The College Experience [Larry Stylinson boyxboy]

Chapter Twenty Four

[the video linked is the video Harry is watching in this chapter!]

Louis knocked a little on Niall's door, which was partially open. Harry had told him they could just meet there before their date, since he'd spent the night before with Niall.

"Hey, babe, are you-" Louis' words were knocked out of him when he saw Harry, sitting on the bed crying. Not the type of overwhelming panicked crying that happened during his anxiety attacks, but a slow welling of gentle tears that Louis had never seen on Harry. As much as he'd seen him sobbing and struggling to breath, Louis wasn't sure he'd ever seen him like this. It didn't look like any sort of panic attack, he was just tearing up a little as he sat crossed legged on Niall's bed, laptop on and headphones in.

"Haz?" Louis asked gently, stepping into the room.

Harry looked up and snapped the laptop closed with a shut, sliding his headphones off and tugging his beanie back into place. "Hi," he said, his voice a little raspier than normal. "I'm just, I'm gonna go shower, alright? I'll be out in a minute."

Louis just nodded, not sure what to do. Harry seemed calm, there was absolutely no hint of panic in his voice. It occurred to the older boy that maybe Harry was just sad- nothing to do with chemicals or hormone imbalances or whatever it was that messed around with the balance of Harry's moods- just a genuine sadness that had nothing to do with his anxiety.

Louis heard the water turn on and he looked around to make sure he was alone before opening up the laptop. He wondered what Niall's password would be... maybe something about pints or Ireland or... what was his favourite sports team again?

Louis was surprised when the laptop opened up to the last page that Harry was on, with no passwords to unlock it first. Honestly, how did Niall have nothing to hide on his laptop? Louis would die of shame before letting anyone near his computer.

He saw a video, set to full sceen, paused at some scene of a couple standing on a bridge. Louis looked around a little, and slipped on the headphones, wondering what it was about this video that made Harry cry. He pulled back the video about a minute before the spot Harry had paused it on to see what was going on, and heard the words "this is a special spot, because this is where I ask you to be my wife". His hand flew up to his mouth, trying to hold in the little gasp that he wanted to let out. He didn't know why Harry was sitting on Niall's laptop crying over engagement videos but it was... not what he expected.

They'd only said I love you days ago, and Louis felt a little flutter of panic. Did Harry honestly expect a proposal? Why was he crying then? Maybe he was just sentimental.

Louis shut of Niall's laptop and headed over to Liam's room.

Liam was more textbook than human at this point, absolutely swimming in paper (probably enough to put a full tree back together), and had sticky notes clinging to his clothing presumably by mistake.

"You alright mate?" Louis asked.

"Culminating research paper in nineteen hours," Liam grunted in response.

"Oh," Louis replied. He waited a moment, but Liam didn't even turn around. "What does it mean when you catch your boyfriend crying over engagement videos?"

"Happy tears or sad tears?"

"Sad, I think."

"It means you should stay out of his business," Liam said, his attention never straying from his law textbook.

"We said I love you the other day, do you think-"

"I know, you called me giggling like a schoolgirl and wouldn't shut up about it," Liam interrupted. "Remember?"

"Yeah, just, what if he regrets it, you know?"

Liam sighed and closed his textbook, loud enough to be more than a little passive aggressive. "People get moody at finals, alright? Some of us are actually focusing on school, you know?" he muttered.

"Excuse me, have you seen my boyfriend?" Louis said. The word 'boyfriend' still tingled on his lips like PopRocks every time he said it. "I honesty can't be expected to focus on anything else."

"You know, hormones go up and down and whatever in guys too," Liam said thoughtfully. "Kind of like PMS, but you know... not. Maybe he's just having one of those days where you cry at like every sad commercial or something."

"It wasn't sad though, it was an engagement video. Happy times," Louis argued.

"You're overthinking it," Liam said shaking his head a little. "Except for your exams- you're clearly not thinking about those enough."

"Louis!" Harry's voice called out from the bathroom. Louis could barely hear him over the loud spray of the shower.  

"Coming, babe!" Louis said, headed toward the bathroom, and slipping inside, closing the door behind him. "What's wrong-" he started but the words sputtered in his throat as he caught sight of Harry in just a towel, wrapped around his hips beneath his laurel tattoos, the shower still running behind him. 

"Do you know if Liam has any conditioner?" Harry asked, his green eyes wide and innocent, despite the fact that Louis was blushing furiously and biting on his lower lip, his jeans already feeling uncomfortable. 

"Why would Liam have conditioner?" Louis asked. "Have you seen his hair?" 

"Does he have any, like, face wash or anything?" Harry asked, still dripping wet. 

"Um, I don't think..." Louis started. He trailed off and bit his lip, his eyes flickering down to Harry's towel. 

"My eyes are up here," Harry said softly. 

"Wasn't looking at your eyes, love," Louis murmured, pressing his hands to Harry's hips and steering him toward the wall. Harry let out a whimper as Louis pressed him against the wall with one hand, letting the other run across the younger boy's chest, still warm from the shower water. 

Louis tugged his own shirt off so he could feel Harry's skin against his. Louis pressed his lips against his boyfriend's warm throat, biting softly and sucking little bruises up and down Harry's jawline, dragging low moans out of the younger boy. 

"I don't care if you're fucking but you're paying the hydro bill!" Liam yelled out, pounding on the door, startling the couple apart. 

Harry blushed, wrapping his arms around himself protectively. 

"Oh, don't worry about him," Louis said, "He's just worried about some paper he has due. Are you alright, by the way? Back in Niall's room, you looked kind of-"

"Yeah I'm fine," Harry interrupted. He added a smile, almost as an afterthought. "Stop worrying about me, alright?" 

"Okay," Louis nodded, but even as Harry scooted him out of the bathroom so he could finish his shower in peace, Louis' mind was still racing. 

A/N: omg drag me down is amazing! how many times has everyone else watched it? I feel like I've seen it almost 10 times now? 

So I know this is a lot to ask, but my goal for this story was to get it to 10 000 reads by the end of the summer (and August is ending in a week and a bit) I would be so grateful if any of you wanted to recommend this story on your tumblr or wattpad or just voting/commenting/adding it to your reading list if you haven't done that yet. I'm so close to my goal it's crazy, thank you so much, it makes me so happy to hear all the amazing things you've all said about this story so far! :)