Play the Odds

2 - December

December

Liam waits all of five seconds after Harry gets his second morning kiss from Louis and Louis walks out the door before it explodes out of him.

“Are we really doing this, then?” he asks, slamming his hand on the table. Niall jumps, his coffee mug rattling as he knee bashes the underside of the table, and Harry stops his fork halfway to his mouth, the syrup from his waffles splashing slowly back onto his plate.

“Jesus, Payno,” Niall mutters.

“Doing what?” Harry asks, bewildered.

“This,” Liam hisses, waving his hand vaguely in a way that explains nothing at all. “I thought it would be done by now, man. I thought you two would give up.”

“Give up on what?” Harry asks, still baffled.

“This- this stupid- this kissing bet!” Liam finally gets out. His cheeks are all red because he hates confrontation, and normally Harry would pity him, but, well. He also normally understands why there’s confrontation in the first place, too, and he’s definitely missing out on that information right now.  

“Of course it’s not done,” Harry answers carefully. “We said in the beginning, this is, like, a months-long thing. Probably won’t be finished until February or so.”

“No, that’s not-” Liam breaks off with a growl. “Niall, help me out.”

Niall stops trying to rub the new coffee stain off his jeans and clears his throat. “What Liam is oh-so-eloquently trying to say is that we thought all this would dwindle off, not turn casual kissing into a part of your everyday life.”

“Yes,” Liam chimes in. “That. Exactly.”

Harry frowns. “I don’t… understand. Why does that make you upset?”

“Because we love you, man!” Liam cries, throwing his hands up in frustration. “And we love Louis, and there’s no way this can continue and end well. Not with all the- well. You know.”

“No,” Harry says. He carefully sets his fork aside, the bit of waffle still stuck on the end, and folds his hands together. “I don’t know, so please explain.”

“It’s the… the…”

“The unrequited love thing,” Niall finishes, still rubbing a napkin against his thigh.

Well. That- what?

That’s… that’s not what Harry was expecting. At all. Unrequited love thing…

Like, that one of them is in love with the other? Does that mean Louis is in love with him? And how do Niall and Liam know?

“What?” he croaks finally.

“Haz, come on,” Liam says, leveling him a look.   “Don’t play dumb, we all know. Come on.”

“Liam, honestly, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Look, Harry,” Niall sighs, finally giving up on the stain and looking up, meeting Harry’s questioning gaze. “We know we haven’t been around since the beginning of you and Louis, but we have known each other almost four years. You can trust us.”