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Hide & Seek (Larry Stylinson AU)

Chapter 28

Love is pain. I will not surrender to it.

*LOUIS' POV*


"I was thinking we should just......go somewhere." I make a wide gesture that is inclusive of everything surrounding us with my left hand in an elliptical movement.

"Oh yeah? Like where?" Harry asks, his unseen lips pressed against the back of my neck where the forest of my hair met my nape.

His legs carry more muscle than mine do - unfairly natural coincidence, I say - and I have been transformed into an over-heated sandwich-man within a matter of two minutes. He seems to be enjoying this moment so who am I do disturb his piece of tranquility?

I stare at the size difference of our feet, his are long and pale while mine could be fitted twice into his outline, if I squeezed my foot a little. "I'm free for the next few days so......maybe a road trip? I really don't want to spend my time here constantly...worried."

He nods in understanding with his nose nudging my jaw. "Anything you want."

"We can go to Atlanta."

He shakes his head immediately. "We can't. Your dad's there."

Oh yes. I frown and mentally curse my stupidity. My father still doesn't know about Harry, and I can't let him be seen by too many familiar faces. It truly, deeply and eternally sucked that we had to hide. Well, Harry did but I'm in this too now.

At that moment my phone rings and while I battle with the covers, Harry sits contentedly back against the sofa. When I retrieve the buzzing device, I'm sprawled across the mattress with my arms hanging off the side. "Hello?"

"Hey, Boo." Roger's mischevious tone smokes its way through the connection.

"You can fuck off if you're gonna call me that."

"Okay, okay. Sorry. I have a favour to ask."

By now Harry's secured my ribcage in his arms and his dragging me back to him.

"Ask." I bite my lip nervously. What does he want?

"I have this delivery to make and I can't do it."

I groan in annoyance, a little whimper that could be downed as childish. "No. Why didn't you ask
Seth then?"

"I wanted to but he already knew and said no. Please, man? I'll owe you when you get back."

Harry is studying my face, his eyes darting to and catching every change. "Where is the delivery?"

"Folks. It's like......a three day trip going and coming."

I tuck my phone between my ear and shoulder before directing my attention to Harry. "Roger says there's a delivery to make and it's a long one. Up for it? It's a three day trip so it could be
fun."

Roger is chatting away causing tiny vibrations on my shoulder. I raise it to my ear briefly. "Shut up, Roger."

Harry chuckles before taking on a concentrated mode, his teeth biting down on the inside of his mouth and creating a crater in his cheek. "It will be fun. I don't mind."

"Did I mention you get extra pay for delivery?" Roger adds chirpily sensing he's about to close the deal.

"We'll do it." I say to the bobbing idiot on the phone.

"Great. Pick up the van at the store tomorrow at like.....two so you can be on the road early.
Thanks, mate."

"Sure." I smile though he can't see it. "But I don't know how to get to Folks."

"There's a map in the cubby. Get lost, call me. It's a big town so you'll like it."

"Alright then. See you in the morning." I yawn loudly.

"Oh I won't be there in the morning. You've got keys so there's no point."

"At least tell me what the package is."

"Black market stuff. You wouldn't understand."

I laugh against Harry's arm. "Tell me or I'll call the cops."

"It's just this huge-ass DIY order from this construction crew. They're building some shit and need our shit to do it."

"Ah. How big is the package?"

"It's about.......ten boxes or so. But all you gotta do is drive it there."

"In one of those lorries?"

"Nah. Standard SUV with our logo on it. Paul's too scared to get proper vehicles."

"Alright."

"Bye, mate. Thanks for this."

"No problem. Bye."

I hang up with a hand cupped over my mouth, smothering a yawn on it's escape route. The sound of exhaustion still gets out and Harry picks up on it a little too instantly for my lazy liking.
He slides down in the mattress, holding me to his chest that's hard and the skin is cold though also clammy from being against my skin for so long.

"Go to sleep." He kisses my forehead and I close my eyes for two whole seconds before they
split open again.

The TV is still on so I pay attention to the jittery antics of the manager's wife at Fawlty Towers. Basil is having a go at her because she is "stressing" him out; I know Basil to be as imcompotent as they come. My curled up position on Harry's front prevents him from seeing that I am still awake but my cover's blown when I laugh unexpectedly.

"Lou." Harry drags out the only syllable of my nickname, complaint full in his voice.

"Hmm?" I draw a very ugly swirl on his chest.

"Go. To. Sleep." He says soundly after another one of my fierce yawns.

"I'm not tired." I mumble, my eyelids finally feeling like lead caps.

"I know." He speaks softly in my ear. I love how he indulged my silly lies, only to flatten my argment afterwards. "But you still have to."

Suddenly he's shifting and dropping me to his side. My eyes fly open and I feel like someone's placed gritty tar on the inside of my lids. "Wha- Don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere." He kisses my shoulder.

He drapes his arms over my own and my chest, effectively caging me in his warm enbrace. Our knees are bent so that we fit like a puzzle, Harry's chin on my head. My body is temporarily squashed into and against his. I mumble into my pillow about wanting to be the big spoon.
"I know." Harry sounds tired too. "Next time."

***


"They're parked over here." I say, half-drained (or half full for all the optimists out there who are sleeping peacefully now at two thirty in the bloody morning) with my coffee cup in hand and Harry in tow clutching just a bottle of Nestlè water.

He said he didn't need to feel tired because sleep was a rarety with him anyway. The speech depressed me so I chose to lock it away in a vault deep down where it could be ignored.

"Which one?" Harry's eyes dance across the concrete floor. He wore a black jacket over a loose basketball T-shirt and blue jeans. His skin was too pale, with red lines from the pillow he'd divorced not thirty minutes ago, there were light blue bags under his eyes and the skin around his nails was rough.

"This one, I think." I walk up to the van closest to the exit. It's dark grey and the keys are hung up
on a rack.

I open the garage door while Harry dumps our bags in the back seat, so as not to corrupt the order of almost a dozen manila boxes that are taped shut and unmarked in the boot. I put my coffee in the cup-holder and rub my eyes with the balls of my palms while Harry climbs in next to me.

"You can sleep." I tell him. "Just put your seat back."

"I'm fine." He replies slowly.

"Alright. Can you get the map from the cubbie?"

He drops his water bottle between his legs before releasing the latch and out comes a detailed topographical map. He unfolds it and frowns studiously.

"Can you read it?" I ask, pulling onto the freeway.

"Yeah. It's past the H28."

That's one of the roads that this current one splits into, and drives through the middle of Bridgeville. It'll take us two hours to get there.

"Then we pass the R96 before getting into the N3. That's like......an estimated three hour drive and the N3 has no offramps."

"You lost me at H28, love. Let's get there first, get some breakfast then carry on." The rumbling in my tummy may still be faint, but it's there for me to enjoy.

"Want some water?" He holds up his bottle but I shake my head.

"How do you drink that?" He tastes some of my coffee only to give me a sour face.

"I hate it but that's what keeps me awake."

"That makes no logical sense."

"It's not the sense that matters, it's the ability to keep me awake."

He looks away as if to ponder on that for a while before it does make a short circuit complete in his mind and it all makes sense.

Ten minutes later he's fidgeting with the door handle, and it's only the activated central locking that keeps him from tumbling out and onto the street.

"What's wrong?" I ask to distract us both.

He shakes his head and doesn't look at me.

"Come on. No secrets."

He looks up at that, a curtain over the true emotion in his eyes. "It's nothing. I'm tired."

"I told you to put your seat back and rest while I drive."

He looks down at his hands. "You sure? You don't mind?"

"Of course not. You can sleep."

He smiles gratefully and jiggles the lever that will flatten his seat. Harry is an old soul, I conclude, but that makes him no wiser and not much of an open book. I grip my coffee and stare at the road, at the top of a slight hill where further down the sun is waking everybody up. I turn the heat up a little when Harry shifts, before settling back down.

Peculiar individual, he was. Never failed to steal my words or completely fool me. I always believed him, though I had reason to not. I guess he needs that, to be trusted like the sun trusts the moon to come out at night and keep the people happy. That's a bad analogy.
Harry's on the run, but he hasn't left my flat a lot. I wonder if he will one day. The idea makes my coffee tasteless and the sky a little dull. Sometimes I got glimpses of his helpless side, a vast contrast to his childish side. He would curl up closer to me or hug me tighter or ask for reassurance with his eyes. I adored his ability to keep me enraptured just with a few moments of staring.

His eyes were like him, dark and beautiful. The green was a jewel of a colour and I'm certain that no other human or alien has the same shade. He's just so tall, with no sounds made when he moves and skin so, so white. His eyes were also the most lively thing about him, they were the pops of intrigue when you reached his face. They carried every emotion he thought, felt, interpreted. They were cages of his wonderful imagination. Sometimes I wanted to just read everything from him, about him. Memorise every little detail until it became a part of me that nobody could steal.

But that's not how it worked. Not how he worked. He was a mystery, a beautiful one, and I'd have to slowly unwrap the folds of his secrets. Like an onion.
I blame my pathetic analogies and flawed comparisons on my lack of sleep. I don't dare turn on the radio because it could disturb a sleeping Harry next to me.
I slept fine for four hours last night but Harry, I knew he was restless for some reason. He also wanted to do something but my body was too glued onto his for him to do so. I was in and out of a drowsy state last night so I felt him finally relax an hour before we had to wake up.
I made sure to take my time doing everything before waking him up, not wanting to disturb the dark serenity around him. His arms protectively covered his face when he slept and so he had to settle for crushing me against his chest the most recent time.

He's now folded uncomfortably in that seat and my back hurts watching him. Then I realise I'm
supposed to be watching the road instead of him. Damn.

One more sip of coffee is what it takes for me to be awake at the wheel. I hold back from tapping and drumming my fingers on the nearest surfaces. Harry mumbles incoherencies in his sleep but doesn't wake up even when I pass the H28 and pull into a gas station/diner. I'm starving and I know he will be too. The next place like this is five hours away.

The map says I have the R96 to go through then the N3 - as Harry said - and the next food source is a good two hours into that trip. I thank Divine Providence I took time out to pee this morning before leaving. The SUV sits next to a gas hub with the windows rolled up and Harry sleeping soundly inside. I remember reading something about never doing that with babies.
I stand impatiently at the diner counter waiting for my order of two blueberry muffins, two teas and a bottle of water, two butter croissants, two double cheese burgers and a large helping of fries. The waitress could have used an entire page on her tiny notepad with that order and her surprised expression gives me the notion that there aren't many travellers who come this way.
With the two white paper bags clutched tightly in my hand, and a holder with the beverages I head back to the car. Harry is awake and looking pissed.

"You left me in the car?" He accuses hotly.

"You were asleep and I didn't want to wake you up."

"Why not?" The angry look in his eye disappears when he takes the food bags. "And what is this?"

"Burgers, fries, croissants, muffins, water and tea." I smile. My skin feels stretched and dry.

"Are you pregnant?"

That's the most outrageous thing I've heard him say and my eyes widen in such blatant shock.
"Don't think so considering I don't have a womb or a-"

"I know." He chuckles, retrieving a muffin. "Was just joking."

No need to state it. I roll my eyes and get back onto the road that now has people driving along with me.

"Why didn't you get coffee?" He asks, ripping open the muffin packet.

"Already have one." I gesture with my elbow to the cup taking up a spot on the holder capable of supporting four cups.

"They gave you cookies."

"Oh?"

"Look."

His baby voice when speaking the last word has me forgetting about dying on the road and turning to him. He's holding up a half-moon cookie that's plain and crowned with dusty crumbs.

"Pretty." I laugh.

"Here's yours." This is what I meant about his childish phase.

"You want me to eat it now?"

"It'll get smashed in here."

"Fine." I part the cushions of my lips, dry and chapped as they are, so he can pop the biscuit in
my mouth with a smile.

"Now chew."

"I was planning on choking at the wheel, Harold." I roll my eyes.

"I saw that." He puts the food down in the large armrest that holds various empty spaces for little things to be kept in.

"What's got you so happy?" I sip my coffee just wanting it to end. When it swirled from a jostle, it resembled a black hole.

"I had a dream." He breaks off tiny pieces of the muffin before playing a game of hoops and dropping them in his mouth.

"Really? You were only asleep for like three hours." I say rolling down both our windows only half of the way. "Was it a good dream?"

He nods with a wide enough smile.

"Now you have to tell me what happened."

"It's not important." His happy-go-lucky manner deteriorates and a solemn expression takes over.

"Haz?"

"Mm?"

"Tell me." I know if I don't coax him I won't get anything.

The loudest sigh I've ever heard comes next, even with the windows open and I swear I can hear crows.

"Well, remember how we were talking about children?"

I furrow my brows trying the remotely gather any memory. When did we talk about kids?
"Last night when you wouldn't let me hold the tissue for you."

"Oh. Yeah." Oh! Well that was more of a fleeting statement that was very true because I do not wear diapers and need someone to blow my nose.

"I had a dream we were still living in the flat and....there was a kid there. A baby boy."

Oh. I stare at the road ahead while he spoke and when he ended my gaze didn't shift or falter.

"It was stupid. I'm sorry." He mutters quickly as if to fix something before curling up in his seat and looking out the window.

A kid? Woah. "No. It's not stupid, Harry. It's a dream."

He smiles weakly at me before leaning against the headrest.

"Do you like kids?" I find myself asking.

He nods. "I used to be good with them."

"You still are. Have you seen how much Phoebe adores you? I think she'd prefer you as a big brother."

"Not true." He grins, obviously delighted at the conversation subject. "She loves you, definely more than me."

"Cook for her and that'll all change." I wink at him and he cackles loudly, head thrown back in such innocent laughter.

"Your cooking isn't as bad as you think."

"Oh yeah? You didn't even eat my food."

"I did. You didn't throw out the chicken in ham."

Oh shit. My face drains of all the colour it once had.

He just laughs harder at my pained expression, originating when he said that he'd actually eaten my food. I wasn't even there, so I must have been asleep.

"Lou, it was good. I like your cooking." He turns in his seat to have his long body curled and facing me.

I snort fakely. "That's good because I'd have just thrown myself out the window if I didn't get your seal of approval."

More laughter. It's an endearing sound with delicious undertones that sent tingles through everyone who was listening. "I wouldn't have let you."

"Can't stop me from all the way over there, Styles." I mock. "And don't you dare smash the food."

He leans over to kiss my cheek sweetly.

"What was that for?" I avoid looking at him so my blush remains unseen.

"For being you, and not hating me."

I loved this Harry, he was like a kitten that just wanted some loving attention. It's refreshing and a different take from all the strength and rage and horrific accidents. It felt normal and I wanted it to last forever.

Notes

Comments

@Suman98
Can you please MAKE another one I LOVE THIS STORY

Amazing. ...

That_Moment That_Moment
9/18/14

Amazing. ...

That_Moment That_Moment
9/18/14

Only on the prologue, but I love it so far.

@Suman98

Awe :) your welcome!
and...... oh my gosh yay!