Summary : Harry is stressed with work .

Enjoy x

~~

Louis looked at the clock on his phone ; it was past seven p.m and Harry wasn't home yet . He wasn't too surprised that Harry was working late , yet still expected to be notified . He opened his phone and speed-dialed Harry's contact .

"Hey baby , everything okay ?"

"Yeah . It's .. it's past seven now and you're not home yet . Working late ?"

"Yes . I'll be done soon , had some stuff to get done before I could leave . Hungry ? I can pick up some food ."

"Sure . I'll wait for you ."

"If you're feeling tired you can get in bed baby , okay ? Don't hold yourself up ."

"Okay . See you later ."

"See you , love you ."

"Love you ."

Louis hung up and sighed softly ; he never minded when Harry worked late , even if it meant he saw him less . He just wanted Harry to remember talking to him about it .

Harry arrived two hours later with dinner , he showered quickly and joined Louis in the lounge .

"Hazzie ." Louis put his fork down in the paper box , Harry turned to look at him , mouthful of food . Louis gave him a gentle smile and swiped his thumb over the corner of his lip where there was a tiny drop of seasoning .

"I don't mind that you're staying extra time in the office . I just -- you could tell me next time , you know ? Even if it's just a quick text because you can't have a phone call . Still want you to tell me you're working late ."

Harry grabbed his hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles . "I will . Had a lot to get done , I didn't even get to touch my phone before you called ."

Louis nodded in understatement , "It's okay . Please remember for next time ?"

"Promise ." Harry peppered his knuckles with kisses .

~~

Louis walked into Harry's office in the morning , Harry looked up from his papers and gave Louis a light smile , "Hey baby ."

"Hi ." Louis closed the door behind him , "You left earlier today ."

"Yeah , had to be here a bit early for a meeting with the guards ." Harry nodded , he scribbled his pen on the bottom corner of the paper , signing a few more papers . "I'll be working late tonight too ."

Louis nodded , he slowly approached Harry and leaned on his desk , arms crossed over his chest , "Business stuff or ... like ... security stuff ?"

A small chuckle left Harry's lips . "Both ."

"Anything I can help with ?" Louis suggested , Harry looked up at him and smiled , "You could kiss me ."

"Be serious ." Louis shoved his shoulder gently , pink blush on his cheeks .

Harry leaned back in his chair and smiled , "I am very serious . A kiss could help me a lot ."

Louis pushed his luck a bit , "Anything else other than a kiss ?"

"A cuddle ." Harry opened his arms , "A kiss , a cuddle , your attention for now . I'll take a small break if you're willing to help ."

God , Louis really wished he could've said no . But seconds later he was in Harry's lap kissing him softly , holding him in a cuddle to help him relax for a bit before he buried himself back into those boring papers .

~~

~~

The next week became a routine . Harry left early for work , before Louis even woke up . He stayed late every day and brought dinner with him every night . During the weekend he was working from his home office , only took one break to take Odin on a walk with Louis .

Louis stopped by the office from time to time ; he checked on Harry , sometimes brought him a bit of food and drinks , because if it were up to Harry he would only have coffee and granola bars .

The following week , on Tuesday , Louis decided to give Harry a bit of a break and told him he would be in charge of dinner . 

Harry texted Louis that he left the office and would be home soon , so Louis finished the last touches of dinner before going to shower .

He was back in the kitchen to put the food into two plates , hearing Harry's footsteps walking up from the garage to the front lobby .

He turned to give him a smile , frowning when he saw the pinched look on his face .

"Hey ." He put the plate down on the counter , taking in the tired look on Harry's face .

"Hi baby ." Harry approached him , "Dinner ready ?" He looked at the plates on the counter .

Louis nodded , "Yes . Go sit at the table , I'll bring these over ." He turned to finish filling the two plates .

Harry sat at the table , he rubbed his hands over his eyes and face to try and control himself . His day was stressful , his body burned with anger and he was just tired , hungry and irritated .

He moved his hands off when he heard Louis placing the two plates on the table , watching as he quickly fetched utensils .

Louis sat in front of Harry quietly and put his fork in his food , he collected a bit of food and brought it to his mouth , watching Harry doing the same . He froze in his seat when he took the first bite ; the pasta was undercooked .

Harry forced himself to swallow his bite as he put his fork down ; he was hungry , yet couldn't touch the food on his plate .

"I'm so sorry ." Louis shook his head , feeling his eyes stinging with tears .

"It's alright ." Harry stood up from his seat and took both of their plates from the table .

"I-I can order something instead , --"

"No need to ." Harry put the plates on the counter and went to the pantry , he took a cereal bar from the first box he saw and made his way to the stairs to the second floor .

Louis followed him , "Are you sure ? You're hungry and --"

"I'm sure , Lou . I'm tired as fuck so I'll go shower and sleep ." Harry unwrapped his cereal bar and continued his way uptairs .

Louis watched as he disappeared upstairs , before he went to the kitchen . He sniffled as he threw the pasta into the trash , busying himself in the kitchen with washing the dishes as he wiped a tear that fell from his eye .

He wasn't sure why he was crying ; all he wanted was to do something nice , cook dinner to take a bit of stress off Harry's shoulders , and he fucked it up . 

He finished cleaning the kitchen and went upstairs to the bedroom , seeing Harry was already in bed after a shower , dozing off . He went to brush his teeth before getting in bed , not sure if he should try to cuddle with Harry or keep his distance .

Harry , half asleep , reached his hand out and grabbed Louis' arm , "Come here baby ." He gently pulled Louis closer until they spooned , Harry kissed his temple , "I was being an ass . You cooked us dinner and everything else doesn't matter ."

Louis turned around to face him and buried his face in his neck , sighing softly when Harry's arms moved to rest around him . "Dinner sucked . Sorry about it ."

"Nothing to be sorry about ." Harry closed his eyes , "I appreciate the effort more than anything . Let's just rest , tomorrow is a new day ." He kissed his head once more before bringing the blankets up higher to make sure Louis was warm enough .

~~

The rest of the week was the same . Harry left early to the office and came home late , sometimes with takeout dinner from a restaurant or packed dinner from Rodrigo . The weekend was dedicated to working from his home office , taking one break a day to go to the gym .

Louis wanted Harry to tell him why he was working so much , what was the cause ; he wanted to understand , wanted to help . Harry wasn't being very cooperative . 

Monday night rolled by and Louis frowned at the text he received from Harry .

staying the night in the office, see you tomorrow x

what? why? you should come and sleep at home

need to stay overnight , no big deal

alright
have a good night x

good night baby i love you xx

i love you x

Louis sighed as he stood up from the cloud couch in the lounge area , going to get himself ready for bed . He changed into bedwear and brushed his teeth , he got in under the covers - and just laid there .

It felt weird being in bed on his own ; the mattress was massive and he felt too small laying there alone . Harry took up a lot of the space , arms and legs stretched - unless he cuddled with Louis .

He shifted to lay on Harry's side of bed and buried his nose in his pillow . It took him much longer to fall asleep .

~~

It was after the third night in a row that Harry stayed in the office . 

Louis wanted answers , he wanted to help . He went up to Harry's office , seeing Laura behind her lobby desk .

"Good morning , sweet ." Laura smiled as she typed on her computer keyboard , Louis smiled back and leaned his elbows on her desk , "Good morning . Is Harry in the office ?"

"He left an hour ago , took his guards with him ." Laura shook her head .

"Did he say for how long he will be gone ?" Louis asked , not too surprised when Laura shook her head , "No , sorry dear ."

"It's alright ." Louis nodded , "Do you think there's anything that , like , I can do ? To help ?"

Laura smiled at him , "I wish I knew . You'll have to ask Mr. Styles yourself ."

Louis nodded in understatement , "Okay . Thanks though . I'll be back later ."

"Want me to call you when he's back ? Incase you miss him ?"

"Yes please , thank you ." Louis nodded , he gave her one last smile and left the office to go see his dogs .

~~

Louis busied himself with the dogs ; he trained with them , let them run around the mini-park in the office building . Just as he was putting them back in their cells , as it started raining , he saw the vehicle line up returning .

He filled the dogs' water bowls and gave them a bit of food , busied himself for a bit longer , before going into the building to the elevator , and to Harry's office .

Laura was on her break when he arrived , as he didn't see her at the desk . He went down the hallway and punched the code to the office door , pushing the door open .

Harry was stood in front of the alcohol wall in his office , fixing himself a glass . He was wearing his combat gear , dirty with dust , dirt and a bit of blood . He turned around when he heard the door opening , seeing it was Louis .

Louis watched as Harry gulped down his drink in one go , leaving only the ice cube in , before filling it again .

"H-Hey ." Louis let the door close behind him , "How was - how was it in the city ?"

Harry drank down his second glass . "Productive ."

Louis bit his lower lip ; the last thing he wanted was to add on to Harry's stress . "Can I help with anything ? Anything at all ?"

"Too dangerous out there ." Harry shook his head as he filled his third glass and took it with him to his desk .

"Maybe something here in the office then ? Paperwork ?" Louis walked closer , "Just show me what to do and I will ."

"Need to do it myself ." Harry shook his head again .

"You don't - I can help . Just tell me how ."

Harry drank down his third glass and slammed it down on the table a bit harshly , making Louis flinch just the slightest in surprise .

"First you can stop . I'm already stressed enough , I have a shit ton of work to do . --"

"Well then let me help you with that work , all I --"

"Did you not hear me the first time ? I said you can't help . I said I needed to do it myself ."

"But why ? Why do you always have to do everything on your own ?" Louis moved closer , "I'm here because I want to help you and - and take away your stress . Let me help ."

Harry put his hands on Louis' arms , "You cannot help , Louis . You can leave and let me do the work ."

"Why are you so stubborn ?" Louis pushed himself out of his hold , "Atleast tell me what is it , so I can understand . Don't leave me in the dark ."

Harry remained quiet , Louis crossed his arms over his chest , "I'm going to try once more . Are you , or are you not , going to tell me what's making you so stressed ? It's been over two weeks of you constantly working , this is - this is not healthy ."

"I can't tell you . Not yet atleast ."

"Because it's too dangerous and you're looking out for me . Yeah , you always say that ." Louis swallowed , "I wish you'd realized by now that it's better if I know sooner than later . I want to help you and you're not letting me , what more can I do ? It's hard to stand by and watch you going through this , but you're also pushing me away ."

"Let me take care of things ."

Louis watched as Harry moved to sit in his chair behind the desk , clicking his computer mouse to open his screen .

"Is that all you're going to say ? You're not going to tell me what the past two weeks have been about ?"

"I need to work ." Harry typed in his keyboard , only looking up when his office door opened and closed behind Louis as he left .

~

That same evening Louis was back in Harry's office building . He punched the code to the office door and pushed it open a bit , seeing Harry was now out of his combat gear and wearing his regular work clothes , still sitting behind the desk with a half empty plate of dinner .

Harry looked up when he saw Louis before looking down at some paper he was reading . "Everything okay ?"

Louis let the door slowly shut behind him , staying by the entrace . "I won't bother you much , I promise . I just stopped by to let you know I'll be staying at Liam's place until you're done with -- with whatever it is that you're doing ."

Harry's head snapped up from the paper , feeling his head already spinning .

"You can go home to rest properly , it'll be quiet there . I'll be waiting for this to be over , you can come get me when it's fully done with ." And with that he was out of the door .

Harry jumped up from his chair and pulled the door open , running after Louis to the elevator .

Louis watched with tears in his eyes as Harry ran towards him , but the doors closed before he could reach . He covered his face and took a deep breath to stop himself from crying , looking up and taking more deep breaths in to calm himself down .

Liam waited for him by his car , he gave him a hug , "Are you sure about it ?"

"Yes ." Louis nodded and pulled back from the hug , drying his tears . "We both need some space ."

"Go , I'll see you in a bit . I'll just finish organizing this room and be right there ." Liam opened the driver's door of Louis' car , closing it when Louis was seated inside .

Liam waited for Louis to drive away and out of the front gates before going to organize the new shipment that arrived with new stuff for dog-training .

He just started opening boxes when he heard heavy footsteps nearing , he walked out of the room only to be met with Harry , who without hesitating wrapped his hands around Liam's neck and held him to the wall , forcing himself not to strangle him .

"Why did you let him leave ?" Harry breathed heavily .

Liam held his hands out in surrender , even though Harry was scary when he was angry he knew that the most that could happen there would be a punch in the face . "He just needed some space , --"

"He's my fucking boyfriend , Liam ."

"Yeah , and you barely acted like it the past two or so weeks ." Liam shot back , "He wanted to help you and you didn't let him . He wanted to understand you and you didn't let him . You pushed him away and now you're surprised that he's not here ."

"Bring him back ."

"Not up to me . It's up to him ." Liam shook his head , "If he's as important to you as you claim he is , go get him ."

Harry glared into Liam's eyes , but Liam saw past the anger ; he saw the stress , the sadness , the concern . He put his hands on Harry's that were still around his neck and slowly took them off , "Atleast give him a day or two to cool down , you proper pissed him off . I know you love him H but you need to find it in you to show him ."

"I can't tell him ."

"Can't ? You don't want to ." Liam shook his head , "I understand why . It's some fucked up shit we're dealing with out there , but the least you can do is not exclude him . Don't push him away , he doesn't deserve this kind of treatment . You need to learn to talk to him about things . Remember what your mother always said ?"

Harry moved his hands away from Liam and pushed his hair back , taking a deep breath .

"Remember how she would talk about your father ? 'He loves me but I wish he showed it the way I need to be shown' . You love him , show him that love without pushing him away ."

"It's not easy , Liam , God fucking damn it . How do I tell him the fucked up shit we're trying to get done ?"

"He will understand . You're underestimating him ." Liam fixed his shirt a bit , "Let him cool down before you talk to him , I promise to let you know if anything happens ." He immediately regretted saying this , as Harry fisted the collar of his shirt and shoved him back against the wall , "You'd better not let anything happen to him ."

"I swear I won't ." Liam held his hands up in surrender , Harry let go and stepped back , leaving without another word .

~~

~~

Louis spent two nights at Liam's place .

He woke up in the morning to a quiet house , sighing tiredly to himself . Harry texted him throughout the past two days , updating him on things he did .

just got home, going to bed. talk to me whenever. i love you xxx

good morning baby, ill be in the office for a few hours. i love you xxx

going on a ride around the city, ill be in the office in three hours. i love you xxx

staying late today, ill be home around nine or ten. i love you xxx

im home, hope you have a good night. i love you xxx

good morning, baby. leaving to the office now. im free whenever you want to talk. i love you xxx

going to a meeting, call if you need me for anything. i love you xxx

The last text about going to the meeting was from an hour ago . Louis didn't answer any of the texts . He didn't even know what to text back .

He stood up from bed and went to brush his teeth , going to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea and grab a cookie from the jar on the counter . He got ready for the day and left the house , making sure everything was tidied up after him , windows locked and alarm on .

He stopped by to grab a cup of hot chocolate and a sandwich from Sunshine Cafe , leaving the shop with a smile ; Niall always managed to make him smile , even if it wasn't intentional .

He got into his car and put his hot chocolate in the cup holder , placing his small paper bag with the sandwich down when he got another text from Harry .

just finished the meeting , going for a ride in the city. call me whenever. i love you xxx

He put his phone down and switched the car on taking a longer route to the office building . Luckily for him he got there after Harry left ; he parked his car close to the dogs' pavilion and took his food and drink with him to the lounge room .

He finished eating while he watched some TV , then went to his dogs . They always cheered him up , gave him kisses and even made him laugh from being silly . It was a cold day so he trained with them in the closed area , writing down their progress in his notebook .

He put them back in their cells with food and water before sitting with his computer to type everything in , taking his time and making himself a cup of tea to stay warm .

To his surprise Zayn joined him for lunch , Zayn confessed that Liam told him he didn't want Louis to be on his own and asked Zayn if he was free . Louis rolled his eyes playfully yet smiled when he saw that Zayn brought food from one of his favourite places in the city .

The two talked about small and random things , before Zayn addressed the elephant in the room ; his and Harry's argument . 

"Harry went through years and years of not having someone to care for other than himself . I'm not excusing his behaviour , but I do want you to understand where he's coming from . He lost his family to the corruption of this city , lost guards , lost old friends . He will never say it but he's scared to death of losing you . So he finds his ways of protecting you from that danger ."

"I appreciate all of his effort , Zee , it's - it's so much more than anyone had ever done for me in my life ." Louis dried under his eyes , "But he's also pushing me away , he's distancing himself from me . I don't like this . I told him he needs to talk to me about things but he doesn't seem to get it ."

"He's trying . He's really trying , I promise you ." Zayn put his hand on Louis' arm , "Remember how psychotic he was , fighting that group who plotted against you ?"

"Remember too well ." Louis chuckled a bit .

"He loves you so much . Help him understand how to channel that love better . You two are healing each other from things you don't know needed to be healed ."

~~

~~

Louis woke up in the morning in the guest bedroom at Liam's place ; there were faint sounds from the kitchen , quiet and slow .

He laid there for a bit longer , trying to fantasize about what Liam was cooking for them for breakfast ; he was hoping for pancakes . Thinking about food made his stomach growl , so he stood up from bed and went to brush his teeth .

Walking into the kitchen he stopped in the entrace ; Harry was just taking a pancake off the pan and onto a stock on a plate , turning the stove off . He turned to grab the kettle , when he saw Louis standing in the entrace of the kitchen .

He gave Louis a gentle smile , "Good morning . Breakfast is almost ready . You can go sit at the table I'll be right with you ." He grabbed the kettle and filled it , leaving it to boil as he fixed two cups ; one with hot chocolate and one with coffee .

He brought two plates of pancakes to the round dining table , along with chocolate syrup and maple syrup bottles for Louis to choose (although he could guess Louis would pick the chocolate syrup) . He finished making their hot drinks and brought them to the table , sitting down in the chair next to Louis .

Louis still hadn't said a word ; Harry looked clean , after a shower . His hair looked soft , pushed back from Harry running his fingers through it . But his face was something else ; he had bags under his eyes , a bruise on his cheekbone and another one on his jaw close to his chin .

"Have you been sleeping ?" Louis asked quietly , Harry gave him a soft smile , "No ."

"Why ?"

"Couldn't sleep . So I worked instead ."

"It's bad for you ."

"Losing you is bad for me ." Harry slowly took Louis' hand in his , grateful that Louis didn't pull away . "Three weeks ago we found solid links of a designated terror group to a group here in the city . Money transfer , ammo shipments , preaching and calling for people to join their , what they call , 'struggle' against whoever wasn't with them . Some of the targets were Scott Owens , Chief of Police commander , David Hance - the mayor , Aaron Olsen - a very well known criminal lawyer , and more . One of the targets was me . Me and you ."

"Why ?" Louis whispered .

"How surprised would you be to know that they're homophobic ?" Harry asked , a smile twitching on his lips when Louis rolled his eyes . He kissed Louis' knuckles , "Exactly . We've been putting a lot of effort into investigating this into the smallest details , worked hours and hours to link them to the terror group . We had a long battle , started yesterday and finished in the small hours of the night . Us , police , special forces . They're out of the picture ."

Louis gave his hand a squeeze of appreciation , before pulling his hand back from the grip and crossing his arms over his chest . "Why didn't you tell me ? And don't say that 'its dangerous' because that's not an excuse ."

Harry nodded . "I mean ... it is dangerous ." He smiled just a tiny bit , then let it drop . "What I'm dealing with , my work , it's a lot , baby . It's dangerous and we're dealing with fucked up people that do fucked up things . I hate the thought of putting you in danger ."

"You're not putting me in danger if I'm not physically there ." Louis turned in his seat to face him , "I'm not asking to gear up , grab a gun and go fight them . I just want you to share things with me . You're pushing me away every time something happens , I'm being left out and made to sit back and watch as you jump in head first . I don't like this ."

Harry watched him , the sadness in Louis' eyes made his heart clench . He reached his hand out to hold Louis' hand again but Louis pulled his hand back .

"Say something ." Louis nudged his ankle with his foot .

"I love and hate that you're right ." Harry put his hand on the back of Louis' chair , "Sharing fucked up things with you will make you scared . I don't want you to be scared of living in the city . Living with me . You're right , because you're already part of this - but I hate knowing it could drive you away ."

"So you'd rather not tell me at all ?"

"I'd rather tell you when we're out of danger ."

"We'll never be out of danger , Harry - this is our life . Danger is always there , it's dynamic , we move from one to another . There's no need to wait for one to be gone because danger just won't be gone not matter the efforts you put into this ."

Harry processed Louis' words . He was right , he knew Louis was right . He hated putting Louis in danger , he hated scaring him with the hurtful truth of the world . But he hated it a lot more to fight with him , hated the thought of losing him .

Louis could tell his words got Harry deep in thoughts , which he was happy about . He put his hands on Harry's cheeks , "Hazzie ."

Harry leaned into Louis' touch , bringing his own hands up to hold Louis' hands to his cheeks , keep them there . "Forgive me for being a jerk , baby . I love you ."

Louis bit his lower lip , "I love you . Promise to work on this ? For me ?"

"I promise you everything ."

"You're forgiven ." Louis brought Harry into a kiss , smiling when he felt Harry melting against him . Harry grabbed his waist and pulled him into his lap as he continued to kiss him , only pulling back when he felt the growling vibrations from Louis' stomach .

"Sorry ." Louis mumbled , Harry kissed him once more , "Breakfast now , more kisses later ." He stole another kiss as he put Louis back in his seat .

"After breakfast we're going home , and you're going to sleep ." Louis sat facing Harry , legs on Harry's thighs as he poured chocolate syrup on his pancakes .

Harry held Louis' legs with one arm , caressing his calf , "I took the next week off . Let's go somewhere ." He grabbed his fork .

"Where should we go ?"

"Anywhere you want to ." Harry took a bite of his pancakes , "Europe ? Asia ? Africa ? South America ? North America ? Name it and we're there ."

Louis smiled a bit , "Let me think about it ." He picked up his cup and took a sip of his hot chocolate .

Harry finished eating quickly , he waited for Louis to finish his own plate before pulling him back into his lap , "Kiss me some more ."

Louis held his shoulders for balance , "Let's go home and kiss there . You're falling asleep on me ."

"I'll stay up for longer if it means I get to kiss you ." Harry pressed his lips to Louis' , humming at the sweet taste .

~~

Hope you liked it x

~Author