larry- one shots

deep within the mystery of your eyes

There's a loud snoring going on in his living room. It's the loud, grating sound that greets Louis as he opens his eyes to his oldest and closest friend, the darkness that has been with him his entire life. He should do something about that, he thinks. The obnoxious snoring, that is, not the blindness. He pushes himself up with a groan, making his way from his bedroom out.

Louis wonders what other people's lives are like. Normal people, that is: the people who don't have to shuffle blindly about their flats, ghosting their fingers along walls and furniture, and feeling like they have to keep relearning their spaces after every visit from friends and family. God, though, Louis has some asshole friends who think it's hilarious to rearrange his flat after wild parties, even though he's not actually sure how they manage it with being wasted off their collective arses. He really should make a habit of banning them from his flat when they're drunk, and actually stick to that plan for once. That, or figure out ways to make it painfully, bluntly obvious to them that being blind isn't the hilarious punchline his dickish friends seem to think it is. Ways that don't involve bruises that Louis can't see but can only hope get his point across that it's cruel to force a blind person to figure out their space again.

Or just dump all the shit friends and make new friends in general. That might be the safest plan, the one that involves both less and more work on his part. Less work that he wouldn't have to re-learn his flat every morning after he and his friends get drunk, especially when he's hungover, and more work in that he doesn't exactly lead a life that makes meeting new people easy.

His questing fingers find the couch in its usual place – he knows it's the usual place because it's the exact right number of steps from the doorway leading from the hall and his feeling about tells him it's facing the way it should – and shortly they find the loudly, obnoxiously snoring occupant. Well, the occupant's broad shoulder, at any rate, which leads to the curve of a strong neck and a well trimmed beard.

He smirks, fingers closing over Liam's nose, causing the sleeping man to jerk awake with a yelp. "Serves you right for snoring like a freight train. Think a herd of elephants could storm on through my flat and I wouldn't have heard them."

"I was not," Liam defends himself, and Louis can hear the man sitting up. Judging by the rustling, Louis is pretty sure that Liam slept in the same clothes from yesterday. Without searching, he can't place if Liam had brought an overnight bag with him, is still not sure why his best mate spent the night, but it's not that terribly important. His fingers twitch in Liam's direction, in what he hopes is a threatening manner, and he feels Liam's broad hands envelop his and pull Louis comfortably in the space between Liam's knees. It makes him feel like maybe he wasn't as threatening as he thought he was, and it also means he can't figure out what facial expression Liam's got on his face as he adds, "Well, maybe I was. Did I wake you?"

Louis thinks there's a smile to the words, thinks he can hear the faintest hint of one, and wants to pull his hands away so he can find out for sure. Instead, though, Liam's hands feel grounding. They remind Louis that, for all his restlessness and frustration that come from not knowing the full extent of his world, he's not alone in the darkness. The current position does as well; with anyone else, it would look like an intimate position, but with them, it's just a way to ground Louis.

Louis doesn't need the help, would refuse if Liam made the offer to move in permanently, but there are times when he wishes that he had someone that could make him feel like he's not alone all the time. That someone would sit like Liam is right now, and hold Louis' hands like this, and they'd be in a position like this and have it be intimate. Not Liam, obviously; Liam's studying to be an EMT because he has a physical need to help people, and Liam makes Louis feel weak.