"Feeling better?" Harry asks, once I'm awaken by the gently touch of his fingers in my cheekbone.

I may or may not have slept a little bit after that happening this morning.

"What time is it?" I say, trying to sit in the bed.

"Almost six in the afternoon."

"No way. Did I skip the lunch?"

"Mum understood, it's okay", his hands are still warming my face, and I don't feel like I want to stop him. "You did not answer my question."

"I'm better. Thank you", I smile a bit for Harry. 

The silence ends up being inevitable between us, and he keeps caressing my chin. I love this; the fact that neither of us need to do much to keep each other's attention stuck on the ground. The fact that our story may not be a whole storm of emotions and shouting and fighting and fucking. The fact that we are exactly what we need to be for each other.

I decide to press my lips into his for the second time. Eyes closed, my left hand on his waist and my right one on his neck, my thumb drawing imaginary rainbows in his cheekbone and the non-urgency of the kiss being the main character of this part of the story. He seems to understand exactly what I want, and so he reciprocates the kiss by gently sucking my bottom lip and putting his hands in the back of my head. 

I feel like I can tell him everything I want by just kissing him. And I think he knows it too by the way I blink for a second and he looks like the most peaceful man in the world, standing in front of me, trying not to break the moment. I don't know if anyone in the world can relate to that, in fact. 

We take a break from the kiss just to breathe. His forehead slightly touches mine, his hands still messing with my hair, my arms still clinged to his body.

"Niall."

"Harold."

"You know, I don't let anybody else call me Harold but you. Did you know that?"

"Of course I do", I grin at his words. "It's kind of clear to everyone that I do have privileges with you."

"I wondered if you'd ever notice that." His smile is so soft, so genuine, so pure and so hearttaking that my lips want to find his again.

And that's what I do. I kiss him one more time.

"We were so dumb", I joke, once we fall apart again. He tries to contain a laughter - something he's famous for being bad at, if you know what I mean. "I'm serious, Haz."

"First: we don't even need pet names from now on. You have a whole book full of it for me, and I'll do the same to you", it's my time to laugh. He's a genius. "Second: yeah, we were fucking dumb by not admitting our feelings back then. But maybe it wasn't meant to be in 2015, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe everything we did was driving us to this very moment, to this very day, because maybe it wasn't the time", he shrugs, moving a bit in the bed so he can lay by my side and bring my head to his chest. I glance at him for a couple of seconds.

"Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense", I agree, letting his fingers play with my hair one more time. Damn. He loves my hair. I can't cut it now. "So, what do we do now? Like, I won't say that I need to come back to Ireland or London, because I don't. It's January, people don't need me that much."

"Well, I do need you."

"You can have me any way you want me now, don't be so selfish."

"Oh, but it's my turn to be selfish here. I won't let you go back to the big town without me, Ni", his voice rises up a bit, but I know he's still joking. He's not the jealous type. "It took so long, so long to make amends with myself and to tell you about this, I don't want it to end."

"Me too, Harold. Me too. But who said it's gonna end once I leave Cheshire?" I start to think about all the chances we can make up to see each other throughout the year. Of course it won't end now that we're finally on the same page. "We can work it out. I can spend a couple of days in here, you can come to Mullingar too. Mum will love to see you with this new haircut."

"I know she w-- wait a minute." He stands up, setting me free from his hands while he looks up at the ceiling and seems to remember something. Oh, shit. "Your blond hair. Has. To. Die."

"Bloody hell! You really had to remind me of this now", I shout out in a mocking way. "And all the attempts I have been doing to keep you distracted from this shit. All is gone now."

"You made a promise, Niall James Horan. I did my part. It's your turn."

"I hate the fact that I care for you so much that I end up doing whatever you ask me", I bite my bottom lip on purpose, just to tease him a bit. "Did you know that?"