Wanted Most - Larry Stylinson AU

Part Twelve

[A/N]: This might be my new favourite thing to write.

Louis woke up curled on his side, and he was positively sweating. At some point during the night, Harry had completely turned onto his side as well and had sidled up behind the smaller man, spooning him. Yet the curly haired agent was also clutching onto Louis tightly, his nose buried into the older man's neck and his hair tickling Louis' cheek. The man's long body was radiating the most intense heat, and Louis' couldn't escape.

He squirmed as nonchalantly as he could, trying to escape the arms wrapped around him and trying not to hurt the younger man's chest, but then the arms tightened and Harry inhaled deeply before sighing his thumb stroking across the bare skin of Louis' chest since his clinging arms had pushed up the grey cotton of his t-shirt, "Morning..."

"Hi," Louis murmured. "I'm going to get sweat on you."

"Well with the past two days, that isn't anything new."

"No," Louis tried again. "I mean you're a fucking space heater. I'm being smothered."

Harry laughed, cuddling closer, "You're soft... your skin I mean."

Louis thought for a moment, but then tried to crane his head back to look at the other agent, "How are you not hurting your chest?"

Harry pressed a kiss between Louis' eyes, making him go cross-eyed for a few moments, "My chest isn't so bad today. My abdomen still hurts, but that I can deal with. My chest effected how I breathed, my shoulders, my arms..."

"Well that's good," Louis murmured, but then smirked. "Hard-shelled Agent Styles, takes in thieves and cuddles them until they have a heatstroke."

"Just the cute, tiny, jewellery thieves," Harry sighed, but he released Louis, rolling onto his back with a grunt.

"M'not tiny," Louis grumbled, clumsily climbing off the bed as he stretched. "What do we want for breakfast?"

"Let's just eat cold pizza from the fridge and then we can cuddle some more," Harry replied, sitting up with a wince and clutching his abdomen.

"If anyone would have told me last week that you liked to cuddle I would have laughed at them," Louis huffed, but then he looked at Harry in sympathy. "Want me to get you some painkillers?"

"I feel like I've done about three hundred crunches before I was hit by a bus," Harry declared.

"I'll take that as a yes," Louis gave a curt nod, and then he was hurrying from the room and down the hall to the kitchen. There were still a few dishes in the sink, so he decided to wash them after he put a kettle on. In front of the sink, there was a small window, and Louis opened the blinds just a bit so he could look out. It was cloudy, like always, and he gazed out absentmindedly as he scrubbed at a plate with a soapy sponge.

"Did you get trapped in the refrigerator?" Harry called to him.

"No, I'm actually washing your dishes, smart ass," Louis called back, but he grinned to himself. His smile quickly faltered, however, as he thought about the previous night. He had almost told Harry that he loved him. He wanted to tell him. But he didn't want to freak him out, didn't want Harry to push him away again. He'd gone from wanting to get on Harry's good side to wanting on Harry's good side where he could stay there forever.

"You're a great man," Harry finally laughed loudly, snapping Louis from his thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah," Louis replied loudly. "I'm making you tea, as well."

"I'll try to keep the harassing to a minimum then."

But before he could respond to Harry, he spotted something moving in the tree line not far from the house. He nearly dropped the bowl he was washing, leaning closer and squinting. It appeared to be a man with dark hair, but he had a scarf to protect himself from the cold and it made his face unidentifiable. The short distance didn't give any support to Louis' vision as well, and the man's height couldn't be determined either. Louis frowned, finding it peculiar. He was about to inform Harry of the stranger prowling the edge of Harry's woods, but then he recalled a certain news broadcast from the night before, one with a threatening dark haired man who claimed he was going to find Harry.