Harry's POV
"I'm bored," Carmen says, tugging my earbuds out of my ears. "Aren't you bored?"

"I'm watching Thor."

"I know. He's hot, but I'm still bored."

"He's what?" I raise my eyebrows and she taps the screen.

"Chris Hemsworth. He's gorgeous." She pushes the cover of her window up and down a few times and I laugh a little, reaching over to bring her hand away from it. "Let's do something."

"We're on an airplane," I remind her. "There's not a lot to do."

"Okay....we could get really drunk!"

"It's an American Airline, we aren't old enough."

"Damn," she mutters. She leans back against the seat and sighs, my fond smile not fading any time soon. The rest of break after Christmas was amazing. We both got really drunk at the New Year's party and ended up having sex on the floor in my Mum's friend's guest bedroom. That was a fun night. The last week we spent going around to different places in town, shopping, she spent a bunch of time with my Mum and sister and we had an amazing time. It couldn't have been more perfect and now going home seems really sad.
"I can think of something." I lean towards her more and she perks up, turning her head towards mine. She gasps a little right before I kiss her, but her hand pushes against my chest almost instantly.

"Harry, everyone can see us."

"They wouldn't be able to see us in the bathroom," I whisper. She laughs a little and shakes her head. "Come on, I've never done it on an airplane before."

"We can't."

"We could."

"No," she laughs. "We really can't."

"Come on, it's not that weird."

"That's not why."

"Then what?"

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "Take a hint, Harry. I have my...you know."

"Oh," I laugh, sitting back again. She sighs and I pat her leg. "I grew up with girls, you can say period. I don't mind."

"We're not talking about this."

"You can tell me. Cramps? Any cravings? I can see if they have chocolate."

"Harry," she laughs, hitting my arm when I turn to look for a flight attendant. "Cut it out."

---

"It's so weird being here," Carmen says when we finally get to her place after the cab ride back from the airport. "It's so boring and normal-looking."

"You'd rather be in England?"

She shrugs. "I get bored of being in one place for too long."

Interesting to know. Carmen yawns and leans her head against my shoulder; I don't think I could get any happier. Honestly, it's the strangest feeling, something I didn't even know was possible. I didn't know people could be this happy. I feel like there's a smile on my face all the time and it's creepy as fuck but not something I can help at this point. Carmen just makes me that happy.

"You're sleeping here, right?" She tucks her legs up on the couch, her knees falling onto my lap as her body relaxes.

"I can if you want."

She sighs and places her arm across my stomach, slow breathing a sign of how close to sleeping she actually is right now. I guess it makes sense since we've been traveling all day, and it's two in the morning in England right now. Two weeks is long enough to get used to the other time schedule, and now we have to get used to this one again.

"Carmen, you should go to bed," I say quietly, brushing her hair through my fingers.

"Only if you go to bed, too," she says quietly, smiling with her eyes still closed.

"You drive a hard bargain."

When I stand up she falls to the other side of the couch in the fetal position and when I start laughing she smiles again. She's pulled to her feet and I turn around, and without having to say anything she jumps onto my back and locks her arms around my neck.

"Am I heavy?" she asks, setting her chin on my shoulder so her breath is felt against my neck.

"Not at all."

"You're lying."

I laugh and kick her door open, falling back onto her bed with me on top of her. She laughs and locks her arms tighter around my neck so I can't get up, and when I try to remove her she locks her legs around my waist.

"Carmen," I laugh. When I start tickling her feet she squeals and pushes me away, scrambling out from under me. "Wow, you're just as ticklish as I am!"

"No," she says quickly. She lays back and turns onto her side so she's facing away from me. "I'm not at all, I just...have some...I have a weird thing about feet."

I lean over her and she reaches up blindly, placing her hand over my face to try to push me away. "I won't use it against you if you don't tickle me, either," I bargain, my voice muffled by her palm.

"Deal."

"Okay." I move her hand from my face and she laughs a little when it falls against the mattress. "Normally I would try to make a move on you right now, but you're bleeding, so-"

"Harry!" Blue eyes fly open and she looks at me in horror. "What did I say about not talking about this!"

"I know what you said. I just want to show you I'm okay with it," I explain. She rolls over and hides her face in the pillow, swatting at me blindly when I start to laugh. She doesn't have siblings and doesn't speak to her mother, so she's probably never talked about it before. My sister, on the other hand, loved to fill me in on all the gory details.

"You can sleep at home," she says, finally turning to look at me.

"Oh, don't be so bloody sensitive."

Carmen rolls her eyes but laughs anyway, mine following suit as I lean down to kiss her cheek. I stand up to strip out of my clothes and turn off the lights, and when I get into bed Carmen is already asleep.

---

The next morning I'm alone when I wake up. There's sounds coming from the kitchen and it doesn't take long for my feet to be carrying me out of bed and towards them. If Carmen is close, my body seems to automatically gravitate to her.

"Hey," she says, smiling when she sees me emerge from her room. "You're awake."

"No."

She rolls her eyes and turns towards me as I step up to her. Her hands slide over my chest, arms locking behind my neck. Every part of my body fits with hers, like we were completely made for each other. I don't believe in soulmates or anything like that, but if I did I think Carmen would be mine. There's just something about us that clicks so perfectly; I don't have this kind of connection with anyone else on the planet.

"What?" she asks. "Do I have toothpaste on my face or something?"

"No," I laugh. "Why?"

"You're staring at me."

"Oh. Yeah, I do that a lot." When I kiss her she starts leaning backwards to try to break it, but that's not what I want. She starts laughing against my lips and places her hands on my chest to push me back.

"I made coffe," she says. "But we don't have much for breakfast. So I'm having toast and nutella, I wasn't sure if you'd like that."

"Yeah, that's fine. How long have you been awake?"

She shrugs and drops two slices of bread into the toaster for me. "A few hours."

"What?" Carmen leans against the counter, arms crossed. I stand in front of her, leaning my palms on the edge of the counter on either side of her. "You were exhausted when we went to sleep. You fell asleep so fast I didn't get to use the rest of my period jokes."

"I really am sorry about that." The sarcasm is dripping from that sentence.

"You should have woken me up," I continue. "We could have watched a movie together."

"That's okay," she says, patting my chest. She looks a little surprised for a moment, her eyes drawn to where her hands rest against my skin. Her eyes flash back up to mine like she remembers I'm still here, and her cheeks heat.

"What?" I laugh. "Why is your face all red?"

"What?" She puts her hands against her cheeks. "It's not."

"Aww, babe. You're blushing."

"You suck," she laughs, pushing me away gently. "Go put some clothes on."

"No, it's cute when you're cheeks are all red." She covers her face with her hands again and I reach to remove them, still laughing. "Since when are you shy?"

"Harry, stop!" She tries to wriggle free but instead my lips are on hers and in less than a second she's kissing me back. I lift her arms around my neck and one of her hands tangles into my hair, my hands pressed flat against her back to hold her against me. The only thing on her body is a tshirt, as usual, and I make a mental note to appreciate that from now on. She always had pants on at my mother's house; I like this better.

The toast suddenly pops up in the toaster and it makes both of us jump. Fast breathing is all I can hear and for a moment the pounding in my chest echoes in my ears. Carmen smiles and kisses my cheek, then turns to deal with the food while I try to recover from that.

While we're eating breakfast in the living room Carmen sits facing me, her legs laying over my lap. She tells me about some of the stories I hadn't heard from her time with my sister and it makes me smile endlessly; Gemma and I have always been pretty close, so it means so much to me that they like each other.

"Carmen, can I ask you something?" She nods and takes a bit of her toast. "Has umm...did your mom ever try to call you again?"

She pauses completely and my heart beats hard while I wait for some kind of reaction. The only reason she ever told me about this is because I answered that phone call, and now me bringing it up on my own could result in any number of situations.

"Yeah," she says finally. Her arm leans on the back of the couch and she rests her chin in her palm. "Twice while we were gone."

"Did you talk to her?"

She shakes her head. "I didn't answer."

"I get that you're angry, but don't you want to at least see what she wants?"

Carmen shifts and I hear her take a deep breath and I can tell she's getting upset. This would be a touchy subject to say the least, but I feel like she needs to talk to someone. I can almost guarantee she didn't tell her father or anyone else about it. The only reason I know her mother isn't dead is because I actually talked to her.

"I don't care what she wants," she says finally. "She left. She doesn't get to just decide to reappear in my life."

"Carmen, she's your mother."

"Biologically, yes. But not in any other way."

"What if she wants to fix things? Wouldn't you-"

"No," she says flatly. "I wouldn't."

"But-"

"Harry, it's irrelevant. I don't care what she wants, she doesn't get to leave and then decide she wants to fix it after so long. I wouldn't forgive her anyway, so it doesn't matter. I'm not talking about this anymore."

"I don't want to upset-"

"Hello!"

We both turn towards the door when it opens, the yells from the hallway transferring into the room as three of my friends file inside.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" I ask as they all walk into the living room, Liam sitting on the armchair and Louis sitting down beside me. Niall heads straight for the kitchen, but my eyes remain on Carmen to gage her reaction to my questions. She seems uncomfortable at best, and when I put my hand on her leg she doesn't even react at all.

"Why are you both naked?" Louis asks. I roll my eyes.

"We aren't naked."

"You might as well be," Liam adds.

"Liam, we should go, right?" Carmen says, standing suddenly. I have the strongest urge to tug her shirt down so none of the guys can see her, but she would probably get pissed. When I turn to look at Louis he's definitely staring at her ass; my fist connects with his arm and he shrugs.

"Go?" Liam asks. Carmen gives him an urgent look and he stands up. "Right, yeah. Yeah, we should...we'll be late."

"Wait, where are you going?" I ask.

"Liam and I made plans."

"Since when? You never told me-"

"I don't have to tell you everything, Harry."

My expression reads shock at her last statement and she quickly storms off to her bedroom. She slams the door and immediately my fingers push through my hair in frustration. What the fuck just happened?

Notes

so i know i skipped like all of break...but we'd been in england for six chapters already and i got bored of that :P

sorry it took so long! i wrote this chapter a bunch of times but i didnt like it, so this is kind of getting the next stage of it started. the together stage. wee.

okay so let me know what you think :)

any suggestions? what do you think will happen?

comment, vote, subscribe :)