The Weeks Between • HS

Week 12 • Harry *

***A/N: THANK YOU for 11k! I love y'all so much.

I know that having sex with Nola is an exercise in playing with fire. Fire that, until last night, was just an ember, dimly lit inside of me. She's always been intriguing, but the more I get to know her, the more I am willing to risk getting burned. Now that I have had her, I can confidently say that being fully engulfed by her, and everything that comes along with that, is well worth the risk.

I fell asleep easily last night, after an unexpectedly gentle first and second times together. I am awoken to the sound of someone in the living room and quickly realize that I am hugging a pillow instead of Nola's warm body. I don't even have to guess what she is doing, because I know the routine by now. The unmistakable sound of a breast pump in the quiet of night rouses me from bed.

I grab my briefs from the floor and sleepily walk from the bedroom and into the living room at the carriage house. "Nol?" I say into the dark space before I see her in the corner of the room. She is sitting in the chair, completely naked except for a blanket over her lap, holding the pump pieces up to her breasts. God, she looks tired.

"Can I get you anything?" I offer as I bend down to kiss her head.

"Water. Always water." I go to the kitchen and pour two large glasses of water, deciding that hydrating after our activities is probably a good idea for both of us. When I return, I sit on the floor in front of her and take her dainty feet into my lap, rubbing them as she remains hostage to her breast pump.

"So, how long do you pump for?" I ask her.

"Like twenty minutes?" Her response is confusing and not at all what I was looking for, but maybe I didn't ask the right question. I wanted to know how long she does this to herself for. How long she gives up her sleep and her body for this.

"No, how long as in like months. How long until you stop all together?"

"Well, I made it a year with the twins, but then they both weaned around then. Lottie first, then Mia."

Holy crap. 365 days of this is a lot. "A year. That is a huge commitment." I tell her.

She nods and answers like it is no big deal at this point, but it consumes a lot of her spare time. "Yeah. Hopefully Hattie will stop teething, so my supply will go down at night and I won't have I wake up to pump if she doesn't wake me. Until then, this is where you will find me sometime between 2am and 3am," she says, then her eyes longingly focus on the glass of water. I am an idiot. She has no free hands.

"I'm sorry. I didn't even think about the fact that you have no free hands. Hold on." I tell her as I run to the kitchen, having seen some straws in the silverware drawer.  I hold the cup up to her mouth, and her perfect pink lips wrap around the straw and drain the water, so I give her the rest of mine, laughing at her thirst.

She finishes pumping. Her eyes dart around the room, looking like she needs something, but then I wonder if she needs me to help hold something so she has a free hand available. I hold out my hand for her, and she greets my outstretched hand with a laugh. "Harry, I have no hand to give you to help me up, in case you haven't noticed."

"No, Nola. Hand me one of those," I tell her, looking down at the now filled pump
piece and she thinks about it longer than I expect.

"DON'T tip it!" she warns, handing the strange contraption off to me. I wait for her to get up off the chair. I reach down to pick up the t-shirt that she discarded near the chair and follow her to the kitchen. She pours the milk from the pump pieces into a bottle that looks much more familiar to me.

"Is it strange that I am fascinated by all of this?" I ask her as she starts to wash the pieces over the kitchen sink. She sets them off to the side and I find a towel to dry them off. She looks at me strangely before replying.