me, him, and the moon ☾ l.s.

twelve - up there, down here

The next three days were some of the worst of Louis's life. Niall spent almost every moment with Harry in the basement, trying to keep the younger boy calm during his first transition. Louis left freshly-worn shirts outside of the locked basement door every few hours, a cloth pressed over his mouth and nose to suppress the scent. But he could hear Harry's whines and whimpers, and more than half of the time, Harry was calling out his name, begging desperately to see him.

And every second broke Louis's heart.

Louis had barely slept. He refused to leave Harry's house at all, forcing Liam to cover for him at the training center. Rationally, he knew that he should go about his days as normally as possible and come back after the three days were up, but he was punishing himself; he hated the fact that Harry was suffering and he couldn't do anything about it, so he had to make himself suffer too.

"I can't believe we didn't see the signs," Louis was saying angrily. He and Liam were sitting at the kitchen table to eat lunch. "Like, honestly, I knew you were going to present more than two fucking weeks before you actually did."

"I can believe it," Liam replied, shrugging nonchalantly. He had heard this rant from Louis about a hundred times over the past three days. "None of us are omegas. We didn't really know what to expect, did we?"

The door that led down to the basement creaked open, and Louis perked up instantly, his head snapping toward the sound. He jumped out of his chair when Niall emerged from the dimly-lit stairwell, rushing over to the Irish boy.

"Is he okay? What's going on down there? Do you need . . ?"

"Okay, settle down," Niall replied, exasperation clear in his tone. He was clearly exhausted, the dark bags under his eyes a stark contrast to his pale skin. "Harry's fine. Actually much better, at least compared to yesterday. He's sleeping."

Louis's shoulders slumped in relief, although he glanced longingly over Niall's shoulder toward the room where he knew Harry slept. "Okay, good. Thank you."

"Mate, you look awful," Liam pointed out shamelessly, furrowing his brow at the beta. They had seen Niall many times over the past few days, but only for brief moments as he rushed into the kitchen for food or demanded that Louis hand over a freshly-scented shirt. Now, with him finally standing still in front of them, Niall seemed about ready to collapse.

"It's been a long three days for all of us," the Irish boy stated bluntly. He turned back to Louis with a tiny smile. "But our trials are all done, at least until next time. I think it's okay for you to go down and see him now."

Louis's eyes widened in surprise, lighting up with a newfound energy. "Really?" He paused, the excited expression on his face replaced with a thoughtful frown. "Are you sure?" he worried aloud, asking, "It's absolutely safe? His heat is completely over?"

Niall nodded. "Trust me, I had to do a lot of research over the past three days. It's a good thing that Harry's father keeps all of his reading material in the basement," the Irish boy explained. "So yes, I'm sure. All of the signs say that he's entered the aftermath stage of his heat, and I think it would actually be good for him to see you as he's coming down."

"Long line of healers, my ass," Liam joked. "Seems like you should've been a heat specialist."

"He's really fragile right now," Niall said to Louis, ignoring Liam completely. He had grown even more protective over Harry now that he had seen the younger boy at his weakest point, so he explained to Louis, "Omegas can get very insecure and needy directly after heat, especially after spending it alone. He's been terrified and miserable being away from you for three whole days, and now he needs to know that you're here for him. Basically, you just need to make sure that he knows how you feel about him and how well you can take care of him."