Untangle Me - L.S (boyxboy)

Chapter 2.

Louis always cries at sad films, but Harry never used to tease him about it. He thinks back to one time they'd been tucked up together watching some sappy rom com Louis doesn't remember the name of. When a tear had began to trickle out of Louis' eye, Harry had reached over and swiped it away with his thumb, running the back of his palm across Louis' cheek and smiling down at him, eyes sparkling.

That had felt special to Louis, a secret moment between the two of them. Hearing Harry reduce something that was theirs into a joke about girls, so flippantly and off hand made Louis' stomach hurt.

Without thinking, he'd gripped the back of Harry's neck, pulling him in close enough that he could feel his breath. Harry had looked down, right into his eyes, grin splitting his face two. For a moment, it'd felt like Harry was going to lean in and kiss him. Instead, he'd leaped forward, cupping Louis' face and ruffling his hair as Louis did the same back.

When they'd pulled apart, the interviewer looked stunned. "Obviously, they're a band that are close in more than one way." He'd joked.

You've no idea, Louis thought to himself.
And that wasn't even the part of the interview their handlers were most concerned about. A few minutes prior, the interviewer had asked them all a question, accidentally skipping over Louis. When he realised, he'd reached out over Harry, squeezing Louis' thigh. Moments later, Louis felt another hand on his leg, taking up the exact same space where the interviewers had been. Harry's long fingers gripped his thigh, squeezing once before patting it firmly. The gesture had felt a lot like "mine."

"See?" Their handler had asked, pointing out the touch. "This is what we mean. You can't keep your hands off each other."

The next clip they were made to watch was filmed in New York. It'd been a long day, a mall signing earlier that had gone on for hours, Louis and Harry at separate ends of the table. They were both exhausted and a bit mardy, still so wrapped up in each other that being apart for more than a few hours drained them.

All of the boys were sat on a sofa with Harry perched behind them. His fingers were tapping away non stop just behind Louis' back. It was like Louis could feel some kind of gravitational pull, dragging him closer to Harry's hand behind him. He'd risked a glance at the camera, weighing up his options. At the time, it had looked like he was out of frame. Clearly he wasn't.

Liam's saying something about how incredible the fans are when it happens. Harry's knuckles graze the back of Louis' arm, stroking against his skin softly, up and down. Louis attempts to move his arm back in a way he thought was subtle. Jarring it backwards to lean in closer to Harry's touch, craving it.

And yeah, to an outsider it probably looked really fucking weird and not very platonic. But that was just Harry and Louis, that was them. They were weird. Louis had never felt like that around anyone but Harry. The touch was anchoring, grounding. Every second Harry wasn't touching him it had felt like his skin was itching.

"Why did you do that Harry?" Their handler had probed.

"I wanted to." Harry answered simply, chewing at his bottom lip.

That was it, they just did things because they wanted to and because it felt right. It didn't have to mean anything, it didn't.

"Well it's got to stop. You've got to think about your actions, how they could be perceived." The handler had replied.

Louis remembers Harry turning a deep red, his eyes glued to the floor.

*

They sit around in the holding room of the studio for a while, waiting for the fans to leave and security to clear the area so they can make their way back home. There's always a quiet lull after the adrenaline of an interview seeped away, especially after big, important ones like the Late Late Show. Louis and Niall occupy one sofa, flicking through TV channels on the complimentary flatscreen whilst Liam wanders off into his own dressing room, mumbling something about FaceTiming Sophia.