Songbird [H.S]

THIRTY

"Something tells me you were a clingy baby, Harry." Marley chuckled softly as she felt her boyfriend snuggle up to her on the sofa.

They were at his house, spending the evening with his Mum as they sat and watched old tapes of 'I Love Lucy'. Since Josephine had died, Marley had been spending more nights over at Harry's, enjoying her time with Anne as they got to know each other better. Harry's mother was always at work whenever Marley was around so it was rare they ever got to have a proper conversation with each other, but now she had taken time off work, she was home more often. Niall rarely joined them, either too busy working or spending time with Rain.

Anne noticed how comfortable her son was with Marley, smiling as she saw how he always rested his head on her shoulder when they cuddled and how Marley would start to play with his hair subconsciously. The way the two teenagers looked at each other reminded Anne of how she used to be with Luke before he passed away and it made her so happy to see her son so in love with a girl that adored him just as much.

"He was a very cuddly baby. He still is, really." Harry's Mum stated, making Harry bury his face against Marley's shoulder to hide the blush spreading across his cheeks. He heard them begin to tease him a little for growing shy and he immediately frowned as he pretended to be annoyed by it.

"Don't be embarrassed, Bambi. You're a Mummy's boy, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Marley cooed softly, squishing his cheeks a little as the boy rolled his eyes. He seemed to be embarrassed by it but Marley thought it was really sweet that he was so close with his Mum. She wanted her children to feel like they could come to either her or Harry with any issue they had, just like Harry could with his Mum.

"I miss when you were my little boy. Now look at you, you're about to have your own little one to look after." Anne sighed to herself, making Harry roll his eyes at her words. She often reminisced about when he and Niall were kids, musing on how fast the time has gone and dreading the day both her sons moved out and no longer depended on her. She might complain about having to clean up after them all the time but deep down it was the little things she would miss the most like having to tell Harry to turn his music down; reminding Niall to hang up his wet towels; asking Harry to bring down the collection of dirty dishes left in his room or being woken up every time Niall slammed the front door when he came home from a night out.

"Do you have any pictures of him as a kid? I'd love to see them." Marley asked politely. She noticed how Anne's face lit up with joy at the question, eager to show the girl pictures of her little boy. Marley hadn't really seen many pictures of her boyfriend as a kid, she'd only heard the odd story from Josephine so she thought it would be sweet to know what he was like from his Mum. Much to Harry's embarrassment.

"Mae! Why would you-" Harry groaned, his question being interrupted when he noticed Anne getting up from her chair to go and find something. "MUM! Stop!"

"Relax, darling. I'm just getting the tapes. You like watching videos of you and Niall as kids." Anne rolled her eyes, knowing Harry secretly liked looking back at when he was younger. The boy was only half-pretending to be embarrassed because Marley was there but deep down he was just as interested as his girlfriend to look back at his younger self.

Marley waited eagerly for Anne to dig out the family videotapes of Harry as a baby, watching as the woman played the first tape. She wound through some of the videos of him as a newborn (clearly wanting to avoid watching anything that had Harry's Dad in), pressing play after she found what she was looking for.

The first thing that could be heard was a sudden loud crash and a high-pitched scream, something Anne had grown accustomed to over the period of time Harry reached his terrible two's stage. She could tell the boy wasn't hurt but he was close to a tantrum.