Burn

“I’m grabbing myself a drink,” Rae announced, pulling herself up from the couch. Harry was in front of the television, sitting on his floor and flipping through his wide collection of movies. He turned to look at her, nodding before turning back to what he was doing, trying to make a decision. “Want anything?”

“A water will suffice.”

Rae wanted to tease him for his word choice, but she simply smiled and shook her head at him as she wandered towards where she knew the kitchen was. His kitchen was large, larger than she would have expected and covered in polished, marble countertops. It was a kitchen her mother would have loved to cook in, with all the high tech things and clean spaces.

Glancing around, she saw how clean everything was, just furthering her amusement that Harry was such a clean person. She would not have pegged him as someone who had an OCD problem, though she had to admit in a strange way it was sort of endearing.

Padding over to the fridge, her footsteps against the tile the only sound, she opened it, scanning it’s contents. Her eyes fell on a very large bottle of Vodka in the fridge, unopened. Her fingers drummed on the stainless steal, wondering if she was actually going to do what she wanted to do.

Rae licked her lips. She wanted so badly to pour out the bottle in the fridge, to empty it down the drain. She also did not want to be a psycho by going through his things and emptying them. Instead of emptying it, Rae opted for keeping track that it was unopened, and she would evaluate it again as soon as she could.

It wasn’t that she wanted Harry to stop drinking forever. But she knew that the first step to his anger problem was drinking to drink less frequent and less amounts of alcohol. Of course, she was in no position to define what an alcoholic was, but she was hoping that he wasn’t the type that could not go without drinking.

Grabbing two bottles of water from the fridge, she popped back into the living room. Harry was staring at her as she entered, watching her as if he had expected something else. A smile cracked on his face and he looked at the ground smiling, shaking his head.

“What?” she questioned, handing him the water bottle.

He took it from her, still smiling at her like she had done something right. “You didn’t touch the bottle.”

Rae stayed her hand in confusion. Had he been testing her when she had been doing the same? Were they both really that interested to see how they would react to something as simple as a bloody bottle of alcohol. “No, I didn’t. Why are you smiling like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas?”

Harry crossed his arms over his chest, biting the side of his lip as he continued to chuckle. Rae was still confused. “I left it in there to see if you would go all Banner turns into the Hulk on me when you saw it. But you left it in there. Why?”

The girl shook her head, damp hair swaying as she did so. They were both so stupid, sometimes. “Because I wanted to see how much of it you would drink.”

He barked out a laugh, unscrewing the cap of his water and taking a sip. Rae was strangely jealous of the water bottle. “We’re sort of idiots, aren’t we?”

“A bit,” she admitted, sort of embarrassed. She scratched the back of her neck, kicking the floor slightly. She felt like an idiot. “Sorry…”

A laugh escaped his pink lips as he walked towards her, setting the water on the couch as he did so. Harry's eyes moved over her small frame and she looked up at him, marveling out he could make her seem so small. But he didn’t make her feel small. He made her feel special, when he looked at her the way he was in that moment.

Reaching his hand up, he brushed his fingers across her face, taking her face in his hands and tilting her face to look at him. Amusement was still etched across his beautiful features. She loved how he looked when he was amused. “Don’t be sorry. I think it’s cute, in a weird way.”

“You’re sort of weird.”

“Hmm.”

Rae’s heart skipped a beat as Harry brought his lips down to hers, making her breath in deeply. His lips were soft, softer than she thought they would be and she found that her entire body was on fire suddenly, as if his very presence consumed her. Standing on her toes, she kissed him back fiercely, surprising him.

The kiss deepened quickly and Rae found her hands around his neck, fingers gently pulling at the curls on the nap of his neck. It felt like lava was running through her veins, burning her all over. But it was a pleasant burn, one that she had never felt in her entire life. Harry’s kiss set her on fire, it gave her life.

Breaking apart, they were both breathing heavily. Rae set her head on Harry’s chest, feeling this heart thudding through the shirt. Her breath was short and she knew that if her hands were secured around his neck, they would have been trembling. Never before had a kiss taken so much out of her.

Hand’s on her fast, Harry’s fingers traced a pattern as they stood their, locked in each other’s arms. “Strange,” he murmured to himself. Rae did not remove her head from his chest, but made a questioning sound. “I’ve never had a kiss like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like… fire.”

“It’s a compliment, right?”

A laugh rumbled through him, shaking her as well. His laugh felt deep and real. It made Rae's heart flutter. In her mind, she thought that it sounded crazy that just his laugh could make her swim with affection. In fact, everything about Harry was beginning to make her feel like she was a bit crazy.

Stepping back from him, She looked up. He was watching her intently, green eyes taking in her image. It was like they were both trying to figure one another out. After a few weeks of spending time together, you would have thought that they would have understood one another, and yet she felt like Harry was a constant anomaly to her, one that she would never really understand. And Rae liked that.

“What’re you thinking?” he murmured, tilting his head to the side. His voice was quiet, almost as if he had asked the question on autopilot. “I can never tell.”

“I was thinking that I don’t understand you. Ever.”

The corner of his lips pulled in a smile as he offered his hand to her. “I don’t quite understand myself for the most part, either.”

*

The pair of teens sat on the couch for the rest of the night, watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Rae quickly learned that it was one of Harry’s movies, and she could not help but die at that. She remembered very clearly how he had quoted the movie the first night she had met him, and she was really amazed at how he had alluded the movie through the drunk stupor he had been in. Back then, she would never have given him credit for being so witty. Now, she knew better than that.

It was nice, to sit on the couch, curled into Harry’s side. His arm was around her, pulling her in close and she could here the constant rise and fall of his chest as she lay her head on his shoulder, the sound like a very soft, very beautiful litany. She wondered if her lung function sounded that amazing. Silently she cursed herself for being creepy again.

When the movie completed, Rae yawned, stretching and sitting up. Harry stretched as well, removing his arm from around her. The house instantly felt colder with his arm gone, and the sound of the movie credits was not as appealing as the sound of his breathing.

Rubbing her face and checking her watch for the time, she saw that it was one in the morning. Just that simple fact showered her in exhaustion making her eyes droop and her movements slower as she began to stand from the couch, fishing Harry’s pockets for her phone.

“Where do you think you’re going?” his deep voice made her jump. She hadn’t even heard him stand. He was looking at her with his eyebrows raised, his expression sleepy. “I’m not driving you all the way home. I’m tired.”

Rae stared. “Is that you telling me to walk? A fat joke?”

“What? No, stop being stupid. It means you’re sleeping here.”

She looked around, ignoring the flip that went on inside of her chest. It was obvious her organs were not going to be doing anything rationally around his boy. Maybe she should have her father check her. “Here as in.. your house?”

“Yes.”

“Inside?”

“Yup.”

“In a room?”

“Uh huh.”

“But-"

“You don’t even have to stay in the same room as me, Rae,” he interrupted giving her a strange look. He turned around and walked away, turning off the TV as he did so. It took her a split second to realize that she had hurt his feelings. He took her hesitation as her not wanting to stay in the house, not as her feeling overwhelmed that he had suggested it. “Don’t worry I-"

“What if I want to?” Her voice stopped him and he turned over his shoulder, mid-process of putting away his movie. It seemed his OCD was paused at her statement, and she felt her cheeks tint. Lifting her chin higher she said, “I mean, I don’t want you to have to set up another room, or anything.”

Harry finished putting away the DVD, straightening and face her with a small, smug, smirk on his lips. She narrowed her eyes at him and gave him a condescending look. “You just want to sleep with me, I knew it.”

“Styles, if I wanted to sleep with you, I would have the first night you said you could see up my dress.”

“Ahh,” he intoned fondly, walking over to her and cracking an even bigger smile. “Good memories.” When she continue to look at him seriously, her rolled his eyes, gesturing for her to go up the steps. “I promise that I will not touch you, or try and make glorious love to you while you sleep. I cannot however, promise that I won’t dreaming about doing things with you that-"

“Will not happen, surely.”

Rae could sense the cheeky smile as she walked up the stairs. Harry flicked off the light down stairs, making Rae run up even faster. She hated being on dark stairs, always sure that some insane dark bat creature would pop up and take her for a prisoner. It was an insane, but real fear.

Since she had never been to the second floor of his home, Rae let Harry take the lead. He walked down the hall, passing a few closed doors until he reached the last one, opening the door and flicking on the light to what she assumed was his bedroom. She followed him in, not sure what she expected.

The room was moderately simple. A book shelf conspicuously clean was placed at the far side of the room next to the window and window seat. She said nothing, but she knew that he must read their often; she could picture it in her minds eye. His room was a mixture of navy and white, which some how fit him very well.

As the rest of the house, his room was very clean. Old vinyl records hung on the wall, but from where she stood in the door frame, she could not read them. He also had a large TV and gaming systems that she could not name. It was a simple room for a boy, so why did she feel like he had a sacrificial alter and coffin somewhere?

“You know, they say a bed is more comfortable to sleep in than a door frame.” Rae glared, marching into the room and throwing herself across the expanse of the bed, spreading out like a starfish. He laughed shortly once. “Well, I can admit that I have had a girl do that before.”

“What? Swan dive into the bed?”

“Yes… but a little less graceful. And she had less on.”

“Did you lure her with Pirates of the Caribbean too?”

"No, just a lot of dirty martinis."

"The irony in that is disgusting."

Reaching out to her, Harry rolled her over, making her grunt as he did so. Pulling back the covers, he peeled off his shirt, making her sit erect, staring at him. It was difficult not to stared at the toned muscles beneath the shirt, especially if they were about to be laying next to her all night.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, suddenly wary. He gave her a look and she got up, pulling the covers back on her side of the bed with indifference. “Fine, but don’t expect me to return the favor.”

“In due time, love.”

Ignoring his comments, Rae slid into the bed, marveling at how soft it was. She could definitely get used to this idea. Harry walked over to the light and Rae watched the way his back muscles stretched and contorted as he did. Her admiration was cut short when he flicked off the light and shut the door, bathing them in darkness.

The only sign that Rae had that Harry was in the room was when the bed shifted on the other side as he climbed in. The space in between them became glaringly obvious as silence fell between them. Rae bit her lip, trying to will away the awkward that was flowing between them.

Just as she thought she was going to scream from the weird vibe, Harry asked, “Are you cold?”

She hadn’t realized she was cold until he asked. She nodded her head but then remembered he couldn’t see her. “Yeah, a bit.”

The bed shifted and Harry’s hand found hers, pulling her body towards him. Rae found herself tucked into his side, feeling how hot his skin was underneath the cover. The contact of his skin set her on fire again, and suddenly she felt too hot, but she didn’t move. Setting her head on his chest, she heard the song of his breath again, calming her jittery nerves about being this close to him.

Breathing in deeply, she shut her eyes. The feeling of happiness that she was met with at this gesture was incredible and unexpected. “Goodnight, Harry.”

His lips ghosted across the skin on her forehead. “Goodnight, Rae.”