K xxx

the one where they meet

preview: “That band that nearly won the X-Factor is here.” She announced and before we could ask any further questions, she was off to announce the news to someone else.

“The X-Factor?” Alex questioned, swinging around as the rest of us stood up, intrigued.

“What were they called? One Direction wasn’t it?” George questions, to which Saoirse and I nod in agreement. I wasn’t an avid fan of the X-Factor. Indeed, I couldn’t even tell you the last time I watched more than one episode let alone an entire series. However, I did remember seeing a group of boys around my age on it this year, but I didn’t know how far they’d gone in the competition or anything.

“Let’s see!” Saoirse said, leading myself, Alex and George back into the rest of the flat to see. What must have been at least a hundred people had congregated in the main room of the flat, all laughing and chattering loudly.

the one with the terrible first date

preview: “Hiya! Sorry I’m a little late. I think it’s the universe’s law that if you’re going somewhere for a certain time, every single red light has to hit you first.” Harry chuckled, unbuckling his seatbelt and reaching for the handle of the driver’s door.

“It’s fine! Don’t worry.” I giggled, reaching for the handle of the passenger door. “Only like two-”

“Wait!” Harry squawked, shooting out of the car at the speed of light and running round in time to gently bat my hand away from the handle. “That’s my job.” He grinned, pulling open the door and gesturing with his hand for me to get in. I blushed a deep crimson. Fingers crossed he couldn’t see as I nipped into the car.

the one with all the journalism

preview: The pair made their first appearance together on the red carpet for Y/L/N’s new release; and let me tell you: they looked very loved up and very smitten with each other. Yet, sadly for all of us, the pair dodged questions about each other extensively! 

However, we’re determined to provide the latest on the new couple, so watch this space!

the one where he’s jealous at an award show

preview: “Over here!”

“Can we get a quick, cheeky kiss guys?!”

“Hey Harry!”

“Harry what do you think of her movie?!”

The bombardment of questions was paired with the almost constant sound of camera shutters. Things had definitely taken off in my career in the last few months; especially due to the attention the latest film I’d been in with Zac Efron received. 

Harry’s hand gently squeezed mine, causing my eyes to shift in his direction, a smile gracing my mouth. We stopped in front of a set of photographers and Harry repositioned his arm around my waist as mine mirrored his. 

the one with the playlist

preview: Slowly, I made my way up stairs, pushing open the door to our bedroom. It seemed far less chaotic than it had been for the last couple of weeks now that it was relieved of Harry’s many bags. I missed the mess now; it had told me that he was still here. Without turning on the light, I trudged to the bed, flinging myself onto the duvet, laying like a starfish on the covers as I let out an exaggerated huff slash groan. I glanced up in the direction a small rattling noise came from. On the pillow was an object I couldn’t quite make out in the dim light of the room; it certainly hadn’t been there earlier when I left the room to take Harry to the airport. Maybe this was what he was being so secretive about then. Pulling myself up, I flicked on the lamp beside the bed, discovering a CD with a sticky note attached.

‘For when you miss me and may forget how much I love you, here are all the songs that remind me of you (I’d know, seeing as I wrote them about you ;)) All my love, H xxxxx’

the one where five become four

preview: “Hey.” He cleared his throat, rubbing his palm roughly against his face.

“I guess you’ve heard, then?” He asked, stepping to the side to allow me to enter the room, seeming to have forgotten about his departure of the space.

“Yeah.” I nodded in sympathy, reaching out to rub a soothing hand up and down his arm. 

“I just can’t fucking believe he could do this.” Harry came into my view as Niall spoke, his eyes red rimmed. 

“He’s just stressed, I’m sure he’ll come round. Just let him go home for a few days and cool off.” I suggested, walking towards Harry to pull him into a hug. 

“Let him go home?” Niall repeated.

“She doesn’t know, Niall. She’s just got here.” Harry speaks, voice croaky. 

the one on the late late show

preview: “And if these lovely boys weren’t enough for you, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to welcome our other guest for tonight to the stage!” James announced after another commercial break. “She’s been nominated for countless awards, many of which she’s scooped up for herself. She’s extremely talented, beautiful and funny and one of my dear, dear friends. We’re so lucky to have her here tonight talking about her new film with Bradley Cooper called Lara, please give a warm welcome to Y/N Y/L/N!” The crowd erupted into loud cheers as they applauded. I pulled the curtain a little to allow myself through, grinning towards the audience and waving. I made my way over to where James stood at the top of the stairs where we shared a quick hug. Then, I hugged Liam who was sitting furthest down the couch, then Louis, then Niall and finally Harry who shot me a subtle wink before pulling me against him. 

“You look stunning.” His breath was warm as it grazed against my ear while he spoke. I sat down beside him, keeping my composure to not draw suspicion from the audience.

the one where they talk about the past

“Uh... Well, I mean,” He looked around the table, the plates, the glasses and my face for almost a whole minute as he desperately tried to find his words. “Well to be completely honest with you it never crossed my mind. To leave. I thought we were just being vulnerable and you know, getting to know each other at the start of a relationship. I thought it was normal.” “Oh no, I think it was normal too. I just, I don’t know... pretty much everyone I’d been honest with about it until that point became weird and either distanced themselves or completely changed the subject.” I shrugged a little as I spoke. “Why are you asking about this?” Harry questioned. “It was like, what, best part of five years ago, lovie? Why are you bringing this up now?” My face softened at the look of concern on his features. “Nothing weird, baby, I was just wondering.” “What’s prompted it though?” Now it was my turn to become hesitant. “Lovie? What’s wrong?” “Do you not remember what day it is?” My voice was extremely quiet; if there had been any other sound in the house I’m sure he would have missed it. Harry stood up, poking his head into the kitchen where we kept the calendar that was decorated with numerous events and reminders for the both of us. I knew he’d seen it when a long sigh came from the kitchen doorway. “Christ... ‘M sorry, love. I’ve just been so busy, and a little stressed. Quite frankly I’ve forgotten the day of the week, let alone the date. C’mere.” He emerged from the kitchen, holding his hand out for me to take. I slowly stood up from seat, taking his outstretched fingers and lacing them with my own before he pulled me against him, wrapping his other arm tightly around my back. A delicate kiss was pressed to my head as I nuzzled against his chest.                                                          --------- 2011

“Alright, enough about me. What about you? What was Miss Y/N like growing up then?” Harry cut off my giggles after a particularly amusing anecdote about the time he’d mortally embarrassed himself in front of his crush aged 8. He nudged me with his finger, causing another cascade of giggles to escape my parted lips. “Okay, okay! It’s really not that funny!” He whined softly, and despite the almost completely darkness in his room I could see the pout on his mouth. After a second of calming down, I leaned across to place a quick peck against his lips. “What do you wanna know then?” I asked gently, trying to even out my voice to cover up how nervous I felt at the prospect of laying bare some of my most intimate secrets. “Everything.” He replied with a small chuckle. “Wanna know all the gory details.” He teased. I let out a small nervous laugh. “You do realise that’s not really a joke when it comes to me, right? There’s are a lot of gory details.” I admitted in a soft voice, almost ashamed to admit this much. I heard the pillow move as Harry’s face turned to me. “What do you mean?” “It’s just a bit sad really.” I mumbled in reply. “I mean, you know that Saoirse warned me when we got together with her whole ‘she’s been through so much shit, you better treat her with respect’ speech. But you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” He cleared his throat. “Equally, however,” He added after a moment of silence between us. “If you’re worried about judgement or something, you know I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Well I guess you were open and honest with me, right?” I spoke, sitting up against the pillows. I felt Harry shifting around beside me as he too sat against the headboard and pillows.

“Before you start... could I, um,” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Could I hold you?” I let out a small laugh, not replying verbally. Instead, I scooted closer to close the already minuscule space and lifted his arm up and around my shoulders as I snuggled into his side. 

“Better?”

“Much, thanks.” He replied, pressing a kiss to my hairline. “Alright, tell me everything, not judgement, nothing.”  I inhaled deeply before I began.

“Okay, well I when I was born it was just me, my brother and my parents. And everything was all good for a few years, like we had a great time as a family, I was doing ballet twice a week, I had acting lessons and singing lessons,”

“You had singing lessons? I’ve never heard you sing!” Harry interrupted. I playfully slapped his chest.

“Don’t interrupt!” I laughed, getting a short ‘sorry’. “Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I had a great early childhood. But then when I was about six, my mum got really ill. And you already know from the small amount I’ve talked about her, she was like my best friend, so I took it really hard because even though I was so young at the time, I understood that she was ill, and even though no one told me at the time I knew she wasn’t going to get better.” I paused for a second to gather myself.

“You alright?” Harry spoke softly, his hand softly caressing up and down my arm. I nodded in response.

“She died when I was ten. The 1st of October. But it was the longest four years of my life. We had to watch her slowly get worse and worse, and by the end she didn’t know who we were.”

“What did she have?” 

“She got dementia.” I muttered quietly.

“I didn’t know you could get that if you weren’t like, seventy.”

“Well you can. It’s really rare, but you can.” I explained. “Anyway, I was heartbroken, but it was around the time I was doing Atonement so everyone there knew what was happening at home, but they were all so lovely, and kind, and supportive which really helped me through it. But then after all the press and when the film was out, my dad just changed. We hadn’t been extremely close before because, as I said, I was closer with my mum, but that’s when he was just unrecognisable.”

“What do you mean?”

“He um... well he...”

“Did he hit you?” His voice was just above a whisper, almost like he didn’t want to even ask the question but couldn’t help himself. I just nodded in response. “Fuck,” He breathed, unconsciously squeezing him closer to me. “Fuck I’m so sorry.” 

“It-it’s alright.” I brushed it off. “At the time my brother was just not doing anything; he became this spoilt arsehole after my mum died because my dad thought the sun shone out of his arse or something so he didn’t do anything to help me. He never stuck up for me. And then when I was twelve he introduced me and my brother to his girlfriend... and his seven year old daughter he’d had with her in secret. And that was it, I couldn’t take anymore. I finally found the courage to talk to someone and reached out to my aunt and told her everything. She saved me and let me move in with her and my cousins. They brought me up as their own from then on really. That’s why they’re basically my parents and my cousins are basically my brothers.”

A long silence fell over both of us. I felt too shy (ironically after sharing some of the biggest secrets I held), and I didn’t know what Harry was thinking. 

“What about your dad and your brother? What happened to them?” Harry asked.

“We haven’t spoken to my brother for years because he said he couldn’t believe how my aunt had ruined our family by taking me away. And my dad was in prison last I heard. I was like fifteen I think, but he was arrested for throwing his wife and daughter around. Never heard from him again.” 

                                                        ---------

“Do you wanna know what I was thinking that night?” Harry asked, his face still nuzzled into my hair as I held him against me. I nodded in reply. “Well firstly,” His hands moved down to my waist as he pulled me away from the table - our food long forgotten - and towards the sofa. He sunk into the cushions before pulling me gently on top of his lap, wrapping me up once more in his arms. “I thought you were the strongest person I’d ever met.” I propped my head on his shoulder, looking up at the side of his face as he spoke. “I’d never seen you angry, or upset, or judgemental of anybody. Granted I’d only known you a few months at that point, but I thought it was so incredible you had this ability to be so loving and kind despite everything you’d experienced.” His large hand moved in soothing patterns up and down my back as his lips moved with his word; I felt somewhat transfixed by the way his mouth curved with his sound.

“But they hadn’t done any of it, had they?” I countered, my hand on his chest, pointer finger swirling the patterns being drawn onto my back on his chest.

“No,” He agreed. “But still. Secondly, though, I felt so angry.”

“Angry?” I repeated, brows furrowing.

“Mhm,” He hummed, nodding gently. “I was so, so angry that anyone could treat you like that. I know we hadn’t been together long, but I knew even then that I was so in love with you. And the thought of someone being capable of doing that to such an innocent and vulnerable child made me sick. I genuinely wanted to give your dad a piece of my mind, but obviously I wouldn’t have because I was a child myself but I felt so protective over you.” He softly raised my chin so our eyes could meet. “You’re everything I could have ever wanted, my love. You mean the absolute world to me and I just couldn’t stand the thought of something like that happening to you. I vowed that our kids wouldn’t experience any of the horrors you did.”

“Our kids?” I felt somewhat dumbfounded at this. Yeah, we’d discussed the idea of marriage and children at some point in our futures, but it had been very fleeting - especially the topic of children. It was no secret Harry was a master with children and they seemed to have this unexplainable attachment to him, but we’d never fully admitted, yes we want to make children together even though we’d been together for so many years. “You want to have kids with me?” Harry let out a breathy laugh, running his thumb gently over my cheek as he gazed at me. 

“Yeah, of course I do, lovie. I think you’ll be the best mum in world. You’re gonna love them unconditionally and they’re gonna idolise you. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I want to marry you. I want to love you for the rest of my life. I want to grow old with you and make a family and have grandchildren running around us.” Harry beamed, his eyes sparkling with love and excitement. I leaned forward, pressing a long kiss against his lips. I felt his mouth curve into a smile against mine as he kissed me with such deep love and feeling my eyes were stinging with tears. 

“I love you,” I whispered, pulling away enough to rest my forehead against his.

“I love you so much.” He replied, gently grazing his nose against mine. We stayed in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, exchanging loving kisses and cuddling against each other before either of us remembered the dinner we’d prepared. As we returned to our seats and began eating the food that was a little cold (but we were too preoccupied shooting each other essentially real life heart eyes to care), Harry spoke up again. “Beside, I already know how I’m going to propose to you.”