Aurelia [h.s.]

twenty-seven

Aurelia's just told Harry that she wants to put soap in a public fountain and Harry's freaking out. "Aurelia! That's so bad! Why do you want to do that!?"

He's worried about getting arrested and spending a night in jail because he's pretty sure that putting soap in a public fountain is a form of vandalism. Aurelia doesn't seem to care at all though as she smiles up at him with her teeth on full display.

"Because it's fun and I want to. I thought you were far more worried about keeping your wife happy and helping her finish her bucket list, than getting in trouble or being 'bad.'"

Harry shakes his head and sighs because she's right, yet again. He really is far more concerned about her over anything else. Well, her and the little baby that they have on the way.

"I can't believe I'm going to help you do this. Your bucket list is quite interesting, it's always surprising and very memorable. When did you come up with it?"

He's been meaning to ask her about it for a while, but it always slips his mind because she's so full of surprises and he honestly forgets about a lot of things while he's with her.

Aurelia leans closer to him because she wants to revel in his presence as much as she can, especially now since they're married. "Just before I lost my sight. I knew that it was going and I felt this...need to come up with something, just in case the tumor ever went to stage four or if I decided to stop treatments."

The corners of his lips curve up and into a smile as he imagines her sitting in her room with a head full of ideas and a pen to write them down. She's told him almost everything that's on it by this point, but it's still incredibly surprising to actually check things off. Right now, he's thinking about how she wrote 'Fall in love' somewhere near the middle. She said that she thought about him a lot when she was going through chemo and her surgeries, and he's wondering if she was thinking about him when she wrote that on her list.

"When you wrote that you wanted to fall in love, were you thinking of me?"

He knows that she probably was, but he'd love to hear her say it.

Aurelia smile is shy and there's a light blush to her cheeks. She remembers exactly when she wrote that and she was most definitely thinking of him back then. "Yes, I was. I always thought about you and how you changed over the years and if you still would have liked me if you saw me go through my living hell."

Harry stops walking and pulls her to him so that he can kiss her slowly and with his hands on her cheeks, "I would have still adored you. Illness doesn't change a person, it only changes their external features and sometimes their internal, tangible features. I knew that even as a child, or at least, that's what my mother says."

There are a few noticeable tears in her eyes as she looks up at him and asks, "But why do you adore me? Why has it always been me?"

Harry shrugs and smiles at her as he wipes the few tears away from her cheeks, "Honestly, I don't know. I've just always been inexplicably drawn to you, didn't really get a choice in the matter but, if I did, I would still choose you."

He presses a soft kiss to her forehead and she closes her eyes, "It's so hard to believe that this isn't just a dream and that you're really here and that you love me."

Harry continues to smile at her because he knows the feeling all too well, "I know, but it's great to wake up every day and know that it's real because you're still by my side when I wake up."

Aurelia bites her lower lip as she thinks about it. He's right and she's so glad that it's not just a dream and that he's real and that he's hers in the sense that he loves her and she loves him.