A/N; hey everyone. I know it's been a little while in between chapters but things have still been kind of tough for me in real life. I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the kind things you've been saying after I shared the news about my dog passing away, the pain is getting easier but there's still a whole in my heart. I've been trying to fill it with writing, but in between all of my other life stuff it's been hard to find time. But here's a good 6000 word chapter for you guys, plus Harry's point of view is always my fave.

It's time for Harry and Elena's America trip! Ah, remember travel? That thing some people used to do in the holidays or just because they needed a break? We'll get to do it all again someday, but until then, y'all know the drill; mask, social distancing, hand washing, checking in with your loved ones, looking after one another

You guys are the best, enjoy this chapter, stay safe, love you all xx

Harry's P.O.V

"Haaaaaryyyy, your alarm" Elena grumbles half asleep, her body wrapped around mine before she rolls over and attempts to fall back to sleep.

"We have to get moving bub, our flights in a few hours" I remind her as I climb out of the bed and give her body a gentle shake. She immediately perks up and climbs out of bed with a flourish, quickly making a beeline for the wardrobe to take out her clothes. I don't think I've ever seen her this excited before, last night she was organising her clothes for the flight like she was getting ready for her first day at school.

"Someone's excited" I can't help but chuckle as I stretch and check my phone. A bunch of emails already and a couple of missed calls, I'll have to get to them later.

"We're going to America! It's exciting!" She calls back enthusiastically as she hurried over to the bathroom and shuts the door. A moment later I hear the shower being switched on, and I'm overwhelmed with the prospect of joining her. Unfortunately I doubt she'll be on board with it; even though she is excited for the trip I know she's also probably nervous about the long flight we have to endure before we get there.

"Want a coffee for the road?" I poke my head into the bathroom and squint through the steam towards the shower.

"Yes please" I hear her answer, her voice just barely above the sound of the water falling onto the tile floor. I quickly pull on a pair of joggers and a hoodie and head downstairs, running through the itinerary in my head. We land in LA around lunchtime so we will be at my place by around 3, if we're feeling up to it we can go out to dinner or just order in and spend the day fighting the jetlag.

I take down two reusable coffee cups and start making our coffees. Tomorrow I have planned a bit of a tourist day before the next day, I groan inwardly, Disneyland. I promised I'd take her and she may make it fun, but the lines are always so long and it's filled with tourists who don't know how to behave in public. It could be a real nightmare, but at least I'll be doing it for a reason. I want her to relax and have fun, and spending the whole day watching her laugh and grin may not be so bad.

I climb back up the stairs with the coffee in hand and finish getting dressed, pulling on a pair of sock and lacing up my converse. The door to the bathroom opens and Elena quickly files out, make up bag in hand before she arranges it neatly in her suitcase.

"I keep thinking that I've forgotten something, or that I haven't packed enough or that I should pack more of this type of thing instead of that type of thing" She begins to ramble as her hands flick through the clothes lining the suitcase.

"Bub...bubba" I say to get her attention. She stops her fidgeting and looks up at me, worry etched on her face. "You've been going over your packing for the last two days, you've got everything you need. And if you don't we can just get it when we land, it's no problem" I reassure her and watch as she slowly nods, a soft smile ghosting over her lips. A small part of me wants her to forget her computer and her phone so I can replace them both, they're both far too old to be functioning properly.

"You look so cute in your casual clothes" She marvels as she zips up the suitcase and walks over to me, picking up her yellow coffee cup and taking a small sip from it. I look down at my appearance and chuckle, did she think I was going to wear a suit on an 11 hour flight?

"Thank you baby, you ready?" I ask her as she sits down beside me and starts sliding her shoes on. We're dressed fairly similarly, she's in a pair of black track pants and an Eagles hoodie I've loaned her a few times. She jumps around and gathers her small belongings into a black tote bag; wallet, keys, chapstick, phone and laptop, damn.

"Think so!" She grins and stands in the middle of the room, spinning around to check every corner for forgotten items. I move quickly to pick up both her bag and my own and carry them down the stairs, knowing full well that she'll try to take her own and it's surprisingly heavy.

"John will be our front" I tell her as we stand at the elevator.

"Is he coming with us?" She asks me as we climb into the elevator. I had asked John if he would like the overtime but he declined, something about his kids birthday.

"No, but I have people in LA and New York who do what he does so we will manage" I smile at the way she smiles when she learns that John gets some time off.

"We could have just taken a cab, you made him wake up early just to take us to the airport?" She reprimands me with a soft grin. The elevator door opens at the lobby and Elena quickly takes over her own suitcase, wheeling it out onto the marble floor as I follow behind.

"Johns a morning person, he'll appreciate the jump start he will have on his day now" I joke in response as the doormen open the door for us and nod towards me. Right on schedule, John is promptly climbing out of his car and taking the suitcases from the both of us.

"Good morning Mr Styles, Miss Graham" He speaks in his usual gruff but gentle tone. Elena smiles and begrudgingly lets him hoist her suitcase into the boot.

"Morning John, thank you for taking us. I hope it's not too much trouble" I almost want to laugh aloud, she's so fucking adorable. I've told her numerous times that she doesn't have to be so gentle towards him, god knows I'm not that way with him.

"No trouble at all Miss Graham" He smiles to her as she opens the door and starts to slide into her seat. "Traffics looking light sir" He adds as I open my own door. I smile at him as I climb in beside her. There's some soft orchestral music playing as we climb in, he's definitely been warming it up for us.

"How will you be spending your time off?" Elena asks as John climbs in and starts to drive. I'm about to interject and tell Elena that John isn't exactly one for chatting, but then that may just be me never engaging him in conversation. We've obviously talked a lot before, but it's not ever really idle chit chat, more focused on my schedule and the business.

"Actually it's my daughters in a couple of days. She's turning 15 so she's having a whole lot of her friends over for a sleepover. And they're all on school holidays so we may have a wee get away if we have the chance" He replies animatedly. Elena sits forward and clutches her coffee cup, nodding with a warm smile.

"What's her name?" Elena inquires as we drive onto the motorway. I take the opportunity to check my emails and missed calls. Most of it is rather beneath me, so I forward it through to my assistant.

"Isabella. And Olivia is 12 now, growing up too quick" He says with a wide smile, which grows wider as Elena coos.

"Aw, what beautiful names" She replies before taking another sip of her coffee.

"Thank you, they're my world" John sighs happily. Elena looks eager to continue the conversation but she suddenly begins to fumble through her bag and pulls out her phone. She checks the screen before swiping it and raising the phone up to her ear, who's calling her this early?

"Hello?....Oh, hi mumma" Her concern shifts into happiness when she realises who's on the other end of the call. Elena made sure that she told her mum we were going, and I think it's made her mum a little anxious.

"We're going to be totally fine mumma, even if it does rain planes can fly in the rain" She tells her calmly before looking over at me for reassurance. I nod my head quickly, poor Claudia must be worries about Elena's trip. I reach over and hold Elena's other hand, stroking my thumb over the back of it. She gives my hand a soft squeeze, giving me a gentle smile.

"I know....I will....Okay? Hold on" Elena brings the phone away from her ear and whispers. "She wants to talk to you" She seems a little embarrassed to be asking, but I immediately hold my hand out to take the phone from her.

"Hi Claudia, how are you?" I ask as soon as I bring the phone up to my ear. The phone crackles slightly as I think I can hear her breathing heavily.

"Hello Harry, I'm okay, just a bit worried about Elena's trip" She responds. I reach my other hand over and hold Elena's again as she watches me intently.

"I understand, what's worrying you?" I ask her. There's a couple of seconds of silence before she answers.

"Well it's just, in America there are lots of guns everywhere and you always hear about awful things happening so I'm just scared that something will happen to her" Claudia explains. I nod my head, I've had similar thoughts too. Being as high profile as I am, it does come with its added risks.

"I see. Well, I have a full security team who are with us at all times when we're out in public. Their job has always been to keep me safe, and now Elena will have her own team who's job is to keep her safe. I'm not going to let anything happen to her, I promise you" I calmly explain, having arranged it all ahead of time. We will both have at least two people following us at a safe distance who are trained to keep us safe from any number of threats. I hear a small exhale through the phone.

"Oh that does make me feel better. I know she's excited to go, I'm just being silly..." She begins to say.

"No you're not being silly, I totally understand. I'll make sure that Elena remembers to send you updates throughout our trip, I think it will be a really great one" I grin over at Elena. The sun hasn't come up yet so I can hardly see her expression, but when the car drives past a street light I can see she's smiling back at me.

"Oh thank you Harry. I'm so happy you two are back together, I couldn't want anything more for her" I can almost hear the smile in her voice as she speaks. It means a lot to me that Elena's mum likes me, and I'll do whatever I have to do to make sure that she always likes me.

"I am too, I love your daughter very much" I reply. Elena squeezes my hands and in the low light I can make out her lips mouthing 'I love you too'. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing that, and I don't care if that makes me a wimp. After not hearing it for so long it feels so good.

"Well I'll let you two go. Have a wonderful trip" She says goodbye and I hand the phone back to Elena so that she can say goodbye.

"...yes I will call you when I land I promise. Sure....okay.....I love you too mumma, go get some more sleep....bye bye" She giggles as she ends the call and runs a hand through her hair. "Sorry about That" She says to me as she places her phone back in her bag.

"It's totally fine love" I reassure her as John exits the motorway, we can't be too far away now. "You think she feels better now?" I ask her.

Elena sighs and shrugs her shoulders. "It's hard to tell sometimes, one minute she can be totally fine and then the next, she's manic. But, her new treatments are working well, and she seemed genuinely calm when we were saying goodbye. I think the reassurance from you was helpful to her" Her fingers absentmindedly play with the rose ring on my finger, she's always liked this one, I have to wear it more often.

"You know I'm always happy to talk to her, we should go see her soon" Elena grins and nods her head. I've always wanted to see the little town where Elena grew up, I know her childhood isn't filled with lots of happy memories but I'm still eager to hear the stories that make her smile.

"Were you serious about the security?" Elena asks after a moment of silence.

"Of course" I nod. "They'll follow at a distance mostly, but they're there in case we need them. I'm not taking unnecessary risks when it comes to you" I explain. I try not to use security when I'm in London because I don't really like the feeling of being watched, even by security. But when it's an event I make an exception, even at the events that Elena and I have been to together there has been a couple of security following us at a distance.

"Wow, intense" Elena smiles a little. "Has anything ever happened before where you've needed them?" She asks.

"No, never, but I'd rather have them and nothing happen then the alternative" I should really look into getting Elena a team of people too. I guess it all depends how much she's willing to embrace my side of the world.

"We're here sir" John coughs and speaks to break the silence as the car pulls up to the curb of the terminal. I'm not a fan of using private planes, it's an unnecessary expense and it's normally just me who's flying. If I'm with business partners or I have to get somewhere urgently then it's good, but business class works just fine for me.

"Thank you for the ride John, enjoy your time off" Elena thanks John enthusiastically as we climb out of the car. He quickly unloads our bags onto the pavement and nods.

"You're welcome Miss Graham, I hope you have a wonderful trip" He smiles to her and hands my bag to me. "Have a good trip sir" He nods, knowing I'm not normally one for pleasantries.

"See you in a few weeks, have a nice break" I say to him as I take Elena's hand and guide her with me through the airport.

"We should send his daughter something for her birthday" Elena whispers to me as soon as we're out of John's eye-line. I chuckle to myself.

"Already covered" I've had some flowers ordered to be delivered to his house along with some concert tickets to some young group I'm almost certain she likes. My assistant searched Isabella's social media pages and found some references to them, hopefully John hasn't already bought them for her.

"That's very sweet of you" Elena brings her body closer to mine as she praises me. I shrug, I've always looked after Johns family. His daughters already have college funds set up and I pay John quite a bit more than he would get anywhere else. I've always rewarded loyalty amongst my staff, I hope he'll stay in my employ for some time.

There's already at least a few hundred people waiting to check into their flights, I couldn't stand waiting in the lines for that long. That's one of the benefits of first class flying, we have our own line.

"Tickets are under Styles" I tell the smartly dressed woman behind the check out counter as both Elena and I slide over our passports. The woman types our details in quickly and checks our passports before we load our luggage onto the scale and wait for it to be sent through. Elena watches on, somewhat fascinated with the process. When we left Paris we didn't have any booked baggage so I suppose the experience is slightly different this time around.

"Here are your boarding passes, and security is this way" The woman cheerfully gestures to the left as Elena and I pick up our passes and passports.

"Can we head through security now? I've nearly finished my book and I want to pick out a new one in case I feel like reading on the plane" Elena asks as we walk in the direction of the security check. Typical Elena, she has an 11 hour flight ahead of her and instead of resting or watching TV she wants to sink herself into another book. I like reading, but who has the time or the patience these days?

"Sure love, you may even finish the book in the lounge before we get on the plane" I reply as the line quickly starts to move. We both start adding our belongings into the trays before Elena shoots me a questioning look.

"The lounge?" She asks before she's asked to step through the metal detector. I must have forgotten to tell her about the first class lounge, just another perk that she'll have to get used to.

"The first class lounge" I reiterate as we both start collecting our belongings, having quickly breezed through security. "They have food, comfortable couches and even showers if you have a long wait in between flights. It's very nice" I smile and wrap my arm around her shoulder, steering her in the direction of the shops. I could suggest one of the designer boutiques but I doubt she'll be up for it, so we stick to the bookstore. My arm slides off her shoulder as she starts pacing through the shelves, completely in her element.

"Wow, so I'll get to see how the other half live" She jokes with a soft smile as she scans her eyes over the covers.

"You're gonna have to get used to it baby, it can be pretty fun" I remind her, grinning as she shrugs her shoulders and smiles back at me. These kinds of perks have become so engrained in my life I barely even notice them anymore, but I know that for Elena it can be a lot to handle. I'm trying to ease her into it, I know I'm a lot.

"It will be fun, and I'll really try to embrace it, promise" She reappears beside me and stands up on her tiptoes to press a soft kiss to my cheek. That's all I can hope for, I don't plan on becoming poor anytime soon so she'll have to get used to being rich.

"Good Girl, picked something?" I ask before looking down at her hands as she scans through the covers of three different books. "Why don't you just get all of them?" I ask.

"That will be way too heavy" she sighs. She hasn't exactly made things easy on herself, one looks like it's at least 600 pages.

"Ever thought about getting one of those e-reader thingies? They hold all your books on one device" I say, gesturing behind the counter to a display of different screens. She smiles slightly before going back to the covers in front of her.

"I would, but it's expensive. And you know what I'm like, it's so small I'll spill my coffee on it in the first five minutes" She explains. She's not wrong, she can be quite clumsy sometimes. I turn my head and check some of the price tags, I can't see them completely from this far away but they're only three figures, hardly expensive at all. I look back down at her and see that she's eyeing me suspiciously.

"What?" I ask her with a grin.

"You have that Look on your face" she explains.

"What look"

"The Look you get when you're about to buy me something" She sighs. I can't help but chuckle as I nod my head.

"Glad you're starting to recognise it" I give her a kiss on the forehead. "I'll get you the one with the most memory" I tell her. Before she can interject I walk my way over to the counter and purchase the most upmarket model they have. It can apparently hold over 20,000 books, that should keep Elena satisfied for a year or two.

When I walk back over to her box in hand, I can tell she's trying to keep the excitement off her face by biting down on her bottom lip. She doesn't like being taken care of, but I'm a provider and it's something she's getting better at dealing with.

"Thank you" She mumbles shyly as I hand her the box. She takes it carefully from me like it's some precious artefact that she's terrified of breaking.

"Come on baby, lets go set it up in the lounge" I say as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and guide her towards the escalators.

"You spoil me" She speaks softly as she wraps her arm around my waist, having safely deposited the box into her bag for safekeeping.

"Oh I haven't even started spoiling you yet" I grin and hold her close to me as we step onto the escalator. If she were as materialistic as some of the other girls I have gone out with, then she would really know what that felt like. But I'm grateful that she's not, she is who she is and I love her for that. She isn't here for my money she's here for me, something that I never thought was possible before I met her.

I can hear her softly giggle as we step off the escalator and follow the signs to the first class lounge. We step inside and show a man at the front reception our boarding passes before proceeding through the open double doors. It's a sight I've seen far too many times, so instead of looking around I'm looking at her. Her eyes widen and her mouth breaks out into this unbelievably bright grin as she takes it all in: the mouth watering buffet in the middle, the array of comfortable sofas and armchairs and the fully operational bar complete with two bartenders despite the fact that it's just past dawn. She can't even see the door that leads to the area where they carry out complimentary spa treatments.

A light blush appears on her cheek as she turns her head up to me and quietly whispers. "I feel underdressed". I manage to stifle my laughter and place a soft kiss on her forehead. That fucking smile, I would crawl across broken glass for a million miles to be the reason for that smile everyday.

"Let's find a spot where you can charge that thing, get it all set up before the flight" I reply and lead her over to some of the empty areas, it's still fairly early so we have the pick of a few spaces. We end up on a couch facing the window with a power socket beside it. Elena sits her bag down and careful places the box on her lap, taking out the various attachments delicately until she finds the instructions. 

"I'm sure you just plug it in and turn it on, most of these are fairly self explanatory these days" I chuckle as she starts to dutifully read the instruction manual, following the steps directly.

"'These days', gosh you're such an old man" She jokes with me, giving me a playful grin afterwards.

"Cheeky. This old mans going to get some food, shall I make you a small plate?" I offer as I stand up, she tilts her head up towards me.

"Yes please" she glances back down at the device in her lap. "Oh yay look it's turning on!" She excitedly whispers as a loading screen comes over the previously darkened screen.

"Of course it did baby, you followed the instructions with military precision" I reply with a smirk before I walk over to the buffet in the middle of the room. As far as airport food goes, it's always been pretty good. I suppose it does help that they have a Michelin star chef working here to keep things up to standard. I make two small plates of the breakfast regulars; bacon, eggs, pancakes and fruit and carry them back over to our seats. As I'm approaching the table, she's still flicking back and forth between tapping on the screen and flipping through the pages of the tiny instruction manual. She's so fucking cute.

"Juice or coffee?" I ask as I place the plate of food down on the table in front of her. She lifts her head up for a moment.

"Oh wow that looks good, um, juice please" Her eyes light up with a soft sparkle as she smiles widely both at the food in front of her and then back up to me. I know she'll want apple juice, so I don't even stick around and ask. At the beverage station, a guy orders a double bourbon as I fill two glasses with apple juice, yikes.

"Harry look how many books there are on here! It's like a mini amazon!" Elena tells me as I sit down next to her with our drinks. She's managed to set it up mostly and is now browsing through the store. "This is really great, thank you so much" She presses her lips against mine softly before her fingers are back to scrolling through the pages. I just watch her for a moment or two as she adds some books to her 'wishlist' before I realise she isn't buying them

"Why aren't you buying them?" I ask as she places the device down beside her and sits forward to pick up her plate.

"It's a system I do when I buy things online, I put them all into a Wishlist or Cart section and then I go through them to figure out which thing I want the most. Then that one I buy" She explains in between bites of food. I shake my head and sit forward to take my wallet out of my back pocket and dig through my card section and place one down on her lap.

"Use that, get however many you want" I tell her as I eat some of my eggs. She stares at the card for a few long seconds, almost not daring to pick it up with her fingers.

"Harry, that's the card you gave me when we had our um, our arrangement" She whispers the last word to me, despite there being no-one even close to being within earshot.

"I'm aware, it's yours to use. And before you say it, no this is not me giving you money, this is just a thing to use to get you things that make you happy" I try and twist my words as best as I can.

"But we said we weren't doing that kind of thing anymore. Clean slate, no sugar dating stuff" She mumbles, tucking her hair behind her ears, something she often does when she's uncomfortable. Wow, I don't think I've ever had this much trouble giving money away before.

"I want you to use it to buy whatever it is that makes you happy. It's no big deal it's just a credit card" I shrug my shoulders, she presses her lips together for a second and lets out a slight sigh.

"What's the limit?" She asks, would having a limit make her feel better about it?

"....well it has no limit" I chuckle quietly as she rolls her eyes. Why would I give her a card with a limit on it? I want so desperately for her to spend my money I'm not giving her a credit card with a limit on it. "But I don't care how much you spend on it, if filling that thing with a thousand books will make you happy then use that card to do it" I reiterate. She doesn't say anything but she does pick up the card and turns it over in her hands, still with a look of uncertainty on her face.

"Would it make you feel better to know that Gemma and my mum have the same card?" I offer, she raises an eyebrow at me.

"They do?" She asks. I'm not going to tell her that they only use theirs in case of emergencies because I know that then Elena will only want to use hers in case of emergencies. Besides, she'll never know that that's the case because Elena's too shy to bring up money around everybody, especially my family. It's foolproof, I'm a genius sometimes.

"Yes they do, and I want you to have one too. I have more money than most people would dream of having. And I have no use for most of it, so please just take it and use it" I say quietly to her. She still looks like she feels somewhat guilty about the whole process, but I think she may be out of arguments.

"You're always giving me stuff, I never give you anything" Her voice comes out in a quiet mumble, if I had only been half listening I would have missed it.

"That's not what our relationship is about though. This is all just stuff, we're sharing stuff now, merging our lives together bit by bit" I explain, shifting my body closer to hers. I desperately want her to move back in with me, but she's not quite ready yet, when she does I know this whole process will just become routine to her and she won't have to make it a moral dilemma every time I want to buy her something.

I can see a soft smile tug at the corner of her lips as she slowly nods her head. See Elena, how great would it be if our lives were so intertwined that everything became 'ours' instead of 'yours' and 'mine'? Sometimes these moments of our relationship becoming more serious freak me out, but in a good way, I'm still working my way through it all.

"Okay, but it's just books for now. I'll warm myself up to the diamonds and the Gucci bags" She smiles back up at me, almost as relieved as I am that we got through that.

"Gucci? Baby if you want a Gucci bag I'll get you a Gucci bag. Hell I'll get you every Gucci bag of those are the ones you like" I smirk as she gives me a gentle nudge and lies her head down on my chest and enters the card details onto the device.

I run my hands through her hair as she scrolls through books for over half an hour, occasionally she'll stop on one and talk to me about it. She doesn't look up at me, but she knows I'm listening, and I am. I'm completely engrossed in hearing her talk about books she's forgotten that she loves, ones she's always wanted to read and ones she thinks I'll like. For her, recommending a book seems kind of like the equivalent of being made a mix tape. I'll check through the receipt when it gets emailed to me, maybe I'll give one or two of her recommendations a go. Or I'll read one of the ones she loves so much, maybe it will help me get closer to her and understand her more. She ends up purchasing and downloading 16 books, it's a start at least.

"Now the problem is which one do I read first" she giggles as she watches all the titles start downloading onto the device.

"Do you have a system to figure out what kind of book you're in the mood for?" I ask with a small cheeky smirk. She tilts her head up and laughs a little before she answers.

"Sort of, if I'm in a certain mood then I'll start a certain kind of book. Like, if I'm nervous or sad or anxious I'll read a book that I know I like because I know how it ends. But if I feel good I read a new one, so I'll read a new one" She explains matter of factly before she turns her attention back to the device and scans through the nine new ones she hasn't read before.

Okay, this is a good system for me. I'll know she's not feeling good if she's reading an old book. It can be sort of like my way of covertly asking how she's feeling. New book equals I'm doing well, old book equals maybe somethings wrong. I can work with that.

"Read to me" I mumble against her hair as she narrows down her choices, letting the soft tresses run through my fingers.

"Really?" She asks with a small giggle.

"We have half an hour til boarding, and I like the sound of your voice. Read to me" I try to persuade her. She lifts her head up and stares up at me, the morning sun now streaming in from the window lighting up her kind smile with a golden glow. A moment later her lips are softly pressed against mine, igniting that ever present spark between the two of us even with such a simple gesture. They slip from mine a second or two later before she selects her book and starts to read aloud.

I'm interested in the book at first, before the situation in front of me begins to distract me from Elena's words. We've been back together for a while now, and it's felt so good to have her back, but I don't know if it's ever felt this good. I did it, I got her back. I gave her the time that she needed and made myself a safe place for her to feel okay again, and she came back. She's home, and she's okay. Better than okay. She's travelling to a new continent for the first time, having a vacation for the first time in possibly a decade, letting someone else take care of her for a change, reading new books.

I was so scared she wasn't going to come back, that she'd decide that my life wasn't a right fit for her and she'd be better of with someone less complicated. I would have found a way through, but life would never has been as good as it once was. It would have been a major loss, losing her when I didn't even know how much she was going to mean to me. But she's back in my arms, travelling across the world with me, reading me a new book.

"Are you not enjoying it? I can stop if you want?" Elena's voice breaks me out of my head.

"No, it's great. Don't stop" I brush my hand gently over her arm as she starts to read once more.