You're armed, I'm dangerous - Larry Stylinson

8

Harry woke up feeling incredibly woozy and disoriented. He couldn't recognise the room he was in, but it had a very cabin style feel - warm and cosy. There were embers burning in the fireplace and a heavy quilt over his legs. Out the low space window he could only see field for miles, apart from two dark colour horses staring right at him through the window.

He jumped as the door creaked in and a girl with bright blonde hair walked in. They made eye contact and her jaw dropped as she went back to the door. "LOUIS? WHY is there a HALF DEAD, half naked man in the spare room?!"

Harry flinched at the volume as she came back over. "Lottie - nice to meet you." He winced as he sat up to reach for her hand, pausing as he felt the bandages around his torso shift and the band of his jeans dig into his stomach.

"Harry Styles, it's a pleasure. I promise I'm not usually half dead." Her jaw dropped, "Ohhh, you're Harry!"

Harry looked at her confusedly, "Huh?" She shrugged, "I'm as confused as you are, to be honest."

The door creaked open a second time, "What are you doing in here, Lottie?".

"I think, well Harry and I think, you have some explaining to do." Harry looked over to the door and his jaw dropped, how had he not seen it before? When he was younger, he had been able to recognise those eyes anywhere.

"Louis? Shit."

Lottie grinned, "That's what we said!"

Louis brushed his hair out of his eyes with a hoodie covered hand, "Ehm so, eh yeah, surprise?"

Harry kept his eyes trained on the older boy from where he was lying, still in complete shock. Louis had aged, sure, but he more or less looked like he had when he left school, same dark clothes and in Harry's opinion a roughish kind of mischief to him. He was swamped in a black hoodie that had a small grey swirl over the heart.

"Yeah, surprise is definitely the word for it."

Louis winced, fiddling with the sleeves of his hoodie. "Yeah, I know, understatement of the century, huh?" Harry flinched slightly in response, having shifted his weight slightly and moved the wound. "You could say that."

Louis noticed the flinch, "Yeah uhm, you've been out for like two days, there or there abouts." Harry nodded, coughing slightly as he tried to swing his legs out of the bed. Walsh probably thought he was dead, which perhaps wasn't the worst thing.

"Whoa, whoa, where on earth do you think you're going?"

Harry felt the muscles tugging on his wound as he tried to stand and Louis firmly pushed him back on the bed, having crossed the room the moment Harry tried to stand. "No, you've had a pretty bad stab to the ribs, right below your right lung, and you're damn lucky that blade didn't puncture it. I have spent the last two days making sure you don't do even more damage to yourself while you were asleep and I'll be damned if I let you go out in the middle of nowhere when you have no idea where you are, and re-open that wound by doing something stupid." Harry blinked up at him, quite surprised by the amount of care and stubbornness radiating from the other man, "But– "

"No," Louis shushed him, "I'll give you something to change into, but you have to eat something so that's what we are doing now. If you try to do otherwise, I'll lock you in here." Harry raised an eyebrow in a sort of 'I'm a trained assassin, you know that right' way and Louis shrugged.

"You aren't going anywhere. Jet is watching you." He gestured to one of the horses staring in through the window and Harry chuckled, wincing at the sharp sting in his torso,

"And I will tie you to the bed if I have to, so don't try something dumb."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Kinky."

Louis glared at him.

"Okay, okay, fine."

Louis grinned smugly, "Good. And don't even think about trying to stand up!" He yelled on his way out.

As soon as he left Lottie looked at Harry in a confused kind of way, "Let me guess, Saving Grace?"

Harry grimaced, nodding, "Let me guess, he's raven?"

Lottie nodded, opening the window slightly to stroke on the of horses. "He wasn't very, subtle. I'm pretty sure he knew it was you from the first day." Harry shook his head, "It's been two months, he could have just killed me and been done with it when he found out."

Lottie laughed slightly, as is she knew something he didn't. "Yeah, no. And he couldn't have exactly told you, could he? He's contracted to the opposing mafia to yours."

"I'm not contracted."

"What?"

Harry groaned, propping himself up against the pillows, "I'm not technically contracted. Walsh hasn't realised yet, but my contract ended ages ago. Technically I'm freelance and getting paid a ridiculous amount to not switch sides when I don't really have a side."

Lottie was sitting with her mouth slightly open "Huh. Interesting."

Louis reappeared with a couple of dark fabrics and toast, "Lottie?" His sister nodded and scuffled out the room, giving the horse one last pat on the neck. Harry opened his mouth, "Don't give me shit about the code, Harry, I practically know if off by heart." Harry bit his lip, "I wasn't going to."

"Oh."

"I was going to say thank you."

Louis hummed as he pulled a log out and placed it into the fire watching the orange lick over the wood. "It's okay."

Harry shook his head, "I'm not your responsibility. And according to my boss, you should want me dead."

"Yeah, well, according to mine, you're hellbent on murdering me, and seeing as you have yet to seriously try, I think we can ignore that. And you're my friend, in a kind of twisted mafia type way."

Harry's jaw dropped slightly but he stayed quiet, "Do you think you would be okay to shower by yourself?" Louis continued when Harry didn't reply.

Harry tested his muscles, "Probably."

Louis nodded and helped him up, surprisingly strong but really Harry should have known.

He fell forward slightly having no choice but to rest his forehead on Louis shoulder as a jolt of pain ran through his torso.

"Louis,"

"It's okay." A light hand dashed over his back, it wasn't awkward and that's why it was kind of weird. Harry steadied his breath, "Okay." Louis had a strong grip on his arm as he re-figured how to walk.

He was walking with a slight limp due to the restricted movement on his side, "I'm okay from here, I think." Louis nodded and held the door for him, "There's something to change into and ehm, the towels are under the sink." He rushed out the door clicking behind him.

Harry nodded looking at the scattering of things across the sink including a deep black Nyx liner. He chuckled moving the item away from the sink.