Kissing Fire.

It had been roughly two and a half weeks since the One Direction boys left the states and Harry had been doing a spectacular job of staying in touch. He tried to Skype almost every day and if he couldn’t, there were plenty of texts and phone calls to tide me over. Day by day we were getting closer and I could easily say I liked him. A lot. Like a lot, a lot. So anywho, it had been two and a half weeks. And I think they were in New Zealand at that point? But I honestly don’t even remember anymore. What I do remember, however, was arriving home from work to see a frazzled looking Marina pacing the living room.

“Jesus Christ, what took you so long? You’re never home this late!” she cried as she rushed over to me.

“Uhm, Amanda wanted to grab lunch. I’m sorry, what’s going on?” I asked, my eyebrows crinkling as she practically dragged me into her bedroom.

“Tumblr is freaking out, and quite frankly, so am I. You, ma’am, have a lot of explaining to do,” Marina huffed as I dropped my bag onto her floor and made my way to her bed where she was leaning over her laptop. Upon arriving at her side, I found that she had a tab open of the “Harry Styles” tag on Tumblr.

“I’m sorry, since when do you search Harry on Tumblr?” I asked almost defensively as she turned to look at me.

“Well it started because there was this picture on my dash, so then I wanted to look into it. And everyone’s freaking out!” she exclaimed once again and I almost rolled my eyes. This was typical Marina. She was always going about getting excited and making a big deal out of things. Knowing her, there was probably nothing.

“Freaking out about what, my darling?” I asked as I once again looked to the screen. There was a picture of Harry walking down the street with Niall and someone had drawn a circle over his wrist. Oh. People had found it.

“Do you have any idea what that is? Like, there’s an ‘E’ on it so some people were saying that it’s for you. But why would he wear a bracelet with your initial? You guys aren’t dating or anything. And then other people were saying how his middle name is Edward so maybe it’s because of that, but that’s just fucking stupid. So seriously, what-” she let out a loud gasp as she refreshed the page and a video popped up. The caption under it read ‘Harry Styles confirms relationship with Emerson Kingsley’. Marina spared me a quick glance before slapping the play button and giving the computer her full attention. My eyebrows crinkled on my forehead while I waited for the video to load. We were going public? Well, apparently we already had gone public. Finally, the video loaded and I held my breath as it started.

Pleasantries were thrown about between the boys and the interviewer and there was the typical chatter about how the boys were enjoying Australia and New Zealand and such. And then, it was silent for a long moment before the interviewer took a long breath.

“So, Harry,” she drawled as she leaned forward in her seat slightly, crossing her legs. Harry’s eyebrows rose as he was now being singled out and his hands came to rest on his lap where he clasped them together. “Everyone’s been buzzing about that lovely bracelet you’ve been donning since Australia. Care to share the story?” she asked as she batted her lashes. She reached out as if she were going to touch the bracelet, but Harry drew his hand away, keeping it busy in his hair.
I watched silently as he swallowed the large lump in his throat and let out a deep breath.

“Uhm, the bracelet is for a friend of mine,” he finally breathed out, and you could just tell he was praying for the interviewer to drop the subject.

“Would this friend happen to be Emerson Kingsley, the girl you were seen toting around in New York City? You two-”

“I wasn’t ‘toting’ her around. She isn’t an object,” Harry snapped as he sat a little straighter in his seat. The woman’s eyebrows rose slightly as she leaned away from him, clearly shocked by his outburst. She was quick to pull herself together though, and was soon leaning back in.

“I think there’s a little bit more than friendship there, given your reaction.” She stared hard at him, willing him to give her some juicy detail.

At first I thought he was going to stand firm and leave the conversation as it was. However, I then recalled what the caption had said. He confirmed it.

“Emerson and I are very close and she means a lot to me. And I was going to wait, but since I think everyone already knows…Emerson is my girlfriend.”

I watched Marina’s eyes practically triple in size, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at me; her eyes were glued to the screen. My eyes subconsciously drifted to my wrist before snapping back up to meet the computer as the boys started in on Harry.

“She’s your bird? Why didn’t you say anything?” Louis cried as he slung his arm around Harry’s shoulders.

“Congrats, Hazza!” Liam chirped, giving him a good pat on the knee. The other boys shared their excitement while the interviewer sat back in her seat, a smug grin on her lips.

“So, if you have a bracelet…” the woman started in again, her eyes piercing into Harry.

“Yes, Emerson has a bracelet as well,” Harry finally stated, still looking rather pissed off at the woman. Not that I could blame him.

“Well, that’s lovely. So boys, tell me about the show you’re doing tonight.”

And with that, Marina was officially over the interview. She slammed her laptop shut before roughly grabbing my wrist and pushing the sleeve of my blazer up.

“When did this happen?” she cried, a giant smile on her face. Phew, dodged that bullet. I was terrified that she was going to freak out at me for not telling her sooner. Though it did only happen two days ago.

“Uhm, just the other day,” I mumbled looking down at the bracelet fondly.

“What happened? Tell me everything!”

Marina was off at work and I didn’t have to be in until four that day, so I was just lounging around the apartment on a dreary Wednesday morning at eleven a.m. I had just finished a giant bowl of Reese’s Puffs when my phone buzzed with a text from Harry.

i’ve nothing to do for an hour, skype with me? x

A smile reached my lips as I practically ran to my bedroom and turned my laptop on. As soon as I possibly could, I’d booted it up and logged into Skype. Before I could even hit the call button, I had an incoming call from Harry.

“Harold!” I cried as his smiling face filled my screen.

“Hey, babe! How are you?” he asked, his dimples on full show.

“I’m doing alright. Just waiting for four o’ clock to roll around,” I muttered as I ran a hand through my hair.

“Oh? What’s at four? Hot date?” he asked, a playful glint in his eyes. However, there was also a certain hint of jealously in his eyes, which caused me to bite back a smile.

“Mm, totally. Hot date with Amanda. She’s being really weird though and calling it ‘work’. Idunno what her deal is.” His loud laughter filtered through my Mac’s speakers and I couldn’t help but smile.
“What about you though, darling? Any pretty ladies catch your eye?” I asked, secretly hoping he’d say no.

“There’s only one pretty lady who catches my eye, but she’s over in America,” he replied glumly, and I had to fight to keep in the ‘awh’ waiting in my throat. “But anyway!” he chirped, another smile overtaking his features. “Have you checked the post today?” My eyebrows crinkled and my head tilted to the side slightly.

“No, the mail won’t be in until at least two-” I was cut short by a loud knocking on my front door.

“Hang on, someone’s at the door. I’ll be right back!” I quickly bounded from my room and to the door, not even caring that I was in just leggings and one of Harry’s sweaters that he’d left me. Pulling open the door, I was greeted by an older man in a UPS uniform with a small package in his hand.

“Hello, are you Emerson Kingsley?” he asked as his gray eyes rose to meet mine.

“That would be me,” I replied with a small smile as he handed over a bulky device.

“If you could just sign there…” he requested before asking me who I knew in Australia. My eyebrows crinkled as I looked up at him again, handing over the device.

“Pardon?”

“The, uh, package came from Australia. Overnight, too. Must have been expensive.”

“Oh, uhm, a friend of mine is there right now. I’m actually in the middle of a call with him, uhm-”

“Oh, don’t let me keep you! Have a nice day, dear!” he chirped as he handed over the package and headed for the elevator. A small smile flitted to my lips as I padded back to my bedroom, the small box tightly clasped within my hands. Oh, Harold.

“A package? For a second I thought it was going to be more flowers,” I called as I collapsed onto my bed and found those gorgeous green eyes again.

“Thought I’d spice things up. How about that timing, yeah?” he raised his eyebrows slightly, a small smirk on his lips.

“Seriously, how did you do that?” I cried, moving to pull open one side of the box.

“Magic, darling- wait! Don’t open it yet!” he cried, causing me to whip my head up to look at him.

“Uhm, why not?”

“Because we, uhm, we need to talk first.” At his words, I slowly lowered the box onto the bed, my eyes not leaving his for a second.

“Okay. What’s up?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

Whenever someone said they needed to talk, your mind automatically headed for the worst. But really, what could be so bad? I mean, he sent me a present! Unless it wasn’t a present. What if it was my phone bill and this was his way of saying he didn’t want to talk anymore? Oh, Jesus. No, that couldn’t have been it, right? Right?

“So, uhm,” he cleared his throat, his eyes flitting everywhere but the tiny camera on his computer. Although I couldn’t see them, it wasn’t difficult to tell that he was wringing his hands and trying to pull himself together.

“Harry, whatever it is...you can talk to me. Just take a deep breath, okay, babe?” That was the first time I’d called him babe and he was definitely quick to notice. His eyes snapped up to the camera and small smile reached his lips for a second.

“It’s just- you and I have gotten really close lately. And I’m sure it’s been more than obvious that I fancy you. You just...you make me happy and I feel like we get on really well and- God, this sounds so stupid. I just- you make me nervous- in a good way! I’m not- I’m not saying this is bad, because it’s good! It’s really good. Fuck, I just- I wanted this to come out better. I didn’t want this to sound so completely horrid. Wow, I just-”

“Harry! Relax, you don’t sound stupid. Just- say what you’re thinking.” I nodded encouragingly, hoping he could collect himself. Though it was absolutely adorable seeing him all flustered, blush included.

“What I’m thinking? Okay...what I’m thinking is that I really, really like you and I want for you to be mine, but I doubt that’s at all what you want. Which means I’ve just made a complete ass of myself by saying all that and-”

“Yes,” I cut him off simply, a smile starting to form on my lips.

“I’m sorry, what?” His eyes grew large and it seemed he leaned closer to the screen.

“I would love to be your girlfriend,” I clarified, my smile only growing. He seemed to stare at me for the longest two seconds in existence before a giant smile was slapped onto his face.

“Really? You’re sure.”

“Yes, Harold, I’m positive,” I said with a giggle. What was this boy doing to me?

“I just- wow. I-I don’t know what to say. Urgh, you’re so wonderful, I wish I could just be with you right now,” he groaned, his face twisting to one of despair.

“Hey, I’ll see you soon. I know I will; I’ll make sure of it. Now, what on earth did you send me?” I asked, my hands once again toying with the box.

“Ah, right. The package. See, you weren’t allowed to open it before in case you said no. Because then it just would have been weird. But okay, open it!” He gave me a nervous smile before I literally tore the small box apart only to find another even smaller box.

“Another box?” I asked with a quirked brow as I looked back up at him.

“Shush, just keep going!” he whined, causing me to let out a girlish giggle. I took the small lid off of the green box and was met with a black silk wrap bracelet with a gold button attached that had a large ‘H’ engraved into it. It was a rather simple bracelet, but it was gorgeous and I was absolutely in love with it.

“Harry, I love it. It’s so cute and- an ‘H’?” I asked as I held the delicate looking bracelet in my hands.

“Yeah, I’ve got one, too, with an ‘E’ though. I just...I want people to know that I’m yours,” he answered simply, but the look in his eyes told me how sincerely he felt about this. This was him being vulnerable. He lifted his right wrist into the frame for the first time in the call, and like he said, there sat an almost identical bracelet.

“It’s perfect, Haz. Really, I love it.” I smiled fondly at the bracelet as I slipped it onto my wrist and showed it off to him. “Thank you so much,” I gushed, wishing I could just hug him.

“It’s nothing, really,” he murmured, a small blush settling onto his cheeks.

“It is most certainly not nothing, mister! It’s the beginning of us.”

The next half hour was spent telling stories of the tour and of my home life as we just enjoyed each other’s company. Though there was an underlying tone of discontent with the fact that we were so far away from each other. We both knew this was going to be difficult, but it was a different kind of difficult than what we’d both been through. This time, it was worth it.

“Em, that is so sweet! Oh my God, I can’t even. That is so precious. Holy shit, why can’t Niall and I be like this? Oh my God, can we blog about this? The world needs to know!” Marina cried dramatically as she reached for her laptop again.

“No, no, no! No, we don’t need to do that. I think the world already knows, babe,” I called as I pulled her away from the laptop. A pout was set on her lips, but I just rolled my eyes and reached for my phone in my bag. Upon unlocking it I was met with a slew of notifications from Twitter, letting me know of all the mentions I’d received since the interview was released. I was still a little miffed that Harry had decided to just go public. He didn’t even mention it to me. “Ugh, great. Well now I’ve got to turn my notifications off,” I muttered as I went into the Twitter app.

“So wait, did you know you were going public?” Marina asked as she watched on with sympathetic eyes. She’d had to turn off her notifications after the boys left since everyone had seen pictures of her and Niall kissing at the airport. And let’s be honest, that fandom is like the FBI. They will find you.

“I had no idea. It kind of bugs me actually. Like, he didn’t even consult with me.” A small frown made its way to my lips at the thought. I thought he’d surely talk to me about it before exposing us. “I’m, uhm, I’m gonna go call him,” I muttered distractedly as I grabbed my bag from the floor and headed out of the room.

“Go easy on him, babe!” I heard Marina call after me, but I was already in my room and slamming the door. My fingers quickly found his name and tapped the ‘Call’ button and then I waited as three rings went by.

“Kitten!” he exclaimed cheerily, using the nickname he’d adopted for me almost a week prior.

“Hi, Harold,” I answered blankly.

“What’s wrong, Em? Are you okay?” he asked frantically, quick to pick up on my tone.

“Nothing, why would anything be wrong?”

“Emerson, I’m not that stupid. What happened?”

“I think everyone already knows,” I muttered darkly, repeating his words from the interview. He was silent for a long moment before letting out a sigh.

“When did you see it?” he asked weakly and I could just see the look on his face.

“About fifteen minutes ago.”

“You weren’t meant to find out like this. How did you even-?”

“It’s all over Tumblr, Harry. Even if Marina hadn’t have shown me the video, the mentions I’ve been getting on Twitter would have done the job. You didn’t even ask me…”

“I’m sorry, babe. It just sort of...happened. I wasn’t planning on going public without talking to you about it. That woman- she just- she was relentless!” he cried, struggling to find the right words.

“I just- I wish I’d known. I could have prepared myself for this-”

“I’m sorry, Emerson. I didn’t mean for it to happen. Please don’t hate me,” he pleaded weakly.

“I don’t hate you, Harry. I just wish it didn’t happen like that,” I mumbled, toying with the black bracelet on my wrist, something I’d soon learn I did when nervous or stressed.

“I know, I know. I wish it had gone differently, too. But, it’s out there now.” I let out a deep sigh before deciding that I didn’t want to talk about this any longer.

“I think I’m gonna go take a nap,” I finally murmured, causing him to sigh heavily.

“Yeah. I’ll call you tomorrow. I miss you, Emerson.”

“You too,” I muttered before clicking out of the call.

I didn’t want to be in an argument with Harry. I mean, we’d just started dating, for fuck’s sake! Maybe I was overreacting, but this felt like a big deal to me. I didn’t really know what to feel at that point, but I knew I didn’t want to be angry with Harry. So, I stripped my work clothes from my body, replacing them with the same sweater of Harry’s I’d been wearing when he asked me to be his girlfriend. It still faintly smelled of him and I reveled in it as I sunk into my covers for a long, cozy nap. Things would be okay. They had to be.

--

And they were. The next day when Harry called, I apologized profusely, explaining that the whole thing just took me by surprise and I may have blown it out of proportion a bit. Harry quickly dismissed my apology, saying he should have talked to me first. Regardless, everything was settled and we were back to being cute, gooey messes who missed each other far too much. I was okay with that though. As previously stated, I never got the cute, gooey stuff with Collin. I always had to be ‘sexy’ and ‘fun’. Things just felt simple and happy with Harry. It was comfortable.
However, another shock came to me a little over a week later when Harry arrived back in London. It seemed as soon as he arrived back at his apartment, he called me.

“Hello, Harold,” I chirped into the phone as I made myself some macaroni and cheese.

“Hello, beautiful. How are you?” he replied, a smile in his voice.

“I’m doing alright, just making some lunch. How was the flight?”

“Eh, boring as usual. Slept most of the way, though. So, hey. I was thinking…” Oh boy. Here we go.

“And what were you thinking, my darling?”

“I was thinking you should come visit. Like, this week. Or right now. Whichever is most convenient.” My eyebrows crinkled slightly as I switched my phone to the other ear, my left shoulder getting tired of holding it up.

“Babe, I thought we decided you were going to Holmes Chapel this week. Y’know, since you haven’t seen your family in months?”

“Right, I am. I was thinking you could come with me!” he exclaimed brightly.

“Oh, I uhm, I can’t take off this week. There’s a really big client and there’s no way Amanda would let me leave,” I lied, stirring my noodles. I felt horrible lying to Harry, because Amanda would let me go anywhere to see that boy at any time. She was a huge “Hemerry” shipper, as the fans were calling us. The truth was, we’d only been dating for roughly two weeks. The thought of meeting his family at that stage was completely out of the question. Plus, he hadn’t seen them in months. They needed family time, not ‘here, meet this girl I just started dating’ time.

“Oh, well, that’s alright. Would you be able to take off the following week? I could fly you out to London,” he quickly suggested, trying to cover up the disappointment in his voice.

“I think I should be able to. I’ll double check with Amanda when I see her tomorrow, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Good! Just let me know as soon as you can, please,” he answered sweetly, causing a smile to reach my lips as I placed my food into a bowl. “Louis wants me to go to the store with him to get food and shit, but I’ll text you, alright?”

“Yep, sounds good! Bye, darling,” I chirped.

“Goodbye, beautiful.”

A smile was on my lips as I sat down to eat my pasta, alone once again. It seemed Marina was constantly at work these days. Not five minutes later, my phone was buzzing with a call and I was half expecting it to be Harry again. However, I was pleasantly surprised as I read the name scrawled across the screen. Bradford Bad Boi. You can thank Zayn for that lovely contact name.

“Hey, boo,” I answered before shoveling some macaroni into my mouth.

“Vas happenin’?” he cried into the phone.

“Zayn, I thought you were done with that,” I spoke between giggles.

“Never done with that. But ‘ow are yeh, Em?”

“I’m doing pretty swell, and yourself?”

“Well, a little birdie told me you might be coming to visit next week, so I’m just grand!”

“I literally just got off the phone with him! How did you-?”

“We can all communicate telepathically, bebz,” he replied nonchalantly, in typical Zayn fashion.

“Seriously, though. But yes, I’m trying to come visit next week! I just have to make sure I can take off. Shouldn’t be a problem, though!”

“Good, I can’t wait to see you! I’ve gotta run, but I just wanted to say hello and tell you that I miss you,” Zayn said hurriedly, as if someone was about to catch him doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. Perhaps Perrie had shown up.

“Awh, I miss you, too! I’ll talk to you soon, doll. Love you!”

“Love you, too, Em!”

And with that he was gone and I was left with my giddy thoughts of what the next week would hold. If I could go, that is.