Aquarelle [h.s]

fifty-two

When March came around, Harry took me to Italy.

It wasn't something we'd planned together at all, he'd just showed up one day with the already bought tickets, like a surprise, not having even asked me about it beforehand. Unexpected but lovely, just like everything Harry did.

I leaned back against my hands as I sat on the bed, smiling to myself as I remembered the conversation I'd had with Harry only a couple of days before.

"Did you take Monday and Tuesday off next week?" Harry asked in the second I got into his car after getting out of work, and I turned to look at him as he sped away towards my house.

"I did. But you're gonna have to tell me why!" I replied, shaking my head at the little smile that played on his face at my words. "Seriously, this is the first and only time I'm taking some days off of work just because you told me to."

He let out a little laugh at the tone of my voice, stopping the car at a red light, taking an envelope from the dashboard and throwing it on my lap. "Here's why."

"What's this?" I asked him, taking it with my eyebrows furrowed and opening it, taking out a couple of papers and opening them, my jaw falling open in the second I did. "Oh my god what?!" I exclaimed, turning to look at Harry quickly. "Harry?!"

"You know how we didn't go anywhere last summer because it felt weird to go on holiday together?" He asked me in reply and I gave him a little nod, not really understanding where he was trying to go with that right away.

"I do."

He started the car again when the light turned green, his eyes staring concentratedly at the street as he talked to me. "I don't think it feels weird anymore. We've been together for almost a year now. If anything, it feels right."

"Yes but Italy?!" I said, shocked, not even knowing if I was excited, surprised or weirdly terrified. "Oh my god, I literally wanted to visit Italy so much?"

"I know" he told me with a little nod, "which is why I'm taking you to Florence. You might want to pack, we're leaving on Friday evening."

I was quickly distracted from the sea of thoughts that were swimming in my mind when Harry got out of the small bathroom of the hotel wearing nothing but a white fluffy towel.

"I'm exhausted" he breathed, lying on the bedsheets next to me, and I couldn't help but nod.

While the flight hadn't been particularly long, it still was more than I'd been used to, and, paired with the first taxi we'd taken accidentally dropping us off at the wrong hotel, we'd had one hell of a night.

"The next time we come here we're renting a car" Harry continued, looking up at me as I sat on the bed wearing only one of his clean t-shirts with my legs crossed.

I let out a small laugh. "Think you can drive on the opposite side of the street?"

"It's only the opposite side of the street, not a wrong hotel" he commented in reply, covering his eyes from the harsh light of the hotel with his arm, and I smiled, shaking my head.

I lay down next to him, putting my head on his bare chest and letting out a little sigh as I listened to the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat. "I think I could fall asleep right here" I whispered against his naked skin, and he brushed his fingers through my hair.

"Let's, then, because I'm not moving from here" he said quietly, earning a little laugh from me as I closed my eyes.

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