the song for this chapter is "Mr. Sandman," by joe p :)

Tate 

    I think that in life, there are very few moments where you find yourself at a location from a book. Or perhaps, that was just my life. Maybe other people found themselves in places of significance so much, that they had entirely lost their meaning. But for me, as I stood with Harry at the Cerro Calderico Ridge, staring up at the twelve mountainous windmills from the world-renown Don Quixote, I could hardly stop my jaw from hitting the ground. 

     Harry looked to be a bit stunned two, and both of us seemed so small compared to the well-described "giants" that were the windmills. 

   "This is amazing," I finally spoke out, saying what both of us had been thinking for the past ten minutes we had just been standing here.

   "Yeah, it is," Harry chuckled in reply, hands on his hips and head tilted back in order to take in the entirety of the structures before us. 

    We were shockingly the only two people here. I suppose six in the evening wasn't a common time for tourists to be meandering about, which worked to our benefit. All that we knew was that this was the location. We had no idea what we were looking for now that we were here. But something deep inside me told me that just like everything else in this journey, we would know it when we saw it.

      It was rather bizarre, that somehow, even though we didn't remember our fathers, we had this sort of intuition about them. A feeling ignited within our bones that provided the connection to them in the spirit that we lacked in memory. 

   "See anything out of the ordinary?" Harry suddenly asked, as if he were reading my mind.

 I pursed my lips together and shook my head. "Not yet. Let's walk around a bit," I suggested.

    My jeans felt weird with the cool metal of the gun tucked into the back pocket. I wrapped my cream-colored cardigan tighter around myself in an attempt to hide it even more. 

    While it did feel out of character, I couldn't pretend that I didn't feel a little bit badass knowing that I could defend myself if needed. I don't think anyone who might attempt to harm me would expect me to be able to shoot a gun or throw a knife as well as I now could, which greatly worked to my advantage. 

     Another unfamiliar feeling was the burner phone lodged safely in my other back pocket. I hadn't had a cellphone in so long, I had almost forgotten what it felt like to carry one around. I honestly didn't miss my phone as much as one might think. It was kind of nice to be disconnected, even though I didn't really have a choice. The only person I truly missed talking to was my mother. I tried very hard not to wonder what she was doing, what she was thinking, and if she was alright. Luckily, I was provided with a generous amount of distractions to keep my mind from wandering too far.

     Harry's footsteps were in perfect sync with my own as we walked through the grass and closer to the windmills. Both of our eyes were eagerly scanning our surroundings, hoping to see something that made us do a double-take.

     We strolled past the first few windmills, but suddenly, I found myself stopping right in front of the fifth one, as a familiar and beloved scent filled my nose. 

   Jasmine. 

  Images of the various bottles of my jasmine and bamboo perfume flashed through my mind. I had always been so drawn to the scent of jasmine, and I remember my mother bringing in bouquets of it when I was a child. I would sit by the vases and practically press my nose to the delicate petals, inhaling it like I was trying to achieve some sort of floral-induced high. 

    I quickly glanced at all of the other windmills and saw that this was the only one with the jasmine growing in front of it, the vines beginning to creep their way up the sides of the structure. 

      I wouldn't have been so suspicious that these particular blooms were special if it had been growing all around us. But only on the fifth windmill did I see the beautiful flowers, and smell the wonderfully intoxicating scent of the jasmine.

    Harry raised an eyebrow at me as I stood there frozen. 

 "What is it? Do you want me to get you some of those flowers?" He asked innocently, gesturing towards the vines of jasmine.

   My heart fluttered at his instinct to do something nice for me, but I just smiled and shook my head.

   "The flowers are what we were supposed to see," I grinned, and Harry raised an eyebrow at me as if it were the most absurd statement in the world. 

   "You mean to tell me that our fathers sent us to Spain to see some flowers?" He asked incredulously.

   I rolled my eyes and laughed at him. "Not just any flowers. Jasmine," I explained, but Harry still looked lost, and rightfully so. 

    "My mother always loved jasmine. She would make bouquets of it and put them all around our place. It is part of the reason I was so drawn to my jasmine and bamboo perfume. It reminded me of my childhood. And look, this is the only windmill that has it," I explained, gesturing to the other windmills around us. 

   Harry quickly turned his head back and forth to confirm my statement, his eyes going wide as he turned back to me. 

   "Are you sure?" He laughed, scratching his head and not wanting to accept that something as simple as flowers was what we were sent here for.

   I shrugged. "It just feels right. But you can call Abel and have him test it in the software, see if it unlocks the next firewall."

    Harry sighed and reached into his back pocket for his own burner phone.

   "It's worth a shot," he admitted, already going to dial Abel's number.

   He pressed the phone to his ear, and moments later opened his mouth to speak.

    "Hey Abel, it's me. Listen, I need you to run a possible password through the software. Try "jasmine" and let me know what happens," he instructed.

 I could practically see Abel whipping out his computer, his hands flying across the keyboard, and him reaching up to adjust his glasses. 

   Harry shifted his weight around from leg to leg, waiting on a reply from Abel.

Harry was dressed in black jeans, and a short-sleeved silky black button-down patterned with thin white stripes. He had the first few buttons undone, and I couldn't stop myself from staring at the swallows peeking out on his chest. His gold cross pendant caught the faint sunlight, and my eyes trailed all the way down to his black books, one of which was now impatiently tapping against the ground in anticipation.

    He looked so effortlessly beautiful, as he always did. From the day I met him in the restaurant, he radiated an irresistible essence that made you just want to know more about him and more about what went on behind those pale green eyes of his. 

     I just never thought that I would actually find out what did. 

 Snapped out of my thoughts, Harry began to speak.

  "Really? Well, shit. Great. We will probably stay here one more night, and then head out tomorrow. Will you let the pilots know? I will call you later with a more precise time frame. Alright, yes, I will. Talk to you later, bye," he fired off, before hanging up the phone and returning it to its previous place in his back pocket. 

    I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at Harry with a satisfied and smug grin plastered on my face.

   "Well?" I asked teasingly.

 Harry rolled his eyes and smiled at me.

    "Okay, don't let it go to your head, but yes, you were right. And yes, you are a genius," he chuckled, and I felt my smile grow wider at his words. 

   "I know I am. I just wanted to hear you say it," I replied arrogantly.

 "And... she let it go to her head," he sighed, but the teasing smirk remained on his lips. 

   "I learned to be this arrogant from you," I shrugged, and he pressed his lips together and shook his head, and I could tell he was fighting a smile once again.

  "Mhmm," he hummed and then turned to walk towards the jasmine.

  I furrowed my brows at him as he walked past me, but he just grinned and kept going. I wondered what he was looking for, considering we had already gotten the next password, but all of my questions were soon answered when he began gathering a large cluster of the sweet-smelling flowers, before ripping them up and turning back to face me, a proud smile on his face. 

    "For you," he grinned, holding out the fistful of flowers in my direction.

 I blushed and took them from his hand, bringing them up to my nose so that I could get a good inhale of the beloved scent. 

   "Thank you," I spoke quietly, looking back up at him. 

  His lips spread out into a cheeky smile, and I could have just eaten him up at that very moment. 

 "So, now that you and that genius brain of yours have figured out the password for Spain, what do you say we go out and celebrate tonight?" He asked, and my eyes went wide at his words. 

  "Really?" I gasped.

   Harry shrugged and smiled even harder at my reaction.

 "Sure, why not? I'd say we deserve a night off, wouldn't you?" He grinned. 

I beamed back at him and looped my arm through his, his dimpled smile glowing back down at me as we both shared a moment just completely and entirely in awe of each other.

  "Styles, I couldn't agree more."

***********

      The past few hours had been some of the most unexpected but amazing hours of my life. 

   Harry once again completely surprised me and suggested that we go shopping.

 I hadn't shopped since before I was...well, kidnapped by my now boyfriend. 

   Fuck, it sounds pretty bad when you put it like that...

   Moving on.

 I had just continued to do laundry, living off the clothes that Harry had stuffed in my bag that night. 

   Harry had never come off to me as a flashy or showy person. He had nice things but they were more so things that were useful, or a good investment, or sentimental. 

    But today, a fire was lit within him and he decided that we would shop until we quite literally almost dropped. The funniest part was that he had to pay in cash, and got the pleasure of watching the cashier's faces as Harry pulled out mounds of cash at the register. 

   I told him multiple times that I didn't need anything other than some essentials, but he just ignored me and bought whatever he even thought I might like for me. 

   We made our way back to the hotel, bags in hand, and after fumbling with the room key for a little bit due to the masses of clothes we were carrying, eventually made it into our suite. 

  "Harry, once again, you did not have to buy me all of this stuff, I will happily go back with you and return it. Don't we need to conserve our money?" I asked worriedly as I stared at the rows of bags spread out in our room. 

    We had even had to go and buy extra duffles to be able to fit all of the new additions to our wardrobes. I had never in my life been on a shopping spree like that before. Every once in a while, I might splurge and buy myself a new pair of shoes or a nice sweater, but I never had the money to just shop like money wasn't an issue, because, well, most of the time, it was an issue. 

    Harry crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.

 "Nope. Don't even think about it. And hey, I bought a ton of stuff for me too, and besides, I like spoiling you, it's fun," he smiled, and I rolled my eyes.

   "But you do know that you don't need to spoil me, right?" I questioned.

 He walked over to me and cupped my face in his hands, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, before pulling back and smiling softly at me.

  "Yes, baby. I know I don't need to. But it's truly the least I can do. And as for cash," he began, wagging a finger at me before going over to the bed and pulling out a bag I hadn't even realized he had brought. He threw it on the bed and unzipped it, revealing that it was solely filled with money. 

    He turned back to me and shrugged. "I'd say we're good on cash," he laughed, taking in the fact that my jaw was nearly on the floor. 

   He continued to chuckle and zipped up the bag, before returning it to its previous place under the bed. "I know, it's a lot. Whit said that he would be sending a new bag of money each time the plane comes to get us. He's always encouraged me to spend more, to reward myself, but...I don't know, I don't really do anything like this very often," he explained, gesturing to the mounds of clothes, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

    "Me either," I laughed, "but I had fun today...a lot of fun," I continued, walking over to the bed and sitting down next to him. 

   "Are you excited for tonight?" he asked, wrapping an arm around my waist and tugging me closer to him. I smiled and leaned my head against his shoulder. 

    "Yes, I am very excited. I'm happy that we get one night to just...well, to just be a normal couple going on a date," I admitted. 

   I looked up at Harry to see him smirking and raising an eyebrow at me.

    "Normal?" he laughed.

  I chuckled at his words.

   "Okay, more normal than we usually are," I corrected myself.

  Harry smiled and nodded.

    "Normal is boring," he commented.

 I nodded my head, sitting up straighter so that I could kiss his cheek.

  "Yes, yes it is."

AN: I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS CHAPTER AND I HOPE YOU ARE MENTALLY PREPARING YOURSELVES FOR THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS HEHEHE (EVIL CHUCKLING) 

 JUST KIDDING!

 ...

OR AM I?

  ILY ALL SM! THANK YOU FOR 30K READS! PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT.

xx, G.