take care of me // larry au

05

Zayn gets there around six, just after dinner. Liam trails behind him, a grin on his face that sort of reminds Louis of Harry's.

"You look nice," Zayn comments while falling into Harry's- the visitors chair. "Why did you do your hair?" he asks, looking suspicious. "Are you planning on breaking out of here?"

Louis snorts. "That would be sort of hard, given the circumstances," Louis points out, gesturing to his leg. "And I had a visitor, so I thought I'd make myself look presentable."

Zayn's eyes narrow as Liam sinks onto the edge of the bed. "You don't get presentable for me," Zayn points out. "Last time I was here you were wearing a wrinkled shirt and you hadn't showered."

Louis rolls his eyes. "Let it go, Zayn."

"I will not let it go," Zayn argues. "What's her name? Or his."

Louis wonders if Zayn would believe him if he lies, but then he decides that he probably wouldn't. Plus, Louis sort of wants to talk about it, weirdly enough.

"His name is Harry," Louis answers finally. "He's a volunteer. An incredibly fucking hot volunteer."

Zayn snorts and gives Louis an incredulous look. "Leave it to Tomlinson to get laid while in the damn hospital."

"Is this my dick?" Liam asks suddenly, trailing a finger over Louis' cast.

"Told you it was an incredibly accurate potrayal of his dick," Zayn says happily. "But don't change the subject, Liam, I want to hear all about Louis' hospital lover."

"It's not like that." Louis says defensively. Why he thought talking about this with Zayn would be a good idea, he doesn't know.

"And why not?" Zayn demands.

"Because he's Mother fucking Teresa, that's why," Louis snaps. "And he's sort of annoying, honestly. A bit of a do-gooder, you know? And he fucking smiles like, all the time. In fact, I'm fairly certain he's not even human."

Liam snorts a laugh and gives Zayn a knowing look. "You're right infatuated with him, aren't you?" he asks.

Louis turns to Zayn. "You better shut your boyfriend up before I do it for you."

"Don't be dramatic." Zayn scolds, which is possibly the most hypocritical thing Louis has ever heard, because Zayn once threatened to murder the girl at the ice cream shop for laughing at Liam when he wanted sprinkles on his ice cream.

"Whatever." Louis sits up a bit and runs a hand through his hair. "Do you think you could bring me your 'Clueless' movie tonight? I sort of need it for tomorrow."

"Why?" Zayn says, smirking. "Got a movie date with Harry? Oh, God, don't tell me. He's a rom-com fan too, isn't he? You're in sappy love with him, aren't you?"

"Fuck off."

"If you're rude to me I won't bring you the movie." Zayn says warningly.

"Fuck off, please." Louis corrects himself.

Zayn grins at him.

\\\

"He's going to turn out to be gay, you know." Louis days, nodding at Justin Walker's character on screen.

Harry's mouth gapes open and he turns to Louis with a horrified look. He punches Louis in the arm too, but not very hard, which is only possible because Harry is on the bed with him today.

Louis didn't ask him to, but instead of going to the chair he'd just walked around to the other side of the bed and sat himself down beside Louis, leaning against the headboard, legs stretched out in front of him, hands folded in his lap.

He'd taken his shoes off first though, because Harry is far too polite to sit on someone's bed with shoes on, obviously.

"Don't ruin it for me." Harry says, sounding scandalized.

Louis rolls his eyes. "Not my fault that this movie's been out for two decades and you're only just seeing it now." Which makes Louis suddenly question why. "Why haven't you seen it before, by the way? You seem like quite a fan."

Harry shrugs, eyes on the screen. "Didn't have time. I wanted to see it on tv, but something came up."

Louis grunts his reply and reaches for the can of Coke on his side table. He takes a sip and goes to put it back, but Harry takes it from his hand before he can. Louis watches as Harry takes a sip and then licks his lips afterwards to remove a drop of the liquid.

He hands it back to Louis without a word, and Louis is pretty dumbfounded.

"He's going to be her boyfriend, isn't he?" Harry asks, meaning Josh, Cher's stepbrother whom is giving her driving lessons.

"Didn't you just tell me not to spoil it for you?" Louis asks.

Harry groans. "Come on, just tell me if he's going to be her boyfriend. He looks like he likes her. And he teases her. When romantic movies have a boy tease a girl, the boy is always into her."

"I'm not telling you."

"Just tell me."

"It'll ruin the whole movie, Harry."

"Louis, come on." Harry whines.

"Okay, fine, he's going to be her boyfriend. Are you happy?"

"Louis," Harry gapes at him again. "Why would you tell me that?"

Louis gives him a disbelieving look, hands raised defensively. How is Harry even a real person? He's going to check for batteries or something, because there's no possible way that he is. He is definitely a robot from planet Sunshine or something.

"You told me to, remember?" Louis points out.

"You're horrible to watch movies with," Harry informs him. "Don't you know that when someone asks you for a spoiler, you're not supposed to give it to them?"

Louis covers his face with his hand, letting Harry notice the fond, amused look on his face which Louis is struggling to control.

"You're unbelievable, you know that?"

"Shut up and watch the movie." Harry tells him.

"Did you just tell me to shut up?" Louis asks, honestly surprised. Harry doesn't seem like the type of person who tells someone else to shut up.

"Sorry," Harry says quickly, giving Louis a deeply apologetic look. There's the Harry Louis has come to know in the last three days. "Can we please watch the movie though?"

"Yeah, okay." Louis agrees.