Part one.

Louis had ended up staying that night of Christmas Eve. No matter how many times he tried to tell Anne and Harry that he would be just fine getting a taxi home, both argued that he would also be just fine staying the night.

"It would be a lot easier for you if you'd stay." Harry had said.

"We really don't mind love. it would save the journey home at this time." Anne smiled, looking to where Louis was sat, on the sofa next to Harry.

"Really, I can get a taxi home, I'm sure Megan would be asleep but i have my keys so ill be able to get back in." Louis looked between Harry and Anne.

"Lou, its fine." Harry laughed. And so louis had stayed.

He had ended up staying in Gemma's room after he gave in to her persuasion only because he become too tired to insist that he stayed in the spare room. Apparently harry had told his sister how much louis adored her bedroom.

"I can stay in that room anytime I want. Honestly, you can stay in there tonight, I'll stay on the third floor, that way you'll be closer to harry if anything happens."

Louis was very grateful. He awoke the next morning with a yawn escaping his lips. He pushed his legs down the bed and reached up with his arms, giving each of his limbs a stretch. Once satisfied, Louis rubbed his eyes. He pushed the cover off of his body and swung his legs over the edge of the bed so that they were dangling above the carpeted floor.

Looking at the clock on the bedside table, Louis groaned. 5:45. His body and mind were past the point of wanting to sleep, yet he had at least another hour before anyone in the house would be awake. Louis huffed and started to swing his legs slowly, thinking about what he could do in the meantime.

Looking over to Gemma's dressing table, Louis noticed a dress hanging from the chair with a post it note attached. He stood from the bed, his feet touching the soft fabric as he made his way over. When he reached the chair, he first pulled off the sticky not, recognising that it was Harrys writing.

'this is an old dress of Gemma's, she said you could have it. I know you'll be awake before everyone else so you're welcome to have a shower and get dressed. Or you could come and wake me up?'

Louis chuckled, of course Harry would want him to wake him up. But Louis decided to give Harry at least another half an hours sleep and took the towel, that he found underneath the dress to the bathroom on his floor. He pulled open the glass door to the shower and switched on the hot and cold water, adjusting it until it was the perfect temperature. Once he was satisfied with the water, Louis closed the door and started to rid himself of the shorts and t-shirt he had fallen asleep in.

Louis tried to spend as much time in the shower as he could, he had so much time to waste and not many ways of wasting it so he was trying to make the most of this shower. He used the coconut shampoo and conditioner, knowing that it was the same type that Harry had in his own bathroom and Louis remembered how much he used to love it. He used the raspberry scented body wash to clean his body before deciding that his fingers were too wrinkly to be in that shower any longer.

Stepping out of the shower, Louis grabbed a hold of his towel and wrapped it around his body. He looked at himself in the mirror briefly before walking out of the room and quietly made his way back to Gemma's room. He walked straight for where the dress was hanging, Lifting the fabric up his hands. He noticed then that underneath the dress was a pair of underwear that he very slightly recognised. It was then that he realised that it was his own, that Harry had still kept some of his things that he had left in the house over time.

A breeze of rather cold wind distracted Louis and he decided that it was time to stop thinking and just get dressed. So he first slid on his light blue pants that Harry had got out for him. Following them was the dress and Louis had to say, the Styles' had good taste in clothes. Louis looked over the garment in the mirror in front of him. The red dress fitted Louis perfectly. There wasn't much to the dress, a simple shape and all one colour, however, it was beautiful. As the long sleeves came to an end, a slightly shiny lace began and flared around his hand, Louis was in love.

After admiring the dress for a little bit longer, Louis then decided to check the time to see if it was more reasonable than the time he saw before. 6:22. "Okay." Louis whispered to himself, "not too bad." so with that said, Louis picked up the pair of white frilled socks that Harry had left out for him and slid them onto his feet. He then picked up the sticky note and headed towards Harrys room.

He pushed open the door slowly, not wanting it to make too much noise. Once it was open enough for him to squeeze through, Louis went into the bedroom, closing the door just as quietly as he had opened it. He turned his body so that he was facing the bed and Harry's sleeping form. He smiled. Harry was wrapped up his duvet, facing the opposite way to Louis, his hair the only part of him poking out.

Louis tip-toed his way over to the bed, getting on a knee at a time, making sure not to put too much weight onto the mattress at once. When he was on the bed and as close to Harry as he could get without waking the boy up, Louis couldn't help but let out a small giggle.

He reached out and began to softly run his fingers through Harry's hair. Within a couple of seconds, Harry was fluttering his eyes open. He turned in the bed, finding Louis looking down at him, a grin on his face as he held up the post-it-note.

"Merry Christmas." Harry managed to get out as he body began to stretch.

"Good morning and Merry Christmas to you too." Louis laughed.

"What time is it?" Harry asked. Louis looked to Harry's side table to look at the digital clock there.

"It is 6:27." Louis laughed when he saw Harrys eye widen at the time of morning. He looked over Louis' clothes and wet hair.

"And you've already showered? What time did you wake up?"

"Yep. I woke up around 5:45, not too long ago. I couldn't get back to sleep, I would have tried but I know my body and mind well enough to know when I am too awake to sleep and I was too awake to sleep. I saw the stuff you put out for me last night and just thought that I may as well get started. You're lucky I've been here before and know where the shower room is, otherwise I would have woken you up then, too." He laughed and Harry laughed along with him.

Harry pulled back the covers and began to sit up on his bed. "Okay, so we have like what, an hour or two before my parents and Gemma get up? What should we do?"

-

The boys had ended up putting on The Grinch, a Christmas movie they both found out they shared a love for. Just as the film ended, there was a knock at the door. Louis looked to Harry as Harry shouted towards the door, allowing the person to enter.

"Good morning you two." It was Anne, still dressed in her Christmas themed pyjamas. "Merry Christmas!" She had a grin on her face as she spoke.

"Good morning." Louis smiled.

"Merry Christmas to you too mum." Harry grinned.

Anne pushed the door open a little more so that she was no longer just popping her head in, but was now stood in the room. "Gemma and your dad are up now so we are going to get started on breakfast. It would help a lot if you two wouldn't mind setting the table?" Harry nodded.

"Yeah that's fine, We'll be down in a second." Harry said whilst he pulled the blanket off of himself, Louis following his actions.

"That's great, thank you. I shall see you in a second then." With one last warm smile, Anne left the room, shutting the door behind her.

"You set the table for breakfast?" Louis couldn't help a small giggle escaping his mouth. "Me and Megan just grab ourselves a bowl of cereal and sat on the sofa watching Christmas specials of different programmes. And maybe if we felt like it, we'd have a piece of toast too." Harry laughed.

"We celebrate Christmas pretty hard in this house." Harry chucked his duvet over his pillows, making his bed tidy again.

"I got a taste of that with how close you all were last night. It must be nice, to be all together at this time of year." Louis smiled.

"Yeah, it is nice. Gemma tends to stay away most of the time now, so it's nice to have her back and have the whole family here. My mum and dad have always gone all out at Christmas and I think they just want to keep it going for as long as they can. I mean I'll be going off to Uni next year, Gemma is already there, so I feel like they just want to keep us close together whenever they can." Louis nodded, agreeing.

The mention of Uni startled him. He knows that everyone is talking about it, it's their second and final year at college. It's that time of year when whoever wants to go to University has to start applying and it scares the crap out of Louis. Its not that he doesn't want to go, because he does. He wants to get a degree in song writing, to have something to be proud of himself for doing. However, University fees are big. It's expensive and he doesn't know how on earth he will be able to afford it.

And then there is the other reasons. He doesn't want to be alone again. He doesn't want to be away from Luke or Megan or Jade. He doesn't want to be away from his friends and family. He doesn't want to be away from Harry. The thought actually scared him. What if they work through this situation and they get back together only then to have miles between the two of them because they go to different universities? Louis' very content with how things are at the moment and he's scared things are going to change for the worse rather than for the better.

"Lou?" Harry's voice broke through Louis' racing thoughts.

"Hmm?" Louis hummed, "sorry, day dreaming." He let out a forced chuckle and he could tell by his face that Harry knew something was wrong. He was very just grateful when he didn't push on it.

"I asked if you would like to ring Megan from my phone? You could use my charger to charge yours too now, if you'd like?" Louis nodded, walking towards Harry and taking the phone he was offering out.

"Thank you," he wispered.

"That okay, I'm going to go and start on the table so you can be alone, I'll be in the dinning room so just come down when youre finished, the charger is there," Harry pointed to the plugsocket by his desk, which did indeed have a charger plugged into it.

"Okay, I'll see you in a minute." Harry smiled at him.

"Indeed you will," and then Harry left, he walked out of his bedroom and just as Anne had done, he shut the door behind him.

Louis let out a rugged breath, calming himself down before he unlocked the phone, knowing Harry's password, and began to dial the flat home number. It rang for a few seconds before Megan answered.

"Hello?" Her tone was tierd, as if she had just woken up.

"Merry Christmas!" Louis cheered down the phone.

"Louis?" Louis hummed, "Merry Christmas to you too, how was the dinner last night? All I got was a text saying you're staying out and that was it. No details. So, spill." Louis could imagine her sitting down on the sofa and crossing her legs, waiting for him to answer

"It was good. His mum and dad made dinner and it tasted amazing. Gemma, Harrys sister was there and it was really nice to see her, I hadn't seen her since," Louis paused, shaking his head before carrying on, "well you know."

"Yeah." Megan had a slight sad tone to her voice.

"Everything sort of came flooding back when I entered his room."

"That's understandable Lou. With everything you've been through and everything that happened in that room, it's bound to bring back a lot of memories." Louis sighed.

"Well after we spoke about it on the day we went to the theater, I thought that I could sort of look past it, you know? Just kind of keep going and look forward instead of looking back but that all changed. I just remembered every little detail of everything that had happened and I felt every emotion for a second time. It was really bad Meg." Louis had began pacing up and down Harry's room, something he had always done when talking on the phone.

"So what happened?" She asked.

"We spoke," Louis paused, thinking over what had happened and the things that were said. He looked to the bathroom door in Harry's room, "I think I'm nearly ready to forgive him Meg. I know it's really fast and that scares me becuase I don't want him to think he's got away with it, y'know?" Louis could picture Megan nodding, understandibly. "I don't want him to think that becuase i forgave him too easily this time, he could just go out and do it again and I'll forgive him just as easy."

"That won't happen." Megan said as soon as Louis had finsihed speaking. "I know it's hard Lou, but if you're going to forgive Harry you are going to have to learn to trust him. There is no time limit on forgivness, for some it can be days, others weeks and some even years, it all comes down to how you feel and what you want. If you're ready to forgive Harry for what he did then you're ready. If you're not, then you're not. There is no other way, Louis."

"I know that, I just dont want to be seen as an easy target. I don't want people telling me that I gave in too quickly or that I'm stupid for going back." Louis' eyes began to fill with water and he began to regret bringing this all back up.

"If they do then tell them to fuck off. Or I'll tell them to fuck off for you. It's none of their buisness, it's your desicion to make and no one elses. Don't let what others say change your desicion because then you're living their life and not your own. Do what you feel is right. When the time comes around, you'll know when it's the right time." Louis nodded.

"You're right." He took a deep breath, clearing the tears. "Thank you. I think I needed that talk." He chuckled.

"No problem babe. But I do have one thing to ask you." Louis didn't say anything, just waited for her to continue. "Have you heard Harry's side of the story? Do you know what really happened?"

"No. Nothing other than the basics."

"I know it'll be hard, but I think it'll be for the best if you knew. That way it could help your mind come to terms with it. Use it to find out what you really want to know. The day it happened, you could ask more about the girl." Louis winced audibly and Megan sighed. "I know, I'm sorry, but I just know that if I were in your situation, I'd want to know more about it. I'm not saying this to stick up for him in anyway, you know how I feel about what he has done and that I'm still not his biggest fan now, but just let him explain himself, it could be what is best for the both of you."

Louis agreed. He agreed to asking Harry about what really happend but not today, today was Christmas and he had arleady nearly cried, he didn't want to do it again. A couple of mintues after Megan had explained herself, the two ended the phone call, saying quick see you laters. Louis could hear Luke entering the flat on the other line so he guessed that he was the reason Megan was so keen to end the phone call. Louis' body shivered at the slightist thought.

Before Louis left to go downstairs, he made sure he put his phone on charge and put it on loud so that he had at least the slightest chance in hearing it if someone were to ring him.

When Louis went down the stairs, he did in fact find Harry where he said he would be. Harry had done most of the setting up in the dining room. Everything seemed to be done except the cutlery and placemats. He held out Harrys phone and Harry smiled, walking forward and taking it, slipping it into the pocket of his pyjamma trousers.

"Would you mind setting these out whilst I go and find the breakfast cutlery,please?" Harry asked, picking the red leather placemats up, holding them out for Louis to take.

"You have knifes and forks just for breakfast?" Louis' eyes went wide but he reached out his hand and took the mats from harry.

Harry laughed. "I told you we go all out for christmas, cutlery included." Louis shook his head and laughed also.

Louis began placing the rectangular peices of fabric onto the table, placing one at the head of the tabel and four along the sides. Within the minute Louis took doing that, Harry had returned, a white box in his hand.

Harry placed the box down on the white table cloth that was currently covering the table. "Okay, so a knife, a fork, a small spoon and a big spoon for each person."

Louis noded his head, walking to Harry and the cutlery. "OKie dokie," Louis pulled open the lid of the box and took out the correct amount of silver cutlery that Harry had told him he needed. "How do I set it out?" Louis looked to Harry.

"you put the knife of the left, fork on the right and then the big spoon above the mat and the little spoon to the right of the small drink mats." Louis did just that and then once he knew he remembered, he did another, Harry doing the other three.

"And we are done. Now we just wait to be called for the food." Harry clapped his hands together, walking towards the door and then into the living room, Louis laughed as he followed behind.

"So do you always get the easy job of setting the table?" Louis asked, taking his seat on the opposite side of the sofa to the other boy.

"Hey, I had to learn that way, it's not as simple as it looks." Louis raised his eyebrows. "But yeah, perks of being the youngest in the family." Harry laughed, picking up the TV remote as Louis shook his head.

The room fell into a comfortable silence, just the sound of the different channels being flicked through on the TV screen. Louis began fiddling with the end of his dress whilst he waited for Harry to settle on a chanel. But Harry seemed to have got distracted, flicking though the channels as his eyes just watched Louis. However, his trance was broken when he realised that after a couple of minutes, Louis had looked back at him and he been doing so for the past couple of seconds.

"Why are you staring at me," Louis asked, a smirk evident on his face.

"I uh, I'm sorry got distracted." Harry's cheeks went a slight shade of pink, Louis noticed.

"Hmm," Louis hummed, still looking at Harry who was still looking at him.

"You do that to me." Louis' face showed slight confusion so Harry cleared it up. "You distract me. Whenever I'm around you I feel like you're the only thing I should be concentraiting on and I just can't figure out why. How do you do it?"

Louis shruggred his shoulders. "I didn't realise I did that."

Harry laughed, looking back to the TV to actually find a channel this time. "You do a lot to me without realising, Lou."

Louis' mouth dropped as he cheeks heated but the conversation was cut short when Anne voice was heard calling for them both. Harry looked to Louis, smirking. "I'm going to let that pass, but only because you're mum is too nice to keep waiting." Louis repiled, standing from the sofa, Harry laughed as he followed behind.

They entered the dining room and the food had all been placed around the table. Gemma came in behind them, "Louis, you're sat next to me. Harry, opposite Lou." The boys nodded their heads, taking their seats. Des then sat next to Harry and Anne took the head of the table.