salute ➳ 〚h.s.〛 〚a.u.〛

i should be hoping but i can't stop thinking - (an extra)

"Would you stop checking your watch? I'm starting to think you don't like spending time with me."

Harry gave Louis a sideways look, unimpressed by the cheeky grin on his face, and then focused his attention back on the telly. They'd been watching a replay of a United game from earlier in the week that Harry had missed while he was in the DCR. Usually he liked watching football on his time off because it just felt very normal and uncomplicated but he couldn't keep his mind on the game and anyways, Man United was barely keeping up with Aston Villa and he suspected it was going to end in a tie.

"Piper hasn't texted me back."

"So?" Louis said around a mouthful of biscuits that he'd made that evening because El had a bad day at work. Whenever Louis tried to get on his case about how head over heels he was for Piper, Harry liked to remind him of days like these where Louis got domestic for Eleanor's sake. "You're not the centre of her world."

"Sometimes you're a real wanker," Harry told his best mate, picking up his transmitter to see if a text had come in within the last two minutes that he hadn't checked it. Nothing. He opened up the messages, reading over the last one he'd sent to her. Came by but you were busy. So maybe that was a little vague and he should have added something like call me when you're done or I'll come over when you get home. He just assumed she'd know that he wanted to come and see her after being away so long. Maybe that was a baseless assumption.

"If you want to see her," Louis said quietly after a moment of weighty silence had spread between them, "then go on. You've got a beautiful girlfriend who hasn't seen you in a week. I'm not sure what you're doing here with me."

Harry got that weird feeling that he did every time one of the guys called Piper his girlfriend. It wasn't a bad feeling — on the contrary, it was sort of warm and tingly and pleasant. It was just quite foreign to him. He'd never been a girlfriend sort of guy, more familiar with no strings attached sort of arrangements and one night stands. If there was one girl who was worth changing his history for, it was Piper Stone.

Except she wasn't really his girlfriend, not officially. In his mind she was but they'd never had a proper discussion about it. There was no question about exclusivity — Piper was a one man sort of girl and he would never, ever even consider stepping out on her. The talk about the progression of their relationship had yet to happen though and until they hammered it all out, Harry wasn't sure that Piper wanted to be called his girlfriend just yet.

It occurred to him that this was probably something they should discuss. The sooner the better. Harry wanted the satisfaction of being able to hold Piper and say she was his girlfriend.

He had almost convinced himself to go when his transmitter beeped twice in his ear, signalling that it was receiving a call from a phone. The only person who called him regularly was the one person he'd wanted to hear from all day. He sat up as the call connected, a grin stretching across his lips. "Hello petal."

"Help!" It was Piper's voice, no question, screaming from a distance. The fear was clear in her tone and the smile slid off Harry's face instantly. "Someone's got —"

There was a slapping sound and then muffled screaming. "Piper!" Harry shouted as he got to his feet, pacing around the couch. "Piper, what's going on!"

"Is that a fucking mobile?" This voice was definitely not Piper's. It was a man's voice, low and rough. Piper squealed and yelped, and then there was a loud smack as the phone hit something hard, what Harry could only assume was the ground. "I'll fucking kill you," the man's voice added.

Harry felt his blood run cold in his veins. Piper was in trouble. Piper was in trouble and he'd been sitting here comfortably in HQ when he should have been with her, should have been protecting her.