Caught | 1D AU

17.

There were tricks to it. To keeping him calm. If I said something wrong, he'd get quiet, and then I'd pause and make a joke. Or if he confronted me, I'd reach out and touch him lightly, smile sweetly, lingering just long enough to make it seem like I wanted that contact. He didn't like when I pulled away, but he did like when I withdrew my hand or pushed against his chest as long as I had a sly look on my face. Pursed lips with a half-smile. A wink. Playing hard to get, acting flirtatious. Sometimes it even felt rewarding, like getting his approval was a game and I was good at it.

The days passed slowly. I guess I was getting used to it. Being cut off from everything. The calmness of nature. Only one other person to talk to. Getting so bored that I'd sit on the porch stoop outside and pretend I was an old lady living out the rest of my days with him. I broke apart the leftover crust I hadn't eaten from the sandwich and tossed it a couple feet in front of me. I was trying to lure the red squirrel closer. It twitched its whiskers, watching me as it finished eating the last piece it had stolen. Eventually it's hands were empty again, and it stayed as still as a statue, watching me, calculating how fast it could run up and grab the crumb by my toes.

This had been going for a couple days now, and I wondered if I'd be able to get it to trust me enough to make it a pet. It jumped up, bouncing back a few feet when Harry opened the door and came outside. "Does he have a name yet?"

"I don't know," I said, "I'm stuck between Edward or Fraser."

He laughed as he sat down next to me. He had his guitar with him, across his lap. He'd been using a lot of his free time to write music. The living room right now was covered in loose pages of paper full of half written lyrics. "You didn't think I could take all this time off for nothing," he had told me when I'd asked about it. "I'm working on my next album, I'm going for a new sound... It might be hard on my fans, but I think they'll get used to it."

I nodded, and said "that's great babe, I'm proud of you," just like I would have said to Zayn. It hadn't occurred to me that Harry had fans before he said that. But I suppose his voice was nice enough. And even when Zayn was in a slump not bringing in an income, there were always a few people who would stop him on the street and ask him if he was that guy they saw on YouTube.

Harry strummed the guitar now, "Don't name him Edward, that's my middle name."

"Hmmph, Fraser it is then." Fraser didn't like the guitar music though, so he ran away, off into the woods, free. "What are you playing?" I asked after a minute.

"A song I'm working on," he said.

No duh, I almost said. "What's it called?" I asked.

"I'm playing around with titles right now..." I waited for him to go on. "I'm thinking, I might go with 'I want,' but that might be too vague, and I've already sang a song with that title, so I'm reworking the lyrics right now..."

"Okay," I nodded, "How does it go?"

He continued strumming, clearing his voice. Then he let out a groan and stopped strumming, "Every time I sing for you, it's like stepping on stage for the first time."

"Awww," I cooed, trying to hide any bitterness in my voice. "I make you nervous? That's adorable." I left out the next thing I wanted to say about how it was even more adorable when he made me scared for my life. His face went red.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I guess I care about your opinion of me."

"Well are you going to sing it?" I asked, wanting anything to make life less boring.

"No, it's not done yet. I don't want to make a fool of myself, it's barely together. It doesn't really even make sense." He started setting his guitar to the side.