Best Friends Means...

I straightened out my dress as Harry pulled out my chair for me, and I sat down. He situated himself as the waiter handed our menus to us and politely walked away.

"You look really lovely tonight." Harry peeked over his menu and winked at me. I rolled my eyes and covered my blushing face with the menu as I decided on what type of pasta I wanted.

"I think I'll just get their spaghetti..." I said, closing the menu and placing it down, not really feeling adventurous tonight.

"I bring you to a nice Italian place and you're going to order spaghetti?!"

"You should know better! Spaghetti is my favorite." I pouted and the waiter came by to take our drink orders, but we went ahead and ordered our meal too. "You look quite handsome yourself tonight, Haz."

"Only wore my best for the best." He grinned and his dimples came out from hiding, the sight of them causing a feeling in the pit of my stomach. "How was work? Other than you-know-who?"

"He's not Voldemort..."

I started, but Harry interrupted. "No, he's not. He didn't try killing you... Yet."

"Harry, he's not crazy." Harry raised his eyebrow as he took a sip of his water the waiter had brought to the table. "Not that crazy, at least. Anyway, it was fine. Training with the new girl Chelsea was okay, I guess. She's a quick learner. She said she knows a girl who knows Louis and said that Louis blew her off when he became famous, so she assumed you were the same."

"Aw, how cute! You defended my honor."

"Not exactly." His face fell, "But I did tell her you're not like that. I think she was skeptical I really knew you, until Brit came in and told me you were waiting on me outside."

"That shows her. How old is she?"

"I think she's 19. She's a really sweet girl, she's going to be a good employee. She'll do fine watching over the store when we go to fashion week." I took a sip of my water but Harry just stared at me with wide eyes. "What?"

"You're going to fashion week?" He spoke slowly and quietly.

"Of course. I invited Gemma to come along too, she seemed really interested in coming along just to help pick out some new clothes for the store."

"You're going to fashion week?! And you invited my sister but not me?!" He looked highly upset with me, and it was making me feel terrible.

"Haz, I'm sorry? We talked about it the other night at the pub and her face lit up when I said something about it. I didn't know you'd be so offended."

"I'm only kidding, I'm already going- I go every year. So I guess that means we can all go together!?"

"I guess so." I shrugged, taking a piece of bread from the basket. I played with the piece before I put it in my mouth, trying to think of how to bring up the topic I had been worried about all day. "How'd the meeting go today?"

"It wasn't bad. PR was pissed I didn't ask for permission to break everything off with her and basically ending all things last night. Kendall was a bloody wreck, but when hasn't she been? It runs in her blood."

"But all of that you said to Gemma about her family?"

"Babe, I told you I was sick of lying. I had to keep up this image around everyone that I was on good terms with them, and I didn't want the wrong person to overhear that I was miserable. All they were doing was nagging me to be on the show. I know all they wanted me for was more views, and to help out with Kendall getting more publicity for her launch."

"So you're not in any trouble?" I asked, eating another piece off the bread roll.

"A little bit, but it's not like I'm grounded. I'm just supposed to lay low for a while. By fashion week, I'll be good to go. It's mostly just everyone is upset that I ended it so suddenly, you know? They had no idea I'd do something like that. But I just couldn't handle it anymore. I wasn't happy, and it wasn't worth it to me. It really never was, I was just doing what they told me to do. Like always. I almost feel like PR just kind of uses me like that, you know? To get us more attention. It's really starting to bother me." Harry's face was falling a little more with every word he spoke.

"Why don't you say something?"

"Because there are way too many people to even attempt to fight about it."

"You wouldn't be fighting, just discussing."

"No, it would end up turning into a fight. I feel sure. They think I'm this frail little boy in a boy band who won't stand up to any authority because I'm so nice and respectful, but they have no idea what I could do. They don't realize all the power I can hang over their heads if something happens, or were to happen." I didn't know what to say, Harry was starting to sound scary almost. Like he was losing his mind. "But don't worry, I'd never do that." His cheshire cat grin returned to his face and he reached across the table to grab my hand and kiss the back of it. "Thanks for always being there to listen to me."

"You don't have to thank me, Harry. That's what best friends do." I noticed his face fell a little but he forced his smile to stay on his face, and returned my hand to its resting spot on the table. "Sorry if I-"

"No, no. It's fine. Wanna go walk after we eat? My place is really only a 10 minute walk from here, you can just stay there if you'd like. Do you have work in the morning?" I knew his place was only 10 minutes away from here, we had walked here after he took me back home when I got off work. He needed to change, so we went by his place, then walked to the restaurant. I could tell he was nervous about asking me to stay.

"That sounds fine to me. No, but I do have to go in and I close. Chelsea has to work closing tomorrow too, and I don't trust Brit to teach her the right way to close the store. She'll just teach her the quick way."

Harry chuckled and we continued light conversation until the waiter brought us our food. "So, what do you want to do with your life? Do you think you'll go back to uni?"

"Honestly, probably not. I'll just marry a rich old man and keep running the store with Kaitlin..." I said jokingly, but Harry wasn't laughing. "Kidding. But the shop is doing really well, I'm making a fine living off of it and saving up enough. I don't really have a long term plan. I love working with fashion and I'm making enough money so why would I do anything different?"

"Does it make you happy?" Harry looked up from cutting his meatballs. The jerk had copied me after making fun of my order.

"Yeah, really happy. Job-wise, I couldn't be any more happy."

"Well, that's what matters, isn't it?" I nodded, and we ate the rest of our meal in silence. Harry paid for dinner, I offered but I didn't fight him on it. It was his idea, after all.

"Thanks for dinner, that was really delicious." I said as we walked out of the restaurant and turned to the left to walk the quiet streets of London.

"No problem. Don't thank me, that's what best friends are for." Harry said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and squeezing it. "I've missed you so unbelievably much." He kept his arm around me as we continued to walk, and I stuck my hands in the pockets of my blazer, locking his arm into my side.

"I've missed you a lot too."

"Grimmy wants me to come onto the show tomorrow morning. You wanna come with me? If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"I don't have anything else to wear but this... Kaitlin's coming out tonight so let me see if she can run me by some clothes when we get back to your house?"

"Sounds good." I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Kaitlin, and kept a hold on it until I felt it vibrate again.

I'll be leaving the house in about 5 minutes. I'll let you know when I'm there!

I sent her Harry's address as we decided to make our way back to his house. He let me in the door and I walked into the silent flat and just looked around. Harry fixed himself a glass of water and offered me one, but I declined. I took my shoes off and placed them by the door, not wanting to be bothered by their loud clunking as I inspected Harry's flat under his gaze. He had hung multiple, simple paintings all over the light grey walls. His couch was black, and the beautiful hardwood floors were of a lighter wood color. He, or whoever, had done a wonderful job picking out the interior design of this place. I was a sucker for clean lines and a simple color palette.

I felt Harry's warm body behind me and the next thing I knew he had his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me to him. His head rested on my shoulder as he spoke barely above a whisper. "Your phone's going off, love."

I silenced the butterflies that were going wild, trying not to let Harry know the affect he had on me. I figured he knew by the smirk he had on his face, though. I walked back over to my bag that had my phone and answered to an unknown number. "Hello?"

"Come outside." It was Kaitlin but I didn't understand why she was calling from a strange number. I told Harry I'd be back, and walked outside. "Here's some clothes!" She handed me a small bag that felt heavy enough to contain an outfit for tomorrow. "This is Gavin. I called from his phone, mine died." She threw a wink at me, and I knew the only reason she did that was so I'd have his number in case anything were to happen.

"Nice to meet you!" I said, extending my hand out to greet him. "You two have fun tonight." I said, awkwardly standing facing the two.

"No, you two have fun tonight." Kaitlin threw me a wink and I went back into Harry's flat. He was nowhere to be seen downstairs so I climbed the wooden stairs to the second story. I saw a door slightly ajar and pushed it open, only to find Harry changing. I stood there for a second and admired him before I realized how creepy I was actually being. "Oops, sorry. I'll just-"

"I've seen you there in the mirror reflection the whole time. You can stay and admire if you like." He winked at me again as he went into the bathroom and closed the door, I figured he would be in there for a while.

I decided to rummage through his drawers for a pair of pants to wear tonight and a t-shirt, seeing as Kaitlin hadn't packed me anything for pajamas. I settled on a pair of grey sweat pants and one of his black t-shirts that felt as soft as a cloud. I checked and saw that the bathroom door was still shut and decided to start changing with my back facing the door. After I took my tights off, I reached to the back of my dress to unzip my dress only to be met with a pair of hands. I jumped at the contact, but dropped my hands as I let him help me out of my dress. I didn't turn to face Harry as I dressed in his clothes, but I knew he was watching my every move.

"When you're embarrassed, your bum blushes red." Harry chuckled out as I turned to face a still shirtless him.

"And that is one thing I never knew about myself, nor did I ever want to know. Thanks for that." I could feel my cheeks on my face blushing to a red color as Harry pulled me into a hug.

"I'll add that to the list of your endearing qualities." I sighed into his warm, bare chest and inhaled his musky scent. "Sure, you can borrow some of my clothes."

"You'll probably never get this shirt back, by the way."

"It's okay, I have about ten of them."

"And they're all this soft?" I asked, tracing a pattern with my fingers on his back as we stayed in our embrace.

"Yep." He started copying me, tracing circles on my lower back with his right hand. Suddenly I felt him lifting the back of my shirt up to trace the circles on my skin. Chill bumps started rising on my skin with every soft motion of his finger. He placed a kiss on the top of my head, and I melted into his body. "Can I say something?" I nodded quietly, and I could hear his heart beating harder in his chest. "This feels right."

"What?"

"This. Standing here with you. In my room. With you in my clothes." I hummed in agreement, nudging into his chest.

"But it's complicated."

"Why is it so complicated?" His hand stopped, and returned to resting on the outside of my shirt. I sighed at the loss of contact.

"Because we're such good friends, and I don't want to fuck that up."

"That's bullshit, El." Harry spoke with no emotion. No anger, no hurt, no nothing. "I care about you more than anyone on this earth. I would treat you like gold and you know it."

"What about tour, Harry? What about when you go away for a year at a time?"

"You went three years without seeing me and that didn't seem to bother you."

My heart dropped at his words and I took step back, breaking up the hug. "Didn't bother me, Harry? Do you seem to forget what happened while you were gone for three years? I had to learn to rely on something other than you. I had to learn to rely on a substance that would always be there for me, because believe it or not, you weren't always there for me. You were either too busy with an interview, or a photo shoot, or a concert, or a meeting. But I was always there for you. Anytime I saw your name pop up on my phone, I answered for you. I didn't care if it was 4 o'clock in the morning here and I had to be up in an hour. I always talked to you, no matter what. I always was there to help you with your problems, but you weren't always there to help me with mine. And that's fine, I eventually learned how to cope with them myself. And I will be fine, coping with them myself." By the end of it, my voice had reached a yell.

"No you won't be fine. Because that's not a healthy way to live." Harry spoke calmly, but his jaw was clenched, showing that he was holding back. "You know why I didn't help you? Because you never told me anything was wrong, Elle. You could have told me that you needed help, or that you needed to see me. Or that you just wanted to talk on the phone. I would have called you, I would have stopped the world to come see you if I would have known you needed help so badly."

"That's why I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to interrupt anything-"

"STOP SAYING THAT!" Harry stepped closer to me, backing me up against his bedroom wall. "You wouldn't have interrupted a goddamn thing for me. I would do anything to keep you safe, El. To make sure you're alright. Why don't you understand that?" I didn't say anything, I looked around the room to avoid his gaze. He placed his finger under my chin and brought my face up to look at his. "Look at me and answer that question. I'm standing here, pouring my heart out to you, giving you everything I can. Why won't you accept it? Just give us a try. I'm begging you. I promise you that I'll treat you right, princess."

My heart melted at his words as I opened my mouth to speak, but his lips crashed on mine before I could speak. I didn't kiss back at first, but Harry grabbed the sides of my face, pulling me closer to him and kissing my dead lips as hard as he could. I slowly started to kiss back and he slowed down the kiss. After a few seconds, he pulled back to look at me. He was examining my emotionless face as I stared back.

"Because I'm scared, Harry." I clung my body to his, tucking my head into the crook of his neck. "I'm scared because I know how strong my feelings are for you. There won't be any giving us a try. I know how hard I'm going to fall for you, and I know I'm going to end up heart broken."

"You won't end up heart broken. I never want to let go of you." Harry squeezed me hard and placed another kiss on top of my head after we stood in a comfortable silence for a few seconds. "Let's get in bed." I nodded and crawled into his fluffy bed, tucking myself in under the sheets. Harry took his pants off to be left in only his boxers, shut off the lights, then crawled into bed beside me. I laid on my side, wrapping an arm around Harry's bare chest. From what I could see thanks to the moonlight shining through his window, I started to trace the tattoos on his chest. "You really have no idea how much you mean to me, Elle. Every night I was on the phone with you telling you about my problems, I wish I had been telling you those problems in person. I wanted to have you in my bed, cuddled up to me like this. Telling me that everything would be alright, and kissing me to sleep." I leaned upwards and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek and I could hear his smile forming. "And the few times you called me with problems, you have no idea how badly I wanted to be holding you and calming you down to go to sleep. You've never been treated like you deserve. I know you better than anyone else, and I know what you need. And I can give that to you if you give me a chance."

"Confident, aren't you, Styles?"

"I know what I want." Harry flipped his body on his side, smirking. "I know that you have three freckles on the back of your neck that make a lopsided triangle. I know that you hate your beautiful dark brown eyes more than any of your other facial features. I know that you tell people you wear a size smaller in jeans than you actually do. I know that your toenails are always polished some shade of pink. I know that you pop your ankles when you're nervous. I know that you're scared to let anyone in, because the only other person who knew this much about you was your father. I know that-"

I stopped Harry's speech with a kiss. I pushed him over on his back and straddled his almost bare waist. He placed his hands on my hips with a light grip that kept tightening as the kiss deepened. He pulled back after a few moments and stopped.

"Why'd you stop?" I asked, tilting my head to the side and kissing his cheek.

"Because." Harry reached his hand up and touched my cheek, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. "I've wanted you for so long, and for the first time you're making me feel like you want me too."

I rested my forehead on his and touched my nose to his. "Haz, honestly, I've always been scared of liking you. That's why I never entertained the idea in my head. I never once thought of kissing you, or having a crush on you, until you came back."

"Because that's just what I wanted to hear."

"No, no. I didn't mean like that. Not because you're famous. You're still my same Harry." I cupped my hands around his face. "You're just... I don't know. All of these feelings I've had for you shoved into the back of my head are finally coming out."

"By all means, keep them coming, princess." Harry squeezed my hips and smiled, and I leaned down to kiss him. His hands traveled up my back, under my shirt. I kissed the side of his neck, exploring, trying to find a spot that I could get the reaction I wanted out of him. I was the queen (or princess, what-have-you) of finding guys "spots" really quickly. After what seemed like one hundred kisses all over Harry's neck, I traveled upwards to his jaw, on the underside of his chin and placed a kiss that would have lined up perfectly with his dimples. His head jerked back and he let out a quieted groan. I trailed kisses from that spot to his ear and gently bit down on his ear lobe.

"What was that you said? I couldn't quite understand. Sounded like you were groaning." I teased, whispering into his ear as seductively as I could. Harry mumbled out an "mmm" in response, but that's all he could say. I glanced at his face but his eyes were closed as I placed kisses all over his protruding jaw line and veiny neck.

"God, you're amazing and you're just kissing my neck." I ventured down his neck, and placed kisses on his collarbones. I took the skin between my teeth and pulled back, sucking and making sure I'd leave a mark for in the morning. I speckled these love bites all over his chest, but he didn't stop me one time. "Get these off." Harry pulled my shirt over my head in one quick movement and started messing with the pants I had borrowed from him. I sat back and slid the pants off of my body and resumed my position straddling him, hovering over his body. "Come here, you." Harry flipped the two of us over before I knew it, and he was now hovering over me.

He started placing sweet kisses on my lips, pecking at them, then looking at my face for a reaction. I let my lips form into a small smile, but I wanted more from Harry. Now that I had had some of him, I wanted it all, but I didn't want to take it too fast. But honestly, was it really too fast? We had been friends forever. It's not like we needed to take time to learn each other. We already knew everything about each other. But what we were learning tonight was something completely new. I was learning about the freckles on his chest that I didn't know were there. The moles on his back I could feel when I dragged my nails down his back to encourage the kisses he was placing on my chest, near the edges of my bra.

"Fuck, you're thinking too much." Harry woke me out of the trance I was in. "Just enjoy this, you just quit squirming for a good minute."

"I wasn't squirming." Harry placed a kiss in the crook of my neck and shoulder, and I started squirming under his grasp as I felt the smirk on his face against my warm skin. "Continue." I giggled as I felt his hand traveling up my side to grasp at my bra. He was taking his time, touching me like I was a porcelain doll. Touching me like I had never been touched before. I felt like he was examining every inch of my body and although it was making me self conscious, it was making me feel better than I've ever felt. Harry's large hand was kneading at my chest as he continued licking, sucking, and biting at my neck and earlobes. He was driving me insane and I needed some sort of release.

I started rolling my hips upwards to try to feel his hips, but he was hovering a little too high. I hooked my right leg up around his and made him collapse on top of me, letting me feel how hard he was. The feeling of Harry's full body, all toned and warm, against mine was one of the best feelings in the world. I started back rolling my hips and Harry joined in with me, grinding against me, letting out little groans of satisfaction when we'd collide at the right spots.

"We should go to bed." Harry mumbled into my neck. "We've got to be up in three hours to be at the radio station by 6."

"You're fucking kidding me right now?"

"No, I'm literally about to fall asleep." He was telling the truth, his voice was thick with sleep. He sounded so husky, and so... sexy. A word that I would have never thought about Harry six months ago. I let out a deep sigh as Harry climbed off of me and went into the bathroom. "I'm going to brush my teeth then we can just go to bed."

I laid over on my side, gazing outside the window of Harry's room. I was quickly awoken by Harry's hand snaking around my waist. "Sorry that took a few minutes."

"What do you mean?"

"Had some business to take care of."

"Oh, it's fine. I had already fallen asleep... Night, Haz." I yawned, and settled my body back against his.

"Night, princess." I smiled at the nickname as I drifted back into my light slumber. "Oh, and one more thing?"

"Mmm?" I asked without opening my eyes.

Harry's voice dropped, becoming deeper than I had ever heard of it. I could feel him breathing in my ear. "I was thinking of you."

My face rose to what I'm sure was a deep shade of crimson red as I realized what Harry meant when he said "business" a few moments earlier.