the song for this chapter is "Bohemian Rhapsody," by Queen :)

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Nothing really matters,Anyone can see,Nothing really matters,Nothing really matters to me.
Any way the wind blows...

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Harry

  "Hello?" I grumbled into the phone, the irritation evident in my voice, and my pants feeling noticeably tighter as I stood in the bathroom, recovering from Tate's teasing attack. 

 "What crawled up your ass and laid an egg?" Abel laughed into the phone. 

 I ran a hand through my hair and strolled out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom, to find Tate still in her underwear, sifting through her bag which she had placed on top of the dresser. 

    I narrowed my eyes at her and she smirked at me, knowing full well what she was doing.

"Tate did," I replied, and she gasped in mock offense, only to have her expression replaced by a sly grin moments later. 

   I walked over to the bed and pulled my phone away from my ear to put it on speakerphone, before throwing it down on top of the soft white duvet.

  "Good job, Tate," Abel chuckled, his laugh echoing throughout our suite.

  "Thanks, Abel!" She chimed back cheerily. 

"You guys are assholes," I grumbled, spinning around and letting my body fall back onto the bed, my boots still placed firmly on the floor, and bringing my arms behind my head as I pouted up at the ornate ceiling above me, following the golden patterns and ethereal paintings on it with my eyes. 

   We hadn't even been in our suite for five minutes, and Tate had already managed to leave me extremely sexually frustrated, which I am guessing was due to the flirtatious and suggestive comments I had said to her in the elevator.

   "Yeah, yeah, so are you, Harry. How was the flight?" Abel asked.

  "It was good, but I know you didn't call to ask about our travel experience. What's up?" I sighed.

"Okay then, someone's a little feisty. I called because I was seeing if you had figured out anything about where the clues in Spain lead to, and also to kind of give you a heads up," he replied, his voice growing more hesitant and quiet towards the end of his sentence. 

    I shot my torso upright and snatched my phone into my hand, holding it so that the screen was facing upward in my palm. I could feel the ridges of my phone case digging into my skin from gripping it a little tighter than I probably should have.

    "Yes, we figured it out. What do you mean a heads up?" I asked, already feeling the tension in my jaw as the muscles involuntarily locked up. 

   "Well...you see-" Abel rattled, dragging out his words and only causing me to grow even more rigid, and although I tried to remain calm, the words left my mouth before I had a chance to stop them.

  "Damnit, Abel, please just spit it out already!" I snapped, instantly regretting it.

  Before Tate had a chance to scold me, I reprimanded myself, relaxing my shoulders a bit and sighing.

  "I'm sorry, Abel. Stressful week, not your fault," I mumbled, glancing over at Tate who was nodding at me approvingly, mouthing, 'good job.'

  "It's okay, Harry. I know it's stressful. I wanted to give you a heads up because, well, things haven't exactly been smooth sailing over here since you left," he began, and I could hear the exhaustion in his own voice as he spoke, making the guilt I felt for snapping at him increase tenfold. I had gotten so caught up in the stress that all of this had caused in my own life, that I had neglected to acknowledge the fact that it was impacting everyone around me as well.

    Normally, I wouldn't think twice about this. I probably would have told Abel to just toughen up, and go on with my day. But once again, Tate's fingerprints of impact on my life were impossible to remove, and I don't think I could wash them from the surface of my soul with the strongest disinfectant in the world. 

 "I bet. Fill us in," I encouraged, shifting my eyes over to Tate, who was wriggling a short-sleeved black crop top over her body, finally pulling it over her head to reveal her long and wavy hair, which was slightly tousled from the friction of the fabric.

   She stood there in the top and her underwear, and I somehow managed to keep my mind from drifting to its previous place of residence as she then pulled out a pair of light blue jeans. She stepped into each pant leg and slid the material up her thighs, buttoning them right below her belly button. They were a wide-leg cut, and I couldn't stop thinking about how cute she looked in the ensemble. 

   She then fiddled around in her toiletry bag until she pulled out a simple gold necklace, and then clipped on her pair of small gold hoops. When she gave me a funny look, I realized how long I had been zoned out just staring at her, and Abel's voice came back into focus.

   "You there?" he laughed, and I finally tore my eyes away from Tate, feeling a bit dazed. 

 "Sorry, yes. I'm here. Say that again?" I asked sheepishly, hearing faint giggles falling off of Tate's lips.

    I rolled my eyes and reached my free hand across the bed to grab one of the decorative pillows, before turning around and playfully chucking it at her. 

  It hit her right in the stomach, and she clutched the place of impact and gave me a wounded look, which only made me smile.

   "No worries. Anyways, after you left, we hacked into the security cameras near Quinton's building. It's been very busy over there, people coming in and out of it all day. Whit is extremely precautious right now, we all are. We are going to use the extra rooms on the third floor and camp out here until things cool off, that is, if they ever cool off," he explained, and I nodded my head, forgetting for a moment that he couldn't see me. 

   "Fuck, do you think they are planning on hitting the Fort? Do they think that's where Tate and I are hiding out?" I asked, the concern rising in my voice with each word that I spoke. 

  "We don't know if they are planning on hitting the Fort, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I'm guessing that by now, they realize that the software was a fake, and I am sure that they are going to retaliate soon. But I don't think that they think you guys are hiding out here," he replied, his voice wavering a bit at the end. 

  Tate walked over to the bed, her face full of concern as she sat down next to me. I hated to see her stressed out or worried in any way, and I very well could have taken the phone off speaker and gone into the bathroom or something, but she deserved to be just as informed as everyone else, and I honestly think that keeping information from her would end up doing more harm than good. 

    "What makes you say that?" I sighed, reaching over and lazily tracing my finger up and down Tate's thigh as she leaned her head against my shoulder. 

 "We saw them putting luggage into a car. I think they're going to try and find you, that is if they haven't already. You need to keep your guard up," Abel explained, and I gripped my hand even tighter around the phone at his words. 

  "Well, fuck," Tate mumbled next to me, taking the words right out of my mouth.

 "Agreed," Abel laughed bitterly, the frustration in all of us practically screaming. 

   "Is there any way to track them? Or anything we should do to be prepared?" I asked, grabbing Tate's hand and rubbing my thumb across her knuckles. 

   "We are working on that now. Gonna run some of Grayson and Quinton's aliases through the system, see if they've booked a flight or a private charter service, hotels, etcetera. And as for what you should do to be prepared, I would buy some burner phones. Keep your current phone, since I programmed it to be virtually untraceable, but get some burner phones for you and Tate, program our numbers in them, and then if you need to toss your actual phone, you'll have a backup. And then I can think of one other thing that might help," Abel replied, and I furrowed my brows in confusion as his tone changed, seeming hesitant. 

  "What is it, Abel?" I asked, not sure if I really wanted to hear his answer or not.

  Abel released a sigh, and I could practically see him nervously readjusting his glasses. 

  "I think you need to go through some combat training with Tate, and give her some weapons to use, just in case you two get separated," he answered, and I now understood why he didn't want to tell me. 

   The blood in my veins boiled at the very thought of being separated from my baby. I had already felt that pain before, and I wasn't sure if I could handle it again.

 "We won't be separated. I can protect her," I answered abruptly, not wanting to leave any room for discussion on the matter. 

   "I know you can protect her Harry, I'm just saying on that off chance that something happens-" Abel began, but I cut him off.

 "Nothing is gonna happen," I answered harshly.

  Tate squeezed my hand. "Harry, Abel has a point, why won't you just show me some things to defend myself just in case-"

    "Because I'm not losing you again!" I suddenly interjected, much louder than I intended to. 

 The room fell quiet for a moment, and Tate's face softened at my words. 

  "I'm...I'm sorry. I just, I can't lose you again," I whispered, letting my head fall down a little bit.  

  She looked at me and gave me a soft smile.

 "No one is saying that you will, but wouldn't you rather me know how to protect myself just in case something happened to either of us?" She reasoned, and I knew that she was right.

 I nodded at her and took in a deep breath, before slowly letting it out.

 "Sorry, Abel, you're right. I'll do that. Thank you for the heads up and for the tips," I spoke, my voice much calmer than before. 

  "Of course, Harry. I know you're stressed, and trust me when I say I don't want to even think about anything happening to either of you. But I do want you both to be prepared," he replied sincerely. 

    "Thank you. I hope all of you stay safe as well," I replied softly.

"We will do our best," he chuckled, "by the way, what ended up being the clue for Spain?" He chirped, changing the subject, which I was immensely grateful for.

  "Don Quixote, you know the windmills he compared to giants?" I replied, smiling a bit, knowing that Abel was going to love this.

   "Oh my gosh, yes! That is fucking genius! Absolutely brilliant!" He began to gush, rattling off his praises, causing Tate and I to chuckle a bit. 

 "I thought you might like that," I grinned, snaking my arm around Tate's waist and pulling her in closer to me. 

  "Fucking love it! Well, I'll let you two get going, I'll check in with you soon, stay safe," Abel called out, sounding a bit sad to end the call, as I am sure he missed us just as much as we missed him. 

 "Bye, Abel! You be safe too!" Tate replied sweetly.

 "What she said. Stay safe kiddo, talk to you later," I added.

 "Talk to you later," Abel mimicked, chuckling a little bit before ending the call.

  Tate surprised me by instantly straddling my lap and hooking her arms around my neck. I could feel myself blushing from how much she had caught me off guard, and how gorgeous she looked peering down at me, with a mischievous glint in her eye. 

    "So, what do you wanna do now, Styles?" She hummed seductively, and my mind was already racing with the list of answers I could give her. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and looked her up and down, before releasing it softly.

   I was hesitant to fall into the honey-coated trap she was laying out for me, her words laced with a sweetness that made me want to just dive in and lap it all up. But I was also fully aware that this could just be a continuation of the tortuous teasing she gave me earlier.

   I decided to get a little bit of revenge, and so I played along, leaning forward and using one hand to push her hair off of her neck so that I could plant soft kisses up and down her neck, and across her jawline.

  "I can think of a lot of things I want to do baby," I hummed against her neck. She reached up and tangled her fingers in my hair, and when she tugged on it I almost abandoned my revenge and just gave into her.

  Almost.

I slipped my other hand into my back pocket and pulled out the knife that brought us together in the first place, flicking it open and holding it down by her thigh where she couldn't see it. 

  "Fuck, Harry," She moaned as I lightly sucked on the delicate skin, and the sound of it was driving me absolutely wild.

  However, I remained as strong and focused as I could manage, and I brought my free hand up to her throat, gripping my hand around it and flipping us over so that now I was on top of her. 

  I brought my lips to hers all while keeping the knife hidden, and right when she was really losing herself in the kiss, I moved back and placed the cool blade of the knife gently against her lips, lightly tugging it back and smirking down at her baffled expression.

 "Did you forget, baby? It's time for you to learn some self-defense."

AN: I AM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I LITERALLY HAVE HAD SO MUCH WORK IT'S INSANE!!!!! I WILL HAVE MORE TIME TO UPDATE AND READ SOON! I CANNOT WAIT TO CATCH UP ON YOUR STORIES AND I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT! xx 

P.S. JUST PICTURE HARRY MAKING THAT FACE AFTER HE SAYS THE LAST LINE LIKE WOW