A/N: Heyyyyyy! No surprise, here's another cute chapter. If you're getting bored of soft stuff, I'm going to repeat that it's not going to get dramatic for a whileeee lol. I figure people like reading happy stuff :')
TW: sexual stuff??
I'm not good at tw's but yeah, this chapter contains VERY VERY VERY MINOR sexual content. Like, insanely minor but some people are uncomfortable with it so I thought I'd add a warning.
The song I attached is meant to be listened to while you read that specific scene, so I'll put a warning for when to listen to it!
Enjoy!
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I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing and it takes everything in me to move out of Harry's arms to reach my phone.
I get out of bed and walk into my bathroom to talk. "Hello?" I answer groggily.
Jeff speaks hurriedly, "Good morning, Delilah! Sorry if I woke you up, but I need you to come into the office. I just have some news about your job."
My heart starts beating faster and my face heats. "O-Okay. No problem, I'll be there soon." I stand in the bathroom for a few minutes before I will myself to walk back into my room.
When I do, Harry is up and he's stretching. Still without a shirt.
That's a sight I wouldn't mind waking up to every day.
I hear Harry laugh and I look up from his torso. "I second that statement, honeybee."
I feel my face heat uncomfortably and my eyes widen, "Did I say that out loud?"
He laughs again, "You did. Like some sort of stage-whisper. It's cute." He walks towards me with a smile and leans in, planting a kiss on my cheek. "Good morning."
He backs away and walks into the bathroom, leaving me standing in the same place, frozen.
When he comes back out, he's still smiling. It's unnerving, really. Who's that happy in the morning?
"I am."
I curse under my breath, realizing I did it again. I put my embarrassment aside and ask, "Why are you so happy?"
His response is the best one I could've asked for. "With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"
I smile widely at him, "I missed the Wilde quotes. Glad to have you back."
He laughs and checks his phone. "Oh, Jeff is asking me to come in to see him. Weird."
My smile drops and I feel my eyes widen. "Delilah?" I don't speak, the nerves taking over my body. "Honeybee, what's wrong?"
I come out of it when I hear the pet name, "Um," I croak out. "Jeff called me into the office. He said he has news about my job." I look up at him, concerned. "You don't think he's going to fire me, do you? I've done everything he's asked. Is it because I'm with you so much? Oh God, what am I going to do? I need this job! And I can't become a stripper to pay the bills, I don't have the body for that! Oh my-"
"Delilah!" Harry grabs my face in his hands and squishes my cheeks together. "You're going to be fine. He's not going to fire you. You're amazing at your job. And about that last part, I beg to differ. Now, let's get dressed, and we'll go together, alright?"
My cheeks heat but I nod at his words. "Right. Yes, okay. Let's do that."
Harry puts his shirt back on and I give him a spare toothbrush, so he goes in the bathroom while I get dressed.
When he comes out, we switch, and I go into the bathroom to finish getting ready. I'm lowly singing Back to Black, and when I'm done and turn to exit, Harry is leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on his face. "You have the most beautiful voice. I love hearing it. You should sing for me sometime."
I want to say no but I genuinely don't know what comes over me when I choke out, "Okay." He smiles widely and I correct myself. "But only if you do the same for me."
And well, fuck, I didn't expect him to agree.
I ignore the dread looming in my mind and remember what I had told myself a little while ago. Let the cards fall where they may, Delilah.
Instead of responding, I walk past him and grab my purse. I turn to him, "Should we drive separately?"
He looks confused, "Why?"
"Well, uh, if Jeff sees us arrive together, he might think-"
"If it makes you more comfortable, then we can drive separately. But I don't really care what Jeff would think." He shrugs. "Do you?"
I shake my head slowly, "No."
He gives a satisfied smile, "Great!" He turns and grabs his wallet off the desk. "Together, then?"
I nod, "Together."
†
We're walking into the office now and I can't stop shaking. Harry's keeping his hand on my lower back as we walk in, and it only slightly helps calm my nerves.
We ride the elevator and before I know it, we're standing in front of Jeff's office. I do my usual knock, and he glances up. "Hey! Oh, great you're both here! Take a seat, take a seat."
We both sit down tentatively and stare at Jeff until he speaks again, "So," He clasps his hands together. "I have news."
Harry and I both stare at him, waiting for him to continue. Jeff rolls his eyes at our lack of enthusiasm, "Okay, so I probably made it out to be way more dramatic than it actually is. This is just good news for me. I don't think you guys will actually care about it."
We continue to give him blank stares and he continues, "So, I'm going on vacation. For a month! I know, I know, I work so hard, I deserve this, blah blah. But," He emphasizes, "While I'm gone, Delilah, that means you're going to be taking on some more responsibility. Which brings us to him." He turns to face Harry, "You are that responsibility."
"Huh?" Harry and I speak at the same time.
"The work is basically just this week and then you have the next few weeks...off, I guess? I haven't worked out all the logistics, but this week is for meetings about Harry's tour. Nothing too big, to be honest, it's just one making sure the crew is set and another to make sure that the band is good to go. Harry has to be at those meetings and Delilah, I'm going to give you all the info you need to make sure everything runs smoothly. Oh, and then Harry has the London trip, of course. Sound good?"
My lips were parted, and I just nodded, Harry did the same. "Okay, great." Jeff hands me a stack of papers. "This is what you'll need to have at the meetings. I think there's one tomorrow and one on Thursday." Jeff clasps his hands together again, "Well, that's all. Just wanted to break the news in person. Later, kiddos." And he literally walks out with his briefcase.
Harry and I sit in silence before he speaks, "That was weird."
I look at him, "I know, right. What the hell?" We're both silent for a few seconds and I speak again, "What London trip was he talking about?"
Harry exhales, "Oh, um, the band and I usually do these little writing retreats and we picked London this time," He tells me.
"Oh. Okay. Well, this is way better than what I was expecting."
He releases a breathy laugh, "Yeah. We got out of bed for this?" He shakes his head and gets up, stopping at the door to wait for me.
We're in the elevator when Harry asks, "So... What do you want to do now?"
The elevator dings and the doors open. "You're not sick of me yet?"
He smiles at me, "I highly doubt that could ever be possible, Delilah."
No words escape my mouth at that so I just smile and finally say, "Could I take you to my spot? If you still want to see it."
He nods, "I want to see whatever you want to show me, honeybee. Always."
I smile as we climb in the car, "We're going to need our bathing suits, then." I tell him with a wide smile.
He just raises his eyebrows at me with a smile and pulls out of the spot.
†
Harry tells me he's going to stop at his house to grab what he needs before we go to mine and I was shaking in my seat for the entirety of the car ride for two reasons: 1. There were probably going to be people with cameras outside of his house and 2. I was going to see his house.
My nerves were justified.
Harry pulls up to his house and just as I thought, there were like ten photographers standing outside. I turn to him with nervous eyes and his eyes soften as he notices. "You can stay in here if you'd like. I'm not sure if you'd want your face plastered all over social media."
I think about it for a second but decide against it, "No, it's okay. I'll go in with you."
He nods and tells me to wait in the car as he walks around the front of the car, opening my door for me. As soon as it opens, I hear questions being shouted over the other. He guides me to his front door, his name being yelled and people asking who I am. It's terrifying.
I release a breath only when we're locked inside, and Harry rubs my lower back where his hand was resting as we walked.
He gives me a quick tour of his huge house, going up the stairs to his bedroom. He opens the door and walks in first and the only word I've said the entire time is, "Wow."
I let my eyes wander his room, "Your house is gorgeous. I feel like I'm inside Cate Blanchett." I tell him dreamily.
He barely turns over his shoulder and laughs, "Thank you? Make yourself comfortable, I'll grab my stuff quick." I sit on the corner of his bed, his extremely comfortable bed, and watch as he digs through his drawers.
Damn, I want to be rich.
"You're doing the stage-whisper thing, again." Harry sings with a laugh. He goes to change his shorts in the bathroom and quickly comes out. "I'm ready to go." He has a purse where he stuffed his towel into. Cute.
We get up and walk out, the same photographers from before, and more, surrounding his car.
Harry pushes us through them, opening my door and not moving until I'm locked inside, and he goes to his side to get in. He has a frown on his face as he turns the car on and reverses.
"Are you okay, Harry?"
He nods, "Yeah. Sorry about all that, it's really annoying."
I don't speak, I just place my hand over his on the gearshift as he drives to my apartment.
†
We're in my apartment now and Harry decided to wait in the living room while I changed in my room. I was looking through my bathing suits and couldn't decide which one to wear. I wanted one that showed off my body. I worked hard for it. But my self-esteem was screaming at me to cover everything up.
Luckily, I hear the front door open and close and Seb's voice chiming, "Oh, hey." Harry responds something I can't understand back and before I know it, Seb is bursting through my door. "Hey, why does Harry have a bathing su-"
"Seb, I need your help."
He looks down at the collection of bathing suits I've piled on my bed and looks back at me, "On it."
After ten minutes of arguing with Seb, he finally shoved one into my hands and shoved me into my bathroom to change. I didn't want to wear it, but he stood in front of the door and told me he wouldn't let me out until I put it on. Begrudgingly, I did and turned to look at myself in the mirror. Absolutely not.
Seb opens the door without warning and whistles, "Damn."
"Seb, I'm not wearing this." He stands firmly in front of the door.
"Yeah. You are. You look beautiful, so you should feel beautiful. This time, there's no way he's keeping his hands off of you."
Screw it.
I don't respond, instead I push past him and the insecurities to grab a t-shirt and shorts to put over, and slide on my sandals. I kiss him on the cheek goodbye and walk into the living room where Harry is waiting on his phone. He looks up when he hears my footsteps.
"Ready?"
†
I tell Harry to leave his car parked at my apartment and I'll drive since he doesn't know where we're going. He agrees and the drive is filled with honeybee, both from his lips and the speaker.
He looks beautiful as we drive with the windows down. His hair is flowing back and the sunglasses on his eyes make him look like a rockstar. Unfair.
We finally get to my spot and the outside of it doesn't give anything away. I park and tell Harry to follow me. It takes a bit of climbing, but we finally get to where I want to be. We take a turn into a pathway surrounded by rocks and as we climb down some stairs and it comes into view, I hear Harry gasp.
"This is...wow." I smile proudly at his shocked expression. He continues staring as we finish the last steps. "How did you find this?"
We make it to the platform before the water and I turn to him, "When I first moved here, I made it my mission to find a safe place. I had one back home, so I wanted something like that here. I hadn't found anything, so I had given up and decided to go for a hike. And that's when I came across this! Since it's hidden behind so many trees, nobody really knows about it. I come here to think if I need it or sometimes just to swim when I'm bored." I glance at the water before I look in his eyes. "I've never brought anyone here before." I tell him honestly.
After a moment of staring at me, Harry's lips are parted as he comes closer to me, and he wraps his arms around me, lifting me up slightly. His face is in my shoulder and I quickly wrap my arms around his neck. I feel his warm breath against my neck as I hear the waterfall behind us, "Thank you, Delilah. This is breathtaking. I love it."
My smile widens at his statement and we release our hold on each other. "Well, let's go in."
Harry lifts his shirt over his head quickly and I distract myself with my own clothes before I get caught staring at him again.
I slide my shorts down my legs hesitantly and tear my shirt over my head, placing them in my bag. When I look up, Harry's darkened eyes are sliding all over my body. "Jesus." He rasps out.
His eyes looked grateful and his reaction gave me a surge of confidence I'd never felt before.
I smiled timidly and walked closer to him. "What? Does it look bad?" I joked. I always joke when I'm nervous.
He shook his head quickly, "Nothing looks bad on you. You're absolutely beautiful." His eyes rake down my body again and the sincerity in his voice makes mine waver.
"Thank you. Um, you look good, too. Really good." And I do what I tried to stop myself from doing before, looking him up and down. I had to lick my lips.
I grab his hand before I could stare any longer and walk us into the cool water.
!PLAY THE SONG NOW!
We walk all the way in until the water is up to our chests and our feet can't feel the floor. We stare at each other with smiles on our faces, our hands waving in the water, keeping us afloat.
Harry speaks first. "What's your word for today?" I smile.
"Oscillate, to waver between different extremes. It's funny. I think that's the one I've related to the most." Harry nods at me to continue. "Since my parents passed away, I've always felt like I was drowning. I felt like I couldn't breathe and instead of trying to catch my breath, I'd sink myself deeper and deeper, as far down as I could take myself."
I look into Harry's eyes. "But now... Now, I think I'm oscillating. I feel like there's a chance for me to breathe and instead of letting myself drown, I actually want to come up for air. I'm still in between sometimes, but now I'm closer to floating than I've ever been before. I don't want to drown anymore." I pause. "And it's because of you, Harry."
His eyes are light as he blinks at me and he runs a wet hand through his short hair. He moves closer to me, and under the water I feel his hands snake around my waist, causing my legs to wrap around him.
I place my arms around his neck and it's a couple of seconds before he speaks. "I think I want to drown." I go to open my mouth, but he speaks again. "In a good way."
He glances down at the water before meeting my eyes again. "Looking into your eyes is like looking into a pool of my happiest memories. And I could swim in it forever. I'd drown in it if you'd let me."
"I-" I start to speak but then he's leaning in and I feel his warm breath ghost over my lips. I have to shut my eyes because if I look into his any longer, I may pass out.
And then he's kissing me. It was slow at first, the kiss as sweet as he is, lips brushing, but then my body caught up with my mind and my hands moved from his neck to his hair, tugging softly. His grip around my waist tightened and our chests were flush against each other.
I couldn't help but moan into the kiss, his lips so soft yet so rough against mine. I feel his tongue swipe my lower lips and I meet it with my own as he lets out a soft groan.
Okay, maybe I was wrong. I definitely wouldn't mind drowning right now. What a way to go.
I pulled his lower lip slightly before releasing it and connecting our mouths again. He groaned again as our lips molded against each other's and I had to pull back to catch a breath.
His forehead was on mine and the only sound heard was our breaths mixing. "I've been wanting to do that since you used a pick-up line from Friends on me."
I laughed at the memory, dipping back in and pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. His smile grows at that. His grip on me loosened and it was only then that I realized the strong grip I still had on his hair, "Oh, sorry!"
"Oh, don't apologize for that, honeybee. I quite liked it." I only blush at his words and move away from him to splash him with water.
We stay swimming for a few more hours, going under the waterfall, and then we sit on the rocks, drying up. "We've known each other almost a month, right?" Harry nods. "Do you think it's...weird? To feel this way about someone after knowing them for so little time?"
He shakes his head and scoots closer to me. "No. I think when you feel like this, all that matters is you and the other person. How long you've known each other doesn't matter. At least to me, it doesn't." He turns his head to me, "Does it matter to you?"
"No," I shake my head and give him a small smile. "I feel like I've known you forever."
He bends down, leaning in, and we're kissing again. God, I could do this forever. This kiss was a lot slower than before and his lips were gentle against mine, his hand softly cupping my jaw. He pulls back about an inch, "You taste like strawberries."
I smile but scoff, "What is it with you quoting your own songs!"
He lets out a laugh, "Shut up." And he pulls my lips back to his.
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Song: Adorn by Miguel.
A/N: THEY KISSEDDDDDDDDD
I hope the build-up to it was okay cuz I thought it was super cute. Again, this may seem quick but their connection is unlike anything they've ever felt before and so, they're exploring it!
I want to take this time to say something. You are beautiful. I don't care what shape or size you are, you are beautiful.
Delilah is not a size 0. I want to make that clear. She has stomach fat, and stretch marks, and thighs as thick as tree trunks (alliterationnn). And she has cellulite!
Because you know what? That's NORMAL! It's perfectly okay! It's more than okay. There is no correct way to look. The way you are is absolutely beautiful. It took me a long time to accept that I'm beautiful, even if I'm not a size 0.
And if you are a size 0? YOU'RE STILL BEAUTIFUL!
EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL!
Okay, I hope you liked it, please let me know what you thought!
Love yaaaaa!
-J :)