15 fucking thousand reads. inferno jumped 5k reads in a MONTH. DO YOU REALIZE HOW BIG THAT IS???? TWICE THE AVERAGE!!!! used to be 1k every 2 weeks, 2k a month...holy balls. you. are. incredible. thank you. thank you. thank you. ❤️‍🔥

—-

"easy, easy," zayn puts a supportive hand on louis' back when the boy starts coughing hard. he wanted to smoke but everything inside of him is just telling him no. "here," he hands him his gatorade and opens it up for him to take a drink.

louis sips slowly at it and groans. "i am so over this."

"i know, lovey," zayn croons, then hands over louis' inhaler, "want me to see if niall can get edibles instead? he may have some at liam's."

after taking his dose, the smaller man's eyes twinkle. "edibles?"

zayn smirks and grabs his phone to text his partner. a few messages later, he smacks a kiss to the side of louis' face. "we got some on the way."

louis throws his arms up with a cheer and coughs again, dropping his arms to cradle his injured ribs. "fuck."

the younger boy supports his side with another pillow and hands cosmo to him for moral support. it's been three days since the locker room situation. everyone has updates on luke except for the two that were also in the fight. zayn has asked liam countless times if luke is dead or alive, but all liam does each time is tell him he can't disclose any information because mitch ordered him to keep his mouth shut.

louis has avoided questions because harry promised him he would be fine. not luke, but him. harry's main concern is getting louis out of this situation without any consequences.

niall shows up to the apartment twenty minutes later with his backpack, which usually means he's going to spend the night. good, because louis could use some niall cuddles.

harry's down in san antonio, texas with cara doing a scouting for female dancers. harry usually doesn't partake in the actual population pool, just watches and sees how dancers act with customers, but niall said before harry left that cara does everything with the girls. she dances, she drinks, she chats, and she gives harry input. it's a two hour flight to texas. they left around seven this evening. harry said they're catching the first flight back after they're done.

"this just calls for a boys night in," niall sits on the edge of louis' bed and opens his backpack. he pulls out a handful of small packages, each causing louis' interest to only grow and grow. he immediately takes the pack of sour patch kids and opens it to inspect the candies inside.

he hands zayn a green one and takes the only blue one for himself. it's been a while since he's done edibles. he only takes one, but zayn sneaks a second one for himself.

"and," niall pulls out a stuffed animal from his bag, a fluffy little orange cat that has hearts on its paws, "this is for you." he smiles at louis before throwing it at his face.

louis squeaks in surprise and rubs his nose, picking up the plush toy. "thank you," he holds the cat and cosmo close to his chest while he gets comfortable to the best of his ability. "'s a cutie."

"you have your own little shark here now," zayn croons.

louis gasps in realization. "i do! my sharky!" he beams. "this is shark 2.0."

"hey, speaking of shark boy," zayn murmurs and opens his phone. he shows them a picture louis' mum had sent him, of shark laying on the entertainment center in her living room right beside zayn's senior portrait. "this is what i got today."

louis croons. "my boy...i miss him so much. emma reminds me so much of him when he was a kitten."

"want me to go kidnap your baby?" niall asks. "she's probably bored over there anyways. i'll grab food and stuff for her too."

his friends are too good. "please. i'll love you forever."

niall grabs his keys and kisses each of their heads before leaving the apartment again.

the purple headed boy pulls his phone out as he drives across town to call harry, and he picks up on the third ring. he can hear music in the background as harry tells him to hold on just a second.

"i'm just letting you know that i'm kidnapping your child for louis," niall says once harry speaks to him again. "he's sad over his cat so i'm taking emma to him."

"that's fine, you know where the key is. he probably needs her right now. is he okay otherwise?"

"zee said he tried to smoke and couldn't handle it so i brought him some edibles. i know he's been hurting still. zayn did say he managed to eat quite a bit today without throwing up, so i think that's a win for all of us."

"thank god. i'm worried about him."

"he's fine, haz. promise. zayn's got him in a pillow castle and they were watching a movie when i came in. i'm staying there tonight to keep an eye on him for you. um," niall takes a breath, "are there any more updates on luke?"

there's a beat of silence then a sigh. "yeah. his oxygen is normal now and his blood pressure went down to where it should be. the busted blood vessel in his right eye is still busted. couple broken spots in his face are still broken but ashton said he had a small brain bleed this morning... it's not pretty."

niall swallows hard as he pulls into harry's driveway. "this is bad."

"don't let ashton anywhere near louis without one of us around, you hear me? i don't want him to pull any stunts on my boy because his boy fucked up. the second i find out ashton has fucked with louis i'll kill him too."

"on it. do you need me to do anything tonight for the club or for you?"

"just keep lou comfortable please. it's-" harry shuts up for a second, "eleven fifteen now, make him take his meds at midnight. if he's already taken his loratabs then give him his ibuprofen."

"i got you. thank you, h. i'll see ya later. have fun with the boobs."

harry laughs. "bye, ni. tell everyone hey for me."

niall hangs up and uses harry's spare key to unlock the front door. he rounds up everything for the cat and finds her curled up on the kitchen table, knocked out.

"hey, ems," he pokes her tummy and strokes it with his palm. "wakey wakey, babychild. your daddy lou needs your help."

he stuffs emma's food and treats in his backpack and carries the cat out in her carrying case harry got for her for vet trips. he can use the litter box he has at his apartment for zayn's present that's coming soon and just buy an extra one later.

he buckles the cat in the passenger seat and makes sure the house is locked up before heading back to the complex.

his phone rings this time so he connects it to the speaker in his car. "hi, lili."

"hey baby. are you busy right now?"

"i'm taking louis' step-cat to him, we're all gonna hunker down in their apartment tonight since lou doesn't feel good. what's up?"

"nothing. just wanted to check in."

niall grins. their check-ins happens when niall doesn't have to work but liam does. it's been their safety protocol for about a year now after niall's and harry's accident that left the irish boy wheelchair bound for a month. "well i guess i'm checking in, too. have we got any updates on when sonic is coming home?"

"they said he should be ready by the end of february. did you take your meds today?"

"uh huh."

"alright. just making sure. i gotta go, bug. i love you."

"i love you back!" niall makes a kissy noise to the speaker and hangs up before looking down at the travel cage with the cat inside of it. "ems, i think me head's gonna explode."

emma mews from inside of her cage and sticks her paw out to pat at the metal crate holding it closed. niall reaches down to touch her with his finger and fawns over the way emma holds onto his digit for the rest of the ride.

louis gets excited when emma runs straight to him after being released from her cage. he lets her walk all over him, making sure to be careful of his sides. she curls up on his shoulder against the headboard and the mounds of pillows surrounding him. her nose remains pressed against his neck as she gets comfortable and falls back asleep on him.

"i miss h," louis pouts. "might call him later. send him a dick pic or something."

niall snorts with a small chuckle. "i called him earlier. he says hi."

louis smiles a toothy grin and reaches behind him to pet emma with his knuckles. zayn finds something for them to watch while niall raids the kitchen for snacks for all of them, then the three settle on the bed while the introduction of the first spider-man movie begins to play on louis' tv.

niall gets louis to take his meds as promised and helps him walk to the bathroom so he can pee and clean his head wound. niall offers assistance, so he just has louis tilt his head over the sink so he can get the area rinsed off. louis does call harry while he has the small break of time to do so, just to hear his voice, and niall just smiles to himself as he listens to harry and louis ramble off to eachother.

"so...can we make your wedding on my birthday?" niall asks once the phone call is ended and louis rolls his eyes at him, shaking his head. "i can be a dj if you need one and play some sick tunes. we can throw down to some three 6 mafia or cupcakke."

"i hate you," louis giggled as he wobbled back into the bedroom. he takes a second sour patch kid and by two, his brain is mush.

—-

when harry comes to the apartment the following morning, he finds louis curled up in bed with emma laying across his face. both of them are passed out hard. he's almost certain one of them are snoring. louis doesn't snore, so it must be the cat. she'll be noisy in the grave.

he slips his boots off and crawls in the bed behind louis. he picks emma up, apologizing softly for waking her, and puts her in front of louis' chest so they can still be cuddled up together. then, he presses a light kiss to the back of louis' messy hair.

when louis stirs, he murmurs, "just me, bunny."

"you're back," louis yawns and slowly, carefully rolls over so he can nuzzle his face against harry's chest. "time is it?"

"seven. go back to sleep."

"did you sleep on the plane?"

"no, waited 'til i got here so i could sleep with you," harry kissed the top of his head. "now, sleep. we got your check up today."

louis sighs a little blissfully and kisses his partner's clothed chest before falling asleep again.

actually getting louis awake was a struggle compared to getting him to fall asleep. all he wanted to do was lay in the bed. he refused to get up for about thirty minutes until harry threatened to give emma back to ashton.

"fuck you," louis glared at him for the threat. "you wouldn't dare."

harry pushes himself closer, holding his weight up by his hands. "get up."

"but i don't want to."

"do i have to bribe you?"

"no. i just dont want to."

"i understand," harry says softly, "but we gotta get your noggin looked at before she can take your staples out on sunday. c'mon. i'll take a shower with you."

louis wiggled his eyebrows at him. "i like that idea."

rolling his eyes, harry leaned down to give the boy a light kiss before helping him out of the bed. he grabs the outfit he had picked out just for him, then his change of clothes he brought as well, and helped louis in the shower. he inspected his bruises, which were slowly lightening, and carefully washed his hair. avoiding getting soap near the staples, he worked very hard to get louis' hair cleaned out without hurting him.

"can we go do something today?" louis asks. "i'm tired of being cooped up in here. i'm going nuts."

"you're still struggling to walk without holding onto something, love," harry crooned softly.

"i can drive one of those little scooters," louis protests. "please? even if it's just to the park or something. can we go see drake?"

harry tips his head back to let the water run suds out of louis' head. "if he's still there, yeah."

jana said that his head looks good. she checked his ribs and his breathing and did another round of scans on louis' chest just to make sure she didn't miss anything. she was more worried about his head, but his ribs are very important too. they guard his organs. everything looked fine.

after his check up with a promise to return to get his staples removed, they head over to the park. louis leans against harry for most of the walk and finds that sitting upright helps him better, so he doesn't try to lay down when they near the pond. he sits at the bank of it in search of his friend, and he smiles when he sees the familiar reptile crawling on the other side of the pond.

"drake!" his eyes light up. "hi, honey," he waves at drake and watches him round the pond until he makes it to the side he was on. harry picks the turtle up and carries him over to louis, setting him by his knees. "look at ya. handsome as ever."

he finds an earthworm inching around the bank and plucks it up. "sorry, bud, i gotta feed the kid. hope you completed your bucket list," he tells the worm before holding it out for drake to snack on. he takes it happily.

he hangs out with drake until his tummy rumbles and harry says he needs to eat something. so louis bids a goodbye to the pond turtle and washes his hands in the community restroom in the park before they go get some food.

"how was your trip?" louis asks as he offers a fry out for his partner.

harry takes it, still driving, and shrugs. "good, i guess. for cara anyways. she had a blast."

louis hums as he continues to share fries from the bag with harry and asks, "we get a recruit?"

"one, yeah," harry nods. "goes by pixie. cara didn't want to do a second round, she wanted her now. so she gave her our card and she's waiting on a call back."

"i think cara fell in love," louis laughs to himself, and harry smirks with a small laugh as well. "little pimp, she is."

"isn't she?" harry chuckles. "girl's got game, that's for sure. she wanted me to tell you she misses you and needs your ribs to hurry up and heal so you can come back."

"i'm trying," louis whines. "i hate this as much as everyone else does. i feel helpless."

harry frowns as he rests his hand on louis' thigh. "i know, baby, i know. but you work yourself too hard. you're always helping everyone else with something even if you have other shit you have to do. let us help you for once."

"but it makes me feel bad..."

"don't," his boyfriend gives his thigh a squeeze. "you have got to give yourself a break from time to time, not just when you're injured. i know you wanna do things your way but you can barely breathe correctly at the moment."

louis sighs and sticks another fry in harry's face to shut him up before taking a sip of his drink.

"you're mad that i'm right," harry hums. "'s okay. i'm usually wrong so i'll take it."

"you suck."

the younger boy glides his tongue over his lower lip and smirks. "sometimes."

—-

on day five of louis' long road of recovery, he makes harry come over. he didn't really make him, harry said he was planning on coming over anyways.

same difference.

he has a present for him.

louis is always being spoiled. he does stuff for harry from time to time but he doesn't spoil him like he should. harry goes through the extensive rounds to find even the smallest thing for louis because he's "hard to buy for" but louis would literally accept a rock from him and cherish it forever. he doesn't need to get him anything special or dipped in gold, he appreciates and adores harry for who he is. not what he has or what he can obtain.

it's his character. his personality, his multiple laughs (yes, multiple, louis has found three so far: the fake laugh, the regular laugh, and the laugh when he's off his rocker and everything is absolutely hilarious), and his overall vibe. the real harry is a calm person, very laid back and very gentle. it's very much opposite to the persona he holds up when he's doing anything with the club or clique, that's business. outside of that, it's party.

aside from all of it, harry's a very down to earth person and that's what louis likes about him most. except for the fact he's a clingy little shit. he loves the cuddles and the small touches. they could be sitting on opposing ends of the couch and harry keeps his foot pressed against louis' thigh just to keep him in his bubble.

louis adds the finishing touches to the present he made for harry and inspects it with a proud smile. he did most of the shopping online but had niall pick out a gift bag plus stuff from the gas station for him. every once in a while he did gifts like this for zayn, just a gesture to show his appreciation, with the boy's favorite snacks and drinks and cigarello wraps for his weed plus anything else he could find. one time he threw $300 in there and told him to go crazy. zayn returned later that night with a pair of shoes for him. zayn's such an angel.

harry arrives at eleven and announces his arrival with a shout of, "honey, i'm home!" like an old classic husband or some shit. it makes louis giggle from his spot in his bedroom.

"oh, hi, honey! how was work?" zayn pokes his head out of his bedroom and smiles at harry when the younger man rounded the corner. "make us some good money tonight?"

"i snuck out, so i missed a few rounds," harry hums as he pats zayn's cheek. "i'll work extra hard tomorrow so we can get you that prada bag you've been eyeballing."

"i adore you," zayn swoons and holds the lit blunt that was between his fingers over. harry hits it as he walks into louis' bedroom and leans down to kiss the boy with a smile, smoke clouding into louis' mouth and slipping from his lips.

"did you really leave work?" louis asks against his lips.

harry nods. "mitch said he didn't need me tonight so i left." he holds the blunt to louis' lips and tells him to hit it very lightly so he doesn't choke himself, then kisses him again so he gets the shotgun this time.

he hands the weed back to zayn, who has made his appearance in the bedroom, and sits beside louis on the bed. "who's this for?" he nudges the large gift bag with his foot.

louis picks it up and plops it on harry's lap. "you."

harry pouts. "bunny, you shouldn't have."

"don't fight it. he gives good presents," zayn says. harry shrugs with a nod. his christmas gifts from louis were unique, nostalgic, and very lovely. retro themed shot glasses for his collection, a brand new bowl for his weed with a matching grinder, matching keytags for him and emma, and a ring that had a solid rosebud on top. did he get it to pair it with the ring harry got for him from his run? maybe. that's not something he needs to know though.

zayn hits the blunt again and offers it for harry to take.

harry sucks in a hit as he unties the ribbon holding the strings of the bag closed, holding the blunt between his lips. he hands the blunt back before tying the ribbon into a piece of louis' hair.

"best gift i have ever recieved," he murmurs before kissing louis' temple. he returns to his present and peeks inside. "anything explosive in here?"

"you never know," louis hums as he plays with cosmo's ears.

harry lays out quite a few things while he and zayn finish the blunt off. six packs of gummy candies, wraps for weed, a pack of cigarettes, a hoodie that is black on one half of it and red on the other with a gradient rose in the middle of it (it definitely peaked interest, louis hoped he would like it), a new bottle of harry's favorite cologne, and there was a little box that was wrapped in scooby-doo wrapping paper from niall's leftover christmas supplies.

harry unwraps the box and opens it, closing it almost immediately when he saw the pendant on the chain was a playboy bunny head.

"you," he leans over and peppers kisses over louis' face. "you are so fucking precious. thank you, baby," he presses a last kiss to his lips and opens the necklace box again. he takes the cross necklace around his neck off and has louis put the new one on for him. then, he hands his cross necklace over one of the posts of louis' headboard. on the side that louis sleeps on, of course, so it's right next to him.

"i helped," zayn pouts, "don't i get a kiss too?"

"you have niall cooties," harry gives him a look of distaste, laughing when zayn gasps loudly.

louis leans up and kisses zayn's cheek for harry. "thank you for helping, zaynie."

zayn gives louis the end piece of the blunt to smoke on whenever his lungs give him the ability to and ruffles his hair. "welcome, babes. i told you he'd like them. now, i'm off to retrieve my niall cooties. you ladies have a wonderful night." he departs with a goodbye to the boys, leaving off to go upstairs to niall's.

after putting everything back in the bag and setting it on the floor, harry fiddles with the jewelry around his neck with a non-erasable grin. "you're my favorite," he tells louis softly.

louis takes the ribbon out of his hair and ties it around harry's cross necklace before kissing his cheek. "so you really like it?"

"i do," harry beams. "i love it."

louis lifts the necklace up to inspect it. it's just a solid silver charm, but it stands out against harry's tanned skin so well. "since it started our thing and all," he says quietly. "'s like our little inside joke."

"except it's not a joke anymore," the younger boy mumbles, "it's our real thing." he kisses him again, and again, and again. "and i'm so glad it is. you're my bunny."

"me too," louis hums and brushes their noses together. "always your bunny."

—-

i love how cheesy they are hehehehehe it makes me think of night shift harry & louis so much & that's what i wanna aim for. riders, besties for the resties, you get it.

what do you think is gonna happen with luke?

who is sonic?

i'll see you soon ❤️‍🔥