salute [h.s]

things you said at 1 AM

"It's 1 am."

Piper groaned, reaching her hand up lazily to slap it over her eyes hoping that if she just ignored Harry, he'd stop talking and let her go back to sleep. No such luck because a couple of seconds later, his fingers slipped under hers and pried her hand away. "Wake up, sleepy."

"For Christ's sake, Harry, why are you doing this to me?"

"It's 1 am."

"So you said." Piper's tongue felt all big in her mouth and her throat was dry as the sahara and if she was awake, she needed a glass of water desperately. Harry had one sitting on his bed side so she forcefully rolled herself over, sprawling on top of him so she could reach for the cup. After she'd taken a couple of gulps, she set it back down but before she could roll away, Harry's hands had splayed across her lower back, holding her in place.

She huffed, dropping down onto top of his bare chest, her cheek smushed against the swallow on his left side. "Is there a reason that 1 am is so important?"

"Yes," Harry said quite clearly, much more awake than she was. "It's 1 am which means it's officially your birthday."

Piper's brain wasn't putting this together fast enough. "My what?"

"Your birthday, petal," Harry said with a chuckle that rumbled through his chest and vibrated against her cheek. She smiled involuntarily at the tickle against her skin. "Honestly, how could you forget? You're hopeless."

"Didn't forget," she whined, pinching his side and making him jerk, nearly upending her from her comfortable position. "I know my own birthday, thanks very much. But how did you know that I was born at 1 am exactly?"

"Your mum told me."

Piper looked up at him, propping her chin against his sternum and scrunching her face up, confused. It was way too early for her to try and puzzle this out and she wanted to be asleep again. "When did you talk to my mum?"

"Last week," Harry told her offhand like it was totally normal that he was having chats on the regular with her mum.

"And why were you talking to her?"

"You had that nasty summer cold and she was worried. You kept ignoring her calls so she called me instead and she reminded me that it was your birthday. Told me all about you being born. It took 34 hours of labour to get you into the world."

"Jesus Christ. Don't talk to my mum about labour."

"Why not?"

"Because it's weird Harry. Normal boyfriends don't talk to their girlfriend's mums about labour. Next you'll be saying that she's been telling you all about her menopause."

"She has been complaining about hot flashes. Says she has all the windows open in the house for airflow and was asking me about security systems -"

"Just -" Piper reached up to press her fingers to his lips, holding them closed "- stop, please. I don't care if you want to talk to my mum. By all means, go ahead. She loves you anyway." Harry preened at that, like the highest compliment he could ever receive was approval from Sydney Stone. "I just don't want to hear about it. It's... I don't know, it's weird, I guess."

"Fine, we'll talk about something else." His hand wandered down from her lower back until it was spread across her arse, his fingers digging into her fleshy backside to hold her closer. "Like how you want to celebrate your 24th."

"With another seven hours of sleep."

Harry pouted down at her, his brow knitting together. "You're no fun."

"I'm lots of fun. Just not at 1 in the morning. Try me again when the sun's up."

With a roll of his eyes and a resigned sigh, Harry acquiesced and finally let her have her precious sleep. "Are you planning on moving?" he asked.

"Nope," she sighed into his chest, "m'fine right here."

"Fine by me." He moved his arms to wrap around her back, holding her as close to him as possible. She rose with each inhalation and sank with each exhalation, pressed against his chest like she was. Her leg shifted in between both of his, her thigh a heavy weight on his groin. He didn't seem to mind, just tucking his chin on the top of her head.

She felt a kiss drop onto the top of her head and smiled against him. The last words she heard before she drifted off were a muttered, "happy birthday."