Jo opened her eyes to weak morning light, but sun in late January was shocking enough for her to blink open after just one or two sleepy drawn out blinks. It was definitely morning, and she could see her phone just out of reach on the nightstand. If the sun was up, she should probably be up, but she had very little incentive to reach for the phone.

Doing that would probably wake up Harry, and she was tangled up in him in a gooey pile of limbs that made her wish it was a Saturday when she could stay in bed until her daughter made her way down the stairs and they could scramble from bed together and giggle while a naked Harry hid in her bathroom while she cuddled her daughter. He could appear then in the kitchen and this time, Jo could make him breakfast.

But it was Tuesday. Jo needed to go to her office today and she had some classes to teach in the afternoon.

Her head was pillowed on Harry's bicep and she turned her face into his skin and inhaled his scent. She kissed the star she found there and thought about his celestial body. He made her see and feel like she was a part of the stars last night. Beyond the boundaries of her own body. Beyond space, and time, even. 

He had said he wanted to wait on her I love you, to see if she still felt it when she had recovered her spine. Jo was aware of her vertebrae this morning, every bone of it was pressed against his chest, and though she had places to be all she could think was how she wanted to stay pressed against him in bed all day. A day near him, even doing nothing, resting or giggling,  would be no waste.

There was no chance that today could be one of those days. Jo had classes to teach and Zoe had preschool today and toddler gymnastics tonight. She wished Harry could watch that. It was the cutest mess Jo had ever witnessed and Zoe looked more than adorable in her leotard with shorts attached. Jo loved watching her do the somersaults and stretches. That streak of fierce determination that made Jo crazy when it was about what t-shirt she wanted, usually the one covered in tomato sauce, came out and she would narrow her little blue eyes and focus every bit of her attention and try again and again until she got it. It filled Jo with pride and hope for her future.

She had always worried about Ethan. He always was the life of the party and center of his friend groups. People gravitated to him. That could be such a good thing, but she often saw him molding himself into what his friend's  wanted. He wanted to please the people around him more than to follow his own heart. He also always seemed to be seeking out bigger and better friends, especially before they moved. Jo had been so thankful when he had found Harry. Harry and Ethan stuck like glue.

She understood why. Harry was a lover and once he was in your life, a part of you, it was hard to shake him. You didn't want to. Like right now, she never wanted to. Maybe one day they could tell Ethan and they could really try to be together, like Harry suggested, after he wasn't her student. Jo wanted that, but thinking about it, telling her son made a cold block of ice form in the warm heart of her belly. She couldn't think about that, not right now. She wasn't ready, she was still terrified of how the most important man in her life would react to find out about her new superlative male being his best mate, his longest friend. Jo shook her head and the motion brought a little life back to Harry's body.

Jo felt the changes more than saw them. The bicep she was laying on twitched on her earlobe, his chest expanded with oxygen against her back, she could feel his torso lengthen then contract and his hips came up against her own tighter. She knew he was awake when she heard him rub his feet together. The swishing sound they made signaled he was just about to nod off as well. A hazy habit he had when he was going into or coming out of drowsing. It made her smile.

"You awake?" He rumbled into her hair. Jo thought about the creaks and rolls of his vowels when he first woke up all the time. It made her skin feel too tight and her heart huge. "I can feel your smile on my arm, so I'm gonna guess you are." His arms tightened around her. He nuzzled down into her neck and kissed the skin he cleared with his chin. She could hear her hair get stuck in the sparse stubble on his chin. "Good morning, Jo."

She flipped in his arms then and he moved back from her quickly at her sudden revolution. His eyes were big and he looked startled in the way only a sleepy person can. One day she would tell Ethan, she wasn't sure how or when, but she would have to. This man opened her locks. She needed to tell Harry first though and have him believe. Jo soothed her sleepy key by running her hand ups his jaws and pressing her domestically scented mouth to his. "I love you." she sighed.

Harry pulled back to look at her and she opened her eyes to meet his mussy gaze. "First thing huh?" His dimples took over the blurry planes of his face and Jo nodded her head decidedly until he joined her and caught her lips between his.

He kept kissing her until she was on her back and realized he was checking to see how wet she was. Wet enough, she knew, from relishing being pressed against him intimately for 20 minutes. He made her crazy, and this was insane. There was no time for this. No time for lock and key.

"Huh-uh baby, I have to get up." She shook his head against hers.

"But we need to celebrate, we're in love." He went for the honey spot on her neck and she knew he was gonna play hard ball, hard everywhere.

"Nope, we made plans last night, set boundaries, I need to get you off me and we need to look seemly before Zoe wakes up." She moaned, "Stop Harry." She was breathless.

"I can't when you say my name. Not in that tone," the air went out of him and he felt bigger, like he covered more of her geography. "I'll be quick."

"If we are celebrating our love" she said sarcastically, "should we go for quick? Go wank!"

"But if I wank now, it'll be no good for tonight, I'll come quick. I need to toss off more like three to be ready to celebrate." He was kissing the plane of her breast bone between words and looking at her boobs, she could feel him weeping on her thigh. It was all very compelling. Wait what did he say about wanking?

"Do you have a schedule? Like a wank schedule?" She was laughing at him. "And sex would be so different for your stamina?"

He chicken-necked at her and it was unflattering and she loved the squint of his eyes, they were still swollen and she couldn't see the green of them for his crusty lashes. He was cute in the morning.

"Of course. It takes the edge off better, calms the craving. You make me crazy. Can't come as soon as I get inside, had to strategize so I can keep you satisfied. It might be a two man job, but I'm up to it!"

She was laughing her ass off. Her heels even drummed the bed a little. "You know I had like no sex before you? You're the sex pest, but I'm so insatiable I need two lovers? Ridiculous!" He chuckled against her and she rolled out from under him.

"Well, you look at me like a snack all the time, I'm just trying to be a meal!" He was grinning at her.

"Well, you are gonna have to be dinner!" She pushed him off her and was happy the tension had broken a bit. He grumbled but she pushed his head affectionately and gave a tiny tug on his hair, he tried to catch her, but Jo slipped away like a fish not quite hooked and got her clothes on.

Zoe was wandering down stairs by the time she got out of the bedroom. Jo had had to spend a considerable time dealing with her hair. She knew she had gotten sweaty at one point, but her hair had crossed over from sexy bedhead to rat's nest. Harry had wandered into the bathroom while she was finger combing it.

"Haha, what happened to your hair?" He walked up and started drawing his fingers through her tresses to help. "What a mess!"

"Yours is not much better, and it's your fault," she pouted a little.

"I'll take credit for it," he kissed her cheek and looked at them in the mirror, naked and mussed. "We look like Adam and Eve!" He giggled. "Before or after the fruit you made me eat?"

"Me, you were the one who just admitted recently to pursuing me!" But she loved the idea of them as fallen lovers, it felt right, and if the sin in the Garden was knowledge, Jo knew how dangerous a thing it was-to know. Knowing Harry, biblically, and in his daily silliness and heartfelt creative modes was a point of no return. Jo had eaten every bite anyway and walked out of the garden holding his hand.

"Yes, I was so forceful, that I waited until you couldn't help yourself!" He looked sideways at her. "I love your face in the morning, Jo, when your face is pillow creased and a tiny bit swollen." He was about two inches from her mouth.

"You like my pumpkin head? I look awful!" She tried to smile while she put herself down. Who liked the way they looked on the morning?

"No, you look like mine. Everybody gets you polished, but I remember when you were alone after you first had Zoe."

Jo winced at that memory.

"Sorry, but you seemed so much realer then. You were in comfy clothes and there were no airs about you. I think you didn't have the energy to put any on." He looked at her in the mirror and hugged her to him. "I like this even better, all you are wearing is air." He traced his hand over her naked form without touching her.

"I was too tired to put on any airs. Had you not been here, I would have been in a robe." They were easier to go about the bare bones things she needed to do. Feed herself and her daughter.

Shit, Zoe.

"I've gotta get moving, baby." She leaned back on him and snuggled in for a last touch.

"Yeah, you seem in a rush." Her eyes were closed, but she knew he was grinning.

She blinked her eyes open. Should she be honest. "I'd stay with you all day, just like this if we could. Like the garden before the fruit. But I know better that I have things to do." She made eye contact with him in the mirror all the while as she said it.

"Jo," he looked down at their naked forms and pulled a face, then seemed to decide he could deal with it. He let her go and pulled her brush off the countertop. He smoothed the ends first, then gradually worked up to the crown and released the knots her mattress and he had colluded to make. Once her hair was in order, he put the brush down and pulled out the bun he had hastily slept in. He turned her towards him and took two hands, "I know I've told you twice already, but neither were ideal, one while fighting, the other right after sex, and maybe we should get dressed, but this feels more apt." He stopped staring at her hands and looked her in the eye. "I love you, I'm in love with you. And I'll respect your boundaries, as long as I get your pillow creased face when we are in safe spaces. Even a fraction of you is enough for me."

Her breath caught, his voice was oiled from their banter and conversation. He was so lovely. His ideas and the way he expressed them so romantic, Jo found herself looking for his flaw. Something must be wrong. He was perfect, period, but definitely for her, where was the catch? His age couldn't be his only flaw.

She shook off the worry and tried not to let the past intrude on their moment. "I love you too, and I love our space. But we have to protect it. You need to drop my class, and we need to not in my office and maybe even be careful around Zoe until we are ready to tell Ethan." She kissed him quickly and against his mouth said, "and you have much more than a fraction of me."

"Professor McStruppins?" He laid his head against hers, forehead to forehead.

"I'm trying to go with your reading. She may suspect, but she doesn't know. So I will act like I've done nothing wron—"

"You haven't!"

"Maybe not wrong, but improper, and she smells it. So I just have to play it off as though there is nothing to see." He nodded with her. "Transfer, don't touch me in my office, you know I can't resist you!" They grinned at that truth, "and you need to go home before Zoe gets up. Deal?" She changed their hand clutch to a hand shake. Harry smirked and shook on it.

"It feels weird to strike a deal naked!" He giggled. "Not very official, oh I know." He crooked her pinky and kissed his thumb then stuck it towards her. "You have to seal it."

"You're cute!" Kissed her thumb slowly and connected it to his. Then her lips to his own. "Get out of here!" She twirled around him to get dressed.

"I don't even get breakfast?!" He threw his hands out and she laughed at the move with his nudity and wild hair and semi.

"Nope, well not from me."

"Fine, But it seems rude to service a lady so well and not even be fed!"

She stuck her head out of the closet. "Who said you did it well?"

"Your five orgasms, and you did!" He winked at her.

She guessed she had and she cocked her head sideways and shrugged while she tested the shower water and laid her clothes out on the chair Zoe had pushed into the bathroom recently.

So now, she was dressed and ready and her girl was up and she needed to feed her. "Hey dumpling! Hungry? What do you want?"

"Waffles!" Zoe said and Jo decided to make Harry's. So she called him.

"Miss me already? I'm not even back to my place?" He was smug.

"Not at all, I just need to know how much syrup to put in your waffle mix."

"I don't measure, a good dollop?" He said and she could tell she was on speaker.

"Well, that's not helpful!" She laughed.

"You can always put more on top, just add some and see if it works, I gotta go, I love you!" He ended.

Her heart fluttered, and she looked at her little girl, "me too." She promised as she hung up and added a dollop to the waffle batter.

Hours later, Zoe was at daycare, and her classes had had their introductory sessions and she was looking over her mail when a knock sounded on the door. The big envelopes were interesting.

"Come in!" Jo called as she read about a honorary exhibition in a London for a graduating artist.

"Professor?" She heard Victoria before she looked up. Shit. Ok, reckoning right now. Jo put on her professional face and summoned up nonchalance. Like she had done nothing wrong. She tried to believe it.

"Afternoon professor. I was hoping to catch you alone," her left eyebrow was arched very high. "I came by yesterday, but you were with a student." Her gaze was direct and Jo decided if she was going to be that way, Jo would be as well.

"Yeah, Harry Styles was in my office. We were going over plans for his final works for his course, the end of term speeds up in the spring, and also his personal paintings." Jo smiled at Victoria, then looked down at the submission form she had like she was busy. She was, and now very distracted.

"He shows you his personal work? He has time for personal pieces with his course load?" She filled the chair she sat in and Jo thought she was used to filling up a room. Her presence was big, though she was a petite woman, her aura was substantial and her large colorful scarves were not to be ignored. It always made Jo laugh inside that her work was zany takes on traditional miniatures. It didn't fit the schoolmarm with flair outside.

"Um? he must, it seems like Harry had a breakthrough early last semesterand he's on one of those creative fugues where he isn't sleeping." She nearly mentioned the late night texts, but edited. "His emails have crazy time stamps." She ventured a conspiratorial smile, hoping for a similar experience with her colleagues advisees.

"Hmm, that is interesting. I don't remember being all that struck by his work when he was in my class. But I've noticed he seems to cause a stir in the department. Several professors were keen on advising him. Some feelings were hurt when he requested you." Jo looked up at the strong eye contact. Gave it back. "You'd have thought they had found Banksy. There were questions about why he would chose the youngest professor, chuckles about it really."

"Meaning?" Jo was tired of the subtle shade.

"Meaning, there were several mentions of your youth and looks." Victoria cast her hand out to the side. "The department head said it was ridiculous, but there was a twinkle in his eye. I also have noticed you seem very familiar with him. I just wanted to warn you against the way things can look. It's still hard to be a female professor in Britain. Even in this day and age." Jo quirked a brow, was she trying to bond or warn her off or what?

"I suppose Mr. Styles and I are familiar. I've known him for a long time. He and my son are very close friends." She shrugged it off, like that relationship was no complication at all. "I also taught him to paint, put the first brush in his hand. Maybe why he chose me, for all my woeful inexperience. Also, we use the same medium, and I do abstract figures, which is what he has come too, so maybe he just knew what he needed better that us?" She looked back at the award categories. There were a couple he'd fit in.

"Oh, that's a piece of the puzzle. You guys laughed so easily yesterday whilst he was leaving." Puzzle? How much attention was she paying. Jo was feeling more than angry, on the back burner was the low simmering fear of getting caught, and there was also the feeling of being hunted creeping in. Jo did not like being a fox.

"Do you not laugh with your students?" Jo asked with genuine curiosity and a bit of censure.

"I suppose, but I tend to spend more time with my peers, it's safer." Jo wondered if the anger she was feeling had made her face red. It felt like it should be red.

"Well, I luckily will have a great opportunity soon at the senior nominations meeting and then the awards ceremony. I'm often jetting home. I have a young child, Harry used to babysit her before he was my student actually." Jo wasn't sure why she was volunteering information, evidence to explain their enmeshment that sent people down the wrong fork in the road she figured.

"Hmmm." Was Victoria's only response to that info. She adjusted in her seat and looked at the paperJjo hadn't relinquished since she opened it.

Jo decided to try to put the shame back on Victoria, "I wonder, if Harry was female, or openly gay, would you feel the need to be in my office warning me about how it looks to have a student in my office. You must remember, how it was when you were starting. But you did your job, despite being the pretty young female professor. I hope you haven't swallowed the misogyny."

That twisted Victoria's face a little. Jo wasn't sure if it was vanity, due to her slight dig at her colleagues age, or putting her on the good ole boys team. it made Jo happy in a cruel way; she liked to see Victoria on her back foot. "I think we should be allies, only females on staff, and look out for our students as well as our reputations." Jo gestured with and to the forms in her hand.

"Is that a submission form for the China Now?" Victoria actually sounded interested.

"I have that one somewhere, but this is the Quebec exchange. I think it's more suited to Harry. He's good enough for a grant, certainly," she looked up expecting disagreement but felt like Nike inside when none was voiced. "Quebec or Ukraine I think, for his work." Jo was more talking to herself at this point. Wondering where she had filed the entry forms for the Venice one as well. He was so good, he deserved it all, he'd surely win one.

"Won't you miss your babysitter?" Victoria asked and it called Jo's attention back to her. Jo felt that fear in her belly about how much more he was than her babysitter, but this old girl didn't know that. She was just sniffing, and Jo welcomed the anger when that tide came in quick.

She bit her tongue when her second instinct, the true one, was to call her a bitch, but she was too posh for that, so Jo looked up a little startled, "Oh, Harry doesn't babysit anymore." Not a lie. "It's not appropriate since he's my student right now. Plus I think his talent merits more that finger painting with Zoe." And she smiled like she was in one of those gum commercials, icy on the exhale.

"Ah, quite right. Have to stick with propriety."

"Now, if you could excuse me, Professor, I have some forms and submission selections to make for my advisee. As well as my usual lecture prep." She stood to guide he out.

"Yes, I think I'll put my advisee Paul, in for some as well, certainly the Quebec one."

Jo forced another subzero smile, "Well, may the best artist win!"

"And I wanted to tell you to be careful, there is talk about you and Harry." And her smile was more feline than Jo could stand.

But Jo nodded, "thanks, I'll keep an ear out. It's nice to have another woman on my side. Especially who has been through the gossip ringer herself." She wanted to bond but make sure Victoria knew she had teeth too.

When the door closed, Jo bit her lip and wondered what exactly she needed to be looking out for, but the uneasy feeling that there were consequences outside of the garden, sweat and pain to be expected, and the dogs were on the loose too made her want Harry.

At least that was a positive outcome. Jo didn't feel the urge to run and hide herself alone, she wanted her partner in crime by her side.

And it was easier day by day to ignore her unease, the feeling of being hunted, because harry was there, as he said, Every night and morning.

He never felt like a crime, he felt like wings.