Impulse

Chapter Twenty-Five

Louis wasbreathless after his crying, his head thumping and stomach growling.

 "Food, petal? Are you hungry, baby?" Edward checks, needing to bend his knees so he could lookLouis in the eye.

Louis' too weak to nod now so Edward decides to feed him anyway, and hurriedly picks the boy upinto his arms and let Louis fall limp in them as he carried him downstairs. The boy was barelymanaging to keep his head up, falling into unconsciousness as his body betrays him. 

"Stay here, petal." Edward said more to himself than Louis as he set the frail boy down on thecouch. "Can you chew, baby?"

 "N-N-N-" Louis tried. He wanted to get better for this new reason.

 Edward left Louis alone in the living room while he raced to fix one of the water bottles with theweakest form of a high protein cereal. It had a nozzle to make swallowing easier for the boy withoutchoking him. He mixed the cereal with cold milk and shook it up in the bottle before returning tohis petal. 

"Open your mouth, petal." He said gently but firmly.

 Louis parted his paper dry lips with a strangled moan and took the nozzle of the bottle in betweenthem. He choked on the first try but there was enough to try again. Edward held his head upsupportively and whispered in his ear about how good he's being.Maybe it was the mangy placebo effect but Edward felt like Louis was physically getting betteralready. His eyes were able to open fully and his coughs were more alive, drier and made a hoarsewheezing noise on each out-take. Edward was uncaring towards such things and fitted himselfbehind Louis' pulling him up between his legs and just holding him. 

"God, petal." He pressed his face into Louis' neck and wrapped his body around the boy.

 Louis held him back, his fingers around Edward' bicep as he released fresh tears on his sensitiveskin and and wiped them on a shirt that wasn't his. His body shivered with each sob and Edward'sface was moulded to a steady frown, clinging to the boy because what if this is a dream? He won'tstand for it. He closes his eyes and takes in everything Louis surrounds him with.

 "E-Edw-Edward." Louis said against the tides of clattering from his teeth. 

"Shh." Edward brought his bent knee up under Louis' body, the boy's thighs resting over his femurand their feet aligned even though Edward's legs were bent while Louis' weren't. "Shh, don't talk." 

"I-I-I lo-love you t-t-too." Louis didn't let him ignore it, and smiled for a small skip of Edward'sheartbeat.

 "Fuck." Edward plasters himself to Louis and has never felt so full of belonging once before. "Fuck.Fuck. Fuck, petal." 

Louis knew it was a happy string of swear words and found it in him to fall asleep, but it was not aneasy process with flashing images of reddened wallpaper and headless rodents.

* * * * *

Harry hears his brother's confession of love he feels like smashing something connected tohis body into a wall. He wants it to hurt on the outside as much as it hurts on the inside. His nailsscrape the wall and uneven paint dents get under his nails, aiding him in his rise and escape route.He knows they don't even notice him as he barges out into the hallway, filled with emotions hewished he could banish along with all his efforts to rule Louis' heart.

 He tries.

 He really does, but maybe he isn't doing it right like Edward is? Was? Louis is soimportant to him and he wanted to have a revelation too but it wasn't coming. It wasn't in his heartthat he loved Louis yet.

 Where he finds himself is outside Crawlers nightclub giving the bouncer a hundred bucks withoutmaking a flinch and going in ahead of the queue. He had to pass up his hurt and remorse withalcohol, maybe more but mainly alcohol.Harry didn't understand himself well enough yet to know that the state of his mind is nowhere nearas stable as Edward's and love will come harder to him.