be there for you

twenty two .

There's no reply, but the read receipts tell him the elder saw it. There's a beat of silence before he hears Simon's door open and shut, footsteps, and then he can sense Simon at the doorway behind him.

"Harry," He says, his voice wavering. He sounds nervous, something usually unfamiliar in his tone but has become more common in the past days.

Harry turns around, eyes immediately meeting Simon's and he feels it all click into place. "Simon."

It's all he can say, so he breathes in and gathers all the courage he can, which isn't much. Nonetheless, he beckons Simon forward until the taller is right in front of him.

"I'm not good with words," Harry says. "Not the way you are."

"It's okay, you don't have to be."

Harry chews on the inside of his cheek, anxious. All of his feelings are jumbled on the tip of his tongue, and he doesn't know where to start, how to start.

So, Harry does the one thing that doesn't require any words at all.

He kisses him.

He kisses him like he means it, because he does mean it, and he tries to push all of the emotions he can't express verbally into the kiss. He wonders if it's possible to feel years and years of love through a connection of mouths.

The answer is soon discovered, when Simon reciprocates and pulls Harry closer. His brain shuts off, and when Simon's arm wraps around his waist he knows, knows what Simon feels and how he's been waiting for this too.

Harry wonders how he didn't realize any of this sooner.

He's inexperienced with this whole 'love' thing. He never even saw it as a possibility, let alone knew what it was, until he met Simon. Yet he knows how he feels, and now how Simon feels. It's overwhelming in the best way possible.

Simon is the one to break the kiss, letting out a soft laugh as he presses their foreheads together. "I'm assuming that means you feel the same, right?" Simon jokes, any tension melting away as he speaks.

"Yes," Harry whispers. "It does. I don't think there was ever a time I wasn't in love with you, Simon."

Simon pulls back slightly, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Even on the first day we met?"

"I mean, probably."

"You remember that day, right?"

"Of course."

Harry doesn't think he'll ever forget when they first met. It was a turning point, possibly one of the most important days in his life.