pretty please (with sugar on top) - larry stylinson

62

"What am I going to do with you?"

"You're not the first one to ask that, you know," Harry sniffed, having recently gained his ability to form sentences and share them out loud. They were in Harry's apartment, staring at each other. Harry was sitting on the couch and Louis was hovering over him, brows furrowed, worrying. The room was just as Harry had left it, slightly cluttered and lived in yet still so empty, like he had been living in a void all this time. There was a fashion magazine spread open on the coffee table and a knitted blanket bunched up on the side of the couch, and the lamp was flicked on, casting a warm glow throughout the room, and somehow it was never more apparent than right now that he had been alone for so long.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's embarrassing, and also not a big deal." Besides, he had more important things to tell Louis. Not that he told him those things either, but still. Harry bit his lip and twisted his hands in his lap before pressing them between his thighs, trying not to think of the papers from the doctor resting on the countertop. His hands were cold and fidgeting from nervousness, or maybe anticipation. His inner omega was whining in his chest, suffering because Louis was so close yet just out of reach.

"Not a big deal?" the alpha scoffed, turning his face away. "You could've been badly hurt. You were in the airport. A place full of strangers! Anyone could've taken advantage of you-"

"I'm fine. I just got really tired and closed my eyes for a second. It's fine."

"Fuck off, you fainted on me in the cab!"

"Yeah, 'cause I was letting myself rest, since I knew it was safe. It's no big deal." Sure, he was totally downplaying the situation, because omega dropping was a big deal and Harry still felt terrible, physically and emotionally, though Louis' presence was already doing wonders. His head was pounding and he felt all shaky and needy but his inner omega was mostly assuaged by the alpha's presence. His alpha. He just needed to take a nice, long nap and hopefully have someone cuddle him. He shifted his gaze to Louis, feeling surprisingly sanguine, that line of hope threading itself through his chest.

"What am I going to do with you," the alpha sighed, mostly to himself this time. Then, more directed to Harry, "Look, how about you take a shower and get changed into your pajamas so you can go to bed."

"You're leaving me?" he pouted.

"What, you want me to stay?"

The internal scream of yes! please! was somehow contained as he voiced a quiet, "Maybe..."

So much for making Louis chase after him. Oh well. Harry couldn't win them all, you know. Besides, he had a good feeling about this.

"Alright, fine, but you still need to take a shower. You smell like airport and random strangers and I don't like it."

Harry huffed, standing on wobbly legs. "So demanding," he muttered under his breath, secretly pleased and probably doing a bad job at covering it up. "Um. So. Will you stay the night?" Harry had never had an alpha spend the night in his home. "You can go through my closet for clothes to borrow, and I think I have an extra toothbrush in the cupboard, and we can go out to brunch tomorrow because I don't really have food in the fridge, otherwise I would make pancakes and scrambled eggs and stuff for you-"

"Go take a shower, Harry."

Cue the third pout of the night. He even added sad eyes to intensify the effect, but Louis just looked at him pointedly, unimpressed, and made a shooing motion with his hands.

Harry backed out of the room, almost to the hallway. "Will you take one too? You smell like work and stress." Louis' scent was already apparent in the room, like he was scent-marking it, intentionally or not. Harry wasn't even sure if Louis knew he was doing it, but either way he didn't mind. If everything he owned held his soothing alpha scent, well, Harry wouldn't mind that at all. And it was true, he did smell more stressed than usual, with leftover anxiety and frustration from whatever meetings he must've had earlier today, but Harry didn't mind that so much either. In fact his omega was urging him to go back to his side and see if he could take the stress away, because that was what soulmates did for each other. So.