"I'd do anything for you."
"Good thing I'm not any of them then."
I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe.
His dark hair was pushed off of his forehead, the curls looking silky in the back and slightly dampened from the light downpour outside. Dark green eyes stared down at me, long eyelashes brushing his somewhat tanned skin. The lopsided smirk on his lips had a chill running through my body. He didn't look happy, but he didn't look angry. I couldn't make sense of the expression.
"Are you going to just sit there?" he raised an eyebrow, clearly trying to figure me out as his eyes scanned my appearance. I stiffened, wondering if the jacket that I had nearly taken off was enough to cover the reasonable baby bump I had obtained, but it had obviously done it's job well, because no flicker of emotion crossed his face other than that crooked smile, nor did he make any comment on it. "Or are you going to come give me a welcome home hug?"
I looked down for a moment, fully grasping the fact that Harry really was stood in front of me. This wasn't a dream, this wasn't a fantasy--this was real life. He was really here, and I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that.
"That depends," I whispered, meeting his gaze again. "Are you really home?"
I couldn't help but be careful. I couldn't afford to believe that Harry was really, finally home, only to have him leave me again. The pain would break me, and just as Louis had said, I couldn't be broken right now. I had not only my life to fight for, but another's as well.
I had to keep up the wall I had slowly rebuilt in Harry's absence. I had to protect myself.
Harry leaned against the door frame, giving me another quick once over before a slow breath came from his parted lips. "Do you really care?" he asked quietly, watching my face speculatively as if he expected to catch something specific there, but all I did was frown.
"Of course I care," I mumbled, feeling a bit self-conscious under his sharp, intense gaze. Harry had always been intimidating, but I suppose this had never been incredibly relevant to me seeing as I knew just how gentle he could be--but after not being in his presence for nearly half a year, I felt the same old feelings creep back into me, and I turned my face away. "If you don't plan on staying then what's the point in even coming here? All it's going to do is hurt when you leave again."
Harry's dark eyes narrowed and he ran a hand over his face, shaking his head as if he found me unbelievable. "Why do you have to make this complicated, Alice?" I shivered delicately as my name rolled off of his tongue. I used to be so accustomed to that, but now the sound of it made me feel a certain warmth creep through my veins--a warmth that I both coveted and pushed away at the same time. "Stop worrying about the future and just come give me a hug."
His words had me sighing, looking down at my lap again. At one point in time, not worrying about the future might have been simple, but the future was all I thought about now, and most of it circled around the fact that I was pregnant. There wasn't one day that went by where I wasn't thinking about when I would bring this little person into the world or where I might be at that point or if Harry would even be a part of it.
"I'm not making it complicated," I replied, still looking down. "It was already that way to begin with."
When I finally tilted my head up I saw that the look in Harry's eyes was dark and stormy. His mouth was no longer curved into a smirk, but instead it was set in a straight line, frustration prominent on his face. I wanted to wipe away that look, but I had a feeling that Harry was simply furious all around based on how he had spoken earlier. I wasn't making it any easier though, and based on the way his hands were clenched into tight, trembling fists at his sides, I knew that my stubbornness would cause some massive blowup, and that was the last thing either of us needed.
