Winter [Harry Styles AU]

nine

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winter // nine

❄ H ❄

It's not like it's a thing, but it's something that becomes a routine that they do literally every day for the next two weeks. Harry wouldn't place it on the level with Zayn's origami abilites, Niall's knack for fixing random bullshit, or Louis' tendancy to burn their belongings, but it's definitely up there with those things.

It goes something like this: in the morning, Lena and Harry wake up tangled together, shivering under the covers. They brush their teeth and she stands on his feet to avoid the cold tile. At breakfast, since they only have five chairs and can't be bothered to buy another, Harry sits on her lap until she starts complaining, and then they switch. 

After breakfast, it goes like this: Harry walks Lena to work and they split the pair of gloves between them. They kiss until Greg yells at her to stop it. Then Harry goes and sells drugs and does yoga and smokes and goes to class (sometimes) (once) while Lena does real-life adult activities for the next eight hours. 

And when the sun starts to set: Lena comes over to the apartment, bundled up in one of his sweaters. She puts her boots by Liam's, puts her textbooks on the spot on the coffee table that has apparently been reserved for her, and curls up in Harry's lap to study while they joke around.

It finishes like this: Harry annoys her and kisses her neck until she gives up on studying. Sometimes they smoke, sometimes they drink, sometimes they just cuddle and kiss. But every night they end up back on Harry's shitty mattress, sharing body heat to keep away the cooling weather.

And then the process starts over the next morning with more goosebumps and more pancakes.

So it's maybe a little bit of a thing. Still not on origami level, but definitely a thing, and Harry isn't exactly sure what it is, but it's nice and Lena's hair always smells like apples and she looks really cute in his sweaters. So he isn't exactly going to question it.

However, the routine they have going comes to a grinding halt one morning when Lena starts choking on her bagel as Liam calmly announces, "We're going out tonight."

"What?" she coughs. Harry rubs a soothing hand over her back. "Like, to an actual place that isn't apartment 4B?"

"It's almost Halloween. There are costume parties to attend."

She wrinkles her nose. "Do you guys even have any friends beside each other?" 

"Yes," Louis snaps. It's such a blatant lie that Niall actually starts choking on his bacon. "I have more friends. Just, like, back home. Not here in London."

"I have Ed," Harry says. He presses his lip to Lena's ear and pretends not to notice the way she shivers. "I also have other friends, but they call them my Old Hipster Friends and I'm not allowed to talk about them. I think they're jealous."

Liam throws a piece of his biscuit at where they are curled up on the chair. If he weren't unhatable due to the fact that he does all of their laundry, Harry would definitely hate him. "You better not be talking about your Old Hipster Friends, Harry. They don't count."

"Why not?" he huffs, tightening his grip on Lena. "They're nice and friendly. Just because you have some weird ingrained hatred towards anyone that listens to my so-called animal bands does not mean that they aren't cool people."

"Animal bands?" Lena asks.

"Fuck," Harry says as all the boys start rambling at once. Sometime late last year, they developed a theory that any band with an animal (mythical or otherwise) in the name is a hipster band that Harry definitely has on his iPod. It's ridiculous. It's also a little bit true, though he'll never admit it.