The Future Is Now - Larry Stylinson

Chapter 13

Harry sat in the doctors office, Louis in the chair next to him, and just stared at the wall silently. Louis had told him what to expect, that the paps would hound them relentlessly because as he put it, they were 'a pretty big deal' when they'd come out.

It'd still been a shock. The strange men with cameras shouting at them and following them from the car and to the specialist's building, asking why they were going there and if their marriage was crumbling and if Harry was going to start a solo career. Louis had just muttered to Harry to ignore it and taken his hand, pulling him past the paps and into the building.

And then he'd had to have all these weird tests done and it'd taken over an hour and he just kind of wanted to go back to the house and wait for Anne to get there.

Louis turned in his seat, looking at Harry with a worried expression. "Are you okay?" he asked, fingers twisting absentmindedly at the wedding ring on his left hand. "The fucking paps can get really aggressive, especially now that we're not kids and not in the spotlight anymore so they're less likely to get shit for it."

Harry shrugged. It'd been a bit scary, yeah, but Louis had gotten him through the hordes of paps without getting hurt and really he was just a bit shaken. And a little in shock that people would actually care so much about his life, he wasn't even that interesting.

"I'm okay," he replied, looking over at Louis and his eyes dropped to the man's wedding ring. "Why does your ring have OOPSon it? Why does mine have HI for that matter?"

Louis stared at him for a moment and then sighed, dropping his hands onto his lap and obscuring the ring from view. "First words we spoke to each other," he said quietly. "We're both disgustingly sentimental about these things."

"Oh," Harry said softly. And that was... it was cheesy as hell and, like Louis had said, disgustingly sentimental. But it was also sweet and obviously meant something to him and Harry was glad that, if he was thrown into a future without any warning, Louis was the one to be his husband.

"Alright, Mr Tomlinson," the specialist, an old man with glasses and greying hair who'd introduced himself as Dr Craig, walked back into the room. He settled down behind his desk and set a bunch of files onto his desk. "I've been looking over your results."

Harry nodded at him but he wasn't paying much attention. He leaned over to Louis and whispered, "Tomlinson? I took your name?" and Louis just snorted and elbowed him.

"There's nothing wrong with your brain," Dr Craig told him, frowning at Harry. "You don't seem to have amnesia or any kind of memory loss. Its as if you've never even lived the last ten years, at least in terms of your brain, so there were no memories to lose in the first place. Mentally, you're sixteen years old."

Louis and Harry both frowned, Louis leaning forward in his chair. "So what does that mean? Is he going to remember anything?"

"There's nothing to remember," Dr Craig answered, his tone soft. "His brain hasn't matured past sixteen years old, the memories that should be there aren't. In amnesia patients usually they're just locked away and with time and patience you might be able to trigger them, but the slates been wiped clean. There's nothing there."

Louis breathed out heavily, his face contorting into an anguished expression before he managed to hide it. "Alright, thank you. I trust you know to keep this private."

"Yes, I know, I'll be the only one to see these files," Dr Craig answered, tapping the folder on his desk before standing. "I really am sorry, Mr Tomlinson, but at the very least your husband is still healthy. It could have been a lot worse."

Louis ran a hand over his face and nodded before shaking Dr Craig's hand and then taking Harry's arm. "I know," he said quietly. "Thank you for your time."

They were out the door before Harry could say his own thank you's and he just followed Louis silently. He didn't know this man, but he could tell he was upset and Harry didn't want to do anything to upset him further.

They had to go past paps again and once again Louis laced their fingers together as they pushed past them. Harry thought it was probably for the cameras benefit- so no one would suspect anything was wrong behind closed doors. But still, it comforted him to have someone guiding him through the crowds of yelling men and flashing cameras. It grounded him and kept him calm.

He could do a lot worse than Louis Tomlinson.