late night roundups with mitch mean that they're about to make good money.

usually because the boss is the driver, so he's not doing a lot of the dirty work. mitch and harry aim for one night a week for roundups because a large portion of their traffic comes through inferno. the rest are outsiders, people roughly harry's age or even people he went to college with. half of them are hooked on coke now. they come to harry for their drugs, pay the man extra if he's coming super late at night, and harry comes back a week later to resupply.

he hates being away from louis after the boy has had a bad day. louis said the world was against him today because he dropped his phone and cracked the screen protector (luckily it was just the protector, they can get a new one), accidentally ripped his i.v. out and he lost his favorite lighter, so he couldn't even go smoke.

zayn hid it from him. he already knows.

he's made two-thirds of his sales by the time three rolls around. as he smokes a cigarette, he counts the money in his lap for the third time. he gets half and mitch gets half. it should honestly be 60/40, harry getting the 60% because mitch is just sitting in his car while harry hopes he doesn't have to put a bullet in anyone's head every round he makes.

"how many more?"

"five," harry mumbles as he combines the stacks. they can officially split it later. "got a trio that owes about 1500 each and if they don't have it tonight they're done for."

"aye," mitch nods and checks to make sure liam is in the car behind them before heading to their next destination.

since louis got hurt, he's off of work until he recovers and the poor boy has been bored out of his mind. he's in the hospital for another night, making his stay a total of five days, and harry has a surprise for him when he gets home.

one thing harry has learned is that louis is a big baby.

sick, injured, or sleepy, he is the biggest baby harry has ever met. he wants affection, attention, and food. so, being the helpful partner he is, harry made louis write a list of any and everything he wanted and went on a shopping spree two days ago. not only did he supply the injured boy with desired snacks and drinks, but he stocked him up with candles for his bedroom, a warm blanket for the hospital, and even found him a stuffed bunny rabbit to cuddle with when harry isn't there. it's light grey, fuzzy, with floppy ears and black eyes and the cutest little pink nose. harry may or may not have taken a nap with it. and he may or may not have put some of his cologne on it to keep his scent on it for him.

plus, harry feels like shit for what happened. he still wishes he was the one that got shot. seeing louis in pain hurts him, too, because he knew just how independent louis is. he is so used to being able to do everything on his own and now he has his arm bandaged up supported by a sling — the boy feels absolutely helpless because his arm is messed up.

mitch has definitely cut harry some slack in the situation just because his main concern is louis right now. he's not doing any big meets at the club, he's just managing the club scene and leaving. liam has taken his spot in handling deals behind closed doors and harry does more of the bouncing, making sure everyone gets in and out safely.

they haven't been able to trace anything regarding who, or why, this happened. as far as harry knows, mitch doesn't have any problems with any rival cliques at the moment. the last ordeal they had was put down when they finally amended their problems a long, long time ago.

they get their deals done and he's back at the hospital two and a half hours later, which irks him because he told louis two hours. he knows that bunny is sick of staring at white walls and monitors and listening to the sound of his own heart beat beeping in his ear. he misses his bed, and emma, and his weed. he can't wait to get louis home, cozy as can be, so he can relax and heal with all of his belongings where he should be.

he waves at vic, who tells him louis has done better today, and he smiles proudly at that. louis is a trooper. he's done a lot just so he can go home.

the bunny rabbit (whom louis named cosmo) is chucked at him as soon as he walks in. it hits him square in the chest and falls. the sound of its plastic eyes clicking on the linoleum flooring is louder than he expected it to be.

harry leans down and picks the rabbit up, brushes it off, and frowns at it. "has big bunny been bullying you all day, little bunny? do i need to have a talk with him?" he glances over at louis with a teasing grin and clutches cosmo to his chest to give him a consoling hug. "quit being mean to the baby."

louis makes grabby hands for him so harry places cosmo onto louis' lap and lays beside him. he offers plenty of kisses in apologies for his late arrival.

when harry goes to lay on his side, a small bag falls out of his pocket. louis glances down at it and picks it up with his unconfined arm, spectating the ring inside.

"ooh," he hums and takes it out of the bag. it's a thin silver band with a rose on top. "this for your girlfriend?"

"for you, silly," harry chuckles. "hopefully it fits. i never got the chance to get your ring size when you were asleep so i risked it."

as he slides the ring onto his right middle finger, which was a perfect fit, he tells harry he's a size eight and leans down to kiss the top of the man's head.

"i love it. thank you," he says. "where did you get it?"

"kinda sorta stole it."

"of course you did."

harry laughs against his shoulder and grabs louis' hand to inspect the silver jewelry kissing his honey colored skin. it's dainty, just like him. perfect.

"i walked from here to the cafeteria and back with no problem earlier," louis grins and harry gasps. that's good! that's so good, because yesterday he made it to the elevator and back and got woozy so he had to sit down. his meds have been a problem for him, so jana lowered the dosage to see if that was the issue. it definitely was. they were making him nauseas and dizzy, unable to keep any food down, but now that they're lowered and louis is content, he's eating everything in sight.

"look at you!" harry beams and kisses his nose. "i'm so proud of you."

louis grins and kisses harry once more before changing the channel on the tv to something better. he was watching a soap opera just to fill in the noise because nothing else was on, but then he got distracted by playing a game on his phone. he settles on an adult swim show and nestles comfortably in the bed, holding cosmo in one hand and plays with harry's hair with his other one.

"i have a question," harry murmurs. "you don't have to answer if you don't want to, though."

"ask away, pretty face."

the younger boy tilts his head to the side as louis started to massage the back of his scalp with his fingertips. he knows just where to touch. "have you shot someone before this?"

louis is silent for a moment, a little too long. long enough for harry to turn his head to look back at him with curious yet easy eyes.

"once," louis frowns. he continues to run his digits along his partner's head, then kisses the top of it. "y'know how i told you that i know my way around things?"

"mhm."

the smaller boy sighs. "well, uh...mylo would have me do deals for him sometimes. just some small ones...and he set me up with this guy that was charging me more than what mylo was supposed to pay. when i told him i didn't have enough he said i could pay the difference in other ways..."

"no..."

"yeah," louis sighs. "so when he tried to touch me, i shot him in the chest. like..." he takes his free arm and pokes right where his sternum ends and abdomen begins. "somewhere in this general area, and i ran. told mylo i wasn't doing runs for him anymore and we got in a big fight about that. you know, the usual."

"fuck, lou," harry frowns and he gives him a light squeeze. "i'm so sorry that happened to you. he shouldn't put his responsibilities on you."

"i wanted to," louis says, "just to help out and all. all i did was sell his weed and some pills to girls at the club, but that was one of the only times i bought product for him. i didn't do it again."

he kisses the top of harry's head again, moving his arm around his neck so he can hold harry's face close to him.

"i want food," louis says about ten minutes later. "real food. not this hospital shit."

"you ate all your snacks?"

"with niall's help, yeah," louis pouts. his nialler came by himself this afternoon and snuck him in a electronic cigarette that tasted like watermelon so he could get his nicotine without jostling himself down the elevator and out the door. all he's gotta do is just hide it from jana when she comes in or she'll scold him. "all i have are my gushers and some candy."

harry hums and presses his nose against louis' jaw. "think i could work something out. what do you want?"

louis ponders on it for a moment. "something breakfast-y. burritos. breakfast burritos. fuck," he groans at the thought of something better than what the hospital offers. "i'll blow you so hard for a burrito."

harry laughs against him and leans back. "no need, love. i'll go get you some."

fist-pumping in victory, louis presses a sloppy smooch to harry's forehead with a very loud 'mwah!' "you're the best."

"i try to be," harry says softly, watching the boy in front of him grin.

"you don't need to try," louis assures, "you're amazing."

"you want more than just burritos, don't you."

there's a sigh.

"waffles?"

"yeah."

—-

"how's lou?"

zayn sighs as he sits at the bar. "he's fine. he should be home tonight if he stays the way he is."

"that's good," liam hums. "i miss him."

zayn croons and leans over to pat his partner's cheek. they're both off today, but zayn has been at the club to keep his mind off of the last few days. being by himself is not the best thing for him right now, so liam proposed they go surprise niall at the club on his break. he should be on his break soon. he still hasn't spotted their lilac beauty. "he'll be back to terrorize you in no time, love. did you ever find anything out?"

liam shakes his head no. "harry's asked me to keep an eye on staff while he's out but that's it. i haven't seen much."

zayn looks around the club and sighs. "'course not. they're all probably over it anyways."

"don't say that," the bouncer frowns. "louis is just as important to us as he is to you, babe. true colors come out eventually."

nodding, zayn sees liam's point. he kisses the man's cheek before standing. "thank you for everything."

"always."

when zayn enters the locker room, he bumps into luke. he apologizes softly, but luke tells him to watch where he's going in a tone he doesn't quite appreciate, so he scowls.

"the fuck is your problem?" he asks.

luke shrugs. "i'm just over everyone asking about louis."

zayn furrows his eyebrows. "he could have easily been killed, i think that's something to be concerned about."

scoffing, the blonde headed boy throws his hands up. "it'd just be one less problem to worry about if you ask me."

"oh," zayn purses his lips. "i see."

"zayn. it's los angeles. the crime rate is high, everyone's at eachother's throats. louis would have just been another fatality on the list and swept under the rug like everyone else."

the fellow stripper leans against the lockers as he says, "you sound bothered that people care about louis' wellbeing. that's kind of selfish of you...and a bit sketchy, if you ask me."

he gives luke a once over and raises his eyebrows. "did you do it?"

"me?" luke laughs. "if i had shot louis i would have made sure he didn't make it out. with the drama he brings in, he doesn't deserve to be here anyways. everyone was fine until louis showed up. this club is for people who can actually handle situations like adults and act like adults, not childish 20 year olds who can't control themselves and fuck their boss to get by."

zayn steps off of the locker he was leaned against and walks towards luke.

luke grabs him by the collar of his shirt. zayn draws his head back to collide it with the boy's mouth. when the smaller man is instantly released, he takes the opportunity to grab luke's lowered head and swing him into the lockers by his hair. the clang of luke's shoulders hitting metal echoes in the room as he slides down.

zayn takes a stride forward and punches him in the face three times, giving him a knee to the nose as well, and he steps away when luke starts to bleed on his jeans.

"keep my brother's name out of your fucking mouth, bitch," he spits. "i better not find out you were behind this or i'll do you worse."

luke wipes his nose and mouth and stares at zayn in shock as he opens his locker, puts a cigarette behind his ear and walks out without another word.

bumming a lighter from one of his regulars, he takes a seat beside her and crosses one leg over the other. "i think i'm gonna go to jail one of these days, sis."

"but," the girl pouts, "i'll miss you. would you write me letters?"

zayn gives her a smile around his cigarette. she's his favorite female regular. she normally comes for the female dancers but she and zayn are pretty cool as well. when she found out zayn was in a relationship with niall and liam both, she nearly screamed. 'three hot guys dating eachother? if i was religious, you all would make me believe god works true magic,' she had told him. ever since, zayn has taken her under his wing and may or may not have put a bug in her ear that one of the female dancers thought she was attractive.

oh, the joys of being in the club industry.

"'course i would, kita," he hums, "always gots to respond to fan mail, you know how it is."

the girl laughs lightly, then she catches zayn's knuckles and frowns. "why is there blood on your hand, child?"

"oh," zayn chuckles as he looks down at his hand and he shrugs. "you know, beating kids up and shit. little fuckers need discipline."

"which one was it?"

"blondie. not mine. the other one."

kita rolls her eyes but gives him a pat on the back anyways.

—-

"okay, don't be mad," harry warns as they step into louis' apartment. he's finally home. thank god. five days in the hospital was driving him nuts. jana wanted to be very cautious due to how much of a bleeder louis was and he had a reaction to his medications that didn't look too well. though, he was showing signs of progression after switching medications again, no signs of sepsis, and he walked with absolutely no help! "i did something."

louis blinks. "did you put a stripper pole in my room?"

"not...necessarily," harry gives him a small grin. "just, c'mon," he grabs louis' hand and walks him to his bedroom, stepping behind him to cover his eyes. he opens the door and guides louis in, turning his light on and moves his hand. "ta-da."

louis inspects his bedroom with wide eyes. it's rearranged. his bed is on the far right corner against the wall, with his dresser and vanity in opposite places than it once was before. now, his vanity sits beside his closet which is across from the foot of his bed and his dresser is on the wall opposing his bed. his decorations were moved around just a bit and more had been added. when he gets a closer look, he sees photos from the chicago trip put up in their own little collage right above louis' bed.

red bedsheets were on his bed as well, with a new black comforter and black pillowcases. everything was neat, tidy, cleaned, and actually really lovely. his room feels bigger.

"i figured this could help," harry says bashfully. "everything you absolutely need is in arms reach just enough so you don't strain yourself. you were a little cluttered and i didn't want to find out you fell and hurt yourself either...so zayn and i kind of added our own touches."

he can tell zayn definitely did something because there's a sticky note placed on his headboard that says juicy booty supremacy xoxo (:

niall called him juicy booty at the club one time and it stuck. when zayn found out, he started calling him that, too. why the fuck are his friends like this? just, why?

"i love it," louis grins as he turns to look at harry.

harry's nervous expression diminishes and is replaced with a proud smile. he helps louis get settled into his bed and louis lets out the happiest noise as he cuddles under his new comforter with cosmo. a kiss is planted to his temple, then harry's unloading their hospital clothes into the washer and coming back with an envelope.

louis opens it once it's given to him and he sees it's a gift card with $200 on it from liam to spend his recovery time doing online shopping. bless liam. he's such a pure soul.

"and mitch wants me to tell you that he's doing everything he can to figure out what's going on, and that if you have any ideas to just throw them his way," harry adds as he nestles beside the boy. "i emailed your professors to tell them you were in the hospital with a virus and got you excused for your days. you won't miss any points."

louis picks cosmo up and presses the bunny's nose to harry's, making a tiny kiss noise as if cosmo was giving the man a smooch. "my hero. you guys are the shit."

harry moves cosmo out of the way to cuddle up against him, careful of his stitches and sore tummy. "gotta keep you steady, baby. we can work on your studies and get you caught up tomorrow, so put your genius cap on in the morning. i'm not going to work. i'll be here all day."

"you aren't sick of me yet?"

"nah, don't think i'll ever be."

louis cracks a grin as he reaches up to caress harry's cheek. "good."

when zayn comes home, he's holding a box under his arm. he tells the story about how he gave luke a few strikes in the locker room for what he said. harry takes a mental recap of his shit list.

"i don't think he ever liked me anyways," louis says from his spot on harry's chest. "he always gave me looks when i first started. made me nervous."

"luke is nothing to be nervous over," harry scoffs. "that boy is afraid of ladybugs."

"you're afraid of giraffes."

"was. i was afraid," harry corrects as he taps louis' nose. "olive and june were friendly enough to help me get over my fear, thank you. thanks to you."

louis reaches up to bite the tip of harry's finger and asks zayn, "mail?"

"i did some shopping," zayn shrugs. he sits on the edge of the bed. "like your room?"

"very spacey. love," louis yawns. he carefully sits up and harry props a pillow under his back to keep him comfy and he clutches his bunny close as the box is placed in front of him.

"i lied. it's for you," zayn gives him a smile of sympathy. "some of the girls at the club put together a care package for you."

louis 'aw'ed as he carefully opened the box. there's candy, a coloring book, a prepaid card for a hulu subscription, and a bottle of red wine that has cigarello wraps taped all around it for his weed. the alcohol and wraps are from cara. there's even a note with a bow attached to the neck of the bottle that says get better, you pretty fuck.

she's consoling in a very unique way.

"is it bad i like the girls more than the guys?" louis asks the two as he organized the box back the way it was.

"you can thank cara for that," harry says and puts the care package on the floor beside the bed. "she does the female recruiting."

"she has one hell of a type."

"blonde haired, blue eyed beauties," zayn sighs. "much like my beauty."

"if you do not shut up about-" louis picks up a pillow and smacks zayn with it, wincing when his arm throbbed. zayn laughs and claims that's karma but leans over to kiss his bandaged bicep anyways. "niall isn't blonde anymore."

"no, but he's still pretty."

"niall is pretty," louis agrees. "everyone's pretty. makes me jealous."

harry and zayn share a look before both raising their eyebrows at the injured boy.

"you have nothing to be jealous over, 'cause you are smoking," harry extinguishes louis' slight sense of insecurity.

zayn nods in agreement immediately. "and you're about to have a sick battle scar, too. tell customers you fought in the war or some shit, i bet they'll tip you extra."

louis smacks him with the pillow again.

"hey!"

"alright, alright," harry takes the pillow and sticks it on his side of the bed. "settle down, children."

"children? we are both older than you," louis sticks his tongue out at his boyfriend. "you're a baby."

harry crosses his arms and slumps against the headboard. "'m not a baby."

"oh, but you are," louis cups his face and presses a loud smooch to his right cheek. "my baby that i adore very, very much."

as much as he tries to fight it off, harry's face flushes a bright red that only gets darker when the pair of friends taunt him about it. so he covers up with louis' comforter and rolls over, hiding his blush from them.

"i think we upset the baby," zayn murmurs after a moment, when they've finished giggling about it like schoolgirls. "think he may need a nap to settle down. we can try again in a little while."

louis sits his stuffed bunny rabbit on harry's head and cackles when harry yanks it off of him to furiously cuddle with it. "he does seem a bit grumpy..."

harry grumbles that he's not grumpy. in fact, he is radiating. the blanket over his head and rabbit smushed against his face hide the cheesy smile he's sporting. louis is too fucking precious. here he is, bandaged up with a gunshot wound and he's picking on harry like his usual happy self does. it's like the boy was never hurt in the first place.

louis leans over to nuzzle his nose against harry's temple before kissing it gently. "night night, grumpy baby."

"goodnight, grumpy boy!" zayn sings as he pats harry's covered body and climbs off of the bed. he takes backwards steps to the door as he continues to croon at the younger man. "always remember tomorrow is a new day! sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, and know uncle zayn is here when you are having troubles."

"fuck you," harry giggled from under the covers. actually giggled, high pitched and childlike.

zayn flips the lights off and shuts the door, heading out to his own bedroom.

louis clicks his lamp on and peels the comforter off of harry's head. he leans down again to kiss over the exposed side of harry's face, grinning when harry rests a hand on the back of his head to keep him still.

"we were just messing, h," louis murmurs.

harry rolls over onto his right side and pulls louis in for a kiss, careful of his arm. "i know. you were having fun so i played along with it."

"good," louis grabs cosmo from behind harry and lays down, pulling harry's arm over his waist to he can be cuddled. harry glues himself to louis' side, head on the boy's chest as they end up watching whatever plays on the tv.

"you gotta take your meds again in a few," harry says as he glances over at louis' arm. "you need to eat something too."

louis nods with a yawn and reaches down to fumble with the care package, holding up a bag of gummy bears that was put in there.

"food, bunny," harry protests with a pout. "it's not too late, i can go get you something unless you want me to make something for you."

"but," louis mimicks his pout, being the stubborn little shit he is. "gummy bears."

there's a defeated sigh from below. louis grins as he rips open the bag of gummies. he holds one above harry's head and feels harry take it from his fingers. then he plucks one into his own mouth.

"you're lucky you're cute," harry grumbles. louis tries to hide his grin with a handful of multicolored bears. "give me another one."

—-

harry is so soft when it comes to louis, i looooooooove it. if my future partner aint like that then i don't want it.

do you think louis' accident was targeted towards him or targeted towards harry?

thoughts on zayn fighting luke?

updates will be rocky for a little bit. i have future chapters ready that i wrote ages ago but the scheduling will be a bit delayed for a little while. i'm still here, i'm okay, thank you to everyone that has been checking in on me. it's been a tough road already, this is just another big bump. i should be coming back home this weekend and i'm gonna make up some lost time with my dog because i've been gone for almost 4 days and i need her loves.

please don't forget about the character ask, it will keep me rolling and get my mind off of things.

i love you guys. thank you so much for 10k. ❤️‍🔥