My eyes wandered in awe as I stared up at the house. I was so mesmerized by it's beauty and breathtaking landscape that I didn't realize my feet followed mindlessly behind him as he led us from the entry way into his house.

"Well..." he smiles brightly, "This is it! Mi casa es su casa"

Everything my eyes landed on just seemed to fit right in with the style of the house. The room was modernly decorated with a rustic twist that made it feel more homey...more like Harry, a complete contrast to the futuristic look of the outside at first glance...And this was just the living room!

I swear, as soon as my eyes landed on the tall, symmetrical, white building, I felt like I walked straight into the future.

Mari was starry-eyed from the moment we stepped out of the car. I found myself having to close her tiny mouth so many times because her jaw kept dropping every where her eyes turned.

All I could think was, We were definitely a long way from home...

It also didn't get passed me that everything also looked very very expensive. It also didn't help that the place was very open due to the floor to ceiling glass windows. Immediately I felt my heart rate spike as I started to panic.

I pulled her closer to me so that she was in earshot and rushed out in a whisper, "Mari, you can't break anything in here..."

I couldn't tell if she heard me and ignored or if she was too distracted by the house to listen.

God...gods...superior beings...universe...ANYBODY,

Please keep her butterfingers away from anything she could potentially break...please!

I promise I'll stop stealing all the red gummy bears and pretending that I don't know what happened to them.

I PROMISE I'LL SHARE!! Just please don't make her break anything!

My eyes blink back to reality after harshly staring up at the ceiling hoping someone up there would here my pleas when I hear Harry's voice.

"I don't stay here a lot, only when I'm in the area so I didn't really bother about it not being as...homey I guess you could say, than my house in England" he tries to explain, "but it's okay, right? You don't mind staying here do you?"

"Harry, this is more than okay." A bit more than I was expecting...

"Well, uh...okay great!" He clasps his hands together with an enthusiastic smile, "so how about a tour, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Mari exclaims excitedly, jumping up and down.

"Yeah!" He yells back, matching her excitement and he motions for her to get on his back.

Yeahhh...please don't make her break anything.

So he showed us around the house, pretending to be a car with an overly excited Mari on his back...and then there was me.

Already fed up with the amount of stairs in this house. Jeezzz

In fact, because I was only complaining about the stairs, I missed almost half the tour and if you were to ask me where any room in this house was, I'd just point you in the direction of the lemon tree outside by the pool.

Because that's the only thing I remember.

The lemon tree.

And the pool (only because the windows are glass and I have a clear view of the back of the house).

But I still follow along blindly behind them, mostly enjoying how Harry interacts with her. It's so endearing to watch that I can't look away.

She's a very particular child...very picky. She doesn't get along well with many people, especially when she doesn't know them.

So to see her this way, almost instantly clicking with Harry from the day they met at Syco really warms my heart.

But it also scares me.

He stops in front of a white door suddenly and sets Mari back on the ground.

"And this room here is yours, munchkin"

Her eyes go wide and she grins up at him, "Really?!"

Her smile was so infectious that it had both of us grinning from ear to ear. He didn't tell me about this.

He stoops down so that he was at her level and says "How about we go have a look inside?"

He turns the handle and pushes the door open. I watch as her jaw drops to the floor for the millionth time and she runs into the room, screaming, "I love it!"

Being intrigued by the sound of such happiness, I peek my head inside to see what was going on, "Harry, what did you d-"

The words get caught in ny throat at the sight of the room. It was huge.

A bit large for a child to have for herself if you ask me but that wasn't the only thing.

In fact, what really caught my attention was the bed in the middle of the room...the sheets were Math themed, yes Math themed, adorned with numbers and different Math symbols and equations scattered all about.

There was a mural covering the entire wall behind the bed with just everything...Math.

And to top it all off, it had her next favorite thing...the solar system that hung from the ceiling.

"Oh my..." I gasped. There were a million and one emotions filling up in me at the moment and I couldn't pinpoint which was which. I just feel so amazed that he would do something like this. It showed that he paid attention, not that I didn't think he did in the first place, but it just showed how much he cares about her and wanted to make her feel as comfortable as possible in a place that was foreign to her. He wanted to make her happy and that's all I could ever want for her.

And it just made me feel so lucky to know that I have someone like him in my life.

"How did you-"

"I had some help" Is all he says smiling at me.

"Harry, thank you" I said with the most sincerity, from the bottom of my heart.

"For what?" He says a bit confused but still smiling.

"More than you know"

Hs goes to say something but gets cut off when Mari yells from the room.

"Mum, come look! This is so cool!"

I chuckle at her and step into the room, taking in how breathtaking it is.

How long has he been planning this?

Harry soon walks in and stands next to us, wiggling a remote in his hand.

"What's that?" She asks curiously.

"Yeah Uncle Harry, what's that?" I chime in, in a teasing manner but also really intrigued by what else he had up his sleeve.

"What, this?" He looks at the remote and says, "Nothing, special"

Then he looks back at us with a smirk, "Hmm, I wonder what this button does"

He presses a button on the remote and all of a sudden the solar system hanging from the ceiling starts spinning.

I couldn't help the grin that slide across my face at her gasp.

"No way!!!" She cries out in shock, looking up at it in amazement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I jump out of my sleep at a sudden sink in the bed and my eyes fly open to be met with Harry's sheepish face and his hands hung midair holding one end of the blanket as he attempted to get his body under it.

After we finally left Mari's room, he showed me to the room where I'd be staying which was right across from hers.

To say it was a regular guest room was an understatement. It literally looked like a hotel room.

And the sheets were soooo comfy that as soon as I put Mari to bed, I literally scampered back to my room and snuggled under the thick, plush covers deciding to go to bed early just feel the sheets against my skin.

"Jesus, Harry" I say groggily while running my hand over my face, "We're not kids anymore...you can't just come sneak into my bed in the middle of the night when you feel lonely"

I was trying to act annoyed, especially since he abruptly woke me up...Harry has many traits, one of them definitely not being stealthy... but I was fighting a smile and I think he noticed because he continued to get under the blanket without waiting for consent which means he knew that he wasn't making me uncomfortable.

"And when has that ever stopped me?" he asks, more like states, smartly.

"You could have at least tried to be a bit more...I don't know...subtle?" I say shaking my head, knowing that he's already won this 'argument'.

"I wouldn't be me if I did, now would I, love?" He says while fluffing the pillow underneath his head to get more comfortable, "I can see you" he adds soon after.

"What?" I ask completely confused, shifting my position to face him.

"I can see you rolling your eyes at me" he says coolly staring right me, with the light from the moon being the only source of light in the dark room.

"But I didn't!"

With a smirk in his voice, he says confidently, "Oh but you were going to, love." The nerve of this guy...

"See I've known you practically my whole life, give or take, so at this point, you've become so predictable to me"

"Alright smart guy, since I'm so predictable, tell me what I'm thinking right now" ha! Take that!

"Right now..." he stops to think but only for like a nanosecond before he starts grinning, "right now, you're imagining yourself smacking me...which is cool, you know, if you're into that sort of thing, which you're not, but just to humour you because I'm such a good friend, I'd have to say..." he puts one hand on my shoulder and pats it while speaking in a mock sympathetic tone, "Mia, I'll support you no matter what but violence is never the answer"

"Oh grow up!" I exclaim swatting his hand away from my shoulder while he cackles away, "So mature, because you're so funny" I tried to sound annoyed but ended up contradicting myself when a laugh bursts out.

After about a minute or two, our laughing fit slowly died down and soon after we settled into a comfortable silence. I twisted my body so that I was now laying on my back and stared up at the ceiling. He didn't say anything as I didn't. I guess we were both enjoying the peaceful silence yet I couldn't help but wonder if he was thinking the same thing as me.

Man! I missed an entire four years of this?!

What was I doing with my life?

Oh I know.

Blindfolded, walking on the trapeze to self destruction.

But that's besides the point.

What would I be doing right now, in this very moment, if Harry and I didn't lock eyes that day in Simon's office?

I can tell you for a fact that it wouldn't be having a stomachache from laughing so much.

"Hey Hare Bear"

My eyes are still focused on the ceiling yet I still see from my peripheral vision when he slowly, very slowly, turns his head towards me with the creepiest grin, "Yes?"

Um hello? I don't remember calling the Joker...

That is one image I wasn't exactly expecting, especially in this dark room. Now I know what you're thinking and no, I'm not afraid of the dark.

But that doesn't mean that I don't scamper to my bed as soon as I turn the lights off and pull the covers all the way up over my head so that the imaginary ghost or malnourished, bug-eyed looking monster in my head can't grab my feet.

Don't laugh, I know you do it too.

"Uh anyways," I say in a weirded out tone, "Do you ever like...wonder-"

"What I would look like as a mermaid? All.the.time!" he cuts me off before I get the chance to finish and says cheekily.

"No, genius" I let out a groan.

"And you know what else too? If all living things can reproduce, how do mermaids give birth?"

"Seriously?" I said in a bored tone, and internally facepalm myself-WAIT...no no no, don't let Harry get into your head. It's what he does.

"Just think about it. Okay, so picture a mermaid right, like Ariel or something" hear we go...

"Actually no, scratch that...think of the most beautiful person you've ever laid eyes on AKA me-" he literally smirks at me and I couldn't resist the urge to roll my eyes, of course he'd say that "-but dressed as Ariel. Me, Harry Styles, as Ariel the mermaid. You know, red hair...green tail, that sort of thing"

That's it, I'm completely lost on where he is going with this.

"Mia, you're supposed to be envisioning. Chop chop" he snaps his fingers twice at me.

"Okay okay" I concede and close my eyes, deciding to let him humour me, in the middle of the night.

"Can you see it?" he asks giddily.

"Oh I'm seeing it alright"

"Brilliant! Now imagine me giving birth" he then adds coolly as though this conversation isn't weird at all.

"Harry!!" I exclaim, opening my eyes and turning to look at him wide eyed.

"What?" he whines, "Not me as me. As the mermaid!"

Where is all sense and reason in this boy's head?

"Enlighten me as to what was the point of such a disturbing image"

He opens his mouth, very confidently might I add, to respond and then immediately frowns and adorns a puzzled look, "You know what? I have no idea"

What.

The.

Actual.

Hell.

"On the bright side, you think I'm so beautiful...so handsome...so pretty, that you compared me to a mermaid...your words not mine"

Wait- hold up.

Did I just get played? This mother-

"You know what? I think it's time to get some sleep. Don't you?" I say nicely, with a few octaves gone up on my voice, to mask my obvious annoyance and to quell the feeling of grabbing this pillow and connecting it with his face.

He just knows all the right buttons to push, doesn't he.

"Wait, wait" he stops me from turning back around to my previous position in which he woke me up "I swear, I'll stop...for now" he smirks at me and then asks, "what were you going to say?"

I squint my eyes at him and he raises his hands in surrender, "I'll stop, I'll stop"

Giving in, I let out a sigh of defeat, knowing that he always manages to win me over.

"Don't you ever wonder what our lives would be like if we didn't see each other at Syco? Like, if our friendship really was over and we never saw each other again?"

"Never" he says almost instantly and I'm a bit taken aback by how fast he was able to answer and how firm it sounded, like he really meant it.

"Don't you think you should think about it firs-"

"No." he says definitely like before, "Because it will never happen"

"Well okay then, Mr. Psychic. Since you're all seeing and knowing, can you tell me when this annoying fly that keeps buzzing by my ear will go away...because sooner than he thinks, he's gonna be squashed between the bottom of my slipper and the wall"

"Well I'm sorry to tell you this, toots" he says playing along with the metaphor, "but Mr. Fly isn't going anywhere, anytime soon...or probably ever"

He then moves his pillow towards the empty space between us and scoots his body closer to mine so now we were both on our sides, staring at each other, just a few inches away.

One of my hands was under my cheek and the other laid flat on the bed right next to my pillow. He proceeds to do the same, putting one of his hands under his cheek but instead of resting this other hand on the bed, he rests his palm on top of mine.

And I just let him.

I couldn't tell if I was imagining things or not, but I could've sworn that as soon as his big, soft yet slightly calloused hand covered my much smaller one, a slew of electric pulses shot up my arm.

Okayyyy. Time out.

I need to sleep now.

From his loud, cheeky attitude from before, he switches to sincere whisper as he says to me, "You're stuck with me, Mia"

I felt like praising the gods or who ever it is that took pity on me tonight , that we were in a dark room so he couldn't see the goosebumps rising all over my body at the way he said it.

Am I swooning? I can't tell.

I should move my hand, you know...

But I kinda don't want to.

But I feel like I'm making this moment awkward, though.

"Yeah..." I let out a little sigh, deciding to tease him a bit "you're right, maybe our friendship won't end"

"Of course it won't" he says with utmost confidence.

"True, very true," I say nodding along, trying to keep a straight face.

"But you know, it couldn't end anyway... " The moonlight shone on his face, letting me see his intrigued expression, "We've been friends for too long now. You know too much, now there's only one way out"

It takes him a while to catch on but he does, his expression was priceless!

"You wouldn't kill me..." he says shaking his head with a nervous laugh.

"Guess we shouldn't want to find out then," and with one final grin, I remove my hand from under his, instantly missing the warmth, and spin my body over to the next side, away from him and soon enough sleep took over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~