After (Larry Version)

~*Chapter 96*~

"I love coming home!" I proclaim with a squeal as we walk into the apartment, only to then realize it's freezing. "Except when you turn the heat off." I shiver and he chuckles.
"I still haven't figured that thing out yet, it's too high-tech."
As Harry tries to figure out the thermostat, I grab a blanket off the bed and two from the closet and drop them in a heap on the couch, then go back to the bedroom.

"Here, let me give you something," Harry says  when he walks in the bedroom finding me in just panties freezing and he walks to the closet, pulling out a gray hooded sweatshirt.
"Thanks." I smile. I don't know what it is about being in Harry's clothes that I love so much, it's almost as if wearing them brings us closer. I never did this with Elijah, except once when I borrowed a sweatshirt while camping with his family.
Harry seems to like when I wear his clothes, too. He watches me slip the sweatshirt over my head with lustful eyes. I notice him struggling to get the tie off and I pad over to help him. He watches me silently as I pull the thin fabric from around his neck and set it aside before grabbing a pair of thick, fuzzy, purple socks that my mother got me for Christmas last year.
It dawns on me that Christmas is only three weeks away, and I start to wonder if my mother will still want me to come home. I haven't been home since I left for college.
"What are those?" Hardin chuckles and flicks the balls of fur at the top of my ankle.
"Socks. Warm socks, to be exact." I stick my tongue out.
"Nice," he teases, then changes into sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
By the time we get back to the living room, the apartment has warmed up somewhat. Harry turns the television on and lies on the couch, pulling me onto his chest and encasing us in the mound of blankets.
"I was wondering what you were doing for Christmas," I say nervously. I don't know why I feel shy asking him about this when we already live together.
"Oh well, I was going to " wait until next week to bring it up, with everything being so chaotic over the last week, but since you did..." He smiles, his face holding the same nervousness that I feel. "I'm going to go home for the holiday, and I would like it if you would come with me."
"Home?" I squeak.
"To England... to my mother's house." He looks a little sheepish as he hedges, "I get it if you don't want to. I know it's a lot to ask, and you've already moved in with me."
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just... I don't know..." The idea of going to back to England scary yet exciting.

Harry is thrilling, but terrifying. I have never even left Washington since we moved here.
"You don't have to answer me tonight, but let me know soon, okay? I'll be leaving on the twentieth," he explains.
"That's the day after my birthday," I tell him.
He moves suddenly and lifts my head up. "Your birthday? Why didn't you tell me it was so soon?"
I shrug a little. "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it, I guess. Birthdays aren't really a big deal to me. My mother used to go all-out on my birthdays, making each one special, but not in the last few years."
"Well, what would you like to do for your birthday?"
"Nothing. Maybe we can go to dinner?" I don't want to make a big deal out of it.
"Dinner... I don't know," he teases. "A bit extravagant, isn't it?"

"I giggle and he kisses my forehead. I force him to watch the new episode of Pretty Little Liars and we end up falling asleep on the couch pretty quickly.
I wake up sweating in the middle of the night. Lifting myself off Harry, I peel off the sweatshirt and go over to turn the heat down when a small blue light blinking on Hardin's phone piques my curiosity. I pick the phone up off the counter and swipe my finger across. Three new messages."

"Put the phone down, Louis .
I have no reason to go through his phone,that's insane. I set it down and walk back toward the couch, only to be stopped by the vibration of another text message arriving.
Just one. I will only glance at one. That's not so crazy, right? I know it's insane to be looking through Harry's messages, but I can't seem to stop myself.

"Call me back dick, the message reads. Jace's name covers the top of the small screen.
Yup, reading that was a terrible idea. It didn't get me anywhere at all, and now I feel guilty for going through Harry's phone like a crazy person... but why is Jace texting Harry, anyway?
"Louis?" Harry's voice croaks, causing me to jump, and the phone slips out of my grasp. It falls to the floor with a crack.
"What was that? What are you doing?" he asks through the dark room, the only light being cast from the television.
"Your phone went off... and I grabbed it," I half-lie and scramble on the floor to pick up the phone. The screen now has a small crack along the side. "And I cracked the screen," I add.
He groans wearily. "Just come back to bed."
I set the phone down and lie back on the couch with him. But I don't fall asleep for a long while.