Theirs: a short story [harry styles] ✓

10

25th October 2016 - 2 months and 1 day until the big day. 

"Remind me again why I also have to be dressed like this?" Harry huffed, leant up against the cream wall; his entire face a vibrant shade of orange. His arms stuck out awkwardly at his sides, accommodating the rounded structure encompassing most of his body. I chuckled and snapped another photo on my phone. 

"Quit moaning. Nola was quite clear that Daddy's trick or treating costume had to match hers. I don't care how many dress rehearsals we have to have - this has to be perfect." 

Four hours it had taken me to perfect Nola's papier-mâché pumpkin costume, complete with stalk headgear and orange tights. 

"I'm still not wearing the tights." Harry said suddenly as if reading my mind, his eyes widened fearfully. "My love for that little girl is infinite, but there is no way I am wearing tights." 

I raised a single eyebrow and struggled not to laugh again. "Fine. No tights for you." I flicked my finger across the screen, comparing the photo with the one I'd taken of our daughter in her own costume only hours before. It'd been difficult to part her from it and Harry had spent a good fifteen minutes of our evening explaining to her why she had to sleep in pyjamas instead. 

"Any chance I can take this thing off yet?" He asked sweetly; battering his eyelashes at me as I looked up. I locked my phone and placed it on the coffee table before approaching him and his orange cage. 

"Such a shame, I was really beginning to think orange was you colour." I teased and helped lift the shell over his head. He looked even more ridiculous without it, standing in our lounge in a pair of Marvel pyjama bottoms, a plain black tee and an orange painted face. It had begun to crack around his forehead and his eyebrows looked welded flat. Nola would be thrilled with him at her side. 

"When I found out that I was a father," Harry sighed dramatically and curled his arms around my waist; pulling me into his chest. "The last thing I'd expected was to end up dressed as a satsuma for Halloween." 

I smacked his arm lightly and scowled. "It's a pumpkin, you moron."

His lips pulled up at the side into a smug, teasing smile before pressing lightly against my forehead. My eyes drifted shut and I relaxed into him. Moments like these seemed rare nowadays. The last ten months had been all systems go; powering through wedding plans and arguments and my mother's death. Even now, with Nola sound asleep upstairs, Elenore nowhere in sight and doing something as mundane as making a Halloween costume - I still felt I needed to be alert. Be busy. 

"I love you." He mumbled into my hair and I smiled against him. Flecks of orange paint had probably already settled into my scalp but I didn't care. 

"I love you, too." I replied quickly and placed my hands beneath his t-shirt and against the bare skin of his back. That first day he'd shown up at my flat seemed like a whole world away. I remembered the overwhelming feeling of embarrassment I'd felt when he'd asked me to retrieve his phone from the back pocket of his jeans. I sniffed a laugh. 

"What are you laughing at?" He snickered and pulled away to peer down at me. His left eyebrow was sticking up now, like an artfully arranged mohawk. I stifled a laugh and snuggled back into him. 

"You, of course." I grinned and pressed a kiss against the fabric covering his chest. "You know, I really think you'd get top Daddy points if you did wear those tights..." 

Harry groaned from above me before latching his fingers around my waist and throwing me over his shoulder. I squealed in protest; legs and arms flailing as he marched towards the sofa on the other side of the room. His body shook with laughter beneath me and I couldn't help but laugh too.

"Put me down!" I protested between cackles. "Harry!" 

"Shhh!" He snapped in a harsh whisper. "You'll wake Nola!"

As quickly as he'd lifted me, he dropped me. I hit the leather cushions with a sharp exhale, still grinning like the Cheshire cat and rolled onto my back to face him. Harry stood above me, his own smile stretched broadly across his face and his cheeks flushed pink. He reminded me of the Harry I'd met in the bar in Soho, the one with cheekiness oozing out of him. His eyes studied me hungrily and then suddenly, he pounced. 

I barely had a moment to take a breath before his lips attacked mine. They felt like velvet against my own; urgently pressing into me, leaving me breathless and wide eyed. I stretched my arms up and around his neck, drawing him closer. His hair was a tousled mess of silk between my fingers as he lowered his mouth to my jaw, peppering the length of the bone with tender kisses. 

I wanted to remember the moment forever. I wanted to press pause and take it all in. I never wanted to lose him. 

"I love you so much, Marnie." He whispered in my ear as his lips reached the top of my jaw bone. A shiver coarsed through my body and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I wanted to cry at how perfect he was, at how lucky I was. 

His lips continued their assault and I moaned in response, desperately wanting his mouth back attached to my own. I turned my head towards him; lips pouted and seeking his-

A thump sounded from the ceiling. Followed by a hurried patter of tiny feet across the floor of the bedroom directly above us. Nola's bedroom. 

"Mummy!" She wailed and the bars of the gate attached to her bedroom door rattled impatiently. 

Harry and I groaned, foreheads now pressed together. He looked at me with a wry smile and shrugged. 

"It seems you're in high demand this evening."

I chuckled and wriggled out from beneath him, bringing myself into a standing position on the carpet. "I'll be right back." I told him and turned towards the door that led out to the hall. 

"I'll be here." Harry replied, smacking my behind lightly as I turned my back on him. "Always."  

author's note: 2 chapters left!