WHAT REALLY MATTERS - LARRY STYLINSON FANFICTION

Seeking Comfort

When Harry steps into the tattoo studio, Dawn immediately walks over to him, takes his hand and pulls him into the cozy break room. She closes the door and gives him a hug without saying anything. She kisses Harry's hair and holds him close to her chest for a while. It feels good to be comforted and Harry feels very good around Dawn. "Sit down here, love. I'll be free in a few minutes and then we can talk," the woman says after a while, leading Harry to the sofa. She wipes away a tear from his cheek. Harry sobs quietly as he pulls his legs up and nuzzles into the corner of the sofa, covering himself with a blanket. He watches Dawn walking out of the room, leaving the door open ajar. It feels so good that she cares about him. He closes his eyes and concentrates on the sounds that come from the tattoo studio. The buzzing of the needles, the talking of two men man and Dawns laugh calm Harry down a little bit.

When Dawn has finished work, she makes Harry some hot tea and hands him a mug. Then she sits down next to him. "Okay honey, what's bothering you?"

Harry sits down cross legged, holding the mug in both of his hands. "It's Louis," he answers with his head down. He feels the tears pooling in his eyes and it's hard for him to hold them back so he just lets them run down his cheeks. He sobs and wipes his eyes. Dawn caresses his arm gently and runs her fingers through his hair in a gentle gesture.

"What did he do to you?" she asks, leaning back.

"I haven't talked about this to anyone," Harry admits, looking at Dawn. "I feel quite stupid now, I don't know."

"There's no need to feel stupid, at all," she assures him.

Harry sighs and snuffles. Dawn gets up and hands him a pack of tissues. Harry smiles at her. "Thank you," he says and blows his nose, then exhales audibly and rubs his face. "You know . . . um . . . all I want is to . . . to be friends with him but . . . I think it's not what he wants." The boy takes a sip of his tea and wipes his eyes again. "He ignores my messages . . . but then he suddenly wants to meet me but . . . um . . . then he would ignore me again. Whenever we have a normal conversation I think like that's cool but . . . something bad happens every time," he says sadly, letting out another sob and more tears stream down his face because the memories come back to his mind.

"What are bad things?" Dawn wants to know, her voice soft and calm.

It feels so good that she's listening. "It's like . . . I text him but he doesn't text back. Same when he texts me and I answer. Nothing happens. He comes to my room just like that and humiliates me and makes me feel small, unwanted, I don't know why . . . It's like he's pulling but when I'm there, nothing happens," Harry explains. "I even wrote him a letter where I explained everything to him but then I . . . I didn't give it to him because I thought his reaction would be . . . mean again, I thought he would make jokes about me and humiliate me in front of others so I . . . I didn't give it to him but . . . when he came to me he took it while I wasn't paying attention," Harry sobs. "I know he read it but . . . I'm afraid that he has shown this letter to his friends because . . . because he came to me a few hours ago and wanted to have lunch with me so we went to the park and sat down to eat." Harry takes a deep breath to calm down because just the thought of what happened recently upsets him again. He rubs his face and blows his nose again. He can feel tears running down his cheeks again. "And while we were sitting in the park, his friends came and humiliated me but Louis didn't do anything about it," he cries. "He just laughed at me, he just laughed." Harry's voice breaks at the end as he bursts out in tears completely. "They pulled my hair, my shirt, said mean things to me and called me a baby," he continues crying, his hands pressed in front of his face. "The worst . . . thing . . . was . . . that . . . Louis . . . saw it and . . . did nothing, absolutely nothing to . . .to defend me," Harry sobs and cries heavily. He can't talk anymore because his feelings are just overwhelming him. He's completely beside himself as he collapses into Dawns arms, shaking and trembling from the pain that's burning in his heart.