Winter's Peril

Chapter 3

The party had started. Most of the people they had invited were there. Only Harry and Catherine hadn't arrived. Dill didn't want Emily to come and Louis only snickered in response. He didn't mind who came or not but it would be sad not to get to know his neighbours.

Louis stood by his husband next to the fireplace and Verlee had joined them, holding a glass of wine in her hand.

"You have such a beautiful house."

Both of them smiled at her compliment. "Thank you so much," Louis replied.

"It was no thanks to you as well Verlee, you helped us a lot."

Verlee smiled at them. "It is the least I could do guys honestly, you've helped me so much."

The doorbell rang and Louis went to get it. He slipped away from Dill's side and went to the door. A few people stopped him along the way but he had to keep the conversations short.

As soon as it opened a cold gust of wind blew into the house and he winced slightly. Once he looked back up, he noticed Harry staring down at him with a blank look on his face.

A smile broke out on his face. He felt happy that Harry showed up, mainly because he didn't expect him to come.

"Harry, hi, nice to see you. Please, come in. Just um...take your shoes off." Harry took off his walking boots and lay them beside the other shoes. "Let me take your jacket."

"No, I'm fine," Harry answered as he looked at other people in the room.

Louis frowned, staring down at his hands for a second before remembering to close the door behind Harry.

"Er...There's some food over there but this is my um... This is Dill," Louis muttered as he walked them towards his lover and Verlee. "Dill! this is Harry, one of our neighbours, he's just down the road from us."

"A pleasure to meet you, Harry," Dill smiled, holding his hand out to the man. Harry only nodded before holding out his hand. Louis' eyes flickered between the two as they shook hands and Louis twisted his hand around the wine glass he had.

"I'll get him some food," Louis said and Dill nodded.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he jumped a little. His head whipped around to see who it was and he relaxed a little. It was Dnias.

"Where is the bathroom?" he muttered.

"Upstairs and it is the first left."

Dnias nodded before going to the stairs. His head turned back to Harry who stood beside him and he took him towards the food.

"You're not allergic to anything are you?" Harry shook his head while he looked over the range of food. "That's good. You want a drink or anything? Beer? Juice? Water?"

"Beer will be fine."

Walking through the small group of people, Louis went to the fridge and grabbed a beer. On the way back he was stopped a few times for a few seconds by different guests. Eventually, when he got back to Harry, he handed him the beer and he thanked him.

"There seem to be no forks left," Harry muttered.

Louis' head turned to look at the table and indeed there were no forks. "So sorry, I'll get one for you."

Again he hurried to the kitchen and collected some forks and knives. Just as he got back to Harry the doorbell rang again. He groaned as he put his glass down and gave a fork to Harry.

When he opened the door, he saw Catherine standing there and his smile faltered a little once he saw who was next to her.

"Hey, Catherine and, hi... Emily."