Songs For How You Taste | l.s.

Chapter 8

There were a few ways that Louis used to spend his Thursday nights. Sometimes he'd order pizza with Liam and Zayn and they'd play games, Mario Kart or Fifa usually, until the early hours of the morning, since none of them had any Friday classes. Or Zayn would drag them both to a party at some loft Louis had never heard of thrown by some art student he had never met.

Sometimes they'd throw movie parties in their living room, since Zayn had a projector, inviting over friends from their classes or maybe a girl Liam started to fancy. Niall and Harry even came over once and acted out most of the scenes from High School Musical 2, lean bodies casting shadows where the actors should be, the projector acting as their spotlight.

But recently, Louis started spending more and more Thursdays (and Fridays) in the basement of the student center, tucked away under hazy purple fairy lights and a big fluffy blanket. He'd watch Harry, who usually had his back turned to him, hum along to the music that played through his big earphones, curls sprouting from the red band wildly.

And after Harry's shift, they'd sometimes go for a late-night ride in Harry's truck, windows down and cool night air coating their skin. Or they'd walk over to the bench swing, hand in hand and snog. Or they'd both go meet Zayn at whatever party he had asked them to come pick him up from, stay for about an hour, then part ways.

The Thursday night after Harry's midterms, he was properly exhausted. He pulled an all-nighter the day before, writing and editing a 10 poem set that was supposed to tell a story capturing the loss of childhood innocence. And he had to turn in a lab report for his Biology class the same day, a lab report he worked on right until his shift at the radio station began – emailing it to his professor precisely at 7:59.

It was a lot, needless to say. When Louis met him in the studio that evening, he carried two meatball subs from 8th Street Pizza, knowing Harry likely skipped his dinner to work on his lab report. He saw the exhaustion in his eyes, the way they drooped low and Harry's half-hearted smile didn't make them crinkle. And the lilac and blue circles pressed under his eyes were only more pronounced under Harry's purple fairy lights.

He waited for Harry to say his introductions and start the first song before Louis stood and walked over to Harry in the office chair, greeting him with a soft kiss to his cheek and firm hands on his shoulders. "Hey, H."

Harry leaned into him and responded, "Hmm." It was the only thing he could afford in his exhaustion.

"Why don't you queue some music and go eat? I'll sit here, make sure it all goes okay."

"Have you eaten yet?" Harry asked, nuzzling into Louis. "You eat first, then I will."

"No, Haz." Louis' hands ran down Harry's arms until he got to his hands, spun him around. "Go eat."

But Harry didn't budge. He wouldn't leave the chair until Louis ate at least half his sandwich. So, Louis begrudgingly trekked back over to the couch, plopping down with a loud sigh, and shoved the meatball sub in his mouth, smacking loudly. Despite being fully aware of the fact that Harry was just being nice, it frustrated Louis that Harry wasn't letting him do nice stuff and was being so stubborn.

Louis finished half of the sandwich before trying again, this time holding Harry's face and trying to be stern. But he was so fond of Harry's cute pouty sleepy face that his tone faltered a bit and he tacked on a love to his go eat command.

Harry nodded, turning around to add music to his set list for the night. He gave himself about fifteen songs, promising to be back before the end of Bohemian Rhapsody. Louis nudged him from his chair and Harry started to walk away, forgetting that the headphones were still attached to his head and plugged in. Louis managed to pluck them from the top of Harry's curls before any damage occurred.