The Artist [h.s.]

eleven

Harry was completely on the opposite side of the bed when she awoke. Carter frowned, she hated when there was space between them, it always made it feel like something was wrong. Granted, there was something wrong this time, but it didn't mean that she wanted him to keep his distance.

"You're so far away."

She watched his eyes soften and the thoughts race behind his irises. Harry nodded and opened his arms for her, "You're right, c'mere."

Carter wanted to smile, but her mind was against her and wouldn't let her. She scooted over to his side of the bed and exhaled deeply once his arms were around her, pulling her to his chest.

"I don't want you to avoid touching me because he hurt me, your touch helps more than you think it does." She mumbled into his skin and hugged him tighter.

Harry responded instantly, holding her as close as he could and pressing a kiss to her temple, "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I won't do it again."

Carter hummed and closed her eyes again, they hurt from all the crying she'd done the night before and she was tired. Harry was warm and comforting, she was safe with him and he didn't have to tell her that verbally, she felt it.

"Do you want to stay in bed all day? We can order in and watch movies, anything you want."

His voice was soft, like the gentle tap of rain against the window, and she wished he would talk more, he made it so easy to fall asleep, even when she felt like hell.

"Please. Pizza and horror movies are appreciated." Carter yawned and cuddled closer to Harry, the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed lulling her into sleep once again.

He shifted beneath her, sinking back into the covers as well. He had been up all night worrying about her because she woke up periodically, tears streaming down her face, her lungs gasping for air.

All night, he'd held her during these episodes and sang her back to sleep, but in the morning he didn't think that she would want him to touch her again because she would be fully awake and remember everything clearly.

He'd been so wrong and he wasn't ever going to pull away from her again, not unless she asked him too.

They ended up falling asleep a few minutes later and waking up around twelve. Carter mumbled something into his skin that he couldn't quite understand and when he asked her to repeat it, she offered him a soft smile.

"I feel better now."

Harry lifted her hand and pressed kisses to each of her knuckles, "I love you, no matter what."

When he dropped her hand, she brought it back up again only to hold it against his cheek and his jawline, her thumb carefully running over his smooth skin. Tears threatened to spill, but she held them back, he was perfect, not perfect in the sense of the word, but perfect for her.

"I love you too."

She surprised him when she leaned in to kiss him, her lips lingering and sending his heart racing.

"Thank you."

Harry smiled even though he didn't know for certain what she was thanking him for, "For what?"

Carter laid her head on his chest again and smiled to herself, "For not giving up on me."

His arms tightened around her slightly and he kissed her temple again, "I won't ever give up on you, Carter."

. . .

A half empty box of pizza rested beside them in the middle of bed, the TV droning on at a moderate volume, and the lights from the city flooded in softly from the window.

Carter still wasn't herself, she probably wouldn't be for a while, but she felt so much better already having spent the day doing, essentially, nothing with Harry.

They'd hardly left the bed, except when necessary, and he was always touching her in some way, letting her know that he was there and, in turn, comforting her.

Some idiot was being brutally murdered on the screen, when Carter decided to ask, "Where's my ring?"

She asked it curiously and not in any way possessively or angry and Harry smiled and put his half eaten slice of pizza back in the box, "I'll go get it. Ruined my plan of asking you to marry me again, but, I mean, whatever you want."

Carter stared at him blankly and he grew nervous the more time she spent staring at him and not saying anything.

His hand went to the back of his neck, "Uh...did I say something wrong?"

The look on her face went from blank to a wonderful mix of joyful and amazed, "You were going to ask me to marry you again?"

Harry nodded, his smile certainly less confidant and an abundance of shyness, "Yeah, I uhm...I thought that it would be romantic and that you'd like it."

The smile that found its way to her lips nearly stopped his heart, "Harry..."

His smile brightened and lifted more on the left, Carter's heart threatened to beat out of her chest.

"Yes?"

Carter threw her arms around him, "I love you so much."

Harry beamed and held her close, "I love you so much more."

"You can ask again, but the answer is always going to be yes."

Harry laughed lightly, "Then there's no point in asking, is there?"

Carter laughed with him, wiping tears from her eyes, "Not unless you want to be even more incredibly sweet."

She let go and Harry brushed the hair from her face and caressed her cheek, "I'll always be sweet for you."

Carter leaned forward and kissed his cheek, "Good, because I hate sweet things, but you're my favourite sweet thing and I don't want you to ever go away."

Harry smiled and closed the distance between them again, kissing her lovingly, "I won't ever go away, I promise."

Author's Note:  Short chapter, but next one will be longer, I promise, this was just how I wanted this chapter to go and it happened to be shorter so...whoops. Hope you liked it!