Work Text:
If you asked Harry to pinpoint the moment that it all happened, the catalyst of it all, he wouldn’t be able to. It was such a natural progression. Harry thinks maybe it was leading up to it since the very beginning. Everything just slowly syncing up and falling into place. The shifts so slight he hadn’t even noticed they were happening at all.
When Harry was younger he used to feel quite sorry for himself when his Mom dropped him off at prep school with a quick kiss to the cheek, and a distracted wave, a mobile pressed firmly against her ear the whole time. He remembers his eyes following the sleek black car as it drove out of sight, silently willing her to turn around and at least pretend like she might miss him.
It never happened, and eventually Harry learned that he didn’t need it to. He learned that, though his mother seemed immune to it, he was the type of person people wanted to love. He learned that he could get away with quite a lot if he just grinned wide enough for his dimples to press into his cheeks.
He made friends easily, and teachers couldn’t help but be amused by him. He didn’t find it overly strenuous to keep up with his classes, and he didn’t even mind wearing the ties and blazers now that he was used to them.
This was a place where he didn’t have to run a marathon just to get someone to spare a glance in his direction, and so now he didn’t even mind when his driver dropped him off at the start of the semester instead of his mother like most of the other kids. There was hardly even a twinge when he saw Louis trying to stop his mom from pressing kisses to his cheek while tears welled up in her eyes. He gave him a small wave and they made their way towards their dormitory together.
Louis informs Harry that there is a new boy in their building this year since Ben had been kicked out just before the term ended last year. Harry is mildly interested, just because there hasn’t been much variation since he first started coming here. The school prided itself on being selective. So he allowed Louis to babble on about what little he had heard about ‘Zayn’ in the five minutes he had been here.
It doesn't take long for Harry to meet Zayn, because the school isn’t that big, and Harry is friends with everyone. And everyone includes Liam. Liam invites Harry and Louis to his room for a small gathering. They have to sneak quietly down the creaky steps after curfew, but they’ve done it enough times to know which spots to avoid.
When Harry and Louis arrive Niall is already sunk into a red bean bag chair with his hand rooting around in the bottom of a bag of crisps while Liam sits on the couch chatting to who Harry assumes must be Zayn (he doesn’t recognize him so it seems like the most viable option).
He is vaguely aware that Zayn is probably the most attractive person he has ever come into contact with. It’s not really the type of thing a person can be unaware of, the fact that Zayn is beautiful, that is. He assumes they are all aware of it really. It’s nothing he particularly pondered over or anything, just a fact like any other little tidbit of knowledge one has stored in their head.
Zayn’s a bit quiet so the only other thing Harry really knows about Zayn is that he’s smart, but not just smart, because really that would be nothing special at a school like this, but off the charts smart. Apparently Zayn’s made it into the academy on a scholarship, something Harry’s never heard of happening before. One time Harry’s English teacher reads out one of Zayn’s essays in class and Harry knows why they’ve made an exception.
+++
Liam seems to have really hit it off with Zayn so now if Harry ever meets up with the other boys after lights out he expects Zayn to be there too. Harry finds out that he’s actually not that quiet once you get to know him.
One particular Friday night, Niall had somehow managed to smuggle some cheap beer into his room. So, they all lay sprawled out on the floor staring up at the ceiling, their heads meeting in the middle forming a vaguely star-like shape as they pass a bottle around taking turns sipping from it.
Harry laid there feeling relaxed and only slightly buzzed as they took turns asking questions and answering them. The questions started out silly, things like, “Would you rather have an elephant trunk for a nose or dolphin fin instead of a left hand?” but then slowly edged into deeper more revealing questions. Questions about their families (a subject Harry was never too keen on) and questions about their thoughts.
Harry listened carefully to all of Zayn’s answers. He had known Louis, Niall, and even Liam too long to be surprised by any answers they gave anymore, but Zayn was surprising Harry almost every time he opened his mouth. Maybe it was the slight buzz from the just a bit too warm beer, or the fact that it was too dark to see anyone’s faces, but Harry felt like Zayn was a lot less guarded than he usually was. Harry decided he liked it. He found himself unconsciously scooting closer to Zayn.
+++
After that night Harry no longer thought of Zayn as Liam’s friend, but also as his own. And Harry doesn’t remember exactly when they started hanging out with just the two of them, but he knows that’s how he spends most of his free time now.
Sometimes they just lay on their stomach’s with their legs kicking back and forth, as they work on their homework, with Harry’s iPod playing in the background.
Other times they wrestle about on the floor and play videogames throwing random things at each other trying to distract the other, and steal the victory.
Sometimes they take turns telling jokes, and even though Harry’s are always completely awful Zayn laughs every time. And not just the pity laugh they usually earn from Liam, but a full on laugh. The kind where Zayn’s eyes crinkle up, and his nose scrunches, and his head falls back. “That’s so bad it’s funny!” he gasps out, and Harry didn’t even bother pretending to be offended. He figured he didn’t really mind being crap at telling jokes as long as he got to hear Zayn laugh.
On just such a day Louis came striding into Harry’s room without bothering to knock. Actually Harry doubts Louis has even once bothered to knock on a door before entering it. He looks at Harry and Zayn suspiciously, and then asks, “What’s so funny?”
“Harry told me... this.. joke... and” Zayn tried to get out in between fits of laughter.
Louis held his hand up stopping him. “Say no more. I’m sure it was awful.”
Harry pouts a bit at that, and Zayn starts up a fresh round of laughter.
“Anyway, I definitely didn’t come in here to hear Harry’s failed attempts at being a comedian. I just came to ask if you two wanted to come to mine tonight. I’ve found Mrs. Flannery’s secret wine stash, and stolen a few bottles. Bunch of us are meeting up after lights out, you in?”
Harry and Zayn share a glance at each other briefly and then Harry looks back at Lou, slinging an arm over Zayn’s shoulder, and says, “Nah. Zayn’s forcing me to watch some awful movie with Hilary Swank in it tonight. Next time yeah?”
Louis looks at him a bit incredulously, and then throws his hands up in the air. “You two are sickeningly domestic I hope you know” he says before promptly making his way out the door. Harry and Zayn laugh a bit as they hear him huffing all the way down the hallway.
+++
Harry lies in bed that night with his ears peeled waiting to hear the teacher on night patrol pass so he can slip by and make his way to Zayn’s room. Once the coast is clear he peeks his head out the door looking both ways, and then silently creeps down the stairs and across the hall into Zayn’s room.
When he gets there he sees Zayn rummaging around his closet where all his blazers are neatly hung (Harry briefly recalls that all of his are strewn about on the floor), and pulling out secret stash of sweets. “I had to hide them, because Niall stopped by earlier” he says in explanation.
Harry has a bit of a laugh at that, and makes his way over to sit on Zayn’s bed. His eyes scan over the familiar room. Zayn is rather tidy, but the whole room is filled with little pieces of him. The bookshelf is filled with all the books Harry has heard him quote a hundred times, the walls have various paintings and drawings Zayn’s done in his spare time, and the desk has a simple black photo frame surrounding an image of Zayn’s family smiling brightly with their arms all slung around each other.
Zayn flops down next to him on the bed with his laptop in hand. He pops the DVD into the tray and starts it up. They sit up backs against the headboard passing an open bag of skittles between them.
They briefly lose track of the movie when a contest arises involving catching the skittles in their mouths. It quickly deteriorates into them throwing skittles at each other’s faces. Once they tire of that they go back to watching the film, and even though Harry’s sure it didn’t start that way they are now sitting right next to each other. Legs and arms pressed together, and Zayn's skin is warm and somehow familiar. For the first time in known history Harry feels quite pleased to be missing a party.
Harry had intended to stay awake, he really had. The movie really wasn’t all that bad, and Zayn had said it was one of his favorites. Harry had been genuinely curious, but it’s not too long before his eyelids are getting heavy, and his head is dropping onto Zayn’s shoulder.
+++
The next thing Harry knows it’s morning. He’s smiling, and he’s not exactly sure why. His mind still foggy with sleep. He’s also quite comfortably warm. After a few seconds his mind is no longer disoriented, and he figures out why. He’s got his arms wrapped around Zayn, and Zayn’s snuggled up close with his face pressing into Harry’s neck and his arms tight around Harry's back.
He feels Zayn stir a bit, and then sees him open his eyes. They look at eachother for a few seconds, before they give way into a giggling fit. Maybe this should be weird to Harry, but for some reason it’s really not. So he leans forward and presses a loud kiss to Zayn’s cheek and then laughs again, before finally making an attempt at untangling all their limbs.
At this point Zayn glances over at the alarm clock sitting on his desk across the room (because the only way an alarm clock actually works for Zayn is if he actually has climb out of his bed to stop its obnoxious beeping), and realizes they’ve already slept through three quarters of their first class.
They rush about as quick as they can rooting around for uniform items, and hurriedly throwing on their white button ups. Once Harry gets to the bottom button he realizes he’s missed one somewhere along the way, and now one side is longer than the other, but he just tucks it into his wrinkled slacks anyways. Zayn’s got one shoe on and is digging around under the bed searching for the other one with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. Zayn successfully locates the missing shoe just as Harry finishes sloppily tying his tie. Zayn heads over to his closest slides two blazers off their hangers and chucks one to Harry.
They make their way down the stairs skipping every other one, laughing while they slide their arms through the sleeves of their jackets. The sleeves are bit short on Harry, but it smells distinctly like Zayn so he really doesn’t think he’ll mind.
+++
After that it becomes routine for Harry to slip into Zayn’s after patrol has passed. They sleep all curled up around each other with their fingers intertwined, and wake up with stupid grins on their faces.
Harry would have expected some dramatics after the realization that he and Zayn were more than just friends, but it seemed he was wrong. He and Zayn continued on as they had been, except now they kissed a lot more. Lazily licking into each other’s mouths as Pink Floyd piped out of Harry’s speakers, and sharing quick pecks on the cheek between classes.
In fact that first morning after Harry and Zayn woke up in each other’s arms it had barely even caused a stir when they walked into lunch with their fingers interlocked, tugging each other along and grinning at at one another.
They took their seats next to Niall, sitting across from Louis and Liam looking up at them expectantly. For a brief moment Harry suddenly felt nervous. However, not one of their three friends looked the least bit surprised. Louis raised one neat eyebrow and simply said, "about time" and that was that.