Archive of Our Own

Eyes of Sylvan Wilderness

She sat in the dim light watching the monitors closely and noticed how her hands were getting a bit sweaty in prospect of the show. Right now, it was just Jonathan and Michael bantering away, but she knew how embarrassing Jonathan could be from working with him for a few years now and she just hoped he would stick mostly to what they had discussed in the meetings during the days before the show. She ruffled her hair nervously – which was a stupid habit of hers because it could get quite messy that way – and took a sip from her coffee. Jonathan announced the band and they switched cameras to record the performance of the boys, she relaxed a bit because there was no way Jonathan could mess up this part of the show.

They began to sing Perfect as it had been planned and she only had to tell the camera team to adjust their shots a few times because somehow camera 4 mostly focused on Harry – which was something she could understand from a personal point of view but couldn't tolerate right now.

"Karen, what the heck! I know he's cute, but you have to keep it professional", she hissed at camera 4 via her headset. "Try to not show your preference too much and focus on the other three as well, or we'll get into trouble"

"Sorry, Olive"

Just a second later she had to deal with camera 1, "Jesus, Brian, if I see such a close-up of Liam's crotch one more time, you're out! Do some wide shots if you cannot deal with half-close ups, for god's sake"

"Aw, shit, sorry"

She leaned back and enjoyed the band's performance. Perfect wasn't her favourite song on their new album, honestly, it wasn't even in the top 3, which she knew was a very unpopular opinion. But still, she once again was amazed by their beautiful voices. And although she would secretly consider herself to be a Harry-girl, she was shocked about how attractive Louis looked in the spotlights. She ran her hand over her face when she had to address camera 4 again. "Here comes Harry's solo, now is the time to do a close-up, Karen, please, what's the matter with you?"

Luckily, Karen reacted quickly – she was an excellent camera woman, but she got distracted easily when she had to shoot someone she fancied. She would have to have a word with Karen afterwards, so she would be more chill the next time. Sadly, there would not be a next time specifically with One Direction, because they were going on a hiatus soon, but there were other stars Karen fancied, and this really was a problem that they had to address. Those were the things she pondered while secretly enjoying the close-up of Harry's face. The audience would love this, of that she was sure. But the solo also meant, that the next part of the show was approaching rapidly, and a familiar uncomfortable nausea filled her stomach again. She really dreaded working with someone as unpredictable as Jonathan Ross.

They had figured out a roughly sketched script for the show, just to make sure he could not go all wrong and put the band into an uncomfortable position, but he had the tendency to kick over the traces. She tried to keep her calm now, as Jonathan was already starting to basically insult them for the laughs of the audience and she could clearly see Harry scrunching his nose – which looked very cute, but she knew from experience that he only did that when he would have liked to make any other too revealing facial expression. In this case, she could actually detect slight anger underneath his nose-scrunch. Now, she was really glad she had forced Michael McIntyre to join the show, although Jonathan had seen no reason for it, but Michael really had the talent of taking the edge out of things. Sighing with relief she watched as Niall handled Jonathan's toilet jokes with professional ease while the others smiled, and Harry even pretended to be testing if he needed to wee. A smile stole onto her lips but when she noticed it she adjusted her expression to a poker face.

Jonathan seemed to stick to the script for now when asking them what they would miss when they were on tour and what they would do after returning home. Liam talked about the fridge, which seemed to not only confuse her, but Michael as well, because he made a whole point of telling Liam about the minibar in hotel rooms. Jonathan directed the question to Louis who then said he liked to play football with his lads. She noticed how he looked friendly but not very happy, usually he was almost as cheerful as Liam. Jonathan addressed Harry and she jokingly said to camera 4 “Now’s your chance, Karen, make us proud”, to which Karen obliged happily. But no one was prepared for Harry’s answer which was “I think it’s probably sleeping in different beds, is.... Is nice when you’re home for a while”

She saw confused looks on almost everyone’s face on the sofa; Niall’s open-mouthed laugh seemed not very genuine, but it made the whole audience laugh because Harry’s answer had been very ambiguous. Harry seemed to get it suddenly and then he just waved with a defeated grin on his face and left the stage, which startled her a bit. For a second, she considered stopping him in his way, but he’d already made a turn and returned to the sofa. She shook her head in disbelief, this show was already all over the place without Jonathan having even done his part. Ruffling her hair once more, she reprimanded herself for not anticipating the confusion the band was always bringing to events like this. Now everyone was laughing at Harry, who sat back down smirking uncomfortably and gesturing towards Jonathan. “We can skip those questions”, he grinned.

“No way are we skipping that question!”, Jonathan informed him with joy and Harry rubbed his hands still grinning.

She enjoyed how he was handling his own embarrassment; it was one thing she really liked about the whole band – they were never taking themselves very seriously.

“Keep returning to Harry’s face please, Karen. I know you’re a burnt child now, but this is just too good”, she whispered, and Karen obliged.

Niall’s answer was “home-cooking”, which luckily was a much more innocent answer than the one before. “Like Sunday-roast – even if it’s not Sunday”

“Ugh, crazy”, Louis commented mockingly and grinned.

“So, like a Monday roast?”, Jonathan asked.

“Yea”, Niall said.

“Tuesday roast?”

“Yea”

“Wednesday roast?”

“No.”, Niall answered sternly.

The next question was about whether they sometimes wondered what would have happened if they had not become famous; in Jonathan’s words if they “hadn’t come third in X-Factor”. She hated this addition and she also hated that they had to make the audience laugh about his stupid words, but it was her job and all she could do was see to it that Jonathan did not go too rogue. But this was just an awful, tasteless joke on his side. Harry just smirked a bit annoyed, while the other boys smiled politely. “Is that supposed to be funny, or…”, Louis chuckled slightly angry, and she bit the inside of her cheek in anger about Jonathan.

At that moment she knew, she had to apologise to the whole band in the end, and possibly in the break in between. She ruffled her hair and moaned a bit annoyed, her colleague next to her gave her a look of pity.

Luckily, there was relying on Harry: “Uhm, I don’t think we’d change anything; you know? We all feel very lucky to have kind of had this opportunity and I think if we sat and started thinking ‘Aw I wish we’d have played more pubs and clubs’ it’d be like a silly way to look at it, so…”

“Well, I guess you could do a club or pub if you wanted to”, Jonathan interrupted him, and she felt the desperate need to smack him.

“We could!”

“Are you ever tempted to sneak in and do a kind of an undercover gig like that, just for the hell of it?”

“Aw, I forgot to tell you this, but I did Karaoke when I went to Florida in an Applebee’s, it was hilarious. And this guy just came up to me like ‘aw nice voice, kid’”, Liam stepped in. She was so glad about him telling this anecdote because everyone was laughing genuinely now.

“What did you sing?”

“Oh, I sang ‘Ordinary People’ by John Legend”

“It’s a good karaoke tune!”, Michael exclaimed and then started singing: “We are ordinary people…”

The whole band was positively surprised, they all grinned and watched Michael in astonishment. She could not help but look at Harry, who smiled brightly, but something in his expression made him seem a bit overwhelmed. He turned his head and shortly he seemed to look straight in her direction. But he could not possibly have looked at her, she was sitting in the dark, well hidden in the shadows. Michael continued singing.

Jonathan said “You know what’s so tragic though? This is clearly an audition! I mean…”, which actually lightened up the mood a bit. He could have his bright moments, she had to admit. Again, while laughing and rubbing his eye, Harry’s gaze wandered to where she was sitting. She suppressed the bit of excitement that this incident produced inside of her.

Suddenly, she grew aware of the fact that Jonathan had to ask the boys about Zayn leaving, but it was a moment she dreaded very much because she feared Jonathan would handle the topic as insensitive as he handled every topic, basically. With cold, sweaty hands she watched the events unfold.

“That’s reminded me of a name that got blurted out a few times, of course, Zayn is missing, he’s gone, he’s left the band…”, Jonathan started to introduce his next question.

Liam and Niall nodded solemnly, while Louis pointed at Michael and Harry began to look around as if he were searching for Zayn. Michael shouted: “ZAYN IS MISSING??!” and jumped up. She was so proud of him for pulling the show more to the funny side. “HAS ANYONE SEEN ZAYN?”

“…but it seemed very abrupt to the outside world.”, Jonathan continued with an unfazed expression on his face. “One minute he was with you and then it seemed like he was gonna go and the next minute he was gone. So, what happened there, what was going on, and who amongst you was aware beforehand that he was beginning to feel uncomfortable”

Once again, she shook her head because Jonathan was going off script. Never in their lifetime would the boys give an earnest answer to this question and she was so angry at him. She saw how Harry inhaled which looked a bit strained and she felt tense not knowing what to expect of him, but he raised his brow with feigned seriousness, turned to Michael and said “You want to answer this one, Michael?”

“Good call”, she whispered to herself while the audience broke into laughter. Her colleague next to her smirked at her and she realised she had talked to herself. “Ugh, I know we’re trying to get some serious answers, but I’d rather have them joke around than getting angry at Jonathan’s bluntness”, she explained to Ruth, who nodded in agreement.

“I love that you’re already on their side, you really need to find another job, Olive”, Ruth chuckled.

“Yea, you’re probably right”, she sighed.

Michael now said: “Yea, well…”, and the audience was in pieces, “Zayn is… as we all know, he’s one of the boys, a talent, he’s got it all”

The boys all began chuckling happily while listening to Michael’s explanation.

“And we were on the road, and… to be honest, the thing is: I couldn’t find the fridge, I called Liam –“

The boys and the audience broke into massive laughter, she watched it blissfully on her monitors and could’ve just kissed Michael for saving everything.

“And I said, Liam, where’s the fridge. And he said McIntyre, you know there’s no fridges in hotels, that’s why I can’t wait to get home. He said, just call Niall. I said, I’ve just called Niall, he’s at his mum’s having another roast. So, then I called Harry, and I don’t know, I caught the receptionist and he could be in literally any hotel room.”

Harry shamefully buried his face in his giant hand, laughing, while everyone else again broke into laughter.

“So, I called Zayn, told him everything, and he said I’ve had enough of it!”, Michael ended his story.

“Okay, well, that’s one possible scenario”, Jonathan said, and again, she wanted to yell at him to shut up. “but, uh, who was the closest to him in the band and maybe still is?”

All the boys did not look as if they would be answering that question with ease, until Michael raised his hand and said: “Again, please”

“Louis, I think it was you, wasn’t it?”, Jonathan continued.

She buried her face in her hands and sighed exhaustedly. “Why am I even doing this job, Ruth?”

She felt Ruth’s hand on her shoulder. “Chin up, only a few minutes left until the break”

“I think when we’re in the band, yea, probably, maybe it was me”, Louis answered, while the other boys looked around a bit awkwardly. “And I think we all kind of noticed that he wasn’t thoroughly enjoying it and we were. And you know, it can be an intense job at times, and I think it got a little bit too much for him and he wanted to be in a different place, and that’s fair enough. You know, he’s going his own way now, so, fair deuce.”

She was so happy about Louis’ answer that she forgot about Jonathan’s stupidity for a second, but was reminded of it with his next sentence: “Are you still close to him right now, do you still speak to him much?”

Louis luckily was the king of the poker face; he just sort of smirked politely and answered with a tiny hum and then a bright grin.

Jonathan did not drop the topic and it got really strenuous for her to watch without stepping in, because she could see the boys getting more uncomfortable by the second. She sent a silent prayer to Michael to save the situation and he actually did.

“Let’s facetime him!”, he exclaimed happily, and everyone broke into laughter, while Harry facepalmed himself and ruffled his hair. “No, alright, let’s not facetime him, Jesus!”, Michael continued. But it really steered Jonathan on to the next question and she was so glad about it.

“Alright, so now, what are you guys going to do? You’ve announced that you’re taking a break from performing and from recording as well, is that right? And that’s starting now, I guess?”

“End of the year”, Harry said with a deep voice.

“And what are your plans? How long is it for? Is it an indefinite break, is it a year and a half, two years? What’s the…?”

“I don’t know, I think, we’ve got the album coming out and stuff, and obviously we just finished the tour, so we have a lot of work that we’re still focusing on. And then, uhm, I think the point of the break is that it’s gonna be a break and we can have some time off with no kind of pressure…”, Harry explained in his usual calm and slow manner.

“We kind of wanted to go on holiday, but that’s never gonna happen”, Liam said.

“Course it is”, Louis told him in a sweet voice, which seemed so wholesome.

“We’re the least organised people ever”, Liam added and smiled at Louis.

“Well, you’ve been in most places, but I guess when you go most places on tour, you don’t get to see the places, do you? You’re kind of, in a way, sort of trapped in your room, aren’t you?”, Jonathan asked, while the boys nodded. Finally, he did some normal questioning.

“Well, it’s funny, cause when you went to Australia on a holiday”, Liam pointed towards Niall, “They had on the radio station ‘look for Niall’, was the thing on the radio station”

Everyone chuckled.

“That’s not a great thing they could do really for you, is it?”, Jonathan remarked. “Did you find yourself?”

“Hehe, yea”, Niall chuckled, “I called it in and said I found him”, and the other boys laughed.

She leaned back in her chair; a bit more relaxed now that everything went a lot more smoothly than before; and looked at the time – it was nearly time for a break.

“Alright, let’s take a break and we’ll chat some more afterwards. And we’ve got a fun thing: I’ve asked fans in the audience to give us a list of things. We’re gonna play the game ‘Never have I ever’”

“Oh god”, Harry sighed nervously.

“And Michael, you’re gonna stay with us as well, I hope?”

“Absolutely”

She took off her headset before Jonathan had even finished announcing the break, to be prepared to jump him and yell at him. She took one last sip of her coffee, when the cameras went off and everyone began to chat more relaxed. Make-up and some other people came to the stage to look after the boys, while she left her place behind the monitors and stomped onto the stage, eyes angrily fixated on Jonathan. He saw her and immediately seemed a bit panicked but tried to hide it behind a cheeky grin. From the corner of her eye she noticed that Niall and Harry turned to look at who was storming the stage, but she needed to deal with Jonathan before she could turn to the boys.

In the last second before arriving at Jonathan’s desk she put on a friendly face and chirped: “Jonathan, could we talk for a second?”

“Sure”, he was still grinning but bit his lip anxiously when she navigated him into a corner behind the stage.

She looked around before hissing: “What. The. Shit. Jonathan?! Why d’you always have to go rogue on me?!”

“Oh, don’t be such a spoilsport, Olive! It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“You should’ve seen the expressions on their faces. As if I don’t have to deal with their management after this show. You know we discussed the questions differently; they weren’t even prepared for the stupid Zayn question!”

“Well, they handled it pretty well none the less, don’t you think?”

“Because they’re trained well, lucky for you!”, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Please, please, promise me to handle the second part differently, please, Jonathan!”

“Alright, I promise. But I have no control over the questions we collected from the audience, I’m sorry”, he raised his shoulders apologetically, but it didn’t seem genuine to her.

“Wow, you’re a real piece of work, you know! I’m glad I forced Michael to be here as well. I hope he can save us!”, she hissed at him.

“Gosh, you’re so melodramatic. I promise I’ll behave.”

She made a resigning gesture and began to slowly walk towards the stage, but before she went she whispered: “You know, I can just leave when everything goes tits up, but you’re still on the Jonathan Ross Show, whatever you do” She knew it was childish of her to say something like that, but she had already written her notice in her head.

As she made her way back onto the stage, Harry came towards her from another backstage door; their eyes met, and he smiled genuinely at her. “Hey, Olive”

“Hi, Harry, you alright?”, her cheeks felt hot which was something that always happened when she had to reprimand someone, especially older stubborn men like Jonathan.

“Yea, just a bit tired. What was that about?”, Harry gestured towards the corner where she had come from and then actually shortly put his hand on her shoulder while they walked back to the sofa together, it felt very comforting and surprisingly intimate.

“Oh, I actually did not want you to see that”, she ruffled her hair and was a bit annoyed that anyone had witnessed how she had to yell at Jonathan Ross. She did not want to put anyone even more in a bad light, not even Jonathan, although he really was a pain in the ass.

Harry chuckled softly. “I’ve just never seen anyone being able to hiss so angrily at someone”

They stopped shortly before they arrived at the sofa and he turned to her. Jesus, she’d forgotten how tall he was. She had to put her head in her neck to be able to look into his bright green eyes.

“Well, all I heard was ‘What the shit’”, he grinned at her cheekily.

“Great”, she grinned back. “Nothing else?”

“Maybe something about tits?”, Harry pretended to be thinking hard while looking way too happy.

She laughed. “So, basically, you heard everything. I mean, you heard the beginning and my angry remark at the end”

“Yea, sorry, Olive”, he batted his long lashes before looking back into her eyes.

“That’s okay,” she took a deep breath and turned to the sofa where Niall and Louis were sitting “It’s actually something that concerns you all as well. Where’s Liam?”

“Having a wee, I think”, Louis answered and smiled softly at her. “How’s it going, Olive?”

“Ugh, brilliantly.”

Harry took his seat between Louis and Niall and all three looked interestedly up at her.

“Can I talk to you all, just for a second?”, she asked and went into a squat in front of them. All three scooted a bit forwards to get closer to her.

“What’s the matter?”, Harry asked as they all looked at her with such friendly faces, it really warmed her heart and made the anger about Jonathan just disappear.

“Just to give you a heads up”, she sighed. She really hated the situations Jonathan repeatedly put her in. “I already spoke to Jonathan because he went off script and put you in an uncomfortable situation, which, obviously, wasn’t fair”

They all nodded slowly. Louis played with his fingers, Harry bit his cheek, and Niall smiled politely, but they still kept looking at her.

“He promised to keep to the script for the next half…”

“But?”, Harry scrunched his nose. By asking that he was on the right track and she wondered how he had found out.

“He went rogue before and I’m not sure if he cares that I’ll be handing in my notice if he does it again”, a bit stressed, she scratched her forehead and ruffled her hair. “But anyhow, somehow it's now my responsibility to talk to you about it”

Niall looked at the other two, Harry played with a hole in his jeans, Louis suddenly reached out and put his fingertips on her knee. She looked into his clear blue eyes. “Don’t worry, love. We appreciate your concern, but we’re actually used to this kind of stuff”

She slowly got up from her squatting position. “Course, but still – it’s my job to make sure everything goes smoothly. And it’s also my job to make sure you boys are alright.”, she winked at Harry, who smirked sympathetically. “…and also, to make sure my boss doesn’t have to get into a fight with your management. So, I hope you don’t have to go through anything like that in the second half. In case you do, know, I have your back. That’s also why I put Michael with you on the sofa”

They laughed genuinely.

“If you need me: I’ll be sitting over there. I think you might even be able to see me”

“Oh, that’s where you are during the show?”, Niall asked. “I was wondering where you'd suddenly stormed out from earlier”

“Oh god, it was that obvious that I was fuming, wasn’t it?”, she grinned embarrassedly.

“It was very impressive”, Harry added, winking at her.

She could not help but smile at him. “See you later, boys. Hi, Liam”, Liam had just returned and was taking his seat at the sofa. As she walked away back to her seat, she heard that he asked the others what they had been discussing. She exhaled strenuously when she fell back into her chair; Ruth was already there and adjusting the cameras.

“How’d it go?”

“Well, the conversation with Jonathan was not very fruitful, but the boys were very kind. But for now, let’s enjoy, how Jonathan messes up the rest of the show”, she put on her headset and assumed her position. Now, she wondered who had come up with the idea of playing “never have I ever” with the members of One Direction, when everyone knew that they needed to be family friendly and would never admit to anything remotely saucy.

The show resumed and Jonathan introduced the rules of the game.

She watched the boys smirking in dreadful anticipation as Jonathan handed out the paddles. "Oh, I can't watch, Ruth"

Ruth chuckled next to her. "It'll be alright, you'll see. Haven't you worked with the boys before? You know they can handle it!"

She knew they could, but she already felt so ashamed for whom she was working for. She really liked all the members of the band and felt the need to protect them from the idiots around them. She definitely needed to change her job.

The first question was "I have never danced naked in the rain", and she already tried not to facepalm herself. Did no one look at the questions beforehand and adjust them slightly? Jonathan, Niall, and Harry admitted to having done it, the others didn't.

"Do we include the rain setting on a shower?", Michael asked.

"Have you danced naked in your shower?"

"Of course, I bloody have!"

Jonathan tried to resume but Michael exclaimed: "Of course, I'm naked in the shower, that's a given! I'm not standing in the shower fully clothed"

"But have you danced in the shower?"

"Sometimes there's a bit of a boogie"

So far so good.

"I've never been in the mile-high-club", Jonathan continued. Everyone in the audience made a saucy "Ooh"-sound and she could not help but await the answers slightly excited.

Jonathan raised the I have sign, as did Louis and Liam. "Harry, what are you waiting for?!", Jonathan shouted almost resentfully. She rolled her eyes behind the monitors. "Come on, we know the answer"

And Harry, being the dork that he was, just threw the sign over his shoulder, smirking resignedly as if he just knew he was seen through. The audience was in an absolute outrage.

Jonathan handed Harry his sign with I have on the front. "Come on, I'll answer for you. There you go", then he climbed in the back to collect the sign Harry had thrown away, while Harry hid behind his paddle.

Right now, she was enjoying the show a bit more than she had anticipated. So, Harry had had sex on a plane before; she wondered why she thought of this information as being of immense importance to her, but it made her feel tingly.

"I have never been naked in public", Jonathan continued when he had returned to his desk. This time he was the only one showing the I have side. "Good choice", Michael told the boys. "That's a choice we all have every morning when we wake up"

The boys chuckled happily.

"This is a revealing one... Remember guys: honesty is the key here"

She sighed heavily. What was he trying to achieve with statements like this one? She already prepared herself for giving Jonathan another smack-down after the show while dreading the following question.

With a sardonic smirk Jonathan read: "I have never smoked a joint."

According to the exclamations, the audience was torn about this statement. Niall showed never, Harry didn't do anything but smile politely, Louis and Liam both looked around with a sweet grin on their faces.

"Stop looking at each other! You can't decide what – ", Jonathan shouted.

Harry had gotten up from the sofa and was now looking at Jonathan's cards. "What's the next one?"

"No", Jonathan took the cards from him. "Let's answer this one"

Ruffling his beautiful hair, Harry returned to his seat. And all the boys held up the Never side of their paddles with content expressions on their beautiful faces. She felt pride rising up inside her chest, but her head wondered about her emotions. This was her job, why did she suddenly side with the other part of her work – the guests, and not the hosts? Or were these feelings particular for these specific guests? If so, she should really find out why. But now was not the time for that.

Jonathan waved with the I have side of the paddle and grinned. "Look at that! A big fat blunt!" The audience laughed, and the boys broke into awkward laughter. This was the part of the show in which the anger about Jonathan arose inside of her once more, and it burned hotter than before. Why the heck, did he have to be so bloody unprofessional? She gripped the armrests of her chair very tightly to stop herself from storming onto the stage once more and dragging Jonathan away. Luckily, Michael saved it all once again.

"Well, what did you expect them to do? You give them these paddles and you really think they go: 'Yea!'", he showed the I have side and waved it in the air, "'I'm high as a kite! I've done all the drugs!"

Niall and Harry broke into uncontrollable laughter, which made a bright smile appear on her lips, so she put her hands in front of her mouth to hide it from Ruth.

Michael continued: "'I'll give you complete professionalism under a normal interview situation. But give me a paddle, I'll reveal everything to you! Of course! I was getting up this morning, I was completely naked'. You think that's what Niall's gonna say? 'I got up this morning, I smoked a big dooby, I danced around in my shower completely naked'", he got up and danced around, "'And then I ran around naked in the streets. And then I got on an airplane and fucked everyone in the room!"

The boys were almost on the floor from laughing and the audience was in pieces. She herself and Ruth couldn't help but giggle at Michael's rant. "Wow, getting Michael to be there was your best idea so far, Olive", Ruth wailed next to her.

She happily wiped her laughing tears away. "Thanks, Ruthy"

"They're not gonna do that! They're media trained megastars!", Michael exclaimed and with these words he had shouted everything she had thought about for the last 30 minutes, and everything she had tried to tell Jonathan and his team for the last 24 hours when they had discussed the course of the show. But Michael wasn't finished.

"This is what the paddle should look like!", he put two of the paddles together so on both sides you could read the word never and put them back into Louis' hands. "Both sides never. Never, never."

The audience gave a roaring applause, the boys seemed very happy about Michael stepping in for them, and she was glad someone else had finally given Jonathan a shot across the bows.

"Alright, that's the end of the game. You've spoiled the game for everyone", Jonathan shouted while collecting the paddles. She wondered how he couldn't realise that he had been the only person to enjoy the game in the first place.

"But you're right. You have to protect yourself to an extend", he suddenly back-pedalled. She leaned forward eager to see what he was on about. "You know there's speculation about all that's happening. Things you say get reported and sometimes misreported, you know deliberately misreported. So, I have a few stories here, and I wanna see whether these were true or not..."

That was a smooth transition she had to admit. The first story was about how Harry had been sick on the road and a fan had collected his sick to sell it on eBay. The audience was disgusted, the boys were grinning, except for Harry who just looked amused but on top of things. Wow, he handled things so professionally, she really was in awe about him.

"Uh, I don't know if it made it to eBay, but it, uh, it was a thing", he answered.

Jonathan looked appalled which made her chuckle.

"I saw a thing on the internet which was someone had stored a fart of yours in a jar from a party", Liam added, and everyone giggled in disbelief. "It said 'genuine Harry Styles fart in a jar'"

"With what? A certificate of authenticity?", Louis giggled while Harry exhaled exhaustedly.

"But here's the thing:", Jonathan said, "that's a weird piece of merchandise to have because what do you do? You save it for a special occasion and break it out like quality sweets at Christmas? Do you say: you know what? We've had a good day. Let's break that fart out"

Jonathan could be immensely funny sometimes, she just wished he would do it more often.

"How d'you get it back in the jar?", Louis asked.

"You can't get it back. It's like a genie."

Michael broke into laughter.

"it was weirder for me", Harry explained, "Cause my mum sent it to me and was like –"

"What, the fart?", Jonathan asked feigning confusion.

"No, like, a link to it on eBay", Harry grinned. "So, I mean, everyone likes different things"

"So, what was the message? My son I'm proud of you?"

"I think it was more like 'is this real? Are you the seller?'", Harry told the story quite laid-back and with an unfazed expression which made it even funnier.

"Okay. How about this one: 1D singer reveals STD worries after koala bear incident", Jonathan continued.

"Well, I think I said something about that", Liam confessed.

"The joke was that he had chlamydia", Harry interrupted. "Which isn't a joke"

"It's no joke for koala bears", Jonathan added. "So, you were worried you'd maybe caught it..."

"I made a joke about it.", Liam said while they showed a picture of him and a koala bear, "There is me looking scared. And he weed on me, and they pass it that way"

"His face says 'shit! I've got chlamydia'", Harry added smugly.

Jonathan announced one more break, and she just took a deep breath, waited until he had finished and then they shut the cameras off.

"I need some air", she confessed to Ruth. "I'll be back in five minutes"

She took her headset off but took the radio with her in the back pocket of her skinny jeans.

While she made her way across the stage, she met Jonathan's gaze and he winked at her. Piss off, she thought, while rolling her eyes at him. She left to find the backstage door when she heard some rapid steps approaching behind her. While opening the door she turned around halfway to see Harry just slowing down right behind her with a bright smile on his face.

"Olive, where're you going?"

"Just to get some air. Where're you going?", she noticed how her pulse suddenly elevated while she pushed through the door into the hallway.

Harry followed her closely. "I was going to have a wee, but I'd rather join you for some air"

"That sounds like an unreasonable decision, to be honest", she turned and smirked at him, feigning a self-confidence she was not actually feeling, before pressing the button on the elevator in front of her.

Harry ruffled his curly hair and leaned nonchalantly against the wall next to the elevator. "Having a wee would've been just an excuse to get out of there for a few minutes. I didn't know there was a way to get some fresh air around here"

"Yea, there actually is, you just have to know your way around the studio", the doors opened, and they stepped inside the elevator. She pulled her keys from her pocket, put one of them in the keyhole above the buttons of the elevator, turned it and pressed the button for the top floor. "And this really helps", she grinned and put the keys back in her pocket before she leaned against the wall. Feeling the cool wall against her back made her knees feel less weak.

Harry leaned against the opposite wall and eyed her thoroughly. She felt her heartbeat rise once more and swallowed slightly nervously.

"Why are you looking at me like that?", she asked before she could check her mouth.

He smiled politely. "You cannot be much older than me, can you?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Honestly, you look so young, Olive. And still, I heard someone call you 'boss'. Oh, and you're allowed to yell at Jonathan. Like, how is that possible?"

She almost hated it that his words made her feel good. His emerald eyes held her captive while she said: "I'm not"

"Not what?", his voice seemed to have become quieter and deeper.

"Not much older than you", she adapted the volume of her voice to his. "And Jonathan really needed to be yelled at", she added with a bright grin.

"I'm really glad you did", Harry smirked once more, and she could not help but stare at his dimples. "The second part was much more pleasant", these words sounded very sarcastic.

"I don't get why you always agree to play Never have I ever. I mean, you're supposed to be family friendly, so you need to keep your secrets", she explained. They had arrived on the top floor and she lead him through another hallway until they reached a fireproof door, which she pushed open. They went through and arrived on the roof of the studio. She kicked a brick in between door and doorframe to keep it from falling shut.

Harry looked around and took in the view they had from up here, seemingly pleased about it. "I never agree to it, but management does."

"I don't understand why they do it. It's not as if you've ever suddenly revealed anything about yourselves ever"

He grinned at her and shrugged. "I think, uh, everyone just hopes to be the first ones to figure something out. So, they just try every time. Don't you think?"

He was right, and it was actually her job to comply to this strategy, but for a few weeks now she had begun to see the ugly side of it all. Why press anyone to reveal anything when you could just enjoy their art? But she decided that this was not the right time and place to reveal these thoughts to Harry. So, she just nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. Nevertheless, I think you've all been doing a very good job in keeping to yourselves. Must be difficult, though"

"Especially, when you have to keep in mind not only your own privacy but the privacy of three other boys. But soon, this will be over", he explained and looked happy and sad at the same time. She felt the urge to give him a hug.

"You seem sad about it", she said instead and walked over to the edge of the roof where she leaned against the railing.

Harry approached her until he was right in front of her and ruffled his hair, which was blown about in the wind. Someone would have to fix his hair again when they would return. "Well, uhm, I'm obviously not super chuffed about the hiatus because I love us as a band. But I'm also looking forward to what might become of me while going solo"

"I think you'll do great, Harry", she confessed and smiled crookedly at him with narrow eyes because the sun was blinding her. Then she took a look at her watch. "Ugh, we have to get down again in a few minutes", she closed her eyes completely and took a very deep appreciative breath.

Harry leaned against the railing next to her. The wind was really doing wild things to his hair and she loved it. "I'd really rather stay here. Talking to you.", his already deep voice again seemed to become even deeper and lower.

She felt a shiver running across her back at the sound of it and tried to secretly look at him from the side. His profile was that of a greek god. Harry suddenly turned his head and looked straight at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Uhm... Oh god, they're really going to get angry at us for ruining your tele-hair", she laughed nervously instead of answering truthfully to his question.

He ruffled his hair again and tried to push it behind his ears. "You think it's ruined?"

"No, I love it like this", she blurted out and felt her cheeks blush. "But I know some people downstairs who won't be happy"

"Aw, well. This was worth it", Harry smiled so brightly at her, a warm feeling spread in her chest and she could not help but smile back at him.

"Come on, let's go back. At least I'll be needed downstairs before the last part of the show", she pushed herself off of the railing and just held her hand out to gesture him to follow her. He still smiled brightly and followed her happily.

As they rode the elevator back down together, Harry looked at himself in the reflecting walls and raised his beautifully arched eyebrows in concern. "Wow, I didn't expect that"

"Come here, let me help you", she chuckled and reached out to him.

He turned to her and had to bend his head a bit to allow her to put her fingers in his hair to sort it out. Wow, his hair was so soft, and he smelled so good. She just realised how close their faces suddenly were to each other - she could feel the warmth of his skin on her face. She sighed and forced herself to just concentrate on returning his hair to its original look.

"Normally, I'd just put it in a bun now", he explained with a quiet voice. "But I, uhm, think I have to look as if nothing happened"

Feeling his warm breath on her face made her knees a bit weak but she held her ground. Strangely enough, she could feel that he was staring at her face while she just focused on his hair.

"You're really cute", he suddenly whispered, and her heart skipped a beat.

With burning cheeks, she cleared her throat and took a step back. "I think it should be fine like that", she declared in regard to his hair and swallowed the lump in her throat before plucking up her courage and looking into his face. His gaze felt benevolent and honest as she dove into those emerald eyes of his. Somewhere behind her, the elevator doors opened with a ding and she slowly began to walk backwards. "Are you flirting with me, Harold?", she asked bluntly just to take the edge off of the whole situation. Or had it been wishful thinking that made her feel some sort of tension between them?

Harry grinned as if she'd caught him in the act as he followed her out of the elevator. "No, I... I'm sorry, Olive. Sometimes I just don't think before I talk"

"Mh, too bad!", the second these words had left her mouth she felt the heat rise to her cheeks, so she turned away from him to walk towards the backstage door.

Harry's hand on her shoulder stopped her in her movement. "What d'you mean by that, Olive?"

"Why wouldn't you try and flirt with me?", she asked him and couldn't hide that she was actually hurt by that thought. She would've needed to have a talk with herself about that sort of behaviour later because she couldn't understand why she reacted the way she did. That was so unprofessional of her, she couldn't believe it.

Harry's eyes lit up with joy and the hint of a smile stole onto his lips. "Oh, I... err..."

The radio in her back pocket gave off a static noise before she could hear Ruth's voice coming from it: "Olive! Five minutes to go! Where are you? And have you seen Mr. Styles?"

"Jesus!", she was angry that Ruth had interrupted Harry from explaining himself. While staring at Harry's happy face she grabbed the radio and answered to Ruth. "Ruth, sorry, we'll be right there. We had a small issue with Harry's hair."

"Are you not going to tell them where we were?", Harry suddenly asked when he followed her through the backstage door.

"I... I'm not sure, honestly", she replied quietly. "It might develop into a problem if word gets round that we spent the break together, just the two of us, you know?"

Harry ruffled his hair and bit the inside of his cheek pensively before he nodded slowly.

She smiled softly at him and took him by the arm to guide him back to the sofa. "Can we get hair and make-up to look at Mr. Styles?", she spoke into the radio.

"Well, where have you two been?", Louis asked with a cheeky grin when Harry fell down onto the sofa next to him.

Harry grinned brightly and ruffled his hair. "I was just gone to have a wee and got lost on my way back", he lied, and she was positive that none of his band mates were going to believe him.

With feigned disapproval she shook her head at him. "Luckily, I found you wandering the hallways", she looked at her watch. A girl from hair and make-up appeared besides her. "Take care of this mess, please?", she sighed at her and to the boys she said, "See you after the last bit. Good luck!"

Ruffling her hair in distress, she returned to her seat behind the monitors, where a grinning Ruth expected her. "And...?"

"What?"

"What have you and Mr. Styles been up to?"

Again, her cheeks started glowing and she prayed to the heavens that her face wasn't going red. "What d'you mean?"

"How'd his hair get that dishevelled, Olive?"

She couldn't help but grin at that question. To annoy Ruth, she just shrugged and put her headset back on.

The show was resumed, and Jonathan immediately asked another question which again she was certain, none of the boys would answer in honesty. "What's happening in your love lives at the moment? Who's single, who's mingle, who's looking for a pringle?"

Niall slowly raised his hand but took it back down when none of the others reacted.

"You're all single aren't you?", Jonathan continued.

"Karen, wide shots! We wanna see all of their reactions, not just Harry's gorgeous face", she hissed to camera 4.

"...gorgeous...?", Karen giggled while following her order. Exhaustedly, she ran her hand over her face, while she watched the boys all nod at Jonathan.

"Single, single, single, single", he pointed at each of them.

"I'm married with two children", Michael explained.

Afterwards, Liam taught Michael how to do his famous mic-spin which was fascinating, and Michael actually did it in the end, singing "changes" into it.

Niall laughed and said: "Aw it was so funny; Michael earlier came up to me and said: 'aw I can't get your song out of my head' and I said: 'which one?' and he goes 'Changes...'. I was like 'is that the only thing?' and he goes 'yea, yea'"

"So, I'm hoping you're still enjoying being in a band, because it looks great, it feels right. I'm hoping you're enjoying it as much as you ever did", Jonathan continued.

"Yea", Harry answered, "I think it's been so much fun and we're very happy to kind of have the new album out. It's the one that we're definitely most proud of, we've worked probably the hardest on it"

"Already there's been speculations about the lyrics for one of the songs in particular: perfect. Who wrote this? It was Harry and Louis?"

They both held their hands up.

"I got some of the lyrics here: 'but if you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms and if you like having secret little rendezvous, if you like to do the things you know that we shouldn't do, baby I'm perfect'. And there's been speculations that this has been written about some relationship of yours and of one in particular. About your time with Taylor Swift."

She held her breath. This question had been inevitable, because the internet was all over this theory, but she knew how mean it was to ask those kind of questions.

"'kay", he just said, politely smiling, eyebrows raised. "I didn't know that was the speculation"

"That's the speculation"

"Alright", he nodded a bit amused.

"So, what would be your answer to this speculation if you were pressed?"

"Well... because I'm a media trained person I'd say, um, I think everyone writes from personal experience. And, uh, yea, I think, you draw from lots of different things. And songs aren't always necessarily about what people may take them to be about...?", Harry navigated through the answer cleverly. Louis next to him was smirking proudly.

"Yea, they'll rarely be about one person as such. But there'll be elements of a time with one person – Taylor – where you would draw upon those moments, obviously.", Jonathan tried once more.

Harry sighed and repeated with a cheeky smirk: "I think everyone writes from personal experience and, uh, I think it doesn't always apply necessarily to what you might think that it's about, sometimes it does"

"Wow, that was almost word perfect the first answer you gave me"

They all laughed happily, and Harry contently ruffled his beautiful chestnut hair.

"Alright, guys, it was so much fun having you back on the show. Thank you so much for coming on", Jonathan began to conclude the show.

She sighed with relief and leaned back in her chair. "I cannot believe we made it through", she groaned while Jonathan kept thanking the boys and saying goodbye to them. Ruth laid her hand on her shoulder and squeezed it encouragingly. "Well done. I think it did really help that you snubbed Jonathan in the beginning. He was better behaved afterwards, don't you think"

"Yea, I think so. But it still vexes me that it was even necessary to put him in his place. It's his blooming job to keep it professional and not be a pain in the arse"

The cameras were turned off and she already couldn't wait to get out of there. But there still was a lot to do and she had to stick around in case she would have to deal with 1D's management which she hoped she would be spared from.

When she finally left the studio, it was almost midnight and a very cold gale was blowing. She pushed her bike across the area that surrounded the studio and let the harsh breeze cool her flustered face. Luckily, she hadn't had to deal with the management team of the band, but still she did have a long conversation with the boys once more after the show had ended. She still felt sorry that they had been brought into several uncomfortable situations by Jonathan, but they had repeatedly told her not to worry too much. Liam actually insisted on making their management deal with Jonathan directly if anything were to come up afterwards.

But the reason why she was leaving the studio that late now was because she had written her resignation notice on her work computer, so she could leave it on her bosses desk when she left. She felt as if an immense weight had been lifted from her shoulders but also felt some kind of uncertainty arising inside of her because she wasn't really sure about what kind of options she would have job-wise. With a heavy heart she decided that she would deal with this topic the next day, and while she mounted her bike, the first very big raindrops hit her head.

"Great", she hissed to herself and wanted to hit the pedals, but something didn't feel right.

She dismounted the bike and looked at the back tyre only to find it to be flat as a pancake. "Ugh, no! No, no, no!", she kicked against it and ran her hand across her face, while she was getting wetter by the second.

Because she had no other option, she just began pushing her bike along the sidewalk. She actually had a long way to go, because she had to get to her parents' house instead of her apartment. It was Friday evening and she had promised her flatmate to leave the apartment to her for the whole weekend so she could have her new long-distance-boyfriend over and spend some quality time with him.

The rain was now pouring down heavily and the wind was winning on strength. She'd actually planned on walking to the next tube station, but right now there was nothing to be done. She had to find some shelter before she'd be wet to the bone. She leaned her bike against a nearby tree and went to the entrance of the next house to find some shelter underneath the canopy, where she sat down on top of the stairs and stared out into the rain. She hated this situation she found herself in now and felt miserable. She knew she had to call a cab to get anywhere now, wanting to get to her parents' very desperately for there it would be warm, dry, and cosy.

A big black range rover stopped at the sidewalk right in front of her and the back door of the car opened. "Olive!", someone shouted from inside the car.

She squinted her eyes with suspicion; light was turned on inside the car and she could make out a brightly grinning face on the backseat. It was Harry Styles and he waved at her. Was this a dream?!

"Olive!", he shouted once more and waved more eagerly.

She jumped up from the stairs and ran towards the car. "Harry?" She could not believe it was him.

"Get in! You're going to get sick if you stay outside!", Harry waved for her to get inside the car. The warm air of the airconditioning hit her wet, freezing face and lured her closer.

"I got my bike with me!", she pointed at her bike at the tree.

"Mike'll put it in the boot! Come on, get in!", he scooted over while still smiling so brightly at her, it warmed her heart. She could not even feel the wetness of her clothes and hair anymore.

"Alright, alright", she chuckled and climbed next to him onto the backseat. Harry leaned over to her and greeted her with a careful hug. A comforting musky scent hit her nose as she hugged him back. The man in the seat next to the driver got out of the car and carried her bike over to put it in the boot of the range rover, before slamming the boot shut and getting back in.

"Wow, good thing we found you, you're completely drenched, Olive", Harry touched a strand of her hair, which was dripping. "Why didn't you get a cab?"

"I had just contemplated it but then you stopped and called my name", she wiped her face with her fingers.

"Where do you need to go?"

"Ugh, not home that's for sure. My flatmate has hernew boyfriend over", she stopped there and didn't know why. She could've justtold him that she'd planned on staying at her parents' house, but part of her wanted to see what he would do if he thought she had nowhere to go.

Harry surprisingly did not disappoint her heavily beating heart.

"You can crash at my place if you want"

"Uh, what?", heat shot into her damp cheeks.

"Yea, I'm staying at the hotel just a few blocks away and it's a really big suite. You can take a hot shower and you can even have your own room"

"Mh, I don't know. I appreciate the offer, but wouldn't that be kind of weird?"

"Why? Because I tried to flirt with you earlier?", Harry grinned brightly at her before turning to the driver: "To the hotel please, as fast as you're allowed"

"Oh, so you actually did try to flirt?!", she put on her seatbelt and leaned back, smirking at Harry.

"Obviously", Harry ruffled his hair and lowered his eyes in adorable abashment.

"Not so obvious if you ask me", she told him as they drove through the rain. Her heart was beating so fast, she wondered where she found the strength to sound almost unconcerned.

"Sorry, I couldn't decide if it was a good idea to come on to you", he explained with his deep, smooth voice. "And I'm still not sure, to be honest"

"Why not?" She felt some kind of nervousness arise inside her guts because she didn't know what to tell him. She absolutely wanted him to come on to her, of that she was sure by now. But if it were prudent, she couldn't tell.

"I, uhm, I wasn't sure how you'd react"

"Well, wise people would tell you to just go with your gut", she told him, which was very ambiguous of her, but she didn't want to come on too strong.

But Harry would not just let this vague statement stand. He smiled vaguely and leaned closer to her, looking at her quizzically. "And what would you personally tell me?"

With a defeated sigh she forced herself to answer:"Personally, I'd only encourage it, Harold"

She could watch on Harry's beautiful face how the meaning of her words dawned on him and awaited his reaction excitedly. His features began to relax until he began to smile even brighter than she had ever seen him smile before while he examined her face, his gaze resting very long on her lips.

Just as she almost feared to drown in his moss-coloured eyes, he cleared his throat and ruffled his hair. "Alright, brilliant. So, you're gonna stay with me until this horrible weather has passed, alright?"

"Okay, fine by me, but I hope you don't expect me to... you know... just, uhm, just because I'm sleeping over at your hotel room", her mouth spoke words she did not actually mean before she could even help it. She was lying to herself if she thought she would not enjoy Harry making a move on her.

"Oh", Harry's cheeks seemed to redden slightly; it was something she had never seen before, so, she was almost proud of herself to having achieved this reaction in him.

He grinned a bit abashedly before politely placing his hand on her shoulder. "Well, I hadn't even thought about that but don't worry. I'm really not trying to lure you into my hotel room for, uhm, sexual pleasure, obviously, I'm just trying to help you. And I, uh, I think this would be like a good opportunity for us to spend some time together."

"Alright, okay, great", her relief was partly genuine - in her mind she had seen herself slipping out of the hotel the next morning trying to avoid paparazzi and experiencing the shame of feeling like one of those gullible groupies. There was just one small part of her that was actually upset about the fact that the thought of luring her into his bed hadn't even crossed his mind, according to his words, at least. Suddenly, another question came to her mind. "What about the others? Liam, Louis, Niall – where are they tonight? Aren't you staying in the same hotel?"

"Well...yea, but...", he began to count on his long, lean fingers, "Louis and Liam went straight to a party earlier, and Niall already went to bed. But, obviously, we don't share a hotel room."

"But didn't you say you would enjoy sleeping in different beds...?", she teased him, while she felt the rain from her hair dripping into her lap.

"What...no... oh god that came out so very wrong.", Harry hid his face in his big hand, but she could still see his grin. "Anyway, I have my own hotel suite if you will. And no one will come in and bother us if that's what you're asking. Is it?"

"Mh", she contemplated if that was what she was asking, "well, I think, I've had quite the day and I just don't have the social capacity to deal with all four of you. I'd just love to take a hot shower and hang out with you if that's alright?"

"Don't worry. Then that's what we'll do", now he smiled very softly at her, so softly, that she almost didn't notice how she gradually began to shiver. The wet clothes on her skin began to feel ice cold and heavy and the thought of a hot shower only seemed to make it worse. She felt Harry's hand on hers, gripping it tightly. "You look cold, love"

"I am", she whispered; his hand felt hot against her skin and she felt the desperate urge to intertwine her fingers with his but resisted it. Had he just called her 'love'?

"Paul?!", Harry asked the driver, sounding a bit impatient.

"Almost there, Mr. Styles", came the answer from the driver's seat.

"Look, I'm not sure about the situation in front of the hotel. We might be able to get inside just like that – we're taking the back entrance anyhow – but if our location has been leaked it's possible that there'll be a small crowd"

"What do we do if that's the case?"

"I'll give some autographs to distract them while Paul will smuggle you into the hotel. Sound good?"

"Sounds exciting, to say the least. I really hope, there won't be a crowd", just now she wondered what she had gotten herself into by agreeing to stay with Harry. But as she stole a peek at his breath-taking face she was certain it would be worth the effort.

Of course, there had been a small crowd, so after Harry had gotten out of the car to give autographs, closely followed by Mike, Paul had driven the range rover back to the front entrance of the hotel, where she had been able to just casually walk into the hotel. Paul had also promised to take care of her bike.

With Harry's key-card in her cold hands, she rode the elevator to the top floor where she searched for his room. There were only two doors on this floor, but while she stood in the hallway, she heard rapid steps on the stairs below her. She leaned over the railing to see Harry running up the stairs, his chestnut curls flying about his head. Why was he running? He suddenly raised his head and noticed her staring down at him, to which he reacted with the brightest grin she had ever seen.

"Olive! Why aren't you inside already?", he shouted as he arrived at the top of the stairs and ran his fingers through his curls, before softly touching her arm and steering her towards one of the doors.

"Well, I just arrived here myself. You were really fast, Harry! But you didn't have to run!", she could not hold back her smile because her whole body, although wet and cold, was filled with hot luck. She handed him his key-card.

He took it, opened the door, and pushed it open with his shoulder, facing her and smiling. "I wanted to catch up with you", then he entered the hotel suite and she followed him.

They entered a small hallway which led to a really gigantic living room area, which was generously lit. She was guessing that the lights were automatically switched on as soon as the key-card had activated the door.

"Welcome to my suite", Harry chuckled with a low voice.

"Wow, this is...very, um... excessive!", she blurted out.

"It is, isn't it?"

She followed him through the living room, looking around with big eyes. She could not believe how anyone would need such a ginormous hotel room. Harry pushed open one of the doors at the end of the living room, it was a large door to the right and they both peeked inside. "So, this is my bedroom"

Heat shot through her chest when she beheld the large bedroom with the king size canopy bed and gigantic double doors leading to a balcony and she just nodded, while Harry pushed open the door further left next to his bedroom. "This is yours if you want"

She looked through the door and behind it was another bedroom, which was smaller than his, with a queen size canopy bed and a large window but no balcony, but very beautiful, nonetheless.

"Oh my god, are you for real?!", she let her backpack drop down at the door to this room.

Harry just grinned and led her to another door in between both of the bedrooms.

"This is the bathroom. I'm guessing you'll want to use it right away", he raised his hand to touch her upper arm with her fingertips. His touch felt hot on her cold, wet skin and she shivered. "Look at you, you have got goose bumps!", his eyebrows formed a downward pointing arrow shape on his beautiful forehead as if he were angry at her for being cold.

"Yea, I know. I need a hot shower. Now!", she tried to grin, but it felt wonky.

"Look, love: I'll go and get you some clothes, you go and take a shower. Everything you need is here somewhere.", he looked at her and his forest-green eyes sparkled with benevolence.

"But..."

"I'll put the clothes on your bed", he smirked and gestured for her to enter the luxurious bathroom. "And you might want to lock both doors inside the bathroom, because this one", he pointed to a door in the bathroom on the right side, "leads to my bedroom. And I really shouldn't be tempted"

What did he mean by that? She felt her cheeks blush and her throat shut with excitement.

"I'm just joking", Harry grinned, but his cheeks were slightly rosé as well, which she noticed with an enthusiastically beating heart.

"Alright, thanks, Harry", she followed his gesture, but suddenly decided to thank him properly.

So, she turned to him, got on tiptoes, put her hand to his cheek and gently placed a kiss on his other cheek. Her heart skipped a beat because the sensation of his soft skin underneath her lips and her fingertips was almost too much to take. "Thanks", she whispered and let go of him. The dimples in his cheeks deepened because a wide smile appeared on his happy face.

"Oh", he breathed as an answer, and she tried to not get lost in his emerald eyes. Instead, she walked past him and pushed him out of the bathroom.

"Now, go. I need to take a shower, so you will stop being angry at me that I'm cold", she said jokingly.

"Alright, have fun!", he laughed softly and shut the bathroom door behind him.

She turned the lock and took a deep breath. Then she remembered his words, went over to the other door, and turned the lock there as well. She actually could not believe she was inside Harry Styles' bathroom right now, but she stopped herself from thinking about it for too long, because she wanted to stay calm. Or at least not increase her nervousness even further.

As soon as she began looking around the bathroom, she started to feel her own body again and the cold began to creep up inside her legs and arms. Rapidly, she undressed herself while finding herself two towels, a large one and a smaller one, both white and super fluffy. She put her wet shirt, bra, skinny jeans, and socks on one pile while she placed her panties which had stayed dry on a stool next to the shower. Harry couldn't possibly provide her with a new pair of panties, so she would put them on again after having showered.

Her cheeks were glowing, but the rest of her body was ice-cold when she stepped into the spacious shower. The tiles inside the shower were heated, they felt very warm against the soles of her feet. As soon as she looked at the taps in the shower she discovered the rain setting and activated it.

The hot water began to rain down onto her freezing skin and as the warmth filled her body she couldn't help but moan with relish. A bit startled by her own noise, she put her hand on her mouth and grinned to herself. She began to browse the options of shampoo and shower gel, most of the bottles were obviously provided by the hotel itself, but she laid her eyes on three bottles that looked even more elegant and expensive. They were shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner by a very expensive, all natural brand. Growing a bit excited, she opened the shower gel and took a sniff – it smelled so good, she just melted away. Musky and herbal. Of course, she cleaned her body with it. She also used the shampoo and conditioner of the same brand for her hair and bathed in the scent like she did in the hot water of the shower.

While she let the conditioner set, letting the hot water run over her hands and arms, she had time to listen to her own thoughts. Was Harry really interested in her or was he just being really, really nice because they'd known each other for some months now? Could he be interested in her after all the other girls and women he had courted before? She was especially thinking of Taylor Swift, Caroline Flack and Kendall Jenner. She felt as if they were much more beautiful than her and much more worthy of him if it came to the level of fame and professionality – the last one even had been a world famous supermodel. Her heart felt heavy in her chest while dealing with those kinds of thoughts, but on the other hand: When she'd gotten to work this morning she hadn't even been expecting this level of intimacy with Harry Styles she was experiencing right now. She'd been a fan of his, for sure, but she'd thought she'd never had a crush on him – he was cute, but she'd always had the biggest joy in smiling down upon for example Karen on camera 4 who was obsessed with Harry. The feelings she was now experiencing confused her even more so.

She was ripped out of her thoughts by a harsh knock on the door.

"Olive! You alright?", Harry's voice sounded muffled through the door which led to his bedroom.

She had just finished washing the conditioner from her hair and turned off the water. "Yea, I'm fine!", she shouted. "is there a problem?"

"No, just checking that you haven't fainted underneath the hot water", he chuckled. "There's actually steam coming into my room from underneath the door"

"Oh", a chuckle escaped her mouth as well, "I'm sorry"

"No worries, love"

There it was again. Love. Her heart skipped a beat.

She dried herself with the fluffy towels and used the small one to put her hair in a turban. Just when she'd wrapped herself in the big one, she noticed a kind of shelf which contained bathrobes – white, fluffy bathrobes.

"Oh yes!", she whispered to herself, grabbed one and put it on. It was so big, she nearly drowned in it as she wrapped it around her body and pulled the rope tight around her waist. She grabbed her panties and stuffed them in the pocket of the bathrobe. She looked into the mirror and removed traces of mascara from underneath her eyes, then she opened the locks on the doors one after the other, before she left the bathroom through the door leading to the bedroom Harry had assigned to her.

There were some clothes neatly piled on the end of the bed, her backpack leaning against the bed post, and as she let her gaze wander over the room she also spotted a steaming cup on the nightstand. Curious about what it was, she walked over and smelled it – it was hot herbal tea with as she noticed a hint of honey.

Her heart got really warm and she felt a lump in her throat at how incredibly considerate Harry was. She took a spoonful of tea and slurped it carefully, knowing it would be terribly hot, but she desperately wanted to taste it. Then she explored the clothes on the bed with slightly trembling hands. There were white tennis socks, white cotton shorts, a dark grey t-shirt with a print of a rainbow and Cheer Bear from the Care Bears on it, and a large grey jumper. She let the bathrobe slide from her body, slipped into her panties and put on the clothes which smelled fresh of laundry detergent, but also a bit of Harry. Now dressed, she dried her hair a bit more with the small towel, before deciding it was enough and she would let it dry on its own. It spread across the hood of the jumper in large, dark blonde waves and she hoped, she looked as scrumptious as possible.

She looked at herself in the reflection of the window, against which the rain pattered furiously. She almost didn't recognise herself in Harry's clothes, but the outfit was immensely comfortable. Because the weather outside made her uncomfortable, she went over and pulled the heavy, dark grey curtains shut, when suddenly there was a knock on her door.

"Yes?", she shouted mechanically, before realising where she was.

"Can I come in, Olive?", it was Harry's muffled voice again.

"Sure, of course, come on in", she felt her heart beat faster once more.

The door opened slowly, and Harry entered her bedroom. He was still wearing his skinny jeans which were ripped at the knees and the short-sleeved shirt with the blue vertical stripes he'd been wearing at the show, but she felt like he'd opened more of the buttons. Her gaze fixated onto the part of his chiselled chest that was revealed by the open buttons and which looked so unbelievably hot with the tattoo of the two swallows, she could also make out the first syllables of his 17black tattoo. Subconsciously, she moisturised her lower lip and forced herself to look at his face. She watched his eyes wander up and down her body and was really happy about it.

"Suits you", his voice seemed even deeper than usual.

She spread her arms and twirled slowly. "You think?"

Harry nodded; his finger positioned pensively on his mouth.

"Thanks for the clothes. And for the tea!", she smiled happily at him and sat down on the bed.

"Don't mention it. You can put your wet clothes in the hamper next to the door, someone will come and get them and put them in the dryer, so you'll have them tomorrow", Harry leaned against the pole of the bed next to her and looked straight into her eyes.

"Alright", she held his gaze with a racing heart.

"Are you hungry? We could get room service and watch some movie if you like?"

"Not really hungry. I had dinner at the studio. But I'd love to watch something with you", she felt like she was smiling all the time like an idiot but trying to hide her smile would've been too exhausting.

"Alright!", Harry rubbed his hands in gleeful anticipation. "So, why don't you make yourself at home on the sofa and look for some movie, while I slip into something more comfortable?"

"Alright"

Harry winked at her and left. She took a deep breath, grabbed the cup of tea from the bedside table and followed him out the door. She saw him disappear into his own bedroom while he already began unbuttoning his shirt further and couldn't help but sneak a peek of this tasty ass of his. She could not believe how good looking this man actually was. After she'd put down her cup on one of the coffee tables in the living room, she went into the bathroom, fetched her clothes, and carried them over to the small hallway where she found the hamper Harry had mentioned. She threw them inside and went back over to the sofas and sat in tailor-fashion in front of the gigantic tv. The sofa was very soft and cosy; she took the remote from the coffee table and leaned back into the huge amount of cushions behind her.

"So, how does this work?", she mumbled to herself, staring at the buttons of the remote to figure out how to work the tv. It was always a good idea to press either 1 or the red button, so she did, and it worked. She even found out how to get to the smart menu to access Netflix and was very proud of herself.

Suddenly, the lights were dimmed. Startled by it, she jerked her head to the right and next to the sofa there was Harry, cup of tea in one and a small remote in his other hand, controlling the light setting, looking around and then at her. "That alright?"

"Y...yea, sure", she stuttered quietly. With the room being only dimly lit, the whole atmosphere seemed to have changed, but she wasn't sure if that was only her own feeling or if it had done something to the dynamic between Harry and her. She still couldn't take her eyes off Harry because he'd changed into clothes that showed so much skin.She felt the desperate urge to run her fingers across his skin, which looked outrageously soft.

He was wearing a white cotton T-shirt with a V-neck – his tattoos were vaguely visible through the fabric – and training shorts in white, blue, and red, which were cut very close, so the strange tiger tattoo on his thigh was half-exposed. On his feet he was wearing the same white tennis socks she was wearing. She tried not to get lost in staring at his tattooed arms, but they looked so aesthetically pleasing being a bit tan and just the right amount of trained.

Harry put the remote and his cup on the coffee table and rummaged in a cupboard next to the tv, to pull out two very fluffy looking blankets. "Olive? Blanky?", he held one of the blankets out to her, grinning like a child.

"Heck, yea!", she replied happily and grabbed it. She buried herself in the blanket, while Harry fell down onto the sofa next to her, putting his feet up on the coffee table and getting cosy with the blanket.

"Oh, great, you've worked out the remote", he laughed at her from inside his blanket-cocoon. "What d'you want to watch?"

"I don't know, actually, what kind of movies do you like?"

Harry looked at her like a small child that was embarrassed to reveal a secret but pressed his lips shut.

"Go on, tell me, Harry", she laughed when she saw his expression, she got on her knees and scooted a bit closer to him without even thinking about it. She leaned her head against the backrest of the sofa.

He ruffled his hair and scrunched his nose before blurting out: "Romantic comedies" and pulling the blanket closer around himself.

"Oh", she burst into laughter just because this whole situation felt so perfect right now and she felt just like a bundle of joy.

"But only the good ones!", he exclaimed, while she already looked for romantic comedies on Netflix.

"The good ones? What, like the holiday or he's just not that into you?", she asked, "At least those are good romantic comedies in my opinion"

Harry grinned, fumbled his arms out of his blanket-cocoon and put his left arm on the backrest of the sofa. "Yea, I see, you're a romantic comedy expert?"

She noticed how his beautiful, long-fingered hand was very close to her cheek. "I've watched a few over the years, yea, I guess"

"Oh, you know what? Can you search for Elizabethtown? I haven't seen that one in ages!", his emerald eyes lit up in sudden excitement.

"Wow, you do have good taste in rom-coms, don't you?", she chuckled and was very impressed, while trying to type in the title into the search bar. She'd gotten to typing "Eli", when her heart stopped because Harry took a strand of her hair between his fingers and twirled it. "What're you doin'?", she breathed while trying to find the z in the alphabet.

"Did you use my shampoo?", Harry leaned over and put the strand of her hair to his nose – his face was so close she could feel his warm breath against her ear and neck. She gave up and put the remote down, she definitely could not concentrate like that.

"Yea", she nodded, when he suddenly scooped a handful of her hair and smelled it once more.

"Smells different on you"

She turned her head to look at him and was positively surprised at the fact that only a few centimetres away from her nose was his. Boldly, she looked straight into his green eyes which were framed by long, dark lashes, and which were definitely wandering downwards staring at her lips. She noticed him taking a deep breath before he suddenly jerked his head away towards the TV. "Alright! Elizabethtown! Have you found it?"

"No, Harry, I wasn't able to type anymore", she crossed her arms in front of her chest and sunk deeper into the sofa.

"What? Why?", he chuckled and grabbed the remote from the space between the both of them.

"Because you distracted me, obviously", she saw no point in pretending that everything was casual and platonically.

"I did?", Harry looked at her with big eyes and a smirk on his lips. "Oh, there it is!", he pointed at the screen with the remote and selected the movie. "Are you ready?"

"Not quite", she confessed  - a bit disappointed he had not encourage her to further elaborate on her statement. She took a deep breath and scooped all her courage together, while he patiently waited for her to be ready.

With a soft smile he watched as she scooted even closer to him, so her head was close to his shoulder. She put her legs, wrapped into the blanket, on the coffee table as well and then – she could not believe herself – she gently leaned her head against Harrys chest.

"Now I'm ready", she whispered and tried to keep her voice from trembling. Underneath her cheek, she felt Harry chuckle slightly, before she felt his arm around her, his warm hand came to rest on her upper arm. Her body was in hot turmoil under his gentle touch.

He pressed play and checked the volume before he put the remote down on the armrest and pulled her blanket around her left side with his right hand and then his blanket around the both of them.

She tried to take a sniff of him without him noticing which was not very difficult because she was basically engulfed in his scent, anyhow.

It was definitely challenging for her to concentrate on the movie, while feeling Harry's body underneath her cheek, against her arm and against her legs. The fact that his fingertips gently caressed her upper arm, didn't help much either. She wondered if he felt in any way similar, but he probably didn't. She wasn't quite sure if she should dare to move to get even more intimate with him or if he would consider it too bold and push her away.

Thinking about doing it made her heart beat faster, and she knew she had to try to overcome this rush of excitement. She began to move slowly, turning more to the side and towards Harry – if he were into it, he would move as well, she decided. And he did. Together they slid deeper into the cushions, he pulled her closer, she laid her arm across him, so her palm came to rest on his chest. As she laid her head down on Harrys shoulder, her forehead almost touching his neck, he gently put his hand on top of hers. This was more than what she had hoped for and she could not help but release an almost yearning sigh, when they came to rest in this new, very intimate position.

"Are you alright?", Harry suddenly whispered, she felt his words vibrating underneath her cheek, his voice was so deep.

"Yes, I'm perfect. You?", she whispered back.

"Yea, I'm great", he began to caress the back of her hand and they kept watching.

...

They had made it three-quarters through the movie, when she suddenly really had to wee, so they untangled and she went to the bathroom, a bit sadly, because she had to break up their cuddling position.

When she returned, Harry was sipping his tea and watching her walk back to the sofa.

"Harry, love, you look really tired", she told him quietly as she kneeled onto the sofa next to him, pleased she found the courage to call him love as well.

He smiled at her a bit wearily and pulled the blanket around himself. "Maybe I am"

"I think we should get some sleep. Don't you have any engagements tomorrow?", she said these words with a heavy heart because she wished for nothing more than to keep cuddling on the sofa with him. But it was getting late and he looked exhausted.

"Only in the afternoon", he suddenly yawned excessively, and then looked surprised about it.

She chuckled and then had to yawn herself. "Let's go to bed"

"Only if you promise to stay for breakfast, Olive"

"I promise, alright?", it was all she had wished for: him asking her to stay. Now she could go to bed in peace because she knew she would see him after waking up. "I'd love to spend more time with you. The sooner we go to bed the sooner we can continue spending time together"

Harry grinned at her with tired eyes. "Sounds good", he turned off the TV and as he got up from the sofa, let the blanket slide from his shoulders. They walked towards the bedrooms together, which felt somehow strange, because she felt the urge to just follow him into his room. But she resisted it and said "Goodnight, Harry" in front of the bathroom door.

Harry bent his head and kissed her gently on the cheek; his hand lightly touched her waist. His chestnut curls caressed her face and his lips lingered a bit longer on the skin of her cheek, she could've stayed like this forever.

"Goodnight, Olive", he whispered and let go of her before he vanished into his bedroom.

She suppressed a longing sigh and went into her own bedroom, closing the door behind her. Inside, some kind of pressure fell off of her and she felt the need to breathe deeply a few times before she dimmed the lights, took off the jumper and slid underneath the fresh, soft duvet. She grabbed her phone from her backpack and checked her messages; there were a few but she was too distracted to even think about answering them right now. She only sent a message to her parents that she wouldn't be arriving until tomorrow noon. So, she just turned the alarm off and put it on mute, before laying it on the bedside table. The rain still pattered noisily against the window pane. She turned off all the lights and closed her eyes, seeing Harry's image behind closed eyelids. She just wondered how she would be able to sleep while being this infatuated with him, but seconds later she was deeply asleep.

She awoke sometime later because of a massive peal of thunder outside and reflexively reached for her phone to look at the time. It was just a few hours later, around 5 in the morning. A speck of dawn was peaking through a slit in the curtains, but the light was distorted due to the thunderstorm outside.

Another thunder startled her, and she yawned exhaustedly. She didn't have to remind herself of where she was, she knew exactly in whose hotel suite she was. But why she had decided to sleep in a separate room, wasn't as clear to her anymore. Especially not when currently, the world seemed to be ending outside. With her mind in a sleepy daze, she peeled herself from the blankets and left her bedroom, careful not to make a noise. On her bare feet she tiptoed along past the bathroom door, straight towards Harry's bedroom to which the door had been left ajar.

She carefully pushed the door open, went inside and closed it behind her.

In the dim light of the bedroom she could make out Harry's silhouette on the bed. He was lying on his stomach, a pillow half in his arm half underneath his head, the blanket had been pushed to the end of the bed. Her semi-conscious body filled with longing as she laid eyes on his physique, his muscular back, his tan legs, of which one was bent towards his body and the other was spread across the bed. She didn't want to stare at him for long, because she felt that she was being creepy, so she just carefully crawled onto the bed next to him and reached for the blanket to pull it up to cover herself. The matress seemed to radiate Harry's body heat and his musky scent floated in the air surrounding the bed.

"There you are, love", Harry's voice was only a breathy whisper, but she was a bit startled by him suddenly speaking, either way.

She looked at him, but he began to move only now. He slowly let go of the pillow underneath his head, pushed it upwards and then turned around to face her, while stretching with pleasure.

"I was hoping you'd come over", Harry whispered and gazed at her with sleepy but happy eyes. He grabbed the blanket and pulled it over the both of them, then he opened his arms for her.

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting when she had decided to take the risk and visit his bed, but she was so utterly amazed by Harry's reaction that a delighted sigh escaped her lips as she dove head first into his open arms. She laid her face and palms against the cotton fabric covering his chiselled chest, while he gently laid his arms around her, stroking her hair and kissing her on the head. She heard him hum softly and felt the vibrations of his humming underneath her cheek. Engulfed in his odour, she almost felt dizzy with desire. The thunder rumbling outside seemed so very far away now.

"Why didn't you just ask me to come over?", she breathed against his chest and let her fingers run across his ribs tracing them along to his backside where she began to explore his muscles with her fingertips. The fact that this was not a dream and she was really able to touch Harry almost made her excited heart stop.

"I didn't want to pressure you", Harry caressed her forehead and her temple with his fingertips. "And I wanted to see what you would do"

"Why?", she turned her head a bit upwards which led to her lips gently touching his neck at the level of his collarbones. She might have imagined it, but she thought she felt him shiver slightly underneath the touch of her lips.

"Because I, uh, didn't know if you'd be interested in me... like this, I mean", he whispered against her hair and stroked a strand of it from her neck with his long, gentle fingers.

"Like what?", she decided she would be posing questions until he'd spit out some kind of confession that he liked her.

"I know what you're doing, Olive", Harry immediately called her out. But before she could defend herself, he continued: "And unless you want me to kiss you right now, you better stop"

"I better stop what, Harry?", she asked before she could even think about what she was doing.

She felt him chuckle very softly, he leaned a bit away from her, she looked up and their eyes met in the dim light. And then, he put his fingertips underneath her chin, lifted her head up, caressed her cheek and gently put his beautiful mouth on hers.

The sensation of his soft lips on hers completely took her breath away, a tiny overwhelmed moan fled from her mouth. She held onto Harry's back while he kissed her carefully, holding her face in his hands. He tasted so good, she wanted more and parted her lips for him; she felt his tongue touch her upper lip, before he slipped it into her mouth to gently play with hers. She brought her hands up to his face, drawing along his jawline with her fingertips, before she buried her fingers in his dark, soft curls to pull him closer. Her actions produced a stifled moan from Harry's lips, the delicious taste of his breath hit her tongue. As she carefully raised her thigh to bring her lower body closer to his, she felt his desire physically pressing against her. Her heart began to race in her chest as well as between her legs when she tried to process his size and couldn't really. She noticed how her breathing accelerated.

As amazing as this was and as desperately as she desired Harry, she knew they better shouldn't rush in. He moaned once more, faintly, and they gradually and simultaneously cut back on the tongue-kissing, to keep kissing more gently and innocently. Until he withdrew from her a few millimetres and leaned his forehead against hers. She stroked his hair and his temples and was filled with so much affection for this man, it elicited a trembling sigh from her freshly kissed lips.

"Olive?", Harry's voice was raspy.

She looked at him through eyes half-closed to see that his eyes were fully closed. "Mh?"

"Can we...", he cleared his throat and chuckled, "Can we maybe take it slow?"

She watched him open his clear, green eyes and smiled when their eyes met. "I was going to ask the same thing, but I wasn't sure if it's what you want"

"Why'd you think that?", he caressed her cheek with his fingertips.

"Uhm...", she lowered her gaze visibly so he could see her looking at his crotch.

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise and a cheeky grin appeared on his beautiful face. "Oh, don't listen to him"

She laughed hoarsely. Harry looked down at his crotch and said to it: "I'd like to get to know her properly, you randy devil"

Happy laughter fizzed from deep inside her out of her mouth and Harry grinned gleefully at her. She felt so much happiness, she grabbed Harry's face with both her hands and kissed him again, rolling on top of him with her upper body. He flung his arms around her and reciprocated the kiss, before chuckling against her lips: "I thought we agreed on slow?"

She lifted her head and looked at him with a playful smirk. "So, does slow mean we can't make out? If so, then I'm going back to my own bedroom...", she pretended to turn away from him to get out of bed.

"Hey! Hey!", Harry basically pounced on her. He flung his arms around her and held her back, pulling her underneath him. She was suddenly pressed back into the mattress by his upper body and she loved it. With a racing heart, she stared up into his leaf green eyes.

"You stay here", Harry whispered, and she gazed at his mouth in hopeful anticipation. The small silver cross on the necklace he was wearing touched her chin and then wandered lightly along her throat, when he bent his head down to kiss her. She melted underneath the tender touch of his lips.

The sensations were overwhelming: the fabric of Harry's cotton shirt was so sheer, she felt every muscle of his upper body distinctly against her own skin, she let her fingertips explore his upper arms which felt even more sculpted than she'd imagined, and his beautiful lips kissed her better and more intensely than anyone – in reality or in her imagination – had ever kissed her. Harry had been holding her face in his hands while they kissed, but suddenly he put his fingers in her hair, gently pulled her head back and laid his hot lips against her neck, while he positioned himself between her legs. She automatically flung her legs around his waist. Propped up slightly on his elbows, Harry caressed her neck – she felt lips, tongue, and teeth. At this moment she felt he could do anything with her, she was wax in his hands. She just moaned with relish and buried her fingers in his hair, while he teased the sensitive skin of her neck with his teeth. "Harry"

"Olive?", Harry stopped what he was doing, came higher, and looked down at her.

"I hope you did not just give me a hickey", she whispered. Secretly, she hoped he had done just exactly that, but she would never admit to it.

He grinned at her mischievously. "Can't say for sure, it's too dark in here", and he kissed her gently before she could reply anything to his words.

When she woke up, a few hours later, she wouldn't have been able to say how long they'd kept making out in between the sheets. It was a miracle nothing more had happened, but they'd had only slept for a few hours before and had become very tired soon. She remembered their heated make-out session now with eyes still closed, with the light of the new day hitting her face and felt her body temperature rise immediately. Yawning, she stretched luxuriously and opened her eyes, only to find that she was alone in the king size canopy bed. The doors of the balcony were open, sunlight, a soft wind and faint street noise entered the room as if there had never been any thunderstorm anyhow. The sheer white curtains blew in the stream of air. She sat up against the backrest and looked around – the door to the bathroom was ajar.

"Harry?", she asked into the emptiness of the bedroom, her voice still hoarse from sleep. Inside of her, the irrational fear arose that Harry just wasn't there anymore.

She heard steps in the bathroom and then Harry appeared behind the bathroom door, his beautiful hair in a bun on his head and a sunshine smile on his lips. In the bright daylight that filled the room, his emerald eyes shone at her like two deep ponds. "Good morning"

She pushed the duvet to the end of the bed with her feet and stretched once more. "Good morning"

"Breakfast?", Harry grinned and entered the room to get to the telephone on the bedside table.

"Yes, please!", when she saw that he was now only wearing the training shorts and no shirt, she suppressed a longing sigh and tried to concentrate on something else, but she still couldn't take her tired eyes of him. In the pure, bright daylight, his exposed chest and stomach and back and everything looked so tasty.

Harry sat down on the mattress and picked up the phone, while she let her eyes wander over his broad back, watched how his muscles moved across his shoulder blades, and traced the tattoos on his upper arm with her gaze. She tore her eyes away from his body and rolled out of the bed to look for a toothbrush in the bathroom, while Harry phoned for room-service.

She heard him speak quietly to someone on the other end of the line, while she brushed her teeth and washed her face with cold water. In the mirror above the sink she looked at her face, which was glowing with happiness. On her neck she noticed the shadow of a hickey and couldn't help but grin at her reflection. Her hair was a mess, from it still having been damp when she had gone to sleep. She ruffled through it and couldn't decide if she loved it or hated it.

"What're you doing, Olive?"

In the mirror, she spotted Harry behind her, coming into the bathroom still shirtless. She swallowed the lump in her throat and turned around to him. "Just examining my hair", she grinned and pointed at it with a sceptical look on her face.

Harry approached her until his face was very close to her and gently ran his long fingers through her hair. "Looks pretty", his voice was very quiet and very deep, while he cupped her face with his big, gentle hands. The taste of his breath on her lip made her thirsty immediately.

She got lost in his dark green eyes and couldn't help but sigh tremblingly underneath his intense gaze. "Kiss me, Harry", she whispered wistfully.

With a soft moan Harry bent his head and put his mouth on hers. Their tongues met immediately. He kissed her greedily and she was more than ready for it. She was so hungry for him, she pulled him close and explored his upper body with hasty fingers. Due to the intensity of their kiss, her legs began to feel weak. Luckily, when she noticed her knees giving in, Harry held her tight and together they sank down onto the bathroom floor. Carefully, he laid her down onto her back and positioned himself on top of her, without breaking up their kiss. While they avidly made out on the floor, she put her hands all over him, but he just lovingly caressed her face like the gentleman he was.

Someone that wasn't Harry or she herself suddenly cleared their throat and they both froze completely.

Harry stopped kissing her and lifted his head, they both turned their heads to the door.

"Nialler!", Harry exclaimed, and she noticed some kind of relief in his voice. He turned back to her. "Olive, look! It's Niall!"

"Great", she grinned with hot cheeks and licked his taste from her lips. Harry rolled down from her and helped her get up off the floor.

"Hi, Niall", she tugged at her t-shirt that had slid up a bit, her face felt warm from embarrassment because she had been caught snogging Harry on the bathroom floor like some kind of fangirl. Which, if she was being honest, she actually was.

"Hey Olive", Niall's Irish accent was really strong, she could hear it even in these two words. "Didn't want to disturb you, but the others are asking where you are, Harry"

"Why? We've got nothing to do 'til later", Harry ruffled his hair and followed Niall into the living room area.

She looked at her face in the bathroom mirror; her cheeks were deeply rosé, her lips red from the kissing, and her blue eyes seemed glazed over. Being in a state of confusion from the sudden interruption of their make-out session, she ran her hands over her face before she slowly followed the two into the living room.

"Well, obviously, they don't know what's going on and I didn't know if I should tell 'em... you know?", Niall sat down on the sofa and gestured vaguely towards her, as she was coming out of the bathroom.

"...about Olive?", Harry leant against the armrest of the sofa and held his hand out to her. She put her hand in his almost mechanically and approached him, he gently kissed the back of her hand and winked at her. She smiled but then pulled her hand from his and sat down in a nearby armchair – she loved Harry's attention but didn't want to be all lovey-dovey in front of Niall, because she still felt a bit awkward that yesterday they all had maintained a professional relationship at the Jonathan Ross show and now she was sitting here in Harry's clothes.

"Yea, about Olive", Niall smirked at her.

"So, you already knew I was spending the night?", she asked Niall and pensively bit the inside of her cheek.

Niall nodded, his smirk turning into a sympathetic grin, while Harry crossed his stupidly attractive arms in front of his stupidly attractive chest and said with his deep, solemn voice: "Well, I had to tell someone, because, uhm, otherwise one of them would have gate-crashed for sure", he turned to Niall, "I think you're the only one who never comes into my room completely drunk after a night out, Nialler"

"No, I don't"

"Which is mainly due to the fact that you usually flake out somewhere beforehand"

Niall stared at him feigning to be irritated, but then he laughed in her direction "It's true, I'm usually unconscious while the others are still going"

She laughed back at him – she was glad her presence wasn't a surprise to him and that he still behaved the way he had behaved before he'd found her in Harry's bathroom.

"So, what do I tell them, Harold?", Niall asked seemingly growing a bit nervous.

Harry scrunched his nose, but it looked happy and not in the least bugged. His mossy green eyes flew over to her, as if he were passing on the question, but she just shrugged. She didn't see a problem with telling the other two because she liked all of them and wasn't sure if she wanted to keep a secret from them.

"Uh, I mean, I think – just tell them", Harry said slowly.

There was a knock on the door and they all three looked at each other, as if one of them was responsible.

"Who's that?", she asked, getting a bit nervous at the thought it could be the other boys already.

Niall got up and went over to the door.

"Probably our breakfast", Harry suddenly remembered with a delighted expression on his face and began following Niall to the door.

"Room service for two? Oh, Harold, not again!", she heard Louis yell from the door in amusement just a second later.

"Oh god", she buried her face in her hands, dreadful of what was to come.

"Look, no, I mean, it's not what you think", she heard Harry stutter and looked up, seeing him walk backwards towards where she was sitting. Following him were Niall and a person from the hotel staff, who was pushing a cart along with their breakfast. Behind them Liam and Louis followed – Liam looking around with professional relaxation, while Louis just looked smug.

She had no eyes for Niall or the breakfast, she just awaited the moment when Louis and Liam would spot her. For now, she was still hidden behind Harry, but he suddenly stepped aside, and then she met the surprised faces of the two boys.

"Oh", was the only sound leaving Louis' open mouth, he looked so much like a confused child, it just made her chuckle.

"Olive?", Liam asked just a second later, approaching her, his confusion turning into a genuine smile.

"Hi, boys", she got up from the armchair, so Liam could hug her politely.

Liam put his hand on her shoulder and grinned at her. "What an unexpected pleasure!", he turned to Harry, "Why d'you not tell us Olive's here, man?"

"Hi, Louis", her voice was a bit shaky when she greeted him, because Louis still looked mostly confused as if he hadn't decided yet if he was happy or angry, and it killed her. She hugged him cautiously and he reciprocated the hug a bit hesitantly before he then held her at the shoulders and smiled right into her face. "I knew there was something going on when you two came back together after the break yesterday. It's just impossible to fool me!"

"But...there was nothing going on", she stuttered. "Honestly"

"Course there was!", Harry shouted. He and Liam had sat down on the sofa.

"What're you talking about?", she turned to him with a mixture of amusement and irritation. From the corner of her eye she noticed the man from the hotel staff leaving the room – so now Niall was alone in Harry's bedroom with the food, that could not end well, she thought.

"Are you going to deny the chemistry we had in the elevator?"

She laughed at Harry's words, then a thought crossed her mind and she turned back to Louis. "What exactly did you mean when you said 'Oh, Harold, not again'?"

Louis' cheeks turned rosé, but a cheeky grin stole onto his lips. "Oh just, he's done this before"

"Done what?"

"Invite a girl into his hotel room, you know?"

Of course, Harry had done this before – she just didn't want to be counted as one of those girls, that's why she struggled to keep smiling.

"But after he'd done it once and the girl wouldn't leave, and we had to call security and we basically had to bring in the big guns to keep the media quiet, we've all learned from it. Haven't we, lads?", he crossed his arms in front of his chest and winked at Liam and Harry.

He'd done it once. So, at the worst, she would be one of two girls. That wasn't as bad as she had feared. She had the tiny feeling that the strangeness inside her guts wasn't really about that, but she could deal with that later. Her eyes flew over to Harry on the sofa, who was looking all delicious and serious, still not wearing a shirt.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna cause any problems", she tried to sound as easy going as possible.

The boys all suddenly looked at her in concern and then they all began to smile softly.

"What? Why are you smiling?", she didn't know what was going on. As if someone had told something funny and she'd missed out on it.

Louis threw his arm over her shoulders and pulled her close, while Harry slid down deeper into the cushions of the sofa hiding his smiling face behind his hands. Liam fumbled with the tassels of one of the pillowcases.

"Olive, we know you. We know that if we should be concerned about someone causing problems it'll be good old Harold over there", Louis chuckled.

"Eeeey!", Harry shouted, feigning outrage.

"Eh, uh, you lot gonna eat this food over here or...?", Niall suddenly shouted from the bedroom.

"Our breakfast!", Harry yelled, jumped up from the sofa and ran into the bedroom.

She leant her head against Louis' shoulder because she was just so glad about his words. "Thanks", she whispered.

He patted her on the head. "You know, if he does annoy you, just give us a call"

"What d'you say, we'll let them have breakfast in peace, Tommo?", Liam got up from the sofa.

"Oh, please, you don't have to leave", she sighed.

"Oh, yes, we definitely have to, Olive", Liam laughed, "Harry will kick us out either way"

"No, he won't. He seems so nice"

"Course he's nice to you – you let him into your knickers, love", Louis remarked.

"W...what?", she felt her cheeks grow hot.

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that"

"That was so uncalled for", she said angrily and pushed him half-seriously.

"What's wrong with you, mate?", Liam pushed Louis towards the door and kicked him playfully in his bum. "Nialler! We're leaving!"

Niall came jogging from the bedroom, a scone in his hand. "See ya, Olive", he shouted as he passed her and stuffed the scone in his mouth following the other two out of the hotel room.

"Cheers"

Harry had followed him but came to a halt where she stood. He waved the boys goodbye. "See you later", he shouted, then he turned to her, took her face in his gigantic hands, and kissed her. He kissed her sweetly and delicately, gently caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. Her chest filled with warmth and she took the opportunity to let her fingertips explore his firm stomach and his chest.

"Let's eat in bed", Harry whispered against her lips, took her hand, and she followed him into the bedroom. Part of her was almost hoping that he wasn't talking about real food, but she once again reminded herself of their promise to take it slow.

I won't deny I've got in my mind now all the things I would do. So, I try to talk refined for fear that you find out how I'm imagining you. [Hozier, Talk.]

They managed to eat most of the scones and fruit and drink the tea to the last drop before she was overwhelmed by her desire for him once again.

Harry was just sitting opposite to her, his legs crossed in tailor fashion, leaning relaxingly against the backrest of the bed; he had opened his hair-bun and was eating the last of the strawberries which were painting his lips red. She had just taken the last sip of her tea when she watched how he gently ate a strawberry with wet, red lips and suddenly imagined these lips on any part of her body. Their eyes met, he kept caressing the strawberry with his lips while staring at her, a delicious shiver ran down her spine when he licked the strawberry gently. She tried to keep her cool while carefully putting her teacup down on the bedside table; she felt Harry's gaze following her actions. Then she crawled towards him, he uncrossed his legs so she could kneel down between them. Harry pulled the green part from the rest of the strawberry and threw it on to the floor before holding the strawberry towards her. "Strawberry?"

She caught his gaze and held it, while slowly parting her lips. He held the fruit to her mouth and bit his lower lip as he watched her biting into it. There was only a small bit of fruit left between his fingers, so she took his hand and gently slipped everything into her mouth – the fruit and Harry's fingertips. She noticed him swallowing hard, while he watched her lips closing around his index and middle finger, the strawberry juice began running from her lips down his fingers and across his hand. She heard him exhale tremblingly, before he bent towards her, put his other hand in her neck and laid his tasty lips on hers, simultaneously pulling his fingers from her mouth and burying them in her hair. A moan ran from her mouth into his, everything tasted of strawberries, even Harry's thirsty tongue. They licked the juice from each other's lips with relish. She could not fight the urge to feel him closer and straddled him, the desire hitting her in the stomach like a tiny fist when she felt him as solid as a rock between her legs. The three layers of cotton fabric between them did not hide much of his size. "Oh my god", she moaned against his lips, while her hips almost moved on their own, grinding slowly against him.

With a low groan, Harry sat up a bit and while he still held her head with one hand, he let his other hand slide underneath her t-shirt, caressing her back with gentle fingers. A shiver ran down her back following the trace of Harry's fingertips, she was shocked about how her body reacted to him touching her in any way. Without breaking the kiss, Harry leaned forward while letting his hand wander from her back to her stomach, pushing her gently until her back hit the mattress and he laid on top of her. He had managed this whole movement so elegantly, she had to grin in admiration against his lips while she was buried underneath his body.

"What?", Harry chuckled quietly when he noticed her grin.

"That was a nice move"

"You think?", he kissed her gently, his fingertips danced almost playfully across her stomach. "I can show you some more of my moves if you like, Olive"

She held her breath when she felt those fingertips of his wander higher and across her ribs. Her shirt had been pushed up in the process, it wouldn't take much to get her out of it and she wanted him to do exactly that. A part of her tried to tell her to take it slow but she desired Harry so much, she wasn't able to listen to it.

Harry kissed her once more very delicately before looking into her eyes. She felt her heart race in excitement when she looked up and dove into his emerald eyes.

"I don't think it's fair that you're shirtless and I'm not", she whispered and noticed that her voice was shaking.

Harry chuckled in astonishment and lowered his gaze before looking back up into her face. She noticed a rosé shadow on his beautiful cheeks and was glad she made him blush with her bluntness. "Would you like for me to do something about that?", he asked with his deep voice, while she noticed him already staring at to where her shirt had been pushed up and where her naked skin was visible. Harry's gaze flew up to her face once more and all she could do was nod slowly, because the excitement was closing up her throat. The anticipation made her feel weak, she let her fingers trace the outline of his face while staring at it in awe before she let her arms sink down onto the mattress left and right of her head. Harry sat up halfway so both of his hands were available and then she felt his fingers at the rim of her shirt gently pushing it upwards, slowly at first. She felt a wisp of wind against the now bare skin of her breasts, while Harry suddenly gripped her shirt more determinedly and she helped him to get it over her head. In a sudden fit of impatience, he threw the shirt over the edge of the bed, she noticed his now free hands shaking as they hovered in the air above her while his beautiful eyes wandered across her naked upper body. She could have just kissed him for the admiration lying in his gaze as he beheld her body. "You're so beautiful", Harry's voice seemed even darker.

She reached out to pull him on top of her once again, he complied with a low moan, and their lips found each other in a hungry kiss. Harry just cupped her face once more while they kissed with lavish, but his hot skin against hers wasn't enough for her.

"Touch me, Harry", she managed to breathe against his lips. He replied to her request with a shaky moan and she melted away underneath the tender touch of Harry's fingertips exploring her breasts.

"Olive", Harry moaned voiceless and pushed his loins against her, before his lips began wandering away from her mouth, over her chin and down her neck. She just answered with a longing whimper, and buried her fingers in his curls, enjoying the sensations his soft, wandering lips evoked in her. He gently bit the delicate skin on her neck, before continuing to carefully kiss downwards across the hollow of her throat between her collarbones and then the sweet spot right between her breasts. The sudden feeling of the tip of his tongue against her nipple made hot desire shoot right through her; she inhaled sharply and exhaled with a shiver when Harry teased her nipple with his tongue and teeth. Shivers started running through her body continuously which felt as if she would not be able to bare it for a long time. She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to calm her breathing, while Harry's lips wandered downwards across her ribs. She felt Harry's tongue on the skin of her stomach before he just covered her in gentle, endearing kisses all the while moaning softly. Somewhere far away her phone started ringing, it was easy to just ignore it, but it brought her thoughts back to taking it slow. She took her hands from Harry's hair and brought them to her face, moaning into her palms with a mixture of pleasure and upset. Harry stopped kissing her stomach and crawled upwards to look at her. Their eyes met as he gently removed her hands from her face and caressed her cheek.

"What's the matter, love?", he whispered and kissed her palm.

"Harry, we wanted to..."

"...take it slow?", he chuckled, "yea, I just remembered that as well"

She smiled sadly at him and cupped his beautiful face with her hands, she could not believe how gorgeous he was. A strand of his dark curls had fallen across his face and tickled her chin when Harry licked his lips and bent his head to kiss her almost coyly. A sigh escaped her under the touch of his lips, and he leaned his forehead against hers. "I'm going to call Paul so he can drive you home", he sighed.

She let her fingertips wander from his face across his neck to his chest, just to touch as much of Harry as possible before they went their separate ways. Almost, could she feel the butterfly tattoo that graced his solar plexus like a relief under her fingertips, because she knew it was there.

“When can I see you again, Olive?”

With a sudden lump in her throat caused by his question she watched Harry who was enjoying her caress with closed eyes and slightly parted lips. She gently stroked his back, then his shoulders and his upper arms, before closing her eyes and whispering “Whenever you want”

“Tonight?”

Her eyes flew open at the sound of his suggestion. He stared right into her soul for a second, before rolling down from her on his back. The happiest smile on her lips, she sat up on the bed, crossed her legs in tailor-fashion and looked at the man lying next to her. How she could ever leave this hotel-room she wasn’t sure. Harry and his beautiful body attracted her like pomegranate seeds attracted Persephone, she wanted to get drunk on him and then just fade away so she wouldn’t have to worry about leaving his side anymore. This realisation startled her, and she reacted with the urge to distance herself emotionally. “I’m staying at my parents’ house tonight. And I thought you had another talk-show appointment today?”

“I do. But it won’t take all night, obviously…”

“I mean, you can come afterwards.”, she had already spiralled back to wanting him with every atom. “My parents won’t mind, but my sister’s staying as well so you have to be prepared for a full house, Harry”, she suggested and was a bit excited, to be honest, because staying in Harry’s hotel-room was one thing, but bringing him home to her parents was a whole different story. To distract herself from the fear of rejection she got up from the bed and grabbed the t-shirt from the floor to put it back on.

“You sure?”, she heard Harry say and when she looked at him, he was lying on his stomach looking up at her with an excited smile on his gorgeous face.

Admiration for him spread like a warm flame in her chest and she smiled back at him. “Yea, definitely”

Paul soon arrived at the suite after Harry had organised everything, he also brought her clothes which were freshly cleaned and dried. “Thanks, Paul”, she received her clothes and got dressed in her room.

“Keep the shirt and jumper, please”, Harry yelled from the other room.

“What?”

“Keep them”, he stuck his head through the door and held his hand in front of his eyes.

“Oh, get in here and open your eyes, you berk. You’ve already seen it all, haven’t you?”, she laughed.

Taking his hand from his eyes, he grinned and closed the door behind him. “Not entirely, no”, he replied with a naughty smirk. She was a bit sad that he was wearing his shirt now.

“Don’t worry, you will eventually”, she smirked back. “So, you want me to keep your clothes?”

“Yea”

“Why?”

“I want you to have something of mine, and you just look amazing in them”

She was still wearing the t-shirt anyway and stood in front of him only in her underpants, about to put on her own skinny jeans. It was just a grey care bear shirt, but it belonged to Harry and when she pulled up her jeans and closed them around her waist with the shirt tucked inside she felt like the best dressed girl who was about to walk the streets of this city. Harry looked her up and down and then right into her eyes.

“May I kiss you again, love?”, he suddenly asked very seriously.

She was a bit confused by him asking for permission after they had kissed numerous times already, so she nodded slowly. “Of course. Yes, definitely”

Harry stepped forward so their bodies almost touched, took her face in his large hands, and looked down at her. She could not wait for him to kiss her but did not dare to move while being held captive by his emerald eyes. He bridged the gap between their faces and gently put his mouth on hers; her eyes fluttered shut when he kissed her, and she laid her hands on his warm chest. Harry moaned quietly, the sound of which sent shivers through her whole body. The kiss was short and sweet. “You taste amazing”, Harry whispered against her lips before letting go of her. She staggered a bit because he’d weakened her knees with his words, while opening her eyes and smiling brightly at him.

“I think I have to go now, Harry”, she really didn’t want to, but she definitely couldn’t stay. The prospect of seeing him again soon made saying goodbye a bit easier.

She packed all her things together and Harry escorted her to the door of the suite where Paul was waiting with professional nonchalance.

“Would you like me to carry your bag, miss Olive?”, he asked with a friendly wink.

“No, thanks, that’s alright”, she smiled at him, before turning to Harry. “See you later?”

Harry caressed her cheek and nodded; she felt the coldness of his rings against her skin. She took his handsome face in her hands, got on tiptoes, and kissed him on his soft lips. “Bye”, she whispered against his mouth and felt him sigh.

“Bye, love”, he kissed her gently on the forehead, before they eventually separated, and she followed Paul out the door and down the stairs. She heard the door close behind her back but did not dare to look for fear of wanting to run back into Harry’s arms.