Here's how it starts.
I. Here's how it starts:
It starts in the bathroom with the two dripping faucets and the flickering fluorescent lights. It starts with the blue eyed boy with the fringe hanging in his eyes, with an introduction and a slow smile and a photograph. It starts with a question from a man in a white shirt with a terrifying smirk and it starts with this boy, this Louis, jumping into Harry's arm, coiling around him like a tree. It starts with the house that got a little smaller every week, with Louis' laughter, loud and incessant in Harry's ear, with Louis' arm around his waist. It starts with the tightness in his stomach every time Louis put his face in close, teasing, as they sit on the stairwell with the other boys talking into the camera in front of them. It starts in a twin bed, with a kiss so quick and quiet that Harry's not sure it even happened.
It starts with a promise, with Harry's breathless "I love you", slow and beautiful in the dark.
II. Here's how it almost stops
It almost stops when Louis runs away, only to come back a day later, laughing it off like he hadn't scared them all half to death. It almost stops when they place third, when Harry isn't sure if anything will come of this at all (but Louis came of it, Louis and the kisses in the dark and that must mean something, he reasons.) It almost stops when something about them sticks and their single rises and girls scream their names on the city streets. It almost stops with Will, their publicist, with the steeple of his fingers and his grim expression as they let him know that they have something to tell him.It almost stops when he sees Eleanor for the first time, leggy and pretty, with her heart shaped face that's a half-twin to his. It almost stops when he and Louis fight, really fight, for the first time, with Harry belligerently holding back tears as he shouts that none of this is their fault.
It almost stops when Harry sees a picture of Louis and Eleanor kissing, despite Louis' voice in his ear telling him that Eleanor didn't matter, that what he and Harry had together was the only thing that would ever be real.
III. Here's how it continues
It continues with their flat, with their perfect little corner of the universe that they carve out for themselves and Zayn and Liam and Niall, too. It continues with the tour, with the precious time alone, with the one night that they got massively drunk in Wellington and almost ruined everything. It continues with the endless support of the others, who cover for them time and time and time again, despite the protests of their PR. It continues with secrecy, with the quick backstage snogs when they're still running high off of the post show adrenaline, with the hush money and the warnings and the quiet looks of longing that they couldn't hide even if they really were trying. It continues with the feeling that, despite everything, they must be two of the luckiest people in the entire world.
It continues with Paris, with their shared white sweater, with a simple black ring that Louis slips onto his finger, with a kiss and the feeling that perhaps Harry's finally made it home.
IV. Here's how it ends.
It doesn't.
