back for you ➳ l.s.

six - would he treat you like i would?

Walking into the already-packed bar, Harry scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Niall decided not to come tonight, but Harry knew that Nick had already arrived with some of his friends.

"Harry!" a familiar voice called.

Harry locked eyes with Louis, who was waving wildly to get his attention. A wide grin spread across his face. He started moving carefully through the crowd to join his friend.

Just a few steps away from his friend, someone bumped Harry hard from behind, causing him to trip forwards. "Oops!"

Louis caught Harry easily, setting him back upright on his feet. His hands lingered on Harry's arm and his side, as if he had to ensure the younger boy was unharmed. "Hi, love. You alright?"

"I'm okay," Harry replied, brushing himself off. "Sorry about that."

"No worries. This is my friend, Liam," Louis said.

Harry's face lit up. He usually didn't like meeting new people, but he was in a good mood. And if Louis liked Liam, Harry knew he would, too. "Nice to meet you! Do you want to go grab drinks?"

"Definitely," Liam replied. "Lead the way, curly." As they followed Harry through the packed bar, Liam dug an elbow into Louis's ribcage. "Now I see why you haven't gotten over him in four years. He's gorgeous and adorable."

"Hey," Louis shot back, keeping his eyes trained on the back of Harry's head as they moved through the crowd. "Don't get any ideas, Payno."

As they approached the bar together, someone grabbed Harry's arm from the crowd, making Harry jump. "Oh, you scared me," the curly-haired boy laughed, reaching up to hug his boyfriend. Nick pulled Harry close to him, looking at Louis and Liam over his boyfriend's shoulder.

"Can we have a word?" Nick spoke against Harry's ear.

Harry pulled back from the hug, nodding immediately. He glanced back toward Liam and Louis. "Grab some drinks, and then come find us?"

"Sure," Louis agreed easily. The bar was right behind them, so they just turned around to give the couple some privacy.

As soon as the other two boys looked away, the polite smile dropped from Nick's face. "Are you serious? He's been back in town five minutes, and you're already all over him in the bar?"

"What are you -- ?" The image of Louis catching him when he fell immediately resurfaced in Harry's mind. "Nick, I didn't mean to! I was falling and he helped me! It was an accident," Harry explained. "I don't even know how you saw that from all the way over here."

"Everyone saw it, Harry. It's pretty hard to miss you making a gigantic fool out of yourself."

Harry's cheeks flushed a deep red, and he broke eye contact with Nick for the first time, training his eyes on his feet. "Sorry," he mumbled, more to himself than to his boyfriend, as his voice probably wasn't even loud enough to hear over the noise of the crowd.

As if Harry wasn't embarrassed enough already, Nick added, "You're acting like a slut, and it's seriously not okay. Making me look like an idiot in front of all these people because you can't keep it in your pants."

From where he stood just a few feet away at the bar, Louis had heard enough.

"Lou, don't," Liam said, knowing as soon as Louis forcefully set his drink down on the bar what his friend was about to do.

Despite Liam grasping at his arms to haul him back to the bar, Louis turned around and stepped between the pair, keeping Harry behind him and staring Nick down.