If It Ain't Broke

“I can’t believe someone gets paid to write this rubbish,” Darcy scoffs, tossing the paper to the floor angrily before kicking it away with her foot. It was an old edition that had been lying around the Radio One office for a while before Darcy had come across it and she couldn’t help but to bring it home with her in morbid fascination. “It’s bloody ridiculous, they make me sound prehistoric! Like I’m some ancient dinosaur about to snap Harry up with my razor sharp teeth!”

Nick, from where he’s curled up against Darcy’s side, laughs loudly at this. “That really is some brilliant imagery, there. Dinosaur, that’s good.”

Darcy glowers at her friend. “Not the words of comfort I was looking for, Grimshaw. And please, if I’m considered a dinosaur then what the heck does that make you, hmm?”

“I refuse to dignify that with a response,” Nick sniffs. “You know that’s only going to be the first of many, many articles, right? Especially once the two of you make a proper statement about being together.”

Darcy sighs, giving a resigned nod. “I suppose I knew what I was getting into, I guess. It’s just weird having a bunch of strangers knowing so much about me, it’s freaky.”

“You’re kidding right? Yesterday you spent the better half of ten minutes telling the nation about your toilet paper preferences, going into detail about ply and design,” Nick snorts, giving Darcy an amused look.

“You know what I mean, you wanker!”

Nick grins but doesn’t say anything more, the two of them returning their focus to the Midsomer Murders marathon they’d been watching. Neither of them were all that invested in it but they’d already exhausted every other viable television option, and it’s either this or watching the Cheryl Cole documentary for the second time in a week.

“Chocolate me?” Darcy asks, listening as Nick snaps off a square of chocolate and places it in her mouth before breaking off a piece for himself and devouring it.

They were both moping, they knew as much as they lay together under a blanket surrounded by sweet wrappers, but both of them were missing their boyfriends who were worlds away and weren’t really sure how to deal with it – this seemed to be the way to go. It’s a Friday night, neither of them have any obligations for the weekend, and yet the thought of going out made them both cringe.

“Do you think monogamy has made us boring?” Darcy questions after a moment, because when she comes to think of it, a few months ago, neither of them would be content to just hibernate a perfectly good Friday night away.

Nick ponders this for a moment. “Maybe. I don’t know. I mean, I’m wearing fat pants and licking chocolate smears from the corners of my mouth when I know of three perfectly good parties going on tonight with incredibly exciting and interesting people attending and yet I don’t care. Plus Nigella’s gonna be on in a half hour, can’t miss that.”

Darcy groans loudly. “Oh my god, we are, we’re boring now. How did we let this happen?”

“I blame the government. And that stupid boy band,” Nick suggests, shaking his fist lazily.

Darcy agrees but says nothing more on the matter, feeling too warm and content pressed up against Nick’s side under the knitted blanket, her belly full with warm tea, and yet, she doesn’t feel completely okay, there’s something missing in this equation.

It’s been a week since Darcy woke, somewhere around the four AM mark, to the loud thump of her boyfriend falling to the floor in the early morning darkness after wrestling to fight his trousers on. She’d laughed sleepily, rushed with affection, until she remembered exactly why Harry was up so very early and fighting his way into acceptable clothing. It wasn’t the first time he’d left her flat to go attend his popstar duties, but it was the first time since they’d gotten together properly and if Darcy was to be completely honest, she’d spent the better half of the month being blissfully ignorant of the fact that she couldn’t keep Harry to herself forever. Harry had noticed the sour look on her face, a sleepy smile crossing his features as he returned to the bed to lean across and kiss her, soft and sweet, and remind her it wouldn’t be for long. She’d curled up against him, wanting this for just a little bit longer and she could feel herself missing him before he’d even really gone.

It had frightened her, really. Harry had never meant to be this special to her, he was never meant to mean so much, and yet she’d been clinging to him, trying to remember the weight of his arms around her like he’s the only thing she’s got left. She remembered first meeting the younger boy and there had been no way she would have ever thought he’d take up this much space in her life, after such a short amount of time being ‘officially’ together. But with Harry, things came effortlessly and she felt like she’d never been a day without him. It was a crushing, suffocating thought for someone like Darcy, but it was the truth she couldn’t deny. Harry was never meant to be something she could miss, something she could lose, but there she was, wrapped around him tight in a desperate attempt to steal a few more moments with him. Later, when he picked up his suitcase and kissed her goodbye, she wondered if it would get easier over time, always having to watch him go.

“I miss my idiot boyfriend,” Darcy admits finally, coming back to the present and hiding her face in Nick’s shoulder so she doesn’t have to see the shit eating grin he always adopts every time Darcy says anything even remotely relating to the fact that her boyfriend is Harry Styles and that she’s kind of ridiculously fond of him.

But rather than anything snarky, Nick gives a little nod. “Me too,” he comments quietly, his voice sad.

Darcy’s not sure when it happened but this has become their life now, becoming boring house bodies pining over their boy band boyfriends who were off gallivanting the world and being important and famous. She almost wants to laugh at how ridiculous and unreal this situation is, if she wasn’t so busy missing Harry like mad, so she snuggles closer to Nick and turns the telly up louder, reminding herself it wouldn’t be long until he’d be home again.