The Walking Dead (One Direction)

Chapter 12

Julia's POV:

I wake up feeling utterly safe and at ease in Harry's strong embrace. He's snoring slightly, his hot breath fanning across the side of my face. 

I don't want to wake him up and I don't want to move, but I have to pee so I squirm out of his hold anyway. Somehow I manage to slither out of his grasp without waking him. His snoring is just as even when I silently exit the master bedroom.

I tiptoe down the hall to the bathroom and quickly do my business before I return to the warmth in the bed next to Harry. As I quietly and carefully lower myself back down next to him, he does a sudden inhale and starts to stir. I hold my breath in anticipation as Harry rolls over on his back and reaches up to rub his eyes.

When his green eyes tiredly blink and squint at me, I feel my heart sink. Dammit, I woke him up. That wasn't my intention and now I feel guilty.

"Hey, beautiful," he says hoarsely and I feel a shiver run up and down my spine as a reaction to his extremely sexy morning voice.

"Hey, babe," I reply and properly lie down next to him. Harry opens his arms and I immediately cuddle up next to him at his small gesture. I sigh in content as his arms wrap around me. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"Don't worry about it," Harry murmurs and closes his eyes again as I rest my head on his bare chest. "I don't mind waking up next to you anyway."

I feel my heart skip a beat at his words, but I quickly force myself to calm down. I want to believe ever word that he says, but I try to block them out nevertheless. I trust Harry and I care about him more than I've ever cared about anyone before, but for all I know, what Harry and I have is just sex and nothing more. He might not ever want something more that.

I have to keep myself emotionally detached if this thing is ever going to work.

Harry and I stay cocooned in bed for another hour or so as we drift in and out of a comfortable sleep, but in the end we are too hungry to ignore our stomachs' loud demands. We dress and silently descend the stairs.

Alex is already in the kitchen when we arrive and I am not particularly surprised. She is always up bright and early, and she's always the first to get out of bed in the morning.

"How was your night?" she asks when Harry and I join her, and we sheepishly grin at her. "I take it you did it again?"

"And again," I admit and Alex giggles.

"I'm jealous."

"I told you they'd be jealous!" I exclaim and Harry laughs at my great enthusiasm. I turn my gaze back to Alex as she is reheating the bread rolls from last night. "Why are you jealous though? You can nail whomever you want in this little group. I know all of them would be down for it."

"It wouldn't feel right," Alex says with half a shrug and I arch my eyebrows.

"Why?"

"I don't know. It would just be weird; I consider everyone family," she says and I ponder about what she's saying for a second. Alex starts cracking eggs into a big frying pan as she casually continues her speech. "I mean would you fuck Jason?"

"What? No!" I exclaim and make a face at the horrible images Alex just put into my head. I desperately try to shake them away before they can fester my mind, but the thoughts are already forming and somehow they're impossible to get rid of. "That's just disgusting. Can we talk about something else, please?"

"Sorry," Alex says and giggles at my reaction. She continues her task of scrambling eggs. "I found a couple of condoms in the bathroom, by the way. I'm assuming you're the ones who misplaced them?"