Love Me Please (Larry Stylinson)

23

Later that night, Louis ends up stranded in the middle of the room trying to figure out where to sit.

All the seats on the couches are taken, filled with frat boys and the friends they invited. There are just enough seats for everyone already there, including Niall who is squished beside Liam. No one is sitting on the floor yet because of this.

Louis doesn't mind being the only one to sit on the floor, especially since normally he would sit on someone's lap or lie across everyone's thighs on the couch, but that's only with people he's comfortable being annoying around. No one in Harry's frat is included on the list of people who make Louis feel comfortable. He goes to sit on the floor but hears an abrupt noise of protest. Louis turns around to find that Harry is the one who made it. Because of course, who else?

"Sit here," Harry says, and it's not very noticeable but everyone quiets down a little and starts watching anyways. "I'll sit on the floor."

This must not be something Harry does often, given the overall silence of the room and the way everyone's eyes are on him and Louis right now, flipping beneath the two like they're watching a tennis match. Louis falters, before making the quick decision to just go with it, desperate to get the attention off of himself. He sits down in Harry's seat and mumbles a quiet thanks as Harry moves to sit on the floor.

Unlike a normal person, he doesn't move very far away at all. He waits until Louis is settled before he scooches backwards and presses his back against the couch, resting on it, so he's right next to Louis' legs. He doesn't seem to mind that they're touching, Harry's outer arm pressed against the side of Louis' leg, but Louis sure minds. He can't get his thoughts off of it, to move onto something more productive and less damaging than holy shit why is he touching me right now.

Everyone else goes back to what they were doing before, while Louis tries not to panic. To comfort himself, he mindlessly readjusts the scarf around his neck, fiddling with it much too often.

The movie starts and all Louis knows is that it's a horror movie, because he can't pay attention to anything right now. Anything except Harry, who is sitting at his feet and jumping at everything even though he keeps trying not to show how scared he is. At one point he actually turns his head to the side and presses his face against Louis' thigh during a particularly scary scene, and all the while Louis is wondering why he can't do that to the legs of the guy on the other side of him. All the while Louis is thinking that, and he's burning with it, with the touches and the movements and all the thoughts that will never leave him alone.

On top of it all, there's one of those stupid creepy soulmate drives again, like the time when Harry called crying and Louis knew he had no choice but to head over there and comfort him. There are some things their matching won't let Louis get away with and one of those things is the fact that when Harry is distressed, Louis has to comfort him. It isn't a question. There are not multiple options. It's just something he has to do.

So he allows Harry to cling onto his leg and hide his face in the fabric of his joggers whenever something scary is happening. And then later, as the movie goes on, Louis slowly and without thinking reaches his hand down and brushes it through Harry's hair. Just once at first.

Harry tenses immediately but he doesn't move away. Louis does it again without thinking and that's when Harry pushes his head up into Louis hand like a cat does when it wants to be petted more.

Still, there's no option to stop. Louis feels like he's on autopilot, like his soulmate instincts are in control right now. Kind of. He lets it happen anyways.

He isn't even aware of the movie ending because he's still too preoccupied with threading his fingers through Harry's hair and petting him.

It becomes unclear of what everyone should do now that the movie's finished. Louis is especially uncertain because he has his hand still stroking Harry's hair and he finds that even though he can stop, he doesn't want to. It feels too nice to be close to Harry like this, to finally have something settled within his chest that tells him this is how everything should be.