He marked my skin almost as many times as he encouraged me to mark his, as if he wanted everyone to know that we belonged to each other.

When he reached his climax he groaned my name, the sound rolling off his lips with a bit of longing, and I couldn't help but cry out his, for I was his just as much as he was mine. He put his head on my chest, my heartbeat rushing against his ear quicker than ever before, sighing as we both regained our evenness of breath.

I lay there, on the mattress, for a while, staring at the white ceiling above me as the warm reddish light of the setting sun entered the glass of my window, Harry's presence permeating everything around me, from the smell of pillow to the weight of his head on my chest. I brushed my fingers through his hair and he lifted up his head, looking up at me, the unreadable look still in his eyes.

"I love you" I reminded him, for some reason finding it important to tell him in that moment, even though I knew that he already knew.

He nodded, finally moving to sit up, crawling on top of me just enough to leave a kiss on my mouth, his lips a bit swollen and redder. "I love you" he whispered back, leaning his forehead on mine, his fingers brushing against my cheek for a quick second.

I glanced at him as he quickly disappeared into the bathroom and returned less than a minute later, taking his boxers from the floor and putting them on before lying down next to me on the bed again, putting his head on the pillow. I turned to look at him when he intertwined our fingers over my stomach, a content sigh leaving his lips as he closed his eyes.

I lay there in silence for a while, feeling happiness and relaxation in every fibre of my body, strongly opposed to the stress we'd both gone through earlier that day, allowing myself to let go for a bit but not daring to fall asleep, simply enjoying his presence next to me until the sun finally disappeared under the horizon, leaving my room in mild darkness.

He changed position against me, letting me know that his short nap had come to an end, and I turned my head a bit towards him even though we were too close for me to really look at him.

"Do you want to sleep here tonight?" I asked him gently, already wondering if we should've showered together. I kind of wanted to do that, even though the idea made me a bit nervous.

To my surprise, he slightly shook his head. "I should go back home, Maura is probably worried" he replied quietly, and even though I was a bit disappointed, I didn't let it show. I perfectly understood where he was coming from, and it truly was better for him to go.

"Yeah, you're right" I said, watching my tone to make sure my feelings about his decision weren't showing, because I didn't want him to feel bad for worrying about someone else.

He sighed, letting my hand go and sitting up, passing his fingers through his dark hair. "I should go now" he told me, and I nodded, watching him as he stood up and got dressed quickly under my attentive stare, coming back to me and leaving a quick kiss on my lips before walking towards the door.

For some reason, as he made his way out of the room, I couldn't help but feel as if something between us had shifted.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. x

Miki

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