Afterlife

3

This whole afterlife or middle ground life was freakishly like normal life on earth. They slept and ate and had to go to the bathroom. Louis had always pictured it less...human?

Harry's stomach calmed down and he managed to keep things down. Louis went easy on him, feeding him yogurt and soup.

On day four of withdrawal, the crying and pleading started. Harry was an absolute mess.
"Please Louis, it hurts! Just give me something, anything!"

"There's no drugs here Harry. Push through it." Louis said softly.

"Just let me die!" Harry wailed.

Louis didn't mention that he was already dead.

The days after that Harry's muscles ached and he couldn't sleep. He was in so much pain. Louis tried to give him massages and just be there for him.

After ten days Harry had gone through the worst of it and could function again. He took a long shower. Louis snuck home to do the same. He had just seen his new home briefly when he went over to get some clothes while Harry was sleeping a couple of days ago. It looked pretty much the same as Harry's cottage except the walls in his house were in a specific shade of blue while his walls were green. He had no idea why.

He took a nice long shower, shaved his stubble, and brushed his teeth. Shouldn't his hair stop growing when he was dead? He had just put some clothes on when there was a knock on his front door. He went to open it. Harry was standing outside with his hands in his pockets, looking shy.
"Uhm, Hi Louis. I just want to say thank you for helping me detox. I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay Harry." Louis smiled. Now when the man in front of him didn't look like a living dead, no pun intended, he noticed how gorgeous he was. He was tall and slim, with curly brown hair and beautiful green eyes. Oh! The same color as his walls inside. Harry smiled, showing off two very prominent dimples that took him by surprise. Stunning!
"Ehm, so...do you wanna go for a walk? Check this place out?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. Just give me a sec. I have to put some shoes on." Louis smiled.

Harry waited outside while he got ready. He threw some shoes on and hurried outside. Harry smiled at him.
"Ready?"

"Yeah." Louis said and returned the smile.

They walked down the road, passing cottages that looked like theirs. After ten minutes of walking, they reached a small village. People waved and greeted them and they waved back.

The village contained a town square with a couple of shops, a barber, a tailor, a fruits and vegetables shop, a store, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. That was it.
"Not much to do around here." Louis smirked.

Everyone they met was very friendly and welcomed them to the middle ground.
"Coffee?" Harry asked.

"I'd love some but I don't have any money." Louis answered.

"I don't think we'll need money." Harry smiled.

They walked inside the coffee shop and made their orders. It was free.
"This is awesome!" Louis said. He made sure to get some cake too.

They found a table and took a seat. Five minutes into their coffee date Bertram entered the coffee shop.
"Ah, there you are my little love birds. Harry! Congratulations! You got through withdrawal."

"Louis helped me a lot." Harry answered.

"I see. Working on your compassion, kindness, helpfulness, loyalty, and empathy? Wonderful." Bertram said and winked at him.

"I guess." Louis shrugged. It wasn't like he had thought of that when he took care of Harry.

"So boys, now when young Harry here is back on his feet I've come to inform you how this little community works. As you just found out we don't have a silly thing like money but we all find something to do that will benefit others. Isn't it exciting? So what do you want to do?" Bertram said and clasped his hands together.

Harry and Louis looked at each other. They both looked clueless.
"Ehm, can you give some examples of things you could do?" Louis asked.

"Oh yes. Well, as you have already seen our little middle ground already have some shops. Steve over there has an alpaca farm. Dottie knots sweaters from the wool. Clive helps the bees pollinate, Quintin holds tantric sex classes." Bertram said and pointed at different people in the coffee shop.

"Ehm, well. Louis? What do you say? Sheep farm? Sex therapist for mosquitos?" Harry smirked.

"Why mosquitos?" Louis asked in amusement.

"Three-second intercourse." Harry smirked.

Louis burst out giggling. Why the heck did he know that?
"Both valuable options. I'll give you a couple of days to decide. Enjoy your coffee." Bertram said cheerfully and left.

"So you wanna do something together?" Louis asked with a smile and took a sip of his coffee.

Harry blushed slightly.
"Yeah, well, we're sou...neighbors, but if you want to do something by yourself that's totally fine."

He was adorable. Louis felt all warm and mushy inside.
"Makes sense that we'll do something together, you know, since we're neighbors." He flirted.

Harry let out the cutest little giggle.
"Okay. Then we just have to figure out what we're gonna do. Wanna spy on the rest of the people here to see what they do?"

"Absolutely!" Louis grinned.

They finished their coffee and explored the rest of the middle ground. They were 28 people there besides them. Three of them worked in the store. Two of them worked in the fruits and vegetable shop and two of them worked in the coffee shop. Five of them worked at the restaurant. There was one barber and one tailor. They already knew that one of them had alpacas, one knitted sweaters, one helped bees, and one held sex classes. So they only had to find out what the twelve that were left did.

After walking around an hour they had the answer. Two soulmates named Janet and Paul had a chicken farm. A man named Oscar was a couples therapist, David cut trees, Trisha held yoga classes, Gertie and Rudolph had a cow farm, and the rest of them grew things.

They walked back home and discussed what they wanted to do.
"Do you know what this place doesn't have? Music!" Harry said.

"Can you play any instrument or sing?" Louis asked.

Harry thought about it.
"I'm pretty sure that I can sing at least. It feels like I can. How about you?"

"I can give it a try!" Louis grinned.

They decided to eat dinner together and went to Harry's cottage. They stopped in surprise when they entered the kitchen. A piano that wasn't there before was blocking the room now.
"I guess we have to find out if we can sing now." Louis smirked.