nothing // larry stylinson au

Chapter Thirteen

Louis lays completely frozen next to Harry, staring at Eleanor with wide eyes while biting his lips nervously. He doesn't have the nerve to turn his head to simply look at Harry with Eleanor furiously staring at him. So he tries not to acknowledge Harry shuddering under the blankets and hiding his face away while wishing he could sink deeper into the bed until he disappeared. He hears the teen's fearful cries, however, and he feels one of his hands under the comforter grasping his desperately. All Louis can do is gawk at Eleanor who stands in the doorway preparing to explode.

As time slowly tick by and the only sounds are Harry's sobs and the pounding of Louis' heart, Eleanor's face grows more and more red, as red as a beet and her eyes like fire. They look sharp like the edge of a knife and as piercing as an arrow.

Louis cannot breathe, almost as if all of the oxygen has been vacuumed out of the room. He cannot speak. He is hoping Eleanor will first, but she doesn't. She doesn't know where to start, Louis guesses. Wasn't it just a little bit earlier when her husband had said nothing was going on between him and Harry? Is he lying? Does he know?

Honestly, Louis doesn't know and it tears him apart. It tears him apart that he doesn't know what he feels, but more so that he is unfaithful. He is unfaithful to someone who treats him like shit, yeah, but still unfaithful. Part of being a good husband is honoring the other and giving them the respect they deserve and no one deserves to be cheated on.

In all other spectrums of his life, he treats her the way he thinks she should be. He provides for her, working jobs at bars doing what he loves while she works around the house and takes care of a pregnant Sophia when her husband is at work. He tries his best to love her unconditionally, despite her constantly putting him down with her words like knives. That is what husbands are supposed to do and Louis decided to bend the rules. It wasn't the smartest of him to do.

"Louis," Eleanor breathes out, clenching her hands into tight fists. "Can we talk... alone?"

The tone of her voice scares Louis. It's that tone of voice where she is trying to sound like she isn't mad, but she clearly is. The redness of her face only increases as she steps into the hallway. Tight is Louis' chest when he finally does decide to glance at Harry. The boy is almost completely hidden under the blanket. Not wanting to stay too long in the room, Louis quickly pulls the blanket away to expose Harry's tears and bloodshot eyes.

In an almost incoherent whisper, Louis speaks into his ear, "You're alright. Don't worry." He presses a kiss to Harry's cheek without thought before meeting his wife in the hall.

Harry watches him walk away the entire time, tears still escaping his green eyes, but he holds back his sobs to please Louis. He already has enough to worry about. He doesn't need the man to worry about him, too. Taking deep breaths, he hides himself under the blanket again. It's darker under there kind of like the basement he spent years inside. Nothing could hurt him in that basement, not until his uncle would come to visit, that is. Nothing can hurt him under the blanket, Harry thinks. But he still wishes it were Louis protecting him alternatively, his arms wrapped around him. Sometimes he has to remind himself that Louis has a wife to wrap his arms around instead, but why doesn't he ever?

"What in the world did I just walk in on?" Louis' wife almost shouts as he walks into the hall. "You don't think of him that way, huh?" She roughly pokes at his shoulder.

Louis doesn't know what to say. He stands stupidly in front of her, speechless with sweaty palms. If he says anything it could make it worse so he decides it'd be better if he stayed silent. Luckily, she speaks.

"We can't keep him here."

But he can't stay silent after she says something like that.

Louis shakes his head at a high speed, wide eyed. "No, we can't kick him out," he refuses. He tries grabbing the side of her arms, but she pulls away. "He needs me- us. You have no idea what he's been through-"