A Slide Into First ➵ narry

Chapter 7

Harry fell into the closet and into Niall's arms in one easy swoop. He couldn't control the giggling that was coming out of his mouth, but he didn't really want to anyways because he felt that their kisses were better and more genuine when done through a smile. Harry felt sticky and gross from working in the stand for the past four hours and he wanted to apologize for smelling like Dr. Pepper and nachos, but considering Niall tasted like sweat and red Gatorade he felt that it was alright.

Niall's hands were slowly working their way through Harry's hair, making his scalp feel soft and buzzy. Harry felt so loved that he pulled his mouth from Niall's, making his way down the Niall's neck with light kisses. He could feel Niall's neck moving with his chest, tightening with every short breath he let out. Finally Harry made it down to Niall's collarbone, concealed only in a tank he had thrown on before leaving the locker room. It was covered in freckles and slightly burned from too much sun, and Harry found it to be the perfect place for a nibble.

"Shit!" Niall said, pushing Harry off. He really wasn't expecting that.

"What's wrong? Is someone coming?" Harry asked.

"No! It's just that you... you can't really give me hickeys. I'm shirtless a lot around the guys and they'll definitely notice,"

"So what? They'll think you've finally nagged a girl and they'll be so happy that they'll probably pop some champagne or something,"

"Trust me, I'm pretty sure they've stopped looking for signs I've found a girl and started looking for signs I've found a guy, and I really don't want them finding enough evidence. Plus, they'd be a little confused if I left for ten minutes after a game and came back with someone else's teeth marks on my skin,"

"What, are they used to seeing their own on there?"

"Stop!" Niall yelled, following it with a chuckle.

"Sorry, I just really haven't had to think about this that much. I'm okay with our relationship, but I'm having trouble remembering that not everyone might be," Harry said, grabbing Niall and pulling him into an embrace.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my wretched job makes it so that people can't know we're together and we're reduced to making out in janitor closets during home games, which I guess is preferable to away games where we can't even do that,"

"Listen," Harry consoled, his voice dropping into a softer tone, "I know you don't think your job's wretched because I hear how you talk about baseball and I know how important it is to you. I made out with you last night knowing fully well that you have to put your sport first, okay? I'm not dumb-"

"I don't know, falling for me seems pretty dumb," Niall mused, sniggering a bit.

"-and it really sucks that your field might not always accept who you are, but I'm willing to wait with you until it does, okay?"

Niall answered him with fingers at his jaw, pressing their lips together again.

**

This continued every night. After games Niall's free time was short, he was only able to sneak away for ten minutes at most. Harry decided that they really needed to make the most of this small amount of time they had together. With each night they got a little riskier, a little more comfortable around each other. One night Harry inexplicably took his shirt off, and neither of them knew where he was going from there, but Niall didn't hate the view and Harry didn't hate the freedom so no one was mad.

A few days after this all had started, Harry peeked his head out of the closet they were bunkered down in to make sure no one would see them leave together, when Niall pulled him back inside.