I lay in bed next to Paisley, feeling emotionally drained, but yet so energized, a confusing juxtaposition within my mind. This entire time, it's been her. It's always been her.

Fate brought us together that night, and now I understand. This was all meant to happen and all meant to work out.

I still fell jittery from the second kiss that she initiated. I was surprised, to say the least, but nonetheless it had me feeling a lot more assured that she feels somewhat of the same as me. And here I am smiling like a fucking fourteen year old boy who just asked out his crush because she's laying in my arms.

I don't know what's to come after this, and I know we're going to have a lot of stuff to work out, but right now, all I want to focus on is the feeling of laying next to Paisley, her head against my chest and her small body engulfed in my arms and how much she means to me.

* * * * * * *

"Harry."

When I opened my eyes, I was momentarily confused as to where I was, because Paisley's room was somewhere I'd only been once or twice. Soon enough, however, the events of the night came back to me and I felt a huge weight seem to come with it. Not that I was upset, but I knew Paisley and I had a lot to talk through. Last night, it was easy to just not worry about it, but in the light of day, our problems were not so easily pushed aside.

I looked to my left to see Paisley sitting up in the bed beside me. She smiled wide and giggled, probably at my appearance, which I hadn't yet seen but would guess is probably not too amazing. She was still in her pajamas, her hair in a bun atop her head and fuzzy socks on her feet as she sat criss cross beside me. She looked so adorably cute, and I just wanted to gather her in my arms and kiss every inch of her face, but I didn't.

"What's so funny?" I asked, my voice deep, as I had just woken up.

"Your hair, Harry." She laughed, bringing her hand to my hair and ruffling it so it probably looked even worse.

"You're not helping." I grumbled, moving to sit up beside her.

"Oh shush." She said. I looked over to her and her eyes met mine, neither of us saying anything, both knowing we had so much to talk about.

"Good morning." She finally said, breaking the silence and leaning forward to press a hesitant kiss to my cheek. The heat of her lips burned against my skin where they made contact.

"Morning. How are you?" I asked. She looked at me and nodded her head, as if she was contemplating how she actually felt.

"Good. And you?"

"Good." I replied. "We have a lot to talk about." She nodded at my remark, but averted eye contact.

"My mom is probably making breakfast. Do you want to talk after we eat?" She asked.

"Sure." I said.

"Alright. I'll head downstairs. The bathrooms right over there and there's an extra toothbrush under the sink. And feel free to use my brush to fix up those lovely locks of yours." She joked.

"Shut up, Pay." I joked back. "I'll be right down." She smiled back and turned around to go downstairs.

I went into the bathroom and used the said toothbrush. I made my hair halfway presentable by wetting it down and smoothing it out a little bit. I was very nervous about eating breakfast with Paisley's family, but her mom did seem somewhat more welcoming last night and hopefully spending time with her will get her to understand me more.

After shrugging at my appearance in the mirror, I exited the bathroom and from the stairs I could hear voices coming from the kitchen. When I got down there, Paisley's Aunt Kara was standing at the sink and her mother was setting the table. Paisley looked up immediately when I entered, waving me over to the table.

"Come on in, Harry." She said.

"Morning, Harry." Paisley's mother said, smiling over to me and making me feel somewhat less nervous.

"Good morning. Thanks for letting me stay last night."

"It's no problem." She said.

"We're just finishing up the eggs and then everything will be ready." Kara said, looking over her shoulder and then going back to her work.

When her mother went back over to the sink, Paisley grabbed my hand under the table and squeezed it, the small gesture giving me reassurance that everything would go fine.

"So how was your movie night last night?" Her mother asked as the sound of bacon sizzling sounded around the room.

"It was pretty quick. We fell asleep right away." Paisley said laughing, me joining her.

"Yeah we were both beat." I said.

"Yeah, you both looked a little exhausted when you came down." Kara said, bringing a plate of steaming hot scrambled eggs over to the table.

"We were." I commented. If only they knew...

The rest of the food, including a plate of bacon and some toast, and a pitcher of orange juice were brought to the table and everyone was seated.

"This looks delicious." I said.

"Thank you." Kara and Paisley's mom said in unison.

I hadn't been to many family-style dinners, considering my family was never home, but in my younger years (before I became an asshole), I spent a good share of time over at friend's houses, so luckily I knew how to act during this breakfast.

"So, what do you plan on doing when you graduate, Harry?" Ms. Evans asked.

"I want to go to Regis University, I think. I'm hoping to go into something human service related."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I know I definitely want to work with people." I said, and her mother nodded and smiled at the information.

"That very nice. So you'll be farther away, then?"

"Yes it's about three or four hours away."

We continued talking throughout breakfast, mostly about what I wanted to do when I got older and what Paisley's plans were. I was trying not to sweat it being under her mother's intense gaze, but I couldn't help feeling so nervous. If last night was any indication of where the two of us were headed, it would be important that her mom likes me, or at least, knows that I'm not a total fuck-up like I've presented myself to be thus far.

However, as the meal went on, I felt like everyone, including myself were starting to relax a little more. The conversation flowed much more easily, and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. I got the idea that maybe Paisley's family wasn't totally shunning me anymore.

When all of our plates were empty, Paisley stood up and grab her and her aunt's plates. I decided to follow her lead and went to grab her mother's also.

"Are you done?" I asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Harry." She said, smiling and looking over to her sister. "We need to solicit help like this more often." She joked.

I followed Paisley over to the sink and helped her rinse the dishes off and put them into the dishwasher.

"You're doing great, Harry." She whispered out of the side of her mouth.

"You think so?" I asked, genuinely wanting to know if her perception was the same as mine.

"Absolutely. Don't worry too much." She said, sending me into even more relief.

"Good." We then proceeded to clear the entire table, and do all the dishes. I'm not going to lie and say I do dishes often, because nobody eats enough at my house for there to even be dishes, but I didn't mind doing them.

At some point, Paisley's mom and aunt left the room, so it was just her and I. She had her hands in the soapy water washing the dishes and handing them to me to dry.

"Well I'm glad I didn't fuck up in front of them." I said.

"Stop freaking out." Paisley said, laughing.

"That means nothing to me. I'm not used to submitting to authority." I teased.

"Oh please, you're not the bad-ass you think you are." She shot back.

"You've softened me." I said, faking disgust.

Paisley just splashed me with the soapy water in return.

"What was that for?" I asked. She didn't say anything, but just splashed me some more. "Oh, two can play at that game." 

With that, I ducked my hand into the warm water, bring some out with it and flicking it up to her face. An enormity of giggles erupted from her lips as she smiled wide, her crystal blue eyes shining brightly.

"We're so childish." She said, once we had calmed down a bit. 

"Yeah." I agreed. "At times." 

"True." We were both silent after that. I was purposely drying the dishes slow in an effort to drag out the inevitable conversation that was to happen.

It's not that I didn't want to sort all of this out, because there's nothing I want more than to hopefully take this relationship with Paisley to something of more than friends, but I'm scared as hell as to what she is going to say. Not only that, but I've never been good at expressing my feelings, and just having to do it makes me feel like an overemotional, hormonal teenage girl. 

I know exactly where I want this to go with Paisley, and I hope she wants to go there too. The way she kissed me last night and is being so flirty with me today makes me think that we're on the same page.

However, making this more than a friendship had so many risks. Going too far and messing things up for good, and screwing up this bond we've worked so hard to form these past months. It's a risk I'm willing to take, but only because I can't see myself without her and can't picture in my head a time when I wouldn't have her to lean on. 

"C'mon, slowpoke." Paisley said, grabbing another towel and helping me to dry. When we were finished she hung the towels on the rack and looked over to me, my glance meeting hers. 

"Do you wanna go outside or up?" She asked.

"Outside is fine." I answered, nodding towards the door that led to the back porch. Her aunt and mother had gone to their rooms to get ready, so I don't think we'd be interrupted or overheard outside. 

"Alright." She said, leading the way and opening the door. As the door closed, I braced myself for the tangle of conversation that was about to be shared between the two of us. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Does anybody love Haisley as much as I do???

Hope you liked this chapter! Pretty much just some Harry and Paisley fluff, but the next chapter will be more eventful! 

Vote if you want Haisley to get together ❤