Warning: This chapter is a little more "serious" and maybe a little touchy for some people. Thanks for reading!

xxxxx

"I WANNA ROCK N ROLL ALL NIIIIIGHT!"

"AND POTTY EVUH-REE- DAY!"

I am doubled over laughing as Louis and Niall sing Kiss songs at the top of their lungs, Niall strumming an unplugged electric guitar with nothing but a pair of firework print boxers on and lime green 2014 sun glasses and Louis jumping from couch to couch in the dressing room wearing a party hat and blowing into a noise maker.

"If you didn't potty every day, there would be a real problem, Louis. Like… see a doctor immediately sort of problem." I snort and he stops jumping long enough to look at me like I've got four heads or something. This only makes me laugh harder.

"Careful, love." I feel Harry breathe against my ear, chill bumps exploding over my skin. I lean into the arm he has draped over my shoulder as he takes my half glass of champagne from me. It's approximately one a.m. and we've been drinking champagne and farting around for the past forty five minutes. Harry hasn't taken his hands off of me since he left the stage and the smile hasn't left my face either.

"Awh! I get it now. You're making fun of my accent. Real nice, ya sass pants. Cheers!" Louis cries, reaching down and snatching Zayn's mimosa from his hands and chugging the whole thing.

"OI! Dick!" Zayn laughs, slapping Louis in the back of his leg and making his knee buckle underneath him. We all burst into another fit of giggles as he screams like a little girl and topples off of the couch and onto the floor at Zayn's feet.

I love the feeling of Harry laughing beside me. The way his voice and his laughter rumbles up my side, like he's with me, inside of me somehow. I loll my head to the side and keep laughing as Niall leaps up onto the table, his butt toward us, shaking his wiener in Paul's face as he wails on a guitar solo. I point at his ass and start to sing Katy Perry's "Firework" over the top of Niall's guitar solo and Lou squeals from the bathroom that she'd been in fixing her make up. She rushes into the room and joins me on the chorus and Liam leaps up from his seat beside Harry to booty dance on the table with Niall. Paul has been into the bubbly a bit and is sitting in a chair by the table, his face all flushed pink, his arms crossed over his chest and he's giggling as he shakes his head.

Niall realizes that we're referring to his fancy boxers and turns toward us, his ridiculously adorable laugh ringing out louder than our singing as he throws his head back and dies laughing.

Once he collects himself, we have the entire room singing: "Baby you're a fiiiiire work! C'mon show em what you're worth! Make em go Ah! Ah! Ah! As you shoot across the sky-y-y!"

Two glasses of champagne more and one of Zayn's signature Mimosas and I am about to die. I need fresh air! And a bottle of water. Harry has removed his stage clothing and is in a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. He's getting tipsy again as he and Louis watch Boondock Saints and take a sip of wine from the bottles beside them each time there is a curse word said in the movie.

I slip out of the dressing room and head down the hall with the sloppiest, happiest grin on my face. The boys only have another hour before they have to be out of the dressing room and on the bus. I'm responsible for cleaning up after they leave as "punishment" from Julie for the display on stage. Little does she know that I probably won't be sleeping at all tonight so it's not really a punishment. Oh darn, I have an actual excuse not to the leave the boys tonight. How sad for me?!

I stagger down the ramp toward the boys' bus, giggling at the swimmy feeling in my head and as I lift the garage door, I throw my hands wide and breathe in deep the cool night air. It feels wonderful on my over heated skin and tastes like salt and water and oxygen. Ahhhhh!

The town is alive tonight, clumps of streamers littering the streets from the New Years celebrations taking place. This side of the building is quite empty though since we're technically an alley way. It gives artists and staff who are coming in and out a bit more privacy and ease than it would coming in and out from a busier road.

I shove my hands into the middle pocket of the hoodie Harry let me wear and smile widely. I want to see the water. I really want to stick my feet in and cool down and splash around. My face hurts from smiling. I'm drunk and I'm not even mad about it! AHHHHHH. I love Harry Styles.

I can't say that out loud.

Nope.

HA!

Oooh. Woops. I'm stumbling. Gotta act sober. Act sober. I pull my hair from the bun it was in and shake down around my shoulders. I look down and see that its fallen into pretty curls around my face and arms. I smile again.

"Hey!" I hear someone call from relatively close behind me as I head for the water. I turn and squint into the dark alley behind me and see a body approaching. I smile at first, excited to see Harry has come after me, but then I realize it's not Harry and my smile falters.

"Sup, cutie?" the guy slurs and I watch the Jack in his hand slosh over his cup and onto his fingers. He doesn't even flinch. I step back.

"uhm…"

"Sad ssstory. I dint git no kiss at midnight." He leans down, puckering his bottom lip out at me and I can smell the alcohol on him even through my drunky haze. He's about 6' 2", bald head, baseball cap, bad tribal tattoos on his mildly bulked up arms. He's not a complete meat head, but I know that I wouldn't stand much of a chance if he got a hold of me. I start to step back further, thinking maybe I can run for it, but he's quick despite his inebriated state of mind.

"Na-ah-ah! Hhhold on. I was hoping you could remedy this shitty luck I had tonight. I dint come out here to not get none." He stammers, gripping my arm so tight I'm sure he's going to leave a bruise. My phone is inside of the hoodie pocket so I pull it out with the arm he doesn't have and quickly click on harry's name.

"Tha fuck…" drunk dude swings for my phone and instead of grabbing it he manages to knock it from my fingers just as I hit call. Shit.

"Look, I'm sorry you had… uhm… a bad night but I have a boyfriend." I choke out, pulling as hard as I can to get away from this asshole. His grip only tightens. I flex my fingers as I start to loose feeling in them, dude-man's grip on my arm so tight the blood flow has seemingly stopped.

I'm on full on panic mode now. Tears are welling up in my eyes and I'm trying to figure a way to abandon ship.

What was I thinking, going out alone at night, on new years of all nights, in the middle of some dark alley way? Freaking retard!

"Don't be like that. C'mon. If you got yourself a boyfriend then where he's at?" the man slurs, jerking me up against his chest. I'm going to vomit. I'm going to puke all over him.

He grabs my chin with the hand that doesn't have my arm and jerks my face upward. There is no fucking way I'm kissing this asshole. As he leans his head down I scream at the top of my lungs.

"HARRY!"

My voice bounces off of the empty alley and falls on deaf ears.

I try to think quick as the drunk prick who has me prisoner doesn't even seem to notice or maybe he just doesn't care about my screaming. His lips are millimeters from mine and I will absolutely die if he kisses me. Thinking as fast as I can I swing back with my leg and try to knee him in the nuts. My knee cap connects but only with the top of his thigh.

This pisses him off. Both of his hands wrap around the tops of my arms and I squeal as he spins me back around and slams my back up against the garage wall.

Oh god.

"Nice swing, sweet heart. I like a girl with some fight in her." He says, pressing himself flush against me and not releasing my arms. I'm squirming and trying to yell but the pressure of him against my chest is making it hard to breathe, much less scream.

I squeeze my eyes shut and bite down on the insides of my lips, refusing to watch or participate while this meat head assaults me. My mind is racing a thousand miles an hour, my heart hammering so hard that it's making my ribs ache. I should have made Harry come with me. I should have taken someone else. I'm so stupid. This is so-

"HEY!" The sound ricochets off of the buildings around me and my eyes fly open. "The FUCK you think you're doing?!"

Harry. Oh my god. I want to cry. I want to run to him and leap up and wrap my limbs around him and kiss him and cry and oh my god… he came for me. Ghsadjfs;dlfa!

Jocky McJack Daniels turns around, pissed off like you would not believe, and I drop to the ground, taking in deep, heavy breaths. I rub at the tops of my already bruising arms as I scoot away from him and try to bring my trembling legs back underneath me. My eyes never leave Harry's face, although the expression on it is so terrifying that it's hard to watch. He has a bat in his hand, god knows where he got that from, and the wildest look in his eyes. He legitimately looks like he's going to kill this man.

"Harry…" I choke out, finally able to find my feet. Jock Daniels turns and swings his forearm against my chest knocking me into the wall and the breath leaves my body in one giant woosh.

"Go tha fuck away, faggot. I was about to get my new years off to a good start." He slurs. My head is spinning.

Suddenly, Harry is on top of the guy somehow. It happened so fast. He lunged and then they were on the ground and Harry's fist is connecting again and again and again with the guys' face. He didn't even need the bat. He'd abandoned it, tossing it back to my feet as he just went to town annihilating the douche bag who'd just tried to… whatever he was trying to do to me.

"If you EVER! EVER! Touch her again I'll fucking KILL YOU!" Harry screams. Blood is gushing from the guys' mouth as he tries and fails to protect his face from Harry's blows.

I stagger forward, finally able to breathe normally.

"Harry!" I scream, grabbing for his arm. "Stop! Harry! Please! That's enough!"

"OI! HARRY!" Paul has emerged from out of nowhere and has lifted Harry off of the guy, who is now lying, curled up in a ball on the sidewalk. Harry's chest is heaving and his eyes are wild and there's spit on his lips and he's trembling so hard that Paul has to wrap both arms around his chest from behind and physically turn him away from this guy to calm him down.

"I've got it, Harry. Calm yerself. Go get your girl and get inside. Okay? Calm down. Calm down. It's okay. Breathe."

"Kill him." Harry Growls. "He put his fucking hands on her!" Harry yells and Paul cuts him off again.

"I KNOW! I know. I know, Harry. I'm going to take care of it. She needs you and you need to calm down before you get yourself thrown in prison for battery, a'right?"

"Harry…" My voice trembles on the way out and I watch as Harry's eyes find mine, the tension dropping from his shoulders, the look on his face completely heartbreaking. He shrugs out of Paul's arms then and rushes to my side.

"God, Christina. Are you okay? Did he hurt you? I'm so fucking sorry! I'm so sorry. I should have come with you but one second you were across the room and then next you weren't and God…I'm going to fucking kill him. I'm going to-"

Tears have started to slip down my cheeks and I swipe at them with my sleeve. I'm shaking and sniffling but I need him to calm down because if I lose him over him killing some drunk dude who tried to kiss me -and didn't, mind you-I will not be able to handle my life anymore. I stumble forward and wrap my arms around his neck and he throws his arms around my waist and squeezes so hard that I can hardly breathe.

"I'm so sorry." He mutters shaking his head.

"No, I'm sorry. I should've told you where I was going. I just wanted to run to the water really quick and dip my toes in. I didn't think anything of it. I figured I'd go down and come back and you would barely notice I was gone. I just needed some air." I explain.

"You're trembling, babe." Harry sighs, cupping my face in his hands and looking into my eyes. I lift my hand and clasp my fingers over his wrist.

"So are you." I say, pressing my lips together and closing my eyes as Harry places a soft kiss to my forehead.

"Let's go." He mumbles, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and leading me inside of the garage. We don't head back to the dressing room, but he steers me for the bus. Once inside, I head into the living room and jump at the sound of Harry yelling and punching the inside of the door. I hope he didn't crack the glass.

"Harry?" I say tentatively. He walks up the steps and comes into the front lounge with his head down. Without looking up he walks straight up to me and wraps his arms around my waist, dipping his head down to my shoulder and placing his lips against my neck. I roll my head to the side so he has better access and now I'm shaking for a whole new set of reasons.

Harry's hands find the bottom of the hoodie I'm wearing and he lifts it over my head. I let him remove it and then wrap my arms around his middle, kissing the hollow of his throat and reveling in the way his moans rumble over my lips.

Harry unbuttons the dress Louise gave me and I remember that I have no under garments on.

"Harry… I don't have anything under this. We'd better be careful." I whisper. He says nothing, but grabs my hands and tugs me from the lounge to the bunk area. Without a word, he grabs my hips and hoists me into his loft bunk and then follows suit. It's dark in here but I don't care.

Harry and I are a tangle of lips and hums and limbs and after everything we'd been through tonight, the only thing we can think about is releasing the tension in our bones and being close to each other. He is my life line and I am his air. I run my lips over his collar bones as he chucks Lou's dress to the foot of his bed and then continues kissing down the entire length of me all the way to my toes.

I am about to explode. I don't know if I should laugh or cry or just lay here and be.

By the time we've both quit trembling and are succumbing to exhaustion, neither of us are wearing any sort of clothing and the blankets have becoming some sort of cocoon, wrapping us so tightly together that I can't tell where I end and he begins. I can feel his heart hammering against my own ribs and I place my hand over the place where it beats and kiss his mouth as deeply as I can. He tangles his hand up in my hair and holds me as close to himself as he can, dragging his hand over the rise of my hip and the swell of my chest, up to cup my face and then back down again.

I never want this to stop.

Finally, Harry pulls his mouth from mine and rests his forehead against my forehead. We don't speak for a while, but just simply breathe and relax and enjoy the closeness of the other. Then Harry reaches up and clicks his bunk light on and I watch the tightness return to the set of his jaw.

"Jesus… that bastard." He murmurs as he traces his fingers over the bruises that have formed on my upper arm. He shakes his head and sighs, closing his eyes. Before I can open my mouth he has moved down and is placing gentle kisses on each bruise and then moves lower and kisses each one of my finger tips before them with his and laying down, settling my head against his chest.

"It was my own fault." I say, feeling like the world's biggest idiot.

I jump as I hear Paul's voice ring out through the bus.

"Harry. Christina. The officer's need ta talk to ya." He shouts.

Harry leans down and kisses me once on the lips. "I'll grab you a tshirt and a pair of sweats. Wait here." He murmurs, tugging his boxers back on and throwing the tshirt and sweat pants he was wearing back on as well. I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands, wishing I could go back in time and bring Harry out to the water with me. All of this stupidity could have been avoided. But, I couldn't bring myself to regret the last hour I'd had tangled up with him in this bunk. I'd never felt so close to anyone in my entire life.

"Here ya go, doll. Throw this on. I'll be waiting in the lounge." Harry says somberly as he hands me a pair of grey sweats and a thick black V-neck tshirt. He closes the curtain and walks into the lounge and I hear he and paul speaking to each other through the walls as I dress.

As I straighten the t-shirt down over my hips, it is then that I decide it. Harry will forever be mine if I have it my way, but regardless, he's not getting these clothes back.