Burn [Larry Stylinson AU]

Chapter Four

Louis stood perplexed beside the frightened Irish boy. He had briefly forgotten about the fallen angel that now occupied his tiny flat. Liam and Zayn were at Niall's side, giving Louis the same questioning look. "Lou, who is that?" Liam hissed, setting a firm hand on Niall's shoulder to give the boy assurance.

Louis gulped, "Well, yeah, you see . . . erm." His wit had lost its way from his mouth and he now stood there not knowing what exactly to say. He couldn't just say 'hey guys this is Harry, a fallen angel who saved my life last night. Yeah, and I've gone to see Andy last night too, that's why I nearly died that night, even though I promised you lads that I was definitely clean now.'

"Hello," Harry's deep voice pierced the silence like a dagger, "'M Harry. I'm, er, a friend of Lou's."

He reached his hand up and extended it to Niall, "I don't know if Louis has mentioned me. You must be . . .?"

"Niall," Niall answered, giving Harry a tiny smile. Louis breathed out in relief, scrabbling to regain control of the scenario.

"Zayn and Liam, this is Harry. Harry, this is Zayn and Liam." Harry went over and shook the other boys' hands as well.

Liam's uneasiness settled down and he smiled kindly to the curly haired lad, "Nice to meet you, Harry. I'm sorry but I can't recall Louis bringing you up at all."

"Yeah, erm, well he's an old friend from Doncaster," Louis lied. "We've recently begun to catch up again."

"Really?" Zayn remarked, looking Harry up and down. "What's he doing here?" Zayn had always been the most intimidated of the group. He didn't open up to strangers completely until he knew enough about them to begin to warm up in a friendly manner. When it came to Zayn, the Bradford born youth, he had to have a file of a person's personal record to even consider them a friend. Heck, Louis was sure Zayn probably knew what his blood type was and just how big Louis' dick was.

"Visiting," Harry chirped. "Louis and I have lots to catch up on." He gave Louis a smile and Louis felt the veins in his blood course hotly.

"Well, if you're a friend of Louis then you're definitely a friend of ours," Niall offered. The Mullingar boy was always quick to add another to his long list of friends, simply because he was just that friendly. He was happy with adding another face to his brain's contacts, hoping in return for someone to welcome him back just as openly. Harry beamed back at him, "Thanks."

"I've got an idea," Liam turned to Louis and jerked a thumb at Harry, "Why don't we all meet up after work tomorrow and grab something to eat? That way we can get to know Harry a little more, and make him feel more at home with the group," He then turned to Harry, "Like Niall said mate, any friend of Lou's is a friend of ours. Right, Zayn?"

Zayn shrugged, "Sure, I guess." He sat down on the bed and began to pet Cece, who was eager for the attention. Those two had some sort of unspoken connection; the fat, ginger cat enjoyed Zayn's company more than her master's and some days when Zayn came over, he would spend most of his time just petting the large mass of fur.

"It's settled then. We'll meet when our shifts end, which should be around 5 o'clock, give or take. From there we'll decide where to eat," Liam explained.

Louis turned to Harry, "You fine with that, Harry?"

"It sounds brilliant," the boy admitted, his happiness written all over his face.

"Why didn't you go to work today, Lou?" Niall asked suddenly, "You didn't blow off making money just to hang out with Harry, did you?"

"Well-"

"I was feeling a bit ill this morning," Harry interrupted, walking over to Louis and slinging his arm over his dainty shoulders. "Louis felt bad for just leaving me here to take care of myself so he offered to stay home to nurse me back to health."