Friends. // l.s.

Chapter 25 - "You're completely ruining my aesthetic."

Louis' POV

It was a gentle tug to Louis' sleeve that caused him to jolt awake a few hours later. In a mild disoriented panic, he frantically looked around and identified his surroundings as the inside of the same plane he had fallen asleep in. Of course he hadn't magically beamed elsewhere, he wasn't stupid, but the plane was brightly illuminated by the light streaming through the windows and he was still very much in sleep trance. His eyes adjusted to the brightness until they could finally distinguish more than small, colourful dancing spots and shadows.

Unsurprisingly, he was met with the reason for the disruption of his sleep which caused an involuntary smile to split out on his face.

Okay, he's not saying it was great to wake up to a sleep dishevelled Harry Styles whose eyes were slightly swollen and curls stuck to only the one side of his head in a somewhat very weird, flat way, but at the same time, that's exactly what he's saying. Really, it was fantastic.

"Breakfast!" Harry announced with a smile and shoved the gray tray with food into his face. The glass, filled to the rim with orange juice, wobbled dangerously and Louis hastily reached out to stop it from toppling over and spilling over his already ruined sweats.

"Uh-oh," Harry said plainly and with wide eyes, "That was close."

"Yes, smartie, it was," Louis agreed and, with careful movements, he took the tray off of him as he rolled his eyes fondly. Harry was precarious.

"Did you sleep well?" He changed the topic and handed Louis a few napkins to wipe up the bit of juice that had spilled over. In the process he nearly knocked down the other glass filled with apple juice and Louis quickly proceeded to safely tug Harry's arms behind his back, to avoid further damage and whatnot. "There you go," he said and turned back to his meal, "Stay," he added and pointed a warning finger at him. A light blush rose on Harry's cheeks and he apologised before folding his hands in his own lap.

"Well, can't say I slept bad. Surely first class would've been more comfortable, but it was okay. What 'bout you?" Louis returned the question and began to eat some omelette that, in his own liberal opinion, looked very weird. He wasn't essentially the biggest fan of plane food, but who was?

"Good, though, I must say, my left arm was strangely completely numb when I woke up," Harry trailed off and smirked at Louis.

"Mhh, can't imagine why," he said sarcastically and winked. A curt laugh fell from Harry's lips and he leaned back to look at the ceiling whilst Louis continued to shove whatever was served in front of him into his mouth. Apparently Harry had already eaten and Louis briefly wondered how much longer he'd been asleep than Harry. However, after considering asking him, Louis couldn't be bothered and found he actually didn't care.

If anything, he was rather relieved that there wasn't an awkward tension in the air that could've weighed down their moods and thanked God for taking things easy on him for once. It was nice sitting next to Harry and not having to worry about what was appropriate to say or do all the damn time. Momentary, Louis' mind wandered back to before they had fallen asleep and his little break out where he'd basically confessed to being into guys. In all honesty, it wasn't an absolute shocker, but it was still something Louis had never planned to ever tell Harry again.

"By the way, during your nap Anne came by. She was curious whether we were getting along or not and if she had to swap seats with one of us to separate us," Harry spoke up. He tried to fix the mess on his head and stretched his arms and legs, followed by a little baby dinosaur kind of yawn. No, Louis was not endeared by it, he would never.

"And what did you tell her?"

"I mean," Harry reached out for Louis' hand and cradled it in his large one after he'd put the spoon Louis was holding to scoop his chocolate mousse up, down and explained, "Considering the fact that you were currently having cuddles with Mr. Hand," - "Mister Hand, are you for real?" Louis cut in but Harry rudely ignored him - "I think she was satisfied. Well, I had to keep her from yodelling in happiness in front of the other passengers and I guess that means something." Harry laughed and the crease of his dimples deepened, if possible. Louis was kind of taken aback by Harry holding on to his hand, again, but he didn't comment on it. Perhaps it was for the better, he thought. They'd held hands like ten times by now and it was alright. Louis could live with that, after all, their friendship - was it a friendship? - was building up somehow and Harry had told Louis he had missed him and his touches, so certainly, it was fine. Louis knew he'd rejected Harry quite an amount of times now and, to be fair, he was only human.