Aquarelle [h.s]

twenty-nine

Harry just stared at me, not saying a word, and I looked away, clearing my throat to try to ease the embarrassment caused by what I'd just dared to tell him.

I glanced down at the green grass in front of me, thinking of something to say to move on from that situation. I could feel my words settle in deeper and deeper between us with every new second of silence that went by, and I knew that if I hadn't said something anytime soon I wouldn't have been able to ever escape them.

"We should probably go back soon, so that we'll get there before it gets dark" I then said, trying to act as nonchalantly as possible, only daring to send him a little glance.

He stopped picking at the strand of grass he'd been playing with for the last few seconds and looked up at me, an unreadable look taking over his face for a couple of instants before he gave me a nod.

I went back to looking at the notepad on my lap, for some reason feeling as if my attempt at making the situation less awkward had only made it more awkward. Realising that shutting up definitely wouldn't have been a bad idea, I decided to concentrate on my sketch for a bit and hope that in a few minutes the situation would've become less tense.

I focused on the grass and on Harry's shadow on it for a while, ending up making it way more detailed than I normally would've, taking my time with it and telling myself it was to make sure it was absolutely perfect, and not because I just didn't want to face the embarrassment again.

I knew that if I'd looked at him I would've found him already staring at me with that indecipherable look that almost always seemed to be on his face, and I wasn't sure I would've been able to handle that in that moment. He tended to be way more intense than I would've liked him to be at times.

I tried my best to drag it on for as long as I could, but when I started shading every single stem of grass I knew I had to acknowledge Harry's presence again.

I sighed and glanced at him, discovering that he was looking ahead into the trees, a neutral look on his face, leaning back on his hands. I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at him a bit more attentively. I couldn't tell if he was looking at something in particular, or if he was only staring in that direction so that he wouldn't look somewhere else.

He didn't even falter when I turned my head to him, and I wondered if he'd noticed it at all, or if he was so transfixed by what he was looking at that he hadn't even realised I was looking at him. I tilted my head a bit.

Still to that day, he had one of the best side profiles I'd ever seen. His eyelashes were long, the warm brown of them complimenting the olive green of his eyes in ways I hadn't thought were possible. His usually light eyes appeared to be a bit darker than usual because of the slight shadow he was sitting under, the tone of green seeming warmer too. I'd always loved the way his eyes changed colour depending on the light they were under, that had always been a little detail that had made me want to do a lot of different things with him just so that I could see the way the colour of his irises changed under different kinds of illumination.

I pursed my lips, looking at him for a couple of seconds more before hesitantly moving to kneel in front of him. He gave me a slightly confused glance, but didn't make a move, resorting to just looking up at me.

I tentatively put my hand under his chin, raising it slowly, holding my breath when his dark pink lips parted at my touch. "Looks better like this" I said under my breath before going back to my original place.

I sat down so that I was facing him and bent my knees, putting the black notepad on my thighs before glancing at Harry.

I only managed to draw a line on the paper sheet before his lips slowly curved up in a smile, that quickly blossomed in a real one, his dimples showing more than ever before.