You Can Hear It In The Silence

Chapter 7

Harry woke up to his head pounding, his body aching, and his bladder full. The room was pitch black, he fumbled around trying to find his phone but couldn't, and the need to wee was too much, so he had no choice but to give up.

As he stumbled out of bed, he kicked something soft. Given that he rarely had anything on his floor, it made him remember that he was in Louis' room.

He slowly opened the bedroom door with one hand and shielded his eyes with the other. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the hallway light, which was way too bright.

He was pleasantly surprised that no one was fussing over him. But he was pretty sure he woke up alone, meaning Louis would have to be somewhere in the house. Maybe he took Harry's bed.

Having missed dinner, he was starving. He heard a faint noise coming from the living room as he walked down, so instead of heading to the kitchen, he detoured there.

"You a'right?" Louis asked as soon as Harry entered the room, seemingly not surprised that Harry was there.

"'Times it?"

Louis said, "Just past midnight." How could he look better in track pants and a jumper than Harry ever could? Seeing Louis wearing a jumper reminded Harry that he was still wearing Louis'. Hopefully, he'd forget about it, and Harry could keep it.

"Why are you still up?" Harry asked him. It wasn't the time that made Harry ask it - he was pretty sure that Louis was up past midnight most nights - it was that Louis looked exhausted.

"You okay?" Louis asked, sidestepping the question entirely.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, just a bit sore and hungry."

Louis pushed himself up from the lounge. "Sit," He told Harry.

Harry sat on the same lounge that Louis had been on. He was sure it was the first time he'd ever sat on the three-seater. He stared straight ahead at the telly but didn't actually watch it.

Louis returned a few minutes later and placed a plate with toast on it in front of Harry.

"Peanut butter," Harry said.

Louis' lips quirked, and it was the first time he'd shown any emotion since Harry had come downstairs. "Everyone likes peanut butter," he said and then walked out of the room again.

Harry missed his presence immediately.

He returned within seconds and placed a glass of water and four tablets on the table. "Pain relief," he said.

"Shit, my meds," Harry said. "My actual ones." He tried to stand but felt woozy.

"Sit down," Louis told him again. "Where are they?" Louis asked.

"Bedside table," Harry answered. "On top of it."

Louis left the room for the third time. Harry couldn't believe he hadn't taken them after everything had already happened over the last twelve hours. He took the pain relief Louis had left out for him.

He felt vibrating under him, so he shuffled and found that it was an alarm on Louis' phone.

When Louis walked back in and saw his phone in Harry's hand. "Why do you have my phone?" seemingly more curious than anything.

"Why do you have an alarm for a quarter past midnight?"

"Oh." Louis handed Harry his meds. "Was going to check on you then. The plan was to give you the tablets then. Niall said you normally take them before midnight, but last time I went in there, you seemed like you might be waking, so I decided to hold off a little longer."