Bells for Harry [Larry Stylinson]

Chapter 11 Lost

THREE YEARS LATER

Niall leaned against the cool window of the bus he'd taken from the airport. It probably wasn't the cleanest thing to do, but he was so exhausted, he couldn't care less. He'd started looking for hotels within a short distance from the airport as soon as he'd found out that his flight had been canceled, because even though he'd messaged Harry letting him know that he was in town, and he'd even waited until the last second to get a hotel in his habitual optimistic style, he hadn't actually believed Harry would answer.

He checked Harry's message again, just wanting to make sure it was real. And there it was, right after the speech bubble in which Niall had told him that he'd be in London for a night, and that he'd love to reconnect and stay at Harry's if it was cool.

Omg!! Yeah, let me know where I should pick you up, I don't have school til the evening.

He wasn't really a signs kind of person, but he felt like maybe this, after so many years of complete radio silence, might actually mean something.

He scrolled up to see the one-sided conversation that had gone on for months above Harry's only speech bubble for almost two years. He'd asked him how he was several times, he'd sent him cute pictures of his new niece, and updates about his life, but Harry had always left him on read. No one in their group had any idea what was going on with him, and his parents would only look troubled if any of them asked, saying that Harry was healthy and doing well in school. He'd only seen Harry briefly once since he'd moved to the UK, when he ran into him and his mom by chance on his way back to the airport. Harry had looked sad, and he'd given him a hug, but he hadn't said much. Louis had interrogated him for a month about every little detail he'd noticed when he'd seen him when Niall had told him about the run in. He was the one who was broken up the most by losing Harry of all of them, and Niall couldn't blame him since Harry was basically part of his family. Niall worried too, especially since that time at Christmas break their first year of college, when he'd passed through Louis's city on his way home late, thinking he wouldn't see him yet, and getting a surprise when he found out both that him and Liam were there instead of back home.

"Convince him to get down there with you, his family are already sending threatening texts..." Louis had told him, as the three of them stood in their home away from home's kitchen.

"They can deal," Liam had said. "I've been home for Christmas for eighteen years, they don't need me for shit!"

"I don't get it, Suze and Nate said you can't come?" Niall asked Louis incredulously.

Louis shook his head, looking troubled. He looked like someone who hadn't slept properly in days.

"They basically asked me not to," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Helena's not going either. Something's wrong with Harry, they didn't explain what, just that he needs space and they'd rather we don't come. Helena got really angry, and she told me they canceled her card so she can't go, which fucking insane because that's her money in there, and they've never done anything like this ever before."

Niall's head was spinning. "What the fuck..." he said, leaning on the counter next to his friends, feeling at a loss for words. "Has any of you talked to Harry?"

Louis shook his head.

"Not since... last winter," Liam said.

He didn't add 'when he was suddenly gone', but they were all thinking it. Harry being shipped off to England without saying goodbye had hit all of them hard. The little brat had left a hole in the group, without him it just wasn't the same. And then he hadn't come home for Christmas, with his parents flying to England to see him, saying he was still settling in. There had been no news in the summer either, but Niall had gotten his hopes up when he'd heard that this time Harry would be flying home for the holidays. Instead, he'd found a depressed Louis still in the South with Liam there too, and no news from Dani or Shana, who'd stayed closer to home but still hadn't gotten to see him, though he'd supposedly arrived earlier that week.