Chapter Text
“I’ve decided to do resolutions this year,” Harry declared to his best friend Niall. Niall looked up, surprised at the comment. First of all, it was already a week into the year and second, Harry didn’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. For the past several years whenever Niall had heard someone ask Harry about his resolutions, he said that they were dumb and people should be able to change their lives any day of the year. The new year wasn’t meant to be for temporary diets or short-term hobbies. It was just another day the date changes. At least, that’s what he’d said.
So Niall questioned him of course, raising his eye brow and looking up from his Twitter feed on his phone. “What are you on about? I thought you didn’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions.”
Harry pursed his lips and said sternly, “it’s not a new year’s resolution, Niall. I’ve just decided to make some changes in my life with on-going resolutions. Like, once a week I’m going to work on another one.”
Niall tilts his head to the side at Harry’s response. “Sooooo, basically, you just want to try new stuff all the time?”
“I just feel kind of stuck. Like, I’m not moving forward, you know?” Harry shrugged and Niall nodded at the question. He definitely understood that feeling. “I want to feel like I’m becoming an adult, making strides in my life. Doing good in the world.”
“Wow, I’m impressed Harry. That sounds really amazing. So, what’s the first resolution then?”
“Week 1. I’m going to make a list of resolutions. It may not be a full 52 for the year, but I want to have at least 30 or so. I’m sure as I go on, I’ll think of other things so they can be added when they pop up and I’ll adjust the order accordingly. Each Saturday I’ll pick a new resolution. So I have until this Saturday to come up with my partial list. Then on Saturday I’ll decide what my resolution is for next week.” Harry looked so proud of himself. There was an excitement, a glow in his eyes that Niall hadn’t seen in awhile. Now that he thought about it, Harry had looked rather dull recently. His eyes of course, but his whole body had been kind of dragging. If this was going to bring back the Harry he first met or the Harry he got to know over the past several years, Niall was all for these resolutions. Maybe he’d even join in on some of them. OK, who is he kidding? Harry would make him join on some of them he’s sure.
“What do you have so far? I’m assuming this all started with a few in mind?” Niall asks, putting his phone away and shifting over to Harry on the old, lumpy couch. He peers over Harry’s shoulder to see his phone where he’s clearly making the list but Harry pulls it away from his view.
“I can’t see it?” Niall asks confused and disappointed. Harry is an over-sharer normally. He tells Niall any and everything he finds remotely interesting so it’s odd that he wouldn’t want to share his resolutions list.
Harry shifts, turning towards Niall with his phone held his chest, while he explains. “I don’t want you making fun of any of them. I’ll tell you some of them and I’m sure you can help me with some but there are some embarrassing things on here, so I’d prefer not to share right now.”
Niall can’t help but frown at Harry’s answer. “You don’t trust me?” Niall asks.
Harry’s eyes get wider and he quickly denies the claim. “No Niall! Of course I trust you. It’s just, some things are private and I don’t even know if I’m going to do them. They’re just thoughts right now.”
Niall tilts his head again, watching Harry’s face, trying to decide if it’s worth arguing about any more. Niall is hurt and Harry doesn’t seem to be acting himself but he decides to let it go. He sighs and says, “OK, tell me what you’ve got and are willing to share then.”
Harry has a grateful smile on his face, pulls his phone back so he can see it and reads off some of the resolutions he’s already added to his list. “Go to the gym,” he starts and then immediately defends, “I know that’s like hypocritical of me because of things I’ve said about resolutions in the past but like I’m too skinny and it’s not like I’m going to go crazy with it. I’ll just go like twice per week.”
Niall is fighting the grin on his face and decides he can’t talk without laughing, so he just nods. Harry glares at him and continues his list with a huff. “Do volunteer work. Call my mum and sister more. Keep the apartment cleaner. Yes, you’re absolutely going to be involved in that one,” Harry says pointedly to Niall, not bothering to look at his shocked face. They keep the apartment just the way young 20-somethings should: not at all tidy. It’s not gross. They do their dishes (thanks to the dishwasher) and they don’t have bugs but they do tend to leave piles of things everywhere. Mail, sweatshirts, sheet music, pretty much anything that comes into the house has to stop somewhere before finding a home. Although Niall happens to think the kitchen table is a great home for their growing alcohol collection. Every time they invite friends over, they casually mention they should bring a particular type of alcohol (varying, depending on their mood and what they already have stocked) and, of course, they’ll drink some of that alcohol when they come over but they also have plenty of cheap beer to sate their guests. When those guests leave at the end of the night, or morning, the alcohol stays. Niall likes their collection right where it is.
“So, when you say keep it cleaner,” Niall puts the word cleaner in air quotes, “ you mean like ajax and shit or like less stuff laying around?”
“Niall,” Harry starts like he’s explaining how to clean to a child, “it means both. It means we need to put things away and have the apartment look like our mothers could come visit any day.”
Niall’s eyes feel like they are going to burst out of his head. “Our mothers?” he gasps. Every time their families come to visit, they spend two solid days cleaning and preparing the house for the motherly inspection. Niall takes a deep breath, frowns, and then asks, “why do I have to participate in your resolutions?”
Harry looks Niall in the eye and asks, “are you my best friend?”
Niall growls. That’s not fair.
“Do we live together?” Harry adds.
Niall narrows his eyes at his so-called-best friend.
“Then we’re in this together buddy!” Harry announces cheerfully.
“I hate you,” Niall deadpans.
“I know,” Harry confirms, patting Niall’s knee. “I love you too Ni,” he says with a small grin.
“What else am I being roped into?”
Harry looks back at his list and again lists out some of his resolutions. “Watch movies that people claim they can’t believe I’ve never seen.”
Niall’s chin jumps up and he exclaims, “now that one I can get behind! I still can’t believe you haven’t seen Ocean’s 11! As the person being roped into this madness, it will be your first movie.”
Harry’s chuckling and agrees with a couple of nods. “Read the classics. I know that’s a long list of books that I haven’t read but I’ll figure out what some of the most important are that I really should have read already.” Niall makes a face, making it clear he wasn’t going to be participating in that one. Harry just shakes his head, clarifying that, at least right now, he wasn’t planning on forcing Niall to read with him. That could change. No need to argue it until that week came around. “Learn to cook more than chicken and pasta.”
“Thank god!” Niall blurted quickly. His eyes were big with excitement and Harry wanted to be annoyed but couldn’t help but agree. He was a terrible cook. Niall was only slightly better so they spent a lot of time eating pasta and frozen pizza. They couldn’t really afford to be doing take-out all the time, so they limited themselves to twice per week. For dinner. Unless it was a special occasion. What that really meant was they didn’t actually limit themselves. They just liked to believe they did so when they couldn’t pay their bills, they could explain it away that there wasn’t anything to be done. They just didn’t get paid enough. “Can I pick things for you to learn?” Niall asked excited.
Harry looked confused. He spoke slowly as he said, “um, you can pick things for you to learn since you will be participating!” He ended the sentence enthusiastically, making it sound like Niall would be happy to join in this resolution. He wasn’t. He knows he really should learn to cook more but he didn’t want to be told he had to do it. He just pouted and settled back into the couch, making sure the cushion was fully molded to his body.
“Save money for a new couch,” Harry said, looking down at the tear that was inching it’s way over the top of their furniture, right behind Niall’s shoulder. As he pushed himself into it further, they could practically hear the tearing.
“That could be good. So, are these all like on-going resolutions then? How will you have time to do them all by the end of the year Haz? You’re going to wear yourself out.” Niall was concerned that, like he said, Harry would do them all because he was committed and wouldn’t have time to sleep or would drop them after a couple weeks and then get depressed. As impressive a feat as this would be to complete, Niall really wanted Harry to achieve his goals.
Harry shrugged and said, “some of them are short term goals. Some of them are on-going. If they’re on-going though, they may not be an every day or every week kind of thing. Like saving money for the couch. Granted, once that one is done I can change the couch fund into something else. Like a coffee table or even a new apartment.”
Niall’s head shot up quickly. “A new apartment?” Harry wants to move out? Niall thought concerned.
Harry didn’t seem concerned at all. He was just nodding and saying, “yeah, a nicer place. Don’t you want to live somewhere we don’t have to climb two flights of stairs to get to Ni?” Niall let out a sigh of relief. OK, he was thinking about them both. They could move somewhere else together. He was OK with that.
“OK,” Niall agreed. “Just, please don’t wear yourself out. If it’s a matter of sleeping at night or doing one of your resolutions, I need you to sleep Haz. You make yourself sick when you don’t sleep.” There had been plenty of times when Harry had worked himself into sickness. In college during finals. In college during rush week. (He wanted to be in a fraternity but he really wasn’t cut out to be a frat guy so he was turned down after performing the most ridiculous stunts!) In college when he got a job. Really, whenever he got a new job or a promotion. Harry was a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. When he put his mind to something, or if he felt he had to prove himself, he would absolutely give it his all, often sacrificing little things like sleep and food. He was lucky now, he was in a company where he could actually grow so at least he wouldn’t have to job search again anytime soon. That had been a nightmare for all involved. He re-wrote his resume and cover letter daily, knew every internet hiring site, and would spend hours getting Niall to ask him interview questions. Now Harry was a Call Center Supervisor at a local tourist company. His job was listening to the other Call Center employee’s phone calls and providing feedback as well as training materials to help them do their jobs better. Because his job was in the tourism industry, he had taken Niall to twenty of so different tourist attractions when he’d first gotten the job, claiming to need the ‘product knowledge’ to make him better at his job. It turns out, he didn’t really need to see all of those attractions in his first two weeks but he still claims it was money well spent. Niall didn’t mind all that much since they were actually fun and Harry paid for his admissions and transportation. He discovered quite a bit more about their city in the process as well so he only complained when they had macaroni and cheese for dinner for the next two weeks.
“Alright, Harry. It sounds like you know what you’re doing. Let me know if I can help, OK?” Niall asked as he stood up. It was getting late and he had to work the next day. He was currently a receptionist (he hated that title) at a country club outside of town. He would greet guests and direct them to the golf course, the pro shop, the restaurant, or one of the many other activities. He also assisted the events manager as needed. He generally had pretty standard hours, starting around 10am, as long as someone else was available to open. Niall actually really loved his job. It gave him, and Harry, discounted tee times, a little bit of free food, and a chance to see celebrities every now and then. He had some decent stories to share whenever the lads got together. Harry nodding at Niall and kept typing on his phone. Niall leaned over and kissed Harry’s fringe, patting his shoulder and telling him goodnight.