You Can Hear It In The Silence

Chapter 2

Something was wrong. The first thing that alerted Louis was that he could hear the telly as he walked downstairs. Given it was midday on Monday, no one else should be in the house, so it shouldn't have been on. Of course, one of the lads could've forgotten to turn it off, but none were the kind to do that. That was something Louis would do.

The next tip-off was when he walked into the living room, and Harry Styles was sitting on the lounge. That was very, very wrong.

Harry must have noticed Louis before Louis saw Harry because he was staring at him. Louis noted that Harry's hair looked particularly mussed. He was also wearing glasses. Louis hated how well they suited him.

"Oh," was all Louis could get out because what the fuck was Harry doing there? He'd heard he was at uni every weekday. Louis was pretty sure it was a weekday. Yeah, it definitely was because he worked the night before, and that was a Sunday. "Didn't know you'd be home."

"Yeah, well, I am," Harry answered flatly.

"Taking the day off studying?" he asked while he stretched. He watched as Harry's eyes travelled down his chest to his pants. And ah, shit, he was basically starkers in front of Harry. He'd had no warning that Harry would be there, so he'd had no reason to get dressed. Harry could hardly blame him for that.

"Guess so," Harry muttered.

It was then that Louis took in what Harry was wearing because, again, what the fuck?

Harry practically lived in trousers. While Louis had to admit he looked good in them (because Louis wasn't a liar or blind), it was also the most swotty thing Louis had ever seen. Sure, he'd never gone to university, but Zayn and Liam had, and they'd never worn trousers there. Now that they worked as proper adults, they did wear them sometimes, but at uni, they stuck to jeans like every other normal person.

And today, Harry almost looked normal in blue jeans with ripped knees and what seemed to be a band shirt.

Louis didn't grant him a reply and instead went to the kitchen to make himself a coffee. He used to be a loyal tea drinker but realised that the more caffeine he could get into him, the better he could concentrate. He definitely needed caffeine now to force himself to concentrate on anything other than Harry.

The thing was, he knew Harry was fit. He could admit when another guy was attractive, even if it made him jealous or whatever it was that he felt.

Even if he had not known, Tahlia had made it extremely clear on Friday. After Louis managed to sober her up, she spent the rest of the night begging Louis to play wingman for her and Harry. It's not that he wanted to pull Tally - in fact, she was strictly off-limits. As soon as it became clear that Tahlia and Mia would be their good mates, Liam, Zayn, and Louis had sworn none would shag them, even though they were both bloody attractive. Since then, Louis has only had brotherly feelings for them. Or at least, what he assumed were brotherly feelings, given he was an only child, he couldn't be entirely sure.

And that's why he hated that Tahlia wanted to pull Harry. Because she was like Louis' sister and Harry wasn't good enough for her. But when he told Tally that, she yelled at him and said he couldn't tell her who she could and couldn't shag. The thought of her and Harry shagging made him feel ill, which must have been an indicator of how much he hated Harry because usually, he didn't care who she screwed.

So yeah, while Harry looked good in trousers and especially good in the black jeans he'd worn on Friday night (even though they had still been too formal for a house party), he looked proper fit with messy hair, glasses and torn jeans. He made a mental note never to let Tally over when Harry was dressed like this.