Never Gonna Quit It [h.s.]

Chapter Twenty-Two:

The air outside was so cold that she could feel it seeping into her bones the longer they lie together, simply gazing at the stars and enjoying each other's company.

Scarlett sighed happily before voicing a thought randomly and without much thought at all, "I wish we'd gone to high school together, maybe things would have been different, maybe we'd have much more time to just love the way that we were supposed to from the start."

Harry's thumb trailed lightly over her cold fingers, "Me too. God, that would've been great. It would have taken me literal years to speak to you, let alone ask you out. Girls made me so nervous back then." He laughed genuinely before continuing, "I would have ended up throwing something at you just to have an excuse to talk to you, and even then, I probably would've stumbled over my words and made a complete fool of myself."

Scarlett smiled and closed her eyes, trying to imagine how it could have been, "And I probably would've admired you from afar, you were as handsome then as you are now; God I would have been putty in your hands! Every day I'd probably daydream about you in the middle of class and get scolded for not paying attention and doodling when I should have been taking notes."

A breeze had her shivering and curling closer into his embrace as he continued their little fairytale, their breaths visible in the frigid night air, "And when I'd finally gotten the chance to ask you out successfully, I'd have bought you flowers so much that they'd fill your room and you'd be telling me to stop it before you developed an allergy. I'd hold your hand in the hallway and, whenever I had the chance, steal kisses in the hall and even get yelled at because I got too carried away with the caress of your lips and just how lovely you tasted. Maybe even one day, near the end of my last year, we'd get in massive trouble for skipping class to make out and have sex in my car."

Scarlett laughed, her nose crinckling at his last add on, "And who says I'd have slept with you at all?"

She'd asked in a joking manner which only prompted him to respond by pinching the side of her bum, causing her to squeak and giggle in response before he spoke, "Oh you so would have! You'd have been all over me, even sneaking out just to see me and break some of our parent's rules, sex being one of them most definitely. I'd be so good to you and spoiling you with every chance that I had, you wouldn't be able to stay away."

A few tears slid down her cheeks when he had been speaking and she hiccuped slightly giving herself away, he hadn't noticed because he couldn't quite see her face, "You know, I didn't think it was possible for you to make me love you even more, but you keep surprising me every single day."

Harry rested his his head in her shoulder, his cold curls tickling the small amount of exposed skin, his touch warming her just that much more even though she was sure they were both freezing, "Please don't cry, I hate it when you cry sweetheart."

Harry placed a warm kiss to her neck and hugged her closer, "I love you so very much and I would only change things if I were allowed to have you by my side, because, without you, there's a void I can't ever seem to fill."

That only seemed to make it worse. Shee wanted to drown in his love, be immersed in it completely, but she was constantly being suffocated by the underlying threat of her cancer and leaving him with an irriplaceable broken heart.

Scarlett wiped at her eyes, frustrated that she was crying so much, and fumbled to find his hand again and entwine their fingers, "Can we pretend that we were high school sweethearts and did all of those things? And that next month I'm not going to possibly die in surgery and that maybe it's actually going to work so that we can get married and have beautiful little babies to watch grow older as we do, continuously falling ever more in love with each other the more time we spend together and never losing that initial spark?"

Harry had lost the control he'd previously maintained on his emotions and cried with her, changing their position so that she was now facing him, his hands quickly grabbing her face and kissing her all over.

He kissed her the way she deserved to be kissed in high school, the way he'd craved since he'd first laid eyes on her at the bar, the way he'd loved her for so damn long now. He kissed her like she was the only thing that he'd ever needed to live and like she was going to disappear at any moment.

Scarlett melted under his touch, giving in to his whims, his emotions, his heart, and his entire being. He was her life.

"Absolutely. You know I'd give you the world if I could."