I Love You But I Can't Breathe

Chapter Seven

Niall settled into Harry's bed, a comfy double bed that creaked a little in some spots, sighing as soon as he relaxed into Harry's mountain of pillows.

"Is it just me or has it been a long week?" Niall asked as Harry started in on his skincare routine. Niall could hear the splashing of water from Harry's adjoining bathroom.

"Yeah I agree," Harry called out softly, trying to keep his voice low enough to not wake up his mum in the other room. As soon as he'd gotten home and Niall and Anne has exchanged pleasantries, she'd gone off to bed, while Niall and Harry watched Parks and Rec on Harry's old laptop until Niall's yawns started to drown out the sound.

"How was work?" Harry asked, popping out of the bathroom to ask Niall, dabbing spot treatment on each of his tiny red spots.

"It's good," Niall said. "Not really much in this week, but it's fine." 

"Didn't catch the loch ness monster this week, did you?" Harry grinned, rubbing in his moisturizer gently onto his dry spots. 

Niall had been helping out at the Aberdeen Aquatic Research and Rehabilitation center for longer than Harry had known him, volunteering alongside his mother until he finally was old enough to accept a paying position. The AARR was a bit of a mystery in the town- small towns usually leaned more toward superstition over science- everyone had just started referring to is as Wash-up Point because it was built to surround a certain section of the shore where the current tended to pull things in. Niall had explained it once to Harry, how the tides and the perimeter of the shore lead to things washing up there, but the science flew over Harry's head. 

"Can you go through my nightstand drawer?" Harry called out. "Let me know if I have any calamine lotion?"

Niall rooted around in the drawer and finally found an old pink bottle.

Harry stepped out of the bathroom in his boxers, acne cream dotting his face. 

"You want me to help you put that on?" Niall asked, as Harry rummaged around his drawers looking for cotton balls. 

"Could you?" Harry asked, holding out the cotton and the lotion. 

"Sure," Niall said, and knelt down, uncapping the bottle and beginning to dab it on Harry's legs. "What happened here anyway?" he asked, turning Harry around to get the spots at the back of Harry's long legs. 

"I don't know," Harry sighed. "I'm just a mess lately." 

"You're not a mess," Niall replied, finishing up with the lotion. Harry's rash was around the size of his palm on each leg, and mostly only covered the front of his thighs. "Are they itchy?" 

Harry nodded. "I know it's not poison ivy, so it's probably not contagious, but Louis' not gonna want to share a bed with me looking like this," Harry pouted. 

"You look as beautiful today as you do every day, and Louis is lucky to have you," Niall said, smiling up at Harry as though he were a rare Vermeer painting, and not an acne spotted nineteen year old with rash-covered legs. 

Niall had seen the best in Harry since they met in ninth grade. Of all the places in the world for a friendship to take root, Niall and Harry's had begun in a sex ed class. 

+ + + 

The whole classroom was buzzing with crude jokes and nervous giggles, but Harry was quiet in the back of the room, squirming in his chair like he was in an interrogation. Niall had popped in just before the bell rang, and took the only seat left- the one next to Harry. The two boys had spent the whole hour staring at the floor, and Harry felt like he was going to burn a hole in his cheeks from how crimson his face was blushing. It was only as the final bell rang that he looked up long enough to notice that Niall looked to be on the verge of tears.