Summertime & Butterflies

Nine

"Okay, I've got a good one," Harry determined, gesturing with his free hand. His left arm was being used for Olivia's pillow, as the two of them sprawled out on the blanket, watching the stars and sharing bad 'Would You Rathers'. The tacos and wine were long gone, the sun had set behind the Pacific Ocean with a splendour of colours, a few hours had passed but neither party seemed to have a desire to end the date any time soon.

"As good as the one about having no penis?" asked Olivia teasingly, swatting her hand against Harry's stomach playfully. Clearly, Harry had spent too much time with his band mates, if he thought "would you rather have no penis or five penises?" was an appropriate question for a girl whose breasts he'd had his hands all over.

"Oh, stop," Harry scolded her, bending his arm and ruffling her hair. Olivia laughed. She'd already teased Harry half a dozen times about his penis faux pas, but she had no intentions of letting up. She could tell that asking her the question had embarrassed him - an easy slip-up made when normally played the game on a tour bus with a bunch of perverse boys - and his embarrassment only made it more fun for Olivia to tease him. She was finding he didn't take himself too seriously, and he found it cute, not demoralising, when Olivia teased him.

"Okay, so... would you rather... change gender every time you sneezed," began Harry, tapping his fingers against his stomach in thought. "Or! Not be able to tell the difference between a baby and a muffin."

Olivia snickered and turned to face Harry, an incredulous smirk on her face. "Are you serious?" she asked with a laugh. "How am I supposed to pick between those?"

"It's supposed to be hard," Harry reminded her, a proud grin on his face. "Because it's a great question, because I'm fully capable of great questions!"

Olivia patted his stomach. "Yes, you are," she cooed, feigning condescend while she tried to come up with an answer to Harry's proposition. "Okay, so... the sneezing thing. Would I become, like... a macho man? Or would I be one of those androgynous model types where you can't really tell gender, anyway?"

Harry let out a long, exaggerated sigh. "You're not supposed to ask questions about the questions," he again chastised good-naturedly, as Olivia had mused further about each hypotheses Harry presented her with. But he'd obliged with each of her past questions and would do the same with this one.

"You're so annoying," he told her with an endearing smile, pressing a kiss against her temple. Olivia chuckled but tapped her fingers against Harry's hand, urging him to answer her question. He let out another overstated sigh. "Okay. I guess... you don't have to be a macho man, but you'll look like a man. Or like a boy. Like a pre-teen boy."

"Okay..." answered Olivia slowly. "And could I suppress a sneeze? Or force a sneeze? To trick this thing?"

"No. You have to accept each sneeze as it comes. And no forcing," Harry told her, closing his eyes and absent-mindedly running his fingers through Olivia's hair. She rolled onto her side, shifting herself closer to Harry and draping one arm across his stomach. Kissing him was lovely. She was certain other things with him would be even lovelier. But right now, cuddling on the beach with Harry, under the stars, was as close to perfection as she could imagine.

"What if I sneeze during sex?"

"Is that something that normally occurs for you?" asked Harry, lifting his head to look down at Olivia, an amused smirk on his face.

"Are you answering my question with a question?" she countered back, giving his stomach a gentle squeeze.

"I'm just trying to be annoying like you," he teased her with a tug on her hair. "How am I doing?"