Sorry, I had to add the Night lmao. Also, song on the side isn't relevant at all to the chapter, but I'm listening it on repeat as I edit these chapters.
15. (Night) Changes
When Ariana slowly regained consciousness, she of course had no idea where she was. Groggily, she shifted on the strange couch and sat up, looking around through bleary eyes.
"Wh—Where the hell am I?" she blurted, tiredly. What happened last night? she thought. Santa Barbara... With Harry... The most awkward situation she'd been in between her ex almost boyfriend and current almost boyfriend.
Slowly her sight cleared up and she recognized one of the faces she kept seeing in the photos around the living room. She stood up and stepped towards the photo of a young boy, with brown hair, dimples, and the goofiest smile. Ariana couldn't resist smiling down at him.
It's Harry.
She turned around, searching for more images of the charming man-child when he was still only a boy. A professional photo hung off the wall, framing a bright-eyed boy with a blonde bowl cut. At first Ari began to look away, dismissing the photo to be a younger brother or something, but then she froze. The features were so familiar... She stepped closer and read the text engraved in the bottom of the mahogany frame.
Harry Styles 2002.
Gasping, she stared, jaw slack. "You had a bowl cut?" she said first, before shaking her head as another strange fact resonated. "And you're—you're blonde?"
"Was."
Ariana jumped around, covering her mouth's squeak. Harry, she realized when she saw the speaker. She sighed in relief and then scowled. "Don't do that!"
He chuckled. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to," he apologized, hands up.
The petite brunette huffed, blowing her bangs up momentarily. With clear new eyes, she looked between the —three? four? — year old Harry and the one standing before her, as if she was trying to figure out a puzzle.
Harry walked towards her and Ariana found it unsettling to see him walking without hearing the familiar click of his usual boots. He stopped next to her, and then moved his eyes to his photo as well. Awkwardly, Ariana looked down, trying to control her wandering eyes.
A long sigh made her look up at Harry who eyed himself, like how Ariana did, minus the shock. "I don't know how my hair changed colors, but... it did," he explained as if he had to justify his weird hair color. "Science huh? I've always sucked at it. English is more my thing."
The shock that had briefly stuck to her fell off, as she slid into a familiar comfort she had with Harry. She bumped his shoulder with a smirk. "Your hair was straight too? And your eyes—" She stopped talking as Harry chuckled.
"My hair didn't start curling until my teen years and..." He made a face and shrugged. "My eyes can never choose a constant." Harry leaned down close to Ari as if he were about to tell a private secret. "Sometimes I think it's seasonal."
Ariana giggled, turning to him now. "I've been me my entire life," she said. "Dark hair, dark eyes... I didn't change naturally," she added when she saw Harry's eyes squint at her ombré hair. She'd died it so many times that the darkest part of her hair, at the top, was coppery, unlike the deep almost black color it'd been before she'd started experimenting with hair colors.
Harry nodded to himself, looking thoughtful. "We all change naturally. It's just some of us only get to do so internally."
Ariana's soft expression hardened.
