You drive me round the bend - l.s

Chapter 3

"I don't want to go to work. I'm sad," Harry groaned into Liam's thigh. He got a very unsympathetic pat on his shoulder. Maybe he should bite Liam's thigh.

"Ow, fuck! Harry."

"You deserved that," Harry said once he unclamped his teeth and flopped onto his back so he could glare up at Liam's face directly.

Liam sighed. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not. I can't believe you're leaving us. Have we not been giving you enough love, Liam?" He pouted for good measure, even though he was joking. Kind of.

"I'm not leaving you," Liam said fondly and petted Harry's hair, which was just unfair because he knew damn well Harry liked that a lot. He couldn't help but be a cat at heart, but now was not that time to be taking advantage of that. "I'll be living a few blocks away from you guys."

Liam hadn't been around much these past few weeks, but the thought of not finding him scratching his balls in the middle of the kitchen on a Saturday morning was still rather strange.

Must have been nice though. The whole 'constant sex with the love of your life and being a functional grown-up' thing. It kind of made Harry feel like he should get his act together too. Be an adult, and stuff.

He didn't like that one bit.

"When are you leaving for work?" Liam asked, scratching Harry's scalp in a frustratingly pleasant way.

"About fifteen minutes."

A shift at the bar, which meant probably spilling another round of Vodka on himself and getting flirted with. He only enjoyed the second part.

"You should have sold the rich dude's coat on Ebay," Niall said once he emerged from his bedroom, settling into the armchair and tipping a can of Coke to his lips. "Might have afforded to take more time off from the bakery, at least."

Harry pushed the thought of Louis away, told himself it didn't fucking matter anymore. Not with the rest of his life all tangled up and bite marks fading into yellow.

Soon though, he told himself. Something had to give.

****

Liam had moved out two days ago and Niall and Harry were prepared to shoulder the burden of extra rent until they found a suitable flatmate. They didn't want just anyone, and if that meant pulling more extra shifts to cover the cost? So be it. Even if he'd been recently tired enough to fall asleep in the most outrageous places. Yesterday he'd nodded off in the shower and the week before that in a chair in his dentist's waiting room.

"You home?" he called as he keyed into the dark flat and kicked off his scuffed up boots. His toes were about to poke holes through the tips but he refused to buy new ones, no matter how often Niall complained. They were his favourites.

No response.

Niall was out then.

Harry rubbed a tired hand down his face, could vaguely smell the smoke clinging to his clothes and hair. He really needed a shower, but without Niall here to rescue him, he worried he'd fall asleep and rack up the bill for warm water.

Everything would be much more bearable if he got someone to wash his hair for him and tuck him into a bed that didn't have a spring digging into his back, maybe even rub his sore feet.

Maybe he should put an ad on Craigslist. 'Seeking cute boy for cuddles, head massages and blowjobs. Must like kittens and babies.'

There was at least a two percent chance he'd got a non-creepy response.