No Strings Attached

Chapter Twelve

“Don’t,” he murmured softly, drawing himself closer to Louis so that he was now very much in his bubble of personal space. He nuzzled his nose into Louis’ neck, and Louis prayed to high heaven that biology would fail him now. “And yes. Very well, thanks to you.” 

What the hell do I say right now? 

“Right, well,” Louis gurgled, slowly losing control of himself. He tried ignoring the heady sensation of Harry’s hands making their away around him, one entangling itself in his hair and the other tugging rather cheekily at the hem of his shirt before snaking underneath and roaming freely against his hot skin. Suddenly, he remembered it was Monday. “I have work soon.” 

“Don’t you normally work nights on Monday?” Harry whispered, and Louis couldn’t believe he still remembered his schedule from the restaurant. 

“Erm, not really, not anymore,” Louis struggled to say, rather incapacitated by how handsy Harry was being right now. “I actually got a new job.” 

That was enough to pull Harry away momentarily, and enough for Louis to gather his senses. 

“New job?” The younger boy sized him up almost accusingly, almost asking how he could have forgotten to mention this new development. “What is it? Since when?” 

Taking advantage of the conversation, Louis maneuvered his way out of Harry’s grip and sat up properly as close to the edge of the bed as he could manage; he couldn’t take any chances. A flash of confusion on the other boy’s face indicated that Harry had noticed, but he seemed more concerned with the topic at hand. 

“Lou?” 

“Yeah, alright,” he said, staring up at the ceiling. “I quit the restaurant and I got a job working at a preschool. It’s not a big deal.” 

“Not a big deal?” Harry repeated, sitting up from his horizontal position. “Lou, that’s great! That’s brilliant! This is what you’ve wanted, yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Louis replied uneasily. But before he could get another word out, Harry lunged at him and pulled him into a tight, congratulatory embrace. 

They clung at each other for what must have been several seconds but felt like an eternity. He breathed in Harry’s scent, the scent that had made itself at home in his absence and lingered in Louis’ bedroom and on his belongings. And for that brief moment, he didn’t care that Harry was grabbing tightly at his shirt, drawing him in impossibly closer and softly chuckling in his ear. It felt right, even when it shouldn’t have. 

Fortunately, Harry was the first one to pull away, leaving Louis in some sort of daze. He gave him some sort of dopey look before rolling out of bed, shaking his wild hair out of submission. 

“So I should probably get going then?” 

Louis suddenly felt bad for practically kicking Harry out of his flat. “Sorry, mate. I would cook you some breakfast but – ” 

“Hey, it’s not like we slept together. Well, we did but…” Harry tried keeping as casual as he could about the situation, his grin a little uneasy as he spoke. “Anyway, no expectation here. I’ll grab something on the way home. The boys are probably worried about me anyway – didn’t exactly tell them where I was going last night. Though they probably had an idea.” 

Louis winced. Something about Harry’s words just didn’t feel right, like they came off a little forced. It made that little ache inside Louis that much greater. 

Harry was already putting on his shoes and grabbing his bag from off the floor when Louis reached out and gently placed a hand on the boy’s arm. He shuddered slightly at the contact but looked up anyway, his eyes darkened with something Louis couldn’t place.