Criminal

Chapter Six

Harry didn't say a word as he walked briskly out of the kitchen, tense enough that I could see the muscles clearly through his shirt. I turned back to the counter and shook my head slightly, settling back on my feet instead of on my tip toes. 

I was just deciding on what I was going to make for dinner when I heard the familiar tenor pitch of Louis' voice, and then someone else speaking softly as Harry laughed. It was the first time I'd heard him laugh, I realized, and strangely felt a little flutter in my chest at it. His laugh was nice, deep and belting, and I found myself smiling like a creep before catching myself. 

I reached up just to pull down the same box of pasta Harry had shoved in the cupboard when the voices got suddenly closer, and then the three men were in the kitchen with me. Louis was the first to come through, and he smirked at me when he saw me standing by the stove and I breifly looked to Harry, who gave me a tight-lipped smile as if to say, 'sorry in advance'. 

"Hello again, love. Harry would probably hit me again if I didn't apologize for the brief...uncomforatble encounters before, so I am sorry." He said, but the look in his eyes and the grin on his face said otherwise. I just nodded and smiled a little as he came closer, somehow softly telling him, "It's alright." 

He slung his arm around my shoulder unexpectedly, wheeling us to face Harry and the other unknown. "Glad we cleared that out the air. Harry, take the scowl off your face and introduce Zaynie here." Louis said, apprently not noticing how uncomfortable I was plastered to his side, clutched the box of Rigatoni so tight it felt like it could explode. 

"I feel like you already have," I said, focusing on who I immediately found was one of the most beautiful men I'd ever seen. 

He was currently looking at Louis, a smile on his face as he blinked, dark eyelashes hitting his cheeks before he turned brown eyes on me. "Hello, babe. I'm Zayn, Harry's actual best mate." He said, holding out his hand. 

I carefully reached forward and shook Zayn's hand, nodding slightly. "I'm Claire-" "I know who you are, I've heard the stories." He winked, pink tongue pushed against his teeth, but before I cuold stare fr to long, Harry grabbed Zayn's shoulder, pulling him back. 

"Alright, you idiots. Remember what you came here for." Harry said, and I put my hand back on the box. Louis squeezed my shoulder and I strained to look at him, only to find him grinning at me again. 

"Oh, I remember." He winked, and I flushed before Harry reached out and pulled me away from Louis, his hand gentle on my upper arm. When I looked up into his face, wide-eyed, though, he wasn't even looking at me. 

He let me go after standing me by the stove like I was a doll, only to grab Louis around the neck and push Zayn in the back and out the kitchen doorway, the two of them giggling. "Dicks," I heard Harry mutter, and I smiled down at the box in my hands. 

That then reminded me that I was cooking dinner, and I stuck my head out of the doorway just in time to see them heading toward the hallway. 

"Wait!" I called out, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious for some unknown reason. I was just asking if they were staying for dinner. 

"Are...you two staying for dinner to night? I need to know how much to make." I asked them, drumming my fingers on the food still in my hands as some indication. Just as Zayn and Louis said yes, Harry said no, causing his two guests to giggle. Well...as much as two men COULD giggle. 

"Alright, that's all I need to know." I said softly again, and retreated behind the wall to let go of the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. 

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I had finished cooking and there was no trace of the three guys. Absolutely none. No laughing, no television, no talking, no whispering, no footsteps...nothing. It was like they'd completely dissapeared.