5+1 - l.s

chapter six: Louis

“You're not listening to a damn word I'm saying.” Luca's voice is understandably annoyed, mostly because Louis has asked him to repeat himself twice now, and it's still not getting through to him. Luca's his best friend, but Louis' head just isn't in the game today at all. He's trying to be attentive, but he can only multitask so much, and when his mind is on one thing and he's forced to decide between watching the passing vehicles and listening to what Luca has to say, he's gonna go with the one that doesn't cost him his job.

“I'm sorry.” Louis waves him off, because he doesn't really want to have to explain just why he's so out of it today. Not that he doesn't trust Luca, but suddenly explaining to his best friend that he might want to sleep with another guy seems a little heavy a topic for right now. “You're just gonna have to let it slide for today—I'll do better tomorrow.”

“Really?” Luca's not dropping it that quickly, no surprise there. Louis figures he'd probably react the same way if the roles were reversed. “You want to at least tell me what's got you so fucked up you can't process the English language?”

“Just had a long night.” Luca isn't exactly lying. He and Harry had stayed up until the damned witching hour, and he's definitely feeling the lack of sleep. While it isn't the main reason, it's surely a contributing factor.

It's what Harry said to him on his way out. That for some reason, Kieran had decided Kieran was into Harry, and had taken it upon himself to tell Harry that without consulting his father first. And maybe Louis is thinking about bringing that up with his son eventually, but right now, he just can't get his head around the fact that somehow, his kid had seen something going on that Louis hadn't seen for himself.

Or well, he'd seen it, but hadn't acknowledged it. It's a tough call, honestly. In Louis' defense, he's a busy man. Between parenting his children and work, he often doesn't get more than an hour or so to himself before it's time to call it a night. Or rather, he hadn't had that much time to himself before Harry had come into the picture. Now, he stays up too damned late and talks about shit that probably isn't even worth the lack of sleep, and he still can't find it in himself to regret it.

He likes to think it's Harry's fault, but it isn't like the other man forces Louis to stay up late. They just start talking, and they don't stop. Sometimes, Harry teases him about his mannerisms around the house, and other times, the topics are more serious. He's never tried to deny that he enjoys discussing things with Harry, even if the guy talks like he came right out of a bad porno.

Harry's got a deep voice that is somehow soothing in its own right, and his eyes are sharp and almost hypnotic. It's hard to look away.

And he pulls shit on Louis, too. The jokes about the two of them being married don't bother Louis much as the actions that follow. Harry has spent multiple times looking at him in a way that might as well have been a hand dragging across his thigh, and Louis knows it's because of the way it makes him react. He's got to keep his shock and the sparks of sensation lit up in his nerve endings to himself, and the end result is a man clearing his throat and trying desperately to pretend that the only one bothered by all this is Kieran.

Yeah, it's turned him on. So have some of the things Harry has said. Louis' not going to lie to himself there. But in reality, he's honestly believed this entire time that it was just Harry's new brand of trying to get under his skin, since all the nasty comments about how he goes about his day-to-day life aren't working anymore. R
Louis' been telling himself that eventually, the dust would settle around those gestures and make him a little more desensitized to the whole thing, but now that Harry's brought out into the air what Kieran had said, he knows that's not the case.

He doesn't know exactly when his feelings developed, but he knows that it's not just any one factor that led to it. Harry can be a real piece of shit sometimes, but he comes by it honest. He owns it, and he's charismatic about it. His body language oozes a sort of 'no regrets' mentality into everything he says and does, and Louis' both perplexed and mesmerized at the same time.