Letting Go (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter 24: All In

Harry Styles

"How's it feel?"

Nat hobbled awkwardly in the water, trying to stand on the balls of her feet so that she wouldn't get scratched by the coins at the bottom. The water came up to her knees and she was having a little trouble maneuvering through it. After a moment, she turned around, biting her lip and shimmying her feet a bit as if to get a better feel for it.

"A little warmer than I would like, but I bet that waterfall feels amazing." She lifted a finger and pointed to the water pouring down from the second tier.

I grinned. "Let's test that, shall we?" I shifted over the ledge, reaching behind my back to pull my shirt off before jumping right in. As soon as I surfaced, wet and refreshed, she planted her hands on her hips and shot me a blank stare.

"Was that really necessary?"

I sat down against the bottom, the water now at the middle of my chest. "What?"

"Taking your shirt off."

I smirked. "I'm a man. It's what we do."

"My bad." She waddled towards me, her mouth tilting up the way it usually does when she's about to be a smartass. "Do men also make a habit of getting giant butterfly tattoos?"

Whoop, there it is.

I was about to make an equally snarky comeback, when the front doors of the plantation opened with an obnoxious squeak. She and I both shared a wide-eyed look as Mayor Wilson placed a hand over his eyes, probably trying to figure out if he was hallucinating or if we were, in fact, in the fountain in the middle of the town square.

"Shit." She panicked, crouching down and crawling over to the waterfall. She took a deep breath before disappearing behind it. Her plan might have worked- her upper body was carefully concealed by the falling water, but you could still see her legs sprawled out in front of it.

Laughing, I glanced out at the mayor, who was making his way down the porch steps, and then back to the spot where Nattie was "hiding". She never failed to surprise me. Every time I thought I had her figured out, she threw a curveball.

I ducked beneath the waterfall and sat beside her. She had her back pressed against the concrete, the tip of her nose mere inches from the cascading water as she carefully turned to look at me. Her blue eyes were wide and she bit her lip as she tried to figure out a way out of this.

"Looks like I don't have to guess if you're fight or flight." I chuckled. Her face turned red. "You do realize he's walking this way right?"

She groaned, rubbing her eyes with both hands. "I really didn't think this through."

I rolled my eyes. "I swear, you think too much."

She threw her hands out. "Obviously not. We're screwed."

"No, see this is your problem." I casually leaned back against the fountain, ignoring her panicky hand motions. "You break the rules, but then you constantly worry about the consequences and what other people will think of you."

She was frowning, but for once, I think she was actually listening to me.

My eyes met hers. "You can't do that Nat. You make a decision, you own it. Screw what other people think. It's your life."

Sitting beneath a fountain was probably an odd place for a pep talk, if you could even call this a pep talk, but I was getting sick of her constant anxiety. She always second guessed every decision she made. Even when it came to saving Chickasaw. As soon as the mayor started talking about what it would actually take to do it, she got scared and I had to step in. I didn't understand where the sarcastic smartass girl had gone off to, but she sure as hell wasn't in that office. Nat was stubborn and she had a lot of fire, which I could personally vouch for, but she lacked confidence. I had plenty to spare so sometimes, like today, I could make up for it. But, I wasn't going to be around to save her forever.