✰seven; shower sing-alongs
❂
Niall decides to ring his mom since he hasn't heard from her in a while. She probably doesn't even know that he's stuck in a blizzard at the moment.
She answers on the third ring, "My boy, how are you?"
"Ma! I'm good, I'm actually stuck indoors due to a blizzard right now but I'm with Harry because I came to visit him since we haven't seen each other in a while and what do ya know, we get stuck inside together." Niall says.
"Oh wow, fate has a funny way of working, doesn't it? Well I'm glad you're doing well. Your dad's upset because his footie team is losing right now, you might even be able to hear him cursing at the television. Anyway, how have you been keeping yourself occupied?"
"Well Harry insisted I dye my hair brown, so I'm not a blondie anymore. We baked some cookies with Harry's older neighbor and we also played scrabble but neither of us really won." Niall lists, thinking back to each memory.
Maura laughs, "Sounds like you're having a lovely time. Well I have to finish cooking dinner but text me when the blizzard dies down."
"Alright, will do. Bye ma, love you." Niall dismisses.
"Love you too, sweetie." And after that, he hangs up.
Once he locks his phone, he glances around to find where Harry wandered off to and sees that he's in the kitchen, laughing. He walks over to him and brings an arm around Harry's shoulder.
"Put her on speaker phone, I wanna talk to her." Niall commands.
Harry obeys and places his the call on speaker, "Hey mum, Niall wants to say hi."
"Hey Anne! How have you been?" Niall speaks.
"I've been good, catching up on reading. What about you? What have you been up to?"
"Well I'm a brunette now, your son insisted that I dye my hair." Niall mentions.
"Harry was just telling me about that, silly boys you two are."
Niall began catching up with Harry's mother, he was always close with her whenever he visited Holmes Chapel with Harry. He had actually been over there a few times, and once he brought back his mum to visit. Anne and Maura are quite good friends now because of them. As they ran out of things to talk about, Harry eventually ended the call and promised to text her later. Niall said goodbye loudly into the speaker accidentally, causing Anne to flinch and yell at the boy but it was okay, Niall was like family to them.
Harry locked his phone and slid it back into his pocket, looking over at Niall. He still wore Harry's clothing and he honestly looked quite fine in it. It wasn't as extravagant as the last outfits, which is what Niall prefered. Harry simply enjoyed fancy and trendy clothes, who can blame him?
"What're ya staring at?" Niall asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"A gorgeous man in my kitchen," Harry replied, casually.
"Oh you're just saying that because I'm wearing your clothing." He denied.
Harry laughed and shook his head, "That's where you're wrong my friend. You actually look quite ravishing in general, whether or not you're in my clothes."
The atmosphere had changed, it wasn't anything too drastic and it definitely wasn't bad but Niall couldn't help but start to feel something gathering tightly in his chest. He was very flattered but he still felt as if Harry was just saying it to be nice.
"You honestly can't mean that, last I checked my hair was sticking up in every which way and I'm ninety-nine percent sure I put the shirt on backwards." Niall resisted his compliment still.
Harry rolled his eyes, he always knew his friend was bad at taking compliments but he sincerely wanted him to know that it was genuine. He stepped forward, close enough to Niall that he grabbed at his shoulders.
"Hey, as messy as your hair may be and even if your shirt is on backwards, it only adds to your charming appearance. I wouldn't change a thing about you." Harry says.
"Except my hair... you changed my hair." Niall laughs.
"Okay, yes but that's beside the point. Just take my compliment, Niall, it's genuine." Harry demands.
Harry has still kept his hands on Niall shoulders, thumbing at the collar of the flannel he's wearing. His gaze is locked on Niall's face, awaiting his response because for heaven's sake all he wanted was for him to realize his beauty.
"Thank you, Harry." He says, softly.
Not knowing how much for of intense eye contact he could handle before it got awkward, Niall felt like a hug seemed appropriate. He moved closer to Harry and wrapped his arms around his neck gently, pressing his nose into Harry's chest comfortably. They didn't remain in the embrace for too long, maybe half a minute before they loosened their hold from each other.
"I'm going to take a shower, you can take one after me if you want." Harry said, smiling as he walked away.
Niall was left utterly confused. Out of all the times he had denied a compliment from Harry, this is the first he said anything about it. Every other time he would brush it off and go along like it didn't happened. It made Niall question as to why he wanted him to take it without rejecting it. Realizing he was probably just over analyzing it, he decided to go into Harry's room again.
He did think it was a good idea to take a shower since it's been a few days without one. It's not like they really had a reason to though, they hadn't done any strenuous activities to build up a sweat unless you include the scrabble fight. Other than that, they had been pretty lazy.
Once he arrived in Harry's room, he discarded the flannel carelessly onto the bed and scavenged through the closest once more. He wanted an idea of what he would wear before he took a shower. His eyes landed on a pair of folded navy blue sweats and a white jumper. Niall also grabbed a pair of briefs, not like Harry would care anyways.
Niall laid the clothes on the bed and after leaving the closet he was in earshot of Harry's singing. He was belting out the lyrics to an Ed Sheeran song off his new album. He turned the doorknob to the bathroom, finding it unlocked.
"So don't call me baby unless you mean it..." Harry sung from behind the shower curtain.
"...Don't tell me you don't need me if you don't believe it." Niall sang the next verse, startling Harry slightly.
They begin alternating verses between each other and then Niall decided to brush his teeth, still trying to mumble the lyrics with a toothbrush in his mouth.
After brushing his teeth, Niall took advantage of the foggy mirror and wrote a message with his finger. Just as he finished writing, the shower turned off and Harry stepped out with a towel around his waist and very disheveled, wet hair.
Niall glanced over and he really didn't know why he found his heart pumping faster. He had seen his friend fresh out of the shower plenty of times in the past, yet this time he felt different. The heat in the bathroom smothering them did not help in the slightest.
Water beads fell down Harry's toned chest and down to the towel. Niall quickly averted his gaze, pretending to look for another towel for himself.
Harry smirks, "The towels are in the right side of the cabinet."
"Oh? Huh, thanks." Niall stuttered, trying to make a comeback from whatever just happened.
"Niall was here," Harry read from the mirror, "Wow, how clever."
Niall chuckled, grabbing the towel from its placement that Harry had given directions to.
Harry soon left the tiny area of the bathroom, giving Niall the opportunity to strip and get in the shower himself.
Halfway through his shower, he heard Harry enter and an electric toothbrush turn on. He tried to not think about the fact that he was only a few feet away from his friend while he was naked. Yeah, he definitely didn't think about that, ha. After rinsing the conditioner from his hair, he grabbed the towel he placed on the railing of the shower and wrapped it around his waist.
Stepping out, he noticed Harry wearing the clothes he had set out for himself.
"You know I set those clothes out for myself, not you." Niall stated.
Harry looked over from cleaning his ears, "Oh you did? What a shame, too bad they're mine and I don't care."
Niall shook his head in annoyance, "Guess I'll have to dig through your clothes again."
Harry didn't make another comment, rather he stared at Niall through the mirror and pretended to be busy brushing his hair.
Niall felt his gaze as he walked out of the bathroom and into his room once again. He picked out an identical pair of clothing to what he had chosen earlier and dressed swiftly.
Afterwards, he went into the living room where he saw Harry lying on the couch. Since leaving the apartment isn't an option, there really isn't much to do. The best choice is really just to take the time to be lazy and watch tv and movies. Niall joins Harry under the blanket he has and leans his head on his friend's shoulder. That's how they spent the rest of the night.