we'll play hide and seek to turn this around (give me love like never before)

Chapter 3

Louis loves Zayn and he fucking hates short notices. So, when it finally dawns on him that he just cleaned his whole fucking room for absolutely no reason, he wants to bash his head in and light himself on fire, but whatever, it's too late to go back now and spend those delicate hours watching Project Runway or jerking himself off.

So now he's slipping on a t-shirt that smells like it hasn't been washed since he first bought it, and pulling on socks that have mud stains sprinkled over the heels. He doesn't really care, though, because all his energy went into absolutely nothing, and he's too moody to bother looking- or smelling- decent.

There's a soft knock at the door whilst Louis is slipping on his other Van. He curses under his breath, reaching up to open it to find a confused Harry staring down at him. Louis just shakes his head, straightening up and gently pushing him out of the doorway whilst he shuts it behind him.

"Yeah, so here's the thing," Louis starts, grabbing his telescope off the ground that he set there minutes before, "it turns out my roommate and also my best mate likes a guy, and the guy he likes is my other best mate, and he didn't even tell me he liked a guy let alone Li." He waves his in the air, "So apparently he was planning on kicking me out tonight. Stupid, I know," Louis huffs, bending over to stuff his laces into his shoes. "So is it alright if we just go to your place?"

Harry is dressed in tight black jeans and a lovely university sweater, with his curls pushed back behind an even lovelier headscarf instead of having them swipe down over his forehead. His cheeks are red and he's holding his textbooks close to his chest, his telescope hanging off of his beautifully broad shoulder. Louis suddenly feels bad for making the lovely boy walk all this way, only to have to walk back.

He feels even worse when Harry frowns, looking down. "Um, I don't really-"

Louis realises how rude he is and sighs, "Hey, how about this, I'll carry everything, alright? Because you walked all this way, and I'm a shit person, and here, let me take that," Louis reaches and takes Harrys bag with the telescope, slinging it onto his shoulder where his own bag sits as well.

Harry tries to protest, but Louis is taking away his textbooks too, and Harry is left standing without anything but the ratty sweater that looks better than it should on him. Louis really does think that Harry is quite pretty, honestly, though he tucks those thoughts in the far back of his mind.

"No, really, it's okay. You don't live too far, do you?" He smiles gently, just because.

Harry blushes again, looking down. He kicks at the floor lightly, and Louis can feel the itching of annoyance creep up into his throat, because he is holding all of this stuff whilst the boy just stands there looking pretty, and for god's sake, he will probably need back surgery in the near future or whatever.

"Uh, actually, could we maybe, just not go to my place and like, do it outside or something?"

Louis' fucking bewildered by that. "Um, what?"

"Like, I don't know, I just-"

"Harry, it's cold, it's late, and we kinda have to have light. What's the big deal about going to your place?"

Again, he doesn't mean for what he's said to come out so harshly, but maybe it does, because all of a sudden Harry's taking in a sharp breath and Louis feels like a douchebag all over again. He's just not use to sensitive people, he's use to loud and sarcastic twats like himself.

"Hey, hey," he sighs, carefully setting all the stuff down and reaching out to the boy. He carefully runs his hand down Harry's shoulder, and a weird feeling of softness strikes through Louis' body. "I'm really sorry, okay?" he says gently, "I'm not mad at you or anything, I'm just annoyed because I spent all day cleaning up my room for you, and it was all for nothing, y'know?"