My Little Bird

The best sleep Harry had ever had was interrupted by a loud buzzing near his head. He felt around blindly for his phone, which was lying next to his pillow and when he saw who was calling, he jumped up from his bed and hurried quietly out of his bedroom to answer it.

"Have you seen Asher?" Eleanor's worried voice rushed through the speaker before he'd even said hello. "I went into her room to wake her up and she's gone and none of the other boys have seen her and-"

"Yeah, she's here," he interrupted, hoping to immediately ease her worry.

He heard a relieved sigh from the other end of the line, followed by a male voice asking if everything was okay. "What the hell? I didn't go to bed until midnight. So she snuck out after that?"

"She was waitin' for me when I got home about two."

"But why?"

He sat down at the kitchen counter, rubbing his hands over his tired eyes then resting his forehead against the cool granite counter tops. "Apparently my plan of avoiding her was too obvious."

"Harry, you're an idiot," Eleanor sighed.

"I know."

"But she's okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Still asleep. We cleared everything up last night, though I think I might've upset her about something else."

Eleanor groaned in annoyance. "Louis and I will be there soon."

His phone beeped as the call ended and he dropped it onto the counter, raking his hands through his messy curls.

Asher was sleeping soundly when the bedroom door flew open and Eleanor stormed inside, Harry and Louis following directly on her heels. Her eyes popped open at the sound of the door hitting the wall and she sat up, taking in her surroundings as Eleanor stopped at the foot of the bed, her hands on her hips and an annoyed look on her face. "What the hell, Ash?! I went into your room this morning and you were gone! And you wouldn't even answer your phone!"

"I'm sorry, El. I really needed to talk to Harry." Harry's head dropped guiltily, knowing that the reason she'd made the risky trip was because he had so blatantly ignored her for the past week.

"So you went out in the middle of the night to come all the way over here? You could've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble! You can't just roam all across London at two in the morning! You had me worried sick!"

Asher threw the comforter back off her body and climbed out of Harry's king size bed, walking over to her cousin and wrapping her in a hug. "Sorry, El. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Don't you dare do that again," she warned, returning the hug.

Harry and Louis just stood back a few feet, watching the two silently. Louis looked amused. When they'd first stormed into the flat, Harry had been sitting at the kitchen counter in just a pair of athletic shorts with disheveled hair and a sleepy look on his face as he ate his cereal; now here was Asher climbing out of Harry's bed in nothing but Harry's favorite tee shirt. It didn't look as innocent as he had made it seem.

"Come on," Eleanor said, letting go of her cousin. "We'll go for breakfast."

Asher nodded her head and went to retrieve her own clothes from the dryer, ignoring the suggestive look on Louis's face and going into the bathroom to change. She decided against pulling on her own tee shirt, instead keeping on Harry's much larger one. She tied a knot in the back so that it didn't reach almost to her knees and she rolled the sleeves so that they ended a few inches above her elbows. Once she had pulled her rain-induced messy waves into a top knot, she rejoined the three in the living room and laced up her boots before following Eleanor toward the door.

They both looked back to the two boys sitting on the sofa. Harry had changed into a pair of really tight black jeans and a white tee shirt while Asher was getting dressed herself and had tugged a green beanie over his messy curls instead of trying to tame them. "You girls go ahead," Louis told them. "I have to speak with Harry about something." Eleanor nodded, understanding her boyfriend's unspoken idea, and led Asher out of the flat and down the street toward the cafe.

The two girls went inside and were seated at a more private table in the back, sipping on cups of tea while they waited for the boys. Louis had had a good idea when he suggested that they arrive separately. No one would bother the girls if they went inside alone, but if they were with the boys, they would definitely be noticed.

Someone who recognized both Eleanor and Asher had apparently tipped off the paparazzi anyway because when the boys arrived at the cafe, their way was blocked by a group of at least ten grown men with high quality cameras flashing in their faces. Ever since Asher had been spending time with them, they'd tried not to be too obvious by bringing along their security, but it was evident that that plan was no longer going to work.

They eventually pushed through the group and made their way inside to the table, sighing with relief when they sat down. "Everything okay?" Eleanor asked casually, but both boys knew she was seriously concerned by the scratches on Harry's arm and the small rip in Louis's button up shirt. "What took so long?"

"We ran into some people. Couldn't get away from them," Louis answered with a shrug. To Asher, it only sounded like they had seen someone they knew on the street and that person had been overly chatty.

Her eyes found Harry's bright green ones where he sat across the table from her and she smiled warmly at him, much to his surprise. He had assumed that she would be somewhat angry or upset after the way their conversation ended the night before, but instead she seemed to be completely over it.

The waiter approached their table and while Asher was occupied with ordering her french toast, Louis sent a quick text to his girlfriend across the table from him. He informed her that they should leave out the back exit since there were paparazzi swarming the front entrance and there would probably only be more by the time they'd finished eating breakfast.

Eleanor felt torn; she hated lying to her cousin and it was so stressful to try to hide things from her. Now that people were recognizing Asher and knew somewhat who she was, hiding it was only getting more difficult. But on the other hand, the boys enjoyed being completely normal people. They had never been ones to complain about their fame because they were so thankful for everything they had, but it was refreshing to meet someone who had no idea who they were. People always treated them differently because they were famous; not necessarily badly, just different, even if they didn't realize they were doing it. But Asher just saw them as five normal, everyday boys who were friends of her favorite cousin.

The actual meal went by without a hitch but it was when they were leaving that they had a problem. Obviously Asher would know something was up if they left through the back, but there was no way that they could go through the front entrance with the hoard of people waiting for them. Eleanor made a cover story for their odd exit by telling her that there was a shop she wanted to take Asher to and that it was a shortcut to go through the back alley.

Once they had made it all the way down the alley and back onto the street, Eleanor and Louis set the quick pace while Harry and Asher followed right on their heels. Harry glanced over at the girl walking right next to him, wondering if she was suspicious, but all he could see behind her dark sunglasses was her normal unassuming expression. In fact, she looked completely content as she walked down the sidewalk behind her cousin. Harry caught a few camera flashes in his peripheral vision but luckily Asher didn't seem to notice them.

Because they were walking in the opposite direction from Eleanor's flat, Asher began to wonder where exactly they were headed. They hadn't stopped at any shop like her cousin had mentioned before. Eleanor and Louis were walking silently, arm in arm, and Harry walked next to her with his hands stuffed into his pockets, his eyes trained on his horribly scuffed brown boots.

"Harry?"

"Hmm?" he automatically responded, only half paying attention.

"Where are we going?"

He looked up at her then, staring for a long moment before turning his attention to the couple three steps ahead of him. "Guys?"

"It's just up here," Eleanor replied, not even glancing back.

Asher shrugged to herself and kept walking, not bothered by the lies she didn't know she was being told, while Harry kept giving her sideways glances, still unsure. It was obvious that this whole secret keeping thing was difficult and it was only going to get worse as time went on. It had been almost three short weeks that Asher had been in London and already Harry felt like her knew her.

It only made lying to her that much harder.