inferno // l.s.

thirty three

"you're good to go," jana says as she puts her things away. "harry, i'm sending his medications plus breathing equipment to the pharmacy and they'll be ready by morning. zayn, you'll get some stronger ibuprofen but that's about it."

"but i want the good stuff," zayn pouts his busted lip out at the nurse. "i'll give you a kiss for them."

louis reaches over and smacks his shoulder, shushing him.

harry drove the two battered boys and mitch followed behind just to make sure they were okay. though they are still rocky sometimes, louis confided in mitch about what had happened and the boss felt a little bit of weight lift off of his shoulders knowing louis trusted him with just that much information.

zayn bent one of his rings in the process of fighting luke. there's a small graze on his upper lip and underneath his eye is a little swollen, and a tear in the side of his nose where his piercing was that will more than likely scar. louis took quite a bit of damage as well. fingerprint bruises around his neck, the bruise on his back, disappointment in his veins and now staples in his head. luckily louis doesn't have a concussion even though it was a very harsh fall. he does, in fact, have injured ribs from luke hitting him against the edge of the sink and being slung around. jana said he'll have issues breathing for a few, and he'll need to rest his whole body.

the impact of his head smacking the floor cut his head open and it needed to be patched up. jana, being the wonderful friend of mitch's she was, was happy to meet them at the clinic and do her work on the boys free of charge. louis likes her. she took good care of him when he got shot and slid him a tiny story about harry when he was younger that he will definitely take to the grave — secondhand embarrassment and fond were a mixed reaction to it, he could only imagine how harry felt back then.

jana packs louis a small bag of ice packs for his head and requests to see him by the end of next week to remove the staples. she gives them both stickers for being champs. zayn held a thick stack of princess stickers in his hand while louis settled on ones of really cute turtles because they reminded him of drake, at the pond.

"can i talk with louis for a moment alone?" zayn asks, giving mitch and harry a weary look.

"yeah, 'course," harry murmurs. he stands from his chair and kisses louis' temple before exiting the room, mitch and the nurse following in tow.

once the door clicked shut zayn sat in one of the chairs in the room. "sit."

louis takes a seat beside him, beginning to tear up again. why now? couldn't luke have done something around the time mylo died instead of waiting four months?

"what the fuck did you mean when you said being dead sounded better than what just happened?" zayn asks. "lou. you know i don't take that shit lightly."

"i know," louis sniffles. he puts his head in his hands as the feeling of having to puke takes over. "i know."

the younger man sighs as he puts his hands on louis' knees. "lovey. listen to me. if you stayed in vegas mylo would have killed you and we both know that. you did the right thing by leaving. luke is a piece of shit just like his brother. you said it yourself it runs in the family."

louis rubs his swollen face and sniffles again, looking up. "he was gonna kill me. i just had that feeling."

"and we kicked his ass for even trying," zayn says. "i don't ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again. if mylo killed you i would have killed him and smiled in my mugshot." he takes the sleeve of his jacket to wipe louis' eyes again. "stop crying over pussy boys. they don't deserve your tears. you are louis goddamn tomlinson, future husband of ryan reynolds. you think ryan would want you boo-hooing over a man that couldn't even tell his left from his right?"