mirrors (larry stylinson au)

4: 'cause it doesn't seem merely assembled

Harry opened the front door for Louis, which felt strange for him because, after all, it was his house. It wasn't at the same time. The furniture was identical, at least it had been the moment they first arrived at the house, and all except the decoration items and pictures was the same. He didn't say anything and simply followed Harry outside.

Harry was wearing a cardigan over his white cotton T-shirt, and he soon realised it was already too hot for all those layers. It was early April, and it looked like that summer was going to be a hot one.

Louis followed Harry in silence, as the boy walked behind the house and into the fields he could see from his...their window. He was surprised: everything looked just the same. It wasn't only their house then. The sky was the same sky, and he had the feeling the scarce, cotton-like clouds in his side would look exactly the same at that very moment. He didn't really understand it, but he was the drama kid. Harry was the physiscist, he could figure all that out some other time. At the moment, all Louis wanted was to make the other boy feel better.

They reached the river. Louis would have never been able to find that narrow path at the end of his street, which had taken them to the water. It was calm there, and Harry let his back slide down a tree trunk until he was sitting on the ground.

"Thanks for coming. You really helped me."

Louis was lost. He knew what he meant, but he had been sure Harry would make him one, maybe two questions until he had to confess he had been watching him, and then he would get his butt kicked, probably falling into the river. He was wishing the key to his house would work for Harry's too, because he probably wasn't going to be welcome there.

"Anytime, I guess..."

"So, you can see me from your side?"

Oops. There it was. He WAS going to get thrown at the river after all.

"Yes. It's...weird. You almost gave me a heart attack when I saw you the first time" tried to laugh Louis. Harry looked up at him, interested. Louis decided to sit down. Harry was so dumb he would probably fall down if he tried to run after him and strangle him, so he could relax a bit.

"Why? What was I doing?"

"You were just reading. But trust me, when you have just moved in and see the reflection of a reading boy on your bed, and said boy can't be found in real life... I thought the house was haunted or something."

Harry chuckled, and one of his dimples appeared. Louis smiled back, fondly. Harry had put his hair, which usually fell on his eyes, back, and he looked different. A good kind of different, mind you, but different.

"Well, I guess if you have a magic mirror, it IS haunted."

Now it was Louis' time to chuckle.

He had known it. And it was hurting him. Harry had been missing all along. Ever since the moment he had just described, when he had first seen the boy reading and had started getting to know him, he had had that feeling, wanting Harry to know him because...because they would work well together, he guessed. Or not. He was a mess.

"Yeah well... I guess so. Anyway, I made some research and couldn't find any similar situations so... I just let it be."

"So you were there all along? And you could see EVERYTHING I did?"

Was Harry sounding scandalised?

"Uh, yeah. Even that awkward one-man dance party you had last summer. And the air guitar competition with that red hair friend of yours."

Fuck, he had said too much.

Harry blushed like crazy.

"Oh God no. This is like my worst nightmare" he said hiding his face behind his hands, laughing, embarrassed.