25 Hours // l.s.

November 2

11 p.m.

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If you could see the town of Shesst from the top, you wouldn't see much. It's a small town that doesn't hold more than 2,000 people. There's one café, one Walmart, one bookstore, and two hospitals, one of which closed down sometime in the late 1900s. A large amount of the town is covered in grass and weeds and trees and wild animals. There also used to be a hotel, but it was torn down because they only had a resident once, in twenty years. That's the picture you would see in general, but if you zoomed in, you would see every tiny, wood based home with windows shut and doors quadruple locked, cars shut away in garages with lock and chains keeping them closed. The whole town would be under lockdown, except for those who choose to willingly play a part in the governments game. Those are who you'd call the Predators, the ones with doors locked and windows shut tight you'd call prey, and then you'd see the casual uneducated. And then you have Louis and Harry.

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And we could go beyond the stars, Leap and show them who we are, And soar, Soar, Forget the fear and just believe, Let go of everything right now and soar

Louis's favorite song booms through the car stereo and out into the open night through the windows. Warm, humid air is circulating his car and his voice mixes well with it. The song fades soon, and the next tune pouring out of the speakers is a funky beat, but Louis likes it, so he swivels his head every now and then.

No way not me what you've got, It's not for me, But you'll find a way, No way not me what you've got, It's not for me

Louis starts to really enjoy the song, and since there's basically no one out on the streets, which he finds really really weird, he takes his hands off the wheel and begins to dance crazily. What he doesn't know, though, is that there is one more person out on the street.

///

Harry's taking a jog. Yeah, eleven o'clock at night, right? Such a smart idea! But he's a big boy. He can take care of himself. He's got a mini-taser in his inner coat pocket, and a gun in the waistband near the small of his back, and it's not just because he's an investigator. He's pretty fit as well, and he's almost like, ten feet tall. So no one should mess with him.

So Harry's jogging, and he's like, wow, no one is outside right now. Like, no one. Like, not even the thugs or gangsters. There's been like two cars since I started jogging, which was an hour ago! But, eh, he doesn't really mind. The more silence the better.

Harry realizes though, that it is getting pretty late, it's already 11:15, and he's worked up quite a good bit of perspiration, so maybe he should take a shortcut and go home. But at the same time, he already took a shortcut didn't he?

Usually, he would start at his flat, then run down the hill and past the woods, then take a left and run down the short length of highway on the Western edge of the town, and then run back up and over the hill and into his flat. And yes, he's only been living in America a week and he's memorized his jogging path. What can he say, its part of the job. So he's already taken a shortcut so he wouldn't have to go through the woods, because he's not that stupid, and he would be cheating if he took two shortcuts wouldn't he? So he stops and runs in place, glancing both ways down the street before gazing to the right. Then being really stupid, he steps right out into the street.

///

So let me explain to you the situation. Louis doesn't have his hands on the wheel, and Harry didn't look both ways before crossing the street, and Louis isn't looking at the road either, and Harry thinks he should probably look the other way before he takes another step, and he does, and he almost gets killed, but then his investigation scene instincts kick in, and he jumps out of the way of the small Mini Cooper and its loud loud music. Right now, he's sitting on the ground with a painful butt wondering how he didn't hear the god-awful music.

///

Louis's jam session just ended, and now there's a small silence, and he wonders, oh my God, did I hit that giant man? That thing that looks like Bigfoot? Oh my God! I just hit Bigfoot! And so he's out of his seat in a heartbeat and scurrying around the front of his car, the headlights casting eery tunnels of light on the pale asphalt.

"Bigfoot?" Louis questions.

"You almost hit me!" Bigfoot yells back.

"Bigfoot can talk," Louis sighs, "woah."

"I'm not Bigfoot, you dimwit." Bigfoot grumbles. Louis takes several steps backward and points a finger.

"That's something Bigfoot would say," he accuses.

"That's something a human being accused of being Bigfoot would say!"

"What? I'm confused," Louis raises an eyebrow and drops his hand. The thing steps out into the light, and Louis sees that it really isn't Bigfoot. "Oh, so you really aren't Bigfoot," he sucks in air between his teeth, "my bad, sorry."

"For what? Calling me Bigfoot or nearly running me over?" The thing crosses its arms.

"I don't know. Well, nearly running you over, I guess. That ones a tiny but worse than calling you Bigfoot..." The thing guffaws. "So sorry, Bigfoot."

"Why are you still calling me Bigfoot? My name is Harry."

"Well, now I can call you Harry, Bigfoot," Louis smiles. Harry sighs.

"My butt hurts, thanks to you."

"Uh...I'm sorry? My name is Louis, by the way."

"You should be, and are you French?" Harry teases. "I don't know if I can walk all the way back home. It's like, a half a mile that way." Harry points past Louis's head. They stand there for a minute, and Harry still hasn't lowered his hand.

"Well I'm guessing you want me to give you a ride home?" Harry just blinks. "Well, I was actually going to grab a bite to eat at this diner right behind you, so I-"

"Oh sure, I'd love to join you!" Harry smiles and finally lowers his hand. He turns on his heels and begins to limp forward. "Ow, ow, I love, ow, thi- ow, diner ow. They have great, ow, that one hurt, great fries." Harry's halfway across the parking lot before Louis begins to follow him, completely confused.

///

Sitting in the empty diner, Louis and Harry have a better chance to look at each other. Louis sees the back of Harry's head right away and determines that his hair is very very curly and very very silky. He surges forward and maneuvers his way around the tables, and that's when Louis realizes just how tall Harry is. If Louis stands on the tips of his toes he just barely reaches Harry's cheekbones. So just standing normally, he only comes up to his mouth. When Louis takes his seat in the booth across from his, and Harry glances up at him from his slouched position, he sees green, a color of eyes he's never seen before, and he really isn't hungry anymore.

///

When Louis takes a seat across from Harry, Harry's eyes don't move much further down from his face because this view is totally, really, just, it's just great. He doesn't need to see much more to know that Louis is really, just, godly and he doesn't really care what Louis calls him, as long as its Harry's attention he wants.

A/N so I prolly shoulda uploaded this like right before Halloween but u know. nahh