The Art Teacher

Chapter 8: Cuddles, Cuddles and More Cuddles

Hazel was still asleep when Tom and Haz woke together, and since she woke in the night, they let her sleep in and lay there, cuddling instead. Tom inched closer to Harrison. Now that Harrison had made the first move with kisses, Tom wanted more and more and more. Harrison was more than happy to give them. Their lips locked and once more sparks erupted between them. Tom had never felt like that with anyone else. Ever. Even after he'd figured he was gay. Harrison was inching closer and closer to him until he way practically lying on top of him. The kisses were sweet and soft, and Tom wasn't ready to take it any further than just this and Harrison picked up on that.

Hazel stirred as she woke and Harrison quickly moved off Tom.

"Morning! Are you feeling better" Tom asked as she opened her eyes.

She nodded.

"It's cold" Tom complained, looking at Harrison.

Hazel groaned "You always say that"

Harrison chuckled and pulled back the blankets for him, only for Hazel to jump inside instead.

Tom pulled a pouty face and Hazel laughed.

"Do you wanna talk about what happened last night darling?" Tom asked

Hazels eyes widened and she curled closer into Haz.

"Hey it's just me it's alright" Tom said putting an arm around her.

"I had a dream, about Mum, and she wanted to take me away from you and I didn't want her to. She wouldn't let me come back and I had to move house and school as well. I'm sorry it sounds really stupid, I don't know why I was dreaming about that" Hazel replied and she looked down.

"Oh sweetheart! I promise I'll never let anyone take you anyway, especially not..... Lily" Tom replied, comforting his daughter.

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Just like that school was starting again. Tom was disappointed for sure, but it didn't seem like Harrison was leaving anytime soon, in fact it seemed like now he wanted to spend even more time with Tom and Hazel.

That morning Tom dropped Hazel and Harrison to school, before going to work himself. He kissed them both goodbye and Hazel pulled a face when her teacher kissed Tom. Sure she wanted them to be together, but she didn't want them to kiss around her.

"Ew dad, go to work" Hazel joked and Tom and Haz broke apart.

"I'll see you later" Tom called.

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"The stuff you're teaching my child is rubbish, he comes home with all this art and rubbish information about musical instruments" One of the parents yelled.

Harrison stepped back.

"I'm sorry my teaching isn't up to your expectations, this is the way I like to do it, it's also only because Fridays is counted as "art" day" Harrison said back.

"Well it's wrong, and so far my Childs progress has gone down, not up" the parent shouted.

"No, mummy it's fine, I love doing this, I've learnt so much" her child said, and Harrison smiled.

"No, I'm not hearing it, you're moving classes and that's that, I've never seen such horrific teaching in all my life, I'm surprised they even hired you!" And with that the parent was gone leaving a very flustered Harrison in the corner of his own class. It had been a long week and then when parents came in and said things like that, it made Harrison feel terrible. He sighed, he wasn't meant to be staying with Tom tonight, but it seemed he was in need of some reassurance from a very special someone.

When Tom came to get Hazel and drop Harrison home so he didn't have to walk, Harrison was awfully quiet for a Friday night.

"Hey, are you alright, you seem too quiet?" Tom asked

"Yea, one of the parents went off at me today" Harrison sighed.

"Oh my god that's horrible, what did they say?" Tom asked.

"She just said that I wasn't teaching her son properly and then she stormed off and said she was moving her son to another class" Harrison said quietly.

"That's not very nice! She doesn't know what her son's missing out on" Hazel piped up, and Harrison smiled.

"Do you want to stay over?" Tom asked.

Harrison looked over at him and nodded and Tom smiled.

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That night Harrison stayed over yet again. After dinner and once Hazel was in bed, Harrison and Tom were curled on Tom's/their bed watching Netflix, but Haz looked distant.

"Hey, something's bugging you I can tell" Tom whispered.

"I don't know I'm just a bit upset about what that person said to me" Harrison whispered back.

"Don't be, darling it's their loss, I'm not even in your class and I can tell, by the smiles you put on the kids faces when I pick Haze up that they all adore you." Tom said. "You shouldn't let one person put you down, I know it's hard sometimes but you're an amazing person and you shouldn't let other people bring you down" Tom said. Harrison smiled, and Tom leaned forward and kissed him.

"Thank you" Harrison whispered.

"Anytime" Tom said and Harrison smiled once more.

"Bedtime?" Tom asked and Harrison nodded.

He turned off the TV and their lights before getting back into bed and moving over to Harrison.

The two were still cautious about how much physical affection they showed toward one another, especially Tom because he was such a cuddly person he definitely didn't want to come across as clingy.

"On another note, did you know you cuddle into anything you can find when you sleep?" Haz whispered and Tom was glad it was dark because he blushed.

"I know, I've done it since I was a kid" Tom whispered back.

Harrison chuckled.

"So you've always clung to blankets or pillows when slept?" Harrison asked.

"Mhm" Tom mumbled, blushing brighter.

"It's really cute by the way, I'm not just trying to embarrass you" Harrison said when Tom covered his face with his hands.

Tom didn't think he could blush any brighter but he did.

"Hazel does it too" Harrison said, the other day she fell asleep on me, after the beach and clung to me like there was no tomorrow.

Tom chuckled and Harrison smiled.

"Why do you do it?" Harrison asked "if it's ok me asking of course" Harrison said quickly.

"I don't know, I've never thought about it, it use to keep warm in bed?" Tom replied.

"It doesn't work as much anymore, I get cold" Tom joked. "I just do it as a habit" Tom said.

"And you basically just made it cuter by saying that" Harrison teased.

"No stop" Tom whined.

This was Harrison's way of hinting he wanted to cuddle with Tom, but it obviously wasn't working. Was it?

Tom moved closer into Haz as he slowly fell asleep. Maybe Harrison didn't need to ask.

"Yea, I was about to say people are probably warmer than pillows, but hey by the colour of your cheeks it doesn't look like you need any warming up" Harrison teased, and Tom made a weird noise of embarrassment in response. Harrison giggled.

"How can you even see my cheeks?" Tom whispered.

"Oh I can just tell you're blushing, and you're about to do it again" Harrison stated and sure enough Tom blushed yet again.

Tom hid his face in Harrison's chest and the two fell into a deep content sleep together. It seemed it didn't really matter what happened in their day, as long as they could come home and cuddle.