"Mom?" My voice fills the entire living room once I hear the sound of keys unlocking the front door. She appears first, with three grocery bags, while Gemma stands right behind her, also holding another four of those.

Niall is the first to stand up from the couch, helping the two of them with the bags, while I take the task of putting the groceries in the kitchen cupboards. The time passes quickly and silently, as neither Niall nor me tell my mother about the plans we made while she was out for shopping. Gemma seems to notice that, and by the time I finally sit back on the couch to rest my arms and keep watching a marathon of Doctor Who on TV, she sits next to me too.

"Tell me."

"What?" I act cynically, my eyes still focusing on the TV show.

"You're hiding something", she says, pulling my chin to her side so I can look at her. "You can tell me everything, Harry, you know it."

"I'll tell you at dinner, okay? I can assure that."

Gemma is still suspicious, but shrugs and turns around to the telly too.

"Season?"

"The David Tennant one."

"Oh. It's the best one."

"Of course it is", Niall suddenly sits on the free seat of the couch, wrapping one of his arms around my neck and resting his fingers in a careful move on my shoulder. "Great times of Doctor Who."

"Didn't know you were a fan too, Horan", Gemma exclaims, smirking right after.

"Harry never told you about that? Why I'm not shocked at all?" He jokes, staring at me and laughing out loud. "We had marathon days on the Where We Are Tour. We used to sit on the floor and watch the whole fourth series in a day, just a bunch of popcorn and a duvet covering my legs only. Because I was selfish."

"I had my own duvet, stop talking like that", I argue back. "And I bet you know every single line of this show."

♚♚

Dinner is great, just like every day at home with my family. We laugh, we eat (Niall eats more than laughs, of course), and we talk. 

But not every moment lasts forever, and soon Gemma is knocking my chair with her feet.

"Harry."

"Huh."

"What were you going to reveal tonight?"

Everybody shuts up. I grin at her, then I glance at Niall as if I'm asking him permission to talk about this topic, and then I clear my throat to tell what she wants me to tell.

"Huh, me and Nialler, we are... eh... trying something between us. We want it to work, so we're gonna spend a little time together in the next few weeks."

"We're telling you now because we know it's better if we tell it ourselves", the blondie completes my thoughts verbally. Gosh. He's so connected with me. "And because we want your understanding."

"Oh, that's so sweet coming from you two", mum suddenly seems excited with the news, and I smile at her, "so sweet. I'm happy that you chose to be honest, Harold, and I'm happy you're with Niall. He's so sweet. Excluding the hair, of course."

That's enough for us to burst into laughter, filling the room with our loud voices.

"Oh, he's gonna kill this color, you'll see", I scream, making Gemma laugh more than before. Niall blushes at my comment, and my hand searches for his thigh to make him comfortable. "Just kidding. I'm not forcing him to do it, he chose to dye his hair back to his roots and that's what we'll do."

"I hope so", Gemma says.

"We're going to stay one more week here and then we'll travel somewhere else", I bring back the topic, my hand still caressing Niall's left knee. "We'll be alright. Don't worry about us."

"You can stay as long as you two want", Anne answers, "I don't care. Family supports family, at the end of the day."

As soon as we finish dinner, Niall and I walk to the backyard, sitting on the same bench of our very first kiss. My arms are holding his body against mine in a careful way, while his hands play with the buttons on my shirt. Nothing is said for a couple of minutes - we're just enjoying each other's company. And I like that.

"I told you she'd accept it very well", I say in a low voice.

"Yeah, I feel so relieved. It's like I'm finally free of something that I didn't know that was imprisoning me." I grin after listening to his words.

He lifts up a bit, concentrating his right hand on my neck and pulling our lips closer and closer, until there's no space between us. I love the way he kisses me, like we have all the time in the world to do it, like there's nothing else planned for the rest of the night, like we could do this forever and never get sick of it.

I may say I fell in love with him, but I'm afraid of feeling everything too fast. I want to take things slow, and something in my head tells me he feels the same. So, only this time, I'd rather enjoy the taste of his soft lips pressed against mine, our tongues battling in the meantime, Niall smiling like I do in breaks we take to breathe a bit.

I don't know. I just feel good for the first time in a long time.