Golden Hour [H.S]

One

January 2023

Soft rays of the Italian winter sunshine cast a gentle glow through the studio windows, doing little to warm Harry's pale skin as he stood in front of a full-length mirror in just his underwear. The room was bustling with chaos as various stylists hurried about the confined space, pulling endless outfits off their racks and shoving them into the model's arms to try on.

After a couple of hours of unorganised fittings, stupid mistakes, and general time-wasting, the model's temper was wearing thin, putting the entire room on edge. With Harry's reputation for angry outbursts, it was in everyone's best interest to appease Gucci's biggest star and keep him happy - a task that was much easier said than done.

Since early that morning, Harry had been stuck in an endless loop of trying on clothes, discussing alterations, and moving on to the next piece of clothing. With all four fashion weeks to plan for, Harry expected to be called back to the studio over the next few days. However, one of the interns had mislabelled all the outfits, causing the whole process to move even slower.

That intern was currently assigned to pinning alterations to Harry's fitted slacks, refusing to look the famous model in the eye as his presence unnerved her. Tired and impatient, Harry gradually became restless, making the nervous woman take longer as she tried to avoid mistakes. Shifting impatiently on his feet and little else to occupy his mind, he found himself staring at his reflection, trailing over the swirls of ink across his tanned skin before settling on the gold four-leaf clover dangling from a chain around his neck. A fond smile graced his lips as he let his thoughts wander, hoping to shut out the chaos around him - the last thing he needed was another headline about one of his outbursts, even if the complete incompetence of the crew around him justified it.

Feeling a sharp poke in his thigh, Harry flinched slightly and sighed with irritation as, yet again, the young woman's shaking hands caused her to catch his skin with a dressmaker pin. She immediately apologised in Italian, anxious eyes flitting upwards to meet his stern gaze to assess his temper before returning to her work - not wanting to upset him even more.

As Harry had been told, Claudette was a freshly graduated fashion student hoping to make it big in the industry through this internship. It was quite unheard of for Alessandro to take on interns so fresh from education, so the supermodel suspected Claudette was benefitting from a family member with a high position in the brand. Judging by her hesitancy to be near Harry and the constant tremble in her hands, she struggled to keep up with the demands of her job.

Another sharp poke in Harry's thigh, this time a lot harder than before, made the man jump in pain. As much as he tried to keep his temper at bay, he couldn't take being prodded by pins by someone so unprofessional any longer, and all that anger started to bubble to the surface. Without thinking, Harry snatched the dressmaker pin from Claudette's hand and glared at her, his green eyes blazing with fury.

"Poke me with that pin one more time, and I'll fucking shove it up your-"

"Harry!" The hurried sound of heels clacking against the hardwood floor suddenly approached the model as his manager rushed to diffuse the situation. "Don't you dare finish that threat!"

Rosa's pristine appearance never faltered as she had a slight skip in her frantic steps, clutching onto the schedule she had previously been going over with Alessandro before Harry snapped. She politely apologised on her client's behalf, giving Harry a pointed look as he refused to do it himself before letting Claudette take a short break to escape the tension.

"Would it kill you to have some manners for once in your life?" She hissed, making sure to keep her voice quiet enough for passing crew members not to overhear her scolding her client as if he were a petulant child. Harry simply rolled his eyes, stepping off the small podium in front of the mirror to pull on his shirt resting over the back of a chair.