To You || l.s.

08.

    "Where did you die?"

    It's 5 o'clock in the morning and Harry can't fall back to sleep and Louis never sleeps so they're laying side by side with their fingertips touching but Harry can't feel it.

    "The city. New York City, to be exact. Smack dab in the middle."

    "How did it happen?"

    Louis was silent for a few minutes, and Harry had to look over to make sure he was still there. "You don't have to tell me."

    Louis shook his head. "It was my 21st birthday and I was drunk out of my mind. It was almost 2 in the morning and I was walking home through some alley."

    The room was silent and Harry's breath was laboured as he watched Louis stare up at the ceiling.

    "I walked through the alley and found this guy, and I had seen him around before. A drug dealer. Some guy had him held up at gunpoint, and I think my gravestone should have had ‘Heroic Drunk’ carved on it because I tried snatching the gun from him, and ended up getting shot.”

    Harry is looking at Louis who isn’t looking back at him and quietly asks, “where did you get shot?”

     He points to his abdomen, on the left side. “Got hit in my left renal artery, bled out within minutes.”

    Taking the chance, Harry hovers his fingers over the spot and places his hand down on it, breathing out in relief that he can touch him again. “You were so young.” He’s quiet and his voice is shaking and he rests his head on Louis’ chest.

    “Can we talk about something else?” Louis’ voice sounds strained.

    “Of course,” Harry is quick to answer. “How does this whole ‘you being dead’ and ‘me having sex with a ghost’ thing work?”

    Louis chuckles. “When your soulmate dies, before you get to meet them, they’re still there. With you and around you and you can’t see them. They protect you as best as possible, without physically doing so. I was one of the few lucky ones, who found ways to be able to connect with our soulmate physically. I had been trying since two years after my death, Harry.”

    “That was three years ago, then. That was when I first started to date Andy.”

    “There was something off about him from the start. And when you found out, you couldn’t get away. I knew I had to find some way to help you.”

    Harry is quiet and Louis places his palm over Harry’s chest, feels his heart thumping. “I love you.”

    “Say it again.” His voice isn’t even an octave higher than a whisper, like he’s scared. “Please, say it again.”

    “I love you.” Louis cups his cheeks in the palms of his hands. “I love you, Harry.”

    And in that moment, Harry thinks that those words are the only ones that he ever wants to hear again.