Always You |harry styles| - completed

FIVE

"What have you got there, love?", Harry turned to face me and allowed me into their little circle.

"Oh, just my entire childhood! Can we please, please, please play this record?", I had a feeling he would never say no to this, but my puppy eyes made it even harder.

"Go ahead, I'll go open another bottle of wine.", he disappeared into what I assumed was the wine cellar, while Josh and I let Bono Vox's voice free.

"I never pictured you as a U2 fan, nor a rock lover for that matter.", he cocked his head, eyeing me and trying to figure me out. Little did he know that I wasn't able to figure myself out in the 24 years I've lived with this brain.

"You should've seen her when we did the U2 Washington concert. Starstruck, this one. Oh my God! Bono Vox! Joshhhh! Bono Fucking Vox, I'll meet him!", he exaggerated a lot while trying to recreate my reaction when finding out they were our new clients.

"I did not sound like that you idiot! It's just that I grew up with their music, my parents are huge fans and they were the first concert I ever went to. I was nine.", I remembered my first U2 concert like it was yesterday. Me and my best friend, with our parents, jumping up and down as The Edge created heavenly melodies on his guitar. That was a lifetime ago.

Sitting in this beautiful living room, with Josh falling asleep and Harry and I just chatting to the soundtrack of U2 is probably what dreams are made of. And I don't know how it happened, or why, but I'd never been more comfortable getting to know someone before.

"So tell me, what type of music do you like? Because I am getting a lot of mixed information here.", he poured us another glass of wine and I took a deep breath. Here we go.

"I actually dislike that question a lot. I get why people ask it, but I hate putting myself in a box when it comes to anything. I am always open to my opinions and preferences changing. When I was little I listened to whatever my parents put on, mainly U2, The Beatles, a bit of the Doors and the Rolling Stones. That's always stuck with me. Then I started getting into Rihanna, Beyoncé and Shakira – aka the holy trinity of any pre-teen girl. A bit of the Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, the usual for a twelve year old. Then the whole One Direction era started and I was a superfan. I am embarrassed to say that you'd have actually laughed if you got to see me ugly fangirl for you lot. I mean I still love your music, and I've always been the one to proudly admit it, despite people making fun of me because of it. When I got a bit older I started exploring music more and added new favorites like Fleetwood Mac and Norah Jones to my endless list. I guess it's just question of my mood – is it Snow Patrol or Green day, is it One Direction or Ed Sheeran, is it latino or the Beatles, is it Queen or Harry Styles. It depends on the day.", I answered honestly, taking a while to get through the story of my musical evolution and how my tastes have changed over the years, but still somehow managed to remain similar. He listened carefully, sipping on his wine and swirling the remaining dark red liquid around his glass every once in a while. He smiled at some of the bands I mentioned and cackled when I told him about being a fangirl.

"I totally get what you are saying, though... It feels weird closing yourself off to so many incredible artists just because you're not in the mood for them at the moment. I think I'm like that when it comes to the music I create, as well. It took a while to figure out what I wanted my sound to be when I broke apart from the 'Harry Styles member of One Direction' image and became my own human being. It will always be a mixture of sounds and melodies, mismatched as they may be – it's what makes me happy. Exploring, y'know?", he sounded genuinely disheveled while talking about breaking away from the One Direction era and I wanted to learn more but decided against it since I wouldn't like people that I barely knew prying into such a personal and possibly traumatizing part of my life.

"Hey, you never told me how you got my number?", I plopped back down on the brown suede couch after throwing a blanket over Josh.

"It's a funny story actually. So, I saw you posted a picture with Bernie, and the location said 'L.A., California'. Then I noticed there was something going on with the rally tonight, and I remembered you saying how you always like to experiment and try to make events bigger than they ever could be. So I called Lil' and asked for your number which she obviously gave up.", that woman was out of her mind! How could she give out my personal information so easily? I mean, it was Harry so it ended up not being a big deal, but it easily could've been some creep.

"You're lucky it was you that violated my privacy, because I'd change my number if it were anyone else, I'm telling you.", feigning being upset wasn't really my forte, and he saw right through me.

"Hey, it was not me. It was Lil'!", he exclaimed, raising his hands over his upper body, in defense.

"Well you made her do it! Doesn't matter in the end, now does it?", I said honestly and his mouth formed a perfect smile, dimples showing and all. How could anyone resist this man's charm?

"I think it's time I got Josh up, it's been a long day and we're travelling back to DC tomorrow.", I started getting up and picking up empty wine glasses, bringing them over to the kitchen.

"You don't have to do that. What is it with you and cleaning?", he followed me over the step that led to his kitchen, while Josh stirred a bit on the loveseat.

"I just can't leave a space unless I clean the dishes. It's like an OCD thing or something, I never go to bed with my sink full of dishes", I loaded his dishwasher and made my way back to the living room.

"Weird, teacup.", the moment he said it I started uncontrollably laughing.

"What did I say now?", his puzzled look made the whole thing even better.

"Nothing. It's just that... my name isn't actually Thea with an H, it's Tea, without it. But English-speaking people seem to not be able to pronounce it. So the teacup thing just reminded me how many 'oh, Tea like a teacup, get it?' jokes I got when I first moved to the States.", he pulled out his phone and typed something as I spoke. He turned the screen towards me and I saw that he had changed my contact information as 'Teacup', which was very cute, but also very annoying.

"Not you too! Come on, Josh, we have to get going, it's 2 in the morning.", I shook his right shoulder gently and his eyes fluttered open.

"I've been sleeping for three hours. Why the hell did you not wake me?", he got up and stumbled over his own shoes, in search for his phone, I reckon.

"You looked very peaceful, mate. And besides, we just talked about music and life. Easy to catch up on when we see each other next.", the last part of his sentence made my stomach flutter, but not in a cool way. In a way that flashed red warning signs around my mind, saying 'danger zone approaching, evacuate'. I always knew this man was something else, what I was afraid of was that I'd end up liking this something else...

"Thank you for having us, Harry. I had a lovely time. Call soon!", we got into the black town car that spent the last six hours parked on the side of the road, waiting for us. I guess Lil' wanted us to get home safely. He waved before closing the black wooden door and disappearing inside his house.

Josh rested his head upon my shoulder as the car drove down the hills of Hollywood, and he mumbled – "Did we really hang out with a member of One Direction?", to which I jumped triumphantly, confirming my theory that he was a fan. But we didn't hang out with a member of One Direction, we hung out with Harry. 

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A/N: TPWK, always. 

All my love, 

T