Fine Line || L.S.

There Is No Expiration Date

"I want you," Harry said, as sure as Louis had ever heard him say anything, "and I want a life with you."

The feeling Louis felt then, as Harry said that, was nothing short of pure elation. Nearly euphoria. Harry wanted him. Harry. The person he thought he had hurt too much, too irrevocably. The person who had loved more than nearly anyone. Those words felt better than any drugs he had ever taken.

"Really?" Louis asked, searching Harry's eyes for untruthfulness. He could find none in the eyes he could read so well.

"Yes," Harry told him, just as sure.

"I thought I'd hurt you too much," Louis said, barely speaking above a whisper, his disbelief beginning to settle.

"And I had thought I had hurt you too much," Harry told him. "But if you want to give me chance, I will love you better than I ever have. I feel like this is our chance to get it right."

Louis nodded at Harry, feeling a tension behind his eyes.

"But we have to do it right," Harry said, "and I can't be here with you, and we can't do it right, with you and Eleanor together. And I'm not telling you to break up with her. I'm not. I want what makes you happiest. But if you also want to get it right, in the way I do, which is in the hopes that we end up together after all this, I don't think it's fair to Eleanor."

Louis nodded, not able to peel his eyes off Harry. "You're right."

Harry watched him, both sadness and hopefulness were imminent in his eyes, which were becoming glossy.

"And I want you to have the time to decide," Harry said. "I thought we could come here, and just coop ourselves up until we had the chance to figure it out, but that's just not right, or fair."

Louis nodded.

"Does that sound ok?" Harry asked. "I feel like I'm talking a lot."

"Yeah," Louis said. "Sorry, I just, I don't know why, but I really thought you had forgotten all about me."

Harry shook his head, nearly smiling, "I did pretty much the opposite of that. I spent the last day talking my assistant's ear off about you."

Louis chuckled lightly, and Harry followed in suit.

"Still with Jacqueline?" Louis asked.

"No," Harry shook his head, "she moved to New York. A girl named Lily."

"You like her?" Louis asked.

Harry nodded, "You would love her."

"I'm gonna go home for a little while," Louis said to Harry, "and talk to Eleanor."

Harry nodded but was filled with worry. The outcome still felt so uncertain, that Louis could choose not to feel about Harry the way Harry felt about him.

"Do what you need to," Harry told him, and he meant it.

"Give us a week," Louis said. "I'll know in a week."

Harry nodded, "Any amount of time, Louis. My feelings don't have, you know, expiration date or anything."

Louis smiled, and looked at Harry, "Thank you."

The two looked at each other, and then Louis opened his arms to give Harry a quick hug. Harry held him there, tightly, for just a moment.

After locking up the house and closing the gate, Harry and Louis headed back towards Louis's house. As Louis watched Harry pull out of the driveway, and as he opened his front door to the home he shared with Eleanor, he had a feeling that things would be ok, and he knew that they were finally doing it right.

And he knew he wanted Harry. He just didn't know how he should go about it.

As Harry drove away, heading back to his home, he had the same trepidations as Louis, but they were considerably more hopeful. Being with Louis, driving with him, eating with him, being in their old house with him, felt so overwhelmingly right to Harry. It felt like the piece that had been missing from his life, the piece that made him feel a bit empty and lost, was slowly slipping back into place.

And it wasn't Louis. A person can't make you complete. He knew this. It was the way Louis made him feel, the comfort and the love that was innate in the boy, the way Harry could always be sure Louis only had his best intentions in mind. He was the only one. The only one to be Harry's partner and companion, who really knew what it was like to be him, and to live his life. Harry knew he was.

As he drove home, he became sure of his convictions in his mission to get Louis back. He would do it.