salute [h.s]

if we go, we go together

"Piper!"

She jumped when Harry's voice echoed through the study and set every inch of her body on edge, what with the aggressive tone and the surprising volume. She crossed her arms over her chest nervously as she chewed on her bottom lip, waiting for whatever reprimand Harry had waiting. She wasn't sure why he was upset. Maybe he was angry about being interrupted or he'd been mid-thought. Either way, she hated the idea that he was angry with her.

Swallowing hard, she glanced up. "What is it?"

Harry's eyes had been trained a little too low for her liking and she wondered if she had something on her t-shirt. Well, his t-shirt. She liked sleeping in his shirts because they were usually soft from being worn and they smelled like him. He got frustrated with her sometimes when more of his clothes ended up on her side of the closet rather than his but usually he didn't mind it. He said she looked sexy in his shirts which was another reason she liked them so much.

When he sighed, she slipped back out of her thoughts and focused on him. He looked up at the ceiling in that way he did when he was praying for patience and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Petal, I'm going to need you to put on some underwear before you say anything else."

For a moment, she didn't understand what he meant. Why would he want her to put on underwear? She was already wearing — oops, no she wasn't. She lifted her arms off her chest so they were stretched out to the side and then glanced down. Sure enough, with her arms lifted up, the shirt lifted too, just far enough that Harry got quite the eyeful. Of course, she'd been talking with her hands waving around this whole time so...

"Bloody hell," she hissed as she reached for the hem of the t-shirt and yanked it down so it covered all the important bits. "Sorry, baby. I didn't even realize."

"I mean, I don't mind the view," Harry said as he leaned back in his desk chair, crossing his hands behind his head leisurely. "But it makes it a little hard to focus on what you're saying."

Piper went to turn but she felt that annoying sensation of her dream leaving her conscious memory and knew that she had to share it before it was gone.

Bugger," she snapped as she scrambled over to Harry's desk. "I've got to tell you this or I'll forget. Just — don't look at my arse, alright?"

"No promises."

She leaned over a bit, yanking down the shirt so she was sure it covered what it needed to, and then began to point things out on the schematic of the building that Harry had open on his computer, indicating where she suspected the tunnels could be and how they would get in. Harry listened carefully, nodding along and asking the odd question about the idea. Together, they really set out a pretty solid plan.

"You guys could be waiting there," she explained as she reached across Harry, keeping her balance on his desk as she pointed to the far corner of the screen, "and once security is down, you'd have nearly immediate access to the right lab according to Zayn's intel and you could —"

"Oh, Jesus Christ!" Both Piper and Harry looked up at the interruption. Liam and Niall were standing in the doorway to Harry's study. Niall was laughing madly, his arms wrapped around his middle. Liam had his hands over his eyes. "Are you going to start walking around without pants all the time? Do I need to start entering every room with my eyes closed?"

"What?" Piper realized that the shirt had risen up once more, Harry being too distracted with the plan to remind her. She yanked it down quickly. "For fuck's sake, Niall, stop laughing!"

"My life was so boring before you showed up," Niall told her as he wiped tears from his eyes, a stupid grin still stretched over his face. Considering he was in the army before she showed up in his life, that was saying something.