Ma Petite Chérie {dad!Harry Styles}

Ma Petite Chérie

Word Count: 2.6k

Harry never sleeps in. His body had conditioned itself over the years to respond to even the slightest of commotions and despite being on vacation with nothing to worry about besides what sights to see that day or what local restaurant he wants to try, he still found himself awake, bright and early, at six o'clock on the dot. It's never bothered him to be such a morning person, though. He gets a headstart on his day and usually has a few, brief moments to himself, which have been hard to come by these days.

The Parisian sunlight is just barely beginning to filter through thin curtains in the master suite of the penthouse he'd rented for the week. Like clockwork, Harry's eyes peel open. The warm body cuddled up beside him is silently beckoning him to go back to sleep and enjoy this time where he isn't riddled with meetings or press conferences to attend, but he simply cannot will himself to do so. Force of habit, he tells himself. However, today is no ordinary day.

As he finally musters up the energy to pry his arm from around her waist and his groggy form from the plush mattress, a gentle whine emits from Y/N's chest and she looks over her shoulder to see what was the matter.

"'S alright," Harry's voice is deep and still thick with sleep as he reassures her, "Gonna get in the shower. You should probably put some clothes on. I've got a feeling she's gonna burst through that door any second now."

Y/N chuckles with closed, puffy eyes as Harry tosses her his discarded t-shirt and a pair of shorts from the night before.

"How does it feel to officially be the father of a four-year-old?"

Her question has his cheeks blushing and brings heat to the tops of his ears.

"Don't remind me," he groaned, albeit the grin on his lips signals that he isn't actually bothered, leaving it at that as he presses a quick kiss to her lips and closes the bathroom door behind him.

His daughter's birthday, while it is certainly one to celebrate, had always made him feel off. That was the only way to put it into words. He wasn't there on the day she was born. He wasn't there when she just the size of a small fruit in her mum's tummy. He wasn't there when she came out kicking and screaming and covered in goo, so a part of him felt like he wasn't entitled to feel a certain way about his baby growing another year older. Harry was constantly battling himself internally over that aspect of her life, because he hadn't even known she existed until she was around eight-weeks-old. Tallulah's mother, a woman whom Harry had a brief fling with that fizzled out for no other reason than they weren't compatible as partners but moreso as fuck buddies (for lack of a better word), showed up on his doorstep with her daughter, his daughter, in a fit of rage, claiming that she wasn't fit for motherhood like she'd thought and left without so much as telling him their child's name. After having his people sort through the necessary documents, he'd found out that his ex-girlfriend had named her Tallulah - the name he'd once told her in passing that he fancied if he ever had children.

He couldn't imagine going through something like that alone, an entire pregnancy and early motherhood, so there are times when he sympathizes with her actions even though he's grown to despise her. How could you not love something as sweet and precious as the tiny baby that he held in his arms at all hours of the night? How could you not be completely enamored by her tiny features and the way she looks up at you like you hung the moon for her? How could you not love something that is quite literally a part of you? But that was the difference between her and Harry.

It was certainly not easy by any means, but Harry wouldn't change a single thing about the way things turned out. Without his ex-girlfriend dumping their daughter on him and disappearing off the face of the earth, he wouldn't have bumped into Y/N at the park while he was taking Tallulah for a walk when she was only a measly eighteen-months-old, and he definitely wouldn't have fallen madly in love with Y/N either. She didn't scowl away from him like other girls he'd encountered since trying to date again after becoming a father; in fact, it was quite the opposite. There was something about the way her eyes lit up when she saw his daughter that day that made him know from the jump that she would be someone special.