With Lips Like Fire He Burns Me

5. Hold Fast Hope

Harry currently had his head stuck in the refrigerator. The air conditioner broke three days ago and even though they've constantly complained to the maintenance company, (with the exception of Harry asking politely for them to come fix it) no maintenance guy had shown up to do exactly that. Harry might write a strongly worded letter to the complaints office.

Sweat woke Harry up this morning and drenched his bedsheets and his hair, sticky strands sticking to his temples and the back of his neck. His whole body felt hot and he took a long cold shower to get rid of the sweats, but it became useless when he got out and immediately felt humid. The shower only served to make his hair frizzier than usual.

Harry's head was still stuck in the freezer when he heard footsteps padding near him. He felt the warmth of Liam's sticky skin and he grinned at Liam when he stuck his own head in the freezer alongside Harry's.

"Feels bloody good," Liam gushed, his cheeks spreading into a big smile.

"I know," Harry groaned, closing his eyes and relishing in the cool temperature.

Harry wanted to stay right here for the rest of the day until someone came and fixed the damn air conditioner.

"We should go to the beach today," Liam hummed. "It's too hot to stay here all day."

"Cool. I'll go tell Louis."

Harry removed his head from the freezer, already dreading the hot air that made his skin feel sticky and gross and patted Liam on the shoulder on the way over. He knocked three times on Louis' door out of courtesy and pushed the door open. Louis was sprawled face down on the bed, the bedsheets thrown across the part of his body that swelled up generously.

"Lou."

"Harry, seriously." Louis turned his head on the pillow, his hair wild all around him. He groaned softly, "I accept your apology. It's okay. I mean, for the last time, I'm not mad at you. Okay? I understand why you did what you did and now I'm done with it. So now you don't have to give me the puppy eyes anymore."

"That's not it. I just wanted to tell you. Let's go to the beach, beach," Harry sang, leaning against the doorframe.

"Mmph," Louis muttered.

Louis stretched on the bed languidly like a lazy Persian cat and flipped the bedsheets off his body, revealing his glistening skin covered in a tiny pair of tight black briefs. Harry averted his eyes elsewhere, licking his lips and his throat tightening. Sweaty Louis with minimal clothing was a vision he didn't need engraved in his memory.

Harry could see out of the corner of his eye that Louis was dressing, pulling on a simple white t-shirt with oversized arm holes and cut off jean shorts. Louis stood up and stretched his arms again, his shirt pulling up to reveal a sliver of golden skin. Harry wanted to lick every drop of sweat off Louis' body.

"Beach sounds like a fantastic idea," Louis said, scratching at the small pouch of his belly with short trimmed nails. "It's too fucking hot in here."

"You can finally teach me how to surf," Harry said, following Louis out the door.

"I'd be surprised to see you afloat, what with your leggy nice little body and all."

The comment made Harry infinitely smile.

They gathered their essentials. Sunscreen, surfboards, cold beer, blankets to dry themselves off and snacks for when they were done playing in the sun and got hungry. The ride to the beach was fun and for the first time, Harry was thankful for Liam's jeep. The wind felt nice on his skin and he stuck his hand out of the windowless Jeep, moving his hand in a wave. They played The Beach Boys and it was fitting to where they were going. It felt like they were a bunch of carefree teenagers in a movie.