Penelope sat at a red light, incredibly anxious to finally see Harry again. He offered to pick Penelope up from her flat and take her to the park near the boys’ houses, but she declined. She didn’t want to make him have to travel more than he had already over the past week. The boys had been traveling all over central Europe for the past seven days and they got back to London at four in the morning, from there Harry went straight from the airport to visit his mom and sister. There was no way Penelope could, in good conscience, ask him to drive at least another hour for the round trip.

As she was driving, Penelope started to feel extremely hot as if somehow any trace of relieving air was whipped away. She pulled over in the parking lot of a supermarket, cranking up the air conditioning as she did so, and waited for the cool air to reach her lungs, but it felt like her efforts were useless. Penelope got out of the car and walked as quickly as she could into the shop. Thankfully, the restroom was near the entrance. As soon as she reached the sink, she got a handful of water and splashed her face with it, even taking a few sips of the water. She felt like she normally did when she would get claustrophobic, however it was completely unprovoked. Penelope rubbed her wet hands over her arms and the back of her neck. Leaning against a wall, she took a couple deep breaths. Finally, the air felt like it was reaching her lungs.

Looking at herself in a mirror, she patted her face down with a paper towel. Penelope had never had something like that happen to her out of nowhere before. For a moment, she thought about calling her brother or Harry, but then decided that she was fine. She considered that she was probably dehydrated. There was also the fact that she couldn’t even remember her last meal. Spending all day working sometimes made her forget to eat, she had never reacted like this though. Before she went back to her car, Penelope bought a bottle of water, took a few sips, and then got back on the road.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, no dizziness or hot flashes. Penelope was feeling slightly ill, but she attributed that more to her nerves. Nonetheless, she refused to miss this day at the barbecue, so she sucked it up and parked her car.

Penelope walked around looking for the right group. It was such a nice day that people were out in the masses. Once she thought she found the right crowd, she walked faster. The first person to see her was Zayn.

“Hey, is that Nell?” He shouted to her. She waved back shyly. She put on a huge grin and did a sort of silly skip over to Zayn and his friends.

“Hey, Zayn!” She hugged him, happy that she wasn’t made to search around the lawn for someone she recognized.


He squeezed her tighter than necessary, laughing whilst doing so. “How are you?”

“I’m great!” It wasn’t a lie; she was beginning to feel much better. She was extremely excited to be there. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, still a bit tired, but I can’t complain.” He grabbed the hand of a pretty girl with platinum blonde and pink hair. “Penelope, this is my girlfriend, Perrie.”

“It’s so nice to meet you!” Her embrace was tight and warm. It made Penelope feel much more at ease. “The girls told me about you. Danielle and Eleanor, I mean. They said you’re really sweet and funny. You’re really pretty as well. I love your hair.”

Penelope was overwhelmed by all of the compliments and flattered that Danielle and Eleanor liked her enough to talk nicely about her to Perrie. It was all so surreal. “Oh my goodness,” She laughed nervously, not quite sure what to say. “I love your hair too. It’s my favorite color. You’re so nice… and beautiful! Sorry, I don’t even know what to say!”

“Oh, well thank you!” Perrie put her hands on her face to show that she was blushing too. “I think I saw Harry over by the tent with the kiddie pool earlier. I’ll help you find him if you’d like.”

“Really, would you? That’s so nice of you! I’d have been in such a panic looking for him with all these people around.”

“No problem at all!” She said smiling. She turned and pecked Zayn on the lips. “I’ll be back in a minute, babe.”

“Okay,” he kissed Perrie again before she pulled away. They smiled at each other and Zayn whispered. “Hurry back.”

“You two are so sweet together,” Penelope gushed as they walked across the lawn.

Perrie smiled, “Yeah, he’s quite a hideous fellow, but he’s got a great personality.”

Penelope couldn’t help herself from bursting out into laughter. She covered her mouth realizing how loud she was, “Oh my god, I sounded like a duck!”


“But a very posh, cute duck!” Perrie affirmed laughing with her. “I love your dress by the way.”

“Oh thanks, it’s my sister in law’s actually. I think she got it from Top Shop.”

She gasped, “I love Top Shop.”

“Yeah it’s great, but I only have one dress from there. It was a gift… from my sister in law actually.” She laughed. “Come to think of it, it would go great with your hair! It’s about the same color I think.”

“Is it? You’ll have to wear it next time we see each other so we can match. I’ll wear a black dress to match your hair!”

“We’ll be all mix matched and fabulous!” Penelope said stopping in her tracks to strike pose. Perrie giggled and then posed with her.

“I like you already,” she laughed taking Penelope’s arm when they continue to walk. “Oh look who I found!” she pointed over to Harry who was in a circle of people. He was sitting incorrectly on a lawn chair, feet hanging over one arm rest and his head dangling over the other. His sunglasses were almost falling off of his face. Penelope smiled at the sight of him being abnormal as ever. The pair walked over with their arms still linked. Penelope was going to stop at the edge of the circle, but Perrie pulled her into the center. “I’d like to introduce you all to my girlfriend, Penelope.” Harry looked up smiling. “We met on the coast of Santa Cruz some time ago and we’ve been in love ever since so I thought it was time to introduce you all to her.”

Harry managed a way to get out of his seat, his sunglasses falling off of his head, “Nell!” He stumbled across the short distance to where she was standing. When he finally got to his full height, Harry wrapped his arms around Penelope. He was so happy that he was actually laughing as he towered over her. Nell buried her face into his chest.

“Aww,” Perrie cooed. She put her hand on a guy’s arm. “Aren’t they the cutest?”

“We are, actually.” Harry answered before kissing Penelope on the cheek. Penelope picked his sunglasses up for him.

“So cute its borderline nauseating,” said the guy Perrie was stood next to. Penelope looked at him confused. “Oh, I’m sorry dear. I was just kidding. Hi, I’m Nick. It’s really nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too. I’m Penelope.” She laughed nervously.

“Sorry, I just enjoy insulting people before I properly meet them,” He joked.

Harry shoved him playfully, “Because he’s a dick.” Nick shoved him back.

“I thought it was funny.” Penelope smiled.

“Yeah, Penelope thought it was funny.” Nick ruffled Harry’s hair.

Perrie looked at them with an eyebrow raised, “Are you two going to strip down to your pants and make out now? Because if so, I’ll take my new girlfriend and we’ll find a sunset to dance off into.” She put her arm around Nell.

“So, be it!” Nick said dramatically. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.” He tried to pull Harry’s face to his for a kiss, but Harry resisted. “Don’t do this, Harry! You know what we have is special!” He finally broke away from Nick and ran off laughing, taking Penelope with him.

“I guess we’ll see you later!” Perrie yelled after them, walking in the opposite direction to find Zayn again.

As they settled down to a walk, Harry put his arm around Penelope. “How was your mum this morning? I bet she was so excited to see your adorable little face.”

“She’s really good. I was so happy to see her. We hadn’t seen each other in a couple weeks so everyone was a little teary eyed. My sisters and my dad and step dad were all there too.”

“Oh, how sweet,” She squeezed Harry’s side. “They must have been so happy.”

He smiled, “Yeah, it’s just cool that everyone’s so proud, you know.”

“They all sound really lovely,” Penelope said looking up at him. “Oh, your sunglasses!”

“Oh! I thought I left them back there.”

“You did, but I picked them up.”

“Well thank you,” Harry kind of did a bow in front of her and she attempted to slide the shades back on top of his head, but she was having a little bit of difficulty finding his ears through all his hair. They both laughed as Penelope resorted to patting around his head to find where his ears were.

“Okay, Sorted!” Penelope said in triumph. She waited for him to stand to his full height, but before he was fully upright, Harry put his hands on her waist and kissed her. It was so sudden that Penelope laughed while their lips were still pressed together.

Harry pulled away, attempting to ask what Penelope thought was so funny, but she pulled his lips back to hers before he could finish speaking. Harry was the one who laughed this time as he lifted her off the ground and over his head. His arms were wrapped around the backs of her legs and she braced herself with her hands on his shoulders.

Penelope squealed and kicked her feet, “Harry, you’re out of your mind! Don’t drop me!”

“I’d never drop you,” he reassured her. She screamed when he let go of her legs, but he caught her again when they were face to face. Penelope hit his shoulder to reprimand him, but it only made him smile. “You look very lovely by the way.” With that, Harry bent down to place Penelope firmly on her feet.

“Thank you, Harry,” he took her hand as they began to walk.

“How’s your family?” Harry asked while they walked around the park.

“Charlie and my brother and sister-in-law, they’re all great. Charlie’s just convinced Anthony to buy her a skateboard so obviously that’s bound to end extremely well,” Harry laughed with wide eyes, “but other than that everything’s great.”

“Well how are you with your parents?”

Penelope looked at him with a reserved smile, “That’s a story for another day I think.”

“Oh, it’s really bad?” Harry asked concerned.

“I guess it is,” Penelope said trying to avoid the matter. “It’s just such a pretty day; I don’t think we should talk about it now.”

“Sure,” Harry said not wanting to push the subject. “Are you hungry at all?”

“I guess I’m a little hungry,” Penelope said, thankful for Harry’s quiet understanding.

“We can head back then. They’ve been grilling all day

“What’s your favourite food?”

“Oh that’s such a hard question!” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Nell, why would you ask me that?” He whined. “What’s your favourite food?”

“I asked you first!”

“But I need time to think!”

She laughed, “My favourite food is potatoes.”

“How did you pick that fast?”

“Because I love potatoes.”

Harry groaned, “I guess tacos are my favourite food.”

“You guess?”

“There are so many good foods in the world! I decided to go international okay?”

Penelope giggled, “That’s perfectly fine. Tacos are great as well.”

“Tacos are the best.” He mumbled childishly.

She saw the group of people grilling in the distance, “If you say so… but whoever is last to the grill is a knob!”

Immediately, she sprinted for the gazebo. It took Harry a second to realize what was going on but when he did, he chased after Penelope. Being as small as she is, she wasn’t that hard to catch. Harry laughed triumphantly as he passed her.

Suddenly Penelope stopped, “Shit! My shoe broke!” She started taking off her shoes while Harry walked the distance back to her.

“Awh, that sucks,” Harry said as he got closer, seeing her broken sandal.

“Yeah it does,” She said sounding pathetic. “But not as much as you do!” She giggled and pushed Harry trying to run away from him toward the group of people but Harry grabbed her arm and they both ended up falling over.

They were sprawled out on the ground laughing, “You’re a sneaky little cheater!” Harry yelled at Penelope

“I did not cheat,” Penelope said defending herself. “My shoe did break. I just decided to take advantage of the situation. But thank you for being so sweet and coming back to check on me.”

“You took advantage of my niceness. I’m never being nice to you again.” He pouted.

“Oh, Harry, I’m sorry.” Penelope said in an attempt to reconcile with him, but Harry rolled over so he was face down on the ground. “You don’t forgive me?” Harry’s head, which was rested in arms, shook back and forth. “I don’t even get to see your cute mopey face?” He shook his head again. “Awh, but I bet your pouty lips are adorable.” Penelope put her face in the crook of his neck. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to lay here next to you, not kissing your adorable pouty lips and worst of all not eating. We’ll starve here on the park grass when there’s delicious food being cooked just across the lawn.” She sighed and adjusted herself so she was lying right next to him, faced down as he was. The next thing she knew, she was in the air yet again. Harry actually tossed her over his shoulder so that she was looking at his back. Thankfully, he was considerate and held down her dress.

“I forgive you, but only because you have a really nice bum and it’s in my face right now.” Harry said cheekily.

“You’ll have my foot in your face if anyone sees my underwear.”

“I doubt you’d be able to do anything about it,” he warned as they approached the gazebo. Everyone greeted them as if Penelope wasn’t hanging over Harry’s shoulder.

“Is that Penelope?” Louis asked Harry. He walked around so he could see her face. “Hello there, Penelope,” he said casually.

“Nice to see you, Louis!” she said sweetly, reaching out to shake his hand.

Louis leaned in to kiss her cheek, “Good to see you too.”

“Now how did this happen?” Asked Niall who just popped up in Penelope’s limited range of vision. She could hear Harry talking to Liam and Eleanor.

“It’s a long story,” Penelope sighed. “It’s lovely to see you though, Niall.”

“You as well,” Penelope bent her body up so she could hug Niall.

“Wait a minute!” Liam exclaimed. “Penelope, weren’t we supposed to be cooking Harry for dinner tonight?”

Penelope leaned the upper half of her body so she could see Liam who was still standing on the other side of Harry, “Yes, I believe that is correct, Liam.”

“We need to get him on the grill now! He’ll take a while to cook through.” Liam said. “Let’s get Penelope down from here so we can roast the sacrifice!”

Niall hooked his arms under Penelope’s and dragged her off of Harry’s shoulder. Louis supported her legs so they didn’t drop straight to the ground. Now that she was standing, she could see Perrie and Zayn were also there, helping lift Harry off of the ground.

“Tonight we feast like kings!” Louis shouted dramatically. Everyone within earshot started cheering.

Harry struggled as he was carried away atop a small group of people, “Don’t let them do this to me, Nell!”

“But you look so delicious today,” Penelope laughed and joined in to help haul Harry over to the bonfire.

“That’s the spirit!” Some random guy said to Penelope.

“I’m not sure if this is awesome or terrifying!” Harry shouted over all of the noise.

“It’s terrifying!” Louis said to him before shouting in a country accent, “We’re eatin’ good tonight, y’all!”

Notes

Okay so I had finals and I got veeeeery ill since I put up the last chapter. I actually stressed myself into sickness. So I've been studying and recovering and that's why this chapter took so long! I'm sorry!
I hope you all like it and hopefully I'll have more time to write now!
I love you all! <3
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