When Harry stepped with a huge smile on his face out of the main door of the prison, he didn’t walk into the arms of a giant welcoming committee. He had deliberately chosen not to tell anyone but Louis that he was being released on bail; if he turned up at his mum’s house completely out of the blue, he knew she would be thrilled. Besides, he had other things he wanted to do for his first few hours of freedom that didn’t involve hugging every member of his family that his mother could contact. So as he moved out into the sunlight with a suitcase clasped in his hand, he looked straight into the face of the only person he had needed to be there. They both grinned at each other, and then Harry ran forwards in a blur and leapt on Louis, jumping into his arms as if they were in some kind of cheesy movie. Catching him, Louis twirled him round several times in the air, then unceremoniously plonked him back down again and gave him a huge, unrestrained kiss on the lips right there in the middle of the street.
Smiling, Harry pulled away first, but he made no move to disentangle himself from the arms that Louis had wrapped firmly around his waist. One hand was busy with a suitcase, but the other found its way to the small of Louis’ back and started stroking gently, as Harry watched him with a sparkling light in his green eyes. In full view of the prison, they perhaps shouldn’t have been embracing so blatantly, but excitement had sent Louis giddy, and honestly, he couldn’t have cared less. In any case, Harry wasn’t in the prison at that current moment, so Louis wasn’t his psychiatrist any more. The thought made Louis bite his lip and then hug Harry hard, burying his face in his shoulder as he thought about how strange it was to be holding Harry when they were outside, and not in a shadowy office. The prison had a yard, of course, but they hadn’t exactly been able to stand and cuddle in front of a few hundred other people.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Louis whispered. “You’re a free man…for now, at least.”
With the tip of one finger, Harry touched Louis’ lips, then lightly traced the shape of them, a fiercely tender expression on his face. They were still wound around each other, Louis’ arms keeping Harry in place beside him; their eyes had met and were shining with happiness as they stared in amazement at each other, like they could hardly believe that this was happening. For Harry, certainly, it was true. He hadn’t been in the outside world without being chained to a prison guard since he was sixteen, and the fact that he was there with Louis only made the moment more special. His fingers found their way into Louis’ hair, and his nose buried itself in Louis’ shoulder as he inhaled deeply, trying to subdue his wild emotions that were telling him to start crying. For the strangest reason, which he couldn’t quite understand, he was shaking.
“Hey,” said Louis gently, pulling back a little, “are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Harry mumbled, rubbing his eyes, “just a bit…I don’t know, it’s a lot to take in.”
“Don’t cry, beautiful,” Louis begged. “We’re here…and together…that’s more than either of us could have hoped for.”
“I’m only crying because I’m so happy,” promised Harry with a wobbly smile, fluffing Louis’ hair up at the back. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”
In response, Louis kissed his tears away, and then kissed him again until they both forgot where they were, and only an angry beep of a horn as a car nearly smashed straight into them jerked them out of their reverie as they stumbled out of the middle of the road. Their eyes met again, and they started laughing.
“Come on,” Louis said amusedly, “let’s get you into the car, before we both end up as road-kill.”
“How very romantic of you to say so. I have to say I’m disappointed. No violins or roses? I’d have expected you to push the boat out a little,” Harry teased.
“Roses? Good God, you must be joking! I don’t get paid an awful lot for being a psychiatrist, you know. I’m not made of money.” Louis grinned.
He guided Harry over to the Porsche and opened the door for him, and Harry happily slipped inside, handing over his suitcase. As Louis loaded Harry’s things into the back of the car, he couldn’t help bouncing up and down slightly with anticipation. Taking Harry home…something he’d scarcely dared dream about before. His legs were trembling as he got into the front seat, and he squeezed Harry’s hand for reassurance that nothing was going to melt away. Reassured, he turned the key in the ignition and started to drive them down the road, wondering if it was possible to explode with joy, and whether he would make much of a mess when he did it.
“Did you get the movies?” Harry asked.
“Of course I did. Oh, and they were doing a discount on popcorn at the supermarket, so I picked up maybe a few more bags than were strictly necessary…still, you’ve got, what, a month? I’m sure we can finish twelve bags of popcorn in a month…”
“Oh, God. We’ll have popcorn coming out of our ears!”
“Probably. Don’t worry, we’ll borrow someone’s dog. There’s a guy on my road with a really fat Daschund – I’ll get him to bring it over, and it can eat all the leftovers.”
“What?” Harry burst out laughing. “Louis, you’re absolutely mad!”
“Quite possibly,” Louis cheerfully agreed. “But it’s a good plan.”
“Do Daschunds like popcorn?”
“That one does. Trust me, it eats anything. It’s morbidly obese.”
Shaking his head with his lips pressed together in amusement, Harry looked out of the window and tried not to grab Louis and kiss him once again. Now that they had the chance, not kissing when there was plenty of opportunity seemed kind of wasteful – but uncertain that Louis could drive and snog at the same time, he decided that it would be a better idea to avert his gaze.
“By the way, don’t be offended by my flat. It’s not the tidiest of places.”
“I’m sure I’ll live. You don’t have a hairy Brazilian flat-mate that you forgot to mention to me, do you?”
“The last time I checked, the only thing I shared my flat with was a very large spider called Brian.”
“Who calls a spider Brian?”
“I did. I thought it looked like a Brian.”
“Once again: you’re mad. But that’s why I love you…although I don’t really like spiders.”
“Well it’s a good thing I’m going to evict him for not paying his rent, then, isn’t it?” Louis said instantly, trying not to laugh. “I hope your dislike for him won’t stop you from attending his funeral.”
“You’re going to squish him?”
“If you want me to.”
“You’d squish your spider for me? I…I’m getting quite emotional.”
“So you should. This wasn’t an easy decision. I was getting quite used to the little guy…but yes, for you, I will squish him and flush his mangled body down the toilet.”
“How romantic. For me you would crush a spider. This makes me feel so special.”
“For you, Harry, I would crush ten thousand spiders.” With a huge, idiotic grin, Louis swiftly pulled out of the car park, hoping that he wouldn’t ever have to live up to that promise. Truthfully, he wasn’t all too keen on spiders himself, and the idea of crushing even one made him feel ill – he’d only left it so long because he’d been afraid to touch it so he could get rid of it. Still…for Harry, he would kill Brian the spider, and keep his girly squeals of disgust to a minimum.
* * * * * *
When Louis neatly parked the Porsche in the car-park, and they got out of the car to look up at the block of flats towering above them, the first thing Harry did was to stop and take several deep breaths of fresh air and look around at the place where Louis lived. Never before had he seen this side to Louis, the life he had beyond the prison walls…been told about it, yes, but he had never experienced it for himself. Yet there he was, looking at Louis’ home, the wind playing with his curls.
Louis took a step closer to him, and put an arm around his waist. Then he leaned in, pressed his lips to Harry’s ear, and whispered “Welcome home.”
Harry very nearly whirled around and kissed him until they both fell to the ground. He came dangerously close to ripping Louis’ clothes off and doing all manner of things that should not be done in public. Luckily, throughout the course of their relationship, his self-restraint had become quite an impressive thing – so he managed to sigh softly and leave it at that, knowing that just that sigh was enough to tell Louis everything he was thinking just then.
Together they headed up to the top floor, where Louis’ flat was, Louis striding ahead despite having Harry’s suitcase to weigh him down because he was used to the climb, while Harry huffed helplessly behind him. When they reached Louis’ door, he reached for his keys and then froze…because his front door was already open, swinging slightly on its hinges, showing a tiny sliver of the room beyond. Panting heavily, Harry caught him up, and they both paused to look at the ajar front door of Louis’ flat.
“Crime rates must be pretty low in this area if you can leave your front door wide open like that,” Harry commented.
Louis said in a low voice, “I didn’t.”
He reached out and grabbed Harry’s wrist for reassurance – then the two of them stepped forwards as Louis pushed his door and they moved cautiously into the flat.
There was someone stood in the middle of Louis’ kitchen; someone shorter than him, but not by much, with glossy chestnut hair and a familiar stance. Louis knew exactly who it was, and he paused, dropping Harry’s hand, because he was instantly anxious about what she might say. Advancing a few steps closer into the kitchen, he cleared his throat and said softly, “Mum?”
Jay turned around, beaming. “Lou! I’m sorry for letting myself in like this, I was just –” spotting Harry, who was stood quietly a few steps behind Louis, she stopped dead.
At first, Louis stood and looked at her for a while. He hesitated a moment before realizing that he had no reason to try to hide anything. He wasn’t ashamed of Harry, and he refused to act like it. Reaching behind him, he took Harry’s hand and pulled him a little closer, so that Harry’s warmth was pressed comfortingly against his back and Louis could lean against him a little for support.
“This is Harry,” Louis said. “He’s my –” he paused. What was Harry, exactly? ‘My true love’? ‘My best friend’? ‘My fiancé’? Harry was all of those things and more – and although ‘fiancé’ seemed the most accurate out of all of them, he had never actually asked Harry to marry him. It was taken for granted between them that they would get married, someday, and Louis knew that as far as they were concerned, they were engaged, but he was fairly sure it wasn’t considered official until he had put a ring on Harry’s finger – so he ended up saying inadequately, “He’s my boyfriend.” The words weren’t enough, but Harry would understand.
The second the words left his mouth, he knew that Jay wasn’t going to accept it. Her whole face turned harder than stone, her eyes suddenly dark and cold, and Louis understood that this wasn’t going to go well at all. It was unspoken between the two of them, as they stared each other down, that they would start yelling at each other in a matter of seconds – and Louis didn’t want Harry caught up in that. He would only try to help, but that could make things so much worse.
Without turning around, he said gently “Harry, could you give us a moment?”
“Sure,” Harry agreed anxiously, trying to disentangle his fingers from Louis’.
Before Harry could move any further away from him, Louis twisted around and caught his face in both hands, holding him still. He brushed their lips faintly together in the ghost of a kiss, hoping that Harry would understand what he couldn’t say. Where their mouths touched, he felt flames leaping between them – and his mother’s scorching glare burning his back. Sighing, Louis withdrew far too soon for his liking.
“I won’t be long,” he promised. “Wait for me?”
Nodding seriously, Harry gave one last worried glance over Louis’ shoulder at Jay, then swallowed and vanished into Louis’ bedroom. Taking a deep breath, Louis slowly turned to face his angry mother, and her stinging accusations immediately hit him like a slap in the face.
“How could you?”
Suddenly exhausted, Louis sighed wearily and massaged his forehead. Not that he would have admitted it, but he’d never really caught up on his sleep since Harry had first been carted off to Whitehall, and his excitement over the idea of Harry getting bail had given him a good few more sleepless nights since then. He wasn’t in the mood for some verbal sparring with his mum. Still, he would defend Harry to the death – melodramatic, but true – so he mentally shook himself and prepared for the yelling.
“Quite easily, mother,” he said tiredly. “I fell in love with him, he fell in love with me…it’s as simple asthat.” He clicked his fingers.
Jay twitched in irritation: he only ever called her ‘mother’ when he was being patronizing. “You can’t possibly be in love with a man like that.”
“I obviously am, though. So he made a mistake – a terrible mistake. When are people going to stop condemning him for that? He’s a human being! He deserves to be given a chance!”
“He’s not a human being; he’s a murderer. He deserves nothing.”
“He’s still a human being! You don’t have the right to talk about him like that. He’s funny and clever and gorgeous – more than a match for me. We’re so alike, it’s unbelievable. He’s perfect for me, mum. He’s everything I could have ever asked for.”
“He’s a monster!” Jay hissed.
Louis imagined Harry’s face twisting in misery when he heard that, and he was suddenly furious.
“I’m in love with that ‘monster’,” he snapped, “and I think he’s far less monstrous than you are right now. If you’re going to be horrible, I think you should leave.”
“You’ll never see your sisters again!” she threatened. “I’ll not have them associating with people like him. If you want to stay in contact with them, Louis, then I swear, you throw that man out right now. Otherwise, you might as well forget that you ever had siblings!”
The look on Louis’ face was terrible – cold and hard. “If that’s what you want, then fine. I hope you’ll tell the girls goodbye from me.”
Jay’s head jerked like he’d slapped her. “I’ll tell them nothing! Only the truth – that you cared more about some violent, murdering stranger than your own sisters!”
“Harry is everything to me,” Louis said simply. “More than my own life. I’d give anything and everything for him – even my family, if it comes to that.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Don’t tell me what I do or don’t mean. I’d do anything for Harry; don’t you think I wouldn’t.”
“Louis Tomlinson, you listen to me! I don’t want you tearing our family apart for some terrible man you don’t even know, no matter how much you think you love him. So I want you to go in there and throw that monster out of your house, do you understand me?”
There was a long and awful silence.
“You’re sure that’s what you want?” asked Louis eventually.
She folded her arms. “Yes, I am.”
Louis took a deep breath, walked straight past her – then firmly planted his hands on her shoulders and steered her towards the door.
“What on earth are you doing?” she cried.
“I’m throwing the monster out of my house,” said Louis expressionlessly.
“Louis!”
Ignoring her protests, he pushed her over the threshold, then slammed the door in her face. Seconds later, he was locking it and sliding the bolts home, blocking her out.
Harry came bursting out of the bedroom. “Louis, what –” stopping in confusion, he looked around. “Where’s your mum?”
“Gone,” Louis said blankly, reaching onto the kitchen counter for the spare key she had left there.
In shock, Harry asked “Gone? Gone where?”
“Gone from our lives,” Louis said as calmly as he could.
“But –”
Taking Harry’s hand, Louis pressed the keys firmly into Harry’s palm and folded his fingers around them so that he had a grip on them.
“These are yours now.”
“But Louis –”
“If she decides to be reasonable, I’ll cut her a new set,” promised Louis. “But for now…those are yours. That’s my promise: it’s you and me, over everything else. If people don’t like you, then they don’t like me either. We’ll lock everyone out who isn’t willing to accept you.”
“Oh, Louis. I didn’t want you to fight with your family because of me.”
“It wasn’t your fault. She was the one who was being unreasonable, not you. You’ve been great.” Louis rubbed his back comfortingly. “Things will be okay, Harry. I promise. Everything will be fine.”
“Yeah…” Harry sighed heavily.
“Hey,” Louis murmured, lowering his lips to Harry’s neck. “Don’t. Just…don’t. Forget about her, okay? She’s my problem, not yours.”
“Okay,” was Harry’s eventual reply.
“That’s settled then,” whispered Louis. “Now…you may have had a five-minute glance, but…I think maybe you could do with a more…thorough look at our bedroom. How does that sound to you?”
Harry grinned as Louis grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the bedroom. “I thought you’d never ask.”