Chapter 27 - Moth Guy

I close the door behind us and when we finally stop running I notice how wet we are. Wet and cold to the bone! As if falling to the lake wasn’t enough, it also had to rain. Typical of England!

Harry and I are both fighting to catch our breaths and we look at each other. I know he’s sorry but he has a small smile on his lips and as seconds pass, he burst out laughing and I do the same. For no good reason. We just laugh at the situation we’re in.

“I-I’m sorry,” he says still laughing and I shake my head.

“It’s okay, let’s just take off these wet clothes. I’ll get you something,” I say so I walk ahead with him following me.

The first thing I grab is some towels and hand him one. Then I lead him to the living room and turn on the hitting because even if it’s summer and it’s not cold, we are freezing to death. Fall to a lake with all your clothes on and then tell me if I’m exaggerating.

“I’ll get some of my dad’s clothes. You can take off yours and we’ll put them to dry if you want. I’ll be right back,” I tell Harry and he nods.

I turn around when he’s taking off his shoes and go to my dad’s room to grab some sweatpants and a jumper for Harry. Then I go back to the living room but when I’m there I realise I should’ve changed first and have given him a bit of time to finish removing his clothes. I almost let the clothes in my hands fall when I see him with bare feet, just in his jeans, and his shirt in his hands, dripping water to the floor.

I think I make a sound because Harry turns around and finds me gaping at him. I never realised the amount of tattoos he has. I mean, I could see some on his arms but there are so many more. Some look very detailed, like the ship and the birds, others look like doodles, which is a weird combination. But the tattoo that catches my attention the most —and what helps me not to focus on his bare torso— is the moth? On his stomach. The one Ella told me about! It’s huge and very detailed and it makes no sense.

“Oh, you’re back,” he says with a sweet smile, but I keep looking at his tattoo.

“Is… is that a moth?” I ask pointing at his tattoo. I can’t help it. “Why a moth?”

“Oh not this again!” Harry whines and I look confused. The shock of seeing him half naked completely gone. “It’s a butterfly!”

I blink in surprise taking a step closer just to take a better look. It looks like a moth. I mean, I’ve seen many butterflies and they look different. The wings are normally different. Moths look like his tattoo.

“It looks like a moth,” I mumble and he groans. “I’m sorry, that was rude. I’m sorry,” I apologise once I realise what I’m doing. And as I say that I take into notice that he’s half naked in front of me, still wet. Small drops fall from his hair to his body and slide down slowly, caressing his skin ever so softly. Suddenly I feel a lump in my throat and my tongue is heavier. “I-I-I brought… I brought you… clothes,” I stutter and look away, handing him what I brought. “S-s-sorry again.”

And with that I just turn around and walk away. Ashamed for insulting his tattoo and for being so close when he was like that. I can’t wipe the imagine from my head, and now that I’m not in front of him it’s almost as if I were paying more attention to the details. Like the way his muscles were so defined, showing he works out. Or the colour of his skin. I swallow hard and shake my head, trying to get rid of the image but it’s hard.

“Stop it, Ariel!” I scold myself and walk inside the toilet to get rid of my wet dress and underwear so I can put on something dry and warm. I focus on putting my clothes on so I don’t have to think of Harry, but it’s a bit hard. Still, I keep trying and once I’m done I dry my hair a bit with a towel before I accept I have to go back where Harry is.

I walk slowly and I feel my cheeks burning. Luckily, when I’m back he’s fully dressed and holding his wet clothes, looking around, trying to know what to do with them.

He hears me coming because he turns around and smiles at me. I feel my cheeks heating even more. “Hey here,” he speaks and I take a sharp breath. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. “You’re dry. Yay! No one is freezing now. Sorry about that, again. It was very stupid of me.”

“Don’t worry,” I whisper and he cocks his head, examining me and I’m afraid he might guess that I was thinking of him all this time.

I decide to do something practical so I approach and reach for his clothes. I take them to the little laundry room we have and put them to dry with mine. I hope he doesn’t mind that I do that. When I go back I find him appreciating the house.

“I like it, it’s so cosy,” he speaks walking up to the fireplace. Of course it has no wood or anything, we only keep a small heating in summer for those nights that are really cold. The fireplace is for winter and above it there are many pictures of all of us, my sisters, mother, father and I. “Is this you?” he asks grabbing one frame in which I’m with my mum playing a small show for our family. We both are playing the piano, the one we had to sell.

“Yes,” I reply. “With my mother. She taught me to play,” I tell him approaching and happy that we’re talking about something that’s familiar to me.

“That’s so cool,” he comments. “You both look so happy.”

I only smile. I was so happy when I was a kid, my mother and I had such a special relationship. Looking at that picture makes me miss her even more. “I miss her… but every time I play I feel close to her again. Like in that picture. Today my dad gave me a guitar. A present from all my family, and I named that guitar Maeve, like my mum.”

“Your mum… your mum passed away?” he asks and I nod. “I’m so sorry, Ariel. I didn’t know!”

“It’s okay, really. It was long ago and it was gradually. She prepared us, in a way.” I smile at him honestly so he knows I really mean it when I say it’s okay. “Anyways, are you okay?” I ask examining him from head to toe and only then I notice a red stain on his hairline. “Is that blood?” I ask next reaching to touch his forehead.

He doesn’t move, it even seems like he holds his breath when I touch him, except when I touch his wound. Only then he hisses in pain.

“My God, you hit your head! Please, sit. I’ll go for the aid kit to clean that. It’s not big, but still.” I don’t allow him to complain or anything.

He sits and I run for something to clean his cut. I try to hurry so he doesn’t have to wait much. I’m glad I was around when this happened. It would’ve ended up terribly if he had been alone. This reminds me of that night I also saved him and I notice the big difference now. This time I’m making sure he’s okay, I’m not running when he wakes up. This time I’m actually helping him till the end.

I think this is the biggest proof that I’ve improved.

I go back with the aid kit and he’s still waiting so I start working fast. It’s just a cut but cuts on your head bleed more than other so it always looks worse than it actually is. He hisses when I clean it but he doesn’t complain any further. Still, I try to be as careful as I can.

I stand between his legs and as he’s sitting I’m taller and I have to look down whilst hi looks up to watch my face. Although I’m focused on his cut I can feel his eyes on me and they are making my heart go so fast I’m afraid he might listen to it.

“B-by the way, I’m sorry about what I said about your tattoo,” I say to fill the silence between us, and he chuckles. “I just… it looked like a moth but if you say it’s a butterfly, it’s a butterfly.”

Still laughing he says, “It’s fine, you’re not the first one to think it’s a moth, to be honest.” I smile because I know whom he’s talking about, but I can’t tell him, right? He would know I met Ella and that I didn’t tell him before. “Ella used to call me moth guy.”

I chuckle, imagining the situation.

“I got used to it. There was a point when even I started to see it as a moth. It looks like a moth, doesn’t it?” he carries on and I nod, still smiling. “I guess over the year I stopped doing that because it reminded me of Ella. At the beginning I was mad, you know? That she just forgot about us.”

“She didn’t, I’m sure of that,” I tell him and he sighs.

“I know, it was just part of the process of acceptance,” states Harry and I stop working on his cut to look him in the eyes.

Harry and Niall both were hurt by Ella’s decision, in very different ways, but hurt nonetheless. And yet they still came here, hoping to see her again. I think that’s amazing.

“Anyways, you really don’ have to worry. I don’t get offended if you think it’s a moth,” he smiles at me and I do the same, going back to make sure his cut is clean.

I pull his hair back with my fingers, examining the rest of his head to make sure there’s no other cut. I feel my butterflies fluttering when I run my fingers through his hair. Oh maybe they are not butterflies, maybe they are moths.

I chuckle at the thought.

“What?” he asks me and only then I look him in the eyes again, still smiling.

“Nothing, I just thought of something silly,” I reply with my hand still in his hair. His cut has stopped bleeding but I don’t step back.

Only then I realise how close we are, how I’m practically invading his personal space but he doesn’t seem to mind. He smiles at me warmly, his eyes locked with mine and I feel my heart racing in my chest.

Slowly, he starts to lose his smile and his expression changes, something in his eyes is different and I swallow hard, suddenly feeling very feeble. I feel like the world is closing around us and there’s nowhere to run now.

“Ariel…” he whispers ever so softly and my breathing is heavy, like when we ran inside the house.

He moves upward, just a bit, closer to me. I’m not tall whereas he is very tall, so even if he’s sitting now the height difference is not much, so when he moves closer to me I panic. My eyes wide in shock and my whole body freezes, not knowing what to do now.

What is he going to do?

Whatever he was planning gets cancelled when he sees my expression, when he realises I’m not even breathing. He sits down again and looks away. My hands fall from his hair and I blink in shock.

Was… was Harry going to… to kiss me? Why? Why would he do that? Could it be that he… that he also… that he also has feelings… feelings for me?

My hands fly to my mouth, flabbergasted. Oh God.

-:-:-

Shalalalalala my oh my, look at the boy too shy, he ain't gonna kiss the girl 🎶 

Dedication to @lovequoteLou for that amazing comment.

Bel, xx

NU: Tuesday (4K votes for early update)