Chapter Text
Harry stared at Louis.
It's weird how he's managed to tuck away his feelings for Louis during all these years, but one glance at his brother and everything comes back, mockingly telling him that yeah you moron, you're still desperately in love with him.
"You done staring?" Louis said, bringing Harry back from his confusing thoughts. "Guess my work is done here, I'm gonna take a nap, so if you excuse me" he said hoping off the counter and heading to the guest room.
He pushed past Harry who was still awkwardly standing by the door, eyes following Louis' every move, but the older grabbed him by the wrist.
(He couldn't help but notice that Louis was still cutely much smaller than him.)
Harry sighed. "Louis, what.. why are you here? How did you even get into my apartment?"
(He didn't have to ask how he got his address because, before coming to London, Harry left Louis a letter explaining everything, along with his old paper plane necklace as a small "I'm sorry" gift.) (and Harry was definitely not beaming at the fact that Louis had kept his address for all this time.)
"Can't I visit my own brother who I haven't seen nor heard of for two years? And getting in was awfully easy. I figured you'd keep an extra key in that hideous potted plant by the door.. that does sound like something stupid little Hazza would do and think he's being clever."
(Harry couldn't help but smile at the nickname he hasn't heard in so long) (minus the 'stupid' part)
"Louis, I'm serious. What are you doing here?"
"What, I'm a hundred percent serious."
"Louis, please." Harry said with a stern look.
"it's just.." he sighed, "Look, I messed up real bad back home. Like really really bad. And mum kinda found out what I did and she was being a such bitch about it - you know how she is - so I decided to leave cause I couldn't stand her anymore, but I didn't know where I could possibly go, then I thought of you and.. and now here I am."
"Do I even wanna know what you've done?" Harry asked, deep sigh implied.
"You really don't."
He actually sighed then.
"Louis," he said in a serious tone this time, "you do realise you're a minor, right? And this is like running away! She's probably looking for you this minute. And as much as I know how annoying she can be at times, you're supposed to stay with her until you turn eighteen atleast. You're her kid, her responsability."
"Orrrr you could adopt me."
"What?!!"
"Okay don't adopt me then, but please Harry let me stay here, I know all that okay, I know it's the law and all, but it's just one more year until I turn eighteen and I don't wanna stay with her, please Harry let me stay here just for one more year or just until I figure out what I'm gonna do, don't send me back to her please please pleaseee" Louis begged and Harry could tell he was trying hard not to cry. For real? Was he this desperate to get away from their mum?
The older let out a long breath. He couldn't blame his brother for running away because, well, hasn't he done the same? Sure, he wasn't underage at the time and his mother would've ended up kicking him out sooner or later anyway, but he couldn't not simpatize for his little brother. Specially when he's giving him the puppy eyes.
And specially when he's so deeply in love with him.
"Fine. You can stay. But I don't want mum anywhere near this apartment, d'you hear me? And I better not be getting into trouble with this, okay? I'm not taking the blame if anything happens."
(In the back of his mind Harry knew that it was so totally not true, he'd anything to protect his baby brother even if it meant getting himself in trouble.)
"Thank you sosososo much Hazza!!" Louis said jumping on Harry, hugging him tightly. He smiled to himself and hugged his brother back. "I promise I won't cause any trouble, you'll see, I'll be like super quiet, you won't even notice I'm here."
He stared at Louis' retraining figure as he went to the other room. And at the back of Louis' neck Harry saw, peeking out from under the collar of his shirt, a small bit of a silver necklace.
Harry smiled to himself. He knew exactly what it was.
***
The following days Louis had actually managed to stay quiet, on his own. He didn't cause any trouble, like Harry thought he would.
But it only lasted for a few days.
Gradually, Harry would come back home and find a bit more of a mess here and there, some dirty dishes piled in the sink, used mugs all over the house, empty dvd cases on the floor in front of the still turned on tv and his brother sleeping on the couch.
That last part is what always stopped him from yelling at Louis for being so messy. How could Harry be this heartless to the little angel curled up on his couch? So he settled for carrying Louis to the guest room, tucking him into bed and kissing his forehead before leaving to organize the mess.
He could always talk to Louis some other time and he didn't mind the extra work.
One day though, Harry was in his office at the club when his phone went off.
"Hello?"
"Good morning sir, here's Officer Carter from the Fire Department, I'd like to speak to Harry Styles please?"
"It's him." he said, a bit worried.
"Mr. Styles, there's been a small issue in your apartment and-"
Wait, what?
"WHAT?? What happened???"
"Sir, if you could calm down and just come home we could sort everything out."
"But what about my brother?? Is he okay? Is he hurt?? Oh god, I shouldn't have left him alone."
"You sure shouldn't. He's fine though, I just need to talk to his guardian and he said it's you."
He what??
"Okay, um, I'm on my way." he said turning off his phone and getting to his car.
***
Turns out Louis started a small fire that scared one of the neighboors and she called the firemen. Gladly, they managed to stop it before it could cause any big damage or hurt anyone.
But the lady who called the firemen, was very pissed at Louis' "reckless-dangerous-and-murderous-behaviour" so she yelled at the officer about it for quite a while.
Which led to the officer asking Louis where were his parents.
Which led to Louis telling a tragic and totally made up story of how his parents died in a tragic car crash when they were tragically coming back from his grandma's tragic funeral when Louis was tragically just a baby.
Which would've led to Louis being taken to the police station if Harry hadn't arrived right on time to laugh off his brother's story and tell the officer "kids.. always coming up with the craziest stories.."
The officer rolled his eyes, but just gave them a warning and told Harry not to leave the kid unwatched again.
"I'm not a kid, you little shi-" but Harry covered Louis' mouth before he could get them in any more trouble.
"I promise we're gonna behave, innit Louis?" Harry told the officer, flashing him his brightest smile, hand still covering Louis' mouth. The younger shaked his had no, glaring at both adults.
Once again the officer rolled his eyes, but left anyways.
Louis huffed and headed to the lift. Harry sighed and followed him.
"I'm not a kid." Louis said when they got back into the apartment, arms crossed over his chest. Harry almost cooed at how much he looked like an angry kitten.
"So why are you acting like one? I remember specifically telling you not to get into trouble."
"I didn't start a fire on purpose, you moron, I just wanted some tea but that stupid plant in the kitchen had to be right beside the oven and had to be too leafy and when I saw, it was already half burnt."
"YOU BURNED CYNTHIA??!!!" Harry yelled, running to the kitchen, almost tearing up when he saw the plant's ashes in the trash can.
Louis snorted. "You named your plant? How do you even know it's a girl?"
"Of course I did! She's a plant but she has feelings. And she's a girl because she has pink peppers."
"Well, she had pink peppers.."
Harry sighed again. "Rest in peace, Cynthia. Hope you have a great time in Heaven's garden." He almost shed a tear. Almost.
"You're ridiculous" Louis said, leaving Harry alone in the kitchen talking to the trash can, "and you have way too many plants for a supposedly grown up, sane man." he said looking at all the green in Harry's living room.
"Heeey they are good company, I get lonely sometimes."
"And what, you have sex with your plants?" Louis grimaced "Is that even a thing?"
"Louis that's disgusting!!"
"Then why do you do it? How do you even do it?"
"I don't fuck my plan- Louis, stop trying to change the subject, we aren't done talking. I can't leave you here alone if you're gonna be like this."
Louis groaned. "Oh c'mon Harry, it was just an accident, okay? Won't happen again. Trust me."
And everything Harry had to say vanished from his mind when Louis turned to leave because, once again, he saw the little silver chain peeking out from under his shirt.
And of course it warmed his heart.
***
The next morning, Harry was waiting for the lift when the same lady who started yesterday's small chaos marched to him with a deep frown on her face. Harry desperately hit the button again but the lift was stuck in another floor. He considered making a run towards the stairs, but it was too late. The lady was already right in front of him.
"G'mornin-"
"You're going out and leaving your bother here? Alone? When you've specifically been told by an authority that he's a menace to the whole building and cannot be left unwatched? Did you hire a babysitter atleast?" she said. You could tell she was the dramatic type.
"No, I didn't, but he-" she cut him midsentence again.
"Well, then I think I'll have to call the police."
"NO that won't be necessary, he promised he'd behave and-"
"I'm calling the police." she took her phone from her pocket.
"Miss, you really don't have to, Louis is not that bad of a kid and.."
She typed nine.
"Miss please, what happened yesterday won't happen again, I swear, it was just an accident and.."
She typed one.
"Please if you'd just hear me out, I'm sure we could sort this without involving the police and.."
She typed another one and hit the call button.
"FINE FINE I'm taking him to work with me okay" he said in a rush, taking the phone from her hand and ending the call "He won't be here by himself okay?"
She seemed satisfied with that. "That's better. But if he ever does anything that even slightly disturbs this building’s peace again, there'll be authorities involved. Do I make myself clear?"
Harry gulped. "Crystal. Now if you excuse me, I gotta go fetch Louis."
She smiled an old mean lady smile and left. Seems like Harry can't have a single peaceful morning anymore.
He made his way back into the apartment and went to Louis, who was still sleeping.
Waking Louis up was a rather hard task. He slept like a dead rock and his awakening was followed by twenty minutes of complaining, Harry trying to explain why he had to come with him, Louis throwing pillows, Harry pulling the covers, Louis pulling them back, Harry yelling they were late, Louis yelling back he didn't care and finally, Harry throwing the water on the bedside table right on Louis' face.
That last thing made Louis jump off the bed straight onto Harry (much like a kitten would), yelling that he was gonna kill him. But Harry didn't even budge, he just took the oportunity and carried Louis to the bathroom, the younger trashing out in his hold.
At the end, Louis gave up and went to get ready, complaining the whole time that it was too early to live and cursing the old lady's existence.
***
Spending the day with Louis was odd. Harry hasn't had the chance to do so since Louis' arrival because he spents all day working and when he comes back home, Louis is already asleep.
First thing he notices is that Louis can't stay still for too long. Just like how Harry remembers him to be. While the older was doing some paper work, Louis went throught all the pictures on the wall, messed with everything he could find in the drawers, took a look around the whole club, talked to everyone who was working there, before finally slumping back on his chair, arms crossed.
"This place is so boring" he said. God, he was such a kitten, Harry thought to himself, biting back a smile.
"Well, you shouldn't have started a fire then. You could be at home right now doing whatever if it wasn't for that." Harry said, without looking up from the papers he was sorting out.
Louis huffed. "For your information, I've done much worse stuff in the past, but there was no old bitchy lady to rat me to the fucking police."
That perked Harry's interest. "What have you done that could possibly be worse than almost starting a fire?"
"Uhm let me see.. mum was dating this asshole who happened to be my Geography teacher and it was so gross, like, I heard them having sex once." Harry laughed and Louis grimaced, "But that's not the worst thing. They had plans of him moving in with us and of course I couldn't let that happen, so one night, I spray painted his car. All of it. Didn't leave a single clean spot!"
"And then he left, I presume?"
"He sure did!" Louis said proudly.
"I bet mum was a beast after that."
"She was! She was so annoying that I had to do something, so I put blue hair dye in her shampoo."
Harry snorted. "That served her well. But none of that are as bad as almost starting a fire."
"Yeah, not really, but I do lots of thing and never get caught. Like, once I sneaked into a stupid jock's room when he was sleeping and shaved both his eyebrows because he told everyone at school that I was a slut. I messed up the movie theater's system, so they were showing High School Musical 2 instead of 50 Shades to a room full of horny teenage couples. I set free all the neighbor’s birds cause they wouldn't stop singing and I wanted to sleep. I blowed my boyfriend in a bathroom stall at school right when the principal was taking a piss. I almost filled mum's purse with ice cream, but.."
Louis continued blabbering but Harry had stopped laughing when he got to the boyfriend part.
"You.." he cleared his throat, dry all of a sudden, "you never told me you have a uh boyfriend." (But of course Harry wasn’t jealous.)
Louis stopped reciting his endless shenanigans list. "Of course I do." he said with an isn't-it-obvious face, "Guys with asses like mine don't stay single for too long, Hazzy."
But before Harry could say anything else, someone was barging through the door.
"HARRY, WE JUST MET ZAYN'S SOULMATE!!" Niall screamed banging the door on the wall.
"Shut up Niall." Zayn said entering the room behind him.
Zayn and Niall were Harry's roommates when he first came to London. They were also his best friends and had a great timing when it comes to interrupting Harry’s jealousy.
"No Harry, seriously, we went to the hospital and this really handsome doc came to help us and Zayn was all heart eyes at him like, he was almost drooling! What was his name Zayne? Doctor uh.. doctor.."
"Doctor Payne" Zayn said.
"YES doctor Payne, and Harry he's like perfect for Zayn, he's tall and built and beautiful and he was so nice to us, we gotta set up him and Zayn!"
Louis, who'd been silent during the whole conversation, snorted at that. "Good luck with that. Liam's straight as a ruler."
Zayn and Niall turned to Louis comically at the same time, tilting their heads to the side. They hadn't noticed the younger boy's presence till then.
"You know him?" Harry asked, surprised.
"I do, he's my doct- he's, uhm, he's my friend."
"And who are you?" Zayn asked, curiously.
"Zayn, Niall, this is Louis, my-"
"Ohhhh so you are the Louis huh? The brother, right? Harry talks a lot abou-" Niall helpfully finished the sentence, before being interrupted.
"SO NIALL, why were you guys at the hospital anyway?" Harry asked quickly, trying to change the uncomfortable subject.
Thankfully, Niall has the attention spam of a butterfly, so he turned back to Harry "Oh right! Zayn and I were skating down the street and Zayn almost ran over a dog but he turned in the last minute and didn't hit the dog, because, you know how Zayn is when it comes to saving the animals and the nature and all, but then he felt in the middle of the street and his arm was sprained all weird and he said it wasn't hurting but I took him to the hospital anyways and then we met the doc. Oh and Zayn broke his arm." Niall finished, almost out of breath.
Harry then noticed the cast in Zayn's arm.
"But it's good that he broke his arm," Niall continued, "because now he'll have to go back to the hospital to take the cast off and he's gonna talk to doctor sexy again and ask him out and all. It's been a long time since Zayn shagged anyone." Niall whisper-shouted that last part. Harry and Louis laughed at Zayn's flushed cheeks.
"Don't you have to go to class or something?" Zayn said pushing Niall a bit.
"OH FUCK I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!" He said running out from Harry's office, shouting back "BYE GUYS, TALK TO YOU LATER, NICE TO MEET YOU LOUIS!" Louis giggled.
Zayn slumped in a chair and rested his head in his good arm, groaning loudly.
"Does it hurt?" Harry asked concerned.
"Nah, it's fine. It's just.. Niall's such an idiot. I didn't like the doc, I mean, sure he was beautiful and all, but I'm not interested in him like that. And Niall kept throwing hints that I'm single and totally available and you know just how subtle Niall is. It was embarrassing." Zayn huffed.
"Ohh so that's why you're all like this" Harry said with a smug smile, he then turned to Louis, "Zaynie here has the biggest crush on Niall but is too much of a pussy to tell him." Louis giggled again.
"Shut up, I do not.." Zayn mumbled, blushing. Harry just rolled his eyes.
The two kept talking for a while, but Louis soon was bored and started complaining that he was hungry and that he wanted Taco Bell.
They said their goodbyes to Zayn and headed to the car.
All the way to Taco Bells, traffic was awful. And of course Louis wouldn't stop whining about it. But when the streets were emptier and Harry could finally speed with the car, Louis screamed at him to stop.
"Stop? But weren't you starving?" he said mockingly.
"JUST PULL OVER THE DAMN CAR HARRY!!" Louis yelled. So he was being serious huh. Weird.
Before the car even came to a full stop, Louis was already under the nearest tree on the side of the road, throwing up everything he'd eaten that day.
Harry was right by his side, rubbing his back gently when he was done. "What's wrong? Do you wanna go the hospital?"
"NO! I mean, no no, I'm fine now, really."
"Are you sure..?"
He huffed. "Yes, I'm sure mummy."
"Fine fine, but do you still wanna go to Taco Bell?"
And these two words were enough to send Louis into a puking fit again.
When he was sure his stomach was a hundred percent empty, they went back to the car. "Try not to run so much this time, okay Fast&Furious?", Louis said buckling his belt.
"As you wish, princess." Harry said rolling his eyes.
Louis couldn't possibly be sick because of the car.
But Harry ended up driving very carefully anyways.
***
They spent the rest of the day sprawled on the couch, watching whatever was on.
It was nice having someone to be lazy with. Sure, Harry had many friends, countless boys and girls throwing themselves at him and not a single Friday night free in his agenda, but still, he felt lonely more often than not.
So it was nice having Louis' company, even though the younger wasn't cuddling into his side the way he swears he's not silently wishing for.
Sometime around eleven, Harry's stomach was growling.
"What d'you want for dinner?" Harry said getting up.
"'m not hungry."
"Don't be silly, you threw up earlier today and haven't eaten anything since."
"I'm. Not. Hungry." He answered, getting up and heading to the guest room.
"How about some fruit then?"
"Ew Harry, you disgust me."
"Fruit it is."
Harry was cutting a pineapple when Louis' bloody scream almost made him miss it and cut his own finger.
He ran to the other room, "What's wrong?!!"
"I just saw a giant spider right here and now I don't know where it's gone!"
"Well, and what do you want me to do?"
"Kill it, obviously."
Harry snorted. "I'm sure you're capable of doing it yourself." he said, heading back to the kitchen.
But before he could even properly leave the room, Louis was running past him towards Harry's room.
"Louis don't-" Louis slammed the door, cutting Harry off.
Harry sighed. When he got to his room, Louis was already snuggled up in his bed, lazy smirk on his face.
"Louis, go to your room."
"No."
"Louis, I'm tired, can you please leave?"
"No. If it wasn't for you and your stupid plants that spider wouldn't be there. It's your fault." he said snuggling further in the sheets, "Besides, your bed is much more comfortable, I'm sleeping here from now on."
Harry reached for Louis ankles and tried to pull him, but the younger gripped the bed frame and wouldn't let go. Harry wouldn't let go either.
So he kept trying to pull Louis, Louis kept screaming and the bed frame kept banging on the wall loudly. That went on for some good minutes and Harry finally gave up.
He dropped Louis' ankles and the younger quickly tucked them under the covers again.
"You give me no other option." Harry said before falling on the bed, right on top of his brother.
Louis screamed and tried to kick Harry off him from under the covers. "Get off me, you big oaf!! I can't breathe!!!"
Harry rolled to the side.
"Get out." Louis said with a glare.
"Nope, it's my room and I'm sleeping here." Harry said while taking off clothes. "And I always sleep naked."
"PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON AND LEAVE!"
But Harry was already completely bare, save for his underwear.
"You disgust me, but the spider disgusts me more." Louis said, turning to the other side. "And I'm not sharing the blankets."
Harry rolled his eyes.
He was actually itching to pull Louis into his chest and hold him all night, but he didn't do it.
***
3am Harry woke up to a heavy sleeping Louis curled up impossibly tiny on top of him.
And really, what else could he possibly do besides wrapping his arms tightly around his brother and going back to sleep? (And he swears he didn't have the biggest smile plastered on his face.)
***
When Harry woke up the next morning, Louis wasn't on his chest anymore. Needless to say he was devasted, thinking that maybe he'd imagined it all.
Then, he heard some hurling sounds from the bathroom.
"Louis?"
And Harry found his baby brother once again miserably puking his stomach out.
He crouched beside Louis and rubbed his back. "Well, I'm definitely taking you to the hospital."
Louis heard that and, as another wave of sickness hit him, his mind was echoing a sweet mantra of Shit shit shit shit shit..