#and a bath... food and a bath in the same night wowo.

[bluebeetle]

blugh i cant wait til i move to the new apartment tho bc then i feel like i can use my time after work to do a bit more than play video games and hang out with the cat and eat. rn the internet is bad and im kinda limited on space and stuff to do so im just reading or playing video games until bedtime

[oh-dylan]

hi! how are you? i hope you’re okay! will you write a blurb about the dinner y/n organised with harry & dylan? i need an interaction moment between them :)

Absolutely, babe! And I'm doing okay; I hope you're well!

This turned out a lot longer than I planned, and it's the first time I have written in so long, so I'm a little rusty. I didn't want to add a lot of angst, because I wanted them to have a drama free dinner, but with some awkward moments, of course. x

This interaction would have happened on Sunday, August 1st.

Harry had River over the weekend, and was scheduled to drop her back off with famous y/n at 5 that evening, and of course famous y/n was cooking her favorite rendition of Tour of Italy, and maybe she was feeling in a particularly good mood – probably had something to do with the two glasses of red wine she had – and I can imagine her staring down at her phone as she watches over the boiling water.

4:10 PM.

She picks up her phone, scans through her recent calls, and taps his number.

“Hey, what’s going on? It’s not five yet.”

“No—no, that’s okay, you’re fine. Um, I was thinking…just thinking it might be nice if you had dinner with us tonight? I’m making my Tour of Italy—spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli…not the best Italian you’ve ever had, but we like it.” She pauses a beat, listening to River through the line babbling. “Maybe you can take this time to talk more than three words to Dylan.”

“Not sure what to even say to him.”

“That’s fair, but I’m just tired of feeling like I’m stuck between a war with you two. If you could at least try—”

“Does he want me there?”

“He can deal even if he doesn’t. You are my daughters’ father, and I want you to have dinner with us tonight. Maybe you can run River her bath and get her ready for bed?”

After the missed time, Harry doesn’t skip an opportunity to be with his girl.

“I bought zeppole’s and cannoli’s at Eagle Rock this afternoon.”

“I’ll be there at five.” There’s a hint of agitation, but she waves it off.

“Okay. Five.”

She sets her phone back down, and slowly stirs the pot of spaghetti noodles. Out of the corner of her eye, she senses Dylan hovering in the doorway, their puppy asleep in his arms.

“I invited Harry to have dinner with us tonight.” She gently sets the lid on the pot and turns around. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“As long as he doesn’t eat my cannoli’s, then we’re fine.” He smiles, walking into the room and sitting down at the island. “Did you tell him to be nice?”

“It’s you I want to be nice. I know about that phone call.” She cocks her head at him, walking over to the refrigerator. “Not saying he didn’t deserve it, but I don’t want any cat fights tonight… We just got the carpet deep cleaned.”

“What about cat fights outside in the grass?”

“I’ll turn the sprinklers on.”

It wasn’t soon after five when the doorbell rang, and Roro came running to the door along with her new friend. River came bouncing in, followed by her dad, dropping down to give her puppies a kiss on the head.

“Wowo—hello, Wowo. I missed you!” She’s dressed in her favorite pineapple dress, with a pink bow pinned in her hair. Famous y/n is first to spot her freshly skinned knee.

“Took a tumble on the way to the car.” Harry begins, River’s bag in his hand. “Handled it like a champ… Promised her a cannoli if she stopped crying.”

Dylan audibly sighs from the other room.

Before dinner started, Harry dressed River in her “pasta clothes” because famous y/n wanted nothing more than her daughter staining her best clothes because she doesn’t know how to properly contain her spaghetti passion. (River also doesn’t eat the ravioli because she’s scared of the ricotta in the middle.)

“Babe, cannoli’s and ravioli have the same middle bits. It’s the same thing—you love cannoli’s.”

She still wants nothing to do with it.

Harry and River sat on one side of the table, while famous y/n and Dylan were on the other. River spent most of the dinner in Harry’s lap eating off his plate.

Harry and Dylan didn’t talk much through the dinner; both trying to regularly keep food in their mouths as a reason to stay silent. Famous y/n knew their ruse, and wasn’t about to let them slip passed this moment to connect.

“So, Harry,” famous y/n chimed, “Any news on a trailer for Don’t Worry Darling?”

“Uh…this fall, maybe? Hopefully? Not too sure honestly.”

“I don’t know if you know this,” she turns to Dylan, “I originally had the role for Alice, before Harry even was thought of, but once Shia left and Harry stepped in, I left because I didn’t want to work with him.”

Dylan choked on his pasta, peering up to look at Harry across the table whose face was at a flatline.

“But Florence was perfect for the role, so I guess it worked out.”

“I didn’t know that, no.” Dylan looks back at famous y/n, clenching his jaw to suppress a smile.

“The media said it was because of scheduling issues, but…they’ll say whatever you pay them to!”

“I want a cannooli now!” River lifted herself up in Harry’s lap, a piece of spaghetti entangled in her hair.

Without missing a beat, Dylan glanced up, almost as if it was a force of habit. “You need to eat more of your dinner, babe. A couple more big girl bites.”

Famous y/n saw the look in Harry’s eyes; the look that said, “That’s my child. Why are you acting like her parent?” He isn’t one for confrontation by any means, but she knew when it came to his daughter, things fell a little differently.

The conversation Dylan had with Harry just some weeks ago was quick to come to a halt in her head.

“She called me ‘daddy’ last night.” There was a long pause, and a deep sigh heard on the other end. “I get that you found someone and you’re happy—I seriously get it—but you have obligations in other parts of the world too, and I really hate seeing my girlfriend feeling like she’s failing as a parent because her daughter called me ‘daddy’. But if I’m the one that’s around, and the one that’s providing, then what does that make me?”

River did as she was told, reaching over to the abandoned fork on her plate and scooping up some pasta.

“Thank you, sweets.” Famous y/n smiled, gently kicking Harry under the table. He blinked, finally looking back up at her. Very subtly she shook her head, and reached for her wine glass.

Maybe dinner wasn’t the place to have this conversation. Not in front of River, anyway.

Once the table was cleared, and dessert was had, Harry scurried upstairs to get River ready for bed, while Dylan and famous y/n hung out in the living room.

“He knows he’s not been the best dad, and it makes him guilty, so it pisses him off when he sees you taking over his spot.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have left that spot open! Like…what does he think? You’ll never date or marry someone so River will never have a step-dad?”

“I think that he thinks his actions had no repercussions, but now he sees how easily River is swayed.”

But she’s three-years-old and all she does is sway.

Once River was in bed, Harry came back downstairs to say his goodbyes.

“Thanks for having me,” he smiled at famous y/n. “Dinner was great. It was good to see you guys.”

“Let me walk you out, man.” Dylan stood up, stepping forward towards the front door. Famous y/n laid farther down on the sofa, stretching her legs out and watching as the two walked outside.

“I didn’t mean to offend by what I said at dinner…” Dylan began as they reached Harry’s car. “I know she is your daughter, and I shouldn’t overstep—I don’t mean to overstep—”

“Remember what you said on the phone? How she called you ‘daddy’ and it’s because I’m not around? I know I’ve not been great, and I kind of deserved that slap in the face. Made me realize I need to get my shit together because…I could lose her, you know? I don’t come around often and all of a sudden I’m just some guy who comes around occasionally.”

“She knows you’re her dad.”

“But it pisses me off knowing she thinks you’re her dad too.”

“You know…I don’t know what the future holds, but…if she and I get married one day, I would be legally her step-dad. I love her, and I care about her, whether or not I am right now. I just want you to know that. And at the end of the day, I know my place, and I don’t want to overstep it.”

Harry nods, reaching for the door.

“But if you aren’t around, I have no choice but to. Remember that.”