Harry POV
"Carlos!"
I shouted out of nowhere. Carlos screamed some and jumped from his laying down position as he was probably just about to fall asleep. Brielle's been out and about doing her Queen stuff so I've spent most of the day in the dorm with Carlos as he pulled an all-nighter to finish a paper and is now trying to get caught up on sleep. I'm staying here willingly because I have to think,
"What?"
He groaned once he got his breath back. I looked up from my sketchbook once he saw spoke,
"I need help"
He groaned and slammed himself back down into the laying down position,
"With what?"
So here's my issue, Brielle's birthday is in a few weeks and I have absolutely no clue what to do. There's this whole party going down already because she's the Queen and all but I don't know what to get her,
"If ye had ta get something for a lass who has everything what would ya get her?"
Carlos thought for a few seconds before laughing some,
"Let me guess, is that girl Brielle?"
I nodded and sighed,
"What do ya get a lassie that has everything? Jewelry? Clothes? Trinkets or something? She has it all already, last year I did give her my ma's necklace. Obviously she likes it, she still wears it every day and such is lovely and warms my heart, but how am I supposed to repeat that success?"
Carlos groaned and shoved his face into his pillow,
"Just make her something. If she has everything you can get at a store then make something yourself"
"Well, what would that be? Last year it was my ma's necklace and she loves it, what could top that?"
Carlos tiredly swung his legs over the side of his bed and sat up again, his eyes seemingly fixating on my sketchbook for a second,
"Give her one of your sketches, she loves those"
I scoffed and looked back to my current work and did some light shading,
"One sketch? One single sketch is supposed to outdo what everyone else in the kingdom gets her? She gets presents from the entire kingdom, it needs to be something unique"
Carlos looked around my side of the room for a second or two, probably looking for ideas,
"Well if one sketch isn't enough why not give her that with maybe some sketch remakes of your favorite moments together? Like don't both of you have a copy of that picture?"
Carlos pointed to the one picture on my bedside table. It was a copy yes however in Auradon copying pictures basically duplicates it so it looks just like the original that Brielle has stored away somewhere. It is a cute picture for sure, it's the picture from our visit to the Isle. We're both sitting on the side of the bed we spent the night in whilst doing each other's eyeliner. I picked up the picture that was being held in a simplistic picture frame and smiled at it as I brought it into my lap, an idea striking my mind,
"What if I made her an entire book?"
I looked back at Carlos with a hopeful expression,
"An entire book of what?"
"Things like this, memories. Aha that's it!"
I closed my sketchbook and laid it to my side and put the picture frame carefully back in its place, my bedside table facing my bed so I could look at it whilst trying to fall asleep. I sprung up from bed and snatched my hook and hooked it onto my belt loop,
"I'll be right back"
I slid on some sneakers and threw the door open, I have a quick trip to make before we can get going on this, also known as I have a lot of supplies to gather before I get to making an entire book of memories.
*One Week Until Brielle's Birthday*
Alright, now I'm putting on the finishing touches on my gift to Brielle. I've been working on it since the day I thought of it. The worst part about it is that I've had to refrain from telling Brielle about it. I see her every day, I just wanna give this to her already and see her face when she realizes what it is.
I started out with a blank sketchbook I got new. The outside of it was emerald green, one of Brielle's favorite colors. I had painted an outline of a rose on the outside in gold paint, I'm rather proud of myself since painting isn't my preferred art medium but it does look rather nice if I do say so myself.
I've been sketching away as well, almost every page with a sketch of some sort in it. Now, what do the other pages have you ask? Well, on the other pages I've been putting together pictures of us and even sketching certain mementos in them like the Celtic knot necklace I gave her and the rose I gave her on our first date, even the bracelet she gave me made an entrance. I got another copy of the eyeliner picture for example and pasted that in there along with other pictures we've taken throughout the months. Many were ones at the beach or even just ones that we take of each other while we're across the table from each other and even pictures that have been taken of us. There are a lot of gems I can tell ya that, and I've been trying to collect every gem and mash it into this one sketchbook gone memory book. I'm also leaving tons of blank pages in the back for the future as hopefully, we'll one day have it full of years worth of memories instead of a single year.
That reminds me, Brielle's birthday is just after our actual anniversary which is only five days before so I have that too. But I have a plan for that one.
I'm going to recreate the day we had our first date. Yup, I'm going to dress the same, give her the same gift, take her to the same places at the same times, and of course as the final touch we'll watch the sunset together and of course, we all know what happened when we watched the sunset together that day.
We had our first kiss.
So for that, I will somehow have to refrain from kissing her until that moment and I will also sadly have to avoid her trying anything as well to seal the deal. I just really want to make it special, memorable just like our first date was. I remember the moment while we were watching the sunset like it was yesterday.
I remember looking at the ocean, thinking it was the most gorgeous view I had ever seen in my life, the next thing I knew my eyes drifted down and to my side where Brielle was standing as subconsciously, I had a different idea of the most gorgeous view and it was of course her.
I remember how that specific light her eyes sparked with gold, before that I always just took her eyes as being green with shimmering flecks in them. Now I look at the gold flecks like they're drops of sunlight ever so carefully placed to capture as much light as possible to entrance whoever locked eyes with her, or maybe that's just me... maybe I'm the only one that gets trapped by those little drops of sunlight in her eyes... like gold flakes in a sea of peridot gems... ah she's beautiful...
Anyway moving on, I remember how at that moment her eyes did look like pools of honey rather than the still rather striking peridot shade of green. I found myself wanting those eyes to drift from the ocean and up at me like mine had, for a few moments she continued to be still until she seemed to feel my gaze and turn my way. The gentle ocean breeze was just enough to push her hair from sitting on her shoulder, I didn't know what to do. I had never felt like that before as her eyes locked with mine so I just thanked her, knowing she'd take it as for doing her royal duties and bringing me to Auradon and such.
In reality, what even I didn't know back then was that I was thanking her for her specifically. Her presence and everything that she did and stood for, everything that she was, everything that she had done for me besides even bringing me to Auradon.
My thank you meant so much more than that.
After she kindly accepted my thank you, she and I didn't say a word. We just stared at each other for a second before I had a feeling in my chest, a jump of excitement if ya will. I remember taking her other hand and turning her towards me and the distance slowly closing between us. I casually glanced at her lips a few times, but the thing I saw before I closed my eyes were those sparkling eyes of hers.
Oh then the actual kiss, oh that was just absolutely amazing. The butterflies, the tingling, the feeling of bliss, the feeling of her alone was enough to get me hooked, that was if she hadn't already gotten me hooked by then which knowing me I probably was. Simply in denial of course, but I was probably a goner to cupids arrow a long time before that moment.
That's why I want to get our first anniversary really right, not to mention her birthday being right after. I can't miss a single beat, I refuse to miss a single beat. The more chances I get to show her how I feel about her and how much I love her the merrier, and I want every single time to be more meaningful than the last.
And now that I'm finally wrapping up her birthday gift, I think I actually did a nice job. It looks nice, it's at the quality that I wanted, and it delivers with my goal of showing my feelings to her a little more. I wrote her little notes on some of the pages and wrote her a letter on the front cover, so I think we're all good and yet... I feel like there's something missing. Every book even memory books has a title. Just something simplistic to wrap it all up and together like a nice bow... but what do I call it?
Then it hit me, it just hit me. I quickly picked up the thin paintbrush I had been using and lightly dipped it in the gold paint once again and very carefully wrote on the spine of the book, using my best cursive that I've been practicing and wrote the title of our book,
"What Makes Us Happy"
A/N
Hiya! This chapter... I think this chapter is beyond cute for some reason XD I don't know if it's just me but this one seems super fluffy even though Brielle isn't in it :D And just as a heads up the next two one-shots will be based on Brielle and Harry's anniversary and Brielle's birthday, this one simply set the stage for those two. I hope you all enjoyed this one, the next two are going to be so much fun I can already tell :D
Remember to stay hydrated and to be kind to yourself today :D
-Brooke