I quietly shut the door behind me, making sure I hadn't roused Harry from his sleep. I spun around to be met with a pair of blue eyes harsh on mine.
"Is he okay?" Niall questioned frantically.
"He's getting there. He's sleeping, so I think you should talk to him in the morning."
Harry had fallen into a prolonged slumber after I had gotten him out of the bathroom, calling Niall in to help me. He was confused, as I assumed he would be, but he put it aside and aided in carrying him to his bedroom. I dressed him afterwards, him mumbling a thank you. With heavy eyelids and a gentle hand on my wrist as I sat on the bed beside him, he asked me to lay with him. I obliged, Niall seeing that as an indicator to leave.
I tucked my head in the crook of his neck, arm lazily slinging around his torso as he held my back. I pressed light kisses to his neck as I whispered sweet nothings into his ear. He groggily discoursed that he barely slept since we separated. I peppered kisses along the bone of his shoulder, telling him to just sleep as I tenderly squeezed his frame.
His eyelids fell shut, his arm cradling me closer. It wasn’t until now that I was able to pry myself from his side.
“What he did do, Ella?”
I inhaled cavernously through my nose. I hadn’t exactly come to terms on how to go about the situation.
“He tried to suffocate himself,” I sighed.
Niall’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What? Why would he do that? H-How does that even work?”
“He assumed he lost everything, everyone, so there was no point anymore. But thank God we got here in time, because if he was in there any longer, he wouldn’t have suffocated, he would’ve burned from the heat of the water. I guess the steam was too much and he fainted.”
“How do you know this?” Lana chimed in from behind him.
“My brother tried it once when he was twelve,” I said casually. “It didn’t work. He ended up losing a good part of skin off of his arm, though.”
Four heads nodded simultaneously in understanding.
“I’m gonna stay here with him. Make sure he’s okay.”
“Right. Call me if anything happens, yeah?” Niall voiced, pulling me in for a genuine hug.
I nodded. “Thank you. For everything,” I exhaled into his shoulder before he drew away, giving a sympathetic smile that I reciprocated, disappearing down the hall and downstairs.
“Call any of us, if you need to,” Jenny offered.
“Will do,” I grinned. They all enticed me in prolonged hugs, each giving a gentle squeeze of reassurance. I was soon left alone in the hallway, eyes falling closed for a moment to compose myself.
I turned to open the door, immediately being met with dull pools of emerald.
“Hi,” Harry drowsily greeted.
“Hi,” I grinned.
“I just said goodbye to everyone.”
“Are they okay?”
I shuffled over to the bed, settling myself on the vacant duvet adjacent to him. He peered up at me through his eyelashes that stuck together. “Niall’s a bit shaken up, and my friends are confused, but overall, everyone’s okay.”
He nodded, attention drifting away. A thick blanket of silence covered us for a few moments, and I assumed he had went back to sleep. I felt an arm envelop my body, his head coming to rest on my abdomen. My hand immediately went to his mop of still damp hair, twisting the ringlets between my fingers.
