until you - a larry mpreg

Chapter Three: Risk

LOUIS

It was a week and half after Louis' impromptu lunch with Perrie and Harry. He saw Harry everyday now, no matter how hard he tried to avoid him. Harry would pop into the office or show up outside when Louis tried to take a quick smoke.

Today, Louis ate outside. He had a sandwich in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Isabella had been stressing him out recently. Not on purpose, but she caught a bad flu virus and was keeping both Louis and Liam up all night long. Liam was watching her today since it was his day off, but Louis was exhausted. This was the first time Isa had gotten sick since they moved to London.

Louis didn't have Karen, who worked from home every day, to watch her. With that, he had missed three days of work to take care of her so far, he couldn't miss anymore. They had rent due this month, he was already struggling financially enough after Christmas as is.

"Hey," Harry called out, pulling Louis out of his mind. He was wearing a bright blue shirt today. "How's it going?"

Louis blew out a string of smoke, "I've been better. You?"

"I'm doing good. Is everything okay?"

"Isabella's sick with the flu. Just tired," Louis answered, throwing the butt of the cigarette below him and stepping on it. As he twisted his foot on it, he sighed. "Barely had any sleep the past four days."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, sitting next to Louis on the bench. Louis realized than that he had blurted out his issues like he and Harry were friends.

"Sorry for spilling that onto you," Louis said, biting into his sandwich.

"No, it's alright," Harry said. "Do you like being a father?"

Louis glanced over at Harry, taken back by the question. He answered, "Of course. I was young, but she was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"I want children," Harry said, his voice far-off.

"How old are you?" Louis asked.

"I'm almost twenty-three."

"You have plenty of time to have kids. Not everyone has a teenage pregnancy head start," laughed Louis. Harry smiled.

"Would you like to go out sometime?" Harry asked, his voice nonchalant.

"Pardon?" Louis asked, wondering if he heard him right.

Harry licked his bottom lip before biting it gently. He said, an edge of nerve on his tongue, "I'd like to go out with you sometime."

"Why? We don't...know each other," Louis said.

"Isn't that why people go out on dates?" Harry questioned.

"Um," the other man hesitated.

He didn't remember dating well. It been so long. Michael, his ex and Isabella's father, never took him out. They were friends who would hang out. Then when Michael kissed Louis, things progressed. They slept together a bunch of times before Michael got bored and ended everything. Nine months later, Louis had Isabella.

"Hey," Harry said. "If you don't want to... That's fine. I just feel a sort of...connection with you. I want to explore it."

"I have a daughter," Louis said, like it was some sort of explanation.