Larry Smut

Not Your Mum's Kisses

"What do you mean everybody does it?" Harry asked defensively, full lips pouted and brow furrowed as he looked up at his best friend and neighbor – Louis Tomlinson.

"What I mean," Louis said as his feet slipped on the tree trunk as he struggled to pull himself up, "is that everybody does it, Haz." He finished with a roll of his eyes, as though the question asked had been the stupidest one he'd ever heard.

Louis always did that – made Harry feel like an idiot just because he was three years younger. He didn't see what made being sixteen that much better than thirteen anyway. Sure Louis was a little taller, maybe a little less awkwardly baby-faced and a little more chiseled here and there. But Harry was just as smart, wasn't he? Louis still hung out with him, so that had to mean he was at least cooler than the other kids in his year.

"Well I don't do it, Lou. So I think you're wrong," he stated with a posh little self-assuring nod.

"Yeah well that's why I'm here, isn't it?" Louis asked as he finally made it up to the branched he'd been clawing to reach, and stared down at Harry, sitting crossed legged on the ground. "I don't want people to think you're a loser, so you better come up here and smoke a fag with me."

"My mum says they're bad," Harry said with a huff, arms folding across his chest.

"Yeh and Isay it will make you cool."

There was a silence settled between them as blue eyes stared down, harsh and expected, while less than stern green ones tried to stare back with as much defiance as they could muster. But eventually Harry's gaze dropped under the pressure of Louis' and he sighed. "All righ', all righ'..." The things he did for Louis.

It took some work to get him up in the tree next to him. His limbs were lankier and more awkward, and Louis had to extend a tan hand to pull the boy up the last couple of branches until they were both seated comfortably on one of the higher, wider branches. Louis sat with his back to the trunk, legs on either side of the branch, while Harry sat facing him – hands on Lou's knees to stabilize himself and keep sneaking wary glances down at the ground. They had to be at least twenty feet up.

"I can't tell if you're more scared of the heights or the fag," Louis said with a sharp laugh and Harry's cheeks flushed.

"I'm not scared of either," he retorted, quick and defensive – yet despite his words he was still inching in a little closer to Louis. It wasn't fair that he got to sit against the trunk. Why could Harry get that seat? 'It's because you're lighter,'' he said when Harry whined at first. So the younger boy just sealed his lips and huffed.

"Sure, sure," Louis said quietly as he began to fish a box of fags and a lighter from his pocket. "You ready then?"

Green eyes stared at the items in his friend's hands and he swallowed dryly. If his mum ever figured out about this she'd likely kill him – only to bring him back to life and kill him again. "Yeah..." he said softly, hands tightening on Louis' knees a bit as the older boy tapped two cigarettes from the box.

Louis couldn't help but smirk as he stared across at Harry. He wasn't sure what he liked about the kid to begin with. Of course it helped that they'd grown up next to each other and he'd known him for nearly his whole life. But the fact of the matter was he was sixteen now and he didn't need little friends. He had other sixteen year old friends – he even had older friends. So what was he doing with a curly-haired kid in a tree? Blue eyes lingered on plump limps and he huffed quietly as he held out a cigarette to the boy. That was why, and he shifted a bit against the trunk.

Harry took the cigarette in a manner that suggested the thing would come to life and attack him at any moment. He didn't even hold it between his fingers, instead he just held it in the palm of his hand – a hand that was much too big and pretty for a thirteen year old, mind you – and watched Louis expectantly as the older boy lit his own fag and took a puff. The resulting smoke that he blew out breezed into Harry's face and he coughed, eyes squinting shut.