The deck groaned as Harry flung himself down dramatically upon it.

"You alright, captain?" Horace asked.

"Yes. I need sun, but I can't be bothered to actually do anything," Harry mumbled into the dirty wood floor.

He had been thinking quite a lot the past few days, but that didn't mean he had been able to come to a decision. Harry was thinking in circles about what to do with Louis. It was clear that the boy had similar feelings for Harry as Harry did for him, but he clearly hadn't realised it yet.

Louis, understandably, did not seem to have ever experienced any sort of romantic emotions before, and clearly didn't know how to deal with them. Harry didn't have the first clue as to what to do. He decided he would leave it up to fate. If he went on a walk about the island and ran into Louis then he would somehow deal with it, but if he didn't run into him, he would feel completely validated in moping around the ship forever. Or at least a few more days.

Harry hauled himself up to his feet and sagged against the mast for a moment before straightening and marching off the ship. He approached the jungle-like side of the island near the lagoon and began his trek through the mud. Mostly he just took this route so he could feel satisfied that his frustrated stomping created splashing and squelching in the wet ground.

It had been perhaps close to an hour when he ran into Louis. The boy quite literally smacked into him as he was swinging upside down from the branches of trees and had missed that a person was walking below said trees. Louis slipped off, but quickly flew upright before he hit the ground. Harry was not so lucky and had fallen directly back on his arse in the mud, clutching his forehead where Louis had knocked into it.

Louis looked down at who or what he had smashed into and began to laugh when he saw that it was Harry.

"Well, fancy seeing you here like this," Louis said slyly, swooping down close to Harry's face.

"Ow. Doesn't your head hurt? It was your head that injured mine."

Louis shrugged.

"Not really," he paused and moved Harry's hand and hair out of the way of his forehead, "did I really hurt you?" he asked, frowning.

"It'll be fine."

"I'm sorry, I didn't see that anything was there. I really didn't mean to," Louis said somewhat frantically, for some reason needing Harry to understand that it hadn't been on purpose.

"I thought you said you didn't normally apologise," Harry taunted lightly.

Louis frowned more deeply.

"I don't. But I didn't mean to hurt you. I feel...bad."

Harry sighed and didn't respond. Louis twisted his hands around in a nervous, guilty silence before leaning forward to hesitantly kiss Harry.

The captain sighed again.

"What for?" he asked wearily, "I didn't do anything for you."

"I don't know, I guess I just fancied it could mean sorry too. But like, a better sorry. One that actually means something." He backed up and resumed his nervous hand twisting whilst Harry stayed silent for several long moments.

"It...can, I suppose." Harry abruptly ran a frustrated hand through his hair, "You have no idea, do you? You can't even see what's happening in your own mind."

Louis looked up, startled by the conviction in Harry's words.

"What? What do you mean?"

"You don't see why you're having all these feelings? And this intrigue about your 'thimbles,' as you call them?" Harry made air quotes.

"What?"

"You're⁠— you have⁠— How do I say this? I told you before that you were growing and you got upset, but look at you. Think about all these things you've been feeling. Why do you feel so different about me? Why is it so confusing⁠—"

"I don't know! But I'm not growing up, I don't want to!" Louis interrupted, although he felt a twinge at the lie. He knew now that he couldn't stop himself from growing.

"Just listen. It's because you're gaining more capacity for emotion. Do you know what that means?"

Louis shrugged whilst pouting. He didn't want to listen to this, but it was Harry, and he'd asked, so Louis sat there in midair with his arms tightly crossed across his chest.

"It means you can feel and understand more emotions, more complex emotions. Not just things like anger and sadness, but maybe being mad at something that makes you happy. Or being sad and happy at once about the same thing. And you, wanting to kiss me, having those dreams you mentioned after I kissed you the other day, that 'magic' feeling, those are all just symptoms of emotions."

"What emotions?"

"Romantic ones, it seems."

"Romantic? What's that?"

"Things like love. Things that make you concentrate more on one person, and make them seem special. They make you want to have contact and kiss them, and to spend your time with them. They become an exception to your rules and you just want to do anything for them. You just want them to be happy."

"That's⁠— that can't just be one emotion."

"It is, and there's more that I can't put into words. I told you: it's complex."

"But that's⁠— it's⁠—" Louis suddenly turned angry, "When did you talk to Tink?"

"What? I've never seen her not with you. I don't even think anyone besides you can talk to her."

"You made that up! You made it up based off of everything that I⁠— you made it up to confuse me more!"

"No. I would never." Louis sprang up and hovered in standing position above Harry, who continued speaking earnestly. "Honestly, I wouldn't. I...I have romantic feelings for you too. I love you, I think."

Louis' face flickered indecisively between anger and belief before he took off at top speed above the trees. Harry sat back and ran a hand over his face. Great. Fuck.

He sat there in the mud for a long time. Eventually he rolled over and crawled slowly for a bit until he eventually realised he was back on two feet and heading toward the lagoon. When he arrived, he spent a while sadly playing with the water nymphs in the shallows, but they soon decided it was time for them to sleep for the night. Harry waved goodbye as they retreated back into their cave and left to continue his walk halfheartedly. After a bit of aimless wandering he noticed two things: at some point the moon had risen, and gold twinkling lights were surrounding him. So apparently it had turned to night whilst he walked, and he was approaching the pixie city.

As he broke through into the clearing, his breath caught the same as it had before (and as it probably always would). The beauty of it shocked him and his memory did it absolutely no justice. Harry started again as he noticed a small figure huddled by the centre tree with a pixie hovering by its shoulder. Louis. He was unsure if he should approach, but Harry figured since he was already here, he might as well make his presence known. As he came closer, he could see that Louis' body was shaking from the tears that were wracking his body. Harry carefully crouched by him, trying not to startle him.

Tink tapped Louis' ear and appeared to communicate something.

"Why are you here?" Louis asked him quietly.

"I was just continuing my walk and I saw you. I just wanted to help, I don't want you to be unhappy, please believe me. I haven't talked to Tink, and I didn't make up anything earlier to make you more confused. If anything, I want you to be less confused because I see how awful it is to be all mixed up all the time."

Louis had stopped crying, but stayed curled up with his head down. Harry hesitantly tipped his chin up with a finger so he could see his face.

"Did you hear me?"

Louis leaned forward and kissed him, grabbing Harry's face to keep him in place and pressing closer. Harry threaded his fingers through Louis' tangled, dirty hair and leaned into the kiss until he felt the boy pull back.

"What for?" he asked tentatively, not sure he wanted to know the answer if Louis was just going to continue living in denial. Then again, that kiss had been different, but he didn't want to get his hopes up too high.

"I'm sorry. For crying. I don't like it and I hate feeling weak. And I'm sorry for getting mad and leaving and accusing you. But I...don't think that's why I gave you the thimble. I think I just...wanted to? Like in the hammock. It's comforting and it still feels like magic, so that's...nice."

"Okay. I can live with that I guess."

A cautious smile made its way onto Louis's face.

"So you feel the same ways? You want the same things?"

"Probably quite similar, yes."

"Okay. Where do we go from here? How do things change? We can't really keep fighting, can we? It wasn't really working to begin with."

"I don't know, perhaps we should try keeping things somewhat the same and just change things gradually so it's not too much at once."

"Okay. I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Neither do I."