No Strings Attached

Chapter Five

Against his own will, Louis felt himself wake slowly from what was a very comfortable sleep. His vision was still blurred, but he could make out the soft glow of daylight sneaking past his shutters and into the bedroom. He closed his eyes again, sinking into soft pillow and completely disregarding the fact that he had most likely drooled sometime during the night. It was too tempting to stay in bed all day. 

He gave himself several minutes to wake completely and gather his thoughts. It had been a while since he slept like this, so he wasn’t quite used to the beautiful afterglow of a good night’s sleep. He shimmied downward so that the duvet covered more of his body. 

Only a few minutes more.

He sighed contentedly, breathing in the air around him. He wondered how much longer until Rosie would wake up and he would be forced to drag himself out of bed.

Rosie…

Then everything came crashing back to Louis’ mind. Jacki’s call, the extra shift, Harry’s appearance –

Louis looked underneath the duvet and wasn’t all too surprised to find that he was naked. He looked around the room frantically, as if expecting the curly-haired boy to suddenly pop out from behind the door or from inside his closet. But the coolness of the mattress next to him suggested that perhaps his late night visitor had left awhile ago, undoubtedly having snuck out to avoid the awkward confrontation of waking up together following a night of heated yet thoroughly unexpected passion.

He groaned into his pillow. This would have been so much easier if he were hungover. Instead, all of last night’s memories came to life in his head. The way that Harry teasingly ran his fingers down his arm from his shoulder while he was driving, the way that he tugged at Harry’s bracelets and earned a playfully scornful look from the younger boy, the way that they practically crashed through his front door and collapsed onto the living room carpet – it all blossomed with vivid imagery. And even moments when his memory went hazy from the headiness of it all, he could remember the sensation of his bare skin against Harry’s, or the heat of Harry’s tongue as it explored his flushed body. 

Even now, Louis felt himself getting warmer beneath the duvet. But as he let those thoughts trickle away from the forefront of his mind, he couldn’t help but admit that he missed sex. And it didn’t matter that this was his first time with another guy; the sex was good, and that was all that mattered. 

He glanced over to his phone on the nightstand. A blinking light indicated that a text message awaited him. 

Thankfully, Zayn had only sent one text. And not even an hour ago. 

rosie’s getting fussy. r u coming soon or r u still getting sexed up

Louis couldn’t help but laugh. As expected, Zayn understood his cryptic text message from the night before and took it well upon himself to perform his godfather duties. Suddenly he was very thankful that Harry had the decency to sneak out last night, saving Louis the awkwardness of kicking the singer out of his apartment so he could pick up his daughter. 

It was a peculiar thought. Louis had slept with someone famous. Sure, Harry rejected the label, but Louis thought otherwise. People knew who Harry was, or at least, would recognize him if they spotted him on the street. And that was more than Louis could say for himself. He wondered what his life would have been like if Rosie hadn’t been born, if he’d ended up auditioning for X Factor like he’d always wanted. 

But Louis shrugged the fantasy off. He was more than content with his reality. And if ever he forgot, he would remind himself of the beautiful little cuddlebug he had the honor of calling his daughter.