Lilac || l.s. ✔︎

Chapter sixty-two

Harry yanked his hand away with a playful upturn of his nose, "I've not finished my ice cream yet." So, he waited (and watched) as Harry polished off the two scoops of strawberry cheesecake ice cream effortlessly. "Want anything else?" He couldn't help but ask, a puckish grin threatening to make its way on his features. Harry looked up then, a smudge of pink-colored liquid staining the corner of his mouth. "No, thank you." He saw the way Harry's lips moved, but the words that were being spoken never reached his ears, his eyes fixating on Harry's lips; just how they scintillated with a sheen layer of saliva (especially after the colossal amount of times Harry had licked his lips in the past few minutes or so), and the tiny smudge of ice cream that seemed a little too close to his lips.

Perhaps, he could lick it off in the guise of a chaste peck on Harry's lips, or he could be the can't-keep-my-hands-to-myself alpha in public and fully snog Harry in an ice cream shop, and in the presence of kids who were chortling away as if they weren't commencing headaches for every other person in the room. He couldn't believe he would have one of those under his roof in a few months. He hoped the kid would turn out to be an angel just like their mother, and not a fucking nuisance as he had been in his childhood.

"So, is that a yes?"

Blinking, he stared at Harry who was looking at him expectantly, a tiny smile present on his face. "Yeah." Taking a wild chance was relatively better than being the cause of a frown on the omega's face. "Great! So, I was thinking of adding one more plank in the greenhouse to accommodate more plants. And since we're buying many flower plants today, I think we should temporarily place some of them on the sled of the kitchen's window, and a few on the windowsill of our room?"

Fuck his life. And the stupid ice cream.

"What do you say?" Harry pressed, traces of impatience detectable in his voice. "S-Sounds great, yeah." He scratched at his forearm absentmindedly, nodding his head once. "So, can we head to the nursery now?" A fully-blown grin accompanied by a pair of green, doe eyes and Louis was a goner.

It was pathetic, honestly. But the rise of Harry's happiness obscured the murk of his deep-rooted values and thought process.

It was okay in the end, he had told himself numerous times. Falling for Harry was okay.

More than okay.

♚

The greenhouse gradually became a place for Cliff and Harry to have their alone time. Harry would usually pop in the greenhouse before leaving for work, and the omega would usually be accompanied by the puppy. On the days when Harry was supposed to water all the plants, Cliff would curl up on the couch and watch him work his way around the compact space with great curiosity. And on the days when he would just make sure any of the plants hadn't been infested, Cliff would follow him around, nudging his leg each time Harry allocated unnecessary time to any plant. He liked to think it was Cliff's way of reminding him he didn't have much time to spare. Today was the former one, hence why he was up before the sun, puttering around the dark room with surprisingly steady steps.

Louis was snoring away, sprawled across on the bed with his head stuffed in one of the many pillows Harry used. Biting back a smile, he brushed away the strands of hair that fell across the alpha's closed eyelids, leaning down to drop a light-as-a-feather kiss on the crown of his head. He bit the inside of his cheek to contain yet another smile to break out on his face when Louis' nose scrunched up in his sleep. He willed himself to leave the room before he would end up wasting all his time admiring Louis while the said man was asleep. Not like it hadn't happened before, but he didn't just wish to turn it into a habit.

With the arrival of spring, most of the flowering plants had started blooming, and frankly, he couldn't be more excited. The smell permeating inside the greenhouse was redolent of the one he used to love as a child; it closely resembled that of his mother's conservatory, it was something he had started priding himself for in the last few days. "C'mon, darlin'." He picked Cliff up, holding the puppy against his chest as he shut the door behind him. As usual, Cliff took his perch on the glaucous couch as soon as they entered the greenhouse, probably picking up on the fact that it was going to be a long morning after seeing him pick up the water sprinkler.