I Remember You Laughing [Larry Stylinson]

Chapter 21- The Rodeo Show

Okay, this chapter is super long. I hope that is a good thing and you enjoy it because it's my personal favorite at the moment! Please leave me some comments guys. 

"I still can't believe Niall asked me to perform with you guys. I think if I do, I'll just play the keyboard in the back though."

Harry shot him a distinct look. A look that said "Yes that's probably a good idea after all the drama you stirred up yesterday." Louis wanted so badly to ask Harry what he thought about what he sang. Wanted to bring to the surface all he was spinning in his head from the first time he met Harry, to the pink line peeking over his jeans the other night. He wanted so bad to know, but he couldn't just blatantly ask. Sometimes Louis knew. For a second when they locked eyes. And then he didn't. Because even when Harry's red flushes and deep searching stares say a lot, it's just that. It's just that they don't say anything at all about anything to do with the weird, slow drumming game they played, without some kind of conversation to break the oxygen bottle and draw breath again between them whenever they were alone. It was Saturday and with one more week to go before he left Champton, he prayed he would get through in one piece concerning his feelings toward Harry, especially if the boy didn't feel anything remotely close to what Louis did.

"Don't be ridiculous. Your voice is... refreshing!" Anne quipped, sliding next to her son, opposite Louis, just as Gemma staggered in the kitchen and started pouring herself some coffee.

It was five in the morning, and just as it's been all week since they arrived, it's just Louis, Harry, Anne, and an occasional Gemma in the kitchen having the earliest breakfast Louis had grown accustomed to in such a short time. As he sat down to have what Harry made – and Harry always makes this amazing early breakfast, securing the girls portions for when they got up, always around eight-ish, nine-ish - he wondered how he did it every morning. All of it, the cooking, the barn, the pens, feeding and cleaning everything. It seemed that since he came there Harry had so much responsibility, too much for a boy his age.

"Anne, I'm really sorry if I caused any unnecessary trouble yesterday. I should've thought it through."

"No bother. She had it a long time coming. She was always spreading gossip and scheming in high school. "she pointed her chin to Harry. "Even had her sights set on their father. Serves her right to shut up for once."

"You went to school with Gemma and Harry's Dad?" Louis' gaze drifted to Harry. He was perfectly concentrated on his sandwich, not looking up or even flinching at his name being mentioned, but as soon as Louis shifted back to Anne he felt those huge eyes flicker on him like a torchlight.

"Yes, I did. We were in the same year. I had Gemma when I was seventeen. Got married straight out of high school."

Louis did a math on that. His mother had him at eighteen, right after she left Champton, and if Gemma was two years older than him, then that mean his mother was one year younger than Anne. Anne told him before that Johannah only came back for her father's funeral when Louis was already walking and talking, and Harry was only a couple months old (he had probably met baby Harry at the funeral and he was too young to remember).

That was the last time she came to Champton Valley? Why didn't she come back for Anne's husband's funeral? Or Harry's granddad's?

"That, uh, that song you sang yesterday on stage, it was my wedding song, Louis." Anne smiled as she fiddled with her closed knuckles beside her plate.

If Harry's father died at twenty-one just a few months after Louis' grandfather died then-

"How did he die?"