Outing Larry

Chapter 37 (Part 1)

'Pwincess 'arry,' she told him as she touched his curls. 'Pwetty.' Harry grinned at her.

'I'm a Prince not a Princess. You are the Princess. The most pretty Princess ever!' he told her peppering her face with tiny kisses. Lux smiled at him.

'You my pwince 'arry,' she cooed. Harry stroked her hair fondly.

'Yes I am your prince and you are forever my princess now get these clips out of my hair before your mum sees the mess you made and she will yell at us both.' Lux giggled, got up and began pulling the clips out of Harry's hair non to gently, making him wince. Val smiled at him.

'You are so good with children. It's so good to see you laugh Harry,' she told him gently. Harry nodded and his gaze drifted to Louis who was engrossed in a discussion with Sandy and Josh. Val saw him look at Louis. 'So it seems like I will be flying into London with your man and you're flying to L.A with my woman,' Val told him to distract him from the thoughts she knew were clouding his mind.

'My ex-man,' Harry told her quietly. Val realized a little too late what had slipped out of her mouth.

'Hmm Ex-man, which one would that be? Wolverine? Magneto? Cyclops?Iceman?' she asked him trying to divert him from her slip up. Harry furrowed his brow clearly not understanding her. Val's eyes widened at him. 'You don't know X-Men? You know from Marvel?' Harry smiled.

'Louis loves Marvel. He's into that. I'm not really into that kind of thing,' he told her. He remembered Louis' Marvel DVD collection at home: Spiderman, Hulk, Thor, The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man,Fantastic Four, Dare Devil and his Blade Trilogy Box set. He smiled when he recalled the day Louis had begged him to have a Marvel Day with him shortly after they had moved into their Hampstead home.Louis had told him to just relax and trust him and he had ordered junk food all day as he put in movie after movie explaining every super hero to him. By the end of that Marvel Day, Harry still had no idea who was who and who had which super power except Spiderman,mostly because his name contained the reason of his super power. He looked down at his hands, feeling like that memory belonged to some other person's life when in fact it belonged to him...and to Louis.He looked up at Louis and his heart hurt in his chest. He wished for another Marvel day with Louis and he would pay attention to memorize all Louis' superheroes. He didn't know what he'd give to have another lazy day like that one, to just hear him talk endlessly about his superheroes, to see his excited face as he explained to him in detail and stuffed his face with pizza. Val cleared her throat.

'I'm sorry,' she told him softly. 'For bringing up any unwelcome memories.' Harry looked at her and gave her a feeble smile.

'They are not unwelcome. They just hurt so I tend to avoid them,' Harry said softly. Val could see the pain on his face and hear the regret in his voice. She placed her hand on his back gently.

'It will be alright Harry. These things take time yeah. You have ten days ahead of you so make the best of them. Relax with your friends and take sometime for yourself. Be on your own for a little while each day just to evaluate your state of being. See how you are feeling.Having time alone is important especially when someone is going through something like this.' Harry nodded then his eyes went to Louis, then back to Val.