Sunflower | h.s

38

"Where are we going." She asks as she lets out a slight chuckle out of confusion.

"See. Theres that pretty laugh." I say, making her scrunch her nose as she faces her tear filled eyes to the ground.

I look around at all the trees while focusing on my step. It was hard to see due to all the giant shadows cast upon us both, but I'm sure I'd find one that's perfect.

"There." I whisper as I walk a little bit faster. I let go of Aaliyah's hand as I pick up a sharp stone. I stumble through a few leaves before resting my left hand on a tree trunk.

I begin carving away at the wood as Aaliyah stands there in slight confusion.

"What are you doing?" She whisper shouts.

"Aaly you can talk. No one can hear you apart from me." I say in my normal voice. Well, I say "normal" but I sounded really tired and my voice sounded raspy.

"Okay. What are you doing." She asks

I look back at her and smile. I finish drawing the last line before I blow on the tree trunk, causing a few dust particles to float in all different directions. I turn around and pass her the stone. She looks up at me with a raised eyebrow before rolling her eyes and taking the stone out of my hands.

She walks up to the tree trunk as she takes her forefinger and traces it on the outline of my initial. She carves away at the tree with half her hand still tucked into her hoodie. She sniffled a few times here and there, but it was all worth it when she stepped back to reveal our little creation

H + A

In jagged lines on the wood of the tree trunk.

"Why did we do this again?" She asks softly

I shrug my shoulders as I answer
"I guess because carving out initials into a singular tree gives us a sense of possessiveness. It makes us remember that just because things don't last forever doesn't mean they were never there. Like our initials on this tree for example, while we both carved into it, it gave us both a sense of belonging, to an extent. We felt wanted as the letters of our name indented into the wood of the trunk. But in a few years time, it might not be there anymore, but it doesn't take away the memory of the feeling of belonging we both had."

"Isn't it strange. The fact that we as humans, carve our names into trees and we act as if we are claiming our territory on this world. Or we make wishes upon repetitive numbers and consider it a sign that something good is coming our way. We pick flowers from the ground and give them away as a token of our love. We find beauty in white dots overhead at night. And though the world is so painfully cruel at times, I believe that the only reason people do things like this is to fall in love with the little things to help keep us alive." She replies, coming slowly back into her happy self.

"I want you to know Aaliyah, that yes your family may be broken and I am not for one second saying you aren't entitled to feel like that. But one of these days, all of us will become nothing but withered away skeletons in the ground, and any people we have cried over will no longer be in our memory. Our hearts will no longer feel pain that once resided in it. All I'm trying to say is that even though our current misery is killing us all softly, none of this will matter in a few hundred years." I say as I hug her and she hugs me back.

I sway her side to side as I say
"Please do not think for a second that this sorrow will last until the sun gives out or the stars fall around us. We all reach an innocent bliss and I think that is something worth looking forward to. Enjoy life as much as you can darling."

"We only have one chance." We both say simultaneously as we then look each other deeply in the eyes. These eyes I wouldn't be able to see in a couple weeks and that made me sad. I could not leave her, not yet. Never.

Which is why I asked

"Want to run away?" I ask as she laughs at my words.

"To where Harry?"

"Paris." I say. I leave her stunned for a few minutes.

"How?" She asks

"I got offered a job there." I say casually as her jaw hangs low.

"And you didn't tell me." She says as she chuckles and hits my arm playfully.

"Want to come?" I ask.

"But my mum? My brother-"

"It will only be for 2 weeks. Then we'll come back."

"But Your job lasts longer than 2 weeks Harry." She says with a raised eyebrow.

"I will figure that out. I promise" I say as I hold my pinky finger out. She chuckles lightly as she interlocks her pinky finger with mine.

"When do we leave?" She asks

"Not for a couple weeks. So it's up to you whether you tell your mum or not." I ask.

She is left with her thoughts for a few seconds before she replies with

"I'll tell her. But only once it's all set in stone. She needs to meet you first." She says

"Oh well I can come meet her tomorrow-"

"No. A- another day." She stumbles on her words as she cuts me off and looks down at the ground.

"Hey." I say as I hold her forearms.

"I'll wait. Take your time." I reassure her, remembering she's still quite hurt about whatever it is that went down with her family.

I hug her tightly, tighter than I ever have before. Only because I wanted her to know, that I was here. Yet not only that, I wanted her to know that she was here as well. As we hug in front of our carved initials, or as she liked to call our "territory," I play with her hair lightly.

Aaliyah Moreno

As we hug infront of our carved initials of our, what I like to call, territory. I couldn't help but feel

Safe
Warm
Loved

I didn't know what love felt like until he filled my heart with pieces of himself. I've never known such fullness, an ocean of feelings overflowing into the emptiest parts of me.

I look up at Harry who is already looking down at me. I smile at him as he smiles back at me

"You're my favourite." He says offhand

"Favourite what?" I ask.

"Well... just my favourite pair of eyes to look into, my favourite name to see appear on my phone, my favourite way to spend an afternoon, my favourite thing that my ears hear. Fill in the blank, beautiful. I left it at favourite for a reason." He says making my stomach turn upside down.

I feel my eyes well with tears, but this time, it wasn't because I was sad, at all. If anything I was happy.

He puts his hands on either side of my face as he caresses my cheeks lightly with his thumbs as everything in the world slowly starts to fall away, leaving nothing but him. I have never gotten so lost in a kiss before. And then, the space between us explodes. My heart was skipping beats as my hands could not bring him close enough to me. I have loved before, but never like this. I have kissed before, but it's never burnt me alive like this, not even the rain that was soaking us could cool it down. Maybe it will last a minute or longer. All I know is this kiss, and how soft his skin is as it brushes against mine, and that even if I did not know until now, I have been waiting for him forever.

"You're my favourite too Harry." I whisper as I break the kiss.

-

A/N: gahhhh they finally kissed! I was actually saving the kiss for a future chapters but I was getting impatient with myself. So here you go!

Hope you loved the sweet little chapter (: I for sure did.

Hope you're having a good day/night.
Please eat and drink.

I love you <3