HTD One-Shot. 5SOS. Someday I'll Pay The Bills With This Guitar

Sneaky little HTD One-Shot because I adore y'all.

Not exceptionally good, it's very late here, just something that popped into my head.

Unedited (forgive me) <3

When I was five years old, a woman and her daughter came over to my house.

The woman was tall and graceful, with laughing grey eyes and a mane of tangly brown curls.

The girl was hiding behind her legs, peeping around the scratchy blue of her mum’s jeans with grey eyes as big as her mother’s and chocolate ringlets spiraling down her shoulders.

She smiled at me, and my mouth fell open.

She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and despite being only five years of age, I knew that I would never see any girl more beautiful again.

Thirteen years later, aged eighteen, I wish I could go back in time and congratulate my five-year-old self on being the smartest kid in the world.

Because I was right, back then.

Delilah Cook is still the most beautiful girl in the world, inside and out.

And now she's mine.

We’ve had our ups and downs and arguments, but at the end of the day, Delilah is my best friend, and the girl who I love more than anyone I ever have before.

It was a Thursday night and it was cold; I was wearing two jumpers with the heater on and still had goosebumps.

The other boys had left us alone for the evening, heading out to do whatever they do when I’m not around.

I know they miss their girls too, and I feel bad for them.

Del was only here because she’s writing with some songwriters based in LA, and I only get to see her because we’re doing a few shows here on our USA tour.

It was pure luck our times aligned.

I was jolted back to the present as a soft sigh left her lips, turning my attention back onto the girl in my arms.

My fingers twirled through her hair and a smile tickled her lips, her stunning grey eyes hidden behind her closed lids.

“Luke.” Delilah moaned, but her smile remained. “Stop that. I’ll fall asleep.”

“That’s ok.” I replied, a smile of my own testing my lips. “If you fall asleep you’d have to stay here for longer.”

She laughed, opening her eyes to gaze up at me, love shining clearly in her eyes the colour of the ocean mid-storm. “Only because you wouldn’t wake me up, you jerk.”

I pressed a hand to my chest in mock outrage. “Only because I wouldn’t have the heart to.”

She rolled her eyes at me, stifling a yawn. “Recording is crazy busy. I don’t know how the One Direction boys did it on the road.”

I shrugged. “I think they were running on about two hours of sleep per night.”

“I couldn’t do it.” Del shook her head adamantly. “No way in hell.”

I laughed at her. Delilah hated getting up early.

She wrinkled her nose at me. “Don’t laugh, you couldn’t do it either.”

“No, that’s true.”

I held her smile for a moment longer.

God it was cheesy, but I truly believed that I could stare into her eyes forever without getting bored.

“You’re here.” She whispered. "You're really here. With me. In LA. Right now."

I smiled, reaching out to touch her cheek. “I kind of can’t believe it sometimes to be honest. I wake up thinking it’s a dream, that I never found you again. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Del.”

Instead of smiling like I thought she would, her face fell and she sat up, pulling out of my lap and crossing the room to the window staring out at the Hollywood sign.

Concern at her reaction made me frown. “Delilah?”

“Sometimes I wake up and think it’s a dream too.” Del said, her voice soft. She was still staring stubbornly out the window, as if the cold glass would give her the words she was clearly searching for. “I wake up in the night and I freak out because I think that the last few months have been a dream, and that you’re still with Alison and that we never reconnected and that I'm still…”

It took me too many seconds to connect the fact that she was crying, that there were tears on her cheeks and her hands were shaking.

In an instant I was off the couch, wrapping her in my arms, letting her bury her head in my chest.

“I’m here.” I promised, fervently. “I’m here, Del, I swear I am, and I’m not leaving you again. Ever.”

“You’re leaving tomorrow.” She pointed out.

I swallowed. “I wish I wasn’t leaving you behind.”

“Me too.”

There were a few moments of silence, then Del gave a watery laugh and tilted her head back to look up at me. “I’m sorry about the freak out, Luke, I just…sometimes I think about what could have happened and the idea of it…it’s pretty scary.”

“I know.” I kissed the crown of her head. “But it’s pretty scary for me now, having to worry about you from the other side of the world.”

Del rolled her eyes with a snort. “You worry about me when I’m sitting right beside you. You’re going to go grey in your twenties, do you know that?”

I laughed. “Only because I love you.”

“I love you too.” Del smiled, leaning up on her tiptoes and kissing me quickly on the lips. “Can we go to bed? I’m freezing. And exhausted.”

“Sure.” I hesitated as she turned and walked towards the bedroom. “Hey, Del?”

“Mm?” She turned around to face me again, eyes curious.

My breath caught at the sight of the dim light dancing in her curls, curving across her cheek.

Goddamn but she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

High-five to five-year-old Luke Hemmings.

My mouth curled into a lopsided smile. “I’m saving like crazy, I mean we’re not making much at the moment, but one day my guitar will ensure I can pay my bills.”

Del’s brow furrowed. “What are you on about, Luke?”

“I’m going to build a life, Del. And I want you in it.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you…asking me to marry you?”

I smiled, stepping towards her. “Not right now. I’m making you a promise that one day I will ask you. One day we’ll have a cosy house and a couple of kids and a dog.”

“A Labrador.”

“A Golden Retriever.” My heart warmed at the look of love and warmth radiating from her eyes. I reached out to wrap my hands around her waist, pulling her close. “We’ll have Sunday dinners where the whole gang will come, and your dad and my family. We’ll always have music and love and laughter and light. I promise you, Del. We have a future, and I can’t wait for it.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, Mr. Hemmings.” Del whispered, then all I knew were her lips on mine, sealing the promise of a lifetime.