“Hey lovebirds,” Liam slipped into Harry’s room and nudged the door closed with his hip. “I’ve bought supplies.”
“Yay!” Niall bounced over and grabbed the paint cans that dangled from Liam’s fingers, planting a sloppy kiss on the taller boy’s cheek before scurrying back to his boyfriend. Harry happily accepted the paint can Niall dumped into his arms and Liam rolled his eyes before flopping down on the mattress in the middle of the room. The art studio – formally Harry’s bedroom – was a mess of paint splatters, shredded paper, and discarded chunks of clay, but the two boys giggling in the corner were happy and that’s all Liam really cared about. As long as Harry was happy, he was happy.
“What do you think Liam?” Niall turned to him with a grin. “Is pink Harry’s color or what?”
Liam glanced up from his phone to see his best friend smirking at him, his bare torso streaked with hot pink handprints. Liam just laughed and shook his head slightly as Niall got up on his tip-toes, pressing his lips to Harry’s and cupping the other boy’s cheek. When they pulled away a few seconds later there was a new handprint on Harry’s face, left behind by the still wet paint on Niall’s palm.
“I’m heading over to Louis’,” Liam climbed to his feet, figuring his friends could use a bit of privacy. In the two weeks since they had become official they had spent not only every minute with each other, but with Liam as well. The ten minutes it had taken Liam to walk to the hardware store and get new paint was probably the longest the two boys had spent in each other’s company without the brown eyed boy around. And Liam was pretty sure they had spent it with Harry’s mum.
Liam knew it was because Harry was afraid that if left alone with his crush he would screw things up but Liam was sure he could handle it. “Have fun lads, but keep those paint covered hands above the waist,” he teased as his hand gripped the door knob.
“No,” Harry gasped, lunging forward to stop him.
“No? Fine, below the waist fondling is all right but I don’t want to hear about it.” Liam knew what his friend really meant, but he was hoping Harry would catch the message he was trying to convey with his eyes and not do anything embarrassing in front of Niall.
“No you can’t go,” Harry pulled his hand off the door and led him back to the mattress, shoving Liam down as he glared at him. “You have to stay with us.”
“Sorry Har,” Liam stood again and ruffled the younger boy’s hair. “I promised Lou. You’ll be fine.”
“But what if I mess up?” Harry’s voice was low and broken as he followed Liam to the door. “What if I don’t know what to say when you’re not around, or don’t know what to do, or do something wrong? Or what if he just decides he doesn’t like me anymore?” The panic in Harry’s words matched that in his green eyes. “Please Liam.”
“Harry,” Liam gave his friend a quick hug. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it. Just paint.”
And then Liam was gone.
Harry stayed there, frozen as the door swung shut, leaving him alone with Niall for the first time since that night at the movies. His wide eyes were practically burning a hole in the wood, as if the answers to all his problems were gouged somewhere in the deep grain of the door.
“Harry? Everything all right?” Niall wasn’t stupid, he could sense the mood change in the room. When Liam left every ounce of fun had been sucked out of the small space and replaced with Harry’s nearly palpable panic. The boy who had been giggling happily seconds before was now a rigid statue. Niall could hear Harry taking deep breaths to calm himself and couldn’t help but smile a bit at how nervous his boyfriend was. Niall found Harry’s quirky personality absolutely adorable, but it hurt just a tad to know that the other boy still didn’t trust himself around Niall. He wondered what it would take before Harry would truly believe what Niall said, that he liked Harry for who he was and that wasn’t changing anytime soon.
“Yeah,” Harry turned around with a fake smile plastered on his face and slowly walked over to join Niall. A pout tugged on Niall’s lips when he saw that the light didn’t reach Harry’s eyes, but he decided not to dwell on it.
“So what color next?” Niall held up the paint cans. “I think this lime green will look nice with your pink handprints.”
Harry just shrugged heavily and sat down on the mattress, pulling his knees to his bare chest as he stared up at the boy in front of him. Niall was so perfect and he was just … Harry. Why hadn’t Niall left him yet? Why did he have to stick around and make Harry like him more and more? It was going to hurt too much when he left.
Niall knelt in front of Harry, tipping his boyfriend’s chin up with a delicate finger as those green eyes stared moodily back at him. “Don’t be sad, yeah?” Niall murmured gently. “We don’t need Liam. You aren’t going to mess anything up. We’ve been having fun for two weeks, nothing’s changed. I’m still Niall and you’re still Harry and I still have a massive crush on you all right? So smile for real this time.” A finger poked Harry’s cheeks, “I wanna see those dimples.”
Harry gave him a weakly forced smile but Niall shook his head, “I said real smile Har.” Niall leaned in and bumped their noses together, giving Harry an Eskimo kiss. He knew how much the other boy loved that. When he pulled back he saw that a real smile was threating to take over Harry’s face, so he tackled the other boy and sent the pair of them tumbling to the mattress. Nothing made Harry more giggly then wrestling around.
Harry was quick to oblige, letting out a tiny laugh as Niall nuzzled his face into Harry’s neck and littered the other boy’s soft skin with sloppy kisses. His long fingers tangled in Niall’s thick hair as the smaller boy quit messing around and curled up next to Harry, head resting on his bare chest. Harry continued to lazily play with his hair, lulling Niall towards sleep as a soft humming noise escaped Harry’s lips. He snuggled closer to his boyfriend, planting tiny kisses on whatever skin he could reach, and let his own noise of contentment slip from his throat.
All of the sudden Harry was very giddy and Niall’s eyes shot open when he felt the other boy’s chest vibrating underneath his body. “What’s so funny?” Niall propped himself up on an elbow so he was looking down at the green eyed boy, whose face was alive with pure joy as he laughed.
“You’re funny,” Harry beamed. “When you did that thing.” Harry suddenly made a noise that sounded somewhere between a cross of a cat meowing and a dog growling.
Niall flushed a deep pink and buried his face in Harry’s chest as Harry’s arms automatically closed around him. “Did I really make that noise?”
A nose nuzzled his hair and Niall could feel Harry’s warm breath on him as the other boy breathed out a simple, “Yes.”
“Sorry,” Niall wished the heat in his cheeks would disappear. That was such an embarrassing noise. He suddenly found himself wondering if this was how Harry felt most of the time, worried about something so miniscule.
“Don’t apologize,” Harry’s mumbled voice was rich with happiness. “It was really cute. Like a lion cub.” His voice got quieter and his next words were whispered into Niall’s thick hair, “My little lion cub.”
Niall got up on his hands and knees, bringing his face down to Harry’s as he growled playfully. Harry let out a snort of laughter and returned the growl, flipping over so he too was on his hands and knees. Their noses touched as they growled at each other, genuine happiness returning to Harry’s eyes as the two boys acted like children. They growled, chased each other around the room, and batted at the other with limp hands, until they collapsed kissing back onto the mattress.
Harry smirked against Niall’s lips, wrapping his arms tightly around his little lion and tugging him down until their bodies were flush against each other. He liked this feeling. He liked the tingling in his stomach when Niall’s skin brushed against his and he liked how he could feel the other boy’s heart beating wildly in his chest as they snogged. It felt nice. Really nice.
“Take this off,” Harry tugged impatiently at Niall’s white tee-shirt. He wanted more skin on skin contact.
Just like that the comforting weight of Niall’s body was gone and Harry felt a shiver of doubt run up his spine when he noticed that the other boy had moved to the edge of the mattress. He was staring blankly at the wall and Harry felt his throat tightening with tears. He had messed up, just like he knew he would. Liam should have never left them alone. Harry brushed roughly at his cheek and told himself not to cry. It wasn’t worth it.
“I’m sorry,” Niall muttered, head in his hands. “I’m really insecure about my body.”
Harry knew that if Liam were here the brown eyed boy would be confused, because Niall showed off his body to them in art class all the time. But Harry understood. When he was modeling, he didn’t have to be perfect. He just had to be there to draw. Sure it helped that he was attractive but Harry knew it truly didn’t matter. But here in the room with just the two of them, it obviously mattered a lot to Niall.
“It’s okay,” Harry slid over until he was sitting next to the smaller boy and allowed Niall to rest his head on Harry’s shoulder. “Sorry for pressuring you.”
“You didn’t do anything,” Niall nuzzled Harry’s cheek with his head to show the other boy that he didn’t blame him. “I just feel inferior, you know? Cause you’re so perfect and I’m just not.”
“You’re perfect to me,” Harry admitted honestly. He didn’t even have to think about it. He just said it. He’d never meant anything more in his life.
Niall stared up at him for a few seconds, a battle taking place behind his eyes, before he finally spoke. “Can I make you a deal?” Harry nodded. “I’ll take my shirt off if you stop worrying so much. Don’t think, just act. All right?” He held out a pinky finger to Harry and waited for the other boy to make his decision.
Harry hesitated, but finally his finger was wrapping around Niall’s. “Deal.”
“What’s the deal?” Niall wanted to make sure Harry fully understood.
“No more thinking, just acting.”
“Right.” Niall sealed it with a quick peck on Harry’s lips before he was slipping out of his shirt, keeping up his end of the bargain.
Harry kept up his end by pushing Niall down and crawling on top of the other boy, straddling his hips as Harry’s hands ran all over the newly exposed skin. Sure he had seen it before, but he had never seen it when Niall had wanted him to see it. And that made all the difference.
Harry was about to ask if he was allowed to kiss Niall there when he remembered no more thinking. So he attached his lips to Niall’s collarbone and hoped it was all right that he was doing so. It seemed to be, because Niall moaned a little bit and gripped Harry’s hips tightly.
When Harry was satisfied with the mark he had left there he got up off his boyfriend and stumbled to the corner of the room where he had left the paint. He grabbed a bucket of red and carried it over to Niall, dipping his finger inside and bringing the paint covered appendage to Niall’s chest. As Niall watched curiously Harry began writing something in long careful strokes on Niall’s skinny frame.
Niall tried to read the letters but Harry was pulling him up and covering his eyes as he dragged him down the hallway. Niall felt cold tile underneath his feet and knew they were in the bathroom. “Okay,” Harry peeled his hands away and Niall found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror.
Painted backwards on his stomach so it was clearly understandable in the mirrored image was one word.
Perfect.
Niall smiled and brought his hand gingerly up to the wet paint, doing his best not to smear it as he tried to figure out what the hell his emotions were doing. He wanted to laugh, burst into tears, and smile all at the same time. He settled on a choked sob before his arms were around Harry and the paint was smearing all over the other boy anyway. Harry laughed and hugged him back tightly, whispering gently in his ear, “And don’t you ever forget it.”