Small Styles

Chapter 9

"Harry, come here," Louis called from the bathroom. So Harry got up from his nice, cozy space in the bed and dragged his lazy self over to the bathroom. "Does this look normal?" Louis asked holding up his knee.

"It looks like a knee, why do you ask?" 

"It hurts and there was a bruise and it hurts really bad and Aspirin won't help it."

"Well, would you like to go to the doctor?"

"Not particularly." 

"Then I can't help you Louis. It looks like a plain old knee. Nothing special about it."

"Whatever Harry," Louis said and put his leg down from where he was holding it. 

"Don't say that to me, Mr. Grumpy Pants. I was just telling you what it looked like. You asked me if it looked normal, I told you. Don't get upset when there's nothing wrong with it. I'm sure that you whacked it on something and now you've got a bruise." 

"Oh why so pissy this fine morning Styles?" 

"Shut up Louis, I was feeling very happy this morning. We had a good morning, did we not? But then you started being all grumpy and now none of us are going to have a good morning, are we?" 

"Why are you making this my fault? I didn't do anything to you. Stop being such a princess." 

"I'm not the one who got grumpy when told that my knee looked fine. That's why the blame has shifted to you. Don't call me a princess. You know that I don't like it when you call me that in a mean way."

"So what if you don't like it? I don't care that you don't like it. That's what you are, so that's what I going to say."

"Stop it Louis. I don't like being called a princess. I don't do things that you don't want me to do. Treat me with the same respect."

"I'm the one you should be respecting Harry. I'm the one in charge of you, the one who takes care of you. Why don't you respect me?" 

"I cannot believe that these words are coming out of your mouth right now." 

"Well, they are."

"Great comeback," Harry laughed bitterly before walking back into Louis' room and laying down on the bed, facing away from the door. He didn't look up when Louis walked back out and laid next to him. He simply turned over and looked the other way, making pictures in their popcorn ceiling. 

|-/

It was a silent week between the two, Harry making up excuses to not go to his classes every day. He missed a week of classes and would've missed two weeks if it weren't for the week long break that followed his absence the week before. He'd fallen into some weird slump that nobody could get him out of. Louis knew what happened. It happened a few times during high school and quite a few times when they were in their first year of college. But he never knew what to do and everything he tried just upset Harry even more, so he kind of just gave up with trying to help Harry too much. He just changed him everyday if Harry allowed him to, convinced Harry to get up and shower every other day, gave Harry cuddles and stuffies, and brought him his school works and notes that one of Harry's friends took for him. 

"Haz, I need you to get up baby," Louis whispered as he crouched down by the bed. Harry had small little tears falling from his eyes, but they were coming pretty fast. It always went like this. Harry would cry at random times, for pretty much no reason at all, and he wouldn't be able to stop it and he couldn't control it. Louis picked Harry up and moved to sit on the floor since his calves were beginning to hurt from crouching for that period of time. Louis rocked himself and Harry, trying to get the boy in his arms to stop crying.

"Shh, you're going to work yourself up if you keep crying like this. Can you take a really big breath in for me?" Harry shook his head. "I know that you can baby, come on, let's take a really big breath in and pretend like we are going to blow the little pigs' houses down."

Louis breathed in deep and felt Harry do the same. He smiled and held it before releasing it less than thirty seconds later. He and Harry continued breathing like this until Harry wasn't crying anymore and was settling down into Louis' chest and closing his eyes gently. 

"Would you like to sleep a little bit more Haz?"

"Please," Harry whispered, voice croaky and soft at the same time. You could tell that he hadn't spoken in a few weeks.

"Oh baby, your voice," Louis whispered sadly and began rubbing Harry's back, gently going from the top of his spine down to the top of his bum. He felt so bad that he couldn't help Harry right now. No amount of stuffies that Louis gave to Harry would make Harry feel better. No amount of cuddles would make him feel better. Nothing that Louis would do could make Harry feel better and that made Louis feel so bad. He felt horrible for the boy and he felt angry at himself because he knew that he wasn't the problem, but he also wasn't the solution. 

"Shh," Harry whispered back to Louis and pet Louis' hair. He knew that Louis didn't like that he couldn't help. He knew all the things that were going through Louis' mind right now, they would always talk about it after Harry's little 'funk' was done. But Harry couldn't do anything. He knew the same amount of things about this as Louis; nothing. 

Sorry it was so short. I had to update but I didn't know what to write. So, I apologize. Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate it. I'm in so much pain from Thursday and today. Tomorrow I'm going to Nashville so even more walking and shopping. FML.