Imprisoned in my Heart Book 1 (Imprisoned in my heart trilogy...Larry)

Chapter 29

Their last kiss was an emotional one, as Harry and Louis said goodbye for what could be their final time as an actual couple. The only witness was Anne, who was polite enough to turn away after she had hugged Harry goodbye so that they could spend their last few seconds in private. Louis kissed Harry quickly but desperately, knowing that it could be their final opportunity to be together without the risk of the door bursting open at any second. Harry’s lips were as gentle as they had ever been, caressing Louis’ mouth with a new level of intensity, a new kind of burn that came with a sense of reluctant acceptance, like they were giving up. Louis shook his head and pressed his mouth harder against Harry’s, a refusal. For a while they just melted into it, and Louis thought he would never let go – but Harry pulled away first with a heavy, shaky breath, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Louis,” he whispered. “It’s time.”

“No!” Louis wailed, clinging to him. “I can’t. I’m not ready.”

“Louis…”

“Please, Harry. Let’s run. Let’s just go. We’ll run away from here, we’ll go and get married like we said, we’ll –” the tears were flowing like a waterfall down Louis’ face.

Harry opened his mouth helplessly, but it was Anne who placed a hand on Louis’ arm and pulled him away from her son with a sad kind of resignation.

“Louis. Come on. That isn’t helping.”

“But – but I…” Louis was crying so hard he could barely breathe.

“Don’t,” Harry pleaded. “We can still be together!”

“It won’t be us,” Louis sobbed.

Harry stepped forwards and encircled him in the warmest, gentlest hug he could manage, while Louis cried helplessly against him. Anne watched in sad silence, quietly observing the embrace without comment. Louis couldn’t explain why, but he had a horrible sense that things could never be the same again when Harry was locked away in his cell again. Already people had started to be suspicious; he hadn’t mentioned it, but Liam had sent him a photocopy of a letter that had been doing the rounds in the office, questioning Louis and Harry’s relationship and whether or not it exceeded ‘acceptable boundaries’. If any more doubt was thrown onto the subject, one or the other of them would be relocated – and Louis was determined that it would be him. He couldn’t do that to Harry again.

“Of course it’ll be us,” Harry promised. “You really think anything is going to change? The only way it could change would be if we let it.” He kissed Louis carefully on the nose. “Be strong for me, okay?”

Louis closed his eyes, feeling his tears start to leak through his eyelashes, and he nodded. He didn’t feelstrong: he felt like he was slowly shattering, falling to pieces with every breath.

“Wish me luck?” Harry asked, glancing at his mum with his forehead still pressed to Louis’.

“Good luck, sweetheart,” she said softly, squeezing his arm.

Harry turned back to Louis. “Lou?”

Louis’ eyes were still firmly closed. “Good luck,” he whispered.

Kissing him quickly on the forehead, Harry stepped away, took one last look, and then he turned and headed for the courtroom, his shoulders bowed as if he was in mourning. A wordless cry broke Louis’ control as he reached out and staggered after him, but Anne caught his arm and held him back, not hard, but firmly enough that he couldn’t move.

“You’ll only make matters worse,” she said quietly.

“Let me go! I have to – I can’t –” Louis struggled desperately to break free, to run after Harry and grab him, and then he would kiss him again and again until they both grew so old that they turned to dust, and the dust mingled together, and then maybe they would finally be close enough.

“Louis, please! I understand, but you can’t do this to him!”

“Harry!” Louis screamed.

Harry flinched, stopping dead, and for one desperate, heart-stopping moment, Louis thought he might stop and turn around and come running back into his arms – but then Harry steadied himself, and he sped up as he jogged towards the room in his neatly pressed grey suit.

“HARRY!”

A guard appeared in front of the courtroom, parting the crowd and taking Harry’s arm. They were too far away to see properly, but Louis thought Harry turned his head ever so slightly to look at him as the prison-guard clicked the handcuffs onto Harry’s wrists and led him through the door.

Louis’ screams lost all coherency at that moment: he collapsed to the ground, a sobbing, tearstained mess, and Anne dropped to the floor with him, trying to sit him up. Louis cried and cried, his tears soaking the road, and at that moment he thought that he might get arrested himself and locked up in Whitehall, so that the prisoners could beat him to death and he would finally get away from everything. 

 *  *  *  *  *  *

Louis had been stubbornly sitting cross-legged on the road in the same place Harry had left him for a good four hours. Anne had given up trying to move him and had sat resignedly on the pavement in her smart skirt, staring at the floor. They were both waiting, Anne with her chin resting on the palm of her hand and Louis just stubbornly glaring at the building like he could explode it into a pile of rubble just by glaring at it. Neither of them had spoken for an uncomfortably long time, and simmering resentment rolled off Louis in giant waves; clearly Anne was in his bad books for holding him back.

The door flew open.

Leaping to his feet with a gasp, Louis stared, stricken, at Harry’s figure in the doorway. His head was lowered, his hands behind his back as if restrained by handcuffs. Liam was stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder, holding him in place. A strangled croak wrenched its way from the pit of Louis’ stomach, tearing its way through his chest as he groaned and clapped a hand to his mouth. He thought he might be sick as he watched Harry take a slow, desolate step forwards, his eyes still glued to the pavement.

“No,” he moaned.

Harry slowly raised his head – and then the most angelic, beautiful grin Louis had ever seen burst across his face like sunshine pouring out from behind a cloud. He dragged his unbound hands from behind his back, stepped away from Liam, and started sprinting towards Louis as fast as he could go, arms thrown out. Stunned, Louis barely had time to take a step back in shock before Harry had slammed into him hard enough to leave bruises, thrown him against the pavement and started kissing him roughly on every available patch of skin, leaving red marks all over his neck with the intensity of his embrace.

“Harry, what – ?” Louis managed to gasp.

“Manslaughter ruling,” Harry said breathlessly in between giving Louis a love-bite to be proud of, and trying to kiss him at the same time, which failed miserably. “They decided that I didn’t mean to kill him, and then with all my good behavior taken into account…they let me go.”

“Just like that?” Louis asked suspiciously.

“Yeah,” Harry said quickly, his whole face lit up with excitement. “But Lou…you know what this means?”

Louis was about to say that he knew exactly what that meant, and he wasn’t going to wait for it – and he was already reaching for the buttons of Harry’s shirt, tugging impatiently at them. He’d barely got the first one unfastened before he felt a restraining, motherly hand on his arm, and looked up to see Anne standing over him trying her best not to look amused.

“I think you’d better be careful, boys, bearing in mind that he’s only just been released. It’d be a shame now to be arrested for public nudity.”

Harry grinned sheepishly and shrugged at Louis, then reached for his hand and pulled them both to their feet. “Sorry, mum.”

“I think celebrations are needed!” she announced. “Now get your backsides in this lovely shiny car, and we’ll get home and break open the bubbly – before my son eats the only person who’s insured to drive it.” Anne tapped the Porsche with a smile.

Resisting the urge to mutter that he would quite like Harry to eat him, Louis put an arm around Harry’s shoulders instead and hugged him, hard. Harry touched the tips of their noses together, and they both smiled slightly – and Louis thought that if he ever let Harry leave his side again, he might just fall down and die.