You thought it was over. I made another one-shot for you all just because you're all so supportive and lovely about this book. It's pretty sad, but I promise it's overall touching and fluffy with a good ending. Comment 'Hey Angel' if you're freaking ready. Enjoy the extra chapter.
- Love, Lecree♡
☕
Harry walked down his home's steps with slow caution. He knew his father was here, and he knew he had been drinking the stuff that mommy drank when she got reckless, but he was thirsty, and he wanted a glass of water. Mommy only gave him pajamas that were meant for summer, so he was extremely cold.
He could see his father knocked out on the couch in the corner of the room, a beer bottle dangling from his hand. The boy sighed in relief that he was in this state, so this way, he could disappear into the kitchen, collect his water, and leave.
This visit was so unexpected. Harry's father never came until the spring. That's why Harry loved the winter so much. He only had to deal with his scary mother.
When his father came earlier, he heard the bellow of his voice before he saw him, and thus, did the routine of closing his door and stuffing a chair under the doorknob. His mother would let his father do whatever he wanted because she was just happy that he returned. Harry knew she'd blame him if his father came up to...Harry didn't even want to say it. He just didn't like Daddy's kisses.
When he made it to the kitchen, he was momentarily shaken to find it pitch black. The dark always frightened him. Even though he was 5 years old, he always told himself that he would have to be brave. He's about half-way to being a grown-up. Grown-ups aren't afraid of the dark.
The boy slowly took steps forward, until his eyes adjusted to the outline of what he thought was the refrigerador in the darkness. As he goes to grab at the handle, the figure jumps at him unexpectedly causing him to scream at the top of his lungs.
"I've got you, you little shit! Darren! I've got him! Wake up, baby, I have him here for you," says what Harry now knows as his mother. He begins to cry and shake out of the firm grip she has on his wrist.
"Mommy no!" he cries. She only tells him to shut up and continues to call out for his father. The man of Harry's worst nightmare instantly wakes up, looking around until his mother turns the light to the kitchen on, revealing them.
"Darren! I found him trying to get you more beer. I knew he was trying to take you from me! I knew he'd be down here, the little slut!"
Harry began to shake and pry his grip away, attempting to explain that he was just thirsty. He should have never left his room.
"Daddy's baby," the man smiles sadistically. "And your curls look so pretty and lovely."
Harry rapidly shakes his head, tears forming in his eyes. "I'm not Daddy's baby! I'm not! I'm not!"
"But you are a slut." His mother grinned and a dark shadow casted over her features.
"I'm not! I'm not a slut!" Harry didn't even know what that meant, but the way his mother said it with such hatred, he knew it couldn't be a good thing.
"Yes you are. You're Daddy's little slut. Now come give me a kiss, Harry." The boy almost gagged remembering the bitter taste his father carried on his tongue. "Now," he commanded.
Why won't anyone help him? Can't the nice neighbors who give him milk and cookies during the holidays save him? Or the people who pass he and his mom when they went to the supermarket?
Harry sobbed and shook, closing his eyes and asking, pleading for someone to help him. "Please help me. Please, please- Superman. Help me. Help me, Superman." He chanted the same phrase over and over again, until he could no longer smell Daddy's putrid breath, or feel the firm grip mother had on his wrist.
Where was anyone who could come to his rescue?
☕
When he opened his eyes again, there was darkness. Nothing but emptiness and pitch blackness.
The boy shook and screamed out for help. He didn't like the darkness and he didn't want to sit in it. Not again. He didn't want to be swallowed whole by lonliness ever again. He sobbed harder.
"Harry," a voice calls out to him. "Honey what's wrong?"
The darkness fades instantly, and it's replaced by a luminous light clouding his peripheral vision. Then, he saw the most beautiful thing he could ever imagine. It was his husband.
"Louis?"
The man looks at him pitifully, bringing his hand up to caress the tears coming down Harry's cheeks. "Oh, Darling. Another nightmare?"
Harry tears up again, allowing Louis to bring him into his chest.
"It was so bad this time," he cried. "I could feel everything that was happening to me."
Louis kissed his head and murmured that everything was OK. That Louis had him and he'd never let anyone hurt him.
"I'm sorry, baby. I wish I could make these nightmares go away forever. But there isn't much I can do to help. Maybe we should see that professional again."
"Every psychiatrist expects too much of me on my first visit. I don't just open up to anyone," he whispers sadly. "I can't. I don't have the strength to look another person in the eye and tell them all that my father did to me and tried to do with me. I'm sorry."
Louis understands completely. "And you don't have to. I just don't know what to do."
Harry lifts his head to look in the direction of Harry's favorite nightlight. It was suppose to serve a purpose, and that was to make Harry feel more comfortable if and when he woke up at all hours of the night in a frenzy. Louis can't seem to reach his husband fast enough, let alone wake up in time to comfort Harry before he begins to panic.
"The bulb must have blew, love. I'm sorry. I'll get you a new nightlight."
"No! Please, don't leave me! He'll get me, and he'll touch me! She'll see to it!"
Harry slaps a hand over his mouth, embarrassed. He could be left alone for 3 minutes. He's not a child.
"Oh Hazza. OK, I won't, then. You can sleep in my arms tonight. And every other night if you want." Louis tilts his chin to place a soft kiss to his young husband's lips. He softly smooths his thumb over Harry's ear and it helps. Everything Louis does just helps.
Harry pulls away, distracted. "You shouldn't have too. This has been going on for so many years, but what if I need to go away on business and I have to be left alone one night in my hotel? Or- or you get upset with me and you go sleep on the couch so you don't have to deal with me? I just feel so silly when I wake you up every other night because I'm so afraid of what can't even hurt me anymore."
"That man that gave life to you may be locked away, but he obviously left you with scars that still haven't healed. We can work through this if we work together."
Harry released a shaky sigh. "This was the reason why Niall was there the night you came for me in my dorm back in University. I was so afraid of the dark, and that my mother would be in it, and she'd call me a slut and let my father....treat me like one," he sobs. "I'm so afraid, Louis. I'm 24 years old and I'm still afraid of the dark and my parents."
"Those aren't your parents, Haz." Louis tells him firmly. Mr. and Mrs. Horan are your true parents. Those were monsters that you lived in, and they've been hiding under your bed your whole life....excuse the expression."
Harry slumps. "I don't get nightmares as often as I use to, but it still haunts me, the memories I have of the people in my life who were suppose to love me, and didn't. I just don't understand why."
Louis rubs his husband's back gingerly. It seemed no matter how much older they got, or how much taller Harry became, they would still revert back to the days when they were kids and Harry would come running into Louis' arms when his 'parents' became too horrifying to deal with.
"They weren't well, that's why. Both of them were sick bastards, and I'm glad they're both behind bars to this day." It makes Louis feel heaps better that the system did away with those scums. But Louis made sure one of his old neighbors kept him up to date with their trials.
"Me too." Louis felt Harry relax beneath him, and that made him feel so much better. "I'm sorry I'm such a baby."
"But you're my baby, Haz. You don't have to be afraid of the dark, because I'm here to protect you. Always have, always will."
Harry smiles with wet eyes. Louis hooks his fingers under the boy's chin, wiping the stray tears away with his thumbs.
"I love you so much."
"I love you, too. More than anything. That's why we'll do whatever it takes to get through this. Together."
"Really?"
"Of course. I'll do anything for you, haven't you learned?" Louis asked with a roll of his eyes.
There's a quiet knock at the door, and Harry jumps at the sound, pulling the covers over himself. He feels relieved when he sees his 3 little boys coming in, from oldest to youngest.
"Papa, Daddy, are you OK?" asks the oldest one, Clemming."We heard you crying and screaming so we came to help."
The youngest two, Cody and Tavien, followed behind their older brother, rubbing their eyes. "Papa, what's wrong?" Cody whispers, his green eyes shining with interest.
"Nothing kids, I'm OK." His eyes land on the cuppa in Cody's hands.
The older frowns, scratching at his shaggy blonde hair. "You don't sound OK. We heard you crying all the way from our room." Clemming is only 10 years old, but he's always been wiser than his years.
Harry looks down miserably, receiving a supportive kiss on the head from his husband. It helped a little.
"It's OK to cry, Papa. I cry all the time!"
"That's because you're a crybaby, Cody" Tavien responds rolling his eyes. He's only a year older than Cody, but he always makes it the reason to look down on him like he's that much older and not a 7 year old.
"Am not!"
Louis puts on his parental voice. "Tavien," he warns. He warns him about his behavior more than he could say, so the two sometimes bumped heads. "Be nice to your brother."
"Right. Sorry, Dad. Anyway," the boy ushers back to Cody, "We made you some Hot Chocolate to make you feel better. It always helps." His dark skin blended in beautifully in the night, and it made his white teeth stand out more. Even with his strong attitude sometimes, Tavien was so handsome and very sweet, and Harry was so proud of him.
"Yeah, and I made it with lots of love," Cody chirps. "Like....this much!" he exclaims stretching his small arms out wide.
"And plenty of whipped cream," adds Clemming.
Harry tears up a little, making Clemming panic and run to his father. "Gosh Papa, I'm sorry. I- I wanted you to feel better so I helped them make it. You're always saying it's how you and Dad met."
The curly-haired father giggles with his laugh. "No, love, you did help make me feel better. Lots better. My boys know me so well." He pulls all of his sons into a big, crushing hug as Louis takes the mug from Cody and sneaks a sip.
"Daddy!" scolds the youngest son, giggling like the lovely little ginger he was. "I made that for Papa, not you."
"Louis Tomlinson! Come get in this hug this minute." Harry lightly slaps his leg with his free hand, emitting a giggle from all of the boys as well as Louis. He finally does get him into the hug, sniffling and proudly staring down at his family. "I love you all so much."
He receives a chorus of high-pitched 'we love you too's as well as kisses to his wet cheeks. He couldn't imagine life without his wonderful family.
Harry doesn't think he'd give them up for the world. Even if they weren't blood related, nor were all of them of the same ethnicity, they were his children through and through. He and Louis raised each of them, loved them, changed them, and made them into the strong-headed little boys they were today. If that wasn't parenting then Harry didn't know what was.
"It's way past your bedtimes, so let's try and get some sleep."
Harry drank some of the cup of hot chocolate, and Louis stole the rest. It was a damn good thing Harry loved him, otherwise, they would have threw hands years ago. Harry tells him as much.
Clemmings gets a kick out of that. "Papa, please never say that again."
Harry was tucked under Louis' arm on the left side while the kids were laid the farthest to the right. He normally had them sleep in the middle, but all the sons disagreed with that request.
"We gotta protect you from the monsters in the dark," convinced Tavien protectively. "Plus, Daddy has to hold you until you fall asleep. That works for me when I have nightmares, right Dad?"
"That's right, Tavien. I'm here to protect all my boys. That's what fathers do. That's what real fathers do."
The lazy smile that tugged at Harry's lips made Louis fond, holding him tighter. Cody was already almost asleep but he and the other boys had a silent agreement to wait until Harry fell asleep before he did. Loyal sons, all of them. But Louis didn't expect any less from Tomlinson boys.
"The cup of cocoa was delicious, boys. My compliments to the chef."
"It's the least we can do," Tavien smiles, wrapping up into the warm blanket.
"Yes, besides, without that drink, we wouldn't even be here in the first place."
Clemming shifts towards Tavien. "Did you pee before you came in here?"
The brown-skinned boy pouts, "Well....no."
"Go pee, before we all wake up to a flood."
Tavien sighs and gets up to go to the bathroom straight down the hall.
"Go with him," Harry tells the oldest of the bunch. "It's awfully dark down that corridor and I don't want him to be frightened and grow up still being afraid of the dark."
Harry knows they don't want to leave from the warm blanket, but he also wants his sons to always have memories to share together. He certainly wished he had a brother growing up to protect him, and he always wants them to have this bond, because they could face it in real life because of their differences. He hopes he never has to see a day like that.
After the boys returned, they ended up all falling fast asleep, Clemming the last of the kids. Louis made sure to brush Harry's hair with his nails until he was in the same state.
"Sometimes I'd wonder where I'd be if you hadn't stepped into my life," whispers Harry.
Louis hums. "Sometimes I wonder the same thing." He traced patterns along Harry's waist and kisses his head again.
"Will you sing me a song?"
Louis eyes grow wide. "You haven't asked me that in years." He grunts so he can turn towards Harry and wrap an arm around his waist. "What song do you want to hear?"
"The song I wrote for you when you graduated college," Harry whispers gently. "And we all sung it with Niall and Liam during your graduation."
Louis takes a deep breath. "Why don't you start us off? You're better with the opening."
The younger husband pouts, but agrees and clears his throat.
"If I could fly....."
☕
Harry's eyes were still scrunched close as his mother dug her nails into his skin.
"Yes you are, Harry."
No. No he wasn't.
"You're Daddy's little slut. Now come give me a kiss, Harry." The boy almost gagged remembering the bitter taste his father carried on his tongue. "Now," he commanded.
No. No he wouldn't.
"Please help me. Please, please- Superman. Help me. Help me, Superman." He chanted the same phrase over and over again, until he could no longer smell Daddy's putrid breath, or feel the same firm grip mother had on his wrist.
He couldn't escape.
Pay attention, I hope that you listen cause I let my guard down
Right now I'm completely defenseless
Harry hears a soft voice singing to him, comforting him.
"Take your hands off my boy."
Harry gasped as he was swooped up into a person's arms. He thrashed and cried, only for the person to hold his arms down and whisper that everything would be OK.
"Have no fear! Superman is here!"
Tears of happiness sprung in Harry's eyes as he saw what appeared to be, indeed, the superhero of his dreams. His brown hair was swooped at the tip, his muscles bulged from his suit in the colors of red and blue, and his eyes were crystal blue, carrying a hint of impressiveness that made Harry swoon.
It was his hero.
"You- you came? You're really here." Harry began to let his tears flow down freely as the hero placed him upright from his bridal style position.
"Of course I did," he said heroically. It's what I do."
For your eyes only, I show you my heart
For when you're lonely and forget who you are
The soft hum was still playing in his ear, and it made him want to cry with how melodic it sounded.
Harry's parents screamed and said some swear words Harry couldn't repeat. The hero glares at them, and he eyes them as the two run out the door.
Harry's afraid he's going to let them get away, but as Harry cowers behind Louis watching his parents run out the door, the nice men in blue uniforms that Superman instantly recognizes as Policemen grab them. His Mommy and Daddy struggle against the men, but it was no use, because the men take them down and carry them into the car.
"Where are they going?"
Louis kneels so he's at eye level with the younger boy. "A place where they can never hurt another angel ever again."
I'm missing half of me when we're apart
Now you know me, for your eyes only
For your eyes only
Harry hugged onto the boy who saved him from his parents. Superman held onto him just as tightly. He holds the little boy out at arm length. "Are you OK, Harry?"
"Yes," he nods with happy tears in his eyes. "I'm happy now that you're here Superman."
"As long as you're not hurt," he frowns, observing Harry's wrists. "I hope these scars heal one day."
I've got scars, even though they can't always be seen
And pain gets hard, but now you're here and I don't feel a thing
The boy smiles and reaches to link their hands together.
"What's your name? I feel like we've met before. Isn't that strange?"
The superhero walks outside with Harry, their hands still intertwined. "I'm Louis, and I'm here to take you away with me." The sun was just starting to come up, and Harry can't help but feel like he's been trapped in darkness until Louis managed to take him out of it. That house, with those memories.
As he stares up at the hero, he sees the sun cast over him to show how long his eyelashes are, and the sincerity in his smile. The eyes that hold so much faith to them, and he looks back at Harry like he's the most precious thing anyone has laid eyes on.
"Hey Louis," he asks. "Can you fly?" he asks looking down and twiddling his fingers.
"Nope," Louis laughs taking away one of Harry's hand and taking him to the sky. "We can fly."
"Where are we going?" the boy asks, taking one last look back at the house where all his stuff is kept.
"Far far away, and you'll never look back on those horrible memories ever again. You're safe with me, I promise."
It frightens Harry at first, as he feels the chill of the dark early morning, and he didn't know he had the ability to fly. He flew over trees and houses, and it seemed the only people that existed were he and his hero. It was beautiful and serene, unlike anything Harry has ever seen before.
When he looks at the glowing face of Louis pulling him towards the brighter sunrise, he feels something he's sure he's never felt before.
Love.
I can feel your heart inside of mine
Harry sings the second part, because it sounds so familiar. "I feel it. I feel it."
"What was that?" asks Louis, looking back at him, then a look of registration comes over him. "You know our song?"
Harry doesn't understand what that means, and yet he does. "Yes. Our song."
Louis carries them faster across the sky, and it feels so strange and mystical flying through the air while holding hands with the person you love. The boy sings along to the music playing all around him, the words coming from his heart.
For your eyes only, I show you my heart
For when you're lonely and forget who you are
I'm missing half of me when we're apart
Now you know me, for your eyes only
Louis sings the last line with him.
For your eyes only
☕
"Daddy, it's past time for Papa to wake up," Cody tells Louis as he stares down at his father resting peacefully in bed. "I'm hungry and you don't make good pancakes like he does."
The father picks his youngest son up, staring down at his sleeping husband, who was smiling in his sleep. "Sorry, bud, but I think we should let your Papa sleep in today." He could hear Clemming and Tavien fighting about a toy in the other room, and he knew Harry wouldn't be up for that when he's only just woke up.
It was a silly thought, but Louis thinks it was the hot chocolate that helped him sleep soundly. He trly believed it's saved them all their life. It was what brought them to each other.
"But what if the SYL calls in for him to go to Mulan like Papa's been talking about?" the boy questions.
"It's YSL, it stands for Yves Saint Laurent, sweetheart. And it's Milan, a city in Italy." Louis chirps at his little boy. "And if they do ring, he can call them back when he wakes up. For now, Papa needs a break."
He smiles at the man fondly. Louis hasn't seen Harry this peaceful in so long. "Perhaps he's found the light at the end of the tunnel."
"What's that mean?"
"It's like when you solve a problem that's been heavy on your mind," Louis supplies. "And I think something's finally helped him conquer the monsters invading his nightmares."
The boy smiles at his father. "Maybe it's you, Daddy. Maybe you're his light. Like his nightlight that blew out last night. You helped him feel safe even though the bulb braked," he squeaks.
It takes a few seconds for Louis to process what his on just said to him, but then he's looking down at Harry again with adoration for his beautiful husband.
"You're right," Harry murmurs, causing Louis to jump and move back, wondering if Harry was sleep-talking or answering Cody's hypothesis. Harry's been a wake for a few minutes, but his eyes have stayed closed to give the impression that he's still asleep.
Harry stays asleep to leave it up to Louis to figure out if he was talking about him or not.
He definitely was.
☕
I wanted to give you all a little extra just to quench your thirst for Hot Chocolate (see what I did there). I also wanted a little more fluff to give you guys to just symbolize how much Larry means to one another. There's been a lot of doubt lately with everything that's happened and it's just nice to have Larry Stylinson in general. I may add oneeee more part, just because I have another idea, but we'll see.
Please, if you liked it, let me know. It's over 4k but I know I made some mistakes in this. If you see any, politely point it out to me. Hope you guys enjoyed this surprise extra, and as sad as it may be, it's also touching and I'm proud of that. Love you, thanks for the support.
-Lecree♡