Zayn and Niall: Everybody Needs Somebody Sometimes

Light In Dark

He splayed one hand across Louis' cheek, fingertips filling with an immediate haze of light and warmth. Moving in a little closer, he could examine the soft pale skin on his eyelids, and his slight stubble, and the tired worry lines etched finely into his skin, so light that they were hardly there at all.

"Do you have any idea how lovely you are?" Harry said quietly. "Any at all?"

Louis opened his mouth to answer, but Harry kissed him before he had the chance, catching Louis' lower lip between both of his own. Colors waltzed into the corners of his mind, his heart tearing open to release a myriad of stars, skipping through his lungs and replacing the air inside.

Drinking stars, Harry thought dazedly, that's what kissing Louis was like.

Louis placed his fingertips over Harry's cheeks, opening his mouth to sigh against Harry's lips.

Harry gently pulled away, looking down at Louis. "What's wrong?"

Louis closed his eyes. "I'm tired, Harry."

Harry nestled his face into the side of Louis' neck, exhaling softly. Louis' fingers wove their way into his hair, resting there lightly.

"I can't keep doing this, Harry," Louis whispered. "I can't do this with you, but I don't know how I can go back to Eleanor either. I don't love her, I can't love her when-- when I have you."

Harry closed his eyes against Louis' skin, wishing he knew what to say to take Louis' sadness away from him.

"And the only reason I'm trying to do this is because of the baby, but I don't--" Louis took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. "I don't want to lose you, Harry. I can't."

"You won't lose me," Harry murmured, pressing kisses into Louis' neck, all the way up to his jaw. "You never will."

"I know I won't," Louis said. "But I've tried to stay away and I just couldn't do it, dammit. You don't know the effect you can have on people. It's-- it's brilliant, Harry, you're brilliant. And I love you, no matter how hard I try to deny it sometimes, I fucking love you, and I don't think I'll ever learn how to stop."

"Then don't stop," Harry said softly, continuing persistently to kiss his way along Louis' jawline. "I don't want you to."

Louis laughed a little giddily, and Harry's chest fluttered at the sound. "It's almost like you want me to be helplessly in love with you, you idiot," Louis smiled, trying to push Harry's head away so he couldn't kiss him. "It's like you're trying to be extra charming on purpose."

"Maybe I am," Harry grinned, turning Louis' face toward him and grazing his lips over the skin, leaving soft kisses everywhere. "But you love it."

"I do," Louis said, pulling Harry back in with the force of a hurricane. "I'm madly in love with you, Harry, and you're damn right I do."

--

Zayn couldn't sleep.

Fairly enough, it was only eleven in the morning, and that would have been okay, if not for the fact that he'd been up the whole night, thinking.

Thinking of light blue eyes that swallowed the world around them.

Niall was lying on the couch beside Liam, head buried on his lap, eyelids creased with fitful dreaming. Liam was fast asleep, leaning against the armrest of the couch and snoring quietly. Zayn had been watching them-- well, watching Niall, mostly-- for hours on end, his voice echoing into the silence.

"I don't know why you did it, but I want to find out."

Niall's words piled up in Zayn's mind, spilling out and occupying the empty spaces in the hospital ward. He heard them no matter where he looked; haunting him, like a memory.