Work Text:
Louis wakes up with the most rotten taste in his mouth and the loudest pounding in his head. He blinks a few times to clear his vision, but even when he can see normally, the sight before him makes his head spin even more than it was. There's bottles strewn across the floor and cups littering the tables. Someone's boxers are hanging off the couch and he looks down to notice he's only wearing one shoe, and it's not his.
"What the fuck happened in here?"
"Stop talking so damn loud."
Louis whips his head in the direction of the voice, and realizing how dizzy that makes him, rubs his forehead. Niall's lying next to the couch, glaring at Louis even through closed eyes and still holding a bottle of beer.
"Why are you awake?" Niall opens one eye and glances at Louis curiously.
"It's not that early, Ni." Louis moves to find his phone but not before Liam throws a pillow at him, groaning, "With the night we had, we should sleep all day."
"Wha' time's it even?"
Louis grabs the phone closest to him, Harry's, and when he presses the home button, he freezes and his eyes widen.
"Time?" Niall sits up carefully, eyeing Louis' back.
Liam's now taken back the pillow he threw at Louis’ head and is lying on it under the table, staring up at Louis. "Earth to Louis?"
Louis' blocked out their voices, eyes and attention glued to the notifications on Harry's screen;
Gems:
Wtf??? I didn't know you were with Lou!!!
Mum:
Call me. Now.
Mum:
H..... what's going on??
Dan:
Call me.
Dan:
Harry..... we need to talk
Gems:
Baby bro's all grown up!!!!! Congrats
Ed:
Dude I thought we were gonna get married...ditched me for Tommo? How dare ya?
Lux's Mummy:
I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT YOUR PROPOSAL
When did you guys get tg?
Lux's Mummy:
Btw your hair looks pitiful. I'm ashamed.
Lottie:
Only you would announce this on instagram....
Lottie:
Pissed I wasn't there. And so is Gemma.
You owe us.
Lottie:
Btw what the fuck? Who knew u were even dating?
"Where's my phone?" Louis deadpans, looking around the cluttered room.
"Table." Niall supplies, still confused as to what's happening.
Grabbing it from above Liam's head, Louis powers it on to see just as many, if not more, notifications as Harry had. He's got 20 texts from his mother, 15 from Lottie, 12 from Gemma and Anne and their 'family' group chat is still blowing up. He has more social media notifications than he knows what to do with, and 16 missed calls.
Although he doesn't believe it, Louis can paint a pretty good picture of what's happened from what he's read. However, he's not positive until he reads the one text from Lou that says it all.
Got a few questions for ya, babes...
When did you start dating Harry?
When did you decide to PROPOSE?
How dare you let him announce it on social before telling us?!
And Lux wants to know why Aunt Lottie and Anne are freaking out..?
Call us soon. Please.
"What the fuck did I do last night?" He grumbles, running a hand over his face in distress.
"Proposed to Harry."
"You remember?!" Louis almost shouts, stopping when his head pounds in protest. "What the hell?"
"Nope. I read off my hand, see?" Niall holds up his palm which reads, 'Louis and Harry r engaged. Over' with an arrow. He flips his hand to continue reading, "Congratulate them. -Lou. See," he squints his eyes, unable to decipher someone's drunken scrawl. "Liam's back."
"The fuck?"
"Take off your shirt." Louis demands.
"Uh," Liam's shirt, which actually looks to belong to Harry, gets flung aside as Louis slides over to read the words sloppily printed across Liam's back.
"Louis proposed to Harry," he reads, noticing it as Niall's writing. "You wrote this," he glares at the Irishman. "How do I know it's true?"
"Keep reading."
"What?" Louis glares down at Liam.
He shrugs, reading from his forearm, "It says here, 'if Louis doubts. Tell him keep reading' and that's your writing." Liam shows Louis his arm, who sighs and returns to reading his friend's back.
'Let's marry our friends! Harry StYLEs agreed to marry me, Louis TomliNSon!, on May 17tH on Niall's couch. He can't say no now!! Ha! Check HazZZza's instaGrAM.' Louis looks up at his best friends, then down at his sleeping, apparently fiancé. "What did I do?"
"Check Instagram." Liam rolls his eyes, unlocking his own phone.
Slowly, Louis pulls up Harry's Instagram, and his stomach flips with what he sees; a goofy photo of him and Harry smiling like morons, holding up and pointing to each other's hands. Louis' got one of Harry's smaller rings on his left ring finger, while Harry's apparently moved his rose ring to his own ring finger. They have Belongs to Harry written on Louis' hand, and property of BooBear on Harry's. The photo is accompanied by the caption:
Let's marry our best friends! #ISaidYes He left my mum a message to asK but it's okay. I agreed anYWay. #RingsForDays #EdwardAndWilliam Engaged life rocks! Love.
"Harry."
The younger boy offers no response.
"HARRY." Louis tries again.
Nothing.
"Harry Edward, wake up now!" Louis' smacking Harry's back, glancing at sharpie covered hand in horror the whole time.
"What the hell Louis?!" Harry slaps Louis offending hand away. "What the fuck do you need from me?"
"We're engaged."
"I'm gonna puke."
Liam shoves the trash can into Harry's chest as the younger boy turns an unhealthy shade and gets sick right into the garbage. Despite the twisting feeling in his gut and the continuous questions spinning around his head, Louis runs a comforting hand down Harry's back, trying to keep him calm. Harry gets sick a few more times, groaning every time he doubles over the garbage.
Sometime while Louis was focused on Harry, Liam left to retrieve Gatorade from the kitchen. He's already downed half of his by the time he hands some over to Louis and Harry.
"Hydrate." He mumbles, collapsing into the couch.
"No." Harry dry-heaves at just the thought of putting anything into his stomach right now.
Louis convinces him it'll make him feel better, as he himself downs half a Gatorade and feels a tiny bit more human. Harry concedes, slowly taking in the drink and pushing the trash to the side. When all four of them have replaced at least some of their electrolytes, and don't feel like they're going to throw up with every move, Harry turns to Louis with wide eyes.
"What exactly do you mean, we're engaged?" He asks carefully, afraid of any possible answer.
"Before we get to that, does anyone else hear music?" Niall questions, scratching his head as he looks around the room.
They all then notice that the speaker that's still playing some stupid party mix and the extremely bright lights aren't doing much for their hangovers. Liam clicks off the music and Louis closes the blinds and dims the lights as Niall slips on sunglasses. When the three of them return to the couch, Harry's staring down at his arm, brows scrunched together.
"Haz?" Louis takes a seat next to him, glancing over his shoulder.
"Louis proposed. You said yes. Call mum. List Look at Instagram. Try not to freak out." Harry reads, looking up at his best friends who are watching him with concentrated looks. "Give me my phone.
Niall hands it over then takes the seat next to Harry. "Listen mate, I'm not sure what's gonna happen when you call your mum, but I have a text from Gemma that says, 'please comfort Harry in the morning. Stay with him when he calls us,'" he reads directly from his messages. "So I'm here. Ready to help with whatever happened."
"Uh, okay." Harry unlocks his phone and dials his mum before even reading his messages.
Louis' got his head on Liam's shoulder mumbling something while looking from Harry to his phone, and back. "Let me know what she says, fiancé."
Harry narrows his eyes at the older boy and almost jumps when Anne answers the phone. "Mum?"
"Morning love. How're you feeling?" Anne's voice is tired, but sweet as ever.
"Like I'm dying."
"Are you drinking?" She wonders softly.
"Yes. Mum, my hand says I'm engaged to Louis and that I should call you. Why? What happened last night?" Harry asks, pinching the bridge of his nose as he awaits her answer.
"Um, I'm going to play you something, and then you have to put me on speaker and listen with Lou, alright?"
"Uh, sure?"
"Just, don't include him yet, wait a second."
Harry looks at Niall, whose ear has been pressed against the phone, with raised brows, but all the Irishman has to offer is a very confused shrug.
"Is Niall with him?" Harry hears Gemma ask from somewhere in the distance with Anne.
"Yeah. Mum, just play it already, please."
"Okay..." Harry hears some rustling and then his own voice filters through the speaker, drawn out and slurred, clearly the effects of too much alcohol, "hiiiiiii mum, and Gemmmmma. It's me. Harold. I'm leaving this to listen in the morning, understand? Do NOT delete it. Okay. I'm engaged! To Louis. Tommo of course. And it's not weird because I love him. Haven't we all always known that? Well not him. So shhhh, don't tell him..." message-him pauses to giggle, "sorry you're not here. But actually, I'm not. Cause we're very very drunk and you shouldn't see me. Even though it's legal..” he laughs again, "but anyyyyyyways. I'm engaged to my best friend and we're gonna be happy. K thanks. Love you. Night night." The message ends and Harry's left staring at Niall, dumbfounded.
"H?"
"I have to--I'll call you back." He says, hanging up and standing up as quickly as his hungover mind will let him.
"Harry?" Louis questions, voice soft and worried. "What--"
"I'll be back." Harry rushes out, stumbling over Louis' legs as he makes his way to the bathroom.
Niall's right behind him and barely catches Harry as he crumbles the floor in front of the toilet, tears springing to his eyes. He cries into Niall's shoulder for a minute, pulling away only to drive heave painfully over the toilet, then cry again.
"Harry, don't cry." Niall coos, scratching lightly at Harry's back. "We'll figure this out."
"Ni, I confessed my love for my best friend in a drunken message to my mum and sister! After accepting his proposal? What's wrong with me?"
"Nothing's wrong with you, Styles. We'll figure all this out. The worlds not gonna end. Worst, you just break it off. It's okay." Niall assures him, hugging Harry to his chest. "It'll be fine, I promise. Let's wash up and get back out there. We have some research to do."
Harry laughs quietly, accepting the hand Niall offers to help him up. He washes off his face quickly, rinses with mouthwash, then follows Niall back to the family room.
"Hey, if you go through with this, who's gonna wear the dress?"
Harry rolls his eyes at his best friend, but chuckles anyway, knowing Niall's trying to make him smile.
"Louis' ass would look good in a dress, but your hair would look awesome walking down the aisle."
Harry smacks Niall's shoulder, poorly concealing his laugh.
"Maybe you could both walk down the aisle. Or like, ride bikes. That'd be cool. Louis could cartwheel, you could dance? Your oddly long legs wouldn't let you cartwheel. You'd fall. And probably die. Wouldn't make a good wedding story."
"Niall, shut up." Harry laughs, nudging the blonde's shoulder. "I'm not talking about this with you."
"Alright. I'll wait 'til the bachelor parties."
Harry rolls his eyes again, smiling, then takes a seat next to Louis again. "So, future Mr. Styles, what did we do last night?"
Louis looks up at him with a furrowed brow. "I'm not exactly sure... and wait, I would not take your name. Harry Tomlinson sounds much better than Louis Styles."
"Let's figure out why we're engaged, and then we'll argue over semantics, alright?" Harry teases, shoving Louis' shoulder.
"Did you check your socials?" Louis quirks an eyebrow at Harry, offering over his phone, which still has Harry's Instagram open.
"Not yet," Harry takes the phone, carefully reading and taking in the picture.
Louis can tell when he's done because his eyes shift from the screen to his left hand, then Louis'. He glances up, "we're engaged."
"Apparently."
They read through the rest of the texts they both have although they don't reply to any. Apparently Harry also tweeted the picture, and Louis retweeted it, and it's shared on both of their Facebook pages. Suffice to say, everyone they know, knows. Most of the comments and texts revolve around 'how are you engaged. You're not even dating.'
"Let's call Anne back." Louis suggests, looking at Harry with a soft look in his eyes.
"Okay." Harry dials his mum’s number once more with shaky fingers. Louis notices, and wraps his over Harry's hand, interlocking their hands and rubbing soothing circles into the side of Harry's wrist.
Anne picks up on the second ring. "You alright love?"
"Um, I'm okay. We just need to know what happened last night," Harry starts, looking at Louis with raised brows. “And apparently you have the answers. Lou's here too. So 're Liam and Niall."
"Hello boys."
They chorus back a 'hi Anne', and Harry bites his lip nervously.
"Lottie and Gemma are with me, they say get on with it."
"I agree." Louis laughs.
"Okay. So I'm going to play you messages that you left for Lottie and Gemma. We'll have you listen to them in the order we got them, yeah?" There's background noise and then the first message begins.
"Hi Gems. It's Lou. I'm gonna propose to your brother. Cause relationships suck. Now you know."
"By the way I texted your Mum. I love her..." he laughs, "talk later."
The first message ends and everyone looks around with baited breath.
"That can't be it, right?" Louis whispers.
"Nope. Here's the rest." Gemma sounds like she's smiling and Harry doesn't know how to feel about that.
Through many more messages played for them, the boys hear that Louis decided relationships suck, everyone should marry their friends, and Harry was his friend. They learn that Harry didn't know what was happening but knew Louis had something up his sleeve. Louis didn't think Lottie would be happy missing it but decided it's his life, not hers. Harry apologized for whatever was going to happen, and professed his undying love for all the Tomlinson’s.
While listening to them, parts of the night come flashing back to each of the boys. Louis and Harry give each other knowing looks that say more than words ever could, whenever they remember a specific incident from the night before. Apparently, even in their drunken state, Louis noticed that their families should be part of this occasion and called everyone on a conference call, which ended like this:
"So being in a relationship is stupid and everyone should marry their friends. You know your friends so good.."
"Well."
"Shut up Liam. You should just marry them. Who cares about dating?"
"Most people do, Louis."
"Whatever Niall. So, on this day, May-- Harry what's the date?---May 17th, I Louis William Tomlinson ask the Harry Edward Styles to marry me and vow to be my best friend for the rest of our amazing lives."
"Oh boy." Niall mumbles.
"Is this actually happening?"
"Shut up Liam. You're ruining my moment." Harry now remembers hitting Liam's shoulder.
"Do me the honor, young Harold, and promise to stay with me when we're sick and poor or rich or healthy and happy and sad."
"Aren't vows supposed to be saved for the wedding?"
"Liam James, I swear if you interrupt one more time---"
"Yes! I will. I promise. Let's be happy together for the rest of our lives. No dating or whatever. Let's get proposed."
"It's engaged."
"LIAM!"
There's indistinct mumbling between Louis and Harry, and they now hear Liam and Niall:
"They're not going to remember this, are they?"
"No, Sir Liam, they're probably not."
"Ooh, gimme your hand. And a sharpie!"
From then on the boys can assume/remember what went on. They wrote down everything they had read before, and Louis and Harry made more agreements to always make each other happy.
Louis now remembers taking the picture, and Harry shamefully remembers posting it across social media.
The message ends with, "Louis, retweet it!"
"I will, Hazza. Calm your cute butt."
"Cool. Leprechaun look, I'm engaged!"
"Awesome Haz! Can I be your best man?"
"Guess so. Liam James, you're Louis's."
"It's settled then. Love you all."
"Lou, hang up the phone."
"Oh yeah. Bye y'all. Congratulate us."
And the message clicks off.
The silence that fills the room is deafening. Louis' playing with Harry's fingers, pointedly avoiding his ring finger, while Harry's staring at a random spot on the floor, concentrating on his breathing. Liam and Niall are watching the two of them with bated breath, waiting for one of them to show a reaction.
"Liam?" Anne whispers from the other side of the line. "Are they still breathing?"
"Uh, yeah. Not doing much else, but they're breathing."
"Good. We're going to hang up, have them call us back when they're back to normal, yeah?"
Niall chuckles and Liam spares his friends a glance, wondering if normal is something they will ever be. "Yeah, of course. Talk later."
The line disconnects, but Louis and Harry still have not shown their reactions.
It takes about ten minutes for someone to move, and it's Louis, who turns to Harry with wide eyes.
"So, we're engaged."
Harry purses his lips and looks down at their hands, still wound together. "Seems like the general consensus."
"Cause relationships suck."
"Apparently."
"What should we do?"
Harry looks back down at his hands, then up into Louis' eyes, "I--"
"I think we should let them talk," Niall says, nudging Liam's arm. "We'll be in the next room. Don't worry guys, the worlds not ending. It'll be fine." He pats Harry on the shoulder as he and Liam leave the room.
"Haz?" Louis' voice isn't much more than a whisper as he holds eye contact with Harry. "What should we do?"
Harry hesitates for a moment, thinking carefully about his next words.
"I love you."
Shit, that wasn't what he was going for.
"Well, I love ya too, you know that. 'S why I clearly wanted to marry you as my best friend, not one of those two." Louis says with a soft smile.
"No, Lou. Like I really love you. Like, 've been in love with you for, god I don't even know how long at this point. Shit, I--I didn't want you to find out like this," Harry rakes a hand through his curls, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking up at Louis again. "I should've told you. Or at least, like, not let this happen, or,"
"Harold, shut up for a second. Breathe, love." Louis takes Harry's hand again, rubbing calming circles into this wrist, and Harry remembers all over again why he's in love with his best friend.
"Okay, I'm breathing."
"Good. Now, back to this whole engagement thing."
"Yeah, um. So it's your turn. Cause I just, ya know, poured my heart out and admitted to being in love with you," Harry says, glancing at Louis through his lashes.
Louis chuckles and interlaces his fingers with Harry's. "Well, I'm pretty sure I love you too."
Harry's eyes widen and when he looks at Louis the older boy is wearing a proud smile. "You what?"
"Uh, yeah. I mean, yeah. I've felt that something's been different between us. I've always known you're my best friend, but recently, uh yeah, I love you."
A shy smile spreads across Harry's face and he squeezes Louis' hand. "Really?"
"Yeah, H. I love you."
Harry pulls Louis to his lap and hugs him close. "You love me," he giggles into Louis' hair. "And I love you."
Louis smiles and wraps his arms around Harry, twirling his curls around his fingers. "Yes, that's true. However, we still have something to figure out."
"Uh, yeah." Harry looks down at the rose ring occupying his left ring finger. "What're we gonna do about that?"
"Well, since we just established we love each other, it's inevitable that we'd end up engaged at some point,"
"Oh yeah?" Harry teases.
"Totally. So I say we just, you know, go with the flow."
"What do you mean, 'go with the flow'?" Harry questions, fiddling with the bottom of Louis shirt and letting his fingers trace over the older boy's soft skin.
"I mean like just kinda see what happens. Like don't break off the 'engagement', cause that would just be so messy, but like date now. Not date like we’re engaged like set a date or like plan a wedding or anything crazy. But like, go with the flow."
Harry says the last part with him and smiles happily. "So…"
"So. Harry Edward Styles, I'm asking you to date me through this engagement and vow to be my best friend for the rest of our amazing lives," Louis repeats his statement from last night.
"I thought relationships sucked," Harry teases.
"Well, relationships with your best friend probably don't suck as much."
Harry smiles and plays with the hair at the nape of Louis' neck and nudges his head down, causing Louis to rest his forehead against Harry's. "Kiss me," he whispers.
A blush makes its way across Louis' cheeks as he leans closer to Louis and smiles into the kiss as his lips meet Harry's. The kiss only lasts about 3 seconds, but it feels like a lifetime.
"Did you take a picture?!"
Harry chuckles, and a minute later shows Louis his phone.
The picture is already shared on Instagram with the caption:
okay with the fact that we won't have tans where our fourth finger meets our knuckles... #WeLoveEachOther