I awoke slowly to the sound of rustling, followed by a bang and a grumble of profanities. I bit back my smile, fully aware even in my haze of a sleep deprived mind that Harry was trying to be quiet but must of hit his leg in the process of trying to sneak around. I nuzzled my head back into the pillow before opening my eyes slowly.
I was greeted by the soft glow of the rising sun on my back, and a pretty looking boy seated on his desk chair. I felt as if my heart melted on the spot. Harry's hair was damp, so I assumed he had gone for a shower whilst I had been asleep, now seated on his chair in a pair of loose sweats and an oversized jumper. He looked soft, and it made me smile up at him.
I curled his duvet around my body, almost forgetting I had fallen asleep naked last night. "Good morning," I breathed.
He bit his lip as he stared at me, a soft smile playing at his lips. "Morning," he greeted quietly. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"
I shook my head, turning to lie on my side as I stared up at him. He was honestly such a pretty thing to wake up to in the mornings. "It's alright. I think I needed to get up anyway. What are you doing?"
"Lou has an assessment for me today," he said regrettably, shaking his head. "Because of my injuries, he doesn't want me on the field as yet."
"Oh," I mumbled. The as yet rattled in my brain, and the idea of Harry working on the field didn't settle with me right. I did my best to ignore it worries that grew inside of me. "Are you already working with him?"
"Technically," he said with a shrug. He leaned back on the chair as he powered up the multiple screens in his bedroom. He turned to me as he waited. "Are you hungry?"
I shook my head. "Nah, I'm okay. Are you working all day today?"
"There's no real end time. It's just whenever the...event ends." He didn't look happy as he said it, and as much as I would of preferred to have him in bed with me for the entire day, I knew he had to work.
Covering my body with his duvet, I stood as I tried to search for my clothes, not wanting to stay naked for too much much longer.
"Here," Harry said, getting to his feet quickly when he realised what I was doing. He offered me a shirt from his closet, looking almost shy as he provided me with it.
I couldn't help the blush that coated my cheeks when he handed it to me. I happily took it from his fingers, slipping it over my head. The simple black shirt reached my thighs, and I smiled at the faded smell of his cologne on it.
"Thank you," I mumbled to him, putting his duvet back on his bed.
Harry's eyes filtered down my body. "You look good," he commented, offering me a smile. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," I mumbled. I reached out to touch his chest, playing with the string of his jumper. "How are you feeling?"
Fingers reached out for my waist, humming under his breath as he tugged me closer to his warm body. "I'm good, great even."
I gave the string a playful tug, and smiled up at the man in front of me. He looked so warm, so happy. I wanted to see him like this every day. "Good, I'm happy about that."
"I have to start watching the monitors, but make yourself at home, okay? Shower, eat, whatever you want."
Harry hesitated for a moment, but leaned forward to press a kiss against my forehead. My heart fluttered a the gesture.
Make yourself at home.
An hour later, I was showered, still dressed in Harry's shirt despite having my own clothes tucked away in my bag. I was feeling a lot more relaxed than I should of, given the current circumstances, but I wasn't about to complain about it.
I was digging through my bag that I had brought on our trip in search of underwear when I found the crinkled envelope at the bottom of the bag. It made me freeze in my movements, staring down at it as if it was about to bite my hand of. I frowned. It was a reminder that this wasn't suppose to be a trip to form some sort of relationship with Harry. It was a forced trip, one that I should be escaping given that I was now back where I belonged.
I sighed as I held it, contemplating what I was do with it before shaking my head and tucking it away for now. I told myself I'd let myself think about that a bit later. Not now. Not after last night. Not after how amazing it was.
I pulled a pair of clean underwear on, thankful that Harry's door was shut and he couldn't see me changing into them in the middle of his lounge room, before grabbing the cup of coffee I had made.
Harry's position hadn't changed since I had left. He was hunched over his chair, his eyes darting between all of the monitors. He barely glanced in my direction as I walked back in, and I felt oddly intrusive doing so. I felt like this wasn't suppose to be something I was seeing.
"Am I allowed to be in here?" I asked, awkwardly standing in the doorframe. I kept my eyes on him, forcing myself to look away from the screens in case the answer was no.
He pulled his eyes away from the screens for a quick second, the crease between his eyebrows fading slightly as he looked at me. "Of course you are," he told me softly, shaking his head as he chuckled.
I couldn't help but smile. I wondered if this meant he trusted me fully now. Padding my way towards him, I sat the coffee cup down, careful not to put it anywhere near the keyboard in case it was to spill over.
"I brought you coffee," I muttered sheepishly. "I didn't know if you already had one, but I'd assume since you-,"
"Thank you," Harry interrupted, reaching out to touch my hand to stop my rambling. "I appreciate it, Soph."
His smile made my heart thump, and his hand wrapping around mine, pulling me down onto his lap, made it beat even faster. I let myself melt under his touch.
Despite the bruises and the healing scabs across his chest and face, he pulled me against his chest, hand falling on my knee as he continued to watch the monitors.
I relaxed further against him, turning my attention to the screens as well. Each screen seemed to be of a different angle, though of the same room. I narrowed my eyes as I tried to work out what was going on.
It looked like an old warehouse, to be honest. Maybe a shed. I squinted as I took in the scene in front of me. Two grown men sat behind a desk, looking absolutely petrified. Sweat mixed with blood was smeared against their faces, wide eye as they looked at the person in front of them who had both hands braced on the other end of the table.
I had to look at another screen to figure out who it was, and my eyes widened when I realised who it was. "Is that Niall?"
Harry nodded, I felt it against the base of my neck. It sent a slight shiver down my body, but I focused back on the screens.
"But there's two of them," I pointed out. "Is Niall safe there alone?"
Harry chuckled. His finger brushed my cheek as he moved to point at another screen. My gaze followed to the corner screen on the left, one that was darker than the rest. "There's guards surrounding the place. He's safe. He knows what he's doing either way though."
"What is he doing?" I questioned, frowning. There wasn't much I could pick up on other than the fact Niall seemed to be chatting to them like they were friends. The video was clear enough that I could see his smirk and his bloodied hand.
"Louis works a bit differently compared to my...old boss," Harry murmured. "He likes to get more involved with physical side of things. I use to just watch events, make sure everything was moving accordingly. Once Louis gained more power, he convinced our boss that we needed to dive into this sort of stuff. Given that we're all shifting over to work with Louis, the jobs are going to become more like that."
"Is it that easy?" I asked, biting down on my lip. "To move from one job to the other in your industry?"
Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Not exactly, but Louis is taking care of that for now."
"I don't think I want to know what exactly that means."
Harry hummed in agreement, turning his attention back onto Niall. "I don't think you do either."
I don't know why I was intrigued by what was going on in front of me, but I had a million and one questions. I leaned slightly forward to get a better look, Harry's hand sliding up slightly on my knee to rest on my thigh.
He brushed his thumb against my skin in slow circles, his mind occupied by what was happening on the screen.
It was interesting to watch Niall, with the fire behind his eyes and smirk on his lips. I had seen him mad and I had seen him livid, though it didn't compare to how he looked right now, at these men. He looked as if he had no heart, the way he slammed his fists down on the table, throwing his head back in laughter when the men jumped at it.
It was fucked up the feeling of privilege I felt when I realised I hadn't been dealt the worst end of the stick when it came to Niall's anger. He clearly was great at controlling it, or maybe I just hadn't brought out the worst side of him. Either way, I was selfishly glad I could see his anger unleash from a distance, and not be at the end of it.
"They must of done something bad," I commented absentmindedly.
"You have no idea," Harry replied with a sigh. "They deserve to rot in hell."
Though there was a part of me that wanted to know how badly these men had fucked up to have Harry say that, I couldn't bare myself to ask any further questions.
Instead, for the next half an hour, I leaned back on Harry's chest, watching what he called work, flinching each time one of the men got smacked by Niall. They seemed to be taking it, not even trying to retaliate. It made me wonder what type of power Niall also had over them.
"You okay?" Harry asked, as I jerked back from watching the screen as Nialls gun came into play. He was waving it around his head, pointing it in random directions as he did.
I blinked a couple of times before nodding, looking away. "Yeah, but I think I need some fresh air."
Harrys hand tightened around my knee, his breath fanning across my neck. "You sure you're okay?"
I nodded as I stood. I think I was okay. I wasn't too sure, but I knew I did need a bit of air to be able to process what I had been watching. It was such a strange thing, their lives.
I saw this type of stuff in movies, though never did I think I'd witness it first hand. Sure, I saw a lot of strange people walk through the doors when at Midnight Blues, and I heard stories but nothing could compare to the real thing and actually watching it. It felt so surreal.
I found myself walking back out onto the balcony, getting touched by the soft morning breeze. I leaned against the railing, finding myself watching the hustle and bustle of the city below. How different everything looked in the morning. It wasn't as majestic as it was at night. The romanticised version of Las Vegas only bled in the night. When the morning came, it just looked like any other city.
Though in saying that, everything felt so far away from up here. I was still in the bubble I had created. The small world that consisted of Harry and I, and was nothing more than his life in his world. I knew I would soon have to go back to my world world and pop the bubble I had been living within recently.
Harry did say he would take me home once we were back in Las Vegas, and given that everything seemed to be running smoothly for him, it might as well be time I faced the music and took a breather for myself, and walk back into the life I had pretty much forgotten on our roadtrip.
The fear of not having a job anymore lingered in my mind. I did practically leave without any warning. Given there was a block on my phone, who knew if anyone had been able to get through to me? I didn't think of what while I was away. I silently hoped that my job still remained. I didn't know how I would afford to live without it.
I must have zoned out for a while, because when Harry stepped out onto the balcony, my skin was cold to touch and he frowned at that. "You've been out here for a while, are you okay?"
I moved away from the railing and stretched, peering up at Harry as I watched him look at me within concern. He seemed to be asking me that a lot today.
He looked at me as if he had known me for a lifetime, though it had only been a few weeks, and I wasn't sure how I was suppose feel about that
"I'm fine," I told him, biting on my lip. "I just...I just think I might need to go home."
He blinked a couple of times. "Home?" He questioned, as if he was tasting the words on his tongue. Given the face he made, he didn't like it.
"I don't want to distract you from work, and I feel like I just need a bit of time for myself, we've been side by side the last few days, you know."
The words marinated in the air for a moment as Harry seemed to try and digest what I was saying. "Okay," he finally said, though a frown was settled on his face. He ran a hand through his hair, letting out a sigh. "Sure, yeah. Let me know when you're ready."
—
We left a few hours later, once Harry had finished up for the day and didn't need to be watching the monitors any longer.
A part of me wished I never suggested going to my apartment. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have walked past my car that was completely vandalised. I froze in shock as I stared at it, my eyes widening.
Leave it to the people from my shitty neighbour steal my fucking tyres. My poor car had its windows smashed in, the bonnet removed and it sat on nothing but the base of the actual car.
"How is that even possible?" I spoke, staring at in horror. "Who does that?"
Harry pressed a hand to my shoulder, an equally confused look on his face. "Don't worry about it, we'll...we'll sort it out."
He ushered me to keep moving, pulling me by my hand to keep me going. I didn't want to move, as I was unsure of how I was even suppose to react to that. It wasn't even anything special, I needed to get new tyres along with have it serviced so it shouldn't of even been a target. Hell, these people must be getting desperate.
"That's so messed up," I muttered as I begin climbing the worn out stairs. I didn't miss these things. The apartment complex seemed to have gotten even worse if that was possible. My heart was already beginning to feel heavy again.
"Desperate people," Harry said with a shrug. "It's fine though, I can help you out with finding a new car."
He said it so casually, I didn't know what to make out of it.
I frowned. I wanted to tell him I didn't have much money to my name, but that would mean admitting I had a secret envelope of cash tucked away in the suitcase he was holding for me. I was about to open my mouth to protest against his help, though all that came out was a strangled sound of panic.
My door was open. My apartment door was opened. Scratch that, my apartment door had been kicked in and was now opened.
Harrys arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me to his side when he followed my horrified gaze.
"Someone must of noticed you were gone," he muttered, though his eyes were glued on the door. "I don't think anyone would still be in there."
I swallowed, trying to think of anything valuable I might have in the apartment. "I wasn't even gone for long."
Harry gave me a look of pity. "I'm sorry, it's my fault. We'll see what's happened and then we can sort it out from there, okay?"
It was we this and we that. It was making my head spin. Since when was it we? It should just be Harry and I. Not we. We weren't the same entity. He wasn't suppose to help me.
Too frazzled to argue with him, all I could do was nod, numbly following him into my apartment to see what damage had been done. I couldn't even begin to think of how much everything was going to cost and how my landlord was going to kick my ass.
My breath hitched in my throat as I looked over everything. Mother of fuck.
It was trashed.
Completely and utterly trashed. Rubbish was thrown all over the floorboards, draws had knocked to the ground, and even my fridge had been turned on its side.
It had looked like someone had been looking for something, and what that something was, I had no idea. I didn't have anything. Whoever the intruder was should of known that from the moment they kicked down my flimsy door.
I was about to reach out for Harry for support because I thought my legs might give in, though before I could do that, the sound of the floorboards creaking in my bedroom made me freeze.
A figure slowly made their way out from my room, causing Harry to swear under his breath and my blood to feel like the fucking Arctic.
The man grinned when he saw us. He moved to sit himself on the couch, as if he'd been he a million times before. As he fucking owned the place.
There was a coldness to his grin, and it was one of warning. He looked like a walking fucking nightmare and he knew it.
"Hi Sophia. Long time no fucking see. Glad to see you got back in one piece."