Recover (Larry Stylinson AU)

Chapter Thirteen; Opening Up

Louis soon realized what Harry was doing and gently pulled his hand away, looking at Harry's wrist with a tenderness that made him eyes blurry once again. Slowly, Louis brushed his finger across the first scar he saw. Harry flinced, and Louis looked into his eyes to make sure this was okay. 

With care, he went through each scar on both of Harry's arms, and by the end of it, Harry was letting out silent tears, unable to comprehend how someone he'd only just met could have so many feelings for him. 

*

"Louis? You home?"

"Yeah, Harry and I are in the living room watching some TV, wanna join?"

Liam walked into the room, the sound of his feet taking hesitant steps echoed through the silence of the house--Louis had put the TV on mute. Harry cringed a little and hid deeper into Louis' strong arms. He didn't like meeting new people very much, and he was pretty sure that this person wasn't Niall, who he was fairly comfortable with.

When Liam came into view, Harry tried his best not to run to the washroom. He was never good with new people. Louis told him that part of it was because he was scared of opening up to someone else,  since he'd gotten hurt by people he trusted so many times in the past.

"Hi Harry, I don't believe we've met. I'm Liam, Louis' mate."

"Um, uh. Hi, Liam. It's, uh, nice to meet you." Harry said, peeking out from Louis' chest. Liam seemed nice enough, but you could never be too sure.

Then, Liam gave Louis a meaningful look. "So I'm assuming you two have figured things out, then?"

"Yeah, yeah. He's not a patient of mine anymore."

"Oh really?" He shot Louis a quick look. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Harry, really."

Louis gave Harry a comforting squeeze and kissed his brow. He turned back to Liam who watched the small exchange with wonder, "So what brings you here Liam?"

Liam snapped out of whatever trance he was in, "Oh, that! Do you guys have any ice cream? I ran out of some so I thought I'd drop by to see if you had any. So, do you?"

Louis thought for a while. He didn't have anything in his fridge now that he thought about it. He really should stock up again. But that could be done tomorrow. As for the ice cream, if Harry wanted some as well then he wouldn't mind going to get it, but if it was just Liam, then forget it.

"How about you, Haz? Do you want some ice cream?" He watched in pleasurable agony as Harry bit his bottom lip. 

"I wouldn't mind some; I like ice cream," Harry mumbled shyly, his thoughts still clouded by Liam's presence. 

Louis untangled himself from Harry and got up. "Well, I'll go grab some from the convenience store down the avenue." He heard Harry scramble up from behind him. "Harry, why don't you and Liam get to know each other?" He knew that the position he would be leaving Harry in today was not something he'd be forgiven for easily. He'd be yelled and screamed at; but inside, Louis just wanted Liam to get to know the guy that he was slowly falling for whether he wanted to or not.

He turned around and kissed Harry's forehead, having to lean up quite a lot. He placed both hands on Harry's cheek and whispered a few words of comfort, begging him to just give Liam a chance. Liam was nice and he was so sure that Harry would learn to like him just as much as he liked Niall. It was inevitable.

Louis tried to rush out of the room as fast as he could without being held back. He was getting himself into some legit deep shit.

*

It was quiet for a while after Lous left, neither Liam nor Harry uttered a single word. Even their breathing in those few moments was bearly audible. Somehow, Liam managed to pluck up the courage to do something he usually could do very well. He'd never understand why he didn't pick the courage to just talk to Harry earlier; it could've saved them from what felt like a really long awkward silence.

"So Harry?"

Harry lifted his head a little bit, staring into Liam's big brown eyes with irrational fear. "Um, hello ..." 

Liam internally groaned. He had no clue on how to talk to someone who was so quiet, mainly because he himself was quiet, not to mention Louis' friends were usually loud and boisterous. "How's Lou treating you?"

Harry bit his lip, a newfound habit he'd grown to hate. Slowly, a smile started to spread across his lips and his eyes started to daze over. "Boo?" He breathed out. "He's been treating me the way I've never been treated before. He says things that make me just want to jump around. Lou, he's just--" He breaks off, looking at Liam in horror. What had he just said?! He couldn't say those things to Louis' friend. What if he told Louis?!

"I didn't mean that," he tried to convince Liam. 

Liam smiled to himself. He was being irrational; he couldn't believe that he really thought that someone this innocent and fragile as Harry could ever hurt Louis. But the way both of them reacted around each other insinuated that if either of them weren't careful enough, someone would end up getting hurt real bad. 

A/N: From now on if you want to know when one of the stories will be updates just look at our bio we've put dates up there [they might not always be accurate]