Harry´s POV:

“I think I should become a stripper since even yourself said that I can twerke better than Miley Cyrus!”, I shouted from the bath over to our bedroom.

I waited for an answer, but I did not got one so I assumed she had earphones in and listened to a Parachute song, so I left it alone.

Therefore stripped myself out to my boxers and brushed my teeth before I turned out the light and stepped back into our bedroom.

There I found the real answer why she hadn´t answered in the first place. Her body laid on our bed and she could not even had the time to undress herself before she fell asleep. Her chest rose steadily up and down and her eyelashes flickered in her sleep.

Her face was completely relaxed and she looked so young that I had the urge even more to protect her with everything I could. Her shoes laid next to the bed at least she was able to get out of them before tiredness had won the war over her body.

Carefully I tried to get her out of her clothes without waking her up, but I gave up after I had her gotten out of her pants and socks and I let her stay in her shirt since I did not wanted to risk that she would wake up because of me.

She already told me on our way home that she felt completely exhausted from the nervwrecking first day and that she felt like she could just close her eyes and drift away and now she held her promise.

Carefully I tiptoed over to our desk and I found some papers which laid on top of it. On it were only sentences and nothing which seemed to make any sense to me and I wondered what it possibly looked like in her head if this was what she got down to paper at first.

After I had put them back down I walked over to her and spread a blanket over her sleeping body before I carefully got under the sheets next to her. My arms reached out for her and I placed her in them, wondering why she fitted so perfectly in them.

Like she was just made for them. I kissed her forehead and she sighed in her sleep before she pulled in closer. Feeling comfortable I closed my eyes and felt myself drifting into sleep.

...

I woke up and knew instantly that she had left the bed since it felt cold and lonely. As I heard the toilet flushing in the bathroom I calmed down and allowed myself to close my eyes again.

She was safe and she was with me. That was all I was asking for. The first faint sun rays fell into our room and I enjoyed the warm, prickling touch of them on my face as I drifted back into sleep, hearing her making noises in the bath and knowing she would crawl back to bed with me every second.

Clary´s POV:

I took one last look at the handwritten paper I had placed on our desk.

Harry, I´m going out already. Someone from my writing course will take me and you have the day all to yourself. I´ll be back at 5pm. Can´t wait already. I love you C.

Harry still laid passed out in our bed and I leaned down to give him a kiss on his forehead before I slipped into my converse, grabbed my rucksack and headed out of our flat.

The morning air was cold and I realized that the summer was nearly over already. Where did all this time go?

I plugged my earphones into my phone and started to play my favorite song at this moment as I started walking the same route I went so many times before.

As the sign came into my sight my inside cheered somehow, I really liked being here. However I also felt like I could throw up right in front of it. My stomach went crazy when I was nervous and right now I was.

The familiar sound of the bell over the front door welcomed me and I saw a girl, standing behind the counter.

She was new to me and she looked a little bit to skinny, standing there and putting the cupcakes into the provided shelves. Awkwardly I cleared my throat and she turned to face me.

“Can I help you somehow?”, she asked and sounded a little bit bitchy since they hadn´t even officially opened yet.

“Uhm, yeah. Is Zayn already here?”, I asked her and hoped that he would be.

“He arrived ten minutes ago”, she said and raised her eyebrows, clearly curious why I showed up here at that time of the day.

“Can you tell him that Clary is here and she wants to talk to him?”, I questioned and she nodded after some seconds.

“Just wait here”, she ordered and I didn´t thought about going anywhere else. The minutes felt like hours and I thought he really didn´t wanted to see me.

Just the moment I wanted to turn and leave again, seeing no hope they walked out of the kitchen. He looked better than the last time I had seen him, even though he still had dark circles under his eyes and his beard seemed to gotten the power over his face. Didn´t he knew what a shaver was?

There was no emotion in his face all I could see was the dark sparkle in his eyes. The girl followed him and nearly bumped into him as he stopped some meters away from me.

“Hey”, I greeted him, unsure what to do. My mind had already played through this situation so many times, but somehow none of them worked out right now.

“Amanda, may you please take care of the rolls in the kitchen? They really need to get into the oven”, he instructed her.

I thought she would´t go because she made an unhappy face, but surprisingly agreed in the end. After we were both alone he sighed deeply.

“You really give a fuck to text messages, telling you to not do certain things, don´t you?” His words were supposed to be rude, but his voice wasn´t. All he sounded like was tired and exhausted.

“I thought I just play my annoying dwarf role and pretend that I haven´t read it”, I said and waited for his reaction. His edge of his mouth flickered and I knew he tried to hide a smile.

“The dwarf who´s annoying? Kind of fits”, he said and I gave him an apologizing look.

“I´m so happy you´re talking to me”, I admitted.

“Why are you here?”, he asked and didn´t responded to my statement.

“Finished school and now I´m visiting this writers workshop slash college and that´s the reason why I´m back”, I told him and he kind of gave me a puzzled look.

“No, I actually meant why you are here with me right now.” Oh.

“We became friends in less than two weeks and I think that´s a record because normally I need like half a year to catch up with new people. I miss talking to you and being silly or silent with you.”

“You were my best friend I had in the past few years of my life, Clary”, he said and I sighed.

Rejecting him still seemed better to him than hanging out with his dorky, asshole friends from Bradford. They must have been really bad.

“Zayn, I can´t...”, I needed some breaths to finish, “...can´t tell you what you probably like to hear. All I can offer to you is...my friendship.” My eyes went everywhere in the bakery except his ones.

“I remember the detail with the ring again”, he surprisingly replied and I looked down to the silver sparkle on my finger.

“And what do you think about it in your sober state?”, I asked him and tried to get ready for every possible answer he could give me.

“That you´re kind of glowing and that I missed you no matter what. I want you to be happy.”

“Thank you”, I breathed and I felt tears coming up and one slowly dropped over my cheek.

“Why are you crying?”, his voice was panicky and I wondered why boys always got so scared and taken by surprise when a girl started to cry.

“I´m just so relieved you decided to talk to me”, I let him know and more surprisingly was that he stepped closer and pulled me in a hug. Thankfully I wrapped my arms around his neck and enjoyed the moment.

“So, we´re good?”, I asked and his eyes went sad for a second and I knew that this wasn´t what he wanted. But then I could see that he decided that it was at least better than nothing.

“We´re good, Clary”, he agreed and I gave him a thankful smile which he replied.

“When can we see each other then?”, I asked and he curled his lip as he thought about it.

“Do you remember that I sent this drawings to this competition?”, he suddenly asked and I nodded. It had been our official goodbye before he showed up the next day at my barbecue with friends and kissed me.

“They were chosen for an advert for perfume”, he said and I widened my eyes in surprise.

“Oh my God Zayn that´s great!” He smiled uncomfortable and again I realized how much I had missed his cuteness about compliments.

“Well on Friday there´s this press thing for it and I thought you probably like to come with me?”, he questioned me and I gave him a big smile.

“I´d love to!”, I laughed and hugged him again.

“I´ll pick you up at eight?”, he asked and I agreed.

“I´ll love to chat with you way longer, but as you know the cupcakes don´t make them by itself, so...”, he apologized.

“Oh, sure. I have to go as well, my teacher hates me already even without crashing his course”, I told him and he gave me a big smile as I turned to walk away.

“Zayn?”, I asked before I finally stepped out. He still stood at the same spot I left him and he furrowed his eyebrows at me.

“I´ve missed you”, I said and he gave me another smile.

“Same here.” With that I left the bakery and found myself grinning all over my face.

Harry´s POV:

As I woke up the bed next to me was still empty and I pointed ears to the shower or the tap in the bath, but everything stayed quiet.

Tired I sat up and my eyes fell on the clock next to our bed. Damn it, it was already half past eight. Clary should be at her workshop already, but I slept in.

Quickly I got up and called her name, but I still didn´t got any response. Before I already freaked out I saw the note on our desk.

Harry, I´m going out already. Someone from my writing course will take me and you have the day all to yourself. I´ll be back at 5pm. Can´t wait already. I love you C.

Someone will take her? She didn´t even told me that she already met someone and since I knew Clary I never thought she would have made friends already.

Speaking to new people was always a big challenge for her and she seemed kind of shy and closed at first. That was the moment I realized I had nothing to do all day.

No college, no school, no job, nothing for a living. Frustrated I stepped into the shower and I could still smell the scent of her shampoo in the air and missed her already.

I had looked forward to taking her to her workshop since it had been the only thing I had to do today, but now all I had to was trying to figure out what I really wanted.

After I got dressed I grabbed my phone and got out of the flat. I just needed some fresh air to fill my lungs and provide my body with oxygen to help me think clearly.

Once I had my earphones in I wandered along the streets and ended surprisingly up at the time-out. My eyes blinked over to the sign over the door and I was remembered of a lot memories I connected with this place.

Work, sleepy mornings, Clary, kisses, more kisses and then again Clary. Before I knew what I was doing I stepped in and found Zayn behind the counter.

He looked sternly as he tried to focus on some woman who had a really bad accent and I tried to figure out where she could come from. Maybe Russia?

His look was desperate and he turned to ask somebody else for help, but the bakery was freaking crowded and all the other staff member were clearly busy with something else.

“May I step in here?”, I asked her, but actually my question was pointed to Zayn to ask for his permission. He didn´t answered and I took this as a no from him.

After a while we finally had found out that the older lady wanted two cinnamon buns, three blueberry muffins and a piece of cheesecake.

Necessary had been a lot of inquiring and lip reading, but some time later she left the bakery with her bags filled with warm pastries and we both breathed out in relief.

“That had been quiet difficult”, I said to him and he nodded in agreement.

“Not the first challenging customer today”, he told me and I realized the blue circles under his eyes. His whole appearance was not much more than exhaustion and tiredness and I wondered why he seemed to do so bad.

“Are you okay?”, I asked him and the moment the words left my lips I knew how inappropriate the question was.

“Harry?”, I heard a familiar voice squeeze behind me and I turned to face Diane.

“It´s really you!”, she laughed and pulled him in a hug. “It´s really me”, he grinned and she got out of their hug.

“You don´t have some free time to help out this morning? It´s just so much to do”, she sighed and I was already about to refuse before I thought I could help here instead of wandering around, breaking my mind over something to do in the future.

“Sure, yeah. I mean, I´d like to”, I answered and she gave me a thankful smile.

Zayn´s smile behind the counter wasn´t that enthusiastic and I just hoped we both would make it out alive at the end of the shift.

Notes

I wish you all Merry Christmas, a lot of presents, time with your families and a god time with hoefully loads of food!

Thanks to every single one of you who reads this story and supports me so much. I seriously love you all! xx