Muse [h.s.]

37. test of time

🎵Give Me Love — Ed Sheeran

Harry's POV

Memories.

I think — for me, at least— memories are often evoked through fragrances and scents.

Like the smell of mum baking a delicious key lime pie in the oven for my seventh birthday after I insisted on it instead of a traditional cake; or the smell of the freshly wet grass after the rainfall when Gemma and I would play tag in the backyard.

Or my favorite, the sweet scent of Aurelia — vanilla and cherry blossoms.

I have a lot of favorite memories, so much that it's hard to pinpoint them exactly, hard to distinguish one as my ultimate favorite.

The best of my memories, however, include her. They make me who I am, creating the version of myself that I love the most, forming the golden thread that tethers along the souls of both her and I, tying us to one another forever.

Good or bad, hurtful or joyous, the best of my memories involve Aurelia Moon.

The first time I ever walked into that bar in New York City, the first time I locked eyes with those molten honey colored irises of hers. I remember smelling the strong scent of the whiskey that she poured into the Old Fashioned glass.

Fuck, I thank my lucky stars each and every day that I decided to walk into that bar.

"Ella?" I asked, darting my tongue out to wet my bottom lip. I glanced down at her name tag pinned to her shirt. "But your name tag says Aurelia."

I trailed my gaze back up to her — Aurelia, a pretty name that fell off the tongue perfectly. She beamed down at me with a quick nod, her lips curved in the sweetest of smiles.

"Yeah, everyone calls me Ella."

That was the moment I vowed to call her by her full name — it's far too beautiful not to say all of the time.

The first time she invited me up to her apartment...I was captivated by the artwork that hung on the walls and her expansive collection of liquor, of course. I got a small glimpse inside her that night, when she spoke about her love of bartending.

"I was surprised that you agreed to come inside," she spoke, looking at me in earnest — gauging my reaction.

"And why is that?" I asked, tilting my head to the side as I met her gaze.

"Well you can see why I'd be surprised," Aurelia replied. "Harry Styles, singer, songwriter," she teased with a small giggle. I couldn't ignore the smile that crept onto my cheeks with the melodious sound.

"Is that what I am?"

I watched as she spun the glass that held her drink in her hands, her shoulders slouching down ever so slightly in a small shrug. "I don't know...I think you're just Harry right now."

I had never had anyone say that to me, no one had ever looked at me like the way she did, like the way she does. I found myself wanting to know more of her after that, drawn to her in a way that even now, I still am unable to quite grasp the complexity of it all.

It was why that night we shared our first kiss, that I googled if it would be a full moon. After hearing the way she spoke of her mum and her adoration of the moon, I could tell Ella shared that same admiration of the moon in which she was named after.

I've been infatuated by her since then.

The first time I kissed her — it was like my previously black-and-white, grayscale world seemed to burst and fill with light; her light.