Scales- Larry Stylinson

Chapter 4

Harry woke with a start as someone jumped on him, pinning his arms to his side. He cried out, hissing and lashing his tail, struggling for only a second until he recognized his attacker.

"Niall." Liam scolded from behind the couch. "I told you to let him sleep." Niall was sitting on top of Harry, straddling him. Niall giggled and kissed Harrys nose, pulling away. He picked up the back of Harrys tail and wrapped it around his own belly like a security blanket.

"He didn't mind." Niall huffed. Harry was still in a bit of shock, trying to slow his racing heart from the startling wake up call. He looked around the room, sliding to sit up. Louis and Liam were sitting at the table, drinking coffee. On the floor was a messenger bag that hadn't been there last night. He could see a dog toy sticking out of it so Harry assumed the bag was for Niall.

Harry pushed Niall further down on his tail, stretching out his spine with a sigh, hearing small pops and cracks as he did.

"Hi bestie." Niall grinned, his tail wagging. "Did you sleep good? I missed you." Harry smiled a little at that but just shook his head. He wasn't sure why the hybrid was here again, but he wasn't going to complain. Niall had been nice to him so far. And Harry couldn't deny that he liked the contact.

"A nightmare?" Niall guessed. Harrys face must have given it away. He let his face relax into a more neutral expression, not wanting to be read so easily. Niall continued. "I get them too. Do you wanna talk about it? Talking helps. Not for everyone, but for me it does. Maybe for you?"

Harry waited for a pause in Niall's talking to shake his head. No, he didn't feel like talking about it. Talking never helped, not that anyone ever offered him to. Harry also didn't like the judgmental looks or pitying looks people gave him when they learned about his past. Or even worse was when people tried to spin things to make things seem like it was his fault.

"Okay." Niall moved right on. "I got games! I get to stay here til 4:30! Usually I'm sad when Liam has to work overtime because I looooooooove him but I'm just super happy to have a friend to play with! Hold on!" Niall slid out from under Harrys tail. Harry was a bit surprised at the random sudden feeling of sad that hit him when he did. He liked the feeling of being touched. It wasn't even a sexual thing. He had just been so skin starved that someone casually laying on him or just being in contact without acting like he was gross was really nice.

"I got a ball we can play with." Niall listed, starting to pull things out. "I've got a chew toy if that's your thing. I've got candy...oh! I got all dogs go to heaven, one and two! and Oliver and company!" He pulled out a zipped up cd case. "Oh, you're a snake...movie about a snake.." Niall murmured, flipping through the DVDs "Oh, Jungle book has a snake in it....but he's the bad guy. No..." He looked up and pouted "Liam, there's no movies with snakes in it for Harry."

"That's too bad." Liam said, sipping his coffee and watching the two "It'll be alright. Just watch one of your puppy movies."

Niall whined defeatedly, pouting more. "It's not fair. Harry should have a movie with a snake it in."

"Snakes on a plane." Louis snickered from the table. Harry shot Louis a look.

"Itssss okay, Niall." Harry promised softly. Niall didn't look convinced. "What elsssssse did you bring?" Harry asked, sighing a little as he couldn't quite kick his lisp.

"He sounds like a leaky tire" Louis whispered to Liam. Liam smacked Louis on the arm.

"Be nice." He whispered back. Harry just rolled his eyes again, but said nothing. Niall seemed to perk up a little, rifling through his bag once more.

"I got a couple games. Uno, a deck of cards so we can play like fifty billion different things with this, I got jacks and a little ball, a slinky, I got a game boy but only one so we have to take turns but you cant play my Pokémon game because it only has one save and that's for me. But I have other games too." Niall said, displaying everything he brought proudly.