Chapter Text
Saturday 12, June 2016
“Alright, let’s have a big, loud, majestic lion’s roar,” Harry said, giving his deep voice extra raspiness. He held his scrunched fingers by his face and demonstrated, “Roaaarrrr!”
The set of triplets all giggled loudly, their small hands mimicking his position.
“Beautiful,” he smiled, snapping a handful of photos. The warm spring breeze blew through his loose short sleeved button down, black with flamingos printed on it, his dark skinnies rolled up his to ankles and his feet bare. “One more roar. C’mon, I can’t hear you!”
“Roaaarrrr!!!”
“That’s it,” Harry laughed over them, snapping more pictures. “You girls look lovely.”
“We’re lovely lions,” one said, her puffy purple hat falling into her eyes.
Harry ran in front of his tripod and adjusted her hat, tilting her sister’s blue hat on her head of soft blonde hair. He bopped the pink hat of the third sister for good luck, earning a chorus of giggles.
“There we are,” he said, running back around the tripod. “Let’s see.” He checked the viewfinder, tilting the camera downwards. “We’ve had lions, bears, tigers.” He bent his head around the camera and grinned at them, sliding his black aviators higher into his long hair. “What else do you girls want to be?” He fanned his fingers out, excitement rasping in his voice. “You can be anything you want, anything at all, now that we have the,” he rolled his eyes dramatically, “boring, serious photos done.”
“Cows!” the puffy pink outfitted sister cried, kicking her legs on the park bench. “Mooooo!”
Harry mooed along with them, breaking into laughter as he took more photos. They had passed their allotted time, but he didn’t have anyone booked directly after them. Sometimes, the best photos came from when his clients were relaxed and under the impression the shoot was over. He didn’t mind an extra few minutes here or there.
He took his camera off the tripod and ran closer to their propped position, dipping the camera in and out as they mugged up at him.
“You girls are perfect. Perfect!”
Their mother, Lucy, chuckled from her place at an adjacent bench. She looked up from her book, watching Harry run around her daughters to take photos, their laughter growing more and more.
“You’re so good with them,” she called over their giggles, Harry looking away from the girls to smile at Lucy. “Do you babysit?”
“Not professionally, but I’ve been known to manny when needed.”
“Do you have any of your own?”
“Oh. Uh,” he shook his head, snapping a quick photo of the girls trying to climb down from the bench in their puffy dresses, “no. Not yet.”
“Are you seeing anyone?”
Harry’s fog lifted, a bright smile stretching over his face.
“Yeah, I am. I’ve been with my boyfriend over a year now.” He held each of their tiny hands as their short legs struggled to find the ground. He pointed over his shoulder at a patch of grass bursting with wildflowers. “How about those flowers, girls? What do you think? Wanna have a photo shoot over there?”
They all cried, “Yeah!” and ran to the spot.
He winced through his smile, wrinkling his nose towards Lucy.
“Sorry in advance for their dresses.”
“That’s alright.” She turned a page of her book. “I learned long ago to buy fabric that can handle grass stains.”
A high pitched voice shouted, “We’re ready, Mr. Harry!”
Harry smiled and turned towards them. He made a loud gasping noise and clutched his chest, pretending to stumble as he walked, the girls giggling on the grass.
“Oh, ladies. Wow. Just wow,” he said, starting to snap as he walked closer. They had positioned themselves on their backs, their heads together amongst the colourful flowers. “You’re making my job so easy! How did you know I was going to ask you to do that?”
A small tan blur came closer in the background of his frame. He glanced up from his camera screen, his dimples popping in an ecstatic, open-mouthed smile.
Louis followed behind the energetic blur, his arm outstretched from a taught lead linked to Georgie’s collar.
“You can let him off,” Harry called, squatting down. He slapped the tops of his thighs. “Come to papa, Georgie boy!”
The second Louis unclipped Georgie’s lead, the dog came flying across the field. Well, he flew as fast as his little pug legs would allow, which wasn’t terribly fast, but he made up for speed in enthusiasm. He barrelled into Harry’s legs.
“Hello, my little monster,” Harry said in a grumbly voice, picking Georgie up to cradle him in his arms. “Girls,” he turned Georgie’s scrunched, wrinkled face towards the triplets, “this is Sir George Harrison Tomlinson the First, otherwise known as Georgie.” He glanced up at Louis’ smiling face as he jogged closer. “He prefers Georgie. Just ask him.”
“Mummy, can we play with Georgie?” the triplet in puffy pink asked, already rolling out of formation. “Pleeeeease?”
“Sure.” Lucy didn’t even look up from her book, flicking her hand towards the grass. “Have fun, lovies.”
Georgie preened at the attention from the three blonde triplets, wriggling out of Harry’s arms and towards their colourful, puffy dresses. They all started to giggle high pitched, excited laughs, Georgie hopping from puffy dress to puffy dress and getting lost in the material.
“He’s good with kids, I promise,” Harry called over his shoulder to Lucy. “I’ll keep an eye out.”
She turned a page in her book and sipped her iced coffee, swirling her hand towards the sound of her children’s laughter.
“I’m just so glad Janine referred you,” Lucy said, her eyes smiling over the top of her book “We’ll have to take birthday pictures every week if you can wrangle the girls to behave like this!”
Harry smiled and bent over, scrunching his fingers in the rolls of chub on top of Georgie’s neck. His referrals were a bit different now when compared to one year ago.
“Hello, beautiful.”
He looked up. Louis smiled down at him, his hands on his hips and his eyes soft. Sunlight beamed from behind his head, his quiff messy in his usual Saturday morning style. His black skinnies were cuffed at the ankle, a simple white v-neck tee hanging loose off his collar bones with an unzipped black hoodie flaring out from his torso.
Louis pulled Harry up from the ground. They wrapped their arms around each other, squeezing tight for one long moment. Georgie ran around their feet.
“Hi,” Harry whispered against Louis’ neck, pressing his lips beneath his ear. He smoothed his hand up Louis’ chest to cradle the front of his throat, Louis kissing his jawline. “This is a lovely surprise.”
Louis stepped back, smirking.
“Someone fed our boy an obscene amount of treats before he left for work,” Harry grinned at that, “and he was dying to stretch his legs. For digestion purposes, obviously. Plus,” Louis swung a brown leather messenger bag around his body, “I saw you left this at home.” He reached inside, producing a long, black lens. “Didn’t know if you needed it today.”
“Aw, you didn’t have to walk all the way here to give me that.” Harry wrapped his hand around the lens, their fingers brushing. His cheeks tinted pink, his smile shy, Louis sharing his expression. “Thank you, though. That was so sweet of you.”
“I heard something weird when I picked it up. I hope I didn’t break it in my bag.”
“Nah, as long as the lens cover is on, I’m sure it’s--” Harry bent over, giving Georgie, who had started to climb his leg, a firm scratch behind the ears. He patted Georgie’s pudgy bum, sending the dog back towards the trio of giggling girls. “I doubt you could have done anything harmful to it.”
Louis asked, “Would you mind checking? If I broke it, the least I could do would be to drop it at the shop for you. It’s on the way home.”
Harry snorted and shook his head, bending over to brush his lips to the tip of Louis’ nose.
“You’re so cute.” He held the lens vertical against his chest. “This type of lens is actually pretty sturdy. It’s fine, I’m sure.” He unscrewed the black lens cover and chuckled, watching Georgie run from girl to girl. “Look at Georgie right now. He’s totally in his element surrounded by…”
Track: Lionel Richie - All Night Long (All Night)
There was a tiny, pinged metallic sound against the lens’ glass, the sound pulling Harry’s attention back to the lens. A simple silver ring shone under the afternoon sun, the glass lens glinting below the perfect metal band.
Harry looked forward with frantic, enormous eyes, but found Louis was no longer standing in front of him. He opened his mouth to call out for him. There was a soft, “Ahem,” from below. He looked down.
Louis smiled up at him, his eyes crinkled and the corners of his lips trembling. His right knee was pressed to the grass, his left leg bent with his blue Adidas trainer flat on the ground. He reached up and plucked the ring off Harry’s lens, pinching it between his thumb and pointer finger.
“What--” Harry’s lungs struggled to balance both words and airflow, his head shaking side to side uncontrollably, his hand clutched to his chest. He laughed out, “What--”
He looked behind Louis and found that they weren’t alone. Everyone from Jo, with iPhone poised, to Niall and Zayn, already crying tears of joy, to Maggie, grinning and holding Georgie, who now sported a black bow tie, were crouched down behind Louis, all smiling wide.
“We’re all sort of a package deal, I suppose,” Louis said softly, spinning the ring and lifting it. “And,” he sighed, “despite my pleas to keep this a private moment between us,” his eyes crinkled as he smiled wider, “everyone sort of arrived in London this morning and congregated near the park.”
“Oh, pish posh,” Jo scoffed, gently slapping the back of Louis’ head. “He’s been ring shopping for months.”
“I have not,” Louis insisted, though his smile said otherwise.
Lane butted in, “We’ve all known this was coming.”
“You did?” Harry asked, his watery eyes glancing from Jo to Lane to Louis. “You...You want to marry me?”
“Yes! He does!” Maggie shouted. “We all do!”
Harry and Louis laughed, Louis thumbing tears off Harry’s bottom eyelids. Harry smoothed Maggie’s wild curls, scratching between Georgie’s ears, the dog panting excitedly. He got down to his knees, the soft grass bending under his weight. He grasped Louis’ ring holding hand with both of his hands, cradling their hands to his chest. He pressed his face to Louis’ neck, Louis’ free arm looped around the small of his back.
“Marry me,” Louis whispered, his voice the only thing Harry could hear, despite the chorus of ecstatic people behind him.
“Yes,” Harry whispered back, Louis smoothly slipping the ring onto his finger. Louis’ arms wrapped around him, their upper backs heaving with breaths, their family applauding and cheering behind them. “Yes,” Harry laughed wetly, kissing Louis’ jawline, “yes,” their lips connected, their uncontrollable smiles breaking up their kisses, “a thousand times yes!”
“I’ll call Flamingo Cove!” Niall exclaimed over the cheers, clapping loud enough to startle birds out of a nearby tree. “We’ve got another wedding to plan!”