Burn

The feeling of the bed moving made Rae stir in her sleep. Breathing in heavily, she turned over, knowing that there was something irregular about having another weight in the bed. Though her bed was large, she was always the only one in it, and seeing as Trystan hated sharing beds, there was no way she was in Rae’s bed.

Stretching her arm out, she hit what felt like a knee, making her frown in her sleep. A chuckle filled Rae’s ears as she examined the leg, confused as to why someone was sitting cross-legged in her bed.

“If you wanted to feel me up,” a deep voice joked, “You just have to ask.”

A smile touched the girl’s face as she lifted her head, opening her eyes and yawning to see her intruder. Harry sat cross-legged on Rae’s bed, his curls pushed out of his face, green eyes looking down at her, dancing with laughter.

Rolling onto her back Rae shot back, “If you wanted to get into my sheets, all you had to do was ask.”

“Something tells me your answer would have been a negative.” Harry let himself fall over sideways onto the bed, making the goose feather blankets puff up around him. Laughing, he swatted them down to see her delicate face again. She smiled at him. “Am I right, or am I right?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

The lay there for a few minutes in silence, just staring at each other with amused expressions. Harry had a smirked on his lips, though Rae couldn’t understand why. Rae herself was studying the contours of his face, his eyes tired but his expression happy.

Rae wondered what it would be like to turn over every morning and see that face. She quickly shoved the thought away, not wanting to linger on it any longer. Reaching out, she moved to brush a curl from his eye but his hand shot up, holding it fast and looking at her.

“Um, okay Karate Kid.”

“What are you doing?” he questioned, his eyebrows furrowing together. It seemed that he was asking himself more than her, his reaction catching him off guard as well.

“I was going to move the curl out of our eye,” she laughed, confused at his strange reaction. “But then you snatched my wrist like the rabbit on the Trix commercial.”

An apology passed his face as he let go of her wrist, letting her brush her fingers across his forehead, clearing them of hair. Her fingertips ghosted across his skin feather light, making him close his eyes slightly. “I didn’t mean to snatch your hand,” he mumbled as she lay her hand back down on the bed, watching his placid face. “It was just an automatic reaction to stop a hand coming towards my face.”

“Because you fight a lot?” the question held no accusation or anger, it held curiosity. Rae was trying not to be patronizing when she asked about it, but she was extremely curious as to what made him a troublemaker.

Harry’s eyes opened. Distracted himself with tracing the veins in Rae’s wrist, he nodded his head. “Yes, because I’ve been in many fights. Sometimes you can’t help but get in them.”

“Why?”

He shrugged slightly. “I don’t like when people disrespected. I’ve never liked people to talk down to me, and sometimes the only way to get the point across is through a fight. They say violence isn’t the answer, but when have you ever seen a war one without violence?”

“Cold war,” Rae answered immediately, cracking a smile when he rolled his eyes at her. “They did it through military positioning and negotiation.”

“Smart ass.”

“You asked the question.” They laughed for a moment before dying down. “So, what were you doing last night?”

“Drinking,” he deadpanned, even though he knew exactly what Rae meant. She gave him a serious look. When he remained quiet, Rae rolled off the bed, walking away from him. She was in just sports bra and short-shorts, Harry’s eyes focusing instantly on her perfect, small frame. “Where are you going?”

“The bathroom,” she replied with the same obvious tone he had used.

Harry sat up from the bed running his hands through his hair. Rae ignored him as she began brush her teeth. It was clear he hadn’t given her the answer she wanted and Rae wasn’t going to waste her time pushing the envelop with him; she didn’t have the patience and she didn’t want to awaken the anger inside of him just to sate her curiosity.

Rae was aware that Harry had walked across the room and was leaning against the frame of her bathroom door, watching her all the while. She rinsed with water, turning of the faucet and opening the medicine cabinet to begin flossing, something that she was only doing to annoy him more.

“Rae,” he persuaded in a singsong voice, smiling at her stubbornness. “I like it when you dig your heels in the sand and fight me.” She made a face at him that was less than pleasant. “Would you stop flossing and pay attention?”

She turned to face him, flashing her teeth in a huge grin, as if showing them off. “The only way to have these perfect teeth is to floss every day.”

“That’s fucking rubbish,” he laughed, making her even more agitated. Her face was screwed up and her brows were knit together in a frown. His amusement at her annoyance was driving her up a wall in a way that only he could. “You just want to ignore me because I didn’t answer your question.”

Rae turned her back on him again, carrying on with her morning routine. Harry stood watching her, but Rae refused to give him any attention. She knew it was immature, but she wanted him to talk to her. For some reason she wanted him to share a bit of himself with her like he had last night. But it seemed that was the last thing he wanted.

When she was done, she ducked under his arm, moving to walk out of her room. What she hadn’t expected was for him to charge her from behind, picking her up by the waist and tossing her onto her bed, making her yelp in surprise.

Rae tried to sit up, but he pegged her with a pillow, chuckling at her startled expression when she threw the pillow down. Her surprise morphed into anger, her eye twitching it with it. “What the fuck-“

“I was out drinking with friends,” he began, giving her an exasperated look. She narrowed her eyes before crossing her arms, her mouth forming a tight line as she nodded for him to continue. “And I got extremely drunk. So instead of going home with the girl that I was dancing with all night, I came here.”

Rae leaned back a little bit, shock filling her. He certainly didn’t owe it to her to come to her instead of going home with some slag, and she had not expected such an act from him. “Why?”
“Why what?” he asked, seeming displeased at her reaction.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she assured him quickly, giving him a soft smile, touching his hand. He slid it away, making her smile fall. “I meant why did you come here? If I made you feel like I expected something of you, I apologize.”

“That’s just it,” he mumbled, looking down at the bed sheets. She could tell that he didn’t want to say whatever it was he had to say while looking at her. “You didn’t make me feel like there was something going on and I had to come here. I just… I wanted to.”

Rae stared at him, not really believing her ears. Harry’s green eyes found her and he made a face. “Say something.”

“I’m not sure what to say,” she said slowly, straightening.

He smiled slightly. “You could always say, ‘wow Harry, I’m flattered that for the first time in your life you turned down sex for someone that doesn’t even fancy you.”

“But I do,” she blabbered without thinking, stopping herself short when she realized what she had just said. Harry’s head had snapped up to see her, his eyebrows shooting up. “I mean- um. Wow this is extremely strange.”

An infuriating smirk was working its way across his lips. “So you fancy me?”

“It’s not that simple,” she growled, shoving herself off of the mattress and walking towards the door. He was faster than she was though, standing in front of the doorway smiling like a triumphant fool, arms crossed. “Can you move?”

“Not until you explain why it isn’t simple.”

“Because I don’t really know you that well,” she fumed, bouncing and feeling uncomfortable. “And what you said just confuses me because I don’t understand what’s going on between us and I just- why are you laughing at me? I’m going to hit you in your bloody nose.”

“Relax, Rae. I don’t know what any of this is either because quite frankly, I don’t date. But you interest me and I like it. So how about we take it a step a time, yes?”

Rae opened her mouth and closed it. Harry Styles was standing in front of her door, mentioning dating as if it were the most casual thing in the world, which made no sense to her. He said it himself, he didn’t date, and yet he wanted to figure out how he felt about her. If someone else had told her this was happening to them, she would have laughed in their face.

“So if you don’t date, why are you willing to ruin that womanizer reputation for me?”

He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Like I said, you strike my curiosity.”

Rae sighed, shaking her head. “I have no idea what that means, but it sounds dangerous.”

He nodded. “Probably.”