just watched harry's football injury vlog and !! old wroetostar makes me so softtttt so i thought i'd write a quick one, cannot guarantee any of the facts are completely accurate since i don't know them in person and am not up to date with their lives
i said 'quick' but it ended up being 1879 words lol oops
"Hello!" Harry said as he walked towards the entrance of the pitch, his face brightening as he spotted the boy walking towards him, clad in his favourite Primark hoodie and clearly mid-vlog as well, judging by the phone he held in the air, the back of the case emblazoned with his red-and-blue logo.
"Hello hi!" Vik replied, grinning back. "You exist!"
"YAY!" Harry exclaimed, walking closer and closer until their phones collided. Cheeks hurting from the force of his smile, he stopped filming and pulled Vik into a hug, the smaller boy tilting his head downwards slightly to press the side of his face against Harry's neck.
The two of them video-called at least once a week and texted every day without fail, but there was nothing quite like seeing your favourite person in real life, feeling their skin against yours, their warmth in your arms. He closed his eyes and pressed a fleeting kiss to Vik's forehead before the shouts of the other boys forced them to break apart.
Harry's fingers itched to intertwine with Vik's as they walked over to join the group, but he settled for sticking so close to his side that their shoulders touched with every step and brushing the backs of their hands together before he split off to greet the rest of the gathered YouTubers he hadn't seen in person in a while.
From the moment they met, Harry had felt an inexplicable pull towards Vik. At first, he explained it away with them being the two youngest and Vik being the closest to him in age, but after months of catching himself staring at Vik's face, admiring his features, and craving the sound of his voice, he could no longer keep denying the truth of his feelings.
A few Google searches, awkward quizzes, and heartfelt conversations with his family later, Harry was officially bisexual and had a raging crush on his best friend. Given his romantic history consisted of a week-long middle school when he was eight and a few fumbling months with Katie that had fizzled out before it had the chance to go anywhere, he'd had no idea what to do. And that was all before he factored in the problem of Vik potentially not being interested in men.
His solution was to ignore the aforementioned raging crush on Vik and go ahead and announce his discovery to the boys. Rejection had never been a consideration of his - despite their jokes and banter, he knew none of them were homophobic and they wouldn't treat him any different - so he hadn't seen any point in delaying the inevitable.
During a routine trip to Nandos, Harry stood up, said "By the way, I'm bisexual," sat down, and stole a piece of chicken from Ethan's plate.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected Vik to stand up after the frenzy and outpouring of support had died down and say, "Me too." Harry had choked on a bone and descended into a coughing fit, hacking his lungs out before joining the others in their uproar.
Vik's casual declaration following his own had solved that part of the problem, but the issue still remained that the other boy probably wasn't interested in him. Harry fretted about it for months, overthinking every interaction they had and convincing himself that Vik could never look at him that way. For all his loud, fearless energy, his social skills had always suffered from nerves and anxiety.
It all came to a head when the two of them were on a video call in the dead of night - something they had found themselves doing increasingly often, though he told himself it was purely platonic. During a rare lull in the conversation, Vik had sighed, stared at him straight in the eyes, and said, "Harry, I like you."
His response was, of course, incredibly eloquent and intelligent. "I-uh-um-yeah-of course you do, Vik, we're friends," complete with a crackling voice break.
"No, Harry, I like you," Vik said, lips pressed into a thin line. "I thought I was being pretty obvious, but I guess not." He sighed. "It's okay if you don't like me, but I hope we can still be friends."
"Huh -wait, hold on," Harry flailed, waving his hands frantically in the air. "I like you, Vik! Like, like like you. Jeez, that's a lot of likes."
Vik chuckled. "Of course you do, Harry, we're friends," he grinned. Harry gave an indignant screech, and they continued conversing as normal until a few too many wide yawns forced them to hang up, only Harry had a smile permanently stuck on his face, and so did Vik.
The next morning, Harry woke up to a text.
vik⭐
The next time you're in London, do you want to go on a date with me?
me
I'd love to
Their first date was at Nandos, because of course it was. The fact that it was Nandos also made it easy to explain to their friends in a platonic manner, as well as any fans who might spot them or post about them on social media, compared to some high-class restaurant. They didn't need a fancy spot anyway.
They went to Nandos. They ordered their usuals, stole food off each other's plates when the other boy pretended to not be paying attention, and laughed so hard their chests hurt and their cheeks were tinted red (well, Harry's were, curse his pale skin). Nothing much had changed from their usual dynamic, only their hands were joined underneath the table, and Harry didn't hide how much he stared at Vik's face, and just before Vik returned to the Sidemen house, he ran back, tapped on the window until Harry rolled it down, and kissed him.
It had been three, nearly four months since their first date, and though Harry had privately harboured fears of their relationship dying out like him and Katie's had, those fears proved unfounded. The distance didn't stop them, either. They talked constantly, they went on dates whenever they were in the same city for long enough, and they fought over stupid stuff like normal couples did - what movie to watch, what food to get, what videos to post. They had also agreed not to tell anyone but their families, not wanting to risk messing up their friend group in case they didn't last.
Harry had realised a month after they started dating that he was in love with Vik. It had been a very abrupt awakening at first - he woke up one morning, read Vik's standard Good morning Harry 💙 and thought wow, I love him - shit, I LOVE HIM - but after the initial freakout, he calmed down enough to understand that he had been falling in love with Vik ever since he met him, that the sleepy, instinctive thought had not been a sudden drop but instead the end of a slope he had always been sliding down.
He kept meaning to say it to him, but something always got in the way, be it one of the other boys interrupting them, or something pulling Vik away from the call, or his own worries freezing up his fingers before they could type out the sentence. Everything felt painfully inadequate for the big confession.
After all, Vik was it for him. There would be no one after Vik, because there wouldn't need to be. He was only 18, but he just knew. His whole life he hadn't believed in soulmates, but that had changed after he found his soulmate in the shape of a short boy with a smile brighter than all the stars in the universe put together.
They were going to be forever, and so Harry needed to get it right.
After filming his and Simon's videos at the pitch (poor Lewis), he and Vik broke off to go to a nearby playground during an intermission. They got a few looks from the guys, but everyone had grown used to their closeness over the months, so everyone did their own thing while the two of them walked off.
Harry immediately ran towards the black single-chained swing, Vik just behind him. "Are you recording?" he asked, glancing backwards.
"Yeah," Vik said, phone held up.
Without further ado, Harry jumped onto it, wrapping his hands around the base of the chain and hooking his legs around, dropping down so that he was snugly on the seat. He let himself swing back and forth for a few moments, cold air smacking him in the face and threading through his hair, before he got an idea.
"Oh no," Vik said as he jumped off and started running again, pausing at the top of a small hill and turning around. "Oh no," he repeated as Harry bent his knees, slapped his hands against his thighs, and set off, jumping and grabbing hold of the swing as it was propelled into the air.
They messed around at the playground for a little while longer, making sure to film clips of it while also having some off-camera fun.
"Come on, Vik," Harry said, one hand clutching his phone and the other hanging onto the rope. Vik made an unintelligible sound behind him as he lunged for another bit of rope, slowly but surely making his way up. "We've got this!"
The two of them both managed to make it up eventually, though Harry got there first, spinning around to get a shot of the whole playground and then sliding down the pole back to the ground just as Vik got to the top.
Harry held his phone at the ready, videoing Vik's descent with a wide grin on his face.
"For the unpaid workers!" Vik cried out, wrapping his limbs around the pole and slowly sliding down. It was so incredibly Vik that Harry couldn't help but smile even wider, his whole body flooded with affectionate warmth as he cheered.
"I love you so much," Harry said, shaking his head and laughing as Vik reached the bottom. It felt so natural as it slipped out of his lips - after all, he had been saying it in his head for months already. In fact, he didn't realise what exactly he said until Vik froze up and fumbled his phone, nearly dropping it.
"What did you just say?" Vik breathed.
Harry froze, a hot flush creeping down his neck as it dawned on him. "I love you so much," he repeated, and with every cell in his body, he meant it.
Vik stared at him for a few moments before he started laughing. "I can't believe you picked now to say it," he said.
"Neither can I," Harry admitted. "I had so many plans and ideas. I wanted it to be special." His hand came up to scratch the side of his chest nervously.
Vik shook his head, soft smile adorning his face. "Well, it was special," he said. "I love you too."
For once, Harry didn't care that they were in public, that someone could see them. He closed the distance between them with a few swift steps, tilted his head down just as Vik tilted his head up, and brought their lips together.
(He realised after he got home that his phone had been filming the entire thing. Most of it was cut, but he kept the initial confession in the video.)