AU where Harry truly believes in Destiny and Louis just happens to cross his path at the right moment. Featuring a world with the size of a stamp, Liam as the best friend ever, Niall as a social butterfly who knows everyone and Zayn who always knows...
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September turns into October in a jiffy.
The summer weather has faded almost completely, leaving constant fresh air, and Louis knows that he must face the seasonal change of clothes sooner rather than later, but he simply doesn't feel like it. So, he still wears the same t-shirts he wore in the previous months and that's probably why he's spent the last four days sneezing.
It's been so long and he still feels so empty.
The first week after Harry's big declaration passed in the worst way possible: spending his days from work to Liam's couch, Liam's bathroom and Liam's bedroom, Louis had never felt more useless in his entire life. Luckily, understanding the whole shitty situation, Zayn didn't show any disagreement when Louis started to sleep there; he never complained that Louis was 'taking Liam away' from him. Louis was doing that, somehow, but they never said anything. God bless Zayn. He understood that Louis was a mess and a bit of a charity case, so he helped trying to make Louis' days more liveable. And Zayn didn't tell Louis anything about Harry, anything about how he crushed one of his best friends' hearts, and Louis is so grateful for that. He also didn't say anything every time Louis tried to call Harry and all the calls went unanswered, and Louis always ended up moping on Liam's shoulder when Liam should have been snogging the saint that is Zayn instead.
Things started to improve after that.
At first, whenever Liam forced Louis to join him, Zayn, and Niall for some fun after work, he felt suffocated. He knew they didn't mention Harry on purpose, but critical situations happened anyway: when he looked at Zayn and Niall whispering and then turning towards him, he knew what they were talking about, he could feel it in his bones. So he simply stopped going out with them and locked himself in his shell. Not that it made him feel better, to be honest, but at least he was alone when he tried to contact Harry and none of his attempts succeeded. Then his friends started to show up unexpectedly at his flat, and after a while the conversations started to become more 'yay' and less 'I want to wrap myself in a blanket and never get out.' They probably realised that mentioning Harry's name wasn't a smart move with Louis around, so they just stopped. And things were definitely getting better. Louis wonders if they had to do the same thing with Harry, or if Harry didn't give a damn about hearing Louis' name.
Louis sees Harry, sometimes.
Once he was queuing at the post office, and Harry was walking down the street with a book in a hand and a coffee in the other. Another time was when he finished working on a Friday evening, tired and quite dead on his feet, and Harry passed quickly on the pavement across the street, vanishing around the corner. Or, again, that time when Louis and Liam were at their usual vintage shop and Harry was there, too: they entered as he was paying for his stuff and then quickly left, waving absently. But the last time was the worst. Louis was about to cross the street and enter Starbucks to grab a coffee, when he saw Harry out the door: it was pretty windy, Louis remembers that because he can't forget Harry's curls waving under the headscarf. Harry seemed quite torn that day, who knows what troubled him. Louis watched him disappearing around the corner, without ever meeting his gaze. He misses his eyes so much. So, so much. He misses looking into them and seeing the happiness and sweetness of those looks that Harry reserved just for him... He was definitely an idiot not seeing anything behind them, seriously. But, even if he had known, what could have he done? Surely he could have dealt with the whole situation better, trying not to give Harry any wrong signals, but the truth is he still doesn't know what he and Niall were talking about. There's nothing he did with Harry he wouldn't do again, right now, and he doesn't know if he's just being selfish or if he's just an idiot. Seeing Harry that day, in front of their coffee shop and in exactly the same place Louis had been when Harry had called him many months back to plan the Ziam P., did nothing but remind him how much Louis missed everything they used to do. He would like to go out for lunch with Harry just for an hour, maybe in their favourite restaurant by the river, and really talk it through. But of course he can't, since apparently Harry doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore, and all he can do is hold on those little memories.
