The College Experience [Larry Stylinson boyxboy]

Chapter Thirty Nine: The End

"You don't have anywhere you have to be, do you?" Louis asked, his eyes glimmering a little bit.

"At what- like three in the morning?" Harry asked with a smile, sniffling a little and trying to stop the little tears that had prickled up when Louis was telling Harry about his past. "I mean, my schedule's pretty tight, but I think it should be fine," he said with a small laugh. 

"Well, come on, Styles," Louis said, getting up off the blanket. "I want to take you somewhere special." 

"You're not going to murder me are you?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowing as he tried not to laugh. 

"I'm too tired to murder you," Louis said, rolling his eyes with a small smile. 

He offered his hand to help Harry up, and Harry looked at it for a moment before he stretched out his now trembling hand to grab it. 

The first time he'd touched Louis in five weeks. 

Louis' hand was warm as he pulled Harry up off the blanket, and Harry tried to memorize the feel of Louis' skin against his- it was a little rougher than Harry's (Louis didn't have a medicine cabinet stuffed full of different moisturizers the way Harry did, and hadn't even heard of exfoliating until he'd met Harry, who had four different kinds of sugar scrubs on hand at all times), but it was always warmer. Louis always let Harry squeeze on as tight as he needed to, and when he was anxious, sometimes that meant squeezing so tight Harry worried he might break something- but Louis was always comforting, whispering, warm and pressed against Harry 'Come on, kitten, need you to squeeze my hand as hard as it hurts. Can you do that for me love?'.

After Harry stood up, he held onto Louis' hand a little longer than he needed to, before stooping down to pick up his blanket. 

"Where are you taking me?" Harry asked, trying to process the loss of Louis' hand holding his. He felt colder, even with the blanket now wrapped around his shoulders. 

"It's like this place in the middle of the woods," Louis said. "I know, I know, sounds boring, but I promise it's nice." 

Harry wriggled his eyebrows. "Middle of the woods, you say? No witnesses in the forest." 

Louis laughed as he lead Harry down a small trail. "Has anyone ever told you you watch too many crime shows?" 

"Niall got me hooked," Harry admitted. "Literally all we've been doing for the past month besides studying and the complete therapy overload. Don't know why he thought watching people get brutally murdered was the way to cope with grief, but weirdly it helped. A little scarring at times though," he mused. "You ever see the CSI one where they squeeze the toothpaste right out of her-"

"Nope nope nope," Louis said, pushing a tree branch out of their path. "CSI can be you and Niall's thing."

Harry giggled, wrapping the blanket tighter around him as the started in on the trail, dark except for the pale moonlight that lit their way through the trees.

"Also, if you could stop killing the mood with your gory CSI, Law and Order, crime bullshit-"

"Didn't know you were trying to set a mood for something," Harry murmured coyly, biting his lip, sucking on his lip piercing a little. 

"I- I just, I meant-" Louis stammered. 

Harry's heart fluttered, and he could feel his stomach swooping. Mostly because of being next to Louis, but also partly because he lost his footing on the uneven path. 

"Sorry, this part's kind of rocky, do you want to...?" Louis asked, holding out his hand as an offering.  

Harry nodded, and laced his fingers with Louis, letting the older boy lead him along.