Locked Down (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter Two - New Arrivals

When morning came with it's usual screech of the chickens next door, Harry sat up in his bed rubbing at his eyes and feeling a little dry in the mouth from the amount of wine he'd managed to consume the day before. He'd not stopped after his pint and managed to get through the remainder of the bottle, this time just swigging from the bottle as he made up the music room for Louis.

He grabbed a bottle of water from his bedside table and downed it before he got himself up slowly not really wanting to get out of the bed but he had a Zoom meeting at nine and he needed to shower and put on clothes before it.

He still wasn't sure he was mentally prepared for Louis' arrival either but he'd have to battle that when the time came, until then he had to focus on the other tasks.

Finally he managed to push himself out of bed and after stretching out his back he made his way into the bathroom where he showered, brushed his teeth while still in it and then found something to wear that was both professional but also comfortable. He ended up wearing sweatpants and a buttoned up shirt which was definitely a questionable look.

He left his hair alone to dry naturally and was actually quite happy with it. It was finally growing back and he was loving the fact he could just about put it up in a bun again.

He'd cut it when he'd got his job in his big firm after university when he wanted to be taken seriously and now he'd been there a few years he was finally relaxed enough there to just be more like himself and no one seemed to mind.

He ate breakfast finding it weird not to be eating it with Niall since he'd obviously decided he'd be sleeping in from now on since school was off for him not that Harry really blamed him.

So Harry ate alone leaning against the kitchen island looking out into the garden picturing a barrelling black blur of fluff running around it and Louis laying on the seats, maybe sunbathing since the weather was quite nice right now, his golden skin glistening in the sun.

Harry was not sure he was going to cope well being in such close quarters with Louis, he could barely contain himself and he saw Louis only a couple of times a month and he was not ashamed to admit a couple of those times were because he'd hidden Niall's Oyster card just to be able to drive him into work.

He looked away from the garden and instead down at his bowl of cereal that he wasn't really enjoying. It tasted like cardboard and Harry just needed to take a paracetamol and relax until the wine was completely out of his system. He wasn't ashamed to admit he was a lightweight.

When quarter past nine came, Harry had just finished washing up his bowl and he made his way downstairs and back into his bedroom. He closed the door, got himself situated on his desk with his laptop and forwent his cup of tea as to try not to embarrass himself this time.

Luckily for him, it went much better than the day before and after a little over an hour, he was free once more for the rest of the day only needing to write a couple of emails and send a few files at some point to make it look like he was actually working.

He took off his shirt and replaced it with one of his old band t-shirts and he checked himself in his mirror to check he didn't look homeless because Louis had seen him bad enough the day before without him answering the door looking homeless too.

He hoped Niall would be up to let Louis in because he had no idea how to deal with Louis alone but that wasn't to be because just before mid day there was a knock on the front door.

Harry watched the stairs for a few seconds from the place he'd taken on the sofa watching a film but it seemed there was nothing to suggest Niall was alive and so he got up from the sofa and went to open the door.