you're my last shot

a good life

"How about Reign?"

"We're not the Kardashians, Harry."

He resists the urge to roll his eyes as Y/N shoots down another one of his name suggestions, using the ball-point pen to scratch the words out on his list. She glances down at her phone and purses her lips.

"Okay, my next suggestion was May."

"That's cute," Harry murmurs, "Although, I had a cat when I was little named May. She got rabies because we found her on the street. It was kind of traumatizing if I'm being honest."

Immediately, Y/N deletes the name May from her list.

"Do you have any other good ones?" she asks as she leans forward to grasp the cup of tea Harry made her when she got to his place. She's still struggling with not drinking coffee, even though it's been months since she stopped. Harry insists that green tea is a good substitute, but so far, she doesn't believe him.

"I feel like you'll hate the ones I have left," he replies, peering up at her. She shrugs, a silent response of try me. "Alright, the last few that I came up with are: Noel—"

"Cute, but I think it's too Christmas-y."

"—Holly—"

"Are you just really into Christmas-themed names?"

"And Clementine."

She pauses. He can see the gears turning in her brain as she contemplates it, the pad of her finger running over the rim of the ceramic mug in her hands.

"I think I really like that, actually," she says softly. "Clementine. It's sweet."

Harry nods, a jolt of energy firing through him. "Yeah, I was thinking we could call her Clemmie or Clem for short. I don't know, thought it was unique."

"It is," she agrees, her left hand finding her bump, "Are you our little Clementine?"

He smiles. "And I know we decided she'd have Styles as a last name, but I was thinking, since you've always loved having the name middle name as your sister, maybe we could give her the same one. Or maybe the same one as your niece."

Y/N swallows, attempting to get rid of the lump in her throat as she nods quickly. They'd decided on carrying the Styles last name on with her a few months back — she didn't feel very strongly about them all having the same last name, explaining that she would always be her mother regardless of whether or not they shared that. (Harry couldn't agree more.) But she'd only mentioned once or twice that she thought her niece's middle name was adorable, and she liked her family tradition of keeping middle names the same. When she and her sister were younger, it always felt like this little connection they had that no one else did.

"Grace, right?" Harry asks, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Your niece's middle name?"

She nods, "Yeah, Grace."

"Clementine Grace Styles."

"I like it," she says quickly, unable to ignore the tears clouding her waterline, "It's pretty. I really like it."

"Me too. I think Grace fits perfectly."

They stare at each other for a moment, the gravity of finally giving her a name settling in. She's no longer this little nameless fruit floating around in her tummy (although Harry still provided weekly updates on her size — currently, she's a cantaloupe, which is slightly terrifying for Y/N to conceptualize).

"Do you mind if I...?"

Even with the boundaries they've broken, nearing "couple" territory as opposed to platonic co-parenting, he's still extremely cautious of Y/N's boundaries. He never wants to make her feel uncomfortable, especially because he knows she's been on the receiving end of some awful side effects.

But, even if it's a secret she keeps to herself, she really adores when she gets to lay back and watch him talk to her belly.

She nods at his open-ended question and settles against the cozy pregnancy pillow he bought months ago. Gently, he flips her sweater up and presses a chaste kiss right above her belly button, making her shiver.

"We can't wait to meet you, Clementine Grace," he mumbles lowly, "Please give your mummy an easy time for the next two months, okay? She's getting really tired, but she's been so strong. She even lets me sing to you without pushing me away."

Y/N snorts and Harry glances up with a small smile. She raises her eyebrows expectedly, encouraging him to continue.

"Anyway... we're just really excited." his eyes flicker up to hers and she swallows. "I think we're gonna have a good life together."