Another World

The sun's rays illuminated the room through the thin, white curtains; my eyes struggling to adjust as I opened them.

It took only a moment for me to realize the sleeping beauty beside me; his pink, plump lips slightly apart. His emerald eyes hidden from me as his bare chest heaved in sleep. It amazed me just how effortlessly beautiful he was, a natural blessing I could only dream of possessing.

His arm was slung around my waist, protectively cuddling me against his side where we both wanted me to be. Of course it only meant more of a struggle for me to climb out of the bed without disturbing him, but somehow I managed.

I involuntarily smiled at the image in front of me - his voice sleepily producing groans as his hand failed to find my body. A small giggle escaped from my lips as he settled on a pillow instead, his breathing returning to the same slow pace as before.

Making sure he wouldn't wake, I turned around to go to the bathroom. If he looked flawless in the morning, I sure as hell would not have him see me in my eye-soaring morning state.

After a good brush of the teeth and a few minutes of detangling the mess upon my head, I could hear Harry calling my name; his voice still full of sleep giving him that raspy tone I craved to hear.

"Good morning, sleepy head." I grinned, walking out to find him laid on his stomach.

"Come here." He whined, extending a hand towards me.

I walked over to take it, kneeling on the floor to be at eye level with him. "You don't know how beautiful you look." My mouth blurted out, betraying the cool and collected facade I always tried to portray around this perfect face.

He hummed in appreciation at the stroking of his hair my fingers allowed. "You're not half bad yourself."

I let out a giggle before reaching for my phone, snapping a photo of the creature in front of me. "I know when I post this up your fans will go crazy over this." I spoke, staring at the picture of Harry. The smirk he wore along with the sleep in his eyes enough to send me into an asthma attack, I could only imagine what his fans would feel.

"Are you really going to post that up?" His voice rasped.

"Yes," I responded, uploading it to twitter and instagram before looking up at him. "And now we wait for both of our notifications to blow up."

He let out one of those small laughs that never failed to make my heart flutter. "Join me."

All too happily I climbed back into bed, hiding under the sheets as I rested my body against the warmth of his. "You're so warm." I reveled, placing an arm around his waist as he cuddled me in.

"And you're so small."

"Or maybe you're just too big."

"I don't quite think that's a bad thing." He murmured closely to my ear, tingles immediately being sent through my body.

"Cheeky boy." I mumbled, downplaying his affects on me.

We stayed wrapped in each other's embrace for a good portion of the morning. Whispering sweet nothings, stealing kisses, just generally enjoying the privacy before we were thrown in front of the gawking eyes of society once more.

It was in these moments that I knew what we had was real; that he loved me and I loved him. That what we had to face as a couple was nothing. The hate, the threats, the rumors...they all meant nothing. It couldn't affect us and it wouldn't.

I smiled lovingly at the image of our hands intertwined. His bigger hand engulfing my smaller one. Though I constantly teased him on how everything about him was big - hands, feet...I loved it. It was his imperfections and flaws that made him seem real; his pigeon toes, the extra nipples he seemed too insecure about, his pointless stories that dragged on and on that no one seemed to enjoy yet still managed to make me smile.

It was useless to say I was completely in love with him. That much was obvious.

"What do you fancy eating? I think I'm going to call room service." His voice sounded.

Oh, his voice! How could I forget about that? His voice would definitely have to be one of my favorite things. The deepness of it, those moments when it got all raspy, it was all I craved to hear -

"Kate?" Harry interrupted my mesmerizing. His fingers snapping to get my attention.

"Hmm?"

"I asked what did you want to eat? I'm calling room service."

"No, let's go out to eat. I want to soak up L.A. as much as I can before we go back."

"I was pretty happy staying here instead." He lowered his voice, placing a kiss on my neck.

"Me too but come on, this is my first time here, I want to enjoy it." I whined, pouting my lips before another kiss was placed on them.

"Fine, you win Miss. Evans. As always."

***

"Pink's? I hear it's a really famous hot dog shop many celebrities go to. They're most recognizable for their 10-inch chili dog." I read aloud from the screen on my phone. An attempt to find a popular restaurant in the town of Hollywood.

"Kate, I don't see why we can't eat anywhere. It's just food." Harry grumbled, clearly agitated because of the lack of food in his stomach.

"I told you already, I want to do the most we can. I'm a tourist, sue me."

"What's the address?" He finally gave in, stopping the car at a red light. I thanked The Lord we chose the black tinted windowed SUV as I spotted a group of young girls. No doubt we would have been chased.

"709 N. La Brea avenue."

"I have no idea where that is, I'm not from here." He snapped.

"Well shit, Harry you're the one who asked me!" I snapped back, his cloudy mood interfering with my happier one.

"Just give me the directions." He continued to drive as I searched for a route.

Once it was found, I began to instruct him, getting us to there in a short amount of time.

"And this is what you made a big fuss about?" He asked as we pulled into a parking space, the place containing a dive appearance. Nothing special looking about it at all.

"Not me, celebrities! I just followed them." I mumbled, a bit disappointed myself to find such a crap-looking place.

He rolled his eyes, climbing out the car with me following suit. "There's a huge line too." He whined, his stomach beginning to growl loudly.

"I'm sorry, want to go somewhere else?" I asked, beginning to feel guilty. It was bad enough I made him wait hours to eat.

"No, you wanted to eat here so we'll eat here."

I gave him a smile, taking his large hand in my smaller one as I guided us to the end of the line. Though the line was huge, we managed to make it through, settling ourselves in the car with our chili dogs.

"I can see why celebrities love them." I managed to speak with a mouthful.

"They're really good." Harry chimed in, sticking out his tongue in that way he always did when eating - it was an admittedly adorable habit of his that I came to adore.

"What do we plan on doing today? You've been here before, so you tell me."

"I wanted another tattoo."

I nearly choked on the intake of Sprite I just had. "Harry you got one yesterday!"

"But that was so small Kate, I want a real one."

"So ours are fake?"

He rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You know what I mean."

I sighed, not bothering to argue about the endless amount of tattoos he was beginning to have. After all it was his body, I was solely here to admire it. "What do you plan on getting?"

He shrugged, taking the last bite of his chili dog. "Not sure, was thinking of talking about whatever Ryan has in mind."

"I really like your in-the-moment thinking when it comes to tattoos. It's not like they're permanent or anything." I sarcastically responded, putting down the other half of the food I couldn't bother to finish.

"I don't see the point in planning, I see what I like and I get it tattooed. Simple."

Without saying another word, I grabbed all the trash and stepped out of the car to dispose of it. If he wanted another tattoo, another tattoo he would get no matter what I said.

***

"Do you like it?" Harry asked as I stared at the new addition to his body. "Well?" He pushed on impatiently, his excitement beginning to wear off with my silence, afraid I didn't approve.

"It's sexy." I smiled, looking up into those lively emerald eyes that could mesmerize me any day.

"Yeah?"

I nodded, lightly touching the tattoo below his left collar bone. "I really like it."

"Alright, Harry you ready to patch it up?" Ryan, the same tattoo artist from before, asked as he walked over to where Harry and I sat admiring the bold "17 Black".

When he was all done, we sat in the car once again contemplating what to do. The subject went from visiting museums to just going night clubbing. Neither of which I was in the mood for.

"Oh!" I practically jumped up in excitement. "How about we visit the Hollywood sign? I've never gotten a close look, we've only seen it from afar."

"Really now? Of all the things we have to do, you want to visit a sign that you can perfectly see from right here?"

"Well when you put it that way it sounds dumb. Oh come on babe, don't you feel a little adventurous? Let's go over and see it."

He thought about it for a minute before a private smile plastered onto his face. As if he knew something I didn't. A private joke.

"What?" I questioned. "What are you thinking?"

"Are you sure you want to go up there?"

"Yes-"

"Even if it's haunted?"

"What?" I gasped, my interest completely taking over as I leaned in to hear what he had to say.

"It's haunted. They say an actress from the early twenties committed suicide up there because of her failed career. It's said she appears at night to whoever visits."

A chill went through my spine as I clung to his every word. I was a sucker for ghost stories.

"So I'll ask again, do you want to go visit it...her?" He spoke closely to my ear. I knew he was only trying to frighten me, so to counter back I accepted his unspoken challenge.

"Let's do it."

"Seriously?" He seemed surprised for a moment, watching me wide eyed as I buckled in the seat belt.

"Yeah. Unless of course, you're scared." I teased, turning to face him with a smug grin.

He shrugged, giving off a careless attitude though I knew it was all an act. "I'm not scared, I was just concerned for you. You girls tend to be...sissies."

I gave off a humorless, curt laugh. "Drive, London boy. We'll see whose the sissy."

***

"Go on," Harry urged me as I stood opposite the fence that lead to the path up the humongous sign.

"You go first." I cowered, I had to admit after hearing the story the place seemed creepy, especially because of the night sky consuming the sun light.

"I thought you weren't a sissy?"

"I thought you weren't a sissy?" I countered. "You're the man here." I air quoted the word man just to piss him off.

He glared at me, knowing fully well I had him. "Fine, I don't know why you're even afraid." He huffed, stepping forward to the gate. I could see the hesitance in his eyes as he began to climb it, the gulp he took giving away just how nervous he was. At least I wasn't the only one.

"Wait for me." I called out, climbing the fence after him. When he landed he turned towards me, reaching a hand up that I could grab onto as I leaped off. "So?" I asked, looking around the area for any sign of a ghost.

"We walk." He gestured to the path, taking the lead with me hesitantly walking behind him.

"So, uh, where do they usually see her?" I questioned after a few moments, needing any kind of distraction from the eerie silence.

"Usually on this path."

His words echoed in my head. This path. As in the one we were walking on now.

And as if on cue, footsteps could be heard, leaves rustling and branches cracking under it's weight. The nerves in my body kicked into super drive, my heart beating hard against my chest, feet struggling to move. I was barely concentrated on the path ahead of me, tears filling my eyes instead. Between the dark sky and blurry vision, I couldn't see the rock that laid ahead, making me trip forward instead as soon as my shoe came into contact with it.

"Harry!" I shrieked, losing my balance. The foreign footsteps seeming to get louder and faster as I laid on the ground helpless. "Harry, oh God it's coming, she's coming. She's gonna get us!" I began to sob hard. "I want to leave! Get me off the floor, she's coming!"

Hands from behind grabbed at me, making me scream bloody murder. "Get off! Get off, get off, get off! Harry! Harry, get her off of me!" I screeched, my arms desperately flailing around to strike whatever was touching me.

"Kate! Kate, calm down! Baby it's me, shh no one's got you but me. Okay, look at me, look at me, you're alright. There's no one out here but us. You're safe, alright?" He cradled me in his arms as he fell to the floor.

I cried against his chest, feeling completely ridiculous about the whole thing. He must think I'm a fool. First I fall over, cry, scream and hear non existent footsteps; obviously I wasn't cut out to be a ghost hunter of any sorts.

But just as I began to calm myself down, assuring myself the footsteps were merely my own, I can hear them again. Harry's sudden still told me he heard them too. His confirmation of the sound only making me whimper in fright...she was out to get us. We were disturbing her rest, I was convinced.

"Harry?" I slowly began to panic again.

"Shh, shh, baby it's okay, it's probably an animal or something." He tried to reason, getting us both up from the ground with his hand tightly wrapped around mine.

"Hey!" An unknown voice shouts.

And that's all it took for us to be sent bolting down the path we had just come up from, heading for the fence that blocked us from the car.

Harry was the first to climb the fence making it over before I could even climb on myself. "Harry, I can't. I can't climb the fucking fence! I can't do it!" I began screaming in anxiety, the footsteps getting louder and louder.

"Hey!" It shouts again.

"Harry!" My voice was shrill, completely unknown to my own ears. I was going to die. And I was going to die in the arms of a ghost.

He climbed back up the fence, jumping over to my side. "Hold on tight, don't let go." He commanded in a hurry, throwing me on his back, arms around his neck and legs around his waist. And just like that, he began to make his way up the fence, this new super strength in him no doubt of out fear.

Though it was not an appropriate time to think such things, I couldn't help but find him super attractive at that moment. The muscles on his arms protruding through the tight shirt he wore. His effortless attempt to getting us both to safety. If we made it to the hotel tonight, I definitely wanted to have my way with him.

"You okay?" He cupped my face, overlooking for any injuries as soon as our feet made contact with the ground.

I nodded feverishly, looking back, half expecting to see the ghost, but to no avail. "Can we just leave? I can't be here any longer."

We scurried into the car, definitely not wanting to attempt this anymore. As the engine roared to life and as we revved away, I looked in the mirror to see the source of our scare....a police officer watching us get away.