Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Merci!” Louis called behind him, nodding to the shop owner as he stepped outside of the boulangerie onto the quiet, early morning Parisian street. The summer sun was already filtering warmly through the buildings, streaking against stone and stucco, and all across the pavement. Louis had a bag of pastries in one hand and a tray of coffees in the other, both of them ensconcing him in a sweet, comforting scent. 

They’d arrived in Paris yesterday morning, after a long flight where Gemma slept on his shoulder for most of it. He never did sleep well on planes and the nervous energy running through him didn’t help. Anne had rented an Airbnb in Montmartre, a third floor flat with charming juliette balconies and high ceilings. They’d been so tired the day before that, when they’d finally been freed from the busy customs lines in De Gaulle and overpaid for a taxi across the city, they’d not done much more than wander the streets in the early evening light and crash early. 

But jet lag had Louis up with the sun and he’d slipped from the second bedroom that he was sharing with Gemma to take a long walk. After twenty minutes strolling through the streets, he’d found a charming bakery, just flipping the sign to show it was open and went inside to drool over the pastries. 

Now he walked slowly back to the flat, the pavement filling with Monday morning foot traffic. Harry’s first race, the heat for the 800m, was later that morning. They wouldn’t have time to see him before that and there was an itching, anxious energy to him for being so close after over a month apart and still not being able to see him. To wish him luck. To support him, when Louis knew he had to be more nervous than he’d ever been. 

A bike ticked close by him on the road and Louis swerved around a pram before turning the corner towards the flat. Shifting the pastry bag and the coffee carrier to one hand, he pulled out his phone. It was still pretty early and he wasn’t sure if Harry was up yet. The morning session didn’t start until eleven, but he was probably doing a final shave down, stretching, and having a solid breakfast. 

Just a quick phone call couldn’t hurt. To let Harry know he’d be rooting for him. That it would be okay, no matter what. 

The phone rang out as he watched Parisians pass by him heading towards the nearest Metro station and businesses open up. A little dog skipped by on a bright red leash and sniffed the toe of his trainer just as the call rolled over to voicemail. 

“Hi baby,” Louis said into his phone, voice thick with affection. “I just got breakfast for your family and was thinking about you. How proud I am of you, just for being here.”

The birds tittered in the trees around him and he closed his eyes to the peacefulness of it. There had been something he’d wanted to say to Harry for ages, but wasn’t sure how best to. Now, he tried to sort out how best to phrase it.

“I need you to know that success here doesn’t define you. When I say I’m proud of you, it’s not for all of this. It’s for how hard you work. Your determination. For the person that you are. All of the accolades or awards will never change that. So, with your first race today, just know that no matter what your family is so proud of you already.”

He smiled down at his trainers, tried to envision the blush on Harry’s cheeks as he listened, the soft look he’d get in his eyes. 

“I love you, sunshine. I can’t wait to see you. To be with you. When you’re done today, we are going to be in love in Paris, just like you wanted.”

After hanging up, he let out a long breath and finished the short walk back to the flat. He trudged up the stairs and carefully twisted the key in the lock so as to not drop everything piled in his hands. Kicking off his shoes by the door, he made his way into the small living room and saw Gemma curled up on the couch with her head tilted against the back of it and her eyes closed.

“Good morning,” he said quietly, in case she was actually asleep, but her eyes opened slowly and then she gave him a tired smile. “I got coffee. And croissants.”

“You’re an angel,” she said, getting up and meeting him at the small table by the window. It was open and letting in the barest of breezes; the day was still cool with how early it was. 

Louis snorted and shook his head as he pulled the cups out of the carrier and left all four of them on the table before pulling out two pastries from the bag. 

“Didn’t sleep well?” he asked as he sat down.

“No,” she said on a yawn. “Might have slept on the plane too much.”

Louis smirked at her and shook his head, remembering how she’d turned pink, just slightly, at the drool marks she’d left on his shirt. “I think I had the opposite problem. Didn’t get enough sleep and then still woke with a start at five like I had somewhere to be.”

Gemma wrinkled her nose and opened the lid of a coffee cup, breathing in deeply. With steam curling around her lips, she said, “That sounds miserable.”

“It’s alright, I guess. Got these first thing, then gave Harry a call.”

She settled back in her seat, legs pulled up precariously so her feet hung off the edge and gave him a soft sort of smile. 

“I’m glad he has you,” she said like it was a secret, her smile turning conspiratorial. “He’s seemed more like himself this last year.”

The coffee was hot as he sipped it and he blamed that for the blush rising on his cheeks, but Gemma didn’t seem to be fooled. She sent a smirk his way. 

“And you think that’s on me?”

“Seems likely,” she teased, breaking off a piece of croissant with her fingers and popping it into her mouth. “You have been together for a year now. I’m not good at math, but…”

Louis shifted in his chair, thinking about the mess they made of the first six months they knew each other. The way he tripped, literally, head first into feelings for Harry that he couldn’t sort out what to do with for too long. 

Part of him wanted to tell her they didn’t start dating, for real, officially, until March. Just to see the look on her face. If she’d laugh about how dumb they’d been. If she’d joke about Harry taking him to meet the family before admitting he had feelings, the way they did sometimes in the dark of night, Harry’s voice warm in his ear across the distance between them. 

Instead, he said, “I feel more like myself too, if I’m being honest.”

He smiled down at the croissant in front of him and then took a large bite of the pastry. 

There was a pleased lilt to her face, like that’s what she’d been hoping to hear. “He said you got confirmed for next summer with the same firm?”

Louis nodded. “Yeah, it’s great news really. Next summer should really ensure me a job after graduation.”

“So you’ll move to Boston, then?”

The coffee was sharp against his tongue when he took another sip. After swallowing, he said, “Yeah, I really love the city. My best mate’s there too, which is nice.”

They ate in silence for a minute longer. The sun was rising higher in the sky and had started to bathe the living room in warm light, casting long shadows across the cream rug and couch. 

Finally, Gemma said, with her nose scrunched, “I have this urge to big sister you.” 

Louis snorted. “I have six younger siblings, but go ahead.”

She laughed lightly and rolled her eyes. “I just hope it’s something you guys have talked about, you know? Living your lives across the country from each other.”

They didn’t know how long it would be that Louis would be up in Massachusetts and Harry would be in Florida. Some of it depended on how the next two weeks went and some of it how next summer went. Both their futures laid out in front of them, pregnant with possibilities.

“We have,” Louis said, unbothered. Pulling his leg up on the chair so he could hug his knee, he looked calmly at Gemma. He knew where her concern was coming from and, for once, he didn’t mind it. “A lot actually. We feel really committed to making it work.”

“Well good. I think my mom’s ready to knit you and Harry matching sweaters or something so it’d be a shame if she never got to finish.”

Louis tossed his head back and laughed, the sound echoing through the quiet lounge. After a moment Gemma joined him and they giggled until the other bedroom door creaked open and a tired Anne and Robin joined them for breakfast.

𖤓

The heats went by in a rush, Harry easily qualifying to the final the following night. They had but ten minutes with him after the race before Team USA coordinators were rushing them off. Long enough for his family to each get a hug and Harry to run a teasing finger along the outside of his forearm, a trail of goosebumps rising like a wave behind it.

Louis wanted to pull him in for a kiss, yank him by his damp hair into a stall in the toilets and hold him there for hours. It had been over a month and the closest they could get, the closest Harry was comfortable with was a brush of their fingers and a heady sway forward before he corrected himself. It was alright, really, Louis didn’t mind. 

Then Harry was ushered off with a forlorn look back and the four of them had let out a chorus of relieved sighs. 

“Day one in the books,” Robin had said, hand pressed to his stomach over the blue Team USA shirt. “Who’s up for a late lunch?”

They ate on the pavement outside a cafe where Louis ordered all their food in French. 

Anne blushed a bit as he spoke and Gemma laughed loudly at the sight, causing the waiter to sigh in aggravation. Louis was sure he muttered, “Americans ,” under his breath while he walked away. 

“Does Harry know you can do that?” Gemma asked, a devilish look in her eye, as if she’d just learned something hilarious.

Louis rolled his eyes around laughter and said, “I’ve been teaching him a few phrases here and there, actually.”

“Oh I’d love to see that,” Anne said, sincerely, seemingly unaware of the look of delight on Gemma’s face.

“Maybe we can have him do the ordering when we sightsee,” Louis offered to her and then tossed a conspiratorial smirk Gemma’s way. Harry was going to give him the dirtiest pout for even suggesting it, but Louis couldn’t lie - he liked him pouting. 

After, they wandered the streets and Gemma covered her eyes every time that Anne excitedly shouted she could see the Eiffel Tower. 

“I told Harry we would see it together for the first time,” Gemma kept repeating, as Robin led her blindly by her elbow until a building blocked it from view again. Louis laughed with Anne about it, but it had him feeling soft all over for how much she loved her brother. How if Harry had asked him, he’d gladly be wandering in a blindfold with her. Just to see Harry’s eyes light up, the way his whole face would melt, the love blistering between them. 

The next morning, Louis woke too early and too anxious to go back to sleep. The light was barely filtering in through the windows when he rifled through all the storage in the kitchen to pull out pots and pans for breakfast. Slowly he cooked a bit of everything they had - eggs, sausages, thin crêpes stuffed with strawberries and cream. When the scent of coffee had filled the room and he was piling some hastily made eggy toast onto a plate, the door to Anne and Robin’s room opened and they came out in matching robes. 

“Something smells divine,” Anne said, sidling up to him in the kitchen and peering over where he had strawberries simmering down on the hob into a sauce. “You must have been up since dawn.”

Louis blinked up to the living room, which had the sun shining bright through the windows now and finally noticed how much food he’d actually made. 

Sheepishly, he said, “I woke up early.”

“Well, I’m not complaining.” She squeezed his shoulder and then grabbed a stack of plates from the cupboard. “Let me go wake up Gemma. She’ll sleep the day away if you let her.”

Robin took the plates from her and set them next to the food Louis had prepared before pouring four identical mugs of coffee. As Anne and Gemma came back, Louis was pulling the strawberry sauce off the heat. Stepping back from the hob, he realized it was the first time in hours he’d taken time to think. He’d focused on cooking the way he usually did when he studied, with blinders on. It had been the perfect distraction for the anxious energy running through him. 

But now, as everyone filled their plate and ate with enthusiasm, everything started to creep back in. He pushed around a forkful of eggs for ages before scraping most of his plate into the bin. 

The rest of the morning passed with an infuriating unhurriedness. Harry’s race wasn’t until the evening and they didn’t have tickets for any of the other events that day. Anne took to knitting in the sun and Robin turned on a cricket match he didn’t understand the rules to. Louis spent a half hour trying to explain them, but it had been so long since he’d played as a school boy that his memory was a little too rusty. 

He was starting to wish he had some reading to do, a test to study for. Something to keep his mind properly occupied. 

Finally, he clapped his hands on his knees and stood. “I think I’ll go take a walk. Get some fresh air or something.”

Anne waved him off and Robin was too engrossed in the match to even look up. But Gemma got out of her chair and said, “I’ll come with you.”

It wasn’t until they were a block and a half away from the flat and breathing in the overly sweet florals from the garden next to them, that Gemma said, “Race mornings suck, huh?”

Louis let out an awkward laugh and ran a hand through his hair, like just acknowledging it was a bit of tension relief. “They really do. I didn’t know if it was just me, since I’m still new to it all.”

“No, we all feel it, but mom and Robin have a whole routine about it. Distraction is key.” Gemma squinted over at him in the sunlight and then looped their arms together. “You’ll find your thing.”

Louis blew out a breath, his fringe rising with the force of it. “It’s hard wanting something so much for someone else and having no control over the outcome.”

“I think it’s almost worse being in the stands,” she laughed, shaking her head. “It calls for a lot of faith.”

“Yeah,” Louis said, looking straight ahead at the sidewalk and knew if he had faith in anyone it would be Harry. But still, he pictured Harry touching the wall, a smile on his face. Envisioned it so clearly, so surely, that it had to come true. If he believed, if Harry believed, they could do anything. 

After the race, once their voices were sore and his hands had fingernail dents from how tightly Gemma clung to him and they’d watched with arms around each other as a bronze medal was hung around Harry’s neck with an American flag waving gently behind him, he walked back to the flat with Gemma. Nearly a mirror image to that morning, but this time they could barely speak, barely walk straight with their giddiness. 

“I can’t believe he didn’t cry,” Gemma said, skipping across the pavement. “I would have put money on it.”

“I’m sure he will the minute he sees your mum,” Louis offered. Anne and Robin had stayed back to wait for Harry to finish with press and treatment. He was heading back with them to the flat for the night, they’d been prepared to celebrate together no matter what. Either he medaled or he didn’t, but he still swam in an Olympic final and that was an achievement. 

“Well let’s hope someone gets it on camera for us,” Gemma laughed, tugging on his arm as they crossed the street behind a passing car. It was a warm night, only a Tuesday, but the city was so bursting with tourists for the games that they dodged people at every turn. The cafes and restaurants were all spilled out onto the street and cheerful chatter in too many languages to track trailed them all the way back to the flat.

Once inside, they opened all the windows in the living area and Gemma started pulling champagne flutes out of the cupboard. The lights were dimmed and yellow, casting long shadows in the room while Louis queued up a vinyl to play on the record player. From the other room he heard the champagne bottle pop. 

Gemma had all the fruit pulled out of the fridge and finished pouring the last of five flutes, all of them nearly to the rim.

“We’re celebrating,” she reasoned. 

Louis held his hands up in front of him and cracked a smile. “I was just thinking maybe we should have gotten another bottle.”

“We already bought three.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes, looking so much like Harry in the motion that a pang rang through him. The brief moment they’d shared the other day hadn’t been enough and his whole body vibrated with wanting to be close to him.

There was a sound behind him and he turned just in time to watch the front door open. Robin stepped in first, with Anne behind him, cheeks flushed and head still turned to watch her son trail in last. 

Harry’s hair was still damp, curling endearingly around his ears and leaving the collar of his shirt a bit darker from where it had dripped. His eyes flicked to Gemma first, face transforming into a childish grin, before meeting Louis’ and going buttery soft. Surely Gemma had seen, surely she was ready to make a retching noise, but he didn’t care at all. 

Louis bit the inside of his lip, but a smile still tugged at it. A flash went by and then Gemma had pulled Harry into a hug. They were talking so quietly to each other that Louis couldn’t hear, but Anne wiped her eyes as she stepped farther into the flat. 

“Did you find each other alright?” Louis asked, turning towards Anne, but still watching the way Harry’s eyes scrunched closed against Gemma’s shoulder, the way they swayed together slightly. Something in his chest was trying to tug him forward, but he stayed rooted to the same place.

“It was a madhouse in there! But he spotted Robin’s shirt.” She laughed airily and waved her hand. Robin was in an electric orange shirt that had the Olympic rings on it with cartoon gators between each one. It was garish and ridiculous and Louis isn’t too proud to admit he had a giggle about it when Robin walked out with it on. Gemma’s grumbling made it all the more funny. 

“It is hard to miss,” Louis acquiesced.

She shook her head with a fond smile and plucked a glass off the worktop. Popping a strawberry right down into the bottom of it she then held it up, “Cheers to my baby making all his dreams come true.”

Gemma and Harry pulled apart, their eyes glossier than before and cheeks pink, but laughter on their lips. 

“I’ll drink to that,” Robin said, moving over to them to grab a glass of his own. Louis stepped to the side and then forward, eyes trained on Harry across the room. 

His lips pursed around a smile he seemed to be struggling to contain and Louis nearly tripped over his own feet as they fell into a tight hug. The noise of glasses clinking together, the music lilting through the room, the street outside - all dimmed. It was just the two strong hands gripping his back, the scent of chlorine swirling around him and the softest sigh in his ear. It felt like coming home. 

“ My baby ,” Louis whispered into Harry’s neck, closing his eyes tightly into the embrace. Harry squeezed him closer and Louis could feel him nodding into his throat before he kissed him gently behind the ear. 

“I love you,” Harry mumbled into his shoulder.

He tried to move closer, but they were already pressed together from cheek to where their ankles were tangled precariously together. “Me too, me too.”

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered, just for Louis’ ears. They swayed slightly, like a delicate dance to the distilled noise around them. 

“Oh, darling. Sunshine.” Louis rubbed at his back, the heat of Harry’s skin radiating through his shirt. There was a stinging in his eyes he was trying to ignore, so instead he pressed his nose right into Harry’s throat. If there was a way to meld them together, in that moment he’d take it. 

He kissed gently at his neck, then his cheek. After, he held himself there and breathed Harry in, eyes still closed and lived in the moment for a second longer.

The hands on his back tightened, then loosened and they stepped apart. 

“Let’s see the hardware then,” Louis joked, resisting the urge to run a hand up Harry’s arm and tangle in the drying curls around his jaw.

Harry’s cheeks turned the loveliest shade of pink as he unzipped his backpack to pull out the bronze medal. It was heavier than he expected when Harry handed it to him.

They passed it around and then Anne made a toast with the medal gripped in one hand and the champagne flute in the other. A hum of pride, excitement, of lives changing hung in the room between them. They couldn’t skirt around it, just bask in it, really sit with what had just been achieved. 

They finished the first bottle before they left the kitchen. Harry popped the next one and bubbles ran down the side of his hand before splashing onto the floor. It felt like time was passing in flashes. Harry’s teeth white and tongue pink as he licked the champagne off his hand. Gemma’s laughter was like music as it trailed in between rooms. The taste of the spaghetti Louis cooked for Harry when he picked up slippery pieces between his fingers off Harry’s plate. 

Pressed right against Harry’s side on the rug in the living room, they played a messy game of scrabble before opening the third bottle. Gemma flipped the vinyl each time the arm reset, French love songs meandering around the room that had him looking at Harry and feeling like he might burst. 

When the champagne was gone, Robin and Anne got up to go to bed. He followed Gemma into their shared room while Harry went to take a shower. 

“No funny business right?” Gemma asked as she flopped back onto the double bed. There was barely a foot between their beds, just enough for a small table with a contemporary lamp casting yellow light in the room.

Louis snorted, rooting around in his suitcase for a change of clothes. When he spoke, it was soaked in sarcasm. “Oh, I don’t know. The room is so large it’ll just be so tempting. The privacy is overwhelming.”

He didn’t have to look to know she’d rolled her eyes. 

Standing up with the clothes in hand, he moved to the bathroom. Through the door he could hear the shower running, so he knocked gently before pushing it open. 

Inside the room was steamy. Most of it was taken up by the bathtub, where Harry was running the hand sprayer over his body. The door closing must have caught Harry’s eye because he looked up to Louis and his hand stalled with the water cascading down his chest.

Louis sat dumbly on the closed toilet lid and watched. His mouth had gone dry at the sight of Harry’s naked body, glittering where the water clung to his skin. In all the ways Louis wished he was clinging to his skin. 

“Are you gonna join me?” Harry asked, eyes locked to Louis, the weight of his gaze heavy where it landed. 

He wanted to strip off his clothes, climb into the warm mist surrounding Harry’s body, touch his skin, kiss his chest, fall to his knees. But, but, but. 

“No,” Louis said, sitting back further, planting his feet on the tile floor. His heart was hammering in his chest and he could feel himself start to sweat. “Not tonight, baby.”

Harry blew out a breath and Louis watched the rise and fall of his chest. Watched as he washed the rest of his body, tugged at his hardening cock, but didn’t get off. Watched as his hands rubbed all over his wet body and wished they were his own. 

His own joggers were tight by the time Harry turned off the water and wrapped himself up in a towel. It was as if until his body was covered, Louis hadn’t even been able to think properly. Because once the towel was around Harry’s waist, he snapped back into consciousness. 

“Tell me about the meet,” Louis said, putting his elbows on his knees and ignoring the ache in his cock. 

While Harry spoke, Louis leaned against the sink basin and listened. He rushed through morning workout, the ready room, how it felt to have his name called and see the stands. How he looked for them in the crowd and was almost certain he’d seen Robin’s shirt. The feel of the water, how clear his mind had been. 

“I listened to your voicemail twice before the meet, just to get in the right headspace.”

Louis’ mouth parted as if to say the word baby but nothing came out. 

“Both of them, if I’m honest.” Harry rubbed the towel through his hair and smiled warmly over to him. “They give me a lot of peace. You give me a lot of peace.”

It froze him in place, his heartbeat so rapid he swore he could hear it echoing off the tiles on the floor. He gripped the clothes tightly in his hands and tried to think of something to say other than how much he loved him, but his brain wasn’t working. Like Harry’s naked body, his words, the steam clogging the room were all clogging his brain as well. 

When Harry dropped his towel to the bathroom floor, Louis held out the clothes and watched as he dressed slowly. 

“Aren’t these my boxers?” Harry asked, tugging a pair of sweat shorts over them. Louis stood and stepped into his space, slipping an arm around Harry’s waist and kissed him properly for the first time in a month.

His lips were still warm from the shower and Louis could smell his own bath products wafting off Harry’s skin. It was just a short kiss, barely anything, but it was sweet enough to bring some life back into him. 

Louis slipped a hand along Harry’s waistband and then tugged at the tight elastic of his pants. “You sacrificed these to my bedroom floor. That means they’re mine.”

Swaying forward, Harry caught his jaw and kissed him again. Sparks ran down his spine and lit his whole body up in goosebumps. 

With his lips against Louis’, Harry whispered, “Yours.”

Louis pulled him closer, until Harry’s arse was pressed against the sink and his tongue was in his mouth. Until they were both breathless, their hands roaming all over each other and inside clothing. 

When they finally pulled apart, Louis leaned his head onto Harry’s bare shoulder and tried to convince himself to step back. Gemma was still on the other side of the door. 

“We should go to bed,” Louis said, voice gone raspy. 

Harry hummed and kissed the side of his head, right above his ear. “Your hand’s still in my underwear.”

Laughing lightly, he squeezed his arse once more before slipping it out. 

“Thought we agreed, they were mine.”

“The boxers, me, anything you want, Lou.”

Louis lifted his head off Harry’s shoulders and smiled at him. “Me too, sunshine. Anything, everything.”

They kissed once more before leaving the bathroom. Gemma was sitting up in bed with her iPad propped in her lap and a scrupulous look on her face. She watched as they climbed over each other into the bed, Louis all the way against the wall and Harry turned on his side to face his sister. 

They chatted for a few minutes before Gemma put her tablet down and turned out the light. Through the open window he could still hear the distant sounds of cars on the street below and sporadic bursts of laughter. Louis slipped an arm over Harry’s waist and snuggled in close behind him, feeling the sun on his chest and closing his eyes to the gloriousness of it after so long.

“Did you know when we were kids-” Gemma started, her voice cutting through the dark. Harry let out a groan and twisted under Louis’ arm to press his face into the pillow. She barreled on, ignoring him. “We lived in this little two bedroom condo by the beach, which meant Harry and I shared a room until he was like three or so. When we moved inland, we got a bigger house, but Harry would still sneak into my bedroom every night.”

“Did you do that?” Louis laughed, close to Harry’s ear. He was certain he could feel heat radiating off his ears, like he was burning red in a blush cloaked by darkness.

“I hate this story,” Harry grumbled, snuggling back further into his chest. 

Gemma laughed loudly. “He’d drag his blanket behind him and be clutching his stuffed bunny-”

“What was its name?” Louis interrupted, delighted by this vision of a younger Harry. 

“Mr. Fluffy,” Harry said reluctantly. Louis squeezed his hip under the covers and then slipped his hand underneath the borrowed t-shirt to press against his stomach.

“He’d curl up at the end of my bed because he missed me so much. Dad would come in and take him back to his room and an hour later he’d come trailing back in.” Louis could hear the smile in her voice, the fondness of the memory. “Finally mom just moved his bed in with mine. We shared the room for another couple years or so before he finally decided he could be on his own.”

Harry was quiet next to him, but Louis could tell he wasn’t asleep. Maybe he was living in that memory too, the nostalgic burn for something you once had.

“I used to wake up with one of my sisters in my bed every morning,” Louis offered, skimming his hand up to Harry’s peck and settling it over his heart. “Still do, honestly. Phoebe and Daisy set the air mattress up in my room at Christmas and we had a sleepover for, like, four days.”

Harry’s hand slid up next to his under his shirt and laced together, both of them pressed right over his heart. 

Louis added, “It’s nice to know you’re loved like that, you know? That you’re someone’s favorite.”

“Seems like my kid sibling has a new favorite nowadays,” she teased. 

Harry moved his arms, sitting halfway up so the light from the window shone onto him. “I’ll sleep with you if you’re feeling neglected, Gems.”

She laughed loudly, the sounds of sheets rustling filling the room and Harry settled back down under his arm, like he already knew she’d turn him down. 

“No, you sleep too hot.”

Harry let out a huff, but snuggled back into Louis’ chest. He was radiating so much warmth.

“Like the sun,” Louis agreed, smiling into the back of Harry’s neck and kissing between the strands of hair. He pulled him in as close as he could and closed his eyes to the heat of him. 

𖤓

In the morning they had breakfast at a wrought iron table outside a cafe down the block from their flat. Louis kept an eye on Harry, leaned back with his face tipped up in the sunlight as he ordered their meals in French, only bristling a little as the waiter responded back to him in condescending English. 

“Why do they do that?” Anne asked, sipping her coffee. 

“Because they hate tourists,” Louis said easily. “People were much nicer about it when I studied in Lyon, but Parisians are something else.”

She scrunched her nose, but Harry pressed his foot against Louis’ under the table and met his eyes with a calm smile. 

Afterwards they walked towards the Eiffel Tower, Harry and Gemma with their arms linked and dragging each other forward with every glimpse between buildings.

Out front, he took more than one horrible perspective photo of Harry holding the tower up. He kept coming back to check the screen of Louis’ phone between pictures, just to make sure they looked how he wanted. It had Louis so bemused, so endeared, that he took a couple extra for himself. Ones where it was wildly off, where Harry was frowning ridiculously at his outstretched hand or fully cheesing, ridiculous in Louis’ clothes and Louis’ spare sunglasses. 

Then, he took a few of the whole family. Laughing as Harry pinched Gemma’s ear and Anne sent them both glares. Feeling a pang in his chest for his own family, who were so close distance wise, but he was still months away from seeing them. 

“Come in for one,” Anne called, waving him forward. “Harry has long arms, I’m sure he can get us all in.”

Louis stepped forward and then Harry pulled him into his chest, hooking his chin over Louis’ shoulder and extending his phone out. They all five crowded in and by the time he snapped the photo they were all laughing. 

After waiting in a long queue, where his fingertips kept brushing against Harry’s but not committing to holding his hand, not yet, they took a lift to the top of the tower. Louis had been once before, when they’d come to Paris for a school trip in year twelve. But it was better now, circling the platform with Harry, pointing out buildings to him and looking out over the city. 

Harry crowded in behind him, his chest pressed right to Louis’ back as they peered out through the grate. 

“Paris is the City of Love,” Harry said quietly, his fingers dancing on the handrail in front of them. 

Louis smiled out to the city below and said, “It’s actually the City of Lights.”

“Lou,” Harry scoffed, kissing him quickly on the neck. “We’re in the city, we’re in love.”

Louis closed his eyes, sinking into the moment. More exhilarating, more special than the view. “Yeah, sunshine. You’re right.”

𖤓

Harry’s next final wasn’t until Sunday. He sailed through the heat on Saturday with ease, finishing third overall. In the days leading up to it, Louis explored the city with Harry’s family. Harry joined them when he could between training and press, but his schedule didn’t leave a lot of space. It was hard not to ache for him when they were in the same city, but unable to even really reach for each other. 

He felt lucky that he got on with Harry’s family so well. They had been together for more than a week now. Anne was working on a pair of socks for him, showing him as she changed stitches and let him choose from the yarn she’d brought with her. Him and Robin had moved on from cricket to rugby and he at least felt more confident in the rules on that one. Then there was Gemma, who he’d formed a quick friendship with. They tossed barbs back and forth all day and then at night, reading quietly in their beds. Quickly comfortable in a way that felt incredibly rare.

Harry’s race was second of the night, following the women’s 50m free. It was the same schedule as Olympic Trials and it felt like a weird sort of déjà vu. 

The arena was only half full for the four events that afternoon and their seats were fairly close to the pool. A tone went over the speakers and next to him Gemma shifted on her feet.

“Fuck me, it’s starting.”

Louis’ heart rate sped up. There was still surely twenty minutes from now until the race was over, but still the nerves climbed higher and higher. 

The announcer started to speak as the swimmer in lane eight walked out of the tunnel, first in French and then in cheerful automated sounding English. The screen at the back of the walkway changed for each swimmer, cycling through the flags of their home countries until, finally, it changed to an American flag. 

“In lane three, Harry Styles of the United States of America.”

Harry had his goggles over his cap, which was bright white and said USA on the side of it in blue. He had a long puffer coat on down past his knees and underneath a pair of matching sweats. There was a focused look on his face as he walked to his lane and adjusted the fin on the block to make sure it was set. Afterwards, he panned the crowd, sweeping right by their section without properly seeing them before turning back to the seat behind his lane. 

He closed his eyes for a moment, surely listening to whatever was playing through his headphones. Most likely Louis’ own voice, his words. Saying how much he believed in Harry. How beautiful in the water he was. How proud of him Louis was. 

When they opened again, Harry pulled off his headphones and then stripped down to just his swim suit. Everyone was starting to line up behind the blocks now, jumping in place and shaking out their limbs. The whistle blew a moment later and all eight men climbed up.

“I might throw up,” Louis muttered, eyes not daring to leave the pool. 

“Same,” Gemma said, but much more cheerfully. Like even though it was nerve wracking, she was feeding off of it.

They all bent forward into the starting position and Louis watched the curve of Harry’s back as he took a deep breath. As all his muscles tightened. 

As they released a moment later when the tone went and his body arced beautifully into the water. He popped up at the 25 meter mark at the same time as Bobby Finke in lane four and they stayed even through the first turn. Then the second. 

“He looks good today,” Gemma said under her breath, as if saying it too loud might jinx it.

Harry’s arms sliced through the water in even strokes, calm despite the race happening around him. He was kicking lightly, only every couple of strokes. The pack of them had started to separate and Harry hung on with the favorites. 

By the halfway point it was just three of them together. Harry was half a body's length behind Bobby and about dead even with the swimmer in lane five. 

Gemma wrenched Louis’ hand out from where his arms were folded over his chest and gripped it tightly. “Two medals would be crazy right?” 

“Insane,” Louis agreed, feeling his pulse jump from just the thought.

Two seats down from him, he could hear Robin cheering, could so clearly imagine his hand in the air, the same orange t-shirt from the last race, for luck of course, over his chest. Anne always watched with a hand over her mouth, like she was too shocked or too nervous to even speak. To react at all. 

The race pushed on past ten minutes and Louis shifted on his feet. The three swimmers had separated themselves by nearly a length of the pool. Harry’s stroke was still even and fluid. He hung just off Bobby’s feet, the swimmer in lane five already starting to push at Bobby for the lead. 

He wanted to know what was going through his head. What his strategy was. There had to be some advantage about chasing down someone he trained with every day. Surely Harry had thought all of that out, but there was nothing antsy about him, no hesitancy in his swim. 

Minutes more passed and Louis watched in quick succession as Bobby increased his speed and then Harry. They kicked into the turn, both pulling a long underwater and popping up one after another. Harry hung just off Bobby’s knee now with only one hundred meters to go. 

“Fuck me,” Louis cursed and Gemma dug her nails into his skin.

“Is he-” Gemma started and then clamped her mouth shut.

Their kick increased and Louis held his breath into the final turn. The swimmer in lane five had fallen off a bit, having pushed too much too early. But Harry hung just off Bobby’s shoulders as they sped through the last fifty. 

Horns were blasting in the arena and the crowd had started to lose its mind a bit. The American swim team, sitting several sections over from them, were so loud it nearly pulled Louis’ eyes off the pool. 

With every five meters the gap closed more and more.

Until they were twenty five meters from the wall and Harry’s next stroke pushed him just slightly ahead. 

And ahead.

And ahead.

All the way into the wall. 

Louis was stunned. In the pool, Harry seemed the same. Both of them frozen an arena apart. Until Gemma jumped and jostled him. Until Harry turned sharply to the scoreboard and then ripped off his goggles and cap in rapid succession. 

His face broke into the most gorgeous, glorious grin and tears stung in Louis’ eyes. 

“Oh my fucking God!” Gemma screamed in his ear. 

Bobby swam over the divider and clapped Harry on the shoulder, smiling, and Louis watched on the big screen where the camera showed them laughing, Harry shaking his head in disbelief, and then hugged Bobby quickly. 

Harry turned to get out of the pool, so Louis finally looked away. Gemma and Anne were embracing and behind them Robin had his fingers in his mouth sending a loud whistle through the arena. Louis could barely hear the noise, his pulse was rushing so loud in his ears.

When he reached out for Gemma’s shoulder, he realized his hands were shaking. She half turned from her mum and pulled him into the hug with them. Their bodies all shook in tandem - laughter, tears, joy coursing through all of them. 

“Did that really just happen?” Anne said in disbelief.

His phone was buzzing nonstop in his pocket, but he didn’t bother to look. This was a moment he wanted to live in for as long as he could and all the well wishes and exclamations could wait a bit.

Over the speaker system, the announcer said, “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for the American in lane three and gold medalist in the 1500m individual freestyle - Harry Styles!”

They pulled apart and clapped loudly, the arena joining in. Harry was on the deck, a camera man walking backwards to keep him in frame as he was ushered towards the media. The image was on the big screens in the stadium - his charming smile wide on his face, dimples deep set in his cheeks, and curly hair flopping adorably on his forehead. 

Louis was so in love. So overwhelmed with pride. Bursting with it.

Not ten minutes later he watched the flags rise over the podium and the announcer came on to say, first in French, then in English, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the victory ceremony for the men’s 1500m individual freestyle.”

Reaching around Gemma’s back, Louis squeezed Anne’s shoulder.

From the tunnel, the three men walked out in order with Harry in the middle. 

“Please welcome the medalists,” called out through the arena. 

They stopped behind their respective podiums. Harry’s lips were quirked in a smile he was trying desperately to repress and his hair was half tied up in a little bun at the back of his head. He was outfitted in a blue tracksuit, the Team USA logo patched on in multiple places on the jacket and joggers. It was the second time he’d worn it and when he’d been fitted for the look he’d laughed to Louis over the phone, “ I’m not going to need them, but it’s nice to get it anyway .”

They announced the presenters and then the bronze medalist, who pressed the medal against his stomach and waved to the crowd. Bobby went next and once he was standing with a silver medal in his hand and a small bouquet of flowers in the other, Louis’ palms started to sweat. 

Harry was standing behind the podium with his arms behind his back, nervously adjusting his feet and his eyes kept scanning the crowd. Looking for them, Louis hoped.

The announcer started speaking in French and Louis closed his eyes with a pleased smile at the words before they broadcasted in English. 

“Gold medalist and the Olympic Champion, from the United States of America, Harry Styles!”

He opened his eyes to watch Harry step onto the podium, waving both hands in the air as the crowd cheered. Harry had worked his whole life for this moment. A dream that a year ago he hadn’t even believed would come true. Louis blinked tears away rapidly and watched the joy on Harry’s face. Lighting the whole room up. 

Harry bent forward and the gold medal was placed around his neck. He shook hands with the official before the second one handed him flowers. Straightening to his full height, he posed for several pictures, smiling so widely that Louis could hardly see his eyes. 

The national anthem started playing and Harry’s hand pressed flat over his chest while he looked at the flag. Louis wondered what was going through his head, if he was thinking of the years of hard work, the people who helped him get there, his dad. Or if it was relief, pride, ecstasy. Maybe it was all of them in one. 

Next to him, he could hear Gemma singing along under her breath. Louis didn’t know the words, didn’t care to, really, didn’t care about anything in that moment other than the blush high on Harry’s cheek and the watery look in his eyes. 

When the song ended, the medalists were paraded off the podium and the next event was set to start. 

“Do you think we have to wait long?” Louis asked.

It was too long in the end. Turns out winning a gold medal leads a lot of people wanting to talk to you. 

Ages after the rest of the races ended, the four of them stood loitering in the concourse. Harry had texted Louis fifteen minutes earlier that he was almost done, which he’d read out to Harry’s family. The rest of the text he’d kept for himself.

Harry: I should be out in fifteen

Harry: Come back to the village with me. I miss you.

Louis’ mouth had gone dry at the thought. He’d not bothered texting back, there was nothing to say. It was obvious what his answer would be. 

Harry finally walked out from behind a curtained off area, back in his own joggers and Team USA t-shirt with his backpack over his shoulder. He went straight into his mum’s arms, then they pulled Robin in. Gemma scoffed lightly next to him, like she was jealous, but when he looked over, she looked like she might cry. 

“Now who’s bringing the water works, hm?” Louis teased her. 

“Fuck off.” She swatted his arm and then used the same hand to wipe at the corner of her eye. “I saw you tearing up during the medal ceremony and didn’t say anything.”

Louis let out a loud squawk of protest, but she ignored him. Instead, Gemma weaseled her way into the family group hug and then somehow claimed Harry just for herself, picking him up slightly and spinning him until they were both laughing. 

When they finally parted, Harry slung an arm over her shoulder with a playful smile on his face directed right at Louis. It set off a riot in his chest that he welcomed wholeheartedly. 

“I wanted to show Louis around the Athlete Village tonight,” Harry said easily, holding Louis’ gaze for a moment longer before meeting his mum’s eyes. “We can all meet up for breakfast in the morning?”

“Alright, honey,” Anne said, pulling him in for a hug. 

Gemma turned to him and wiggled her eyebrows. Louis flipped her off. 

Then Harry was next to him and Louis very nearly swayed into him, but caught himself. Harry touched his back gently, guiding him forward and then dropped his hand altogether. They left the arena quickly and moved towards the queue for the bus. There weren’t a lot of people waiting and it arrived only a few minutes later. 

While they rode back to the village, Harry asked, “Did you want to go out? They have parties, like, every night.”

“No,” Louis said simply. “Unless you want to celebrate.”

“The only person I want to celebrate with is you.”

Louis ran his pinky along the outside of Harry’s hand, watched a smile play on his lips and sat back in on the bus seat, pleased. 

They passed through security, getting a temporary badge for Louis, before walking quickly to Harry’s building. Despite it being a Sunday night, the village was buzzing. 

“It’s always like this,” Harry explained. “It’s really fucking cool, I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

Any other time, Louis would have wanted to explore. To see it all. But images of Harry naked in the shower the other night and knowing how long it had been since he’d gotten his mouth on him, properly at least, well he couldn’t even think twice about what was happening around them.

They took the lift to the fifth floor of Harry’s building. It was getting harder and harder to keep distance between them. Every couple of minutes they moved inches closer to each other. Now their shoulders were touching and Louis could feel the addictive heat of Harry’s body through their thin t-shirts. 

“Your roommate is gone?”

Harry’s head rolled along the wall to look over to him, a grin already on his lips. “I told you he was on the golf team right? I laughed when they told me my room assignment.”

“You just have a thing for golfers, huh, baby?” 

Harry’s face bloomed, dimples dipping deep. “Can’t resist them, really.”

Louis’ tongue teased at the middle of his bottom lip and Harry’s eyes tracked the movement. 

“So, he’s left?”

Humming, Harry said, “Didn’t even make the cut, so he flew out this morning.”

“Shame,” Louis said, sounding like he thought it was anything but. 

They got off on Harry’s floor and walked quickly to his room, slamming their way inside and back against the closing door with their bodies already tight together. 

Harry’s mouth was hot against his, right from the start. A month’s worth of tension built up between them with nowhere to put it. All that adrenaline coursing through Harry needing an outlet. He chose Louis. 

Throwing an arm over Harry’s shoulder, Louis pulled himself as close as possible. Half climbing his body and half tugging him down in a way that was surely uncomfortable. His hands ran around Louis’ hips and gripped so low on his back his fingertips were pressing into the top of his arse. 

Strands of hair slipped between Louis’ fingers and he tugged on them gently, cherishing the rumbling groan from Harry’s chest. 

They parted with a slick sound. Louis kissed briefly at his cheek and breathed him in.

“I’ve missed you so much.”

“Me too, Lou,” Harry said, tucking his head into Louis’ neck and spinning them into the room, still fully entwined. 

Louis held on, trusting Harry to guide them through the space. “You swam so well, baby. Just stunning to watch.”

“I wanted to make you proud.”

“You did, you do. Every single day. I’ve never been more proud of anyone.” They stopped moving and Louis kissed his cheek again, lingering for a moment, before whispering. “My sunshine, my brightest star. I love you so much.”

Harry leaned his forehead against Louis’ his eyes closed. “I love you too, it runs through everything.”

With just a tilt of his chin, Louis reconnected their lips. They shed their clothes slowly, trailing lips and fingers across every bit of exposed skin. Once they were naked, Harry sat on the single bed and Louis hovered between his open legs, still standing. 

“Seems criminal to finally have you again on a bed this small.”

Harry laughed, leaned back on his hands, his head just inches from the wall. “Well you’d know all about that.”

Shaking his head, Louis placed his hands on his bare hips, looking down at Harry fondly. His love, his baby, spread out in front of him in all his shameless beauty. But something was missing. 

“You didn’t show me your medal, sunshine.”

Harry inhaled a sharp breath, cheeks going pink under the fluorescent lighting. “Now?”

“I want to see them on you.”

Harry leaned around him, a hand curving gently around Louis’ thigh to steady him still between his legs, and grabbed his backpack where it was on the floor at the foot of the bed. From inside, he grabbed two cases that looked like mini trunks. When he flipped the tops off, on a bed of velvet were his medals. They glowed even in the poor lighting of his dorm room. 

Gently taking the bronze medal case from Harry’s hand, Louis pulled it out. He’d held it briefly the week before, but it felt different in his hands as he lifted it over Harry’s head. Like it weighed more, it was becoming something new to him entirely. Carefully he spread the ribbons around his neck, then pressed the medal to Harry’s chest. A gasp fell from Harry’s lips and Louis looked up to see him looking down at the connection, lips red and open. 

Louis placed the box on his nightstand and took the other from his hands, slipping into Harry’s lap. His hands came up to rest on Louis’ bare thighs, tickling the hair there and then curving around to grip is arse lightly. 

“You’re so…” Louis started, voice dripping with admiration. Placing the second medal over his head, he arranged it in front of the other. He watched them sway for a moment before settling against Harry’s bare stomach, his cock curving up to nearly hit the bottom of them. The glint of them, the tan of Harry’s skin, the warmth radiating off of him. “So golden.”

Harry gripped the sides of his face and pulled him in for a rough kiss. Shuffling forward as close as he could, the medals warmed between their bellies while they kissed, growing hot to the touch from how much heat was rolling off them. 

“What do you want?” Louis asked, pecking over his bottom lip and cheek. 

“The season’s over,” Harry said, slipping a hand down Louis’ chest and tugging lightly at his hard cock. 

Louis leaned back to meet his eyes and then grinned at the laughter gracing the edges of them. Brushing a finger over Harry’s lip, he said, “You’ve been waiting a long time, huh?”

Tingles raced up his arm as Harry’s tongue came out to brush against his finger and Louis watched the movement with wide eyes. He was impossibly turned on, so hard he might come the minute he gets in Harry.

The lube was grabbed from his bedside table and then Louis was sitting up with his back against the wall and Harry hovered over his lap, the medals swaying between them. With lube on his fingers, he reached behind and teased a finger at Harry’s entrance. 

Their lips reconnected and he slipped the first one inside, opening him up hurriedly. It wasn’t long at all until he had a second finger scissoring him open. Harry was panting into his mouth, getting his face messy with spit and humid air. It had been so long since he’d had Harry squirming over him, since the beginning of May, and all the Facetime calls in the world where he watched Harry’s face screw up, his cheeks and chest turn ruddy with pleasure would never compare to the real thing. 

“C’mon, c’mon,” Harry hurried him, shifting his hips back against Louis’ hand and then knocked his arm away. “I’m ready.”

Louis rolled on a condom, dropping the wrapper over the side of the bed just to see Harry smile and leaned back. Harry hovered over him for a second, legs spread wide and cock standing firm in front of him. 

Then he fitted himself over Louis’ cock and sank down with a breathy moan. Louis ran his hands over Harry’s shaved legs, marveling at how soft they were, wishing he’d been the one to run a razor over them, and then up to his waist. A hand curled into the hair at the nape of his neck, tugging lightly as Harry adjusted. 

“My legs might give out halfway through,” Harry said as he rose up and sank back down, for the first toe curling grind.

Louis bucked his hips lightly, grinning as he said, “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Smiling down at him, Harry arched his back and moved his hips faster. The medals swayed against his belly, clinking as they shifted over each other, slipping on the skin of his abdomen. He looked like a dream, like if Louis pinched himself he’d wake up sweating in his sheets back in Boston, reaching for a Harry that wasn’t there. 

But then, Harry moaned prettily, clenched around his cock and Louis’ mind muddled with pleasure.

They moved together slowly. He let Harry set the pace and he was unhurried. It had been nearly a year since they’d been together this way and the way he was moving showed he wanted to savor it. Languid rolls of his hips, short breathy moans punched from his lips every other movement. Louis watched with rapt attention. He could be there all night letting Harry pull pleasure from his body. 

Harry hunched forward to kiss him, lips slick and tongue warm as it slipped right into his mouth. It was a heady thing and Louis’ grip on the softest part of his hips had him feeling like he was just holding on. 

Fingernails scraped down his chest, tweaked his nipple and had his hips jumping. A loud moan fell from Harry’s lips, which had Louis thrusting roughly at the same spot to hear another long whine tumble out. 

“You want the whole place to hear you, baby?” Louis teased, squeezing his hip and then skimming a hand around his arse to grip at it.

“Don’t give a fuck.” Harry shook his head and his thrusts slowed to a solid grind. Louis knew Harry’s legs were tiring, but it felt so good to have his hips rolling, his cock brushing Louis’ stomach, lips right there to be sucked on. 

The hand on his arse moved lower and he rubbed a finger on Harry’s rim where it was stretched from his cock. He imagined how pretty it looked, spread wide, pink and glistening in the light. Harry’s mouth pulled from his on a moan and he breathed wetly against Louis’ forehead. 

Moving to grip Harry’s lower back as tightly as he could, he turned to the side and carried Harry down to the mattress. He slipped almost all the way out, cradling Harry’s hips on the top of his thighs, while he knelt on the mattress.

The medals slipped down his chest and caught on his collarbones, reflecting light onto his face. It was a stunning image, everything soft in the poor lighting and the haze in his head. As if liquid gold was collaring him. 

Louis ran a hand around them, two half moons, while just the very tip of his cock hung inside Harry’s arse. 

“Are they bothering you?” Louis asked. Harry blinked several times and then tucked his chin, catching on the outer rim and his mouth twitched. “We can take them off, baby.”

Harry let out a breath and then, voice rough, said, “Yeah.”

Leaning forward, he pushed back into Harry, but it was more to get closer to him than for the pleasure of it. Then he lifted the medals off one after the other, placing them carefully on Harry’s nightstand so they wouldn’t be knocked off. 

When he turned back to Harry, he was looking up at him with wide eyes. 

“What?”

“Nothing,” Harry said, running a hand down Louis’ arm to his wrist and then lifting his hand to kiss the center of his palm. “I just feel so lucky to have you.”

Warmth spread through his chest and he smiled down at him. Love, arousal, adoration all swirling through him. Overwhelming him in the best possible way. “Me too, sunshine. Every day.”

Louis leaned forward to kiss him again, bending Harry’s body up. When their lips met, he started thrusting into him in earnest. Letting himself get lost in desire. 

It didn’t take long for his head to go fuzzy, his hips to get sloppy, so he leaned back up onto his knees, pulled Harry’s hips up sharply and thrust faster. Using one hand he started to tug at Harry’s cock quickly and with the other played with his nipples. Harry had his bottom lip between his teeth, sharp blows of air coming from his nose, until his lower back arched, his hands shook where they were holding onto the headboard and he spilled all over his chest. 

With Harry’s head tossed back, his cock still blurting gloriously on his chest, Louis’ hips started working harder, lifting Harry’s hips higher. Relishing the consistent puffs of air punching out of his mouth. Like a gorgeous chorus of what they were doing for each other. 

And when he came, he fell forward onto his elbow and met Harry in a sloppy kiss. More of a press of them against each other than anything. Just for the closeness, so his pleasure was breathed into Harry’s. So they could share it, soak in it together. 

By the time he pulled out, he’d gone mostly soft and standing up to go to the bathroom was the first time he’d actually even looked at the room. It wasn’t very big, just two twin beds and two wardrobes on opposite walls. Looking back at Harry, he had a hand behind his back and the other swirling on his abdomen, weaving around the come splattered on his chest to not touch any of it. 

“Do you want to wash up?” 

Harry met his eyes, his whole face gone soft in post-orgasmic bliss. “Are you going?”

Louis shrugged, watching that careful swirl of his fingers. “If you do. Wanna go where you are.”

A smile bloomed on his face, dimples pinching into his cheek and the green of his eyes clear as glass. “Come back to bed then.”

He discarded the condom in the bin and then climbed over Harry so he was against the wall, one of his legs over Harry’s thigh, come smearing onto his leg. It’d dry soon enough and turn itchy, but he didn’t care. 

“Hey Lou?” Harry asked, breaking the silence between them. 

“Yeah, baby?”

“Do you think everything is going to change now?”

Louis looked past him to the medals still discarded on his nightstand, both trunks open next to them. It was a lifetime achievement, a life changing moment. 

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly, soothing a hand over Harry’s bare stomach. “But this, between us, never will.”

Chapter Text

Louis woke to his phone buzzing on the nightstand and he snuggled further into the mattress for a moment before reaching blindly towards the noise. With his phone in hand, Louis curled up in the middle of the bed, squinting an eye open to see it was Niall and Oli calling on Facetime. 

He smiled sleepily and pressed to answer the call. While it loaded, he pulled the sheet up over his bare shoulder and let out a long yawn. By the time his eyes opened again, his two friends were on screen. 

“Louis Tomlinson sleeping past eight? In this economy?” Niall said too loudly. 

“Fuck off,” he grumbled into Harry’s pillow, breathing in the smell of his hair. It had long gone cold after Harry had left for a team meeting an hour or so ago, leaving a light kiss on his temple before slipping through the door. 

“Being in love has made him soft,” Oli offered. He was still in his pajamas, the neckline of his t-shirt so torn that Louis could see his reddish chest hair poking out through the holes. “You should have seen him, Niall. It’s a puddle of goo where our best friend used to be.”

Louis made a sound of protest, but couldn’t deny it was true. Oli had come down for a visit the weekend before and was the first of his friends to meet Harry in person. It had felt like some sort of vindication when Oli muttered under his breath after Harry went into the other room, “Alright, I get it, I get it. ”

Of course it had only lasted barely fifteen seconds before Oli added on, “Kinda can’t believe you actually bagged him though. Good on you, Lou.”

Louis had shoved him out of the room and then tripped him, just a little bit, in retaliation. 

“Niall’s worse,” Louis argued back. “Don’t shit on me when you could shit on him.”

“I didn’t have to watch Niall and Zayn whisper and fucking giggle through an entire football game.” Oli waved his hand dramatically. “It was bad enough to go to a sporting event ,” he added with distaste. “But having to watch that, puh-lease.”

Niall was laughing on the screen and Louis did his best to roll his eyes, but he was smiling. He couldn’t help it. 

They’d taken Oli to the first Gator home game, his visit overlapping with it. One of Harry’s teammates had to cancel so Harry had been able to get an extra ticket off him. They’d not been in the same seats as they were the year before, but just being in there, this time in a UF Swim shirt that had long been abandoned on his bedroom floor, had him feeling nostalgic. He’d nearly lost his own head in the crowd, so ensconced in the bubble with Harry despite being surrounded by eighty thousand people. 

Harry had still whispered the rules in his ear, but this time his fingers were tickling down his forearm and over the back of his hand, their shoes were pressed sole to sole, and they’d been fully wrapped up in each other. An empty beer cup rolled around their feet, long gone from where they’d drunk the quickly warming drink sip after sip from the same cup. It was dizzying and not just from the heat. 

By the time they’d left, Louis felt as desperate to stay with Harry as he had very nearly a year before, but instead, Harry had dropped him and Oli off back at Louis’ place. Oli had a burn on his face and forearms to rival his hair color, but he was too busy making fun of Louis to even care. 

Seemed like he still wasn’t over it.

“I plead the fifth,” Louis said. 

“Lawyering terms,” Niall scoffed.

“Barely.”

“Liam said-”

“Since when do you talk to Liam?”

“We bonded at the game, since you were preoccupied,” Oli said, huffing and crossing his arms. 

Louis pulled the phone closer to his face and squinted at his best friend. “Are you… blushing?”

“No, no, why would you say that?” Oli sputtered.

This had Niall perking up. “Oh my God he has a crush on your friend Liam. This is incredible.”

“I thought you decided men weren’t for you, after your date with… what the fuck was his name?”

“Jimmy,” Niall added, helpfully. “I remember because afterwards you called him Jiminy Cricket for how he sounded when he-”

“Oh yeah ,” Louis cut him off, laughing into the pillow case. “Bit rude of you Ols.”

Oli rolled his eyes and then shrugged. “Well maybe I was wrong and just that man wasn’t for me.”

“But my Liam won you over?” Louis preened as if it was a compliment to himself. “I can’t wait to poke him about this on Monday.”

Oli groaned loudly, but didn’t deny it. Didn’t even tell him not to, which said more than an actual love confession ever could. 

“I’m surprised you aren’t running off there right now,” Niall said. “Considering how much shit Oli was giving you.”

Rolling over onto his back, Louis said, “I’m busy today, pestering Liam will have to wait.”

“You’re literally still in bed,” Oli deadpanned. “What could you possibly be busy with?”

Louis tucked his mouth under the sheet so his friends couldn’t see the smile clinging helplessly to his lips. When he spoke it was slightly muffled, “I’ve an anniversary of sorts.”

They both groaned, but Louis couldn’t even feel the least bit bad about it. 

“God, you’ve gotten sappy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Louis blew the comment off. “You’ll see how it is soon enough.”

“Not likely,” Oli grumbled.

The blanket puffed up and  fell high over his face when he blew out a short laugh. He yawned again and closed his eyes against the harsh morning sun just barely peeking through a gap in the curtains. “I’m gonna try to get in a cheeky nap before Harry comes back. We have a late night planned.”

“I don’t even know who you are anymore,” Niall said, gleefully.

“Gross,” Oli grumbled, but Niall’s cackle lasted until the call disconnected. 

Louis let the phone drop onto the bed next to him and then pulled the sheet all the way over his head. He had Harry’s pillow snuggled between his arms and fell back asleep with his face pressed into the softness of it. 

It felt like it had only been minutes when he woke to a warmth against his back. He shifted back just slightly and Harry’s hands curled against his bare stomach. Louis hummed in the back of his throat, but kept his eyes closed, just basking in the sun.

Low in his ear, so quiet and warm that it could have been a dream, Harry whispered, “Good morning, honey.”

Louis smiled into the pillowcase and then, still sleep clogged, turned in Harry’s arm to press his forehead against the base of his throat. Harry laughed quietly, more noticeable in the way his chest shook and his hands trembled against Louis’ lower back. Chlorine was sharp in his nose, so Louis rubbed it along the column of Harry’s throat and used it to wake him up a bit. It was strong enough that Louis knew he hadn’t showered after getting out of the pool.

“How was your meeting?”

Shifting slightly, Harry tugged him up until he was lying almost fully on Harry’s chest and his back was curved against the headboard. Louis slipped a leg between Harry’s and tucked his fingers between Harry’s body and the mattress.

“It was alright, ran longer than I thought it was going to.” Goosebumps rushed after his fingers from the way they skated up and down Louis’ bare back. “Coach pulled me in for a meeting after.”

“About what?”

Harry took a deep breath underneath him, his whole body rising and falling with the air filling his lungs. “Next year. I’ve got an extra year of eligibility, so he was checking in if I’d decided what I wanted to do.”
“And have you?”

“No.” He let out a snort. “Either way I’ll still be here training, but I don’t know if I want to do another year of school. I’m not sure a master’s degree is for me anyway, like what would it even be in?”

“Could be in anything, H. You’re more than capable.”

He could feel Harry smile against his forehead and it had him leaving a kiss just below his collarbone. 

“Thanks, Lou.” His fingertips danced across the waistband of Louis’ pants. “He said I have a couple months still to decide.”

Humming, he thought for a minute, listening to the steady rhythm of Harry’s heart and soaking in the heat of his body. “Can you just drag out this year into two? Fill your spring semester classes with some electives instead and just take something you’ve maybe always wanted to take.”

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “I’ll have to talk to my advisor and think about it all a bit.”

“If you need any help, I make a mean list.”

Harry laughed quietly, tugging Louis’ body up slightly and setting the whole of him on fire. “After I left his office, a bunch of people went to breakfast afterwards, so I went to sit with them.”

Louis turned his head and opened his eyes finally, seeing the gentle curve of Harry’s smile sitting playfully on his lips. “But you didn’t eat?”

“’Course not, we have plans.”

Smiling, Louis pressed a sour kiss that was mostly teeth to Harry’s cheek. “You’re making me breakfast in bed.”

Harry snorted. “I thought you wanted to supervise.”

“Last time the eggs were both runny and burned,” Louis teased, bracing an arm on Harry’s chest to sit up slightly. “And I still can’t figure out how.”

“I was distracted.” There was a very sweet pout on his face. 

“It’s okay, baby. Not everyone can handle the stress of a kitchen.”

Harry rolled his eyes, shoving Louis’ shoulder lightly. “Your hand was on my dick.”

He laughed, finally getting up so that he was straddling just one of Harry’s thighs. “Now, that doesn’t sound like something I’d do with the hob on.”

“Uh huh,” Harry said, rolling his eyes. “It’s all very serious, isn’t it?”

“’Course sunshine.” Louis shifted his leg so his knee was against Harry’s clothed cock, adding a bit of pressure, enough to see Harry smirk, before he climbed out of bed. When he went back into his room after taking a piss the bed was empty. 

Pulling on a pair of shorts from his floor, Louis made his way out of his room and found Harry in the kitchen. It looked like half the contents of the fridge were spread out over the countertops and Harry was looking down at the frying pan, hands on his hips, like he was trying to solve a puzzle. 

“It’s not going to bite.”

Harry jumped slightly and then looked up at him sheepishly. “I was waiting for you to crack the eggs. I always get pieces of the shell in it.”

Smiling at him fondly, Louis bumped him with his hip and took an egg in hand. “Do you want to do it together?”

Harry nodded and they quickly cracked half a dozen eggs. Louis only had to fish out three pieces of shell and one of them was so small it hardly counted. While he did that, Harry got a couple sausage patties cooking in the other frying pan and dropped two hashbrowns in Mina’s air fryer. 

“You know what I was thinking?”

“Don’t say it,” Louis warned.

“I just feel like this would be better with-”

“ Baby, no .”

“I don’t get why you hate beans so much. They are a good source of protein!”

“Alright, well next time I’m training for the Olympics I’ll think about adding some in, but until then this is a bean free household.”

A teasing smile was on Harry’s lips and by the time he’d finished speaking, Harry broke out in loud laughter. Clutching a hand to his stomach, he bent a bit with it and Louis let out a huff that was half annoyance and half fondness. Harry pressed a messy kiss to his temple, laughter rolling right over Louis’ cheek and shivering down his neck. 

“Get the toast,” Louis muttered, trying to act annoyed, but he couldn’t stop smiling. 

The grin lasted through finishing the food, through getting everything plated and back to his room. It was still present when he settled onto Harry’s thighs, facing him as they both tucked into their food. 

He held the first bite on his fork, a stack of egg, sausage and hashbrown, up between them like a toast. 

“To falling for you, in more than one way, a whole year ago today,” Louis said, raising his fork slightly.

Harry snorted, a blush high on his cheeks. The summer sun was reflecting off his eyes in the most gorgeous way, turning them the sweetest shade of green. Like a field of grass, the whole world right in front of him. 

In return, Harry raised his own fork, a bit of egg trailing long off the side of it. “To leading you through a crowd away from all of our friends so you wouldn’t have a reason to disappear.”

Their forks clinked together quietly and they both let out low laughs before taking twin, smiling bites. 

A year ago, at this very moment, Louis was locked in his study cubicle. His only friend was Liam and even that he was sure might go tits up at any moment. He hadn’t even wanted to go to the football game that ended up shifting his entire future on end. 

“To both of us being dumb for six months,” Louis added, shifting slightly on Harry’s legs before taking a big bite of toast.

“To being terrified, but doing it anyway.” Harry licked some sausage grease off his thumb and then ran it over Louis’ lip, before slipping between them and rubbing over his incisor. 

Louis bit down on it gently, then sucked on the finger for a moment before letting it trail a line of spit out of his mouth. 

“To all four of your nipples, as captivating a year ago as they are today.” Harry snorted loudly, so Louis added, “Despite you not getting the Olympic rings around them like I specifically requested.”

“There’s five rings.”

“And the problem is?”

Harry rolled his eyes, pushing his mostly empty plate onto the bedside table.  His hands slipped around Louis’ hips and rested warmly on his lower back. The tattoo he ended up getting was on the inside of his bicep, five intersecting black rings that Louis had kissed over more than a few times. 

“It’d look dumb.”

Louis smirked down at him. “I think you could afford to look a bit dumber, if I’m being honest. Most of the time you’re too much.”

“For you?” Harry took the plate from his hands and discarded it on top of his own. 

“Never for me, baby.”

Grinning, Harry twisted their bodies until Louis landed softly on his back, the sheets cool underneath him. They kissed slowly, Harry’s fingers tickling through the hair around his ears and then over the scruff on his cheek. 

He pulled back and looked at Louis so softly he thought he might just melt into the mattress.

“To meeting you, the best surprise I’ve ever had.”

They spent the rest of the morning in bed, reminiscing and creating new memories until they were both sweaty and spent. Then they showered and crawled back onto the mattress, reading for the week ahead with their legs tangled. After a quick dinner and a long snog against his bedroom door, they packed up Harry’s backpack and left his room.

“Should I grab a snack?” Louis asked as they passed the kitchen, hands linked together.

Harry tugged him past. “Kinda wanna get ice cream later.”

“God, yes,” Louis moaned and pulled him towards the door. 

Harry stepped out first and, as Louis turned to lock it, all he could think was a year ago he’d watched Harry leave lamenting that the love of his life had just walked out. 

But now, Harry waited on the porch for him to pull his key out, to walk down the steps and when they got to the car, he opened Louis’ door. Smiling playfully at the blush Louis knew had creeped up his neck. There was the love of his life after all. 

“Whatever,” Louis tossed at him, pulling the door closed in his face. He could hear Harry’s laughter from outside as he circled the car before getting in. 

It wasn’t a long drive and Harry’s hand stayed hot on his thigh throughout. When they pulled into the parking lot, the sun was setting in a dazzling pink over the top of the building, setting the whole world in a rainbow sherbert colored haze. If he were more sentimental, he’d say that’s what love felt like. 

They climbed out of the car and Louis met him at the boot. “Don’t forget towels this time.”

Harry shook his head, but grabbed a couple from inside before walking towards the back door of the building. 

He hadn’t been back to the athlete dining hall since he and Harry had reconciled in March. There hadn’t really been a need. They had both skirted around this day coming up, neither wanting to bring it up first. But, after a syrupy slow evening in Harry’s flat, Harry had said, out of nowhere, that they should go to the pool. Then between kisses and brushes of fingertips, they decided to make a day of it.

The door beeped after accepting Harry’s thumbprint and they walked into the cool air con. There were a few people at the high top tables in the center of the room watching a football game on the flat screen, but they passed by them with a wave and walked towards the side door.

The pool deck was empty, glowing blue from the light inside of it. The air was sticky, even with the sky now pulling purple as it set. This time when Harry pulled his shorts down he had a pair of small yellow swim trunks underneath, gorgeously bright against his tan thighs. Louis had the sudden urge to drop to his knees, let the concrete dig into his skin, and kiss the tops of them, call him sunshine personified. 

Instead, he tugged off his own shirt and shorts, leaving all his clothes in a pile next to Harry’s. They were grinning at each other like it was a year before. Like they were still playing some delicate game of flirtation that just kept getting hotter by the second. 

They stepped towards the water at the same time, Harry doing a perfect dive under the surface and Louis canon balling in next to him. The water was a warm weightlessness around him. Kicking back up to the surface, he popped up right next to Harry. He shook out his hair to get him in the face with the spray, before pushing it back on his forehead.

Harry had an easy smile on his face like he always did in the water. Like he was infinitely pleased with himself. 

“I almost had a heart attack when you dropped your shorts last year,” Louis said, kicking lightly in the water. 

“I know,” Harry said laughing over the surface. “I wanted you to.”

“You’re a menace.”

“Your menace,” Harry countered, swimming closer to him until their ankles brushed under the water. Hands tickled over his sides and then Harry pulled him up so his legs wrapped around his waist. 

Louis surrendered to the weightlessness, the freeing feeling of letting Harry carry him in a way he couldn’t have a year ago. He hadn’t thought he was capable of being wholly steady, strong, to feel like himself entirely in a moment. 

“Do you remember last year when you told me the water was your favorite place?”

Harry hummed and kissed Louis’ collarbone lightly before looking up at him. “I told you that you could borrow it for a while.”

“I have.” He ran a hand through Harry’s wet hair and left his fingers tangled in the ends of it. “But I think I’ve found my own.”

The last dregs of sunlight were eking out of the sky and Harry was glowing from the pool light. Droplets on his face, clinging to his eyelashes, pooling in his collarbones, all glinting in the lighting. He looked ethereal underneath him, but also like the most familiar thing in the world. 

“Oh, yeah? What is it?”

Louis pressed his thumb into the dimple on Harry’s left cheek and adored the way his eyes closed in a smile. “Baby, don’t you know?”

He kissed him gently, tasting the chlorine on his lips and the warm puff of his breath  across his skin. Harry’s hands tightening on his bum and it had a shot of arousal spiking through him. The day had felt so deeply romantic, despite them not doing anything out of the ordinary. But just dedicating their time, their energy to making each other feel good, feeding into their own love for each other, it couldn’t be anything other than special. 

When their lips parted, Harry whispered, “I love you.”

“So much, so much,” Louis whispered back. They kissed again, lips moving over each other languidly. There was no rush in their enjoyment of each other. A year ago, Louis had felt desperate to be closer to him. Like he might lose his mind if he never got a chance to touch him, kiss him. But he’d learned to savor him, their connection, like the delicacy it was. 

It was a quiet night, a Sunday so early in the school year that nobody was staggering around from a late night cram session or a midterms bender. Every once in a while he heard the group inside cheer or groan from a play on the telly, but for the most part it was peaceful around them. Peaceful between them. 

“You’re part of mine too,” Harry said quietly and then kissed the sharpest part of his chin. “I’ve been so taken with you since the very first moment. Since I was laughing at something Johannes said and I looked to the side to see someone walking backwards, their feet tangling as I took in the sight of him.”

“My arse,” Louis teased, pushing his hips back slightly into Harry’s hands.

“Your smile,” Harry tossed back. “When you turned around. It felt like I was waking up.”

“Like I was blinded by the sun,” Louis offered, slipping his arm around Harry’s shoulder to get as close as possible.

They smiled at each other with just the cicadas chorusing around them. It felt like his heart should be beating out of his chest, but it was steady as ever. Like there was so much surety between them that there was no need for nerves. Louis could say anything, be anything, and feel confident, in that moment of the warmth of Harry’s touch, his gaze upon him. Like it would be never ending. 

  Harry tilted his chin up and their lips were connected again. They floated as they kissed slowly, Harry’s hands light on his skin and his hips flexing with every careful swish of his feet under the water. It felt hypnotic, transcendent. Louis sighed into his mouth, loving the familiar twist of his lips and swipe of his tongue. 

A year ago this had been brand new, but it was still just as electric. He could admit, he preferred it now. The start was always such a rush, but the long term certainty of their relationship was the most beautiful thing he’d ever experienced. 

They separated ages later with aching cocks and deep red lips. Louis let his legs slip from Harry’s hips and floated out to put a bit of space between them. To keep them from actually being as indecent in public as they always joked about. 

Floating on his back, Louis looked up to the sky. It was a deep gray, the lights from campus reflecting off the clouds, blocking out the stars. They looked heavy above him like the sky might open up any second and drop a bucket of rain on them. 

He felt a tickle on his ankle and looked over to see Harry next to his feet in the water. 

“I was thinking about what you said.”

“Which part?”

Louis watched his face, the evenness of it, his hair spread out like a halo around his head. 

“Just doing something I might be interested in. Just for fun.” Harry spread his arms out and sent a ripple through the water that bumped against his cheek. “I’ve always wanted to try photography.”

A smile pulled on Louis’ lips and a matching one rose on Harry’s face. 

“I think that’d be great, sunshine. I could really see you doing that.”

“You think?”

Louis opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by a loud crack of thunder and then a streak of lightning racing across the sky, lighting up the whole pool deck. 

“Shit,” he cursed half a second before the rain fell in a sudden rush. 

They both froze for a second before moving towards the edge of the pool. It was coming down so forcefully it almost hurt where it bounced off his skin. Big fat droplets that were causing small waves to rise in the pool. It was absurd, how the peace between them was disrupted so suddenly. 

It had Louis laughing as he heaved himself out the side of the pool, giggling as he scooped up their clothes, already soaked all the way through. They both grabbed everything they could and then ducked under the overhang for the door. When they were covered, he looked up to see Harry was laughing too, lip pulled between his teeth to hold it in. 

Against his chest were both towels, completely unfolded from how Harry had picked them up and completely saturated.

“Thank God we remembered those this time,” Louis said sarcastically, leaning back against the building. The bricks were still warm from a day in the sun and it had him shivering against the breeze blowing through from the storm. 

Harry tracked the movement with his eyes and then dropped everything to his feet, pulling Louis to him forcefully. Instinctively he let his haul go as well, shirts and shoes clattering from his hands to grip at Harry’s biceps. 

The kiss was a clash of teeth and tongues, hands rougher than they had been all day. Like they’d filled themselves with so much love and adoration it was starting to overflow. With the storm as a sudden, explosive background, they kissed against the side of the building, just out of sight of the window to the people inside. 

Just them, where they began. The same, but better. 

Chapter Text

On the first Monday of October, Liam drove him down to Orlando. His family had gotten in late the night before, but he’d had a meeting with Professor Levesque he couldn’t postpone that morning. 

It was the first proper conversation they’d had since before summer break and she’d given him a look so full of pride he nearly blushed in her office. 

“I can’t believe you’re missing a whole week of classes,” Liam said, one hand on the wheel while he fiddled with the radio. Liam had a pickup truck he hardly ever drove and Louis had made several Texas sized jokes after he’d climbed up into it. “Everyone’s gonna think you’ve died or something.”

Louis snorted, adjusting himself on the leather seat. He hadn’t ever missed a day of class, they always felt too important for lack of sleep or a tickle in his throat to keep him from attending. But he’d asked Liam to get notes for him months ago and had done as much prep work as he could. 

“I already talked to all my professors. I even dragged Ansom and Porter into discussions on the reading, just so they knew I did it all.”

Liam snorted and when Louis looked over to him, he was shaking his head.

“Of course you still did all the reading.”

“You can’t be surprised about that.” Louis poked him in the shoulder and then lifted his feet to the dash, scuffing them with the soles of his vans. 

Liam whacked at his knee lightly and said, “Get down from there.”

“No,” Louis responded pleasantly. Then he grinned slyly at Liam and asked, “So, have you talked to Oli recently?”

Liam’s mouth twisted as if he was trying not to smile and instead of answering, he just turned up the radio.

Louis laughed at the windshield and sank down in his seat to enjoy the rest of the drive.

His family was staying in a large suite at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and, after giving the room number and Liam’s license to the gate attendant, they parked in a large lot. There was a nervous energy running through him, in a good way. It was the first time seeing them where he wasn’t filled with dread and there was something in that lack of trepidation that was making him anxious.

When Louis didn’t move for a beat too long, frozen in his seat, Liam turned to face him.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s just my family.” The words sounded like he was trying to convince Liam of something, but they were more for himself. Like, you have nothing to worry about . The last six months had been a healing process for him and his mum in ways that made them both uncomfortable at times. But every single week it was better, they talked more, laughed more. He even was friendlier with Dan when he popped up on the calls. 

“Exactly, it’s your family,” Liam said cheerfully. “I’m sure they’ve been missing you like crazy.”

A smile crept onto his face, knowing that was true. That the girls were gonna scream so loud they might get a noise complaint. He sat up straighter and finally undid his seatbelt. “You’re right.”

Louis got out of the truck and grabbed his bag from the backseat. “Did you wanna come in?”

Shaking his head, Liam said, “I have so much reading to do. I don’t even understand how you got it done ahead when I’m not even sure I can do it on time.”

“I’ll email you my notes,” Louis offered. 

“You’re a lifesaver.”

Louis shrugged and then said, “Thanks for the ride, mate. I’ll see you next week.”

“Did you need a lift back?”

“No, Harry’s coming down in a few days.”

Liam gave him a sly grin, so Louis rolled his eyes and shut the door in his face. He was certain he still could hear Liam’s laughter as he walked away from the car. 

His mum had sent him poor directions to their room and he wandered through a couple pathways and through the rather grand entrance of the hotel before finding a bank of lifts. It took him far too long to sort out that he was in the wrong building, but once he was finally in the right one, it was easy to find the correct room. 

His knock was followed by several loud shrieks from inside and then the door was yanked open by Phoebe, with Daisy right over her shoulder. 

“Louis!” they yelled at the same time, launching themselves at him. He caught one in each arm and felt his eyes sting with affection. Past their heads, he could see his mum smiling with Doris on her hip and Fizzy looking at them with a scowl on her face. He knew her jealousy from across the room. 

“Let’s go inside the room, girls,” he said, trying to step forward as they hung like dead weight around his neck. They started to laugh loudly as he struggled and he couldn’t even be mad about it. He loved it. Had missed them so harshly that it was overwhelming to see them again. 

“We saw giraffes,” Daisy said too loud in his ear.

“Like so many of them,” Phoebe added on. “If you want to see them, we can go again.”

Louis laughed and managed to get all three of them into the room so he could drop his bag heavily over the threshold. “Come on get off, let me say hi to Fizz.”

They grumbled, but let go of his neck and it twinged slightly when it was free. They weren’t six anymore, that was for sure. Fizzy wrapped him in a hug next, shorter, but she squeezed him tighter. Then Lottie, who smacked a kiss on his cheek and then laughed delightedly when she pulled away so he was almost certain there was a lipstick mark on his cheek. 

“My darling boy,” his mum said as she pulled him into her side. 

“Hi Mum,” he mumbled, cheeks going a bit warm like he was a child again and uncertain how to act. She kissed his heated skin and then passed him Doris to hold. 

“Dan has dinner almost done in the kitchen. Let me give you a quick tour of the place.” 

He nodded, bending his knees to pick up his bag, which had Doris giggling in his ear. As his mum led him around to see the lounge and kitchen, Doris babbled to him almost nonsensically. He waved to Dan and ruffled Ernie’s hair where he was strapped into a high chair by the counter. Before heading up the stairs, they peeked their heads into the primary bedroom, which had a large bed in the middle and two cribs set up for the twins. 

Upstairs there were a pair of bedrooms in an exact mirror of each other, with two double beds each and an attached bathroom. He dropped his bag in the one that was untouched. 

“Surprised the girls didn’t take this one over.”

“We left this one for you and Harry,” his mum said, smiling at him tentatively.

“Oh,” he replied, a bit dumbly.

“Though, I’m not sure it’ll last. They never stay where they are supposed to.”

Louis cracked a smile and then they were both laughing, the tension between them loosening with every curl of it through the room. 

𖤓

On Tuesday he woke too early to Doris tugging the blanket off his bed with a high pitched giggle and Lottie yanking the curtains open. She’d slept in the second bed the night before and they’d stayed up late gossiping. The whole family piled onto the bus and arrived at Magic Kingdom for the rope drop and when they’d dragged themselves home that night after the fireworks Louis collapsed into bed and slept straight through till morning. 

Wednesday they walked around Epcot, stuffing themselves full from the Food and Wine Festival, and trying desperately to find a bit of shade all day. Louis ended up taking the younger twins inside for a couple hours, riding through The Land more than once and every single time Doris screamed “Lettuce!” as they passed through the hydroponics. 

Thursday was a rush through Hollywood Studios. Phoebe and Daisy dragged him onto The Tower of Terror four times in a row and, by the end, all their legs felt too wobbly to walk and they’d had to sit down for a half hour. Thankfully, it was right next to an ice cream stand. 

And on Friday, they had a slow start, all overtired from the week. 

“Is Harry meeting us at the park?” his mum asked, breathing in a cup of coffee. 

“Yeah,” Louis said, swirling a spoon through his Cheerios at the kitchen counter. “He had to go to morning practice, but he got permission to skip tonight and tomorrow morning.”

She hummed and fed a bit of yogurt to Ernie in the high chair next to her. “Sounds like an exhausting schedule.”

“It is,” Louis agreed, but she said it like it was a bad thing and Louis knew it wasn’t. It was just a part of Harry, a reflection of how driven he was, how hard he worked. It was an endless turn on, if he was being honest.

They left not much later for Animal Kingdom, piling onto the bus in a swirl of early morning humidity. Phoebe slept on his shoulder for the short ride there, swaying with every turn of the bus like following a wave in water. They disembarked and scanned their passes to get inside, following a throng of people through what looked like a rainforest. It was heavily shaded along the path and the sound of birds high in the trees followed them through a cave before the whole walkway exploded into sunlight. 

On the other side of the bridge was the tree of life, massive and full. Even from a distance he could see the animals carved into the trunk. 

“Wow,” Fizzy said under her breath next to him.

“No kidding.” He turned to face her and they both broke out in grins. 

“Everyone in for a photo,” his mum called and they all huddled in front of the park photographer. Trying to wrangle nine people for a photo would always be a challenge, but they did their best to make sure everyone was looking in the same direction and that nobody’s eyes were closed. 

Afterwards, they gathered near a shop and his mum surveyed them all. 

“You know the deal, nobody goes off alone and you have to be with either me, Louis, or Lottie at all times.”

They all muttered an agreement just as Louis’ phone vibrated in his pocket. He looked down and said, “Oh it’s Harry. He’s just parked.”

Nobody moved for a minute and Louis shifted on his feet awkwardly until his mum clapped her hands and said, “Well then, I guess we can all wait a minute.”

“Oh you don’t have-”

Lottie snorted. “Please. You’ve never let me meet one of your boyfriends. I’m not missing that chance.”

Louis sighed and slid his phone back into his pocket. While they waited, they set up a plan for the day. His back was turned to the entrance as he poured over a park map with Fizzy when Lottie elbowed him sharply in the side. He sent her a glare, but her lips were upturned in a smirk.

“Isn’t that him?” she asked, turning to look over her shoulder. 

Harry was picking his way through the crowd, ugly brown sunglasses on his face, clearly looking for him. It had his heart rate picking up.

“Oh, your face,” Lottie laughed.

Louis scowled at her and said, “Shut up,” before waving in Harry’s general direction. Finally he spotted them and a buttery soft smile spread on his face. Louis couldn’t see his eyes, but he was almost certain they’d done the sparkly thing they sometimes did in the sun. 

“Oh my God, his face .” She laughed louder, her head falling back with it, long ponytail swishing against her back. “You’re so gone.”

“It’s mutual,” Louis huffed out, but really he didn’t mind. Really, it made him feel warm all over.

“I bet it is,” she drawled out just as Harry came up to join their group.

“Hi, y’all,” Harry drawled, voice pulling more southern and Louis watched in real time as his entire family melted for him too. 

He introduced Harry to everyone, relishing in the dimples dug deep in Harry’s cheek, in the fingertips dancing just on the back of his hand. His mum pulled Harry in for a hug and when he said hi to Lottie, her cheeks stained a dark pink. Louis had half a mind to make fun of her, but she’d probably throw all his clothes in the toilet in the middle of the night if he did. 

“Should we head towards the safari?” his mum asked, titling her body towards the nearest walkway. They all nodded, having already agreed they’d ride that together first thing. 

Phoebe and Daisy led the way, both of them pushing a pram in and around the crowds, plowing straight through groups of people. His mum chased after them, tossing apologies to everyone around them. In the back of the group, he walked with Harry, squinting in the sun.

“How was practice?” Louis asked, wishing he could slip his hand into Harry’s, tug him through the crowd, having him whisper the answer right into his ear. 

“It was fine, a bit lighter today actually, which was good. I was still a bit sore from the double yesterday, but I got a good massage afterwards.”

Louis bit his lip and tried not to think about Harry’s muscles getting rubbed down. Before he could even form a sentence, Harry was speaking again. 

“Tell me what the plan is for today.”

So, he did as they picked their way through the crowds, over another bridge and past the large sign that said Africa. The buildings and walkways changed. They all looked around with wide eyes at the vendors and the musicians, everyone talking over each other on where they wanted to go next. 

The wait for the ride was only a half an hour, so the ten of them got in it, inching through the covered walkways and basking under each overhead fan they passed. After dropping the buggies off, Doris clung to his hand as they walked through the rest of the queuing. When it came time to line up, Louis ended up on one end with Doris between him and Harry and Lottie and Fizzy on the other side. The rest of the family was in the row behind them. 

“Will you be alright if she’s between us?” Louis asked Harry, leaning back against the metal railing as the truck in front of them pulled out. He’d not really seen Harry interact with kids outside the little swimmers that would sometimes be at Florida meets or who Harry had signed caps and programs for at the Olympics. He always seemed at ease in those situations, but it wasn’t the same as a two and a half year old squirming next to you on a bumpy ride. 

Harry gave him an easy smile and then looked down at Doris who was tugging at the pocket of Louis’ shorts and trying to pull his phone out of it. “I’m not worried.”

Louis raised an eyebrow, but didn’t argue. Lottie could take over if it became too much or if she got too fussy. 

The next safari truck pulled up, a sandy tan color with eight rows. When the gate opened, his sisters filed in, then Harry scooped Doris up and walked on. Once he was seated, he placed her on the seat next to him, so she was sandwiched between him and Harry.

“Are you ready to see the animals?” he asked her, bending over as much as he could to speak to her. 

She nodded up at him, curls bouncing as she screeched out a happy, “Yeah!”

The driver started speaking to them over the speakers, but Louis was only half listening. He had an arm curved around Doris’ body and over the back of the seat, Harry’s arm was stretched out, curving all the way to his left shoulder. 

It felt like they were a little family, just the three of them, and it gave him a sudden, startling flash of a distant future. A clawing want curled inside of him and he did his best to shake it off as the truck started forward towards the makeshift Savannah. 

They only stopped briefly for the first couple of animals - warthogs and rhinos, antelopes in the distance. As they turned the corner there were three of four giraffes feeding from trees. They pulled up alongside them and Louis lifted Doris onto his lap so she could see more clearly over the side. 

“Can you see the giraffe, lovely?”

She was buzzing in his lap, chattering almost nonsensically and excitedly at everything she was seeing. Tightening his grip on her waist, he did his best to keep her from quite literally jumping out the side of the truck. He looked over his shoulder to check on Harry, who had his phone out and was snapping pictures. 

“Did you get a clear shot of them?”

Harry smiled down at his phone and Louis wished he could see the look in his eyes, but they were still blocked by his sunglasses. “Most of them are of you.”

Louis snorted. “Get your priorities straight, Styles.”

Instead of answering, Harry took another picture, a cheeky grin stuck on his face. 

The truck curved past more animals until they came to pride rock for the lions. Doris scrambled up onto Harry’s leg unsteadily to try to get a better look and they both reached out to catch her at the same time, four hands gripping her small torso. 

“Sorry,” Louis said, ready to pick her back up.

“Don’t worry about it.” Harry adjusted his legs and then held onto her more tightly. “I’ve got her.”

“It’s a lion!” she screeched too loudly and Lottie laughed on the other side of Harry. 

Louis’ whole heart turned to goo to see his sister on Harry’s knee, to see him bend slightly to talk to her in his soft voice. To watch her turn up to him and smile, a giggle falling from her lips. All of a sudden he understood Harry’s urge to photograph it.

On the rock, the lion rolled onto its side in the sun like the overgrown cat that it was and Doris let out a tiny roar. Harry roared back at her and they did that until the truck continued on and the next set of animals came into view. 

She stayed like that for the rest of the ride and Louis’ heart was in his throat. He kept catching Lottie’s eyes past Harry’s body or his mum’s in the row behind them, both of them with twin, fond expressions. It made him glad he wasn’t the only one falling more in love with Harry by the second. 

By the time they exited the truck, Doris was attached to Harry. She kept her hand in his the entire way back to where they’d parked the strollers and kept a steady stream of chatter that Louis was certain Harry was only half understanding. 

“Seems I’ve been replaced as your favorite,” Louis said.

Harry smiled at him and asked, “Are you talking to me or her?”

Scowling, Louis said, “Both of you.”

Harry laughed, shaking his head, but not denying it. 

“Mum,” Louis started, looking to where she was buckling the twins into the pram. “Why don’t Harry and I take them so you guys can enjoy yourselves?”

“Oh, are you sure about that, darling?”

Louis looked to Harry, who shrugged, and then to his youngest siblings. “Do you wanna come with me and Harry?”

They both loudly agreed, so his mum shrugged. “Thank you, I appreciate it, love.” 

She gave him a kiss on the cheek, before they all went their separate ways. When it was just him and Harry left, each pushing a stroller through the busy crowds, he explained, 

“Sorry about that. It’s been such a busy week, I thought maybe they’d need a break. And since you two seemed to get along so well…”

“I don’t mind, Lou.” Harry gave him a warm look. “Also, if I’m being honest, I don’t love rollercoasters, so this is helping me out.”

Laughing, Louis shook his head and steered them through the park. 

They spent the morning weaving through the animal trails, pointing out birds and sea creatures to Ernie and Doris. Afterwards, they got pictures taken with Minnie and Mickey in their safari gear and then they begged for matching hats. Louis held strong, but Harry was a weak man, buying them each something and then walking out of the store with a pair of Minnie Mouse ears in his own curls. 

“What do you think?” 

“You look lovely, sunshine,” Louis said, fighting the urge to press a kiss to his cheek and then his lips. The way Harry was staring at his own mouth and the blush on his cheeks, said he was feeling the same. 

He held his gaze for a minute longer until Ernie started fussing in the pram and he turned away to get him some water. His cheeks were pink and his blond fringe was starting to stick to his forehead. 

“Are you feeling alright, buddy?”

With straw for the water bottle still in his mouth, Ernie nodded, eyes big and blue as they stared up at Louis. 

“Maybe we should find somewhere to go inside for a bit?” Louis said, turning to look up at Harry, who had his phone out and looked to be snapping a picture of the two of them. 

Harry lowered his phone, an unashamed smile on his face, and said, “Sure. I think the Lion King show starts soon?”

Pushing his own sweaty fringe back, Louis said, “Perfect.”

They made their way across the park and got in the very back of a long line just in time to be let in for the show. The air conditioning inside was blissful and the twins were enraptured by the circus show, pushing to the end of their seats and eventually standing to watch. Harry kept catching his eye, a playful smirk on his lips as he got excited by their joy. 

It had something rising in his throat that tasted a lot like the future.

They left the park in the late afternoon, heading back to the hotel room to shower and change before their dinner reservation at Disney Springs. By the time they were getting ready for bed that night, they’d both been fighting yawns for a couple of hours. 

Louis closed the door behind him, waving to Fizzy across the landing as she trudged into the room across the hall. Turning back to Harry, he saw he had the polo shirt he’d worn to dinner already tugged off and his shorts unbuttoned. 

“I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that one of my sisters ends up in here before the morning.”

Harry looked up at him, a smile on his face and let his shorts drop to the floor. “Do you think, even with me here?”

Quirking an eyebrow, Louis watched as he picked up his shorts and folded them back into his duffel bag. “Oh, baby, they have no shame.”

“Runs in the family then,” Harry said with a smirk. He pulled on a pair of short running shorts over his pants before sitting down on the edge of the bed. 

“Ha ha ha,” Louis responded flatly and finally started changing out of his own clothes. He bent at the knee to untie his shoes and then there was a cold press against the back of his neck. 

“You’ve got a nasty burn here, Lou,” Harry said, fingers slipping off the stinging skin. 

“On my arms too,” Louis said, shrugging.

When he stood back up, his shoes and socks discarded haphazardly on the floor, Harry had a frown on his face. Louis pulled off his shirt and the slight redness on his arms when he’d showered earlier, had deepened to a vibrant pink, all the way up to where his cutoff vest top had hung on his shoulders.

“Do you have any aloe?”

“I don’t think so,” Louis said, kicking his shorts off in the direction of his trainers. “Don’t worry about it, sunshine.”

Ignoring him, Harry stood up off the bed and went into the bathroom. Louis followed, ready to brush his teeth. Before he could even pick up his toothbrush, Harry grabbed him by the unburned part of his shoulders and turned him to face the shower. 

“Let me put lotion on it, it should help with the stinging.”

“It doesn’t sti-” Louis cut off with a hiss when the cold cream hit the back of his neck. Harry’s fingers rubbed gently over the burned skin, covering it in lotion and goosebumps rose down the back of his legs. 

He could feel the heat of Harry’s body behind him, his breath ruffling the short hairs on the back of his neck, the words rustling over him when Harry spoke, “Does that feel better.”

“Yes,” Louis admitted.

“Good,” Harry said quietly and Louis could hear the smile in his voice and it had him biting back one of his own. 

Harry rubbed lotion around the curve of his shoulder and over his bicep, touch careful as the cream soaked into his skin. He didn’t realize how much the sunburn had been bothering him until it was soothed. 

Leaning back against Harry’s bare chest as he worked over the other arm, Louis thought that Harry always was a balm for him. 

When he was done, neither of them moved. Harry’s arms curved over his stomach to hug him from behind and they stood in the bathroom for several minutes more just soaking each other in. 

“Thank you for coming,” Louis whispered into the quiet room. Just the sound of the aircon hummed through the room. If he closed his eyes and really listened he could probably have heard his sisters gossiping across the hall or Ernie fussing in his crib, but he stayed focused on the moment instead. 

“Of course, Lou.”

“I know you had to move around your schedule, I just - I really appreciate it.”

Warm lips brushed the hinge of his jaw and then his temple. “I wasn’t going to miss it, I just wished I could have been here more this week, but-”

“No, this was enough,” Louis said, cutting him off. It had already been annoying enough for Harry to get out of the practices he did. He couldn’t miss a whole week of them even if it was the start of the season. “Thank you, baby.”

“I love you,” Harry whispered into the crook of his neck. Just as quietly, Louis said it back, turning his neck to kiss him gently before they both turned back to the sink. They got ready for bed together slowly, bumping hips and elbows in a show of domesticity that Louis had grown to love in the last year.

Climbing into bed a few minutes later, both of them slipped onto their usual sides. Despite the exhaustion, Louis dragged up his laptop and started blearily reading through the notes Liam had sent him from the day of classes. The TV flickered on across the room, but Louis only briefly looked up to see Harry had turned on a baseball game. 

He worked for a few more minutes in silence until his vision started blurring. Harry was sunk low against the headboard with his hands on his chest, watching the screen passively. 

“I didn’t know you liked baseball,” Louis said as he closed his laptop and pushed it on the bedside table. They had a slow day planned tomorrow, so he might be able to get some more work done in the morning. 

Harry shrugged and then yawned loudly. “I only really watch it if it’s on. Have you ever been to a game?”

“No,” Louis said, looking at the screen. It reminded him of cricket, in a way. “Niall used to try to drag me to Red Sox games, but I never went.”

“Robin’s really into it,” Harry said. “He even tried to get me into little league when he first started dating my mom.”

Sinking low in the bed, Louis turned to watch Harry from the pillow. “Didn’t like it?”

“I used to get so distracted. They stuck me in right field and I think my mom has a dozen or so pictures of me sitting down in the grass weaving flower crowns out of dandelions.”

Louis smiled into his pillowcase and loved the image of it. The idea of it. A delicate, younger Harry, still so freshly alone from his dad’s death, but trying nonetheless to make his mum happy. 

“I can’t believe she didn’t pull those out with the pee wee football photos,” Louis teased.

Harry rolled his eyes and then pressed the power button on the remote, the TV screen flickering black. “Just wait until I get your mom to give me the highlight reel of all your embarrassing moments.”

“Maybe I never had any.”

“Well,” Harry drawled, sinking down to smile at him. “I know that’s not true.”

Dropping his jaw in fake outrage, he poked a finger in Harry’s ribs that was immediately caught. Harry tugged his arm until Louis moved forward to lay on his chest. Under his ear, Harry’s heart beat was a steady rhythm that could easily lull him to sleep.

After a moment of silence where Louis’ eyelids grew heavier by the second, Harry’s voice cut through the quiet.

“I like your siblings.”

Louis smiled, tucking it against Harry’s bare skin. “I think Doris is a little in love with you.”

“She’s really sweet.”

His fingertips danced against Harry’s ribcage. “It didn’t occur to me until you were walking up to us that I had no idea if you even liked kids.”

Harry’s chest shook with light laughter. 

“I do, I always have.” There was a warm touch to the top of his spine and then right down the middle of his back. “Do you think that’s something you want in the future? Kids, I mean.”

Louis turned his face to look up at him and there was a light blush dusting Harry’s cheeks. His own pulse had kicked up with the question. Like no matter how much they’ve talked about this year, next year, what happens if Louis moves to Boston - each mention of a far off future gets the butterflies rampaging in his chest.

“Yeah, I do. Not as many as my mum,” Louis said, laughing awkwardly. “But a couple would be nice. Do, uh, do you?”

Nodding, Harry caught a smile between his teeth. “Definitely. I’ve always really wanted to have a big family.”

Louis leaned up on an elbow and just looked at him for a moment. A halo of curls splayed on the pillow, the sharp angle of his collarbones shadowed on his chest, the pretty pink of his lips. It was too much sometimes. He bent forward and kissed him, just a short breath of a kiss.

Pulling back slightly, he said, “Well, you’re a part of one now.”

Harry was looking back at him with so much warmth, so much love in his eyes, that Louis felt it all the way to his toes. It had him hovering over Harry’s mouth and wanting to lean back in, to risk trying to take him apart with his whole family on the other side of the door. There was something delicious in the secrecy of it, in the rush. Like another life that he’d never lived. 

Harry’s tongue came to tease his bottom lip just as there was a knock on the door. Leaning back with a smile on his face, Louis sat all the way up against the headboard before he called out, “Yeah?”

The door opened a crack and Fizzy stuck her head in through the gap. “Lottie’s gonna drive me crazy, I swear.”

Louis held back a snort and said, “Come on in then.”

She pushed the door all the way open and he saw a pillow clutched in her hands, blocking the over sized Beauty and the Beast t-shirt she had on that fell close to her knees. Before she could even close the door behind her, Daisy stepped into the room too. 

“Ugh, I can’t with them tonight.” She didn’t even ask before closing the door and climbing into the bed next to Fizzy. “Harry, I hope you don’t snore.”

“He doesn’t look like it,” Fizzy added, peering over at them from where she was laying on her side farthest from them. 

“No more than Louis does,” Harry responded, which had both girls giggling and Louis nudging him with his elbow.

“Whatever,” Louis scoffed. “H, can you get the light?”

When it flicked off a moment later, Louis slipped an arm around Harry’s waist in the darkness. Into his shoulder, Louis said quietly, “You lost the bet, twice .”

Harry’s laughter traveled through the dark room like a spark in the night straight to his heart. 

𖤓

In the morning, Louis woke with his face in Harry’s armpit and his sisters giggling in the bed across from them. Slipping the pillow from under his head, he tossed it over at them, getting them both shrieking and laughing louder. Until Harry started to come alive next to him, smiling lazily as he stretched his arms up and back. It had all three of them going quiet and if Louis ushered the girls back to their rooms afterwards, it was nobody’s business but his own.

They spent the morning at Magic Kingdom before the twins got fussy and he offered to take them back to the hotel. After putting them down for a nap, Louis studied in the lounge while Harry stretched and did some dry land exercises. He kept catching himself lost in the middle of a paragraph as Harry’s torso crunched, the tan muscles on his abdomen flexing with every movement. It never failed to make his mouth go dry. 

“Can we swim?” 

Louis turned away from Harry’s body to see Ernie standing in the doorway to his mum’s room, pajamas askew and hair ruffled, with his stuffed hippopotamus that Harry bought him clutched in his small fist. 

Pushing his laptop onto the coffee table, Louis stood up to pick Ernie up. Tickling fingers over his belly, he said, “Did you climb out of the crib? Hm?”

Loud giggles filled the room and Ernie squirmed in his arms, twisting against his fingers until he ended up curled against Louis’ chest huffing out sweet puffs of laughter. He could hear Doris rustling in the bedroom and went in to grab her from the second crib, walking back to the living room with one in each arm.

They were significantly heavier than the last time he’d carried them like this, but it was too sweet to put them down.

Harry was breathing heavily, splayed on the floor when he walked back out. There was something very domestic about seeing him like that, with a kid in each arm. Like a future he’d just stumbled into and maybe it should get something nervous twisting in his stomach, but it didn’t. 

“Did you want to go down to the pool?” Louis asked. 

His head turned on the floor, a lazy smile already on his face, like the answer was obvious, like Louis didn’t even need to ask. 

Getting the twins ready for the pool was more work than he remembered and he’d started to sweat by the time they were all downstairs with a set of swimmies on their arms. The twins weren’t great swimmers, but they loved the water. 

Doris jumped off the ledge half into Harry’s arms and half into the water, screaming as she went. It had Harry laughing loudly, smiling down at her with so much warmth in his gaze that Louis wished the pool water was ten degrees cooler. 

They played in the pool until Ernie swallowed too much water and started coughing, then crying. Louis carried him out of the water, swathing him in an oversized white towel. 

“We can stay in a bit longer, right Lou?” Harry said, squinting up at him from the water. 

“Right, Achoo?” Doris echoed, splashing her arms on the surface. 

Louis wouldn’t trust hardly anyone with his siblings, but there was nobody he trusted more in the water than Harry. So, he nodded and sat back with Ernie on two lounge chairs just at the end of the pool. Ernie curled up on one, mostly covered by a large umbrella and fell asleep. 

From inside the beach bag, Louis pulled out his laptop to look over the reading for his class on Monday. Every other minute he looked up to watch Harry and Doris in the pool. Harry was instructing her with a lot of gentle platitudes, showing her how to kick her legs, how to hold her arms. Making her feel secure in the water. It was hard for him to look away and focus back on his work. 

The afternoon slipped away and the pool slowly filled with more families returning from early starts at the parks. His mum had just texted they were leaving soon, when a woman walked past his lounge chair and stopped next to where Doris was splashing water at Harry.

“Excuse me, are you Harry Styles?” 

Harry’s head snapped up, an easy smile falling over his features. Louis watched over the screen of his laptop curiously. 

“Yes, ma’am, I am.”

“Oh gosh,” she said, flitting her hands in front of her. “We watched you in the Olympics, you were just splendid.”

Harry’s smile brightened. “Thank you so much. It was an amazing experience.”

Doris splashed him again and he pulled her giggling body into his arms. From a dozen feet away, Louis cataloged the woman’s reaction to Harry and his baby sister. The curiosity on her face. 

“My God, I bet! To represent your country and swim like you did. Such an incredible achievement.” There was a shout from down near the snack bar and the woman turned to look, waving someone off. “Well, sorry to bother you. I was just so surprised to see you here of all places.”

Harry shifted Doris in his arms and stood up to full height. She was fully out of the water and her knee curved right underneath where the Olympic rings were tattooed on his bicep.

“I don’t mind at all.” Harry smiled politely towards her, the sun lighting up his whole body magnificently. “I’m just here with my family.”

She nodded and waved, saying a few more nice things to Harry before hustling off towards the teen who had called out to her earlier. But Louis was still stuck at with my family , heart pounding and palms sweating from how much he loved it. How much the sentiment of that meant to him. That Harry was his family and he was Harry’s. 

That their lives were stitching themselves irrevocably together. 

He was still frozen from that when Harry joined him out of the pool, pulling a towel from the bag to wrap Doris up in, a puddle collecting by his feet. A spray of water flew from her curls when she shook her head out, laughing as all three of them got hit with water. 

It had Louis jolting back to the moment. 

“She seemed nice,” Louis said, jerking his head towards the woman who was now by the snack bar. 

“Yeah.” Harry ran a hand through his hair. “It’s still weird being recognized.”

“You’re just a star,” Louis teased, just to get Harry to let out a snort and shake his head. “Do you want to head back to the room? Mum said they’re on their way to the bus.”

“Sure thing,” Harry said, reaching down to grab the beach bag and stuffed the kids’ cover ups inside while Louis tried to wrangle Ernie into his shoes. 

By the time he had them on, Harry was trying to coax Doris into hers to no avail. “It’s no use, sunshine. She hates wearing them. I’ll just carry her.”

Harry shrugged, tossing her shoes in the bag and then offering his hand to Ernie to hold while they walked and he took it more shyly than his sister would have. 

Once Doris was balanced on his hip, Louis surveyed their little corner of the pool to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything before looking back to Harry. He was gazing at Louis intently, nose scrunched and lips twisted together.

“What is it?” Louis asked, adjusting Doris. Her wet hair was tickling and sticking to his neck, cold bathing suit seeping water onto his dry skin.

“Nothing,” Harry said, dimples dipping into his cheeks. “Just love you is all.”

He leaned forward and kissed him lightly, catching just the outside corner of Louis’ lips. But it was enough to have his cheeks heating, his heart pumping. To have Harry smiling shyly at his own feet before they started moving down the pavement towards their building. 

As they exited the pool area, Louis looked over his shoulder to see that woman watching them go, a curious tilt to her head. But Harry didn’t seem to care, skipping ahead with Ernie and laughing at something he was saying. 

This whole week at Disney, these last two days with Harry, they had something very right settling into his chest. He’d struggled so long with who he was, what he’d come from. Where he belonged. 

But this, right here, was his family. 

Chapter Text

“You don’t need to be nervous,” Harry said, picking a taco up off the plate with a smile on his face.

Louis held back a scowl and said, “I’m not.” But even to him the words weren’t convincing. 

Harry’s smile twisted into something pleased, laughter curling just on the edge of them. Under the table, his foot pressed to the side of Louis’ and it kept him from arguing back. It was probably futile anyway. 

They were at the tex mex place just off campus that they’d come to for the first time when they were still pretending things were casual between them. Since then they’d come back several times. It was the middle of February, almost exactly a year from when they’d had their big argument the previous spring, and that was sitting funny in Louis’ stomach. 

Like he might start crying and he couldn’t figure out if it was relief or gratefulness or something else entirely. So much had changed between them since then, had grown and blossomed into a beautiful relationship. The longest one he’d ever had, which sometimes had him looking over his shoulder waiting for the punchline.

It had been a weird couple of months, for the good and bad, which was surely contributing to the off kilter feeling he had. They had rolled their way through finals and the holidays busier than ever. Clinging to each other in the one free day between exams and Harry leaving for Christmas training in Colorado and then not seeing each other for three weeks. Some days Louis felt like he hadn’t properly seen Harry since November. 

“I’ll be with you every step of the way,” Harry assured as guacamole slipped down the side of his thumb. 

“Holding my hand?” Louis teased, digging his teeth into his bottom lip and wishing he could lick it off him.

“Metaphorically, maybe. Might not be the safest.”

Louis rolled his eyes and took a bite of his food. Each time they came here, he tried something different. Fajitas had a bit of fanfare, but they were goddamn delicious. 

While the spice lit up his tongue, he looked at Harry across from him. The hair he’d been growing out since they’d met had been trimmed short again, by some stylist at some photoshoot that he’d been at sometime in January. He looked gorgeous, he would even if he was bald, but the nervous look on Harry’s face when he’d Facetimed him from the hotel afterwards had Louis wanting to scoop up every piece of hair and learn how to weave it back onto his head. 

It felt like the last few months had been a series of those moments. Where they were catching up half a country apart because Harry was at a meet or Harry was at a talk show or Harry was doing ad work. It was incredible, it was all the ways he dreamed his life might change when they’d whispered together in that single bed in Paris. 

But it was less of this - knees knocking under a table and watching Harry eat something tongue first. Louis missed it, missed him, missed their little bubble when they were apart for too long. 

“I was talking to Mike before my flight this morning and he said a bunch of the guys were going to the baseball game tonight.” Harry licked sour cream off his finger before continuing, “First game of the season and I know you’ve never gone before.”

Louis scrunched his nose involuntarily, but Harry laughed at the sight. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Something unsavory settled on Louis’ tongue, so he took a big drink of water and then said, voice teasing despite what he was feeling, “You already said we’d go.”

Harry’s smile turned sheepish, but then he shrugged and it was a boyish lack of shame. The infectious look he got on his face, with his dimples out and eyes a glittering green, that Louis couldn’t quite stay mad at. That had him wanting to slip into Harry’s lap, to press the tip of his finger against Harry’s cheek, to feel the warmth of him set him alight. 

“Is that alright?” he asked, belatedly. 

“Yeah, baby. It’s fine,” Louis said, looking away from him and down to his food. It should be fine, but it was getting something swirling in his stomach he didn’t quite understand. 

When they finished eating, Harry dropped cash on the table and they started the trek back to campus. All of the brand deals and the interviews Harry had done paid more than Louis had ever expected, both of them wide eyed as the checks rolled in. It had Harry flush with cash in a way neither of them were really used to. 

Which meant Harry bought their meals and a fancy new camera for his photography course. Sometimes it meant he left little gifts in Louis’ room when he came back from trips. It was too much, for both of them he suspected, so Louis didn’t say anything even though he didn’t need another pair of Airpods or trainers from the contract with Adidas. Just kissed him quiet and reacquainted himself with the body he’d missed so much. 

Now, as they walked, their hands bumped between them. Fingers slipping together, twisting and palms squeezing, but never fully committing to holding hands. It was a delicate little dance, a tightrope they often walked, of how comfortable they were in public, how much of their lives they shared with others. But it had been nearly two weeks since Harry was back in town, first in New York City for some fitness campaign and then straight on a plane to a meet, so Louis was feeling like he’d risk anything. 

But instead of climbing into bed, pulling the covers up and existing just for themselves, Harry was insistent on a plan they’d talked about ages ago. 

The path they were on shot them out into a car park and Harry turned to him, hand reaching into his pocket before he pulled something out and tossed it at Louis. 

He caught the car keys between two fingers and then flipped one back at Harry with a grin. 

“Maybe we don’t need to do this now,” Louis offered. “Could go back to mine?”

Harry gave him a look like he knew exactly what Louis was doing. No doubt he did, Louis wasn’t exactly being subtle about it. “You said you wanted to learn.”

“Maybe I changed my mind.”

“Unlike you,” Harry tossed back, squinting at him through the midday sun. 

Louis scrunched his nose, but took that as a challenge and started walking towards Harry’s car. He fumbled to unlock it, hands a bit shaky, and then climbed into the driver’s seat. Harry slipped into the passenger seat next to him. It was weird being on the other side of his car, to see Harry in his seat. 

“You’ve never driven anything before?” 

“Never even ever sat behind the wheel,” Louis clarified, hands awkwardly hovering over it. 

“Alright,” Harry said, a calm smile on his face. He talked Louis through adjusting his seat and the mirrors. Once they turned the car on, they worked their way through all of the controls, the gears, the pedals. 

Louis was cataloging it all and trying to ignore the anxiety rising in his throat. 

“Why don’t we just go around the parking lot.”

“Are you sure?” Louis looked around the lot. There were maybe half a dozen cars left and no people in sight. Realistically he knew it would be fine, but nothing was stopping the clawing surety that he’d drive straight into one of them. 

“It’ll be fine. We’ll go slow.”

Louis nodded and his hand hovered over the gear shift, not quite able to close his hand around it and push it into drive.

“Lou,” Harry said softly. “It’s not like you to be afraid of things.”

The words were kind, but they had a scoff falling from his lips. He didn’t even look over at Harry before yanking the car into gear. Slowly, he lifted his foot off the brake and the Range Rover inched forward out of the parking space and into the empty one in front of it. 

“Woah,” he said, slamming his foot back down. The car jerked and the seatbelt dug into the side of his neck uncomfortably. 

Next to him, Harry was laughing quietly and it had a spike of annoyance rising up the back of his neck. “Just go easy. It’s supposed to move.”

“Right,” he said, shortly. Easing off the brake again, the car moved and he didn’t try to stop it. Slowly he turned the wheel and the car moved with it. The palms of his hands started to sweat against the black leather wheel and he’d worry about them slipping off if he wasn’t holding it so tightly. 

The car was inching forward, the speedometer hovering at just 5 miles per hour and Louis had the urge to slow down.

“Just take it to the end of the row and then turn to go down the next,” Harry said calmly, but Louis thought he could see his hand gripping the center console like a handrail from the corner of his eye. 

“Okay,” Louis agreed, but the one word came out sharp. As if the anxiety clawing up his chest added claws when he spoke. 

“You could go a bit faster,” Harry teased after Louis turned the corner.

Louis didn’t answer, but pressed on the gas pedal slightly harder and swallowed down the itchy feeling in his throat. 

They circled the parking lot four times before Louis started to feel comfortable and he took suggestions from Harry at every other turn. Between his comments, it was quiet, which was ideal for Louis to focus. He suddenly had no idea how Harry usually drove with music blasting and serenading Louis from the driver’s seat. With only one hand on the wheel, at that. 

“Let’s turn onto the road,” Harry suggested, as Louis came up the last row.

“No way.”

The parking lot opened up in the back to a small service road that ran just through campus. It wouldn’t be busy this time of day, in fact he hadn’t seen a car pass in the last ten minutes. But that didn’t mean he should be the car on it. 

“We don’t need to go far, but just give it a try, Lou.”

Louis sighed, tightening his hand on the wheel again and nodded. 

“Make sure you come to a complete stop before we turn out,” Harry said. “And turn on your blinker.”

Louis flicked it tentatively, the car stopping more forcefully than he expected when his foot went on the brake. He muttered, “Fuck.”

“It’s fine.”

Turning the wheel slowly, he was out on the road. “What next?”

“Just stay between the lines and turn when I tell you to.”

He bristled slightly. Not knowing the plan, the expectation, made him so uncomfortable. Taking a deep breath, he let the speedometer climb to fifteen miles per hour and kept the grip on the wheel tight. He tried not to let his eyes stray from the road in front of him, but he heard Harry’s phone buzz in the cup holder with a text and saw him pick it up out of his peripheral vision. 

“Mike said some people are getting together before the game for a quick meal, if we want to come.” 

“Really,” Louis said flatly, annoyance sparking up under his skin. It had been brewing all day, maybe for weeks even. 

“Yeah,” Harry said, voice cheerful and too loud, or at least it sounded too loud to Louis. He looked quickly and saw Harry’s fingers already flying over the keyboard. “We could finish up here soon and then-”

Louis slammed on the brakes, the car jerking to a stop, and Harry’s words cutting off.

“Woah! What are you doing?” Harry had one hand gripped against the dash and had twisted his body toward Louis. He was looking at Louis with concern, like he thought maybe something had been on the road or that Louis wasn’t feeling well, but Louis was too annoyed to care. 

“If you want to go be with them so badly, then go.” Louis pressed the unlock button and the sound of it rang through the otherwise silent car. Tucking his fingers under his thighs, Louis stared straight ahead out the window, feeling the tenseness of his jaw, feeling Harry’s stare hot on his cheek. 

“Okay, so we won’t go to the game.”

Sighing, Louis dropped his head to the steering wheel and closed his eyes. That wasn’t what he’d meant. Wasn’t what he wanted, was it? 

The leather was hot against his forehead and he wished the heat of it would sear through to his brain and wipe out the whole afternoon. Burn off the ridiculous jealousy burning through him. He hated feeling that way, despised the desperation tingling the tips of his fingertips that made him want to grab Harry by the chin and force his eyes to never leave Louis’.

“We’re in the middle of the road,” Harry said. Louis finally opened his eyes to see Harry looking over his shoulder to watch the road behind them, a frown on his lips. Nobody was coming, but somebody could. 

Lifting his head back up, Louis took a deep breath and took his foot off the brake to ease them into the next car park. He pulled the car into a space carefully and parked more perfectly than he expected for his first try. Pushing the car into gear, he took his foot off the brake and felt his leg relax for the first time since he’d gotten behind the wheel. He’d been holding his body so tight, like if he gave an inch they’d crash into a tree.

“We don’t have to go,” Harry said, words coming out with an evenness that had Louis finally looking over at him. His face matched his tone, unbothered, open. It had something catching in Louis’ chest. 

Like he could cry and he wasn’t exactly sure why. 

“I think I want to,” he said quietly. “I’m just-”

It felt dumb to say, like he was overreacting. He knew he was overreacting. That this was arguably not a big deal, that it was one day, one night, in a very long line of days and nights they’ll have together. 

Harry’s hand brushed over his bicep and then curled underneath his arm so he could take Louis’ hand in his. It was warm, it was always warm, and Louis shook his head from the familiarity of it. How much the world felt righted with Harry’s hand in his. 

“I’ve hardly seen you all month,” Louis started, squeezing Harry’s hand. “And you leave again in a week for SEC’s. I just miss you, all the time.”

“I miss you too, Lou,” Harry said quietly, shuffling closer so most of his body was hanging over the center console. 

“It’s irrational and I feel so annoying, but I think I’m just jealous of everyone who has some of your time.” Louis scrunched his nose and looked at Harry, ready to see him laugh at him, or frown at Louis’ thought process. But instead he was smiling.

“Sometimes I want to destroy your laptop.”

“What?” 

“I’ll be lying there next to you half asleep and you’ll be typing away and I’ll want to throw it to the floor or set it on fire.” Harry was still smiling, but his cheeks had gone a bit pink with the admission. “So, I get it. Maybe it is irrational, but I relate.”

Louis laughed in relief, a bubble bursting in his chest as he tossed his head back against the seat. “I’m sorry I was such an arsehole.”

Harry shook his head, laughter dancing on his face and said, “It’s okay, Lou. We can skip it or leave early, I don’t mind. I kind of just thought being there together was enough, you know? But if you want to be alone, I don’t mind. I’ll never mind.”

Leaning over, he caught Harry’s lips in a short kiss. More for comfort than anything else, like a pact of love between them. Maybe they both could get antsy, jealous, but at least they were willing to recognize it.

“It’s fine, baby. I probably got more worked up over it because I was so stressed about driving.”

Harry pressed a kiss to his cheek, nuzzling his nose through the scruff there before speaking quietly. 

“You don’t need to learn if you don’t like it. It’s okay if you don’t. Boston has a subway anyway.”

Worrying his lip between his teeth, Louis soothed his hands over the wheel again. It hadn’t been as bad as he’d thought. Driving was something he could probably get used to, if he had to. 

“I want to learn, I want to have that freedom.” He felt his cheeks go hot as he thought about the other reasons he had for asking Harry for help. Glancing over at him, he felt the shyness at saying it dissipated. “I think about the future too and how it would be easier if I did know. For our life. ‘Cause, you know, if we end up somewhere without good public transport I’d be fucked.”

“Oh,” Harry breathed. “You- You’re doing this for me? For us?”

He rubbed his thumb over the back of Harry’s hand. “Yeah of course, sun. Everything’s for us, right?”

He looked up to see Harry staring at him intently, green eyes bright in the dark interior of the car. As Louis watched his face, his smile bloomed beautifully, pretty pink lips and dimples digging deep into his cheek. His hand slipped from Louis’ and instead curled around the back of his neck.

“Yeah, it’s all for us,” Harry whispered, pulling him forward and meeting his lips in a slow, searing kiss. 

𖤓

The game started just as the last bits of sunlight dripped below the horizon line. After spending not enough time kissing in the car and Louis doing another loop down the road until he felt as confident as he had in the parking lot, they returned to Harry’s flat. Everybody else had already left for dinner, so Harry crowded him up against his bedroom door and sank to his knees. 

By the time they left, the tingling in his toes had stopped and all the nervous energy from earlier was gone. Louis had stolen a hoodie from Harry’s drawers, which he was thankful for now as the air turned cooler with the sun finally set. 

The baseball stadium was over half full, fans turning up for the first home game of the season. They were sitting on the third base line, high enough that they had a great view of the whole field, which was illuminated by several bright lights. Louis was sandwiched between Mike and Harry, who were both splayed out in their seats, knees nearly hitting the backs of the ones in front of them.

“We’re the home team,” Harry said to him as the Gators took the field. “So it’s the top of the first. Once there are three outs, the Gators will go up to bat and it’ll be the bottom of the first.”

“Uh huh,” Louis said, turning to Harry with a wicked grin. “Tops and bottoms, I’m with you.”

Harry rolled his eyes, the tips of his ears going pink as he looked past him to see if Mike had heard. “There’s nine innings, two halves to each inning. Not too complicated.”

“Right,” Louis said, looking back to the field as the first batter from the opposing team went up to hit. “Sounds simple enough.”

He watched as the pitcher threw the first ball, the batter swinging and missing. The crowd rumbled, pleased with a first strike. Through the rest of the at bat, and the two after, Harry whispered quietly in his ear explaining everything they were doing. 

Louis was certain that Harry could make even the most boring of games interesting to watch. 

When there were three outs, he watched half heartedly as the Gators jogged off the field. It wasn’t a very thrilling game, to his assessment, a bit like cricket but less convoluted. Louis pulled his phone out and sent a picture of the field to his friends with no caption. He knew Niall would be incredibly insulted that he’d go to a game with Harry and not him. But Niall didn’t whisper the rules warmly against his ear, breath brushing over his neck, or give him personal anecdotes for every person who came up to bat. 

So, it wasn’t the same and Louis wouldn’t be there for anyone else. 

“They had a rough start to last season,” Harry explained as the first batter struck out. “But they made it to the College World Series anyway.”

“You know it’s dumb to call it the World Series when only your country plays.”

Instead of answering, Harry just gave him a goofy grin. Like if they weren’t in the middle of a baseball stadium with floodlights on them, he’d have some other reaction entirely. It had his toes tingling again inside his trainers. 

On the other side of him, someone said, “Well, actually…”

Louis turned and listened to one of Harry’s friends lecture him about baseball as politely as he could. In between their seats, he tangled his fingers with Harry’s and smiled.

Around them, the game carried on. Louis was half paying attention, half just pleased to be sitting there with Harry and enjoying his company. The innings slipped by slowly and by the bottom of the seventh, the Gators were winning 4-0.

Harry leaned over, nudging their shoulders together. “Let’s go.”

“I’m having a good time, really,” Louis assured him, watching the field as someone Harry lifts weights with on Tuesdays hit a line drive past the shortstop. Turning to Harry, he lowered his voice and said, “Promise, baby.”

Green eyes stayed trained on him, molten in the harsh lighting. His face had turned earnest, soft in the evening. The way it did late at night when they were cuddled up in bed or how he looked on an early morning FaceTime call, half the country apart. 

“Lou,” Harry whispered, “Let’s go home, honey.”

He let himself be dragged up, waving goodbye to Harry’s friends, and walked with their hands and bodies too close back to Harry’s flat. Succumbing to the ways they both just wanted to be there with each other. 

Chapter Text

The library was silent around them, save the sound of pages rustling, keyboards clacking, and seemingly someone crying at another table. But who was Louis to judge? Finals season was brutal. 

Liam was across from him with three books open in front of him and his laptop in the middle of the table. He had a highlighter in his hand, a pen behind his ear, and a deep frown on his face. Louis was certain he looked the same, except there was a streak of highlighter on his neck and the tip of his chin that he’d chosen to ignore rather than get up and clean off. It wasn’t worth the five minute bathroom break. Maybe when his timer went off next. 

Scanning through his study guide on his laptop, Louis furiously scribbled down a few points he needed to look back up. It was already the second week of exams. He’d had two already and a third the next day. The last one wasn’t until the following Monday and then he had a blissful two weeks off before heading up to Boston for his summer associateship. 

Next to him, his phone buzzed on the table. Louis looked at it quickly, Lottie’s name showing up on the text message. He turned the screen black and looked back to his notes. 

“Was that Harry?” Liam asked, flipping a page in his textbook. “I can clear part of the table for him.”

“No,” Louis said, frowning down at his notes. “I think he’s studying at the business center. I don’t really know, we had an argument. Kind of.”

Finals week had started okay. Louis had promised Harry he’d be less stressed, control his frustrations better and learn to take a break, with his ankles linked with Harry’s under the duvet. It had been an empty promise when he made it, he knew it, but was too afraid to admit it. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. 

After his first exam and Harry completing a presentation he’d been working on for a couple weeks, they’d walked hand in hand to the Science building. The mural that had been outside of Mina’s chem lab all last year had been updated with the swim team’s Olympians. Louis had known it was big, that it spanned floor to ceiling, but he wasn’t really prepared for how large it was. 

“Baby you take up the whole wall,” Louis had said, stunned as he stood as far back as he could to take in the sight before him. Closest to the classroom was Harry. It spanned from the middle of his swim trunks to the top of his head, which ended just an inch from the ceiling, and he was probably as wide as Louis’ entire wingspan. His tan torso was on full display and both of his Olympic medals hung down over his chest. 

“Not the whole wall,” Harry reasoned. Behind him on the mural were two of his teammates, each with their medals around their necks as well. But Harry was the first thing you saw, the largest of the three as they were tucked partially behind each shoulder in the row. 

Louis looked up, bottom lip between his teeth, and took in the smile on Harry’s face. Dimples were just barely curved into his cheek. His face was a little flat from the retouching, but he was gorgeous. It was no wonder they put him front and center. Absolutely a stunner, Louis didn’t know how anybody in the science department even made it to class. He’d have found himself stopped in his tracks every day if he’d had to pass Harry on his way to a lecture. 

“Uh huh,” Louis mumbled, craning his neck back comically to take it in. “The medal is as big as my head.”

“It’s a big medal,” Harry tossed back. “Or maybe you have a small head.”

Louis stepped closer to it, the details blurring out a bit from the printing. Over his shoulder, he gave Harry a smirk and an eyebrow raise. “Imagine how big your co-”

Harry’s hand covered his mouth before he could finish cock and his other arm slipped around Louis’ waist. 

“In an academic building, Lou?” Harry teased before dropping his hand. 

“I think you’ve done worse in one, sunshine.” Louis widened his eyes comically and thought back to Harry on his knees under the desk in the library. How good he’d been. How he’d waited. 

But Harry had laughed and kissed him with mostly teeth. Over his shoulder, a printed version of Harry looked on until Louis spun them around and pressed Harry right back against himself, mumbling something about how this was the dream . Just to get Harry laughing again, to feel him shaking under his fingertips. 

That night when they’d gone back to Louis’, Harry had fallen asleep with his head on Louis’ chest, but he’d stayed up for another two hours reviewing to make up for the time he’d missed. 

Which became the problem - he was hardly sleeping. It was no wonder he’d snapped at Harry on Sunday night, voice so terse and tongue so sharp that Harry had pulled on his shirt and packed up his books to leave immediately. Louis hadn’t heard from him since.

He knew it was on him to reach out, that he’d been unreasonable and rude. But he barely had the brain space to think about Harry.

So when Liam asked, “Is everything alright?” All he did was shrug and say, “I can’t think about it right now.”

Liam gave him a long look, then a weak smile before they both turned back to their books. 

𖤓

He woke early the next day after only a couple hours of sleep, guzzled two cups of coffee, and sped through his exam. By the time he was walking home, head fuzzy and stress absolutely leaking from his pores, he felt ready to collapse. Not even able to feel the satisfaction he usually could for knowing he’d aced it. 

After dragging himself through the front door and then the empty house, he fell face first on his bed and slept for six hours. 

When he finally woke, the sun was streaking palely through the curtains he’d forgotten to close. Blearily he reached for his phone and groaned when he saw the time. It was so late in the day and his head was still so groggy that he wasn’t even certain he could get to the revision he’d meant to do. Then, as if triggered by the time, his stomach rumbled long and loud. 

He hadn’t eaten anything but one of Harry’s protein bars that was at the bottom of his bag all day. 

Dragging himself out of bed, he was still wiping the sleep from his eyes when he entered the kitchen. Mina was standing by the stove, staring intently at a quesadilla in the frying pan. The smell was so strong, so delicious that his stomach rumbled again. 

“Hey,” he said over the sound of it. 

Her head snapped up and he could see how tired she looked, deep circles under her eyes and hair messy around her face. Instead of smiling at him, she sent him a scowl. 

“I have a bone to pick with you and your little boyfriend ,” she said, words dripping in venom. 

Louis groaned and leaned against the countertop, inching ever closer to the quesadilla she was pulling off the stove.

“You could kick me out and actually kick Harry, if you’d give me half of that.”

“Fuck off,” she said, but pulled another plate out of the cabinet and pushed half onto it. “They updated your boyfriend’s mural and half my class is freaked out that their good luck charm is gone.”

With his mouth full of the first delicious bite, Louis said, “What?”

“You can’t even see his nipples anymore! It’s bullshit!”

He chewed slower until he stopped with a mash of chicken and cheese in his mouth, trying to process what she was even complaining about. His head was still half asleep in bed, eyes not even fully open and she was talking about Harry which had a burn slashing right through his chest. 

Finally swallowing, he repeated, “What?”

She leveled him with an incredulous look. When she spoke again, her words had slowed down as if she was speaking to a child. 

“Harry Styles has a new mural.”

“Uh huh,” Louis agreed, taking another bite and thinking of kissing Harry up against it, the outline of his body bleeding into the blown up image of himself.

“Great, you’re with me.” She rolled her eyes, but he could see the amusement in them. “There’s no nipples on it. None! Not a single one and he has so many to choose from.”

Louis snorted, but she continued tirading past it. 

“I’m going to fail my exams because Harry Styles had to win some stupid medals. It’s bullshit!”

She threw her hands up in the air, slice of quesadilla flopping and a piece of chicken falling to the floor. On her face was a look of annoyance, but she was barely holding onto it. Like any second she was going to break into a laugh. 

And that’s what did it for Louis. 

It bubbled out of him slowly at first and then exploded. He hadn’t laughed in a week, since they were standing in front of that stupid mural and it was bullshit. A total load of shit. He bent at the waist and shook with laughter, so loud it bounced off the cabinets and filled the whole room. 

Mina was laughing with him, like they both needed the tension relief. His head fell back as he stood and he giggled at the ceiling closing his eyes around it. 

He’d been so stressed, so tired. Dragging himself from his room, to the library, to his exams. Not sleeping, not eating. Not letting himself look at what he’d said to Harry, to apologize for being a prick. All of a sudden he wasn’t giggling anymore, the laughter bubbling out of him had turned into tears streaming from his closed eyes. His shoulders shaking from laughter, were now curling in from sobs. 

It sounded far away when Mina said, “Oh no. Oh, fuck.”

She pulled him in for a hug and he dropped his head onto her shoulder, unable to even feel properly embarrassed for soaking the shoulder of her t-shirt. He hadn’t cried in forever, properly at least. He was an expert at storing everything up inside, swallowing it down and pretending it was fine. That he was fine. 

Until it boils over. Until he would spill from the seams. 

“It’s okay, Louis.” Mina rubbed his back lightly. “I was kidding about failing, I actually destroyed my last exam.”

He snorted and wiped his face, finally lifting it off her shoulder. “God, I’m sorry.”

She scrunched her nose at him, but it wasn’t unkind. “The stress, I get it. I cried in the bathroom today before my organic chemistry final. Sometimes it just helps.”

He sucked in a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out in a rush. Nodding, it was like he’d resolved himself to finally do something. Like the tears were a reality check or the emotional break he needed. 

“I probably have to go talk to Harry.”

“Thank God,” she said, picking back up her discarded food. “Tell him how angry I am at him.”

Louis rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help smiling at her. Shrugging he said with little apology, “Sorry, I can’t. I’ll be groveling enough as it is.”

Patting him awkwardly on the shoulder, she said, “Yikes, dude. Good luck with that.”

It was a warm end of April night as he walked to Harry’s. The sun was still low in the sky, filtering prettily between the trees and homes he passed. Like the scene from a film and he was the hero going to get the guy. But it wasn’t that dramatic, wouldn’t be that romantic. 

That’s just the way it was sometimes, uglier, more boring. But doing what was necessary usually was, like being willing to admit when he’d done something wrong. Nobody hated that more than Louis, but if it was worth it? Sure, always. Harry would always be worth it. 

He climbed the stairs to Harry’s flat and then leaned against the siding outside. Pulling out his phone, he hovered over Harry’s name for a minute before switching to text.

Louis : Can you come outside?

Harry would be well within in rights to tell him to fuck off. While he waited for an answer, Louis toed at the You Are Home doormat, which was dirtier than it had been the year before. But Louis loved it, it really felt like the truth. This had become another home to him, the flat and the people in it. One person in particular. 

The door opened abruptly and he looked up to see Harry standing there holding it open. His lips were ticked down into the faintest frown, short hair flopping messily on his head, and the shirt he was wearing was twisted at his neck like he’d just pulled it on. 

“Hey,” he said shortly, leaning against the door frame, not fully stepping outside. 

“Hi,” Louis responded and then cleared his throat, looking over Harry’s shoulder into the flat, trying to see if anyone else was hanging around. He didn’t really fancy apologizing with an audience, but he’d do it if he had to. “Can we talk?”

Harry let out a little sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t say anything more and Louis sort of wished he had. That he’d make it a bit easier on him even though Louis surely didn’t deserve it. 

Taking a deep breath, Louis said, “I shouldn’t have snapped. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I’m just so stressed, but it wasn’t fair.”

Harry’s nose twitched to the side, his lips curling in like he was trying to control an emotion. The urge to reach out to hold his hand, wrap around his elbow, step closer so they could touch was strong, but Louis didn’t move.

“You weren’t doing anything wrong.” Louis played with his fringe, uncaring that it was probably a mess. “I don’t mean to push you away.”

Stepping forward, Harry let the door fall close behind him. He didn’t say anything still, but his head had fallen forward slightly and Louis looked down as well to watch his bare feet on the doormat. 

“I don’t like fighting with you,” Louis whispered.

“It wasn’t fair of you,” Harry said on a sigh, looking back up at him. 

Louis was nodding before he even finished speaking. “I know, I know.”

Closing his eyes, Harry nodded as well. It had Louis stepping forward, his shoes scuffing on the concrete, so he was right in front of Harry. Close enough to touch. 

He was still trying to figure out how, when Harry reached out instead and pulled him in for a hug. 

Warm arms wrapped over his shoulders, tugging him in tightly. Louis tucked his forehead into Harry’s throat, breathing him in like a balm to his nerves. Smoothing and soothing all of him at once. His hands wrapped tight around Harry’s middle, flattening his palms against Harry’s back and feeling the strength of him under his fingertips. It was his favorite way to hold him, to be held. 

“I love you,” he mumbled into Harry’s collarbone. “I’m sorry, baby.”

Harry squeezed him more tightly and pressed a kiss to his temple. “It’s okay, Lou. We’re okay.”

Nodding, he rubbed his nose along Harry’s throat, breathing in the soap he’d bought him. As familiar as the hug he was wrapped up in.

They pulled apart and Harry’s arms slipped from around his shoulder so his hands could cup Louis’ jaw. Gently he guided him forward for a kiss. It was slow, their lips moving over each other like liquid, the air between them going warm. 

It had only been a few days, but any time apart was too much. They were separated enough as it was and with summer break coming up it was only going to get worse. He needed to savor moments like this, they’d be what he was holding onto while he spent a long summer in Boston. 

They parted with a slick sound and then Harry pressed a warm kiss to his forehead. 

“Do you want to come in?”

Louis looked up to his eyes, spring green and soft in the late evening light. There was still so much he needed to do, a whole other exam he needed to study for. But it was one evening, just one. 

Letting out a breath, he said, “I’d love to go for a drive actually.”

“Yeah?” Harry’s thumb brushed over his cheek and had warmth running down the whole right side of his body. 

“To the coast, maybe.”

Harry closed his eyes and smiled, like he knew. That’s where they belonged. Them and the water. It’s where everything felt the most right between them. With the wind circling their bodies and salt water on their lips. 

“I’ll get my keys.”

Another kiss was pressed to his forehead before Harry slipped inside. Louis leaned back against the side of the flat and finally let himself feel relieved. It was a stupid argument, a stupid comment. A whole ugly storm of his own emotions spitting out. A younger him, a dumber one, wouldn’t have apologized. Instead, he would have acted as if nothing was wrong, pushed through a boundary, a moment, to make it fine.

That wasn’t how to sustain something, to really, truly make it last. And he wanted to make it last between them, more than anything. 

Harry came back through the door, backpack over his shoulder and keys in his hand. “Let’s go.”

They were silent on the walk to Harry’s car and after Harry tossed his bag in the backseat, he tossed Louis the keys. 

“It’s a little far,” Louis said, looking down at them in his hand. They’d spent a lot of the spring driving around, Louis really putting effort into learning. He’d even taken his test a couple weeks before and had his brand new license tucked into his wallet. But he still hadn’t driven all that much. 

“We can always switch halfway through, but I don’t want to have to pay too much attention right now. If that makes sense?”

Harry sent him a small smile, delicate from the emotional moment still, so Louis found himself nodding and slipping into the driver’s seat. When he adjusted the mirrors he noticed Harry’s surfboard in the back, just barely fitting in with the seats down. 

“I was going to go home for the weekend,” Harry said, looking back at his board. “Clear my head a bit.”

Louis opened his mouth to apologize again, but Harry waved him off. Instead, he plugged his phone in for directions and put on one of their favorite bands. 

Even though he was much more confident behind the wheel, he still took a moment every time before shifting into gear. To center himself, to focus.

“We can trade at any time, okay?”

Louis gave him a grateful smile and finally put the car in drive. 

He drove the whole way there, the empty roads and Harry’s singing voice carrying him the hour and a half drive. The sun was starting to set behind them as they pulled into the parking lot. Just the sight of the waves rolling softly onto the sand settled something within him. 

Harry twisted to grab his backpack from the backseat and from inside he pulled out a pair of swim trunks. “Want to swim?”

Taking them from Harry, Louis raised an eyebrow and asked, “You changed before we left didn’t you?”

“Maybe,” Harry laughed. 

Louis rolled his eyes, muttered, “Little shit,” and then pushed the seat all the way back. He shimmied out of his shorts and pulled the swim trunks up over his boxers, only knocking his knee on the steering wheel once. When he looked back up, he saw Harry’s gaze was trained on his legs. The shorts were hitting higher on his thighs than usual for him, the soft edge of his tan line fully exposed. 

Skimming a finger up the side of Harry’s forearm, it finally had his gaze lifting, a soft smile on his face. 

“Let’s go, sunshine.”

Harry nodded, but leaned over the center console to press a quick kiss to his lips before opening the car door. The scent of the ocean hit him immediately - salt water and seaweed. He hadn’t been to the coast since they went to Harry’s parents for a few days during spring break. Even then, they’d only gone for a couple walks on the sand, not even pulling out their bathing suits. The water had been too cold in March, but it was surely warmer now.

He met Harry at the boot of the car and watched him pull the surfboard from the back, tucking it under his arm. Grabbing two towels, they walked down the path towards the beach. With the sun setting, it had gotten a bit cooler outside. The nice breeze was ruffling both their hair and the loose shirt he had on. It felt nice, refreshing. Exactly what he needed after last week.

The beach was empty and they dropped their stuff not far back from where the tide was slipping up the sand. 

“Were you going to surf?” Louis asked as he pulled off his shirt. 

At Thanksgiving Harry had tried to teach him, first on land and then in the shallowest water. Louis hadn’t been terrible at it, but it wasn’t something that called to him. He’d rather watch Harry cut through the water than do it himself. 

“No,” Harry said, peeling his clothes off until he was left in short trunks that weren’t much longer than the speedos he wore when training. “Thought we could just, I don’t know, sit on it. Be more relaxed in the water, if you wanted.”

“Sounds nice, baby.” 

They left their clothes on the lazily spread towels and headed for the shore line. The water was a spark of cold against his toes, but they didn’t even pause, walking quickly through the froth until their ankles were covered. 

The board was pushed out in front of them until Harry paddled out on the back of it through the waves. His arms glided through the water, the last bits of sunlight catching the droplets on his tan skin. It was a sight to see, he always was. 

When Louis’ toes were just brushing the sand on the bottom of the ocean, he pulled himself onto the board next to Harry so they were facing each other with their legs hanging off either side. 

It was just them in the middle of the ocean. Just the sound of the water rolling by, the strong scent of salt, and the warmth of Harry’s hand on his thigh. 

“I was thinking while you were driving,” Harry started, words carrying softly over the open space around them. “I should apologize too. I know I was in your space, you told me you were busy and I kind of ignored you. I wasn’t trying to get in the way.”

He was looking at Louis earnestly across the small distance between them, face heavily shadowed from how low the sun had gotten. It would be easy for him to say that he wasn’t. But it would just be a pretty lie. 

It wasn’t true.

Louis took Harry’s hands in his. They were cool from the water, but so were his.

“I don’t want you to think that I don’t want you around or that I’m isolating from you. That you’re not welcome,” he started, squeezing Harry’s hands lightly. “But I need to focus. Like really, really concentrate and it wasn’t working. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, but it felt like you weren’t listening to me.”

He watched the words settle over Harry’s face, felt his hands go a bit looser between Louis’. But he didn’t let him move away. It was just them, right there and now, and if he was going to say it, he really had to say it.

“I set myself these timers and I build breaks into every study session to keep myself on track, but all the little interruptions drive me insane,” Louis tried to explain. “It would be as if I pulled you out of the water every time you made a turn. You’d never get anything done.”

Harry grimaces, letting out a low groan. “I get it.”

Lightly running his thumbs over the back of Harry’s hands, Louis said, “Baby, I love you. I always, always, want you around. But I only have one year left and I need every single thing I do to count.”

“No, I understand, Lou.” Harry let go of one of his hands to run it through his wet hair, letting out a breath. “I think I was taking your frustration and stress like it was about me.”

Louis frowned. “It wasn’t.”

“Yeah,” Harry said and then laughed at himself. “But then I made it that way because I kept pushing you. So, I’m sorry for that. I just have to get used to it, like, not always being about me.”

A wave rolled underneath the board and they rose and fell with it, like a gentle rocking. Like the ocean was holding them through it all. The sun was gone now and they were cast in stark moonlight, reflecting off the surface in a gorgeous dark abyss. There was nothing else but them in that moment. 

“Most things are, to be fair,” Louis teased. “But not the bad things, sunshine. Never the bad things, I promise.”

Chapter Text

“We should have sex.”

Louis’ head snapped up, dropping his phone next to a sweating vodka red bull between where his arms were propped on a table at the back of a bar. It was Friday of the second week of June and Louis was actually attending the first summer associate get together of the season. Just a minute ago, the table had been full and he’d looked down to a text from Harry. 

But now, it was just him and another 2L, in her first summer at Fisher, Smith, & Langley, named Jordan. 

“What?” Louis said, unsure if he’d even heard her correctly. 

“We should have sex, don’t you think?” She teased the straw for her gin and tonic between her lips in a way she probably thought looked sexy, but did little to stir him. 

“I have a boyfriend,” Louis said, looking back down to his phone. 

Harry: Are you still at the bar? Call me when you leave

“Okay,” Jordan said, shrugging and flicking her dark hair off her shoulder. “So do I.”

His thumb hovered the keyboard for a second before, looking back up at her. There was an easy smile on her face, almost like a challenge. As if this sort of thing worked for her all the time. 

“I’m gay,” Louis offered and then tossed back the dregs of his drink. Usually he wasn’t so forward with it, but he almost wanted to see what she’d say next.

Her smile ticked up higher and she teased her tongue with the straw. “Not an issue for me.”

“It is for me, love.” Louis pushed his empty glass into the center of the table, shaking his head at her. “I’ll see you at work on Monday.”

When his back was turned, he was almost certain he heard her say, “Your loss.” 

He snorted, bewildered by how forward she was. Just as he hit the exit for the bar, he pressed to call Harry. 

He’d been in Boston for just under a month. Somehow he thought it would be easier this time, that they’d miss each other less. But it seemed worse. Maybe it was because they didn’t have the Olympics to look forward to. Harry had Nationals in a few weeks and then hopefully World Championships directly after. So even though he had a busy end of summer, it felt like it was all dragging a bit.

The call only rang once before Harry’s voice was warm in his ear. 

“Lou, hi,” Harry said. His voice sounded very close. Often he would have Louis on speaker as he did things around the flat or even just laying on his chest while he slouched in bed. But this sounded as if he was right there with him. 

“Hi baby. Sorry, I’ve just left. I know I’m a bit later to call than I said.”

The bar wasn’t too far of a walk from Niall’s new place and he’d told Harry he’d call before he went to bed. The clock had just pushed past 11:30, which wasn’t very late, but Harry’d been up for a swim at 5:30. 

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” His voice was so warm in Louis’ ear it sent a shiver down his spine. “Did you have a nice time?”

“It was alright,” Louis started and then snorted out a short laugh. “Actually, you won’t believe what Jordan just said to me.”

“Who’s Jordan?”

Louis turned, then paused at the corner of a street and waited for a car to pass, eyeing a group of people walking towards him on the pavement. 

“Another summer. I think she goes to Roger Williams.” Louis crossed the street and then the group of people, who all nodded to him as they passed. “But, H, baby, I almost laughed in her face.”

“What’d she say?”

“She wanted a shag. Didn’t care I had a boyfriend, didn’t care I was gay.” The street lights flickered as he walked under them, casting long shadows on the street. Harry was silent on the other end of the phone, so he continued. “It was bold, I’ll give her that.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“No, obviously.” Louis rolled his eyes even though Harry wasn’t there to see him. “I left to call you instead. But, like, can you believe that?”

“No actually.” Harry grumbled and Louis could picture the pout on his face. 

“Baby, are you jealous?” A smile unfurled on his face and he wished Harry was there or that they were on Facetime. He wanted to see the pink on his cheeks, watch him huff and puff.

“Maybe,” Harry admitted.

Louis laughed. Maybe it was unkind, but it was funny to him that Harry would ever worry. There wasn’t a single part of Louis that wasn’t wrapped up in him completely. 

“Jealous she’s there with you and I’m not,” Harry said.

Rubbing a hand over his heart, the soreness from missing Harry had resettled right there. “I miss you, sunshine.”

“You too, Lou.” Harry said quietly. “Are you almost home?”

Louis turned down the street he’d just come up to. “Two minutes.”

In his ear, Harry hummed.

A car alarm started going off a street over and it was so startling Louis jumped on the pavement. He was half a block away from Niall’s flat, getting closer with each step. The alarm was still blaring, and suddenly he realized he couldn’t just hear the sound, but it was also echoing through the phone. 

He sucked in a sharp breath and then breathed out, “Baby.”

“Yeah?” There was amusement in Harry’s voice, like he was just on the verge of laughing and not even trying to hold it in.

Picking up his stride, Louis all but ran to the last corner he needed to turn at. As soon as he whipped around it, he saw Harry standing under the light outside Niall’s flat. 

The phone slipped down from his ear and he held it flat against his chest, rising and falling with the way his breathing had picked up. He felt frozen by the sight of him and it was only a few seconds longer before Harry looked over and saw him. A smile curved up gorgeously on his lips, lighting up his whole face.

That look, his joy, had Louis fumbling to cancel the call and stumbling those last few feet until he was in Harry’s arms.

“Hi,” Louis whispered, squeezing his arms tightly to be sure Harry was really there. Emotion swelled up in him, blowing over every single breaker and he felt tears sting in his eyes. He tucked his nose under Harry’s jaw, breathing in deeply. “What are you doing here?”

“Missed you,” Harry said, running a hand up Louis’ back to brush lightly through the hair at the back of his head. 

Louis pulled back to look at his face, to trace the depth of a dimple with the edge of his thumb. “That’s not an explanation.”

“Booked a plane ticket,” Harry said, kissing him softly. “Then I took an uber.”

“Still not,” Louis teased, kissing him slowly again. “How long have you been outside?”

“Only like half an hour. I rang the buzzer, but I don’t think Niall’s here.”

“He went to the Cape with Zayn for a long weekend.” Louis smoothed a hand down Harry’s cheek to cup his neck lightly. “Can’t believe I was getting propositioned and you were just here waiting for me.”

Harry cracked a smile and ducked his chin to kiss Louis’ wrist. “See why I was bothered.”

Laughing lightly, he pulled Harry in for another kiss, luxuriating in their closeness for a minute longer before he finally let him inside the building. He took Harry’s hand and tugged him up the stairs, Harry’s duffel bag bumping into his legs as they climbed up. Niall and Zayn had moved in together back in the spring, getting a slightly bigger place in a better neighborhood.

When they hit the landing, Louis unlocked Niall’s flat door and tugged Harry inside. He kicked off his shoes hurriedly, always keeping a point of contact with some part of him. 

“It’s nice in here,” Harry said looking around. The flat was small, smaller than Harry’s in Gainesville anyway, but it had exposed brick on one wall and wide window sills Louis sometimes smoked with Zayn on. It was cozy, with soft lighting and soft furniture. Everything was immaculately organized, of course, but there was a freeness that Zayn brought to the space that balanced Niall out perfectly. 

“Yeah, it is.” The second bedroom was bigger here as well, affording Louis an actual bed for the summer. It was a vast improvement from the futon he’d spent the previous summer on, which had given him horrendous knots in his back. He still shared the room with their home office, but Louis didn’t mind, they were never using the room at the same time anyway.

“Do you think-” Harry started and then turned back to him with a sheepish grin. “When you move to Boston, is this the type of place you’re thinking of?”

It was another year until he’d move, as long as the firm offered him a place after graduation, and he hadn’t given it too much thought. He had a short list of neighborhoods he’d be willing to live in and an even shorter list of ones he’d prefer. This area was on it, if only for the proximity to his friends. 

“Yeah, I guess. Would be nice for when you come to visit.” He slipped his hands around Harry’s waist, kissing his shoulder lightly. 

Harry’s body stiffened under him, but when he looked up, he was smiling at Louis. A hand fell low on Louis’ back and then tugged lightly at his button down, yanking it out the back of his trousers. Then it was just his warm palm against Louis’ bare skin. It had a sigh tumbling from both of their lips.

Pressing a kiss to the column of Harry’s throat, Louis said into his skin, “How long are you staying?”

“I’m heading back on Wednesday.”

“You have practice.” Louis pulled back to look at him. “Nationals are in two weeks.”

Harry kissed his temple and Louis could feel his smile. “Turns out being an Olympic Champion literally opens up doors, or pools, I guess. Coach made a call for me.”

Shaking his head, he pulled Harry in, their lips meeting with more fervor than the kisses they’d shared outside. They slipped into a syrupy space, the air between them sweet and thickening with each twist of their mouths and pull of their clothes. 

Hands pushed up his shirt and down the back of his trousers, skimming the waistband of his pants and then out to tickle the back of his thighs. Their mouths separated as Harry pulled him up by the back of his legs until they were wrapped around his waist. Louis was aching in his trousers, cock trapped between the fabric and Harry’s abdomen. 

“Where’s your room?” Harry asked, pulling his lips just far enough away to get the words out. 

Louis tangled his fingers in the short curls on Harry’s head, supporting his elbows on Harry’s shoulders. Kissing over Harry’s cheek, he tugged on his earlobe and then mumbled, “To the right.”

He sucked right under Harry’s jaw, listening to the huffs and puffs falling from his lips as he carried Louis to his room. His back hit the doorframe and Harry’s hip bumped the desk, sending some papers to the floor. It had them both laughing, hot puffs of it warming up the room. 

The bed was soft underneath him when Harry laid him down. Harry kept his feet on the ground and instead hovered over him, carefully unbuttoning his shirt. Louis slipped a hand in his hair and smiled up at him. The barest bit of light was coming in through the curtains, casting yellow shadows throughout the room. 

It shouldn’t have been so nice or feel so romantic, but Harry looked lovely in every light. 

Harry’s lips trailed behind every button he opened, every inch of shirt peeled back to reveal Louis’ chest. Sweat pooled under his back as his heart sped up. It was unbelievable that an hour ago he was nursing a vodka Redbull and feeling sorry for himself for how much he missed Harry. Only for him to know be spreading him open with careful hands and soft lips.

The shirt fell back off his shoulders and then he sat up to pull it all the way off as Harry started to undo his belt. 

“I missed you, I love you,” Harry whispered with his lips right next to Louis’ bellybutton. 

He pulled down Louis’ trousers, then his pants, skimming his mouth over every bit of exposed skin. Louis dropped his head back against the mattress and felt his heart rate increase with every brush of his skin. Like small jolts of electricity masked with the most gentle, petal soft sweep. 

Fingers circled his cock and then gripped it loosely, pulling a moan from Louis’ lips. He sat up on his elbows to watch as Harry jerked him slowly, mouth hovering just above, tongue already teasing his bottom lip. Like he couldn’t wait to taste. 

The tops of his cheeks were a ruddy red, the hair at his temples glossy from humidity. He was certain Harry’s eyes had gone dark green, intense with desire as he trailed them over Louis’ naked body. It was too much sometimes the way he looked at Louis.

“Baby,” Louis said to the quiet room. Harry looked up, corner of his mouth ticking up before he opened it and sunk down on Louis’ cock. “Fuck.”

His head fell back as the slick heat enveloped him. It felt so good after weeks of his own hand, of picturing Harry’s tongue curving around his cock, the way his lips went a dark pink. How they looked with spit and come dripping off of them. 

That had him lifting his head back up. He didn’t want to miss a moment of Harry’s mouth stretched wide, his fingers slipping up and down his cock, the way his eyelashes fluttered when he took Louis in deep. 

“You’re so good, baby,” Louis murmured, balancing on one elbow so he could pet Harry’s face the way he liked with the other hand. His lashes fluttered and Louis curved his pointer finger around Harry’s eyebrow, before tangling his fingers in Harry’s hair.

He moaned harshly, the vibrations shooting sparks of pleasure right to Louis’ cock, getting his toes tingling and his back sweating. 

Harry pushed forward, squeezing his hand around Louis’ cock and tonguing his cock head so deliciously he was sure he was leaking in Harry’s mouth. Fingernails scraped down his inner thigh, spreading his legs wider and then up the back of them. 

Pleasure was spiking under his skin, so vibrant, so bright, all focused on Harry. Like a beacon, like he was drawing everything out of him, gifting him something special. 

Louis’ back arched off the bed when he came, tugging Harry’s hair so tightly his head pulled off Louis’ cock and come sprayed over his cheek and onto his t-shirt.

Breathless, muggy laughter spilled from Louis’ lips and Harry gave him a dazed smile. He had to be aching in his shorts, hot and too turned on as he was still fully dressed. Louis licked his lips and pulled Harry’s hair lightly, watching his eyes flutter, the smile on his lips melt to a moan.

“Come up here,” he said, voice gone rough. 

Harry whipped his clothes off hurriedly and then fell over Louis’ body, lips landing on his cheek. There was still come on Harry’s face, drying between them as their lips connected. Harry’s hard cock was rutting uselessly against Louis’ hip, faster than the slow movement of their lips. 

Snaking a hand between their bodies, Louis took it in hand, stroking him slowly. He’d missed the weight of Harry in his hand, of his body on Louis’ body. He pushed Harry back on the bed and then leaned over him, reaching past his body to pull open the drawer of the bedside table to fish out a new bottle of lube.

He ripped the plastic covering the cap open with his teeth, laughing as he spit a bit of it out onto the floor. 

“Are you trying to tease me?” Harry said, like an echo of himself nearly two years before, a warm look on his face, like the memory was enough to get him misty eyed. 

“Always, baby,” Louis said, kissing his chest and then squirting some lube on his palm. 

The glide was easier with lube and Harry let out a breathy moan on the first tug of his fist. They met in a sloppy kiss and Louis lowered his body over Harry’s, pulling him as close as he could while he worked him over. 

He relished feeling Harry fall apart, the way his body shifted, the tensing of his muscles. Every single breath he took. The moans as they first started to form and the way they breathed out into his mouth. 

It didn’t take long, only a few more strokes and Harry was spilling between them. They both smiled as he came and then Louis kissed his bottom lip, his cheek, his pulse point and felt the way his heart rabbited for him.

“Thank you for coming, baby,” Louis said and then laughed, dropping his head to Harry’s shoulder. 

“Such a hardship,” Harry teased, skimming a hand up Louis’ bare back. 

“I mean to visit.” Louis rolled his eyes and then rolled off of him, grabbing a tissue to wipe the come off his hand. 

Harry’s smile softened, turning on his side to look at Louis. “I wanted to see you, I wanted to see this place. To be here with you, like you’re always there for me.”

Dropping the used tissue over the side of the bed, Louis turned and wrapped his arms around Harry, pulling him to his chest. “I can’t wait to show you the city.”

𖤓

They woke up too early on Saturday and went to the pool. There was a whole team training there and Harry joined in with them, while Louis sat in the stands reading the novel he’d had on his nightstand since February. 

It only dawned on him halfway through practice that Harry could have gone to any pool to train. That he didn’t need to be around the other swimmers. That he didn’t need a coach for the short time he’d be in Boston. The realization had the book falling to his lap and had him watching more carefully. 

Harry was testing the waters, so to speak. His heart raced under his t-shirt, overwhelmed by an idea that he’d never really considered.

They both graduated next May and every time they’d talked about what the immediate future held it was with Louis moving to Boston and Harry staying in Gainesville. At least through the 2028 Olympics. But maybe Harry had changed his mind, or he was starting to. 

Louis wondered that through the rest of practice, through walking around the city, through wiping cannoli cream off Harry’s chin and later when they shared a cup of chowder overlooking the Charles River. 

He wondered when they went for a jog the next morning, something they’d built into his routine as a way to combat his stress levels. Louis was loath to admit it was working, but it had been nice for those last weeks in Gainesville to share one more thing together and it was nice now, to bring Harry along on the route he’d made for himself in Boston.

On Monday morning he got up for work at the same time Harry got up for training. It was a muggy morning, the humidity clinging to both of them until they parted at the bus stop, Louis kissing him quickly before he got on and Harry continued onto the T stop. It was barely light out, but Louis had a lot of work to catch up on and there had been a part of him that wanted to try out this routine with Harry. 

To see what mornings could be like in the future. If Harry moved. If they lived here together. 

He dreamed of that life through the entire bus ride, through his whole morning of doc prep. The year before he’d only just gotten friendly with the other summer associates when the summer had nearly ended, so he was trying to be better at it this year. Michaela had graduated that May and was feverishly studying for the bar, so it was just him and Charlie where they sat last year and a guy named Brandon that they both loathed. 

As soon as Brandon got up to go to lunch, Charlie pushed back their chair and turned to him. 

“Saw you run out of the bar on Friday,” they said, raising an eyebrow.

Louis smirked, keeping his eyes on his screen. “Jordan tried to pick me up.”

“Like physically or?”

He let out a sharp laugh, finally looking over to them. Charlie had a pleased look on their face. 

“Yeah, she tried to dead lift me in the bar,” he said flatly.

A snort echoed through their corner of the office and Charlie didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed about it. “I don’t know how she thought that would work, I mean look at you.”

“Thanks.” Louis rolled his eyes and looked back to his work. He’d been reading through documentation for a case going to trial soon, trying to get everything in order, but it was over a thousand pages and he was sure he’d be working on it for half the week at least. It was hard to focus though, knowing that Harry was waiting for him at the end of the day. 

“Did you have a good weekend?” they asked, leaning back further in their chair. They’d both relaxed with it being the second year at the firm, but Charlie more so than him. 

“It was…” Louis started, pausing as he thought about Harry’s smile in the summer sun, his tan body against white sheets. The way he’d laughed with Niall and Zayn the night before, loud like it wasn’t the first time they were actually meeting. “It was nice, the usual. My friends went to the Cape. How was yours?”

They scrunched their nose and launched a long story about their cousin, a lobster, and the red line. Louis only half listened to it, but Charlie surely knew that because every once in a while they would snap their fingers to get his attention. He’d find it annoying if he didn’t like them so much. 

There were a couple voices coming nearer to their back corner of the office and Louis looked over, hands still poised on the keyboard, expecting to see a partner or Patrick coming to give them a task. But that wasn’t who was walking towards them.

The receptionist, Linda, who was older than his nan and had worked at the firm since the 80’s, was leading Harry over. She had a smile on her face that he’d never seen before, hands fluttering in front of her. Give it to Harry to charm the crankiest woman he’d ever met. Even his English accent had done little to charm her. 

“Mr. Tomlinson,” Linda said, face finally falling to a frown when she looked at him. “You have a guest.”

“Thank you, Linda,” he said, as sweet as he could muster, but she still didn’t give him more than a withering glare. 

Instead, she turned to Harry and said, “It was nice to meet you dear,” before walking back to her desk. 

“What kind of voodoo,” Charlie mumbled, face open in shock.

“Harry,” Louis said, unable to stop his face from blooming into a smile. “What brought you downtown?”

He shifted on his feet, a grin tucked between his teeth. In his hand was a brown paper bag and he lifted it slightly. “Niall recommended a sandwich place. I brought lunch.”

“He brought lunch,” Charlie echoed, softly. 

“Give me a minute, I’m almost done with this section.”

“No worries,” Harry said, dropping the bag on the edge of his desk, carefully avoiding the messy paperwork on top. 

Louis looked back to his work, skimming through the documents as quickly as possible while still retaining the information. 

“Hi, I’m Harry,” he heard him say and looked over just in time to see Harry extending his hand to Charlie and the delighted look on their face. 

“Charlie,” they said. “Are you a… gentleman caller?”

Louis’ lip twitched.

“You could say that,” Harry said easily. Louis only had half a page left. 

“I heard he requires you to be able to do reps of his bodyweight at the gym,” Charlie whispered conspiratorially. 

Louis snorted and scrolled to the end of the page. “Don’t be spreading false information.”

“Oh, it’s all true,” Harry said to Charlie, an easy smile on his face. “But don’t worry, I think I can handle him.”

Louis locked his computer and grabbed the food off the end of his desk, shoving Harry lightly in the arm as he got closer. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Nice to meet you,” Harry called over his shoulder, hand skimming lightly over Louis’ lower back. More quietly, to just Louis, he said, “You don’t talk about me at all, do you?”

Looking up at him quickly, Louis saw he was still smiling, unbothered by that fact. “I like to keep my life private.”

Part of that was because Harry was a public figure, as weird as that seemed, and part of it was because it was no one’s fucking business. 

Harry smiled and shook his head, standing so close to him that there would be no question what they were to each other if someone really looked. It was something Harry was growing more comfortable with every day, every week, and Louis always let him set the pace with what they showed the world. 

They walked through the office and were just about to the receptionist’s desk when someone called out to him. He turned to see Mark walking towards them with a wide grin on his face. 

“Well, nobody told me we had an Olympian in the office today,” he said brightly and Louis blushed so deeply he was certain the temperature in the room increased by several degrees.

“An Olympian,” echoed Charlie from the back of the room.

Louis turned to look at them as Harry and Mark spoke, tuning out most of their conversation. Charlie’s jaw was dropped and then they threw their head back and laughed. Louis knew he’d be hearing it from them when he came back from lunch. 

When he focused back on Mark and Harry, they were shaking hands and Mark was saying, “Carlos is going to be jealous he missed this.”

“Next time,” Harry said cheerfully as he waved goodbye to him and those two words zinged through Louis’ chest. 

Finally, they left the office and walked with bumping elbows to the closest green space. They sat on a low wall, with one leg over each side so they could face each other. Lunch was from a place he’d been to once the year before with Niall. They had amazing sandwiches, but only were open weekdays for lunch and it was almost impossible to get there and back on his lunch break. 

Harry took a big bite and then closed his eyes, struggling to smile and chew at the same time. He hadn’t even swallowed yet when he tried to say, “It’s so good.”

Louis laughed and wiped a bit of sauce off the corner of Harry’s lips, licking it off his own finger. His eyes were lit in laughter, bright green surrounded by all the grass and trees right in the center of the city. It was electric, the way he looked here, the way he was looking at Louis. 

The humid morning had settled into a muggy afternoon. The sun was warm where it was shining down on them and Louis could feel himself start to sweat under his long sleeve shirt. Harry’s hair was starting to stick to his neck and his cheeks were going pink from the heat, but he was still smiling as he ate as if he couldn’t feel it at all. 

“I think I could like it here,” Harry said, stretching his legs out. “I could see it, you know? Our life here.”

“Even though it gets hot like this in the summer?” Louis asked, rolling up his sleeves. 

“I like the heat.”

“You won’t like how cold it gets in the winter.” He put the sandwich back down on the wrapper, still only half eaten.

“I think it might be fun. Plus I’ll have the car, so I can always drive to the pool if it’s too much.”

“You’ve thought about this?” Louis asked, not wanting to get too much hope, to get too far ahead of himself.

“A lot,” Harry said, slipping a hand into Louis’.

Louis let out a slow breath and then finally said the things he’d been thinking for ages.

“I would make enough that you wouldn’t need to work, if you didn’t want to. So you can focus on just swimming.” Louis bit his lip and then said the rest, “I could pay for the rent on my own, as long as you were with me.”

A cheeky grin pulled into Harry’s face. “You wanna live with me.”

“I’d live with you right now if my place wasn’t a part of my scholarship.”

Harry let go of his hand and then ran one up each of his arms before tugging him forward by the jaw into a kiss. 

“Your mess will drive me crazy,” Harry murmured. 

“I’m just keeping your life interesting, sunshine.”

After a beat, Harry laughed, right against his cheek like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to kiss him or not.

It was so nice to be right here in the open, in a park, in a city he loved. With the person he loved. How special it was to be building the exact future that both of them wanted. Together.