Walk, Walk, Fashion Baby, 3
Summary: As a young and successful fashion designer, you approach Joshua Kane to do a collaboration that brings regular and plus size high-end fashion into the world; your plan is to take the world by storm. Harrison Osterfield becomes the one to model one half of your masterpiece, and on the trek to find the perfect model for the other half, you keep coming up empty. After encouragement from Joshua and Harrison, you agree to model it yourself. This means that you’ll work even closer to Harrison, and you’re worried that your budding feelings for him, and his hidden ones for you, could ruin the collection and everything you’ve worked for. But perhaps the road to the fashion storm will also lead to a new power couple in the fashion world.
A/N: Okay, I feel like I haven’t updated this one in forever BUT I have so much for this chapter, so.... lol. This is a lot of... idk, stuff. But I hope you like it! It should be moving much faster with this one soon! I’m expecting it to only be a few more parts, tbh, with an end of smut. If you want to be on the taglist for this piece, or on my permanent taglist, just let me know!!!
Permanent Taglist: @pparkerwrites, @jordyns-library, @natblidaclexa, @peterseuphoria, @lesbian-x-blackwidow, @beccaboo929, @softrdj, @icecoldban
WWFB Taglist: @ghostofdrfluke
Disclaimer: I do not personally know Harrison Osterfield, nor do I claim to. I am essentially using his personage and visage to create a completely fictional story. I also don’t claim to know Joshua Kane (though we have had brief interactions on Instagram). That being said, I hope you enjoy this!!!
Warnings: hospital stuff, I did way too much research about broken noses, needles near the face, anxiety, anxiety about doctors/hospitals, bit of panic, possibly too much hand holding if that’s possible, a limited knowledge of the British healthcare system (but like I do know a decent amount), some fluff too tho, exhaustion, some tiny self-esteem issues near the end, some weird flirting maybe
Word Count: 3639
Chapter 3
At the A&E, it was busy. It was a Friday night, after all, and London was a big city with a lot of people. But Harrison ushered you to a seat as he signed you in and got a clipboard for you to fill out. He sat down next to you and pretended to not be paying attention as you squinted at the clipboard.
You filled it out and went to get up before Harrison gently took it from you and pushed you back to the chair. He gave you a cheeky grin and a wink as he walked away, making your heart nearly vibrate.
Soon enough, Harrison was sitting back down next to you, your thighs occasionally brushing against each other. He soon noticed your worry as it manifested in the jiggling of your leg; he cleared his throat to get your attention.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I…” you swallowed nervously, “I’m not a fan of doctors or anything like that. Just old anxiety, I guess,” you tried to play it off with a chuckle.
Harrison’s eyes narrowed as he took you in, making you avert your eyes anxiously. His voice was gentle, tugging at your heartstrings, as he said, “What’s really wrong, Y/N?”
You took in a deep breath and looked at your hands, folded in your lap. “It’s silly.”
“If you’re worried about something, it’s not silly,” he reassured you. “C’mon, Y/N,” he nudged you gently, a soft smile on his face, “tell me. I won’t laugh.”
“If my nose is crooked,” you began as you bit your lip, “will it ruin the show?”
Harrison stared at you for a few moments, his blue eyes bright and framed by those ridiculously unfair eyelashes. Then, he took your hands in his, making you look up at him in surprise. His hands weren’t rough and weren’t soft, but they were gentle, more so than anything you think you’ve ever felt.
“Y/N, even if your nose is crooked, you’ll still rock that runway. You can rock anything, love, and if it were to be a little less straight for the show, well, that just makes everything more unique and more you, doesn’t it?” He quirked his lips in a smile and rubbed his thumbs over your knuckles. “Besides, your designs are so amazing, I doubt anyone would notice a slightly off-center nose. And,” he added quickly, widening his eyes and leaning in a bit for emphasis, “even if your nose is a little crooked, you’ll be just as beautiful as ever.”
You ran your tongue across your lips as you tried to think of a response. “I… thanks, Harrison,” you finally managed to say. “That actually really helped.”
“Anytime, love,” he winked at you as he let go of one of your hands.
You thought he would let go of the other one, but instead he laced your fingers together and kept it between you. Harrison continued to rub his thumb across your hand, sending little electric tingles up your arm and making your heart fill with warmth. You tried to ignore the electricity by scrolling on your phone, but to no avail. Even as you used one hand to play a puzzle game, you were acutely aware of him holding your hand.
As you waited, hand in hand, you would loosen your hand ever so slightly, just in case Harrison wanted to let go. He always responded by squeezing your hand tighter. You’d also glance at him as he played on his own phone, and each time he squeezed your hand, the corners of his mouth quirked in a small smile.
Finally, finally, your name was called. You weren’t irritated, necessarily, because there were people with slightly more pressing issues than yours. You just wanted to get out of that uncomfortable chair.
You didn’t want to let go of Harrison’s hand, though.
Apparently, Harrison didn’t want you to either, as he stood with you and squeezed your hand again, this time for reassurance. The nurse was nice, taking you through to the examination room and checking your nose briefly before asking a few questions. She then got some x-rays, since the doctor would want them anyway, and took you back to the room.
After a few minutes sitting on a chair and holding Harrison’s hand, a doctor (apparently a nose specialist) walked in, looking cheerful yet tired, as a doctor often does. He asked you how it happened and as you explained, he was washing his hands and chuckling at how you called the drunk man a Neanderthal. He directed you to sit on the table and Harrison followed, not letting go of your hand because he could tell you were nervous.
“Well, let’s take a look,” the doctor came forward quickly, making you flinch in surprise. “Sorry, love. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
Harrison squeezed your hand reassuringly and smiled when you squeezed back. Every time the doctor would gently press on your nose and cheekbones, Harrison would give you a small squeeze. The bruising was already quite tender, so you were thankful when the doctor stopped pressing and instead looked into your nose.
“Well, okay, let’s look at the x-rays,” the doctor suggested, though it wasn’t actually a suggestion. He put them up and you looked at it, wincing to yourself as you saw the cracks in the bones and cartilage.
“I feel like right now would be a good time for a nose pun,” Harrison muttered to you, making you chuckle slightly.
“I ‘nose’ it would be,” you whispered back, making his eyes light up with laughter.
The doctor interrupted your giggling by saying, “Okay, I would like to do what’s called a closed reduction surgery, and I’d like to do that tonight. Essentially, it’s local anesthesia, and then I’ll come in and elevate these depressed bones,” he pointed to some bones, “and I’ll depress some of these elevated bones. Then I’ll straighten everything. Easy procedure, but if you’re uncomfortable with it, we can put you under general anesthetic.”
“Um,” your mouth and throat felt dry, “n-no, I don’t think I need the general. Uh, let’s get this started, then.”
“Okay, I’ll go get everything ready,” the doctor said with a smile, quickly leaving the room. He popped his head back in to say, “A nurse will come get you when it’s ready.”
“Do you want me to stay, love?” Harrison asked you gently.
Your eyes snapped over to his, filled with panic. You weren’t mentally prepared for the surgery. The last time you had surgery, it had taken you four months of mental preparation (partially because the American system had to schedule you four months out), and even then, you hadn’t felt ready. Then again, you’d been a child at the time…
Flashes of needles right next to your face caused you to clutch onto Harrison’s arm.
“Don’t leave,” you pleaded with a whisper, and you saw spark flit across his beautiful light blue eyes. The edges of those eyes crinkled slightly as he grinned at you.
“Don’t worry, love,” he placated you, placing one of his hands on yours on his arm, “I won’t leave you unless you want me to.”
You smiled at him and felt a little frozen under his gaze. He was looking at you so intensely that you didn’t know what to do. So, in a classic and totally not awkward style, you kept still and merely shyly averted your eyes.
You felt your blood run hotter under his gaze, and then a knocking on the door made him take a step back. Without his hand on yours on his arm, you felt like you could breathe a bit easier; he made you nervous but in the best possible way, but you hated that. You hated feeling nervous, especially the butterflies kind of nervous. It made you hyperaware of your actions, but also made you say things without your usual amount of contemplation.
The knock had been a nurse coming to get you to take you (and Harrison) to a room with the proper chair/lights combo for the procedure. You got off the table (albeit a little ungracefully) and started after her. Your hands were shaking, and then you started to wring them together anxiously as you walked behind the nurse.
A hand touched yours and you looked to the side to see Harrison smiling at you gently. He took one of your hands and laced your fingers together as you walked, squeezing reassuringly as he did before. It made you feel safer.
“Hello again,” the doctor greeted you as you entered the room. “Please take a seat and we’ll get started right away.”
You did as the man instructed, sitting in the chair and lacing your own fingers together. Harrison stood to the side, relatively close, but not in the way. As the doctor finished washing his hands and turned around in his chair, he saw Harrison standing.
“There’s a chair right behind you, you can sit there if you want. It moves,” the doctor said as he put on his gloves.
“Ah, thanks mate,” Harrison said happily, pulling the chair forward and sitting down. He was closer now, a little lower than you, but you could feel his presence better now.
The doctor stood and stepped closer to you, leaning the chair back. You swallowed nervously as you went down, your heartrate increasing exponentially.
“Are you ready?” the nurse asked. “It’ll all be completely fine.” She began clean and sterilize your nose and the surrounding areas; the scent of it burned at your nose hairs.
“As ready as I can be,” you admitted nervously.
“Are you afraid of needles?” the nurse inquired as she continued to rub your skin.
“No, I don’t mind medical or tattoo needles—I have several tattoos—but I am afraid of needles right next to my face,” you said timidly. Harrison squeezed your hand gently.
“Well, we will be as quick as we can with the needles. Just close your eyes,” the doctor suggested, and you quickly followed that advice.
As you felt them getting closer and closer to your face, your breathing picked up. It wasn’t until Harrison quietly said, “It’s alright to breathe, love,” that you realized you’d been holding your breath ever so slightly.
“Little pinch,” the doctor said, and your eyes flew open. You saw the needle and felt the pinch, and probably almost crushed poor Harrison’s large hand.
“Doctor, do you mind if I talk?” Harrison whispered. “It might help her relax.”
“Please do,” the doctor nodded, “another pinch here, dear.”
“So, Y/N, would you like to hear the story of the time Tom and I got lost in the middle of an area we grew up in?”
“Sure,” you rasped quietly.
As Harrison launched into his story and your nose and face became numb, you were able to relax and close your eyes. His voice was truly soothing to your nerves. As you focused on the story, you found yourself thinking about other things that would sound amazing in Harrison’s voice.
Thankfully, as you heard a clatter of instruments, you were able to back out of that dangerous hole once more. Harrison squeezed your hand as you breathed in shakily, running his thumb along your hand.
“You’re doing great, Y/N,” the nurse reassured you.
“Yup, we will be done before you know it,” the doctor stated.
You let out a nervous hum of acknowledgement and Harrison gave you another squeeze. He continued with his story, still softly rubbing your hand with his thumb. When he would say something funny or ridiculous, you would squeeze his hand gently. He always chuckled briefly in response and squeezed back.
As everything dragged on and your breathing picked up again ever so slightly, Harrison tried a new tactic. He would tap a few times on your hand with his thumb and you would reply with the same number of taps. It made you feel even better than holding or squeezing his hand did because it was actively distracting you.
Harrison had gone through two hilarious stories when the doctor and nurse announced they were done and just needed to clean up a bit. Cotton was stuffed in your nose and you were slowly raised back up.
It was not a good feeling.
You felt better, however, as Harrison continued to hold your hand while the doctor went through the aftercare you needed to do. The doctor asked the nurse to print out some instructions for you so you could reference them. After she left, the doctor turned to Harrison with a look that was a combination of teasing and serious.
“Make sure your girlfriend changes that gauze and ices that nose as soon as you two get home, young man,” he stated sternly with that glint still in his eyes.
You were tired, but you weren’t so tired that you didn’t feel embarrassed by the man’s assumption. The unfortunate and annoying voice that was usually packed in a box in the back of your head came out and hissed that Harrison could never date a woman like you.
You opened your mouth to correct the good doctor, but Harrison interrupted you by saying, “Of course, sir, I always make sure my girlfriend takes care of herself.”
Your heart pounded loudly in your chest. It was pounding so ferociously that you were positive that Harrison could feel it in your hand, through your fingertips.
The doctor shook your hand and reminded you to take care of yourself, before nodding at Harrison and leaving the room. The nurse appeared in the open doorway and gestured for you and Harrison to follow her. She reiterated parts of the aftercare that you needed to definitely do and said that she’d call you in a few days to see how you were doing. After giving you the stapled papers and a kind smile, the nurse bid you both ado.
Harrison led you out of the A&E, and you couldn’t find the energy to ask him why he didn’t correct the doctor. You were exhausted and your nose felt incredibly strange with both the gauze and the anesthesia. To put it simply, you were not feeling the best.
“Your place or mine?” Harrison asked as he looked for a cab, still holding your hand.
You simply gave a grunt as a response.
Harrison chuckled at you and squeezed your hand slightly as he stepped forward to hail a cab. As the cab pulled up, he let go of your hand to open the door for you. The coldness that wafted over your hand was jarring; it seemed like he’d been holding your hand for hours. It was a miracle that your hand wasn’t covered in sweat.
You clambered quite ungracefully into the cab, Harrison right behind you. The lack of noise was more comforting than you expected; your shoulders loosened ever so slightly as Harrison shut the door and told the cab where to go.
To your surprise, Harrison laced your hands together again. When you glanced at him, he was looking out the window at the passing cars, acting as if holding your hand was the most normal thing in the world.
Your heart wanted it to become a normal thing, but your anxious mind couldn’t help but whisper that he was only holding your hand to be nice, to calm you down.
Instead of letting the anxiety or hope take over your mind, you let the exhaustion creep in. As a yawn stretched your face and you let out an accompanying sigh, you heard Harrison chuckle.
Your attempt at a withering glare was met with another chuckle.
“What?” you asked quietly.
“You’re just really cute, love, that’s all,” he smiled at you.
You scoffed in the back of your throat and rolled your eyes, turning to the window. You didn’t know where you were going, and you’d gotten turned around enough on the way to the A&E. Normally you had a great sense of direction, but when you were tired and discombobulated, direction went out the window.
A few minutes later, you rolled up to an apartment building, but not your apartment building. It was obviously Harrison’s, and he led you inside after paying the driver.
You followed Harrison into his apartment—or flat, as he called it—without much arguing. The exhaustion was seeping into your bones. Hunger was also seeping into your body as you waited in the elevator.
You’d never been to Harrison’s flat before. You knew he wasn’t living with his parents anymore, but you also knew that he visited them often (you’d gotten cookies from his family before). As this was a new experience, you tried to wake up a bit more in order to really remember it.
It was pretty much exactly what you anticipated. A relatively open floor plan, with modern furnishings, and a slightly messy kitchen. Harrison hurried around you and quickly shut a door, probably to his bedroom, and you raised a brow at him.
He cleared his throat and looked away with a blush on his cheeks. “I, uh, haven’t finished laundry yet,” he muttered his excuse.
You hummed in understand and continued to glance around, only to be surprised as Harrison tugged you by the arm to the couch. You were even more surprised by him twirling you into his arms and looking down at you with a smoldering gleam in his eyes and a mischievous smirk on his lips.
Then, you were falling onto the couch and a remote was being shoved in your hands.
“I’ll make something,” he explained as you looked up at him, “so get comfy.”
“Um, you don’t—”
“Hush, love,” Harrison interrupted you gently. “Really, just relax, put something on, it’s no trouble at all.” At your hesitant look, he said with extreme sincerity, “I want to take care of you, okay? Please no protesting or complaining?”
You sighed but nodded, and his bright whoop of happiness brought a smile to your own face. Harrison quickly bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of your head, then he very exaggeratedly jumped over the back of the couch and walked into the kitchen.
With an amused shake of your head at his antics, you flipped on the TV and opened the Hulu app. You flicked through it until you found a cooking show and selected a random episode. It was hard for you to get comfy in an unknown place, but the scent of the couch (you realized that it smelt like Harrison) and then the scent of something cooking had you practically melting into it. Your eyes even began to droop.
You were admittedly still in your work clothes (your pants were pretty uncomfortable, but the tank top and cardigan were alright), but you were so exhausted from stress via a myriad of reasons, that you were only slightly surprised when you began to drop off. After someone on the TV said something about making something close to their heart, though, your eyes were wide open and your stress back to the max.
As your heartrate was soaring through the roof as you were thinking about all of the things you still had to do, you were hit in the side of the head with something soft. You somehow managed to catch it as it fell towards the couch.
Harrison wiggled his eyebrows as you looked up at him and he said, “Strip.”
“Excuse me?” you shot back, furrowing your eyebrows in alarm.
He cackled with his head thrown back and started walking to the kitchen. “There’s some clothes you can put on to get comfy.”
You hesitantly looked at the clothes in your arms as you stood up, worrying your lip with your teeth. “Um, Harrison?” you called out.
“Yes?” he called back from the kitchen.
“I don’t think… these will fit.”
“Clothes fit all gorgeous bodies, so of course they’ll fit your gorgeous body,” he said as if it was so obvious.
You scoffed at his pure ridiculousness and shook your head. Too tired to go into that argument, you shuffled to the bathroom and tried on the clothes.
The sweatpants actually fit, because they were stretchy, but to no one’s surprise, the shirt was much too tight. It technically fit, but not in any way that you would want. With a shake of your head, you took it off and slipped on your tank top and cardigan again.
You walked back out to see Harrison lowering himself to the couch. His head whipped around to you when the shirt collided with his face.
“Why aren’t you wearing the shirt? It’s so soft!” He seemed genuinely confused.
“It’s too tight,” you replied with a shrug. “I’m too big to borrow the majority of your clothes, H. Not much in life is made for people like me.”
His eyebrows furrowed as you crossed your arms over your stomach and looked away. Then, to break the silence, he said, “I made pancakes. Dig in.”
You sat down next to him and yawned as you started to make your pancakes the way you liked. Harrison had put out a nice spread of stuff on the coffee table, and you felt a little self-conscious at the way he was watching you.
When you began to dig in, a small moan leaving your mouth at the sensation of food, Harrison let out a chuckle. You looked at him with wide eyes as you were putting another bite into your mouth, and that made him laugh more.
“You are the most adorable person I have ever seen,” he finally said with the softest smile you’d ever seen.
“Oh no,” you thought, “professionalism is going to be much, much harder than I thought, harder than I ever could have imagined…”
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