seasons of love | Narry Storan AU

chapter 23.

2032

"Dad."

"Yes, Chloe?"

"Where is Harry? I want to see him."

Niall frowns at the request, heavily breathing before his hands reach his daughter's shoulders.

"He cannot see you guys now."

"Do you see him?"

He closes his eyes for a moment, trying to contain some restless tears from streaming down his face. You have to be strong, he mutters to himself without his child knowing.

"Wish I could, darling. It's not possible at the moment."

"Why?"

"Don't you have to go to sleep now? It's past 10PM."

"It's Saturday, dad." She shrugs, shaking away the hands of her father. "We don't have to sleep so soon."

"But your brother is sleeping."

"No, he's..." Chloe turns around just to find Taylor Horan totally asleep and snoring on the couch. "I told him not to sleep. Guess I lost again."

"Lost what?"

"We made a bet. We agreed that whoever slept first would have to turn off the house's lights, and he knows very well I hate the dark."

"I can turn off the lights for you, if you want so."

"That would be very nice of you, but won't you have to face the dark in my place, dad?"

"I'm past my age of being afraid of the dark, Chloe. Don't worry about me." Niall smiles, trying to comfort his daughter. "Harry was a little afraid of the dark back in the college days, actually."

"Really? I had no idea!" Chloe, then, runs to the couch, kicking her brother's butt to make him jump off the couch and, finally, wake up. "Open your eyes, dumbie! Dad's gonna tell a story."

"Will I?" The older Horan laughs at the affirmation, but once he faces his daughter's incisive eyes, he changes his mind. "Right. Yeah, I'm gonna tell about this night in which the power went off in the entire university, affecting the way Harold would sleep. Obviously we turned off the lights every night so we could sleep, but to sleep knowing there was no power in the building was a completely different story."

2015

"Horan." A young Niall hear his voice being yelled out in the room, but his eyes insist in remaining closed. "Horan, Horan, Horan, Niall fucking Horan, wake the fuck up."

"What?" The blond guy finally says something, his eyes still closed.

"Power went off", he recognizes Harry Styles's nervous voice, and sits up in his bed. "I'm panicking."

"Why the commotion?"

"There is no air conditioning working here, Niall, do you understand the magnitude of the problem?"

"No, Harold, I don't understand."

"I will die of heat here! We will, actually", Harry continues to rant his complaints to his roommate. "We need to do something. Why don't you do something?"

"Well, if the power's off, the only thing left for us to do is... lay down in bed again and sleep. It will eventually come back, Harold. Now go back to bed."

"No, I won't. I'm too nervous for this."

"Then just shut up and let me sleep."

"Talk to me until I sleep."

"Now you're needy, huh?" Niall tries to mock his newfound friend, but the tentative falls short when he realizes Harry is just walking around the room, not caring at all about the joke. "I'm sleepy, Harry. Please, just..."

"I know we're not that close. Sorry about that." Harry stops wandering around, taking some time to breathe. His eyes do not focus on Niall at all. "Go back to your sleep, then. I'll take care of myself here."

"Nah, you ruined the moment. I can't sleep anymore knowing you're that nervous out there. You could kill somebody just with this look."

Harry Styles is wearing sweatpants, a basic white T-shirt and blue socks on his feet. However, the "killing" look Niall is referring to is Harry's face, completely exhausted by the stress and kind of scaring, at some points. By looking at this version of his roommate, the young Horan man thinks of something... peculiar.

Harry looks cute even like this.

That's how he knows there's something wrong with his heart. He knows Harold has feelings for Niall himself, but he never thought of reciprocating those feelings, even though it's supposed to be a secret. However, instead of diving deeper into these thoughts, Niall decides to focus on the actual situation instead, and try to calm Harry down.

"Can I sit in your bed, Harry?" He asks in a sudden, calling Harold's attention.

"Why?"

"So you can sit here with me and talk about the fact that you're afraid of the dark."

"I'm not afraid of the dark."

"And I'm straight. Come here." Niall insists.

Harold breathes heavily, counting mentally from 1 to 10 until he lies on his bunk bed, head laying down between his mate's thighs. Niall, then, starts caressing Harry's well-hydrated hair, which is something he notices while touching every single strand of hair from him.

"Why do you fear the dark, Harry?"

"I don't. It's just... a signal of loneliness, to me."

"Why is it?"

"To me, the dark is this idea of having no one by your side. I hate to write about it. Maybe that's why I'm afraid of writing a song alone."

"Because you feel like it's the same thing as being in the dark for you?"

"Yeah. I think it's that, Niall." Harry turns his face to look at Niall's chin. "You understand me."

"It's not a hard thing to realize, actually. It makes sense, if you think for a while. The dark looks like so many metaphors for our lives. It's okay, but... eventually you know you'll have to overcome this, right?"

"I'm afraid of it."

"Now we're talking."

"Horan."

"Yeah, that's my surname. What's up?"

"I don't hate you."

"I know." Niall smirks to his... friend. A weird word to say, I guess, he thinks, but it's fitting for the moment.