Is this seat taken- lainy122 on Archive of our own

Chapter 7

The next day when Louis had been awake since seven and Harry still hadn't called by ten, he jumped in his car and drove to Zayn's to do something other than go out of his mind . He swung by Starbucks on the way to pick up some muffins and a coffee as a peace offering for waking Zayn before noon.

"Wassit?" Zayn grumbled, rolling over in his bed when Louis let himself in, setting the coffee and muffins on his bedside table. "Coffee?" Zayn's head lifted off his pillow hopefully as he sniffed the air.

Louis flopped down on the bed next to where Zayn was struggling to sit up, reaching for the takeaway coffee cup.

"I gave Harry Styles a blowie in a storage room last night." Louis had at least waited until Zayn was resting comfortably against the headboard and was sipping his coffee before he blurted out his confession.

Zayn nearly spat his coffee out all over the bed. Maybe Louis should have waited until after he had taken his first sip. Ew.

"Oh my god!" Zayn coughed. "You slag!" He beamed at Louis in absolute delight.

"And my number," Louis added, looking away.

Zayn was quiet and when Louis risked a glance, his smile had faded.

"He said he'd call," Louis couldn't help but go on, hating how pathetic he sounded, like some delusional teenage girl waiting for a one night stand who would never call him back.

Louis loathed showing his vulnerability like this and in truth had only ever managed it for Zayn, who gave him shit about everything in the world except the things that mattered most.

"Louis..." Zayn looked troubled, putting his coffee back on the bedside table. God, it must be serious if Zayn was passing up his first coffee.

"You think I'm an idiot," Louis guessed, plucking at a loose thread on the corner of Zayn's doona. That had been Louis' own initial reaction to the whole thing last night, but it still didn't feel great for Zayn to confirm he was thinking the same thing.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Zayn disagreed, reaching out and pulling Louis into a hug, tugging the covers back over both of them. Louis went willingly, curling into Zayn's lap and burying his face into Zayn's shoulder to avoid looking him in the eye. "I know you really like him."

"Is it stupid to want him to call?" Louis asked, letting Zayn's warm embrace soothe him into a confession. "What am I even hoping for? Like, even if he did call... it's obvious that he's closeted. I mean, that's the kind of info that spreads fast in Hollywood, right? But I had no clue he was even into guys until he started hitting on me. So even if he did fancy me back - which is still a pretty big if - what kind of future is that?"

Fuck, he was talking about a future. After a single fucking blowie.

"It's not stupid, Lou," Zayn reassured him. "And he obviously likes you, or he wouldn't have slighted his own album launch to hook up with you." As someone who had been the star of their own album launch celebrations, Zayn knew how hectic they could be, how brightly focused the spotlight felt.

"He wanted to leave the whole thing altogether," Louis confessed, because as surreal as the whole thing had seemed, that was still something he was trying to wrap his head around. "Asked me to come home with him, right in the middle of his party."

"That's...wow." Zayn sounded a bit floored. Louis knew the feeling. "You said no?" he asked gently.

Louis flushed, embarrassed about his answer. He'd never lied to Zayn about any of this emotional crap before though, and he wasn't going to start now. He had admitted much more horrifying things during their friendship anyway, and emotional mortification was always something better shared with a good friend. Besides, Zayn knew him too well to let him get away with anything anyway.