Better With You [L.S.]

⛅~ 12 ~⛅

⛅

Louis wakes up before Harry. Harry's arms are tight around him, and they're so close together that Louis can feel Harry's breathing as his chest rises and falls against him.

Louis tries to pry Harry's arms off him as gently as possible, not wanting to wake him up. He successfully got out of Harry's grip without waking the lad up, and ignored the butterflies in his stomach when Harry reached for Louis in his sleep.

Louis went to the Closet and got changed, brushing his teeth in the attached Bathroom. Then he walked to the kitchen and texted Niall.

(Conversation with Niall)

Hey, Ni. Can you come make me breakfast?

Niall
Sure thing. I'll be right there.

As promised, Niall arrived a few minutes later.

"Alright, what do you want?" Niall asked as he entered the room.

"Scrambled eggs, please," Louis smiled at him, then got up to make some tea.

"Seriously, Louis? Do you not know how to do that yourself?" Niall scoffed.

Louis pouted. "I barely knew how to heat beans over a fire. I don't think I'd be a good cook."

"Why did you have to cook beans over a fire? Didn't your parents cook for you?" Niall asked as he starts to make the eggs.

Louis flinches. "My parents died about five years ago."

Niall almost drops the pan he's holding in surprise.

"Seriously, Louis? Jesus, it's a miracle you survived if all you were living on for five years was fire cooked beans."

That gets a laugh out of Louis, and Niall laughs with him.

"Hey, it wasn't all that bad. Zayn gave me as much food as he could. Honestly, he's the real reason I made it this long."

Niall nods, and the two of them talk absentmindedly about Louis' journies of living alone since he was 17.

⛅

(Five days later)

⛅

Things were relatively okay. Harry was complaining less, and they actually managed to have a few okay conversations.

Louis' nightmares got worse. The first day, it was just the memory replayed. Each day it got more morphed up, until the nightmare was something along the lines of Louis pushing his parents off the cliff himself.

Louis always woke up screaming, and Harry always hugged him tightly until he calmed down. Neither of them talked about the nightmares or the cuddling.

The anniversary was tomorrow. Louis knew he wouldn't last the night. He had to go to Zayn's Studio. The voices had already started slightly yesterday, and today they would just get worse.

It's all your fault.

Louis woke up crying in Harry's arms. Harry seemed to already be awake, holding Louis tightly as he cried.

"Oh good, you're finally awake. I don't know how much longer I could've listened to your crying," Harry says.

Louis rolls his eyes. "I'm sorry my tears are an inconvenience. Now get off of me so I can get some food."

Harry complies without complaint, and the two somehow end up eating breakfast together.

"Your nightmares seem like they're getting worse," Harry notes.

Louis looks down at his food - strawberry pancakes - and nods.

"Yeah, they are."

Harry doesn't say anything else about the nightmares, and the two eat in silence.

⛅

They spend their hour in silence as well, not really knowing what to talk about. Harry is on his phone, and Louis is drawing random shapes on paper.

You killed them.

He draws a skull without noticing.

It's your fault.

A knife.

It should've been you.

The edge of a cliff.

"Lou?"

Louis' head snaps up.

"You look like you're going to break that pencil," Harry says.

Louis swears he can hear a hint of worry in Harry's voice. He looks down at his hands, and sees that he's gripping the pencil he was using harshly.

Louis lets the pencil drop from his hand, and he sees Harry glance at the paper.

"Those are some pretty morbid drawings."

"I'm in a morbid mood. I'm spending the night with Zayn tonight."

Harry looks up, tilting Louis' face up as well, so that they're looking into each other's eyes. Louis ignores the pounding in his heart at the physical contact.

"Why's that?"

"Why's what?"

"Why are you spending the night with Zayn?" Harry asks with what Louis swears is jealousy.

"Why do you care?" Louis asks, a bit thrown off by how possessive Harry is being.

Harry shouldn't care about where Louis is. Harry should be scoffing and saying that he'd rather spend the night alone. But instead it almost seems like he cares? There's no way Harry cares about Louis. It's just not in him to care about anyone.

"I... I don't. I was just... curious," Harry draws out slowly.

Well, that sounded slightly suspicious. But Louis doesn't really care.

"Yeah, sure. Anyway, our hour is up. I'm gonna go visit Zayn now. See you later."

Louis leaves the room, and Harry barely registers what just happened.

⛅