story: seven minutes
part: eleven // livid
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After nearly an hour of waiting to make sure Louis' food was settled, they let him into Harry's room. His supper wasn't something that would normally be very filling-it bread chunks in warm milk-but he felt filled to the brim after only about three-fourths of the bowl. But they promised him that if he kept his food down the medicine would work faster and he could be moved into Harry's room in thirty minutes. And he needed to speak to Harry immediately.
So here he is, in Harry's room, his eyes closed as his soulie twiddles his hair.
They didn't say a word when Louis got here, they both just collapsed into each other like they've known each other for years. That's what the soulie bond makes you feel like though. Louis has to restrain himself from cuddling into Harry, he figures it's too soon, but Harry can't even try to fight his soulie bond, he's holding Louis so tight to him that the smaller boy is finding it hard to breath.
"How is Jesy?," Louis asks after a while. He can fell Harry's chest expands on his back as he sighs. Louis moves his head to face the older man and sees that his eyes are closed. He takes that as his chance to look over Harry's face. Like he's seen before, Harry looks so young when he's in a vulnerable state. His face and body-like Louis'-is littered with little tiny, raw holes. The doctor came in to re-clean them before they took him to Harry. He explained that the holes are craters from the impact from debris; rocks, explosives, human bone. Louis shudders and caves in a little, tucking his head under Harry's chin.
"You'll have to see her for yourself... It's... she's not looking too good, babe... She'll live, but...," Louis hushes him by putting a hand on his chest and he gets the message, clamming it. He starts twiddling Louis' hair again and Louis closes his eyes. He barely has them shut for twenty seconds before the darkness takes form. He can see the gore of hundreds of people raining down on him, explicitly the clothed foot that landed beside his head. At the speed it was going, it could have crushed Louis' nose, maybe even his skull. "You get used to it," Harry says, he can feel Louis' breath pick up from his panic.
"What?," Louis chokes, swallowing deeply, his eyes open.
Harry strokes the shell of his ear a few times, humming to him gently. "The gore... I would say you get used to the feeling of the loss, but you don't. It goes with you, but it'll make you stronger," he says quietly, keeping up the soothing pace in Louis' hair. The smaller boy sighs as a few wet streaks crawl down his cheeks. He doesn't want to 'get used to' the gore. He doesn't want to deal with the loss, he wants to go home. "Go to sleep, love. We've got an early morning tomorrow," Harry whispers and Louis nods, he closes his eyes when Harry turn the side lamp off. He still sees it.
+
"-Murs and his guys are the ones that found us, yes. Yes... I've got Lloyd and her people investigating. I do not understand how anybody found the Bunker, much less plated a bomb in the ground of it! Yes, figure it out. No. Yes... okay. Do it and report back to me," Harry says, signing his and Louis' discharge papers, along with their prescriptions. He hangs up with no farewell and puts his-new-phone back into his pants. Michael brought Harry and Louis the clothes and Harry a new phone early this morning. Anything glass broke during the explosion. Except the watchers, of course, they're indestructible. Louis looks down at the wrist garment. 70 more years... But Louis knows how quickly that could change. He blinks in surprise when he looks up to see Harry, Michael, and the doctor all looking at him.
"What?," he blushes, Harry smiles at him.
"I asked if your ankle was feeling okay. Your arm?," the doctor says, putting his clipboard with the release papers down. Louis blink his eyes again and nods, looking down at his bandaged arm. "That's good, that's good. I expect you to make a speedy recovery. Now be careful with that ankle, it's going to take a few weeks to heal. I think it might've been injured before the explosion, and that just shattered it?," he assumes and Louis shudders at the word 'shattered'. It sounds so grotesque. He nods anyways and the man picks his clipboard back up, checking through it one last time. "Okay. I've got you some salves in here that should have your arm fixed within three weeks. But the skin will be broken very easily, you've lost so many layers. What happened with the electricity, if I'm allowed to ask. I saw the lightning shape," he says and Harry stiffens.
Louis smiles at the doctor. "I got into an accident a few days ago... almost a week. Maybe over a week...," he says and the doctor nods, handing Harry the antibiotic list. He, in turn, hands it to Michael, who leaves automatically for the pharmacy on the other side of the room. "Where are we going?," Louis asks Harry as he starts wheeling him out of the hospital, the automatic doors opening so they can get to the wheelchair ramp. Harry waits until they're out of the hospital and away from everybody else to speak.
"We're leaving Europe. I've got a safe house in America that we're going to stay in for a while," Harry says and Louis' heart drops a little. They never even got to spend a single night in their declared home. "I'm going to meet with the leader of one of the calmer gangs, we're going to talk about merging and compensating our lands," he says, pushing Louis onto the gravel. He scowls one of his underlings off as they try to take Louis from him to push him. The man slinks back and opens the door instead, keeping his head hung. "Let me help you," Harry insists as Louis tries to left himself up with one good arm and one good leg. He yelps in surprise when he's completely picked up and his mouth clamps shut when he is put in his seat. "Buckle up, we'll be at the airport in just a few hours," Harry says, climbing over him and slumping in his own seat as the man climbs in. They wait for Michael to come with the medice and that only takes about five minutes-even though Harry was twitching the whole time.
"I've got a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce," he says, climbing into the shotgun seat, shutting his door behind him and buckling his seat belt as the man starts to back up. "Here," he says, handing the bags to Harry, who puts them in the floor. They drive in silence other than that. Not even the radio is humming, the only sound is the wheels going over the pavement and the occasional rock flying up. Louis catches misty eyes as they drive off, he didn't even get to say 'bye' to Jesy before they left. Nobody would tell him about her condition and he's still really tired. It's only about 7: 30 in the morning. Louis' eyes droop and open when Harry's arms are suddenly around his shoulders. He lets his head be pulled down and he closes his eyes automatically. Harry strokes his hair until he's lulled to sleep. "He's so tiny," Michael says after another 20 minutes of driving. Harry looks up at him and nods.
"But he's strong, unbelievably strong. I think he'll be okay," Harry says, yawning subtly.
"Do you think you'll love him?," Michael asks bluntly and Harry's yawn freezes in his mouth. His mouth clamps shut and Michael pales, figuring he's crossed a line, "Sir-"
"Yeah," Harry says, interrupting the flustered boy, "I think that'll be the easiest thing for me for a while"
The driving man doesn't say anything, he just keeps his eyes on the road with a small, crooked grin at that.
+
Louis smacks his lips when Harry picks him up, but he doesn't wake up. Harry sighs in relief and lets the driver lead them, Michael holding up the rear, not far behind. "We'll have to show them our passports," Harry whispers, looking over at Michael as he digs through his satchel, "You have them, right?" The blue haired boy nods and finally fins them in the large bag, holding them up for Harry to see. "Okay, I want him to wake up on his own, so let's keep this simple," Harry says, referring to the sleeping boy in his arms, holding him bridal style to his chest. He's very glad he is naturally bulky.
Both men nod and they start walking again. Harry has to watch his feet to keep from tripping over. "It's a good job we don't have any baggage-hey what are you doing?," Michael yelps and Louis' head bobs up in surprise. Harry spins them around and growls in anger seeing Michael on the ground, hiss nose bleeding. "What are you-," he starts, but he cuts himself off to lunge to the side as the man who drove them here suddenly sinks the ground in. The spot where they stood is so sunk in that he can't even see the bottom, only darkness. His eyes widen and he's so contorted with emotions and questions, mainly: what do I do with Louis. He does the only thing he can think of, he sets a groggy and confused Louis on his feet and does what he considers overwhelmingly dishonorable. He licks his lip and defies fire at him with a stone hard expression.
The man quickly makes a shield out of the ground, shoving it with the palms of his hands at the three of them. Harry bends his fingers and it explodes do much it rains down as dirt. The man snorts in surprise, he didn't know Harry Styles was a double bender. He backs up a bit as he takes a step in front of his soulie and friend. Blue electricity tickling up his fingers. They keep backing up and backing up until the man hit's a wall, his brown eyes blown in fear as Harry advances on him. He defies earth in earnest, encasing Harry's feet in it, but the man simply twitches his pinky and it falls back down. "Please-," he squeaks as Harry is right up on him, he can practically see the fire in his angry green eyes.
"Who are you working for?," Harry says with a clipped tone, the venom dripping off his word onto their shoes. He rises his hand threateningly and the man's eyes widen even more, his mouth pops opened.
"P-Poe," he says, and Louis flinches as Harry's hand clamps down on his forehead. The man's mouth opens in a silent scream as the electric currents explode over his face. His eyes start pouring blood, and the blue currents explode through his mouth. That only lasts for about fifteen seconds before he crumples to the ground.
"W-Why'd you kill him? He answered your question?," Louis hiccups, his whole body tense and on edge even though he was asleep no more than three minutes ago. "Harry-"
Harry quickly spins around and jogs over to his soulie, scooping him up again. Louis doesn't protest, he just wraps his legs around Harry's waist and arms around his neck to hold on as he grabs Michael by the hand, pulling him up effortlessly. "He'd have gone back and squealed on us, Lou.", he says, taking off at a run, "Okay, Mike, have the passports ready, we're going to load up as soon as we get here" Michael nods, trying to stop his massive nose bleed. It's probably broken. The get to security and all Harry says is his name and the attendants nod. Michael shows them the passports and the motion for them to follow with their hands.
"How can we trust them?," Louis whispers in Harry's ear, swaying from time to time. Harry chuckles at him and kisses his ear.
"Those are the people who worked with my dad, I think if anybody is loyal, it's them. We're okay now," Harry says, stepping through the door to the air lift off as the male attendant opens it for him.
"What if there's people waiting for us in America, Harry? They caught you at the airport the day I met you...," Louis points out, fear creeping up his spine at the foreshadowing thought.
Harry swallows and holds him tighter to his chest as they approach the helicopter they're going to use. It's choppers are already spinning, and Louis looks up to see what's causing the high speed wind. His mouth pops open in surprise. "That's a bridge we'll have to cross at the time," Harry whispers, setting Louis on the ground, keeping him close as the pilot waves them in quickly, aware of the urgency.