Sometimes We Break So Beautiful [Larry Stylinson]

Epilogue.

Note- thank you all for reading and voting. I enjoyed doing this one.

Six months after the Powwow, Harry hosted his first art show. The gallery was full of his paintings and sculptures, being admired by formally attired guests among whom included Harry's and Louis' friends- Liam, Zayn, Jade, Bebe, Niall, Shawn, Miller, Harry's mother Anne, and his father Des who had been flown out for the show and was staying with them in their apartment. They all enjoyed the art with waiters carrying around champagne and tiny pastries. Louis was fidgety the whole time, loosening the tie around his neck every time his eyes flashed to an abstract painting. Niall patted him on the shoulder, and Liam gave him a speech about supporting Harry's career.

Louis snapped at the man telling him he did support it he just never found himself in such close proximity to so many of his paintings before. Anne had rented him a place again to become his art studio and Louis had only been in there a couple times to pick him up, and Harry himself never brought home more than one painting at a time to work on so being around all at once now was rather overwhelming for Louis.

"Are you even into this kind of stuff?" Jade asked, awkwardly tilting her head to a starkly real sculpture of the separated body parts of a man that looks like Harry, arranged in such a way to form the shape of a mountain. Harry even added the penis in the mix. "It's so artfully creepy."

"I know, right?" Louis wiped the sweat beading down his face when he noticed one of the man's legs were missing. "It's weird, I think this is my favorite."

"I think what you have is Stendhal syndrome," Liam realized. "It's not a registered mental disorder but We get calls about it all the time. It happens when you view art that you deeply relate to and that triggers past experiences. It's not a surprise Harry's paintings are getting to you. All of them are about the earthquake." He pointedly pointed to the plaque with the name of the collection- Harry's Earthquake Epiphany.

Louis then mumbled he was going for fresh air and went out on the street in front of the building. He took some much needed deep breaths and sighed. He hoped Harry didn't notice him gone because the last thing he wanted is to skip out on the biggest night of his life. Harry had been working on these sculptures for months even though they had minor arguments over his obsessive working all hours of the night in the studio and louis feeling like their relationship was in limbo as a result, he was proud of him and needed to pull his Stendhal syndrome or whatever it is together for Harry's sake tonight.

*

It was almost midnight but down in the basement, Louis was busy doing the laundry. Des had gone to bed having been given Zayn's room to stay since he got a place with Liam a month ago, and Harry had called saying he'd be late for dinner but that was hours ago. Louis couldn't stop thinking about the slight edge in his voice when he said it. He also couldn't forget the look on Harry's face when he walked in the apartment and saw Louis watching TV on the couch with Sophie after the show last night.

Louis going to tell him that he wasn't really watching the TV per se, more like the TV was watching him stare blankly at it. Louis didn't mean to leave the art show when he did, he just...couldn't breathe. But Harry just passed by him and got ready for bed, staying quiet for the whole night.

Reaching under the pile of dirty clothes, he pulled out a paint-stained sweater and huffed. He opened a bottle of acetone and poured it on, corking it back and slamming it back in the detergent basket.

The sound of footsteps coming down the basement stairs let him know Harry was home and ready talk.

"I can't believe you skipped out on me last night," Harry said, fulfilling Louis' predictions. "Do you have any idea how much this showing meant to me?"