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Gingerbreadbunny

My other Holiday fic!

❄️🎄❄️

The light pitter-patter of small feet on the carpeted floors is enough to tingle Harry’s senses to awaken.

That’s what being a father to a too sunny, too active, too animated, too independent three-year-old daughter does to you.

Harry feels the familiar dip of his side of the bed, lips threatening to curl up on their own as his closed eyelids can imagine the highly cute way his daughter crawls to reach his ‘sleeping’ body, her little bum wiggling upwards to reach her father’s long torso. The sign of his daughter’s success is felt through warm, small hands finding purchase on Harry’s sleep-puffed face.

“Wakey, daddy, wakey.” Harry’s daughter tries to whisper in the quiet of the cold room, little fingertips tapping her father’s cheek in earnest.

Harry acts as if he was still asleep, body rumbling in a loud snore like all those times his daughter has decided to wake his wits too early in the morning without the necessity of waking at such time. Her giggles at Harry’s ridiculous acting etches the smile on Harry’s lips that he’s been trying to hold-off, his daughter’s knowing hands squeezing his cheeks together.

“Daddy, I know you’re awake, silly.” Molly giggles, same green eyes brightening up as Harry flutters his own to look at her daughter.

Harry is known to exaggerate sometimes, but he thinks it’s only fair that he feels the air get knocked out of his system every time he gets a good look at his daughter’s face that is no doubt a mini replica of his sleeping wife’s gorgeousness. Molly might have gotten his green irises, but all other physicalities (and personality, just wait and see) is all Sophia’s down to the T.

With that being said, the faux innocent tint his daughter is giving her sleep coated eyes, is one that Harry is familiar with even before Molly was born.

“Princess, why are you awake this early?” Harry quietly rumbles, hands reaching up to fix his daughter’s sleep rumpled hair, the little girl barely allowing Harry to do so as she moves away from his hands by crawling her way up to plant herself on her father’s chest.

“Ooof,” Harry lets out in slight surprise, resting his hands to hold Molly’s little body steady on his warm chest. “Always so jumpy in the morning, you are.”

Molly only giggles at her father’s comment, little chubby arms wrapping around Harry’s neck as she perches her chin right at the top of her father’s sternum.

“Have to wake-up cause it’s the 24th daddy,” Molly explains, “Why you and mummy still sleeping?” she tilts her head in a frown, far too adorable for Harry’s tired state.

Harry bops her nose, “And how do you know it’s the 24th hm, miss smarty?”

In a tone far more exasperated than the fond look Harry is giving her, the three-year-old rumbles, “It’s in the advent calendar, daddy! Last door today, mummy said!”

“Shh.” Harry quickly tells her daughter in a gentle approach, forefinger placed on his lips that his daughter tries to copy but fails ultimately because her pouting lips are pressed on Harry’s skin. “Inside room voice please. And mummy is still sleeping so we have to be quiet, okay?”

Understanding dawns swiftly on her daughter, green eyes rounding just like her cute little mouth formed in an ‘oh’ as she looks at her mother’s sleeping form beside Harry on the bed.

“Quiet, mummy is asleep.” Molly repeats firmly to Harry, the latter dimpling that he just got slightly told-off by her daughter by doing nothing after he slightly told her off for the one being too loud.

Harry really doesn’t want to accidentally wake Sophia by their daughter’s far too early bright energy since Sophia had been a real trooper last night finishing all their unwrapped gifts. Harry prides himself in being ace at gift wrapping so Sophia and him had planned to do most of it last night in one go. What they didn’t put into consideration is their daughter’s absolute excitement to anything Christmas related, Harry needing to assist a fussing Molly last night who didn’t want to sleep because the toddler was high-strung for their Christmas Eve activities the next day.

Nine hours of sleep later (she could have had twelve if she didn’t hackle her father for three hours worth of Christmas stories, singing and cuddles), Molly is obviously invading her parents' peaceful room to exude her youthful excitement for the festive day ahead.

That makes Harry stop in realization.

“Princess, how did you know it’s the 24th today? I don’t remember mummy ever saying that to you exactly.” Harry quietly hums, brow raising at the way her daughter bites her lip at his question. “Have you woken-up extra early to practice your numbers?”

Molly is obsessed with Christmas. She has been asking her mother to assist her with her special, sugar-induced treats advent calendar because despite her persistent independent desires, Molly is not yet completely fluent with her numbers thus the dates of the month are still quite tricky for her to remember correctly. How she was able to remember that today is the 24th of December, brings high suspicious thoughts into Harry’s mind.

Molly spills out giggles from her pink lips, cheeks squishing down and nuzzling on the expanse of her father’s neck like the cuddlebug that she is. Harry only hugs her tighter to his body, gently soothing her giggles to not escalate into full-on rambunctious laughter that will wake her sleeping, pretty mummy.

When Harry gently squeezes Molly’s hips, a reminder that he’s still waiting for an answer, Molly’s grinning eyes are trained at her father before answering in full honesty.

“Went downstairs to counted the days on the advent calendar before going to mummy and daddy’s room.”

“Darling.” Harry drawls, voice trying to sound exasperated but is overthrown by the feeling of endearment at his daughter’s antics. “What do I keep on reminding you about going down the stairs by yourself?”

Molly pouts, the words uttered by her father usually proceeds to him being cross with her. “Daddy, I promise I really went carefully down. I hold with my two hands the bars of the stairs, promise, daddy.”

“Did you really?” Harry exhales, eyes shining in admiration for his daughter’s innocent words of pure sincerity.

Molly nods her head enthusiastically, little chin digging on Harry’s skin almost uncomfortably. “Yes, I super promise, daddy.”

Instead of replacing her pout back to that of her saccharine smile, Molly’s bottom lip protruded even farther, green Bambi eyes rounding in a full wounded look which got Harry alert in mere seconds. But before he can fuss over his daughter and ask what’s wrong, Molly is grumbling on his chest.

“My tum-tum was telling me it was wanting food so I went down, daddy.”

Harry’s resulting laughter now deserves that earlier reprimand of his daughter to be quiet. How can he be blamed for letting out such an obnoxious noise when his daughter’s words are not far from the way Molly’s own mother would grumble to him. Sophia is highly notorious for getting close to tears when she’s hungry, there’s no doubt in Harry’s mind that Molly’s saddened pouting face right now would escalate to that level if he doesn’t give her something to eat real soon.

“Did you eat anything then, darling? To soothe your tum-tum’s hungry calls?”

Molly shakes her head glumly, “No. Never eat breakfast with no mummy or daddy, mummy and you said.”

Harry positively coos at his daughter’s sweet words, Sophia and him instilling in Molly at a young age the importance of a family eating together when all are in the same place. Whether it’s in the kitchen at their home, daddy’s kitchen at his tour bus, or mummy’s kitchen at her nail salon. It’s a testament to Molly’s strong-willed mind that always wants to explore how far her parents would let her do things on her own, by still valuing the words they tell her.

“Aw, poor baby.” Harry coos, lips dropping to kiss his daughter’s forehead behind her messy fringe. “Did my darling wake daddy up so she can have food for her tum-tum?”

Like the true toddler that she is, Molly’s earlier display of a saddened puppy instantly shifts to that of an excited puppy at the mere mention of her father being there to provide her with food. Due to another thing contrary to his daughter’s wishes of feeding herself, she actually can’t do that if she can’t even reach the top of the kitchen counter without using one of their wooden chairs to stand on.

“Yes please, daddy.” Molly politely replies, the dents on Harry’s cheeks digging even deeper at the way he’s beaming at his daughter.

“Okay.” Harry taps her cotton bottoms clad bum, “Go wait for me near the stairs while daddy needs to get dressed before he becomes your chef.”

Molly makes a conscious effort of covering her giggling lips with the palm of her small paws, Harry shaking his head, highly endeared at his daughter who has quickly slid away from his hold on her body. Harry only realizes that Molly is actually already dressed for the day in a warm toned jumper with a silver, sparkling collar and plain, cream trousers. Gone were her favorite Frosty the Snowman pyjama set that Harry had stressed over last night after his daughter started having a tantrum when Harry told her it was still in the wash. Thank god for dryers really!

Harry’s slight lamenting for all his efforts washed away just like that is interrupted by Molly’s excited form turning back at him before making her way out to wait near their stairs.

“Daddy,” Molly says in a loud whisper, “wear a jumper cause mummy said it’s going to be super coldest today.”

Harry chuckles lightly, “How cold did mummy say it was going to be today, darling?”

Molly wraps her small arms around her own form, acting like she was shivering, “The super coldest!”

If only Sophia and Harry weren’t against the idea of having their daughter star in ad campaigns at such a young age, Harry’s pretty sure Molly’s charisma and adorable acts would have garnered them a hefty paycheck, enough to have bought all her Christmas gifts this year.

“Well in that case, daddy should bundle-up and listen to mummy, huh? The same way you little miss should be listening to daddy’s instructions earlier. No food for the tum-tum if cuddlebug isn’t careful.”

That etches a serious aura on Molly’s face like a determined little puppy, “Cuddlebug would be careful, daddy.” she says in full determination before making a show of slowly walking out of her parents room. That leaves Harry giggling to himself while fetching his equally warm clothing in their closet.

Having learned how to dress up quickly not only for hectic tours and Gucci fashions shows, but that too of being freshly out the shower and your daughter is already wailing for your attention, Harry easily finishes getting ready for the day in just under five minutes. The man smiled approvingly at his daughter who was waiting patiently at one of the single couches in the upstairs living room area by the stairway, the couch big enough to look like it was swallowing her small form.

“Look who’s being a good girl early this morning.” Harry says, offering his hand for Molly to take. “Such a patient girl, princess. I think you’re definitely going to get your pressies from Santa tomorrow.”

Molly gives him a toothy smile, preening at her father’s words while accepting his help of getting down from the large single couch. “You think so, daddy?”

Harry easily picks up his toddler to carry down the stairs, the little girl’s one arm snaked behind his neck while the other rests on his cheek waiting for an answer with her green doe-like eyes exhibiting intense anticipation.

“Daddy really thinks so, princess. You’ve been really good and helpful to mummy while daddy was away so I’m sure that Father Christmas will know that too.”

“How he know?” Molly quirks a confused brow as Harry takes the two of them to their kitchen. “You talk to Santa, daddy?”

“Not really because I don’t need to. Santa sees everything, remember?” Harry says while carefully depositing Molly on the surface of the marbled kitchen counter.

Something in his last words spiked a current of sheer joy on Molly’s face, the latter quickly wobbling to stand on her feet on the kitchen counter allowing Harry to assist her excited frame as to not to fall on the floor and cause her father a heart attack.

Despite being Sophia’s daughter through and through, Molly is still Harry’s daughter as well. Greatly exemplified when said daughter suddenly begins singing a classic Christmas tune all animatedly, with her small body bopping this way and that.

“He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake!” Molly all but belts in her high-pitched voice, “He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!”

There’s nothing that gets Harry the most than seeing his daughter singing her heart out, easily getting tranced to join along the fun as they sing the chorus together, Harry’s arms gently swaying along Molly’s in a little happy dance.

“So! You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I’m telling you why. Santa Clause is coming to town!”

The two finish in absolute flourish, Molly’s ear-piercing screech hitting the last note of the song perfectly in Harry’s opinion. They both dissolve into rambunctious laughter after their singing moment, Harry’s heart growing triple its size at how unbelievably amazing his daughter is.

Harry drops a kiss to Molly’s grinning cheek, “I think that wonderful singing has made my princess more hungry, huh? Don’t worry, daddy’s going to give you a smoothie first before I start baking our brekkie.”

Harry misses the pout that formed on his daughter’s lips, back already facing her while getting some lime and spinach in the fridge, only to be interrupted by his daughter’s whine.

“Daddy! No green stuffies, please!”

Harry faces his daughter with his mouth ajar, “What do you mean no green stuffies? You love daddy’s smoothies, love.”

Molly shakes her head furiously, “Nu-uh, green smoothies are yucky!”

Harry actually gasps at the disgusted face his daughter is sporting, “Since when did my smoothies become yucky to you?”

“Mummy said eewiee last time you maked us smoothies so I say eewiee too.” Molly replies like it was a no brainer and Harry’s amused to say the least.

He should have seen it coming with the way most things about his daughter are slowly unfolding to be like the traits of her mother every day that she grows-up. Sophia’s aversion to green vegetables and fruits were put into a hold after the two of them have discussed that it was important that Molly would learn to love healthy foods and drinks at an early age. Harry’s quite certain that Sophia didn’t mean for their daughter to hear her disgusted comment about his smoothie since she’s been the best mother by being a good example to Molly and gulping her own pains away with Harry’s green smoothies every time he makes them.

But of course, their daughter had to be an attentive one and all Sophia’s efforts are put to waste at their daughter’s incessant look of displeasure after seeing Harry holding the green ingredients this morning.

“Don’t wanna green stuffies, daddy.” Molly pouts further, “Tum-tum don’t likey.”

Harry sighs, “What are you going to eat then, darling? Daddy’s still going to bake our brekkie and that would take awhile.”

Molly’s grin springs back to her face in an instant, it’s tone far too devious for a toddler which makes Harry quite apprehensive of what she’s about to say.

“May I please go to the pantry and I find snacks to eat while you bake brekkie, daddy?”

Molly asks the question so innocently, Harry not seeing the harm of agreeing especially with how polite she had asked for his permission.

“Alright.” Harry relents, acting exasperated at his daughter’s cheerful face. “You may go to the pantry and pick a snack. But please, pick something healthy, love. And please eat it at the dining table where I can see you, okay?”

His daughter nods her head enthusiastically, “Yes, daddy.” puckering her lips to land a kiss on Harry’s chin before quickly asking for help to be brought down to the floor.

Harry shakes his head in amusement once again as he easily carries Molly’s lithe body from the kitchen counter down to the heated floors, the little girl scurrying away to the door of their pantry before Harry can even tell her to be careful with her steps.

Like her mother, Molly has grown-up to love snacking at any moment the hunger for it strikes. Being the independent bee that she is, Sophia had decided it was only wise to get Harry to make their daughter a stepping stool that can be used for the pantry so that the little girl could go and get her snacks by herself after informing the two of them where she’s going.

Harry had been hesitant of the idea at first, scary thoughts of his baby girl loosing her footing on the stepping stool and falling on the ground without them near had plagued his mind. Those negative thoughts were quickly diminished when Sophia had ordered online a kit for the stepping stool, Molly’s eager aurora excitedly asking her father to assemble it for her, small hand not only tugging on his bigger palm but that too of his heart strings, was enough to get him to agree.

And now he isn’t regretting the decision. Harry makes the most out of the silent reprieve his daughter has given him by getting the dough that he chilled last night together with some butter, sugar, and flour from the cupboards all for the cinnamon rolls he’s going to be baking for their Christmas Eve breakfast.

Harry’s sweet tooth of a wife had actually been the one that had requested for this specific dish, and who was Harry to deny her kind wish when it was the season of giving after all. Besides, Sophia deserves some doting love from him after being the best mum in the world this past year with him being away from tour, or with Sophia being also his mum on tour when they were in the city where Harry was set to perform.

Harry wants to make this a special and delicious breakfast for his wife and daughter that he actually doesn’t notice what Molly is eating, just content seeing the flurry of her crazy-messy hair as she busies herself in the dining table while Harry begins to roll out the dough he proofed last night.

After rolling out the dough to be thin and wide enough for his liking, Harry’s focus was shifted to making sure he’s brushing equal amounts of butter on every surface of the dough as well as the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture he’s sprinkling is also of equal parts.

Too focused on the art of baking for his girls, Harry does not notice his wife coming down the stairs in all her sleep-rumpled glory, all cozily dressed-up and warm for the winter weather.

“Mind if I join the two of you here?” Sophia’s sweet voice breaks Harry’s engrossed state as he watches his wife almost glide to the kitchen towards them. Such a graceful creature that one.

It should have been a tell-tale sign when Molly didn’t even acknowledge the presence of her mother despite always worshiping the floor she walks on, wanting to be Sophia’s little version every single day. But one thing the married couple has learned after having their first child, is to value every second of child-less time that God gives them. So can you really blame the two when they went straight to each other in a tight embrace, lips locking in a sweet morning kiss.

“Good morning, my sunflower.” Harry dimples at his smiling wife, “I’d really want to cradle your face and kiss you so tenderly but my hands are sticky with sugar and cinnamon.”

Sophia coos at Harry’s pout, “It’s okay bunny, I’d just be the one to hold your face and kiss you good morning so tenderly.” Cupping Harry’s giggling face on the small of her palm, Sophia raises on her tiptoes to entangle their lips together in a loving kiss.

“Mummy! My kissies too!”

And that’s why you grab every opportunity you have to be able to snog your wife peacefully.

Harry and Sophia both sighed in each other's lips, more endeared than exasperated really, just like for everything else their daughter does.

Sophia turns her head towards Molly at the dining table, “Of course, my love. How can mummy forget my kissies for you?”

Their daughter shrugs, infamous pout forming once again, “I don’t know. Mummy should not forgetting to share daddy’s kissie with me too.”

Both Harry and Sophia let out surprise laughter at Molly’s clear admission of childish jealousy regarding Harry’s kisses. He should have known that a jealous mother would also mean a jealous daughter. Come to think of it, it’s not the first time Molly has interrupted their holiday smooches, only this time there weren’t any tiny hands pushing their heads away from each other.

“Oh, how unkind of mummy for not sharing daddy’s kissies with you, baby?” Sophia humors their daughter. “Why don’t you come here with us darling and give daddy amazing kisses and I go fix your messy hair while you’re at it with your father’s affection.”

Molly smiles, adorable baby teeth showing. And that’s when they see it.

“Molly!” Harry gasps together with Sophia, “What have you been eating, young lady?”

Molly shuts her toothy grin in an instant, features flushing in muted pink at being caught. She doesn’t reply to her father, so Harry has no choice but to follow his wife whose hand he’s holding, drags him to the dining table.

“What is this?” Sophia asks, gesturing incredulously at the plate of ‘snacks’ Molly had chosen from the pantry.

One of Sophia’s dainty white and gold plate sets that’s perfectly arranged for tonight’s roast dinner, is filled with mini Lindt chocolate bears, its classic gold wrapper with the touches of red, blue, and green all fit for the holiday outfits the adorable bears are wearing.

Seeing that her parents are more fond rather than cross (unfortunately) at her, Molly doesn’t cower away in the fear of getting scolded and instead gives her parents another toothy grin, evidence of her early sweet treat visible.

“They’re choccys, mummy.” Molly answers, so angelic-like it makes Harry believe Sophia and him are doomed when Molly becomes a teenager and get away with every single devious thing she’ll do because her parents are utter suckers for her precious face.

“I can see that they are choccys, darling.” Sophia confirms, head turning to Harry with a curved brow. “Now I don’t understand why your daddy let you eat some this early.”

Harry’s brows furrow, bottom lip sticking out just a little bit because it feels like the scolding will be directed at him unlawfully. “Sunflower, I told our little princess to get a healthy snack. Didn’t I, love?”

Molly might charm her way to get past her cheeky antics but one thing that she can’t do is lie straight to her parent’s faces, another thing she’s inherited from Sophia who can’t lie (even for a surprise for her husband) for the life of her. That trait goes in favor for Harry most of the time, easily getting the answers from Sophia when it’s date night and she had planned for them a surprise. Sophia can’t even last a whole five minutes in their ride and she’s already spilling the beans to Harry.

“Yes.” Molly pouts, nodding her head dejectedly. “Daddy said healthy snack before brekkie but I gotten choccys instead, sorry mummy and daddy.”

Molly makes grabby hands for either of her parents to pick her up, Sophia being the nearest one extending her arm to raise her daughter up and hold her tights to her chest. Molly quickly presses her soft baby lips on her mother’s in a kiss filled with apology, little head tilting at the side to reach for her father with her lips remained pursed. Harry coos, bending a little to meet his daughter half-way through, Molly smacking an equally apologetic kiss to his lips.

“It’s alright baby,” Harry promises quietly, “You’re forgiven, mummy and daddy aren’t cross with you.”

Sophia hums the same sentiment, giving her daughter a soft smile, “Daddy’s right, we’re not going to get mad at you if you’re so kind for being honest and apologizing right away. Look who’s in the nice list of Father Christmas?”

That brings the grin on Molly’s face back, giggling almost bashfully at her mother’s praise. “Sure mummy? Santa didn’t putted me in the naughty list cause I eated choccys for brekkie snack?”

“Yes, mummy’s sure baby. Remember, Santa has eyes everywhere, yeah?”

Both Harry and Molly lock gazes at that, mirth swimming in their green irises causing a frown of wary to etch on Sophia’s face.

“Uh-oh, why are you two looking at each other like that?”

Instead of replying, the father and daughter turned into the amazing singing duo that they are, breaking into the same Christmas song number from earlier. This time around, they’ve placed Sophia in the middle of their little dance routine, Harry and Molly showing Sophia how to properly shimmy her shoulders and bop her bum and hips like they’re back on tour once again.

It doesn't take long before Sophia and Molly tap out from tiredness, Harry giggles on his hands at the rather adorable flushed faces of his girls, bodies bent with their hands placed on their respective knees catching their breath like they’ve just ran a marathon. It’s yet another trait Molly got from her mother, getting easily physically exhausted and then pouting up at Harry asking for ‘cool down cuddles’.

On any regular day, Harry would have instantly jumped at the opportunity of getting to smother his two tired girls in his snuggles. But today’s Christmas Eve, he’s not going to let them have shitty breakfast just because they’re all too clingy and need attention, that’s really the bottomline of it, isn’t it?

Hence, Harry musters the bravest face he can make, one that can resist the double-trouble of his wife and daughter’s identical puppy eyes and pleading pouts (a hundred times more fucking difficult than anyone can ever imagine), asking Sophia to help Molly freshen-up and erase any traces of chocolate on her face. Despite Sophia’s resistance, she agrees minutes later upon remembering the bird nest state of her daughter’s hair, and the promise of freshly baked cinnamon rolls once they arrive back.

Harry promptly returns to work once Molly and Sophia have left hand-in-hand up the staircase once more.

One who absolutely loves cooking for his girls, Harry expertly cuts and rolls the cinnamon buns and is placed perfectly in a large baking dish in no time. It still does have to be baked though, so Sophia and Molly arrive back in the kitchen with the growing aromas of sugar mixed with spicy notes from the cinnamon, inhibiting the entire room.

“Oohh, smells yummy.” Sophia observes, nose visibly raising in attention to waft the heavenly scent.

Molly, who’s in her mother’s arms with her hair fixed into little adorable spacebuns, copies her mother with ease, eyes closing all lovely, “Oohh, smells yummy!”

The two adults share a laugh at their daughter’s undeniable cuteness, amusement unceasing when the cinnamon rolls have baked with Molly physically sitting on her own tiny hands to prevent from taking a bite of her own roll after Harry had served them with it at the dining table. Both Sophia and Harry have told their daughter about five times (in the span of two minutes) not to eat it yet for it’s still piping hot after being taken out fresh from their oven.

Harry would like to think that as much as Sophia is on his side for their daughter’s safety, he’s pretty sure Sophia is also at the edge of her seat, waiting for the go signal from Harry when it’s already alright to eat their sweet breakfast without anyone burning their tongues.

After all, the two do love their sweet food. Harry shares the same observation at the table once Sophia and Molly have dived straight into their own cinnamon rolls, forgetting about knives and forks unlike Harry.

“I mean, I like sweet food.” Sophia answers Harry's comment, “But I don’t know if I love it, per say.” and then proceeds to lick her fingers clean from the sugary icing Harry had poured earlier.

Harry raises an incredulous eyebrow at that, Sophia huffing with an eye-roll at her husband’s smirk.

“Okay, I love sweet food then,” Sophia relents, “but I don’t like sweet breakfast all the time. Like, I also want some savory food in the morning on some days.”

Harry snorts, “Since when? I’m pretty sure our baby girl was eating chocolate bears earlier because she got that from you, like all things really.” and he gives Sophia his own set of eye-rolls, the underneath tone of bitterness in his voice is not lost in Sophia’s ears.

Sophia cackles, “That’s so not true.”

At the same time, Molly perks-up after hearing the magical word, “Choccy bears?” she asks in excitement, mouth messy with white icing and crumbs of sugar and cinnamon making the spouses giggle at their daughter’s messy nature.

Harry reaches forward to wipe his daughter clean, chuckling when Molly cranes her little neck to catch Harry’s thumb on her mouth to eat the sweet mess. Honestly, if anyone didn’t know any better, they’d probably think Harry is starving his daughter from the way she absolutely lights up after savoring those little granules of sweet food.

“Yeah, choccy bears,” Harry muses with a grin at his daughter, “darling, don’t you just love choccy bears cause mummy loves choccy bears?”

That makes Molly beam, all toothy and sticky hands clapping in glee, “Yes! Mummy loves choccy bears so I maded sure I love it too!”

The smug look Harry offers Sophia after that, is enough to convey the ‘I told you so!’ without needing to say it verbally. Sophia just pouts at her husband, brows meeting in the middle.

“Well mummy has a sweet tooth, so what can she do?” Sophia shrugs before turning to give Harry a fleeting look, baby blues looking too devious for Harry’s liking which all of a sudden disappears to give Molly an excited beam.

“But good thing daddy does quite well with helping us with our sweet cravings, yeah princess?”

Molly nods eagerly at her mother before turning to Harry with a lovely smile, “Yup! Daddy loves giving mummy and Molly with sweet treats, love daddy a bunch for gotted us choccy food all the time!”

Harry just absolutely preens at his daughter’s love-oozing words, “Aww, I love you too, princess. There isn’t anything daddy won’t do to get you and mummy what you like.”

“That’s why we love you,” Sophia says, devious baby blues back on a locked gaze with Harry’s own curious ones, “Always doing your best to give what Molly and I want or need. It’s a good thing you’re also down to help Molly make gingerbread cookies later because we’ve been craving for some since the start of the month.”

Molly actually screeches on her seat at the mention of that, fisted hands banging on the table ardently. “YES! Daddy and I bake gingerbread men NOW!”

In turn, Harry actually groans on his seat with Sophia cackling in laughter and Molly continually exclaiming the need for Harry and her to start baking already, the toddler far too keen already after talking Harry’s ear off about baking gingerbread cookies together ever since last night. And yes, it’s mainly the reason why his daughter didn’t want to have her kip last night.

This lot mainly stemmed from Sophia’s love for watching the Hallmark Christmas movies once the start of the holiday season has arrived from around the corner. Molly, being the studious girl that she is in wanting to be the best mini version of her mother, had also taken a liking to these films as mother and daughter tandem made a routine of watching a film or two a day to get their Christmas spirits going.

Most of the Hallmark films that Sophia has taped in their telly, revolved around some sort of Christmas baking with a love story entangled in it in some cheesy way. Molly, being a child who doesn’t really care about kissing under the mistletoe or awkward fumbling in the skate rink that turns to cliché falling on the ice and accidentally kissing, has focused her keen attention on all the baking of sweet treats in the movies.

As much as Harry is thankful that his daughter is not yet at the age of thinking that any boy would be much suited at taking care and loving her compared to her father, Harry is also placed in an unfavorable position after his daughter had pleaded with him that they too bake in the holidays like those people in the films.

Sophia’s a decent cook but she’s absolute crap in the field of baking, so it was clever of their daughter to direct her widened eyes and fluttering lashes at her daddy who on a normal day can’t resist giving in to that look.

What happens when it’s given to him during Christmas time?

Harry absolutely stumbles on his feet to teach his daughter how to make gingerbread cookies, that’s what happens.

That statement is also conveyed in literal terms, like Harry is literally stumbling on his own two feet from the amount of flour his daughter is placing in their dry ingredients bowl, so much that it’s also spilling on the kitchen floor causing Harry’s clumsiness to come into action.

“Alright, I think that’s enough, baby.” Harry says, hands coming up to wave off the puffs of flour floating in the air. He stands closer to his daughter who’s standing securely on one of their dining chairs, head raised to look at Harry in clear concentration, an extremely adorable look that Harry can’t help but giggle at.

“What’s next, daddy?” Molly eagerly asks.

“Now we have to add the remaining dry ingredients, like the salt, baking soda, and all our spices.”

To prevent more spillage, Harry takes it upon himself to tell Molly to wait (a hardship on its own that would take a lot of time to share how) while he measures into little cups all the other dry ingredients so all that his messy daughter gotta do is to dump its contents on their big bowl in an easy, and way cleaner manner.

Harry learns quite quickly that there’s nothing easy with teaching a toddler how to bake. Molly’s pudgy tiny fingers dipping on every measured cup, tongue poking out in disgust after having a taste of pure powdered cinnamon, clove, all spice, and ginger, all of which Harry had told her not to put directly in her mouth.

“That’s so yucky!” Molly grumbles, “Why we putted that in our gingerbread men, daddy?”

Harry shakes his head at his daughter’s cluelessness, filling a glass of water for Molly to drink to wash out the unpleasant symphony of spices in her pink tongue. Harry finds her amusing because he’ll never forget how Sophia did the exact same thing, and asked the exact same questions when they first baked gingerbread cookies together way back when their daughter wasn’t even born yet. Harry just hopes that Molly has a far better future in the baking scene than her mother.

“It won’t taste horrible later, princess, I promise.” Harry replies, accepting the empty glass from his daughter’s careful hands. “It just doesn’t taste good right now because it’s not cooked yet. Once it’s all mixed with our wet ingredients, we’ve rolled the dough and cut our gingerbread men, it’s going to taste really yummy once it’s done baking in the oven.”

His daughter only hums in acknowledgement at that, her attention span of being a toddler is quickly transferred to the pink KitchenAid mixer that Harry has just placed in the kitchen counter.

“I like the color pink.” Molly points out the electronic mixer.

“Why’s that?” Harry humors her despite knowing the answer just like he knows the sun will come down later and it will rise again tomorrow.

“Because mummy likes pink, so I like pink too.”

And how can Harry forget about that? His bloody nails are painted pink right now because Sophia seems to have a collection of all the shades of pink found in the spectrum of colors in the form of nail polishes. At the same time, he still lets out a shudder from the pointed glares that Sophia had given him for all the red outfits he wore at tour.

Harry proceeds to slowly instruct Molly about the wet ingredients that she needs to pour in a separate bowl. This time, he doesn’t bother warning Molly not to taste the sugar or molasses, but does place a foot forward when his daughter all out gobbles a cube of butter, buttery fingers trying to reach for another one which Harry intercepts easily.

“No more butter for you, missy.” Harry chuckles at Molly’s disgruntled face, traces of butter smeared on her lips, “Or we won’t have any cookies if your tum-tum eats them all.” Harry then tickles her pudgy stomach causing Molly to shriek in laughter.

In no time, Harry’s strong arms are guiding Molly’s smaller ones in combining both the dry ingredients with the wet ones, Molly’s fascinated eyes trained on the whirling motion of the mixer as it combines all the components of the gingerbread cookie into a warm brown colored dough.

“Wow.” Molly awes as Harry scoops the dough from the bowl, molding it a bit with his practiced hands before wrapping it in clingwrap.

“That’s cool, huh?” Harry dimples at his engrossed daughter. “Now we just have to wait and put it in the fridge to chill for an hour.”

His daughter’s enchanted expression of seeing their creation turn into a dough for her gingerbread men is quickly replaced by a petulant pout.

“Why?” Molly asks in a tone of pure protest, “Why put in the fridge, daddy? I thought we going to maded it now?”

Harry, having the sixth sense for a Christmas-obsessed toddler tantrum, makes his way to the fridge and swaps the dough they just made to one that he made from last night.

“Ta-da!” Harry showcases the chilled dough to his daughter animatedly, the green eyed girl covering her mouth in a gasp of surprise.

“Oh my.” Molly mutters when Harry begins to sprinkle the surface of the kitchen counter with flour, rolling out the batch of dough he prepared last night.

“Amazing right? I knew your little impatient bum couldn’t wait to get your gingerbread men assembled.”

Molly doesn’t reply from her father’s rib at her character. Either because she’s a child who can’t detect teasing that well, or because she’s precisely like her mummy who doesn’t take a damn from Harry whenever he calls out Sophia’s own impatient whining. Harry has his bets on the latter option of why Molly just ignores his words in favor of excitedly arranging the assortment of gingerbread man cookie cutters he bought specifically for her as an early Christmas present.

“Alright,” Harry claps his hands free from any excess flour after successfully rolling out the dough in the perfect thinness he was hoping to achieve, “daddy is going to show you how to cut out one gingerbread man, and you princess can do the rest after.”

Molly wordlessly hands Harry one of the cookie cutters, eyes glued solely on the slow motions of her daddy’s hands as he flours the cookie cutter before placing it in the dough.

“Now you have to press it hard, like this.” Harry tells her, pushing on his palms quite exaggeratedly with his face frowning in the faux strenuous activity just to hear his daughter’s amused giggles. “No giggling here darling. You have to put all your big girl strength in cutting these cookies or else there won’t be any cookies to eat.”

“No way!” Molly protests easily, “Have to get the gingerbread men cutted cause it looks so good in the telly that mummy and I watch.”

“Well here you go then,” Harry says, offering the jar of flour for Molly to take some for her cookie cutters, “cut away, my fine baking apprentice!”

Once again, Molly doesn’t pay attention to anything he said, just proceeds to copy her father’s earlier actions, little tongue poking out all cute in concentration as she presses hard on the cookie cutter to make sure it makes a dent on the dough.

Harry watches the scene unfold with unbridled pride blooming in his chest, attention lasered on every minute changes in Molly’s features that the second a small frown begins to form on her forehead, Harry is straightaway ready to ask what’s wrong.

“Why the gingerbread men have no heart, daddy?” Molly replies with a frown.

The question catches Harry off-guard. “What do you mean, darling?”

Molly sighs, “A heart, daddy!” she exclaims like Harry doesn’t know his basic anatomy. “Mummy said every living creature on earth has gotted a heart. That’s why we have to be kind to everyone even if they are meanies cause they also have heart and I can’t breaked other’s heart, daddy. Have to be kind, always, mummy and you said.”

Harry and Sophia have properly taught their daughter the vital importance of being kind in this world no matter the circumstance. What they should probably think of teaching Molly is how to not go melting people’s hearts from how wonderful and precious she is!

“So you also want to give your gingerbread men a heart, baby?” Harry coos, eyes probably formed into its own heart slits.

Molly nods, pink lips curved upwards, “Yes, daddy! Heart for my gingerbread men too cause people have gotted to be kind with them, too.”

Harry’s endeared to say the least, needing no other prompt to get their heart shaped cookie cutters for his daughter to use. “And we can’t go having people being mean with your gingerbread men cookies, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Molly affirms brightly, hands planting themselves on her hips with her eyes narrowing. “Don’t like meanies hurting my gingerbread men, but I still be kind if they do cause mummy said I be the bigger person.”

Harry tries to cover the laugh trying to escape from his mouth at the look of utter danger in his daughter’s green pools. “And you are the bigger person, princess. Look at you, you’re almost as tall as daddy!”

Harry’s poor attempt at joking results in an unimpressed pout on Molly’s lips, whining, “Daddy! That’s not funny.”

Harry wants to feel offended at Molly’s unpleasant words against his humor if only he didn’t know already that once again, his daughter takes on her mother for not being quite fond of Harry’s love to jest around. Oftentimes, the two girls are the first to groan at Harry’s dad jokes every time there’s company at home to entertain. Harry could say he might be annoyed, but he really isn’t when he knows deep down, Sophia and Molly would not have him in any other way despite their matching contempt every time he says, ‘knock, knock..’

The pair return to cutting their gingerbread cookies, Harry helping Molly to get the heart cookie cutter in the middle of each gingerbread man. Harry even made sure that the heart cookie cutters they’re using are all of the same size since Molly had given him a stink eye when he said some of them might be smaller than others.

“Daddy! All have same big heart, no small hearts!”

Harry prefers not to get berated by a toddler with a lot of sugar in her system, so he just follows along as he gently transfers each perfectly cut gingerbread man - with BIG hearts - on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Molly knows that neither of her parents allow her to be anywhere near any heat source which enables her to not start-up a fight when Harry proceeds to put the baking sheet in the pre-heated oven by himself.

“Want to go watch with mummy in the living room while daddy cleans up here?” Harry bends down to his daughter’s level to ask.

Molly shakes her head. “No. I have to help daddy to cleaned the messy in the kitchen.”

“Of course,” Harry smiles with a knowing glint in his eyes, “Mummy doesn’t like messy too, huh?”

Molly nods her head this time, a little smirk forming on her lips that makes Harry shiver internally on how in the world can she already look this devious when she wants to be at such a young age.

“Yeah, mummy doesn’t like messy.” Molly repeats, shaking her head. “That’s why mummy doesn’t like your studio, daddy!”

“Heyy..” Harry pouts at his giggling daughter of a traitor who’s exposing the current disarray state of his at-home studio, “That’s not true, love. It’s only messy right now because I let you color your Frosty the Snowman and Santa books there while I’m recording my songs for the new album.”

“Not true!” Molly declares, “Daddy’s studio is always messy!”

His little three-year-old should have thought better before saying that.

If she did, Harry would not be chasing her around in their messy kitchen with the promise of tickling her until she laughs so loudly like Father Christmas. It’s no surprise though that Harry catches Molly in his arms not even a full five minutes later, the child flushed tired in his arms once more making Harry embody the Christmas spirit of peace and decides not to go ahead with his tickling spree.

They’re in the middle of actually cleaning the kitchen counter when Molly does catch Harry in surprise.

Harry was now sitting on the chair Molly was using earlier as a stepping stool to reach the top of the kitchen counter, his daughter sitting comfortably on his lap, face nuzzled into the warmth of his neck, Harry’s own arms wrapped around Molly’s little frame hugging her tight in his embrace.

“Daddy?” Molly whispers into the skin of where his shoulder meets his neck.

“Hm?” Harry hums, hands gently running up and down Molly’s spine in an act to relax his surely tired daughter from all their baking and running about.

“May I please give mummy the first piece of our gingerbread men cookies that we maked? I love mummy a bunch of tons so I want her to gotted the first one.”

Molly Styles might be the exact replica of Sophia from the top of her head until the ends of her tiptoes, personalities and traits might also be a carbon copy despite her young age.

But one thing that Harry is dead-on sure that Molly got from him, is something so special that he doesn’t give a fuck if it’s the only thing his daughter got from his gene (the green eyes too, thanks).

Molly loves her mummy just the same as Harry loves his wife.

They give Sophia the same love, care and adoration that she deserves, Harry’s definitely happy to know and that it’s something he’s proud to say Molly got from him.

Molly wants to give Sophia the first piece of the gingerbread cookies Harry and her made just the same as Harry would make sure his wife gets the first serving of food in any Christmas party held under his honor.

Molly would wait patiently for her mummy’s reaction upon taking the first bite of the holiday cookie just like Harry who waited for Sophia’s reaction to the Christmas ornaments he got from every state he visited in the US during his last tour. Both father and daughter need that smile of approval from the woman they love to function properly afterwards.

Despite being a lover of sweet treats herself, Molly would only give half of her attention on the gingerbread cookie she’s eating, the remaining half is trained on her mother, waiting if she needs a drink before ordering her daddy to make mummy her special Christmas hot cocoa with extra marshmallows at the top.

Similarly, Harry would only give his favorite Christmas film ‘Love Actually’ half of his mind while the rest is focused on his wife who’s decorating their home all festive and cozy for Christmas time, always on high alert if she needs a hand on something.

After having enough taste on the gingerbread cookies, Molly would gladly cuddle her mummy in her small but insanely powerfully huggable arms, knowing full well how much Sophia loves a good warm snuggle with every food coma she nurses. Sophia’s tired state from last night had also garnered similar results, Harry welcoming his tired wife from all the gift wrapping she had done, her entire body going pliant in Harry’s strong hold as he oozes all the love and appreciation he has for her in that simple body contact.

The Christmas-obsessed Molly would even disregard all the fun holiday activities she has in mind just to show her mummy how much she loves spending time with her and doing barely anything. The little girl would no doubt agree to Sophia’s request of cuddling all day of Christmas Eve in the couch watching more Hallmark Christmas films or the Grinch once Harry gets bored of all the soppiness.

In the same regard, Harry would gladly politely decline any offers his friends have to join them for some Christmas party at some high-class pub or even a shopping trip to a fancy Christmas market, all in favor of joining Molly in loving up Sophia with her favorite hugs and kisses.

Harry and Molly’s love for the woman truly has no bounds, would happily do the same thing again come dinner time with Molly letting her mummy have the first bite of the Christmas roast, attentive eyes waiting for the signal to get her daddy to make mummy the ‘Christmas special drink for mummy and daddy only’ aka: mulled wine.

Harry wouldn’t even mind if that was the case, he’ll most likely even volunteer to start the cuddle fest himself after their Christmas Eve dinner. Arms wide open for his girls with Molly helping him make sure mummy is snuggled tightly with the thick, knitted blanket they got from Nanny Anne. It wouldn’t be a secret if the two indulge Sophia with another Christmas movie at night time, maybe one of the Princess Switch movies or Elf once Harry gets confused on why there are two Vanessa Hudgens that suddenly turn into three come the next movies.

All in all, when Christmas morning comes, Harry is confident that Molly and him love Sophia wholly and just the same by letting her have the first go at the pressies under their fabulously decorated Christmas tree.

Never mind the fact that Molly is a three-year-old toddler who’s been waiting for Santa’s gifts ever since the start of the ber-months, or that Harry is a 27-year old man who still outshines her daughter by opening more gifts than her in under a minute because he’s definitely still very much in-touch with his inner child once the holiday season strikes.

All of those Harry and Molly can disregard and throw the notion outside the door and into the snowing England pavements.

All in the name of their shared love and gratitude for Sophia.

“Yes.” Harry simply replies to his daughter, the two’s features slowly brewing in identical grins despite their clear differences in looks. “We can give mummy anything we want this Christmas Eve because we love her.”

“YES!” Molly cheers far too brightly for something so simple and so innate to them, “We love on mummy on Christmas Eve!”

And pretty much any other day of any other week of any other fucking year, they’d love on Sophia as much as they want.

This Christmas Eve is no exception.

"Yes please, Bunny."

It might have been an inevitable factor for Harry Styles to start his own beauty brand. As someone as pretty as him, people would definitely want to buy something that he made that can help them for even just a small fraction to look as good as him. Which yes, that includes having pretty nails as him.

Sophia would be losing her shit as well if he weren’t her husband already and she was out there trying to find the right type of people who takes good care of their nails because let’s face it, it says a lot about someone’s view on cleanliness if they don’t value the state of their nails or have no semblance of any nail care.

And to be completely honest, spouses or not, Sophia is still losing her shit at finally reaching the day where her husband’s new passion project is finally being unveiled and officially launched for people to consume and enjoy.

Sophia had been at every step of the process in Harry being the founder of this new beauty/skincare brand. From the moment he first pitched the idea to her when he was getting his nails done for the Watermelon Sugar music video shoot, to holding his hand while he proposed the idea with Jeff and his team a few months later while in quarantine.

It was a joy seeing Harry navigate this part of the business world that he has yet to dip his toes in, seeing her husband so excited with stories and new learnings to tell her at the end of the day, was a definite highlight that Sophia would miss now that Pleasing is officially being birthed for the world to see.

What she won’t miss however, is the energy of stress, looks of frowning faces, and voice so tired of Harry that Sophia had to actually intervene and demand his husband to take several days off in their house while she deals with the remaining matters herself.

The ever doting husband that he is, Harry obviously had begun to protest saying that he’d rather be stressed than for his wife to be the one to take the load and be the one bone-tired at the end of the day. Sophia had just laughed which caused Harry to pout even harder, she reassured him that regardless if she took his business matters, she would still be bone-tired at the end of the day. That’s what happens when you’re raising a one year old baby.

Charlie Edward Styles is the recently big champ in the Styles’ residence after turning the big number one just before Love on Tour started. Their baby boy is the most precious thing in their life with his luscious blonde locks that he definitely took from Harry when he was a child himself, plus all the other features of his father because Sophia feels slightly cheated on that her baby that she cooked and cared for in her stomach for nine months ended up looking like the exact carbon copy of her husband. It’s as if all the times she found herself dreamily staring at Harry during her pregnancy magically made their first born look exactly like him with green doe eyes, and dimples on both cheeks and all the other cuteness overload.

Anyway, enough being bitter about things that should be considered as a blessing and let's jump back up to the productive activities that Sophia had accomplished while she left her two babies at home to spend some much needed father and son quality time. Truthfully, there wasn't much left for her to do at that point in the process of building Pleasing. Most of the heavy decision making steps were already completed by Harry because it is his brand to begin with, which only left Sophia with logistic talks and to arrange and finalize the PR list.

It wasn’t really a chore, but Harry had still tended to her upon her arrival back at their home in Malibu like she had just worked a tedious nine to five job with a cruel boss that didn’t give her any breaktime. In reality, Sophia was very much not working a nine to five as she had left for the Pleasing office already after lunch since Charlie was creating a fuss in not wanting to drink the milk she had pumped the night before, cries only stopping when Sophia had allowed him to latch directly on her breast. At the same time, Sophia was given a lot of break time courtesy of her husband, the founder of the company, after he had apparently ‘slightly threatened’ (Jeff’s words, not hers) to fire anyone that makes his wife exhausted for unnecessary things.

Well there weren’t any unnecessary matters thrown her way, so all of Harry’s Pleasing employees were on a definite clear and so was the company itself as the early access launch date was confirmed which is set on the day of the San Diego show.

Today is that day and Sophia already feels the smile threatening her lips just thinking about it as she tries to soak in the last few minutes of complete calmness as she snuggles on the sheets of their hotel bed not wanting to fully wake-up yet. However, the pair of plump lips that is currently leaving wet kisses on the warm skin of her bare shoulder blades is not helping her resolve in any means, her eyes fluttering open in the morning light of the room as she finally breaks into a soft smile at the image that greets her.

Nothing warms Sophia’s heart then seeing a top less Harry with an equally topless little Charlie cuddled comfortably across his broad chest. Their baby boy has always loved having skin to skin contact with his parents right after he was born. It was always the final answer for almost anything when he starts getting fussy or irritated, it never failed to put the boy to a calm sleep.

Whenever Sophia points out how inconvenient it sometimes can be especially when they’re in public and the both of them can’t just whip out their shirts even if Harry might be a slight nudist, her husband would always say that the both of them are to blame for spoiling Charlie with skin to skin contact in the first place.

Sophia would roll her eyes every time Harry answers in that fashion, confidently asserting that it wasn’t because of them spoiling their son, it’s about their baby boy inheriting a certain gene from his father who is an absolute culprit for being obsessed with skin to skin contact with his wife even before they were married. Harry would obviously give her a petulant pout at her accusation, would even try to ignore her for a few minutes but only submitting to defeat and asking for his turn to snuggle on her chest after their little baby has gotten his fill of his mama’s loving touch. Who was Sophia to ignore her adorable husband’s turn to cuddle with her?

“Look who’s awake, bubby,” Harry whispers to the wide-awake Charlie with his widened green eyes staring intently at his father’s own. “It’s our pretty mama, bubby. Pretty mama is up already, what do you say when someone wakes-up, little man? We were practicing it earlier super quietly because we didn’t want to disturb mama’s beauty rest.”

The one year old certainly does not understand Harry’s question but his parents' early morning soft smiles must elicit something joyous within his little body as he answers his father’s question with a dimpled smile, gums all out cutely with his little baby teeth making an early morning appearance.

“Mama, mama.” Charlie squeals, making his parents laugh at his rather bright enthusiasm.

“Yes baby, that’s me, mama’s awake.” Sophia fondly replies as she gives him her finger to hold around his tiny fist. Harry chuckles with one of his hands gently fixing the messy blonde curls of his son that definitely rivals the state of his own chocolate brown locks.

“That’s not what we really practiced, bubby. But that’s okay cause you’re still a little cutie who can get away with just your adorable smile.” Harry says, puckering his lips to land a smattering of small kisses on his baby’s forehead.

“My Charlie bubby can get away, but I don’t think dada can escape greeting mama a good morning with a good morning kiss too.”

Harry laughs just as brightly as their son’s squeal from moments ago, the graveness of his morning voice sends a sudden warmth within Sophia. Their practically snuggled tight position in bed, allows Harry to raise his head to look at his wife admiringly while the latter bends just a little bit to be closer to him.

“Wasn't planning to, lovie.” Harry rasps with the sides of his lips curved upwards, “Good morning, my pretty sunflower, I hope you had a good sleep.”

“Good morning too, bunny.” Sophia hums in appreciation, her hands reaching down to lightly fix Harry’s disheveled curls, “Always have a good night's sleep whenever I’m with my boys. Now where’s my kiss?” She pats her lips with her index finger for emphasis.

“Oh silly me, how can dada forget such an essential thing?”

Sophia endearingly rolls her eyes at her husband before bending down to close the gap between them as Harry catches her bottom lip in a deep sweet kiss. Sophia sighs in contentment at the warm and wet feeling of their lips together, reluctantly pulling apart when they begin to hear the little protests coming from their little baby.

“Wait for your turn, bubby.” Harry teasingly scolds their now frowning son who’s trying to wiggle away from Harry’s hold around him to reach his mother.

Sophia giggles at the apparent jealous nature that her baby is displaying, obviously another trait that Charlie got from Harry without a doubt. It’s not really an inconvenience on her part as Harry gently transfers the squirming Charlie away from his chest to Sophia’s own, while their baby finally settles down with his little lips directly finding his mothers in a sweet and slobbery kiss.

“Why thank you for that loving gesture, my Charlie bubby. Mama loves your morning kisses.” Sophia coos at the now dimpling baby, his little chubby face dropping to nuzzle her neck as little baby giggles leave his smiling lips.

“Good morning my love.” Sophia doesn’t forget to whisper at her baby, hers and Harry’s hands gravitating towards the little body on her chest to caress his smooth baby skin. “Today’s the special day, bubby. Remember the one I keep telling you about? It’s dada’s launch date!”

Her enthusiasm does not faze the utterly relaxed infant on her chest, quite content at basking in his parent’s loving touch and attention. Harry on the other hand can’t keep his endeared laugh from escaping him.

“It’s not really that special of a day because not everyone can get their hands on the products yet. We’re just launching the website and the brand itself on social media.”

Sophia dismisses Harry’s modesty by getting his big hand to cradle her cheek, her lips leaving a little kiss on his thumb, “It’s still a lot special because today’s still launch day! Besides, you also forgot one of the biggest happenings for today which is your little Pleasing truck in Studio City later! How can you forget that, bunny?”

Harry chuckles, eyes looking so fond at her with his thumb affectionately glazing her full lips, “Let me guess, the Pleasing truck is so special for today that you yourself is going there later?”

“Absolutely! I knew I married you not only for your looks but also your wits!” Sophia gleefully says while Harry shakes his head in fondness at her teasing. “Glenne and I are going with Lamby as well. I want to bring my little Charlie with me but dada won’t allow you, huh?” Sophia asks their little quiet son who’s now reaching for Harry’s other hand so he can also have his father’s big paw cradling his chubby cheeks like his mom. Aren’t they just a sickeningly sweet family who can’t live without constant touching?

“Bubby can’t because it’s not safe for him, right my little man?” Harry replies for Charlie, “Dada trusts mama and auntie Glenne and Lamby and the security that mama will not be leaving without,” he says this with his eyes completely trained at Sophia who has been guilty of sometimes leaving the confines of their hotel without any form of security with her. That causes her husband to panic because every time that happens, it just wasn’t a lucky day for Sophia as something unkindly usually occurs after.

“But,” Harry continues talking, “dada does not want to overwhelm you with all the people there later, especially when mama is focused on helping dada’s fans to get their Pleasing items because our pretty mama is super sweet and caring even if she isn’t necessarily needed there.”

And that might be true, they have employees who are going to handle the Pleasing truck and the website orders but it just doesn’t sit well with Sophia that no part of Harry will be there to experience it as well. She can’t fault her husband for not being able to drive the Pleasing truck himself as he’s still currently on tour with a show later in the Pechange Arena here in San Diego. She might not be Harry, but she’s his wife and they share the last name and she cares for this project of his just as much as he does.

“That’s alright with mama,” Sophia says with a smile of understanding given to Harry, “My Charlie bubby can stay with dada here while mama dotes over dada’s fans because she wants to do so. And, Nana Anne is here, bubby! You can show her all your stuffies and introduce everyone from the tour, yeah?”

With travelling restrictions slightly lifted, Anne has finally been able to secure a flight from England to the US. She deserves to see her son perform his heart out on every stage, and the three of them have been seriously missing her presence ever since they embarked to America for the start of the tour.

Once Charlie was born, Harry and Sophia have decided that they didn’t want to raise any of their children in the hustling and bustling city of London, it was a unanimous decision to get a house built up in Cheshire to be more close to their other family members as Sophia also came from the same country town. With that being said and done, almost every weekend, Anne had been a constant guest at their country estate with Charlie never leaving his nana’s side the moment she stepped within the confines of their home.

Just the mention of his nana’s name gets Charlie excited as he exhibits right now. His earlier quiet solace in his mother’s neck is instantly broken down by excited babbling with Sophia and Harry only understanding the word ‘nana’ leaving his excited lips.

“Alright, alright.” Harry laughs at the change of energy from his son, “Why don’t you and mama get ready first in the bathroom because it seems to me you two are quite excited to get on with the day, yeah?”

Sophia giggles her agreeance, her beaming face is welcomed by Harry’s slightly stubbled cheek as he delivers another round of toes tingling kisses to her lips before parting and doing the same to their son.

That gives enough motivation for Sophia to finally rise from the bed, her giggling Charlie clasped tightly around her chest as she walks the two of them in the ensuite bathroom to go on with their daily morning routine. It’s nothing special as far as just needing to be properly clean and fresh, so it only takes the two of them about ten minutes before they’re done and heading back inside their hotel room looking and feeling ready for today’s activities.

And it seems like Sophia and Charlie are not the only ones who are ready with their day as what greets them upon their arrival back in the room greatly implies that Harry has been going about his day already.

“Bunny, what in the world…” Sophia trails off as her surprised clouded eyes look around the two parcels placed carefully on their still messy bed. “Did you seriously send Charlie and I the Pleasing PR kit?”

Harry’s standing by the end of the bed, arms crossed behind his back in a look of innocence, “I don’t know what you mean, sunflower.” he shrugs his shoulders in an act of casualness, “Someone just knocked on our door and delivered these gifts for the two of you. Not gonna lie, kind of felt put-off when I didn’t get any parcels addressed to me; the person who sent this has clear favoritism.”

“You’re so silly!” Sophia laughs at Harry’s acting skills, she hopes to god this is not the type of acting she will be seeing on the big screen when all the recent movies he’s filmed finally comes out. He might be really cute, but that’s just bad acting when even their one year old son is laughing at him.

“Si si dada!” Charlie squeals while pointing his cute little index finger at Harry who now can’t keep the grin from spreading across his face.

“I know, bubby, dada is so silly! So, so silly!” Charlie erupts in bubbling baby laughter as Sophia noses his little ears. Harry sighs in defeat from where he’s standing, Sophia can see that he isn’t really annoyed that they’re poking fun at him.

“Would it be enough if pretty mama and Charlie bubby just give dada a wonderful kiss in thanks for his kind acts?”

Harry doesn’t even have to ask that before she’s carefully running to close the distance between the three of them, and if she wasn’t carrying a highly precious cargo with her, Sophia would have jumped in Harry’s arms as he stumbled back in their bed with Sophia pinning him from above to attack him with loving kisses like he deserves. Instead, she settles with crowding his personal space in a tight hug, careful of the baby in between them, as she follows along Charlie's slobbery sweet kisses once Harry had offered his cheeks to them. Of course, once Sophia started attacking Harry on the lips, their little son followed along his mother this time causing Harry to scrunch his nose from all the wet saliva sticking to his skin.

“Thank you for the kisses my lovies,” Harry says after his wife and son had calmed down, “I can see that you really wanted to give your thanks, huh?” he wipes a hand on his stubbled cheek only to find it wet.

“Oh hush it, you love it, bunny!” Sophia says as she brings her and Charlie to the bed where their parcels are located. “You’d rather have slobbery kisses from us than biting kisses, right Charlie bubby?”

Harry chuckles as he plops himself on the bed beside his babies, “I guess you’re right, I don't want any more bites on my cheeks from my little vampire.” and he reaches for Charlie’s little fist to jokingly bite on, resulting in the latter to release infectious laughter.

When Charlie began teething, he wasn’t a cranky little mess that cannot be settled like most babies. Instead, he was really accepting of the teething toys and treats Sophia and Harry gave him to the point where anything he was allowed to put his mouth on, he would latch on and bite. That just happened to be Harry’s cheeks and lips whenever he gave his baby some love and kisses.

At first he didn’t mind it, finding it funny that Charlie found his face worth chomping on instead of Sophia’s nipples that Charlie never bit on even if that’s where his actual food was coming from. Until it became Sophia, the one laughing at him after their son decided to shift into a little baby vampire when he bit so hard on Harry’s cheek that some blood actually came out.

Thank the lord the teething phase was over, and Harry should be really thankful that he only gets wet and saliva-messy kisses from their little boy. At the same time, Sophia should be really saying her gratitude to her husband upon seeing the thoughtful gesture he had just done for Charlie and her.

The parcels weren’t anything special, it was the same black Pleasing box that Sophia had seen being made in their factory before. And upon opening the box, it also contained the Perfect Polish Set, the Pearlescent Illuminating Serum, the Pleasing Pen, and even the nail art stickers. What made this special is the miniature bouquet of pink and white tulips that are bunched together by a white ribbon with the black Pleasing logo printed into it. In addition, the black card that usually contained the greetings from the company is now replaced with Harry’s handwriting:

“For the answer to my every search of pleasing; I love you, my Sunflower 🤍”

“It’s too early for this,” Sophia whines to her husband who’s giggling at her awed expression, “you’re going to make me cry, bunny!”

“Oh stop being a baby!” Harry teases, shifting his focus to his son who’s struggling to open his own parcel, “Look at our Charlie bubby, he’s not even in tears when he’s the genuine baby in the room.”

Sophia might have felt sheepish from that obvious point, but that thought went straight out the door the instant Harry says ‘ta-da!’ when Charlie’s black box finally opened to reveal wooden toy versions of his Pleasing products with the exact colors, finishes, the fonts of the words, and every single detail is down to the t. It’s literally a baby toy version of his nail polishes and skincare products and Sophia can feel her heart wanting to burst out of her chest for the lengths Harry possibly took just to make this possible.

“Bunny,” she whispers in a soft tone, “really? Isn’t this quite over the top?”

Harry just shrugs, smiling almost timidly, “I didn’t want my little son to feel left out today.”

And that statement might have been a precursor for the way Sophia’s blue eyes start to get glassy, but what really hits the home run is the personal black card that Harry had also left in their baby’s box with the same cursive strokes of his handwriting:

“Because you’re presence is my ultimate pleasing, my little curly Charlie; dada loves you forever 🤍”

The tears cannot be stopped after reading that, Sophia wholeheartedly proclaims. It’s a definite interesting scene if anyone were to watch the way Harry coos soothingly at Sophia’s tear-stained cheeks the same time that Charlie copies his father’s cooing which is translated through baby blabbering which is far too loud for it to be soothing like a coo. But nonetheless, Sophia cuddles close to her boys to embrace all the love and comfort they don’t fail to give her every day, surprise parcels or not.

“Bunny, you didn’t have to do all that,” Sophia whispers into Harry’s warm pec where her face is currently resting on, “you know that bubby and I would be fine with just using the ones you already have at home.”

Harry sighs at her kind words, bare hands running up and down her back in a relaxing nature, “I know, but I wanted to do it, sunflower. I meant what I said earlier.”

“What did you say earlier? You said a lot of sweet things just this morning alone.” Sophia notes making the two of them giggle.

Harry leans down to leave a tender kiss on her forehead, lips never leaving her skin as he answers, “That the person who sent these parcels had clear favoritism; my sunflower and my curly Charlie are my favorites.”

Sophia knows she doesn’t need to reply to that, the words: “you’re are favorite too, dada bunny.” being left unsaid to allow themselves silence for this special moment in their little family.

*~*~*

“Mrs. Styles, go pose in front of the truck and be a supportive wife while I take the pictures.”

Sophia squeaks a laugh of shock at Harry Lambert’s order, following nonetheless when she hears Glenne and the dozens of her husband’s fans waiting in line for the Pleasing truck to open, laugh as well.

“The fact that I’m here means I’m fucking supportive of my husband, Lamby,” Sophia replies in faux haughtiness, taking position in front of the truck and raising her hands up in a peace sign to emulate the Styles in her, “don’t go questioning my innate supporting tendencies again, alright?”

Lambert rolls her eyes at her in jest, as he takes another round of pictures with Sophia now doing a variety of poses and not sticking to her husband’s laughable mandatory peace signs, “Whatever you say, Mrs. Styles, I bet that’s what you also say to your husband for him to allow you to walk the streets of Los Angeles wearing a shirt with his damn big face on it.”

The laughter of everyone who heard him (meaning the growing dozens of said husband’s fans waiting in line) makes Sophia flush just a little bit on the cheeks before she makes her way back beside her two friends with her narrowed eyes pointed at Lambert specifically.

“Fyi, this customized shirt has a picture of my husband that has only dropped today. Plus, I bet my husband’s beloved ring collection that if you Lamby, styled one of your clients with this specific shirt on them with my husband’s gorgeous face on it, everyone around the world would be scrambling on their feet to buy it and the shirts will be sold out in barely a minute.”

That’s the truth no matter how smug and cocky Sophia may sound.

Regardless of Lambert’s teasing, Sophia is highly proud of wearing her husband’s full face and body in that stunning Gucci lavender trousers, ripped black vest, while posing on a fucking motorcycle. Her possessive tendencies didn’t even protest when Dazed magazine wanted this specific picture to be one of the covers for their new issues featuring Harry as the new founder of Pleasing, no matter how much she dislikes people lusting and fantasizing over her husband.

She’s got years of training and experience to not get jealous so easily over people that technically give them their funds to be able to live a comfortable life and buy every single damn stuffie that Charlie wants because their little baby boy is currently obsessed with those. Being with Harry ever since his band days has also allowed Sophia to develop a sense of a business mindset, knowing full well that her predictions of selling the exact same shirt she’s wearing right now to everyone waiting in line, is not simply an act of wishful thinking.

Glenne thinks the same way as she says in laughter and complete brilliance, “Oh my god Soph, that’s such a good idea!” she slings an arm around Sophia which she returns gladly, “we should pitch that idea to Jeff later and then maybe Harry can be the one to pick the pictures of himself that will be printed on the shirts.”

Sophia nods eagerly, mind flowing in the same direction as her friend, “That’s a good start, and then the two of us could pick the cuts of the shirts because god help me, why hasn’t Harry and Jeff release freaking crop tops when that’s what we wear all the damn time.”

“Bloody hell!” Lambert exclaims breaking the business reverie of the two ladies, “You two need more friends if all you guys talk about is business and your husbands!”

Lambert might have a highly valid point, but Sophia and Glenne just look at each other for a minute before laughing at how absurd that idea is. Sure, they should spread out their wings and find more friends, but Sophia thinks that this one might be a wishful thinking idea when she’s learned to keep a close group of genuine friends instead of finding more that only end up being literal plastic people in both mind and soul.

She’d rather have Glenne as her closest friend aside from her husband and Jeff than befriending someone who only wants to be close to her because of their status. Besides, the four of them are content with each other’s close company, especially after the addition of baby Charlie which made everything just a little bit more bright. At this point, Sophia and Harry are actually leaving subtle hints that the two newlyweds should start expanding their family as well, subtle enough that they bought matching clothes for Charlie bubby and the hypothetical Azoff baby because they would be besties as well for sure.

Thinking about her husband and her little baby, makes Sophia miss her boys just a bit more apparent. Now that Glenne, Lambert, and her are done taking their pictures in front of the Pleasing truck, Harry’s employees actually start preparing to open the store within the side of the truck. It just leaves a few short minutes for Sophia to message her husband before fully immersing herself in helping and interacting with Harry’s fans.

To: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “Ugh”

“I just love you so much”

“And it hurts so much to be apart from you!”

From: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “Aww, now you’re going to make ME cry! I miss you too, sunflower! 😽”

To: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “Oh, I didn’t mean you, bunny. I was saying those things for my Charlie bubby, but thanks for missing me, I guess? 🤨”

From: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “So that’s the game we’re playing now, huh? Alright, I’ll just give my kissies to someone else then…”

To: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “No you wouldn’t, you love me so much that you just physically can’t. Right, my spouse? 😏”

From: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “I shouldn’t have told you that the word ‘spouse’ gives me a love boner. Now I got one and I have work, and you have work too so go back to work, spouse! ILY!”

To: Baby Dada Styles 🐇: “Eww that love boner better be staying away from my child, and I better get paid with kissies later for all this work I’m going to be doing for you. I love you, too my bunny! See ya later! 💞”

That was enough Harry Styles interaction that can last Sophia quite a good while to have the focus to actually work without itching to touch her husband and son. Thankfully, his fans were also not causing any loud disturbance or chaotic energy as the line started moved when the Pleasing truck finally opened its doors for customers.

For the next hour or so, Sophia and Glenne took turns handing customer’s their orders of the Perfect Polish Set, since it was the only product they would be selling in these shop-trucks. However, Sophia made sure to hand some classic ‘Pleasing’ stickers to everyone who bought anything, even giving several to those fans that complimented her shirt.

It’s always a fun time when Harry’s fans approach her, Sophia has always been down to get their pictures taken with her husband or even herself when the rare opportunity strikes. Having been in Harry’s life since he started his whole career, his fans have known early on that she’s a generally reserved person who does not like being on social media that very much. With that being said, Sophia highly appreciates the gentle and kind approach Harry’s fans give to her most of the time, even asking for her consent if they can post their pictures together on their respective social media accounts.

Today had been no exception as it seemed like every single one of Harry’s kindest supporters lined up in Studio City to give their words of gratitude and congratulation to the Styles' new business venture. Some of them even came bearing some gifts for their little son, Sophia laughing in fondness at one of the girls that handed her a frog stuffie wearing Harry’s Dorothy dress, complete with the bow and sparkly red boots that he wore during the first night of Harryween in NYC.

Probably sensing Sophia once again thinking about her boys, not long after, she receives a text from Anne that’s got her, Glenne, and Lamby saying goodbye to Harry’s wonderful supporters before riding back to San Diego.

From: Mama Anne 💗: “Sweetheart, your boys need you back. Matching pouting faces have been unleashed. Safe travels, my love.”

*~*~*

Sophia wasn’t in a panic after getting Anne’s message, already used to the similar kind of messages that she receives from Jeff whenever Glenne and her took the afternoon off to explore whatever city they’ve stopped for the show, leaving Harry and Charlie with the rest of the band and tour crew.

This type of thing always happens, whether on tour or not. Harry and Charlie just can’t have a full day without Sophia’s company, which has been a struggle at some point during the times that the girl wanted to have some alone and me time since it’s the healthy way to go with life. Though most of the time, like right now, it doesn’t bother Sophia that her baby boys are feeling clingy for her, as she herself usually succumbs to calling Harry and asking him to come back home whenever Charlie and her just misses his presence so much.

“Where’s my boys?” is the first thing Sophia says upon arriving at the backstage of tonight’s venue, foregoing any greetings when her eyes locate Charlie and Harry that are looking at her with similar states of disgruntledness with their matching unmoving pout on complete display like Anne had perfectly described.

“Mama’s here,” “MAMA! MAMA!” Her two boys simultaneously call for her, Sophia instantly gravitating towards their bare chested standing figures in her husband’s dressing room, not even noticing how Anne and the other people who were in the room just earlier, leave them in peace and privacy.

“Oh, my baby boys.” Sophia coos while a now sobbing Charlie clung to her torso in a tight hold as she carried the baby, Harry helping her quickly take her top off after their little boy began pawing it off in complete irritation.

“Okay, okay, bubby, just wait a minute,” Sophia soothes her son with a kiss to his still crying cheeks, thanking her husband after he helped her put on the Gucci robe Harry had specifically placed for her in his dressing room for times like this.

“There you go, my curly bubby, there you go,” Sophia hums as she settles comfortably on the couch, Harry not forgetting to help her prop some pillows behind her back for some comfortable support, both their hands gently soothes Charlie’s curly locks which helps him relax even more.

“I love you, my Charlie bubby,” Sophia replaces the baby’s salty tears with her tender kisses, “mama is here, mama’s going to cuddle you to sleep, my lovie.”

Thankfully, Charlie stops crying quickly after feeling the warmth of his mother’s bare skin against his. This allows Sophia to train her eyes on her husband that’s left standing in front of them on the couch.

“Bunny, what’s wrong?” Sophia asks in slight concern, eyes mapping the still visible frown on his face that usually disappears in an instant whenever he’s just missing her and she’s finally come back to his side. This time, it seems like something deeper is worrying her husband.

“I’m already back, my lovie. Do you want to cuddle with Charlie and I? Come, I have more space for my bunny, always have more space for you.” Sophia pats her side for Harry to sit on and cuddle her side.

Harry bites his bottom lip, a sign of troubled emotions in Sophia’s books, “I just feel really anxious, sunflower, have been feeling quite nervy for the past hours about the launch and how people are perceiving our products. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do, I can’t keep still but I don’t want to move too much as well or I might get tired before the show. Sunflower, I don’t know what to do, I -”

“Bunny, stop, you’re panicking yourself,” Sophia gently but firmly tells him, “let’s do some breathing exercise to calm you down, okay?”

Sophia guides her husband to some simple breathing techniques they usually do during their morning yoga sessions back at home, thinking to herself that if she only knew that Harry would panic himself thinking about these unnecessary things during his launch day, then she would have probably skipped going to LA and helping at the Pleasing truck if it would appease her husband’s mind and emotions with her by his side.

After Harry has considerably calmed down from his rambling, Sophia pats again her side of the couch and he thankfully doesn’t put up a fight as he busies himself to snuggling close under his wife’s arm, seeking as much warmth as he can get without monopolizing it all away since he’s not the only Styles boy in her life that needs his sunflower’s loving.

Harry might be a self-proclaimed jealous person, but he never is for his son which Sophia knows he really shouldn’t be, as every time Charlie wants to have skin to skin contact on her chest, Harry would just be two steps away from wanting to cuddle her side at the same time. Harry shouldn’t also be jealous since his favorite hair scratches are still present like right now, Harry’s own hands finding its way to delicately massage his son’s own curly locks.

With her nose buried in Harry’s hairline, Sophia breathes in her husband’s comforting scent while the latter does the same thing by nosing at her neck and collarbones.

“There’s nothing major you need to worry about, bunny,” Sophia whispers in the quiet room, “every single one that I’ve met today who bought your new products have nothing but kind words and praises to say. Now, if ever there are people online who are talking some shit about Pleasing, then that’s their problem for not having better things to do.”

Harry chuckles lightly, his free arm wrapping around Sophia’s waist to pull them closer together, “I get you, sunflower, I really do. I just don’t understand why I can’t quelch down these irrational fears I have. I’ve known for so long I can’t please everybody, and I made this project with the intent of showing that I’m done doing things while feeling fearful of the results, and have been doing a lot of things to show them that.”

Sophia hums her agreement, lips finding purchase on whatever patch of Harry’s skin she can reach, “It’s okay to feel slightly nervous when starting something new, H. Just don’t panic your own self like earlier. I don’t want my bunny feeling that type of way again, especially when I can help it.”

“And you do help, sunflower,” Harry mumbles onto her skin in such a reverent tone, “always make me feel better when I’m down or lost in my own unkind thoughts. I love you for that, so much, for understanding me every time.”

“I love you too, always, my bunny. It’s not really hard to understand that you’re feeling distressed when your face looks like you want to shit but can’t every time you need me to calm you down.”

“Heyyy,” Harry whines, the imprint of his smiling dimples not lost in Sophia’s vision, “now you’re just taking the piss and ruining our moment.”

“Today has been full of those bloody ‘moments’ ever since this morning, it’s alright to put an end to this one now.” Sophia points out in jest, feeling the vibrations of Harry’s quiet laughter on her warm skin.

“Fine, I’m going to take a nap to clear my head a bit more just like our little man here,” Harry relents, leaving one last deep kiss on Sophia’s neck before snuggling deeper into her body to find a comfortable spot to take a nap on.

No matter how tired Sophia feels from her earlier activities of helping at the Pleasing truck, interacting and accepting kind words and gifts from Harry’s lovely fans, and to even posing for Lambert’s bloody Instagram pictures, Sophia feels every single drop of tiredness leave her body as she contently watches her boys fall asleep in her hold.

There’s no better remedy to her exhaustion than knowing her husband and little son is safe and happy in her arms.

*~*~*

While Harry is in soundcheck, Sophia found it to be the perfect time to accomplish her plan for tonight after the concert while her husband is not in the same room as her.

“Bubby, what do you say about eating cake tonight?” Sophia converses with her son, Charlie watching his mother type away on her laptop while the two of them are sitting down on the baby’s playmat in the middle of Harry’s dressing room.

The baby lets out a positive noise at the mention of the sweet treat, tiny hands coming up to tap his mouth, “Nom nom?”

Sophia giggles at her son, “Yes, non nom, cake’s good, bubby. You like eating cake, my love?”

Charlie positively squeals in answer, fists holding his new Pleasing nail polish toys starts banging on the playmat at his apparent strong affirmation to his mother’s question.

“Alright, then I guess we are good at getting dada a cake for tonight,” Sophia nods her head as Charlie says “dada!” after she mentions his father, giggling when she watches her little baby looking around the room as if calling for his father would make him appear all of a sudden in the room.

“Mama!” Charlie calls for her attention, making Sophia stop her typing of filling up the cake’s order form online.

“Yes, my curly Charlie?”

Charlie tilts his head sideways, frowning up at his mother, “Dada?”

“Dada’s in soundcheck, bubby. You can see him later once he’s not busy anymore. Did you have fun with Nana Anne today while mama was away with auntie Glenne and Lamby?”

The mention of his grandmother’s name thankfully suppresses the fussing fit Sophia saw brewing in Charlie’s face after she had mentioned Harry was currently unavailable for him to be with. It’s just not her that their baby gets clingy over, Charlie is the splitting image of Harry so in Sophia’s opinion, it only makes sense that their little son likes following his father around to join whatever her husband was doing.

Fortunately, babies have a very short span of interest so Sophia indulges her baby blabbering joyously about his day with his nana even if it’s just baby noise. It gets Sophia to finish ordering the personalized cake for Harry tonight while giving the appropriate ‘oh?’ ‘yeah?’ ‘really, my Charlie bubby? Nana and you really did that?’

Her baby was smart though, so he loses interest at her nonsensical replies and crawls his way to her lap, making Sophia quickly put the laptop down on her side to help and welcome her baby to sit comfortably on top of her thighs.

“Mama!” Charlies says, looking at her and at her laptop with his index finger pointing at the screen where the picture of tonight’s treat is displayed.

“Yeah, that’s the cake for tonight, baby,” Sophia replies, offering her own fingers for Charlie to clutch on his tiny fists, bringing it straight to his little mouth to suck on because their son is at the age where he puts almost anything on his mouth for no reason. Good thing his new nail polish toys have no detachable parts unlike the real Pleasing nail polish bottle, so he can mouth over the round globes on his wooden toys all he wants.

“But that’s not the final look of the cake though,” Sophia continues to say when her baby keeps on pointing at the cake, “it’s going to be white with dada’s Pleasing logo at the top. It’s simple, but it’s buttercream frosting and the cake is made out of banana bread so you and dada will love it for sure.”

“Mama, nomnom?” Charlie says again, making Sophia giggle even at how redundant it is to talk to a one year old.

“Yes, it’s nomnom yummy, my Charlie bubby. Mama’s ordering it because she can’t cook for the life of her, so it’s safe to say it would be edible and good.”

Charlie makes a noise as if asking why his mother can’t cook so Sophia responds accordingly.

“Well, mama never really found cooking to be fun, that's why I didn’t have the interest to try and learn how to do it. But thank the heavens that your dada is a good cook, you of course already know that he used to be a baker.” Sophia rolls her eyes, remembering every time they visit Barbara’s bakery in Cheshire he would always tell their baby stories about his time there of being a ‘baker’, though Sophia can attest that he really wasn’t, when they applied and got the job together making her firsthand witness that Harry was definitely not baking in the bakery.

“Anyway, dada is good at that so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“What’s dada good at?”

Years of experience with Harry’s surprising antics makes Sophia immune to the sudden appearances her husband likes doing in the hopes of eliciting a scared reaction from her. That’s why Charlie and her just turn to the direction of his voice as he enters the room while closing the door.

“DADA!” of course their son is scrambling away from Sophia’s lap to run at his father’s dramatically opened arms on the end of the playmat waiting for Charlie’s hug like they haven’t seen each other in years.

“Oh my son, I’ve missed you so much! How did I survive those grave hours without you in my arms?”

Harry’s highly dramatic speech causes Sophia to snort and Charlie to squeal in baby laughter as Harry litters him with kisses upon kisses as the two of them gently tumble on the playmat in a lying position.

Smiling, Sophia clears her throat to get their attention, two pairs of her favorite green orbs staring back at her, “I believe dada also owes mama kissies for all the hard work she did earlier, yeah?”

“Mama!” Charlie claps his hands in what Sophia would assume as an agreement to her statement, making her raise an eyebrow at her husband to telepathically say ‘our baby agrees with me so get your bloody ass here and shower me with kissies!’ it’s too much of an aggressive request for their baby to be in earshot, regardless if he understands it or not.

Harry smirks, “Tell me first what you were referring to that I was good at earlier, before I made my presence known.”

He's not the only one good with surprises, Sophia can keep her own ground, thank you very much.

Confidently, she replies, “I was just telling our curly Charlie that you’re the good cook between the two of us because it seemed to me like he was requesting for me to cook him something when our little boy kept saying ‘nomnom’. That’s what it was only about, now can I have my kissies?”

Sophia doesn’t know if it’s because Harry might not believe her answer fully or they’re just so in sync with each other’s energies and auras that they kind of have an inkling when someone is hiding something, because he gives her this look like he’s not quite sure if he should already give her his kissies or should he push to get more answers.

Thankfully, Harry chose the former, the next thing Sophia knows is she’s getting lovingly attacked by Harry’s lips on every bare skin she has on display. It doesn’t help that she’s still wearing the Gucci robe with no top underneath it, Sophia squealing in giggles for Harry to stop when he starts lowering his kisses to reach her breasts. Their son does not really need to see this, like at all.

Said son then decides to join the action, probably feeling a bit jealous that his father wasn’t giving him any attention and all the loving kisses are only being capitalized by his mama. Charlie was Sophia’s saving grace as persistently squirmed his way to be in between his parents, babbling loudly with his tiny lips puckered out dramatically.

The two can’t really deny their baby anything, might it be new toys or the simple pleasure of kisses.

*~*~*

Harry’s San Diego show was an utter success; when did any of his shows ever sucked, really?

Contrary to what people may think, Sophia actually finds her husband’s concerts as a reprieve from any duties she may have on the daily. Even if their one year old baby is present, Harry’s concerts make Charlie so calm and enthralled just watching his father perform on stage with all the bright colorful lights shining on him, that their baby never makes a fuss every time it’s showtime.

With just the main task of making sure that Charlie’s personally made baby ear muffs are placed properly on his ears to protect his tiny eardrums from any damage, Sophia lets him walk around and bop his little body to his father’s music in the designated space for friends and family members of theirs are situated.

Sophia’s innate motherly skills however, makes her still on high alert to the whereabout of her baby even if she’s lounging around with a milkshake on her hand in one of the seats Glenne and her bring with them, because they’re just not young enough anymore to be able to stand the whole damn duration of the concert regardless if it’s her husband’s melodious voice or not. She gets called out for it, from time to time when Harry decides to address her in the crowd of thousands of people like they’re just having a normal conversation, asking if he’s already boring her too much that she needed to sit down during Adore You and have the time to think if they should break up or not.

Seriously, Harry’s a different crazy when he’s on stage.

And his son is another type of crazy when his dada is singing Watermelon Sugar on stage, which can be understandable in Sophia’s books because her dorky husband purposely changes a part of the lyrics at the first verse to elicit this crazed, squealing, and thumping reaction from Charlie.

“I want more berries,

and my curly Charlie;

Soph is wonderful and warm!”

Like a Pavlovian effect, their little Charlie is screaming ‘DADA!’ and ‘MAMA!’ just hearing his father’s loud voice saying his name and the name of his pretty mama, a thing that Harry did in tonight’s show which made Anne close to tears of laughter and fondness at the way her grandson was enthusiastically pointing to himself and calling for his nana as if asking, ‘Did you hear my dada saying my name in his song, nana? Nana, did you hear that?!’

No matter how small that moment may be, it tired out her curly Charlie pretty fast after that. The rest of the concert was left with Anne and Sophia taking turns carrying the tired infant. When he no longer wants to be in Nana Anne’s arms, he’d call for his pretty mama. Then when he wants Nana Anne’s touch again, he calls for her so that pretty mama can transfer him to her.

If it hasn’t been clear yet, well it’s definitely clear now: their family spoils curly Charlie rotten without any traces of guilt left behind.

So with a tired baby welcoming a post-concert Harry, Sophia didn’t need to do any alterations for her plan to surprise her husband to progress, when it became a mutual decision to take the night-in while the others went out to celebrate the successful San Diego sold-out show and the launch of Pleasing.

Sophia’s surprise wasn’t even anything big, just the simple Pleasing cake she got personalized earlier, and some pink, black, and white balloons that she had asked Jeff to place in their room when Harry had left for the venue earlier in the day.

Regardless, Harry is still surprised upon entering their penthouse room to see said surprise sweetly arranged in the living room table.

“Sunflower,” Harry quietly says her pet name in awe, wary of the sleeping baby in his arms.

“Go put our baby to bed and then meet me here so we can have a little celebration.” Sophia smiles in understanding as she goes on her tippy toes to drop gentle kisses on Charlie’s sleep rumpled cheeks.

It only took Harry a good five minutes to get Charlie sorted for bed, Sophia feeling extremely blessed that even if her husband might be vastly tired from just doing a concert, he still does not neglect his fatherly duties and would even hold an argument if ever Sophia made him rest early without being able to have the chance to get his son ready for bed.

“Aww, that cake looks so cute,” Harry coos upon joining Sophia in the living room, placing the trusty baby monitor on the coffee table before sitting beside her so closely that she’s able to smell his freshly showered scent of apple shampoo, “did you bake it yourself?”

“Oh sod off!” Sophia chuckles while slightly nudging her shoulder to his, trying to jostle him away from their close proximity.

“I’m just kidding, sunflower,” Harry curves an arm around Sophia to get them cuddled close even more, his hand reaching to hold hers as he brings the back of it to his lips for a reverent kiss. “Thank you for this, lovie, the perfect way to celebrate this day for sure.”

Sophia giggles at that, “Your perception of a perfect celebration for a launch of your new beauty/skincare company and a successful sold-out show in San Diego, is to eat a cake your wife didn’t even bake you and drink some juice on a carton because said wife can’t also drink any alcoholic beverage?”

Harry dimples at her like she was just reading his mind spot-on, “Yup, and add to that: doing each other’s nails, that’s the most pleasing celebration I could ever ask for.”

When Sophia had first asked Harry why he named his new company ‘Pleasing’, his answer had been simple.

“I don’t know, I guess because the simple things in life like getting my nails done with my chosen color of polish just brings such genuine joy in me.”

“Is that also why your chosen tagline is ‘Find your pleasing’?”

“Yeah, I want others to find the joy in the little things and my nail polishes can possibly help them, I hope at least.”

“So you’re telling me that nail polish actually helped you find your pleasing moments?”

“Duh, getting to paint your nails for you is the most simplest yet euphoric moments for me that I can never forget and will always spark that wonderful feeling within me. That’s the essence of ‘Pleasing’ for me, sunflower.”

As if he didn’t just say the most sappiest thing he had ever said to her in their years of knowing each other. Which is a fucking big deal to say considering she’s known this sappy shit ever since they were ten, when the mushiest thing he has done by far was to beg Anne for more money to spend on a dang ring toss game during their joined family trip to a carnival, just to win Sophia a baby pink teddy bear the she didn’t even ask for. But apparently, her husband was trying to out-do himself as Harry proceeded to ask her that day:

“May I please paint your nails for you, my pretty sunflower?”

So when Harry asks her the same exact question tonight in their little celebration, Sophia answers just the same that time months ago, with the same feeling of adoration bubbling within her,

“Yes please, bunny.”