“Oh, Ivy, be careful,” I sighed, watching as the bowl of mushy blueberry oats fell from her high chair, straight to the dining table in front of her. I had turned my back for a split second to reach for a clean bib, and in the time that had taken, Ivy gleefully discarded her breakfast straight onto daddy’s waiting Prada coat.

I pulled her from the chair, covering myself in the fruity mess and balanced her on my hip. She moved awkwardly as I tried to think of a way to salvage Harry’s coat before he came down to throw it on before leaving the house for the day. I looked from the mess, to the cloth, and decided that it was probably best to leave the £3,000 coat well alone.

“No no no,” Harry cooed, as Ivy’s cries turned from sniffles to screams, probably because she couldn’t get my attention. “Here, I’ll take her.”

Harry wrapped his arms around her tiny waist and rested her with her head over his shoulder. Almost instantly, she was calm and quiet. Harry manoeuvred around the kitchen, suddenly stopping at his coat.

“She flipped the bowl.” I said, worriedly. I wiped my brow with the stress of the morning, much similar to every other morning in our household. At six months, Ivy had moved from her bottles, to mostly solid foods, had sat up and started to babble, and now we were about to enter the wonderful world of teething. Harry and I had slept probably no more than four consecutive hours in one night. To say we - me especially - were finding it hard, was an understatement.

The difference between our parenting was that Harry had patience and calmness for days. Ivy had started to act up to get her own way, crying throughout the night just to be held. Harry knew exactly how to deal with her. I would saunter out of bed in the early hours, rush to her crib, pick her up, and she would cry harder. Partly due to the fact that Harry would always do her night feeds, and she was just used to him. During the day it was more my time to be with her.

Parenthood was everything and more than people told me it would be. It was exhaustion every single day. It was falling asleep standing up. It was the most rewarding and beautiful thing in the world when it was done properly. Sometimes on a good day - most days - Ivy would just lie in between Harry and I and we wouldn’t even need to swap dialogue, we’d just sit and stare at her. As she was getting older she was becoming more animated and I swear you could start to see her personality form.

As well as her looks, my, we had a beautiful little girl. I guess every parent thinks their child is perfection, but Ivy, she was the type of baby to have everyone stop and look at her in the street. Her hair was light, not surprising since both Harry and I had mousey blondey-brown hair as kids. Her eyes had moved from a crystal blue to a light hazel-green. I knew that was after Harry, because my eyes were a deep maroon.

“Naughty!” Harry poked her nappy, and rolled his eyes at his coat. He leaned down and pecked me on the lips when he saw how stressed I was. Dark, purple circles under my eyes, my hair whipped up in a messy bun, a large, oversized t-shirt of Harry’s the only thing I had on. “Don’t worry, Annie, these things happen.” He smiled, and Ivy turned her head to look at us. “Love you.”

I nodded solemnly, and watched as Harry moved Ivy to the side of his body, carrying her with one arm whilst picking up his car keys and watching her look all around, wide-eyed and curious.

“Where’s her carry-cot?” He said. “I’ll take her to the studio for the day, you need the rest.” He smiled, pushing Ivy’s baby hairs back on her head. She chewed on her tiny fingers, dribble leaving her mouth, and looked up at him expectantly. “Yeah?” He said to her, smiling down at her chubby cheeks and giving her sausage legs a squeeze. “Work with daddy?” She just grinned back at him, and then at me.

Harry got all of her things ready and cleaned her up, even managing to dress her, but of course, Harry’s notion of dressing Ivy conflicted with mine. The outfit he chose would not have been my first choice, but he insisted that she would thank him years later that he made her look so cool.

I stopped by the door. I moved to stand next to the two. “I love you.” I said, kissing the top of Ivy’s head. I swept my fingers across her cheeks. I kissed her again, wondering how badly I would miss her. “And I love you.” I looked up at Harry, who was smirking at the two of us.
He placed a quick kiss on my lips. “Sleep, bug.” He warned. “See you later.” Another kiss.

I watched adoringly as Harry strode across the courtyard to the Range Rover, refusing to put Ivy into her car-seat until he absolutely had to. Just as he had when she was born, Harry carried her everywhere in his arms. Probably the reason why she had become so needy. He looked back and blew me a kiss, before driving off to the recording studio on the other side of London.

---

Harry’s P.O.V

“Right, superstar, are you ready?” I glanced in my rear-view mirror at Ivy who was completely ignoring me by looking out of the window at the small group of fans who were outside the studio.

I took a breath and stepped out of the car, pulling my bag over my shoulder.

“Harry! You came! We guessed you might show up.. oh my God!” A fan shouted, from the sidelines.
“Hiiii girls!” I smiled warmly and flicked my sunglasses up onto my head to pose for a picture, keeping an eye on Ivy as I did so. When we were done, the girls, like usual, wanted to stick around and see the baby. I didn’t mind. She was so beautiful that I would show her off to anyone who would give me the time of day.

The few girls that were there reached for Ivy’s hand and gave it a small hold. Eventually, I excused myself and went inside, satisfied that their days had been made.

“Hi, Harry,” The receptionist, Alice smiled up at us. “Oh God, precious Ivy! How beautiful do you look? Still trying to force your fashion sense on her I see, Styles?” She nodded to the band baby-grow I had dressed her in. Ivy gargled happily. I nodded my head playfully and carried on up the elevator to the studio.

“Ivy!” Louis stood up straight away and swept her up into his arms. “What a good surprise. Are you ready to sing today Ives?” He grinned down at her and she laughed shyly at the attention. I smiled proudly, and left her in the comfort of her godfathers arms.

“Right, Harry, your turn.” Our sound guy nodded at the booth and I breathed deeply.
“Right.” I straightened out my t-shirt and crept inside. Louis held Ivy up front ways so she faced me. I couldn’t stop waving and pulling faces at her long enough to sing a line.

“Uh-oh.” Niall grimaced. “That’s a dirty nappy, right there.”
“Bloody hell!” Liam pinched his nose and ran for the door. I laughed to myself, taking her from Louis who held her at arms length, not finding her as cute as before.
“Two seconds, lads. Duty calls.” I pulled out Ivy’s changing bag and excused myself, shaking my head at the boys over reaction. “Jesus sunshine, you smell terrible."

Ivy simply babbled happily, ignoring my words, but I could tell she was growing uncomfortable. The funny thing is, these moments are the ones that make it most worth it. There’s nothing quite like dragging yourself out of bed at three in the morning to clean a nappy full of crap.

I buttoned her babygro up neatly and balanced her back on my shoulder. I pulled out my phone and saw a message from Annie. I shook my head, but couldn’t stop the smile that spread on my lips.

How is she? I know you told me to sleep but I miss her too much. hurry home!

I quickly keyed my message bank, skilfully managing to balance a baby in my right arm.

She’s fine. She’s just done a lovely stinker in the studio so i’ve just changed her. we’ll be home soon mummy .xx

I imagined Annie, sprawled out over our kingsize bed, her dark eyes growing sleepy on her. Words couldn’t explain the pride I felt.. not just of Ivy, but of Annie. I felt like I had asked so much of her. To have my baby, to leave the world she was comfortable in, to put her ambitions on hold. To spend everyday looking after our little girl. She had done all of it with grace.

The only good thing about being away from her was that every time I looked into Ivy’s face I saw half of Annie. We were still in the early days. We didn’t know what the prospect of a tour could do for our little family, months and weeks spent apart in cities I had never heard of. But one thing was certain, we were doing a pretty good job right now. We were young, but in a way.. it benefited us. We had the edge that traditional parents didn’t have. Ivy was always going to be encouraged to be her own person and our young age meant we would just get to spend even longer with her.

I looked back up from my phone to find Ivy had used her little palm to smack over the bottle of talc I had forgotten to pack away, sending white clouds of powder onto my black jeans and all over the bathroom floor. I looked down at her, speechless. Unable to be angry with her, ever.

“You are a nightmare.” I shook my head, and pressed my lips to her cheek.

Notes

THE OFFICIAL END :) but I have the sequel planned.. so don’t worry, more to come soon :-)
THANK YOU for everything.. comments, subs, votes, anything.. feedback. i’ve loved this story and I hope you all did too. x