i sleep naked ➸ larry stylinson

sixty seven

A/N: oh goodness the idea i have planned for the rest of this book... i'm so excited. ;)

tears had never been one of harry's favourite things, especially when they were sad tears.  they made his eyes sting and there was always a knot in his throat. perhaps they were necessary though, because he always felt a bit better after he cried a bit.

but this time, the weight on his chest wasn't going away, no matter how much he cried and hugged himself. louis had excused himself to go the restroom, unable to look harry in the eyes for more than a few seconds before he was locking himself in the room across the hall. 

so, here harry was. laying on the guest bed, too weak to even lift the covers and crawl under them. alone, choking on his own sobs and letting out small whimpers and screams into his pillow, as if it would give him some kind of substance. but no, all it did was further the aching in his heart, intensify the chills that racked through his body. and harry was praying, pleading that louis would come in and comfort him, hold him even though the boy was broken too.

he cringed into himself when he heard the door open, and he started to thrash when he felt arms wrap around him tightly, holding him. 

"get away! get off of me!" he screamed, choking as he struggled to breathe through his tears. the person kept their hold on harry though, and harry decided that he had never felt so miserable before, never felt so small than he did in that moment. zayn wiped his tears off his cheeks, although new ones formed a few seconds later. and niall followed in behind, wrapping his arms around harry, but not squeezing too tightly due to his healing ribs. harry began to sob harder when zayn kissed his cheek softly, whispering comforting words, although he had no idea what harry was so torn up about. 

a few minutes later, after niall had calmed him by gently pushing his fingers through harry's curls and zayn had talked himself into silence, the door opened. harry didn't flinch, no; he pushed his head further into his pillow and squeezed his eyes shut as another stinging tear threatened to slip past.

zayn got up when louis whispered, "is he asleep?"

niall followed right behind him. "i think so. he's so upset. what happened?" he lowered his voice. "did you do something to him?" niall had always been so protective over harry.

"i guess you could say i did." the bed collapsed as louis sat down, and harry bit his lip as louis gently reached his hand up and put it under his shirt, tracing nonsensical patters on his hip bone with his warm fingers. that was perhaps one of harry's favourite things about louis; his soft, gentle touches that could calm harry down in just a few seconds. harry whimpered slightly into his pillow, but, luckily, the boys didn't hear him.

"what do you mean, you guess?" zayn asked quietly.

"i'm the reason he's like this." louis paused. "even if it's not my fault."

"what's going on?" niall asked.

"i'll tell you in the morning. right now i just need to go to bed, mates."

zayn let out a sigh. "do you honestly think niall and i can sleep after seeing our best friend like that, louis? you do realise we love him too, although in a different way? i care about him so much it hurts." as if to prove his point, zayn walked over and placed a hand on harry's cheek, and his hand was a lot more rough and cold than louis'. harry felt his broken heart melt a bit when he heard those words come from zayn's mouth.

louis moved a little on the bed when niall sat down as well. "lads." he paused, taking a shuddered breath, and harry knew just by the shakiness of his voice that he was trying so hard not to cry. and harry just wanted to tell him that it was okay to cry, it was okay to show emotion and be sad because this topic deserved tears.