A Touch of Cinnamon ✓

t w e n t y - e i g h t | the shot heard around the world

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HS

"So, where is he?" Liam asks, the two sitting across one another at a coffee shoppe they found while on their run, and had decided to stop in for a drink.

"Said he was meeting a friend or something. I don't know, something feels off. Like, wrong. I just don't know what. I have this nagging feeling in my gut that just won't quit," Harry sips his tea, the steam curling in front of his eyes as he watches it.

"What do you think is wrong?" Liam's eyebrows are furrowed, remembering the talk he had with Niall a few days ago when everyone was over to their flat. He saw the love in Niall's eyes, so he can't even begin to imagine that Niall may be cheating on Harry, or thinking about leaving him. He knows Niall would never do that.

He knows that, right?

"That's the thing, I'm not even sure something is wrong!" Harry exclaims. He's frustrated and worried, and the anxiety that seems to have permanently settled into his stomach when Niall left their flat early in the morning has yet to go away, "I trust him, I really do. He isn't Logan, nor is he anything like Logan. But something...something doesn't feel right."

Liam knows what Harry means and, just like Harry, he has no idea what could possibly be wrong.

"Have you been okay? You've been off lately and haven't said anything," Harry is a little surprised at the sudden switch of topics, but knows Liam has been worried about him.

"Sad, mostly. With this whole Charlotte thing. Haven't heard from her since it happened. The only information we get is through Lilly, and she only ever texts Niall. I know the baby wasn't mine, but he felt like mine. I felt like I was lucky enough to be a father even though I wasn't," Liam nods sadly, having guessed Harry had been feeling something of the sort, "And before all that, I had been having these night terrors."

This is the first Liam has heard of any night terrors.

"What? What about?"

"Niall, mainly."

"Like, him leaving you or cheating on you?"

"No, not that. More like, of him on the streets. Like, when he was younger. I keep having these nightmares about people touching him and hurting him and using him, and every time I have one I throw up. The thought makes me ill, Li. I can't imagine him being used and hurt in that way, but it happened. He has been used and hurt in that way, and there's nothing I can do about it. I know it happened before I even knew him and he knew me, but it still hurts to know.

"I see him, small and scared and in clothes that are uncomfortably revealing, standing on the streets and waiting for some grimy, disgusting old man to pull him into a car, or down an alley, or into a hotel room, and force him to get down on his knees or climb onto a bed. It's haunting me, Liam," Liam doesn't really know what to say to that.

"Does he know about them? Have you told him?" Harry's head falls in shame.

"No," He practically whimpers, Liam's head falling to the side in disappointment.

"Harry," He scolds, "You can't keep something like this bottled up. You have to tell him so you two can work through it."

"I know, I know! But every time I think to talk to him, I get nauseous and it's hard to breathe and I don't want to cause him any more pain because he's been through so much already. I can't be the one to put my problems on his shoulders because he doesn't need to be dealing with them. He has his own. He's been so sad and scared for months because of Damon and then, all of a sudden, he's back to normal.