Don't Let Go

CHAPTER NINETEEN

July 6th 2018

It was errands day. A day that had become quite hard for Harry and quite exhausting for Louis, but had to happen nonetheless. They were going to get some groceries, and go to the car wash, but very first Harry was taking Louis to get some new clothes. He'd become too small for everything he owned, and all of his sweats hung very loosely on his small frame. He was down to roughly 43 kilos (95 pounds.) 

Wheeling Louis into the clothing shop, his heart was saddened at the lack of response Louis had to the new surroundings. Usually his eyes lit up with curiosity any time they went somewhere, but today his eyes were just empty as he stared straight ahead, confused, lost, and hardly there at all. 

Harry bent over and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and wheeled him over to the racks of sweatpants and sweatshirts. "okay boo, they've got red, yellow, black, white, blue, and green" he listed as if Louis understood. 

He held up the green pair for Louis to see, as usually Louis reacted to the color green. "Green baby.." he said softly, trying to get a reaction. 

But Louis, completely confused, just stared back him blankly. 

"We'll do the green then" Harry whispered, trying not to let it hurt him too much. He also grabbed a blue pair, a black one and a white one, hanging them on the back of Louis' wheelchair. "Alright, lets try these on." Harry said, looking around for an attendant. 

Quickly, an employee, clad in a simple button down shirt and black jeans approached them. "Hi, were you needing any assistance?" He smiled, licking his lips a little. Louis looked up at the man and frowned, it was the first expression he'd made all day. 

Harry didn't notice Louis' frown however, as he was focused on getting a room to help him try things on. "Yeah, could we get a fitting room? Preferably a bigger one?" 

"Oh sure of course" The man smiled, "I'm Nick by the way." He held his hand out for Harry to shake, which Harry thought was a bit odd for a store employee, but he smiled and shook it anyway, as Nick seemed pretty nice. 

"I'm Harry" Harry replied, then gestured to Louis "And this is Louis. He's my husband." 

Nick smiled down at Louis insincerely, immediately feeling jealous , as he found Harry quite attractive. He'd originally assumed Harry was a caretaker or something. "I see.... well hello Louis" He reached out his hand to Louis. 

Louis furrowed his eyebrows, and frowned deeper, then turned his head away. He didn't like this Nick. Louis had always been a good judge of character, and while he didn't really understand why he didn't like him, he knew that he didn't. 

Harry still couldn't see the frown on his husband's face, and thought he was just looking around and hadn't understood. "He has Alzheimer's" Harry explained quietly, "He wasn't trying to be rude or anything, he just doesn't really understand." 

"Oh well that's awful. I'm so sorry." Nick frowned, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "My aunt got that, and it was just a horrible disease." 

Of course, Nick didn't really care about Louis, but if he wanted to get Harry to date him after Louis passing, he'd have to pretend. 

"It is awful. He's the love of my life, and I have to watch him slip away day by day" Harry whispered, with tears in his eyes. 

Nick rubbed at his shoulder a bit. "I can hardly imagine how awful that must be, how much time does he have left?" He asked. 

"I'm not sure... he's nearing the end though. You can tell by the way he's becoming unresponsive." Harry responded, keeping his tone hushed. Even though Louis couldn't understand what they were saying, Harry hated talking about him like he wasn't even there.