You Can Hear It In The Silence

Chapter 13

Harry had decided to return to Uni on Tuesday, so he spent the rest of Monday studying and catching up on coursework. He only went downstairs for dinner; surprisingly, no one brought up Louis. He'd spent all weekend listening to their subtle and not-so-subtle defences of him.

Harry spent too long trying to devise the best way to sneak into Louis' room. He'd decided that Niall was the main problem. Zayn's room was on the other side of Louis', and Liam's was at Zayn's end. They had no reason to come down to Harry's end.

But Harry's was nestled between Louis' and Niall's, so Niall would be more likely to catch him. On top of that, Harry wasn't entirely sure that Niall had stopped checking him in the middle of the night.

He figured he had two options. The first was to set an alarm for later, once he thought Niall would be asleep and then creep into Louis' room.

The other option was to go straight to Louis' bed now and hope no one checked on him.

In the end, it didn't matter because he woke up to a whisper, "What the fuck, Harry?"

"Louis?" It took him a moment to work out what was happening. He sat up and switched his lamp on.

Louis took a step in and gently closed the door. It wasn't until he turned back to Harry that Harry saw the hurt on Louis' face. "You said," he said quietly. "You said you'd sleep in my bed." Pain bled into his voice and hit Harry straight into his stomach. "This time, you said."

"Oh, shit," Harry said, realising what had happened.

"If, like, if you didn't want to... I'd understand. But you should have told me."

"No, no, Louis. It's not like that." Harry pushed himself off his bed. "I was trying to work out how to get into there. I must have fallen asleep." He walked to Louis, needing to soothe him.

Some of the worry on Louis' face softened. "Really?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, really."

"So... you'll come now?" Louis asked. His voice was so small, and Harry couldn't really understand why.

Without even thinking about it, Harry pushed Louis' hair back out of his eyes. Louis didn't seem to mind Harry's touch. "Yeah, of course," Harry said. "Are they all asleep?"

Louis smiled. "Yeah, think so. You can check the hallway."

Harry held back a laugh at the absurdity of it and walked past Louis, opening the door to an empty hallway. "Coast is clear," he said as he turned around to find Louis right behind him.

As soon as they were in Louis' room and closed the door behind him, Louis said, "Jammie time." He pulled his shirt over his head. Harry just sat on his bed, "What are you doing, H? I said it's jammie time."

Harry looked down. "These are my pyjamas."

"The other night, you slept without a shirt, though," Louis said. "And you were track pants to bed every night?"

"It was hot that night," Harry said.

"Harry," Louis eyed him carefully, "What do you normally wear to bed?"

"Underwear," Harry conceded. "Unless it's really cold."

"And is it really cold, Harry?"

"No, it's not, Louis."

"Then it's jammie time," Louis said. His playful expression fell, "Wait, I mean. If you don't want to. That's fine. You don't have to. I, uh-"

Harry stood up, took his shirt off, and then pulled off his track pants to silence Louis. He was aware that Louis was watching him, "Better?" he asked, standing in front of Louis in his underwear.