Dealing With Absence » h. styles au

26ᵀᴴ CHAPTER

Most of the pictures are from Conwy Castle, random ones ranging from old walls to a walking, distracted Harry (at which he glances at Elisha to check her reaction. She only shrugs at his silent question). A few others though are from the ruins they visited later. Harry was already done with the photo shoot there, but he was sure Leesh would quite like to visit it, and he was right.

They spent a few hours there sitting on one of the front steps once they were done with the tour inside, and from there he'd seen the nonsensical pictures she'd snapped. There's one of him with his tongue out and eyes tightly closed, his hand over his hat about to fly out with the wind, but this one is missing amongst the pile of pictures. Again, he keeps the thought to himself and hands the photographs back to Elisha.

"Nice ones," he says simply, throws his head back again and covers his eyes with his arm. "Might want to get a copy of some of those later."

Leesh hits him with the pictures on the forehead, and when he pulls his arm away she's smiling down at him and putting the pile next to his thigh. Next, she stands up as the words follow her movements. "Those are yours, idiot. It's your camera. Unless you thought it's all shit, because in that case, please don't throw my pics away. It'd be such a waste of professional work."

Harry laughs, head still thrown back, and it somehow makes him choke on his spit. "I'm just trying to find the professional in here."

Leesha glares down at him from where she's standing in the bathroom, the mirror in front of her; her hands working to get rid of the towel. "Oh shut up, you're ridiculous." She then reaches for a hairbrush and walks back into the room totally focused on the pizza. The moment she's done with brushing her hair, she sits back down and grabs a napkin to herself, not looking at Harry. "What time are we going back home tomorrow?"

He considers for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, feeling Elisha's toes nudging his shin as a gentle game. "Probably after breakfast. I gotta get there and go straight to the carwash."

Leesh hums her agreement, and then there's silence. Also the sound of her chewing, but Harry's already too dazed off to pay attention to it. The world around him starts becoming too blurry and confusing for him to handle, so he lets himself be taken by the tiredness that rushes back strong as a tidal wave. He slowly lifts himself up, the darkness from inside his lids still blocking his vision, and crawls up his bed.

The moment he crashes down on the mattress, he hears a distant feminine voice seeming incredulous as she says 'is that a drawing of me?', but he just doesn't find the strength to reply.

--

Edwin is just outside the café at the pavement, bent down caressing the dog's head and feeding him small pieces of leftover meat from lunch. Elisha's just the same, except she decided to sit on the floor and lean against the wall in a way Harry can't see her through the window from inside; not from where he's standing.

He throws the last dart which surprisingly lands on the target, and stands up in a swift move, leaving his cup of tea behind.

The clock on the wall says it's somewhat past eight now, the carwash closed for about an hour; the café as silent as it can get on evenings. Bridgit has gone to her classes and Dorothea is locked into her house upstairs the shop, so the only left is Harry, walking lazily out the door and shutting it behind him as he leans against the wall to watch as Leesh and Ed fool around with some homeless dog he's seen around quite a few times.

He wonders why they haven't adopted him yet.

Leesh is smiling widely at the pet between her legs, stepping forward and crashing onto her, trying to lick her face as she dodges away from it. Edwin has stopped feeding the dog and has sunk his hands into his sweatpants pockets instead, tilting his head slightly to the side and watching the same scene Harry is.