"What kind?" Harry whispered in the dark, while trailing his hand up and down my arm. I think he was speaking so quietly because if he spoke any louder, his voice would be horse. It felt like we'd run out of tears, both of us, and it had to be taking a toll on our voices.

I snuggled closer into the crook of his neck, "Leukemia. Cancer of the blood." We were lying in the bed of the hotel room, both showered and in pajamas, with the lights off completely. We were two broken souls, clinging to each other to feel whole.

"When?" He whispered again. I think he was still in shock of sorts; He hadn't formed a complete sentence in a few hours.

"I was diagnosed when I was thirteen. I went through chemo, and it worked because I went into remission. But, a month and a half ago, I relapsed." I whispered, snaking my arm around his waist, to hold him tighter.

He started to trail his hand lightly, up and down my back, "Your brother?"

I remembered Steven. Harry must have been asking why he was contacting me so often, "He didn't want me to go. He wanted me to stay and do chemo, again. He's still trying to convince me, I guess."

"I want you to do chemo." Harry said.

I shook my head, tears forming in my eyes, "It hurts."

He suddenly brought his hand around to clasp mine, and held it tight, placing it on his beating heart, "This hurts." He said, his voice cracking.

I nodded, the tears spilling over, and my hand clenched around the material of his shirt. "I know. Mine, too. But I can't Harry, they said it wouldn't work."

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me as close as was possible, "Avia. I don't know what to do."

"Be happy." I whispered, "You can be sad when we say goodbye, okay?"

And then, my heart skipped a beat, because he laughed. It was a short, breathless laugh, that only lasted a fraction of a second and was most likely humorless, but I heard it, "I said that to you, in New Zealand."

I nodded, smiling through my tears, "I remember."

Harry's lips found mine in the darkness and clung to him. As he pulled away, he whispered, "I love you so much, Avia."

"I love you." I whispered.

Nothing was said after that because we were exhausted. My swollen eyes closed, and I drifted off.

I woke up to the sound of the shower running. I reached over and sure enough, Harry wasn't in the bed next to me. I sighed and rolled over to face the bathroom. Two minutes later Harry walked out, and when he caught sight of me, a smile spread across his face, "Morning, love."

Seeing him, happy, was the only thing in the world at that moment, that would put a smile on my face. I hated being sad, and he knew that. He was being happy, for me. "Morning."

He sat on the bed and I realized he was in jeans and a long sleeve shirt - an outfit that I'd come to realize he wore to the airport an awful lot. He pushed some of my hair out of my eyes and said with a smile, "You're going to need to get up and get ready now."

I grinned, "Why is that?"

"Because we're going to Belgium."

My eyebrows creased, but the smile remained on my face, "Why Belgium?"

He looked at me as if I was missing something obvious. When I didn't come to any realization,
he sighed, "Because they're supposed to have amazing chocolate, Avia."

I laughed at his conclusion, "Good reason, Harry."

He laughed, "You said you could do your two things anywhere. Why not a place with amazing chocolate?"

I sat up and shrugged, "Agreed. Why not?"

He leaned forward and gave me a soft kiss, then whispered, "Go have a shower."

I rolled my eyes with a smile, getting out of the bed and heading to the bathroom.

Once we were all packed up and ready, we headed down to the lobby to check out. The man at the front desk's smile drooped a little bit when he saw our bags, "Leaving already?"

I chuckled slightly, "Yes, we're going to Belgium."

His eyebrows creased, "Why Belgium?"

Harry sighed next to me, exasperated, "The chocolate? Why does no one remember the chocolate?"

"Oh yes," The man said, slightly weary of Harry's reaction, "They're supposed to have good chocolate."

I laughed at the whole exchange, "Can we check out?"

He nodded and tapped away at his keyboard, then took our key. He smiled when he was finished, "It was lovely to meet you, Avia." He said, and then quickly added, "You too, Harry."
I smiled, "It was lovely to meet you too. But, I'm sorry," I said, needing to find out his name, "I didn't catch your name."

"Oh," He laughed, "I'm sorry, all this time, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Sharon."

A giggle excaped Harry's lips before I could stop him, "Sharon?" He repeated for clarification.

The man creased his eyebrows with the slightest smile, "Yes, Sharon."

I bit down on my lip to keep from grinning or bursting out into laughter, "It was lovely to meet you, Sharon. Goodbye."

I grabbed Harry's hand and we hurried out of the hotel. As soon as we reached the fresh air outside, we doubled over in laughter. "He," Harry choked out, "He, he had a girls name."

I nodded, tears falling out of my eyes from laughing so hard, "This whole time. His name was Sharon."

Once we'd calmed down, I realized that it wasn't as funny as we'd found it to be. It was just that, after the night of tears and sorrows that we'd just had, we needed to laugh. And it felt good.
We boarded the plane an hour later, and it was a short flight compared to the others that we'd taken on our adventure. I was aching the entire time, though. The pills were really starting to affect me often. Every now and then it was complete agony, and then it would disappear completely. Other times though, just a slight pain would linger. I tried not to think about it.
Neither one of us knew how to speak Dutch, and I didn't plan on trying to learn it, but that only made Belgium a perfect place to do the other thing on my list. The people spoke almost aggressively, but it was interesting.

The country itself was beautiful - green. It had a calm about the air, and it seemed quite peaceful in the area we were visiting.

When we pulled up to the beautiful five star hotel we would be staying in, I turned to Harry with a slight smile on my lips, "Will you wait in the taxi?"

His eyebrows creased, "Wait for what?"

I bit my lip, my smile growing, "We're just here to drop off our bags, so will you just wait in the car while I have someone put them up in our room?"

He sighed, his lips turning up at the sides slightly, "I'm just going to go with the flow. Sure."

I grinned, "Good." I got out of the car, and the taxi driver followed me into the hotel with our bags.

I smiled as I approached the front desk, although the woman didn't look half as friendly as Sharon, her lips set in a straight line, and her hair slicked back into a tight ponytail. "Hello." I said, "Can I check in and send my bags up to my room?"

She gave me a blank stare, "Name?"

"Freeman."

She clicked away at her keyboard for a minute or two, and I took it as an opportunity to look around at the lobby. It was beautiful. The walls were as shiny as the marble floors, with the most beautiful murals on them. Paintings of clouds and angels. The woman cleared her throat, making me snap my head to face her.

She held out my key card, "Here."

I smiled, despite her unfriendly attitude, "Thank you."

A bell boy took the bags from the taxi man, and I handed him a tip as a thank you for taking them up to my room. He, unlike the woman at the front desk, smiled politely at me and said thank you, before heading to the elevator.

Before exiting the hotel, I grabbed a map of the town we were in off of a little brochure stand. I hurried back to the taxi and slid in next to Harry, smiling. He smiled back and asked, "Where are we going, Av?"

I grinned and opened up the map, "We are going..." I closed my eyes and moved my finger around the map, settling on a spot after a few seconds, "Here." I opened my eyes and smiled, leaning forward to show the taxi man where my finger had landed. He nodded and began to drive.

"Whats there?" Harry asked, slightly confused.

I shrugged, "No clue." Then crumpled up the map and threw it out the window.

Harry's eyes widened, "Avia! What are you doing?" He asked, with an astonished chuckle.

I cleared my throat and then announced, "Number Seventy - Three: Get Lost."

Harry laughed aloud, and looked at me, amused, "You're purposely trying to get lost?"

I shook my head, "No no. We are purposely trying to get lost." I said, putting emphasis on the 'We'.

He just chuckled again, putting his arm around me and pulling me close, "Sounds like fun, you kook."

I grinned at his willingness to do anything. I was so grateful for him, "Hey, thank you."

His amused smile still remained on his face when he turned to look at me, "For what?"

"Staying." I said simply.

He kissed my forehead, "As if there was another option."

We drove for ten more minutes before the taxi pulled over and the driver grunted for us to get out. Harry payed him, and he sped off, leaving us stranded. It was perfect.

We were in a busy market area. People were walking up and down, looking at the different foods and talking loudly in Dutch. I looked further down the road to see a few flower shops and restaurants.

Harry tugged on my hand, "Avia. We have to go there." He said urgently, pulling me along with him, weaving through the people swarming the market.

I chuckled, trying not to bump into too many people, "Where exactly are we going?" I asked, as I collided with an angry looking older woman. She scowled and and threw her an apologetic smile as Harry continued to drag me.

He didn't answer me, but a few seconds later, we came to a stop in-front of a store whose glass window displays were filled with chocolate.

"Jackpot." Harry whispered with a grin.

I chuckled under my breath, trying not to make too much noise and break the little moment he was having. We'd been standing there for a few moments before I said, "Are we going to go in, or are you just going to stare all day?" with a soft laugh.

"Avia." He said, "This store is like to me, what those hot air balloons were to you. Magical."

I grinned and started to pull him inside, "Then I guess I'm going to have to guide you to the center of the magic, the same way you did."

The shop was air conditioned, which was a nice contrast to the summer heat outside.

Chocolate lined the walls on shelves from the roof to the floor. The chocolate was in the form of shells and flowers, and sitting behind the desk was the most stereotype candy man. Big and jolly, with a grey mustache and a balding head.

He grinned at Harry and I as we walked in, and said something happily in Dutch. I smiled meekly and said, "Sorry. We only speak English."

The man chuckled heartily and walked out from his position at the desk, and over to a chocolate shell that Harry had been admiring dreamily. I plucked it up from the shelf and handed it to Harry, "Eat."

Harry looked at the man like he'd just handed him a chunk of gold, "Really?"

The man chuckled again, then nodded his head, "Eat." He repeated.

Harry basically stuffed the chocolate in his mouth, closing his eyes as he savored the taste. I smiled at the little fact I just learned about Harry- he adored chocolate. When he'd finished it, I asked, "Was it as good as you thought it would be?"

Harry bit his lip and shook his head, "Better." He then turned his attention back to the chocolate,

"Way Better." He dropped my hand and started roaming the isles of the store, looking at all the chocolate.

I smiled at how much he was enjoying it. He truly was like a toddler in a candy store. The shop keeper tapped me on my shoulder, making me tear my attention away from Harry to look at him.
He was smiling that jolly smile that matched his whole persona and gestured between Harry and I, "Love?"

I grinned and nodded curtly, "Yes. I love him."

The man's smile grew as well, and he raised his hand over his head, with his index pointed up, like he had an idea. "Come." He said.

I followed him to his desk, where he bent down to search through a cupboard. He came up bearing a little chocolate box, and when he opened it, he revealed a chocolate heart, around the size of my open hand, that had little intricate swirls and designs on it. It was like a piece of art that would be a shame to eat. "You." He said, as he pushed it towards me.

"How much?" I asked, but he just creased his brows in confusion. I bit my lip, "Money." I said, rubbing my thumb against my four fingers, "How much money?"

Recognition flashed across the man's aged features and he smiled, "No money."

"Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. The man smiled and nodded. I covered the heart and smiled back at the man, "Thank you so much." He just nodded, again.

Harry walked over, his arms filled with chocolate, "I'll take all of these, please."

The owner laughed a hearty laugh and then rang him up. The chocolates weren't cheap, but Harry didn't seem to mind. The man neatly put them away in boxes and stacked them up into a shopping bag.

We left with smiles on our faces, Harry's bigger than mine. "Lets go eat some real food before you gorge yourself in chocolate."

He laughed, "Yeah, good idea."

We walked down the road to one of the restaurants along the street. It was a cute little restaurant, that wasn't as busy as the other ones we'd passed. We took our seats at a table towards the back, and a waitress brought us our menus almost immediately.

Harry had opened his menu for all of a second before he closed it with a smile. I laughed, "I have a feeling you've been wanting to come to this country for a while. You already know what you want to eat, because you've thought about it."

He held his hands up in surrender, "You got me. I've been dreaming about Belgian Waffles my whole life."

I chuckled under my breath, "They serve waffles, in the middle of the afternoon?"

He nodded with a grin, "They're on the lunch menu."

I shrugged, "I guess I'll have it then."

Harry let out a sigh of mock frustration, "Avia. We're becoming one of those couples."
I smiled, "What couples?"

"The ones that do everything together, and eat the same food and buy the matching clothes."

I laughed aloud at this, "I do not recall every buying matching clothes."

He smiled and held his index finger up, wagging it around, "All in due time, Avia. All in due time."

At that moment, the waitress came and took our order, and almost immediately brought the waffles for us. It was three waffles stacked on-top of each other, drenched in syrup and smelled like apple- cinnamon.

I hadn't realized how hungry I actually was until the food was placed in-front of me. I think I scarfed two of them down in a little over five minutes. Harry laughed, "Someone's hungry."
I nodded, "And these waffles are amazing."
He grinned, "I know. This place is amazing. Nothing's let me down here, yet." After a few seconds he asked, "Hey, did the hotel look nice?"

I nodded, eyes widening at the memory of the beautiful lobby, "It was gorgeous, Harry. I'm sorry you couldn't see it, but if you did, you'd probably remember the name and everything, and you'd be able to find the way back, easily."

He smiled, "No prob, babe. Now I'm excited to see it."

Now, I don't know why this next thought popped into my head, but it did. It was, kind of random and out of the blue, but of course, because it had popped into my head, I was going to ask it. I cleared my throat, and said it, before I could chicken out, "Hey, Harry, are you a virgin?"

Harry's eyes widened and he choked on a bite of his waffle, before swallowing it down and saying, "What?"

I cleared my throat again and looked into my plate, not wanting to look him in the face after his reaction, "Virgin. Are you one?"

I heard him laugh softly, "Uh, no. I'm not. Are you?"

I bit my lip, "Yeah, I am. But not because I want to be, you know. Its just, I haven't, um, I," I was struggling to talk. "God, this is awkward. Forget I asked."

Harry chuckled, "No, Av. Finish what you were going to say."

I sighed, "I'm glad one of us is finding this amusing. I was going to say, that with the cancer, I haven't had time for a boyfriend or anything like that, so, um, no sex."

"Avia Freeman, what exactly are you implying?" He asked laughing a little more heartily now.

A blush crept onto my cheeks and I shook my head, "Shut up. Never mind."

I felt his fingers curl around my chin, tilting my face to look at him, he had a smile still playing at his lips, "I'm sorry, babe. I'm just teasing you. If its what you want, then its fine with me."

I shut my eyes tight, "This is so awkward."

Harry laughed and placed a kiss to my lips, "Get over it. It's just me."

I bit my lip and, looked down at my waffles. "So, um," I brought my hand up to scratch my head, do anything to escaped the awkwardness, "tonight, then?"

"Avia, stop acting like a tween. Yes, we can have sex tonight. It's not awkward unless you make it awkward. And I don't want it to be awkward, so stop making it awkward." He said, chuckling at the end, and taking a bite of his waffle.

I bit my lip,"Yeah, but what if I'm not good at it?" I blurted all of a sudden.

"Shut up and eat your waffles." Harry laughed. And so I did, and the awkwardness slowly lifted off of us.

We paid the bill and went back out onto the road. It was starting to get dark, and there were less people on the street; we were going to have to start finding our way back soon. Harry turned to me and smiled, "Where the hell do we start?"

I shrugged, "Lets walk around first, and see if we find any maps or anything."

We took of in the general direction that we had come, hand in hand. We had been walking for almost two minutes when I saw him. I stopped in my tracks, my jaw dropping and tears forming in my eyes. How badly I wanted to run through the sea of people in front of me, over to where he stood by a restaurant down the street. But, I couldn't. He was here looking for me, and I couldn't let him find me.

I grabbed Harry's hand and clutched it tightly, dragging him into the store that was directly to our right. Once safely inside, I allowed myself to breathe, again. Harry grabbed a hold of my face,

"Avia, whats wrong? Is it the medicine?"

I shook my head, "I can't talk right now. Can we just, um," I looked around me and realized we were in a flower shop, "look around at the flowers, for a sec?"

Harry's eyebrows were creased, but he said, "Okay."

I walked around the shop and looked at all the different kinds of flowers. There were the most gorgeous red orchids sitting in a vase, and if I was sure that we'd be staying in Belgium for more than a week, I would've bought them.

Harry walked over to me with a with a white flower in his hand and a grin plastered on his face,

"Will you wear this in you hair, love?"

I smiled at the flower and nodded, "Indeed I will."

His grin grew wider, and he leaned down to plant a kiss on my lips, "Yay." He led me over to the counter and placed the flower down in front of a girl, who looked two years younger than us - around sixteen.

She smiled at the flower, "Are you buying this for her?" She asked, referring to me. I was slightly surprised that she could speak English, but was more intent on hearing why she'd assumed that.

Harry's eyebrows creased slightly, but the smiled remained on his face, "Yeah. How'd you know."

She shrugged, "Its a white gardenia. It's meaning is more of a message, 'You're lovely.', so I just assumed you would be giving it to her."

I grinned, "Do you know the meanings to all the flowers in this shop?"

She bit her lip and nodded, "Yeah. I do. Works slow, and I learned them to occupy my time."

She took Harry's money, and handed him the change.

"That's really awesome." I said, then held my hand out to her, "I'm Avia."

She shook it, "Chloe."

Harry smiled and said, "Harry."

She shook his hand as well, "It was really nice to meet you guys."

I smiled, "You too, Chloe."

As we walked towards the door, Harry plucked off the long stem of the gardenia and placed it in my hair, "Oh, Avia, you look so pwetty."

I shoved his arm with a smile, "Whatever."

Just as we had reached outside, Harry asked, "Hey, what had you looking so worried before?"

And then, as if clockwork, he bumped straight into my brother, Steven.

Notes

Dun dun dunnnnn!

What do you guys think of this chapter! Not gonna lie, I cried while writing the first portion of it. I wont have time to write it tomorrow, so I'm going to post it in a couple of hours! Chapter Eight is going to be the last chapter!