Reign || Harry Styles

02: Exquisite

Harry watched her ever so carefully, his eyes focusing on the sight of her from the viewfinder of his camera.

She reached the end of the pool and with one flowing movement, she turned around, being the first one to head towards imminent triumph. He clicked on the shutter and quickly took a glimpse of the shot he had taken.

Looking at every inch of the photo, he examined it carefully, making sure every pixel contributed to perfection. His chartreuse-coloured eyes gleamed with pride as he imagined the bright look on the editor's face when he would finally hand in the photos. And Harry wanted that to happen.

The surrounding crowd suddenly turned hectic, and Harry's eyes darted back to the pool, unwilling to miss a single thing. He was kind of rooting for her to win, maybe. He didn't know for sure––but he was told to only take photos of her, so yeah, maybe, he was supposed to be on her side.

It wasn't just a simple, mundane event. The most important part was, the contestants were competing for charity. And Harry found it pretty heartwarming that she would make time for something like that.

He thought she was just another one of those people who cared for nothing but themselves. But coming there, Harry realised just how wrong he was.

Without a doubt, her win would be beneficial to the charity she was competing for––which was a teenage cancer organisation or some sort. Harry didn't care which charity she was doing all that for, really. He was only there for her anyway.

She was halfway towards the other end of the fifty metre swimming pool, victory on the tip of her tongue. He placed his eyes back on the viewfinder, ready to shoot the glorious moment of her winning.

The swimmer two lanes away from her suddenly caught up in a––surprisingly––high velocity and was just less than a metre behind her. The suspense kicked into Harry's system as the gap between the swimmer and the end of the pool got thinner and thinner with every lengthy stroke of her arms.

The crowd went wild with cheering as the swimmers became neck and neck with each other, but Harry didn't peel off his eyes from his camera––he was still closely focusing on her and nothing else.

But the other swimmer's effort just wasn't enough to outrun her. She was that good.

In a matter of seconds, she closed the gap that separated her and victory. With the last stroke of her arm, her hands were able to reach out and touch the wall of the pool––making her score the fastest time. The other swimmers trailed behind her, dumbfounded at her shining ability.

It seemed so easy, though, how she won.

As if every force in the universe wanted her to win, to be triumphant, to be perfect in everything.

And she wasn't even a swimming athlete, Harry thought as he clicked on the shutter to seize her moment of triumph.

He was right. No, she wasn't even a swimming athlete. And she still won against a group of athletes.

In fact, she played tennis. But to say that she just played tennis, would be a complete and utter understatement. She was a world-class tennis athlete, ranked number four after her Wimbledon Grand Slam win in 2013.

And this little charity win just added into her list of achievements.

That was how much the universe loved her. 

She tore off her goggles and swimming cap, her flaxen-coloured hair fell wet over her bare shoulders. She had the most grand crooked smile; the edge of it pulled into a smug smirk, a colour of juicy pink smeared over her plump lips. Her sapphire-coloured eyes gleamed in pride as she lifted her hand to wave at her supporting crowd––which turned nuts in following to her simple gesture.

Harry tuned out the screaming crowd behind him, he thought the crowd were being unnecessarily noisy. It was just charity swimming anyway, not fucking football.

With one lift of her toned arms, she pulled herself out of the pool. Dripping wet from her head to her toe, her swimsuit now a darker shade of crimson. The Lycra material seemed to wrap even more tightly around her body, showing off her curves and her edges.

Harry decided that red simply looked exquisite on her.

And oh boy was he incredibly intrigued.