Chapter Text
February 1st, 2029
Louis wakes to curly hair in his face, nothing unusual. The bunker is dark, there’s no windows, and he can feel Harry’s soft breath on his neck. They’re on their side, facing each other, Harry’s head under his chin, his arms wrapped around him. After a bit of fondling, Louis tries to free himself from Harry’s sleepy, clingy body. Harry has always been clingy, says himself that he is afraid Louis will disappear any moment, but Louis doesn’t mind, he secretly loves it.
Today is Harry’s birthday. Louis has the day planned, it not much you can do in a small bunker underground, but he will try to make the most out of it.
He finally slips free from under Harry, watching him bury his face in Louis’ pillow and curling in on himself. He puts on a t-shirt, doesn’t bother with pants, his boxers will do. Harry loves cuddles, he says it’s one of his favourite activities, which makes Louis give a laugh every time, because is cuddling an activity? And Louis will never deny Harry some affection.
He lights a candle by the turntable that is on the dresser that has been here for years, probably belonging to the Stevens family. The light from the candle, helps him see the time on the clock beside the turntable, it’s 08.56 in the morning, earlier than when he usually wakes up. Louis lights a few more candles around the room, giving the bunker a soft orange glow.
He quietly moves around the small kitchen, attempting making breakfast for Harry, not Harry making breakfast for him for a change. The princess deserves to be treated like one. Breakfast is simple oatmeal that they eat every morning. Louis is tired of it, he knows Harry is too, but Louis really tried finding something special for breakfast for this day specifically for weeks now, with no luck. Almost all food items are expired and there is no milk or eggs. But Louis did find a few peanuts in an unopened package in a local store, in Leyland a week ago, just to spice up the breakfast.
It’s a miracle that Harry is still asleep because Louis is not really quiet. The gas stove is louder than usual, the spoon stirring the porridge is scraping against the metal boiler really loud, Louis is hissing at every sound. He finds a bowl, the prettiest one they’ve got, found in the kitchen upstairs, and pours some oatmeal in it. He also pours some in his own, accidently spilling some on the counter. He sprinkles on some of the sugar they found yesterday and a few of the nuts, plating it as perfect as possible. He finds two glasses and fills them with water. The counter is a mess, but Louis is proud of his creation.
Without turning the stove off, he finds a big casserole and fills it with water. He leaves it on the stove, letting it boil for later.
Louis places the bowls beside the mattress, before carefully creeping under the covers beside Harry. With his right elbow holding him up, he looks down at Harry, admiring his beauty. Dark, long eyelashes falling over his cheeks, lips red as roses, his head is resting on one of his hands, his mouth is slightly open. Louis reaches out with his left hand and caresses his cheek, moving a strain of hair behind his ear. He leans down, kisses his cheek, moving towards his ear, left hand now stroking his naked back, “Mornin baby. Its time to wake up now, yeah”.
Louis keeps kissing him everywhere he can reach, waiting for Harry’s eyelashes to flatter. When they do, he leans back to say, “Hey princess, happy birthday”.
Harry responds with a smile and a small, “mornin, Lou”, but the smile turns in to a giggle when Louis dives in his neck and starts nibbling and kissing. Its one of Louis’ favourite sounds in the whole world. He stays there a bit, enjoying Harry’s flowery smell, letting Harry do the same.
“You hungry? I made breakfast if you want?”. Harry just blinks at him.
“Ohno, you didn’t destroy the kitchen, did you? And you woke up before me? What creature are you and what have you done with my Louis??” Harry says with a smile and a quick glance towards the kitchen. 18 months ago, Harry would never say anything like that, and it warms Louis knowing he is healing from his past.
“You little…” Louis starts tickling him, taking revenge. Harry’s laughter is lovely as always, and he is trying to squirm away from Louis. Harry looks happy, Louis likes seeing him happy.
They eat they’re breakfast in bed, talking to each other, pretending to live normal lives, pretend the world isn’t fucked up. Harry loved the nut-surprise and said he didn’t feel like throwing up today, because of the little change in scenario. Louis gets up one time to fill the tub in the bathroom with the boiled water, before filling the casserole again, letting that one boil too. Louis planned a bath for them, they need it, really. They haven’t washed themselves thoroughly in two weeks, and that was in a river. The water was freezing and Louis was scared Harry would drop from the cold.
After breakfast, they’re comfortably seated in the tub in the small bathroom, Harry between Louis’ legs, back to front. Louis tried his best to make the room less… steel. The whole room is made of steel, the whole bunker is made of steel, but it’s not that bad with candles spread around and the turntable playing from the other room.
“This is nice. Thank you, Lou. You’re so good to me” Harry says with a cute yawn.
“Everything for the birthday princess” Louis buries his nose in the curls. “I thought you needed a bath anyway, you smell”.
“Heyy, that’s mean. And I’m not the one who wore the same shirt a whole month, I think you need this bath more than me” Harry says with a pout, arms crossed.
“Okay, okay, you’re right, no need to sass me so hard.” Louis says with a breathy laugh, “I love you”
Harry doesn’t respond right away, deep in thought. “Do you think my mum still loves me? Do you think she’s still alive?”, his voice is quiet and sad.
“She definitely still loves you, baby, if she is as amazing as you described. And I don’t know if she still is alive, but I do know she loves you either way, and to be honest, who wouldn’t love you? You’re the most kind-hearted person in the world”, pressing Harry close to his body, Louis can see the gears turning in Harry’s head.
“You’re so good to me, Lou. I never thought I would find a reason to live, until I met you. Thank you for saving me that day and for never giving up on me”, and Louis didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just pressed Harry impossibly closer and hoped he knew how important he is to him.
When they have wrinkly fingers and toes and when the water is no longer warm, they get up, Louis helping dry Harry with the only towel they own, which doesn’t really look like a towel anymore, it has more holes than fabric by now, and not been washed since they found it a year ago. The Stevens probably has some towels in their house, but they try to restrict themselves from taking stuff from the house, they want it to look untouched and they can’t risk sticking their smell all over the place.
“I have a gift for you, old man”, the look Harry gives him is a look between baffled and confused.
“Am I really that old? I’m sorry. You… you still want to be with me, right?” he says it with such big eyes looking at him from under his wet curls. Louis feels both anger and sadness, anger for the people who treated Harry unfairly and sadness for Harry, for the impact of other people’s actions. Louis gives him a sad smile.
“I want to be with you forever, baby. I promise, I love you so much my heart is almost beating out of my chest just thinking about you. And I was just kidding yeah, 19 is not old.” Louis rests his arms around his hips (ignoring their naked bodies), giving him a kiss on the cheek, watching Harry’s eyelashes flutter, a small smile appearing on his red lips. “And apart from the old man joke, a mentioned I had a birthday gift for you”.
“Really? What is it” the excitement is clear on his face, a smile still plastered on. Louis frees himself from the embrace, turns towards the cabinets and takes out the light pink giftbag with dark pink handles.
“You’ll just have to open it and see then, princess” he takes one of Harry’s hands in his and places the gift in his hand carefully, waiting anxiously for Harry’s reaction. It is silent as Harry inspect the little bag, turning it over in his shaking hands. Then he looks up, a heartwarming smile on his face.
“Thank you so much, Lou. I love it, the colour is so nice” and Louis really want to laugh, even tho it’s kinda sad that he thinks Louis would give him a paper bag for his birthday. But he’s so sweet, grateful for even the littlest of things that Louis really want to meet his mom and ask a few questions.
A little chuckle leaves his lips, “You’re welcome? But there is more to it though, if you open it at the top” and Louis helps him, pulling the top edges away from each other, revealing more inside. Harry lets out a little gasp, his shaking hands reaching inside the bag, reappearing with pink and blue nail polish. As he inspects them closely, Louis can’t take his eyes away from him, wants to lock Harry’s reactions inside his memories forever. Harry sets them on the counter before reaching inside the bag again, and Louis can see his eyes filling with tears under his curly looks. His hand reappears with the last two nail polishes and a lacy, white pantie with flowers. At that Harry finally looks up at Louis.
“I, I just… how did you know I wanted… I love it so much, Lou, thank you” Harry throws his arms around Louis, and Louis just hugs him back, swimming in the sweet smell of Harry. After a few minutes Harry leans away, gives him a kiss, and before Louis knows it, he is pushed out of the bathroom, facing the white door, which over the years becomes less white, because Harry keeps drawing on it with crayons when bored. He finds some boxers and lays down on the bed while he waits.
They never really leave the bunker, only once every two weeks to find food. There are some cases where they have to look for supplies in towns far away, then they have to find a secure place to stay the night, but they try not to do that because Louis gets so anxious that someone might find them.
Before he met Harry, Louis was barely in the bunker, always moving about the country, never staying in a place too long. But Harry is so precious to him, so he’d rather not take the risk. The last time he stayed outside the bunker for more than 2 days was a little over a year ago, during Harry’s heat.
Harry’s three first heats after he met Louis, he spent alone in the bunker, too frightened and uncomfortable with an alpha near him. So, Louis stayed close to the bunker, always having sight of the house, he didn’t sleep a wink neither of those times, knowing his omega was in heat and in potential danger made him always be on guard. The weird thing about Harry’s first heats, is that Louis’ rut never came during that time. Louis suspects that it might be because his alpha was more focused on keeping Harry safe and comfortable. But in Harry’s fourth heat, Louis’ rut came unexpected at the same time, and they ended up spending their cycles together. After spending their heat and rut together, Louis was so anxious if he had broken the trust he had built up with Harry since they met, but Harry said he had never felt as comfortable during a heat before than this one. After that, their heat and rut aligned, and on the sixth one they boned. It comes around five times a year, and it’s actually expected to come soon, it’s why they went on a supply run yesterday.
After about ten minutes, the drawing door opens and out comes his omega with pastel blue panties with white flowers and pastel blue nail polish adoring his delicate hands. He looks shy where he stands, feet pointing inwards, head bowed and hands clasped together. Louis is sure his jaw is touching the floor by now. He feels his dick twitch in interest, ignoring that he walks towards the beauty in front of him. His arms sneak around Harry’s waist and he buries his nose in his neck. “You look beautiful” he whispers.
And that tips Harry over the edge. As his arms clings tight around Louis’ neck, he sobs quietly, “You’re too good to me, Lou. How did I deserve you? What do you see in me?”, and Louis wants to protest, but he continues; “I love you so much, please don’t leave me, ever.”
“I’ll never leave you, baby, you’re my world. This relationship is not one sided, you do so much for me too. We contemplate each other. I need you as much as you need me” and if Louis sheds a tear too, no one has to know but Harry.
February 2nd, 2029
The next morning, Louis wakes up to rustling, and he can smell what’s going on before he opens his eyes, the flowery scent he has gotten to know. Harry is restlessly moving in his sleep, and as Louis takes a look around him, he suspects that Harry must’ve woken up during the night to make a nest for them. Louis hurriedly doublechecks that the door is locked before finding a “special towel-thing”, as they call it, to cover the ventilation in the corner above the kitchen, so that fresh air can come in, but their smell can’t come out. A clever invention that Louis has carried with him since military.
Then he prepares some water for them, that he sets beside the bed for easy access. He wets a rag that he brings over to Harry, who is laying on his tummy, breathing heavily, bum subconsciously raising in his sleep. As Louis gets closer, he can hear Harry whine, probably from the smell of his alpha nearing.
“Hey baby, roll over for me, yeah?”, he strokes Harry’s cheek with the back of his hand, hoping to carefully wake Harry from his sleep without making him upset. When he sees Harry’s lashes move, he rolls him carefully onto his back and lays the cold rag on his heated forehead. As they make eye-contact, Louis can see the discomfort and uneasiness in his eyes, the same as he can see every time before his heat. Harry doesn’t have any good experiences with heats in the past.
“Louis… ‘m hot” he whines. Louis wants to make it all better, can’t stand the sight of his omega in pain and discomfort. Harry has already lifted his shirt up to his armpits, nipples on full display, and Louis can’t say he’s not affected, rock hard in his boxers. “Lou, clothes… please”
“Yeah Yeah” is Louis’ reply, before taking the rag of his forehead. Using his right arm to support Harry’s back, he lifts the t-shirt over his head with Harry lying in his arms like a breathing ragdoll, back arching, which doesn’t help Louis problem at all. Louis can feel his rut approaching, it’s getting harder and harder to control himself. “You still with me, baby? I need to know if you’re 100 percent sure. You still want it?”
“Mhm” he nods. Louis gives him a sceptical look, as always, “I promise Lou, I trust you”. Harry is more restless now, getting impatient. Louis can smell the flowery scent of his slick and casts a look down between Harry’s legs, his pastel blue panties soaked. Louis rests his right hand over him, Harry trusting up in his hand, chasing the pleasure his omega needs. That’s how Louis knows Harry has given in to his omega. Harry’s whining is getting to Louis, getting him impossibly harder. Louis gives him a kiss, “please, alpha”. Louis gives in to his alpha, letting him take control, and everything goes black.
April 28th, 2027
21 months ago
Two years since the war began. Two years since Louis survived the attack at Dover. Two years since Louis decided to work alone, decided he didn’t want more people’s blood on his hands.
Two years since he last saw his sister. Two years since he last saw Liam, but 1 day since he last heard from him. Yesterday at 1.55 pm, Liam Payne contacted him through their walkie-talkies. They don’t use them often, only when Liam has a mission for him, when Louis has important information for him or when an emergency occurs.
This time, it was a mission. According to Liam, there is some important documents about future nuclear attacks he needs to find in Holmes Chapel. Liam told him a squad has settled down at a school there but is going on an outing all day to Middlewich, which leaves the perfect opportunity for Louis to sneak in and grab the documents. Liam said they’re located in a security room on the 2nd floor, and that there will be 2-4 guards and security cameras west of the building and inside. He also said there will be an open window, first floor, right to the fire stairs, left open by their insider.
With the destination in sight, Louis re-loads his weapons and makes his blowgun ready. The two guards at the front of the building are just out of sight from the security camera, and Louis is close enough to take them out with the blowgun, the little poisonous needle killing them on the spot. Two out of four out.
He sneaks to the other side of the building, senses on full alert as he climbs through the window, his backpack making it a little difficult. Once inside, Louis having memorised Liam’s instructions, walks just as he said. Everything goes smoothly.
Outside the door to the security room, Louis loads his blowgun again. He usually doesn’t use them, but they are efficient and quiet.
Everything happens really fast from then. He opens the door and kills the first guard without the alpha even having time to react. Scanning the room quickly, the last guard is no where in sight. Louis deems this room clear and begin his search for the documents. Not really hard to find, as they lay in the top drawer in the desk to the left. As he is securing the documents in his backpack, he sees some movement on one of the screens over the desk. The last guard.
Louis should probably kill him to, so he has more time escaping. To the bottom left of the screen says basement. What is more important going to the basement than staying in the security room?
Deciding to follow him, Louis shuts off the security system and puts his backpack on. When he gets to the basement, the smell of alpha is present. There are rooms on both sides, and if Louis’ memory is correct, the alpha went in the fourth room to the left. Nearing the room, Louis picks up a different smell. Flowers, honey, vanilla… almost like an omega? But that can’t be.
Louis positions his weapon, ready to shoot, and opens the unlocked door. It’s like a prison cell, with concrete walls and a bed to the left. There are no windows, only a flickering light attached to the ceiling in the middle of the room. His attention tho, is on what’s happening on the bed. Louis found the last guard at last, with his pants around his knees, hovering over a defenceless omega who is bound to the bedpost. The omega is not fighting, but soft crying could be heard, and Louis instantly feels the need to protect this omega.
There is no thought behind Louis actions as he fires the gun at the alphas head, killing him on the spot. This was definitely not a part of the plan.
The alpha is still lying on top of the omega, who is desperately trying to get him off, seeming difficult with his hands tied down. He is still crying and breathing unevenly, clearly in distress. He is lying on his tummy on the bed, his face pressed down in the dirty mattress.
Moving on from his shock, Louis lifts the alpha of the naked omega, discharging him to the floor. “Hey, love.” Louis tries carefully, feeling his heart shatter at the whimpering omega. He places his backpack by the bed before taking of his jacket and laying it over the omega’s bottom, trying not to stare at all the blood. This boy must’ve been here for a while.
“My names Louis, m’not here to hurt you, yeah. Let me help you with this” Louis says, referring to his tied hands, which seems to be badly bruised. The boy is hiding his face between his arms, facing the mattress, only beautiful brown and curly hair visible. With his arms free, the boy brings them down to his chest, finally meeting Louis’ eyes. Even with red rimmed eyes, the boy is without doubt the prettiest omega he’s ever seen, Louis gives him a small smile, “Hi”.
The boy hides away again, and soon after, starts hyperventilating and pressing himself closer to the wall opposite Louis. And Louis really don’t know what to do, “Hey calm down, love, I’m really not gonna hurt you, I’m not with them. I work for the British Army”, he holds up his hands.
The boy doesn’t seem to be listening, to deep in his own head. Without thinking, Louis takes of the buff around his neck, realising calming pheromones. After some time, his breathing evens out. “Hi, I’m not going to hurt you, I swear. I work for the British Army and I’m going to get you out of here, okay love?”. Peeking from behind his hands, the boy gives a small nod, eyes filling with tears and relief.
Looking at the boy’s form, he must be starving, ribs almost poking through the skin. Louis rummages through his bag, the boy watching him intently, Louis almost blushes under his stare, almost. “C’mere love” Louis says. Standing up from the floor, Louis lays out his hand for Harry. Cautiously taking Louis’ hand, the boy sits up and lets Louis lead him to the edge of the bed beside his backpack. Louis drapes his jacket over the naked boy’s shoulders before giving him his water bottle, “It’s water”.
Looking through his bag for extra clothes, Louis finds some chocolate bars. “Here take this, it will get your energy level up. I also has some clothes for you, they may be a bit big, but it’s all I have at the moment”, Louis says, watching the boy take small bites of the bar. Louis thinks he could watch him for hours, but looking at the time, they need to get out of here fast, Louis was supposed to be out of here 15 minutes ago.
Taking his green fleece sweater, Louis helps the boy put it on, or he mostly does it himself as the boy is too concentrated on the chocolate bar in his hands. Louis puts his beanie over the boy’s messy curls, before moving on to the trousers. He threads each foot through and puts on wool socks.
There is a burning sensation every time their skin touches, Louis can hear his own heart hammering in his chest, and everything just makes sense. And his smell, its divine, indescribable. It brings a fresh breeze of air through Louis’ body, bringing him to a field filled with flowers on a rainy summer day. He doesn’t know how its possible, but he feels such a deep connection to this boy.
Looking up, the boy is finished with the chocolate bar and looking down on Louis, Louis gives a small smile, “can you stand, love?”, the boy just shrugs in response.
Standing up from the floor again, Louis bends down to lay his arms around the boy’s middle, carefully picking him up. There is some blood from where he sat and looking over the omega’s shoulder, Louis notices how bloody the mattress is, Louis wants to puke.
The boy is wobbly on his legs, probably haven’t used them in a long time. When he’s gained his balance, Louis bends down to pick up the trousers around his legs. Before fastening the trousers, Louis checks if the boy is still bleeding. It seems to have dried. They’ll have to wash that later.
“What’s your name, love?” Louis asks, reaching for his jacket.
He helps him put on the jacket. While zipping up the zipper, a small, raspy voice says “Harry”.
“Well, Harry, we need to get out of here, but I don’t have any extra shoes” he says. Looking around, he spots the alpha guard lying dead on the floor, “Would it be okay to use that fuckers shoes for a little while”, Louis says, referring to the dead alpha. Without looking, Harry nods.
Louis quickly fetches the shoes, “They’re quite big, but we’ll find you other ones later, kay?”, Harry nods again while Louis puts on the shoes for him. Then Louis quickly packs his backpack in record time, checks his gun and takes Harry’s left hand in his right hand, tugging him lightly out of the room.
They walk the same way Louis came in, Harry stumbling behind him, and when they are by the window, Louis jumps out first, turning to catch Harry. But Harry isn’t even looking at him, his eyes are squinted because of the sun and he’s looking out in wonder, like he has never seen anything other than that room before. The scene before him reminds Louis of a childhood movie, tangled, was it? When the girl, for the first time, went outside the tower.
“Harry? Love” Louis reminds him and they’re eyes meet again. Harry tosses his legs over the edge, looking down, “Don’t worry, I’ll catch you”, Louis says, arms outstretched, ready to catch. The window is not really that high, like 1 meter, but they both know Harry’s legs is to weak to catch his weight from the fall.
After a few seconds, Harry leans forwards, arms circling around Louis’ neck before he even leaves the windowsill, and Louis is there to catch him.
After 45 minutes of walking, they find shelter for the night, Harry’s body to fragile and Louis can’t carry him all the way home. It’s on the other side of town, a house hidden in a little forest era. The house looked abandoned and least likely to be found by other people. They locked themselves in the bathroom, a quite big one, on the first floor, after finding some pillows and blankets in a cupboard.
The first thing Harry did was take the shoes off and toss them in the corner, before collapsing on the tile floor, hugging his knees. Louis takes off his backpack and finds his other water bottle, it is the last one he’s got. He kneels beside Harry. His skin is so pale and his body is shaking, he is hugging Louis’ clothes like his life depends on it, “Harry, love, I think you’re about to drop”. Harry only whines brokenly.
Louis finds the pillows and blankets and makes a makeshift bed by the tub. Then he carefully picks Harry up and places him there, reassuring him when he whines sadly again, “Hey, hey, it’s okay love. Your body needs nourishment, I’m not gonna leave you, I’ll be here with you”.
Louis tucks him in a blanket and gathers the shaking omega to his chest, taking off the beanie to cradle his fingers through his curly hair. Harry curled in on him instinctively, nuzzling his nose over his neck, seeking comfort in his scent.
They cuddle for a while, till Harry falls asleep in his arms and Louis untangles their bodies. He still can’t wrap his head around the fact that their connection is strong. The fact that Harry felt safe enough with Louis, to fall asleep in his presence, being completely vulnerable, not even two hours of knowing him.
Louis makes dinner for them. He has gas and he has food on box, nothing special tho, just stew. Louis is already planning a big feast in his head, that he wants to make for Harry when they get to the bunker.
When he thinks the food is ready, he wakes up Harry with a shake to the shoulder, “The food is ready, love. Can you sit up?”, Louis helps Harry sit up against the tub, his body still covered with the blanket. Then Louis feeds him, they only have one spoon, that’s his excuse, Louis really just want to take care of him, and Harry doesn’t seem to mind. Louis can see the colour slowly returning to his face.
Sometime, after they’ve eaten the whole box till empty, Harry’s head rests on Louis’ shoulder, almost drifting off. And Louis almost lets him, knowing how exhausted he must be, but there is a question burning on his tongue, quite a few actually. “How did you end up there Harry?”, the question slips out of his mouth, echoing through the quiet bathroom.
He’s a little scared the question made Harry build his walls up again, but Harry seems so relaxed and tired, and it all just spills out. “We where quite prepared for the war, you know, me and my family. We knew the war was comin’, and we had a hiding space at my best friend’s house, in his basement. Our families where close. And we had everything ready, ‘m pretty sure the whole town was ready too. And everything went really well for one and a half year, like, we got by. And, the war didn’t really hit us till, like, at the end of October, I think, in 2026”.
Harry closes his eyes and snuggles closer, Louis wraps his arms tighter around him. “And when it finally hit us… it was just a normal day. Me, my cat Dusty and Niall and my sister, Gemma, we where just playing board games in the living room. We were playing Monopoly, d’you know what that is? Have you played it before?”, he asks, opening his eyes to glance up at Louis. Louis just nods at the unexpected question, remembering playing it with Liam and some other guys at camp. “I remember it so well, Niall would always steal money from Gemma when se wasn’t looking, both because she always won and because he was such a sore loser. And when Gemma would catch him in the act, they would play fight till Niall started crying”.
Louis can se him smiling, and it makes Louis smile too. He really wants to meet this Niall guy. “Our mothers were out in the garden. My stepdad, Robin and Niall’s dad and older brother served in the military, so we hadn’t seen them in a few months. When the first bomb hit, the whole ground was trembling, the pictures fell from the walls and my monopoly cat figure fell to the floor. Our mothers rushed in, gathered us up and locked us all in the basement. There we were for almost a week, the bombing and destruction not stopping for a second. Then we heard on the radio that help was coming, and that everyone should gather at the community centre. When we got there, busses were lined up, and a lot of people where there too, some pretty badly hurt. We where the last ones to get on, I was the last one. And when a bomb nearly hit us, Dusty, who where in my arms, got scared and ran away. Back then I, I didn’t think. I loved Dusty so much, she’d been with me since birth, she was my mental support, I needed her, with me. So I ran to fetch her, but when I got back, the busses where gone”.
A tear is sliding down his rosy cheek, Louis wants to kiss all his pain away. His left hand starts playing with Harry’s soft curls, “I was so scared, but my mom called me on my phone. She yelled at me first, then she said she had contacted Robin, and that some people were going to come get me. Then I went home, and I stayed there, in the basement, with Dusty”, Harry suddenly looked up at Louis, “Don’t worry, I gave her a strict scolding”. Louis let out a breathy laugh, making Harry smile, his cute dimples showing, Louis poked them.
“I waited three months. I lost hope of getting saved, my mom probably realised I wasn’t worth all the fuss and gave up. It hurt less to think that she let go of me, than that she was dead. And in January, I finally presented, almost a year after my 16th birthday, alone. And then someone found me, in the middle of my first heat, but… but they weren’t from the UK, and that’s how I ended up there”. There is a few seconds of silence, Louis can see that Harry is holding in tears, “I lost Dusty too”, with those words out, he starts sobbing, and Louis holds him.
Harry must’ve felt so alone and frightened. It breaks his heart thinking about what this precious boy has been through. Louis holds him till he calms down, promises him that no one will hurt him again and that he will protect him till death.
A week later, Liam contacts him again. They got to the bunker a few days ago, safely, and Harry has finally settled in. They were cuddling on the mattress, when an all too familiar beeping began. Harry was a little scared at first, but Louis assured him it wasn’t something dangerous and got up to search through his backpack for the device.
Pressing the connect button, Louis holds in the speak key and says, “Yes Liam”. Looking back at Harry, he smiles fondly at the boy who is peeking over the duvet he’s under.
“Good and bad news, Louis”, Louis frowns at that, “the documents are correct, we are now able to disrupt some of their plans for nuclear attacks, thanks to you. Bad news, they know that you are alive, we heard it via radio. Don’t know how that happened, but Lou… you have to be really careful from now on, they are after you”.
Shit. How did that happen? He didn’t touch anything he wasn’t supposed to, and he wasn’t in the building that long… the scent scarf, he took it off and left it, its still there. Well shit. So much for playing dead. “Thanks Liam, I’ll be careful, promise. Say hi to my sister for me, will you?”
“Sure thing, Lou”, then the line went dead. Snuggling up to Harry again, he wouldn’t change a thing.
February 7th, 2029
Getting woken up after 5 days of rut by an annoying beeping noise, is not something Louis wants to experience ever again. But its Liam so Louis has to wake up to the real world. Detangling his sticky body from Harry’s, Louis drags himself, half asleep, over to the staircase where his backpack is hidden under.
Finding it, Louis answers with a hushed and aggressive, “What Liam”.
“Nice to hear from you too, after almost 2 years of radio silence” Louis just grunts in a response that Liam can’t hear. “A serious matter at hand, Lou, they know where you are”, and Louis is suddenly wide awake.