Prisoner

Twelve

It's the small things that have Louis all messed up. The things like the way Harry will sometimes absentmindedly rub his thumb against his hand when he's holding it, or the way Harry will look at him like he's the most important thing in the entire universe.

All Louis wants to do is protect him, which is funny because Harry's the much bigger and masculine one out of them both. It's just, his energy isn't. His energy is soft and broken.

Louis' always had an issue with feeling the need to fix everyone. He's always attracted broken people into his life. Whether as friends, enemies, or lovers. They all seem to be missing a piece if them that for some reason Louis feels he can replace.

He can't though. Not with Harry. There is no 'fixing' him. What's there to fix? Harry seems pretty mentally stable. He's not happy, but who would be in his situation. Yeah, he has some personal experiences that affect him, but who doesn't?

Louis doesn't feel like he needs to fix Harry, he feels like he needs to save him. Save him from sadness, from loneliness, from hopelessness, and from death. Maybe he can cheer Harry up and maybe he can keep him company but in the end, nothing can be done to change the inevitable outcome of Harry's life.

Three months is too little time to change an entire person for the better but Louis can at least give it everything he's got, which is what he's going to do.

"Okay, sorry, I found them," Louis' dad says, coming down the staircase. Louis decided to walk to his dads house just to visit for awhile.

"How do you loose your keys that often? Just keep them in one place," Louis tells his dad, while putting his jacket on and walking to the door.

On the car ride over Louis wonders if he'll be assigned to someone else after Harry. If he'll even still be interning there. He's not sure if he'll be able to just come in and act professional once Harry's gone.

As soon as they're at the prison, Louis unbuckles and waits for his dad so they can walk in. At this point, it's become so routine for Louis to go through security and sign in that it almost feels like his normal job.

"I'm gonna go see him a little earlier today, if that's okay," Louis says.

"Sure. His block will be at lunch for another ten minutes but then you can go if you want."

"Okay cool," Louis says, sitting down in his usual spot.

"But Louis," his dad says, causing Louis to look to him," I don't want you to feel like it's your responsibility to change him."

"Yeah I know. I just care about him," Louis says. "As more than a client. You already know that though."

"You're not gonna start to like him are you?"

Louis shrugs. "I think I already do," he says. He tells his dad everything. He's a very transparent person so his dad can usually tell what's going on anyway.

"It won't end well," Mr. Tomlinson says, making himself some coffee before his shift officially starts.

"I know. It's not like I want to have feelings for him. If it were my choice I wouldn't. I don't want to see him go feeling the way I do about him. It's going to break my heart. I know that."

"I'm just worried. I know you've been doing a lot better lately but you do have a history of letting things like this mess you up."

"I know, but I'm good now. I can handle it. I'm not saying I won't grieve or lay in bed for three days straight, but I'll move on from that."

"Grieving is fine, it's just when you stop caring about anything."

"It won't be like that, dad."