Chapter Text
The next few hours flew by in a blur for Harry, he was lost in his mind, every crevice of it filled with flickering images of the boy he caught only a glimpse of on the beach. He spent the entire time berating himself for it, trying to make himself forget it, to push it further down, to convince his confused mind that it was absolutely impossible for anything to happen.
He barely knew the man’s name, and moreover, he and Sophie were engaged. The girl he had just spent an entire afternoon with, the girl whose mother he had once fallen in love with, she was engaged to that breathtaking man with golden skin and dark curls that Harry craved to run his fingers through.
It was beyond wrong, beyond forbidden, beyond anything he could’ve ever imagined, he had fallen lower than ever before and he wasn’t sure he could ever get back up. Oh god, he could never face Sophie again either, he simply couldn’t, she’d hate him if she ever found out, he was sure of it. In the end, he decided he’d be spending the rest of his time in Greece on Bill’s boat, hidden in a corner, not stepping foot on the island again.
And this time, he truly thought that he had meant it. That is, until Sam and Bill tugged him out of his hiding place belowdeck, and dragged him across the island to Donna’s hotel, up the stairs where fairy lights hang and a familiar, beautiful voice sang. Sam’s smile was visible even in the darkness as he pointed at the terrace above them, laughter wrapping around his words.
“Our song.”
Despite his confused and dazed state, Harry was quick to argue back; he still remembered his time in Paris quite clearly, the time spent with Donna and a lot of 80’s music.
“Your song? It’s my song.”
He had half a mind to continue debating it with Sam, but he could feel the irritation disappearing entirely as soon as they reached the top stair and stepped onto the beautifully decorated terrace. Donna, Tanya, and Rosie were dressed in their old band outfits, dancing along to the song, spinning around on the makeshift stage and Harry couldn’t help but smile wide at the sight in front of them. A single glance to his right confirmed that the happiness was nearly contagious, as both Sam and Bill sported big grins as well, bobbing along to the song that the women were signing.
At one point, Donna made a show of looking around the terrace, her blue eyes widening at the sight of them, locking with Sam’s immediately, and both Harry and Bill looked at the other man, laughing at his stunned stupor. Harry wasn’t one to judge, he knew damn well how it was to fall for Donna Sheridan, but he had long since gotten over those feelings. Sam, on the other hand…
His eyes shone as he stared at Donna, that smile still stretched across his face, only now it was more wistful, more sentimental, soft around the edges, not wavering for even a second as she stared right back at him. Harry laughed, letting the sound of the music wash over him, swaying to it from left to right until it was over, and Rosie told them off. Sam had disappeared to who knows where, and instead of following him, Harry decided to sit down at the bar, with Bill by his side.
He had just begun sipping his first drink when he noticed a group of women approaching them, grabbing their shirts, their belt loops, anyplace they could reach, really, and dragging them to the middle of the terrace, tying them both up against wooden poles. Harry could do nothing but stand frozen in shock, stiff and confused, while Bill, as usual, was laughing at the dozens of pairs of hands travelling all over his body. Eventually, Harry managed to untangle himself, escaping under a tunnel of tables, and on the other side of them, found exactly the person that he had been hoping to avoid.
Sophie.
“Hello.”
“You okay?”
He brushed off her question quickly, sitting back down at the bar, and downing his drink, not surprised in the slightest when Sophie continued with her line of questioning from earlier in the day. He told her about his dogs, about how he’d always wanted a daughter but never got one, noticing the glimmer of hope in her eyes as he said it. Deciding to quickly change the subject, he looked around the terrace, noticing that he still hadn’t met a certain person, the one that was supposed to be quite important in both Donna’s and Sophie’s lives.
“Is your father here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know who my father is.”
Harry could feel his blood freeze in his veins, the hopeless smile on Sophie’s face finally making him realize what she had been trying to imply the entire time, ever since she met him. Before he could reply, however, she was already being grabbed by her friends and dragged back onto the dancefloor, leaving Harry alone and confused at the bar. He was just considering taking his drink to the boat, maybe going to bed a bit earlier even, when the music suddenly changed, and the girls all clustered in a ground in the middle of the terrace, but not to dance, it seemed.
No, they were all cowering from the men that suddenly began dropping from everywhere; from the rooftops, from the trees, from the sides of the cliffs even. Harry could only look on, more bewildered than ever before, looking from one man to the next, all flying in on tightly knotted ropes. In the mess of it all, the darkness and the flashing lights, Harry could barely see a thing, and the next thing he knew, he was crashing into someone, a dark mask obscuring their face.
Dark eyes bore into his, and as the man removed the mask, Harry could barely hold back a sharp gasp, his voice suddenly getting stuck in his throat.
It was Sky.
Of course it was, just his luck. Not only did he run into Sophie only a few hours after ogling her fiance, but now he was nearly plastered against the man himself as well. Neither one spoke a single word, Sky’s arms still resting lightly on top of Harry's shoulders where they had landed a few moments earlier, while Harry’s were wrapped around the other man’s waist in an attempt to steady him. He didn’t dare so much as breathe, afraid to ruin the fragile moment between them, and with only a bit of pride did he notice Sky’s eyes travelling over the length of his body, down and then up again until their gazes locked together once more.
Harry would be more than content to stay there the entire evening, with the beautiful man in his arms, but then someone jostled him from behind, and they fell apart, Sky spinning around and away, his hands digging through his pockets while he walked. Harry was powerless to do anything but watch as Sophie came up the stairs, an easy smile on her lips when Sky greeted her with a grin and a shell necklace.
Watching their interaction felt like stepping into a freezing cold shower, and his earlier idea to leave the hotel and retire to the boat resurfaced once more. He wanted to leave immediately, he truly did, but one person dragged him into the crowd, and then another stuck a mask over his face, similar to the one that Sky had been wearing earlier. In the end, Harry truly had no other choice but to down his third drink of the night and let himself get lost in the music and the sea of dancing bodies.
He didn’t know how long he had been dancing for, lost in the song, the sweat, the humidity of the warm summer night, but at one point Sophie appeared in front of him again, more distressed than he had ever seen her.
And all of a sudden everything made sense.
That night in Paris, the twenty years of silence that followed, the shocking wedding invitation that brought him to this Greek island once more. The island where he met twenty year old Sophie, the girl with Donna’s hair, with his love for music, with a beautiful voice and an incredible talent for guitar playing. The girl with endless questions about his history, about his adventures with her mother, about his family, his life, his hopes and dreams.
It was so, so obvious.
“Oh my God! I’m your father!”
“Harry!”
Sophie’s voice was panicky, bordering on frenzied, but Harry couldn’t stop, all the pieces were finally clicking together, the puzzle assembling itself in his mind.
“Now, that’s why you sent me the invite! You wanted your old dad to walk you down the aisle. Well, I won’t let you down, I’ll be there.”
Sophie’s frantic expression changed into a happy one for a moment or two, and Harry returned to the dance, the earlier alcohol coupled with the realization that he did indeed have a daughter, one that he didn’t even know about, sent him into a state of near euphoria. He began dancing in a circle around Sophie with all the others, Bill and Sam waltzing across from him, his arms somehow winding around Sky’s and he couldn’t stop the wide smile that split his face even if he tried.
But it seemed that day had a couple more surprises in store for him yet.
One moment, he was dancing, happier than ever before under the flashing lights, and in the next, Sophie was fainting, collapsing onto the stone ground, the crowd of people immediately gathered around her, calling her name and trying to rouse her awake.
To say it was an unexpected evening would be putting it lightly.