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If you asked Harry Styles what he thought about mating before he met Zayn Malik, he’d have told you that mating is bullshit, that nothing is forever, etcetera etcetera etcetera.
Now, ten months after meeting The One True Alpha, Harry thinks he’s become disgusting.
Their friends like to take the piss on them for how sickly in love they are, but Harry only laughs good-naturedly at them, because it is kinda true.
Harry Styles and Zayn Malik are disgustingly in love.
When they don’t sleep together—which is very rare in itself—Harry always wakes up with texts from Zayn, saying good morning and have a nice day babe and I’ll see you tonight I miss you loads.
Harry is almost done with his exams to become a real lawyer.
Zayn is very supportive, gives him massages when he sees Harry is too stressed, lets him nest in his bedroom providing the softest blankets with his scent when he knows Harry needs it. On those days, Zayn even calls in sick at work, and stays with Harry all the time, until Harry feels better.
Harry knows a lot of Omegas who think their Alpha is the best.
If you ask him, he doesn’t think Zayn’s the best Alpha.
He knows Zayn is the best Alpha.
Which makes the last two days even weirder.
Zayn hasn’t been around much in the past two days. Harry frowns as he gets to Liam and Louis’s place. It’s almost six p.m., and Zayn has apparently been working non-stop at the restaurant where he got a job three months prior.
It has happened before. Zayn takes double turns sometimes, because he’s the only Alpha in a working crew of Omegas and Betas, and sometimes the Omegas just need a day off. Zayn helps where he can, because he’s just that good. Harry isn’t even jealous of Zayn worrying about other Omegas.
Now, though, Zayn hasn’t sent him more than a couple of monosyllabic text saying M ok as an answer to the row of five or six texts Harry has sent him when he’s realized he almost hasn’t heard from Zayn in the past forty-eight hours.
Harry sighs and rings the doorbell.
Louis and Liam have moved in together, and Louis is six months pregnant already.
Harry would have been horrified at the idea of his friend Liam becoming a father, but now… well, things are pretty different now. Louis is great, and Liam loves him loads. The amazed expression he has every time he stares at Louis, like he can’t believe his fucking luck, would be disgusting if it wasn’t so endearing.
Harry wonders if that’s how Zayn looks at him. He doesn’t think so, although he knows Zayn loves him.
Maybe with time, yeah?
Louis opens the door for Harry, and he just looks amazing, even with how Harry knows the pregnancy is making him puke and his feet hurt all the time.
“Hey” Harry smiles, raising the bag he’s carrying “I brought you healthy food”
Louis rolls his eyes. “I’m gonna die, and if I do, I don’t want my last meal to be an avocado smoothie. I need junk food. Fries. Burgers. Onion rings” he declares, leaving Harry at the door and walking like a penguin towards the couch.
Harry sighs and closes the door. “Well, then you should have asked Zayn to bring you food” he retorts “At least I’d have seen him too” he adds in a mutter, not being able to help it.
Louis hums, and Harry curses himself for having let the comment slip. Louis is Zayn’s best friend, after all.
“Haz?” Louis asks “Has Zayn been acting weird with you too?”
Harry feels his stomach churn a little, because if Louis also noticed, then it’s definitely true. He nods, and sits next to Louis. “I don’t know, Lou, it’s like, he’s working all the time, and he doesn’t even text me if I don’t send him a thousand messages first”
Louis rolls his eyes. “That’s normal Zayn behaviour, Harry. It’s like he’s allergic to texts”
“Not with me” Harry replies stubbornly “He constantly wants to know what I’m doing, if I’m okay, when we’re not together, so that is weird for me” he takes a breath “Plus, you also said he’s acting weird. What did you mean?”
Louis shakes his head. “I dunno, I was talking more about the fact that he’s been out of sorts, head in the clouds all the time, like there’s something he’s hiding?”
Harry feels extremely close to tears now. “Do you… do you think he… he’s met someone else?”
Louis stares at Harry for a long moment, and then laughs. Hard, hand on his protruding stomach, tears in his eyes. “Oh my God even the baby’s pissing itself laughing” he gasps for air “Harry, did you hit your fucking head? Zayn would need a prolonged exposure to fucking crystal meth before even being able to ponder the idea of looking at someone else”
Harry blushes a little, pleased at Louis’s comment even if he’d never admit it. “I dunno, he’s constantly surrounded by pretty Omegas at work”
Louis arches an eyebrow. “Yes, and he says their smell when they’re almost going into heat makes him sick because it’s not your smell” Louis retorts “May I remind you that Zayn wasn’t even functioning without you at the beginning, and he didn’t even know you?”
Harry hums. Louis is right, because Harry was also losing his mind because of Zayn’s smell alone in the beginning, when they didn’t know each other and all they had was each other’s clothes, and he’s sure that hasn’t changed much. They need each other.
But what if it has changed for Zayn?
“Harry” Louis sighs “You need to stop worrying about it. I’m sure it’s nothing. Besides, you would feel it, if something was really bothering Zayn, and…”
Louis abruptly cuts himself off when he realizes what he’s said.
Yeah, because Harry wouldn’t be able to feel shit, since he and Zayn haven’t even mated yet.
“Fuck, Haz, I’m sorry” Louis stutters “I’m an idiot, sorry, it’s just that, you and Zayn are so close and you love each other so much that sometimes we all forget that you… that you haven’t mated yet”
“Yeah” Harry sighs grimly “It’s okay, Lou. Sometimes even I don’t know why we haven’t mated yet”
Louis smiles, and gently strokes Harry’s hand. “Give him time. Zayn needs more time than most Alphas to process what he really wants, you know. But he loves you, Haz. Don’t even dare think otherwise”
*
Harry manages to work himself into a state by the time evening comes, and he feels very close to needing to nest.
But he can’t even do that, because Zayn is still AWOL, and he needs Zayn’s bedroom to do it.
He takes some deep breaths and tries to calm down.
He wants to call Zayn and ask him what is wrong, because clearly something is wrong.
It’s been two days. Harry knows it’s nothing, but they haven’t ever gone two days without seeing each other or at least calling each other since they started dating.
Harry is about to give up and just call Zayn, but his phone then pings with a text exactly from him.
Babe? Lou says you’re mad at me.
Harry wasn’t actually mad before, but he is now, because apparently Zayn hasn’t even thought about Harry being worried by now. Should I be?, he sends to Zayn.
Zayn replies at the speed of light. St. Thomas Street 14. Can you come here? Please?
Harry debates for the absurdly long time of two minutes, and then sighs, giving up. K. gimme time to get ready and I’ll come.
Zayn doesn’t reply, and Harry puts some jeans and a t-shirt on before going out of the house and getting in his car.
He hates his own place, he thinks gloomily as he drives to the address Zayn has sent him. It was fine for a while, but it’s too big now that Liam and Niall have both moved out to move in with their partners, while Harry is still there.
Maybe it’s the concept he doesn’t like. That he’s still stuck in the house where he lived as a student with his friends, and now he’s alone in there because his friends still love him, but have also moved on.
He spots Zayn immediately as he turns the corner. He’s standing on the sidewalk, in front of a cute house—maybe now every house is cuter than his own—and he waves at Harry with a tentative smile.
How am I ever gonna stay mad at this guy?, Harry thinks with a sigh, and parks the car.
He gets out of the vehicle. It’s late at night, probably almost midnight, so why Zayn had him come all the way to this unknown street is a mystery. Harry briefly thinks it’s close to Louis and Liam’s place, and also kinda close to Niall and Selena’s place, but that’s about it.
“Hey, babe” Zayn smiles, covering the rest of the distance between them “Sorry I’ve been a dick” he adds.
Harry arches an eyebrow. “Oh, then at least you know” he can’t help replying “What the fuck is happening, Zayn? Because I’ve been trying to give myself explanations and the only thing I can think of is that you’ve met someone else”
Zayn’s face falls immediately, and Harry already regrets saying that, but he can’t un-say it now.
Zayn sighs. “Of course not, babe” he murmurs “Even smelling another Omega’s scent makes me sick, how could I ever…” he chuckles, then shakes his head and cups Harry’s face with his hands “I was doing something, though” he says at last.
Harry has never had the strength to push Zayn away, and it’s not the case now either. It’ll never be the case. “What?”
Zayn giggles. He rarely does, but he does now, and lets Harry go to point at the house they’re standing in front of. “I was renovating”
Harry feels a lot of different things, and he doesn’t know how to voice any of them, so he stares at Zayn with probably the most unattractive expression ever.
Zayn laughs and cups Harry’s face again. “I know it took me a long while to figure out what I wanna do, but one thing I’ve always been sure of, and that’s that I wanna spend the rest of my fucking life with you, Harry” he says “So I bought a house. Where we can move in together, and leave behind both our shitty places. Will you move in with me?”
Harry laughs. His stomach is upside down, but he already knows the answer to that. “Yeah, Zayn. Yeah” he says, and kisses Zayn hard and long.
Zayn lets Harry kiss him for a second, but then pushes him back and interrupts the kiss.
Harry frowns.
“I’m not finished” Zayn says, taking a deep breath and talking with his lips on Harry’s “There’s another thing I want to ask you, babe”
Harry nods. He already knows, but he wants Zayn to say it. Because he’s never dreamt of anyone ever asking him that.
“Will you be my mate, Harry Styles?” Zayn asks, his voice shaking just as the hands he’s using to still cup Harry’s face.
Harry laughs again, and he’s crying too, but it doesn’t really matter, because it’s Zayn. “Yes, Zayn” he just says.
Zayn laughs too, and kisses Harry roughly, drinking the tears from his lips. “I’m sorry I made you doubt me. But I needed time to have the house ready today”
“Why today?”
“It’s been exactly a year since the incident at the dry cleaning” Zayn grins “Happy clothes-versary, babe”
Harry laughs. Hard, his teeth clashing with Zayn’s. “You’re so fucking stupid” he comments, and kisses Zayn again for good measure.
Zayn starts to pull Harry through the small front yard and up the little set of stairs under the porch. He fumbles for the keys while Harry is still attacking his lips, and soon enough they’re inside.
Harry has to stop kissing Zayn now, although he doesn’t really want to. But he has to look around, because the house is beautiful, with a small entrance hall and a living room with a couch and a tv screen, pictures of them, by themselves and with their friends, lined up on the small sill on top of the fireplace. There are stairs leading up to another floor, and Harry can also see a door to what is probably the kitchen, and everything looks fresh and thought-out, like Zayn has spent months working on this place.
“Did you do all this by yourself?” Harry asks, abashed.
Zayn shrugs. “Liam and Niall helped. Not Louis though, because he’s been talking with you a lot since he got pregnant and I was afraid it would slip his mouth”
Harry chuckles. “He also thought there was something wrong with you”
Zayn chuckles too, and doesn’t reply. Instead, he kisses Harry in the middle of the living room—their living room—and his hands are warm on Harry’s hips, his fingers clutching the shirt and the meat underneath in the way Harry loves.
“Do you wanna show me the bedroom?” Harry asks, and it’s half an honest question, half a pickup line. He’s already starting to fill up in his jeans, and he can already feel the slick in his pants.
Zayn nods, pushing his hips forward so that his crotch presses into Harry’s. He’s already hard too.
Zayn picks Harry up, hands under his thighs, and Harry giggles, wrapping his legs around Zayn’s waist as Zayn carefully proceeds up the stairs and gets them through a wooden door.
Harry stays hooked on Zayn’s hips as he looks around, taking in the light blue walls, the big window, and the queen-sized bed with two cute, white nightstands, one on each side.
“It’s beautiful, babe” Harry comments in a whisper.
Zayn smiles. “I knew you’d like it. Liam said you liked this colour for walls when you went with him to pick one for his and Louis’s place”
Harry laughs. “Yeah” he just says, and then kisses Zayn again.
He could be perfectly content just staying in Zayn’s arms in the middle of the room, kissing, but now that it’s done, now that it’s happening, Harry can’t wait anymore. “Lay me down, Zayn” he murmurs on Zayn’s lips “I wanna look at you when you mate me, and I mate you”
Zayn’s whole body shivers, and he nods, taking a couple more steps towards the bed before gently laying Harry down on top of the sheets. Harry goes willingly, splaying his arms on each side of his own head, because he knows how much it turns Zayn on, to stare at Harry from above while Harry gives up all his defences for him.
And when Zayn looks at him, in that moment, he looks just like Liam does. Like he can’t believe his fucking luck. Harry realizes how stupid he’s been, because that’s exactly how Zayn always looks at him, and there he was that morning, wondering if Zayn ever felt like that.
Now he’s sure Zayn does, all the time, all the fucking time, just like Harry himself.
Zayn hastily removes his own clothes, without interrupting their eye contact, and then finally climbs on the bed as well, his knees bracketing Harry’s hips.
Zayn starts peeling Harry’s t-shirt off his torso, sending it flying on the linoleum floor, and then he focuses on the jeans, unbuttoning them and peeling those away as well, until all Harry’s wearing are his pants, already completely soaked.
Zayn draws a shaky breath. “You’re already so wet, babe, I can see it”
Harry nods. “It’s you. How do you think I felt, all those times we were ‘just friends’ and you were always so close to me?”
Zayn blinks. “All the time?”
“All the fucking time”
“Then no wonder your scent was making me lose it” Zayn comments with a grin.
Harry nods again. “It’s yours now. Always has been. From tonight on, it’s forever”
Zayn’s breath hitches, and he takes off Harry’s pants too, wrapping his hand around Harry’s dick without any warning, and making Harry let out a moan.
Zayn growls in response. “Mine” he says.
Harry shivers, arches his back, nods. “Yours” he assures “And, mine”
Zayn nods. “Yeah, babe. Yours”
They don’t speak much after that. Zayn takes his time worshipping Harry’s body, from the top of his cheekbones and down to his toes, avoiding all the places Harry desperately needs to be really touched. Zayn breathes warm air on Harry’s nipples, on his ribs, his knees, his lips and teeth grazing Harry’s body up and down, up and down, while Harry moans and sighs, so much slick between his thighs that Zayn has to put a towel under him, in order not to soak the mattress.
Harry feels like he’s being set on fire just by the lightest touch of Zayn’s lips, and he thinks that he now understands what Liam has told him.
It’s different when you do it to mate, Haz. It’s like there’s a level of it that goes beyond physical, beyond touching. It’s like you don’t fucking know where you end and the other begins.
When Harry lets out a particularly loud moan, Zayn replies by finally, finally, wrapping his lips around his dick. Harry gasps and shouts, feeling like all his nerves are being exposed and touched raw, and Zayn licks at the tip before running his tongue down the underside, while at the same time Harry feels his fingers circle his rim, making a wet sound in all the slick he’s producing.
“So wet” Zayn murmurs, releasing Harry’s dick “I won’t need to prepare you more than one single minute”
“You can even skip that already” Harry replies, pants.
Zayn shakes his head. “I don’t wanna hurt you” he says seriously.
Harry doesn’t have time to say anything more, because then Zayn pushes two fingers together inside him, and it’s not been that long, only a week because Zayn was too tired from being at work all the time—now Harry knows that it was because he wanted to afford the start of their life together—but it feels like they haven’t had sex for months, years, ages.
Zayn takes his usual care in stretching Harry open with his two fingers, but he doesn’t do more than that, because Harry starts to pant and curse, and Zayn is probably not better off. “Are you ready, babe?” Zayn whispers, growls.
Harry nods furiously. “I was ready even before fucking meeting you”
Zayn chuckles at the sappiness of Harry’s reply, but doesn’t say anything more. He grabs Harry’s legs and drapes them on his shoulders, pushing inside Harry in one long, harsh thrust which has Harry seeing white.
“Fuck, Zayn, so good, so good” Harry is babbling nonsense already, his head thrown backwards on the mattress and his hands digging in Zayn’s biceps.
He feels Zayn growl again, a litany of Harry’s name as he thrusts back and forth inside him, so hard and fast Harry’s thighs are pressed against his own chest because of their position.
“Harry, Harry” Zayn keeps repeating in a whisper, his lips on Harry’s “My Harry, my Harry, my love, my Omega”
Harry feels something break in his chest at just how much love pours from Zayn’s mouth and eyes in that moment, and he heaves a sigh, pushing at Zayn’s chest until Zayn falls down and Harry can ride him.
Zayn lets Harry do as he pleases, smiling and looking up at him like Harry is the most beautiful and precious thing he’ll ever have in his life, and Harry has to fight himself not to come on the spot, too soon.
“Zayn, Zayn” Harry murmurs, bucking his hips in endless eights, his hands propped on Zayn’s chest and Zayn’s dick buried deep inside of him, grazing his spot every time. “My Zayn, my Zayn, my love, my Alpha”
Zayn is gaping a little, and Harry knows he can’t be that attractive while he strains to ride Zayn as hard and fast as Zayn was thrusting, but maybe to Zayn’s eyes Harry will always be attractive. God knows Zayn is always attractive to Harry. It must be what mates really feel.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Harry, you have no idea” Zayn mutters, a hand snaking up Harry’s stomach to stop on his chest, right over his heart. “You can be mine all I want, but this is the thing I want the most”
Harry nods, and places his hand over Zayn’s heart as well. “It’s yours, Zayn. It’s always been yours, as the rest of me”
Zayn smiles, and grabs a hold of Harry’s hips, sitting up. Harry doesn’t stop bouncing on Zayn’s dick, although he can feel the nerves and the accelerating of his heart at the thought that it’s really happening, finally finally finally.
“Are you sure, babe?” Zayn asks then, seriously.
Harry nods. “Are you?”
Zayn chuckles incredulously. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted since I fucking felt your scent for the first time”
Harry smiles, and kisses Zayn as Zayn stops Harry’s movements and grabs his hips a bit more strongly, to guide Harry’s body up and down his dick more forcefully.
Harry gasps and screams, head thrown back again, as Zayn sits back on his haunches with Harry still on top of him, not riding him anymore, but letting Zayn move him the way that feels best for both of them.
“I love you, Harry” Zayn whispers, mouth on the junction between Harry’s neck and shoulder “Mine”
Harry nods, and he doesn’t know where he finds the strength to raise his head again, with how hard and deep Zayn is fucking him. He does, though, and places his mouth on the same spot on Zayn, between neck and shoulder. “I love you too, Zayn. Yours” he confirms “And, mine”
Zayn nods too. “Yours”
Zayn bites first. It hurts like a motherfucker, Harry thinks as fire courses through his whole body from Zayn’s teeth. But it’s also what makes Harry come, untouched, with a shout that he muffles by biting down on Zayn’s flesh as well.
Zayn also screams, and comes deep inside of Harry. Harry feels Zayn’s knot, a knot that he now knows like it’s part of his own body, pop past his rim and settle in its rightful place inside him.
They both keep coming for a while, screaming each other’s name and digging their fingers in each other’s flesh, wherever they can grab it, as if it was even humanly possible to be any closer than that.
When Harry opens his eyes again, he’s met with the sight of the mark—a mark for eternity—that he’s left on Zayn’s neck. It’s the circular imprint of his teeth, which now looks raw and red.
Harry knows it’ll fade, but it’ll always be dark and visible on Zayn’s skin.
He can’t see the mark Zayn has left on him, but he can see Zayn looking at it. Harry gives him a moment, and revels in the fact that even in all the craze, Zayn is making sure not to move Harry, since they’re still linked by his knot.
When Zayn is done staring at their bond mark, he looks at Harry, and Harry sees stars in his eyes, brighter than he’s ever seen them.
“Louis was right” Zayn says, sighs “It really is something else, when you do it to mate”
Harry chuckles. “Liam told me the same”
Zayn smiles and carefully lays down, keeping Harry on top of him and holding him to his chest, a hand stroking his hair. “I never thought I’d have this” Zayn murmurs after a while.
Harry snuffles, feeling sleep starting to overcome him. “Well, now you have it. With me. For the rest of our lives”
Zayn’s heart skips a beat, and Harry clearly feels it. “Yeah, babe. For the rest of our lives”
“Zayn?”
Zayn hums.
“I saw doors to other rooms in this corridor?” Harry says tentatively, because not even in his wildest dreams he can imagine that.
Zayn clears his throat. “Well” he says slowly “I mean. Not now. But like. In the future. Maybe. If you want”
Harry chuckles at Zayn’s embarrassment, and buries his face in his mate’s neck. “Yes, Zayn Malik” he states “I will bear your children one day”
Zayn’s heart goes a bit crazy under Harry, but Harry doesn’t mention it. And if Zayn holds him a bit tighter after he says that, well, Harry can’t do anything but love the feeling.
*
The next week, when they wake up after quite the housewarming party with the other lads, Harry finds an envelope on the floor of the entrance hall, where the gap for mail is installed.
He takes it, sees that it’s addressed to him, and opens it while he goes back to the kitchen where Zayn is washing the dishes of their breakfast.
It’s an invitation. To Stephen and Aaron’s wedding.
Harry’s face probably goes through a kaleidoscope of colours, because Zayn leaves the dishes in the sink and joins him, trying to look at the letter. “Babe? You look like you’ve eaten an expired curry”
Harry just hands Zayn the invitation, and watches Zayn’s big eyes scan it.
The grin that forms on Zayn’s lips means nothing but trouble.
“Well, I guess we have been summoned to embarrass your cousin and his annoying boyfriend-soon-husband some more” Zayn states “Wanna pretend we’re pregnant this time?”
“Zayn!” Harry squeals, but Zayn’s already laughing his ass off.