Larry fics

Slippage

It's getting harder to ignore.

They're all trying, keeping their eyes fixed on the TV, but Niall is pretty sure that nobody is following the movie anymore. There are two characters having an intense conversation on the screen right now and he has no idea who they even are. It's kind of hard to focus, when Harry and Louis are all over each other, Harry straddling Louis's lap and the two of them making out in a way that gives Niall the impression it's not exactly their final destination.

And, the thing is, it's not like it's the first time. They've done this before. They've done worse before. Just yesterday they were all hanging out in the hotel suite between appointments, he and Liam playing on the Xbox while Zayn watched and Harry and Louis napped on the bed behind them—only they weren't napping, not for long anyway. Gradually Niall became aware of the sounds of them shifting about, more than they would be if they were sleeping, and then those sounds became quiet little moans, and by then it was pretty clear that under the covers there were hands down pants.

They'd all kind of exchanged glances when they realised, but not said anything about it, and Niall couldn't really bring himself to be all that offended because he knows how difficult it is for Harry and Louis to actually get the chance to do anything these days, especially when they're tired and touring and never really left alone. Okay, maybe the courteous thing to do would've been to go to their own room, but they were sleepy and didn't have long, and thought the others were distracted enough. Niall could understand that.

This is a little different, though. Liam and Zayn are sitting right next to them—Niall perched on the end of the bed behind the sofa—and so it's not really like they're making an effort to hide it. Not that they usually try and hide it when they're making out, they do that in the same room as the others all the time, but it never really feels like it's leading to anything, and this—this really does. And it's not normal.

But then, on some level, he knows that none of this is really normal—sure, if you're good mates with two people who happen to be a couple, you're gonna see some displays of affection now and again, but there was a point sometime in the recent past when he's pretty sure they crossed some kind of line. He's just not sure when it was. Or if they can ever go back from it now.

Zayn's sitting at the opposite end of the sofa to Harry and Louis, Liam between them. He's got his feet up on the coffee table and he's been in this position for at least twenty minutes now and his legs are really starting to ache, but it feels like they're all caught in some kind of spell, frozen stiff, and it's easier to pretend this way—if they all start moving around or talking then the atmosphere will break. But at the same time he feels like they can't exactly stay like this forever—someone's going to have to acknowledge the situation eventually.

It feels kind of familiar in an odd way, because there have been so many other situations like this ever since Harry and Louis got together. It's not like Harry and Louis are exhibitionists or anything but seeing as they've got to hide their relationship all the time in public, it doesn't seem fair for the guys to insist they do the same around them. Especially considering it's not like any of them care; it's actually pretty sweet to see them being so affectionate with each other, so obviously in love, and the boys want to give them a safe space for that.

But it has brought up some issues. There are all those times he wakes up in the night on the tour bus and senses that something's different, and then hears odd muffled noises and realises that one of the boys has sneaked into the other's bunk. And that's fine; he just ignores it and goes back to sleep, maybe ribs on them a little the next morning at breakfast but that's it. And then there was the time they were all playing cards in the evening and Harry and Louis went off to bed uncharacteristically early, and after a while they realised they could hear them, like the boys weren't making their usual efforts to keep quiet this time. It got to the point where none of them could ignore it any longer, and Zayn laughed first, putting his head in his hands, and that set them all off.