Wild (sequel to Deep) - Zarry AU

Work

"It's not working."

Harry was lying on his front in the middle of the living room on the soft pile carpet while a shoeless Reiki practitioner moved carefully around him, stopping eventually to kneel by Harry's left shoulder before wafting elegant hands down to about two inches over his trapezius. Harry moved the phone to the other side of his head.

"Well I think you should just come clean." Nick's voice crackled a little on the end of the line.

"D'ya think?" Harry said, his voice slightly strangled by his position on the floor.

"Well, if you just tell her who you are and the real reason you want the tape of course she'll let you have it. You're her hero."

The Reiki master finished his final sweep of Harry's head. He climbed to his feet soundlessly and bowed a namaste before leaving the room. Harry managed to raise a hand about two inches off the floor to respond before collapsing back down with a groan.

"Don't understand how someone not touching you for an hour can be so draining'" he said, to no one in particular.

"Wha'?" Nick muttered.

Harry rolled over onto his back, switched the phone off speaker and put it to his ear. "Well... ok. Let's say ah tell her this Zayn stan from California is really... me."  Harry started to laugh as it dawned on him that he actually was a Zayn stan from California.  "But... " he recovered his composure; "... do you think she's gonna believe me?"

Nick was silent for a minute.

"Ah kno'," he said. Thinking always seemed to bring out his Northern accent, Harry had noticed.

"Why don't you say something about what's on the tape that no one else would know? Like some detail she hasn't included in the story. Then she would know you're really... like, real."

Harry lay, frowning. Minutes passed.

"Harreh?" Nick said, finally.

"Mmm?" Harry replied.

"Thought you'd gone to sleep! I'm just checking me texts, mate.... Friggin' Rihanna, I just wish she'd stop bugging me..." There was a pause while Nick waited for the obligatory laugh. But Harry wasn't listening.

"No. I've got a better idea."