Friends with benefits 2

3

He grabbed two beers and gave one to Harry before he took a seat next to him on the couch. A thought in the back of his head had been taunting him the whole day, but it was a really bad idea. He should just leave it. Or should he? He gazed at Harry while he sipped on his beer, trying to decide if it actually was a good idea after all. Harry met his eyes. Maybe. Liam interrupted his trail of thoughts.
"So guys, I have an announcement to make!" Liam said.

They all turned their focus on Liam and waited.
"Chrystal and I are getting married!" Liam said with a grin.

They all shouted out congratulations and Niall petted Liams back in excitement.
"I expect all of you at my wedding as my best men. 27th of July. Save the date." Liam continued with a grin.

"Of course Li! We're so happy for you." Zayn said.

They all toasted for Liam and love and talked wedding plans and drank beers.
"So when are you gonna find someone Harry?" Niall asked.

Louis wrinkled his eyebrows. He had a hard time seeing Harry in a relationship with someone, probably because he was the notorious single guy. Not that he didn't want him to be happy. Of course he did! 

Harry just shrugged his shoulders, sounding casual.
"I enjoy single life."

Two handsome single guys concerning London together? It wasn't one of his worst ideas.
"Me too mate, me too." Louis said and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. He petted it before he realized what he was doing and removed it. Why did he have to be do fucking awkward? He almost missed Liam speaking but something he said made him turn his head to stare at him.

"Oh, God, have you gone back to your old ways Lou? I'm telling you guys, living with Louis the first year of Uni was awful. He pulled a lot. Girls and guys were dragged into our dorm all the time." Liam said with a smirk. He was really drunk by now.

He couldn't believe Liam just outed him like that! What the hell! It wasn't exactly a secret that he was bisexual. It wasn't something he was ashamed of. But it was private. He had never felt the need to explain his sexuality to anyone.
"Liam!" Louis gasped.

Harry spit out the beer he just drank. He turned to Louis with his mouth hung open, looking shocked.
"What? Are you bi?"

Louis huffed. He was angry.
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Liam! Why the hell would you tell them that?"

"Sorry, Lou. It just slipped out." Liam said apologetically.

"Why do you keep that a secret Lou? What the hell? We have known each other for ten years. How come this is the first time I hear about it?" Harry asked. He seemed really upset, and yeah, maybe he had the right to be. Harry came out to them in Uni, but he never did. He hadn't lied about it. He hadn't told them, that was all.

"Come on Harry, I never felt like I had to explain my sexuality. It's private. The only reason Liam knows about it is because we use to live together." Louis answered, feeling annoyed.

"You know that we don't care, right?" Niall said.

"I know that! I mean, Harry's gay and you guys never had a problem with that. I know you're not homophobic and I love you all for that. I'm sorry I never told you, okay?" Louis answered. He sighed. Great job, Liam!

Harry was still staring at him. Come on! He couldn't have been that oblivious back then? Louis met his eyes and smirked.
"I can't believe you're so surprised Haz. I had the biggest crush on you when we first met. You must have noticed."

Oh fuck, did he just say that out loud? Sometimes he wished that he had a little more self-control and actually thought about what he said and not just blurted things out like that.

Harry's eyes grew even wider.
"W.. What? Crush? O..on me?" He stuttered.

Really? Why was that so hard to believe?
Louis rolled his eyes in response.
"You're gorgeous mate. Of course, I had but it's such a long time ago. No big deal."

"Right." Harry blushed. "Why didn't you tell me back then?"

Why didn't he? The obvious reason. Harry was so out of his league. He never thought he stood a chance and didn't want to make a fool out of himself.
"I didn't want to make things awkward between us. Clearly, you didn't feel the same way." Louis answered with a sigh.

"But..." Harry started to protest but got interrupted by Zayn. Damn it! Louis glared at him. Harry was just to give him some useful information. Or probably not.

"This sounds like a private conversation. Do you want us to leave for a while?" Zayn asked.

"Naah, the conversation's over." Louis smirked. Yeah, he had to nip this in the bud before it got really embarrassing.

"I'm gonna go to bed." Harry mumbled and stood up.

"Already?" Niall questioned.

"Yeah, sorry. Didn't sleep much last night." Harry sighed.

The boys said goodnight and Harry headed to his room. Louis wouldn't have that. He had to make sure that they were okay after his little confession. He ran after him and caught up with him in the hallway.
"Wait! Are you okay? Are we okay? I'm sorry for telling you that. It was such a long time ago. I didn't think it mattered."

Harry sighed and dragged a hand through his hair before he turned around to face him.
"It's okay Lou. Nothing has changed."

Why did he sound so sad?
Louis gave him a hesitating smile.
"Yeah?"

"For the record, I had a crush on you too back then." Harry said and looked down on the floor.

What? Now it was Louis's time to get shocked. His mouth fell open.
"You had? You never said anything."

Harry rolled his eyes.
"I thought you were straight."

"I'm not!" Louis protested.

"Yeah, well, you never told me that. Just forget about it, Lou. I'm gonna go to sleep now. See you tomorrow. Okay?" Harry answered.

Louis tried to wrap his head around this. That meant that Harry found him attractive. Interesting. He had always been curious about how it would be to sleep with Harry. He was fucking hot, and it would be easier when there weren't any feelings involved. Just two friends helping each other out. He wondered if Harry would be interested in that kind of arrangement? They were both single and he wasn't looking for a relationship and neither was Harry. But he didn't want to mess up their friendship. He shrugged his shoulders and looked down on the floor.
"It was probably for the best anyhow. Good night Haz."

Harry went to bed so he entered his own room and got ready to go to sleep. He thought about how to bring that up casually. You didn't just ask your platonic friend after ten years if he wanted to fuck. He hadn't had sex with a guy since before Eleanor and he kind of missed it. Sex with men was different.