Connection(A Larry Stylinson AU Fic)

Chapter 8

Weeks passed without either of them contacting one another. It was as if the emails had never existed, as if everything that had happened between them suddenly vanished into thin air.

Harry spent his days relatively alone. He had even demoted himself to sitting next to his brother at times. He ate his lunches quickly and silently. He began to speak up less frequently in class, and never bothered to correct Louis if he got an answer wrong.

Louis spent his days alone in a sea of friends. No one knew what was wrong with him lately, and he couldn't tell them why. Each time someone tried to cheer him up, he would offer a weak smile at most.

This horrible routine lasted for quite a long time, until Louis decided to break the ice.

I know you don't want to see me ever again, but just please hear me out.

Can we pretend we never found out who each other were? Like we still don't know each other now? Can't we keep emailing like that?

I liked getting to know you, Iggy. The real you. You always put on this persona of anger, but deep down…I think you're just really sad. You're sad and lonely, and always scared of what people think about you.

So you know what? Pretend I'm not a person. Pretend you don't know me, and I'll do the same for you.

Just please, keep emailing

-HEROsandwich

Harry read and reread the email. "Pretend we never found out who each other were?"

His mind was confused as whether or not to actually respond. On one hand, he didn't want to email back because he was afraid that, now that Louis knew who he was, he would laugh in his face at his emails if he wrote something personal. On the other hand, he was still lonely. He still had no friends in school anymore, and he still needed companionship.

But he was just so scared. Harry usually never feared anything. He was brave in the face of adversaries, stern in the face of the foolish, courageous in the face of opposition…He had always been prepared whenever it came to difficult tasks…but he just hadn't been prepared for this. He didn't think anyone could have prepared themselves for this.

Harry sighed while staring at his computer screen.

…Ok

We'll pretend this never happened.

For now, I suppose I should just write how my day went, then…

I ate alone again at lunch. People don't really seem to want to sit with me, and I don't know why

Or maybe I do, and there's just nothing I can do about it

I don't know anymore

What do you think?

-HomesickPirate

'No, no, that's stupid!' Harry thought to himself as he reread his email. He immediately deleted the message. There was no way he was going to email Louis that.

Harry tried to stand up and walk away, to ignore the email for now and never look back on that email address again…but…

The email screamed loneliness from Louis' side as well. Apparently, out of all his friends, there wasn't a single person who really knew Louis, or at least that's what Harry could deduce. Sighing, he typed up another email.

Meet me by the benches in the park near our school grounds

-HomesickPirate

The truth was, Harry didn't want to let Louis go. He had already let go once, during the election, and the aftermath had been so miserable and continued to be miserable. He wanted something more…more than just a dumb email every now and again. He wanted to speak to a person, a real human being once in a while. And as of right now, Louis was the only human available. Louis was, perhaps, the only human he actually wanted to talk to.