Harry Styles-Wilson: Hockey Husband [Sequel to Harry Who?] (Completed)

There were too many cute animals in the shelter, and Harry just couldn't pick one.

"Can't we do something? They all deserve a good home," he ran his hand through his hair and looked into the sad puppy-dog eyes of a mutt.

"I’m sure they’d appreciate a donation,” Ellie suggested. “Why don’t we look at the cats, okay?”

Harry took another look at the dog’s sad eyes, and reluctantly followed Ellie to the cat section of the shelter. Ellie instantly fell in love with all of the cats and wanted to adopt them all, just as Harry had with the dogs. “Okay, just one,” she promised, even though Harry hadn’t said anything. “Just one,” she repeated to herself and heard the mews and purrs of all the kitties awaiting adoption.

“This one looks a bit like Wayne,” Harry knelt to pet the cat’s head, but it took a swipe at him. “On second thought, maybe not.”

Ellie giggled, and read the information tag on that cat’s cage. “Don’t worry, she’s declawed.”

“‘She’? Rather big cat…” Harry commented, again looking warrily at the feline.

“She’s a Maine Coon, they tend to be a bit larger.” Ellie explained.

“She’s the size of a small dog.” Harry laughed, and moved on to look at a different cat. “What about this one? It’s orange and looks lonely.”

“They all look lonely,” Ellie came over to look at the cat. “He is awfully cute.”

“‘He’? How do you know it’s a boy?” Harry looked at the cat for some kind of gender identifier.

“Most orange cats are males, but let’s check his info.” She read over the information tag and shook her head. “Actually, he’s a she.” Ellie raised her eyebrows in surprise, and Harry let the cat sniff his hand this time before going in to pet it.

“So she’s a little different?” He commented. “She seems friendly.”

Ellie opened the cage and carefully took the cat out. “Hey there, kitty.” She held the purring animal in her arms and Harry carefully pet the cat’s ears.

“She seems to like us,” he smiled.

“I think we’ve found our cat,” Ellie smiled at Harry. “So, what should we name her?”

“After another hockey player?” Harry asked. “Who’s that teammate of your brothers? He’s supposed to be pretty good?”

“Sidney Crosby?” Ellie laughed.

“Yeah, Sidney could be a girl’s name.”

“Don’t get me started on that,” Ellie laughed and rolled her eyes, recalling all the teasing she knew the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain received. “No, not a hockey player this time,” she shook her head and tried to figure out what kind of name would fit this kitty.

“She looks like a Scarlet, eh?” Harry suggested.

“I think we should save names like that for…save the ‘people’ names for, you know, people.” Ellie stammered, and Harry’s heart fluttered for a moment before Ellie continued. “I’m thinking she needs a cute name, like waffles or something.”

“Waffles?” Harry laughed. “I didn’t realize you were three years old.”

“Harry,” Ellie laughed. “Okay, maybe not waffles. Perhaps something that matches her coloring.”

“Ginger seems too obvious, what about...pumpkin?” Harry ran his hand along the cat’s coat, picking up a few orange hairs along the way.

“She’s too thin to be a pumpkin. What about...” Ellie thought for a moment. “Cheddar.”

“Cheddar?”

“Like cheddar cheese. She’s orange, and look at those claws,” Ellie explained and held up one of the cats paws. “She’s extra sharp.”

“That is clever,” Harry smiled and pondered the name for a moment. “You know, I think it suits her.”

“Yeah?” Ellie grinned, and Harry nodded.

“Absolutely. Let’s get those adoption papers signed, and I’ll see about making that donation so I can maybe stop feeling guilty about not taking every animal here home with us,” Harry smiled.

“You could just put them in another music video, like in ‘Kiwi’.” Ellie teased. “They’d be famous after that, and your fans would be scrambling to adopt a dog that’d had the prestige of appearing in one of your videos.”

“You know what,” Harry paused and cocked his head as he thought. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Too bad I don’t need to make another music video for a while.” Hary instantly started wondering if it was too late to make a video for one of his previous singles, like Sweet Creature perhaps. Dogs were sweet creatures, right? “Actually, on second thought….”

Harry was deep in thought on this subject as they drove home, not even noticing Cheddar meowing in her new cat carrier. He called his manager when he got home to discuss the idea further, but Jeff countered with an important point.

“Harry, your tour starts in a few days; we won’t have time to shoot a music video before you leave, sorry.” Jeff apologized, and Harry agreed. Disappointed, he found Ellie playing with Cheddar and relayed the news to her.

“Oh, that really is a few days away, isn’t it?” Ellie looked surprised, but of course, his tour started March 11th, and it was the 6th now. “Poor Cheddar, I hate to leave her so soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m coming with you, right?” Ellie aksed.

“Yeah,” Harry’s mind wandered off in thought again.

“This wasn’t good timing, sorry Cheddar,” Ellie said to her cat, but of course Cheddar didn’t really care.

“She can’t really come with us, can she,” Harry thought out loud.

“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“I wonder if Auntie Gemma would like to have a furry friend for awhile,” Harry said playfully and rubbed Cheddar’s head.

“Um, ‘Auntie Gemma’?” Ellie looked perplexed. “She’s a cat, Harry.”

“Same idea, right?” Harry shrugged.

“Not really,” Ellie cocked her head and eyed him.

“I just thought, maybe, the cat was like a replacement, or a stand-in, for…” Harry trailed off when he realized he was wrong. “Because you brought it up after telling me the news of your brother and his wife having a baby. I thought the two might be connected.”

“That’s silly, it’s just a cat.” Ellie brushed off the idea, but wondered if there was a bit of truth in what Harry was trying to say. “I’d been wanting to get a cat for a while anway.”

“But, the timing is really not great, considering when my tour starts. This winter would have been easier,” Harry suggested.

“Hey, what did Jeff say about your music video idea?” Ellie changed the subject, but she knew the topic was still hot on Harry’s mind.

“He says it’s not possible, since I leave for the first tour date in two days, and then I”ll be on tour in Europe consistently until April, when the tour comes back here to the UK.”

“Why not just film the video on tour, stopping at animal shelters all over Europe to include dogs and cats from different countries?” Ellie suggested, and Harry’s eyes lit up.

“And hopefully get more dogs adopted!” He leaned closer to kiss her forehead as he stood up. “Elloise, you’re brilliant; I’m going to call Jeff back!”

Luckily, Gemma was willing to take Cheddar in for a few months and Ellie promised to visit as much as she could. As much as she hated to leave her new kitty behind, she knew she would regret not being there to support Harry for his first shows of his arena tour.

The day before Harry’s first show on his arena tour in Switzerland, he and Ellie found themselves amidst many cute dogs and cats waiting to be adopted in a nearby shelter. The video would feature Harry playing with various adorable dogs on each stop of his tour, so they decided have him wear the outfit he planned on wearing for the show in that city in the video to differentiate between tour stops. The music video would be a work in progress, starting on his first tour date, and ending with the last show on the Australian leg of the tour on April 28th, so the video would hopefully be completed for the first anniversary of his album release date of May 12th. It would be a lot of work, but it would give a few rescue dogs in each shelter their few seconds of fame, and hopefully find them a good home to live in. At Harry’s suggestion, the rest of his band would appear in the video too.

“We’re going to set up a few cameras, and we’ll just run through the song a few times while you play with the dogs, okay?” The director instructed, and Harry nodded.

“This video was actually my wife’s idea, is it okay if she appears in the video too?” Harry asked, and glanced at Ellie (who was already playing with a few kittens).

The director nodded. “That would be excellent, I think the more people we can get in the videos, the better.”

Harry nodded, and took his place among the dogs chosen to appear in the video. It wasn’t hard to fall in love with them, but he found them distracting as he tried to sing (or lip sync) along with the song as it played in the background, and had to stop a few times because he was laughing so hard.

“He’s licking my face!” Harry giggled and fell back as several dogs joined in and licked his face. Meanwhile, Clair and Ellie were playing with a few cute kittens, and Mitch smiled for what seemed like the first time while he, Sarah, and Adam played tug of war with a few adorable puppers.

“I think we’ve got enough footage for today,” the director called, but Harry was happy to stay here all day.

“We’ve got to get ready for the show tomorrow.” Jeff finally stepped in, and Harry and his band reluctantly broke free from the cute cats and dogs.

“I could get used to this,” he said as they left. “This is certainly easier and more fun than the ‘Sign of the Times’ video!”

“Getting paid to play with dogs and cats? I could live with that,” Sarah added, and they all laughed and chatted about the upcoming show.

The next night, Harry spent extra time getting his hair in place, and was making the final adjustments to his suit when Ellie came into his dressing room on her phone.

“Goodnight kitty!! Want to say hi to Harry?” She leaned closer to him so he could see Cheddar on her screen as she skyped with Gemma.

“You’ve got the cat on video chat?” Harry laughed but turned around to say hi. “Hello Cheddar, I hope you’re treating Auntie Gemma nicely.”

“Auntie Gemma?” Gemma laughed. “Harry, you’re bonkers.”

“I know, that’s what I told him!” Ellie laughed with her.

“Well good luck tonight, we’ll watch a live stream if we can.” Gemma said.

“Who’s ‘we’? You and Cheddar?” Harry joked.

“No, me and mum, dumbass,” Gemma corrected, and Anne’s face popped into the screen.

“Language, dear. Good luck tonight, Harry!” She said to her son, and Harry smiled back.

“Thanks mum!” Harry smiled, and they ended the call.

“Are you ready?” Ellie asked, noticing his usual foot-tapping, which indicated he was nervous.

“Yeah. We’ve rehearsed plenty, and I’m eager to get back out there.” Harry smiled, but Ellie could see he was anxious.

“You’ll be fine; they love you, and won’t care if you mess up. If you do, just make a joke, and go on,” Ellie smiled and ruffled his hair a bit, but was careful not to mess it up too much.

“But, this is my first public appearance since we’ve, you know, come out. You know, about our marriage.” Harry’s knee bounced as he tapped his foot faster. “What if they don’t take it well?”

“It’s been a while, I think by now people will have either accepted it, or not. There’s not much to do about that. Just do your thing, and don’t worry about it.” Ellie smiled reassuringly, and kissed him on the cheek.

“Yeah,” Harry nodded and started to relax a little. “You’re right. Let’s do this!” He hopped up and left to find his bandmates to warm up.

Ellie talked to a few people backstage she hadn’t seen since the first half of the tour, catching up and showing off pictures of the new cat.

Things became very tense and suspenseful as the minutes ticked down, but as soon as the lights lit up the stage, and the entire arena erupted in cheers, Harry and his band fell back into the usual routine with ease. Everything was going smoothly until Harry had to stop between songs to address a couple of signs he saw in the audience.

“Okay, okay, I know,” he held his hands up, and smiled. “You’re all wondering...and yes, it’s true: I’m married.”

They audience was filled with ‘aww’s’ and a mix of other slightly disappointed sounds - which was to be expected.

“And, we actually have some exciting news to share.” Harry continued, a cheeky smile starting to form on his lips. “Yes, our family has gotten a little bit bigger.”

The entire arena seemed to explode in some kind of fan-gasm as all of his fans dreams and fanfictions seemed to be coming to life.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking...and yes,” Harry paused again and waited until the frantic screaming calmed down. “We’ve gotten a cat!”

The crowd laughed at Harry’s little ‘joke’, and Harry of course had a grin on his face from ear to ear. He turned back to his band, took a drink of water while the audience quieted down. “Okay, now where did we leave off?” Harry asked, and jumped back into his setlist like nothing had happened.

Notes

How are you liking the story so far? I'd love some feedback : D

I would love to see a music video for ‘Sweet Creature’ like this!! Harry and cute animals is always the best!

Thank you for reading. commenting, and voting! :)