The Magic Within You

Epilogue Part I

December 24th
1 year later

Harry proudly looks at the almost empty trays on his sales counter and the full tables. It's just before closing time and almost all of his cakes and treats have been sold. And as much as Harry loves his little bakery, he can hardly wait when the shop is soon closed so that Louis and he can finally go upstairs to their apartment to celebrate Louis' birthday.

The two of them have achieved so much in one year. Not only is Little Rendezvous a complete success, but in addition to their jobs, after work both of them renovated the empty apartment above their shop and moved in there two months ago. Here they have such a large living room that this year there is enough space for the even larger Christmas tree and Louis has been sitting in front of it in the evenings for days with shining eyes.

Harry now rents out the old apartment to guests of Winterhollow or keeps it free from bookings when his or Louis' family comes to visit. Like this year. Tomorrow both of their families will arrive and split up between the old apartment and the new one. Harry is really looking forward to the upcoming chaos and that both families will finally get to know each other after it hasn't worked out to get everyone together in one place.

Louis is a bit stressed, the last few days he's been more nervous as Harry has seen him ever and every time he asks, Louis quickly emphasises that he just wants everyone to get along well. It's incredibly important to him and even though Harry feels the same way, he can't quite understand Louis' agitation behind it. But that's his boyfriend the way he loves him - always exaggerating a bit and so wonderfully sweet. After a year of dating, Harry has now learned to deal with it and has found out that Louis almost immediately calms down when he strokes his back without saying a lot until Louis cuddles up to him like a little kitten. It's fascinating to watch it every time and Harry secretly loves the power he has over him.

"Harry my dear, do you still have any of these cookies? What are they called again? Ah, Golden!" an older, nice lady who is a regular customer suddenly pulls him out of his thoughts.

Harry shakes his head with an apologetic smile. "Unfortunately not, Rosie. But I still have some of the scones or the shortbread."

Harry points to the sweets on the shelf while Rosie thinks. "Why are you giving your pastries such crazy names, boy?" she suddenly giggles. "It doesn't really make any sense to me why the scones are called Watermelon Sugar or the shortbread is called Kiwi."

"But that's the fun of it," Harry smiles. "From the new year there will be something completely new that I created myself. But I won't tell you what it is yet."

"Do you have another crazy name for that?" Rosie grins and shows him that she wants to take scones and shortbread with her and Harry hurries to pack them up.

"Of course. Although I find the name rather adorable. It will be called Sweet Creature."

Rosie looks up and wiggles her index finger in amusement. "Harry! Could it be that it has something to do with the nice young gentleman from the bookstore?"

"What makes you think that?" Harry smiles, amused.

"All of Winterhollow knows how crazy you are about each other. And I once saw you secretly making out in the back of the bakery," Rosie grins.

"You caught us more than once. Of course I used Louis as inspiration for the name," Harry winks and looks at the clock again. Only half an hour before he has his boyfriend all to himself.

"Ah young love. When I see you two I always think back to my husband and how we could never keep our hands off each other," Rosie giggles and hands Harry the money in exchange for the bag he is holding out to her.