The Weekend (Narry)

tríocha

"Learn to say "no" without explaining yourself."

"Are we picking out a restaurant for your proposal now?" Niall asks as they walk out of the small candle shop.

"Is that a park that I'm seeing over there?" Harry ignores Niall, pointing to an obvious city park.

"Well that answers my question." Niall mutters, following behind Harry as he walks leisurely toward the park.

"When you lived here did you go to the park a lot?" He asks, waiting for Niall to catch up and walk beside him. "I love going to the public garden when it's warm outside."

"Every so often I would, but not religiously. It gets boring after a while, you know?"

"I guess that could happen." Harry nods in understanding. "It's nice though."

"Do you go to the public garden a lot, then?"

"During the summer and spring. Sometimes during the fall, but almost never in the winter. I hibernate then."

"Hibernation is my favorite season." Niall laughs.

"Did you have a high school sweetheart?" Harry asks randomly, curious and wanting to know more about Niall. He knows there's no chance of getting stories about Niall's family, so he chooses the next best topic: his love life.

"I did."

"Oh, scandalous. Who was it? Were they hot?"

"Her name was Lindsay, and she was on the gymnastics team."

"A gymnast, hmm?" Harry smirks, teasing Niall.

"To be honest, it didn't last very long." Niall continues. "She was snotty. My parents liked her too, so that was all the more reason for me to drop it as soon as possible."

"My dad hated Louis." Harry muses. "When he first met him, he lectured me for two hours about how he could just tell that Louis was bad news. He said Louis would ruin my life, actually, now that I think about it. My mom has always loved him though."

"Ruin your life? Wow, your dad must have really hated him."

Harry nods vehemently. "He despised him."

"Was that hard?"

"Not really. My dad works a lot, and we were both in school, and then Louis started his internship and residency. We never had to be in the same room together for very long."

"Well that's good." Niall nods. "I wish my parents had hated someone I brought home. Then maybe I would have had a relationship that lasted."

"You hate your parents, don't you." It isn't a question, really. Harry knows that he's right even if Niall won't say it.

"It's a gentle indifference as of late, but back then I did."

"Why?" He tries, and after a few silent seconds he is pleasantly surprised.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Of course I do. I wouldn't keep asking if I didn't." Harry says, and Niall nods once, putting his hands in his pockets.

"It's going to sound extremely petty."

"That's okay. It's how you felt and how you feel now. Nobody else can judge that."

"My parents are old money." Niall explains. "Very, very old money. And I know America has old money, but it's not the same thing. American old money is, like, a teenager compared to the UK's old money."

"That makes sense."

"And when you're Irish old money, you're practically raised in a puppy mill."

"A puppy mill." Harry repeats, not sure he can wrap his mind around what Niall is explaining.

"My parents knew what family I would marry into. They knew where I would go to university. They would plan out my weeks and my friend group. Lindsay, you know, they picked her out for me." Niall continues. "I was what they wanted me to be."

"So you ran away."

"I didn't run away."

"Sorry," Harry bites his bottom lip on a smile. "You left without permission."

"Yes."

"Have you spoken to them since?" He asks, curious.

"No, actually." Niall answers truthfully. "Every so often I'll see money deposited into my old saving account, and it's obviously from them. But we haven't spoken since I was nineteen."

"You should."

"What?"

"We're in Dublin. You should talk to them." Harry encourages Niall who merely laughs.

"Yeah, right." He says, shaking his head. "I'll talk to my parents when you propose to your husband."

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