Labels || H.S. [#Wattys2020]

E P I L O G U E

Harry sighed loudly as he laid upon his bed for the first time in about a month. It was slowly dying down; the rumors, the drama, the constant tabloid articles. He would like to think that meant that they were all okay now, but it was far from the truth. It was just a fuller news cycle and their news was beginning to be old. There was probably some other celebrity out there making bigger waves, and with all honesty, he did not mind that one bit. He was never one to catch up on all that publicity rubbish, but with the way it was affecting the band, he kind of had to keep an eye on it. When the day would become slow, he knew that reporters and paps would revert to adding on to One Direction's problematic narrative. There were already rumors swirling that there was a breakup on the horizon, and to add insult to injury, he couldn't help but think that there was friction growing between the boys. This entire situation just kept making him incredibly uneasy.

What made him uneasy in a completely different way was being so close to Reagan. He listened to her clacking away on her keyboard, watching her lay upon his bed, her head propped up by a mountain of pillows. Her hair was splayed behind her, her laptop balanced upon her lap. Her skin looked luminous, he wanted to touch it so badly. Just the fact that he was fingertip length away from her, but that he couldn't touch her, had his heart racing.

Of course the drama had been dying down though, his intuitive and savvy Reagan had been working her arse off to make sure that their reputation would survive all of the hits it had been taking. She had once again manipulated the news to work in their favor. How he had gotten such an amazing woman to be his, he had absolutely no idea. He was always in awe around her.

But of course, when she was in work mode he was not allowed to disturb her. She may have hesitantly agreed to come over, but that didn't mean she didn't have work to do. She came only on the condition that Harry would actually be quiet long enough for her to finish for the night. Harry, as much as it pained him, agreed. He had missed her more than usual the past few weeks. The way her nose slightly wiggled when she was contemplating something, the way her heart-shaped mouthed the words as she typed them. The way her fingers glided upon the keyboard, and her thoughts seemed to seamlessly come together. He didn't know how he had lived without her. How he could continue up and leaving, being weeks apart from her. So yeah, even if he had to stay completely and totally quiet, even if he had to keep his hands to himself even though she was so close to him, he would suck it up as long as she was there.

She had come, perhaps, at the perfect time. Right when everything was about to settle into a new and weird kind of normalcy. A normalcy he had always fought against. But she would be his new normal, and normal really didn't sound too bad now.

"Could you please stop staring at me. It's incredibly unnerving." Reagan said, not even bothering to look at him. Sure, she was becoming a little bit less self-conscious, but blatant staring still made her anxiety act up.

"You just said you needed silence, you never said I couldn't look at you."

"You're not looking at me, Harry. You're like..." She turned to look at him and closed her laptop simultaneously, she tried to choose her words carefully.

"Devouring you with my eyes?" Harry said, deviously looking at her from behind one of the large pillows he was hugging to his lanky frame.

Reagan smirked, "Yeah, you're devouring me with your eyes and it's seriously making me uncomfortable."

"I'll make you a deal." He said, sitting up and throwing the pillow to the side.

She hesitantly asked,"What's that?"

"I'll stop eating you with my eyes, if you let me eat you with something else."

She slapped his arm roughly, at least she thought it was rough because of the fact that the sound of her hand hitting his bare skin reverberated throughout the room. "You're so gross." She tried not to laugh, she had kind of set him up for that one. He rubbed his stinging skin, knowing he had deserved the slap, smirking to himself as she asked, "Is that the only reason you ask me to come over?"