Bag of Bones (Larry Stylinson)

15 (Alternate Ending)

Just a, just a little bit more
Let's shake this poet out of the beast

      With all of the tears streaming down Louis' face, he would think that sadness would be the dominant emotion that he was feeling right now in hindsight. It isn't, however; it's actually the happiest he's felt in a while because he's not just crying, he's crying in Harry's arms. The arms that he fits into perfectly, the arms that he's become so well-acquainted with over the last seven years, the arms that he doesn't have to tip-toe to meet because Harry bends down to make up for their height gap. He's the happiest he's ever been for this whole break because he knows now that in Harry's arms, he's home.
      Harry's crying into his shoulder too, although Louis likes to assume that it's out of relief too. Because after watching that heart-wrenching video he made for him, he hopes that being with him is where Harry wants to be too. He rubs Harry's back reassuringly when he cries even harder.
      They stay like that for a while, just holding one another and crying in the middle of the room in the early morning. Louis wants to kiss Harry through the tears, he wants to dance and twirl him and make him feel special, but he has a pit in his gut holding him back from doing all of those things.
      No matter how at home he feels in Harry's arms right now, he can't ignore the burning fact that he slept with another man during their break. It's not something he can ignore and forget easily, no matter how much he wants to. He needs to tell Harry. He lets himself cry for a little bit longer, though, just to enjoy Harry's embrace that he's missed for over a week now.
      No matter how tight he holds on, though, their crying dies down to sniffling as they cling to one another. Louis can't find the words to say as silence envelopes them, but luckily Harry does.
      "So, I'm guessing you liked the video?" Harry asks with his breath brushing Louis' ear since they're still in a hug. Louis can still hear the smile in his voice, though.
      "Liked it? I loved it. It was... it was really perfect. It should be considered a film more than a video if anything," he returns in a warm voice, only shaking a bit from his uneven breathing due to crying. "So you spent your time not talking to me doing this?"
      "Yeah I did, funnily enough," Harry returns, smiling at Louis as they now finally pull out of their hug. Louis smiles back despite his attention being refocused back onto the pit in his stomach upon Harry's answer.
      Harry spent their entire break crafting this video over what Louis has taught him through their love, meanwhile Louis spent their break scraping by and even sleeping with someone else. The thought makes him feel sick, and the smile falls off of his face as he looks down to his and Harry's hands, which are now holding each other between them. He has to tell him at some point about Marcus, and his gut says the best time is now no matter how hard that will be.
      "What's with the sheets in the corner?" Harry suddenly asks, snapping Louis out of his trance and causing his eyes to follow Harry's to the crumpled sheets in the corner that he threw yesterday in frustration.
Now he can't avoid it even if he wanted to. He supposes it's for the best, though, since he knows he has to tell Harry if he ever wants to progress his relationship with him. His mind wanders over to marriage, but he forces his thoughts away from there as he turns back to Harry.
"Those are- I'm-" Louis stammers out as he searches for the right thing to say. Harry's inquisitive face now trained on him forces him to go on despite the lump attempting to form in his throat. "I need to tell you something."
He says it so seriously that the small and confused smile leaves Harry's face, understanding the weight of what Louis is about to say. As he looks down at the floor, Louis tries to focus on how his hands are holding Harry's. Harry then squeezes his hand once, giving him enough reassurance and courage to get on with it.
"Harry, there is no one else I love more in this world than you. This break has taught me how I don't even know how to live without you. But if we're going to get back together and continue this relationship, I need to be completely honest with you and tell you what I did during our time apart," Louis says honestly, his voice only shaking a bit. His hands are clammy in Harry's, but he's still holding on. He focuses on that instead of his rapidly beating heart.
"I..." his voice leaves his throat involuntarily, causing him to take a deep breath to regain the space in his lungs. Harry squeezes his hand, and even though it makes him want to cry, he looks into his eyes as he goes on. "I slept with someone else during our break."
Louis feels blood rush to his head as he becomes dizzy under the tension hanging in the room, Harry remaining silent as Louis just sits there and looks at him sadly. Suddenly, Harry's hands are out of his and he's taken a step back to distance them.
"What? You- you slept with someone else?" Harry asks, disbelief heavy in his voice as tears already cloud his eyes. The sight makes Louis ache, but he stays quiet rather than trying to rationalize the situation.
"W-who? Why? Why would you sleep with someone else-" Harry's sentence cuts off after his voice cracks, a tear already making its way down his cheek. Louis feels tears come to his eyes as he sees Harry bring his hands to hair and start to pace, but he steps forward and speaks earnestly to calm him down.
"Harry, I- I know that there is no rationalizing or any excuses for what I did-"
"You're right! There are no excuses!" Harry cuts him off angrily, his angered front having sadness underlying it heavily. More tears fall down his face, and Louis feels his heart breaking at the sight.
"You're right, there are no excuses. It was the dumbest decision I have ever made, and I've never regretted anything more than it," Louis supplies to him, a tear making its way down his face too now. He wants to reach out to Harry and hold him, but he gives him his space as he continues to pace.
"I can't believe- why would you-" Harry stammers out as he struggles for something to grasp onto in the conversation.
"Harry, please believe me when I say that I'd do anything to take it back. I truly would. I love you so much and-"
"You can't just- just say that! You don't love me," Harry mutters to himself as he paces, causing Louis' heart to drop and more tears to come to his eyes. "If you loved me, then you wouldn't have even considered sleeping with someone else."
"Harry," Louis says in earnest now, holding both of Harry's wrists in his hands as he forces the other man to look him in the eye. "I love you. There is nothing that will ever change that."
Harry stares back at him with tears in his eyes and sadness written over his face. "I..." he starts before more tears run down his face. He hasn't moved out of Louis' hold yet. "I love you too. But loving you can't solve something like this."
"Why not?" Louis suddenly challenges, causing Harry's downcast eyes snap back to his. "Why did we take a break Harry?"
Harry stays silent at the question, looking sad and confused as he looks at Louis. Louis takes a step forward, bringing their hands down and then releasing Harry's wrists.
"I made us take a break because I thought we both needed to sort out on whether we truly wanted to be together. To think through if we really were the ones we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with," Louis explains, looking up to Harry now. He figures that he's giving Harry a raw expression of sadness as he goes on, a look that only the sunrise has seen.
"And even though I made the stupidest decision of my life, it only proved to show me how much I love you. Even through that, it's never been more clear to me that you're the only one I love. No one else is meant for me than you, and standing here with you now, it's so clear to me how every bone in my body will die loving you, whether you love me back or not," Louis admits, his confession ending a bit quietly. The air feels heavy between them with the big words Louis just admitted, and Harry looks back at him with more tears running down his face.
"I love you, Harry. And you love me too. Why should we let a dumb mistake I made ruin that entirely?" Louis finally finishes, tears running down his face again too. He wants to hold Harry, to hug him and just listen to his heartbeat until he falls asleep like they used to, but he keeps what little space they have as he waits for Harry to respond.
"I..." Harry's voice dies off once again, causing him to press his hands to eyes and take a deep breath. "I do love you, Louis. I don't think I'll ever stop loving you ever if this break has shown me anything. It's going to take a lot of work, but I- I want to be with you. I don't think I can live without you either," he finally admits, falling into Louis' arms after he finishes.
They cry in each other's arms for a while more, this time in a mix of sadness, happiness, and relief. Even though they don't have everything figured out, it feels nice to just hold one another and know that it'll be okay; they'll make it that way. They're gonna be okay, and that's all that matters.
Louis keeps repeating a continuous stream of "I love you" and "I'm so sorry" until Harry finally pulls away and smiles at him with happiness in his features despite the tears in his eyes. He looks like he wants to say something, but remains quiet. Louis takes this silence as a time to talk.
"I- I know that I have a lot of work to do to build your trust again and be worthy of your love. I know that it's going to be a long and gradual process, but I want you to know that I'm going to be there every step of the way and willing to do whatever it takes to make this right," Louis promises while holding Harry's shoulders. Harry's face softens at his admittance. "There is one thing I want to do right now, though. I want to leave this chapter of our relationship behind us forever."
Harry's face is inquisitive and serious once again, most likely wondering what Louis means by this. "I," Louis says, looking down at the ground before looking back to Harry and wiping his tears. "I want to burn those sheets in the corner with you. They kind of remind me of that dumb decision I made, and the first thing I want to do is get rid of them with you."
Harry looks even more confused now, looking from Louis' face to the sheets in the corner. After a few moments of processing what he said and what Louis is asking of him, Harry's face shifts to a serious one as he looks back to him. "Okay."
"Okay," Louis says more to tell himself. After the affirmation, Louis takes Harry's hand and leads him to the corner and picks up the sheets. "There is a fireplace on the balcony where we can do it."
Harry nods at this and follows him to the balcony silently. Louis carefully stuffs the sheets into the fireplace once they get out there, and once he's done with that, Harry hands him some gasoline that was next to the fireplace. Louis gives him a small smile in gratitude for not questioning his weird tendencies, and Harry gives him one back.
Louis then douses the sheets with the gasoline and carefully lights them on fire before stepping back a bit to join Harry. Without a word, they both hand-in-hand watch the flames come to life and dance as Louis' worst mistake reduces to ashes.
Once the fire dies down a bit later, Louis pulls Harry into another hug. "Thank you," he whispers into his ear under the broad daylight on the balcony.
Harry just rubs his back in response, holding on tightly with his other arm. "Want to go back home?"
The words make Louis tear up, and he just nods against Harry's shoulder as he hugs him tighter. "Thought you'd never ask."
Harry laughs wetly at that, pulling away from the hug to smile at Louis. Louis smiles back, and before he knows it, Harry is pulling him into a kiss.
This kiss is just a sweet, brief kiss, causing Louis' heart to melt. It feels natural to return the kiss now, Harry's hand holding his face gently as Louis smiles into it. They pull away with broad grins on their faces.
After that exchange, the boys work together to pick up Louis' colossal mess of a room, Harry teasing him quite a bit during the process. Once the room was clean and Louis was all packed, they said their goodbyes to Stan, Louis pulling him into a teary hug and whispering "thank you."
After Stan replied with a sincere "anytime," Harry and Louis finally left the apartment to go to their own, remaining mostly silent but holding each other's hand for the ride there.
They talked a bit here or there, mainly just reveling in being in each other's presence after being away from one another for so long, but Harry piqued Louis' interest when they talked as Harry made them dinner later that day.
"You know," Harry said as he mixed vegetables that he was grilling in a pan, becoming bashful all of the sudden. "You remember that one day when we decided that you were the sunset and I was the sunrise?"
The question caused Louis to stop swinging his feet from his spot sitting on the counter to focus on Harry. "Yeah, I do."
Louis could see Harry's cheeks bunch up in a smile from his side view of his profile. "It's silly, but- I, um, I couldn't go to sleep until I watched the sunset. I just- I don't know, it felt like you were with me then," Harry admitted, his voice almost quieter than the sizzling of the food he was making. The confession made Louis tear up.
"Really?" he asked, his voice high and disbelieving. Harry nodded back, looking away from the food to look at him. "That's- that's so crazy because I was the same with the sunrise. Like, I know it sounds like I'm lying right now, but no matter how tired I was, I couldn't fall asleep until I saw the sunrise. I didn't realize it was because it reminded me of you until later, but yeah."
After saying all of that, Louis looked up from his feet to see Harry staring at him with a wide smile and tears in his eyes. His dimples were as deep as ever, and it made Louis smile back so wide that it hurt a bit.
"I love you, sunset," Harry said sappily, leaving the food for a second to crowd Louis' space.
"I love you too, sunrise," Louis laughed before kissing Harry. And while they held each other then, Louis on the counter and Harry momentarily forgetting about cooking their dinner, Louis knew everything was going to be alright.

•••

Important Note:

(Hello, author here! First of all, I'd like to thank you all so much for reading my fic! I really did start this out intending for it to only be around 10k words, but it took on a life of it's own so here we are at 50k.
This ending may be a little confusing, so I'm here to explain it:
So, to put it simply, chapter 14 was the true ending to this fic, and I just made this alternative happy-ending chapter to appease my friends because they would have probably been very upset at me if I didn't. So basically, this would be the ending if people always knew the right thing to say and if everything always worked out. I was planning on ending this fic with this chapter and leaving it at that, but through writing this, I have realized that I don't want to put this storyline down quite yet.
So, I'm writing a sequel! It will continue on from how the 14th chapter left off, but it will be in Harry's point of view rather than Louis'. That's all I have planned for it so far, but I'm very excited to continue with this storyline! I'm not sure when I'll finish the sequel or publish it, so take this happy ending to pacify you all for now before I come up with the true ending.
Thank you all again for reading this! Please remember to treat people with kindness!)