inferno // l.s.

epilogue

this is it. welcome to the epilogue <3

(scenes with ——— are different from scenes with —-. ——— are more of a time skip, while —- is just a pause between two current scenes!)

—-

louis poured a small amount of wine into the glass sitting on the counter, humming a soft tune to the song that was stuck in his head. harry should be home any minute. thank god, because he was bored and lonely and the cats were done with his shenanigans for the day.

it's been too quiet around here. zayn and niall have visited and stayed the night a time or two, but it's not the same. harry's not home. his presence alone is loud. then when you add his music, his video games or his phone calls to the mix, it's even more noise. little things that used to annoy him from time to time are things he realized he took for granted.

they weren't even annoying. sometimes mitch just talks too much and harry can't find the heart to tell him. that's what happens when you drunk call your mates blubbering on about everything wrong with the world, he guesses. he's been there.

he took a peek at his phone when the device dinged. a message from harry displayed on the screen telling him that he just arrived to los angeles. he had to stop at the club and then would be coming straight home to him. fifteen minutes tops.

fifteen minutes is about thirty in harry time, so he opened the wine bottle back up and filled the glass a little more. not too much, because he wants to drink with his hubby when he comes in, but just enough to get a taste and finally try it out. harry had it sent to him while he was gone with a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates as a "just because i miss you" present. this was the first time in a while they had been separated for over two days so the club owner was making sure louis remembered exactly how much harry was thinking of him all the way from detroit.

the trip was supposed to be only three days but got extended to an entire week because liam and mitch had side business to take care of. harry had every opportunity to go back home if he weren't the one in charge of keeping liam from ripping mister rowland's throat out.

harry's business had been done for the week. he was recruiting dancers from detroit, meeting with club owners and talking to the dancers one on one about new opportunities. two declined, and two more said yes.

otherwise, he was basically babysitting. mitch paid him extra for it, so he didn't mind. louis on the other hand was kind of pissed at the sudden change of plans and made harry swear on their marriage that he wasn't getting involved with clique business. mitch has a way with words, and louis knows just how that man is.

harry's not stupid enough to do it, is the thing, but louis thinks that mitch is waiting for him to buckle down and come back. even though harry has been out of the gang for ages now, part of him feels like mitch holds a grudge against them both for harry leaving. if louis hadn't have stayed, if he hadn't agreed to bettering their lives, his husband would definitely still be busting heads in and selling drugs instead of bringing home cool stories he's heard from clients at rhapsody.

though watching harry crack bones was fun at one point in time, they both grew up. harry got bored with it. he didn't like being violent one minute and sweet the next. he didn't like having locks upon locks hiding everything, everywhere. he didn't like putting his partner's life on the line every morning he woke up. he wanted something new. and different. and he got it.

leaning against the counter, louis took a sip of his wine and sent his husband a message back that emma and shark would be waiting very impatiently before locking his phone and letting out a deep sigh.

"hurry the fuck up, harold," he grumbled. he glanced over at the package sitting by the microwave and sipped at his wine once more. harry doesn't know it came in. it's a surprise to him. he's been asking where it was and why it hadn't arrived yet, and louis was able to tell little white lies over the phone. maybe delivery got delayed. maybe they put a typo on it. maybe the post office is just tired of delivering packages to their house every day (louis is best friends with online shopping — whoever invented that deserves a kiss to the forehead.)