The Bucket List || Larry

2: Awkward Meetings

He has come up with a list, fifteen items exactly on it, all of which are things he must do before he dies. A bucket list, to be precise.

It took Louis a while, considering he has a lot of ideas and they're all a bit wild and simply cannot be done, so he had to narrow them down to the simpler ones that can be done. The fifteen he chose seem easy enough, the hardest though, he can't decide.

He likes to think the last one will be easy, Fall in love, but with his track record, he knows it won't.

As he clicks his pen and the ink retracts, his cellphone vibrates on the nightstand beside his bed.

"Hello?" He picks up, ignoring the caller I.D. and waiting for the voice on the other end to speak up.

"Louis William Tomlinson, when were you going to tell me you had cancer!?"

Right. His mum.

Louis almost rolls his eyes but refrains from doing so, as mother's instinct will surely get him in trouble. "I've only just found out, like, an hour ago," he says. "And anyway, how did you find out?"

"Dr. Wilson called me," she supplies easily.

Of course he did, Louis thinks but doesn't say. Louis will never understand why mothers make such big deals out of very small things, but he can't really complain about it this time, since he's prone to having a panic attack once the realization hits him that he has something that people die from. Surely, his mom has a right to freak out about this, but maybe not right now. It's only in his finger. He's fine, really.

"You're not going to tell the girls, are you?" he asks, sitting up in bed and setting his notebook down beside him, tucking the pen in the spirals of it.

He hears his mum sigh on the other end, contemplating her answer before giving it. "No..." Louis breathes out in relief. "I don't need them to worry."

There's a moment of silence, then, "We miss you, Boo Bear," and her voice is thick with emotion, probably sadness and happiness and longing all wrapped up into one giant mess.

Louis misses them too, he tells her such, and also reminds her that he hasn't been called Boo Bear since he was a young boy. Which then resulted in a crying Jay because it's been so long, way too long, maybe a whole year since she's seen her son.

So, Louis mentally adds another thing to his bucket list: Visit the girls.

-

By the time he gets to the pastry shop not far away from his flat, walking distance, that is, he's feeling antsy and very unprepared for what he has to say.

After he got off the phone with his mother, he remembered a tall lad from high school, one that was constantly getting in trouble for his adventures, like piling all the desks from each classroom in the lunchroom over night, resulting in angry teachers and a three day suspension at the time. He's two years younger than Louis and was way more popular than him back then, which he was always envious of. He was also jealous of his good looks, but, shh.

So Louis called Harry up after searching through endless Harry's on Facebook until finding the right one. He knew he had found him when green eyes that could only belong to Harry Styles flashed across his screen. The picture was from when he was maybe seventeen or eighteen, so Louis has no idea what he looks like now, a good two years after that picture was taken.

He looks around the shop in search of him, only to find nothing. There's only three booths taken up, both by a group of girls dressed in sweats and hoodies, probably eating breakfast before they head to their classes in uni.

"Well, looks like it is possible to reach your peak after high school," a low voice says from beside Louis.

He turns, and- holy fuck. There's Harry, looking just like he used to but even better, hotter, if that's even possible. And he just said Louis is at his peak right now, which compared to Harry, he looks like a freaking troll, he thinks.

"H-Harry?" Louis questions, raising his eyebrows.

"The one and only," Harry says, licking his lips as he gives Louis a once over, not even trying to hide it. Louis tries to be more discrete about it but fails when he hears Harry laugh and sees him wink, jesus christ.

Harry's hair, that used to be short and quiffed up, is now long and nearly touching his shoulders, curled at the ends, and he pulls off the style so well that it should be illegal. He's got on tighter-than-tight black jeans and a flannel that's got three buttons popped open, so that just the right amount of chest and- and tattoos, what the hell, are exposed. Louis never thought he would ever see the day that his confidence dropped down so low next to another human being.

Once that awkward meeting is over, they sit down at a booth and Harry wastes no time diving right into conversation.

"So, why'd you bring me here?" Harry asks, taking a sip through a straw of his chocolate milkshake.

Louis clears his throat. "Um, I need your help... With a bucket list, I mean." He pulls the folded piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to Harry, watching as he unfolds it and looks it over, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Lou, listen, I like you and all, but I'm not sure I can really help with all of this."

Louis feels his stomach drop. Harry was the only one he could think of that could possibly help him, and now he's going to let him down. Of course.

"But... I think I can help with... Um, maybe numbers one, eight, eleven, and twelve."

Louis tries to remember what those are. Public sex, streaking, crash a wedding, and win a contest. His eyes widen at the first one.

"You really don't think you can help with any others? Not even breaking into a zoo?" Louis knows he sounds desperate, but he couldn't care less right now.

Harry sighs and sets the paper down. "Those days are over...at least, I'm trying to get them to be. I'm twenty now, Louis, I can't keep getting into trouble."

Louis' shoulders slump. He doesn't know what to do, except maybe start on getting tickets for The 1975, but that's about it. Harry's looking at him like he's figuring out what to say next, bottom lip brought in between his front teeth.

"Well...let me look at the list again."

And then his hopes are right back up.

"You're not dying of some disease, right?" Harry asks in a joking manner, mouth upturned into a small smile.

Louis' face is all Harry has to look at to know that he's sort of right, but Louis waves him off with a wave when he starts profusely apologizing, eyes swimming with concern.

"It's cancer in my finger, but it could spread, so..." And okay, Louis is totally guilt tripping Harry right now, but he really needs him.

"Okay."

"Okay what?"

"Okay, I'll help you with everything I can," Harry says, and yes, Louis shouts in his head, he's got him.

Louis is definitely ready to have the time of his life.

-

THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGINS

QOTC: what do you want for Christmas?

AOTC: cash money baby