As soon as they are at Louis' apartment, which is quite modest but also homey, they both hit the hay almost immediately.
Louis offers to take the couch so Harry can take the queen size bed. Harry smiles and shakes his head, thanking him for his hospitality but declining anyway.
In hindsight, it shouldn't be weird for them to sleep in the same bed because they had to do that for a couple of nights during the trip too. Harry doesn't want to make things even more awkward, however, so he takes the couch without a complaint.
Harry sleeps fairly well, luckily, since the couch is more comfortable than he would have figured. About six hours later he awakes, and he sees that the sun is shining brightly outside through the window.
He stretches his stiff limbs and starts walking around the apartment, searching for the kitchen.
He finds it soon enough and then checks the fridge, and not so shockingly, it's as good as empty.
So Harry starts searching the cabinets for sustainable food products and luckily he finds some small buns that you can pop into the oven and a can of beans.
He warms the beans up in a small pan he finds in one of the drawers, looking quite musty, probably because Louis doesn't cook very often. He manages to turn the oven on and lays a few buns in the oven.
He also finds some oat milk somewhere in the corner of the cabinets and luckily the expiration date is still two months away. Harry finds some lonely berries in the freezer and blends those with the oat milk to make a smoothie.
He's just grabbing the buns out of the oven, softly singing a tune that he can't get out of his head when Louis enters the kitchen. Harry startles, partly because he didn't expect him to walk in so soon, but also because of how cute he looks.
Louis hums in approval when he sees all the nice foods but doesn't say any actual words. Harry doesn't mind though, because he knows that Louis isn't a morning person.
Just when he is serving everything up on some plates, Louis does speak up, startling Harry again.
"Do you want to go on a walk with Clifford? That poor guy really needs a good walk and maybe it would be a good opportunity for us to talk."
Harry immediately nods eagerly while handing Louis his plate. 'Yes, that would be great. I can't stay for too long though, because I need to head over to my parent's house until I find a temporary place I can stay."
Louis frowns, taking a seat at the table. "Where do your parents live?"
"My mom lives in Holmes Chapel, so that's about two and a half hours by train? I don't have to work for a while anyway and I love seeing my mom and maybe my sister."
"You could also always stay here, you know? I don't mind at all." Louis admits softly, before taking a sip of his smoothie. "I now have a personal chef!" He jokes.
Harry shakes his head, closing his eyes. "You were clearly mad at me when you left that plane and I don't want to intrude."
Louis stops eating for a moment, before swallowing. "I think we really need to talk so I can explain everything. Maybe you can decide after that what you want to do?"
Harry nods his head, curious about what Louis' explanations will be.
Clifford seems to find it time for a walk too because he barks and jumps on Harry's leg.
"Oh my god, Cliff! Get down!" Louis orders the dog, but it's to no avail.
Harry simply laughs and pets the dog's curly head with a timid smile playing on his lips. "Don't worry, I don't mind."
Louis groans. "I swear he never does that! Bad dog..." He glares at the black curly beast, but Harry can also see a smile threatening to make its way on Louis' face, which makes him smile even wider too.
-
The sun isn't shining anymore when they're finally outside, but Louis says that that is not a problem, because they're going to a forest anyway.
Harry's eyebrows draw up, because since when does London have forests, but Louis assures him that he knows a good place where they can have a decent walk and enough time to talk things through.
So moments later, they're in the tube with a panting Clifford beside them, who doesn't seem to mind the fast-moving vehicle at all.
It's fairly quiet for a weekday, but that's probably because they're going on the tube in the middle of the day. After all, they slept in until it was quite late.
About thirty minutes later, they step out of the tube and Louis assures him that it's about a ten-minute walk until they have reached the forest. Harry hums in approval and follows Louis with big steps.
Louis didn't lie, and before Harry knows it, they're walking in between trees.
Clifford runs around happily when he's let off the leash, making Harry smile.
"So, should I start?" Louis interrupts the silence, looking at Harry with a questioning gaze.
Harry immediately nods. "Yeah, sure."
"Alright, so..." Louis drawls out as he runs a hand through his fringe. "I was a little bit pissed off on the plane, but more about the situation, not because of you. When the plane landed, you looked so peaceful sleeping and I didn't want to wake you, so I figured I would wait until you awoke until I went off the aircraft too."
Harry is surprised, to say the least as he listens to Louis' story because this was not what he thought happened.
"A few minutes later, however, I saw someone get off the plane... Sam..." He admits softly, probably thinking that Harry didn't know they were on the same flight. Harry doesn't want to interrupt his story though, so he doesn't mention that this wasn't exactly new information to him.
"I was quite pissed already, once again at the situation, not at you, so I couldn't stop myself from standing up and saying something to him... Let's just say I wasn't necessarily nice..."
"What did you say, Lou?" Harry asks, already a disapproving tone evident in his voice, suddenly forgetting that he smashed one of his ex's vases the night before.
"I just told him that he should stay away from you and if he did see you, that he shouldn't act like a complete asshole anymore." He admits. "I also gave him a shove, he just looked so cocky and just obnoxious, I couldn't help myself," Louis exclaims, making some people in the area look at him.
"It's okay, Lou, I'm not mad," Harry says to him with a normal volume, hoping to calm the man down a bit. "I'm honestly quite happy that you did that because he definitely deserved it."
Louis grins. "Of course, he fucking did." Making Harry roll his eyes, but his lips are turned upwards. "I just wanted to clear the air and set some things right, so now you know why I was gone, because well... He pushed me back after I gave him a shove and then the staff on the vehicle stepped in before things could get worse. We were escorted from the aircraft to the lobby, and then I couldn't find you anymore."
Harry shakes his head laughing. "Oh my god, Lou, I can't believe you did all that."
Louis laughs sheepishly. "Yeah, I know, I'm still glad I did it though."
Harry grins and looks at his feet, trying to hide his fondness by looking away from the smaller lad.
"So, is there anything you have to say?"
Harry laughs. "Oh, boy, yes I do. You better get ready for a hell of a ride."
Louis is confused because he doesn't have a clue about what is about to come, but Harry knows for sure that Louis will be angry and then also will be laughing at him.
Harry doesn't mind that though because he feels safe with Louis around. He doesn't feel the need to hide things or lie about stuff around him. Apart from being scared to be seen as a coward by Louis, he knows that Louis will accept him no matter what, the good and the bad.
After that vacation, Louis saw all his true colors, so Harry tells him in excruciating detail about what went down.
Louis reacts just the way Harry thought he would.
Harry guesses that he was right about to what degree they know each other.
-
I have noticed that a lot more of you are reading this! If you're new, welcome, and thank you all for the nice comments and votes!
It really motivates me to keep updating so I really appreciate it!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter xx