Can I claim it?
I claim it.

Mag 🦋

ғɪғᴛᴇᴇɴᴛʜ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ.

"You didn't come yesterday."

I stopped Theodore by pulling sharply on his reins and got down from him, facing Harry who was already waiting for me on his usual spot.

"It was raining." - I frowned.

"And?"

"You expected me to show up here under a thunderstorm?" - I looked at him confused. - "Did you run under the rain?"

"Nothing that a raincoat can't beat."

"What?" - I laughed. - "You're insane."

"Nope, I'm just from London. I'm used to the bad weather."

"But not on the beach you idiot! A lightning bolt could have electrocuted you! Don't you know that the sea attracts lightning bolts?!"

"You worried about me now?" - He smirked.

"I'm worried that you don't have two functioning neurons inside your brain."

"Hey, that's mean." - Harry stared at me, quite angry.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Anyways, today it's a new day and it's sunny and warm. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know."

And then I remembered Liam's suggestion.

"Have you ever ridden a horse?" - I asked, clearly excited.

Harry looked surprised for a second and then smiled.

"When I was a child."

"Would you like to try on Theodore? I can help you, teach you how to ride him."

Harry raised an eyebrow and thought it through.

Hell no, I'm not dying today.

I contained a laugh and took my time to caress my horse's fur as I waited for Harry's verbal reply.

"Is it safe?"

"Yes, Theodore is really well trained and he is good with beginners, I taught my younger sisters how to ride with him."

"You taught your sisters?"

"Yes, all of them because my parents are always working. I must say all of my sisters are now experts, so I consider myself a pretty good teacher."

"You would teach me?"

"Only If you want to." - I shrugged.

"Okay, it could be fun. I think."

"Yes?" - I smiled, excited, and he nodded. - "Okay, c'mere buddy." - I said towards Theodore, keeping him still by his leash, and then turning to Harry again. - "First, to get on him you need to do it from the left side of his body." - I indicated him and he took a step closer to Theodore, on the left side as I told him. - "Good, now you have to place your left foot on the stirrup and impulse yourself up to sit on the saddle with both of your legs at his sides."

Harry swallowed thickly and nodded.

"Are you sure he isn't going to drop me, right? What if he dislikes me or something."

"He won't." - I smiled. - "Trust me, I trained him myself."

"Okay." - Harry said, doubtfully.

But eventually he did as I told him, impulsing himself up and sitting in my horse's loin. Theodore didn't even flinch.

"Now I'm going to teach you how to give him indications, okay?" - I said and he nodded. - "You take the reins with both of your hands at the same distance." - I said, Letting go of Theodore's leash and handing it to Harry. - "If you want to stop, just pull the reins and he'll stop. If you want to go faster, which I don't recommend right now, just whip on it, and to make a turn you tug the rein to the direction you want to go. It's quite simple, you just need to be confident." - I said and smiled.

I looked up and met Harry's frightened eyes looking back at me.

"Wait, you're going to leave me alone?"

"If I had another horse I would do it by your side as you're practicing, but since I don't, I'll watch you from here."

"But…"

"But what?"

"I thought you were going to get up here with me."

"Oh." - I froze. - "I mean, I can… if you're comfortable with it."

"I'm not going to do this on my own." - He said with fear in his voice.

"Okay, yeah I'll ride with you. Move a little forward so I can sit behind you, please."

Harry sighed in relief and moved to the front of the saddle, leaving me some space behind him.

I stroked on Theodore's side one last time, steadying him, before impulsing myself and sitting right behind Harry.
I doubted what to do next.

"What now?" - Harry asked.

"I'm thinking." - I said.

The truth is that when I taught my sisters they always wanted to do it on their own so I only needed to supervise them from a distance and make sure they wouldn't fall, but they were never as scared as Harry was right now.

Besides, they were my family. Harry is just a guy I met recently, I don't even know if he is comfortable around me.

I took a deep breath before nodding to myself.

"Okay, this is what we're going to do."

I softly surrounded Harry's body with my arms and placed my hands next to Harry's on the reins.
I leaned my head closer and above Harry's right shoulder, my front slightly pressing against Harry's back.

And this was definitely the most physical contact we've had since I met him.

Harry was kinda tense and his eyes hadn't moved from where our hands were grabbing the reins.

"I need to do this in order to see what you're doing, yeah?" - I said softly, being aware of how close my mouth was to his ear.

"Yeah." - He whispered back.

"Okay, Theodore is not going to move until we give him the indication to. To do it you need to hit softly with your heel on his side." - I said and Harry nodded. - "Whenever you're ready."

I heard Harry sighed and felt his body distended against mine.

You'd better not lead me to death, Louis.

I let a soft giggle out and he tilted his head to look at me above his shoulder.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Sure." - He rolled his eyes and turned again, looking at our hands once more. - "I think I'm ready."

"Good. You got this." - I said, as I tried to reassure him.

Harry nodded and let his heel hit the side of Theodore, making my horse start trotting at a normal speed along the beach.

I noticed how Harry's legs tensed and began to dig his heels onto my horse's stomach.

"You need to be confident, you need to loosen up Harry."

"I can't, Louis. I'm going to fall."

"You're not. But if you want him to go slower just tug on the leash, you want me to show you?"

"Yes."

I moved my hands now to put them over Harry's.
When my hands wrapped around his' I suddenly felt my whole body warmed up in a millisecond.
I know I blushed, and I know he felt it too, because again, Harry's body tensed up.

I tried to ignore the feeling bubbling inside my body and I made Harry's hands tug on the reins, making Theodore slow down a bit.

So, after Theodore's pace stabilized, Harry let out a sigh in relaxation and straightened his body up.

"Are you alright?" - I asked.

"Yes."

"We can get down whenever you want."

"I know. I'm fine."

"You're doing great. Just keep the reins steady, okay?"

Harry nodded and I let go of his hands, and for a second I didn't know what to do with them. I felt like I should remove them from surrounding Harry because it was getting both of us tense, so I awkwardly took them back, letting them drop on my sides as the galloping was slow and easy for me to keep balance by myself.

"Louis?"

"Yes?"

"Am I doing better than your sisters?"

I laughed and shook my head.

"Actually no. They were all nine when I taught them, and they were fearless, so it was easier for them."

"Wow, that's frustrating."

"It's okay, everyone has their own time." - I shrugged. - "Now let's try to take a turn, yeah?"

"Which side?"

"We are on an empty beach, it doesn't really matter."

Why did I agree to do this?
He'll think I'm stupid.
Why am I being so stupid?

I smiled to myself and lifted one of my hands to rest it on Harry's shoulder, while I guided the other one to Harry's front, taking a grip of the reins and helping him tug the leash to the right.

Theodore was quick to obey, turning around to his right and retracing his previous steps.

"Thanks." - Harry said.

"You're welcome. Trust yourself, you're doing great."

This time I placed both of my hands on his shoulders, trying to tranquilize him as much as I could.

He kept his hands on the leash, clearly getting used to the movement of the horse and my pressure on his shoulders.

None of us emitted a word for minutes, just enjoying the ride and the sound of the waves and wind as I let Harry do it completely on his own.

"My sister is leaving in a few days." - Harry said all of a sudden.

"Oh, is that good or…?"

"Good, I guess." - He shrugged. - "She says I already know everything, but if I fuck it up she'll be back to babysit me until I do things right."

"I'm sure you'll be great." - I said.

"Maybe. I just wish I wouldn't have to deal with somebody else's business, you know? I don't feel like this is mine, it's just something I have to do. And I have to do it right. But not because I like it, because I'm forced to."

I thought for a second, not really knowing what to answer him. And then I remembered something he said in one of his thoughts a couple of days ago.

"Maybe if you do things right, you can be rewarded by going back to London, would you prefer that?"

He turned his head to look at me from above his shoulder with furrowed eyebrows.

"I don't know. I mean, I thought about it. But the only thing that I really miss about there is my girlfriend Mae, well, she's now my ex. And I can't exactly go back with her since she's the one who broke up with me."

Harry returned his head to the front and surprisingly he whipped on Theodore's leash for him to go a bit faster.

I smiled to myself and tapped on his shoulder as a congratulation.
I saw with the corner of my eye how he smiled at himself too.

"Can I ask why?"

"Huh?"

"Why did she decide to break up with you?"

"She got tired of me and she didn't know how to handle my… my problems."

"What problems?" - I asked as softly as I could.

"My grief, my sadness…"

My pain.

I closed my eyes and contained myself from hugging the life out of him.
We were making progress, I couldn't let it all go to waste by making him tense or weird around me.

"Was it because of your mother?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry if I'm making assumptions here, but Mae doesn't sound like the greatest girlfriend if she wasn't supportive with you in a hard time like that."

And after I said that Harry surprisingly laughed loudly, letting his head fall backwards and resting it against my shoulder for a second.

"I guess she wasn't." - He said, straightening up again.

I was sure that now I really needed to drop the subject in order to not fuck this up.
Because after sharing that strong connection and finally getting him to trust me with something as profound as that, I just couldn't mess it up.

I looked at the side to contemplate the sea, it was extremely calm today, and it was odd because most of the time, after a big storm like yesterday's, the sea is usually rough and the weather windy and cold.
But not today, today it was calm and peaceful, warm and welcoming. Just as if it was inviting us to get inside and swim together.

"Do you want to swim?" - I asked him out of nowhere.

"Yeah, sure." - He looked back at me with a grin.

Harry made a sharp tug on Theodore's reins and my horse stopped in his tracks.

I got down first and then extended my hand to Harry, so he could land without problems.

"You ended up being innate at horse riding." - I smiled.

"Don't lie to me." - He laughed and started taking off his shirt and trainers.

"I'm not lying, you did great, truly. Now you need to work on that confidence of yours. You're quite insecure, aren't you?" - I asked but he didn't reply, he just turned to me with a grin.

"Ready to get into the water?"

I shook my head in amusement and took off my shirt, leaving it next to Harry's and following him to the marvelous blue sea in front of us.

He immediately submerged in the water and reappeared a seconds later with his hair sticking to his forehead and full teeth on display as he was smiling and motioning me to do the same.

"C'mon Lou, the weather is amazing today."

I followed his lead and enjoyed the salty water surrounding me, soaking me and refreshing me as I resurfaced and ran a hand on my hair, pulling it back and out of my face.

Harry smirked at me and I knew it was already making me blush.

This morning had been so wonderful, and just thinking about the fact that I still had him right there and that he hadn't run off just yet, was amazing to me.

He was completely amazing.

And there we were, splashing around, enjoying each other's silent company as we swam, sharing looks and knowing smiles, until we both got tired and returned to the shore, sitting on the sand to get ourselves dry with the sunrays.

I turned to have a look of the gorgeous person I had by my side and decided to take a risk before regretting it.

I lifted my hand and tapped softly on Harry's knee, asking for his attention.
He side smiled at me, letting me know he was listening.

"Harry, thank you for being so open with me, even if I'm practically a stranger to you." - I said, taking back my hand from his knee.

"You don't feel like a stranger anymore." - He shrugged. - "Besides, It's nice to finally have someone to talk to."

He sent another of his beautiful smiles in my direction and I felt how my cheeks flushed once more.

"I'm glad you can trust me this much."

"Me too." - He said and stood up. - "See you tomorrow?"

"But not if it rains." - I pointed out.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Coward."