A Pirate's Tale [Larry Stylinson]

3 - Rest

Louis' eyes slowly opened as he felt water cascading down his face, until the droplets would drip onto a wooden surface. His eyes had to adjust for a short period of time before he could see what was going on.

A woman was leaning over him. Her arm seemingly holding something to Louis' forehead. He had never seen her before.
,,Oi, he's awake." Another voice called out.
The woman immediately looked down to see Louis' eyes barely open enough to count it as being awake. Yet, he was alive, which was most likely what the voice from the void wanted to imply.
,,Oh." The woman mouthed, smiling down at Louis, who was more than confused.
Where was he? Who was she? And most importantly why was there another voice from the void. Was he imagining things now? Oh no, did he die?

,,Hey, do you wanna try and sit up maybe?" The woman asked, as she took away her arm.
She was apparently holding a cold washcloth to Louis' forehead, which explained the dropping water.
Louis couldn't respond. He was just waking up from whatever feverish dream he had been having.
Nonetheless, he tried sitting up, and it worked with the help of the woman who was most likely a nurse. Louis couldn't tell.
He was handed some water afterwards which he gladly excepted cause his mouth was dry like four days old bread.

,,You already look a bit better. Not as pale anymore." The woman smiled. Her voice sounded really soft and comforting.
,,Where am I?" Louis asked, rather raspy and small sounding.
,,You're dead, mate. Welcome to heaven." The voice said.
Louis turned his head aside, to see a young boy squad on a table to his left. He looked so very young. 18 maybe.
,,I don't believe you." Louis replied, taking another sip of his water.
,,Why not?"
,,I would be in hell if I were dead."
Louis took the last sip from his glass. The boy chuckled a little before getting off of the table.
,,A'right imma go tell the captain that sleeping beauty has decided to wake up."
,,Ah, fuck you." Louis mouthed at the boy's rude words.
The lad disappeared and Louis was left alone with the nurse.

,,Listen. I saw some pretty bad bruises on your body and I wanna see how bad they are, if you're ok with that."
,,Sure." Louis mumbled as he sat up straight to take off his blouse.
Both the nurse and Louis were surprised by the sight of Louis' upper body. Louis himself mostly 'cause Harry did in fact cause pretty terrible looking bruises and the nurse because Louis looked like skin and bones. Every rib was basically visible and his waist was below average size. It was probably possible for someone to wrap their arms around him twice.

,,Oh dear. When was the last time you ate something?"
,,Uuhm I don't know. I had an apple this morning."
,,I mean more of like your last proper meal."
,,Oh! ehm. I'm not sure. Two maybe three weeks ago."
,,You're kidding."
,,I'm not unfortunately."
,,When did you sleep last. Like properly sleep through an entire night?" The nurse asked. She already had a suspicion to what might have happened.
,,I haven't slept properly in years, ma'am." Louis admitted.
,,No wonder then. You passed out from exhaustion. You need to eat and rest. How do you even manage to go for weeks without food?" The woman wondered out loud.
,,Not hungry I guess."
The nurse just hummed as she started examining the bruises on his upper body.
,,Oh dear boy. Styles must really hold a grudge against you."

Wait. Did she not know? Was that even possible? As a normal person surely. That wasn't uncommon. But as a part of Harry's crew, it surly was unlikely that Louis' name had never come up before. Even if it was just Harry cursing him out or something. But maybe it was better to keep her unaware.
,,He does." Louis sighed.
The nurse got up again to get a bandage to tie it around Louis' arm, which, by the looks of it, suffered the most. Pretty much his entire upper body had black and blue bruises, but his arm was definitely the worst. It had dried blood on it and multiple little cuts. Maybe from the gravel on the ground. Pretty horrible sight.

A knock on the door caught the attention of both the nurse and Louis, followed by the boy coming back into the room.
,,Oi, Styles wants me to bring 'im up."
,,Alright, just a second." The woman answered as she finished up the bandage.
Childish to say, but Louis truly felt a little better now. He enjoyed being cared for for once.

,,Alright. Remember my words. Eat and rest."
,,I don't think Styles would let 'im eat up the resources." The boy pointed out.
,,Well, then it is your job to sneak some food past him or are you too much of a chicken for that?"
,,No one calls me a chicken" the boy exhaled dramatically, puffing up his chest in the process.
,,Well, follow this 'loud mouth'." The nurse said, as she helped Louis back into his slightly blood stained blouse.
Louis nodded and got off the table he had been laying on.
,,Thank you very much." Louis said kindly as he went out the door with the young boy.
,,My pleasure, dear." She smiled back. Then the door closed.

The boy led Louis up from under deck to the captain's quarters.
Louis' heart started to beat heavily again, as the two approached the door Louis had stood in front of so many times before.

,,So what grudge is the captain holding against ya?" The boy suddenly asked with the most quiet voice. It sounded almost muted.
,,What?"
,,C'mon. You must have done something to upset the captain."
Louis hummed. Here he was, getting reminded of the worst thing he had ever done. The thing he still felt guilty about three years later. He hated it. It haunted him everywhere he went.
,,Not that important, kiddo." Louis just ruffled through his hair.
,,Argh. Stop it!" The boy squeaked, trying to reorganize his hair, after Louis was done messing it up.
,,Anyways." The boy said, knocking on the door.
,,Yes." Was the only thing heard, before the boy pushed his way into the room. Louis went in after him.

Everything still looked the same. The desk, the maps, the lights. Countless journals spread all across every surface and half burned down candles atop the table. It felt a little like coming home. Or at least like coming back to somewhere familiar.
Harry's eyes were focused on Louis, who didn't notice, because he was looking around in awe.
,,He needs to eat and rest. 'is all." The boy said quickly.
,,Yea, sure." Harry send him away with a quick hand gesture. The boy obeyed and headed for the door once again.

,,Good luck, mate." The boy smiled sympathetically.
,,Chicken." Was the only thing Louis mouthed back, before the boy left with his chest puffed up. Just like he had done before.
The door closed, leaving Louis and Harry alone to themselves.

,,Already made a friend?" Harry asked amused, as he got up from behind his desk to walk over to his guest. Louis knew he was playing. He knew Harry loved to toy with his victims. But that didn't change the fact that Louis was truly terrified this time. After all, he was the victim. He didn't know what Styles would have in store for him next.
,,Maybe your crew is already on their way to find you."
,,I don't think th-" he got cut off by another kick in the stomach. The same place where Harry had hit the first time.

Louis tumbled to the ground in pain as he clenched his arms around his stomach. He could have sworn he would have passed out again.
,,Don't talk back!"
Louis was breathing heavily. It felt like Harry had crushed a part of his lungs.
Not long, and Louis felt new pain as Harry dragged his head up by grabbing his hair and pulling it up, forcing their eyes to meet.
,,Listen here. You will be sitting quietly in the corner. No word. No sound. If I should feel in any way disturbed by you, you will have a knife stuck in your chest. Clear?" Harry let go of Louis' head.
,,And till your crew comes along and picks you up for a pretty big amount of gold, you will stay in the corner. Understood?"
Louis nodded. He knew his crew would never come, simply because it didn't exist anymore, but he didn't want to take another hit or kick from Harry, so he just went along with it and stayed quiet.
,,Good. But I'm still gonna tie your hands up."
Harry got a rope from the desk and tightly wrapped it around Louis' wrists.
He even got a piece of cloth to tie it around Louis' mouth.
,,Alright. Don't make a sound." Harry commanded to Louis, who was still laying on the floor in agony. Harry went back to his desk and continued working as if nothing had happened. He pretended like there was no Louis on the floor in front of him, tied up and wounded.

This was surely not how Louis had pictured his reunion with Harry, but it was a possibility he had thought about in the past, so all of this came with little surprise. He just hadn't planned on being muted. He actually thought he could talk to Harry. Apologize and try to explain everything.
He also wanted to ask so many questions.
Did he ever get the note Louis left him? Surely he still had the dagger but did he ever find the note?

Louis ruffed himself up again and crawled over to the corner by the door just to let himself slouch. His back against the wall. His face turned towards Harry, who was sitting there, working. Not paying any attention to him. Almost like Louis didn't exist.