A/N: this chapter is all fluff cause i felt bad for putting you through that emotional roller coaster. it won't last long at all though lol.
"What?" Harry breathes. His face has shock written all over it. I take a deep breath in trying to sit myself up.
"I love you too." I whisper and it happens so fast. His hands cradle my face and his lips are placed on top of mine. It takes me a minute to respond but when I do passion and urgency fill the kiss.
His tongue passes my bottom lip and I open my mouth letting him in. He slips his tongue in and we kiss like this for a while. The kiss started getting heated and I break away not ready for anything else.
"Harry, we have to stop." I whisper, breaking the silence and he hums.
"Okay, just one more kiss." He whispers in my ear.
"Missed you." he says before connecting our lips again. He pulls away with a pop and we stare into each other's eyes.
"I wish I could make you feel good, Hope. You deserve it." He whispers and I sigh.
"I know. It's just that with everything that's happened I'm going to need time." I tell him and he nods.
"You don't have to explain yourself. I'll never understand what you went through and I know that there's more that happened than what you've told me and I'll be here for you when you're ready to tell me." he whispers, stroking my cheek with his thumb. His thumb brushes over my bottom lip and I pucker my lips catching it in a kiss.
"Can you lay down with me?" I ask him and he nods his head before laying down on the bed and pulling me on his chest. It feels like nothing has changed. I know that when I tell him what happened to me things will change so I revel in the silence. Harry strokes my hair being careful of his hand placements and I smile at how careful he's being.
"You know I'm not going to break if you touch me." I tease him and he lets out a breathy chuckle.
"I know. Just want to be careful with you bubs." He responds before letting his hand fall to my hip. I let out a yawn and snuggle into his chest again. We lay in silence and just as I'm about to go to sleep he speaks up.
"When you want to, I want you to move back in." I nod my head but the worry of having another breakdown crosses my mind.
"Okay." I whisper and he strokes my hair placing a kiss to the top of my head.
"What's wrong bubs?" he asks, moving slightly to get more comfortable.
"I'm just scared of something going wrong. I've made a lot of progress and I don't want to have another breakdown." I tell him and I snuggle closer into him feeling embarrassed for admitting what I'm scared of. His fingers slip under my chin pushing it up and my eyes connect with his.
"It's okay, Hope. You probably will have another breakdown at some point because something traumatic happened to you, and I'll be there for you every step of the way." He tells me and I smile. His lips connect with mine in a slow and short kiss. He breaks away mumbling against my lips.
"And now you can't play the 'I don't love you' card." he laughs and I let out a chuckle.
"I guess I should say sorry for that."
"You don't. I understand why you did it. It was to protect yourself and I'm not happy about it but there's nothing we can do about it. It's in the past." He responds and a light smile crosses his face. I move up along his body, nuzzling my face in his neck and swinging one of my legs over his.
"Go to sleep baby." he whispers, wrapping his arms around me pulling me closer.
"Good night. I love you." I whisper back and he responds by pressing a kiss to my forehead.
"I love you more."
*******************
The past week has been amazing. It's the first of July meaning 14 days until I turn 18. Harry has been over every day and night and I think Niall is getting sick of it. Both of them have been helping me so much but I think I'm finally ready to move back in with Harry.
My body is overheating and it feels like something is on top of me. I open my eyes and see a head of curls blocking my vision. I start to squirm under him trying to get him to move, and he just latches on tighter.
"Motherfucker." I huff out, trying to release my arms.
"Harry get off." I gasp out the weight of his body on top of mine, really making it hard to breathe. He hums out a soft hmm and I'm able to free my right hand and start smacking him lightly. I land a particularly hard slap to his back and he jolts up wincing.
"Ow! What did you do that for?" he questions reaching his arm back to rub the sore spot.
"Sorry, but I couldn't breathe. You were holding onto me like a big baby." he lets out a chuckle before finally turning to me. His eyes are puffy and slightly red from sleep and his curls are all messy.
I let out a giggle flopping back down onto the bed when he crawls on top of me. His hands are by my head holding himself up. He leans down, connecting our lips for a soft and sweet kiss. He pulls back after a minute and a smile spreads across his face.
"Hi, baby." He whispers. I smile back bringing my hands up to his cheeks holding his face in my hands.
"Hi bubs." I smile back and pull his face towards mine, enveloping us in another kiss. "What time is it?" I ask him and he looks to the right at the small alarm clock.
"Just after noon." he whispers, leaning down to place another soft kiss on my lips. Small pecks are shared between us until we are interrupted by a knock on the door. Harry lets out a low groan making me giggle as he flops to my right, slinging his arm over my waist.
"Come in." He calls out and the door opens revealing Athena.
"Hey babes, how are you?" I ask her, motioning her to come closer. She closes the door and starts walking over to us plopping down on the bed next to me.
"I'm good. How are you?" she responds and I pull her down squeezing her between me and Harry. Harry shuffles a bit making room for Athena.
"What's up Athena?" Harry greets her and she smiles in response.
"I wanted to tell you about something but it has to be kept a secret." she whispers, putting her index finger up to her lips, a sign we used to do when we wanted to keep things strictly between us. I raise my finger to my lips letting out a small smile and Harry looks at us confused as we stare at him.
"What?" he asks and Athena lets out a small giggle.
"You have to put your finger up or you can't hear the secret." I tell him and he nods before moving his finger up.
"Okay spill A, what's up?" I ask and she turns away, starting to blush. "Oooo you like someone!" I nearly scream, sitting up fast as she sits up too, rapidly shushing me, swinging her arms around.
"Shhh keep it down I don't want Ni to hear!" she whisper-yells at me.
"Okay okay sorry." I raise my hands up in surrender.
"So who's the lucky boy? Or girl? I don't judge." My last comment makes Athena laugh.
"It's a boy." She giggles out and Harry quirks his eyebrow sitting up next to Athena.
"Uh oh you got Harry interested." I playfully whisper and he rolls his eyes.
"Do tell Athena. Who is this boy that's stolen your heart?" He asks and I roll my eyes at his overprotectiveness.
"I'll tell you but," she begins turning towards me, giving me a smirk. "Harry has to promise he won't do anything to said boy, no matter what." she finishes and I laugh.
"Woah hold on here I'm not making any promises."
"Then you can't know who my crush is." Athena sings out before getting ready to bounce off the bed when Harry grabs her wrist.
"Fine. I promise I won't do anything to said boy." He grumbles out.
"Good." Athena responds before plopping back down and looking at Harry who's damn near pouting.
"Okay, so what's his name and how old is he?" I ask Athena and the way her eyes light up just at the simple thought of him made my heart soar.
"His name is Theo, he's 13 an-" Athena gets cut off by Harry who is shaking his head.
"Nope, too old for you." And I roll my eyes while she objects.
"Harry, I'm 13." rolling her eyes and he's quick to respond.
"You just turned 13 a month ago."
"He turned 13 in April." She responds and he shakes his head.
"No."
"Yes." They keep going back and forth before I interrupt them by smacking my hands over their mouths.
"Both of you shut up, please. Jesus." I begin taking a breath as Harry pulls my hand down from his mouth going to speak but I cut him off.
"Harry you have no right to judge, you are a year older than me so shush." I tell him and he rolls his eyes as I drop my hand down from Athena's mouth.
"It's different." He pouts and I shake my head.
"No, it's not. You are 19. I am 17. I turn 18 in a couple of weeks. So if we want to get technical you are a year and 5 months older than me while Theo is what? A month older than her. So by your logic technically we should break up because you're older than me." I explain and I can see he's defeated but he doesn't want to give up the fight.
"I forgot you're younger than me." He grumbles and I look to Athena to see her smirking.
"Hope?" she smiles sweetly and I smile back.
"Yes, Athena."
"What's the age of consent again?" My eyes widen and Harry nearly stops breathing as we stare at her in shock. "Oh right! It's 18! Which means Harry you're in big trouble!" She smirks before bouncing off the bed and I scramble after her.
"Athena! Who taught you that!" I scream at her while Harry yells "We never fucked!" She runs out of the room when I turn around to see Harry with a smirk plastered on his face.
"Really!" I yell and he shrugs his shoulders.
"I'm just telling the truth bubs." he grins and I groan before running out after her.
"Athena! Who taught you that!" I yell bounding down the stairs seeing her in the living room running behind the couch. She points to Niall yelling back.
"He did! Even told me bout the birds and the bees!" I point at Niall who looks confused.
"Niall! What did you tell her!" He raises his hands in surrender as he gulps and I hear footsteps walking down the stairs and I realize Harry has now joined the conversation.
"Okay, but you can't kill me if I tell you." Niall says and I roll my eyes.
"Go." He speaks the fastest I've ever heard him speak blending into one big mess of Irish and I groan.
"Slower Ni!"
"Okay, Athena may or may not have walked in on Caroline and me while we were doing adult activities." His face is nearly red and I can imagine mine is redder.
"What!" I scream, lunging at him as he tries to run.
"It wasn't my fault! Caroline said she locked the door and Athena was supposed to be at school!" He yells rounding the couch so I can't get him.
"I got out early that day, dipshit!" She says and I whip my head around to see her realizing what she said.
"Language!" Niall and I both yell at her and she backs away towards Harry who is watching this encounter very amused.
"What exactly did you tell her, Niall." I say calmly and he sighs.
"I mean we gave her the talk. Which by the way was so fucking awkward. She asked her questions, and we answered them. Told her not to do anything until she was old enough, tried to bring up you and Harry. That's about it." he says and I turn to Athena who's leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.
"Why were you asking about us?" I question her and she shrugs.
"Was curious and wanted to know how innocent you were." She answers and I scoff.
"Could've just asked me my rice purity score." I laugh and throw a look at Niall who bursts out laughing.
"Oh my god, that was the best night ever." He laughs and Harry speaks up for the first time.
"Wait what's that?" He asks and we all just exchange a look.
"You've never taken the rice purity test?" I ask and he shakes his head.
"Basically it's a test to see how innocent you are. It's 100 questions and you just have to check off the boxes." Athena answers and I look at her.
"What's your score young lady?" I smirk, crossing my arms as she scoffs.
"No comment. What's yours?" she quips back.
"Don't remember, gotta retake it." I say and Niall flops onto the couch pulling out his phone.
"Let's all do it. Write down our scores and compare them all to each other." He says and we all look at each other and agree. Harry pulls his phone out of his pocket, tossing it to Niall so he can put in the correct website.
"Okay so remember, answer honestly. Check off everything you have done and Athena your score better be higher than a 90." I say and everyone nods.
After Niall and Harry finish they write down their numbers, stuffing them into their pockets before refreshing the page so Athena and I can take it. I start to fill out the questions and am debating one of them when Niall interrupts my train of thought.
"You have definitely done that, Hope check it off." and I smack his chest bringing his phone closer to me.
"No peeking!" I tell him off before adjusting my position so he can't see the screen anymore. I lift my head up to connect my eyes with Harry who's giving me a grin.
I return to the form and finish filling out the questions and writing my number down. Noticing everyone was done we pull out the numbers before nodding to Athena to go first. She opens her paper and we read her number and I look up at her in shock.
"89, not too bad." Niall says and I roll my eyes at him before pointing my finger at Athena.
"You and I are going to have a nice talk later." I tell her and Niall scoffs as I silently tell him to shut up.
"Well, what's yours then?" Athena speaks up and I unroll my paper showing the number and Niall looks at me now in shock.
"That's lower than before!" He exclaims and I shrug.
"Not by a lot."
"Uh yes, it is! Yours went from 63 to 51!" My face starts to blush and I just cover my face with my hands.
"Just show yours now please." Niall grumbles showing his paper revealing the lowest number I've ever seen.
"A 28! What the hell have you done!" I mock him and he rolls his eyes.
"I'm a man, I've got game. Besides most of the stuff on here you've never done." he explains and he nods towards Harry to open his.
"I don't wanna show mine." He grumbles holding the piece of paper to his chest.
"Nope gotta show it." I tell him getting up to grab the paper from him. He pulls back and I fumble straddling his waist as he holds the piece of paper out of my reach.
"Damn you and your long legs." I mumble and I reach up just enough to grab the paper out of his hand. He tackles me back down onto the floor and I throw the paper in the direction of Niall yelling at him to open it.
"Holy shit Harry!" Niall laughs.
"What is it?" I yell up and Harry tries to cover my ears so I won't hear the answer.
"It's a 22 babe." Niall's muffled voice travels through his hands and I begin to laugh.
"Don't you dare do it." Harry mumbles and I press my lips together trying not to burst out laughing. Harry climbs off of me helping me up and I look at him before taking a step back.
"I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22!" I sing at him and he growls chasing after me. I scream and continue running around the couch before getting to a point where the only way he can reach me is to jump over the couch.
"You're going to get it!" he yells, leaping over the couch before I could process it, throwing me over his shoulder.
"Ugh, you have to stop doing this!" I yell up at him smacking my wrists against his butt.
"Oi precious cargo there!" He yells back at me walking out the door. I notice we're in the hallway and we're heading to his apartment.
"Harry! Put me down!" I yell again feeling the blood rushing to my head. I smack his butt again and he retaliates with a quick smack to mine. I jolt at the force and he pulls me down grabbing my legs and wrapping them around his waist.
He pushes my head to the side, opening the door to his apartment before turning around and pushing me up against the door. Our faces line up and our breathing is heavy.
I have a feeling this is going to be a good night.