Tattoos Together || Larry Stylinson

Chapter 22

Funfair with fireworks show. I read.

"That's beautiful, Harry."

It really was.

I loved funfairs. The smell alone made me feel carefree. Like in times when everything was okay.

Harry turned into a small alley and I pretended to hear soft music from afar.

"Harry?" I asked as the music became clearer and clearer and my boyfriend was heading for a small hill with a well-trodden path that he obviously wanted to cross. I guessed our destination must have been right behind it, just speaking by the volume.

"What is it, Lou?" He asked, pausing to listen to me more attentively.

"Can we leave the wheelchair here? I want to walk myself. I can walk myself. I am not handicapped. At least not that way."

He shrugged indifferently. "If you think you can do it and promise not to pass out suddenly... or to run away. -Why not?" He joked.

I got up satisfied and punched Harry amicably in the stomach for this cheekiness.

Together we pushed the wheelchair under a bush to make sure that no one would find it and take it with them, and after that we walked hand in hand up the little hill.

In the middle of the beaten track, which normally was probably only used by local dog owners for walks and which I was wondering anyway, how Harry knew it, the curly haired suddenly stopped and looked at me from the side.

I squeaked in shock when one hand was put on the backsides of my upper thighs, dangerously near to my bum and another arm from behind over my back. A little later my feet were no longer on the floor.

"Much too strenuous for you, Loubear." Harry shook his head in mock indignation and carried me up bridal style.

"Crackhead." I giggled knowing full well that he was just trying to show that he could. -Carrying me, his older boyfriend, up the hill. He was the stronger one.

He wasn't stronger, he was just anatomically better, more manly built than me, but after all I couldn't help it. -That was the argument I usually brought up at this point in this discussion when we had it over again, which came up every now and then.

But now I gave him his triumph.

I pressed my face into the soft fabric of his damp cardigan and took some deep breaths of his scent.

"I can get down on my own." I said resolutely and lolled so much in his arms that he was forced to let me down.

-

"Would you maybe take a picture of us?" Harry asked a friendly-looking old lady from a poorly attended children's carousel due to the time of day.

"Sure sweetheart." She took the cell phone out of Harry's hand and held it in front of her face, ready to take pictures. We positioned ourselves and smiled happily until the lady raised her thumb to show that she was done.

When we parted, the curly head made a quick movement and took a hearty bite into my cotton candy.

"Hey!" I looked indignant after my boyfriend, who was ready to pick up his mobile from the old woman, tossed me an air kiss while walking and thanked the lady deeply.

"I hope they turned out well."

"Definitely. We'll look at them later." He waved her a goodbye and came back to me.

"Come on honey, let's find a cozy place to watch the fireworks and look at the pictures until it starts... Oh and stop pouting. You get a new one."

We were sitting in a meadow, I had taken off my jacket so that we could sit on it without getting all wet and Harry had pulled me close to him and put his cardigan over our shoulders so that we shared it, as it were.

I fiddled with the packaging of the red candied apple I'd chosen instead of a new cotton candy. -I had a thing for sweet things- while Harry started laughing hysterically.

He couldn't calm down at all and at first, I thought it was because I had acted so stupidly as to open the packaging until he put his unlocked cell phone in my lap and then fell back on the wet grass, crying with laughter.

I dared to look at the trigger for his convulsive laugh and inevitably began to snort with laughter myself.

What I saw was a wrinkled forehead and bushy grey eyebrows. The lady from the children's carousel had taken selfies of herself. Remarkably bad selfies and she hadn't even noticed.

I continued to scroll through the pictures, all of which showed the wrinkled forehead, except for the last one. It wasn't of particularly good quality, but it was exactly the moment that Harry had bitten off my cotton candy.

I also lay back on the grass. If one had a wet back, the other didn't mind either, I thought.

"Did you see this?" I asked when Harry had calmed down a bit.

He shook his head and took his phone from my hand, zooming to our faces in the picture.

"Not bad, that represents us amazingly well."

With these words there was a relatively loud bang, followed by colourful sparks of light that emerged in the sky.

Without his having to ask me, I lifted my head and let him put his arm behind my neck, cuddle me close and lay his warm palm on my chest. Together we looked at the night sky, with the colourful game of sparks.

-

"We have to be quiet; Edda is already asleep." I whispered when we came back into the room.

"Cute little girl." Harry commented and watched her briefly.

A little jealously I poked his arm.

While I went to the bathroom to put on pyjamas, I would take a shower the next morning, Harry lay down in bed to warm it up, the caring boyfriend he was.

I slipped under the covers and felt Harry's fingers in my hair. I sighed contentedly.

"Harry?"     

"Hm?"

"I ... we can talk about anything, right?" "Of course, honey, always."

"I'm afraid Harry, above all, but first of all above tomorrow."

"What is tomorrow?" He still played with my hair, which made me a lot more comfortable.

"An examination, Haz. I know that sounds stupid. But I had this before when I was a kid. It was hell, I don't want that again." I hid my face under the blanket because I was embarrassed about the subject.

"It's alright, Lou. What kind of examination is it going to be?"

"Pelvic crest puncture. They need that for cancer cell detection and stuff, I don't know, I don't wanna think about it, it's..."

He shushed me and breathed a kiss on my cheek.

"Well do this together, yeah? I'm going to be there."