In Too Deep (Dancing With The Shadows)

twenty nine

The smell of cinnamon wafts through the nose, mixing with that of the scent of the biscuits currently baking in the oven that Harry has previously made. There's rain currently drizzling down outside, hitting the window panes and making their own course down the glass until they drip into the gutter below.

Louis watches in amusement as Harry hauls in one of the pumpkins, dropping it onto the kitchen table, leaning into it with all his weight in order to not fall over.

Louis folds his arms. "What in the bleeding hell is that? That is not a pumpkin."

Harry quirks a brow. "It so is!" He tilts his head to look at the orange fruit on the table. "It's not a strawberry," he quips.

"It's a monstrosity, that's what that is. Like, look! It has a fucking hole in the side of it!" Louis leans closer to inspect the hole and scoffs, stepping back a bit. "Harry, there is quite literally a spider living in there."

Harry frowns. "But I felt bad for pumpkin. No one would've picked it."

"And I bloody wonder why," Louis sasses. "Go take that back outside. Cherry-Blossom will enjoy a slice of it when the spider leaves. If it leaves."

Harry heaves a sigh, mumbling a sulky, "okay," as he goes. He shortly comes back in with a different pumpkin, this one smaller and rounder, and in no way has a hole or potential spider festering inside it.

"Better?" Harry ponders, laying the pumpkin down besides the others on the table.

"Much," Louis agrees, grabbing a knife and raising it in the air.

"You sure your dad doesn't want to join?" Harry asks, taking a steak knife and stabbing it into the top of his pumpkin.

Louis snorts at the memory in his mind. "He's forbidden himself in helping with the task of pumpkin carving, after last year's Halloween, where me and Fizzy decided to gang up on him and not only chuck pumpkin guts on his head, but also wedged a huge pumpkin over his head," Louis explains with a sly smile.

Harry's mouth is slightly slacked open. "That's so evil! I wish I was there to see it."

Louis snakes his arms around Harry's middle. "You'll be here for new memories to come. Right?" he questions, a little unsure.

Harry inclines his head determinedly. He lands a kiss on the top of Louis' head. "Louis, I promise you I'm never leaving without you again. I plan in marrying you one day," he says truthfully.

Louis looks up to Harry and sees only pure innocence and truth swirling within the mossy green of his eyes. It causes a butterfly to erupt in his tummy. "You want to marry me?"

Harry's lip quirks up on the left, dimple caving in. "Never been so sure of something in my life, Lou. I love you more than you realise. I can see a future with you. I can see us travelling to Europe and having little kiddies running around our feet in this very room."

Louis sighs in bliss at the thought. "A little daughter that loves art, and a son that loves getting muddy outdoors."

"You haven't thought much of the subject, have you," Harry sarcastically teases. "We can have a girl that enjoys art, and a boy that enjoys jumping in the puddles in the spring." Harry brushes Louis' hair back. "As long as I'm with you, I do not care what type of children I get, as long as they're ours."

Louis' cheeks warm. "I'm glad."

Harry's eyes have tinges of sadness inside them, and it confuses Louis a little. Before he can ask, Harry blurts out, "I just wish I was able to carry said children."

Louis leans down and pecks Harry's tummy. "You'll carry them in other ways that'll allow them to be their best selves, Princess."

Harry smiles, lifts Louis' chin up with his finger. "What did I do to deserve you?"