AN : man I love writing lil cute filler chapters but I wanna jump into smut already lmaoooo. y'all ain't ready yet so imma chill 😛

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H A R R Y

"You painted these?!" I gasp, staring at all of the artwork covered walls. Poppy just looks down at her bare feet with a blush.

I turn to face her. "Poppy, you're so talented.. holy shit."

Poppy looks up at me and just shrugs, a small smile on her blazing hot face. She's clearly embarrassed. "If I'm being completely honest with you, nobody has seen this room before.."

I am completely and utterly dumbfounded. No way in hell she could have such talent, and not show it off? That just doesn't sound like Poppy.

"Not even your parents have seen it?" I ask, walking up to one beautiful painting in particular. It was a painting of flowers, many flowers, and throughout the painting, they're growing older and dying. There's a small girl in the middle, with long hair and and a sad features and an elegant looking dress.

The little girl must've been Poppy.

"My parents don't have the time to care about what I do," Poppy harshly laughs. "You're just the only one who cares enough to pay attention to who I really am," she adds quietly.

My eyes widen, and my heart tugs at her words but I continue to stare at the painting, ignoring the bubbly feeling inside of me.

The more I stare at the painting, the more I realize the little girl is Poppy. With her elegant things, aka the dress, but also the flowers around her, slowly dying, which could mimic her happiness and personality.

How could I have been so blind to realize Poppy wasn't born this way. She was raised with hardly any affection. Though she had nice things and loads of money, her parents were never there to give her what she truly needed - love.

"I'm so sorry, Poppy," I whisper, turning around to face her. She looks up at me with a confused expression. "Your parents--I'm sorry about them. I had no idea-"

"You had no idea that I grew up all my life without their care and love?" Poppy laughs, but it's more of a forced laugh. "Yeah, nobody knows. That's how my parents like to keep it. Everyone around us thinks we're the perfect family, but really, we're far from it."

"Poppy, can I ask you something?" I say just above a whisper, noticing Poppy's already sitting down and getting the paint and a two medium sized canvases ready.

"Hm?" She continues to set the paintbrushes out. She nods in my direction, telling me that the canvases are ready to paint.

I pick up a paintbrush and dip it in water. "Your childhood.. how did you grow up?"

Poppy dips her paintbrush in a red color. "That was the worst part," she sighs. "That's when their clothing line got bigger and bigger, and always had to travel. The maid took care of me, always. They were in the picture of course, but not as much as I would've wanted them to be."

I nod. "You didn't deserve to grow up like that, you know. You're very strong and smart for your age, Poppy. I admire that about you."

Poppy just smiles, and continues to paint. "Most people just assume.. They assume because my family is wealthy that's the reason I act up most of the time. You're the only one who's cared enough to ask."

And that's when I realize I shouldn't have been to quick to judge her when we first met. She's not just some snobby brat, she's so much more.

"I did assume though, at first," I admit. "But I know better now."

"I am a brat, don't get me wrong," she quietly laughs, "I have a very short temper, but I think I can be nice when I want to be. I guess it's just hard to when you've grown up all your life having to deal with things and be strong about it."

I nod, understanding, but Poppy continues. "I would give it up. Give it all up," she sighs. I furrow my eyebrows. "All the money, all the diamonds, just to have my parents love."

I frown, my heart dropping. "Poppy, they do love you," I honestly tell her. "They're just busy, and have a lot of things constantly going on, but trust me Poppy. They do love you."

Poppy looks up at me and sadly smiles. Our eyes meet, and we look at each other for a couple moments. I feel my heart race. God she's so beautiful. We both lean in a bit, but my mind distracts my actions.

Stop, Harry, she's seventeen.

You disgusting perv, the girl is a teenager!

What would her parents think?

I quickly shake my head and look down at my blank canvas, scolding myself for what I almost did. Fuck, Harry, you idiot. The girl is a teenager, the teenager you were hired to babysit, not almost kiss!

I gulp, it would've felt so nice though.

"Fuck," I mutter, finally snapping myself back into reality. Poppy just looks at me with a cough, and quietly continues her painting.

"Poppy I-"

"I know.. Harry, let's just finish painting."

"I'm sorry Poppy." I groan, wanting to disappear. She's embarrassed now, great.

"It's fine," she whispers, smiling at me. "Let's just not make this anymore awkward than it already is."

"Alright," I chuckle. "So what are you painting?"

"Hm," she hums, holding up her canvas. "Roses."

I smile, the roses she's already painted are beautiful. I wish I could be that talented at painting, but I'm more talented at business related things.

"I think that's very beautiful Poppy, what else are you good at that I don't know about?" I laugh and she smiles.

"Well.. I'm good at fashion," she smiles.

"Do you want to take over your parents business one day?"

Poppy nods. "Yeah, I think I'd run a pretty awesome clothing line."

I chuckle. "Bet you would."

"So, we've talked about me all day, let's talk about you."

I raise my eyebrows. "Well, I usually never tell girls much about me."  Poppy rolls her eyes. "But you know, my mum died when I was little, and after that my dad blamed me for literally everything. I don't know why, though. I think he hated me. But anyway, he died a couple of years ago.. And he passed down the hotel business to me."

"I'm sorry about your losses, Harry. But I know your father must've seen potential in you if he passed down such a big thing to you."

Poppy's words warm my heart. "Thanks, Poppy. He was a cold man, though. He only liked me when my mother was alive." I frown. I miss my mum.

"Don't say that, I'm sure he loved you. Your moms death just probably really affected him. Death does that to people."

I shrug. "Thank you, Poppy. I usually don't talk about this but you make it easier."

Poppy just smiles. "So tell me about the deep stuff. Like your fears, hobbies, you know."

"I like work, it's pretty fun but also very frustrating and stressful. I have to go back there tomorrow all day, since I have a couple of meetings. But uh, I like food, I like to cook, and bake, I love dogs, I love cars, I like the outdoors, and I really really like Picnics, weird I know." I chuckle, looking at Poppy's amused face.

"Wow, interesting. Now how about your love life?" Poppy wiggles her eyebrows. I laugh.

To be honest, I don't have much of one. I'm focused on work.

"I'm focused on work, so no love life for me. But honestly there's some times when I'm really stressed or something and just need a good shag I suppose," I nervously chuckle. Weird talking about this, considering what we almost did a while ago.

Poppy grins, laughing. "Dear lord. What about fears?"

"I'm scared of spiders and death," I admit with a sigh. Poppy nods.

"Are you scared of paint?"

I furrow my eyebrows. Scared of paint?

Before I can say anything, Poppy takes her paintbrush and slings a big splatter of blue paint all over my black tee shirt, and a little bit on my face. I look down at the mess, while Poppy laughs hysterically.

"Oh, okay," I laugh, grabbing a paintbrush as well and flicking her back. She squeals, laughing harder while picking up paint with her hands and throwing it at me. It splatters all over my neck and face.

"Oh, you're on!"

We chase each other around the room, picking up handfuls of paint and throwing it at each other.

"Aye!" I yell, slipping directly on red paint. I fall on my ass with a thud. This causes Poppy's laughter to grow even louder.

I just shake my head, quickly grabbing the bottle of purple paint beside me and squirting it all over her body. She screams, darting to grab more bottles.

I really hope this is washable paint.

"Ha! Look it's all over your-" another squirt, this time in my hair.

Poppy just stands there, soaked in paint with a dropped jaw.

We stare at each other a moment, before I grab my bottle of green paint and squirt it all over her again. We continue laughing, and chasing each other around.

This is the most fun I've had in a long time.

Our laughter just grows louder, and we both slip on paint while chasing each other.

"Uh Harry?" Poppy stops running. I slow down, stopping in my tracks while panting. God, I'm out of shape.

"Yeah?" I pant.

"We're out of paint," Poppy giggles. I look down at all of the empty bottles.

"Oh shit," I laugh, "is that okay that we used all your paint?"

"Well I can always buy more." She shrugs with a smile. I look at her, and noticed she's covered head to toe in paint. I can't help but chuckle loudly.

"Hey! Look at you!" She defends, and I look down, noticing I'm also covered in paint.

"Looks like it's time to shower," I laugh. Poppy just nods.

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Cute chapter, almost 2000 words wowowowoowowowowowowowowowoowowowowowowowowow

That was my fav chapter by far lol

They ALMOST KISSED :);););););) So happy

Anyway this took me s lot of time and effort to think of ideas for this chapter and if u could vote and comment it'd make me superrrr happy :-)

I love poppy and Harry lol they're goals AF.

thanks for reading!!

Kisses,

M