Narry: One Shots

It's a Long Time Coming

by: jstrattford

Summary:

Harry’s famously bad at sports. And naturally, he never misses the track team’s events because of the captain, Niall Horan.

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Harry will be the first to admit he’s a mess whenever it comes to playing any sport.

He’s always been the one who’s picked last because he’s been known as the boy with the two left feet and Mr. Butterfingers, Harry Styles, with absolutely no hand coordination - as evidenced by his inability to catch or throw a single ball into the net.

It’s not like it even matters, though.

Sports just aren’t Harry’s thing, and he’ll be the very first to own up to what some would call his biggest flaw. He’s just never had the intention of being a famous athlete, and he’d much rather watch than actually be the one getting dirt on his shoes, or get his curly hair filled with that mud that forms each time it rains because this is London. It always rains in London.

And that’s exactly why all Harry does is watches. He only watches.

He watches his school’s basketball team play (mostly out of obligation) because his friend, Liam Payne, is the captain; and he goes to the tennis matches because Louis is pretty respectable at hitting the ball with a racket.

All in all, Harry goes to offer them support and not because he’s interested in the sports and they know it.

Which could explain the various amount of teasing Harry gets each time he goes to the track competitions, because they know of Harry’s motives for going.

With a smirk in place, Louis always teases Harry, telling him, “track, huh? You must really like the sport,” words having no actual relevance to the sport. And like a fool who’s unable to stop, Harry blushes, muttering, “it’s alright,” knowing that he’s been caught.

Either way, it doesn’t stop Harry from going to those sporting events every chance he gets.

He’s decided early on that it’s the only one that even really matters because it allows him the opportunity of staring at him, Niall Horan, without having to worry about getting caught.

True. Harry will admit that it’s kind of ridiculous the lengths he goes through just to catch a glimpse of Niall, but he doesn’t have the guts to talk to Niall, like any other normal, sensible person would. It’s silly too because Niall’s generally known as a very engaging guy with so many friends, but really. That’s to expect from the captain of the track team.

He’s just so sociable and shines so brightly while Harry shrinks into the background, with very few people taking notice of his absence, or presence for that matter.

The only note-worthy thing people remember Harry for is dropping the ball in the 5th grade, which cost the whole class the opportunity of having a pizza party - a fact people still like to remind him of, when it was years ago. 8 years ago to be exact.

Things like that are the reason why Harry keeps to himself, approaching very few people, which is alarming when looking at his two best friends, Liam and Louis, because they’re generally very well-known while Harry’s so… not. He figures that he was just lucky in meeting them before becoming so self-critical, but even then, they would’ve accepted him for who he was because that’s just the type of people they are.

It’s that acceptance and good-natured side that draws Harry in, and ever since that fateful 7th grade when Harry saw Niall dribbling a basketball, he could feel it in his bones that Niall was someone he wanted to be close to.