Dream Writer (Sequel) » Larry AU

13: STAGES

A/N: I'm glad you all seemed to enjoy last night's chapter. I'm pretty sure you'll like this one as well.

Louis, November 8th

Having a half-naked Harry safely tucked under my arms was highly nostalgic.

It was the mixture of the morning light, our softly synced breathing, and the aftermath of Harry's cologne that created that image. It all seemed similar, because even Harry's scent hadn't changed in five years, and I mentally thanked him for keeping it the same.

"Morning," I huskily murmured into his ear after killing off the ringing alarm. We'd made sure to set it earlier so we would have time to stay in bed.

Harry purred tiredly against me. "G'morning." His arm tightened around me so that our torsos pressed closer together. "Mm... You're so warm..."

"Did you sleep well?" I asked him while soothingly rubbing his back. "Got all your eight hours?"

"Think so," he mumbled, lips moving against my pec. It tickled a little, but I enjoyed it. He kept purring and whimpering into my skin, so I kissed his hair and began scratching his back with my barely-existent fingernails. "I'm never gonna get to work if you're treating me like this," he then murmured, and I chuckled into his fringe.

"How about I treat you like this in the bathroom? And in the kitchen?"

Harry muttered something into my chest. "Let's stay here for a bit. Don't rush. We have time."

So we stayed, cuddling, stroking and scratching each other for the following twenty minutes. After that, Harry bounced out of bed with energy that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. I had to roll out, lacking the majority of the enthusiasm he exhibited while strutting into the large bathroom while holding my hand to string me along.

"Close your eyes," he demanded.

Instead, I rubbed them out of tiredness. "Why?"

"Because I'm getting naked. I have to take a shower."

"But you smell so good..."

"Doesn't matter," he giggled and put a hand to my jaw. "Close your eyes. It'll be quick."

So I closed them. It was pitch black for me, but I could hear Harry's feet clapping against the tiled floor as he skipped out of his underwear and treaded over to the big shower. It creaked when he opened the door and stepped inside, and once it made the same sound again, I knew it was safe to look again.

The walls of the shower were dimmed, but I could still see Harry's golden figure through the glass.

"You can open your eyes," he said, voice echoing off the walls. "It might be see-through, I'm not sure."

"Don't worry, I'm not looking," I told him with a smirk, doing the opposite of what that sentence intended.

It wasn't difficult to erase the glass in my imagination, and when Harry's silhouette moved around under the running water, I could almost picture myself standing next to him.

While Harry was in the shower, I opened the packet to a new toothbrush and brushed my teeth. Harry and I hadn't moved much in our sleep, so my hair was still decent. But because I was a perfectionist, I pushed it around with my fingers until every strand was tucked in the way I preferred.

When he announced that he was finished, I handed him his towel without peeking and heard his feet return to the tile floor with wet splashes. Once he appeared next to me in the mirror, his hair was freshly washed, torso gleaming from the clamminess and the towel was tightly tucked around his hips.