gryles; slightly excessive pet names from nick; lowercase

nick doesn't normally pay much attention to the state of harry's hair. of course, he enjoys running his finger through it as they kiss, clutching it when harry's sucking him off, burying his face in it when they're sleeping, but he never really thinks about why it's in a perpetual state of dampness.

he reckons he just always assumed it was some fancy product harry used, though now that he's thinking about it, he isn't sure why he would have assumed that. not like greasy hair is that attractive, is it? at least, nick doesn't really see the appeal, but of course, he's practically a grandad, and as harry says, totally out of touch with the youth of the day.

nick finds it ironic that harry normally spouts that stuff when he's tired out after sex, and nick has been very much in touch with the youth of today. not that harry really counts as youth anymore, does he? nick hopes not. it feels like an odd word to use to describe the popstar. but, at the very least, nick is vicariously in touch with the youth through harry.

really, nick's a little bit more offended by harry's words than he lets on, but he knows it's all in jest; knows harry wouldn't really say something like that to hurt him or when he was thinking properly.

but, with harry half curled up on the sofa, partially in nick's lap, his head tucked into nick's armpit and nick's arm around his upper back, keeping him close, the older man can't help but stroke his fingers through the man's hair while he breathes quietly against his chest, and while nick isn't distracted by his lips or his words or his mouth.

and, quite frankly, nick's a little bit disgusted by the texture. he frowns a little, unsure of whether to say anything, but harry notices the way that nick's hand has stilled its motions where it had been detangling the little knots in his hair.

"what is it?" harry's words are a little slurred in his relaxed state; he's almost half asleep and so very tired from the tour he's just returned from.

"your hair, love."

"wha's wrong with my hair?" harry sounds quite put out, actually, and nick immediately regrets saying anything. "thought you liked it long."

"i do, baby, i love it." nick resumed his actions, pushing through the little tangles in his boyfriend's hair. "just a little bit greasy is all."

harry groaned, turning his head to push his face further under nick's arm and breathing in nick's smell. he'd always thought it was probably a bit weird how he enjoyed the light smell of nick's sweat, but he liked to chalk it up to pheromones in what he hoped was a convincing argument whenever nick picked on him about it.

"don't like washing it. showers take too much energy. boring. waste of time."

nick lets a breathy chuckling noise slip from his nose as he fiddles with harry's hair, but goes back to focussing on the latest episode of bargain hunt that for some reason harry always insists they watch. sometimes nick swears harry should've been born ten years earlier, and so he voices it, his fingers tucking a strand of hair behind harry's ear.

"you know, you're the old man, popstar. not me."

"nah. you're the one who enjoys a good shower."

"if i was an old man," nick counters weakly, "i'd only have baths, because my knees'd be too weak."

harry goes quiet for a bit after that, because he's actually interesting in bargain hunt for some reason that nick really can't wrap his head around.

at the end of the episode, harry twists round in nick's lap, ending up straddling the older man properly, and leans in for a kiss. nick lets him, playing along for a while, tugging at the boy's bottom lip and letting his palm rest on the back of harry's head until he sighs against nick's lips and presses his hips down against nick's.

nick's a bit confused at this - in fact, nick's a little bit shocked that harry can switch from bargain hunt to sex quite that fast, and he's almost beginning to worry that harry has some sort of odd fetish for the show, but he doesn't speak up about this. instead, he places a hand on harry's hip, and uses the other to tug the boy away from his mouth.

"no, baby. you're not getting off until you wash that mank hair of yours."

harry pouts a little, sighing and looking away from his boyfriend. "it's so boring though." the words come out as a sort of continuous whine with vague syllables that nick doesn't think someone who'd known him any less than nick had would be able to comprehend as words.

harry shakes his head. "not doing it. not now you've told me to."

"s'pose you'll have to go without coming 'til you give in, then."

harry's sigh is much deeper this time, as if he's really emotionally distressed at the idea of not coming for an extended period of time, despite the fact he'd go without for as long as nick wanted him to at the drop of a hat if nick asked.

nick's eyes come into contact with harry's, and his resolve softens a little at the look in harry's face.

"what if i shower with you, love?"

harry's eyebrows shoot up, and he tilts his head to the side a little.

"make it a bath and we have a deal."

nick tilts his face up to kiss harry's chin, and then his nose. "sure, baby."

harry still looks a little annoyed at having to have a bath, but the whole prospect is a lot less bad now that he knows he'll have nick to keep him company. makes the process of having a bath a whole tone less boring.

"c'mon, then." nick pats harry's bum, waiting for him to clamber off his lap, which he does, obediently, before waiting for nick to wrench himself off their sofa. "let's make that hair gorgeous again, yeah? even let you use some of my special shampoo if you want."

"the strawberry stuff?"

nick hums, and jabs at harry's waist in a tickle in a dive. harry shrieks, jumping away and running to the bathroom, giggling and yelling something incomprehensible over his shoulder.

nick's smile it so wide that it's almost forcing his eyes completely closed as he trails behind. it's a minute or so before he gets there, harry's already been there at least forty seconds, and he's just sitting on the toilet seat, watching the door for nick when he comes in.

"you've not started the bath?" nick raises an eyebrow at the boy, a little confused about why. not like he's been distracted by his phone when he left it on their coffee table.

harry shrugs. "i always run it wrong. you do it best."

nick's smirk returns, and he leans over the bath to fiddle with the taps. it's a fancy bath - perks of having a popstar boyfriend and a pretty good pay yourself - with taps at both ends so that it fills quicker, so it won't be too long.

"i've only ever run you, like, three baths though, love."

"yeah, but they're better than all the ones i've run myself my whole entire life, i swear."

"on the quiff of grimmy?" nick winks and harry nearly pushes him into the bath, but that wouldn't be fair, because nick's wearing one of their matching shirts, and the bath's got enough water in to ruin it but not enough to make the fall any nicer.

"you're awful." harry lets the silence hang for a few minutes, as both their eyes flicker between each other and the filling bath. he only speaks when the bath is almost full, which he takes as his cue to stand from the toilet and pull off his sweater. "love you though. loads and loads."

"love you too."

nick steps over to harry untangle himself from the jumper, the wool of which has got caught on his necklace so that it's all caught up around his neck. once harry's free, nick turns to his own clothes, quickly unbuttoning his shirt and pushing his jeans and pants to the floor together, his socks coming off with them as he pulls his feet out of the end.

he steps into the bath, making sure the temperature's okay before turning all the taps off and holding his hands out for harry - now naked - to hold as he steps into the bath. as a form of extra balance.

once harry is standing in the bath with him, nick slides down into a cross-legged sitting position, waiting for harry to join, only he just stands there, his cock half-awkwardly dangling a foot or so from nick's face.

"you've still not washed your hair if that's what you're getting at."

"no, just-" harry looks down at nick's legs, as if he's trying to work out the logistics of sharing a bath. "can i sit between your legs? like - lean against your chest?" nick's quiet for a moment. "wanna stay close to you."

nick couldn't suppress a grin, moving his legs apart for harry to slide between. safe to say, this was the first time he'd spread his legs for the younger boy.

harry turns to slip under the water, nick reaching up almost by instinct to hold his waist so he can't fall. once harry's under the water, he shuffles back to slot himself against nick's chest, beaming as he feels his back come in contact with nick's skin.

and so they sit together, fitted against one another without an inch of space, nick's knees bent up and pushing together to embrace harry with his whole body. nick figures it's best to leave the hair until last, so after a while of relaxing, rubbing harry's shoulders a little and letting harry twist around for a kiss every now and then, nick picks up harry's body wash.

he's about to squirt some into his palm when harry grabs his wrist, stopping him. "wanna use yours. 'f i'm gonna smell like you for the weekend, might as well go all the way."

nick presses a kiss to harry's jaw, then throat, then shoulder, a smile on his lips the entire time, before popping the cap back on the gel and switching out for his own. he takes a bit from his left palm on the fingers of his right hand, beginning to rub it over harry's arms and belly.

harry relaxes into the touch, letting himself practically melt into nick as he smooths his palm over his chest and under his armpits. harry tries desperately not to burst into ripples of laughter at the contact with his underarms, but he can't contain the small snort that forces its way out his nose. nick probably would have found it unattractive if it had been anyone else, but it wasn't, it was harry, and so it was just another thing nick loved about the boy.

once nick reached harry's thighs, he makes his touches a little lighter, more teasing, but harry only rolls his eyes, telling nick to hurry up because the water's starting to get cold. he knows nick's not planning to take it any further than a bit of playfulness tonight, and he's not going to push that.

still, nick does what harry asks, finishing up washing harry's calves before rinsing his hands off in the water and cupping the liquid in his hands to pour over harry's head.

"cover your eyes, love."

harry does as instructed, feeling the warm water trickle over the hand he's cupped over his eyes as nick tries to dampen his hair enough to wash. harry thinks that he could wash his hair every day if it always came with nick like this.

it's not long until nick's fingers are threading through harry's hair once more, his actions mimicking his earlier movements on the sofa, lathering the shampoo through the soft hair. harry can't help but crane up against nick's hands, a shudder pushing up through his back at the tingling sensations on his scalp and neck that nick's fingers are causing.

harry covers his eyes again when nick's done, and nick tries his best to rinse the water out with the water he cups in his palms, but in the end he has to ask harry to duck underwater, which he does, but he's really not thrilled about it.

when he comes back up, he turns to glare at nick.

"you looked like a mermaid, though, baby. nothing bad about that."

harry doesn't look away, but nick can see the corners of his mouth twitching up.

"not like i made you wash it out yourself, is it?"

harry can't argue with that, and really, being told he looks like a mermaid feels like a compliment as it is, so instead of trying to argue with nick he leans in to press a kiss to his cheek.

"you're forgiven."

"thank god for that. was scared you were going to leave me over washing your hair for a moment there, styles."

harry rolls his eyes, pressing forward to stand up. "i'm not that petty, nick. fuck, s'cold, though, isn't it?"

nick pulls the plug out of the bath as he stands up and gets out the bath, reaching past harry to grab both their towels and drapes one over harry's shoulders for him to dry with. "better put some clothes on then, i suppose. don't want you getting a cold, do we?"

"can we go to bed?"

nick looks over at harry as he finishes drying his legs, seeing that harry's already finished and has the towel wrapped around his head like he's seventy. "course we can. thought a popstar like you'd want to stay up past nine, though."

harry shrugs, lifting his arms to rub his hair through the towel. "just want to cuddle, honestly. easier in bed."

nick nods, pulling on his t shirt, but as he's lifting his arms to pull it over his head, he sees harry frowning. "what's up, angel?"

"clothes."

nick lifts an eyebrow. "you want me naked?"

harry's nod is almost shy; something nick hadn't come to expect from him often, but he supposes that harry's not sure if he can ask for that after the not getting off thing earlier.

"sure, love."

harry's off as soon as the words have left nick's mouth, fingers clasped around nick's wrist, dragging him out of the bathroom with his feet still damp. he managed to fling the towel off his head as they left the room, and before nick's really sure what's happening, he's being pulled on top of harry on their bed.

once his thoughts have cleared a little, he realises he's ended up literally right on top of harry's chest. "'m i crushing you, doll?" he turns his head to the side to look at harry's expression, see if he can breathe okay, but within a second, harry's launched forward to kiss him.

"only in a good way. like the, like, weight of it. the pressure. s'comforting." harry's mumbling against nick's lips, but he gets the sentiment of his words, and lets his hand rest on harry's waist, his thumb pressing up and down his ribs.

after half an hour or so, harry rolls them both over so that he can bury his face in nick's armpit again, the small space feeling secure and comforting as nick pulls both his arms around him, encircling his upper body.

"i love you, grim."