Legacy // H.S

31.

'I don't think I can wait'

*

Only a few of us are left standing, though we sit by the small fire pit in the far end of the garden while Liam and Belly continue slow dancing to a playlist now going on one of their phones. Mainly the core team, though.

Claude has since gone home, but Niall, Zayn and Babz sit with Harry and me, the four of them recounting tales of their heists over the years, memories that hold so much warmth compared to those we've created this year. In a way, it hurts, knowing my appearance was brought on by a dark force none of us knew was lingering, but we've all tried our best to cling to those sparse moments of joy.

That's what families do; they stick around, even in the hardest of times, and they do it with a smile on their faces because there's nowhere else they'd rather be.

I sit over Harry's lap, legs draped across him and hanging off the side of the chair he sits on, while Zayn and Babz sit the same way, Niall affectionately placed in the middle of us like a sulking child. Blankets are tightly wrapped around us as the late January chill continues to reach new lows, but with the alcohol coursing through our veins and the heat of the flames in the centre of the pit, we barely feel the cold.

'Remember when I dropped the Fabergé egg?' Niall says between laughs, Babz's eyes almost popping out of her head as the memory becomes clearer.

She takes a swig of champagne from the bottle her and Zayn share, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before speaking. 'Fucking cracked it! Idiot!'

He howls back with another laugh, hitting his knee, turning to me to explain. 'We were running through this gallery in Eastern Europe, security on our tails, and the floor was so slippery against the stupid shoes I'd bought that day that I fell and had to watch it roll across the floor while I could still hear the guards' footsteps.'

'I doubt a cracked Fabergé would sell for much,' I muse, Harry pushing a cigarette he's been smoking between my lips, letting his hand linger on my jaw.

Niall holds a finger up to silence us. 'Which is precisely why I decided to sneak past the guards and go back for a different one, which I then had to jump out of a window to escape for. Three stories up, fractured my ankle, but still managed to get away before they could catch me!'

Harry shakes his head, leaning his face closer to my neck and placing lights kisses across it. Alcohol makes him incredibly horny, something I've been looking forward to all day once we're finally out of the eyes of others. He's becoming shameless with it, though, hand inching slightly further up my leg until it rests between them.

Across the pit, I catch Babz watching, a smirk resting on her lips while her eyes burn with the flames in front of her. Zayn whispers something in her ear, and she turns to kiss him deeply before their attention is on both of us again. Harry barely notices, too busy littering my skin with light pecks, but the whole affair causes goosebumps to erupt up my arms and back.

It's the laugh from Belly a few feet away that breaks my attention, Liam holding her up while she clings to him. He mutters what I can only assume are sweet words, her head falling to rest on his shoulder while she giggles some more. Then, ever so slowly, her hands start moving through his hair, before she lets them rest on his face, her eyes now level with his.

I watch as he takes a deep breath, Adam's apple bobbing with it, and it's like he's frozen in place. She whispers, he closes his eyes, and with barely a moment to consider what they must be talking about, she leans forward and presses their lips together. Liam's shoulders immediately relax, hands moving around her back to keep her close. She pulls back with a smile, eyes searching every corner of his face, before he's bringing her back to him once more, as if to not kiss her would be a crime.