salute [h.s]

hit me with your best shot (niall/piper)

*

The thing about having a spy for a boyfriend is that it made it very hard to sneak around.

It was nearly impossible to keep things a secret from Harry and sometimes that was sort of nice because he anticipated what she was feeling and he was really good at reading what she needed from him. However, when Piper wanted to surprise him with something, it almost always ended up failing because Harry couldn't help sticking his nose in her business inadvertently.
That's why she'd come up with this scheme of hers.

She'd kept Harry up late claiming that she wanted to watch a film with him and then forcing him to watch Inception which she knew would tire him out. She'd seen the movie about ten times and even she still didn't get it entirely. Harry got woefully confused within the first twenty minutes and it took all his brain energy to keep up with the plot line, which he complained about almost the entire time, pointing out all the complicated bits that could have been made much simpler. He did it every time they watched the movie and it always tuckered him out so that by the time Cobb was spinning that top in the final scene, his eyes were always drooping.

For added measure, she made him a hot chocolate which always put him in a deep sleep.

It was the only way she could sneak out from under his arm when her phone buzzed at 5:30 the next morning without him waking. He just sighed heavily into the pillow and rolled over into the warm spot she left behind, sprawling out on his front. She went about getting dressed as quietly as she could in the dark and only stopped to write a little note for Harry before she left, in case he woke up while she was gone. Bertie lifted his head from his dog bed in the corner as she made her way toward the door but after she tossed him a biscuit from the stash she kept on the shelf, he was satisfied to curl back up and forget about her.

Just as she'd planned.

She was grinning madly as she stepped out of the house into the early morning light, proud of herself for pulling this off. For once, she was going to be able to do something for Harry that was a nice surprise without him guessing what it was beforehand.

Niall was waiting in his SUV out front and he already had a takeaway coffee in the cup holder waiting for her. "Bless you, Niall," she said as she sipped from the cup, delighted to find it was made exactly how she liked.

"You're late," he pointed out, tapping the clock on the dash.

"By about a second," she countered even though it was closer to ten minutes. "We're still going to make it in time for our appointment."

"Tee time," Niall corrected with a heavy sigh. "Remind me why I agreed to this?"

"Because if you didn't I was going to tell Marlow that you skipped her work function at the opera so you could go to that footie match with the boys."

"It was a box for Man U at Arsenal! I couldn't miss that for some fucking opera that I wouldn't understand anyways."

"I'm sure Marlow will completely understand your reasoning and will forgive you for lying to her about it and pretending you were sick."