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There's blood pushing her hair on her face and the water is everywhere. Liam is dead and his body is lying limply in the middle of the corridor. Astraya is bleeding out under Harry's hands. He didn't think Liam would move his gun to where she was lying. Didn't think he'd pull the trigger on her and not him and he's so stupid for not considering it. Now her eyes are wide and trying to take in her surroundings. He can see her pupils dilating repeatedly as the water from the ceiling sprinklers poor over them.

His mother's lips are parted. There's blood now falling into her open mouth and he's just shaking.

He tries to shake the nerves from his hands. Pulling her hair back and scrubbing the blood from above her eyes. His phone is ringing and he knows it's Joshua because he's the only person that ever really calls him. He should really pick up the call because he's his last hope in saving her, but he can't bring himself to let her go. Hopefully Josh will just look at his location from the tracker.

Please move. He just wants to know she's okay. There's so much blood and now there's gasoline dripping from the bottom of the car. He knows what happens when that happens. And he knows his mother won't be moving but he's still hoping she will.

He's rocking her back and forth against his chest. Trying to wake her up because he needs her around longer than this. Her hair is soaked and clinging to his shaking fingers.

He's being pulled back into a car. Safety lock sounds. The engine revs up. His mother disappears with the distance.

Astraya meets his eyes but he doesn't know she's really conscious until she opens her mouth to say something.

"What happened?" Her face is pale as the slurred words make it to his ears and heart.

Harry decides not to answer her. He can already see the horror in her expression. He tucks his face between her shoulder and neck, breath hot and heavy against her skin. "I've never loved anyone before," he whispers.

She still hasn't moved. He's afraid of looking at her. Afraid of finding her eyes facing the ceiling but not really looking at anything at all.

"You're close to it, I think. You're the closest to love I'll ever get." His hand snakes up the back of her head, fingers brushing through her hair and working out the knots.

"Harry." She sounds so scared. He remembers her telling him how scared she is of dying like this. And now it's happening.  Her voice is so hushed and defeated and frightened, and her worst fear is happening right before her.

He moves away from her body and she tries to sit up. His hands push her back down when she begins to shake. "I'm sorry. Please don't move away from me. I'm sorry."

She's gathered up closer to his body. His lips hover over her ear and he hopes she's listening.

"You lost everything because of me and I'm sorry. So sorry, Astraya."

The door up ahead opens and Harry doesn't even reach for his gun. He already lost the fight. Now he just wants to sit here holding her. In a half-here-half-not moment, he looks up at the person standing over them and shudders.

"Joshua," he breathes. "Hey."

Josh doesn't even say anything, and that's when Harry knows nothing can be done.

Still he holds onto hope. "We need to get her home so you can, uh...," he sniffles a little and pushes his hair back so the drops of water stop getting in his eyes, and then continues in a raspy tone, "so you can help her."

"Yeah." Josh just stares at the ground. He's always looked Harry in the eyes and now he won't even glance at him. "We have to leave before the cops get here. The building's already been cleared."

Harry licks his lips and keeps his gaze on Astraya's eyes that are wide open. She hasn't said anything but he knows she's trying to.

"Harry, let's go."

"Help me pick her up."

She's shaking her head but he refuses to acknowledge it much.

Josh wipes his face and sighs out, eyes still avoiding the scene before him. Water is slowly starting to soak his shirt, the dark tattoos on his chest slowly come into focus. Harry sees the swallows under his collarbones; one of the matching tattoos they have. "I don't think I can do anything, Harry."

He shakes his head profusely. "Don't do this, Josh. Don't do that shit. Not right now. I've never-" he stops to breathe.

"There's too much blood, Harry. She must be in so much pain."

"I've never cared this much."

Something heavy makes a sound downstairs and they both stop moving. It doesn't take long for shouts to sound through the thin walls. It takes even shorter of a time for Harry to watch Joshua walk away.

Meanwhile, Astraya is dying in his arms.

Epilogue

Two Days Later

Joshua's never seen so much blood before in his life. Even when Harry would be so badly wounded, he'd never seen as much blood as he did two nights ago. Harry knows he gets nauseous and uneasy at the sight of so much blood so when he would get hurt, he'd shower before coming to see him. Joshua would always be too meek about things like that and insist he didn't need to clean up, but he's so weak.

The blood on his hands is a whole two days old. He's locked himself in his room for all this time, left to his thoughts until he feels like he can finally face Harry.

Cautiously, he walks over to the bathroom conjoined to his bedroom and washes the red from his hands. It's still on his shirt but he doesn't bother changing before walking away and out of the room. The faucet is still running when he steps into the dark corridor.

He's practically numb as he walks the hallway, pausing only when he makes a turn and sees a small shadow leaning against one of the walls. The first thing he does is rub his eyes.

Then he nearly sprints and trips over his feet to catch Astraya before she falls to the floor. His eyes are bloodshot but wide, and he didn't know he actually saved her so seeing her standing and looking at him has his heart beating wildly in his chest. "I thought... I thought you were-" dead.

Her face is red and her skin is hot. He releases her when he looks down at how dirty he is compared to her. There are only scratches on the side of her face and that one tinged bandage around her torso where she was shot. The black and blues under her skin is very obvious and makes bile rise in his throat. "Me too," she whispers through cracked lips.

Josh shakes his head and points to the room she stumbled out of. "Go back to bed and I'll, uh, get you some water. Try not to move so much."

She complies and he continues his walk down the hallway. It doesn't take long to retrieve a glass of water from the kitchen, but on his way back to her bedroom he hears glass shattering accompanied by vicious grunts coming from one of the closed rooms.

He bites his tongue and opens the closest door, freezing shyly when he sees Harry tossing cologne bottles on the hard wood. The fumes are so strong he starts coughing, but Harry must be so lost in his rampage that he doesn't even acknowledge the other person in the room. He tears the sheets from his bed and throws them somewhere in the corner. It must not do much to satisfy him because he goes over to his drawers and recklessly rips them from their hinges to throw them almost combatively to the floor.

Josh takes that as his queue to walk forward between Harry and the rest of his dresser. His hand presses against his heaving chest and he closes his eyes when the rampant man tries to meet his gaze. Josh expects this to go wrong. He expects a blow or two. Expects to cough up blood by the end of this encounter, and he knows he can avoid it all if he would just tell him that Astraya is alive and not dead like he thought she was so many hours ago. He doubts his medical skills a lot, but fuck, he was so sure she was dead by the end of the procedure.

Suddenly, Harry pulls him into his chest. Some of the water spills on his bare feet but he doesn't pay much attention to it because of how shocked he is that Harry is hugging him and not beating the shit out of-

"I appreciate you." Harry's voice is slow and hoarse. "Thank you for trying."

"Harry."

A hand comes up to grab the glass of water. "You got me water?"

Josh doesn't have any time to respond before the cup is out of his hands and pressed against Harry's lips instead. "That's not..."

Half of the water is gone when it's back in his hand, and he can't help but whip his head to the side when he hears a soft cough from the entrance.

"Harry?" Astraya's voice causes Harry to stumble over the broken glass and strong toxins in order to get to her. He mumbles something under his breath and then nearly shoves her out of the room with an almost aggressive hug that makes her break out in a series of coughs.

"I love you," he hears him say. The rest of his words get muffled in the side of her bruised neck.

Josh follows them out and then holds the water out to her. "There was more but not all of it made it so I'll get another glass while you finish this one."

Harry looks caught in awe but he's just looking at the woman before him. One of his hands presses against her neck like he's entranced with her pulse. His eyes stay on hers like he's never seen them before tonight.

He slowly leans down to match her height, and then he takes the cup of water from her hands, pressing his lips against hers instead. "I love you. I love you, Astraya."

-unedited-

Sign of the Times is so beautiful, guys. I didn't even know how badly I missed his voice until this song, and now I'm feeling some type of way because now I know how much I miss the rest of the boys' voices.

On another note, thank you so much for reading Meanwhile! Thank you for staying with me through this journey! Please have an amazing day/night and keep an eye out for the first real chapter of Skeleton Sailor!