beyond being friends | harrison osterfield

Part 11

Even though it's been a couple of hours since Harrison talked to Tom, your brother still hasn't talked to you. Every time you hear the floorboards creak above you, you think Tom will finally leave his room. But he never does. And it's not helping to ease your worry. You've been watching movies with Harrison all night but you couldn't really pay attention to anything.

"Let's call it a night?" Harrison asks and that's when you realise that another movie had finished without you even noticing. You nod and Harrison closes the laptop and carries it over to his desk before crawling back into bed with you.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" You ask, pulling the covers tighter around you.

"Baby, there's no way I'm letting you sleep alone tonight." Harrison gives you a small smile and pulls you closer. "Besides, now that Tom knows there really isn't a reason why we'd have to sleep in separate beds"

"You're right" You manage to give him a little smile before shuffling closer to him, you wrap your arm around his middle and rest your head on his chest. Your legs tangle with his and you take a deep breath, inhaling Harrison's scent. There's nowhere else you'd rather be right now.

You lay awake for the majority of the night, envying Harrison for being able to fall asleep within seconds. But just the fact that he's next to you makes it better. You don't even want to think about how you'd feel if you were alone right now.

At one point during the night, Harrison wakes up and notices you staring at the ceiling.

"Hey" he whispers, catching your attention, and places a kiss on your shoulder "Can't sleep?" You turn on your side to look at him and shake your head. "You're still worried about Tom, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I thought he'd come and talk to me. But he didn't. What's that mean?" You furrow your eyebrows. You've known Tom your whole life but you have no idea why he's behaving the way he is right now. Your thoughts have been spinning around this for hours.

"Try not to worry too much. He told me he doesn't have a problem with us. I'm sure he's just taking his time to sort out his thoughts so he can properly express his feelings" He moves a strand of hair out of your face. "Everything's going to be fine. Try to get some sleep, love" you sigh and snuggle up to him. Harrison slowly rubs his hand over your back, eventually lulling you to sleep.

*

The next morning Harrison has to leave early to go to a meeting, so you're alone in his room when Tom appears in the doorway.

"Hey" He's smiling at you sheepishly and waves a brown paper bag in your direction. The delightful smell of baked goods filling the air. "Can we talk? I brought your favourite" The feeling of relief washes over you and you feel tears prick at your eyes as you nod. "Hey. What's going on? Please don't cry" Tom's expression falls as he strides over to where you're standing. Within seconds he's got his arms wrapped around you, pulling you against his chest. You fist your hands into the fabric of his shirt tightly.

"I'm sorry" You press out as Tom runs his hand over your head soothingly. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but we were so scared of how you'd react and then we did the stupidest thing and didn't tell you" You pull back a bit so you can look at Tom. His eyebrows are furrowed, the little line between his brows not unlike the one that always appears on your face when you're upset. "But I swear we were going to tell you yesterday, I promise."

Tom presses his lips together for a moment, then nods. "I know, Y/N. It was wrong of me to freak out on you like that. But I was caught off guard. There was not a second where I thought the two of you would ever be more than friends. Yes, I gave Harrison the talk about not messing with my sister years ago. Which big brother doesn't? But I never actually thought..." He shakes his head "It's a little weird, to be honest. To think of the two of you like that." He pulls a face and you feel your cheeks heat. "But I just want you to be happy. And if Harrison is the one making you happy, who am I to be against that?" Tom looks at you intently "He does make you happy, right?"

You nod your head quickly "He does"

"Good. That's what matters to me. That you're happy" He shrugs his shoulders. "But it hurt that you didn't tell me. That you didn't trust me enough to tell me" His brows furrow again as he looks off to the side.

"It's not that we didn't trust you. We didn't know how you'd react. We didn't want to hurt you. We were waiting for the perfect moment but by doing that we messed up completely and you ended up finding out in the worst way. I'm sorry"

"I know it wasn't your intention. And it's definitely going to take a while to get used to this new dynamic between the two of you, but I want you to know that I'm supportive of your guys a hundred percent"

"Thank you, Tom" it feels like a heavy weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you smile at your brother.

"C'mere" He pulls you closer again, wrapping his arms around you as tightly as he can without hurting you. "You're my little sister and I will always look out for you. If he does anything to hurt you, you let me know and I'll kick his arse" He says the words lightheartedly as if he's joking. But you both know he's not. You doubt that Harrison will do anything of the sort, though. Yes, your relationship won't always be sunshine and rainbows, but you're open and honest with each other. You both always express your feelings, if you hadn't this situation would be much more of a mess than it is right now. You're confident that you'll get through whatever problems you'll have in the future. And to know that you'll have Tom there to support both of you means the world.

"You said something about bringing my favourite" you finally say "Can I have that now? I'm hungry" You feel Tom's chest rumble with a laugh before he pulls away and picks up the brown paper bag that he'd put down on Harrison's desk earlier.

"But don't tell Harry, because I didn't bring any for him"

***

When Harrison comes back home from his meeting, you're in the living room watching a movie with Tom. You spent the time properly catching up with each other and you ended up telling him how you and Harrison ended up together and the way that Sam found out. Everything was almost back to normal. And it felt a little bit too good to be true. But you have yet to experience how Tom will behave with you and Harrison being together when he's around.

"Hey, guys" Harrison stands in the doorway, gauging the situation. Giving him a smile, you nod your head and you can see the relieved sigh Harrison lets out before he enters the room.

After Tom greets him, Harrison slowly, almost warily, joins you on the couch. You just stare at each other questioningly. This is weird. You don't know how to act around each other when someone else is around, let alone Tom. You've been keeping your relationship secret for months. Granted, you weren't around people a lot, but except for that one time at the pub with Sam, you kept your distance from each other. Now that Tom knew, there was no reason to do that anymore. But wouldn't it also be weird to just be all lovey-dovey with your brother around?

"For fucks sake just kiss her already, mate" Tom huffs making both of you laugh before Harrison leans in and plants a soft kiss on your lips. He then wraps his arm around your shoulders leaning back against the sofa.

"Looks like everything turned out fine?" He whispers in your ear.

You can't hide the smile on your face and nod "Yeah," you rest your head on his shoulder and turn your attention back to the movie. It feels good to have him close without being scared of the consequences. You don't have to hide anymore, and you don't have to pretend that you don't want to reach for his hands or kiss him for no reason. You can just do that.

You tilt your head to look up at Harrison and when he looks at you, you purse your lips and after giving you a goofy smile, Harrison leans down to kiss you.

You're about to pull him into another when Tom says, "Okay. I'm definitely going to have to get used to this"