Ephemeral //H.S

Chapter 18

-Harry Styles-

"Good evening son." The sound of his nickname for me makes me clench my teeth, my jaw almost snapping at the pressure.

"Russel." I've been waiting for this for about two years now, but for some reason right now doesn't seem like the right time just yet. I'm so fucking mad at him, what the hell took him so long?

"I heard you've been doing well lately." He says and I scoff, I can already see him brush his fingertips over his graying mustache with his wrinkled eyes narrowed.

"I know chit chat isn't really your thing so just tell me what you want yeah?" I cut to the chase, not really in the mood to hear him trying to make it up to me by pretending to care. I hear him laugh under his breath, pausing to clear his throat before speaking.

"Fine. I'm gonna need you for a mission, it's not for a while but I need to check that you're back to your full potential first." His tone is cold and I know that he doubts me, there must be an actual reason as to why he's only calling me right now for something that isn't even planned soon. But I don't question it yet, because I don't feel like ruining a day that actually went well for once.

I know I've been complaining about not getting the phone call earlier, but now that he's actually on the other end of this call it doesn't feel like I expected it to feel. I expected adrenaline and excitement to rush through my veins but instead it almost feels like disappointment. It's not exactly disappointment because I do want to go back, I miss training there and going out on missions with other members or just by myself. I miss the thrill of chasing people down.

But maybe right now isn't the right time?

I don't fucking know.

"When?" Is all I ask because I don't want to drag this any longer than it needs to be.

"Tomorrow, I'll have amanda send you the details." I nod to myself and hang up, sighing and smoothing my palms up my face and into my hair.

-Lucy Urbinati-

A muffled voice travels to my ears until I manage to open my heavy eyelids, a deep sigh escaping through my nose as I take in my surroundings. I roll my head to my left side, a figure coming to life in front of my eyes as I realize that Harry is in fact standing on my balcony, his strong back facing me before I notice him taking his phone off of his ear and brushing his palms over his face and through his hair and his shoulders rise and fall with what seems to be a deep sigh of despair. I watch him as he turns around and walks back into my room, I swallow a couple times to smooth over my raspy throat from sleep and use my arms to push myself up to a sitting position.

Looking at him right now feels like a fever dream as I'm still fogged up from a deep sleep, which is something that I haven't been able to have for a while now. Ever since I started to write down my memories for safe keeping, my sleeping habits have only gotten worse.

The covers fall around my waist as I look up at him with my glossy eyes, my hair probably looking really messy right now but I don't seem to care.

"Hi." His voice is soft as he walks towards me as I sit up right in the middle of my bed, he sits down and faces me.

"Hi."I answer with my sleepy voice, struggling to get the words out.

"I didn't mean to wake you." He whispers, his strong hand coming up to cup the side of my face, his cold hand waking the goosebumps on my skin and he takes his hand away when he sees me slightly flinch, but I grab his wrist to keep his hand against my skin.

"It's okay." I whisper back, looking into his pale green eyes.

They always seem lighter during the night time somehow, almost as if they were made to see better in the darkness. His fingertips play with the hair at the back of my head, his thumb stroking my cheekbone as I just take the sight of him for a little while.