Baked In Style | L.S

Chapter 4

"Morning Ni." Harry greets his blonde friend a few days later when he steps into the bakery.

Niall furrows his eyebrows as he watches the clock behind Harry. He's eleven minutes late and Harry is not calling him out for it. What's going on? He thinks to himself.

"What? No 'you're late' today?" Niall asks, using air quotes when saying you're late.

Harry only shrugs and turns his head to look at the clock behind him. "You're late." He says, smiling sweetly at his best friend. "Happy now?"

Niall makes his way behind the counter and grabs his apron, pulls it over his head and ties it behind his back. He turns around to face Harry again and watches him intently as he wipes the counter while humming his favourite song. "What's going on?" He asks, tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes. "Why are you this happy?"

Harry shrugs before asking incredulously- "What? I can't just be happy?"

"You can." Niall is quick to answer. "It's just." He pauses, trying to find the right word to describe what he is busy witnessing, but it's a real struggle, because in all honesty, he can't remember when last he saw his friend this happy, so he settles on- "Weird."

"No it's not." Harry simply states. "I'm happy all of the time."

Niall brings his hand towards his face and rests his chin between his pointer finger and thumb. His eyes are still narrowed as he watches Harry. "Na-ah. Not like this." He finally says.

"What do you mean 'not like this'?" Harry says lifting his hands to make air quotes.

"Don't get me wrong Haz, you're always happy. Fuck, you might even be the happiest person I know. But this is different. You seem different." Niall says, trying to explain, but still struggling to find the right words.

"You're imagining things, Ni."

But he's not, and Niall knows it. Something happened. He knows his best friend and he knows that he wants to talk about it. But it's one of those conversations where he has to coax Harry into telling him. So he thinks about it for a moment, before something clicks in his head. His eyes goes wide and his mouth falls open.

"You got laid!" He exclaims. "Louis finally manned up and gave you some, didn't he?"

Harry can feel his cheeks redden, and immediately looks around the bakery to see if there's anyone who might have heard Niall. Luckily the place is still empty.

"No, he did not." Harry says, and looks back down to the counter. "Still only my hand and Bennie 'giving me some'." He wipes over a spot he sees on the counter. "And the opportunity did present itself last night, but he was just too much of a gentleman to fuck me after I've had a bottle of wine."

Niall shakes his head and blinks slowly. "Firstly, would you stop calling your dildo Bennie? It's just fucking weird Harry. Honestly I don't wanna have this conversation again. Call it what it is, a dildo." He says before walking towards Harry. "And secondly, 'the opportunity presented itself'?" Niall asks, using air quotes and Harry nods his head, smiling shyly when he turns around to face his friend. "How? When? I need details!" He exclaims.

"Last night." Harry says, looking down.

"Yeah, and?" Niall encourages.

"I had a bottle of wine, and I was a little tipsy."

"Okay."

"And I basically begged him to fuck me Ni, I even started stripping." Harry says, while thinking back to the previous night.

"And he didn't want to? Are we sure he's gay Haz?" Niall asks.

"Oh, he's gay alright. And he definitely wanted to. He's huge Ni, even if I only saw it through his pants. He's fucking huge."

"So why didn't he then?"

"He's so sweet Ni. He helped me to bed, tucked me in. He assured me over and over that he would love nothing more than to do that with me, but he didn't want to do something I wouldn't remember the next day." Harry says, the shy smile not leaving his face.

Yes. Ever since Harry went for lunch at his neighbor's, Louis has been coming over to his place quite regularly after work. By quite regularly, I mean every night. They'd talk about anything and everything while Harry whips them something up for dinner where they share a bottle of wine. And then Louis helps him clean up before making his way back to the house next door.

And Niall has to admit that he has some new found respect for Louis. He's seen men falling over their feet to get Harry's attention, and here Harry was throwing himself at Louis, who didn't want to do anything while Harry was just a little tipsy.

"But you only had one bottle?"

"Yeah, I know. But he doesn't know that I have a high tolerance for alcohol, Ni." Harry starts fidgeting with his fingers. "And watching him taking care of me, made me feel all warm and fuzzy you know. We're not even together or anything, but he's first concern was my wellbeing. And this morning, he came over, bringing some advils with, asking me if I was okay. Oh my gosh, Ni. You should have seen his face when I apologized for my behavior. He really couldn't believe that I could remember anything. And then he got all cute and shy when I thanked him for caring more about my wellbeing than his pleasure." He says and finally looks up. "Dan, never did that, you know. Fuck, sometimes I only knew we had sex the night before, because my arse was somewhat sore the next day." Harry shyly looks back down to his hand on the counter. "And that just makes me think about the fact that if Louis and I were to ever do it." He looks back up. "I don't think I'd be able to walk the next day."

"He's that big, huh?"

"Fuck Ni." Harry sighs. "He's huge. And I only saw the constricted version. His pants were so tight." He says and swallows thickly.

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about if it would happen. Clearly he likes you, it's obviously only a matter of when." Niall says. "Don't break your pretty little head over it, okay."

Harry nods his head and they pause the conversation when a customer walks up to the counter. Niall helps her and watches her leave before turning back to Harry.

"I have to say. I didn't think mister accent had it in him. I'd have put him down as someone who was only trying to get with you. I'm impressed." Niall finally says.

"Mister accent?" Harry giggles.

"Yeah, he has a weird accent. He can't even pronounce your name right."

"Well I like it." Harry says, and he really does. He likes listening to Louis talking. And as for the way he pronounces Harry's name, well that is what Harry likes most. Never before, in his twenty five years of life, did he get butterflies everytime someone said his name.

"Yeah, I know. You obviously like a lot more than just his accent." Niall teases, wiggling his eyebrows.

Harry blushes, and smiles shyly. "Yeah. I also like how he sometimes, out of the blue gets all shy and starts stuttering."

"Oh." Niall says, his eyebrows raised. "That's not what I was thinking about." A sly smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

And judging by the way Harry starts blushing, he knows exactly what his best friend was referring to. "Yeah." He says and pauses for a moment. "It's just." Harry looks back down to his hands. "Do you think it's too soon? I mean, I broke up with Dan only two months ago."

"Harry, look at me." Niall says and waits for Harry to look at him. "Do you have any desire to get back with that arse?" He continues and watches Harry shaking his head while saying 'no'. "Well there you have it. Stop worrying about it, yeah? You do what makes you happy. You give your heart what it needs, okay?"

Harry nods his head in agreement and closes the space between them, wrapping his arms around Niall's neck, kissing his cheek. "Thanks Ni."

And some might think that the relationship between Harry and Niall is a bit too friendly, but that is who they are. They've been friends for fifteen years now and if something more were to come from their friendship then it would have a long time ago. They are just really comfortable with telling each other things they normally would not tell anyone else.

"You're welcome Haz." Niall replies before placing a quick peck on his best friend's cheek.