Undercover (Larry Stylinson)

9. bar talks

When Harry went to work that night, he felt particularly giddy. Louis just invited him on a date. Or maybe not a date, but a one-on-one hangout. At night. At a bar.

It sounded like a date.

Harry was so excited that night that he didn't even need to watch Netflix to entertain himself in the car. He just sat there thinking of outfit ideas and what type of cocktail he should order and whether or not he should pay the tab. He should pay, shouldn't he? He should definitely pay.

It had been so long since he'd gone on a date he couldn't remember. Well, maybe it hadn't been that long. Six months ago at most? But everything that happened before Moscow seemed like ages ago at this point. Like it was part of a different life.

And just like that, he started thinking about Niall again. Not a day went by that he didn't. But now, he was thinking of Niall with a tight feeling in his chest, a heavy sadness in his heart. Because he was feeling happy again. He was moving on. And that wasn't right.

When Niall told him to run, there was never a formal communication about where he should go. He didn't ask Harry to come back for him, but he didn't tell him to leave the country and never come back.

Before he left, he told Russian officials at the airport about Niall and told them his contact information. But he doubted they actually bothered doing an investigation. In New York, he tried to work with the embassy to get someone on the case too, but they said it would be weeks before the paper would even be processed, let alone approved.

It's not like he didn't try. Harry tried. There was just a lot of red tape and nothing he could do about it. Nothing, except go back to Russia.

But Harry, in his state with his trauma, was in no shape to fly back to the very place he had almost been murdered in. And maybe it was selfish, but he decided that asking for help was enough and that the authorities would have to take it from there.

It didn't feel right, just handing off the problem like that. Niall was his best friend and Harry was the reason they got captured in the first place - it was his phone call that got them captured. But at the same time, he knew Niall wouldn't want him to do something stupid because that would just get them both killed.

It had been two full months since Moscow, and almost three weeks since he moved to Massachusetts. But the guilt was eating him alive, and even talking to Kate about it didn't help.

Sighing, Harry took out his bottle of pills and put one under his tongue. He was bound to have another episode tonight and he didn't want to deal with it. He just wanted to numb out for a while.

He was still drinking a lot, but not as much as he was before. Hanging out with Louis made him feel a bit better. Maybe he could replace his alcohol addiction with a movies and junkfood addiction like Louis suggested.

When the sun rose and the next officer came to relieve him, Harry smiled and waved through his window.

"Thanks for relieving me," he said groggily. "Have a good shift."

He drove him and slept peacefully for a few hours. Or at least as peacefully as he could while nightmares wracked his brain.

***********

"Hey, there," Louis said, stepping out onto the green patch of grass that separated their properties. "You look dapper."

Harry smiled and looked down at his dark blue skinny jeans and white collared shirt, which he paired with a black leather jacket.

"Well, it's a night out on the town, I have to look my best," he giggled, a dimple forming on his right cheek.

"Well I love this outfit," Louis replied with a smile. "I'm gonna call an Uber. So we can both drink, yeah?"