larry- one shots

running through a cloud of steam

/// Harry ///

Harry stares up at the ceiling of his flat. The alarm on his phone will buzz soon, and he'll be forced to get out of bed and live through this day.

He should be excited. In less than twenty-four hours he'll wake up in the body of his soulmate and spend an entire day as this person. All the years of uncertainty will come to an end. He'll never have to wonder if his boyfriend is the "one" or if the entire relationship is pointless.

He's spent the last few years waking up just like today, wondering if he'll find himself in a different body. After all, he didn't know for certain that he's older than his soulmate. It appears he is not as he's just woken up in his own body. So clue number one: he's older than his soulmate. His heart flutters a bit, but instead of the excitement he hoped for, he feels something like dread sit in the pit of his stomach.

A thousand thoughts swirl through his mind, the same ones that have resounded in his brain for years. Who will it be? What will he look like? What is he like? Does he like kids? Does he have a big family? What if he doesn't like cats? Does he already know him or is it a stranger? What if he wakes up tomorrow and he's halfway across the world? What a hassle. He really hopes his soulmate is at least British.

And then the biggest and worst one: does he even really believe in soulmates? His mum had woken up on her twenty-first birthday just as herself. No one really knows if she just doesn't have a soulmate or if hers had died before turning twenty-one. But what Harry does know is that his mum is married to the love of her life and is very happy. Her husband had been her choice, and deep in the recesses of his heart Harry wishes for that same kind of happiness, the kind that someone chooses for themself.

His alarm starts buzzing, and Harry sighs and hits snooze. He wants more than anything to go crawl in bed with Louis right now. He's just across the hall, so he could potentially do just that. But Louis has been acting weird for weeks. He seems nearly as nervous as Harry about this whole soulmate thing.

He drags himself into the shower and soaps up his body, one that won't even be his tomorrow. He tries not to let that thought get to him. He stands at the counter in the kitchen and chokes down a few bites of cereal before Louis appears, rumpled and sleepy. His heart flips over in his chest. This has always been his favourite version of Louis, the one only he sees.

"Hey, H," Louis mumbles as he opens the fridge and takes the milk out.

"Hey."

Louis plops the milk on the counter and then reaches for the cereal in the cupboard. He seems to be deliberately not touching Harry, which is hard to do in this tiny kitchen. There's a thread of awkwardness that simply has never existed between them before the last few weeks. Harry sighs. He hopes this weirdness between them will go away once he's got a soulmate. It really sucks to not be able to talk to your best friend about what's bothering you most.

In fact, his heart seems to seize up a bit that he feels so detached from Louis right now. Maybe none of this would even be bothering him if he just knew he had Louis. Louis must notice him staring because he suddenly looks up at him, eyes blue and wary. The air feels heavy and hard for Harry to pull in and out of his lungs. Every time Louis comes near him these days, his body seems to react oddly as though their separation has been having a physical effect on him.

He's clearly losing it. He offers Louis a wan smile and rinses out his cereal bowl before walking back towards his bedroom to grab his laptop for his morning lecture.

"So--"

Harry turns back to look at Louis.

"Ehm--still on for tonight?"