All You Need Is Love (6/9)
Parts: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9
Pratik had never actually traveled through the vents before, but it felt surprisingly normal, when he went with Eric. Eric warned him away from a few loose ceiling tiles and kept a running hissed monologue about where exactly they were in the school. It was almost like having a tour guide.
“If you step on that tile, you’ll fall into the furnace,” Eric hissed. “They’d probably only find your bones.”
Possibly a tour guide from a horror movie.
Eric had been about to lead Pratik down the shaft that ended in the middle of Ben’s ceiling, but Pratik put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
“I’m going to get out here,” he said, voice even quieter than usual, trying to avoid an echo. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he wanted to go in the front door when he confronted Harry. It didn’t seem right, otherwise.
Eric just shrugged and crawled on, leaving Pratik behind to lower himself to the ground. Hardly had his feet brushed the carpet of the hallway before a solid force slammed into his chest, sending him teetering backwards, the harness the only thing keeping him up.
“Shit,” cursed a very familiar voice and Pratik was quickly tugged to a more solid position. “Fuck. Sorry, Pratik, wasn’t looking.” Lee paused, eyes narrowing. “What the fuck are you doing out here, anyway?”
“Finding Harry,” Pratik said, quiet but firm. He unbuckled the harness, stepping out of it.
Lee glanced back at the closed door of Ben’s room, scowling. “He’s not worth your fucking time.”
“Yes, he is,” Pratik said.
Lee turned the scowl onto him. “Then come the fuck with me,” he said, grabbing Pratik’s hand and towing him down the hallway. He dragged him into the closest empty classroom and shut the door behind them, leaning against it and crossing his arms.
Pratik blinked at him. Lee’s scowl deepened.
“He’s being an ass,” Lee said. “You deserve fucking better than this shit.”
Pratik raised an eyebrow. Lee flushed slightly.
“Look, I don’t get your quiet-talk like he does, but I still know when you’re being… fuck.” Lee sighed, carding a hand through his hair, not meeting Pratik’s eyes. “It’s got fucking nothing to do with me and Jim, so get the fuck off it.”
Pratik shrugged, a tiny twitch of his shoulders. “You don’t give up on the people you love.”
Lee flushed slightly. Pratik wondered about that for a minute, until he realized… he’d never said it out loud before. Not about Harry. Not about anyone. But even as he realized that, he realized it was true.
He loved Harry.
“Then don’t fucking beg him,” he said, abruptly. “Fucking fight.”
“I wasn’t going to beg,” Pratik said, almost absently, hung up on his realization.
Lee was still looking away. “Dammit.” He took a deep breath. “We heard, you know. From Gerald.”
That brought Pratik back to earth with a sudden, painful bump. He went red. “That’s not… it’s… my sister… ‘I’m going off the rails on a crazy train,’” he finally managed, desperately. It was none of Gerald’s business to tell his friends about his sister’s dirty mind and condoms and wow, Pratik wanted this conversation to be over.
Lee frowned at him. “Yeah, I still have no fucking idea what the fuck you’re talking about when you do that,” he said. “But if you think Harry’s so goddamn important, then fucking fight for him.”
Pratik nodded, embarrassment robbing him of words.
“Shit.” Lee sighed one last time and opened the door for him. “I’ll be in my room, if you need me.” Pratik would have thanked him, but he was probably going to die if any more blood rushed to his cheeks, so he just nodded and hurried out into the hallway.
He stood still for a moment and tried to pull himself back together, taking a deep breath and straightening his shirt. When he thought his blush might’ve died down a little, he walked back to Ben’s door.
“Pratik looked pretty shook-up, you know.”
The door was open. Pratik froze in place, just outside it.
“I was there. I know.” Liam was sitting at the desk, looking at Harry, who was sprawled on Ben’s bed, Ben sitting next to him. There seemed to be a few too many limbs in the bed, and Pratik realized why he had run into Lee leaving by himself. Jim tended to be even clingier than usual when he was upset about something.
“Is Eric capable of not saying anything insensitive?” Ben looked up, straight at Pratik. He hit Harry’s arm, but Harry didn’t move.
“I’m not going back there. I can’t. If I see him again, I wouldn’t be able to do what I have to do.”
“And what’s that, exactly?” Pratik asked.
Harry sat up, extricating himself from Jim’s leech-like grip. “Pratik…?” he asked, as though he couldn’t tell.
He didn’t look any different, even though Pratik was looking at him with eyes he now knew were just as in love with Harry as the rest of him. He was just a tall Japanese boy with fly-away black hair and worried black eyes. Pratik couldn’t imagine ever wanting to look at anyone else.
It took effort, but Pratik frowned, a slight downturn twitch that he knew Harry would understand. “What do you have to do?” he asked.
Lee had told him to fight. For once in his life, he was going to fight. He was in love, and he was going to fight.
Harry looked away, as though he was seeing Ben’s Tenth Doctor poster for the first time, which Pratik knew was about as big a lie as could exist. “I broke up with you,” he said, staring at the poster.
“What do you have to do?” Pratik asked, again.
“I have to… stay broken up with you,” Harry said. He still wasn’t meeting Pratik’s eyes.
“And you don’t want to,” Pratik said. It wasn’t a question.
“I have to,” Harry said, stubbornly.
“‘These are things I don’t understand,’” Pratik said, fingers drumming out a quiet rhythm against the doorframe.
Ben slid out of the bed. “Jim, c’mon. Let’s let them talk.”
Harry grabbed onto Ben’s arm, grip tight. “No, it’s okay. I’ve said everything already.”
Pratik’s frown became more pronounced. “‘So now I need you to tell me the truth. You know I’d do that for you.’”
Harry met his eyes. “If we break up, you won’t have to go back to India,” he said, jittery and harsh, as though every word was pulling teeth.
Pratik’s frown melted slightly as he blinked.
“Gerald told me,” Harry said. He sounded miserable.
“And us,” Jim contributed, finally sitting up.
“Well, Harry and me and David and Wes and Kurt and Blaine,” Ben said. “And then Jim and Lee.”
“I told Gary,” Jim added. “So the Gamers probably know.”
“Wes and David know,” Ben pointed out. “Everyone probably knows.”
“I didn’t know,” Liam said. “That’s rough, man.”
Pratik blinked again, cheeks going slightly pink. “W-what…?”
Ben shrugged. “Harry went temporarily mad and decided to spy on you and your sister.”
Pratik frowned at Harry, harder than he’d ever frowned before.
Harry met his eyes, unashamed. “You sounded so weird, Pratik,” he said. “When you were on the phone with her. I was really worried. And then Gerald told me she said your parents were sending you back to India because you were gay.” Pratik could see his fingers clutching spasmodically at the sheets.
“‘Why don’t you listen? Why don’t you listen to me?’” Pratik was closer to angry than he’d been for years.
Harry matched his frown. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. Sara said she and Dhavani would make my parents change their minds." Pratik’s voice was getting quieter and quieter. He wished Harry had let Ben and Jim and Liam leave. The three of them were staring at him, the expressions on their faces ranging from empty to pitying.
Harry just shook his head. “Your sister can’t force your parents to do anything they don’t want to do. It’s safer to end it.” His voice caught slightly, but he managed to finish the sentence.
Pratik bit his lip, hard. He wanted to retreat into song. He wanted music to say the words for him, the way they always did.
But he was going to fight.
“I’m not going to give up,” he said.
They were small, short words. But they were his own.
“Me neither,” Harry said, and Pratik could recognize the set of his jaw, the way he looked at the air just over Pratik’s shoulder.
Harry was being stubborn.
Pratik could be stubborn too.
“‘Love is all you need,’” Pratik said. Harry still didn’t meet his eyes.
If even the Beatles wouldn’t sway him, this was going to be even tougher than Pratik had thought. He bit his lip again. He’d need to plan, before anything else.
“I’ll see you later,” he said to the room at large, voice quiet as he turned and left.