Life Is What You Bake It // A Harry Styles AU

Chapter 1 - Christmas Holidays, Week 2

Adele shrugs, pushing away from the counter she'd been leaning against to move around Harry, unable to look him in the eye. "Not much we can do about it."

Harry frowns. "Oi," he snatches her wrist, eyes worrying over her. And then he notices it. "Why are you all pink-cheeked?"

"M'not." She mumbles as she tries to pull out of his hold.

"Yes you are." He says over a laugh, pinching her cheek to urge her eyes back to his. "What's going on, sweet cheeks?"

"Nothing. Was just daydreaming when Mandy came in and I don't think I heard her the first time and I'm just a bit embarrassed, alright?"

"Adele," Harry chuckles around her name, "what were you daydreaming about?"

"Nothing important." She insists, wandering away from him, now with pinker cheeks and a soft frown.

"Don't lie to me." He's still laughing, and that's what's irritating her the most. He follows her from the kitchen where she slips down the narrow stairs into the cellar. "Y'haven't finished your sandwich."

"Guests come first, apparently." She calls dully over her shoulder, heading straight to the back of the low room where Anne keeps all of her wine in neatly arranged bins and boxes. She collects a box of cava off the top, grunting with it and turning to Harry again. "Make yourself useful."

He scoffs loudly, dramatically, and puts the box right back where she took it from. "No, you're avoiding something and I want you to tell me what it is." He demands. "What were you daydreaming about that made you blush so much?"

"Nothing."

"That's bullshit and you know it." He smirks, placing his hands on her hips and calmly pulling her towards him. "Won't tease y'if it were about me."

"You're already teasing me, you arse!"

"Come on, Ads! Tell me."

"No!"

He lowers his head when she turns away, still scowling. "Was it sexual?" He asks in a low, sultry voice.

He knows she gets giddy when he talks to her like that, which is why her response is broken and croaky. "No."

Harry barks a laugh. "That means 'yes'."

"It wasn't."

"Stop being so stubborn and tell me what I was doing to get you so hot under the collar."

"Fuck off, Harry!" She whines, smacking his shoulder with way less force than she wanted to.

"Hey!" He drops his hold on her waist with a soft frown, taking a step backwards. "There's no need to get aggressive."

"Stop it, then!"

"You must've been imagining something really dirty if you're getting this defensive over it." He muses, leaning against the nearest shelf with his arms folded as he watches her pick up the box he'd not long put down.

"I swear to God, Harry, if you carry on winding me up, you'll never see me again."

"Woah! Now that's a bit dramatic, sweet cheeks." He scrambles back towards her, taking the box out of her hold after he's pressed an innocent kiss to her cheek. "I just want to know what's going on inside that head of yours, so we can work on it."

"Taking the piss out of me having explicit thoughts is not the way to do it, dickhead."

His mouth drops, eyes light and amused. "So it was sexual?"

"Oh," she smacks the back of her hand to his arm, "piss off."

Harry cackles. "Eh, if you tell me what it was later, then we might be able to do something about it..."