July 6th 2018

It was errands day. A day that had become quite hard for Harry and quite exhausting for Louis, but had to happen nonetheless. They were going to get some groceries, and go to the car wash, but very first Harry was taking Louis to get some new clothes. He'd become too small for everything he owned, and all of his sweats hung very loosely on his small frame. He was down to roughly 43 kilos (95 pounds.) 

Wheeling Louis into the clothing shop, his heart was saddened at the lack of response Louis had to the new surroundings. Usually his eyes lit up with curiosity any time they went somewhere, but today his eyes were just empty as he stared straight ahead, confused, lost, and hardly there at all. 

Harry bent over and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and wheeled him over to the racks of sweatpants and sweatshirts. "okay boo, they've got red, yellow, black, white, blue, and green" he listed as if Louis understood. 

He held up the green pair for Louis to see, as usually Louis reacted to the color green. "Green baby.." he said softly, trying to get a reaction. 

But Louis, completely confused, just stared back him blankly. 

"We'll do the green then" Harry whispered, trying not to let it hurt him too much. He also grabbed a blue pair, a black one and a white one, hanging them on the back of Louis' wheelchair. "Alright, lets try these on." Harry said, looking around for an attendant. 

Quickly, an employee, clad in a simple button down shirt and black jeans approached them. "Hi, were you needing any assistance?" He smiled, licking his lips a little. Louis looked up at the man and frowned, it was the first expression he'd made all day. 

Harry didn't notice Louis' frown however, as he was focused on getting a room to help him try things on. "Yeah, could we get a fitting room? Preferably a bigger one?" 

"Oh sure of course" The man smiled, "I'm Nick by the way." He held his hand out for Harry to shake, which Harry thought was a bit odd for a store employee, but he smiled and shook it anyway, as Nick seemed pretty nice. 

"I'm Harry" Harry replied, then gestured to Louis "And this is Louis. He's my husband." 

Nick smiled down at Louis insincerely, immediately feeling jealous , as he found Harry quite attractive. He'd originally assumed Harry was a caretaker or something. "I see.... well hello Louis" He reached out his hand to Louis. 

Louis furrowed his eyebrows, and frowned deeper, then turned his head away. He didn't like this Nick. Louis had always been a good judge of character, and while he didn't really understand why he didn't like him, he knew that he didn't. 

Harry still couldn't see the frown on his husband's face, and thought he was just looking around and hadn't understood. "He has Alzheimer's" Harry explained quietly, "He wasn't trying to be rude or anything, he just doesn't really understand." 

"Oh well that's awful. I'm so sorry." Nick frowned, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "My aunt got that, and it was just a horrible disease." 

Of course, Nick didn't really care about Louis, but if he wanted to get Harry to date him after Louis passing, he'd have to pretend. 

"It is awful. He's the love of my life, and I have to watch him slip away day by day" Harry whispered, with tears in his eyes. 

Nick rubbed at his shoulder a bit. "I can hardly imagine how awful that must be, how much time does he have left?" He asked. 

"I'm not sure... he's nearing the end though. You can tell by the way he's becoming unresponsive." Harry responded, keeping his tone hushed. Even though Louis couldn't understand what they were saying, Harry hated talking about him like he wasn't even there. 

Nick was about to respond when Louis let out a very angry sounding grunt. 

Harry immediately knelt down in front of him and rubbed his tiny thighs, looking at him with concern. "Hey... what's wrong?" He asked gently, even though he knew he wouldn't get a response. 

Although he didn't answer, Louis smiled at Harry. He liked Harry. Harry was calming, Harry was kind, and he was distantly familiar. He couldn't pinpoint just exactly who Harry was, but he felt safe with him, happy. He felt love for him. 

Louis' smile immediately turned back to a frown when Nick came and knelt beside Harry. "What's going on? Can I help?" He asked. 

Louis glared at him, and with all of the mental capacity he could muster, he weakly managed to put his hands out in front of him, his way of trying to make Nick go away. 

"Is it Nick baby?" Harry asked, realizing Louis didn't seem to like him. "There's nothing wrong with him, he's just here to help us." He assured, though Louis couldn't comprehend it. 

When Nick still didn't make any move to leave Louis started whining and getting very worked up and angry, which was so confusing to Harry. 

"I'm so sorry, I think we need to leave." Harry said, hoping Louis was alright. He had no idea why Louis was behaving the way he was and it broke his heart to see him so upset. 

"Oh, of course. Well, why don't you take the sweats? You can return them if they don't fit." Nick said. 

Harry nodded, "Thank you, truly, for all your help." 

"It's no trouble at all." Nick smiled, "Oh before you leave... would you be okay if I got your number? I'd like to know that Louis is okay and maybe the three of us could hang out sometime when he's in a better mood." 

Harry raised his eyebrows, a bit confused, and completely oblivious to what Nick's intentions really were. "oh um sure." He said, quickly putting it into Nick's phone, "See you later."

"Bye Harry." Nick said, smirking once Harry had turned around and started wheeling a very distraught Louis away. 

Once Louis was out of the picture, Harry would be all his. 

**************

Louis was much better for the rest of the day. He actually smiled a few times, and even giggled once when Harry had given him a few bites of ice cream. 

Currently, Harry was on the phone with Liam, while sitting on the sofa with Louis, some of Louis' old favorite songs played in the background, to help his mind a little, as Louis calmly sat with bobo in his lap. The sweet man tried so hard to pet the toy, which he truly believed was real due to his mental state, but it was so much of a struggle. He ended up just resting his hand on it and lifting it back up every few minutes, before resting it on the toy again. 

Harry had just explained to Liam what had happened with Louis at the clothing store, and was hoping to get some insight from him. "I don't know what would've caused him to act that way... maybe it was just an off moment. I really hope it doesn't mean he's getting worse or something" Harry rambled into the phone. 

"Harry," Liam sighed, "He's probably jealous." 

"What? How? I didn't show any feeling toward Nick, and he didn't show any to me either. He was just trying to help us." Harry said, completely baffled. 

"Yeah, but you know how protective Louis can be." Liam replied, causing Harry to tear up. 

"Do you really think that's what it was? Louis being protective or jealous?" Harry asked quietly. 

"It's what it sounds like to me. I'm not sure how, but I think that's what was happening, based on what you've told me."

"Liam.... oh my gosh" Harry gasped, "That means he still cares about me, still loves me." 

"Well of course he does Haz, you know that." Liam replied softly. 

"I know... but he hasn't been able to show it... well until today." Harry said, "It's just nice to see that Louis is still in there ya know?"

Liam smiled "I know. Take care Haz, talk to you later." 

"Okay, talk to you later Liam. Bye." Harry said, hanging up the phone before turning to his beautiful husband. 

"I love you so much" He told him, wrapping his arms around his small body and hugging him close. "So. Much. Thank you for caring about me." 

Louis let out a soft little hum as he snuggled into Harry's embrace. Nick was long forgotten in Louis' mind, and in this moment he was safe in his husband's arms. 

He was home. 

Hey guys!! I feel like this chapter was kind of poorly written and choppy, so I'm sorry about that. Hope you enjoyed this update, big shoutout to @Summer1245 for their advice today :) Please leave comments and any feedback you may have, it means so so much to me :) As always have a beautiful day, I love you all <3

-Sunnie