My Little Bird

"So what do we do?"

The past hour had been nothing but blissful interaction and relaxed conversation-- conversation that finally didn't revolve around anything that had happened in the past week. There had been no mention of paparazzi, or fights, or rumors. But the moment Asher glanced up and saw the small gathering of men and women through the restaurant's large glass windows, she was snapped out of their happy, undisturbed lunch bubble and the question she prompted caused Harry to pause mid-chew to look up at her with knitted brows before following her line of sight to the window.

"I mean, this whole thing is kind of making you look bad too and I'm sure your, um, people probably aren't happy about it."

He set his fork down as he swallowed and then took a few leisurely sips of his water before he sat back in his chair with a sigh. "I had a meeting with them after I left Zayn's yesterday."

"And?"

Harry looked at her, the furrowed brows and the worry in her eyes, and of course he knew he couldn't tell her what management had suggested at first. He'd called them mental, refusing to just dump her in order to play up the scenario in which he was the victim, and they finally conceded, offering a much less drastic suggestion. "They said we should just ignore the whole thing."

"Ignore it," she repeated slowly, unsure if that would do anything to help their situation.

"Pretend the article was never even published. Don't answer questions about it if asked. In my case, don't tweet about it. Just act like it doesn't exist at all." He paused to rake his hand through his long curls before shaking his head. "I know it's not exactly going to make you-......Well, it's going to make you look, erm, guilty but-"

"I don't care," she interrupted. "I don't care what everybody else thinks. I only care what you think. If you know I didn't do it, then that's good enough for me. As long as you don't mind that the whole world thinks I'm a cheating whore."

Harry scowled, just thinking about all the terrible things he'd seen that people were saying about her over something that was completely untrue. "I do mind actually."

"But there's nothing you can do about it, according to your people."

"Right," he sighed heavily. "And I'm really sorry about it."

"I'm sorry I got this whole rumor started in the first place."

"It's not your fault though. You only went to him because I lied to you and hurt you. I pushed you into him." He shook his head like he was disappointed with himself and reached over to take her hand where it rested on top of the table. "I'm still very sorry about that by the way. And I am going to make it up to you."

"I'd rather just forget about it instead. I don't want you to worry about it anymore. Like I said, I understand why you did it and I don't blame you. But there's been so much drama with us; I'm ready to just let it go and move past it."

Both of their phones chimed within a few seconds of each other and Asher let go of his hand to remove her phone from the pocket of her jeans. She read over the text before she looked up at Harry and smiled. "From Eleanor. 'Please tell me you've patched things up and everything's okay again.' "

"Mine's not so nice," Harry laughed, shaking his head. "Lou said 'You better not have fucked things up any worse, mate. El will kill us both.' You know, I wholeheartedly believe she would."

"It's very possible. She's a fiercely protective Momma Bear," Asher replied. "What should we tell them?"

"Absolutely nothing. Where are they now?"

She quickly typed out a text to her cousin, only waiting a few moments before the response came. "They're eating lunch at Francesco's but they're getting the check now and then going to Niall's."

"Alright. We'll meet them there."

As if the waitress had been eavesdropping on the conversation, she almost immediately appeared with their check and Harry handed over his credit card to her before she scampered off again. She was extremely flirtatious when she brought it back to him and two more waitresses approached the table to stand next to her as she asked him for a photo. He graciously agreed and someone's phone was quickly thrust into Asher's hands as all three girls went to his side, completely invading his personal space bubble with their cheek kisses. Asher very poorly hid her scowl and snapped the photo, handing it back to one of them and sliding her chair back to get up from the table.

She slipped around them to stand behind Harry as he said his final goodbyes to them and then he spun around to hurry away from the girls, leading her by a gentle hand on the small of her back. Just before they reached the door, he bent down a bit to whisper in her ear. "Remember: keep your head down, stay close to me, and don't answer any questions about the article. Are you ready?"

"No," she replied honestly, as she pulled her sunglasses out of her hair and slid them back onto her face. "But I guess I don't have a choice."

"Here we go," he muttered, giving himself a second or two before he pushed the door open and stepped out onto the street where the group of paparazzi were waiting. Asher followed right behind him out the door and he paused to let her catch up to him so that they were walking side by side as camera flashed in all directions. The photographers were all shouting out questions, which made it difficult to hear any of them clearly. Asher's phone buzzed in her pocket and she quickly pulled it out, thankful for an excuse to look down from the people surrounding her. It was a text from Eleanor, saying that they were officially on their way to Niall's. Instead of telling Harry this piece of information, she just held her phone out to him and he looked at her confused for a moment before he took it to read the message himself.

He nodded his head and handed it back to her, pulling his car keys from his pocket as they stopped at a traffic light to wait for their turn to cross the street. It was awkward waiting, because the paparazzi were all standing around them and there was nothing they could do to get away from them unless they ran straight into oncoming traffic. There was a young guy on Harry's other side, holding a video camera instead of just a regular camera, and he seemed to decide to take a softer approach to getting them to talk. "Hi, Harry. How're you this afternoon?"

"I'm great. How are you?" Harry responded politely. That was one thing she'd noticed about him in doing all that research a few days before. He was always being hounded by fans and paparazzi and he had never once been rude to them. He did get unhappy one time when a photographer knocked over a young fan, but he still wasn't mean about it. He was genuinely one of the nicest celebrities ever. He was one of the nicest people just in general.

"You enjoying your day out?"

"Yeah, it's been good so far. Weather's really nice today." Asher was thankful she was wearing sunglasses so no one saw her roll her eyes as she held back a laugh at his answer. He knew they were trying to get him to talk about her, but all he mentioned was how wonderful the temperatures were outside.

"What about you, Asher?" the paparazzo pressed.

She looked up in surprise at the man who had addressed her but she quickly recovered, nodding her head and giving him a polite smile. "Yeah, it's been great."

"What are you two doing with the rest of your day?" The rest of the people crowded around them seemed to collectively decide that this one guy was their best chance at getting any answers out of the pair because they all stopped shouting questions at them, instead letting him ask.

"Nothing major," Harry shrugged, checking the time on his watch. "Hangin' out with the lads a bit."

"Harry, there's tons of rumors circulating about you two now. Could you just clear things up for us?" Asher automatically tensed up, already knowing the question that was coming. It was inevitable that they were going to be asked about the article but she'd hoped it would be at a time when they could keep walking past the person who'd asked it without saying anything. "Are you two dating?"

Before she even had time to breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't the question she thought, she was completely thrown off by Harry's answer. "No, man. We're just mates," he chuckled casually. The light changed, signaling that they could walk across the street, but she was no longer staring at it, instead trying not to be obvious as she watched Harry in stunned silence. "Sorry, we have to go. Come on, Ash."

She felt his hand on the small of her back, guiding her forward as they stepped off the sidewalk, but the warmth soon disappeared as they walked to his car where it was parked on the other side. He went straight around to the driver's side, not opening her door for her like he usually did and she climbed into the passenger side robotically, suddenly filled with dread as she realized what this meant. She sat silently in her seat, ankles crossed and hands folded in her lap, and she stared straight ahead as Harry maneuvered through the busy streets, changing the radio station every few seconds searching for something to listen to. She was holding back tears when she glanced over at him out of the corner of her sunglasses but he seemed completely at ease, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of the song playing softly around them.

As soon as they pulled up at Niall's she jumped out of the car and hurried toward the front door instead of waiting for Harry, who only just seemed to notice that something was wrong. He called after her, but she didn't even acknowledge that she'd heard him as she opened the door and went inside. Everyone was all spread out across the living room, Zayn in the corner chair, Niall and Liam occupying the loveseat, and Eleanor curled into Louis's side on the sofa.They all greeted her when she walked into the room, but the smile she gave in response didn't fool anyone. Asher sank down into the empty spot next to her cousin, letting out a soft sigh as she laid down to rest her head in the older girl's lap.

"What's wrong?" Eleanor asked, gently brushing her fingers through Asher's long hair.

"Nothing," she replied unconvincingly but they didn't have time to question her further before Harry entered the room, completely puzzled by her actions outside. She could feel him studying her, taking in the way she had curled up on the sofa and the way Eleanor stroked her hair soothingly and the way she wouldn't look up at him.

"The fuck did you do now, mate?" Zayn asked him. "We thought you were fixin' things."

"Ash," he started, ignoring Zayn's question and all his other friends' curiously watching eyes. "Can we talk? Please?"

Harry looked completely flustered and worried, which only made her feel guilty when she finally met his eyes. She nodded once, slowly pulling herself up from the sofa and walking right past him toward Niall's kitchen, and when she reached it, she slid onto one of the two bar stools situated by the dark granite covered island. Harry shuffled into the room a few seconds later, almost looking nervous as he leaned against the counter directly across from her and crossed his arms over his chest, chewing on his bottom lip as he watched her carefully.

It was silent for a few moments. Asher just stared at her hands, which were folded on the counter top, and she absentmindedly twisted the large ring on her left middle finger as she waited for him to say something first. "Are you going to tell me why you're upset?" he finally asked, his voice timid and unsure.

"I just didn't realize the aftermath of that article was that you didn't want me to be your girlfriend anymore."

"What? Who said I didn't want you to-......Oh." His eyes closed and he shook his head as if it pained him that she could actually think he didn't want her anymore. His arms fell to his sides as he pushed off the counter he'd been leaning against and walked over to her side, sliding onto the empty stool next to her. "Shit, Ash, I didn't mean that. I just said no because we hadn't talked about whether or not we were going to tell the entire world. I know how overwhelming this whole thing has been for you and I didn't want to say yes if you weren't one hundred percent okay with me doing it, because the madness you've seen isn't even half of what you'd see if we announced us officially."

Now she felt foolish. He had only said no because he was trying to protect her but she had overreacted yet again. She nodded her head in understanding but she couldn't bring herself to look into his eyes, which only made him think that she was still upset with him. "Come here," he said, gently pulling her into his chest and wrapping his arms tightly around her as he rubbed his hand up and down her arm soothingly. "I'm sorry, babe. I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm an idiot," she mumbled into his tee shirt. "Overreacting once again."

His whole body shook with a laugh and he pulled her back to look down at her, pressing his hand to her cheek. "I can't believe you thought I didn't want you to be my girlfriend anymore. You're mad, Asher Maxwell."

"Well I'd have to be to fall in love with you, now wouldn't I?"

"Touché," he replied, with a thoughtful nod and then a grin. "Come here, mad girl."

One of his large hands slipped over her hip while the other slid around to the back of her neck, pulling her to him so that he could connect their lips in a fervent kiss. He captured her bottom lip between his teeth and gave it a playful nibble before tracing over it with his warm tongue and she opened her mouth to him, letting his tongue tease hers. She tangled both of her hands in his curls, pulling him even closer to her. Neither of them noticed when Liam peeked his head into the room to check up on them, but they quickly broke apart when they heard him shouting to their other friends on his way back to the living room. "Yeah, they're fine now! Just havin' a snog in the kitchen!"

"Oi, I cook food in there!" Niall yelled at the two of them. "Go back to Harry's kitchen if you're gonna be doin' dirty stuff!"

Asher laughed as she pressed her palm to the center of her chest to feel her heart thumping wildly against her rib cage, still feeling dizzy and breathless from the kiss. "Come on," she panted, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together. "We should get back out there."