Cancellation? Vacation!

F I F T E E N

Turns out, Harry didn't think this through. Because now, he is standing on the streets with his suitcase by his side.

The streets are practically deserted, even in the heart of London, with only a car occasionally flashing by and some wandering people.

After a few moments of aimlessly staring in front of him, he lets out a sigh and starts making his way toward the closest park. He doesn't want to risk running into Sam, so he figures it's a smart idea to get away from the apartment building.

He keeps his eyes cast low as he makes his way through the streets, in deep thought about what he should do next. Soon, the area around him is getting greener and greener, indicating that he has entered the park.

When his eyes fall upon the nearest park bench, he lets out a relieved sigh and plops down. He closes his eyes, breathing in a lungful of fresh air.

Harry checks his phone and sees that it's 4 am already, which means it won't take too long before it will get light and he can take a train toward his mom. He still doesn't have to work in a while and it's always nice to see his family anyway.

He doesn't know what he will say to her as an explanation, the truth of course, he has learned from his past mistakes, but he doesn't know if he should tell her about Louis for instance. He can already imagine what her disappointed face would be like if he told her about inviting a stranger on their trip to Greece.

It would be his karma though.

Once Louis has entered his mind, he doesn't leave easily. He wonders if he'll ever see him again and if Louis would forgive him. He knows that he hasn't always been fair towards him...

Suddenly he sees something in the distance moving toward him. He blinks a few times to improve his eyesight and then suddenly sees that it's a dog running towards him.

He quickly jumps to his feet, ready to flee, because that dog seems to have targeted him. The black mob is getting closer and closer, running in a straight line toward him, so Harry scrambles away from the park bench and starts running with the suitcase in his hand.

He quietly hears a man's voice shouting in the distance, probably trying to get his dog under the control - something Harry really appreciates at the moment - but Harry doesn't want to risk looking back to see if it's working, because he is fucking scared.

He loves dogs, but that dog... He's more used to cats since he has one back at his mom's home. That doesn't mean that he doesn't have a weak spot for dogs though. This dog, however...

Turns out that Harry isn't exactly as fit as he imagined he would be, because it's getting harder for him to get his breathing under the control and his speed is slowly declining.

A few seconds later he just decides to take the risk and turn his head around, only to see the dog running back to his owner, making Harry's shoulders sag in relief.

He leans forward, resting his hands on his knees, as he catches his breath. When he looks up again to check if the dog isn't leaping toward him again, he notices that the owner is walking toward him, this time with the dog on the leash.

Harry has to blink a few times because he feels like his eyes are betraying him. The man looks very familiar, to say the least, and it could be possible for the man to be who he thinks he is because the lad had mentioned having a dog.

A minute later, the man is suddenly about 10 meters away from him and he notices that he was correct. He braces himself for the interaction which he's about to have, which most likely will not turn out to be pleasant.

The dog that had been chasing him suddenly looks less terrifying up close and Harry gets down to his knees to pet him, cooing when the dog happily obliges to the cuddles.

"Harry... What are you doing here?" Louis breathes out, making Harry look up to meet his gaze.

"I had nowhere else to go..." He admits, feeling like a loser. "The apartment is under Sam's name and he did invite me to stay there for one night, but let's just say that that didn't turn out to be the best idea."

He sees Louis bite his lip, but he doesn't say anything, causing Harry to speak up again. "What about you? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Louis nods down toward Clifford. I just picked him up from a friend of mine and he was so energetic that I felt like he needed a good walk. Besides, I really missed him and our exhibitions outside. Turns out that he did have too much energy, so it's good that I took him out." He jokes.

"Yeah, Clifford - It's Clifford right?" Harry asks in between his sentence and continues when he sees Louis nod. "Clifford thought it would be fun to hunt me and scare me to death, didn't you?" He ruffles the top of the dog's head, smiling at him.

Louis chuckles. "I have never seen him run that fast before, I don't know what came over him, to be honest."

"I would hope so because I hope that this wasn't a regular occurrence for the other civilians of London." He teases.

Louis smiles and looks to the ground. "Do you want to finish my walk with me? If you want, you could even stay at my apartment for the night?" He proposes.

Harry immediately starts shaking his head. "I think I have done enough bad things to you, I don't want to bother you even more."

"Nonsense." Louis insists. "I'm not going to let you stay on the streets. Besides, Clifford doesn't seem to want to let you go just yet and I think it might be a good idea if we talked for a bit after a good night of sleep. Without fighting, just a good, responsible, mature talk."

And how can Harry deny any of that? So he doesn't and nods, walking next to Louis out of the park toward Louis' home.