you're cold and I burn (on hold)

nauseous.
Louis’ watching him from the living room, Harry completely out of his league being way more
entertaining than anything on the tellie. Harry’s st<strong>and</strong>ing at the stove, frying whats presumed to be
eggs, running a h<strong>and</strong> through the mess of curls in an attempt to tame the way they’re falling over
his eyes. Louis’ not quite sure how he gets his quiff to stay up like that without any product, <strong>and</strong>
how Louis’ pre-fringe quiff days consisted of enough hair gel to drown a small child. His
thoughts, though, are cut immediately short when Harry runs his finger up his back, raising his
shirt. It not only exposes the large <strong>and</strong> expanse ribcage tattoo, but also the angry red scratch marks
that are surrounding his spine, all the way down to the line of his hips.
Louis looks away immediately, blinking <strong>and</strong> pretending like he didn’t just see that. Suddenly the
Home <strong>and</strong> Gardening channel just became the most interesting thing in the world.
“I’m slaughtering these eggs in here,” Harry calls from the kitchen. And his face in covered in a
childish innocence, which is a stark contrast against those red marks etched into his skin. “This
may have been one of my worst ideas yet.”
“How do you possibly fuck up eggs, Harry? They’re quite literally the easiest thing to make.”
Louis' voice comes out more confident than he feels, <strong>and</strong> his insides are feeling jumbled <strong>and</strong>
awkward, with no clear reason why.
“I <strong>burn</strong> toast, to be honest with you.”
Louis sighs, st<strong>and</strong>ing from his comfortable <strong>and</strong> warm spot on the couch to join a flustered Harry in
the kitchen. The eggs in the skillet are bordering black, <strong>and</strong> Louis has to hold back a laugh,
because Harry really did butcher these, it’s hilarious. “I’ll remake them for you, but you need to
st<strong>and</strong> here <strong>and</strong> watch so you can fend for yourself next time. I may be your senior but I’m not
going to cook for you all the time.”
Harry nods, eager, as he pulls an imaginary notepad <strong>and</strong> pencil from the air. He pretends to
scribble notes as Louis washes out the skillet, grabbing two eggs from the container <strong>and</strong> cracking
the yolks into a cup.
“So, step one, you need to put your eggs in a cup, or a bowl, whatever floats your boat, right?
Okay,” Louis grabs the milk from the fridge, “step two, pour a little milk into the cup or bowl, use
your own judgement on the amount.” Harry still scribbles notes, Louis’ smile widens at that.
“Step three,” Louis raises a fork into the air, Harry looks at it like it’s the holy grail, “Mix the milk
<strong>and</strong> the eggs, like so.” Louis stirs the mixture, until it’s a yellow paste, beating out the chunks of
yolk with the prongs of the fork. “Make sure your skillet is hot, <strong>and</strong> you can use either butter or
nonstick spray to keep the eggs from <strong>burn</strong>ing to the bottom. You keeping up with me here?”
Another nod. So, Louis grabs the butter, flicking a bit into the skillet <strong>and</strong> sliding it around to coat
the bottom, “Wait till its hot enough, yeah? It should start to cook the egg immediately.” After a
couple seconds, Louis pours the mixture in, the loud sizzle filling the kitchen, “So you st<strong>and</strong> here
<strong>and</strong>, using your spatula, just keep scooping <strong>and</strong> flipping, don’t let the eggs <strong>burn</strong>, can you h<strong>and</strong>le
that?”
“You should probably finish, you know, for teaching purposes <strong>and</strong> all.” And Louis is about to roll
his eyes <strong>and</strong> leave, but the smile, <strong>and</strong> Harry cocking his head to the side while batting his lashes
makes him stay, but he rolls his eyes either way.
Once they’re finally done, Louis puts them onto a plate, lightly salting <strong>and</strong> peppering before
setting it on the counter, “Here you are, compliments of the chef, we appreciate tips.”