Never Gonna Let You Go

The One in which Harry's Seated at the Children's Table

Enjoy,

--Ara and LTT

“Come on Tommo. I’m sure it was a-”

“Oh my god, our telepathy is like, off the char-” With Paige’s loud ringtone, speaking in the caller’s exact tone, Ara’s questioning was cut short.

Wasting no time to answer the phone call, Paige shouted into the receiver an enthusiastic, “Panda!”

They heard a loud and excitable response over the line, making Paige stand up and move away from Summer so as not to disturb Andy (even though it seemed he may have the ability to sleep through the apocalypse).

“I’ve missed you!” Beaming with happiness, Paige brushed past the couch Louis, Niall and Ara were near and headed to somewhere she knew she could gush loudly on the phone. “How long has it been since - what? Oh.”

Sharing a look with Louis, Niall raised an eyebrow curiously as Paige’s demeanor didn’t fall into a sad expression like they assumed. On the contrary, she was giggling to herself despite the different meanings her words could bring.

“Ara,” Paige waved at her friend, “Panda wants to talk to you.”

The woman in question pointed to her chest, asking if she really wanted to talk to her. Paige laughed nodding and saying a few last words on her phone, a small blush splattering her cheeks.

“What did she say?” Louis asked brushing his fingers past the hand Paige had resting at her side. As she handed the phone off, she looked down at the singer and blushed more.

Paige shrugged, simply stating, “Oh, nothing. It was just - Panda.”

“Hullo?” Ara cleared her throat, holding the phone away from her ear yet beaming as soon as her friend shrieked.

“ARA! Ohmygod, how the hell are you doing? Wait, that was a stupid question, you just pushed a eight plus pound kid out your va-”

“O-KAY!” Ara cut off Panda, waving her hands frantically even though the girl in question was almost ten thousand miles away and on a separate continent, in a country that Ara probably couldn’t pronounce the name of. “That’s enough of that, thank you very much. But I’m fine, thanks for asking. Andy’s doing great too -”

“You named the kid after TOY STORY?!” Ara winced holding the phone away from her ear again as Panda screeched. “Thathasgottobethecutestthingsinceever! How’s Liam handling it?! Wait no, how is Alexa handling Liam handling it.” The tone she used practically painted the picture in Ara’s mind of her wiggling her eyebrows, and made her unable to do anything but snort.

With a glance over at Alexa and Liam who were sitting close enough together that their legs were touching on the rather roomy coach, Ara stifled a smile and told Panda how adorable their friends were being. Alexa had Andy still cuddled in the crook of her elbow but she was no longer enraptured with him, instead she was grinning with the man sitting close to her.

“Wait, so everyone’s well-behaved at your shindig?” Panda sounded heartbroken while Ara rolled her eyes. “I knew I should have been there! You’re telling me that Elyse and Zayn aren’t all over one another, one giant step away from making their own family... or Louis and Paige aren’t getting co- well... I guess this is Paige we’re talking about. She wouldn’t know he was interested even if he came up to her and said, ‘Hey Paige, wanna f-’'"

Ara interrupted again, speaking in monotone, “Oh Panda, you’re the life of the party. Please, oh pretty pretty please, come to my home and liven up this ‘welcome home’ party... We’re nothing without you -”