Body Paint (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter Fifty Five.

"Your room looks nothing like I expected it to," Ben muttered, perching himself just barely on the edge of Harry's neatly made bed. Harry's own weight came crashing down when he flopped to the mattress and caused him to bounce, passing a game controller into Ben's hands.

"What did you expect?"

"I honestly don't know," he muttered, scooting back to rest comfortably. "A mess to match your personality."

Harry shifted to perch his elbows at the foot of the bed, laying with his stomach sprawled across the sheets. "Gee, thanks." Fingers pointed to the screen, "Play Breath of the Wild for me, I'm stuck."

Ben's fingers pressed the buttons to start up the game. It was past dinner time, Harry's parents were gone off on a date night and weren't due back for another hour, and Harry's bored lonesomeness had lead him to sitting around the record shop pestering Michaela and following Ben around to judge his music choices until he offered to hang out. "You sure your parents won't be home?"

"In a little while, but it doesn't matter," Harry mumbled, his chin perched on his crossed forearms. "What're they gonna do? Tell me I can't have friends?"

"I'm scared to meet your mom." Fingers flicked over the buttons on the controller, and Harry peeked up at him through the corner of his eye when Ben admitted, "She sounds intimidating."

"If we stay in here, I doubt she'll even notice."

"My car is out front."

Harry had forgotten. Still, his shoulder shrugged in nonchalance. He'd long since stopped caring so much about rules and approval, and didn't find himself to be too worried about having friends over anymore. The only friends he'd ever spent time with at home were Liam and Sophie. Primarily because he typically would do anything to keep from giving his parents a reason to pester him, but also because home in general had been a source of embarrassment for him. Mainly because mom hardly ever held back in front of guests and would say anything she felt, and that was just uncomfortable enough to avoid bringing new people over just to keep them from seeing what home life was like. More recently, he'd settled upon not caring. He spent his time sprawled out in bed watching Ben play through the game he didn't have the skills for, and shared a cherry flavored lollipop with him off the floor of his closet.

He didn't get away with going unnoticed like he'd hoped when mom and dad came home earlier than expected, and his bedroom door popped open to find two boys with lollipop sticks hanging from their mouths. Ben immediately paused the game.

"Hi." Mom's eyes quickly darted to the stranger, and then to her son. "Who's this?"

"My friend."

Ben introduced himself at the exact moment Harry did, "I'm Ben." His overall natural born charm and deep-rooted nervousness of being disliked was what lured him into standing and stepping forward to offer a handshake, fully aware of how opinionated she could be. Her palm was placed in his, "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Styles."

She agreed, but confused eyes still connected with her son laying in bed. Harry immediately answered all her unasked questions. "He's Niall's cousin, we became friends when I worked at the record shop, he doesn't do drugs, he's not a thief, he's twenty one, doesn't have a criminal record, and he's better at video games than I am."

She seemed stunned, looking back to the stubble faced man that looked significantly older than twenty one standing in her son's bedroom.

"And, yes he looks twenty eight, but he's not."

Ben instantly turned back toward Harry, "Twenty eight? Do I really?"

"I thought you were old when I first met you."