Brother's Best Friend || l.s.

chapter 9

Harry's pulse had been thick in his veins the moment Louis had left the room. That wink he had dropped before swiftly exiting the room, the blatantly haunting wink that seemed to be sent Harry's way, had managed to stir Harry's mind into a frenzy of craziness. It had sent hormones flying through him at record speed, caused the dirtiest thoughts to cross his mind, involving he and Louis.

His two friends still seemed to be hooked on the rather tedious movie on the TV, unmoved by how generally seductive Louis had just been (which was probably because Liam was Louis' brother, and Niall was straight, but whatever.) Harry was paying even less attention to the television than before, preoccupied by the thought of sprinting up the stairs after Louis and quite literally rugby tackling him down onto his bed.

Well, Harry was having these sexual thoughts, yet he knew he'd never be brave enough to follow through with them. He had never done anything anywhere near sexual with anybody whatsoever - the extent of his sexual adventures entailed himself plus his hand plus five minutes of alone time. Nothing ever outside of those boundaries. But with Louis, he wanted to do it all, to push out of the frigid phase he was in.

But he was shy. Constantly. Despite that comment he had made about giving Louis a blowjob, followed by admitting the next day that it wasn't a joke - that was reasonably brave of him to do.

He realised that he didn't really want to end this night having not tried something on with Louis, however being sat in Liam's living room with he and Niall didn't exactly help him move forward with his urges. He had to think on his feet, come up with a plan that might just be crazy enough to work.

He left it a further five minutes before turning to look over at his two friends, whose eyes were still glued to that screen.

"Hey, Liam?"

Liam hummed in acknowledgement yet kept his eyes fixated on the film, letting Harry know he was listening but not exactly interested in what he had to say.

"I know this is random, but could I use your shower?"

It would get him upstairs at least. And the second part of Harry's plan was knocking on Louis' door and asking him to help with how to operate the shower. Bingo.

"Umm... mate, it's quarter to one in the morning. Why on earth would you shower now?" Liam cackled, his full attention on Harry now following the bizarre request. Harry felt wholly foolish for asking something so ridiculous, but it had to be done.

"Because I feel as though I still have flour in my hair from earlier. Last time I slept with flour in my hair, I woke up to it all clumped together and horrible." What a terribly brilliant excuse Harry had improvised on the spot. He wanted to clap himself on the back for it, or buy himself a meal at a classy restaurant.

"Ah yeah, you are always getting that in your hair, aren't you?" Niall chipped in, an amused grin lighting up his face.

Yes, Harry was. And as Louis had once said, it was because he was a very dirty boy.

"Yeah, I understand, go ahead and use it, H. Just use my shampoo that's in there." Liam waved a hand, as though he were a magic godmother granting Harry the wish of using his shower. "But try to be quiet, yeah? My mum'll be sleeping now."

Harry felt accomplished, nodding along to Liam's rule, bringing his phone with him and heading out of the living room. What on earth was he doing? No doubt would he absolutely chicken out of asking Louis for help getting the shower to work, especially if he got upstairs to realise how easy it was. That'd surely be an obvious incentive to get Louis' attention.

He used the torch on his phone to guide him through the dark house, all the lights turned off because they should have really been asleep, and jogged light-footed up the stairs. Beneath the door of Louis' room shone light, showing he was still awake in there, and Harry wanted to smile about it. All he wished to do was run in there and have Louis, but he was sane enough to push that thought aside. He headed into the bathroom, the sound of the rope switch loud as he switched on the light. He set his phone down safely on the windowsill, peering over at how complex the shower system was.