SOLITUDE

Chapter Five

The next morning when Louis woke up, he knew something was wrong straight away. Memories of last night flooded into his brain, reminding him of carrying Harry into the flat after he fell asleep in the car, holding him tight as they sat on the sofa watching some evening telly, wrapping the blankets around him and tucking them in under his chin, leaving him to sleep.

First of all, it was dark. Not surprising, Louis thought. After all, it was late Autumn. The days were shorter, nights longer. However, another thing that woke him from his blissful sleep was the noises coming from the living room across the corridor. So as any reasonable human being would do, he stretched his arms above his head, his back cracking and he mumbled under his breath, before waddling sleepily into the living room.

"Harry?" was the first thing that escaped his lips, as his eyes scanned the room, stopping on the curled up figure sleeping on the sofa. Except Harry wasn't sleeping, he was weeping quietly, small gasps escaping his lips, his body trashing about on the small sofa space. So Louis shuffled over closer, his features furrowing in a small frown, as he watched Harry kick the blankets off his weak frame.

This was the second time Harry's done this, Louis noted to himself. He kneeled down in front of the sofa, the hard wooden floor hurting his knees slightly, but forgetting the pain as soon as Harry flinched, hitting his head hard on the armrest, but despite the hard hit he still stayed asleep. Well, Louis hoped so, anyway. 

So he leaned in, examining the frown on the boy's face, before Harry jumped up again, causing his nose to collide with Louis'.

And despite that, he still hadn't woken up.

"Oh god, Harry, you prick," Louis sat back on his heels, his hand rubbing his nose in pain, but soon regretted his words as Harry let out a tearful sob. "Harry?"

He reached out with his left hand, gently brushing the chocolate strands of hair off Harry's sweaty forehead, making his breathing clutch in his throat, now coming out in short gasps. "Harry, wake up," He murmured, as he stroked his soft hair, fingers threading through the curls. "Just a bad dream, come on, wake up,"

Only then Harry's eyes snapped open, the green surprisingly bright in the darkness of the room, and Louis whined in his throat. "You okay?"

Harry shook his head, burying his face in the pillow, breathing ragged and fast and almost scary to Louis, so he leaned in, and unsure of what he was actually doing, he leaned his head down on Harry's shoulder, making the younger boy tense up.

"Harry? Relax, mate," Louis mumbled against Harry's flushed skin. "Take deep breaths for me, sweetheart. Deep breaths, okay?" 

He looked up, and Harry nodded, trying to catch his breath, huffing through his nose.

"That's right. Deep breaths," He whispered, watching as Harry's chest quickly rose and fell. He sucked in a breath, nodding once again, letting it out with a small whimper and Louis smiled, noticing how Harry nuzzled his nose into the pillow. "Good. Are you going to sleep?"

Harry shook his head, "No, no. Can't sleep now."

"Did you have a nightmare?" Louis asked, watching Harry curiously.

Harry shrugged, and nodded a little.

"Want to talk about it?" The older boy offered, now a hundred percent sure that his knees were sure to be bruised tomorrow, so he sat up.

Harry looked up at Louis, his eyes wide and scared and full of fear, before sitting up and curling up, moving over to make space for Louis to sit. The older boy sat up, and plopped down on the sofa next to curly, his arm automatically pulling him closer. "So?"