larry- one shots

when we were younger

maltese sounds like dog food

...innit?

Year One

Leaning back in his chair, Harry chewed on his thumb absently. He wasn't sure what he was hoping to achieve in these chat rooms. He certainly was not looking for a boyfriend on here; that was a scary concept. He just thought it'd be nice to find people to talk to, that's all. Hence how he ended up in a chat room called gay teen chat.

One day, he'd make a proper profile on one of these chat rooms, but today was not that day.

For now, he'd hide behind the username Harrynotpotter and his display icon of beloved Spongebob Squarepants character, Patrick Star. He hadn't exactly put much thought into either of them. He preferred to stay fairly anonymous. You never knew who was lurking on the internet, it was known to be a sinister place. Some of the private messages he'd received on other sites had made him positively blush, and indecent propositions were the least of it. He didn't need to be sent surprise dick pics when his mum could come in at any point.

Gay teen chat was perfect for Harry in the sense that he was just looking to chat with people going through the same things he was, and this particular chat room seemed chill and weirdo-free. Unless the weirdos here were just better at disguising themselves, of course.

Harry didn't chat much, often just content to see what people were talking about and maybe giving a bit of his own input. About a week after Harry started visiting this particular chat room, he was watching some kid argue with the whole room about football, personally disinterested as he tipped a bag of crisps into his mouth. He happily chomped on the crumbs, taking a swig from a glass of Ribena to wash them down, glancing at the screen and very nearly spat the squash back out again.

His heart was pounding wildly. The display icon of the argumentative newcomer had caught his eye, and not in a good way. He gulped as he clicked the picture, and when it popped up in full resolution, his heart nearly fell right out of his arse.

The all-too-familiar picture was staring back at him; a curly, green-eyed dork with big teeth was frozen mid-laugh in the snap. It was taken on his sixteenth birthday, back in February, just a few weeks after he'd come out to his Mum. He looked happy in the picture, and indeed he had been so happy that day, finally turning sixteen and finally having come out to his Mum (and his sister, not long later).

Now, however, his blood was boiling, but he tried to clear his head and think about this logically. Was this kid actually pretending to be Harry? His username was Louis91 so maybe it was just Harry's face he was stealing and not his entire identity.

He opened a private message window with Louis91 and started typing furiously. He ranted about privacy and safe spaces and called Louis91 all kinds of names and profanities. As he proofread it - because nothing would be more embarrassing than taking the moral high ground and making mistakes - something wicked twitched inside of him.

It wasn't enough. This guy could just hightail it out of the chat room, popping up in some other chat room where Harry would never find him.

Calling him out was not the answer here , Harry decided. He highlighted the whole rant, hesitating before pressing delete.

'Hi.' He sent instead.

He sighed heavily, pushing away from his desk quickly and walking away, going for a wee to clear his head a bit. When he returned, he had a reply. Sick satisfaction in his gut churned wildly.