Narry: One Shots

Magnets

by: orphan_account

Summary:

And it’s not long after that he gets his second tattoo and it’s a winding script up the inside of his right arm that says “The way I need you is a loneliness I cannot bear”- Carson McCullers.

Harry and Niall have been friends since they were kids and Harry might kind of fall in love with the boy with the flower crowns and sun bleached hair.

°•°•°

When two magnets meet they either repel because their respective sides are the same polarity or they come together because their polarities are different. According to a lot of people, the same can be said about humans- opposites attract.

Sometimes people don’t start out opposites- sometimes they’re almost exactly the same, and then things change. And not always to the “bad” end of the spectrum...they just do and that’s life and people recognize it and move on and that’s that.

Sometimes the changes happen because something massive happens and you just cannot walk away from them without something changing in you. And sometimes they just happen, for no rhyme or reason, other than life.

***

It’s easy to become friends with someone when you’re little kids because all little kids pick their mothers dandelions and run around barefoot around the park in messy t-shirts they tie-dyed themselves.

So when six year old Niall hands six year old Harry a flower crown his mother helped him make, well, it’s friendship at first hand hold.

“Mummy says that you’re from Ireland...where’s that?” Harry asks innocently as Niall’s clumsy fingers help him tie some flowers into knots in a small circle to fit over his head in the bright sunlight.

“Umm...I dunno, where Dad and Sean are, I guess,” Niall answers, Harry giggles at the lilt in Niall’s voice. “What’s so funny?”

“You talk weird.”

“Yeah, well, you do too!” Niall pouts, crossing his arms across his tiny chest. “Maura says that my voice is beautiful and that one day I’m going to be a singer.” Harry only smiles at Niall and puts on his crown because that’s another thing that’s weird about Niall, his mummy lets him call her by her first name and she doesn’t live with his daddy and she wears long skirts and preaches love and happiness and peace.

And then Niall grins back shyly. “Maybe we’ll be a band together, I’ll sing and play guitar and you can too and we’re going to be the best band ever, even better than the Beatles.” Harry’s mum has only talked about the Beatles a few times and he doesn’t know what their music sounds like, but Niall likes them a lot so Harry figures they must be okay.

***

A year later Harry’s mummy and daddy don’t live together anymore like Niall’s parents and Harry spends a lot of nights over at Niall’s and his mum makes them tie-dye t-shirts and flower crowns and plays the guitar out by the fire she builds in the garden and sings to them and it’s nice. Sometimes Niall holds Harry’s hand and they eat watermelon together and paint pictures with their fingers and sometimes Gemma is there too and Harry wonders if this is Niall’s life all the time.

He meets Louis too who’s older than him and loud and not like Niall at all, but he’s funny and he sticks up for Harry so Harry likes him too.

“We could be the Three Musketeers for Halloween!” Louis shouts happily, “brandishing” his toy sword.

“Niall doesn’t celebrate Halloween,” Harry explains, keeping his voice down because the last time Niall asked about it was the only time Harry had ever seen Maura stern.