Harry lay in bed the next morning feeling extremely sleep deprived and drained, having tossed and turned all night long because of his nightmares.

One look at his face would be enough to tell you how much of a toll the nightmares were having on him, his eyes were puffy and red from crying in his sleep, he had huge dark circles under his eyes and all in all, looked like a huge mess.

He groaned and sat up in bed, clutching his forehead and trying to blink away his sleepiness.

Still half asleep, he rolled out of bed, clumsily banging into the door on his way out , wanting to get some coffee into his system before he did anything else.

One sip of the piping hot coffee and he already began to feel better.

Coffee. Shit. Louis would be waking up any minute now and he had to make him coffee! Harry smiled fondly, scrunching his nose recalling how much Louis had appreciated the small gesture and hurriedly set about washing a new mug and boiling the water in the kettle again without even finishing his own cup of coffee.

He had just about finished making it when a sleepy,dishevelled Louis barged out of his room, and walked rapidly towards the front door.

"Louis? Where are you going!?"

"None of your business" Louis snapped, his morning voice deep and scratchy.

"Umm okay but I made you coffee because of how you know, you appre-"

"Oh for God's sake Harry! Stop acting like we're married or something, you're like a fucking clingy puppy or something. I AM STRAIGHT OKAY!? So don't get any weird ideas in that brain of yours." he shouted barely noticing how Harry flinched with hurt at his words and marched straight out of the apartment, banging the door shut, ignoring the guilt that spiked up in his chest when his harsh words echoed in his own ears

Harry tried to hold back his tears but they came, falling freely. He wiped his eyes but there were fresh new tears to replace the old ones. He wiped and wiped and wiped but the tears refused to stop flowing.

The inevitable had happened he thought to himself in despair. Him being gay had ruined everything all over again. He had come here to seek a new life but the problems regarding his his sexuality followed regardless of where he went. He could not escape his past no matter how hard he tried. He thought Louis would be different, that he'd not treat Harry like he was some sort of outcast but his good mood and behaviour towards Harry had lasted only for one day until he was so disgusted by Harry that he couldn't pretend to be okay with it...

Morbid thoughts like these flashed through his mind, acting as a catalyst for the fall of his tears.

He had just about managed to calm himself down when Louis' bedroom door opened yet again and a tall blonde stepped out, wearing one of Louis' shirts.

"Where's Louis?" she asked in in a fearful voice.

Harry cursed inwardly not knowing how to deal with the situation.

"Uhh.. he went out to get some groceries" he lied lamely, cringing at how unbelievable that sounded even to him, who the fuck goes to buy groceries at 8 am!?

"Groceries?" she said, eyebrows raised and tears beginning to well up in her eyes as the realisation set in.

No. Fuck no. She can't start crying. He didn't have the emotional capacity to deal with her tears right now.

"Umm yeah, I told him we ran out of groceries so he offered to fetch them. I'm Harry by the way, his roommate-"

"He told me I was special, that this was more than just sex, that it meant something" she wailed, the tears beginning to fall now.

Fuck. Harry already had very little experience when it came to women let alone crying ones. Fuck. Stupid Louis and his stupid one night stands, Harry thought to himself, leading her to the sofa.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do, except make you a cup of coffee." He said offering her a small smile while handing her a tissue and Louis' untouched cup of coffee.

"Thank you so much" she said sniffing. "I wish it was you I met last instead of Louis"

Harry paled. "NO! um..I mean I don't swing that way.. I'm gay actually." he said hoping that she wasn't a homophobe.

"Ohh no wonder you're such a sweetheart, straight men are downright jerks these days." she said,smiling a little now. "I'm Natalie by the way, nice to meet you even though the setting in which we met wasn't ideal."

"Nice to meet you too Natalie, unfortunately I need to get to work in in a few hours and have to get some stuff done so I have to get going" he said smiling warmly at her.

"Oh of course, I'm so silly to take up your time like this, I'm really sorry for the breakdown and thank you for handling it so well."

"That's absolutely fine, happens to the best of us." he said pulling her into a hug.

"I'd love to hang out with you sometime" she said heading over to the bathroom to change her clothes"

"I'd love that too. I just moved here and don't really have any proper friends amd stuff..so hanging out sounds fun."

She stepped out, wearing her own clothes now and walked to the door.

"I'm so happy I met you Harry" she said hugging him one last time.

"Me too" Harry chuckled.

She was so sweet, how could Louis just treat her that way!? Harry wondered, shuddering to himself as he closed the door and began getting ready for work.

Author's Note
Happy reading xx