Let Me Feel Your Heartbeat (Larry Stylinson)

six

L o u i s

"He's been staring at you for the past two hours."

"Shut up. He has not."

"See for yourself," Zayn said as he resettled himself on the pool chair, having flipped over to evenly tan his back. The movement made it possible for him to see the upper level of the pool area, where Harry and Liam were relaxing in the shade.

"What're we talking about?" Niall propped his arms on the edge of the pool, grinning at Louis like he already knew the answer.

Louis scoffed. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Harry's gone all possessive alpha and won't stop staring at Louis," Zayn explained.

"Oh shit," Niall laughed, eyeing Harry and presumably finding him staring at Louis. "That's kind of creepy."

Louis groaned and threw his arms over his eyes, squirming on the plastic of the chair he was lying on. The sun was pleasant and warm on his skin, but it was getting a little bit hot. He would have to hop in the pool sometime soon if he didn't want to completely fry, but going into the pool meant getting out and feeling cold. Louis hated feeling cold.

"What happened between you two? This is so weird. You two have been acting so weird. I mean, you've always acted weird around each other, but I thought it was the whole alpha-omega thing. But this is on a different level."

"Shut uuuuuppppp," Louis groaned for the millionth time. It was becoming his mantra. "Of course it's weird, we literally spent the past three days fucking, okay? He knotted me. Many times. Of course he's going to be a little fixated. For the love of god. It's just instinct. The feeling will go away eventually and everything will go back to normal."

"Gross, I don't wanna know the details."

"What'd you think we were doing, Niall? Playing board games?"

"Sheesh, calm down, Louis."

Zayn calmly cut off their banter, saying, "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

"So sure of what? You don't make any fucking sense. Why're you so cryptic?" Louis was getting defensive but he couldn't help it, this felt too personal to talk about even with his best friends. What happened between him and Harry felt private and he wanted to keep it that way. He didn't want their escapade to be a topic of poolside conversation.

"I meant, I don't know how you can think things'll just go back to normal once the bond between you guys wears off or whatever."

"Right!" Niall agreed. "Obviously things have changed. I never understood you guys before but you have to be at least friends now, right? After everything you've done together."

Louis shrugged and closed his eyes, pretending he was going to take a nap. It was easier to shut down the conversation and pretend none of this was happening. But he knew Zayn and Niall weren't lying; he could feel Harry's eyes on him. Like one of his extra omega senses. He just knew he was looking at him.

It was strange to feel so disheveled by the actions of an alpha. Louis was usually the most composed person ever. He laughed in the faces of people who got distracted by scents and everything else that came with secondary genders. Louis was strong and disciplined; he had trained himself not only to ignore all of those things but also to ignore the internal motivations as well, the inner wolf that was constantly telling him to act omega. Whatever that meant.

Well, Louis did know what it meant. He was supposed to be quiet and submissive, which he wasn't. At all. And there were so many rules for omegas which Louis actively and outwardly opposed. He'd been doing this for years, ever since he was aware of the world enough to understand that omegas were oppressed systemically, symbolically, and collectively.