One Direction: Drag Me Down
A/N: I initially wanted some sort of upload schedule but ended up deciding to update every couple of days since I've got around 30 chapters already written and I've honestly been dying to have you guys read them (so we're all caught up haha)! Anyways, I'll leave you to it, we'll talk at the end :)
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Four days really aren't as much as they seem when they're spent packing, tying up loose ends at the office, dealing with a minor lighting crisis for the tour and saying goodbye (for now) to the first place I called 'home' this side of the pond. Josh didn't have much time to help because he spent most of his days running between a couple of the Smithsonian museums and chasing Jack's tail. Their event was a whole different kind of complicated when it came to keeping it from falling apart, and I wouldn't want to be in Josh's shoes for that one. Over in California, Harry was going crazy over his own tour, something he told me usually never happened, and I was trying my best to keep him calm and not add to his mini nervous breakdowns during our calls. We even decided I'd share my thoughts on the album when I get to L.A., but he made me tell him if I liked it or not, saying he couldn't stand not knowing at least that.
"I thought I'd be helping you screw your head back on during the last couple of days, but you seem to be doing fine.", Lilian's voice broke the silence in my office that's been empty for hours, with everyone being long gone for the day. I was still finishing writing up a few contracts, organizing some of my files for the EP that will be taking over the usual clients and leaving notes for Rafael who would be joining me in L.A. for the opening night of the tour.
"You're the only one that seems to think I'm on track... honestly, I'm losing my mind bit by bit each day. There's so much to do and I can't shake this nervous feeling I get whenever I think about the first concert.", there was nobody better to talk to about jitters before big events than Lil'. The woman mastered the art of calming her nerves and not losing her shit on people that didn't do their jobs right.
"Oh that's completely normal. I remember being way worse than you right before the big night, a mixture of way too much coffee and not enough food threatened to kill me the entire first year after opening the business. Eat good foods and drink your water! You'll do fine, as I've told you countless times before, you got this!", I got up to hug her, thinking about how lucky I got with my bosses the past couple of months. Everyone was incredibly kind and caring, Bernie, Chris and the boss-lady herself. They restored my faith in humanity in the work field, one by one. Lil' sent me home to finish packing and get a good night of sleep before flying to California tomorrow. She promised to call me at least once a week and, in return, I promised not to let her down.
"Hey mister, are you feeling any better today.", I called Harry on my way home, needing to hear his voice but afraid that his stress would somehow transfer to me, at the same time.
"Honestly, not really, but as the big night gets closer, I'll be fine. What about you? Are you packed?", he wasn't very convincing, but there was nothing I could do to help him from across the country. My keys got lost at the bottom of my big bag and I almost dropped my phone while trying to fish them out.
"Man, I've got no idea what to pack for a tour. I want to take my entire wardrobe with me, but that's just impossible.", a big mess of overflowing suitcases greeted me from the living room, but I ignored them and focused on making some dinner instead.
"You should talk to Helene about that, she has a role that's similar to yours in terms of not having to perform but having to be present all the time... I can't wait to see you, though.", I couldn't really say I felt the same, since we'd be spending half of a day together before setting off on each of our tours. Coming to terms with not having a home in one place for the next three months was a bit harder than I expected and nobody really understood that. All of my friends were 'super jealous' of me getting to travel the world, none of them realizing that while they'd sleep in the same bed every night I'd be calling tour busses and hotel rooms home.
"I can't wait to be there, too.", we said bye for the night, both of us distracted by our own worries and I ate my dinner in quiet before collapsing into bed... the lack of sleep finally catching up with me.
The next morning went by in a flash, checking if I had everything I'd need and having Josh promise me he'd come out to at least one of the concerts. The airport was packed, I couldn't tell if people were going home from spring break or just taking off, but security was an absolute nightmare. I was so used to the flight to Los Angeles by now, having flown back and forth over five times since January. When I got to Harry's home it was already dark.
"Oh for fuck's sake! I will lose my shit on you if you hit my calf one more time, I swear to God.", the front door opened and I heard Harry laugh at my imaginary fight with the giant yellow suitcase, but he came over to help with all six of them, which were a hassle to get from the taxi into the house.
"Hi. How are you?", he kissed my lips and I couldn't even focus on how good he looked because every little thing agitated me.
"I'll be much better when you get me a glass of wine... I'll start on some dinner.", he quietly retreated to the wine cellar, picking out a really good shiraz and letting me chop vegetables in peace. Harry's phone rang four times in the span of ten minutes while he sat in the living room strumming on his guitar with the TV on in the background and Chris was bombarding me with messages about someone not being able to make it until the second show.
"Can you mind the sauce while I go call Chris? Harry? Hey!", he was nose deep in his notebook, which caused me to resort to more extreme measures of catching his attention.
"No need to yell, woman. It's just a sauce."
"No. It's dinner. Dinner that I'm making while you're sitting on the sofa ignoring me and...", I didn't even have time to start arguing with him because Chris called. It turned out his manager's wife was in early labor and he'd have to stay in the hospital with her for the opening night. It wasn't such a big deal since everything was already in place, but I promised to be extra attentive and report to Luke, the manager, every hour.
"Is everything okay?", Harry stood over the stove and looked at me apologetically when I got back to the kitchen and I immediately felt sorry for blowing up at him.
"Yeah, it's handled. I'm an ass, I didn't mean to yell at you, sorry.", I went over to hug him and got a bit sidetracked by his eyes in the process. He smiled goofily and made me forget I was mad at him mere five minutes ago.
"We're both a bit on edge, but we should focus on being together tonight instead of worrying about work. We're not gonna have much time to just be the two of us from now on.", he set the table while I put finishing touches on the stir-fry.
"I can't wait anymore, teacup. Tell me what you think about the record.", we were in the middle of dinner when he reminded me about our little deal. I had a sip of wine and tried to tease him with the suspense, but he looked at me all serious and annoyed so I decided it wasn't worth it.
"I loved it, the melodies and the lyrics, the rawness of some of the songs and hopefulness of others... all of it. You did amazing, babe.", he let out a sigh of relief, followed up by a big ear-to-ear smile.
"What is your favorite track?"
"I can't just pick one Harry. It's gonna be a top three situation... Golden, To Be So Lonely and Sunflower vol.6 for obvious reasons. But all of them are true works of art. I mean, Canyon Moon, TPWK and She. I'm sorry I can't pick one, it's that good.", his hopeful eyes urged me to go on about why I loved the record so much.
"Musically it's incredible, it's exactly what I talked to you about the first night here in January... You didn't put yourself in one box when it came to the melodies, you experimented and mixed and matched ones that I wouldn't generally picture together. Lyrically, it's honest and emotional but it's all very real. It's not self-pitying, which I really admire. Usually when artists write about heartbreak it tends to get a bit sappy and one-sided. You put half the blame on yourself, which took a lot of courage if you ask me."
"I could just kiss your face now. In fact, I don't know what's stopping me.", his hands were no longer busy with chopsticks and were instead cupping my cheeks. I missed his warmth and the way our lips were perfectly synchronized. It was when he did this that I could no longer rely on my brain to function properly.
"I'll clean up here and you go change into some trackies, I also left you a new hoodie on the bed. We can watch a film or a show, if you want."
"Wait, what? Trackies? What the hell are trackies?", I fought the urge to laugh out lout and point out how similar this was to the Love Actually 'Collin vs American girls: what-do-you-call-this' scene.
"Joggers, tracksuit bottoms... trackies. I forget that being European does not make you British."
Struggling to remember which of the six suitcases housed my loungewear, I almost missed the new hoodie Harry mentioned. It was a simple black one and 'TREAT PEOPLE WITH KINDNESS' was etched on the front in rainbow colored letters. I loved it. We spent the rest of the evening watching reruns of One Tree Hill, me lying between his legs on the big brown sofa and warm summer air coming in through the open doors.
"I used to love that show when I was a little girl.", I threw the remote back to the coffee table after we finished half of the first season.
"Yeah? Tell me more about the tiny version of Teacup, I want to know what you were like.", he gently removed my head from his lap and we both sat up straight to face each other.
"There's not much to tell. Only child, had a dog my entire life, not that fond of cats. We moved a couple of times so I was always the new kid in school, which helped me grow a thick skin, I think. I'm still incredibly close to my childhood best friend, she lives in London now. I don't really want to relive my teen-fangirl years of high school, though.", he poured himself another glass of wine, asking me if I wanted some too, and waiting for me to continue.
"I started learning Spanish when I was 10 years old and I wanted to study Spanish literature and culture in uni at first, but somehow ended up as a political science major... I've been to Spain so many times, I even studied abroad in Madrid for a semester.", it was always nice to remember the most incredible experience of my student life. Madrid truly was a home away from home and I was extremely excited to visit it with Harry this summer.
"So you're fluent in three languages?", he was a bit surprised by that fact, but he didn't seem intimidated by it like most people did.
"Yeah, it's very common in non-English speaking European countries, we can't rely on our mother tongue to put us on the map so we usually learn at least one world language. I used to watch a lot of telenovelas with my grandma when I was little, Spanish seemed like the most logical choice, but I fell in love with the culture and language after visiting Spain for the first time."
"It makes perfect sense; I just never really gave it a second thought because everybody can understand English. See, hanging out with you is going to turn me into a more culturally aware human.", he boasted to himself, "Tell me about your uni years, I always want to hear stories about that since I didn't go to uni myself.".
"To sum it up: a lot of political arguments, clubbing and meeting questionable characters, the infamous all-nighters and weird hookups, but all in all I really wouldn't change it. It gave structure to my life and in the end I wouldn't have grown as a person if it weren't for those five years.", he nodded, seeming intrigued by the snippets I told him.
"Questionable characters and weird hookups... do tell more teacup.", somehow, I knew he was going to insist on those aspects more than any other.
"All of my would-be relationships ended up as weird hookups and prolongated periods of intense flirting, because I bolted at any sign of feelings. This one guy, my final year of uni... I really thought he was going to be the one I'd end up dating for more than a couple months. We were so different, polar opposites. I mean he was religious; I am not. He was conservative in his political views and I'm very much liberal. Anyway we were both so afraid to feel anything that we ended up ruining our chances before we even started. We always had the stupidest arguments, we wouldn't talk for a couple of days and then we'd end up arguing over the same things again.", it felt weird telling him stories about my exes, but he didn't seem to mind... maybe because it wasn't a recent relationship.
"If I'd met you when you were like that you would've been the end of me, I promise. I can see myself falling for your charm, just a simple guy in university... you'd have gotten on my last nerve, even though I am fairly tolerant.", the last part was very true, but I just couldn't imagine meeting Harry during that period of my life. What a train wreck that would've been.
"Who's to say I'm not gonna get on your last nerve now?", I teased, but a hint of honesty evident in my question, "Touché".
We were brushing our teeth in his spacious bathroom and I looked over to him in the mirror... He'd be on stage tomorrow night, performing for thousands of people. Right now, he was just Harry brushing his teeth and applying his nightly moisturizer, next to me.
"Are you nervous for tomorrow?", we got into bed and I was afraid to ask but wanted him to talk through his nerves.
"Right now? Honestly, no... But when I get to the venue and start rehearsing it will get to me. It's a strange feeling, the album drops in half an hour and I've decided not to spend tonight online, waiting for reactions. So, tomorrow is going to be my actual first encounter with what fans think about it.", he could've spent the entire evening doing radio interviews and Instagram lives, but he chose to spend his night with me, instead.
"There's no way they won't love it as much as I did, Harry. I can't wait to see your perform it in front of them.", we turned off the lights and he pulled me closer to him.
"Thank you for being here."
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A/N: This is quite possibly one of my favorite chapters thus far, tell me if you agree :)
TPWK, always.
T.