The Song of a Siren

Chapter 6

Captain Harry Styles was in love with the small siren boy, Louis Tomlinson. Harry was completely and utterly in love with Louis and neither of them had a single clue what to do about that. Harry knew that Louis could not fall in love with a human. He'd said so during their first weeks together. It was the first and foremost siren law, he had explained. However, the curly haired man couldn't stop himself from feeling this way. All he could think about was Louis. Louis on the other hand, didn't know where to begin in sorting his emotions. 

Since Harry had confessed his feelings, it was all the siren could think about. His thoughts were a constant swirl of Harry that he couldn't quite fathom. His chest felt heavy and he was sometimes light headed just from seeing the other man. He felt as if he had this permanent weight in his stomach since he'd heard Harry speak the sentence that haunted him, 'I'm sorry Louis, I love you.' He wished these feelings would go away. 

He wanted to flee. He wanted to dive off of the boat and back into the sea without a second glance back. He just simply couldn't. Louis felt tethered to the ship; maybe more so to the captain. He couldn't leave, despite how much he ached to.

It had been three days since Ezra walked the plank and Harry confessed his feelings. Three days and Harry and Louis hadn't spoken a word to each other. They avoided each other while keeping it painfully obvious to all of Harry's crew that they were still paying incredibly close attention to one another. Each night Louis would retire to Harry's quarters first to sleep and he would wake up alone only to find that the captain had slept in his uncomfortable desk chair in favor of leaving him alone. Although on the morning of the third day, Louis could no longer take it any more.

He woke up early and dressed in Harry's clothes that he had still been borrowing, taking a simple, white flowy shirt and brown trousers to pair with his boots. However, when he left Harry's bedroom, the captain was not asleep at the desk like he usually was. Louis left Harry's quarters and wandered out onto the deck. That's when he spotted Harry. 

He was towards the end of the ship, completely topless as he preformed a number of quick pushups. He must have been working out for quite some time already because the morning sun shone on his sweaty skin and he had pushed his damp curls away from his face with a dark blue bandana. Louis' mouth went slightly dry as he approached and watched the muscles in Harry's arms flex as he pushed himself up once again.

The captain stopped when he heard Louis' light footsteps and sat up on the floor to catch his breath. Harry had learned to tell Louis' steps apart from any of the other men on board. They were effortlessly soft and elegant, despite the same heavy boots he wore like everyone else. There was something naturally graceful about Louis. Harry didn't dare speak first but instead wiped the sweat from his brow.

Louis paused in front of Harry and cleared his throat softly. He stared out at the still rising sun over the deck railing so that he didn't have to meet Harry's eyes quite yet. He didn't know what exactly he was supposed to say. There was far too much he didn't understand himself.
"Can I sit with you?" He finally spoke, gesturing to the ground beside Harry. The captain nodded and leaned back onto his hands as he spread his legs out, tired from his morning exercise routine. "You know you don't have to ask that, Louis. Go ahead."

"Right," Louis nodded and sat down cross legged beside him. There was a long moment of silence where neither of them spoke. Finally they both attempted to speak at once but only got a few words in before they cut each other off. Harry chuckled and ran his fingers through his messy curls as Louis bit back a tiny smile. "You can go first." Louis nodded, turning slightly to face Harry.

Harry gave a small half-smile and a curt nod in Louis' direction. "I just..." he started and furrowed his brows as if he were trying to search through the air for the right words. "I want apologize for the other day. It was selfish of me and I know you can't...I know you can't love me, Louis." He frowned. "But I can't keep that inside. I can't keep how I feel pushed down inside of me. I'm sorry and I know that it's selfish and I probably shouldn't have said it, but I mean it. I really do mean it, Louis. I love you." he finished seriously.