It's You [H.S.]

1 | Midnight Memories - EDITED

A/N: Originally posted as a one-shot in my other book, MAYBE ONE DAY, I'm incorporating it here for the first time, where it belongs, right at the outset of Harry and Eloise's story.

31st December 2014

Huffing another sigh, Harry slouches further into the supple seat, gaze fixed through the window as central London creeps by.

With Greg having the night off, he had to wait an age for an Uber. And he hates being late, so couldn't help but clock-watch for the entirety of his now thirty-minute journey from Hampstead.

As they finally hang a left from Regent Street into Brewer Street, towards the heart of Soho, the crowds spilling jovially into the narrower street make it even slower going.

The driver catches his eye in the rearview mirror. "Do you want to jump out here? It's crawling."

"Probably not a great idea..." Harry frowns, eyeing the hoards of revellers and partygoers warily. "Almost there," he sighs.

New Year's Eve always makes him a little contemplative; mulling over the year past and the one to come.

He's distracted from his musings by his phone vibrating in his back pocket. Struggling to stretch his long legs out in the back of the Mercedes saloon, he wriggles to fish it out, then grins at the name lighting up his screen.

"Oi, oi, boyo! What's happenin'?" He always sounds even more Irish after spending time at home.

"Uh oh, listen to you!" Harry laughs at his lilt, already suspiciously slurry. "Are you there? I'm still in the car; it's taking a fucking age." He belatedly cuts his eyes to the driver in the rearview mirror, grimacing sheepishly.

"Nah, I'm still at the pub... And the lads have just ordered me two more bloody pints!"

"Oh, God-"

"Swing by if you want?"

"Where are you?"

"The Toucan."

"Where's that? Sounds lame?"

"Nah, it's grand! Just up by Soho Square... We've been before-"

Harry scoffs in recollection. "Not that tiny place that basically sells only Guinness?"

"Shut it, you! It's like heaven in here and-"

"Nah, you're alright." Harry cuts off Niall's inevitable ode to the black and white stuff in its infancy, whilst leaning over to look through the windscreen again. "I've come in the other way and am almost at Old Compton Street, so I'll just see you in there. But hurry up, and don't get too legless!"

"Ahh, have you missed me then? Or have we got shy, introspective H tonight?" he teases. "Anyway, who else is even going? Ben never got back to me."

"Dunno, really... Bunch of their mates and families, I guess?"

"Oop, 'and families, I guess' he plays it all cool..." Niall cackles a laugh at his expense. "You know exactly what that means!" he trills teasingly. 

Harry can just see the smug, shit-eating grin on his face. "Oh, fuck right off! See you soon, and don't get too shit-faced."

"Who me?!"

"Embarrass me, and I'll ruin you, Horan," Harry threatens lowly before hanging up.

He shakes his head, scoffing a chuckle. Niall's such a dickhead - but, having been in each other's pockets for months, he'll admit to having missed his little Irish princess over the last couple of weeks.