change // styles au

sixteen

Surprisingly, not a lot changed between Harry and Amelia after they shared that kiss by the river, besides the fact that Amelia felt incredibly closer to him than before. However, Harry still insisted on sleeping on the floor rather than sharing the bed. They didn't kiss again for awhile, and even though a part of Amelia knew that she wanted to, she was certainly not going to be the one to initiate it. So instead, she was left to try to act normally, all while a slight tingle remained on her lips.

"Lia!"

Amelia jumped at the sound of her name, almost dropping the handful of berries she was washing in the river. She quickly set them back into the basket, drying her hands on her dress before standing and turning towards the cabin. She had learned not to get worried at Harry's yelling, because he had the tendency to get excited over the smallest things. Amelia smiled as she thought about the time he had dragged her from the cabin simply to show her a cloud shaped like a heart.

Harry was waiting in the main room of the cabin, an excited smile on his face. He grabbed her hand, pulling her down the hall and to a closed door. Amelia hadn't really looked around the cabin that much; she liked to explore outside more. Still, that didn't mean that the room Harry opened the door up to didn't surprise her.

It was a tiny room, looking much more like a large closet, and had only a small amount of furniture in it. A plush, decorative chair was pushed up against the far wall, but the item that drew the most attention was the large record player next to it. Stacks of actual records lined the walls, and Amelia immediately felt herself reaching out for one. She knew what they were, of course, but had never actually seen one herself, since her family had other places to spend the little money her dad made.

"How does this work?" Amelia gasped, running her finger over the flowers displayed on the cover. Harry chuckled, gently taking the record from her hands and slipping out the black disk. Amelia watched in slight awe as he carefully lifted up the needle before setting the record underneath it.

"It took me a bit to figure it out, but," he explained, fiddling around with the controls. "I think I got it."

He stood up straight, a sort of proud smile on his face. Then, following a burst of nothing but a crackling noise, the twangy sound of an acoustic guitar filled the room.

Amelia laughed lightly, twirling around to the soulful girl's voice, feeling light and free and happy. Out in the woods, it was hard not to feel like that, hard not to just forget about her problems and focus instead on the chirping of the birds above her head or the rush of the river at her feet.

Suddenly, Amelia found herself bumping straight into Harry, his arms immediately circling around her to prevent the both of them from toppling to the ground. They were close, her hands pressed to his chest, and they hadn't been that close since a few days ago when they kissed. And Amelia really thought they were going to kiss again, right there, their faces inching even closer, before Harry pulled back. He grabbed one of her hands in his own, and then they were dancing.

Amelia hadn't ever danced with anyone but her father, and even then it was just her standing on his shoes as he twirled them around the living room. Dancing with Harry, though, was easy, it seemed to come naturally to her. She twirled and and swayed and spun to the music with ease, a permanent smile on her face. They hardly payed attention to the record changing songs, lost in each other, and it wasn't until the fourth song that Harry finally dipped his head down, pressing his lips against hers as his hand left her waist in favor of her cheek.

Harry was gentle with her of course, he always was. He never pushed her, didn't have any desire to do anything that she wasn't comfortable with, so that was why he pulled away only a few seconds later. Somehow, they went right back to dancing, Harry's hand returning to her hip. And although they must've been dancing for a good twenty minutes before the kiss, Amelia was breathless for an entirely different reason.

——

Amelia hummed lightly to herself a few days later as she walked between the trees, glancing over her shoulder every so often to make sure she still knew how to get back to the cabin. She was looking for another strawberry bush, sinche she had already picked all the ripe berries off the bush next to the cabin. Her eyes lit up when she finally found one half-hidden behind the the massive trunk of a tree.

She dropped to her knees in front of it, already beginning to pluck the red fruit from the branches, when voices broke through the silence of the forest. Amelia froze, fear creeping into her veins as she listened to the sounds of footsteps trampling over branches accompanied by gruff voices.

She couldn't really tell what they were saying, apart from that there was a dog with them and they were headed straight for her and the cabin. In fact, they were only about a few feet from where Amelia was hidden between the strawberry bush and the tree trunk when the dog suddenly took off running in the opposite direction.

One of the men cursed, and they were close enough now that Amelia could clearly hear them talking.

"I really was hoping to look farther out this way. I heard there's a river full of fish somewhere close. Be as fine a place as any for a runaway criminal to set up camp."

The other man chuckled. "Good thinking. We'll go chase down Bruce and then we'll head over. Come on."

Amelia's blood ran cold as she processed the information. Whoever those men were, knew about Harry and were desperate to find him and bring him back to be executed. Amelia could not let that happen, her and Harry had to get far away from the cabin.

Concern laced Harry's features when Amelia burst through the trees a couple minutes later, her breathing ragged from running. He quickly caught her as she all but fell into her arms.

"Harry, I-I heard p-people," she stammered, fear causing her to trip over her words. "C-coming over here... they want you, they're l-looking for you."

Harry's eyes grew wide at that as he somehow managed to piece together what she was trying to say. Immediately, he was all over the place, stamping out the freshly made fire, and running into the cabin, only to reappear a minute later with both of their bags hanging from his arms. Amelia could hardly breathe while he did all that, and she felt numb as Harry grabbed her hand, pulling her over to a Maple tree with thick green leaves. It wasn't until halfway through his sentence that she realized he was even talking at all.

"...time to go anywhere by foot, this is the best option we have. If we're quiet enough we should be good, the leaves should cover us well enough... You go first, Lia, I'll be right behind you."

Amelia looked at him incredulously, trying to figure out just what it was he wanted her to do, when he motioned to a thick, low hanging branch, and it all clicked in her mind; they were going to hide in the tree.

Amelia swallowed thickly, nodding her head before slowly, almost mechanically starting to climb. Before she knew it, her and Harry had gotten to a thick branch about halfway up. Her back was pressed against Harry's front, his arms wound tightly around her stomach, and Amelia was quite sure that his hold was the only thing keeping her from having a complete panic attack. Time had completely escaped Amelia, but it seemed like only a couple of minutes had passed before footsteps were heard splashing through the river, followed by voices.

"There's a house here, too? Damn."

It was the same man that had cursed earlier, and his voice sounded so eerily familiar that it really unnerved Amelia. She was still trying to place a name to the voice as the two men went inside the cabin, only to emerge a few minutes later empty handed.

"Well, he was obviously here at some point, given the unmade bed and campfire. But there's no sign of anything else, so maybe he took off when he heard Bruce barking up a storm. What do you think, Detective?"

Amelia swore her heart stopped at the name, when she finally remember who the voice belonged to.

No more than a few feet away from them, a rifle in his hands, was Detective Ian.

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Harry and Amelia are so cute :((