Run Like the Devil • L.S. • Larry Supernatural AU

Epilogue - Past Ain't Through With You

Louis' been edgy since they got in the car, and it's only amplifying as the miles tick by toward the New York border. Harry looks at him out of the corner of his eye, and decides against saying anything just yet. More than likely Louis will just snap and get even more nervous, then feel guilty about it later, and then what's the point? At least the roads are fairly scenic; Louis is clearly stalling by avoiding the interstate, but Harry appreciates it, watching small towns flit past as they wind their way west through Massachusetts, the landscape becoming gradually more barren and craggy, hills and mountains that sort of remind Harry of when he'd go up to Scotland with his family to visit his mum's friend in Edinburgh.

He likes it, he decides; he stuck mostly to California, before Louis, and he's still attached to the West, but he finds he loves traveling now that he's not desperately running away from anything—at least not in reality. He still wakes up, sometimes ( often ) in a cold sweat, poised to sprint, halfway out of bed before he remembers himself, that he's safe now, relatively speaking, and then Louis is roused by the movement, blinks awake and props his head up on his arm, murmurs it's okay or you're safe or I gotcha or a million other platitudes that somehow are genuine, and he opens his arms for Harry to crawl into them if he chooses to, which he usually does. They settle into each other wordlessly, Louis sometimes humming under his breath in the dark if Harry's particularly disquieted. He hasn't said anything about it, and he bets Louis thinks he doesn't notice, but Harry can tell that he stays awake until Harry goes back to sleep, each and every time.

They'd been in Boston the week before, tipped off by one of Niall's friends about possible demon activity, although it ended up being a disgruntled ghost, much to Harry's relief—the demons they ran into largely didn't recognize him, but there was always the chance, always the fear. He tried not to think about where the soul might go once they destroyed the remains, focusing, as Louis did, on the people it had been terrorizing, all of whom were thankfully fine, at least physically. Harry always loves seeing Louis with children, the way he crouches down to their level to talk to them, listens with the utmost seriousness and focus to whatever they have to say, speaks to them gently and warmly but without condescension. He's just good with them.

It's not that Harry doesn't understand Louis' nervousness about staying with his family over Christmas—well, he doesn't entirely get it, and he gets the sense that there's a good part of it Louis' not telling him—but he is kind of baffled by Louis' worry that his youngest sisters might not like him. Phoebe and Daisy had gone up to their adoptive mother's family home in Buffalo for Thanksgiving, which Louis and Harry spent with the Deakins, Lottie, and Fizzy, and the surprise addition of Fizzy's girlfriend, whom she immediately introduced as such, holding up their linked hands between them and brightly saying, "Hi, this is my girlfriend Katie."

Louis had frozen, mouth open like he was going to say something, eyes darting back and forth between Fizzy and Katie and Dan and Liz, who were, from the looks of it, entirely unfazed. Suddenly, Louis had turned on his heel and darted into the first room he found, which had been the coat closet in the front hallway, and Harry followed him without hesitation, shutting the door behind them and wrapping his arms around Louis in the cramped, overly warm space and standing there for who knows how long. Eventually, Louis' breathing had slowed to a normal pace, and he had taken a deep breath, pulling away from Harry and scrubbing his hands over his face. "Sorry," he said, voice a little high and shaky. "I'm acting crazy, sorry, just...it's a lot."

"I know," Harry had said, quietly, and Louis hugged him again, nuzzling his face into Harry's shoulder and breathing hotly.

"They know," he said, so small Harry mostly felt it rather than heard it. "I mean, like, her girlfriend is here, for Thanksgiving, as her girlfriend."