A/N: before we start, I just wanted to point out how the POV shifts frequently in the chapter! I titled each section, so it should be easier to follow who's view it is from:) enjoy!!
Harry's POV
I am taking in every syllable that Oakland is saying, since this is clearly very important to her for me to know. She didn't have to finish the story for me to pick up on where it was going, and I just wanted to wrap her up right then and there to hug and protect her. No one deserves to go through what she did, and I completely understand that it is traumatizing. It could have been brought back up somehow, triggering her to spiral, so I couldn't ever blame her for reacting the way that she did.
I could see tears in her eyes, making my heart sink knowing that this is hard for her to tell me. I sat there for a moment watching her, eyes were glazed over as if she was going to cry at any moment, but her mind was going too fast for her to stop crying. I couldn't quite understand what had made her think crying was bad but in this moment I just decided to let her process my words and to ask her about it another time. I took her hand in mine, squeezing just to let her know I was here and I understood.
"Oak, I'm so sorry that you had to experience that. You should never need to feel like you need to apologize." I told her, maintaining eye contact so that she could feel the words more strongly.
She started to respond but her voice was shaky so she stared back at mine, merely trying to tell me everything but without speaking a single syllable, and in the moment I knew...
She was my present.
Oakland's POV
"Aw so close!" I cheered.
Harry and I have been trying to catch fruit in our mouths for what felt like the past hour. I ended up explaining everything to him relating to Lucca: the trauma, the experience, and the nightmare... but I left out the part where he was in it instead. I didn't want to worry him or for him to think that I thought of him in that way, so I left it out. He understood fully, making me feel welcomed and warm. He told me that it was all okay, and that everything was going to be alright.
I could tell after the tough conversation, that he wanted to distract me, and lift up my emotions because I was getting a tad anxious just talking about my past, so we ended up eating the sandwiches he packed, and now we are playing with the fruit. The sun was at its peak, so I took off my clothes to also bathe in the sun.
"Here!" he said, holding up a piece of the ripe, green fruit for me to catch. I grinned big, opening my mouth and sticking my tongue out to perfectly catch it. "Unfair." he grumbled. I've caught every piece, but he misses almost every time.
I chuckled at his mumble, "maybe next time, Babe." I said picking up a strawberry for him. I looked back up to see him with a wide grin across his face. "What?" I questioned, but it instantly hit me that I just called him 'Babe'. I shrugged it off, not really caring since he always called me 'love' or 'angel'.
"Oh nothing..." he brushed it off. "Come on" he urged me to continue the game. I tossed him the strawberry, him finally catching it as well. We both cheered in his final victory, and ended the game.
I laid down on my back as I brought my sunglasses to my eyes, blocking the rays as I let the sun tan my skin. He laid down next to me, so I scooted closer, resting my head on his arm. He grabbed a speaker from the car when we first got here, and was playing some chill music to match the energy. Best Part by Daniel Caesar was playing in the background, wrapping us up in a perfect bubble.
I felt so much more safe with Harry, feeling closer than before since I let him in on who I am. It felt like a weight off of my shoulders, since I felt so drawn to him emotionally, and I hadn't fully opened myself to him, but now that I told him one of the deepest parts of me, I feel like the connection to him had grown more within the past hour or so.
Harry hummed to the music, mumbling the words. His voice was so intoxicating; it didn't sound like anything I had heard before. It sounded as if an angel was singing from the heavens.
I closed my eyes, listening to the song and Harry sing. The warmth from the sun felt like a blanket over my body, making this whole thing feel like a dream. I was laying there, my head on his shoulder, tracing the inked letters on his skin that are foreign to me but mean something to him.
The light was barely shining through my sunglasses, until I noticed the brightness dimmed, so I opened my eyes to be met with Harry's beautiful green ones. He'd leaned over, and had a smirk on his face as he continued to sing, but this time it felt as if he were speaking to me, meaning what he said in the lyrics.
"I just wanna see how beautiful you are,
You know that I see it,
I know you're a star,
Where you go I follow,
No matter how far,"
I grinned, bringing my hand to his cheek as he sang the last lyric. Even though I know for a fact that I can't sing to save my life, I joined in for the last line of the phrase. I wanted him to know that I felt the same way as he was singing, even though I couldn't bring myself to actually let him know about my feelings.
"If life is a movie,
Oh you're the best part,"
I reached to my right, grabbing my camera to snap a picture of this moment. I wanted this to be an imprinted memory forever in my brain. I held the viewfinder to my eye, closing the other to focus on the man through it. His hair dangled in front of his forehead, creating perfect curls that danced as the wind blew past. He smiled for the camera, looking at the lens, but I could tell that he was looking through it, into my eyes. The sun was blocked behind his head, creating a ring around, looking as if he had a halo. I snapped the photo, setting the camera back down without looking, unable to take my eyes off of Harry. We were speaking to each other through our stares, me telling him that he had my heart in the palm of his hand.
I just wished I could bring myself to fully tell him with words...
In this instant, it felt like it was just us two on this earth, and the world belonged to us.
Harry's POV
Doing what I know best, singing my feelings through songs, I strummed my guitar, praying somewhere in that brilliant mind of hers, she too gets what I am saying.
We basked in the glow of the sun for hours, just soaking in each other's presence. About an hour or so ago, I noticed that she had fallen asleep on my shoulder as we laid on the beach, listening to the miscellaneous music I had suffled. I ended up shifting from under her to rest her head on my lap so that I could grab my guitar. She always seemed to light a fire inside of me that allowed me to roll out such inspiring lyrics.
I didn't bring my notebook with me, so I was just reciting the words over and over again to imprint them in my brain.
"I don't want your sympathy,
but you don't know what you do to me,
Oh Oakland,"
I played quietly, not wanting to wake my angel. I strummed the guitar at a slow pace, but I knew that this song would end up having an upbeat tune. I heard her grumble and shift, slowly waking up. Her cheeks were a warmer shade of pink, looking as if she was getting a bit burned from being out here for so long.
"Good morning, Sunshine." I joked. She rubbed her hands down her face, letting out a yawn.
"Was that my name in a song, Harold?" she asked, squinting her eyes in suspicion, referring to the last lyrics I had just sung second before she woke up.
"possiblyyyy...." I said with a grin at how she called me something new. "How was your nap?" I asked.
"Good, your playing lulled me to sleep. I wish you could always play for me." she said.
'I wish I could too, my Love.' I thought to myself.
She rolled onto her back, leaving her head in my lap to fully look up at me. I looked down over my guitar to meet her ocean filled eyes. They were so captivating, that I feel like if I stared for too long, then I would end up lost in the sea.
She reached up, beginning to trace my tattoos with her soft fingertips, like she was doing before she drifted off, saying nothing but saying everything with her tiny gestures.
"What's going on in the pretty little head of yours love?" I asked.
She stopped tracing and stared up at me looking into my eyes with her kindly eager ones.
"I just want to know you better," she spoke softly.
I looked down to where her fingers still lingered on my bicep hovered over my tattoo of Gemma's name.
"I got that tattoo right for my sister, before I left England to pursue my dream, hoping to take a little bit of home with me wherever I go."
"What's she like? Gemma." She asked with so much curiosity behind her voice.
I could see it in her eyes how much the tiny details about me meant to her, but she was still searching for more. Eventually I found myself telling her all about Gem.
"My sister is my rock, she has been there for me through it all good and bad; the thick and the thin. She has always been my reminder of home, of who I am, 'Harry from Cheshire.' So I got her name as a permanent reminder and testament of what she means to me, I'm not really sure why in Hebrew. Maybe it's because only I know what it says and so it's like my hidden gem."
Little did she know she was becoming one of my hidden gems, someone I wasn't quite ready to share with the world. In such little time she has become a fixture in my life, she means alot to me and I find myself consumed by her daily.
To be honest that scares me how vulnerable I am when she is around and even when she isn't around, but I think I'm okay with it as long she is with me wherever I go because...
She brings me home.
Oaklands POV
He was being so open and it was a foreign feeling to me, Lucca was never vulnerable with me and never let me be vulnerable with him.
He thought it was for the weak.
He could have never been so wrong, vulnerability was such a beautiful thing.
There's no one else I would rather be so raw and vulnerable with. Harry is.. well he is perfect in every way possible.
"H, as much as I am enjoying this, just us here, I need to get going." I fessed up. "I have a family dinner to attend," I said with a tinge of annoyance behind my voice, not quite ready to leave this moment dancing in my head.
"Okay, Love, let's get going then," he said but not before letting out a sigh.
We walked to the car just as the sun was beginning to set, the sky painted of pinks, purples, and oranges. Once we got in, he handed me his phone without me asking, which had slowly just turned into an automatic response of his. I scrolled through his Spotify as we drove off, and quickly noticed something that made my heart leap into my throat.
A playlist titled "for O."
"What's this?" I asked, pointing to his phone. He glanced his eyes in the direction, before reverting back to the road.
"Oh... um, those songs remind me of you." he timidly said. The butterflies growing in my stomach grew ten times bigger at his words. I scrolled through the playlist, recognizing some songs, remembering that I had played them for him throughout the week. I also saw some that I didn't know, so I hit shuffle, and Big Jet Plane by Angus & Julia Stone.
He started singing the words, and reached over to grab my hand.
"I wanna hold her,
I wanna kiss her,
She smelled of daisies,
She smelled of daisies,
She drive me crazy,
She drive me crazy"
With the windows down, and the top off of the car, the wind blew my hair all around, but I didn't have a care in the world. I let my other hand dangle out of the window, creating a waved motion with my fingertips as the song painted a picture of perfection in my head. I shut my eyes, a smile creeping up on my lips. Harry sang to me, noticeably becoming louder when a line referred to me.
We pulled up to the house, the drive being shorter than I wished it had been, as I was absolutely dreading this family dinner.
"Goodbye Harry, thank you for this. I really needed it," I said, giving him a kiss on his cheek and shutting the door.
As I was walking onto the front porch, I heard his door shut.
"Oakland wait!" he yelled, running to catch up to me.
He took my arm and turned me , grabbing my face and kissing me, it wasn't a hard lustful kiss but a sweet, romantic gesture. Kissing him back and not wanting this to end ever.
He pulled away looked me in the eyes
"No, thank you angel," he said with so much intent behind his voice.
"Goodnight H," I said trying to catch my breath feeling like my heart was beating out of my chest.
I turned around and entered my house with the biggest smile on my face. Knowing nothing, not even this dinner could affect my mood.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!
My friend helped me write this one so S/O to her:)
Sending all my love <3<3<3