A/N: Hi hi hi! Fun fact: I cut out a good 1500-word chunk from this chapter because it turned out to be almost 6000 words long lmao. I cut it so it went down to about 4400 words instead. I've kept the chunk I cut out to save it for another chapter or something though 😚 enjoy!
The next few months passed by quietly. After I dismissed Heath that night, I didn't hear from him again.
I was surprised, to be honest. I was fully preparing myself for him to try and start some shit, but he never did. In fact, a couple of weeks after our altercation at the house, I got a call from the same courthouse that granted Heath his supervised visitation rights. They told me that Heath no longer expressed an interest in seeing Piper, that I still retain full custody, and that I'm no longer obligated to allow supervised visits between him and Piper. And...that was it.
Did I want to believe Heath was completely out of our lives? Absolutely.
Did I actually believe it? I don't know yet. It's hard to tell with him. But at least he's out of our lives for now...and that's good enough for me. For the time being.
As for us, we were thriving. Extremely tired, but thriving.
The time's just flown by. Aria was about to turn four months old – and she's looking more and more beautiful every single day. Piper came up with a nickname for her – 'Ari' – and we loved it so much that it's stuck around until now.
Piper turned six years old two months ago and will be starting Year 2 at school in September. She is absolutely flourishing at school and getting smarter and smarter every single day.
She has noticeably been much happier since I told her she doesn't have to visit Heath anymore. I mean, she was always a bubbly girl, but it's almost to a whole new level with Heath out of the picture. I honestly didn't realize how much her visits with him were bringing her down. God only knows how long she had been feeling that way...but I'm so glad she doesn't have to put up with it anymore.
Harry was an amazing dad and was getting better at taking care of Aria every day. When we first brought her home, I knew he was nervous. And I didn't blame him – he's never had to take care of a baby 24/7 – and I could tell that at times he felt completely lost on how to look after our baby girl. But he picked up on it so easily, and now he's doing an incredible job. And not just that, but he always tries his best to balance his time between Aria and Piper so that Piper doesn't feel lonely – especially since I still had my hands full with Aria a lot of the time.
Aria is super attached to me at the moment, but she loves her father so, so much. She instantly smiles whenever he enters the room. She's also started smiling whenever Piper walks by – beginning to recognize that Piper is her big sister and part of the family as well. And whenever Piper sees Aria smiling at her, it absolutely makes her day.
But even though these past few months have been amazing, they've also been so busy...and both Harry and I were starting to feel really tired and run-down. And I was expecting that – I mean, I've been here before; taking care of a young infant is so taxing and so demanding. We were both exhausted, and the intimacy in our relationship had taken a serious plunge. I don't even think we've actually had sex at all since Aria was brought home.
We've tried to make it work...but it's been so difficult with Aria staying in the very same room, that I honestly think we just gave up. And it's not like Harry's been complaining about a lack of sex, but...I don't know if it was still my hormones being imbalanced, because I'm really struggling with it.
But I don't openly complain either, because again – Harry is amazing and doing his best to be a good dad. He was doing more than I could ever ask for, and I loved him so much for it. But I missed his touch, his embrace, and the way he made love to me. And I missed it so fucking much.
But I suppose, in a way, it's for the best. I'm not exactly feeling super confident about the way my body looked right now.
One of the things I really struggled with after I gave birth to Piper was how drastically my body had changed. The extra belly I got, the weight gain and the stretch marks came as a huge shock to me. I was so proud of my body before I became pregnant, and I was absolutely devastated. But as I got older and more mature, I started caring about it less and less – and my body slowly returned (reasonably) back to normal in its own time.
I knew the same thing was going to happen here. But that didn't mean it still didn't upset me to look at myself. I don't care as much as I did the first time around...but I'm not exactly pleased about it, either.
That night, as I got ready for bed and got out of the clothes I'd been wearing for the day, I found my eyes drifting towards the full-body mirror hanging on our bedroom wall. Before I could even stop myself, I went over and stood right in front of the mirror while I still had my bra and underwear on and ended up taking a long look at myself.
And there it all was. The remaining belly fat, cellulite on my thighs...sagging breasts swollen with milk. I didn't have as many stretch marks as I did the first time, but the stretch marks that I got were still very dark and very obvious against my pale skin.
I lowered my eyes and let out a sigh.
"Fuck..." I muttered to myself, "why does it all suddenly seem so much worse..?"
"What are you up to, love?" Harry walked in from the en suite and saw me staring at myself, "Are you okay?"
I sighed again. "Not really."
"What's wrong?" Harry came up behind me as I stared into the mirror and draped his arms around my waist.
"Just look at me," I frowned at my reflection, "all this...it's gonna take so long to go away..."
"All of what?"
"This," I gestured to my own body, "all the stretch marks, all the cellulite, all the...flab," I shook my head, "it's all so...gross!"
I guess my hormones were definitely still out of whack...because as I spoke, my voice was breaking, and I could feel tears starting to trickle down my face.
"Hey, it's okay, love," Harry told me gently as he kissed the side of my head, "stop it. You still look the same to me."
"I do not look the same!" I argued immediately.
"Well, let's see..." Harry looked back towards the mirror, "in this mirror, I can see the love of my life – looking as beautiful as she always has, since the first day I met her," he smiled at me through our reflections, "so, yes – you still look the same."
My tense body instantly softened at his words, and I could feel a small smile starting to spread across my face.
"Do you really mean that?" I tilted my head to look up at him as he continued to cuddle me from behind.
"Of course," he smiled back at me as he turned my body around and away from the mirror, "the way your body looks now...those are your battle wounds. You went through an 8-month battle to bring our baby girl into the world, and you did it perfectly. So, wear them with pride – not with shame," he warmly touched his forehead to mine, "because all wounds heal. Even this will. Just give it time."
My face felt warm as a gentle blush began to spread through my cheeks – and I felt my smile grow.
"Thank you, Harry," my voice was soft, "that means a lot."
"You know..." Harry began to smirk a little as he started to slowly run his fingers through my hair, "if you want, I can remind you just how gorgeous I think you are, love."
Before I could even respond, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine – kissing me longingly and taking me by surprise at first. But I slowly began to close my eyes, and I moaned softly against his lips as I relished the tenderness of his kiss.
Harry pulled me closer to him, and I felt his strong hands slowly and lovingly sliding down my body. He then looked up and smirked at me before he dipped his head and started teasingly kissing down my neck. I shuddered in anticipation as I felt his hands reach my ass and start to gently squeeze it.
"Harry..." his name left my lips in a pleasured whisper – my head rolling back and my teeth coming out to bite my bottom lip as I felt his grip on my ass slowly tightening.
I felt his fingers tracing down the middle of my bum and edging closer and closer to my entrance. He pressed his fingertips against me from behind, and my breath hitched since I could feel his touch so well through the thin cloth of my panties. I was already melting like butter from what he was doing to me.
"Come to bed, darling," Harry murmured against my skin, "I'm already getting hard just thinking about what I wanna do to you..."
I didn't even need asking twice and was more than ready to strip naked, spread my legs and let him do whatever the fuck he wanted to me. But before I could even do anything else, we were suddenly interrupted.
Aria's loud cries instantly pierced through the sensual silence of the room and startled us both. We turned our heads towards her cot to see her wide awake; her little arms flailing and her legs kicking as she wailed. Harry and I exchanged looks and let out long sighs before we shrugged and tiredly smiled at each other.
Jesus Christ. She was only four months old and she already had a massive pair of lungs in her. But I suppose that's not really surprising...considering her father is one of the greatest singers in the world.
"I've got it," Harry's weary smile didn't fade even as he let out another soft sigh, "you're still getting ready for bed."
"Are you sure?" I asked him.
"Of course," he kissed my forehead, "she probably needs a bottle. I'll get on it."
"Thank you, Harry," I smiled back at him thankfully.
"Well, can't exactly leave her like that, can we?" Harry chuckled before he made his way to Aria and glanced into her cot – his smile tenderly growing, "What's going on, beautiful? Are you hungry?"
As I pulled a fresh nightgown out of my drawer, Aria's crying abruptly stopped – causing me to turn back toward the cot with wide eyes since I had no idea how Harry had even managed to stop her from crying so fast.
"Her dummy fell out of her mouth," Harry rolled his eyes and chuckled as he leaned his elbows on the top of Aria's cot, "I put it back in and she went back to sleep straight away. What a Drama Queen."
I had to laugh. "Well, where do you think she gets that from, honey?"
"Excuse me?" Harry rose an eyebrow at me, "I am not dramatic!"
"You are definitely dramatic," I corrected him with a grin.
"Oh shut up," Harry rolled his eyes again which made me laugh once more.
I removed my bra and threw my nightgown over my head, and I suddenly felt Harry take me in his arms and pull me towards him once more.
"Anyway," He began to smile at me, "where were we?"
I smiled back. "How about you throw me on this bed right now, and we'll see what picks up from there?"
"With pleasure," Harry grabbed my waist and prepared to lift me – but the door to our bedroom suddenly flew open which made both of us jump.
"Mummy!" Piper entered the room in her pyjamas holding her homework book in her hands, "Daddy! I need help!"
"Piper!" Harry stifled a groan and wearily pushed his hair out of his eyes, "Piper, why aren't you in bed?"
"I forgot to do my homework," she replied guiltily.
"You what?" Harry's eyes widened before he slapped his forehead and let out a long sigh, "Piper..."
"I'm trying to do it now!" She said quickly, "I've been trying to do it for like, three hours."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Love, we put you to bed one hour ago. Not three hours ago."
"Well, it feels like three hours because it's too hard," Piper grumbled.
"What's your homework about, snug-bug?" I asked her.
"All the famous buildings around the world, and stuff like that," Piper opened her homework book and showed us, "I'm supposed to name all the buildings without using Google, but I don't know any of them!"
I cocked my eyebrow at her. "Piper, why would they give you homework and tell you to not use Google if you weren't taught about it in school first?"
Piper blushed. "They did teach us...but I didn't understand."
"Why didn't you ask your teacher?"
"She was too busy helping the other kids!"
"Piper, if you need help, you have to ask for it," I put one of my hands on my hip, "she has a whole class to teach. She'll try her best to help, but sometimes you need to just ask her."
Piper sighed. "I'm sorry, mummy. Can you please help me with my homework? I promise I won't forget again."
"All the famous buildings around the world?" Harry spoke up again, "So, like the Eiffel Tower and stuff?"
"Yes!" Piper nodded and smiled, "I think so!"
"Well, lucky for you sweetheart, I'm pretty sure I've seen them all," Harry told her, "come on, then. Let's go do your homework."
Piper's face lit up. "Really, daddy?"
Harry nodded and smiled. "Go back to your room. I'll meet you there in a minute."
"Okay!" Piper nodded back and ran out of the room, down the hall, and back to her own bedroom.
"Are you sure you don't want me to go help her, Harry?" I asked him once Piper was gone.
"It's alright, Leah. With how much I've travelled, it'd be a bit stupid of me to not help her out with this one," Harry took me by the waist and kissed my cheek, "hopefully I won't be too long."
"Okay," I smiled at him as he pulled away, "Harry, you're amazing. I hope you know that."
"I know," he winked at me as he made his way towards the door, "what would you do without me?"
"Probably wither up and die," I replied with a shrug.
Harry laughed. "Sounds about right, love," he smiled back at me as he began to close the door behind him, "I'll be back soon."
Once he was gone, I let out a long sigh and resignedly rubbed my eyes as I fell back on me and Harry's bed.
I was honestly feeling pretty dejected. It really seemed like Harry and I were never able to spend some quality time together. I mean, I love our babies to death...but is it so wrong to wish for some alone time with your partner?
With Heath making himself scarce from the picture the first time around, I never had to worry about this type of thing. But now I can see why so many couples really struggle with intimacy after a baby's born. And if you put another kid on top of that, well...at this rate, it really looks like you need to say goodbye to privacy forever.
I mean...there's gotta be a way, right? Because fuck...I'm really starting to miss Harry so, so much.
***
Sofia the First – Piper's new favourite show – was playing on Netflix in the background, but Piper wasn't really paying attention. Instead, she was sitting down with Aria – who was having some tummy time underneath her baby gym and trying to eat all the toys that were dangling from the top. Piper was holding one of the old neck scarves Harry used to wear – which he donated to Aria after she showed an interest in it – and using it to play peek-a-boo with her.
"Ari! Where are you?" Piper called to her sister as she held the scarf over her face, "Peek-a-boo!"
A bright smile spread across Aria's face as Piper pulled the scarf away – and then began to giggle as Piper glided the scarf over the top of Aria's head and eyes.
"Peek-a-boo!" Piper snatched the scarf away from Aria's head – and she immediately burst into laughter.
Piper was such an amazing and loving big sister. I was initially worried that she might get jealous of Aria since she was taking up so much of our time and attention, but she's been so understanding about the whole thing. Plus, thanks to Harry doing his best to balance his time between the two of them, Piper was perfectly happy. And I could tell that she loved her little sister with every fibre of her being.
I was enjoying watching them together, but I jumped at the sound of my phone loudly ringing and vibrating where it sat on the opposite arm of the sofa.
"Ughh...I can't be bothered getting that," I half-heartedly attempted to reach across Harry's body to reach my phone but quickly gave up, "Harry, you're closer. Who is it?"
Harry reached over and picked up my phone before glancing at the phone screen.
"Looks like it's Ashley," he replied before handing it to me.
"Oh, okay! I'll answer it then," I said with a chuckle as I took my phone and answered the call, "Hello?"
"Hey, girl! How are you doing?" Ashley's cheerful voice responded, "How're the kids?"
"We're all good here," I replied with a smile, "are you still putting up with my brother?"
Ashley laughed. "Leah, I'm never letting him go."
"I know. You better not, or you'll break his heart," I told her with a chuckle, "What can I do for you, gorgeous?"
"Weeellll..." she began slowly, "you know how it's like, my birthday next weekend?"
"I do."
"Aaand...you know how you and I never really partied hard anymore after Piper was born? Not that I minded, of course."
"Yeah?"
"Well, I kinda just realized that, er...I don't really need to be so tame about my birthday anymore after I got replaced by your husband."
"My what?" Her words caught me off-guard.
"Oh come on, Leah. He basically is," I could tell she was smirking, "anyway, long story short, I miss partying. And most of all, I miss partying with you."
"Oh, do you?" I chuckled again, "I don't know if I'll be as much fun as I used to be, Ash."
"Fuck off, of course you will be! I know your inner party animal is still in there somewhere. She's just been taken over by mama bear for the past six years."
"Six years is a very long time, Ashley," I told her.
"I know. So let's bring her out again, just for one night," she replied, "I wanna go to Jungle, and I wanna get plastered."
"Oh, dear God..." I took a deep breath, "Jungle? Why Jungle?"
"Because it was our favourite club!" Ashley insisted, "Remember that bouncer who always let us in even though he knew our IDs were fake? There's so many good memories from that place!"
"I don't know, Ash..." I bit my lip, "I mean, I don't mind driving out to you...but if we go, there's the matter of babysitting, and since we're almost two hours from you, we'd probably have to stay overnight in Worthing somewhere..."
"Stay at ours if you want!" she suggested, "Since Aidan & I got together, your old room is empty. We use it as a spare. You're more than welcome to stay with us."
"Won't anyone else need the room?"
"What do you mean 'anyone else'?" Ashley scoffed, "Leah, nobody else is doing this with me aside from your brother. I don't have any other friends aside from you."
"Aw, Ash...that's not true. Harry's your friend," I told her with a smile.
"True...and I suppose having him for a friend is a much bigger flex than having a massive circle of friends," Ashley chuckled, "speaking of, Harry's more than welcome to come too. 'Cause I'm not gonna lie...getting drunk with Harry Styles sounds sick as fuck."
I laughed. "Alright, Ashley. We'll talk about it. Can I get back to you?"
"Of course! It's not 'til next weekend anyway. But...just promise me to really think about it, okay? I really wanna do this with you, Leah."
"I promise," I answered her truthfully, "I'll get back to you soon."
***
"What was that phone call with Ashley about?" Harry asked me as we got ready for bed that night.
"Well, it's her birthday next weekend," I began to explain, "and she pretty much wants to make up for all those years she lost for partying while we took care of Piper. So, she wants to hit up the old nightclub we used to go to all the time back in Worthing and get pissed."
"Jesus, really?" Harry started laughing, "Shit. Don't think I ever expected that from Ashley."
"Oh, she was a real party girl back when we were in high school. And to be honest...so was I, before Piper was born..." I bit my lip, "we like, had fake IDs and everything."
"No fucking way," Harry's jaw dropped, "you? My sensible, wholesome, perfect mother of my children? With a fake ID?"
"Mhmm," I nodded and giggled, "Believe it or not."
"Did it work?"
"Kinda...there was this one bouncer who clearly knew they were fake, but he'd let us in anyway," I said with a shrug, "he didn't really give a fuck. It was great. That's why it was our favourite nightclub."
Harry shook his head in disbelief. "Sometimes I forget that there's still much I don't know about what you were like back then."
"Well, that's not your fault – I usually refuse to talk about it," I let out a sigh, "I don't know...Ashley really wants me to come, and I do want to celebrate with her, but...me? Getting hammered? It almost feels like a foreign thought these days..."
"Why?" Harry asked me, "Why shouldn't you go out and have fun?"
"I'm a mother," I rubbed my upper arm, "it doesn't feel right to leave the kids behind just to go out and get drunk."
"I can look after the girls," Harry told me with a smile, "you don't have to worry about that."
I smiled back at him. "Ashley invited you too, Harry."
Harry's eyebrows rose. "Oh, did she?"
"Of course she did," I rolled my eyes and chuckled, "why wouldn't she?"
At my words, Harry began to smile again. "Well...to be honest, my point still stands. I rephrase my question: why shouldn't we go out and have fun? I mean...since Aria was born...when was the last time we went out and did something together?"
"I...don't think we ever did," I lowered my eyes and sighed.
"Exactly," Harry took me by the waist and pulled me closer to him, "look, Leah, don't get me wrong – these past four months have been...beautiful. I love Aria and Piper more than anything, and I've loved dedicating myself to them, and being their father."
"I know, Harry," I told him with a soft smile.
"But just...hear me out," he continued, "Leah...I know you've been feeling it, too. We've barely been able to spend any time together lately. Like, quality time. As much I love the girls...these days I find myself wishing for even just one night to be alone with you," he looked me right in the eyes, "Leah...I miss you. I miss us."
"Aw, Harry..." I rested my forehead against his chest and sighed, "I know, honey. I feel the same. I miss our alone time together so much," I then began to chuckle softly, "this is definitely the longest we've ever gone without having sex..."
"Nearly four months? Oh yeah. By far. And it's killing me," Harry admitted before chuckling as well.
"But still...even if we go, we'll be going for Ashley," I reminded him, "we can't just agree to celebrate with her and then ditch her to be alone."
"Well...I have an idea," Harry said, "have you sorted out where we're going to stay while we're down there, yet?"
"Not really. Ashley did say we could stay in my old room back at our old place, though."
"Yeah...let's not do that," he began to smile at me, "may I suggest something else?"
I nodded.
"My apartment. Back in Worthing. Let's stay there," Harry's smile grew, "I'll talk to my mum and Gemma about looking after the girls for a couple of days, and we'll leave on the morning of Ashley's birthday. Then we'll spend the day together doing whatever, go party with Ashley, come back, and be alone for the rest of the night..." he began to teasingly move his lips closer to mine, "just us, darling..."
My breath hitched as he smirked at me and tightened his grip around my waist.
Oh my God.
That sounds fucking amazing...
"Are you sure Anne and Gemma would be okay with that..?" I asked him anxiously.
"Of course. Come on, Leah – they're literally obsessed with Piper and Aria," Harry chuckled, "and I know for a fact that mum especially, would leap at any opportunity to spend time with them."
I had to laugh. "Yeah. You're not wrong."
"So...what d'you say, love?" Harry asked me hopefully, "can we...take a break? Focus on you and me for a night? And I promise – we can head back whenever you want to the day after."
Okay, I'm sorry, but...a weekend alone with the man I loved and desperately wanted to spend more time with? There was no way I could say no.
I'm sure Aria and Piper will be fine.
It's not even gonna be a whole weekend...
"Sounds good to me, honey," I smiled at him, "I'd love to."
Harry's face immediately lit up. "Really?"
As a response, I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him sweetly.
"I miss you too," I told him as I pulled away, "so much, Harry. Of course I want to do this."
Harry flashed me a bright smile and took me in his arms – hugging me tightly and lovingly kissing the top of my head.
"I love you so much, darling," he murmured into my hair, "I can't wait to spend more time with you."
A/N: Sorry for cockblocking you all. Twice. Loool
I promise I'm working up to writing smut again!! Just haven't done it in a while so I'm nervous because I don't want it to be shitty. Hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway 🥰