me, him, and the moon ☾ l.s.

twenty seven - chaos

Even by the middle of the next week, Harry's exhaustion still clung to him. He had worked a few shifts at the infirmary, but he spent an excessive amount of time in bed, falling asleep early at night and not waking until late in the morning. Oddly enough, despite his fatigue, he tossed and turned restlessly most nights, drifting somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness.

He jumped when the infirmary door slammed open, his head snapping toward the sound. Louis had a concerned expression on his face as he crossed the room toward Harry, his brow creased with worry. Harry forced a smile, wondering how he could have forgotten that he promised to pick Harry up before dinner.

"Everything okay?" Louis fretted, wrapping his arms around the omega from behind and kissing his neck softly. "How's your head?"

"I'm okay. Just tired," Harry assured him, his eyelids drooping almost on cue. His sleepiness only got worse when Louis was around -- something about the presence of his alpha let him fall asleep just about anywhere.

Louis didn't seem convinced, but he dropped an affectionate kiss to the top of Harry's head, his lips lingering in the younger boy's curls. "Alright, sweetheart. The sooner we get to dinner, the sooner we can get you back into bed. The boys are waiting."

Harry quickly tidied his work space before taking Louis's hand and heading out of the infirmary. They made their way toward the main hall slowly, taking advantage of the few minutes they had to themselves. Louis chatted quietly about the military planning sessions that afternoon, keeping his voice low so that he didn't further agitate Harry's headache, and Harry let himself drown in the sweet timbre of the alpha's tone.

His head started pounding again as soon as they entered the hall, and Louis's grip on his waist tightened instinctively. "Liam looks angry," Harry commented casually as they made their way through the crowd toward their friends' table. The other alpha's eyebrows were knitted together in concentration, his hands moving aggressively as he spoke.

"He's nervous," Louis responded simply. "And he's inexperienced. He doesn't know that it's impossible to see everything that will go wrong before it actually happens."

The pack had decided to launch an offensive attack at the end of the week. A spy had gathered that the other packs were camped out together just outside of their borders, and as the smallest pack, the only chance they had was taking the bigger, stronger armies by surprise. A few groups of soldiers had already set out for the border, and Louis's squad was leaving the next morning.

Harry clung to his alpha's hand a bit tighter.

Louis squeezed Harry's hand as they sat down with their friends, whispering in his ear, "If your headache gets any worse, we'll leave. Just say the word."

Harry beamed, ridiculously pleased at how attuned Louis was to his needs. He ate quietly while the others went over plans, occasionally making a side comment to Niall. The conversation went on for what seemed like hours, but Harry didn't mind; the more time he had with Louis beside him, the better. He only wished that the older boy wasn't leaving in just a few short hours, and that he wasn't so, so stressed.

"No. No, no, no." Liam shook his head, staring intently down at the map that Zayn had laid in front of him. "We need at least fifty soldiers here" he punctuated his statement by tapping his index finger loudly against the paper "and less by the Northern border. We can't risk not having enough men on unfamiliar terrain."

Zayn nodded in agreement. "You're right. I should talk to one of the officers tomorrow."

"They aren't worried about that," Louis interjected, his blue eyes clouded over like the ocean during a storm. He pointed to the map, sliding his finger along the border of their territory. "The other packs know our weaknesses forward and backward. They've been attacking us for years now. If they mean to end this war, once and for all, they'll go for something different this time. Something we aren't expecting."