The Girl With the Rose

One

"Lennon, baby," Harry sighs, practically on his knees begging in front of his daughter. "Please put your trousers on, you're going to be late for school."

"No, Papa, oh dear," Lennon mumbles, clutching her rose in her little fingers, fingernails painted pink as she requested to Harry. Harry's nails match.

"Mr. Tomlinson will be sad if you don't go," Harry warns, leaning over and kissing Lennon's forehead. Lennon whines and backs away from Harry, and it just about breaks his heart. "I'm sorry, baby, I know you don't want to. You can wear a dress if you don't lift it up." Harry points to Lennon's underpants to show her what he's trying to say, and she seems to understand, because she slowly meanders over to her wardrobe and pulls out a pink flowered dress.

"There you go, Blue," Harry says with a small smile, taking the dress from Lennon. He finds some short legging type shorts for her to wear under in case she does decide to try to flash her classmates. "What do you say?"

"Th-Thank you, Mumma?"

Harry smiles adoringly. Lennon often switched between Papa and Mumma, which Harry didn't mind. He did give birth to her, after all. "Good girl, Lennon," He praises, taking the rose out of her hand gently. Lennon whines and Harry frowns. "I'm sorry, love, but you have to get your clothes on."

"Mumma!" Lennon whines, but she lets Harry take off her pyjama shirt and pull her dress over her head.

"Good job, babe," He praises, holding out Lennon's shorts. Lennon steps into them, little hands gripping to Harry's shoulders tightly. "There you go. Go pick out some shoes and I'll make you some brekkie."

♛

"Good morning, Mr. Styles!" Louis chirps, taking a sip of his tea out of his travel mug. It's already been a week since Louis' started teaching and Harry has been the first one there everyday. Lennon, gripping her rose tightly, walks over to Louis' desk and props her cowgirl boot up on the table, careful not to tip over. "Very nice shoes, love, may I borrow them?"

"No," Lennon replies in a very serious tone. Louis smiles at Harry, who's watching Lennon with such adoration.

"That's okay, I don't think I'd quite be able to pull them off anyways," Louis replies, winking at Harry and making the man giggle quietly. "How're you doing this morning, Mr. Styles?"

"I'm wonderful, thank you," Harry replies with a warm smile, still watching Lennon as she takes her foot off of Louis' desk and starts to spin around. "Um, I might be a bit late picking her up. My shift ends at three and I know school gets out at three o' five."

"I don't mean to intrude, Mr. Styles," Louis says cautiously. "But what about her mother?"

"Oh, um," Harry's cheeks turn as pink as Lennon's rose, and it was at this moment that Louis knew; he fucked up. "She doesn't have...I mean, uh, I am it. Her...her mother."

"Oh!" Louis practically squeaks, nodding and biting his bottom lip. "Oh, okay, I apologise. Her father, then?"

"She doesn't have one?" Harry says slowly. "I mean she does, obviously, everyone does technically, but he's not around. He doesn't. Um. I had her by myself. W-With a sperm donor."

Harry's definitely sharing too much now, and he's mentally cursing himself as Louis nods slowly. "Ah, I see. She looks so much like you I wouldn't have suspected. That's quite alright, I do have a meeting at three thirty, though, so I can't stay with her after that."

"I'll be there well before then," Harry says with a small smile. "Thank you very much."

"Not a problem," Louis assures with the same smile.

♛

"Hi, baby," Harry greets as Lennon rushes over to him, not hugging him or anything, just standing there and staring up at him. Harry squats down in front of Lennon. "What's that in your hand, Blue?" He taps the back of Lennon's hand lightly with his index finger. She holds out the piece of paper toward Harry, who takes it and looks down at it.

There's a very neatly drawn rose coloured with crayon next to a messier one coloured with marker. Harry smiles and looks up at Lennon, and he swears he sees something in her eyes like she knows what she's doing.

"This is very good, love," Harry says softly, and he so wants to lean over and kiss Lennon's nose but he doesn't. Instead he points to the two roses. "Which one did you draw, Lennon?" He asks, pointing to Lennon. He knows which one she drew and which one Mr. Tomlinson probably drew, but he wants to know she can identify things like that.

Lennon points to her rose, and Harry beams with pride, looking over to Louis who's smiling as well. "Good afternoon, Mr. Styles," He greets with a charming smile.

"Hello," Harry replies with a bright smile, standing up straight and subconsciously putting his hand on top of Lennon's head only for her to back away. "Sorry for being late."

"Oh, you weren't too bad," Louis waves him off. "Lennon and I were just doing some colouring, as you can see." Harry smiles and looks back down at Lennon, who's hitting herself in the head with the rose. Harry knows he's not going to be able to get her to stop, so he just sighs and looks back to Louis.

"Um, I'd like to apologise for this morning," Louis says with a small frown. "I didn't mean to be nosey or anything, I was just talking out of my ar-bum."

Harry giggles. "It's okay, I don't mind," He assures, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets. "You reacted better than most people."

Louis raises his eyebrows. "Now I'm intrigued. What do you mean by that?"

Harry shrugs. "Most people think I'm crazy for having her all on my own, which, yeah, I understand," Harry says with a sheepish smile. "But it just felt right at that point in my life. And I'm glad I did do it."

Louis smiles at Harry, endeared. "Sit, stay a while," Louis urges, nodding toward the chair that's sitting on the other side of his desk. Harry twists his mouth and sits down, keeping an eye on where Lennon is playing with toy cars. "Where'd you get the name Lennon? What's her middle name?"

Harry smiles. "Her middle name is Blue. My sister came up with that. How'd I come up with the name Lennon, um, I was in the car with my sister, actually. Woman by John Lennon came on and my sister and I started talking about him and Yoko Ono and I think it just kind of hit me? I really liked the name, because it was unique and pretty. And Gemma encouraged it to no end, so yeah. That's how it happened."

Louis looks twice as endeared. "I love that," He says sincerely. "The name, I mean. I love the name."

"Thank you," Harry says with a small smile. "I told myself if I ever had another daughter I'd name her Stevie Nicks but I don't think that's going to happen."

Louis frowns. "Why not?"

"I just don't know if I could handle it on my own," Harry admits. "Lennon wears me out enough."

"Mumma!" Lennon calls out slowly from across the room. Harry looks over to her to see she's holding up a green toy car, knowing green is Harry's favourite colour.

"Very nice, baby," Harry says with a soft smile, turning back to Louis who looks like his heart's just melted.

"Mumma?" Louis asks with a small smile. Harry's cheeks turn pink as he looks down at his lap.

"Um, she switches between Papa and Mumma," Harry explains. "I don't really care, I'm okay with both."

"That's sweet," Louis says, and Harry beams with gratitude as he looks up at Louis.