Rising Stars [H.S]

40.

"You never told me you had tattoos." Harry says from across the kitchen table, making me shoot my eyes up at him.

We had both been in the studio for two long days, working endlessly on songs 24/7. We had tried to come up with a couple, but we spent most of our time working on Adore You, as Harry called it, and trying to figure out exactly what we wanted it to sound like. It was obviously going to be a pop upbeat song, but we were still trying to figure out exactly how we wanted it to be.

It was probably eleven at night when Harry decided to come over with pizza and sodas, not even knocking when he barged in and making himself at home. I didn't even question it though, I just let him in and let him make himself comfortable.

We had just both eaten and we were now sitting at the kitchen table, playing a card game of War and both becoming quite competitive. We were both very quiet and concentrated on the game when Harry abruptly asked me about my tattoos, making me extremely confused.

I hadn't showed him my tattoos nor have I told him I had any, so I was lost as to how he knew about them.

"What?" I ask, making sure I understood him right.

"Your tattoos. I saw them this morning." He reiterates, surprising me. His eyes leave a burning trail down on me, eventually landing on my lower stomach that was covered by a baggy white sweatshirt.

"How— when—"

"While you were sleeping." He says, making me widen my eyes even more. I stare at him from across the table, very confused as to how he saw them. Did he lift me shirt? I mean— it's fine but...

"I didn't lift it or anything. You were just laying there and they were exposed... so I looked at them." He explains. He could probably tell by my facial expression how confused I was.

"Oh, yeah." I say, keeping it short. I look back down at my cards, rearranging them so that they were in numerical order, avoiding eye contact with him.

He goes quiet for a moment before speaking up again, "how many do you have?" he asks quietly.

"Three." I say shortly, keeping my eyes glued to my cards. I can feel my heart rate start to quicken, growing nervous.

I don't know why I always get so nervous when people talk about my tattoos, but I just can't help it. They're all very personal to me— well except the cherry one. But the other two have a deeper meaning that I try to keep out of my head, it only brings me negative thoughts and bad memories.

I subtly glance up when I see out of my peripheral vision Harry setting his cards down and standing up, scooting his chair out from under the table and walking around the table. He walks up to my chair, stopping right at my feet and towering over me, holding his hand out. I glance my eyes to the side at his ring covered hand before looking back up at him, meeting his green eyes that were staring at me.

"Hi." I say awkwardly, confused as to what he was doing.

"Come here." He says, smirking down at me and nudging his hand a little closer, gesturing for me to take it.

I set my cards down on the table before hesitantly taking his hand in mine. He very gently grabs my hand and starts walking towards the bedroom, his feet shuffling against the hardwood floors. I quietly follow behind him, keeping my hand connected with his.

He walks into my bedroom and makes his way towards my bed, making himseld comfortable by sitting against the headboard, his legs crossed over each other in front of him. I stand at the edge of the bed with a confused look on my face, not sure what he was doing or why he brought me in here.