AN: A really bad nightmare that I had inspired the beginning of this chapter. This isn't what happened in my nightmare, but I couldn't go back to sleep after it.

Also sorry for the short chapter, but it's exactly how I want it. Short and sweet :)

Love you all more than you could possibly imagine.

~Alex

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Salt and water.

Freezing cold waves threatening to drag me down to the unknown depths that lied miles beneath me.

A boat.

It was a rather tiny boat with only enough room for two people, but it could do the job of getting you safely across the raging ocean.

A man.

He was leaning dangerously over the edge of the boat with his hand reaching out for me, a worried expression written all over his face as his lips pronounced the syllables of my name. Although he looked scared out of his mind, the sun seemed to be illuminating the outline of his body, giving him an angelic glow topped off with a halo.

My guardian angel. My miracle sent from Heaven. My knight in shining armor. My Bel Ragazzo. My beautiful boy. My masterpiece. My Capolavoro.

My Harry.

"Aurora!" He shouted at me, desperately trying to grab ahold of my hand that was desperately trying to grab ahold of his.

The waves had other plans though.

Every time our fingertips would just barely graze each others, another wave would come crashing down on me and suck me back down to the darkness of the sea, drowning me with each passing second. The shouts of Harry were muffled by the black water that filled my ears...my nose...my eyes...my lungs. It seemed to be everywhere I wished Harry was at the moment.

"Aurora, take my hand!" Harry cries out as I resurface again, coughing water out of my lungs and fighting to keep myself above the waves, "Please, Flower! I need you. You can't drown."

My will to fight was dying and I felt my body start giving into the rhythmic beating of the waves. But I had to fight. I had to fight for Harry. He needed me. I needed him.

With everything that was in me, I reached out and grabbed his hand, feeling his muscles flex as he started to pull me out of the water. Smiles appeared on both of our lips as we realized I was going to be okay. Harry had saved me.

A woman.

She sat there illuminated by the golden sunlight that was also illuminating Harry, a halo perfectly framing her head to top it all off.

"Maria," Harry breathes, his grip on my hand becoming looser. A smile even brighter than the sun appeared on his lips and he slowly began to let go of my hand.

"Harry!" I screamed, struggling to hold onto his hand as his attention was now on the beautiful goddess sitting beside him, "Harry, please, don't let go!"

Slowly but surely, his hand was slipping from mine, the sun illuminating the two figures sitting on the boat becoming brighter as my world was becoming darker, "Harry! I love you! Please!"

"Maria," he breathed once more as our fingertips touch for the last time and I was dragged back down into the watery death.

A hand.

Tight fingers wrapped themselves around my ankle and started pulling me far beneath the waves, the sunny illumination growing dimmer the farther I was dragged down.

I look down and I'm greeted with the sky.

"Niall."

~~

I sit up abruptly in bed, bringing my knees to my chest and tightly wrapping my arms around them. My breathing was coming in short, sharp breaths and I felt as if I was still drowning. I could still feel the dark water in my lungs and the desperate feeling of Harry letting go of my hand. The pain that I felt as he chose Maria over me was indescribable and completely heartbreaking. It was almost as if I didn't need the ocean to drown me - I was already drowning in my own tears.

Harry's nightmare was now becoming my own.

"Harry?" I call out, looking at the empty side of the bed beside me, "Harry, where are you?"

My heart starts racing wildly as I leap out of bed, stumbling slightly while my body adjusts to fully waking up. The clock on the nightstand said it was 6 AM and I wondered why Harry wouldn't still be asleep beside me.

His bathroom was empty and I walk out into the hall, running into the kitchen to see if he'd maybe made a cup of tea.

In some way, it still felt like I was in a nightmare. Harry was nowhere to be seen and my lungs felt heavy as I struggled to take deep breaths. The harsh coldness of the tile floor pressing into the bottoms of my feet and the chilly air hitting my legs caused my already shaking body to tremble even harder.

"Harry," My voice cracks as I wrap my arms around myself, trying to keep in the warmth that was quickly escaping my body. I collapse onto the cold kitchen floor, feeling an anxiety attack seeping its way into my body and mind.

I've had my fair share of anxiety attacks. All of them left me feeling hopeless and completely overwhelmed and all of them were caused by an immense build-up of stress.

Panic flooded every nerve in my body as I felt my chest tightening with every breath that I took, my body trembling while my fingernails dug themselves into the skin on my arms - surely breaking the skin and drawing blood. I was sure I was going to pass out any second now all the while I felt like I was about to puke my guts up.

With each passing second, I was finding it harder to breathe and it felt as if my heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. Tears make their way down the sides of my cheeks, my chest surging with overwhelming pain. I thought for sure that I was dying but I reminded myself it was just an anxiety attack.

I felt like screaming. Crying. Puking. Passing out. All of which I didn't even have the energy to do as I sat on the kitchen floor with my knees pressed tightly against my chest and my arms wrapped so tightly around myself I almost thought that that was the reason why I couldn't breathe.

"H-Harry," I choke out, squeezing my eyes shut as I rock myself back and forth, "Harry...p-please. H-Help m-me."

My cries surely couldn't reach him wherever he was at. Maybe he wasn't even here. Maybe he was with Maria, telling her how much he loved her and was just waiting for the right moment to leave me.

The soft padding of sock-clad feet makes it's way towards me quickly, large warm hands resting themselves on my back as I'm pulled into a tight embrace, jasmine, and mint seeping its way into my tightened lungs.

"Baby, breathe. I'm right here, Flower," His soft voice coos in my ear as he rubs his hands soothingly up and down my back, "Come on, Aurora, breathe. I'm here. I'm right here."

He holds me tight against his chest, picking me up and placing me in his lap as he leaned against the wall behind him. Soft lips kiss the sweaty skin of my neck and shoulders, soothing me in ways unimaginable as he whispered reassuring words in my ear after each kiss he placed on my skin.

"You're shaking so badly, baby," he breathes softly, squeezing me tighter, "Calm down, darling. Deep breaths. Breathe with me. In," he instructs me, taking a deep breath as I take as deep of a breath as I can take, "Out. Good, good. Again, baby. In...out. In...out."

After each breath I could feel my lungs loosening, the tight fingers of darkness letting its grip on me slip away with each word that left Harry's mouth.

"Good job, baby. Focus on my voice. I'm right here and you're in my arms. Nothing is going to hurt you as long as I have my arms around you. Think of me as your knight in shining armor and I'm protecting you from the evil queen," Harry says and I can't help but choke out a strangled laugh, already thinking of him as my knight in shining armor, "What's funny, Flower? Talk to me."

"I already consider you my knight in shining armor," I whisper as loudly as I can, my voice not completely coming back to me yet.

Harry's chest vibrates as he chuckles softly, "Really? Well, I guess I'm unoriginal then."

I slightly shake my head, feeling my body becoming less tense with each passing second, "Not unoriginal. Just slow."

"Slow, huh?" He laughs softly, his hands coming up to smooth my hair down, "I guess I'll have to catch up then."

He falls quiet as my grip around myself lessens and I feel my body giving into his, warm liquid dripping slowly down my arm, "I'm bleeding," I whisper softly, now becoming a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, baby," Harry says quietly, wrapping his arms underneath my legs while picking me up from the ground. My head hides in his chest as he carries me back into his bedroom and then into the bathroom, setting me down on the cold counter, "Let me help you."

"You already have."

His eyes soften as he stares at me, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. As soon as his lips press against the feverish skin, I feel my body slump into him, falling slightly forward into his arms. He holds me against his chest as I start sobbing uncontrollably, flinging my arms around his neck.

All of my emotions overtake me at once, hitting me like a train racing across train tracks or like lightning striking a tree. Everything that had been bottled up inside of me this past week and the nightmare I had just had finally releasing and over spilling. If my anxiety attack didn't just hint at what was coming, then I wouldn't have been prepared in the slightest bit for my second emotional outbreak for the day.

"Shh, darling. You're okay," he coos in my ear while stroking soothing lines up and down my back.

I wasn't exactly sure whether it was the nightmare or the fact that I woke up and Harry wasn't beside me that had me acting this way. I think maybe it was a large combination of both along with everything that has happened this past week.

"I'm...so...sorry," I say in between sobs.

"Baby, no. Don't be sorry. You have no reason to be sorry," he whispers softly in my ear, kissing the side of my head, "I just wish I knew what was wrong, Flower. I feel so helpless."

Except he wasn't helpless. He had no idea what it meant for him to be holding me like this and whispering soothing words in my ear.

Normally it would either be myself or Liam helping me through this. I never liked to lead on that I had anxiety attacks. They only happened when I felt completely overwhelmed or there was something completely wrong happening in my life. And at the moment, both of those things were happening.

I wasn't at a good place right now. It all went down the drain the second Niall hit the call button. Before that, I was happy. Harry was making me happy. I'd fallen in love again. I was in a good place.

After a few more minutes of me crying into Harry's chest and him calming me down by rubbing small circles into the skin of my back, my emotional outbreak had ceased and I was left feeling like I was worthless.

God, did I feel so worthless. Broken.

"Harry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to break down like this I-"

"Stop. Do not apologize for showing your emotions. You obviously have too many things going on in your life and I just wish you'd talk to me, Aurora. I don't like the fact that you're keeping so many things bottled up inside of you," Harry sighs with desperation, "You can trust me, Flower. Please...tell me what's wrong. Let me help you. I can't stand looking into your eyes and only seeing sadness. It kills me to think that you're not happy. Is that what's wrong...are you not happy being with me anymore? Do I not make you happy anymore?"

My heart shatters instantly as he stares at me with a look of sad desperation in his brilliant green eyes. Maybe I should tell him. I should tell him everything. Niall. Maria.

But I couldn't. I needed to...but I just couldn't.

My brain was screaming at me. Why the fuck can't you? Just tell him already!

But my heart was insisting that I wait. Not yet. You can't yet. It's not the right time.

"No, it's not that. You make me happy. Happier than I've ever felt in a long time," I shake my head, my eyes fluttering closed as he wipes away my tears with the palms of his hands.

The tips of his thumbs tickle my eyelashes while he wipes away my silent tears still spilling from my dull green eyes that were once filled with laughter and happiness.

Now they're only filled with sadness and exhaustion. A sadness and exhaustion that were my own doing. All because I couldn't talk to Harry.

Why the hell couldn't I?

"Please...tell me what's wrong, Flower. I can't just stand around and watch as you keep having breakdowns and not even know what's causing them. It hurts me because I don't know how to help. I don't know what to say...or what to do...how to touch you. Help me help you, Flower. I'm begging you. Just let me help you."

"I want to tell you, Harry. I really do. I just can't. I'm not...ready to tell you yet. I know how awful that sounds and I can see how much it hurts you to see me like this. I don't like to see you hurting like this...but I'm not ready yet...and I don't think you're ready yet either. We both need to work through some things before I tell you what's wrong with me. Just know...that you do make me happy, baby. You make me so incredibly happy...so happy that I find myself smiling randomly throughout the day just because you appear in my thoughts out of the blue. No one has ever had this kind of effect on me before. You're my Capolavoro...and what's a capolavoro without the happiness that it brings?"

I could tell that my words eased the worry running rampant through Harry's mind just enough to where he smiled. His smile was all that I needed in that moment. I just needed a smile. Harry's smile.

"There's my happy boy," I cup his face in my hands, pressing a kiss to his nose.

He rolls his eyes playfully, placing his hands over mine, "What am I, a dog?" I laugh softly, his smile growing with such beauty and grace that it illuminated the entire bathroom, "There's my happy girl. Where have you been?"

"Waiting for my perfect angel to flash me his smile."