Endure and Survive | Larry Stylinson

chapter five

FALL

"Oh... well, when I was a kid I used to want to be a ... a singer." -Joel

"Gemma told me something about some building." Louis says, his hands fisting at the bottom of Harry's shirt to keep him steady on the horse. It hurts on the arse, but saddles aren't present back at Gemma's.

"I know." Harry says, kicking at the horse's mane to make him go faster. Gemma gave him the particular one they met earlier, Callus. "Tell me if you find a building that has something like a giant mirror."

"Okay." Louis presses his forehead against Harry's shoulder. The latter doesn't brush him off, just tilts his head subtly to the side to brush his lips towards Louis' temple softly.

"This university is really large." Louis comments as Harry stops the horse by the entrance to have a look. It's indeed large and it looks very old, obviously. Louis wonders how they work, how people normally study in here and if it's similar to what their schools look now.

"Of course, yeah." Harry shrugs, jostling Louis slightly, "Go Red Bulls."

"Did you play football back then? Or any sports?"

"Is combat training counts as a sport?" Harry asks, making the horse go around a large trash bin before climbing up a short flight of staircase. On the wall, a banner with a red bull is pinned to it, although the paper is torn into different places.

Louis shrugs, "I think, but everyone does it so it doesn't count."

"Well, I don't know." Harry hums, "I haven't been in a university, a normal university that is."

"Even like .. in your free time when you were a kid?" Louis looks around. It's obvious that fall has started already. The leaves have a red-brown color to them and most of them are falling to the ground. It's beautiful, and it's gotten quite chilly. Louis loves Autumn, but he somehow hates Winter because it's double the struggle against the cold and survival.

"No." Harry purses his lips, slowing the horse down, "I suppose I was quite a bit of a... closed-off kid, always stuck in my own mind and dreaming."

"I used to play football." Louis beams with a large grin, "My father taught me, and I would always play with the other kids around school. It was fun."

"I saw people playing, yeah." Harry wills himself to walk on memory lane, "I would look out the window and see kids running around and chasing a ball."

Louis snorts, "Hey," He hits Harry's side playfully, "It's more than just 'running around and chasing a ball'."

"Basically, it is."

"You have no childhood."

"Where is anyone's childhood?"

"Oh come on." Louis pouts, pressing his puckered lips on Harry's shoulder, "Stop being like that. We should really enjoy this time while we still have Callus."

"I quite like this horse, too." Harry hummed.

"Yeah." Louis giggled, "I want to own him forever."

"You can." Harry gulped, "You can own him, just stay here and-"

"Oh honey." Louis breathed out, soft and sweet. The gallops of the horses make them bounce a little and the wind pushes their hair backwards slightly.

"Honey." Harry slows the horse down, just pausing slightly to search the buildings nearby, "Is that a thing for us now?"

"It just slipped out." Louis hums as he tightens his grip around Harry before he pulls away slightly to look around for that mirror building.

Harry smiles, but it goes unnoticed by Louis. He continues to go around the building to find the central grounds. He's completely lost, but if he managed to go around different towns with a dangerous group of people, he can find his way to where the Fireflies are.