A Slide Into First ➵ narry

Chapter 10

“I’ve been around you to know when you’re upset. That was an upset stare not a focused stare or an I’m-lost-in-my-own-mind stare,”

“Listen, it’s nothing, okay?”

Niall moved his leg so it could reach over and nudge Harry’s, and when their eyes met Niall’s seemed to say “I don’t believe you,” Harry just returned back to the movie they were watching over dinner – Taken. Niall had brought it over with him, and apparently it was one of his favorites. Not one of the most romantic movies Harry had ever seen, but it was entertaining enough.

With Harry not letting up, Niall quickly finished the rest of his sandwich and laid back on him. They continued to watch the movie until Niall finally yawned one too many times.

“Alright, budge up, Little Bear. We can finish this movie another time but you need to get to bed,”

Niall groaned at Harry telling him what to do, but he trudged off to put their dishes in the sink as Harry went back to his room. He flopped onto his bed to rest for a few moments before Niall snuck up on him, pouncing on his back in a quiet hop.

“Ah, Niall, what the fuck!” Harry yelled out, his voice muffled by the pillow beneath his face.

“Tell me what’s wrong, asshole, and I’ll get off,” Niall said, trying to sound angry but coming out more playful.

“It’s nothing! I need to brush my teeth!”

“You can do that after you stop avoiding my questions!”

“I’m not avoiding anything!”

Niall leaned down, sweeping a gentle finger across Harry’s curls, and whispered in his ear, “I don’t believe you,”

“Okay, fine, get off my back… literally… and I’ll tell you. Promise,”

So Niall crept off of his back, moving to lie next to him with their shoulders touching. Niall’s face was soft and his eyes were welcoming. Everything about him was always so comforting.

“How long can we keep this up?” Harry squeaked out, his forehead crinkled in frustration.

“…what do you mean?” Niall asked.

“It’s just… I was talking to a wife of someone on the team today, and at first she was telling me all I wanted to hear. That relationships with players are hard, but if you want it enough it’s worth it and everything just kind of falls into place,”

“Yeah, then what fell to shit?”

“Well, she said that she didn’t think their relationship would have lasted had her husband not had the off-season. And…”

“Harry, you do know I have an off-season too, right? Just like him? I won’t be doing this all year round,”

“Yes, I know, Ni. It’s just… your off-season is my on-season. Your last game comes two weeks before I go to school three hours away. Permanently. It’s not like right now where you leave for a few days then come back and continue on and on like that. We’ll be apart for weeks, months at a time. You’ve got to get a job here if you want to keep up with your expenses, or maybe even you’re planning to move back home to Boston! I don’t know! All I know is that we didn’t think this through very well,”

Harry felt his eyes tear up with those words and he willed them to stop, but he realized that if he could let his true emotions show in front of anyone it would be Niall. Niall who had seen Harry at his grungiest and most tired and who had called him early in the morning because it was all Niall could think to do.

“Maybe you didn’t,” Niall whispered.

“Listen, it’s not like I don’t want stay together. Just is it dumb to keep moving on and ignoring the fact that in a month I’m gonna have to leave?”

“Here,” Niall grunted, taking his arm around Harry and pulling them together so that Niall’s chest was curving over Harry’s back. Harry stilled.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Cuddling,” Niall responded.

“…why?”

“Because when someone’s upset they should get to be the little spoon and you never get to be the little spoon so today you can. Now, you need to tell me what I can do to make you feel better,” Niall said, pressing his lips between Harry’s shoulder blades.

“I just… it’s just that I’ve always thought long-distance was stupid. Like it could never work. You can try it but it will always be a bad decision in the long-run,”

“Okay, let me think,” Niall said and Harry swore he could hear the gears turning, “Got it. Us, this thing we have, is like a slide into first, alright?”

“Jesus, Ni. You know that I don’t know shit about baseball. I barely understand what you just said,”

“So like, runners slide into base because if they overrun it then the baseman can tag them out, but at first base you don’t have to figure that in because you’re allowed to overrun there. Since sliding generally slows you down it’s thought of to be pretty dumb to do it to first base. It’s not like you can’t, it’s just not smart. And we… people might think it’s dumb of us to do this. That we keep on hitting issues and we have to work through them and we’re never around each other and for some reason we seem to end up crying and stressed a lot? But… our only other option is to do the normal and easy route and just blow past first. Leave each other at the end of the summer with a kiss on the cheek and a pat on the back but… Harry I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we’ve never been quite normal. I want to linger on this. I want to hold onto this relationship until we’ve run out of options, and we haven’t yet. Trust me,”

Harry was quiet because he was still processing what happens. There was still this part of his brain that was sending up red flags and he wanted to listen to it so badly, but Niall’s arm was etching designs on his side and their bodies were fitted together in a way that seemed all too perfect and Niall was humming “Best of My Love” into his back and Harry was reminded of the video that was saved on his desktop. Everything fit, everything felt right.

“Ni, do you mind if we sleep like this tonight?” Harry asked, turning his head so he could see Niall’s face.

“Of course we can, Curly,”

“It’s just… I forgot how nice being the little spoon is. Why have I been letting you hog it?”

**

A few days later, Harry was out shopping with Liam when he felt his phone buzz. Feeling excited, maybe hoping that it was another one of Niall’s videos, he pulled out his phone and saw that it was a text from Niall.

“Blondie: Parents called. U can come home wit me,”