My Little Bird

It didn't dawn on her until she reached the front door of the flat that she definitely didn't think things through. Leaving while Eleanor was gone was easy enough, but now it was almost ten P.M. and she was no doubt going to be incredibly worried that Asher had been gone so long. She had probably returned only a few hours after she left, which meant she had been waiting for Asher to return all day. Now they were going to be face to face for the first time since everything happened on Monday night. Asher groaned and pushed the door open, just hoping for the best; maybe she could get to the stairs before Eleanor saw her if she was lucky.

But of course she wasn't. The door opening had made enough noise that by the time she had passed through the foyer and reached the bottom of the staircase, Eleanor was standing in the archway between the hall and the living room, her face a mixture of worry and guilt. Still, she seemed relieved that her cousin had finally come out of hiding. "Thank God. I thought something might have happened to you. You've been gone all day and you won't answer my texts."

"I was fine," Asher shrugged nonchalantly.

"Where were you?"

Instead of answering, she remained silent and chewed on her bottom lip, Eleanor just catching the guilty look on her face before she turned to head up to her bedroom.

"Wait, we need to talk."

Asher sighed as she paused halfway up the staircase and turned to look at the older girl. "No we don't. There's nothing to say."

"There's loads to say!" Eleanor protested immediately.

"Well then I just don't want to hear it."

"Look, I know that you're angry. Beyond angry, with all of us. But you need to know that it was my idea. I'm the one who suggested we keep it from you. So you can hate me all you want, but please don't hate them." She looked at Asher pleadingly, hoping that her last ditch effort would get her cousin to at least talk to Harry and the other boys. But the younger girl just shook her head and continued walking up the stairs to her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.

Once she had changed into a comfy tee shirt and replied to Olly's text making sure she got inside with minimum hassle, she turned off the small lamp on the nightstand and curled up under the duvet. After Olly had delivered on his promise of a delicious meal, Regina, who knew she was upset, let him off of work to spend some more time with her. He'd taken her back to his house and they gorged themselves on popcorn as he introduced her to the brand new world of Doctor Who.

She'd started getting antsy by about halfway though the second episode, but she didn't say anything because she didn't want to be rude when he was just trying to take her mind off of everything. And then she promptly fell asleep. She woke up at the sound of the door closing and when she sat up from her side of the sofa, she was met with Olly's mother and a clock that told her it was past 8 P.M. She was briefly introduced before he whisked her out of the house and, feeling a little homesick, she requested he stop for some cheap American fast food before he took her home. An oreo McFlurry and an obscene amount of Chicken McNuggets had her feeling a little better right up until she got out of Olly's silver volvo and approached the flat.

Now that she was back in the spare bedroom of Eleanor's flat, she couldn't help feeling a bit guilty. As mad as she was at all of her so-called friends, they seemed to think that Olly was really bad news and they'd begged her to stop hanging out with him. She had trusted that they were only looking out for her. Eventually, she started to get a headache from thinking about everything that had transpired and she rolled over onto her side, closing her eyes in hopes that she could just go to sleep and forget about it all for awhile.

It worked until early the next morning when her phone chimed loudly right in her face. She groaned as she swatted it away from her and buried her face in her pillow, but it only chimed again, and then a third time. As badly as she didn't want to, she reached over and grabbed it to see who it was. She was prepared to just delete without reading if it was one of the many people she was not currently talking to, but instead she saw her oldest younger sister's name on the screen. Three text messages all in direct succession.

Ash, get up!

I need to tell you something.

Get on skype, heifer.

Asher pouted to herself as she leaned as far as she could off the bed to reach her laptop, but the chair was too far away so she was forced to get up and retrieve it before flopping back down again. While her computer was booting up, she pulled her wild bedhead up into a topknot and yawned loudly as she laid down on her stomach. As soon as she'd logged into skype, a message came across the screen that told her the second oldest Maxwell was calling. "It's 7 A.M. here, Iris," she whined, rubbing her hands over her sleepy eyes as soon as the video call had connected.

The room around Iris was dark and she was hardly visible, the glow of her screen just barely illuminating her face. She had the comforter from Asher's bed draped over her shoulders. "I know, I'm sorry. I was just about to go to bed and-.....I saw you on tv."

"Are you fucking kidding me? I'm on tv now? Oh, Jesus Christ, that's just brilliant."

"Yeah, and not some low rate show either. It was E! News. I know you're not really into celebrity news, but that's the big time, Ash."

"Great," she grumbled sarcastically. "That's just what I need. More attention."

"How're you holding up?"

"Not great," she answered honestly. "I hid in my room all week until yesterday. Being hungry and stir crazy finally broke me down."

"You still haven't talked to any of them?"

"Eleanor, briefly, when I came home last night. Just long enough for her to tell me it was her idea and that I shouldn't blame the boys for it."

"Well....don't you think that's reasonable?" she asked, trying to choose her words carefully.

"No. I don't care whose idea it was. The whole group went along with it for two months until it all came crashing down around me." She paused as a thought crossed her mind and then she decided she had to know. "So here's a question. Why didn't you tell me Eleanor's boyfriend was famous a long time ago? That could've prevented all of this."

"I didn't know! I mean, obviously I know who One Direction is. They're on the radio all the time, which you wouldn't know, and I've seen their faces a lot, which you wouldn't have. But I don't exactly stalk them. I couldn't even tell you all their names if you asked. Trust me, If I had known, I'd have been using it to my advantage at school all this time!"

"Oh stop it, Iris. That's not funny."

"Who said I was trying to be funny?" Asher shot her sister a dark look but Iris just rolled her eyes. "Seriously though, I promise I didn't know beforehand."

"Why didn't you tell me at the wedding? You saw him; you recognized him. You could have told me then. I already had a group of people I thought were my friends, plus my own flesh and blood cousin lying to me. I didn't need my sister doing it too."

Iris looked down at her keyboard instead of her sister's face on the screen as the guilt washed over her. "I'm sorry, Ash. I was gonna say something to you, I swear. I knew you didn't know who he was, but when I looked at him, he gave me this desperate pleading look so I dropped it for the moment. Then when he went to the bar to get drinks, I practically accosted him. He said you didn't know yet and that he wanted to be the one to tell you. He promised me he was gonna tell you."

"Yeah well he just had sex with me instead," Asher replied bluntly. She sighed and shook her head, rubbing her tired eyes. "Learn from my mistakes, kid. Don't fuck someone if you're not absolutely sure you know them. They could turn out to be an international popstar."

"I should be so lucky," she snorted.

"Iris, you think this is a good thing? This is not a good thing! This really fucking sucks! Have you seen all the shit that's being said about me now? Shit that's even being said about Harry! This is my nightmare. I thought I was possibly falling in love with this complete jackass until I found out how much I really didn't know about him. I didn't even know how he was able to afford driving a Range-.....oh my God."

Iris's forehead wrinkled in confusion as she looked at her sister through the screen. "What?"

"I really am an idiot."

"What are you talking about?"

"At breakfast, Mom asked him what he did for a living and you fell out of your fucking chair to pull the attention off him so he didn't have to answer. You covered for him. You just helped him lie to me for a little bit longer until it all blew up in my face."

"I just didn't want it to turn into a big scene! You know if you'd found out then, you would've been just as pissed off and I didn't want Mom to get involved in all of that. It was between you and Harry."

"And about a hundred paparazzi and the rest of the fucking world!"

"I'm sorry, Ash! I'm really sorry but-"

"Go to bed, Iris." Before her sister could get another word in, Asher slammed her laptop shut and pushed it to the empty side of the bed, pulling her pillow over her head and collapsing back onto the mattress. Her phone rang nonstop for the next hour, but she just turned it on silent, knowing it was Iris, and tried to go back to sleep.

It was impossible, now that she was thinking about the conversation she'd just had. Her mind was back to racing again as a million things went though her head and she just wished that she could shut it off like the ringer on her phone. She wasn't sure how long she'd laid flat on her back, watching the ceiling fan turn, until there was a knock on her door. She glanced at the alarm clock, noting that it was almost ten, which was around the time Harry had been coming by for the past few days.

"Go away, Harry."

"It's not Harry," the voice replied through the door.

She was angry at Zayn too, but the fact that it was him dropping by and not Harry piqued her curiosity so she climbed off her bed to unlock her bedroom door. He slipped into the room as soon as the door was open and he shut it behind him, leaning his back against it.

"You're supposed to be at 'lads weekend' or something, aren't you?"

He nodded, keeping his eyes on her face as he watched her carefully. "Lads weekend is really studio weekend actually. But that's why I'm here."

Her jaw clenched as he spoke, learning yet another lie. Although, in perspective, this one was much more miniscule. "What does the studio have to do with me?" she finally asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She just remembered she wasn't wearing a bra under her Florida State tee shirt.

"We know this is a lot to ask, considering....." he trailed off, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "But we can't get Harry out of his flat."

"Why's that my problem?" She knew, even as she was saying it, that it sounded incredibly bitchy but when Zayn sort of winced, she sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of her bed. "You want me to go talk to him."

It wasn't a question; Zayn knew she understood why he was there. They'd tried everything, but Harry had taken quite a similar position that she had. He didn't want to leave his house. Especially when his expected destination was to a recording studio to work on an album full of songs about girls and love. That was the last thing he wanted to be reminded of. She had flat out rejected him for four days straight when he tried to apologize and explain himself, and now he was moping.

"We've tried, honestly, and we know it's a lot to ask of you. But we really need him at the studio today and he won't budge." His eyes continued talking, even when his mouth didn't. He's pretty much acting like a child, same as you.

Asher nodded, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. "Well, I don't know how much good it'll do but I guess I can try."

Zayn looked flabbergasted that she had actually agreed. He blinked in surprise a few times before smiling. "Thank you, Ash. And for the record, we're all really sorry." Her eyes dropped from his face and she ignored the apology as she instead focused on the floral pattern of the light colored rug beneath her bare feet. Zayn cleared his throat and stuffed one hand into the pocket of his jacket as he reached for the door with the other and opened it, stepping halfway out. "I'll wait for you downstairs," he said quietly before shutting the door behind him.

As badly as she didn't want to go over and talk to Harry, Asher knew that she had no other choice so with a heavy sigh, she got up from her bed, grabbed an outfit, and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. After she dried her long hair, she went back to her room to pull on some shoes before taking one last look in the mirror. She had picked something very plain to wear so that she could be inconspicuous just in case. She briefly thought about the millions of people who were just waiting to criticize her for something and that caused her to quickly brush some power foundation onto her face. Her lavender nail polish was beginning to chip but she knew Zayn was waiting for her so she just left it the way it was and grabbed a pair of sunglasses before heading downstairs.

Eleanor looked oddly hopeful when she walked into the living room. It seemed she thought that since Asher had agreed to go over and talk to Harry, that automatically meant things were fine, but it didn't. She didn't bother mentioning that though. Instead, she looked to Zayn. "Let's go," she said without an ounce of enthusiasm.

Zayn followed her outside to his car and she slid into the passenger seat, immediately putting on her sunglasses just in case there was someone around. She was incredibly paranoid now. Not a word was said between them the entire ride to Harry's but all Zayn was thinking about was the conversation he'd had with her while they were waiting for their chinese food the week before. You guys are my friends so I know you wouldn't lie to me. He felt incredibly guilty about the whole thing and he was hoping that this visit would be productive in things getting back to happy.

When they pulled up at Harry's flat, Asher reluctantly hopped out of the car and started walking toward the door until she noticed that Zayn wasn't moving. She turned back toward the car and looked at him, but he just waved her on, saying he'd be there in a minute. She shrugged and continued on to the door. Instead of giving her usual short knock followed by going right in, she knocked on the door and waited.

It was only a few seconds before the door opened, revealing, not Harry, but a tall woman with white blonde hair and a wide smile. Asher had never been introduced to her, but she knew through all the google searching she'd done in the past week that the woman worked with the boys and she was close friends with Harry. "Asher, right? I'm Lou. So nice to finally meet you! Come on in."

Lou moved back to give her room and she stepped inside, cautiously looking around for Harry. She didn't want to be caught off guard. Lou led her into the living room where a little girl, Lou's daughter she recognized, was sitting curled up under a blanket with a picture book almost as big as she was. "This is my baby, Lux," Lou said, patting the top of her daughter's little blonde head as she passed the chair to sit down on the loveseat. Asher took a seat on the unoccupied sofa crossing one leg over the other as she threw a smile and a small wave to little Lux, who was watching her curiously.

"Harry shouldn't be long; he's just showerin' finally. Thought I was gonna have to drag him into the bath by his greasy hair myself. He's been mopin' around for four days." Lou rolled her eyes, like she was completely annoyed by his behavior but then she looked to Asher, eyeing her carefully. She knew Harry deserved the treatment he'd gotten, but he was still her friend and she still cared about him. "You're not....here to yell at him are ya? Cos I know, yeah, he deserves to be yelled at, but honestly, I don't think he'd be able to take it."

Asher shook her head and she noticed the worry leave Lou's face immediately. "No. I just want to hear his explanation."

"He was a proper knobhead. But he's like a little brother and I love 'im." Her serious face turned amused as she looked away from Asher. "What are you doing?" she cooed.

Asher turned to look, just as the little girl stopped in front of her, holding the book out for her to take. "Hi, little Lux. What've you got here?" she asked, taking the book and the child climbed up onto the sofa next to her, leaning over to open the book sitting in her lap. Asher put her arm behind her so that Lux could reach the book better and she quickly flipped through the pages, jabbering about all the animals that were inside. She stopped on a page of farm animals and pointed to each one, explaining what they were and what sounds they made. Zayn entered the flat while they were looking at the jungle animals page and he tried to coax Lux away from Asher, but the child just grinned and told him no.

They'd flipped through almost the entire book when the sound of bare feet jogging down the hard wood stairs was heard, causing all four of them to look up at the doorway. "Alright, Lou, I'm clean now so you can stop nagging-"

Harry froze only two steps into the room when he saw Asher. Lux squealed his name excitedly but he was too preoccupied by staring at the girl sitting on the sofa next to her and she was doing the same. Asher felt a tug on her sleeve and she had to tear her eyes away from the brilliant green ones across the room to look down at the little girl. Lux just grinned at her before wiggling down from the sofa. "You want this?" Asher asked her, holding out the book. The child giggled and took the book from her hand, causing a smile to stretch across her face before Zayn got up from his chair and scooped Lux up in his arms.

Lou got up from the loveseat, shooting Harry a look before turning to her daughter and Zayn. "Come on, Let's go to the kitchen and get Luxy some lunch." They followed her out of the living room and Asher's gaze immediately snapped back to Harry once the three were gone. He finally inched closer, his eyes never leaving hers as he cautiously sat down on the coffee table right in front of her. He searched her face for clues as to what her emotions were at the current point, but she was completely blank.

"You asked Iris and Olly to lie to me."

His almost hopeful look immediately vanished when she spoke and he swallowed the lump in his throat before he could respond. "You've been round to see Olly?" His words came out scratchy and hoarse, like he hadn't spoken in a long time, even though he just had about two minutes before.

"Well I had to talk to someone."

Her statement seemed to really sting, judging by the way he winced and he sighed heavily, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs as he pushed his hands roughly through his hair, which was still damp from the shower. "I'm sorry," he said, looking back up at her. "I wanted to be the one to tell you."

"Yeah, I know. That's what you told my sister to keep her from spilling your secret. But you didn't tell me. You just had sex with me instead."

His eyes closed for a moment as he shook his head. "That wasn't-....You were upset about what your mum said and I didn't want-"

"Please," she interrupted. "Please don't tell me you did it because you felt guilty or sorry for me."

"No! That's not what I meant!" He groaned, running his hands down his face. "I swear, that's not it. I just meant that you were already upset and I didn't want to make you even more upset when we still had another day there with your family plus a substantial drive home. It wasn't the right time then. I know I shouldn't have done anything with you until I told you the truth. I know. But I just like you so much and I didn't want to ruin it before it ever got started. I tried to tell you on Monday, honestly, but you were leaving and Niall was-"

"Don't blame it on Niall."

"I'm not, I'm just-...." He paused to let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry. I should've told you before anything happened between us, and I regret that I didn't."

"Why didn't you guys just tell me from the beginning? I know it was Eleanor's idea; she takes all the blame for it. But why?"

Harry just stared at her for a moment before his gaze dropped to his hands. "Everyone knows us," he started. "But you didn't. When you met us, you weren't thinking about what you read in the tabloids or what you saw on the telly. You didn't already have an opinion of us and it's incredibly rare to meet someone like that these days. We've been around for a few years now, and we've met loads of people. And they always treat us differently because of who we are, even if they don't mean to and even if they don't notice it. But you didn't because we were just five normal lads to you, and it's been a really long time since we were just five normal lads to people we meet. I've had loads of girls who like me because I'm Harry from One Direction, not because I'm just Harry."

When he finished, he looked back up at her to try and gauge her reaction. She sat thoughtfully for a moment before giving a short nod. "Okay. I can understand that."

"You can?" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah, of course. It's hard being judged. Seeing the preconceived opinions that people have about you before they've even met you." The crack in her voice gave her away and his head shot up, giving her a sympathetic look.

"Please don't tell me you read all that complete rubbish."

"I couldn't help it. After you left that night, I sort of went google crazy. I now know more about us than we do." She chuckled softly, even though there was nothing funny about it, and quickly swiped her cheeks for any tears that had leaked out. "I don't know how you do it," she muttered, shaking her head.

Harry bravely moved from the coffee table to the spot right next to her on the sofa, wrapping both arms around her and pulling her into his chest as he held her tightly against him, one hand stroking her hair soothingly and the other on the small of her back. The smell of her cherry blossom shampoo hit his nose and he took in a deep breath, having missed the scent dearly in the days since he'd seen her last. "I'm so sorry, love. I never meant for things to work out this way."

She let him hold her for a few minutes, relishing in the feeling of being back in his arms again, before she finally pulled back to look at him. His arms fell to her waist but he kept them there, holding her loosely. "I have another question," she said softly, blinking a few times to rid her eyes of their blurriness. Harry nodded, giving her the signal to continue. "I get why you guys didn't say anything at first. But after you got to know me, and I got to know all of you, why'd you continue to keep it from me?"

He frowned as he deliberated his answer for a moment. "Paps have been after you since the beginning, all because I went with you to pick up dinner for everyone that first time. I've always just kind of tried to brush it off when people write such complete shit articles, but when they started writing about you, it made me angry. Most of the girls who have been around us, around me in particular, know there's pretty much a guarantee they'll be written about in the tabloids for it. Tabloids really like writing about me for some reason. But you didn't know; and I thought if you did, you might stay away. And we didn't want that so we needed to lay low for awhile and stop being seen in public with you so much. Only I was a total knob and went too far with it."

"That's why you ignored me for a whole week?"

"Yeah," he chuckled. "But you weren't havin' it." Asher cracked a smile at the memory of walking all the way to his flat in the pouring rain and sitting on his steps for almost two hours waiting for him to come home; he said just recently that that night was the night he started to like her. "And our plan was useless anyway because they were following you around whether we were with you or not."

Her smile faded as she shook her head. "I don't know how you deal. Doesn't it creep you out that there are people following you everywhere, trying to get photos of you doing something that they can write a good story to go with?"

"It definitely did at first, knowing there was always a chance someone was watching. But I've gotten used to it for the most part, except for when it hurts the people I care about." He nuzzled his face in her neck, pulling her tighter against him as he sighed. "I am really sorry, you know. We only wanted to protect you."

The anger she had when she arrived at his flat had almost dissipated into nothing by then. She reached up to run her fingers through his soft curls and he pulled back to look at her in surprise. She gave him a small smile before pecking him on the cheek and extracting herself from his arms completely while he just watched her, confused and worried. "You need to get your ass to the studio."

"What?"

"You have work to do. The boys need you."

He heaved himself off the sofa and stepped closer to her, looking down into her eyes. "But what about us?" he asked softly.

"I guess you'll just have to come over and see me once you're finished for the day."

A huge smile spread across his face as he picked her up completely off her feet and clutched her tightly to his chest, pressing multiple kisses into her hair and onto her forehead and on the tip of her nose. Once he set her back on her feet, he gently took her face in his hands and leaned down to press his lips to hers. Her hands immediately went to his sides, her fingers clutching the fabric of his white tee shirt as she sighed into the kiss, realizing how much she had missed him.