Dysfunctional (h.s)

4.

I'm proud of this chapter :) don't forget to vote if ya like it!

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It was late. Harry lay (uncomfortably) in bed. Downstairs he could hear the familiar stumbling boots and jiggling keys, that's all his sister seemed to be these days, a blur of stumbling boots and jiggling keys late at night smelling like abuse. Harry knew Gemma smelled like abuse because of the bruises dotted on her skin that she wouldn't tell him about "Get out harry!" she had said once slamming the door on the younger styles' face thinking he couldn't hear her sobbing after and he knew that but he just sat there. Doing nothing while his beautiful sister came home late, stumbling boots and jiggling keys, smelling like abuse. But then again both the Styles kids have smelled like abuse at some point or another.

So Harry lay (uncomfortably) in bed and then abruptly sat up, blood shot eyes and unruly curls because he realized that big girl things that Gemma was away doing couldn't be all that nice because the bruises dotted on her skin said otherwise.

Freeing himself from the confines of his duvet he silently made his way to Gemma's bedroom door with sleep and worry in his eyes, pottering his way in without knocking, inhaling the familiar scent of lilac perfume and home. He slowly, cautiously slipped into her bed.

There was a shifting from beside him. There was Gem shifting beside him, to be presice. An angry Gemma shifting beside him.

"Hazzy?" Her voice is laced with sleep and anger but Harry just heard comfort. "What the fuck are you doing?" and he cringes because such ugly words shouldn't be coming from his pretty sister's mouth. It was cold in Gemma's room. It was warm in her heart, he knew, but it was cold in Gemma's room so he tugged on the edges of her duvet trying to trap the warmth in Gem's heart that he knew was there. And then he pleaded.

Beacause Gemma still smelled like abuse, he pleaded her to tell him and wrapped her in a hug, which is where she broke down. Tear filled confessions of pain, hurt and what she thought were unseen bruises filling her younger brother's ears as they lay now, (comfortably) in Gem's bed. they stay that way for a while.

and then Harry got up once more, stumbling out the dimly illuminated room towards the kitchen to make his sister a cup of tea with a vague hope that it would wash down some of her pain, but instead got back to see a tired Gem, sad smile tugging on the corners of her mouth, holding a bottle of whiskey that she pulled out of her closet. He sighs. They lay in Gemma's bed once more, Harry sipping tea and Gem sipping whiskey. He didn't talk because at this point words were useless.

Fists were needed on this boy's face and arms were needed to wrap crying older siblings into embraces because Gem's heart is warm but her room is cold so his arms were needed to wrap his older sibling into a warm embrace.

It was still late when his troubled sister drifted into slumber. Way past midnight and harry is dissapointed. For the first time he felt he could use someone's face to bash in. and since Gemma didn't get enough alcohol in her system to tell her brother who the boy was that violated her body, he couldn't take out his pent up aggression on him. So he took off to the one place where he could find peace, way past midnight and dissapointed, folding origami because theres nothing he can do. Not yet.

This wasn't Harry. Not at all. He knows that and Luna can see it too through the cracks of his charm, But at fifteen he can't understand why circumstance stains their childhood.

***

Luna is still listening and there are no words that could make this okay because it's not. Guilty guilty guilty. It's way past midnight.

"Luna?"He says low and distraught.

"Mhm"

"Would you run away with me someday? If I ask you to? Will you come with me?" Intermittent bursts of pain and confusion.

"Why would we need to run away? She asks.

"'m not sure." He mumbles, playing with the idea.

"We couldn't just run away," she whispers back. "Let's sleep okay, sleep and we'll talk about this some other time. You must be tired." Innocence smoldering. Dying.

"but Luna-"

"Harry."

"Would you?"

"Of course I would." Luna says it like it should be obvious "I love you Harry, I'd do anything for you." Panic she felt only minutes ago turned from an icy knot in her chest to a hot rush like the onset of nausea.

They've never said those words before. The two of them have been friends for over five years yet they've never said those words. I love you. It was almost strange because those words as friends are implied in holding hands and comforting embraces. Not this.

Harry swallows and reaches blindly for her hand that's on his shoulder and laces them together and Luna falls asleep in the tree house that means so fucking much, telling the boy whose sister smells like abuse how one day, in the future, they'll leave. Together. They'll go to a big city, New York perhaps, and have a little apartment. They'll have a pet cat. Bittersweet promises. Harry stops sniffling, and Luna feels responsible, a little grown up even.

Fourteen and fifteen. Luna and Harry. They're practically children still. There is still happiness. Laughter. Love. Trust (in each other mostly). There's no room for anything else between them yet. Here's Luna and here's Harry, and here's how it should be.

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Two updates in two days, not bad I think. This is my favorite chapter so far. what do you think? Comment please.

Love, A