the eclipse [sequel] ☾ l.s.

twenty one - family ties

He didn't have to say another word. They stood in silence for a few short seconds, and the rest of the world -- the rest of their problems -- faded into background noise. Louis's hand finally found Harry's, his arm covering Harry's own as he interlaced their fingers and squeezed.

"My rut is coming," he said quietly.

"I know," Harry replied. He turned his nose into the back of Louis's neck, nuzzling affectionately over his bond mark. "Still a week or two away, though."

"It won't matter. Not if we're still in here."

"It'll be alright. We'll figure it out." He brushed one more kiss over Louis's warm skin, then sat down on the floor, crossing his legs. "Right now, you need to get some rest. We both do. Neither of us can predict what they're going to ask us to do next, so we need to rest when we can. If you can't sleep, I can't sleep, so . . ." Looking up at Louis expectantly, he patted his thigh. "Do you trust me?"

There was no doubt in Louis's mind. With a defeated sigh, he sat down beside Harry, lying down sideways so that he could rest his cheek on the omega's thigh. His exhaustion hit him instantly -- Harry had always seemed to know his body better than he did himself -- and he curled his fingers around his mate's knee, just holding.

"I love you," he whispered. The words flooded their bond with warmth, steady and sure like an unspoken "thank you."

Harry leaned down to press his lips to his mate's temple. "Go to sleep, love. Just for a while."

Stubborn as ever, Louis fought sleep for a long time -- but with the warmth of his omega's body beneath his fingertips, his eyelids finally fluttered closed. To the steady rhythm of Harry's fingers combing through his hair, his breathing finally levelled out, and for the first time in days, Louis drifted off to peaceful dreams.

Once he was sure that Louis was fully asleep, Harry carefully slid out from under him. It took a few tries to get Louis to let go of him, but finally, he stood from the cold floor, brushing Louis's hair back from his forehead and leaving one last soft kiss on his alpha's skin.

His legs wobbled weakly as he moved across the room. His magic had left him physically and metnally drained. Even after convincing Louis to sleep, he knew he wouldn't be able to do the same. Instead, he kept one hand on the freezing wall as he slowly made his way to the opposite side of the cell.

His father eyed him skeptically as he approached. Swallowing his nerves, Harry leaned against the wall beside the older alpha, crossing his arms over his chest in what he hoped seemed like a nonchalant gesture; in reality, it was protective.

"You're on my side. Not respecting your alpha's rules?" his father pointed out bluntly. "I can't say I'm surprised."

Harry ignored the bite in his father's tone. He glanced back at Louis, who still lay sleeping across the room. His alpha looked worried even in sleep -- older, even, aged by the trials they had been through over the past two years.

"I thought I'd never see you again," the older alpha said after a few long moments of silence.

"You must have known that the Head Alpha was going to ask Louis to come back to help with the attacks," Harry replied, "and you must have known that I'd be with him."

The older alpha frowned, a deep wrinkled splitting his brows. "Of course I knew. I just didn't think he'd agree -- not after his dramatic display of abandoning his pack last year."

Hearing his father's perspective on that day made all of the emotions flood back. Harry bit down hard on his lower lip to keep it from trembling, swallowing the fast-growing lump in his throat. It was hard to imagine that anyone, let alone his father, would consider Louis's actions the dramatic display of that day, completely ignoring the pack's "dramatic display" of beating him senseless.