Unity | Harry Styles AU

X: flowers

  I woke up to the sound of wind. It rustled the leaves outside and shook the house from inside out. In a peaceful way, however. I was calm.

Harry was still asleep beside me. His back was against mine. I rolled onto my other side so that I was facing him.

His back was red all over. Deep claw-like scratch marks covered his skin like someone had tested their pen on a piece of paper. Did I do this to him?

I did. I most certainly did.

I traced over the lines on his back with my finger, going up and down softly until he slowly started to wake up.

He exhaled as I continued to trace the scratch marks, attempting to soothe the pain he might be feeling.

"Why does my back sting?" His voice was groggy and deep as he spoke.

"I-"

"No, I think I know why." He chuckled. He rolled to his other side to face me.

"I'm sorry." I said as I cradled his face with my hand, gently grazing his cheek with my thumb.

"Darling you have nothing to be sorry about." He said. He nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck, kissed me there a few times before whispering in my ear;

"I'm glad I pleasured you enough for you to do that to me."

He got up out of bed and went to his closet to grab a pair of sweatpants. He tossed me a black T-shirt.

"You can wear this. I figured you didn't bring another set of clothing."

I sat up and threw it over my body. It engulfed me completely. It smelt of fresh linen and his cologne and I never ever wanted to take it off.

Harry walked over to his bathroom, rubbed his eyes and then proceeded to splash water on his face. My eyes locked on him whenever he turned around. His back will definitely be scarred. It won't ever be the same.

We won't ever be the same. I took a deep breath as I thought of it all. We were no longer just teacher and student. He wasn't just my teacher anymore. He will never just be my teacher again. What is he to me? I don't know that answer but I know that I needed to accept that things weren't normal now. Things were never completely normal between us, but after last night, it's impossible to say that we were normal now. There was no going back from this point on. I sat in Harry's bed for a quite a bit, drowning myself in thoughts.

"I'll be downstairs making breakfast. Come down whenever you're ready." Harry said.

For a while, I dreamed about what would have happened. The What If. What if I switched to Cardozo like I was supposed to? What if I was in a different art class? If I didn't show up that day and he didn't acknowledge my talent and never asked me to assist on the huge project? What if things panned out like they would in anyone else's life?

Suddenly I realized that thinking about this was ridiculous. If I was supposed to be like everyone else, I would have been. I had to accept that. And so I did. I got up out of bed and went downstairs to meet Harry for breakfast.

--

Harry was in the kitchen rummaging through the cabinets, placing clean dishes back to their original spots. He turned around when he realized I was there with him.

"Hey" he said with a smile. "What did you want for breakfast?"

"Actually," I said. "Cereal."

"I was thinking the same thing." He smirked.

"What kind? Frosted flakes, Cheerios, Lucky Charms..."

"Lucky charms." I said. They were my favorite.