Redemption [h.s]

forty-seven

"Thank god, I was already thinking that Niall expected to see us married by the end of the month."

I laughed. "Are you saying you wouldn't?" I teased him.

"I would, but you still haven't treated me to that dinner" he replied with a little smile.

"I treated you to so many breakfasts though" I pointed out, "Do they still count?"

"Do they?"

"They should." I laid down on my back, facing the ceiling, close enough to him to feel his body barely touching mine. "January is just around the corner" I said.

The silence in the room became heavy all of sudden, and I felt him tense up.

"It's gonna be okay" I murmured taking his hand and starting to draw meaningless doodles on his knuckles with my thumb.

"I hope so" he whispered cuddling into my side.

•  •  •

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a white ceiling. I stared at it confusedly for a few seconds, before realising what I was looking at. My gaze moved to my side, and I saw Harry sleeping next to me curled up in a ball. It took me some more seconds to realise that the room was way colder than before, and some more to find out that outside of the window, everything was black. And that was when it downed on me. We had fallen asleep on New Year's Eve, and it was night. Had we missed the midnight? I stood up fast and retrieved my phone from where it had disappeared into the blanket, and check the time. It was half past eleven, thankfully.

"Harry" I whispered to him, shaking his shoulder lightly.

After a few seconds, he woke up as well. "What...?" He mumbled, trying to understand what was going on.

"It's 11:30pm" I told him, and he rolled on his back, rubbing his eyes.

"We kind of forgot to have dinner... Do you want a tea?" I asked him.

He laughed. "We should really stop whatever is going on with us and tea."

"Is that a yes?" I asked again.

"That's a ask me next year."

I almost facepalmed. "You, out of all people. Of course you would say that."

He smiled at me, and stood up. "Let's just go to the living room. I feel like I'm just going to fall asleep again if we stay here."

I nodded, and followed him out of the room. I looked out of the window. Somewhen throughout the day it had stopped raining.

"What time is it now?" He asked again, going to the kitchen.

I checked my phone again. "11:45pm."

He nodded. "I'm getting some water, do you want something to drink?"

"Water will be just fine" I replied sitting on the couch.

After a few, he came back with two glasses of water, and handed me one. "Here you go" he said sitting next to me.

I emptied mine and I put it next to the couch.

"Come here" he told me, and took my hand to lead me to the window. He opened it, and a cold breeze came in. "There" he said, pointing at something above the roof of the house opposite to our building.

I looked, but I saw nothing but the deep black sky.

"What time is it?" He asked for the third time that day.

"11:59pm" I replied after having checked.

He put his hands on my waist, and brought me closer.

"And now?"

I looked at my phone once again. The white digits were clear. "Midnight" I whispered.

"Happy New Year" he said, and his lips met mine in the second the first firework shot across the sky, decorating of bright pink lights the darkness above the roof of that house.

I smiled as soon as our lips parted. "Happy New Year to you too."

He went to the couch and picked up the blanket that was sitting on it. He returned to me and hugged me, draping it across his shoulders, and mine.

And we just stood there, in front of an open window, in the night for January 1st, watching the fireworks decorate the night sky.

That, until a ring broke the silence. I turned around and we glanced at each other, until I realised that it was my phone. I picked up without looking at the caller ID.

"Is Harry with you? He isn't answering his phone" I heard Gemma say on the other side.

"Yeah, sure. Why?" I asked her.

"Can you put it on speaker? It's important."

I put the phone on speaker. Harry looked at me questioningly, but I just shrugged, to tell him that I didn't know what it was about.

"Is the phone on speaker?" She asked.

"Yeah, what is it?" Harry replied.

"Well..."

"Yeah?" I asked her, curious.

I heard her take a deep breath on the other side, as if she was trying to calm down. Then, she said it.

"Michal proposed, and I said yes!"