We fell asleep on the couch, both in various states of undress with Tangled in the DVD player. Harry’s arm was wrapped tightly around my waist, every once in a while growing a bit tighter, like even in his sleep he needed to make sure I was there.

“Shh… I think they’re sleeping,” I heard a voice say, and Harry’s body shifted around me. My eyelids fluttered, but I couldn’t bring them to open, to break the quiet serenity of this moment.

“I don’t bloody care if they’re sleeping! I’m bored and my two best entertainers are passed out on the sofa.” Clearly, it was Louis. I shut my eyes a little tighter.

El’s voice rang out in a stifled giggle. “What about Liam?” She asked, amused by her boyfriend’s antics.

Louis sighed exasperatedly, and I could almost hear his arms waving around wildly in the air as he got closer. I felt it when Harry came to, because his heart beat sped up and his breathing fell out of its slow, even tempo. He was like a human metronome when he was asleep.

“Liam and Dani were watching Toy Story for the bloody millionth time. How many times can you cry when Andy leaves his toys behind? He’s a grown lad! How is he supposed to get the fit birds at university if he has his old toys hanging over them?”

“Sentimental value?” El suggested, but Louis only huffed out some more steam. “What about Zayn or Niall?”

Louis sputtered, some weird combination of sounds to express his annoyance with the bots. “Zayn was too busy looking at himself in the mirror and texting Perrie, and Niall just kept complaining about food without actually getting up to get some, the wanker. Which leaves us exactly three options, and since we exhausted the first one,” he paused suggestively, and I could feel my own face growing red at the innuendo, I couldn’t even guess for El’s. Louis continued, chuckling to himself, satisfied, “And since Carah has busied herself with Ireland for a bit, we only have two left.” Mischievousness seeped into his voice like a veiled threat.

Harry stifled a laugh, tightening his arms around me and groaning into the back of my neck. I opened one eye and peeked out, to the see the blue eyed boy watching me with a mad grin on his face. I was slightly concerned.

“We’ve got one awake!” Louis chirped excitedly, sounding like a little boy on Christmas morning. With a groan, I rolled out of Harry’s grip and landed promptly on the floor. All the air in my lungs left in a whoosh.

El laughed. “Nice one there, Car.” She reached out her perfectly manicured hands to help me up. Lou was prodding Harry, but he only mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “Sod off” before rolling over and hugging a pillow to his bare chest.

I stood and ran a hand through my hair, raising an eyebrow at Lou and El’s matching faces. El’s was tinted with red and Louis’ eyes were anywhere but my legs. I looked down. “Oh. No pants. Forgot about that.” My faced burned like a flame. Instead of trying to wriggle back into my skinny jeans, I ran down the hall and entered Harry’s room.

Quickly, I pulled open a random drawer and slipped into a pair of sweats. I had to double up on the waist and pull the string all the way, but eventually they sat comfortably on my hips.

When I returned, the two were in the kitchen messing with some pots and pans, prepping for dinner. It was still light out, but darkening. I plopped down on the floor just in front of Harry’s face on the couch. He’d fallen back into metronome state.

I connected my lips to his, kissing him slowly until he was roused away. “That’s a nice way to wake up,” he mumbled, voice heavy.

“And it’d be nice if you got up and helped with dinner. You know I’m no good at cooking.” I smirked at him and got up leave, Harry shifting around on the couch and stretching.

I sat on a chrome stool in the fancy kitchen watching El cook up something good while Louis kept trying to distract her for ten minutes before I started to wonder what was keeping Harry.

“He probably fell back asleep, prick,” Louis said, sticking his head out of the archway to see his best friend’s limp form spread out on the couch.

Just then, I had an idea.

“You said you wanted to be entertained, right?” I asked Louis, piquing his interest. He raised an eyebrow as a devious smile spread slowly across his face.

“It sounds like you have a prank in mind, Gordon. If so, I’m in.”

El rolled her eyes at us before returning her focus to the stove, mumbling something about how pranks on Harry never went unavenged.

“Okay first,” I hopped off the stool. “Lou, I need you to get me your flat iron.” He opened his mouth to say something and act offended but I cut him off. “Don’t even try to lie and say you don’t have one, I think we both remember those X-Factor days.”

El burst out laughing, tears forming in her eyes. Louis glared at me but disappeared into the bathroom in the hall, returning a few moments later with a shiny silver flat iron with a black cord wrapped around it. I took it from him and tip-toed into the living room, plugging it into the wall and resting it on the coffee table so it could heat up.

“You’re not doing what I think you’re doing,” Louis said wide-eyed, admiration evident on his face. “Harry’s going to murder you. He never lets anyone touch his precious curls.”

I winked at him and looked at the archway. “He’ll never see it coming.”

El shut off the stove and the three of us gathered around the couch. I sat beside Harry’s head and placed it gently into my lap. A smile ghosted onto his face and we all froze for a few very long seconds, but then he passed out again.

“Lou, pass me the flat iron,” I whispered, and he placed it in my outstretched palm.

Then I set to work.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that hard to straighten Harry’s hair. I gently tugged on a curl and then passed the flat iron over it twice, and wa-la! Straight Harry Styles Hair.

I had to physically hold in laughter every time because Harry kept making noises when I tugged a piece a little too hard.

“I think he’s having a fantasy, yeah?” Louis stage-whispered, and I almost dropped the flat iron on Harry’s face I was laughing so much. El had to leave the room because her laugh was a combination between squeaking and honking, and she was knocking things on the coffee table over.

Twenty-five minutes later, Harry had beautiful nearly shoulder length brown hair. It was absolute silence when Lou took the flat iron from me, unplugged it, and left it on a corner table on the opposite side of the room. Eleanor’s light footsteps echoed on the hard wood flooring as she entered to see the final product.

It took one look between us all before we completely dissolved into uproarious laughter. Harry woke up with a jump, hair swishing all around him and falling off of my lap and onto the floor.

“What? What is it?” He repeated this phrase a few times before he noticed that more hair than usual was falling into his face. His emerald eyes widened in disbelief and surprise, and Louis snapped a picture on his phone before Harry noticed.

“You didn’t,” he breathed, holding a few strands in his hand and staring at me accusingly. I tried to stop the laughter but I couldn’t.

“Oh, we did, mate, and it was all the idea of this lovely girl you’ve got yourself here. I suggest you keep her forever,” Louis piped up, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. Eleanor was completely unresponsive, spread out on the floor and her entire body shaking with giggles

“I’m going to kill you all!” Harry shouted, only forcing us into more stomach-hurting fits of laughter. He jumped up and ran down the hall and into the bathroom. We heard the rush of water as he turned on the shower head, probably dousing himself.

The three of us managed to calm down enough before Harry returned, his hair sopping wet and returning to its natural curl. His eyes locked on me first, narrowing slightly. He approached slowly, taking me up into his arms and pressing me close to his chest. (Which was, I might add, still completely bare.)

“This was your idea, Car?” He said slowly, a smirk sliding onto his face. Droplets of water from his hair dripped onto me, creating dark spots on my shirt. I smiled.

“Yes, it was. Do you have an issue with that?” Our faces were growing steadily closer together. Any second now our lips would meet.

Harry chuckled, breath warm on my face. His eyes darkened, clouding over with lust and something else. “You know, you’re lucky I love you.” If possible, the smile on my face got wider.

“Actually, I think the correct statement is that you’re lucky that I love you.”

“Do you want to test that theory?” His eyes flickered over to Louis and Eleanor, who were slowly slinking out of the room with Cheshire-cat grins on their faces.

“Gladly.”

Notes

so here's why this one took forever and a day:

Christmas break ended up being busier than I thought

School started back up

And I have a research paper due on the fourteenth that I have only the introduction written for.

So, things will be sporadic because right after that paper, I have midterms. Lovely, isn't it?

I'm hoping to get two up by the end of this week (if I'm lucky)

Until then, comments would be nice! Happy New Year everyone!