The Opening Act (H.S) {Completed - Editing}

Rehearsal Dinner

"Hey H, can you come in here and zip up my dress? I can't get it."

"Hold on a sec, babe," he hollers in response from the other room.

I try the zipper again but it feels like the material of the dress got caught in it. Harry comes into the room, his eyes widening as he sees me.

"Holy shit," he says in a low tone. "You look sexy as hell, Ave."

I spin around as he walks over to me. He tries and fails, which leads to him bending down slightly to see the zipper closer. He fumbles with it quite a bit until I finally feel it moving along my back. Harry places lingering kisses all along my back as he pulls the zipper up, ending on the back of my neck.

"You're so beautiful, Ava."

He takes my hand and spins me around to face him. I feel his hands gently snake around my waist and then he proceeds to pull me into his chest. He kisses my forehead and I smile as I rest my hands on his chest.

"We're getting married tomorrow," I say quietly.

"Yes we are," he smiles. "Assuming you're not one of those brides who leaves the groom at the alter and throws everything away."

I roll my eyes and scoff. "Always ruining the moment, Styles."

"It's one of my best skills, almost Styles."

I giggle and lean further into him. I stand up on my tiptoes a little and move my arms to rest on his shoulders, my hands clasped behind his neck. He beats me to the kiss, leaning forward and placing his lips on mine in a gentle manner. Due to our incredible luck, we get interrupted as we hear car doors closing outside.

"Does the whole interruptions while we're kissing thing stop after we say I do tomorrow?"

I laugh and peck his lips lazily a few times. "With our lives, not a chance."

I step back from him and go over to the dresser to grab my necklace. Once I have it clasped on, I slip on my jacket and shoes. Harry slips his blazer over his arms, then comes over and grabs my hand.

"Ready?"

I take a deep breath and nod. Our parents had been here since this morning, setting up the tables and decorating a little. We had yet to see it, and I'll be honest I was a little nervous to head down there. "I think so, yeah."

As we head outside, I see that the cars that we heard was Lacey, Rachel, and Gemma, as well as John,  Raina, and my aunt and uncle. I lead Harry over to our mothers, who were at one of the tables discussing something.

"How's everything going?" I ask as we get over to them.

"Pretty well, I think," my mom replies. "What do the two of you think of everything so far? Everything good or do you want to change up some stuff?"

I glance around, taking in everything that they'd set up. "Honestly, I love it so much," I say, letting out a deep breath. "You guys put together everything exactly how I imagined."

"Probably because you gave us very clear details with practically a book of examples, dear," Anne jokes. "We were just discussing how the center pieces should be laid out. Which one do the two of you like better?"

Harry steps forward, examining the two setups they'd laid out. "I like the right one, personally. But Ava's pretty much in charge of this kinda stuff, so..."

"No, I like the right one too. I think the other one would take up too much table space."

"That was my thought too," my mom nods. "Alright, then we'll take a picture of that one to have for final setup tomorrow."

"Thank you guys so much for everything," I mumble as I hug my mother. I hug Anne too, telling her how thankful I am as I do. The fact that everything was working so smoothly slightly made me fear that something would go terribly wrong, but I tried to push that to the back of my head as I headed over to my dad. Harry had wandered off to greet the boys, with Lou and Lux, who had just arrived. They were the last of the group that was coming to the rehearsal dinner.

"Hi, peaches."

"Hi dad," I smile. He brings me in for a hug, squeezing tight. "Thanks for helping today."

"Of course, Miss. Ava Mae," he mumbles. "I'm so glad I could be here to help. In a way, being injured has been rewarding. I've been so happy watching you grow and take over the world over the last year or two."

"Love you," I mumble back. He kisses my head, then steps back.

"I love you more than you'll ever know, peaches. Now, your man is coming over here and he looks like he's on a mission so I'm going to go see if your mother needs help with anything."

I laugh lightly, nodding and looking behind me to see what my dad was talking about. Harry smiles as I look over at him, holding out his hand for me to take.

"C'mon babe, Lou has a bunch of questions for you."

//

"Okay but do we all honestly think he can pull this off? We don't really have a backup plan here," my mother says, worry laced in her tone. We were in rehearsal mode now, currently trying to figure out how we were going to get Charming down the isle with our rings.

"If we put them on his collar, I can keep a treat in my pocket for him to come to," Harry suggests.

"Well, it's called a rehearsal dinner for a reason," my uncle says. "Give it a try."

Harry heads inside, grabbing Charm as well as a few treats. We'd just gotten the isle and the alter set up and ready, so we were ready to figure this whole thing out.

I watch silently as Harry has Charming sit at the beginning of the walkway, then tells him to stay. Charm is aware of the treat and as soon as Harry turns his back and starts to walk, our pup immediately does what he always does and inches closer multiple times. Harry sighs, then has him back up again. After the third try and more failure, I stop him.

"What if we have whoever is sitting back here hold his collar so he can't move further? I don't think anybody on our guest list would really mind," I suggest.

"What if one of us do it?" Liam asks.

"You guys are supposed to be up front to walk in our family members," Harry sighs.

I step up next to Harry and rub his back as I lean my head on his shoulder.

"Well here's a thought," Liam speaks up again. "The way we just rehearsed coming down the walkway put me at the far end of the row. I could let Charm go and then walk back to my seat by going the long way around instead of down the walkway. That way I'm not disrupting anything."

"The only other way is to have Lux walk him," I tell Harry. "Which for sure would end terribly."

He sighs and looks at me. "Okay. Lets try it Liam's way so we can move on."

After two tries, we get it figured out. While Liam takes Charm back inside, Harry scoops Lux off of the ground and holds her in his arms.

"How's our flower girl doing?"

"M'bored," she mumbles.

"Well, it's your time to shine, darling," Harry laughs as he sets her back down. He kneels down, looking at her with a smile. "Do you know what to do?"

She nods. "When?"

"Well, I'm going to walk up to the front and then you'll follow after a minute or so. Your mum is going to tell you when to go, so listen to her."

She nods again, then looks up at me. "Do I get to use flowers today?"

I smile and shake my head. "No, just tomorrow babes. Just pretend for today, alright?"

"Alright, let's get this show on the road so we can get to the important part," my dad says.

My mother looks at him in confusion. "And what's the important part?"

"Dinner, obviously."