Murphy's Law ✔️

Twenty Five.

Sometime in September, 2021.

"Harry, where the fuck are we going at one in the bloody morning?"

"Would you please just shut up? I'm trying to be romantic!"

'Romantic' wasn't the word Murphy thought of when Harry had pulled her out of bed just past midnight and dragged her down to his car for a 'secret surprise'. He assured her that she hadn't needed to pack anything or change or do her makeup- he had taken care of all the small details and all she had to do was trust him.

It was hard to trust Harry at 3am when he had a mischievous grin on his face and was manically tapping his fingers to the beat of a Tame Impala song.

They'd been driving for almost two hours at that point, and while Murphy absolutely loved car rides, her legs were beginning to cramp from being pulled up to her chest for so long and she was simply just anxious about where the hell he was taking her- and why? Her birthday had passed months ago, and it certainly wasn't their anniversary- so what the fuck was he up to?

From beside her, Harry cleared his throat and reached out to turn the volume dial down to a more respectable level. Glancing at Murphy from the side, he took a deep breath. "You remember the night we met?" He asked.

Murphy blinked and turned her head to look at him. Raising her eyebrows, she responded, "how could I forget? I put a gun to your back."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, you did," he replied nostalgically. "I went up to my flat that night and thought about you so much that I didn't sleep- not even for a minute."

Murphy's eyebrows pulled in and a soft smile came over her features. It wasn't often that they talked about the beginning of their relationship- it was all so messy, and the two of them worked wonderfully at focusing on their present that they typically forgot where they came from.

"I thought about you, too," Murphy replied, brown eyes scanning his profile. "You were so kind to me. I was so worried about getting busted and spending the night in jail but instead I went home with money and a smile on my face. Zayn was so suspicious," Murphy chuckled, her eyes shutting gently. "I thought about you for weeks after that. I was hoping I would see you again and be able to properly thank you."

Harry's lips curved into a gentle grin at the sound of her voice. The words floated from her lips as if she was retelling her favorite childhood memory rather than reminiscing on the darkest days of her life. And that was exactly why Harry loved Murphy so deeply.

He couldn't help but turn his head for just a moment and scan his eyes over the shape of her face- long eyelashes and curved up nose and the plump pout of her lips that seemed to follow him into his sweetest dreams and soothed his worst nightmares. It was the face of the woman he woke up to every morning with a smile and the face he was always able to fall into a deep, restful sleep every night with the soothing promise of seeing again in the morning. It was the face of the woman he couldn't wait to wake up to for the remainder of his years.

"It was a weird time for me back then," Harry explained as he brought his gaze back to the dark road before him. "I didn't think I had anything left for me- does that make sense? Like, I felt like nothing new was going to happen- I lacked excitement and the world just seemed so dark and depressing," he admitted.

Murphy opened an eye and looked at him smugly. "And my arrival was so bright and exciting?"

"No," Harry laughed with a shake of his head, "quite the opposite. It was- It was terrifying, Murphy. You were an entirely different breed of human than I was ever used to and I didn't think I could be anything even close to positive for you. But then you called me," he exhaled, his fingers tightening their grip on the steering wheel, "and then you kept calling me, and I kept seeing you, and for some fucking reason it just- it all just worked.