Buses & Bunk Beds (Zarry)

Chapter 34

Despite only having a few days off, we'd caught a flight to Heathrow early the next morning, Harry intent on not missing his sister Gemma's engagement party. I was thrilled, over the moon really, when Harry didn't even bother asking me to go with him, already assuming that I was. When he mentioned the flight time and I asked if he wanted me to come with him he responded with an "Obviously," that made my heart beat a little faster. I couldn't wait to be on Harry's arm, to have all his closest friends and family know that I was his and he was mine.

Besides the pilots and air hostess, we were the only ones on board. I savored the time alone with Harry, hanging on his every word when he was speaking and studying his face on the rare occasions he was silent. I wanted to hear about every detail of his life, thirsty for any bits of information he'd be willing to feed me about how he spent his time when he was out of my sight.

It used to annoy me a bit, how slowly he spoke, but now I loved it. I loved the time he took to pick and choose each word, and how he was so enthusiastically relentless about the little, commonplace events that made up his day that he couldn't even contemplate a universe where everyone else wasn't just as interested in hearing about them. You could even tell him to shut up, but he would ignore you completely, intent on making you see how fascinating the world according to Harry truly was.

So I listened to him prattle on about this and that, all of my nerves concentrated where his thumb was rubbing the back of my hand. He still held my hand on every flight, he had whenever we were sitting together and could get away with it, ever since that flight when we'd watched Die Hard together, which seemed like a lifetime ago. A feeling of nostalgia washed over me as I thought back to that day. I wanted to watch Die Hard with him again and grope him under the blanket again, only this time I would know the secret: that he loved me as I loved him, and that these moments were to be cherished, in case one day they disappeared. I had him sat next to me, vibrant and alive, and yet inside I was already weeping for the time when he might be gone from my side.

Harry brought me back to the present with a quick kiss on the tip of my nose. "Whatchoo thinking about?" he asked.

"I kinda wish we were staying at the house you grew up in," I admitted shyly.

"Why?"

"That way we could christen your childhood bedroom," I said as I hitched one of my legs over his knee and stretched out, uncomfortable from being in one position for so long.

Harry looked horrified.  "We are not having sex in my mum's house!"

"Are you forgetting what we did in my little sister's bedroom?" I asked increduously, and Harry at least had the good graces to look a little sheepish.

"Don't try to guilt trip me; it's not happening," he insisted anyway.

"We'll see," I responded, confident that I could find a way to seduce him.

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew we were landing. It was almost embarassing how sprawled out I was over Harry, but he didn't seem to mind, smiling down at me. I smiled back at his handsome face, my heart warming when I noticed that he hadn't let go of my hand, even when I'd been asleep. I sat up and gave him a kiss before standing and stretching.

"I'm so excited to see your family."

"I'm sure they'll be excited to see you too. My mum loves you."

"You didn't tell them I was coming?" I asked, surprised.

"No, but they won't mind. There's plenty of room," he tried to reassure me. It didn't work. I really had expected Harry to give his mother some kind of warning about my coming and, well, about us.