drowning on a dry land [ls]

Chapter 1: Meet cute?

Harry would never get tired of the way Louis gushes over him while telling someone the story of how they met. He always narrates it with such unflinching enthusiasm and peppers his classic dramatic flares in a way that makes sure that the audience is clutching their bellies with tears of joy rolling from their eyes by the time he's done. Everyone in Harry's family knows this story. Their friends have the story memorized word to word and yet often request Louis to retell it.

Louis' ever-present wits and the art of being effortlessly funny were the first few things that pulled Harry in. He could charm the pants off anyone within earshot and it was something that after all this time, still makes him want to stand back and appreciate the boy whom he could call his.

He gently snakes a hand around the feather-haired boy's waist as he converses with their new neighbors. The man and woman sitting on the couch opposite them catch this gesture and smile at him. He tries not to let the crimson in his cheeks show. The couple, who looked a few years older than them, had a five-year-old child. The woman was seven months into her second pregnancy and the glow was evident on her face.

The boy, Mason was currently scratching their cream-coloured couch with a pair of keys that had a heart keychain in it. Harry gulped lightly before offering him a chocolate cookie, hoping he would forsake their prized possession. A miracle occurred! The boy accepted the peace treaty and let go of his furniture. If the blonde man saw this, Harry must say he was a fan of how unbothered he acted. No shame! He didn't even wince once. Mason, on the other hand, at least had the decency to retrace the scratches with his trimmed nails and look up at Harry apologetically with cookie crumbs on the side of his mouth.

All Harry could do was gently usher him to take another.

The family had moved in a week ago and Louis had taken it upon himself to make sure that they weren't facing any inconvenience. He had invited them over this evening and unloaded his how-I-met-my-boyfriend story and fired it. It was unarguably an effective method of making conversations and dissuading the awkwardness that settles in sometimes.

'You tell them how we both met then they tell you how they both met- Boom! we've got neighbors who'd play Monopoly with us over weekends.' He recalls Louis bursting into a dance number in the middle of their kitchen a night ago instead of washing the dishes with him like he was supposed to.

"So I'm at this house part with dizzying green lights all over the place, booze in the air and people tripping over plastic cups. I really needed the toilet. The masses were adamant about being a barrier in my path. Somehow, I make my way through the crowd," Louis moves both his hands haphazardly in a way that could only be described as a drowning man's last efforts to somehow propel himself upwards.

"And before I could reach the washroom, there's this huge guy in a leather jacket with tattoos and a lot of piercings yelling at the top of his lungs. I scurried towards the sound. The dumbass was angrily glaring at a painting on the wall. He then tried to tackle the coyote in the painting. Kept shouting this-" Louis feigns a threatening stance and shrieks, "Listen here you minuscule wolf, keep your teeth away from my pet chicken!" The couple crack up, their son is giggling uncontrollably. Even after all this time, Harry still can't stifle the laughter that bubbles in his heart. "Although the coyote stood unbothered, the poor chicken got traumatized and scrambled away."

"I looked around to see if anyone had caught this. And tada, I lock eyes with this curly one." He points at Harry. "We both burst into fits of laughter. The confused guy passes out on the floor, leaving behind us and the whole night for us to converse." Louis smiles fondly, mirroring Harry's smile and leans into his touch. "That's the day we both saw each other for the first time," he declares with a chuckle.

"That's really awesome." The man remarks. "We both met through a mutual friend when she.... "

Off the record, the night at the house party was the day Louis saw Harry for the first time. It was also the day an already-lovelorn Harry had been blessed by the universe as this beautiful boy initiated a conversation with him.

He had been in love with Louis a long time before Louis had even gotten to know about his existence. Although Harry had come to know about the boy's sexual preferences through the gossip that flouted the premises, he didn't have it in himself to chat up the blue-eyed boy. Pinning on someone way out of his league, typical teenage Harry!

Two hours before the party, Harry's then-boyfriend had dumped him.

-It just isn't doing it for me anymore-. He stared at the text sent by the man he had been in a relationship with for 11 months. They would've been celebrating one year together if he had waited a week to crush Harry's heart.

Deep within, he knew it was a long time coming, Evan was too much of a casanova to be tied down to him. From the very start of their relationship, the man lacked a filter and often said things that made Harry feel like he wasn't enough. He often gave sexual compliments to others when the curly boy was right by his side. Harry had never really pictured him to be the one for him. Regardless of that, his heart still clenched when he pictured Evan dancing circles around Harry at the party with someone new.

He had himself holed up in his dorm and was reluctant to leave the bed- only for his friend, Liam to drag him out that lucky night.

God bless Liam! The man is going to be receiving fruit baskets until the day he dies.

That starry night, Harry had ended up sitting on a red bean bag with his lap full of Louis. The boy was drunk out of his mind and smugly intertwined his hands in the pretense of palm-reading. Louis had somehow managed to acquire the permission of the host to take the purple flowers from the vase and put them into Harry's hair, giving him the most gentle caresses. He had threaded his fingertips through Harry's curls while slurring incoherently. All he could think about was how kissable his lips looked. The memory of the adorable giggles he kept emitting in sync with his broken hiccups- makes Harry snuggle closer to him in bed even after all this time.

And maybe this is something their love terribly needs right now...