Floss // A Harry Styles AU

thirteen

While Ruby was away with Mum and Dad I had a constant fear of being alone in the house. I had the puppy which wasn't necessarily a terrible thing, but not having my miniature zipping around the house every evening made me sad. I missed her a lot more than I'd expected to and I really couldn't wait for her to come home.

I ended up taking Bongo on more walks than he needed. Like on Tuesday - I took him for his morning walk before I went to work, and for his afternoon walk when I got home. And then in the late evening - way later than I should've been out walking alone, I took him for a third walk out to the field behind the house and let him run riot for as long as he wanted. I threw stick after stick for him, ran him around the field until I was exhausted, and then waited for him to tire. I ended up carrying the poor sod home.

Even though the weather had been wonderful, while I was carrying the puppy back to the house, it wasn't hard to miss the especially dark cloud coming in from Cheltenham-way. And it was grossly warm out. I ran the last five minutes home to avoid us both getting wet.

I decided the best thing to do was have an early night, so I had a shower and began to put Bongo away in his penn for the night. While I was fussing with him the thunder started. I stood up and wandered over to the back door, watching the heavy rain soak the dying grass in the back garden. Lightning struck in a wild flash, and moments later the thunder rolled over again.

Bongo started crying.

"It's alright, mate." I cooed at him, rejoining him on the floor. "Just a bit of thunder, it can't hurt you in here."

The puppy whimpered, crawling into my lap like a dollop. I shushed him while I stroked him, and decided to take him with me back to the window to watch it. He was much better in my arms; he started crying any time I tried to put him back down again.

All I could do now was wait for the storm to stop, but I was standing there for a good hour and nothing changed. I tried to fuss him as much as I could, but my arms grew tired and I eventually had to sit down. I let him curl up on the sofa next to me.

I nodded off for a while, always comforted by the sound of rain and thunder. The only thing that woke me up was my phone vibrating where I'd left it on the dining table. I groaned and stood up, Bongo following me without hesitation.

REDIRECT FROM: Garage
Maybe: Oscar's Dad

I frowned at my phone. Why would Harry be calling the garage?

I answered the call before it rang out, "Harry?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Er..."

"It's Floss."

"Oh, shit," he muttered, "I thought I'd called the breakdown number."

"You did, it redirects to my phone after five o'clock. Are you alright?"

He coughed. Wherever he was I could hear the rain from his end as well as mine. "No, I've er, broken down."

Dur. I was so stupid sometimes. So much for my early night.

"Where are you?" I asked, moving towards the hall to put some shoes on.

"I don't know, somewhere this side of Cheltenham."

"Can you ping me your location from your phone? I'll come and get you."

"With what?"

Was that a serious question? "The breakdown van..."

"Oh no, Florence I'll just call the AA or something, you don't have to come all the way out here."

"Harry, it's literally my job."