“Haz, stop.” Louis giggles.
I don’t answer, continuing the ticklish roaming of my fingers on his sides. We’re in Louis’ bunk; he’s lying on his back while I’m straddling his hips, making him squirm and gasp. He’d claimed that he couldn’t sleep so in urgent gestures and a hushed voice, he’d asked me—no, demanded—to join him in his bunk and ‘bore’ him to sleep. But I knew better; Louis’ always been close to his family and from all the conversations we’ve had about our personal lives, I’ve concluded that he tries not to be away from his family for more than a couple of days. We’ve been almost a week in the house already and I can see the way he tries to cover his frown when he comes back from his daily phone calls to his mum or the way his eyes glisten when he calls to say good night to his sisters.
Louis’ still squirming under me, trying to stifle his shrieks. But once I bend over to lick a short stripe across his chest, he can’t keep it in anymore.
“Ew! What are you doing?!” He half shouts, softening it with a smile.
I just shrug, offering a sly grin. I can still feel his heat on my tongue.
Liam shushes us from the top bunk across the room, squinting at his phone screen. “it’s 3 in the morning. Go to sleep.” He says sternly. We watch him settle back to sleep quietly because going back to our hushed laughing.
“I think I should go back to sleep, Lou.” I say when we’ve caught our breath.
“yeah, I think we both should.” He agrees, turning to lie on his back. He doesn’t say anything else so I take that as a sign for me to leave. But before I turn to climb the ladder down, I reach over to take Louis’ hand and press a soft kiss to his cheek bone. I feel him gasp against my cheek before pulling away and hurrying to my bunk. I stub my toe on one of the ledges but ignore the throbbing until I’m safe in my own bed. I don’t dare to say anything else as I can’t get the image of his tight grip on the blankets out of my head, and of fear that my voice would crack embarrassingly.
Checking to make sure that we didn’t wake any of the others, I glance at their beds to find Niall and Zayn sleeping peacefully, but what causes the knot in my throat is the way Liam’s looking between mine and Louis’ bunks. He narrows his eyes at me when I meet his eyes before turning to face the wall.
Louis doesn’t say anything for a while but I know that he’s not asleep, so I find myself tracing the pattern of my quilt with my fingers and biting my nails nervously. I hope I didn’t cross a line, though I don’t think there are any. Louis and I have kissed each other’s cheeks before so I don’t know why he’d have this kind of reaction. I close my eyes, trying to clear my head. I’m probably overanalyzing things. We’re fine. We’re fine.
I’m woken to Liam’s whispered shouting. According to my phone, it’s almost 7 in the morning. Normally I wouldn’t be surprised that Liam’s awake at this time, even though we don’t have early rehearsals today. But what strikes me is the sound of Louis’ voice, angry and wild, from the bunk above me.
“You don’t know shit!” Louis growls from above me. I close my eyes and try to keep my face expressionless.
“Keep your voice down,” Liam hisses. “All I’m saying is that I don’t want you two fooling around to end up messing up the whole band. It’s not just you two, you know.”
I can picture Louis’ jaw set in defense. “I already told you that nothing is happening. So bug off!”
Liam’s breathing gets quicker, fueled with rage so I open my eyes briefly to see his angry glare set on the space above me.
