A Lifetime With You // A Harry Styles Au

Chapter V - Titerous

25th April, 2020

I rub my damp hair with a towel quickly as I wander out of the en-suite and back into the bedroom. Another towel clings around my body, tucked in at the front at my chest to hold it up. I do feel a little better after having showered, but the air in the room still feels a little delicate.

Harry is sitting up on the bed, his back resting against the headboard but the sheets are undisturbed. He has a book in his hands that he's reading, and occasionally makes notes on it with a red ink pen. It's not a reading book, but I'm not entirely sure what it consists of. He's closed the blinds and curtains on the windows so that there's no possibility of anyone seeing inside, and when I'd arrived he'd already changed out of his clothes and into a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt.

I've noticed that all the poetry he had downstairs is now on top of the chest of drawers in here, and I wonder if he's written anything new since I found out about them.

"Shall I leave the towels on the radiator?" I ask quietly, standing at the side of the bed as I finish off drying my hair.

Harry looks to me, his eyes scanning me over once before he purses his lips. "Or..." he leans towards me and swiftly pulls at the hem of the towel around my body so that it falls to the ground, "you could just leave them there and get into bed."

I look to the floor with a frown, ignoring the way he pulls at my hand for a moment, and the fact that I'm now completely bare. "But they'll get all... you know, smelly and musty."

"They'll be fine for an hour, just," he takes the other from my hand and limply throws it to the ground, "come here a minute."

I sigh, doing as he asks and kneeing my way towards him to straddle his legs. Harry puts his book aside, his attention now solely on me. His hands graze up and down my sides, eyes paying very careful attention to the way I wrap my hair up in a tight bun at the back of my head where my neck meets my hairline.

"You haven't stopped moving since you got here, you're gonna give me a headache." He mumbles.

"Can you blame me?" I ask sullenly, but I don't mean it in a nasty way.

"Not really, but I don't like seeing you like this."

I laugh once; a dull hum. "Me neither. I'm just scared, I don't know what to do. My mother says I should help you, that you won't be able to finish what you started without me, but I don't know where to even begin with that. And frankly I don't want to get in your way, and I don't know if you'll be able to sort anything useful at all in two weeks and-,"

"Cecily." Harry cuts me off, a hard edge to his voice. "Stop."

I sit back a little, a subtle breath escaping through my slightly parted lips. I know I'm probably being irritating but I'm still struggling to see a way out of this absolute mess, and I can't help but stress.

Harry watches me in silence for a moment, unmoving. His hand takes my left, turning my palm to showcase my worry yet again from the deep blue glow. He rubs his thumb over it repeatedly, but I'm more interested in his face. He slowly blinks, but his relaxed expression never falters. The features of his face are something I should've appreciated much sooner after we met. I suppose I always thought he was a handsome boy in a way, but up close like this I constantly ridicule myself for being so ignorant. Of course looks aren't the most important thing, and I can certainly say that a lot of me loves him because he has such a perfect nature - a gentle heart and a kind soul. But a part of me will always hold a candle for his particular beauty.

"Tomorrow we'll pay a visit to Christian." Harry says quietly, still staring at my palm. "He's the one that started this - he's the one with all the ideas and the knowledge."