Young & Beautiful

XXIV
Chapter Summary
Harry breaks.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
As soon as Louis gets home, he falls onto the couch, feeling miserable and terrible and horrible
and really bewildered by his own emotions—most of which scream Harry’s name and that stupid
fucking Dorian Gray quote and throw a lot of question marks behind the lids of his eyes.
“You go to see Harry, then?” Niall asks from the kitchen, having now woken up and currently
eating what appears to be an apple pie with his hands, great clumps of it dripping down his fists as
he licks it off, sleepy and blissfully happy. He’s disgustingly endearing. Or maybe it’s endearingly
disgusting? Louis buries his face deeper into the couch.
“No,” he lies, voice muffled by the velvet that feels more grating than luxurious.
“How did it go?” Niall asks seamlessly, not even pretending to indulge Louis, syrupy apple
chunks clinging to his chin.
“I hate everything,” Louis groans, relenting. “I’m leaving and never coming back.”
“You’ve only got two weeks before term ends. You barely have to see the bloke. You’ll manage
fine,” Niall mutters through sticky lips.
“No I won’t,” Louis says pitifully.
At that Niall grins, licking his hands clean before he hops like a fucking rabbit over to Louis,
flouncing down atop him and blanketing him in his entire body, causing Louis to emit coughed
wheezes.
“Jesus Christ!” he gasps, Niall’s weight nearly crushing him. “The fuck are you doing?”
“Having a cuddle,” Niall says simply, but he just lays there, limbs loose, smiling into Louis’ hair.
“Is this your way of comforting me?”
“No. This is how I comfort myself.”
“Ah. I see,” Louis struggles, trying to shift their bodies until he has room to breathe. He manages
to find a happy medium of balance, his air passageways no longer obscured by dead Irish weight,
so he figures he might as well just let Niall stay there now that he won’t die. It might feel a little bit
nice, even. Maybe.
“Harry’s a cunt,” Niall grunts after a pause.
“No he’s not,” Louis sighs. “He’s Harry.”