Could you be any louder?

chapter 5

Coming home to have someone waiting for you. A weird concept Louis hasn't known for a long time now. He's still growing accustomed to it, to be honest.

And he does not mean it in the way of having a significant other waiting for you, because Louis doesn't really do relationships. He has had his portion of those in life and he gets a bit nauseous only thinking about it.

It's in a friendship way, someone caring for you platonically, that's what Louis also hadn't had in a long time.

He's a bit of an einzelgänger honestly, he prefers being on his own. Maybe its the aftermath of growing up in an environment where you constantly were surrounded by people, maybe its not, but who'd know?

So that's why Louis still gets this slight heart-aching feeling every time he steps inside his shared apartment, only to find Harry sitting there with a hot cup of tea waiting for him.

It's bittersweet, knowing he hasn't had this in so long but also the feeling of having it now but not wanting to have it slip away.

It's not any different tonight after having worked later than usual, as soon as Louis opens the door he locks eyes with Harry.

"Ahh not this again." Louis half-jokes, because he loves having a cup of tea after work but he's also really really tired today and would rather grab his cup and drink it in his bed.

But Louis might be an asshole overall, but he wouldn't let Harry know that he'd rather do that last option instead. Not when Harry is trying so so hard for them to become better friends, maybe also partially trying to make up for whatever he let Louis go through.

He loves it though, the way they get along now. He hadn't really noticed before but now that he has this—a friendship—again, he notices how much he's missed it.

"Yeah, this again." Harry mumbles, looking up from whatever he's drawing. "I needed to ask you something actually."

"About what?" Louis' curiosity plays up as he throws his jacket over a chair and leans against the wall with one arm to take his shoes off. He knows it irks Harry when he doesn't put them away immediately but they still have wet bits of mud on it and he wants to let that dry completely.

And maybe, partially, because he likes annoying Harry a bit.

Harry puts his pencils in the case and finally puts his notebook away. His eyes settle on Louis once he sits down in front of him. He knows Louis is a very curious persona, that's why he is silent for so long, and Louis knows that.

"C'mon Harry," Louis rolls his eyes, taking a sip of his tea. "Fucking stop dragging this out. What did you want to ask?"

A smile plays around Harry's soft red lips, his eyes shining a bit as he finally speaks up.

"What are you doing this years Christmas?"

Odd. That's so not what Louis expected.

"Well uhm," Louis answers, squinting his eyes as he looks at Harry, so not sure about it himself. "I guess I don't really have plans for the holidays, my family is out of town I think."

Not that he'd really want to spend it with them though, ever since their big disagreements he'd rather spend every holiday alone than with them.

Last three years he'd already spent the holidays miserably sulking in bed, longing for what once was.

"Great!" Harry grins, before quickly realizing it might actually be sad that Louis's family is out of town with him. "Wait, I mean-"

Louis reassuringly nods as he interrupts Harry, "Its okay, why'd you ask though?"