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HARRY'S POV
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"We'll jump in together, okay?" I promise Belle with a squeeze of my pinky around hers.
"I'm not really supposed to be jumping, Bunny. I am carrying a small child you know."
"Okay, then we can sit down and slide in together," I tell her with a reassuring grin, sun beaming down on my fluffy curls and heating up the dark blue beads around my neck. The crystal clear water before us shines brightly, rays glinting off the aqua surface and reflecting blindingly in our eyes.
Her golden iris's look back at me nervously, tan skin appearing to glow beneath the white one-piece that covers her torso, baby bump stretching the fabric.
Softening my smiling cheeks, I take my pinky away from her's and use my now free right hand to grip onto her inner right shoulder, giving the skin a few light squeezes while the pearlescent beads around her neck dig into my skin. Six little letters in the middle of the necklace spell out the name of my next single, Golden, which couldn't be more perfect seeing as it's one of my favorites on the album and probably my favorite thing I've ever written about my golden girl.
The necklace was made for me to wear in the music video, but I haven't been able to think much about it considering I have so much on my plate right now as it is with the North American leg of the tour imminent, Little Granger on the way in three months, and lots and lots of reunion plans.
Among other things...
Besides, the necklace looks better on Belle anyway, and the song doesn't drop as a single until late October, so I have plenty of time to figure it out.
What needs my attention right now is my golden girl and the new song the lads and I have been secretly writing.
Georgia Rose knows the reunion is coming. In fact, she is one of the very few people that does. She just doesn't know the full extent of it.
My own mum doesn't even know, because that is how secretive we have to be in fear that even the smallest hint will get out, so this is just another thing for her to get angry with me for since I can't tell her.
I'm starting to wonder what the point is of not telling my family thanks to how many accidental hints Niall's girlfriend keeps dropping.
He thinks we can't all tell that he's head over heels in love with Ashe, but we've all seen it for a while now.
"Let's do it, c'mon," Belle speaks out, voice roaring to life as she hypes herself up in preparation to leap into the cold water that just moments before we tested with the very tips of our toes. She crouches down and pulls me with her, the harsh rock we stand on beginning to dig into the bottoms of my feet as I bend down, Belle completely sitting on her perky ass next to me.
A hiss leaves her lips as the warm tan of the skin on her calves submerges in the cool water that contrasts with the hot Italian summer around us. Sunny eyes turn to me expectantly, wind blowing a few strands of dark hair into her freckled face.
"You think I'm just gonna freeze my ass off by myself?" She questions accusingly with slightly widened pupils, my gaze glued to how perfectly moist her coral colored lips appear against her skin that gleams with a mixture of sunscreen and perspiration. Her delicately small hands reach out and wrap around my ankle in a playful attempt to pull me out from under myself, the entirety of both hands needed to cover the circumference whereas only one of mine would engulf her ankle entirely. "Don't be shy, stick your foot in. I promise it isn't as bad once you've been in a for a little bit."
"Then I guess that means you're ready to take a swim?" I ask her cheekily, voice raised and full of gravel as I shout at her.
"No!" Belle shrieks with a wide grin plastered across her face, making a swift move to scoot away from me, but my hands are already making a quick move to wrap around her waist from behind.
She squirms in my hold, screaming wildly before I eventually lightly shove her entire body into the transparent water, her hair spiraling upwards into a chocolate tornado as she sinks. The water ripples in intricate swirls at the spot in the surface her body broke, bubbles popping in her wake.
My own laughter is all that can be heard throughout the small grotto we have claimed as ours for the day, Belle's protesting shouts no longer piercing the silence around us.
Just as the surface of the water stills again, Georgia Rose breaks through it, shattering the calm like glass as droplets fly up into the air and land around me, some wetting my skin. She runs her hands through her hair to push it from her face, flattening the long mass back over her head before she brings her fingers to her makeup free eyes and rubs wildly to free the naturally thick lashes of the water that plagues them.
The simple look on her face is enough to have my stomach aching from the giggles that take hold of my entire body, however she is anything but amused, her cheeks only glowing an even brighter red, anger blaring like a siren at how much humor I'm finding in this.
When she swims forward, darting at me like a piranha, I leap back a bit, teeth biting harshly into my bottom lip to suppress more laughter that I know is the source of her ailments.
"Get in right now," Belle demands with a stern nod of her head, completely stilling except for her arms and legs that move rapidly to tread water. She has stopped in her pursuit forward to obviously try and pull me in without my consent like I did her, small smile forming on her lips, but there is still too much animosity in the swirling gold storm of her eyes to ease me.
"I don't know, Belle," I shrug, easily taunting her and taking pleasure in how easy it is to do. "Looks kind of cold, and it's really nice and warm up h- wow!"
She splashes a massive amount of water at me that I'm barely able to turn and dodge away from, the entire back bottom half of my body getting swathed in moisture. I pull my arms away from the protective position they instantly took around my head and turn to face her again, my knees starting to ache from the position I've held for the past few minutes, but the annoyed look in Belle's eyes is enough to make me forget.
Her beauty never ceases to amaze me, even now as she sulks, hiding beneath the completely still water of the grotto with only her nose and eyes above the water. Tiny droplets clump her lashes together while the wet sheen of her dark hair seems to add every effervescent color of the rainbow to the strands that the sun beams down on.
I can tell that she's up to something, and that is the very thing that spurs me to keep bothering her, because the thought of whatever she is about to do brings the best kind of fizzy feeling to my stomach.
Throwing my arms up, I shake my head teasingly as I let my incessant chuckling shake my chest. Referring to her failed attempt at splashing me, I shout like a triumphant primary school student, "You missed me!"
Her head cocks to the side almost arrogantly as she purrs, "Did I?"
Before I can even comprehend what she's doing, she lets out this outrageous battle cry before gripping one of my aching ankles and using all of her might to pull me into the freezing water along with her.
I'm quick to lose balance, falling forward aimlessly and just barely able to see out of my peripheral vision Belle swimming out of the way, her laughter ringing in my ears even as water rushes into them.
Water swirls up my nose and down my throat as the light waves rustle my hair, the entirety of my body sinking along with the growing stinging erupting through my open green eyes. I watch Belle's body paddle, her chin continuously sinking beneath the surface, wide open mouth making it obvious that she's only struggling so much to swim because of how hard she's laughing.
A few of my own chuckles pass through my smiling lips in the form of bubbles that rise to the surface, my feet kicking out beneath myself as I start to push up after them.
Breaking the surface, I take in a large gasp of air, flipping my hair about to get it out of my face. Water flies from the ends of the strands in all different directions, Belle cowering as a few hit against her chest and run down the valley of her breasts that are covered in small chill bumps, each slowly beginning to dissipate as she truly becomes acclimated to the crystal clear water's temperature.
"Oh, you're asking for it!" I growl playfully at her, immediately swimming after my golden girl as she screams and splashes water back at me.
Even I start to run out of breath after several minutes of splashing each other and me trying but failing to catch her. Eventually, I corner her so that her back hits against one of the many rocks, our feet resting atop one just like it below the surface which signifies we've made it back to the shallow end.
"Easy, darling," I softly say to Belle, one hand moving to rest on her hip while the other rests on the side of her belly. A warm smile overtakes the moist skin of my cheeks as I rub her bump through the wet material of her bathing suit. "Don't want you overextending yourself with Little Granger, okay?"
"I know, I know," she giggles lightly as she takes in small gasps of warm summer air. Her shaking shoulders cave in as she leans forward and rests her soaking wet head on my chest just between the two swallows that reside there, nimble fingers dancing up to either one of my shoulders where she decides to rest them.
I struggle to keep myself from gasping at how serene she looks all of sudden, a rosy tinge permanently forming on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose that will most definitely turn into a small sun burn. Every muscle in her face seems to be perfectly relaxed minus the small, almost unnoticeable grin on her lips, her slowly calming chest heaving against my own bringing about a similar expression to my own face. Her wet fingers struggle to stay still on my equally moist skin, my eyes crinkling when I notice how her pinky is still adorned with her rose ring.
She truly never does take it off, and the pressure to find something she will love just as much and never want to take off of her ring finger starts to sneakily creep in like similar thoughts have been doing for awhile now.
Whether Belle means to or not, her feet kick out from the rock behind her, pushing herself farther into me as she commands my body further out into the water, using my chest as her own personal raft. Watching her eyes flutter shut, I can't help but want to do the same, because her arms are my favorite place to be, but instead I purse my lips together and begin to whistle the melody that engraved itself into my thoughts a few nights ago.
At the new melodic sounds coming from my lips, Belle burrows her head farther into my bare chest if at all possible, a light sniffle coming from her as she makes herself more comfortable.
I whistle the same tune carelessly into the microphone as I think back to our time in the Amalfi Coast, a place we will soon call home, my voice echoing throughout the Scotiabank Arena to a massive crowd in Toronto. The energy is still high from the blast the fans and I just had belting What Makes You Beautiful til our throats were sore.
I reckon One Direction must have performed that song more times than I've taken a breath in all the twenty-six years I've been alive, but I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.
Each of us have kind of adopted a song from our time in the band as our own, Niall helming Fool's Gold, Louis and Little Black Dress, and Liam and whatever the hell he feels like singing as long as it isn't What Makes You Beautiful.
They all lost their right to that song the moment we were asked in an interview what song we would perform for the rest of our lives if we had to pick just one, and of course I said our first single to which I got three nasty looks from Niall, Louis, and Liam.
What Makes You Beautiful is my baby.
But it is going to have to take a backseat to Little Granger.
Speaking of Little Granger, tonight is the night that I will be announcing to the world that Belle is in fact having my baby.
My whistling ceases, the crowd going crazier than they should seeing as they probably think I am heading into a new song, but instead I'm heading into something completely different. The pale blue sequins of my blouse reflect against hopeful faces in the crowd, the lights just bright enough for me to make out distinct features of the people in the first couple rows.
I can't stop nervously fiddling with the massive bow tied around my neck, finally doing so when I glance over to the side of the stage and see Belle standing there, also messing with the blue fabric of her dress that bunches up atop her bump. My hands make several gestures towards her just to double check that she truly is okay with this, her brunette head nodding as she smiles reassuringly.
"Thank you, Toronto! This is the last song of the night!" I shout at the audience, waving both hands in the air as a goodbye, one of the stage lights glaring against my rings and reflecting into my eyes.
"The final song tonight is about having a baby..." I trail off as I pull the mic away from the stand and yank on the wire to freely pull it behind me as I strut down the length of the stage, Mitch shooting me a wink before I go. "My baby, and you all know how much I love babies. They're just so cute and cuddly."
A few confused faces catch my attention in the crowd which only makes me more antsy, so I stupidly start rubbing my stomach, scratchy fabric of my top rubbing harshly into my skin.
"This is me doing what I'd do if I was pregnant... which I'm not.
"But I know someone who is!" I joyously intone, watching hysteria begin to take its hold amongst the fans, wonder lighting up the different shades of brown, blue, and green within their eyes. As if the entire stadium didn't already have them out, every single human within the room now has a phone up in the air, flash shining brightly in my face as they prepare to catch video proof of everything I'm saying, too much joy radiating through me at how easily they hang on my every word.
"You see," I continue my long drawn out speech as I walk leisurely upstage towards Ny who stands with her hands clasped together in front of her. "There's this really annoying girl that I know- that we all know, and she's having a baby."
Sticking my microphone in Ny's face like a reporter with an absent expression, I try to hold my serious persona together without laughing at how she blinks rapidly in subtle surprise at my actions. "She's really annoying isn't she, Ny?" I ask her.
"Who?" My bandmate inquires with a light scratch of her head. "This pregnant girl that we know?"
"No, some other random pregnant woman who's different than the one I've just been talking about."
The crowd erupts with laughter as do Ny and myself before she answers with a shake of her head, "She keeps stealing all the snacks backstage."
Giving a dumb look to the audience, I point stupidly at Ny as if her answer was the rudest, most unbelievable thing before resting that hand on my hip and moving away from her towards Adam.
"What a rude thing to say about a pregnant woman!" I chastise my bandmate to which I hear her scream at me that I am technically the one who asked, however the crowd can barely hear her since the mic has been stolen from her along with my attention.
I ask Adam, Charlotte, and Sarah the same question to which Adam says something stupid about how this particular pregnant woman steals my attention away from rehearsals. Charlotte stutters over her words, every single cell in her body formed with too much kindness to really say anything mean about Belle so she politely refuses.
Sarah let me down worst of all by claiming that Belle is the nicest pregnant woman she has ever met without actually name dropping Belle, because I threatened all of them that if they blow my big moment for me then they're fired.
Not really, but it sounded real enough when I said it.
"Ahh, Mitchell!" I giddily call when I reach Mitch Rowland who stands hunched over with his hands cradling his guitar like usual. "My new favorite member of the band! You won't let me down will you?"
"Eh," he shrugs, face going red and eyes falling to the ground seeing as he hates any attention being placed on him. "Depends on how I'm feeling."
"How do you feel about this pregnant girl?" I decide to cut straight to the chase without picking on him since I'm running low on time and still have an entire song to perform. I can perfectly see Belle now from where she stays hidden in the darkness, arms crossed over her chest as she tries to shoot daggers at me with her eyes, but her smile gives her away, causing me to let a short laugh pass my lips before I focus on Mitch again.
"It's ridiculous that she's having a girl, yet she's wearing blue and so is the dad," Mitch deadpans with a light smirk threatening to turn his lips upward.
Sucking in a deep breath through my nose, I put a hand on his shoulder and confess, "This is true, but blue is one of my best colors, Mitchell."
You'd think something terrible just happened with the way the fans begin to scream, some going absolutely frantic as they turn to their friends in the audience and grip onto each other. I swear I even see a few crying which throws me off, but I'm hoping they are happy tears.
Mine where when I found out.
I now make my way back to center stage, the screams from the fans shattering my ear drums and making my hands shake a little as I click the microphone back into the mic stand, crossing one leg over the other and resting my knuckles low on my hips.
"I could go on all night talking about this woman, but we're running out of time, and the point of actually going to a concert is to hear live music not to hear me babble about my love life, but you've been a great crowd. You're great, I love you," I point to the audience who has finally quieted except for the few sole screams that linger.
"So I figured that you all would be the perfect crowd to make the announcement to that she is in fact having my baby, and it's all my business," I cockily say, my mouth struggling to stay in a serious set line, especially when I look over at Belle again and see how in awe she is of the crowd's reaction.
Simply looking at the way her golden eyes glisten even from where she stands in the darkness to the way her cherry lips hang open slightly, hands that rest on her belly falling to her sides limply. My golden girl has always struggled to grasp that she could get a reaction like this solely because people love her- that anyone could feel for her in the same way I do, but if she thinks this is a good reaction, I can't wait to watch her now...
"You all know the mother," I continue taunting the crowd, taking way too much joy in this situation, but I genuinely can't keep the butterflies in my stomach from going haywire at the thought of telling them that it's Belle. No one knows we have been back together for months now, and for a while, we wanted it to stay that way, but Little Granger is something I want to share with my fans, because they mean as much to me as Belle and the baby do.
I owe them for everything I have... I even owe them for bringing Belle into my life, because if they hadn't taken a liking that we didn't deserve to my band and our music, I never would have been on that London street that night.
I'm even more grateful for the fact that my fans have always embraced Belle with wide open arms in a way that everyone she graces with her presence seems to, yet my golden girl has such a stark humbleness that prevents her from ever accepting it.
"She's the girl almighty, she's the real life Georgia Rose, she's my golden girl which is the next single by the way. Golden," I spill, green eyes widening slightly as I look at Jeff who stands next to Belle with a very frustrated expression, head falling into his hands as he groans. "Sorry, couldn't keep that one in. She's the inspiration for just about everything I do actually.
"Treat people with kindness, yep that was her thing, and I stole it from her. She's been riding me about that-"
My gaze settles on the crowd now seeing as a large group of girls who stand huddled together dead center are giggling profusely. They catch my attention on them which only spurs them on to a more intense laughing fit.
"What's so funny?" I breathe out in false shock as I take the mic from the stand again and walk towards the end of the stage, some of my confidence coming back in the form of hands that are no longer trembling. "Did you think I was making an inappropriate joke? Who do you think I am? There's a baby present!" I tease the fans while struggling to keep my own composure, so I rub my stomach stupidly with the biggest grin on my face.
"And she's right over there-" I point to the dark corner where I know Belle is standing- more like hiding away, because I know how much she hates attention... maybe even more so than Mitch.
"-kicking around in her mum's belly! Besides, why would I ever make such a crude joke like that?" I ask the crowd incredulously, mostly focused on the group of girls in the middle. "This is a family show!"
"Or is it!" The crowd choruses back almost instantly as I move back to the mic stand and stick my microphone back into it.
"That never gets old," I mutter with a smirk. "Now, before I bid you goodbye for the night, I have something I need you all to do for me. I need you all to start suggesting baby names, because Belle's are terrible."
Just as I assumed, the name Darcy rings through the entire room to which I simply shake my head and flick my eyes over to Belle to see her rolling her's.
"No, no, no, she's already told me that one is off limits," I grumble with a light laugh as Adam starts to strum on his bass to signify the beginning of the interlude into Kiwi, Sarah's drums pounding in my chest. "Drive safe, get home safe, be safe, and be nice to each other! Thank you so much! You've been incredible tonight from this side all the way around to the back! Thank you for being such an amazing crowd for us to announce our pregnancy to, and thank you again for being here! This is the last song of the night! Here's Kiwi!"
There in the moment, I was reminded, I haven't felt this way in awhile.