These Violent Delights (Zirry Love Triangle)

Fourteen

Only their lips were touching, and Harry longed to pull Liam closer, but for now the feeling of Liam's mouth pressed against his own was enough. Liam apparently had other ideas, because before he knew what was happening Harry felt his back hit the ground, and Liam was hovering above him, peppering his jaw and neck with kisses. Liam was holding up most of his own weight, not wanting to smush Harry, but Harry wouldn't have minded it. He would have willingly been flattened into a pancake if it meant that Liam kept kissing him.

But all too soon Liam was pulling away, distancing himself and looking over at Harry with a sheepish grin. "Sorry. Sometimes I just can't resist kissing you. I swear I haven't thought of anything else all day."

"Really?" Harry asked, Liam's words making his heart beat just as quickly as his kisses did.

"Course," Liam answered as he stood up, as if there was no doubt in his mind that Harry was irresistible. "Ready for the next part of our date?" he asked, holding out a hand to help Harry up.

"There's more?" Harry knew that he was proving that there was in fact such a thing as a dumb question with every word that came out of his mouth, but his filter seemed to be missing around Liam, and it was kind of nice to not have to censor himself.

"I wanted to bring the ice cream to you, but it would've melted, so I'm gonna have to bring you to the ice cream instead. And I know that you said your favorite is Christmas pudding, and the shop in town won't carry it until December, but I'm hoping we can find something you like there."

"I'm sure we'll be able to," Harry said, knowing that as long as Liam was there that there'd be something he liked in the shop. He couldn't believe his luck. Not only was Liam taking him out in public, but he'd remembered what type of ice cream was Harry's favorite too.

They held hands during the entire walk to the center of town, and Harry never wanted to let go. The evening wasn't even over and it was already the best date he'd ever been on. Yes, it was also the only date he'd ever been on, but when he'd imagined himself out on a date, it'd never been this good. For once Harry's reality was even better than his fantasy.

The ice cream shop was fairly full when they entered, and Harry spotted several kids from their school, but Liam didn't let go of Harry's hand. If anything he squeezed it tighter, as if to let Harry know that they were in this together. Harry ended up ordering a scoop of strawberry, and Liam ordered a sugar cone with Superman ice cream, which Harry couldn't help but tease him about as they slid into a booth for two.

"You know that's just vanilla with food coloring, right?"

"Yeah, but it's prettier than vanilla, and I like pretty things," Liam responded, looking directly at Harry as he spoke. Harry blushed, hoping that he was one of the pretty things that Liam liked. "And besides, anything named after a super hero is good in my book."

"I might have to change my name to Batman then."

"Oh god, don't go there. I might jump across this table if I imagine you in a Batman costume." Harry didn't mind the thought of Liam tackling him at all, and he found himself wondering if he should actually dress up for Halloween this year.

His thoughts were interrupted when the bell chimed, signaling that a customer had entered the shop. Harry glanced up and spotted Niall, followed immediately by Louis and Zayn. Harry looked away as quickly as he could, not wanting to be spotted, which was of course impossible in the tiny shop. But at least this way he didn't have to see what Zayn's reaction would be when he spotted him with Liam, or worse yet, to see that Zayn didn't care at all who he was with.

So he kept his eyes focused completely on Liam, enjoying the occasional glimpse of his tongue as he licked his cone, wondering if Liam would taste even sweeter when they next kissed, like vanilla ice cream. Liam's lips were turning more and more blue as he finished eating, and Harry giggled at him, leaning over to wipe a smudge off of the corner of his mouth.