sweet disposition | haylor au

9-I know that you're tryna be friends, I know you mean it

It turned out that shortly after the four of them had returned back to Niall's place, they realized that Taylor's bookbag, which she had borrowed from Niall because she didn't know she was to go to a hiking trip the day before, was missing. Taylor freaked out while the rest of them were consoling her and telling her about how it was just another bag to her.

"Are you kidding me?" Taylor whined in utter frustration. "All my recorded demos are on there on my phone which is in that bag! I can't risk losing it, I've put so much stuff in it. We need to go get it back," She was pacing back and forth across the room, a look full of frantic. "My new music's in there, the producer I've scheduled to meet will kill me if he finds out I lost them. It won't be too long and there was no one there when we went so we can get it back! Can one of you come with me?"

Selena held her hands up defensively while Niall had the audacity to comment, "Harry can accompany ya,"

Taylor did not want the same stupid uncomfortable silence to take over once more, so she immediately risked it with the nonchalant reply. "That would be great, do you mind?" In frustration, she watched the skewed look of thought cloud Harry's expression. She bit her lip exasperatingly, anticipating for him to turn down Niall's unnecessary suggestion.

Harry finally met gaze with her after making his decision. He didn't say anything at first- which made Taylor's tolerance run on a thin line. She passively tried to see through the answers by observing the greenery of his eyes but it was pointless, sometimes he was too good at concealing. "Uh, yeah, I don't mind," He drawled out finally, but he still looked and sounded unsure.

Taylor took the shotgun seat as he took the wheel. "You didn't have to agree you know," Taylor consoled as she toyed with her fingers on her lap. "Niall was just messing around,"

Harry gave her a look of amusement. "I'm just taking you back to the trail, it's really not a big deal." Taylor saw the dimples appear on his cheeks as he tried to hide a sly smile. Taylor plunged back against the seat and closed her eyes, wanting to avoid conversation at all costs. She figured she could sleep or pretend to sleep her way through the entire ride. Harry, who had just glanced in time to see her fake a snore, had other plans.

"You can open your eyes, I know you're faking it," He mumbled sheepishly.

Taylor didn't let the embarrassing feeling of getting caught get to her. "I was just resting my eyes, I'm tired." She defended.

"Sure." He mumbled underneath his back. It was meant to be a reply simply in his thoughts, but it slipped, and it was loud enough for her to hear. "How do you even forget your backpack? It's so big and wasn't it clung to your shoulders the entire time?"

Taylor noticed how focused he was on the road, eyes steadfastly staring ahead as he talked. "Don't question me this now, I can barely remember." She shrugged, feeling the sting of humiliation as Harry chuckled. The tip of her tongue poked through the press of her lips as her expression overtook a wicked grin. "Hey, you're one to talk when you literally forgot to bring your passport to the airport."

She noticed the look of stun smoothly transform his expression. "I don't recall," He playfully lied, smiling ear to ear as he still had his focus on the road.

"You recall it alright. We were supposed to go fly to Nashville together but you had to stay back and take the next flight, which may I add, was in 8 hours all because you forgot your passport at the airport and had to go get it back." She was chuckling at how silly it was, thinking back to that silly situation after this long. God, it'd been a long time.

"Alright, alright. You didn't need to get all explicit about it," His nervous chuckle caused a smirk to exhibit across Taylor's lips.

"I see you've changed quite a lot," Taylor admitted in a hushed tone, dropping her gaze to her lap.