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farfromharry · 3 years ago

Text

Circles | Richkid!Harry fic

Summary: You and Harry Holland are sworn enemies after an incident that happened many years ago. No one really knows why but the pair of you. but once you overcome that with a very heartfelt apology from him, you actually fall in love.

Word count - 19,506

Warnings - language, drinking

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‘Upper class’ parties were something you were never too fond of. Especially since every single one was the same and thrown for always the most unnecessary reasons. Yes, it looked like fun to dress up and be fancy, but at the end of the day, the people were rude, the food was awfully bad and the only good things were that the alcoholic drinks were endless. But, no food, endless drinks, and a refusal to communicate with almost everyone there, was definitely not a good combination.

You tried your hardest to avoid coming tonight, you really, really did. However, being the daughter of the host, you pretty much had no choice but to be there. You still weren’t a hundred percent sure what this party was even for, all your mother had told you was to slip on a pretty dress, slap on some makeup, and be downstairs and ready by three.

You were already on your second glass of champagne, and had already shooed away your third interested suitor, when you were approached by Sam Holland. Your enemy's twin brother, arguably the better twin too. He really was a sweetheart, and you had zero clue how he could be so closely related to the literal devil.

“Ah Samuel, what can I do for you?” you asked, sending him a charming smile. He smiled back, pulling you into a quick, friendly hug before releasing you and grabbing his own glass of champagne.

“I’m trying to avoid talking to all the snobby, old ladies that-” He laughed at the coincidence when one of the said ladies approached, cutting off what Sam was saying, forcing him to change his entire persona.

“Oh hi, Mrs Henry,” he greeted, shaking the woman’s hand kindly. You tried your best to hide your smile behind your drinking glass, certain that the old, and partially deaf, woman would never hear your quiet giggle over the sound of the party anyways. Sam elbowed you in the ribs sneakily, a way of telling you to shut up, ignoring when you winced as he kept up his angel-like facade to the lady.

“And you know Y/N, don’t you?” he motioned to you with a nod of his head and a fake smile, ignoring your deathly scowl sent in his direction. The woman turned to you, holding out her arms for a hug that you definitely didn’t want to be in.

Your entire expression changed momentarily, just like Sam’s had done a few moments ago.

You hesitantly accepted her hug, rolling your eyes and turning your nose up in disgust when you caught a whiff of her strong perfume.

“How are you dear, I haven’t seen you since your fathers-“ she stopped talking when she realised what she was about to say, noticing the obvious drop in your mood, “Well, you know.”

You nodded your head, letting out a very forced fake laugh, reassuring her the slip up was okay.

“I’m okay, thank you for asking,” you turned to Sam, practically begging him to help you in some way, even if you had no faith that he would.

But unsurprisingly, he would take any chance to make one of his brother’s suffer, so luckily for you you were saved.

“Oh look, there’s Tom, you remember my brother Tom don’t you?” He pointed to his older brother, the one who was shooting him a look that could kill. He was subtly making a motion with his hand across his neck, telling Sam to cut it out, or maybe telling him he was going to hurt him, which one you weren’t sure, but neither were good for the Hollands.

Tom’s face quickly twisted into one of innocence when the old woman clinged to him, the man greeting the lady who dragged him into a painful conversation that would surely last an eternity. You and Sam quickly made a run for it, ending up on the other side of the room mostly out of sight. But even from there you could still see Tom’s cold stare aimed at his younger brother, Sam taunting him with a cheeky wave that only fueled Tom’s rage.

“That elbow hurt y’know,” you complained, rubbing your ribs where Sam had hit you moments prior.

He simply shrugged his shoulders, not bothering to apologise at all. “Well, you deserved it.” You scoffed at him. You heard Sam mumble something under his breath too quiet for you to hear, following his gaze to see the curly headed Holland twin heading over your way.

He had a teasing smirk on his face, his eyes locked on your figure, almost like he knew he was annoying you even from a distance, but due to the scale of annoyance you already felt, you were sure he could actually feel it.

You stared at the second youngest Holland brother as he approached, feeling the infinite rage fill your body at his cocky face, it never failed to amaze you how intensely he could cause you to feel such negative emotions, especially so quickly.

“How did you get in here?” you asked, glaring at him with utter disgust, as if he’d just walked in out of the sewers. Sam rolled his eyes at the scene in front of him, a common occurrence these days, sipping from his drink as he watched you and his twin argue. “Did you use daddy’s money to buy your way in?” you teased, poking fun at the way even his parents were invited, but you made sure he wasn’t.

Harry didn’t actually find out about the party until he noticed his brother’s getting ready, basically guilting them to let him come despite your clear warning not to.

“Very funny,” he said, “At least I have one.”

That one hurt, and Sam could tell by the ever so slight drop in your facial expression. Not that you’d ever admit it to either of them though.

Sam nudged him, a way of silently telling him that was way too far, but you put on a brave face and acted like you weren’t affected, as always.

“I specifically told the doorman not to let you in,” you told him. He scoffed, shaking his head as he muttered something about you being a child.

“Really, you’re that low?” he snapped, ignoring the way he’d just taken a dig at your father’s all too recent departure from this world. Something that you personally would consider low.

“Only for you,” you winked. Sam rolled his eyes, stepping between you both to finally settle it, growing annoyed at how childish he believed both of you were.

“Harry, why don’t you go find Tom or someone, and Y/N, why don’t we go get some fresh air?” You sighed, gulping down the rest of your champagne. You slammed your glass down on the table, making sure to glare daggers at Harry before heading out to the garden.

“Would it kill you to just be nice to her, just once?” Sam asked. Harry shrugged, finishing his glass of wine and patting his twin’s shoulder.

“Yes it would, dear brother.” He strolled away to go and find one of his other siblings, Sam rolling his eyes at his dramatics. The older twin was convinced his eyes were going to get stuck like that if you both carried on like you were. He set out to find you in the garden, leaving through the large glass doors that took up most of the back wall of your mother’s home. You were standing alone, watching other party-goers converse with each other further down the garden.

He approached you quietly, saying a few greetings to old friend’s of his parents when he passed by. A waiter carrying a tray of champagne also passed by him, Sam quickly snatching two glasses with a quiet thank you.

“I hate your brother,” you mumbled, the alcohol making it difficult to keep your filter, not that you had much of one when it came to Harry Holland, as you felt Sam walk up behind you. He handed you the clear glass, seeing you immediately take a rather large gulp of the bubbly, disgusting liquid.

“He’s a nice guy when he’s not, well-“ he paused, trying to find the right words, but you beat him to it.

“A dick.” Sam laughed, noting the way you basically got it spot on.

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” he said. He furrowed his eyebrows as he turned to look at you. “Why do you hate him so much?” he asked. You gulped, shaking your head. You planned on keeping what happened between you and Harry between the two of you.

“That’s private information, and you don’t need to know.” Sam rolled his eyes, tired of the pettiness you both radiated when it came to one another.

“You two are just as bad as each other.” You glared at Sam, unable to believe he’d just said that to you. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said.

“That’s unfair, and if you knew what he did to me, you wouldn’t think that at all,” you argued. It grew quiet between you two, neither of you really knowing what to say after your little outburst.

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled. He nodded his head, nudging your shoulder with his playfully.

“I know.” He was completely used to you snapping at him over his twin, and vice-versa. “This is a really great party, by the way,” he said.

“Thank you, my mother will be happy to hear it,” you told him, holding your glass in the direction of his. “Cheers,” you mumbled.

Sam reciprocated, clinking his champagne flute with yours. “Cheers indeed.”

»»——⍟——««

Brunch was something you and your friends did at least once every month, taking the time out of your busy schedules to catch up with each other. For you though, it was more or less always the same thing to report. No dates, continued feud with Harry, some party your mother threw and that was like an endless, painful cycle for you. It felt like your life was just going in circles.

The restaurant was nice enough, a private members only type thing, more so due to the golf course that was out back, along with all the other sporting facilities.

Your friends were currently chatting about some boys that they’d recently met. You didn’t want to be rude but you didn’t care at all, to be completely honest you were only there for the drinks. Yes it may only be around eleven am, but you were always one to justify the need for day drinking.

“Y/N, did you hear that?”

Your eyes widened, snapping out of your daze to look at the girl sitting across from you. You plastered a shy smile on your face, silently apologising for getting distracted again.

“Sorry, what did you say?” She shook her head at you, a hint of a smile sitting on her lips. She pointed to someone behind you, sending you a good luck wink before you’d even seen who this mystery person was.

Jess was arguably your only real friend. She knew the extent of your hatred for Harry, but even she didn’t know the events that lead up to it. However, that didn’t stop her from trying to get you to forgive him, even when you were positive that was never going to happen.

You turned your head over your shoulder, your eyes rolling so far back in your skull when you saw none other than Harry Holland standing there. He was simply laughing with his friends and his brothers and you wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug smile off of his face.

He could feel someone’s gaze on him, turning his head and catching your eye. He raised his eyebrows at you in a suggestive manner, almost like he was asking if you’d been checking him out. You knew he was only teasing, there was no way your glare could be mistaken for anything other than utter hatred for the man.

“Why is he everywhere I go?” you growled, shooting daggers at Harry from the other side of the room. He flashed you a teasing wink, raising his glass in a cheers motion. You saw Sam scold him with a slap to the back of his head, Harry whipping his head in his brother’s direction.

You and your friends let out simultaneous laughs, only angering the brunette from where he was standing.

“You know what,” you said, an evil grin creeping onto your lips. You heard Jess mutter an ‘oh no,’ already assuming that you were about to do some meddling. “I think I’m going to go talk to Tom.”

Whereas Jess discouraged you from doing this, knowing you were doing it with the purpose of winding the young Holland up, your other friends encouraged you, always loving to see the feud in the flesh.

You fluffed up your hair a bit and quickly checked your appearance in your phone’s camera, grinning to yourself before you strutted your way over.

“Hi Tom, how are you?” you asked, making sure to be extra touchy with the male. Your hand rested on his arm and to a passer by it’d look as though the two of you were doing no less than flirting.

It was common knowledge with you from when you and Harry had been, friends, that he hated when you’d talk so closely with Tom. It was most likely a personal confidence issue, the boy always assuming you were going to drop him for his older brother, even with your reassurance that you wouldn’t do that.

But since your small ‘falling out’ you hadn’t hesitated to use this weakness against him, always being extra flirty and giggly with Tom when Harry was around.

“I’m great now that you’re here,” he winked. “How are you, darling?”

You easily delved into a conversation with the oldest Holland, the two of you passing jokes back and forth all while Harry glared at you. Sam gently placed a hand on your back to grab your attention from Tom, a slightly smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

“You two are evil, d’you know that?” He didn’t exactly love that you were messing with his twin for the purpose of hurting him, but he felt like whatever Harry did must’ve been bad enough to deserve it, so he let it slide. Not only did Harry lose you when you fell out, but so did Sam for a while too, so in a way this was Sam’s payback.

“Whatever do you mean?” you teased, seeing Tom grin out of the corner of your eye. Sam just shook his head, walking back to his twin who instantly bombarded him with questions about what the fuck was going on.

You turned back to him with a flirty smile, batting your eyelashes. “And then there were two.”

You ended up talking to Tom for much longer than you intended, the man actually rather interesting, at least much more than he leads on. You’d basically forgotten the reason you came over in the first place, pushing Harry to the very back of your mind to try and enjoy your conversation.

“Well I should probably go back to my friends. I’ve abandoned them long enough.” Tom nodded, placing a friendly kiss to the back of your hand before waving you off. When you locked eyes with Harry you decided now would be the perfect time to tease once again, catching the attention of his friends for a few seconds just to say goodbye.

“Bye boys,” you waved, getting responses from most of the males surrounding Harry. That only proved to anger him more, the man shooting you a look that could kill.

You started to head back to your when a hand grabbed your wrist, your eyes following the hand until you saw the curly haired man looking right at you.

“You’re a bitch, Y/N,” he said, scoffing at his own words. “My brother, of all people. Do you know how that feels?”

You rolled your eyes, practically ripping your arm from his grip. You stared at him with an expression he couldn’t really read, a mix of hurt and anger he’d presume. “I think you deserve it at least a little, don’t you?”

There was a heavy and awkward silence between the pair of you, the two of you just staring at each other uncomfortably. You laughed to yourself a little when you realised Harry wasn’t going to say anything, shaking your head in disappointment.

“That’s what I thought.” You continued your journey back to your table with your friends like you were originally on before your curly haired interruption. Jess gave you a weary glance, silently asking either if you were okay or what just happened, maybe both, but no one else really seemed to care.

“Anyone up for another round?”

»»——⍟——««

It wasn’t unusual for you to go places with the better Holland twin. You and Sam had a rather strong friendship before your event with Harry happened, and the man had done whatever he could to rekindle it after it’d been lost. You were glad for the effort Sam put in, and he knew just how you felt about his brother, however that never stopped him from scheming and trying to get the pair of you to stop your silly fighting.

He did get sick of it sometimes, wishing that one of his best friends and his lifelong best friend could get along; plus all the petty squabbling at classy social events was beginning to get embarrassing for him. The pair of you acted like children, and he was going to do whatever he could to get it to finally come to a stop.

“Let me get this straight,” you said, eyebrows drawn together in confusion at Sam’s proposition. “You want me to come and play a round of golf with you?”

Sam was very quick with his answer, mumbling another irritated ‘yes’ down the phone. You’d been having this same discussion for nearly ten minutes now, Sam asking you to come and play his favourite sport while you asked him, why you?

“And you know I have no idea how to play?” you asked. You heard him groan down the line, the man no doubt rolling his eyes at you. “Yes.”

“Are you sure?” “Y/N, oh my god. I’ll pick you up at two alright, no protests.”

You didn’t get given a chance to respond before Sam was hanging up the phone, leaving you staring at the device stunned. You’d never seen him so demanding, but you felt as if you sort of had a duty to do as he wished. Now you just had to find a cute golf outfit, maybe try and catch a few eyes at the club.

As you stared into the wardrobe full of clothes your eyes were drawn to the one mini skirt that you rarely had occasion to wear. A small grin curled on your lips as you reached for the hanger, holding it against your body in the mirror to see if this was the way you wanted to go with your outfit.

The sun streaming through your window told you the weather would be no problem, so the rational part of your mind said fuck it and put on the skirt. You listened to that part of your mind, slipping the short skirt on and checking it over in the mirror.

You checked that it at least covered you, not necessarily wanting to flash any of the Holland siblings, and decided it was acceptable and cute for you to wear. You didn’t have much else to do afterwards, having to pretty much just wait for Sam to arrive, hoping he’d end up being earlier than promised.

He showed up not too much later, so you hadn’t been waiting for long before you heard the knock on your door and received the I’m here text from him.

“Really?” he asked, before you’d so much as even stepped out of your front door. You rolled your eyes, knowing he was referring to your outfit. You flipped him off with a smile, following him down the path to his car.

“It’s cute, don’t be jealous.”

For most of the ride the pair of you delved into conversation, you trying to convince Sam that you had no idea how you were meant to play the game, let alone have any chance at winning against him. He’d eventually gotten sick of hearing your terrible excuses, insisting that the car had to be in silence until you arrived at the golf course.

“May I speak now, Mr Holland,” you teased, right as the car came to a stop outside the club. Sam rolled his eyes, leaning over the console to hit you in the arm, something he was doing quite often these days.

“You may, now let’s go.” He didn't even give you time to process you were here before he was ushering you out of the car. He made sure to grab his clubs, and the spare ones he’d brought for you to use, out of the backseat before guiding you to the entrance.

“By the way, some people are gonna join us.” You weren’t left with much time to question it or respond, the other three Holland siblings coming into your view. More so the one with the stupid, pretty red curls, in his adorable- disgusting brown trousers with that red top tucked in, a real golf outfit Sam would probably say, referencing your own attire if you were to even try and insult his twin.

Sam already had the traces of a cheeky grin on his face when carrying his clubs through to the start of the course. You didn��t ask him what it was for though, writing it off as Sam being Sam.

“Oh great,” you mumbled, eyes glaring daggers into the back of Sam’s head. He had a smirk sitting on his lips, imagining the look on your face as of now, he didn’t even need to be able to see you to know there was smoke coming out of your ears. “You did this on purpose didn’t you?” He chuckled, looking back over his shoulder with a nod. “Of course I did.”

You scoffed, shoving his shoulder as he chuckled to himself happily, proud of his accomplishment for today. Harry hadn’t noticed you yet, so in your mind you were still technically able to make a run for it and he’d never even know.

It was like Sam had some kind of sixth sense and already knew what you were about to do though, grabbing onto your wrist tightly so you couldn’t leave, making sure you stood stiffly by his side.

“Sam, come on,” you whined, trying with all your might to pull against him. Even for such a skinny man, he surprisingly had a lot of strength that you wouldn’t suspect he did, managing to tug you over to a spot on the start of the course where Harry was finally able to see you.

His features morphed into one of confusion and then one of anger, the man straight away heading to scold his twin, knowing this was his doing.

“What is she doing here?” he asked, looking past the smug grin on Sam’s face. You rolled your eyes, finally coming to a stand still behind the older brother, stopping your struggling.

“She is gonna play golf with us,” he explained.

“Hi, Padster,” you said, completely ignoring the bickering going on between the twins. The youngest flashed you a smile along with a wave, not seeing the issue with you being here like his older brother was. The twins were bickering a little longer, all while you stood there awkwardly rocking back and forth on your heels.

The older of the two had eventually had enough, cutting Harry off mid complaint. “So, who’s ready to play golf?”

Tom and Paddy were clearly up for it, Harry still throwing a slight temper tantrum by the golf buggy as he was convinced there was no reason for you to be here. “Y/N, you can go first.”

You wanted to complain again, having no idea how to even begin playing the sport, but maybe you could use that to your advantage in more ways than one. Your eyes flickered over to Tom messing around with one of his clubs, a glint of mischief flashing through your eyes that would’ve easily been missed if Harry wasn’t glaring daggers at you, but hey, a girls gotta learn right?

“Tom, could you be a dear and help me?” The older man raised his eyebrows. It took him a few seconds, nodding his head when he understood what you were getting up to. You plus Tom, plus being so close in a slightly suggestive position would surely enrage Harry, and you loved it.

“Thomas,” Harry warned, glaring at his older brother angrily. He could smell what you were up to from a mile away, unlike any of his brothers, by now Harry expected you to act this way towards him. You would do anything to get him riled up to the point he flipped out. Tom just shrugged. “I’m only helping her, Harry.”

He didn’t see it that way. All Harry saw was red, but at the same time it felt like he was being betrayed by two of his brothers, Sam for bringing you here in the first place when this was meant to be a Holland brother outing, and Tom for going along with your shenanigans.

Tom helped you get into a proper stance, legs shoulder width apart, arms- oh, who even knows. The only thing you could really concentrate on was the steam flowing out of Harry’s ears.

You knew how the stance looked, Tom’s front nearly pressed completely into your back, while you were slightly bent over. His strong arms wrapped around you, hands on top of yours to help position your grip correctly. Plus the way Tom’s hands teasingly traced your body, ‘checking’ you were in the correct position and weren’t too tense.

Everything was contributing to his rage and he had to take a breather, heading over to the golf cart where his bag held a bottle of water. He could’ve squeezed the life out of it had the bottle been alive, keeping it in a death grip as he watched the way yours and Tom’s bodies moved in the direction of the swing of your club.

The way your bodies moved, the way your body moved- and god the way it looked in the outfit you’d chosen to wear.

If you were paying attention to Harry rather than actually listening to Tom, you would’ve noticed the way he was looking at you. The way those brown eyes trailed up the expanse of your legs, lingering more so where the tops of your thighs were finally covered by the material of your skirt, barely doing anything to cover you. He nearly outwardly groaned, refraining himself with a cough to try and regain his focus on the game.

He hadn’t realised your turn had been and gone while he was in his daze, Paddy stepping up to take his shot as the young man made his way back over to your group.

He was still seething when he saw the way Tom’s arm was slung over your shoulder, your body leaning slightly into his. He brushed it off while clearing his throat, taking a few deep breaths to get rid of any thoughts of the pair of you.

Today was about golf, not about you, and Harry was going to keep it that way.

The hours seemed like they flew by in a short amount of minutes, surprisingly you were having more fun than you’d expected to.

Of course you had to steal Tom’s help every time you had to take your turn, even though nearer to the end the other boys insisted you had to try on your own.

The last few holes for you had been disasters, what with Tom not being allowed to help you anymore, and you being far from a professional golfer.

Your shots nearly doubled from the ones Tom had helped you take, and Harry made sure to keep making a point of that, which led you to right now, Sam totalling up the final scores.

“Are we ready for scores?” the brunette asked, holding up the small sheet of paper. There was a chorus of hums, although you could already guess what position you’d come.

“Shocker but, Y/N came last.” You chuckled, sending an eye roll in Sam’s direction as he marked off the final scores for the round. Tom playfully hit your shoulder, making some comment about how that couldn’t be a reflection of his teaching.

You didn’t listen much after you’d heard your own, leaving it to be a close tie with Tom and Harry from what you’d gathered.

“You know Y/N, we’re going again next week. You should come,” Tom suggested. “Oh, I really shouldn’t.” Harry shot his older sibling a glare that could kill, eyes in slits with so much venom aimed in his direction. Paddy nodded his head in agreement with Tom and you were prepared to decline, not wanting to intrude when you could barely even play the sport. But that thought was out of your mind the second you saw the curly haired boy’s expression, a wicked smirk curving on your lips.

“Yeah, you know what, I’ll be there.”

»»——⍟——««

Being in the public eye meant a lot was expected from you always. You didn’t necessarily want it to be this way, you couldn’t help being born into a wealthy family. This was the life your parents wanted- built for themselves, and you just had to deal with it.

Unfortunately for you, this all meant you had to try and live up to your mother’s name, because in her words she couldn’t afford to have you let the family down, whatever that was supposed to mean.

So here you were, planning on executing a plan to get into a rather high profile job. Yes it wasn’t exactly in the most conventional way but no one had to know about that, especially not your mother and the press. You were checking over your outfit right now, eyes roaming your figure as you tried to decide whether you loved it or wanted to burn it.

“What do you think?” you asked Jess, glancing at her over your shoulder with a sigh, a look of insecurity resting on your face. She flashed you a warm smile.

“You look amazing. But I-” You shook your head. She’d tried to talk you out of this plan of yours on multiple different occasions. Everytime you’d brought it up the girl had something negative to say about it, trying to convince you this was a bad idea that was only going to end horribly for everyone.

“No buts. This plan has been in place for weeks,” you said, slipping your jacket over your arms. You could see her through the mirror, staring at you with uncertainty as you slipped in your left earring. “And everything’s going to be fine.” You placed a friendly kiss on the top of her head, ignoring her further protests. “I’ll be fine.”

You put in your right earring while she listed all the possibilities of things that could go wrong, eventually just tuning her out to finish getting ready. You straightened your jacket out and sent yourself one last look in the mirror before turning to your friend. “I will call you if anything goes wrong. I have to go.”

You understood her concern. Oliver Thompson was a very high profile man, CEO of Thompson industries, one of the biggest fancy car traders In the UK. He was mildly attractive at least, making your plan just that little bit easier than it would’ve been if he wasn’t. You could understand Jess’ concern, the man had had many scandals revolving around sketchy dealings that he’d done on the low, but you really needed this job.

You didn’t say much else before leaving the house, leaving Jess to find her own way out as you knew she could, she’d done it a hundred times before. There was a slight cluster of nerves and excitement rolled into one building in your stomach with every step you took, your heart racing as you thought over all that you were about to do, all that you had to do to get this job.

It felt like your journey there was merely seconds, even if it was much much longer due to the painful amount of London traffic at night.

Entering the party was lonely, stepping into the crowded house by yourself, eyes snapping to you in such a judgemental way. Your own eyes roamed the large house with the intent on finding two things, alcohol and the CEO you had to try and woo. One was much easier to find than the other, taking the glass of whatever and downing it for a boost of confidence.

Granted that probably wasn’t the best idea, feeling the awful burning sensation in your throat, but you were sure you’d care much less when you felt more relaxed. You took another glass that you were planning to nurse for the rest of the evening, well depending on how good this all went.

You walked around for a little bit in hopes of finding Oliver, eyes searching each unfamiliar face in the crowd. You didn’t find him until you’d reached a hallway between the kitchen and some kind of games room that held a pool table inside. But unfortunately for you he wasn’t alone, and was conversing with arguably the worst possible person you could imagine.

Of course he was here, in conversation with the one man you wanted to talk to. You didn’t know how they knew each other, but the laughs and jokes they were sharing made them seem like old friends. You decided to approach before Harry could see you for himself and spill any stories that might possibly ruin what you were going for.

“Oliver, hi,” you greeted, flashing him a gentle smile that made Harry roll his eyes from where he was standing. The man turned his head to look at you, a wicked smile growing on his face that made the curly redhead’s stomach twist. He may not be the greatest to you but Harry didn’t like how the man was looking at you at all. He placed a friendly kiss on your cheek, his hand coming to rest on your back, gradually shifting lower as time passed.

“This is Harry,” he introduced, missing the way your eyes turned to slits as you stared at him. “Yeah, we’ve met,” he explained, busying himself more with the drink in his hand than the way Oiver’s hand was resting on a very low portion of your lower back, bordering on the curve of your behind. The pair lost themselves in some boring conversation about who knows what again, while you tried to think of anything you could possibly do to lead the man away from the delinquent in front of you, or at least join in the conversation so you weren’t just standing here looking like someone’s arm candy.

“So, um,” you drew both of their attention to you, a fake smile planted on your face as they watched you expectantly, making you feel very awkward. “How do you two know each other?” you asked through gritted teeth, taking another much needed swig from your alcoholic drink. “We’re friends,” the older man explained. You glanced at Harry with a glare, seeing him smirk and send a wink in your direction.

“Friends, huh, didn’t expect you to have any of those Harry,” you poked, letting a clearly proud smirk curl onto your lips. You watched as his nostrils flared irritably. “Guess there’s a first time for everything.”

He rolled his eyes, sighing loudly. “That’s very funny Y/N. I just can’t stop laughing.” His tone was laced with sarcasm, an amused look settled on his features as he watched you grin. Oliver turned to him with a look, leaning closer to him so that you couldn’t hear what he was going to say, not that you actually cared that much anymore. You saw him nod hesitantly after sending a look your way and without another word he was off into the crowd.

“Where’s he going?” you asked. He shrugged his shoulders, turning back to you with that same boyish expression he always wore. His hand that had been resting on your back slid uncomfortably lower, caressing the curve of your bum as you tried to nervously move it away. “But why don’t we go somewhere a little more private?” You wanted to visibly wince at his words, how vile they sounded coming from his mouth, but you held it together well enough that he didn’t notice the clear disgust in your eyes.

“Yeah,” you hummed. “Let’s go.”

Maybe he wasn’t the type of person to be talking about a conscience, but Harry couldn’t let the thought go of what he’d just heard from Oliver. He was fully aware of the kind of things he’d got up to in his spare time, heck half of his sex escapades would come up with a quick google search, but he didn’t ever think you’d be one to join that list.

Harry managed to catch you before you were even able to make it to the bottom of the stairs with your hand locked in the older mans, the curly haired man’s hand on your wrist nearly to the point of pain. In a way it felt desperate on his part, like he was about to get on his knees and beg you to not make this mistake.

“Don’t do this,” he said, refusing to give more than that. He couldn’t just come out with it and casually say, oh by the way I’m still in love with you and I have been since we were fourteen, so he was kind of stuck on what to do. In his mind you still trusted him enough to listen to his reasonable side. But upon seeing the look you shot him he started to reconsider.

“Why are you acting like you care?” you snapped, staring at him with so much hatred fuelling you. He sighed, he felt like he should’ve put up more of a fight. Actually he wasn’t really putting up a fight at all, but he knew you were too stubborn to listen. He was quick with giving in. “I don’t know. But don’t blame me when something goes wrong.”

That should have been your warning. Harry knew this man better than you, of course he did, so why did you have to be so stubborn and ignore him when he was just trying to help.

After a horribly boring five minutes on your end you were left in an awkward silence with Oliver as the pair of you got dressed. You were prepared to pretend that it never happened, and in all honesty you sort of wish it hadn’t because it was nothing out of the ordinary to say how many women drool over this man on a daily basis.

The two of you descended the stairs a few minutes later looking like the most you’d done was talk. You tried to avoid eye contact with anyone, especially Harry, but to your luck of course you’d managed to find his eyes. You saw him shake his head and look away, a heavy feeling settling on your heart at the thought of him being angry with you.

You had no idea why you were feeling like that, considering you didn’t exactly seek Harry’s approval and your emotions towards the man weren’t exactly positive either.

“So, um, about the job-” Oliver nearly choked on the drink he’d picked up in passing, a glimpse of amusement flashing through his eyes. “What?” you asked, confusion running through you as you sent him a quizzical look.

“You didn’t actually think I was going to give you the job did you?” he spat, voice laced with a mocking venom. You felt your heart sink, embarrassment flooding your body. You felt like you were on fire as you stood in the centre of the crowd of people. The way he spoke to you felt so demeaning, your eyebrows furrowing like a small child being scolded.

“What?” you asked, cursing yourself for the crack in your voice that gave away how you were on the verge of tears. You felt used, yes you’d done this to yourself but you still felt lied to and you’d never been so angry. He laughed at you, drawing more and more people’s attention as you practically curled in on yourself in an attempt to hide from their harsh stares.

“Did you really think I was considering it?” You didn’t think you’d ever felt more humiliated than you did right now, hearing a few people snigger in the crowd.

You opened your mouth to say something else but no words could form as of right now. You hated how weak you looked, especially after spending so long building up such a strong, but still false, image of yourself that the public would see. You felt vulnerable, and you never wanted to feel that way.

You felt two large hands landing gently on your shoulders, but you didn’t have the energy to turn and look around at the man who probably looked so smug. You didn’t actually have to turn around at all to know who it was, you’d been close to him too many times over your life to not recognise him anywhere.

“Is your boyfriend here to save the day?” he teased, glancing over your shoulder, You recognised the scent as Harry’s signature one, the same aftershave he’d worn since he was seventeen, mixed with his natural scent. You didn’t care enough to turn to look at him, your heart beating so loudly in your chest that it felt like it was going to explode. “Maybe you can try sleeping with him to get a job next.”

Harry glanced at your face and his heart ached at the pained expression you showed. He didn’t know that was why you were here tonight, he genuinely had assumed you and Oliver were seeing each other and that’s all it was, and now he felt guilty for ever letting you go upstairs with the man whose reputation told him he was nothing but bad news.

The redhead was a little shocked when you didn’t retaliate his teasing, the past few years having presented to him a feisty young woman who wouldn’t take anyone’s shit, but here you were. It was like you were both seventeen again, Harry seeing you cry on the curb outside a restaurant while he broke your heart, and your trust.

“Let’s get you out of here,” he mumbled, sending an angry glare in Oliver’s direction as his amused smile was never wiped from his dumb face. He carefully laced your fingers together, expecting some kind of protest from your end, shocked when you were actually rather compliant. He didn’t blame you, he too would want to get away if he’d just been very publicly humiliated by someone he thought he could trust.

»»——⍟——««

Harry didn’t know where else to take you other than his flat. He’d probably be met with resistance when you realised where you were, but for now the large apartment seemed to be the best place for you both, no interruptions and no prying eyes.

You hadn’t said a word to him, right from him leading you out of the party to entering the door of his home, not even when you took a seat on his couch, sitting pin straight and stiff as if you were preparing to get yelled at for misbehaving. He had expected more out of you, considering he could usually never get you to shut up, and he never thought he’d say it but he actually was starting to miss the sound of your voice and your snarky comments a little bit. He was expecting you to at a minimum yell at him, get angry at him trying to act like a hero after everything, but he got nothing. “Y/N, please say something. You’re starting to scare me.”

He knelt down in front of you slowly, his hand coming to your knee as to not startle you or to give you a chance to turn him away. Your facade finally broke down as you looked into those familiar honey eyes, a sob escaping your lips that you quickly tried to hide by covering your mouth with your hand. He was hesitant in getting closer to you at first, but as your sobs grew harder the man knew he couldn’t just sit back and watch.

You nearly folded into his chest when he was close enough, letting your tears soak the expensive material of whatever branded shirt he was wearing. His hand came up and set on the back of your head, gently letting his fingertips stroke over your hair.

You didn’t speak for another few minutes, not until you’d gotten your initial tears to stop rushing from your eyes. “Why are you doing this?”

He pulled away from you so he could see your face, a small, shy smile on his lips as he brought his hands up to wipe your tears. “We may be practically enemies, but that doesn’t mean I want to see you cry.”

You sniffled in response, rolling your eyes before pushing his hands away from your face. You used the sleeves of your own jacket to wipe the tears from your face rather than it being his hands, the man sighing sadly and moving to sit beside you, leaving a reasonable distance between you.

“If you’re going to use this as some sort of sick blackmail can you just get it over with?” you asked. “Stop pretending you want to help me.”

Harry wanted to verbally groan, to express how pissed off your words made him. He hated that you were always so paranoid all the time. “Why can’t you believe I just want to do something nice for you?”

“Can you really blame me?” you snapped, slightly offended that he could even pretend he hadn’t hurt you. No matter how long ago it was, it still hurt. He huffed, looking at you like he was almost defeated. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve done this before,” you pointed out, waiting to see if it would click. He sat awkwardly, gulping when he realised how much of a dick he must’ve sounded for forgetting. The whole moment, the entire two days it took place flashed through his mind in seconds, an immense guilt weighing down on him that hadn’t gone away in the five years since it happened. “Do we need a recap?”

It had all started a few months after Harry’s seventeenth birthday. He noticed that you’d been getting increasingly happier over the course of the spring, smiling and laughing down at your phone more often when you were with him. It took until only a few days before what would become the dreaded event for you to finally speak about it to him.

The pair of you were at the pool in his garden with his family, he’d been reclining on his sunbed on his phone while you scattered away to go and get drinks for the two of you. He didn’t even see you coming back until he heard your chirpy voice break the silence he’d been sitting in.

“I have a date. With a boy who I really like, and I need your help to impress him.” He sat in shock, thumbs stalling from where they were previously tapping away on his phone screen. He looked at you with wide eyes, then glanced over to where his twin stood just a few feet away, a knowing look in his eyes aimed directly at his idiot brother.

“With who?” he asked. He was desperately trying to make it sound like he was happy for you, even though he wasn’t. He really, really wasn’t. There was no excuse though, both Sam and Tom had been telling him for months that he needed to tell you how he felt or he’d be quick to lose you to someone else.

“You um, you don’t know him.” That was your way of saying he wasn’t a part of your ‘world,’ he’d actually served you at a restaurant you went to with your parents. You’d shared flirty glances the entire night before he finally, but very sneakily, asked for your number before you left. Harry’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, he thought he knew everyone you were friends with, seeing as the majority were mutual friends anyway.

“W-What exactly do you want me to do?” he asked. He could see Sam shaking his head disappointed in the corner of his eye, trying to block out the words he could already hear his twin saying in his head. He watched as you turned your head and caught Sam listening intently to you both. You flashed him a smile and turned back to face Harry. “We’ll talk later.”

With that you took your drink and headed over to the pool, joining Paddy on the edge of the pool as he conversed with his mum and Tom.

Harry shot Sam a look that said everything, visibly showing his confusion and hurt from your confession. “I told you so,” he said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. Harry was having none of that attitude, rolling his eyes and pushing his brother so he fell into the pool. Harry was quick to flip him off before retaking his seat, quite happy with his actions. “Oops.”

Maybe it was wishful thinking but Harry had hoped you’d dropped the subject after not bringing up later like you’d said, but his dreams were crushed when you called him a few days later asking him for his opinion on a dress.

“I want to look pretty for him, but I don’t know if this dress is right.” Harry was stuck between his heart shattering in his chest and his thoughts being clouded by how gorgeous you looked, however both left him speechless so it didn’t make much of a difference in the end. Upon hearing nothing in response you’d glanced at the screen of your phone, seeing Harry staring at you with an emotionless expression. “H?”

He snapped out of his little daze and flashed you a small smile, apologising for zoning out for a minute. “I think you look gorgeous,” he spoke honestly, swallowing down the lump in his throat. You felt yourself grow hot at his words, hiding your flustered state behind a nervous giggle. “Are you sure the dress looks good?”

He nodded his head, humming quietly as he admired you with a look full of admiration, one you just happened not to notice from being much too caught up in looking at your own reflection. He could see the judgement on your face as you looked at yourself, but decided to pull your attention away rather than feed you with compliments he knew wouldn’t do much.

“What is that? Prada, Dior?” You chuckled, bringing your attention to him and shaking your head. “Chanel.”

He made an oh sound, the ghost of a teasing smile on his lips. “Of course, I have one just like it. Silly me.” His teasing emitted a laugh from you that was one of the most angelic sounds he’d ever heard. You were grateful for it truly because he’d now managed to take your mind off of your insecurities. You finally glanced at the time and let out an audible gasp, frantically grabbing your stuff from off of your bed before you brought your phone closer to you to say goodbye to Harry.

“I’m gonna be late, so i have to go,” you explained, seeing his face fall slightly. “Okay, well um I’ll see you later then.”

You nodded. “I’ll call you later,” you said, flashing him an excited grin before hanging up the phone. Sam could feel the hurt radiating from Harry and took that as his moment to make his twin feel better. His hand came up to rest on his shoulder, sending him a sympathetic smile. “Why don’t we have a movie night?”

He saw him hesitate before eventually nodding. “Yeah, that sounds like fun.”

Harry didn’t hear from you again until a couple hours later, presuming your date had finished earlier than expected he answered the phone while Sam paused their movie, ready to ask you very enthusiastically how it went. What he didn’t expect was to answer the phone to the sound of your voice breaking in nearly a plea for him to come get you.

“Um hey,” you said, trying to choke back the sob threatening to break past your lips. “Can you come get me?”

He felt his heart start to race slightly, all signs of this call pointing to a bad date, meaning Harry still had his chance. Granted it wasn’t the right time to think about it if you were clearly upset, but that thought barely crossed his mind. “Yeah of course, what happened?”

You inhaled shakily, a sad smile on your lips that Harry obviously couldn’t see, but maybe it was to yourself more than anything. “He stood me up.”

“I’ll be right there.” Sam saw the devilish smile on Harry’s face as he tucked his phone back into the pocket of his trousers. At that moment he wasn’t sure he’d ever been more suspicious of his brother. “What did you do?” he asked. Harry looked at him and raised his hands in defense. “I didn’t do anything.”

He didn’t say another word as he left the house, leaving Sam to sit there and roll his eyes at his brother’s schemes, ones that always blew up in his face.

You didn’t know what to do while you waited for Harry. You’d already been at the restaurant for so long that you were getting pitied looks from those inside who’d been lucky enough to enjoy their dates, or actually have them show up. The stares just made it feel like he was taking longer, even though to him it was less than ten minutes before he was parking his fancy car across the road from the food place to come and find you.

“Hey,” he said. He didn’t expect you to be as affected as this. Crying on the side of the road, shivering from the cold as you ruined the makeup you’d spent forever perfecting. He heard you sniffle but didn’t get a response, his heart aching for you more than he thought it would. He slipped his jacket from off of his body, slipping it over your shoulders to help keep you warm.

He didn’t take a seat beside you for the pure reason that the ground was dirty and he was much too proud to ruin his expensive branded bottoms.

“Please don’t say it,” you muttered, referring to him obviously wanting to point out he was right. You wiped the tears away from your cheeks but still didn’t look up at him, feeling too embarrassed to face even your best friend.

You heard him sigh, shaking his head as he did it anyway. “I told you so.”

You didn’t know how to control the burst of anger that came from hearing his words. It didn’t stem from Harry, no of course not, you were angry at being stood up, but you needed someone to take it out on. He saw the pained expression on your face twist into one he couldn’t quite distinguish.

“Why do you always have to be right? Why can’t you just be there when I need you?” you snapped, head finally whipping round to look at him. He stared at you with a look of anger mixed with disbelief, possibly that you were mad at him right now when you should be mad at your no-show of a date.

“What? Like your date was?” He watched your face turn from angry to blank in no longer than a second. His words had caught you off guard and managed to sting a little, but you think what hurt more was how he didn’t take them back with an apology. It didn’t look like he was going to take it back either. “You know what?” he scoffed. “I shouldn’t have bothered coming.”

You felt all the anger drain away in seconds, confusion taking over your body as you stared at Harry. It was like he was laughing at you, all because you’d snapped at him. But you’d snapped at Harry a million times, always managing to resolve the conflicts behind it, so why now was he choosing to draw the line.

“Harry, I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you.” Your apology clearly wasn’t good enough because he scoffed in response, running a hand through his hair, tugging at the tips before he let go and set his focus solely on you. You who was standing there looking so small, and even though it hurt him to think it was his fault, almost afraid. “I don’t understand why you’re so angry.”

Your voice was quiet but Harry’s certainly wasn’t. He wanted to laugh at how oblivious you’d been to how very obviously in love with you he was. And how you couldn’t see that picking up the pieces of your heart, broken by another man, hurt him, because he knew as soon as it was fixed you’d go ahead and run to someone else who wasn’t him. “You-” He wasn’t about to turn this into a heartfelt confession of his love, but maybe clouded by anger he was going to take this to a point of no return instead.

“You wouldn’t want this getting out right?” he asked, emphasising his words with a wave of his phone. You were still in a state of utter confusion, every part of you trying to figure out if this was some kind of sick joke. “What?” Where had your loving best friend gone. The one who holds you at night when you’re too scared to sleep alone. The one who stargazes with you when you just need an escape from your chaotic home. The one who was your first kiss when you barely even knew what love was, and the one who promised you he was going to marry you one day when you’d first met in that field all those years ago when you’d given him a pretty flower after you found him crying alone.

“Could you imagine the papers if they were to get word of someone of your status being stood up by someone like him, a measly waiter that does nothing but serve us?” You were completely taken aback, this was not the Harry you knew. He was so viscous and full of venom when he spoke to you and if you had to be honest he was scaring you a little bit.

Of course you’d never told Harry who your date was, so the man had done some digging of his own and found out exactly who he was, what his job was and how you met. But you were apparently too upset to even notice the slip up.

You didn’t say anything, you didn’t even know what to say as he stared at you with nothing but disgust swimming in his eyes. He took your silence as your answer, a near proud smirk creeping on his face as he nodded his head.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. He motioned to the jacket he’d given you earlier, making a motion with his hand to silently ask for it back. You whimpered quietly, biting your lip to try and hold back the tears. If he was going to act this way you weren’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing you cry. “Goodbye, Y/N.”

Harry had left you crying outside the restaurant that day just like he’d found you. Nothing else was said and you’d held it against him for the next five years. You refused to talk about it to anyone, just choosing to refer to it as the event, and as far as you knew he hadn’t told anyone either; more so because he was the shitty one in the situation.

It was hard for you not having your best friend by your side. You’d had to adapt to living without Harry and you were finally convinced you’d done it and now here he was, trying to weave his way back and apologise.

“Yeah, I, um,” he stuttered. Not a single part of him knew what to say, how was he meant to apologise, god where did he even start. “I was a kid, and I was really, really dumb.”

You nodded along with his words, emphasising that he was in fact so dumb. “I don’t even know where to begin to say I’m sorry.”

You sighed. If you really thought about it, you didn’t know either. You’d been so angry at Harry for so long at this point, and you never expected to be doing something like this with him now, so you never truly thought of a way he could’ve made up for everything he did. “I, um, I don’t know either.”

There was an uncomfortable tension lingering in the atmosphere of the room, neither of you wanting to look at each other, but also being sat close enough together that you could hear the other’s shaky inhales and exhales. He was the first to speak up, deciding you deserved an explanation as the bare minimum for his actions.

“I knew once I'd said it I couldn't take it back,” he explained. “I was just so angry, I’d been in love with you for so long and you seemed so upset over a guy you barely knew.”

You had to double take upon hearing his words, unsure if you’d heard him right or if your brain had just played a trick on you with his words. “What?”

Harry’s eyes flickered over to yours with a look of confusion. “I didn’t think you’d be so upset, you barely knew the-”

“You were in love with me?” you asked quietly, cutting him off from finishing his sentence. Harry felt his cheeks burn at the realisation that you hadn’t known like he thought you had, a new wave of nerves swimming inside him as he tried to stutter his way through this one. “I-I thought you knew?”

You shook your head slowly, having what felt like hundreds of moments flash through your head where it had been so painfully obvious. It started to add up in your head a little more than it did, and in a way you were starting to put less blame on Harry for reacting angrily, and more blame on yourself for not realising sooner what you had right in front of you.

“Would you ever forgive me? Honestly,” he asked, his eyes trailing over to you. He studied your face while you were quiet in thought, his heart pounding harshly against his ribcage, like it almost wanted to show you how it beat for you to prove how sorry he was. You hadn’t said anything for a few minutes, and Harry was growing more and more panicked.

“I’ve spent the past five years hating you for that moment,” you said. “I can’t forgive you right away,”

He gulped, nodding his head sadly, his gaze being pulled down to focus back on his shaky hands. He was counting on the part where you’d added the ‘right now,’ hoping that meant there was some hope for the future. “But,” you began, watching as his head shot up to look at you. “I think we can work on it.”

You flashed him a smile that he hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing in years; a genuine smile and not one of those sarcastic or angry ones he usually got from you. This was one of the ones he used to get when he’d do a sweet gesture for you, a way of showing him you truly were thankful, an action that spoke much more than any words could.

He felt much calmer than he’d been the whole night, like all of his nerves had melted away just because of that smile. “Would a hug be a good start?”

“A famous Harry Holland hug, what a lucky girl I am.” He chuckled.

You had no problem sinking into his arms after so long. His arms wrapped around your body tightly, one of his hands on your back while the other migrated up to hold the back of your head against his chest. Your own arms wrapped around his torso, your cheek comfortably resting against the no doubt expensive material of his suit shirt. He brought his chin up to rest on the top of your head, occasionally shifting to press a sweet kiss on the crown of your head.

He wasn’t sure he’d realised how much he truly missed you. But now, holding you in his arms being engulfed in that familiar comforting scent you possessed, he’d never been more grateful to have you.

Now if only he could man up and tell you about the other thing.

»»——⍟——««

Things had been going great for the past week or so since the two of you had had your talk. Harry had spent everyday taking you out, sometimes buying you excessively expensive gifts, that man really had no concept of how a normal person spends money.

“Ready?” he said, preparing to move his hands from over your eyes. He’d shown up at your house today and told you he was taking you somewhere as a surprise, the catch being that you weren’t allowed to know what it was until you arrived.

Harry had led you into the store with his hands over your eyes, making sure you really couldn’t see anything, his large hands managing to cover your eyes better than your own could. “I’ve been ready since we got in the car.”

He rolled his eyes at your playful attitude, lifting his hands to allow you to see you were in a jewellery store, one you used to be a frequent visitor to. This was normally the place your dad would buy gifts for your mother, often bringing you along as he loved seeing your happy reactions when the jewels would hit the light just right that they’d sparkle.

“Harry,” you said, looking up at him with a shocked look on your face. You didn’t know he’d remembered when you used to tell him all about those trips when you came home from them. “You shouldn’t have-”

“None of that,” he whispered. “And if I remember correctly, there was always a certain ring that always caught your eye.” He was leading you over to one of the cases, your eyes drifting down to where the specific ring still laid after all these years.

Your eyebrows furrowed slightly before you looked back up at the curly haired man to see his card already in hand. You rapidly shook your head, understanding instantly what he was implying, and after having memorised the price of the expensive jewels, you knew you couldn’t ever let him go to those lengths to apologise. “Don’t you dare,” you warned.

There was a devilish grin on his face as he tapped his card against the reader, the payment processing in seconds that you didn’t have to protest. You scoffed, shaking your head at the very visibly amused man in front of you, arm smoothly resting against the counter.

In mere minutes the ring was in a pretty box and a gift bag, slid over the counter to Harry, a thank you coming from the man as he led you out of the shop with a hand on the small of your back.

You were still shocked when Harry finally brought you both to a stop, pulling the expensive item out of the gift bag so you could put it on now rather than later where he’d have to see it through a picture. “Wow,” you mumbled, lifting the box lid to look at the way the tiny diamonds shone in the light. You moved to go to slip it on to your finger before Harry stopped you with a careful hand and a soft smile.

“No, let me put it on.” He lifted your hand with a gentleness you hadn’t seen Harry possess in a while, not towards you anyway.

“Is this your way of proposing, Mr Holland?” you teased. He chuckled nervously, slipping the ring onto your finger with a silly smile. “This is my way of showing you I truly am sorry.”

He took you out to your favourite restaurant, showering you with endless compliments that left you blushing and the old couple next to you complimenting your compatibility as a couple, even when you tried to tell them you weren’t together.

“I always forget how much I love this place,” you said, taking a sip from your wine glass with a smile aimed at the man sitting opposite you. He grinned, eyes catching sight of the ring sitting on your finger that you hadn’t taken off since he’d bought it.

“I remember the way you used to always rave about it.” You couldn’t help the smile growing on your face, your heart pounding at the way even after so long and after so much hatred, Harry still remembered so much about you.

“Maybe you aren’t as bad as I thought, Holland.” You saw the small sparkle in his eyes as the words came from your mouth. “You’re doing a really good job at apologising.”

Your words gave him the confidence he needed to know he was on the right track to bringing your friendship back just as strong as it once was.

The man reached for your hand over the table, giving you the opportunity to pull away if you really wanted to. You didn’t though. His thumb ran over the ring that sat on your finger, a gesture that made your heart flutter sweetly.

You saw him open his mouth as if he was about to speak, but was cut off by the old lady on the next table jumping in. “You two make an amazing couple,” she said. You understood that to a passerby, yes it probably looked like you were dating. Your hand in Harry’s, plus the way you were looking and smiling at eachother, and it really did look like you were on a date.

Rather than correcting her, Harry jumped in with a thank you, ignoring the way your gaze burned into the side of his face.

“So, we’re a couple now, huh?” you asked. His cheeks flushed and his shoulders shrugged, a cheeky smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “I guess we are.”

And the main one of course was that he was bringing you to spend time with his family, letting them know that you were making up after so long. The first occasion had been a family dinner at the Holland house, Sam rather shocked to see you showing up with Harry, without killing each other; you actually looked rather happy.

His mother had nearly cried upon seeing you back in her home, and for once it all felt right again. Of course you loved that Harry was so willing to spend his money on you, even if it didn’t even make a dent in his wallet, but there was something so innocent and heartfelt about him wanting to have you spend time with his family, plus you wouldn’t exactly get this same experience at home with your mother anyway.

When Harry had reminded you that Tom’s golf offer still stood, you decided to text him, finally taking him up on it now that you and Harry were working things out, you assumed it’d make more of a pleasant atmosphere for everyone else. Harry had generously offered to take you with him in his car, letting Sam, Tom and Paddy go slightly later in the morning so you two could get a little bit of practise in for you before you officially started.

“So, your majesty, what can I do today to further my title of world’s best maker upper.” He trailed off slightly towards the end as he listened to the way his words didn’t quite work as smoothly as he’d hoped. They did manage to pull a laugh from you though, so in the end his idiocy didn’t matter too much.

“You could let me beat you at golf,” you teased, a smirk on your lips as the man packed the two sets of clubs in the backseat of his car. You heard him chuckle, clearly finding your suggestion amusing. “Y/N, I take my golf very seriously. The only way I would ever let you win was if you’d poisoned me or something.”

You hummed, going too suspiciously quiet for Harry’s liking. When he glanced over his shoulder at you he saw you standing there staring at him, looking as though you were in deep thought about what he said. “I’ll consider it.” His eyes widened almost comically large as you slipped into the passenger seat of his car, a nervous laugh falling from his lips. “That was a joke right?”

He panicked slightly when he got no response, shutting the back door and hopping in the driver’s side where you were laughing almost manically. He knew you were a smart girl, so if you tried hard enough you surely could find some poison somewhere to use against him. “Y/N, that was a joke, right?”

You nodded your head as you tried to stifle your laughter, shaking your head at how easy it was to fool Harry. He laughed nervously, glancing over at you still in his slight state of panic, before his gaze shifted back to the road.

“Right well, let’s go then.”

The car ride was filled with Harry butchering the songs on your playlist to make you laugh, which you made sure to take lots of videos of, and lots of meaningless conversation. Of course his goal was to make you laugh, like he’d said many times before, he loves your smile and he thought letting you know would get him the brownie points he needs to be completely forgiven.

Upon arriving at the course he was planning on doing the most, opening your car door for you, carrying yours and his clubs, and practically worshipping the ground you worked on overall until you made it to where you could practice your shots.

“Are you ready to become a pro?” he asked, picking out the club you needed, seeing as though you still didn’t know the difference between them all.

“My goal is to be better than you,” you said. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

Not too much later Sam and Tom found you both on the course preparing to begin, just waiting on them so you could start on the first hole. You greeted them and didn’t notice the look between the pair as they watched you laugh with Harry, both of them happy that everything was back to normal and they could finally be in a room with you both without any childish bickering.

“I’ll go first,” Sam offered.

Harry watched as his twin took his turn, ignoring the way you and Tom were a few feet away laughing at some awful joke he’d made. The redhead didn’t actually realise he’d lost himself in his thoughts until his brother was approaching him after his shot to tell him it was his turn, Harry nodding along as he prepared.

“Can I just say,” Sam began, patting Harry’s shoulder. “I’m really proud of you for apologising to her. You really redeemed yourself and I’m really glad she’s this happy again.”

Harry gulped at his twin’s words, his head turning until he caught eyes with you laughing with Tom. You locked eyes with Harry and offered him one of your large grins, giving him a wave that had butterflies exploding in his stomach.

Your happy expression was forcing even more guilt down on Harry, his heart thumping at the thought of possibly having to break it again when he should have just been a thousand percent honest with you in the first place. His mind was screaming at him to move, maybe to look away or to actually go over there and tell you everything, but his body wasn’t allowing him to move. He was left staring at you while you tried to decipher the reason behind it, originally you thought it was a stare out of jealousy of you talking with Tom (you knew how he felt about you doing that) but when he didn’t look away you started to grow concerned.

You only turned back to the oldest sibling momentarily to tell him you were going to go over there, but in that short time Harry’s body had come back to reality and the man had started his journey over to you, his hands growing increasingly sweaty.

It was eating Harry alive. Sure at first he’d thought he could deal with it, but seeing how much you were starting to trust him again felt like he was taking advantage of your kindness, and he hated that he was going to hurt you again, but he had to tell you before the guilt killed him.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” he asked. You turned to the sound of his deep voice with a smile on your face, nodding your head as he laced your fingers together. You could see the smirk on Tom’s face as Harry led you away, leaving you to flip off the older man with a playful eye roll. “I was just gonna come and see you,” you said, receiving only silence in response.

“Where are you going?” Sam yelled, motioning to the fact that they were only just starting a round of golf and it was actually Harry’s turn next. You shrugged your shoulders, giving the man nothing to work with as he and Tom shared an irritated look. You turned your head back round to be faced with Harry’s back, the man frantically leading you in the direction of who knows what.

“Go on without us or take a break,” Harry said, making the siblings roll their eyes. “We just started.” You could hear them cursing their brother still even as you got further away from the pair, Harry leading you to some random bench that had been put out for spectators to sit and watch during tournaments.

“What’s going on?” you asked, flashing him a nervous smile. That was a smile he didn’t see though, he was too busy staring at the way his hands shook from the nerves, and he was sure you could probably see it too. He didn’t talk for a few minutes at first and it scared you, but your warm hand on his knee brought him back to the reality of the conversation.

He raised his head and looked at you momentarily, wanting this part of his words to be as sincere as possible; the only way to do that being with the truth in his eyes.

“Look I, I have loved being around you again this past week,” he began. You cut him off with a nod and a large grin, only pushing Harry’s heart to ache more. “I forgot how kind of cool you were, Holland.”

He didn’t even crack a smile at your words, letting your face fall slightly as you watched him. “I-I just have to get this off of my chest,” he said, chuckling quietly as he nervously played with his hands. You knew something was up because the man suddenly couldn’t look you in the eyes anymore. Your heart felt like it was going to burst out of your chest from how quickly it was racing, all thoughts and possibilities going through your head at that moment. You were very much an overthinker.

“I wasn’t completely honest with you last week, I-“ He looked down at his hands with disappointment lacing his demeanor, disappointment in himself that was. “There’s something else I have to tell you. About that night.”

You felt your heart sink upon hearing his words. It felt like it was the universe's mission to ruin things with Harry just as they’d started to get good again, even if it was Harry doing the dirty work.

You desperately wanted this to be a mild thing, but it was like you already knew it wouldn’t be if he’d purposely left this out the other night.

“Harry,” you started, hesitantly reaching out for his hand to stop his nervous nail biting. Some content part of you didn’t want to know, thought you’d be better off if this just went unknown and already forgiven. He shook his head, the guilt and regret finally getting the better of him.

“I made him do it. I made him stand you up.” Harry didn’t feel the weight off his shoulders lift even as the words came out of his mouth, upon seeing your blank face staring back at him he was filled with a whole new sense of anger aimed at himself.

“What? Why would you-” You didn’t even finish your sentence, just stopped talking as confusion bubbled up in your chest. You took a few minutes to allow his words to soak in before speaking up again. “Explain.”

Harry pulled his hood up further as he approached the restaurant, seeing you standing there by the entrance, your thumbs tapping away on your phone. He mentally noted how good you looked in the dress you’d picked out, telling himself to compliment you on it later. He took a sharp turn into the alley beside the building, seeing the figure of the other boy already there, leaning against the wall with his leg bouncing on the floor.

The curly haired man reached into his pocket and pulled out a nearly overflowing envelope of cash, taking his outstretched hand and forcing it in the boy’s direction. “Just like we agreed,” he said, allowing him to take it from him and more or less give it a quick once over to make sure the amount was all there.

The boy didn’t say a word, most likely too intimidated by the powerful man, even if they were the same age. Harry Holland could ruin his image and his life with a snap of his fingers.

“I don’t want to see your face around here again,” he said, jabbing his finger into his chest harshly. So harshly that the kid nearly dropped the envelope. “Take the money, and leave.”

Harry thought it was going to be as easy as that, the man would hear his threat and take off without another word or looking back. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case, he just had to somehow understand Harry’s logic to this all.

“If you really loved her, why are you doing this?” He furrowed his brow, looking at the man like he’d just accused him of some awful crime. “Why would you hurt her?”

Harry wasn’t having it, scoffing that this boy even had the audacity to ask. He ran a hand through his curls as best as he could, shaking his head. “That’s none of your business. Just get out of here.” The boy raised his hands in his own defense, turning and walking away from the rich kid as Harry stayed frozen to his spot to question if he’d done the right thing, or if he’d fucked everything up like the dumb idiot he was.

He didn’t wait around any longer though as out of the corner of his eye he saw you growing more and more antsy, the man simply turned around and started heading back in the direction of his home to wait for your call, the reality of what he’d just done finally settling in.

Once he’d finished his explanation, he didn’t even want to look at you, assuming the worst. You were sitting in shock, unsure of how to react to him, but you knew you felt anger and pain. You’d hoped you’d be enjoying this day with the three brothers and you didn’t want to spoil it for Tom and Sam if you were to now continue playing with such a foul mood, so you made the decision quickly that you weren’t going to give Harry your time of day; you were going home.

“Just as I thought we were getting somewhere,” you said, standing up from the bench. Harry was ready to protest and even get on his knees to beg for your forgiveness, but it was quite clear even that wouldn’t do the trick. “I’m getting really tired of this, Harry.”

You started to walk away with the intent of telling the other two Hollands that you were leaving, but Harry made that difficult when he started to follow, calling your name in a desperate attempt to tell you how sorry he was.

“I know I shouldn’t have done it Y/N, but I was a kid in love and I-” You cut him off with an angry scoff, throwing your hands up in disbelief. “And you’re just realising this now?” He rapidly shook his head, ready to come to his own defense against your venomous words. You didn’t want to hear it though, and you made that very clear by waving him off and speeding up your steps so he’d be too far behind you to even hear. That plan didn’t work however when he happened to be close enough to grip your arm, turning you around to face him with a remorseful expression.

“I don’t want to hear your excuses,” you said, pushing on his chest with both hands so he’d let go of you. “Here.” He watched with a heavy heart as you pulled the ring he bought off of your finger, taking his hand and placing it on his palm. For a split second he wanted to soak in the fact of how gentle your touch was, but the reason behind it seemed to overpower that feeling. You curled his fingers around the item of jewellery so harshly that it felt like you could’ve broken them if you so chose to. “Goodbye, Harry.”

You locked eyes for only a split second, and it wouldn’t take a genius to see all the pain and sorrow swimming in them as you blinked away building tears. You didn’t give him another second of your time, muttering a quiet ‘I'm going home’ before leaving him standing there halfway between where he’d broke the news and where his siblings were watching, but pretending not to be.

“Where’s she going?” Tom asked, pointing at your figure that was now reaching the entrance of the golf course. Harry cursed himself and tugged at his hair angrily, shrinking down to his knees on the floor, asking himself how he could be such a dick, and how his seventeen year old self could be such a pig. He looked up at his brothers with regretful eyes, the both of them staring back with concern. “I fucked up.”

»»——⍟——««

It felt as though all you were ever doing nowadays was listening to Harry Holland say sorry and try to apologise with big over the top, grand gestures that turned out to pretty much be a waste of money. You were growing tired of it, exhausted even. Part of you didn’t know whether to just move on from it all and be the bigger person, forgive him again for all the hurt he caused and just allow your old friendship to blossom. But the other part of you wanted to hate him, wanted to so desperately believe that he’d never change from that seventeen year old boy he once was; he’d hurt you again and you should just save yourself the heartbreak now.

You’d already had a few calls from Sam since the day you’d left the golf course. Obviously he wanted an explanation into why you’d just disappeared and why Harry was now moping around the house like a heartbroken teenager. You didn’t tell him of course, simply stating that some other things had resurfaced from the past and you were once again hurt by his actions.

But Harry wasn’t planning on letting this go the same way as before, he was going to turn it around and prove to you that he wasn’t going to do it again, ever.

That’s why he took the time to plan this out with his twin. Clearly the grand gestures hadn’t helped and no one he knew knew you better than Sam did. Getting advice from him though appeared to be more difficult than he originally thought as Sam was set on getting the story of what happened, but Harry eventually broke him down to the point he agreed without the need of the story.

They’d taken hours to try and plan this down to a tee, trying to account for all your possible reactions to seeing Harry show up at your door with a very familiar regretful grin. He planned out what he was going to say and Sam reminded him that it was key he listen to how you feel. He also needed to make promises and come through with them, not make empty ones like last time; he had to be completely honest.

He didn’t want to wait after their planning was done, he felt high on adrenaline and his mind was convincing him that his confidence would’ve run out by tomorrow and then he’ll never be able to talk to you about it. So, even though it was late, nearly midnight he thought, he still headed over to your home with his head held high.

You on the other hand definitely weren’t expecting the knock on your door, not so late at night. You hadn’t planned to have any visitors, nor were you aware of anything being brought to the house, so your current state of appearance reeked sadness and heartbreak. You opened the door shyly, not a single part of you expecting to see the curly headed Holland at the door. Your heart sank and your only instinct was to try and close the door on his figure before he was able to spew more lies to you.

“Y/N, wait please.” He placed his hand on the door to protest you closing it in his face, pushing it back open so he could see your face staring at him. He couldn’t quite tell if the look was more angry or more sad, but either way he hated that those kinds of feelings were directed towards him.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” you simply stated, trying again to close the door. You cursed his surprising strength though when he successfully prevented you from doing so. He took a deep breath and tried to make his words sound as genuine as he could, even though you’d have no problem believing everything he told you was a lie.

“I just want to know how I can fix this. I can’t live without you in my life.” His words had shocked you slightly and he could see that in the subtle way your eyes widened out of disbelief. You’d assumed he’d been living fine without you for the last few years, so what difference would it make to just do that again.

“Please just leave me alone before you tell me any more lies,” you said, turning your back to him and heading towards the stairs. You expected him to follow you but you weren’t expecting him to be very persistent if you rejected his attempts to talk a few times. You could hear him groan behind you and his shoes hit the hardwood floor beneath his feet.

His hand grasped your wrist in an attempt to stop you from storming off, however it only made you visibly angrier.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” you hissed, yanking your arm away from his hold as he stared at you with wide eyes. His heart was racing and he was almost certain you could hear it from your short distance away. Nothing else was said momentarily as he just stared at you, he was trying to get his thoughts together but the way you were looking at him with such venom behind your eyes was breaking his heart into tiny little pieces.

You did wait for him to talk, but after seeing him basically refuse to even open his mouth, you gave up. You spun back around on your heel and were quick to continue your journey to the stairs, nearly being able to reach out to the handrail by the time he said something.

“I’m not going to go another five years not talking to you Y/N,” he said sternly, following you to the stairs as you tried to head back to your room to avoid him. “We’re not kids anymore, we’re going to deal with this like adults.”

The words made you stop in your stride, thinking over the words he was saying. You didn’t want to fight and you didn’t want to be childish anymore; you were just hurt and didn’t know how to express it like a real adult. He could feel the hesitance radiating from you even when you weren’t looking at him and he knew that the only way to do this might be if he helped you.

“Talk to me,” he said, his words coming out slightly defeated. You sighed, hating to admit that he was right but you really did need to talk this out, you couldn’t lose him again like you had last time, not after you just got him back. You turned your head and only then did Harry notice the tears welling up in your eyes, your bottom lip wobbling, a clear sign you were going to cry.

He took a few steps in your direction as you turned around fully to face him. He slowly and hesitantly wrapped his arms around you, only pulling you closer into his chest when you basically melted into him, letting him know it was okay for him to touch you like this.

He tried to fight back the warm feeling in his heart as you cried in his arms, ignoring the feelings it stirred now you were back in his arms. His hand affectionately ran over your hair while the other ran up and down your back, hoping to bring you comfort.

“Let’s talk this through, yeah?” he asked. “You can yell at me, hit me, whatever.”

You lifted your head from his chest to look at him as he spoke, sniffling quietly and pathetically attempting to wipe away your tears. “Let out your feelings however you need, but let’s just please try and fix this.”

»»——⍟——««

That night you and Harry talked for hours. You were grateful your mother wasn’t home because you did take advantage of what he said. You screamed and you yelled and you both cried together until you were sick of hearing yourselves talk into the early hours of the morning. It was followed by a long gap of silence, the two of you sitting in your bedroom with chests heaving as you tried to catch the breath stolen by your arguing.

“Um, it’s late and we uh-” You couldn’t seem to get your words out as he stared at you with those soft eyes. You didn’t want to kick him out near three am, especially not after you weren’t sure how you were about to leave things. “Do you want to stay? I don’t want to kick you out in the middle of the night,” you admitted.

You could clearly see the look of shock that crossed his face as the words left your mouth, but nonetheless he was quick to nod, taking up your offer.

The two of you got ready side by side yet in silence, your nightly routines shortened by the fact that you were overcome with exhaustion.

Harry hadn’t expected such generosity from you, purely because he didn’t for a second deserve your kindness, but regardless you gave it to him. He wasn’t expecting you to allow him to stay in your bed either, but apparently tonight was full of surprises for him. He was hesitant when the words came out of your mouth, watching you with uncertainty as you crawled into your bed.

“Come on,” you said, patting the empty space behind you. “I’m really serious about us getting through this. I’m sick of being angry and I’m sick of not having my best friend around.”

He hummed, sliding under the covers beside you. The two of you faced each other in a comfortable silence, eyes roaming one anothers face until you saw Harry crack a smile.

“As long as you don’t kill me in my sleep,” he teased, managing to pull a smile from you that you definitely tried to suppress. He saw the way your smile shrank the more you clearly thought about something and in an attempt to let you know he was listening, he reached over to gently lay a hand on your arm.

“Can I- um, you can say no, but-“ He could tell you were finding this difficult, but your sudden shy demeanor was adorable to him. “Can we cuddle?” you asked, so quietly it was like you hadn’t even spoken.

“Of course we can,” he said. His arms were wide open for you, allowing you to shuffle closer until you were situated in his hold, something you hadn’t done for many years.

Your head rested on his chest comfortably, his arms wrapped around your body and his lips buried in your hair, occasionally pressing against your head with so much love.

“For what it's worth, Y/N,” he whispered. “I really am sorry for the way I made you feel, and every shitty thing I did.” You hummed softly, letting him know you appreciated his apology and the way he listened to what you had to say.

“I think this time it’s better if we just move on. I don’t want to go back to how we were, I hated hating you,” you admitted. Harry’s eyes fluttered shut as he grew increasingly more tired as your soft voice spoke.

“Me too. My goal from now is to make you fall in love with me instead.” He heard you giggle into the material of his hoodie, his heart fluttering at the angelic noise. “From one end of the spectrum to the other, I like how you work, Holland.”

He felt your head shift and lift off of his chest, the man having to suppress a whine of protest at how much he didn’t want you to move from him. However, when he opened his eyes to find you already gazing at him, he wasn’t as mad anymore.

“Goodnight, Y/N,” he said, his thumb rubbing across your cheekbone as you gazed up at him. He’d never seen this look in your eye before, and Harry was certain he’d seen you throw every emotion of yours possible at him.

You shocked him when you leaned closer, noses bumping against each other as he watched your eyes flicker between his and his lips. He nearly gasped when your lips finally connected, your first kiss together since your actual first kiss many years ago.

He vividly noticed that your lips still felt as soft, still molded into his as perfectly as they did that day, the day he knew he was in love with you. He was sure he could hear fireworks exploding, only holting when you pulled back, giggling at the way Harry tried to find your lips again.

“Goodnight, Harry.”

»»——⍟——««

The next few weeks with Harry were confusing for everyone. His brothers didn’t know if you were together or if there was anymore bad blood between you two, but to be fair to Harry, he didn’t know if you were together either.

You kissed, you’d been doing coupley things, but neither of you had tried to confirm or deny anything. You instead chose to just enjoy each other’s presence while you had it for the longest time in a while.

“I want you to be my date tonight,” you said, linking your fingers together across the kitchen island as you ate. His eyes raised from his plate to look at you, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.

Harry had spent the last few nights at your home while your mother worked late and left for work early, so the two of you had become very accustomed to eating breakfast together.

“To where exactly?” he asked. You rolled your eyes playfully, getting up from your seat to place your plate in the sink with the other dishes. “My mother’s hosting another party, some gala that we must attend.”

He raised his eyebrows teasingly, biting back his smile. “We?” he asked. You huffed, pouting your lips at the man. He grinned at your expression and shrugged his shoulders, quietly telling you that he wanted you to admit you couldn’t do this without him. You were too proud to tell him you were relying on him in order to have any ounce of fun tonight.

“You’ll get to see me in a pretty dress,” you said, arms sliding around his neck from behind, settling your palms flat against his thinly covered chest. “And there will be alcohol, and dancing.” You accentuated each statement with a kiss to his neck, the man tilting his head to the side to allow you more access. “It’ll be fun.”

He hummed as if he was really processing the thought of going there with you tonight. You knew he was only going to turn around and continue to drag this out more, so you didn’t get your hopes up or anything.

“Just admit you aren’t going to have fun without me,” he said, a smug grin on his face. You shook your head, hiding your face in his neck in refusal to admit what he knew anyway. “‘M gonna have so much fun either way. Just thought you might want to accompany me so I don’t get snatched away by another man.”

He chuckled, his head turning to place a kiss to your temple. He didn’t get a chance to say anything else before your mother entered the kitchen, taking you both by surprise.

“Morning you two.” You jumped at the sound of your mother’s voice, stepping back from Harry as you felt your cheeks flush with heat. Your eyes landed on her with a shy smile, the redhead cleared his throat awkwardly, greeting your mother with a tight lipped smile. “Nice to see you getting along for once.”

The two of you shared a look, you’d been getting a lot of those comments recently and you were growing quickly tired of it. “Is Harry coming tonight?” she asked, watching you both as she prepared her coffee for the morning. You sent a look to the curly headed man and raised your eyebrows expectantly.

“Yeah, I’m very excited,” he said, rolling his eyes as your lips curled into an unbelievably wide grin. You kissed his cheek and whispered a thank you into his ear before taking a seat beside him, your legs finding their way into his lap.

“You won’t regret it,” you promised.

Not too much longer you were arriving outside the large building, ballroom if you will, hand in hand with your lovely date. Harry looked really good if you did say so yourself, and you had said, many times since you’d first seen him in his suit that afternoon.

Your first order of business was to get alcohol, of course, no one would survive these kinds of parties without it, at least no one your age. It managed to make you a little bit more lively at least.

“Dance with me,” Harry announced, his eyes locked on the older couples dancing in the middle of the room. You thought about it for a moment, downing the rest of your drink in the process. “Fuck it, let’s do it.”

And with your words the man was leading you to the dancefloor, your bodies pressing together for the slow song, one of your hands interlocking with his. Your other hand settled on his back while his held the side of your neck, rubbing circles on your jaw with his thumb.

“This is nice,” you whispered, head resting against his chest as you swayed in his arms. You felt the apples of his cheeks press against your head, telling you he was smiling widely.

There was a comfortable silence surrounding you as you invested yourselves solely in each other. It felt like there was no one else around you as you held each other close, drowning in one another.

His thumb slowly rubbed up and down the back of your hand, inching across the skin to try and memorise the feel of your soft touch. Your lips were pulled into a large grin, your cheek nuzzling further into his chest.

It didn’t take him much too long to get tired of not hearing your voice though, so the man took you by surprise by stepping away from you.

“What’re you doing?” you whined, already missing the close touch of the man you were quickly falling for. “I want to dance,” he said, pulling you into him by your hands before pushing you away again, intending on twirling you if you’d allow it.

“We were dancing,” you teased. “Not to our full potential we weren’t.”

You giggled loudly as he pulled you into his body to dip you, drawing the eyes of a few judging adults who were much much older than you both, and very unimpressed with your behaviour.

“They’re so good together,” Tom said, eyes fixed on you and Harry as you danced in the center of the room. Sam hummed beside him. Sam was happier than anyone that you and Harry were working so perfectly, even if your relationship status wasn’t exactly clear to his twin. “Just hope they finally stay that way,” he added, referencing the events that had happened not too long ago.

They still hadn’t found out what caused anything or how you made it, but they were just excited it was finally over and resolved.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out you were actually perfect to each other, especially with the way you were looking at Harry the whole night and the way he was making you laugh until your stomach hurt.

“What do you say we get out of here?” you asked, bringing your dancing to a halt. The man clearly wasn’t done dancing though, hands holding your lower back and having you sway with him as you grinned mischievously.

“Come on,” you said, bottle of champagne in one of your hands and Harry’s hand in your other. You led him through the large ballroom until you came across a set of double doors that led outside to the gardens.

You ignored any strange looks from the people you passed by as you made your escape with Harry in tow.

It wasn’t until he felt like he no longer knew where he was that he spoke up. “Where are we going, crazy?” he asked. There was no chance he was going to stop you wherever you were taking him, not with the grin that decorated your face out of pure excitement.

“I want to take you somewhere,” you told him. You’d been to many gala’s at this same place hundreds of times as a kid, and that meant in a desperate attempt to prevent your childish boredom you’d wandered the large grounds until you’d found an isolated spot that you now called your own.

You had yet to actually take anyone there other than yourself, not even Harry in the height of your friendship, so this was something new and very vulnerable for you.

“Ta da,” you whispered, holding your arms out in a presenting motion when you arrived. You saw Harry’s eyes widen at the sight before him, just like yours had so many years ago when you’d discovered this place.

His eyes trailed over the large lake that was hidden by all the trees, seeing all the bright and colourful flowers that decorated the edge and desperately called for the two of you to go swimming at some time.

“This place is beautiful,” he said. He heard you hum quietly as you took a seat on the ground, bottle in hand as you stared out at the calm lake. He took a seat next to you and leaned over to press a quick kiss to your temple as you sat with your shoulders touching.

“Thank you for getting me out of there. You were such a liar when you said that’d be fun.”

He heard you giggle loudly, taking a sip from the alcoholic bottle. You shared a look momentarily where you once again allowed your eyes to trail his suit clad body.

“That was the point. I didn’t have to be bored alone and I got to see you in that very hot suit.” He blushed slightly at your words, his cheeks tinting red as he turned his head away from your gaze shyly. “Now, let’s drink,” you announced.

The two of you ended up drinking from the bottle of champagne until the whole thing was gone, finding yourselves rather tipsy by the end of it. You’d grown closer to each other over the time you spent outside, and you’d especially gotten more touchy with each other until Harry was guiding your chin up to look at him.

His eyes flickered between your eyes and your lips, the man eventually leaning in until your lips met in a sweet kiss. His hand raised to cup your jaw gently, pulling you even deeper into the kiss.

You revelled in the kiss, your stomach bursting with butterflies the more he tried to pull you closer to him, practically sitting in his lap by the time you pulled away from each other.

His forehead resting on yours as his chest heaved, but his eyes followed as your fingers came up to your lips, ghosting over them at the tingling feeling that still lingered even after your kiss.

“What are we?” he asked, his voice coming out slightly desperate. You smiled softly, pecking his lips one more time before pulling away completely. You pushed yourself up and onto your feet, leaving the man sitting there in confusion as he watched your figure walk away.

When you realised he wasn’t following you turned to look at him and outstretched your hand to him.

“You coming, boyfriend,” you called, watching the blush that flushed on his cheeks. He nodded his head, standing up and wiping his hands on his pants nervously. “I really like the sound of that.”

“Yeah. I think I do too.”

»»——⍟——««

That night Harry had ended up having slightly too much to drink, he claimed he was drinking to celebrate his new title of your boyfriend, but you aren’t sure how true that statement is. Dealing with a drunk Harry was just as difficult as you remembered, the man practically becoming a deadweight that needed to be carried everywhere. You tried your best, occasionally managing to get him to co-operate enough to get him somewhere like in your car or up the stairs of your home.

“Okay, bedtime,” you said, hoisting him into your bed so he could finally get some sleep. He whined and made it more difficult than it needed to be but you were used to Harry being difficult so this wasn’t new for you. His head hit the pillow and he was nearly out like a light, allowing you to pull your covers up to his chin to tuck him in.

“Hurry up, wanna cuddle,” he mumbled, hiding his face in your pillow as he watched from the corner of his eye as you got ready for bed. You had a soft smile on your face at his words, your heart growing three sizes. “Give me a second,” you said.

You replaced your uncomfortable dress with one of Harry’s hoodies that you adored, something about being engulfed in the scent of him making your heart soar, and a pair of simple comfy shorts and in no time you were sliding into your bed beside your drunk boyfriend.

He found your lips quickly, pecking them a few times until you had to push his face away to say goodnight, your exhaustion finally catching up to you.

“Goodnight, Harry,” you said, pressing a gentle kiss on his lips. He hummed with a sleepy smile, letting you turn over in his arms so he could spoon you.

There was a comfortable silence for a little while, you having fallen asleep in your boyfriend’s arms while he instead focused on you. It might sound creepy but he had that feeling of guilt settling in his stomach again as his drunken mind brought back all the moments where he’d said something awful to you over the last few years. Specifically your mothers party where he’d made the comment about your dad that even Sam scolded him for.

He felt like he needed to apologise for it, desperately, all his feelings heightened by the alcohol in his blood.

“Hey, Y/N,” he whispered. There was a slight sense of guilt in his chest at the thought of waking you up for this, but he really wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep if he didn’t get this off of his conscience. You stirred momentarily but seemingly fell back to sleep as quickly as you woke. He tried again, murmuring your name as he leaned over to place a kiss onto your cheek, then your jaw, hoping the tickling of his hair or lips on your skin would wake you.

You whined, trying to move away from his poking and prodding to stay in your deep sleep. “What do you want?”

He chuckled quietly at your sleepy attitude, pressing more than a few kisses to the side of your head as a way to butter you up so you wouldn’t be mad at him in the morning. “D’you remember that party your mum threw a few weeks ago?” There was a few seconds of silence where he couldn’t see your eyebrows screwing together in confusion at his words. “Which one? She throws like a thousand a week.”

You felt him chuckle, turning over in his arms to be even closer to him. You still hadn’t opened your eyes, assuming for the most part this was just meaningless drunk Harry chatter.

“The one where I made that comment about your dad.” The words were enough to wake you a little more, the simple mention of the man bringing an uncomfortable pang to your heart. “I remember.”

You felt Harry sigh, his grip on your body tightening out of worry that you might get up from the bed and leave him.

“I just wanted to apologise,” he whispered. “Even then I knew it was too far, and Sam did yell at me but- It was incredibly low of me and I’m sorry.”

You felt your heart flutter at the apology of something so small. Harry really was trying to change who he was, try and do everything to prove to you he wasn’t that man you grew to hate for all that time.

“S’okay, stop worrying your pretty little head,” you mumbled, nuzzling your head into his chest to let him know you weren’t angry. He smiled, leaning his chin on top of your head and holding you impossibly close to his increasingly tired body. “As long as you know I’m sorry.”

He felt you nod against him, pressing a kiss to his clothed chest. “You’ve shown me you’re sorry in everything you’ve done for me these last couple months, you have nothing to worry about.”

And he truly was, for everything. There would be no more running in circles where one of you, usually you, would be getting their heartbroken. The both of you were in this for the long run and as you’d been told by many people, mainly Harry’s brothers who seemed to be your biggest supporters throughout, you were endgame.

━━━━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━━━━

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