liability | larry stylinson

chapter 16. jade colored blankets and tattoos

"Happy Birthday , Zayn," Harry greets at the door of Liam of Zayn's house. He's been here quite often, their house isn't too far from the Rave and the last two years he was a frequent visitor.
"Thank you," Zayn says, ushering him inside as snow falls from the sky. January has bitterly cold weather this time of the year.
"Louis, glad you could make it," Liam says, taking both Harry and Louis' winter jackets and hanging them on the wall, Louis' coat being a black Burberry jacket with their signature plaid on the inside, and Harry's being a thrifty forest green trench coat with a fuzzy hood.
"You've got snowflakes all over your head," Louis chuckles as Harry shakes quickly melting flakes out of his hair.
"What do you have there?" Liam asks Louis, as he leads them to their den with a fire going.

"Me and Harry got gifts for Zayn," Louis tells them and Zayn smirks at them as Louis sits them on the coffee table. Liam sits and wraps his arm around Zayn.
"You didn't have to do that," Zayn replies, "but thank you," he adds with a smile.
"Go on, open them, we think you'll like them," Harry says, rubbing his hands together to get warm.
"This one is mine," Louis says, handing him a green gift bag.
Zayn takes it and sits it in his lap while removing the matching green tissue paper.
"No way, you really shouldn't have!" Zayn exclaims. "This is sick!"

"What is it?" Liam asks. "Oh you didn't, Louis," Liam side eyes, "he's going to be insufferable with this."

"I heard you talking about wanting to get one at the New Years after party," Louis laughs, "now you can put all that doodling you do to good use," Louis explains.
"Hmmm, I think a blank canvas would help him out, don't you think?" Harry jokingly says to Louis and Louis' eyes broaden nervously.
"It's only fair, you did buy the best tattoo kit money can buy. And it will certainly suit you better if I do it now rather than when we go through these two bottles of Chardonnay. " Zayn teases, Louis looks even more nervous.
"You don't have to," Harry laughs. "We're just playing," Harry reassures, and Liam looks to Louis with kind eyes.
Louis has always made little comments about Harry's tattoos, the moth, the swallows, the bird cage, the naked mermaid. He never had anything bad to say about them, just was curious why they're so random and to be frank, a bit meaningless. But with Louis' upbringing and how the community he's known his whole life goes against things like tattoos, drinking, premarital sex, homosexuality, (the list could go on), Harry didn't take much offense to it. One night as they were pillow talking to sleep Harry just explained how some people just like the abstract artistry of tattoos, and some people want permanent sketches on skin to come alive with a memory, or deep meaning.
"I'll do it," Louis says, "after you open Harry's present of course," and everyone looks a bit stunned, because Louis has changed a lot this year, but permanently having evidence of it on his skin wasn't anything anyone intended with certainty.
"I'd love to," Zayn says, taking Harry's blue gift bag. He does the same as he did with Louis' gift, stripping the bag of it's blue tissue paper and grabbing inside.
"Not as fancy, but, happy birthday, Zayn!" Harry says.
"Thank you, Harry, and you made this yourself?"
"I did, took three months," Harry replies, smiling as Zayn nuzzles it against his cheek and Liam plays with the tassels.
"I love it!" Zayn says, draping it over his back. The red blanket lays over Zayn's shoulders as Liam pours everyone a glass of Chardonnay.
"Is there anything you can't do?" Louis asks, jokingly to Harry, admiring his crocheting skills.
"Play football and properly convey my emotions," Harry jokes back, making everyone in the room laugh as they sip from their glasses.

"So what tattoo are you wanting?" Liam asks, "and where are you going to get it?"

"I'm thinking a coffee mug with a little steam on my forearm, about right here," Louis says, lifting the long sleeve of his checkered cashmere sweater. "Reminds me of the simpler things in life, like from being a kid, hot coco days with my Gram, and tea and coffee while waking up in the morning. Gives me a perspective for a good day, you know?" Louis asks, as Zayn starts sketching a dime size coffee mug with steam coming from the cup, making a stencil.
"I think that's beautiful," Liam says to him.
"Simple, but effective," Harry smiles assuringly to Louis.
The party then moves into Zayn and Liam's kitchen where the lighting is much better. Zayn does all the proper sterilizing for a tattoo, (as much as you can for an at home tattoo). He opens a new needle, sets up the tattoo machine over their kitchen table, puts on gloves, shaves any arm hair surrounding the area where Louis is getting tattooed, and then disinfects his skin with a sanitizer towelette.
"Are you ready?" Zayn asks, after peeling the stencil off Louis' forearm. Harry notices Louis' tapping his foot and biting his bottom lip, common nervous traits of Louis, so without being noticed by Zayn and Liam, he trails his hand under the kitchen table, squeezing Louis' inner thigh and then rubbing his leg to calm him. It works. Louis grins and nods his head and Zayn gets to work. Louis inhales at the initial piercing of the needle into his skin, but it quickly subsides and is marked and finished before any long term intense discomfort can even begin.
"Finished!" Zayn says after about 10 minutes, smiling to Liam as Louis marvels at the small artwork adorning his arm.
"I love it, Zayn! This is so incredible! And didn't even hurt half as bad as I thought it would," he answers, gratitude sternly in his tone. Zayn takes proper after care procedure for tattoos by wrapping the area with plastic Saran wrap after moisturizing the area. Liam heads to their bathroom and gives Louis some spare tattoo aftercare ointment left over from one of Zayn's pieces.
The small group spend the rest of the night  talking about their tattoos, drinking the two bottles of Chardonnay in a medium pace. Harry goes on and on about how the moth on his sternum made him need multiple breaks between the session, and Liam talks about how painful the roses on his hand were to get during his tattoo tour, Zayn agrees with Liam that hand tattoos are really painful and a lot of upkeep, but when done with care, are quite beautiful. The night concludes with a FaceTime call from Trixie, where Katya and Trixie wish Zayn a happy birthday.
"Harry's got a birthday coming up, only a few more weeks out, the big two three," Liam chuckles on the phone. Trixie and Katya say they'll try to make their way to The Rave for the big day, and Louis winks at Harry.
"Oh, I may have something in the works for that," Louis laughs, taking a sip of his drink.
"Oh really?" Harry comments, his first time hearing this bringing shock to his face.
"You gave me the best birthday present at my birthday party, only fair I live up to the standard you set," Louis teases, raising his eyebrows and looking Harry up and down.
Harry groans on about how he doesn't need an extravagant gift, or another private jet adventure, but Louis rolls his eyes.
"You care entirely too much about money," Louis sasses.
"It's hard not to when you don't have a lot of it," Harry replies, not in an arrogant, mean way, but Louis rolls his eyes again.
"Just wait, this gift is all me, and special," Louis says back to change the tension that their financial differences cause.
After a few more laughs, and a bunch of yawns from all four men, it's evident it's time to get to bed, so Harry and Louis open the door but Liam stops them.
"We have a guest room, you're both welcome to use it to sleep over, kind of cold and dangerous out there now with all the snow," he says. Harry looks to Louis and Louis nods his head as Zayn takes them upstairs to see the rest of their home. Behind the door is a smaller, full size mattress with a jade green quilt. The room is pretty nippy so Zayn turns on the portable heater and gives hugs and thanks to the both of them before disappearing to down the hallway with Liam. Louis shuts the door behind him, and Harry starts removing his jeans and black NYU sweatshirt. Leaving him only in a black t-shirt and orange boxers. Louis does the same, climbing into the bed, under the covers, with Harry. He rests his head on Harry's chest and Harry takes in Louis' smell, the peach shampoo. Harry strokes through the strands of Louis' hair, getting glimpses of snowflakes pressed against the window through the majority closed curtains in the guest room.
"You know if ever need help with money...it's not an object for me," Louis says, filling the silence in the air.
"That's really nice of you, but I couldn't. It wouldn't feel right," Harry explains. "I don't know, with what my mother sends me for extra things like subway fair and food, and with Liam and Zayn paying me an acceptable wage with tips added, I'm not as bad off as most people trying to make it in this city. I just can't afford Gucci suits, and to go home on occasion, or buy name brand cereal, I've made myself contempt with not living the New York life with affluence. I'm surviving."

"Are you positive?"

"I'm sure, I've lived this way for almost three and a half years. Who knows, maybe my karma will be good and I can be a published author and I'll be in a comfortable house like  Zayn and  Liam."

"As long as you're okay and happy," Louis smiles, raising up on his elbow to kiss Harry. The kiss is soft, and warm, starving off the cold in the room.
"And as long as you're here to kiss me, that's it's own kind of wealth and glamour," Harry whispers, kissing Louis back.
The two start making out, slowly and softly, intimately and sensual. It's beautiful when their lips meet, and to Harry it feels like it melts away all his problems in life. When Louis' lips graze Harry's, there's a whole world that is shunned because all he can focus on is wanting Louis to kiss him forever. Louis gets on top of Harry, straddling his sides as Harry places his hands on Louis' waist. Their tongues collide, and there's a fair amount of lip biting and graceful kissing of Harry's jawline and neck but for almost an hour it stays as just kissing, until Louis sinks into the nape of Harry's collar bone and neck.

"I don't ever want this end, whatever this is," Louis whispers, "I want to kiss you for as long as I can have you," Louis adds. And Harry brushes a streak of Louis' fringe out of his face after Louis looks up to him.
"I don't either, Louis," Harry says back, going back in for more kissing.
They don't have sex that night, but spend a lot of time kissing, cuddling, and talking about nothing and everything.
And it's everything to Harry.
Louis Tomlinson is secretly everything to Harry.