Recover (Larry Stylinson AU)

Chapter Fifteen; Better

“The rain will stop, the night will end, and the hurt will fade. Hope is never so lost that it can’t be found.” –Mandy Hale

Harry had no idea where that sudden burst of confidence had come from and he would be lying if he said he didn’t like it. Around him, no one knew how to respond. They had tormented, teased, taunted, bullied this boy for so long and to have him scream in their faces was something entirely new to them. Who would stand the fuck up for themselves if they were Harry Styles? No one would, because that would only lead to more bullying; or so they thought.

“Now you leave me alone, you hear?! I don’t fucking care who you think you are! I’m not going to let you walk over me anymore. Fuck off!” Harry shouted, carelessly throwing the middle finger around. It wasn’t like him to do this kind of thing, but he was set off when one of them insulted Louis. Harry was protective over the people he cared about and Louis was no exception.

“Harry?” Harry spun around to find his boyfriend running across the sidewalk towards him.

Harry wondered why his boyfriend had a fearful expression on his face, he had this. He had this situation under control. “Louis!” He said overjoyed. Louis wrapped his arms around Harry and buried his head into Harry’s shoulder tightly, not letting Harry move.

“Are you okay?” he asked. Suspiciously, he looked behind Harry at the boys who were still shocked. “What did you do to him?” he snarled.

“N-nothing,” one of them stuttered out.

“Better have been nothing,” he muttered. Harry pulled apart from Harry and shook Louis’ body with buzzed energy.

“They really didn’t do anything, Louis! I told them to fuck off! I did it!” Louis smiled bright, a sense of pride surrounding him.

“Did you?” Louis’ eyes flickered behind the younger boy where the crowd still stayed, not moving in fear of being the other end of Louis’ wrath.

“Of course, Lou! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!” Harry prattled on and on about how amazing he was and how he took care of himself. And slowly, Louis moved away from the crowd and pulled Harry along with him towards his car.

“And they were saying mean things about you! I didn’t like it and no one should be able to say mean things about you, so I decided to tell them off,” Harry said, nuzzling into Louis’ hair as they hugged near Louis’ car. “I’d never let anyone get away with being rude to you or insulting you, ever.”

Harry let go of Louis and got into the car, moving his bag to his lap. As Louis turned the engine on, Harry went through different music stations until he found one that he listened to—his favourite one. It wasn’t much, mostly Harry’s odd taste in music, according to his sister, but it was his favourite and he wanted to share that with Louis.

When Harry thought about it, he realized that truly there wasn’t much that Louis knew about him. He knew that he suffered from self-harm, some form of depression and maybe in a way suicidal thoughts, but it wasn’t anything more than that. Harry had started to let himself believe it when Louis would stay with him and reassure him that things were okay and he liked believing it. And because Louis was now a part of Harry’s life that Harry didn’t want to get rid of, it was time that Louis started to get to know the real Harry; the Harry who liked really odd music, tacos and singing in front of his mirror when he was feeling very at ease.

The Harry he was before.

“What song is this?” Louis asked, quickly glancing at Harry.

“Oh, it’s one of my favourite songs; it’s called Your Bones by Of Monsters and Men. I don’t know if you’d like it or not but this station is one of my favourites. You don’t mind, right?” Harry snuck a look at Louis and when he found that Louis was looking at him (it was a red light, all is safe), he blushed.