Archive of Our Own ^beta

"(…) Cesario, come;

For so you shall be, while you are a man;

But when in other habits you are seen,

Orsino's mistress and his fancy's queen."

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will – Shakespeare

 

”Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this? I just wanna hang out with you guys, what’s so bad about that?”

“Haz, you don’t understand –“

“What’s not to understand? Am I not cool enough for you or something?”

“You know that’s not – oh, Mum’s coming back from the loo,” Gemma quickly sat back up straight and put a smile on her face. “Hi, Mum.”

Anne looked suspiciously at her offspring sitting with plastered smiles on their faces, chopsticks ready. “Okay guys, whatever you were just up to, I don’t want to know. Can we just have a calm birthday dinner out please?”

“Of course, Mum,” Harry kissed her cheek as she sat down. Anne arched an eyebrow.

“So, how’s school, Gemma?”

“You know, I have this really awful test next Friday and – “

“Fortune cookie?” They all looked up at the waitress who’d interrupted them. “Fortune cookie for the young ones?”

“Errm, sure,” Harry was slightly wary of the very insistent looking lady, sticking the small plate with the two cookies right under his nose. He heard his mum mumble, “it’s my birthday and I don’t get a free cookie?” in the background  as he reached for it.

“Remember to eat it,” the waitress insisted. Gemma met his eyes with a pair of wryly raised eyebrows and turned to the waitress.

“It’s not like I’m going to forget to eat a cookie,” but the waitress had already disappeared.

“That was weird, they’ve never handed out fortune cookies here before,” commented Anne as she tucked back into her chow mein.

Harry just shrugged and put it next to his plate to save it for later. Once Anne was away settling the bill, Harry leaned over the table to pick up their earlier discussion. “Look, I’m not trying to be pushy,” Okay, maybe that was a little lie, but, Harry figured, why was his sister making such a big deal out of this anyway? He should be able to hang out with his big sister and her friends at school. And what if her best friend Louis was like, kind of cool, really good at footie and had a cute smile? That was totally beside the point. “But what’s wrong about having just, like, one lunch with you guys?”

“Harry, I’m sorry, but it’s just – not up for discussion, okay?”

Harry leaned back in his chair, totally not pouting. That’d be stupid. He didn’t even know Louis, never even talked to him besides the occasional, “Hi” when he ran into him and Gemma on the way to her room doing mysterious best friend things. That was sort of the problem though. He grabbed his fortune cookie. At least he had comfort food.

He cracked it open and curled out the little paper, munching sullenly on the cookie.

Fate is Fate. Stay on its course. Follow your heart like a ship follows a compass. Swallows mate for life.

Harry barked a laugh. “What? This is the randomest fortune cookie I’ve ever had! Gemma, quickly check yours!”

“Randomest isn’t a word.”

“Shut up, miss education,” Harry kicked Gemma’s feet under the table to hurry her on.

“Okay, okay, jeez,” she mumbled as she opened her own and started munching. She nearly choked. “Compass? What?!”

“Wait, you got the same?” he reached over the table and snatched the paper out of her hand.

Fate is Fate. Stand not in its way. Let ship follow compass and throw it not off course. Let the swallows fly.

“Wait, this is almost the exact same as mine.”

“What, let me see,” Gemma reached over and grabbed both of them to compare. She snorted.

“What a bunch of mass produced crap. It’s not even a proper fortune, doesn’t say anything about the future or warn you or anything. I hope there’s a fortune cookie intern getting fired somewhere.”

“What’s all this commotion about?” Anne grabbed her coat from her chair.

“Just those silly fortune cookies, Mum.”

“Hey, at least give me mine back, I like mine. I didn’t know swallows mated for life.”

“Oh yeah, and fortune cookies are reliable ornithological sources?”

“Will you shut up for once? Just give it back, okay?”

“Okay, weirdo,” Gemma handed him back the paper and he stuffed it in his pocket.

Anne sighed, “Are we ready to go home now?”

-|-

Louis’s phone blared from his bedside table. And kept blaring. This early it could only be one person and he could almost hear Gemma’s mental, “Pick up , Louis, pick up.”

Reaching out one’s hand after a phone should not be this hard, even on a Monday morning. Maybe I’m getting old.

“Gemma, what the fuck is going on? It’s not even seven!”

“Ermm…” Gemma’s voice was hesitant. Gemma’s voice was never hesitant.

“What’s wrong?”

“I…” Louis heard a voice muttering in the background. “Can you please meet us in front of the school half an hour before class?”

It was also very slow. Much slower than normal. Louis frowned. “Gemma, what’s wrong? And who’s us?”

“That’s what we, like, want to tell you. That is, me and my… little brother,” her inflection was raised at the end, as if she was not quite sure.

“Curly Harry? What’s he got to do with whatever this is?” Louis was already out of bed, stepping into his jeans. Something was definitely wrong.

He heard a sharp inhalation on the other end. Then an assertive younger voice spoke into the phone.

“Just be there, Louis! Please!”

“Okay, okay, I’m hurrying!” That was more words than he’d ever heard the boy string together in a sentence before. Something was definitely off.

As Louis biked into the deserted school parking lot earlier than he’d ever been to school, he was quite grumpy. Gemma usually understood how he was with his sleep. Admittedly, he wasn’t quite as bad as Zayn, but he’d stayed up late playing FIFA, studiously ignoring his Monday homework, okay? He already was not looking forward to this school day (as if he ever did), he did not need it starting half an hour earlier than normal.

He spotted Gemma standing by the main entrance, her normally more subdued brother pacing next to her.

“Louis! Finally!” He exclaimed, curls flying around his face. Louis frowned and stepped off his bike. He had never seen Harry so agitated before. It was either half-awkward run-ins in the Styles home when he was visiting Gemma or spotting his smiling bobbing face out of the corner of his eye in the school hallway.

“Well, hello to you, too, Harry.”

“Hi,” said Gemma, with a small wave. She was standing uncharacteristically still. Louis held her shoulders gently and caught her eyes.

“Hey, what’s wrong? You really don’t sound like yourself, and it must be important for you to drag me out of bed this early.”

“I’m not…” Gemma took a deep breath. “I’m not Gemma…?”

Louis was lost.

“What? Of course you’re –“

“I’m Gemma,” came Harry’s voice from behind him.

Louis carefully let go of Not-Gemma Gemma and turned around. “What.”

“Listen,” Apparently-Gemma Harry’s arms crossed over his chest. “I know it sounds weird, it is weird, but when we woke up I was in Harry’s body and he was in mine, okay?”

Louis waited a beat. Then he cracked up laughing.

“Aha… Gems… I… good one,” he could barely get his words out between his laughter, “This was almost… worth getting up early for. I never knew you were this good an actor, Harry, well done!” Louis gave Harry a light shoulder punch, but they were not laughing. Harry stepped closer, a murderous look on his face. Louis stopped laughing.

“Look, you’re the prankster here, not me, I’m being serious! I know it’s fucked up, I know it’s impossible, but it happened! I woke up stuck in my little brother’s body and I,” green eyes became glassy and the finger in his face started shaking, “I really need my best friend right now because I don’t know what to do and…”

“Okay, okay, shit, come here,” Louis hugged her close and it felt like hugging his best friend, her fierce grip around his shoulders, her slightly shuddering breathing against his neck, but the flat chest against his and the brown curls in his face threw him off. As did looking over her shoulder to see her body, see Harry , standing there, hunched over and rubbing his – her – his neck with his hand. Louis had never seen Gemma standing like that.

Louis sort of felt like he had entered an alternate universe. Or dimension. Something like that. But…

“But, err, Gemma…,” he mumbled into a head of curls and wasn’t that weird? “Can you just, like, do me one favour? So I’m completely sure?” He could feel her nod against his neck. Her heartbeat seemed calmer now. “Can you tell me something, something that I know only you know?”

She leaned back and, yeah, okay, that was his Gemma behind those eyes all right, even if they were the wrong colour. And wrong height. And prettier. Wait, what?

“Do you,” she was whispering, making sure it was low enough so Harry would not overhear. “Do you remember that thing we talked about? In your back garden two months ago, about? That I promised never to bring up again. About how you were afraid you…”

Louis froze. “Yes. Yes, okay, I believe you, I remember that. Now, like, don’t talk about it again, okay? Please?”

And that was Gemma’s gentle smile on her brother’s face. “Sure thing. Although I do wish you could be a bit more comfortable with it. It’s not the end of the world, you know?”

“Yes, well, let’s just not, right now. Seems like there’s more urgent stuff to talk about, right?”

Gemma sighed, “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

Louis turned to Harry. “You. What kind of underwear did I wear when we stumbled into each other in front of the bathroom when I slept over at yours a week ago?”

Harry looked startled. “Iron Man.”

“Louis!” He felt a slap to his chest, “Be nice! I need you to take care of him for me, like, he’s going to have to attend my classes and everything, right? I can’t have my little brother fail my classes!”

“Hey!”

If he was being honest, Louis was still sort of stuck on how quickly Harry had remembered his underwear. He was sure it didn’t mean anything.

Harry-with-Gemma’s voice broke through, “We’re going to have to tell my friends as well. Liam and Niall will be able to tell it isn’t me in a second.”

“Yeah,” Louis agreed, “we need to let Zayn know as well, I can’t keep secrets –,“ Gemma gave him a look, “Okay, I can’t keep this secret from him. He’s gonna know something is up sooner than later, you know how he is.”

“Okay,” Gemma rolled her shoulders and visibly tried to relax. Some cars drove into the parking lot. Harry checked Gemma’s phone.

“Shit, there’s only like seven minutes until class starts.” Louis could see Gemma’s face start to pale.

“Okay, okay,” he walked over to Harry and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, “it’s gonna be okay. I’ll take care of you. Just stick to me and I’ll make sure nothing happens to my best friend’s little brother.”

Gemma sighed with relief, “Thanks, Lou.” She turned to her brother. “Now tell me what your first class is and how to find it because I have no idea where I need to be in…”

Harry checked again, jostling Louis’s arm, “Three minutes.”

“Three minutes. Fuck.”

Harry quickly rattled something off to her and they all agreed to meet up at Harry, Niall and Liam’s usual corner table in the cafeteria at lunch.

-|-

Harry and Louis skidded into the classroom as the bell finished ringing, grabbing the last free table at the back row, evil eye from the teacher digging into their backs at they went.

“Late again, Tomlinson? And dragging Styles along with you this time?”

“Sorry, sir, we’re here now, sir.”

"I expected better from you, Miss Styles.”

Harry startled and quickly nodded. The classroom was silent. Louis elbowed him.

“Oh, erm, yes, sir.”

Their teacher finally gave a huff and turned to the blackboard, starting the lecture. Louis leaned over and whispered, “Don’t worry, it’s not your fault, he’s always been a prick. Gemma’s one of the few students he can tolerate and he loathes me, so he hates that we’re friends.”

“Oh.” Harry gulped and Louis scooted a little closer to him on the chair.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure nothing happens. Promised I’d take care of you, didn’t I?”

Harry nodded and gave him a little smile, mouthing thanks . Louis was once again struck by the differences between him and his sister. The slight fidgeting, the little smile, even though his eyes were telling him it was Gemma sitting next to him, it was so clearly not. As Harry bent over Gemma’s history book, Louis saw him frown as Gemma’s significantly longer hair fell into his face.

Louis smiled to himself and leaned in again, keeping his voice low. “She normally ties it up during class. Feel lucky I always have some on me because of my gaggle of sisters.” Louis dug a pink hairband out of his pocket and held it out.

Harry beamed in a way Louis had never seen Gemma’s face light up and quickly snatched the hairband, tying the hair back in a loose ponytail. Then he fished out a pencil from Gemma’s pencil case and wrote a quick Life saver! among skateboarding stickmen on Louis’s ill-used note book.

“Anything you’d like to share with the class, Miss Styles?”

Harry startled for the second time. “No sir, sorry sir.”

“Then I recommend you pay attention unless you don’t want to fail your test on Friday.”

The rest of the class Louis witnessed Harry take desperate notes on something he must have barely understood in hopes he could help his sister out – and stay out of trouble, Louis gathered. Seeing Harry’s slightly blockier scrawl next to Gemma’s slanted one made his lips quirk.

As their teacher was fiddling with the projector, Zayn caught Louis’s eye, mouthing, What’s going on?, eyebrows scrunched up.

Louis quickly wrote TELL U AT LUNCH , covering his note paper, and held it up for Zayn to see as their professor’s back was turned. He got a nod in return and Zayn returned his focus to his book. How he managed to remain focussed in this class was beyond Louis. Today seemed worse than usual, his leg jumping and his eyes kept straying to the frantic boy next to him or the small Life saver! on his paper.

Halfway through the class Harry broke the tip of his pencil. Frantically searching for a new one Louis knew wasn’t there (Gemma preferred pens), he quickly handed Harry his own. Wasn’t like he was using it anyway.

“Here you go, calm down, it’s gonna be okay. We’ll figure this out, okay? I promise.” Louis put his hand on his back, rubbing a little back and forth as he usually did when Gemma was upset. It was almost second nature to him, a natural reaction to seeing Gemma upset. Even if it wasn’t Gemma.

He felt Harry tense beneath his hand, but then slowly exhale.

“There we go, deep breaths, it’s gonna be fine.”

He felt Harry’s back go slowly up and down beneath his lightly moving hand. When Harry finally seemed calmer, Louis got another one of those small smiles and Harry reaching over to underline what he’d already written on Louis’s paper.

If that made Louis’s chest feel just a tiny bit brighter, if he had to work just a little bit harder to suppress a smile, he told himself it was just because he was happy knowing he was doing a good job taking care of his best friend’s little brother, the responsibility for whom she had entrusted him. That was all.

As close as they were sitting, Louis could practically feel Harry’s shoulders sag with relief as the class ended.

They quickly packed up their things and hurried out the door, Zayn hot on their heels.

“You get to see your friends soon and explain, okay?” Louis said to Harry, once again looking very pale.

“Explain what?” Zayn interrupted from behind, “Lou, Gemma, what’s wrong? And don’t say it’s fine, because something obviously isn’t. And what friends? We’re her friends.”

Louis stopped in his tracks and sighed, keeping a hand on Harry’s elbow so as not to lose him in the hectic madness of a school hallway heading to lunch. Zayn was too smart for his own good sometimes. “Zayn, mate, can you wait for just a few seconds here? Once we go sit with – er – Gemma’s little brother and his friends at their table we’ll explain, okay?”

“Harry? What’s he got to do with this?”

“Just,” Louis sighed and kept moving through the crowd, “wait until we’re sat down, okay? Trust me,” he mumbled, “you’re going to need to sit down for this.”

Finally Louis spotted Gemma’s signature wave over the cafeteria crowd, even if it did come with hands too big for her. As they arrived he spotted two very confused boys next to her, recognising them as the boys usually being around Harry when he spotted him in the hallway.

“Harry, honestly, you’ve never –”

“C’mon mate, why the silent treatment?”

“Did we do something?”

“Is it because we teased you about Miss Flack?” They spoke over each other.

Harry sat down opposite them and seemed more at ease than Louis had seen him all day,

“Guys, guys, it’s okay, I’ll explain. Or, I’ll try to.”

“Errmm, hello Gemma. Nice to see you?” Niall nudged Gemma and whispered, “Dude, what’s your sister doing here?”

Gemma groaned and buried her face in her arms on the table before looking up at Harry, “Do you see what I’ve had to deal with, here?” She quickly changed her mind though and enquired, “Are you okay? Did everything go alright?”

Harry smiled and reached out to grab her hand. “Yeah. Yeah, Louis took good care of me.”

To distract himself from having to suppress a smile Louis said, “Yes, well, our professor was being a dick as usual because we were almost late, but that was it.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

“Okay, I seriously feel like I’m missing something here,” Niall, which Louis was pretty sure was the bottle blonde’s name, pointed between Gemma and Harry.

“You are,” Zayn, who’d sat down next to Louis and opposite Liam, said. “Now spill.”

Gemma glared across the table at Harry.“I already had to explain it once, okay – now it’s your turn.”

“Okay,” Harry took a deep breath, straightening up and squaring his, now slender, shoulders. He turned towards Niall and Liam, knees knocking a bit against Louis’s. Harry didn’t seem to notice so Louis didn’t move. “Niall, Liam. I’m Harry.”

Both boys looked confused. Zayn was frowning, leaning in over the table, gaze steady on Harry.

“No?” Niall tried. “You’re Gemma. This, ” Niall gestured to Gemma next to him, “is Harry. Your brother.”

“No, see, this morning when we woke up – or maybe it happened sometime during the night, we don’t really know –”

“What Harry here is trying to say,” Louis interrupted. “Is that he switched body with his sister, so this here,” Louis gestured to Gemma, “is Gemma, in your friend Harry’s body. And this here,” Louis slung an arm around Harry’s shoulders, “is your friend, Harry.”

Harry gave a slight wave across the table, knocking his knee against Louis’s under the table. Louis choose to interpret it as a thank you. “Hi guys.”

Niall cracked up in front of Louis. A few heads at table behind Niall turned to look at them. Louis quickly gave them a glare.

“Mate,” Niall almost hiccupped with laughter. “You’ve got to be kidding, c’mon.” Niall turned to a sour looking Gemma. “C’mon, tell me your sister is having us on. Did you lose a bet to her or something? That why you’ve been cranky all morning?”

“No, Niall,” Gemma muttered through gritted teeth. “I’m cranky because I woke up in my brother’s body and had to sit through two hours of hideously boring math I already learned two years ago. By the way, Harry,” Gemma turned to Harry again. “Why did you never tell me your math teacher was such a dick? He was all like, ‘you’re not paying attention, Mr Styles. Tell me what the square root of nine is’. I mean, honestly,” Gemma mocked.

Niall was frozen next to her, suddenly not laughing anymore. Liam leaned in and Louis heard him whisper frantically, “You know Harry would never say that, right??”

Niall nodded silently, seemingly stunned.

“So that’s why…” Zayn spoke up, low voice carrying over the otherwise quiet table. “I knew something was way off when I saw Louis acting all gentle with Ge- erm, Harry?” Harry nodded. Louis tried to will his cheeks not to blush. “When I saw Louis acting all different with Gemma. I mean, Harry.” Zayn shook his head, confused.

Liam’s eyes flickered between Zayn, Louis, and back and forth between Harry and Gemma. “But that’s not possible.”

“Don’t you think we know that?” Gemma hissed. “But it happened anyway. And it needs to unhappen. Soon.”

Harry shoulders slumped and his face fell. “What if it doesn’t? What if we’re stuck like this?”

“Ssssh! Don’t say that!” Gemma clasped her hands over Harry’s mouth. “Don’t you even dare.”

A thought struck Louis. “Fuck, we have…”

“…P. E. first thing tomorrow,” finished Zayn.

That seemed to shake Niall out of his stupor. “Dude. Mate,” his gaze flickered between Gemma and Harry, before finally settling on Harry. “You’re going to have to be in the girls’ changing room!”

“Niall!” Harry squawked. He got an immediate punch in the shoulder from Gemma.

“Ow!” Niall rubbed his shoulder. “Your sister throws a better punch than you do.”

“You deserved that,” she huffed.

Louis looked on, amused, as Harry proceeded to agree with his sister and assured her that her classmates’ modesty would most definitely be safe from his gaze.

They all finished their lunch as Niall, Liam and occasionally Zayn questioned them. All the little differences started to become clearer and clearer to Louis. Speech patterns and arm gestures. When Harry used a word he’d never heard in Gemma’s voice. The way Harry distractedly flicked his hair away from his face instead of how Gemma usually just tucked it behind her ear. The way he could hear his best friend’s intonation in a different voice from across the table. He was starting to wonder how he could have ever mistaken Harry for Gemma – or was it the other way around? – that very same morning and he could see the reality of the situation slowly sink into the other boys as well.

As lunch hour was drawing to a close they quickly agreed to meet up at the Styleses after class to figure out, as Niall put it, “How to fucking deal with this.”

-|-

Louis groaned as he threw himself into the soft couch in the Styleses’ living room. How he had ever got through this day, he had no idea. At least it seemed like Gemma had had a bit of an easier afternoon than morning, as both Niall and Liam seemed fairly whipped and not quite sure how to handle their best friend’s older sister. Whereas Louis had to sit through a double set of Geography with the only teacher in school who hated him more than all the others put together.

Harry had started out quite timid and withdrawn, not seeming to want to be an inconvenience or put a toe out of place for his sister’s sake. But at the end he was giving the bastard death glares when his back was turned. He had drawn a stick man, with the professor’s name drawn to it with an arrow, having various methods of violence and pain acted upon it. It wasn’t particularly artistic and Louis couldn’t tell whether one of the scribbles was supposed to be a knife or an ice pick, but he’d still carefully folded the paper and put it in his pocket when Harry’s back was turned, packing Gemma’s backpack.

“Okay, so,” Louis began, but was interrupted by Gemma throwing herself down into the couch next to him, clutching his arm and burying her head in his neck, getting curls in Louis’s face again.

“Save me from these Year Elevens, Louis. I can’t take their immature sense of humour anymore!”

“Hey,” Niall protested from his spot on the floor. “We aren’t that bad!”

Gemma emerged from Louis’ shoulder. “You’re almost that bad,” she insisted.

“C’mon Liam, help me out here.” Louis turned his head to find Liam standing in the doorway, his gaze fixed on the way Zayn was sprawled on the floor, resting on his elbows.

“Uh, sorry?”

“I give up,” Niall groaned and laid back flat on the carpet. “You’ve been distracted ever since lunch, Liam. It’s like I’ve been missing both my best friends today.”

“Aww,” Louis heard Gemma’s voice say. Harry sat down on the floor and wrapped himself around Niall in a giant hug, which was just a weird sight in all sorts of ways. “I’m here now, Nialler, okay? I’ll let you beat me in FIFA later if that helps?”

Niall seemed to instantly cheer up.“Yes, thank you, a true friend you are, Styles. No matter which form you take.”

“Yes, well,” Louis started again, as he saw Liam carefully find a spot on the floor between Harry and Zayn. “That’s all well and good, but we need to figure out what the fuck is going on first. By the way, if we’re playing FIFA later I want in.”

He heard Gemma mutter, “Boys,” under her breath next to him, but ignored her.

“If we, like, figured out why this happened now,” Zayn sat up and started fiddling with his lighter. He’d been a godsend by distracting their professor with relevant questions in the last class and Louis wasn’t sure how to thank him. Maybe a trip to look at tattoo designs at the local shop with the promise of not being annoying and distracting? “We could discover the source and like, try to cancel it?”

“Yeah,” Liam echoed. “We need to be like Batman when he tries to solve some supernatural mystery.”

Louis arched an eyebrow. “Like Batman?”

“Have you been reading too many comics again, Li? You know what happened last time…”

“Niall!” Liam seemed mortified.

“No,” Zayn looked thoughtful. “I think Liam’s on to something. Like, we should approach this like detectives.” He turned to look at Gemma and Harry, not noticing Liam’s shocked expression. “Has anything unusual or strange happened to you two lately?”

Harry and Gemma locked gazes and seemed deep in thought.

“You mean, besides waking up in my sister’s body?”

Zayn just rolled his eyes. “Yes, obviously.”

They were all uncharacteristically quiet and deep in thought as they heard a key in the front door. Both Styles instantly panicked.

“Shit. Mum.” They were both frozen as they heard her voice from the hallway.

“Guys, you home yet? There’s a lot of shoes in the hallway, do we have visitors?”

Niall hissed, “Guys, switch places, quick, quick!”

As heeled steps came nearer Harry scrambled up from the floor and Gemma threw herself down next to Niall. Harry landed with a whump next to Louis, quickly folding his legs on the couch trying to look as innocent as possible. For some reason Louis felt certain that that face was something Harry was normally quite good at pulling off, but on Gemma’s face it almost had the opposite effect.

Anne emerged in the living room doorway. “Oh, hello guys! Quite a lot of you here today, not that I mind.”

“Hi Mrs. Styles.”

“Hi, Mum,” they all mumbled. She squinted.

“Is everything all right, here?”

Gemma glared at Harry from the floor, knowing she was usually the one to speak up when faced with suspicious questions from their mum.

“We’re fine, Mum,” Harry answered, trying to project Gemma’s usual confident manner. Louis cringed internally. If Harry was still Gemma on Wednesday, Drama class would certainly be  interesting. “We’ve just had, like, a long day at school.” Well, Louis conceded, that was certainly true, and had therefore slipped more naturally out of Harry.

Anne smiled gently. “Okay guys. Any of you want to stay for dinner?”

Seeing the fear of future awkward situations flashing before their eyes, Louis witnessed both Niall, Liam and Zayn politely decline. The look he received from Gemma clearly said Don’t you dare leave me, though, so Louis steeled himself for a long evening as well.

“If maybe I could, Mrs. Styles?”

“Louis, I’ve told you to call me Anne a thousand times. Of course you can. Your mum told me you’d had a busy weekend babysitting as well, as she had to pull those extra shifts, so I’ll make your favourite and set and extra plate at the table next to Gemma’s seat, shall I?” She winked at him.

Louis blushed. “There’s really no need, Mrs. Styles, you’re way too kind.” He tugged on his t-shirt, pulling it looser around his stomach.

“Pish-posh, Louis, you know it’s a pleasure to have you here. Now you all behave while I go grocery shopping,” she threw over her shoulder and returned to the kitchen and her adult concerns.

Harry broke the silence by breathing out heavily.“That was close.” He tried to brush his long hair away from his face, but it fell right back again. Louis wordlessly handed him another hairband.

“You know,” Gemma frowned from where she’d made herself comfortable on the floor. “Speaking of mum, you remember her birthday dinner last night?”

“Oh,” Harry exclaimed, “you thinking of that weird waitress? And…”

“…and the odd fortune cookies, yes,” Gemma finished.

“Fortune cookies?” Louis frowned.

“I could really use some cookies right now,” Niall muttered.

Liam poked his shin with his foot. “Not the time, Ni.”

“I think I still,” Harry paused, checking his pockets. “Gemma, check my pockets, those are the jeans I wore yesterday.”

Gemma stuck her hands in Harry’s jeans and with a small “ha!” she withdrew a small piece of white paper.

“So what’s so special about this fortune cookie?” Zayn leaned over Liam to get a better look. Gemma just handed it to him and Liam leaned over to read it with him.

“Fate? Ships? Swallows? That seems… random?”

“But why’s this sosuspicious? It does just seem like a weird fortune?” Zayn asked.

“The thing is,” Gemma explained, “I got one almost like it, only slightly different. Almost like they were a set or something.”

“Also the waitress was weirdly insistent, and when we looked up after reading them she was just gone.”

“You know, Harry,” this was getting slightly too farfetched for Louis to believe. “She could have just walked away while you didn’t notice.”

Harry turned towards him. “But, we’ve been there, what, like three or four times before and they never gave us fortune cookies then! And she was odd, okay? Back me up here Gemma.”

“It was the first time I’d ever even seen a fortune cookie at the place,” she conceded. “Besides,” she fiddled with the curls on her head, hesitating, “I actually threw mine out. It was just slightly unnerving, okay? It seemed to almost accuse me of being in Fate’s way or something ridiculous like that. So I threw it out.”

They were quiet for a moment until Niall spoke up. “Hey, I got an idea! Someone hand me the phone and the take-away menu.”

“Niall, honestly,” Liam started, but he was interrupted.

“No, no, hear me out, I just wanna call the restaurant and check something out.”

Harry shrugged and handed Niall Gemma’s phone and went searching for the take-out menu.

They stayed quiet as Niall dialled.

“Hi, this is Niall Horan – no, not my special today thanks for asking, no, no I’m sure – I was just wanting to ask a question – do you guys have fortune cookies? – oh, okay – No, no that’s not necessary, I just wanted to know – Yes, thank you so much. Goodbye.”

Niall hung up and handed Gemma’s phone back to Harry.

“Nope. No fortune cookies. He was very convinced that they’d never had any ever since the place opened. Apparently the owner loathes the stereotype of superstitious Chinese people or something,” Niall shrugged.

“Sooo…,” Harry hands were tense and twisting in his lap. Louis knocked his knee gently against Harry’s and just kept it there. Harry had seemed to be reassured by physical contact during the day. It was the least he could do. “Who the fuck was she, then?”

“Assuming this,mysterious fortune cookie wielding waitress, or whatever, is behind it then,” Louis spoke up, getting unnerved by the oppressive silence that had fallen. “Why did she do it? Like, if we figure out why and do what she wants us to, there’d be no need for – this,” Louis waved his hands between Harry and Gemma, “Anymore, would there? And then she’d cancel it?”

“I see where you’re going,” Gemma concurred, “but we have no way of finding her or asking her or knowing why or what to do to make her happy or-”

“Gems, Gems, calm down okay? Come up here,” Gemma sighed and walked up to sit on the other side of Louis. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Louis was starting to learn that the Styleses were a cuddly bunch. “There’s no need to panic, okay? That’s not going to help anyone or get us any closer to solving this.”

“What if it takes days, though? Or weeks? Or months?”

“Or what if you wake up in your own body tomorrow? It might just be a one day thing?”

Gemma sighed and burrowed closer.

“Oh no,” Louis heard from the Styles on his other side, “Gemma’s gonna lose my job at the bakery. I have an extended shift next Saturday!”

“Hey! I could totally pull that off! Besides, you’d totally fail my test on Friday. Fuck,” Gemma’s eyes widened in horror. “If this doesn’t reverse, and soon, all my grades are going to be shot. I’m never gonna get into college.”

“Hey, I’m not that stupid,” Harry protested and reached over Louis to pull a bit on his own curls.

Louis spotted Zayn looking at him, smirking on the floor.

“Something funny, Zaynie?”

Zayn frowned. Ha, Louis totally knew how much Zayn hated being called that. His smirked quickly returned, though.

“You just look quite cute, is all. All snuggled up on the couch in a big Styles Sandwich.”

Niall barked a laugh. Louis tried to straighten his back. He felt Harry trying to straighten himself next to him as well and, wait? Was that a blush? Louis had never seen Gemma blush even once in life.

“Ha-ha, very funny, Zayn,” Gemma commented and just snuggled closer. “You’re not the one in your little sibling’s body in need of comfort, so fuck off. How would you feel if you woke up in Waliyha’s body?”

Louis cackled as Zayn’s face almost turned green. Both Niall and Liam snickered from their spots next to Zayn.

Louis turned to Harry, who was looking into space. “But what,” he started. “Like, what does Fate even want? It seems like it’s supposed to be on some course or something, but it’s not? How do we know which course to, like, go? Or steer the ship? Or whatever?”

They all fell silent again.

“Does anyone have a compass?” Niall quipped, but no one really seemed to respond. Louis’s thoughts flickered to that compass design he’d seen the last time Zayn had dragged him to go look in the tattoo shop, but that was the only compass he remembered seeing. He didn’t even think he’d ever seen a real one.

They chatted back and forwards for a while, but no one really knew where to go from here. In the end Zayn, Niall and Liam had to return home for dinner, Zayn and Liam discovering to their surprise they were headed in the same direction.

Louis had always loved to stay for dinner at the Styleses. He could banter with his best friend and get a small break from the spectacle of his four sisters. No matter how much he loved them, he couldn’t help appreciate a small break from them after having hung out with them all weekend. This dinner started out slightly more stilted than they normally were, though. Having to watch Gemma and Harry trying to be each other, getting questioned and having to manoeuvre, “But Harry, you normally like broccoli?”, “I, erm, just don’t feel like them today,” and “You’re certainly tucking in today, Gemma,” “I was, erm – trying to catch up on some homework during lunch, so I didn’t eat much?” was one of the more awkward situations Louis had ever been in. And he’d been in quite a few.

Anne frowned. “You know I want you to finish it over the weekend. Don’t let it happen again, okay?”

Okay, Mum,” came the weak reply from Harry. Louis spotted Gemma sending him a death glare from the other side of the table and patted Harry’s thigh under the table. It was obvious he’d panicked and blurted out the first thing he could think of.

Louis reined in a startle as Harry squeezed his hand in thanks. He proceeded to engage Anne in conversation about everything from school to his family for the rest of the dinner, trying to distract her from her weirdly behaving children. By the end of dinner, he seemed to have sort of succeeded, a small sense of normalcy having settled.

Shooing Anne out of the kitchen to do the dishes between the three of them, they agreed to keep Louis up to date with any potential future changes after waking up tomorrow. Harry also once again reassured Gemma that, yes, he’d do his best to behave in class and no, he wouldn’t peek on her friends in the changing room tomorrow morning.

After saying farewell and thank you to Anne and giving both Styles siblings a hug, Louis returned home with a weird feeling in his gut. He was positive most of it was dread for how tomorrow would play off, if he didn’t have his best friend back in her body. That other thing was probably just nerves.

-|-

When Louis reached for his phone the following morning, he found a No change :( waiting from an unknown number.

Gemma?

Yeah, texting from Harry’s phone. With Harry’s fingers :(

Louis shot back an :((((((( see you later xx, and, hesitating a moment over his phone, saved the number under ‘Curly Styles’. That would be accurate now, as well as in a hopefully near future.

As Louis met the Styles siblings in front of the changing room entrances he could immediately sense the awkwardness in the air. Gemma had her hands buried in Harry’s big jacket, hunched in on herself, avoiding both their gazes. Harry wore a slightly mortified and pained expression.

“Okay, spill.”

Both of them avoided his eye. “Let’s just get this over with,” mumbled Harry and tried to drag Louis to class with a hand on his elbow. He was unsuccessful.

“No, tell me what’s going on here.”

“I just had to teach him about sports bras and stuff, okay? Just go, I’ll see you at lunch,” Gemma urged.

Louis saw Harry blush and fidget, but something looked off. He looked almost like he was hurting.

“No, hey, tell me what’s wrong here.”

Apparently that was all Harry could take. He walked close to Louis and whispered furiously in his ear, “Listen. I’m in pain, my sister had to talk to me about the reproductive system, I woke up to the,” he seemed to reconsider his next words, “ second biggest scare of my life and it’s bleeding from between my legs. Like a lot. So can we just move on, forget about this and never talk about it again?”

Louis was frozen. Harry had… Oh, poor guy. He silently nodded, gave an awkward wave to Gemma, who was headed for Harry’s biology class. Before they parted ways in front of the two changing room entrances he muttered, standing close so none of Louis’s arriving classmates would overhear, “How bad is it? The pain?”

“My back aches. A lot,” Harry pouted, “Gemma says exercise is supposed to help though.”

“At least you can still stand, eh?” Louis said in an attempt to cheer him up. “Once Lottie had to stay home from school in bed all day, because her cramps got so bad.”

Harry looked scared. Maybe that had been the wrong strategy to use. Oops.

“I’m sure you won’t be that bad though. If Gemma’s said this is as bad as it normally gets, she’s probably right. She knows her own body, right? And if anyone asks you why you’re being weirdly quiet or something, you can just blame it on the pain. I’m sure the other girls would understand that.”

Harry took a fortifying breath and seemed to steel himself as he faced the door. A few of the other girls sent him looks as they strolled in as if it were nothing.

“C’mon. You can do it, Harry. I’ll see you in just a few minutes on the field, yeah?”

Louis gave him a reassuring pat on the back before he watched Harry enter the girls’ changing rooms.

As Louis flew through his own changing he answered Zayn’s quiet “Still?” with a small nod and a, “You don’t even wanna know.”

He watched Zayn’s shoulders slump. He’d obviously woken up hoping the past day had just been a bad dream. Louis understood the feeling.

Louis felt like he was waiting for ages for Harry to emerge on the field, unable to stand still.

Harry emerged as the last person on the field, immediately searching out Louis and receiving a, “Nice of you to join us, Styles,” from their coach. It was football day, which Louis would normally rejoice in. He’d never seen Harry with a ball, though.

“Sorry, sir,” Harry said, before leaning close to mutter, “Oh my god, are sports bras supposed to feel this small? It’s impossible to get to sit comfortably,” in Louis’s ear.

Louis swallowed, “Erm, that’s one thing I wouldn’t know, mate,” he put a hand on Harry’s back in solidarity. “I just hope for you this will be the only time you’ll have to wear one.”

“Me, too,” Harry grumbled, which was the last they got to discuss before the coach demanded their attention and sent them off to the field.

After a few minutes of running and ball kicking Louis quickly realised that Harry was, if not a complete disaster, then at least a mild one. If it was torture for Louis to watch, he couldn’t imagine what it felt like for Harry to go through. The occasional, “You’re not usually this useless with a ball, Styles,” comments didn’t really make it better either.

When the coach finally blew the whistle signalling halftime, Louis quickly jogged over to where Harry was standing on the edge of the field. He was bent over with his elbows resting on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

“Are you okay?”

“Listen. I’m in pain and my centre of gravity is completely off. I don’t even feel like I can run properly.” Louis could feel the exasperation steaming off Harry, “I can’t kick a ball because my mind thinks my legs are longer than they actually are. I slipped in fucking mud.”

Louis spotted the large stain up along Harry’s right leg. Ouch. He’d missed that, must’ve been distracted by the game. He hoped for Harry’s sake everyone else had been too.

“I’m sorry to take it out on you,” Harry added between deep breaths, “it’s not like it’s your fault.”

“It’s okay, Curly. Just, like, stick by me during next half of the game, maybe?”

He looked up at him from underneath the loose strands of hair that’d fallen out of his ponytail.

“You sure? I’ll slow you down for sure.”

“Yeah, sure, of course. Also, let me redo your ponytail, all that hair must be falling into your eyes constantly.”

Harry stood up groaning. His hands rubbed at his lower back, and he inhaled deeply before answering with a, “Thanks.” He gave Louis another one of those small smiles Louis knew meant he was doing all right. “How do you know how to tie a ponytail, though?” His smile turned slightly crooked.

“Duh, four little sisters, silly. Now come over here and turn your back to me.”

As Louis had wrapped the hairband around his wrist and had started collecting Gemma’s tresses on top of Harry’s head, he heard a voice shouting their way.

“Yo, Styles, since when do you let Tomlinson play hairdresser on you? Lending yourself out so he can practice for his future career?”

Louis froze, heart rate kicking up a notch, and searched out the perpetrator. Ah, Janice. One of the bigger arseholes in their year. “Why don’t you mind your own business – and future. What was it you got on the last test? D minus? You wouldn’t be able to find a job even if it fell before your feet in fucking neon!”

“Really, Tomlinson, mocking my grades? You’re one to talk. And Styles, since when do you let Tomlinson fight your battles?”

As Louis had now quickly finished tying the hairband tightly, so the hair would stay out of Harry’s eyes this time, Harry could turn around to face her.

“Will you piss off? Louis is just being a decent human being, more than you’ll ever hope to achieve.”

Louis almost took a step back and he could tell he wasn’t the only one shocked. There was an intense, dark anger in Harry’s voice. Something he’d never heard from Gemma’s vocal chords. Even Louis was feeling slightly wary of the nearly feral look on his face.

“Jeez, Styles. Chill,” Janice quickly muttered, obviously made uncomfortable by his piercing glare. She jogged back to her teammates on the other side of the field.

Harry turned to him. “You okay?”

“Hah,” Louis huffed out, “Yeah, of course. Remind me never to get on your bad side, eh?”

Harry beamed at him and Louis’s stomach fluttered. Or, it felt weird. He’d forgotten to eat breakfast, that was all.

“You could never,” Harry replied. “Especially with everything you’re doing for me. I’m very grateful,” the gentleness of his voice was a stark contrast to just moments earlier. “I hope you know that.”

Louis might have stared.

The coach’s whistle interrupted them.

“Guess we’re back to it?” Louis quickly said, absolutely clueless about how to respond otherwise. Saved by the whistle.

“Yeah, I’ll stick by you this time, then?” His eyes were sparkling.

“Definitely,” Louis replied.

“Tomlinson! Styles! Get on the field!”

“Shit, c’mon.”

-|-

How they both survived unscathed  from the second half Louis had no idea, but he was willing to worship whatever deity responsible for the rest of his life. Even so, both he and Harry, as well as Zayn (he wasn’t big on exercise. Louis kept trying to get him to quit smoking), sat themselves down at the lunch table with deep-felt sighs and groans.

Niall carefully reached over and patted Harry’s shoulder. “Guess I won’t ask how the girls’ changing room was then?”

Muffled by the arms his face was buried in, Harry whined, “Please don’t.”

Gemma leaned forwards, asking quietly, “You still in pain?”

Harry nodded.

“Louis, check the front pocket of my backpack. Sometimes I have backup painkillers, for situations like these.” 

“Like what?” Liam asked. The other two boys wore puzzled expressions as well.

“Don’t ask,” Gemma and Louis simultaneously countered.

“Are you okay, Harry?”

Harry raised his head to look at Liam and met his worried look with what seemed like great effort. “Please just – don’t ask. It’s nothing serious, don’t worry.”

“You sure?” Liam still seemed sceptical.

“Yes,” Harry gratefully took the painkillers and water bottle from Louis.

“It’s completely normal and happens with my body all the time, so don’t worry your curly little head, Liam,” Gemma backed him up. Liam seemed to accept her authority and gave a shrug of acceptance. Out of the corner of his eye Louis saw Zayn’s eyes widen. Ah, so he’d caught on as well. Louis just hoped none of his sisters suffered too badly. A family home with a lot of young ladies in pain was not a pretty sight, Louis knew from personal experience.

“What, Styles? First falling on your arse during footie and now making your two scowly hangers-on spend time with your baby brother and his little playmates during lunch? What’s happened to you?” They were interrupted by the devil’s spawn. Or Janice. Potatoh – potahto.

“You again? Haven’t you reached your daily quota of bitch yet?” Louis spat.

“Nah, I was just working under the impression that our Gemma here was better than this.”

“Better than what?” came Harry’s slow mocking drawl out of Gemma’s mouth, eyebrows lifted in incredulity. “Better than hanging out with people I actually enjoy spending time with? Better than not caring about anything that comes out of your little cesspit of a mouth?”

Janice gaped. “You. I. Just. Fuck you.” She turned on her heel and left with quick strides.

“Harry!” Gemma hissed from the other side of the table. “What were you thinking? What has got into you?”

Liam and Niall were staring with wide eyes from the other side of the table. Louis could barely contain his laughter.

“Sorry, Gemma,” Harry was immediately contrite. “I don’t know. I just, like, really didn’t like the way she was treating you.” His expression darkened at the thought.

“She’s gonna hate me.”

“Sorry, I just,” Harry sighed, “I just really don’t like her.”

It was quiet for a moment.

“It’s okay. I really don’t like her either, you know.” Gemma was picking her nails.

“Can’t imagine why,” Harry muttered. Then he frowned, thinking. “Hey,” he caught her hand and made her eyes meet his. “Is she why – you know, the reason we had that argument at dinner Sunday? That you wouldn’t let..?”

Gemma seemed chagrined. “Maybe? I’m sorry, H. Just, I didn’t want to attract any attention and once you’re on her hit list there’s no getting off it.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I get it. I’m afraid that’s too late now, though. I’m sorry.”

“Definitely too late. And honestly? No need to apologise, she was being an arsehole to you – err, or me – first and you didn’t know, so. Nothing we can do about that now. Let’s just ignore her and let her stew in her own awfulness. She can just henceforth go fuck herself.” Gemma declared firmly.

Liam almost choked on a cracker. Zayn was quick to pass him some water.

Then he turned to Harry with a smirk. “Cesspit of a mouth? That was brilliant, mate.”

Louis snickered, “I must say I’m impressed, young Harold! You definitely have the balls to hang with the older crowd. Or, you know,” Louis made a face. “The currently metaphorical balls, but you know what I mean.”

And if Harry’s pleased expression coincided with that fluttery feeling in his stomach again, it was just because he was just about to have his lunch after a very taxing morning. And he still hadn’t had breakfast.

-|-

After meeting up once school was over, Niall had firmly declared that he could do no more Mission Reverse The Styles without ice cream in front of him. After the day they’d had, most had concurred and all six of them found themselves at Cal’s Ice Cream Parlour. Louis liked the place, with its tacky L.A./Hollywood themed décor and the multitude of photographs hanging on seemingly every inch of every wall. There was always something to look at.

Right now, though, his eyes seemed to continuously return to the boy in front of him, who was once again sporting a ponytail. After the first time he’d got ice cream in his hair Louis had quickly handed him back the hair tie from this morning.

And so what if they had spent the better part of yet another horrendous geography lesson drawing silly stick figures on each other’s notes? So what if, to be able to reach Harry’s paper to draw on it properly, Louis had needed to sit a little closer? He was just taking his duties as little brother protector seriously. Besides, it had made Louis’s normally most feared class almost enjoyable – except for the part where they were called out for not paying attention of course. But what else was new? Harry had seemed quite put out on his behalf, but had been quick thinking enough to turn their doodles over, so the professor hadn’t seen the unflattering (to put it mildly) drawings as well. Louis shuddered at the thought of what would have happened had that been the case.

Someone poked his foot under the table.

“You okay?” Harry asked across from him, ice cream on his spoon paused halfway between the bowl and its destination.

“Yeah, sorry,” Louis shook his head. “Just thinking.”

“About what?” Harry enquired, waving away a small piece of chocolate Niall had thrown into his hair from the other side of the table.

“Geography,” Louis said wryly.

“Such a douchebag,” wrinkling his nose, Harry caught Louis’s foot between his under the table. “Talked a bunch of shit as well.” His look at Louis was weirdly pointed. Louis looked down.

“Who’re we trash talking?” Niall interrupted.

“Lou, Zayn and Gem’s geography teacher,” explained Harry.

“Ah, yes,” Zayn muttered darkly. He leaned back in the booth next to Louis, his shoulders resting against a curious looking Liam.

“Dick,” Gemma echoed emphatically.

“What’s so bad about your Geography teacher?” Liam asked, angling his body toward them.

“Don’t even get me started,” Louis murmured. He put his spoon back down. There was still some ice cream left, but he’d lost his appetite.

“No, seriously,” Zayn concurred. “Don’t get him started. Once he ranted for two hours straight. I timed it.”

“Damn,” Niall gave a low whistle.

“Anyway, more importantly,” Gemma seemed set on redirecting the topic of conversation. Louis shot her a grateful smile. “Harry and I didn’t wake up in the right bodies this morning. What are we gonna do?”

Their booth got despairingly quiet, only the clink of spoons in ice cream bowls were heard.

“Why did that bloody fortune have to be so vague anyway?” Harry grumbled.  Louis rested his trapped foot against one of his legs. “Why couldn’t it just have been like ‘please take the five o’clock train to destination [A] and return to Watson’s Chinese House with relic [B] and fate will be fulfilled’ or some rubbish like that?”

“And, like, ships or whatever, that’s so vague,” Gemma pouted. Louis was caught by the sight of her lips. Why did Harry have such weirdly pink lips? And why had Louis never noticed before? This was like obscene cotton candy levels. “This isn’t even a coast town, like, we don’t even have any harbours. Or ships. Or swallows, now that I think about it.” Gemma frowned. Louis gave himself a mental shake. Focus.

“I’ve only seen swallows in Liam’s tattoo shop window to be honest,” Zayn sighed.

“Liam?”

“Not you, silly,” Zayn nudged Liam’s shoulder with his own. “Tattooist Liam, owns a shop down on Cowell Road.”

“Oh.”

Sadly, this was the most progress they made. At least they could bury their despair in ice cream, Louis thought.

Harry’s phone buzzed on the table. Gemma picked it up and opened the test. “Shit, it’s Mum. It’s your turn to dust and vacuum the living room, H.”

Harry smirked at his sister. “Don’t you mean your turn?”

Gemma groaned and buried her head in her hands. “This sucks.”

“Hey,” Harry tried to cheer up his sister. It was very cute. “At least you’re not,” Harry hesitated, squirming a bit in his seat. “You know.”

Niall and Liam looked puzzled, still having no idea what Harry was referencing.

Gemma sighed. “This is true,” she shot Harry a pitying look and gave him a hug. “See you at home little bro.”

As she shuffled out of the booth, Liam started gathering his jacket as well. “I should probably head home as well, promised my sisters I’d help out with dinner.” His face made a displeased grimace, but he shot a quick look towards Zayn.

“Yeah, err-,” Zayn floundered, “I need to buy a new pack of cigs on my way home as well, so I need to head out as well.” Louis had seen him open a new pack that morning.

As Niall’s phone starting ringing in the commotion as well, Louis quickly reached out to grab Harry’s forearm resting on the table. “You’re not leaving me as well, are you?”

“To sit and watch my sister dust the living room? Nah,” Harry smiled, “I don’t think so.”

And dammit, Louis couldn’t blame that feeling on hunger anymore, he’d just had ice cream.

After Louis and Harry had said a collective goodbye to their four companions, a charged silence settled over their table.

“So, erm,” Louis really didn’t do well with silence. “You feeling any better now?”

Harry looked down at the table. Louis suddenly realised his hand was still on Harry’s arm. It twitched and he quickly snatched it off the table and shoved it under his thigh. Hopefully he could keep it under control there.

“Yeah,” Harry gave a small cough. “The pain’s nearly gone. Gemma says it’s normally the beginning of the first day that’s worst for her, so I’m hoping the worst is over.”

“Okay. That’s good.” Louis was being awkward. He knew that. Why was he being awkward? He was never awkward.

“This must be quite weird for you, too, right?” Harry asked. “Having your best friend’s younger brother suddenly invade her body?”

Louis chuckled. “Yeah, quite weird would be an understatement.”

Harry nodded in agreement. “Definitely an understatement.”

“You know what, though?” Louis continued. “It’s actually made me realise how well I know your sister, in a way. I notice things I’ve never thought of before.”

“Oh,” Harry looked intrigued. “Like what?”

“Like the small things. All the ways you’re different. It can be quite disconcerting, you know.”

“What do you think looking into the mirror and not seeing your own face is?” Harry countered.

“God yeah, I can’t even imagine.”

“You can tell me, though, Louis,” Harry teased, “I’m better - different, aren’t I?”

Louis laughed and pointed at Harry. Wait, when had his hand escaped? “You’re putting me in an awkward position as an official Best Friend here, Curly.”

Harry grinned. “I don’t care. You can tell me, I’ll be our little secret.” Louis could see the mirth in his eyes, but his hands were fiddling with Gemma’s hair as well.

“I can tell you one thing,” Louis agreed. “You’re definitely better at drawing stick figures than Gemma.”

“Ha!” Harry gave a victorious fist pump. “I knew there was something!”

“Something there most certainly is,” Louis murmured and immediately stuffed his mouth with the last of his ice cream. What was he saying? Harry looked at him inquiringly. Louis swallowed. “I mean. Erm. Like, you must miss hanging out with your friends?”

Which was obviously not what he’d been saying, but Harry let it slide, giving the question some thought.

“It’s not like we don’t still hang out, though. I see them at lunch and after school and stuff. Besides,” he grinned, poking Louis’s leg under the table. How long had their feet been tangled up by now? And why were they both acting like it was nothing? Well, if Harry wasn’t going to mention it, Louis certainly weren’t either. “You’re not too bad of a replacement.”

“Replacement?” Louis may have played up his indignation a little. That was easier to focus on than the warmth spreading in his chest.

“Zayn’s not too bad either,” Harry teased.

“Well, see if I ever share my ice cream with you again!”

Harry pouted. Louis had a sudden flash to what it would look like with Harry in his real body, with his real lips.

“Lou, please.”

Oh, man. That had to be the puppy eyes Gemma had ranted to Louis about occasionally. Apparently, it got Harry unfairly out of all sorts of trouble. Louis could see why. Louis countered by shooting him a narrow look.

“We’ll see what the future holds, I suppose.”

Harry just grinned like he knew he’d won all the same. He was probably right, damn him.

-|-

Waiting for Harry outside the Drama classroom, Louis pondered over the fact that he’d now been at school early three days in a row. What had his life become? Apparently a life where he sits and chats to Harry Styles until Cal comes over and gently lets them know that he’s closing in 10 minutes with a weird glint in his eyes. Louis had a hard time even recalling exactly what they’d talked about, but time had just seemed to fly by. There was just something about the way he smiled, something about the way he felt when he could make Harry laugh. How they’d had an impromptu ice cream spoon battle over the table for one of the biscuits Zayn had left at the table, hurrying after Liam.

“Tommo!” Stan’s smug face emerged in front of his. They had used to be thick as thieves, the two of them against the world, but once Stan got on the rugby team the same year as Gemma had transferred over they’d grown apart a bit. Louis would have been more sorry of the fact, if it hadn’t been for what he’d sometimes overheard the rugby guys saying when they thought no one was listening.

“Were you lost in your own little world there, mate?”

Louis shook his head. “What’s up, mate?”

Stan gave him a look. “Come on, you can tell me.”

“Tell you what?” Louis crossed his arms.

“You and Styles of course! Well done, mate – thought it would never happen!” He looked like the cat who’d caught the canary.

Louis’s heart rate picked up. “Me and Styles what, exactly?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Tommo. First I saw you two in the back of Geography yesterday, being all flirty, but I thought ‘nah, they’ve been friends for years, why would something happen now?’, but then-”

“C’mon, Stan, honestly, you’re being ridiculous,” Louis spluttered, but was interrupted.

“Then I see the two of you being disgustingly cute at Cal’s on my way home from training yesterday.”

Louis gulped.

“Just the two of you.” Stan smirked. “All alone. Practically spoon feeding each other ice cream.”

“We were not!” Louis protested. Why had he come to school early again? (So he could meet Harry before class. Fuck.)

“Okay, maybe not exactly. But the blush on your face tells me I’m not far off. You can’t hide it from me, mate, I know you too well.”

“Stan!” Fucked. Louis was fucked. There was no way out of this. No escape. Stan wouldn’t believe any denial he dished out, because Louis would be lying. What was he doing? Gemma was gonna murder him.

As Louis didn’t comment further Stan obviously took it as an admission of guilt. He leaned forwards conspiratorially. “So. Did you get some?”

Louis frowned. “Stan! That’s not what this is about!”

He lifted his hands defensively. “Jeez, Tommo. Chill, was just asking. But,” his expression turned predatory. “Does this mean you have a proper crush? The Great Immune Tommo finally got caught in a girl’s net, eh?”

Louis winced. Oh, how the defence mechanisms of his early teenage years were coming to bite him in the arse.

“Stan. Just. Please. Please don’t go blabbering about it to everyone. Just keep it to yourself, okay? I really don’t want it going around.”

“Damn, bro, I’m not gonna go around tattling about me old best mate, am I?” His eyes flickered to the side.

Fuck. He’d probably already bragged about his ‘discovery’ to his mates. Louis could only hope all this fortune cookie nonsense was well and truly over by the time it reached Gemma’s or, God forbid, Harry’s ears. He’d put two and two together and, shit, Louis’s secret could be out. But Harry wouldn’t do that, would he? He really didn’t seem like the type. Louis could only hope.

“See to it that you don’t,” Louis replied firmly, righting himself. And God bless, there was Harry, shuffling down the hallways, face lighting up as he spotted Louis.

“Lou, I-”

He stopped abruptly when he saw Stan next to him.

“Hi Gems, was just chatting to Stan here for a second,” Louis gently wrapped his hand around Harry’s wrist. “Let’s go inside, it’s drama. I actually like drama, but of course you already know that. obviously, you’re my best friend. See you later, Stan, bye,” Louis rambled.

He hurried into the classroom, dragging Harry behind him to a corner table. Apparently, the fewer eyelines they were in the better.

“Louis,” Harry sat down next to him, turning towards him instead of starting to dig out Gemma’s notebook from her bag. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, of course, Hazza.” Louis fiddled with his pen, adjusted his fringe. Why do you ask?”

Harry gently placed one of his hands over Louis’s with a pointed look. Louis took a deep breath.

“You said you liked drama?”

“Yeah,” Louis shot him a grateful smile. “It’s fun. It’s like getting to be a little kid again, but more. Like, with more meaning, you know?”

Harry’s eyes crinkled. “Not yet, but I guess I will today.”

And so what if it ended up being one of the better drama classes all year? Harry might be hit or miss with his acting, but he was still a riot. Louis found himself wondering why he hadn’t had Harry in his life before. And if he would be out of it again when the Cookie Incident™ had officially ended. He was sort of trying to ignore that latter one.

By now the corner lunch table with Niall, Liam and Gemma waiting felt like home. Fortunately any and all devil’s spawn stayed well away from them. Louis must admit he’s starting to be intrigued by the way Zayn behaves around Liam. They seem to be discussing Batman films, which, fine, let them (Louis prefers Marvel anyway) but there’s something new Louis can’t quite put his finger on.

Despite getting distracted by Harry’s frankly awful retellings of happenings during drama class, he did notice Zayn hadn’t left the lunch table once during their break – not even for a smoke. His lunch smoke, which he’s otherwise claimed he can’t live without.

English after lunch put a quick damper on his mood. When Miss Flack entered the room he suddenly recalled that he had, in fact, not read the Shakespeare play for this week. Which they had been given several weeks to read.

Well, he couldn’t really blame himself for getting distracted, what with sudden body swaps affecting his immediate daily life. So Louis tried to keep as small and quiet as possible during the class, he really did, but in the end it was a moot point. Miss Flack was annoyingly steadfast with her equal contribution policy in class.

“Mr Tomlinson, Miss Styles, what do you think Shakespeare is trying to say with the way he’s depicted the nature of attraction and love in this play?”

Harry turned to Louis, but this time he was unfortunately unable to save them. Time to bite the bullet.

“I don’t know, Miss Flack.”

She sighed and saw right through him. “Well, then, I guess the two of you will just have to present your well-argued opinions on the matter in a 15 minute presentation in class tomorrow, won’t you?”

Fuck.

She raised an eyebrow at the continued silence.

Harry grabbed his hand under the table. “Yes, Miss Flack.”

“That’s better,” she sent them a suspicious look before walking back to the front of the class. “I will look forward to it tomorrow, Miss Styles, Mr Tomlinson.”

He kept quiet until he deemed Miss Flack sufficiently engrossed in a monologue about Elizabethan world view. He leaned close to Harry and whispered, “We’re so fucked. We can’t do this.”

“No,” Harry denied quietly, but his grip on Louis’s hand was still as fierce. “No, we’re not fucked. We can’t be. I can’t screw this up for Gemma even more. We can do this. We will do this. And we’ll do it well, okay?”

“Yeah,” Louis took in Harry’s slight frown and set lips, his steadfast gaze at the blackboard. “Yeah,of course. If you say so, we can do this.”

Harry’s shoulders relaxed and his eyes wavered to catch his gaze, sending him a small smile.

“Thanks,” he mouthed. He followed it up with a low whisper of, “I could have done it myself, but I’d much rather have you by my side.”

“Hey,” Louis bumped him gently with his elbow, feeling his own face smile back against his will. “Always, Curly.”

And so what if that feeling, those butterflies, in his stomach went a bit aflutter when Harry linked their fingers under the table and quickly turned to look towards the front of the class? He already knew he was screwed anyway, he might as well enjoy it.

-|-

When they met up with their friends after classes were over they were quick to bemoan their fate.

“Gemma, you have to help us, you’re the only one who’s actually read the play! Please?”

“Are you serious? You haven’t read the - ? Why am I even surprised,” Gemma grumbled, adjusting Harry’s backpack on her shoulders.

“C’mon, Gems, you know I was looking after my sisters all weekend. I hardly had the time.”

Gemma sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry. I’m just,” she tried to tuck a curl behind her ear. It sprang free immediately. “-Frustrated with this situation. It’s been three days now. But no, of course I’ll help you.”

“Thanks, sis.” Harry walked over and hugged her close. “We really appreciate it.”

“Yeah,” Louis echoed. “Thanks, Gems.”

“Well, I, for one,” Niall exclaimed in a jolly voice, “Am not planning on spending the rest of my day with Shakespeare. I have a PS3 waiting for me at home.”

Harry groaned into Gemma’s shoulder. “I hate you.”

Louis pouted. “I hate you too.”

Harry high fived him.

“That’s not too bad an idea, Nialler,” Zayn smirked. Louis glared.

“You play, too?” Liam inquired. “What games?”

Zayn shrugged and stumped out his cigarette on the brick wall. “A bit of GTA, mostly just FIFA, but Lou always beats me when we do multiplayer.”

Liam cracked a smile. “Harry always beats me as well.”

“Ha!” Harry stuck out his tongue. Louis raised his hand for another high five, which was met enthusiastically.

Zayn buried his hands in his leather jacket. “Wanna come over and play?”

Liam smiled. “Yeah, no, that sounds fun.”

Niall caught Louis’s eye behind Liam’s back, pointing back and forth between the unaware Zayn and Liam with a questioning look.

Louis shrugged and mouthed, “Leave them be,” with a smirk. Niall shrugged and said his goodbyes as he mounted his bike. Never let it be said Louis wasn’t a good friend. Also, he conceded to himself, maybe there were some things he’d be able to talk to Zayn about after all.

Louis spent the rest of his afternoon huddled up on the floor of Gemma’s room with her and Harry going over Shakespeare. He’d give it to the dude, he could think up some mean pranks. Before he knew it Anne came knocking on the door.

“Oh, hey Louis. Do you want to stay over for dinner again? You’re very welcome to.” Was that a glint in her eye?

Harry nudged his thigh with knee and sent his mother Gemma’s neutral ‘who-me-no-I-don’t-have-a-hidden-agenda’ smile. “Of course he would! We’ll see you later, Mum!”

Louis was all too familiar with it and squinted at Harry.

Anne laughed. “Okay, okay, I’m going. But it’s nice to see all three of you hanging out for once.” She closed the door behind her with a smile.

“So… Where were we?” Gemma asked. She looked in her notes. “Right, so do you see the irony in how Orsino just shifts his love from Olivia to Viola? Especially after the way he’s postulated his devotion earlier in the play?”

Louis forced his mind back to Shakespeare. He could figure out what two thirds of the Styleses were thinking later.

After dinner, which had thankfully not been as awkward as the last one, Anne caught Louis alone while he was wiping down the table. Harry and Gemma were busy with the dishes in the kitchen.

“You know, Louis, I never really thought it would happen.”

Louis paused and looked up at her. Her eyes were glinting again. “What, exactly, do you think happened?”

“Oh Louis, didn’t Johanna ever tell you that a mother knows?” Oh no, Louis definitely did not like that glint. Nor that smile.

“Knows what?”

“Come on, Louis, you’re a smart boy, you don’t need to play dumb with me. I see the way you look at each other. I’m not blind.”

Shit. Louis wrung the cloth in his hands, studying it intensely while feeling his cheeks heat up. He really needed to sort this out.

“Mrs. Styles, I’m afraid you’re working under some sort of misconception. I’m not interested in your daughter romantically.”

“Really?” The scepticism was thick in her voice. A shriek and laughter was heard from the kitchen through the silence. “That’s too bad,” her voice turned confident and smug. “Because I’ve never seen Gemma’s face look quite that besotted as when she’s looking at you chatting to Harry across the table.”

Louis’s head snapped up. “What?”

Anne looked like the cat that’d caught the canary. Louis could see where Gemma got her self-satisfied expression from. But as she walked closer her face became milder.

“Don’t worry, Louis, don’t look so scared,” she put her hand on his shoulder. “No matter what happens, no matter what happens, you’ll always remain a part of our little family. I hope you know that.”

Louis swallowed. “You sure?”

“Yes. Yes I am,” she gave him a quick hug, shooing him towards the kitchen before he had time to reciprocate. “Now go into the kitchen and help the others. They sound far too happy in there for my liking.”

After the kitchen was clean and the dishwasher running Gemma and Harry convinced Anne to be Harry and Louis’s practice audience. After the third run-through Gemma was finally satisfied they could pull it off to her standards. She also had to answer awkward questions from Anne about why Harry was suddenly so invested in his sister’s academic performance. By that time it was late in the evening and Louis was dead on his feet.

After giving everyone goodbye hugs, Louis balanced on one leg, stuffing one foot after the other into his worn Vans in the hallway. He almost fell over from surprise when he heard a quiet cough behind him.

“Fuck, sorry, sorry.” Harry was there in a second to steady him, Louis grasping his shoulder tightly until he finally fitted his heel into the shoe.

“Don’t scare me like that, Curly.”

“Sorry,” Harry replied with a sheepish grin.

“It’s okay,” Louis tucked a strand of Harry’s wayward hair behind his ear, and, wait, he’d never done that to Gemma. And even if he had Gemma had most certainly not leaned into his touch afterwards. Shit, his butterflies were marching around down there.

“Nervous about tomorrow?” Louis asked to distract himself.

Harry shrugged and wait, how had he never noticed Gemma had freckles before? Why were they still standing so close? “Not so much right now, I mean, we just went over it, but I have a bad tendency to get, like, almost stage fright? Like, my mum is fine, but a classroom filled with twenty something people two years above me in school?” Harry gave a nervous chuckle. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“Hey,” Louis framed Harry’s jaw with his hands, making him meet his eyes. “I’ll be right with you, yeah, just like I said earlier today, remember?” Louis could feel Harry smile under his palms. “I’ve got your back, I already know you’ve got mine, we’re a dream team you and I, right?”

Harry was beaming at him and Louis wanted to kiss him. Louis really wanted to kiss him. But, fuck, those were Gemma’s lips and that. That was just. Louis really didn’t want that. He wanted Harry. But this was Harry. Not knowing what else to do, he dragged him into a hug, which was returned immediately and eagerly.

“Definitely dream team,” was whispered into his neck.

“Definitely.” Louis really didn’t want to let go, but he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket (probably his mum or Lottie). As he regretfully loosened his grip, he schooled his face into something he hoped resembled a normal expression and not a half terrified, half manic grin.

He sneaked a look at Harry as he donned his jacket. Was that a blush on his cheeks or just the low hallway lighting?

“See you tomorrow, Curly,” he smiled and, with no idea what else to do, raised his hand for a fist bump.

Harry bumped his fist with a grin and gave a quirky salute as Louis closed the front door behind him.

And if he had to deal with his mother asking, “Oh, is it Shakespeare that’s got you smiling like that?” when he walked in the door, he guessed it was worth it. Curse gossipy mothers.

-|-

Harry had not been kidding. He’d seemed calm and collected enough when they’d met in front of the school and both received good luck hugs from Gemma before she were off with Liam and Niall for physics.

“You okay, Zayn?” Louis asked as he spotted Zayn trying to light the wrong end of his cigarette while watching Liam leave and horse around with Niall.

“Huh?” Zayn looked up. Harry took the cigarette out of his mouth and put it back between his lips the right way around. “Oh. Thanks,” he mumbled.

Louis saw Harry smiling. He might have caught on as well.

“Did you know Liam boxes?”

Oh, yes, Harry had definitely caught on. Louis tried to repress his smirk as Zayn’s eyes went wide.

“He what?”

“He boxes. He’s been boxing for, what, at least three years now I think,” Harry said with fake nonchalance.

But that confident and teasing Harry was gone now, as Louis saw his eyes flicker next to him as their English class drew nearer towards the end. He quickly grabbed one of Harry’s hands that was running up and down his thighs. It was clammy.

“Dream team, remember?”

Harry took a deep, slow breath, nodded quickly and squeezed his hand back.

“Miss Styles, Mr Tomlinson, I presume you’re ready to give the presentation I assigned you yesterday?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Louis nodded and grabbed his note cards as he stood. He could do this and do it well. He could be there for Harry. And if he kept a gentle and hopefully comforting hand on Harry’s back as they walked to the front of the classroom Zayn could just take his raised eyebrow and smirk and stuff it right back his own throat.

After a slightly rocky start on Harry’s behalf they quickly fell into step. And if Louis could distract Harry from all the eyes watching him and make him smile by adding quirky details onto his own designated points, that was even better.

After Harry had safely sailed through the conclusion and Miss Flack had called the class to an end, not without complimentary words to himself and Harry, he suddenly had an armful of Harry.

“We did it, Louis, we did it!”

“Yes, yes we did, Curly,” Louis laughed. “I’m very proud of you for keeping your cool, yeah? I saw how nervous you were.”

Harry pulled back to look him in the eye. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Yes, well,” Louis mumbled. “You made me better as well. So.” And it was true. Something about Harry made Louis care.

“Dream team, yeah?” Harry grinned.

“Yeah.”

They both startled as someone wolf whistled.

“Fuck off, Stan,” Louis shouted at said boy standing in the classroom doorway. He gave him the finger as well for good measure, when he noticed Harry draw away and fold his arms over his chest.

“If you say so, mate,” Stan replied with a cackle before he took his leave.

“Don’t mind him, Stan can be a dick sometimes.”

Harry frowned. “I thought you were friends?”

“Yes, well, we used to be best friends, but,” Louis shrugged. “- Grew into different social circles I guess.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

Louis shot him a smile. “You really don’t need to be. I got Gemma and Zayn. And you, right?”

That finally drew a grin to Harry’s face. Louis didn’t like it when he wasn’t smiling. “Of course you’ve got me. Dream team, remember?”

Louis met his high five and it trailed awkwardly downwards, leaving them in a quiet empty classroom, palms against each other.

“Well,” Louis felt like he had trouble breathing. “Lunch?”

Harry nodded and fell into step with him as they walked to the cafeteria. The quiet was getting on Louis’s nerves and he searched for a new conversation topic.

“Hey,” he nudged Harry with a conspiratorial grin, “I think I’ll have Liam as well, if Zayn has anything to say about it.”

Harry barked a laugh. “Yeah, seems like it. Liam keeps texting me to ask you about Zayn as well.”

“Really now? Why didn’t you tell me before, Harold?” Louis poked his side and Harry giggled. It was hard to stop touching Harry, sue him. It’s a low burning itch in his fingertips.

Harry’s giggles were sort of lovely. He poked him again.

“Louis! Let me answer your question will you?”

Louis held his hands up in a motion of surrender with a grin befitting a victor.

“I guess I, like, didn’t really feel like it was my secret to share you know. And I’ve only properly-properly got to know you this week, so,” Harry shrugged.

Louis hummed in assent. “Would it make you feel better if I shared a secret as well?”

Harry stopped in his tracks, looking immediately intrigued.

With a gentle hand on his shoulder Louis guided him towards the hallway wall, shamelessly taking any excuse to stand close.

“You know what?” Louis whispered in his ear. Harry’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “Despite how close we used to be, now I actually like you much more than Stan.”

His heart hammered in his chest. It was worth it to see the joy in Harry’s eyes.

“Yeah?” Was that just Louis’s wishful thinking or did Harry sound a bit breathless? “Even though I’m just your best friend’s silly younger brother?”

“Hey now,” Louis was stern. “Is that what you think of yourself as? You’re, like, you’re so much more than that. Trust me on this, Harry, okay?” He held his gaze and just as Harry’s smile was starting to reach his eyes again they were interrupted by a tackling Niall and a steady stream of what Harry called Niall’s ‘What Are We Even Going to Use Physics for Anyway?’ Rant ™.

-|-

After school found them all once again at Cal’s Ice Cream Parlour to celebrate Harry and Louis’s good performance, but the celebratory mood quickly declined once Gemma remembered something.

“Shit. It’s Friday tomorrow.”

“Yes, you are correct,” Louis affirmed with a smirk. “You want a cookie, darling?”

“Shut up, Lou, I have my test tomorrow!”

“Oh.”

Louis saw Harry’s face fall across the table from him. Harry wrapped an arm around his sister.

“I’m sorry, sis.”

“It’s okay, H. I’ll figure it out. Maybe they’ll let me resit it later. It’s not your fault. I just don’t get it.”

“I don’t really think any of us do,” Zayn pitched in, using that gentle tone Louis had been comforted by numerous times.

“No, I mean, like, the… discussion we had when we got those odd fortune cookies, it’s a moot point now. It’s, like, it’s already been resolved, so if it didn’t have anything to do with that then what?”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Liam hesitated. Zayn gave him an encouraging look, which he seemed to find strength in. “What were you discussing, anyway? I mean, running with the theory that it was supposedly something important enough to bring this,” he waved his ice cream towards them, “About, then, maybe a pair of fresh brains would be helpful.” He gestured towards the rest of them.

“Erm,” Gemma fiddled with her ring. Harry interrupted her.

“You all remember that arsehole Janice?”

Louis, Niall and Liam all grimaced, Zayn simply nodded.

“It had something to do with her, like,” Harry hesitated and Louis studied his face. He had a feeling he wasn’t getting the whole truth. “But she hasn’t bothered Gemma, or, I mean, me all week since that one time, so I don’t think that’ll be a problem anymore.”

The other boys nodded their understanding and soon conversation drifted elsewhere, notably Niall trying to convince Liam to try the pistachio ice cream. He didn’t seem to be succeeding until Louis casually suggested that if it was because he wasn’t sure he could finish it on his own, he could always share it with Zayn.

But through the ice cream chatter Louis noticed Gemma catching Harry’s attention with a shoulder nudge and mouthing him a quick thanks.

Once ice cream bowls were empty the rest of the boys trickled home, Zayn once again finding an excuse to go with Liam. Louis couldn’t help but smile. They looked cute and uncomplicated and not dealing with crushes on body swapped people who were also the little brother of your best friend.

In the end even Gemma declared she was going to “go home and stick my nose in a book to distract myself.”

Which left Louis alone with Harry. Again. Which he didn’t really mind, despite the texts from his sisters, asking where he’d been most of the week. Well, it wasn’t like he could tell them the truth.

“I really don’t wanna take Gemma’s test tomorrow,” Harry pouted.

Louis nudged Harry’s foot under the table. “I know, Curly, but if nothing else you can survive it, that I know.”

Harry smiled. “Can I ask you something?”¨

“Anything, Haz.”

“Why do you call me Curly when I don’t have any curls? Right now, at least.”

“Erm,” Louis pushed away his ice cream bowl. “Well, firstly, I know you actually have curly hair, even if it’s not right now,” Louis twirled a finger towards Harry, outlining the hair hanging flat and loose around his face. “And, like,” he shrugged, “Yyour personality is still curly, so.”

Harry barked a laugh. “That doesn’t even make sense.” He nudged Louis back under the table.

Louis stuck out his tongue at him. “It totally does. You’re quirky. Like your curly hair.”

Harry just grinned at him. “Whatever you say, Louis.” He looked down at his hands. “You know, I know this sounds weird, but, like, I’m sort of glad this happened?”

Louis frowned.

“No,” Harry reached across the table and clasped his fingers around Louis’s hand. “No, not like that, of course the stuck in my sister’s body bit sucks, especially with the,” his cheeks reddened. “The period and everything, but, like,” he cleared his throat, “I’ve really liked hanging out with you and getting to know you and stuff. I guess I’d just like to say thank you and that I hope I haven’t been a nuisance. I know all this must have kept you from your usual stuff, it’s taken a lot of your time and-”

“Harry,” he had to stop him. “Harry. Listen to me,” his put his other hand over Harry’s. “You’re being silly. Sure, there was the Shakespeare thing we had to do, but that turned out quite fun in the end, right? And you were never, never, a nuisance, okay? Couldn’t you believe I’ve enjoyed getting to know you too? Enjoyed hanging out with you?”

“Yeah?”

“Hey, look me in the eye.” Harry looked up. “Totally one hundred percent yeah.”

Harry grinned. Then he looked down at their clasped hands on the table. He swallowed. “I’m glad that, like, this is nice for you, too?” His voice went up at the end and Louis breathed out deeply. In for a penny, as they say. As if he could ever let Harry down.

He caressed Harry’s hand with his thumb. “Yeah,” he concurred with a smile and met Harry’s gaze. “This is nice.”

Harry’s smile became a little more certain, more believing.

“I quite like you, you know.”

Harry’s grin widened, the edges of disbelief slowly waning from his eyes. “You do?”

“Yes,” Louis said insistently and nudged him playfully under the table, not willing to move his hands. “How many times do you need me to say it?”

Butterflies were swirling in his stomach, heart rate quicker than relaxing in a booth after ice cream warranted and oh, God, what was he doing? and Fuck fuck, what was Gemma going to say?

But that all faded to the background when Harry caught Louis’s foot between his. “You know I quite like you too?”

And, okay, Louis wasn’t even going to try to suppress his grin, it was simply not possible. “Yeah?”

“Definitely.” Harry grinned.

 

“Okay, lovebirds, we’re closing up now.”

They startled and looked up at Cal, wearing his pink and white striped apron and a gentle smile.

Embarrassed, they mumbled their apologies and headed out.

Harry took a deep breath in the cool fresh air, fiddling with Gemma’s long strands as he faced Louis. “Erm, can I ask, like, about…”

“You can ask anything,” Louis’s heart hadn’t stopped hammering in his chest quite yet. At this point he wasn’t sure it ever would.

“If, like,” Harry squinted, searching for words. “Are we going to do – what about, like, this?” Harry gestured to himself and his current curves with a frown.

“Hey, now, where did my smile go?” He lifted Harry’s head gently by the chin.

“Louis, please, just. Answer my question.”

“Tell you what, how about,” Louis took a deep breath. Why did they have to talk about things? “How about I walk you home and we just enjoy tonight’s evening and then we’ll talk about it tomorrow? I swear. If you’re good I might even hold your hand,” he added with a small smile. Harry looked at him hesitantly. Fuck, had he oversold it? Had he completely misunderstood something?

But then Harry cracked a smile. “Yeah, okay. I think we can figure something out.”

“Yeah? You think we can, Curly?” Louis reached out hand, offering it. “How about it, then?”

Harry grinned and clasped his hand with Louis’s.

-|-

When Harry woke up the next morning, he kept his eyes closed. He just wanted  to stay in fantasy land reliving last night with Louis  for a little bit before opening his eyes to face reality – and a test – in Gemma’s body.

And that’s what it felt like, a fantasy land. A dream. It was what this entire week had felt like. But despite all the weirdness, the nerves, and more knowledge of the female reproductive system than he had ever wanted, his thoughts still fell to Louis first thing upon waking.

Ha, if his past self thought he’d had a little crush on Louis, actually getting to know him, talk to him, hold hands with him… Harry sighed deeply into his pillow. What was wrong with him, honestly.

Wait a second.

What was that smell? This didn’t smell like Gemma’s pillow.

Harry shot up in the bed, eyes now wide open. He was met by the sight of his own room and own duvet and own 1975 poster on the wall.

“My dick,” he mumbled. “My dick, my dick, my dick.” He scrambled the duvet off the bed frantically, pushing his pyjama pants down his legs with his hands (his own hands). Harry wouldn’t be embarrassed to admit he almost cried with relief at the sight.

“My dick is back,” he whispered reverently. “Thank you, God. Thank you.”

After pulling his pyjama pants back up, he tore out of bed and into the hallway. “GEMMA!” He banged on the door to his sister’s room.

“Harry!” He heard from inside. “What the fuck are you do-”

A short pause.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHH! YES! YES YES YES!”

The door flew open and he had an armful of screechy ecstatic sister.

Their jumping for joy was interrupted by their tired mother, leaning against her doorframe in her bathrobe. “Jeez guys, what happened? We better have won the lottery or something. Please tell me we’ve won the lottery?”

They stilled, arms still around each other.

“Erm, we just-”

“Sorry Mum, it’s-”

“Okay, okay, one at a time,” Anne held up her hands and proceeded to rub her temples.

They both remained silent.

“Gemma?” Anne prompted, looking at her daughter.

Gemma beamed. “Yes, that’s me.”

Anne raised an eyebrow. “Obviously.”

Harry felt his cheeks starting to ache from grinning so hard.

“Gemma got some good news,” Harry blurted.

“Oh,” Anne smiled. “And what was worth such ruckus?”

“I- Erm.”

“Her test,” Harry spoke up. “She’s been telling me all about how nervous she’s been and a friend texted her this morning that’d she’d bumped into the examiner, and like, papers were flying everywhere and she got a peek and she told Gemma what she saw on it and it’s something she knows really well.”

He was rambling.

“Mhmm,” Anne squinted at them suspiciously, “And who’s at school this early, then?”

“Zayn,” Gemma blurted.

Anne raised both her eyebrows. “Since when is that boy even out of bed this early?”

“He’s been like, super nervous about it and sleeping really badly,” Gemma said earnestly. “So he woke super early and was too restless to fall back asleep.”

Going for her soft spot, well done, Gemma, Harry thought.

“Now, after being so rudely awoken,” Anne sent them a look, “I’m going to take a nice long shower.”

When the door closed behind Anne, Harry released a breath. “Phew.”

“You don’t say.”

Harry grinned at her. He couldn’t really stop. Looking at Gemma outside his own body made him happy.

“Fuck, Harry. Harry, we gotta call Louis.”

Harry’s thoughts screeched to a halt. Louis. Fuck, what if he – he was a boy now, and Louis had held hands with him in Gemma’s body. Had got to know him in Gemma’s body. What if he didn’t even want to talk to him anymore? Harry clasped his hands behind his back in an attempt to stop them from shaking.

“Yeah, yeah, you do that, I’m just gonna go change,” he backed back towards his door. “Excited to wear my own clothes again, you know?”

“Of course, H,” Gemma said, already looking up Louis in her contacts. “Oh, phone, how I’ve missed you.”

Harry shut the door and leaned back against it. His breath shook as he inhaled and exhaled deeply. It’d be fine, of course it’d be fine. He’d just spent four days in his sister’s body for God’s sake, he could do anything. Right?

He’d only got through those days with Louis by his side, though. Louis made him feel like he could do anything. Like they could do anything.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Louis! Lou, it’s me! ME!” He heard through the door.

“No, no, Lou, you don’t understand, I’m not curly anymore!!”

Harry’s heart ached.

“Yes! Yes, we’re back! … No, I didn’t do anything, we just woke up like this, we switched back!”

Harry hurried over to his closet, afraid to overhear something he didn’t want to.

-|-

If Harry had thought he was nervous before the presentation it was nothing compared to this. He felt like he was going to puke. When he and Gemma met Louis by the school entrance she ran towards him and practically jumped into his arms.

“Oof! Hey there!” Louis wrapped his arms around her instantly. Harry remained a few feet away, watching with his heart in his throat as Louis gave his sister a twirl. “Man, it’s good to see you in you again.” He grinned as he put her back down.

Then his eyes caught Harry’s over Gemma’s shoulder. They flickered to Gemma and back again.

“Hi, Curly.” His voice was soft. Harry’s heart skipped a beat at the nickname.

“Hi.” He had no idea what to say. Why did he not know what to say?

“It’s good to see you.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled.

This was awkward. Harry hated awkward. He didn’t even know what he was allowed to say to Louis anymore, how to behave around him. Will I ever hold his hand again?

“Fuck,” Gemma mumbled as she checked the time on her phone. “I cannot be late for this test. After all this, I absolutely cannot fuck this up. Wish me luck, guys!”

She hugged both of them quickly and dashed into the school with a, “Good luck,” and, “Smash it,” called after her.

It was just the two of them now. Shit. Harry pushed his fringe away from his face. Fuck, he’d missed his hair. He silently vowed to never ever grow his own out.

“So,” Louis was rocking back and forth in his Vans. “If Gemma’s running, I guess we better go to class as well. You coming?” He asked and gestured towards the entrance.

“Err, I,” he cleared his throat. “Actually, I’ve got Bio Lab in the other building, so.” He gestured to his left, towards the newer laboratory building.

“Oh. Right. Of course.” And was Harry imagining things or did he look disappointed? No, it must be wishful thinking, Louis could barely even meet his eye as he mumbled, “See you at lunch?”

That was a question. Why was that a question? What answer was he looking for?

“I’m gonna,” Harry started backing away, gesturing towards his building. “Don’t wanna be late.”

Before he could see Louis’s reaction he turned around and started hurrying across the parking lot. If there was relief in Louis’ face he didn’t want to know.

-|-

Lunch wasn’t much better. Harry stalled on purpose, lingering in the bathroom. When he finally walked into the cafeteria he saw that Louis was sat firmly between Zayn and Gemma and chatted to Niall and Liam on the other side of the table like he hadn’t a care in the world.

Steeling himself he walked towards them, but halfway there Liam spotted him over the crowd of eating students.

“Harry!”

Niall and Zayn’s heads snapped towards him and his two best friends got up immediately to meet him with a giant group hug.

“I’m so glad to have you back, Hazza,” Niall mumbled into his hair.

“Me too,” Liam concurred.

“Your sister is nice and all, but it wasn’t the same without you.” Niall let go and held him by his shoulders. “Even if it does mean no more girls’ changing room for you.” He winked.

Harry couldn’t hold back a cringe.

“What’s wrong, Harry?” Damn Liam and how he rarely let anything slide. He’d always preferred the direct approach.

“I just, like,” Harry took a deep breath. “I don’t really think that there’s anything I’m, like, interested in. In the girls’ changing room, I mean.”

“Oh,” was the extent of Liam’s reply.

Niall clapped him on the shoulder. “Well then, that whole opportunity was just wasted on you, wasn’t it? Come join us for lunch, Hazza, I’m starving.”

As Niall dragged him towards their lunch table Liam ruffled his hair and kept a gentle hand on his back until they sat down. Harry smiled. He should have known his friends would have his back.

Then he realised Louis was within interaction range again.

“Welcome back, mate,” Zayn said with a gentle smile from across the table.

“Thanks.” Harry made his face return the smile, hyperaware of how Louis remained quiet and still next to Zayn. It felt weird – as far as Harry had been able to tell from the four days they’d spent together (had it really only been four days?) Louis was always either moving or talking. Or both.

“You know what, guys?” Louis suddenly spoke up, addressing the whole table after he’d finished quietly picking at his lunch, only occasionally contributing to the FIFA centred conversation between Zayn, Liam and Niall. Harry may or may not have stolen glances out of the corner of his eye.  “We should totally go out to celebrate that everyone is back in their own bodies! I know Ben at the corner store and he always gives me a discount on alcohol, God knows why.”

“A man after my own heart,” Niall held up his hand and Louis met his high five. He turned to Liam. “Come with us mate, just this once.”

“I don’t really know,” Liam hesitated.

“It’s not like I have anything better to do,” Zayn shrugged casually. “I’m in.”

“But I guess I could make an exception for the special occasion,” Liam finished.

Harry grinned down at the table. Liam would be mortified if he knew how transparent he was, but Zayn was sporting a little smile across from him, so he guessed it was okay.

“Oh, alright then,” Gemma relented. “I deserve it after that test and the week I’ve been through.”

They all turned to look at Harry..

“Join us, little bro!” Gemma insisted and why wasn’t Louis saying anything? Why was he just looking down at his phone?

“Gems,” Harry sighed. If it was going to be like this, he was almost glad he had an excuse. “You know I have my 5am shift at the bakery tomorrow. They just put me on the weekend shift last month, I can’t risk showing up late or sleepy.”

Gemma’s expression turned regretful. “Damn, forgot about that with everything else that’s been happening. Sorry, H.”

“Some other time, yeah?” Zayn enquired and Harry looked up at him in surprise. He hadn’t thought Zayn would have spoken up.

“Yeah, some other time, mate,” Niall agreed and reached behind Liam to clap him on his shoulder.

Louis didn’t say anything.

-|-

Harry glanced at the clock while he wiped down the counter for what felts like the thirtieth time. It was almost noon and even better, almost the end of Harry shift. Despite going to bed sensibly early, he’d tossed and turned and hadn’t slept until hours later and by now he felt dead on his feet. Throughout the week he had blissfully forgotten how busy Saturday mornings were.

Well, he’d most certainly got a rude reminder. Harry shuddered at the thought of how Gemma would have fared.

The small bell above the entrance chimed. Harry sighed and plastered on his customer service smile before turning around to face the newcomer.

It was Louis, standing awkwardly by the pastry case, one hand rubbing up and down the other arm. He was in soft trackies and a beanie covered most of his hair, only a bit of his fringe peeking out.

“Louis.” Harry’s stomach tied itself into knots on record time, but he told himself to stop being silly. He was probably just here on an errand for his mum, best not make it too awkward. He could do this. “What can I get you?” Harry was sort of proud of how even his voice sounded.

“Hi Curly.” Louis shuffled closer tentatively. “When’s your shift over?” He asked out of the blue.

“Err-,” Harry glanced at the clock again. “In twelve minutes. Why?” This was the most Louis had spoken to him since Thursday night. He started straightening various notes and napkins on the counter.

“I, erm, I had a chat with Gemma last night. About, how, like, the week has been going and what’s been going on.”

Harry’s heart hammered. Fuck. What had Louis said? “What does that have to do with when my shift is over?”

Louis ignored his question. “She basically said I was being stupid yesterday and called me an idiot. Told me to get my shit together. So I’ve come to apologise for how I didn’t, like, talk to you yesterday.”

“Why?”

Louis frowned and met Harry’s gaze for the first time since entering the bakery. “Why to which of what I said?”

“Why didn’t you talk to me?” Harry took a deep breath, finally addressing what had felt like the elephant in the room since Friday morning. His voice was quiet. “You promised you’d talk to me.”

“I know I did,” Louis replied, just as careful, just as quiet. “I’m sorry.”

“But why?”

“I wasn’t sure – it all happened so suddenly, so quickly, and I wasn’t sure if what we talked about on Thursday was still, you know…” Louis hesitated.

Harry reached up a hand to run through his hair, but was met by a hairnet. Oh God, he was wearing a hairnet. He folded his hands behind his back. “No, Lou, I – I’m not sure I do know, actually.”

“I wasn’t sure if what you said you felt,” Louis fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt. “If you could only feel that because you were in Gemma’s body. I wasn’t sure if it maybe had disappeared?” Louis looked at him through his lashes, head tilted down.

That was a question. Harry was supposed to say something. Right now.

The silence felt suffocating. And then it dawned on Harry that Louis had been afraid of the exact same thing Harry had been.

“Have yours disappeared?”

Louis gave him a puzzled look. “Why would they?”

Harry gestured towards himself. “Because I’m a boy again? And you got to know me in a girl’s body?” Harry fervently hoped Barbara and her colleagues were currently in the furthest parts of the kitchen. Otherwise there would be very awkward questions to field later.

“Harry,” Louis sent him a small smile. “You were always a boy. Just like you were always Curly. You were just, like, on a trip. And now you’re back home.”

A grin broke out on Harry’s face.

“There’s that smile I like so much,” Louis replied with his own grin. “And lo and behold, it’s even prettier on its own lips. Besides,” he shuffled closer to the counter. “You can ask Gemma about this to confirm, if you want, but I had already been thinking for, like, a while, that I might prefer boys anyway. So.”

“You’ve talked to Gemma about that?”

“Yeah,” Louis shrugged. He was leaning against the counter now. “She’s my best friend, who else would I talk to about that? And, like,” he paused. “At the time I wasn’t ready to say anything to my family, so.”

“Yeah, no, I get that. And Gemma is my family, so, I know what you mean.” Harry leaned his hip against the counter as well. “I did tell Liam and Niall yesterday, though.”

“Tell them what, specifically?”

“That I wasn’t interested in,” Harry’s voice fell to a mumble. “Girls. That way.” Despite having embraced and been at peace with it for a while, it was still weird to say aloud when it had only existed in his head so far.

Louis’s smile widened. To Harry he looked like sunshine, lighting up the whole store just with his presence. “Well done you. Took me much, much longer.” Louis ran a hand gently over the shiny counter. He stopped by a long thin scratch in the linoleum and ran his fingertip along it. Harry recalled having put it there on his second day of work. “I still haven’t told Zayn.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Louis’s grin turned crooked. “Doesn’t mean he hasn’t already figured it out, though. He’s more observant than people give him credit for.”

Harry laid his hand on counter, hyperaware of how close it was to Louis’s. “But to, like, answer your question,” Harry cleared his throat. He could feel heat rise in his cheeks. “What I said, at Cal’s, has very much not, like, disappeared. At all. So.”

Louis grinned and hunched further over the counter, leaning on his forearms. “So you still like me, then?” He teased with twinkling eyes.

“Yes, do you want it in writing, too?” Harry teased back. He wasn’t sure how successful it was with a blush no doubt high on his cheekbones.

“Hmm,” Pretending to ponder, Louis tapped his chin with a finger. “I wouldn’t be adverse to it.”

“It wouldn’t be for free, though,” Harry played along, slipping off his hairnet and leaning over to fold his arms on the counter. Their faces were closer.

“Oh yeah?” Louis lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah. I’d want your feelings in writing too.”

Louis squinted at him, but Harry could tell he was suppressing a smile. The corners of his eyes were crinkling. “You drive a hard bargain, Curly.” Louis raised a hand and pulled gently on one of his curls. “But I guess the springy bits are worth it.”

“You just want me for my hair.” Harry stuck his tongue out at him.

Louis shrugged, attempting nonchalance. “And what it’s attached to.”

Harry felt like he could split in two from happiness. Or maybe that was just the feeling of his face splitting in half from grinning so hard. Here he was, blatantly flirting with Louis, who, more importantly, was blatantly flirting back. Who liked him. Liked him as a boy. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“Hmm,” Louis’s eyes searched his face, stopping for a second too long at his lips. “What would you like me to do about it?” Louis was biting his lower lip. It was very distracting.

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but his mind came to a sharp halt.

“Can we do anything about it?”

Lines appeared between Louis’s eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“What if, like,” he twisted his hairnet in his hands. “Would Gemma be okay with this? Like,” he gestured between them, not sure which word to use.

“You remember how I said I talked to her last night?” Harry nodded. “It was more like,” Louis smiled self-deprecatingly. “More like I’d had a few beers and sort of just ended up spilling everything to her, including,” he paused. “Feelings.”

“Oh. What’d she say?”

Louis smiled softly, focussed on his memory. “Said she’d already sort of suspected, she just hadn’t been sure.” Louis chuckled. “My friends are too clever for me. She gave me the whole ‘If you hurt him’ speech-”

“Are you going to?”

“What?”

“Hurt me?” His voice was careful.

“Not unless you want me to,” he waggled his eyebrows, but then immediately turned serious. “No,” he held Harry’s gaze. “I’ll do my very best not to hurt you, I swear. But anyway,” he hurried to continue. “Then she said that, you know, as long as it was what we wanted and what made us happy and all that mushy stuff, like, then she’d be happy for us.”

Harry felt a weight lift off his shoulders. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. To be honest, it’s only because I talked to her I had the courage to come here today,” Louis added sheepishly.

Harry had the best sister in the world ever, it was official. He’d have to call the Guinness World Records office later or something to let them know. “Guess I owe her,” he said, smile back in full force.

Louis gestured to the pastry case, never taking his eyes off Harry. “I’m sure one of those cakes will do. Now,” he leaned back in and crooked a finger to gesture for Harry to do the same. He did. “Where were we?”

“Harry dear,” came Barbara’s voice from the door to the kitchen. Harry shot up and straightened his spine.

“Barbara, I was just-”

“No worries, dear, relax – your shift was over five minutes ago,” she reassured. “And I see this lovely young man here,” Harry shot a glance at Louis, now standing up straight too, fixing the beanie on his head, a blush gently dusting his sharp cheekbones, “has come to pick you up. So why don’t you hang your apron and head off, dear?”

Harry sent her a smile. “Yes, of course, Barbara, thank you.” He started to untie his apron. Harry gently touched his hand to Louis’s, still resting on the counter. “I’ll be back in a second. Wait for me?”

Louis’s smile was gentle. “Of course.”

Harry headed back into the store after frantically checking his hair in the mirror and despairing over the small spot emerging under his skin. Now hairnet and apron free, he spotted Louis sitting on one of the small café chairs, knee jiggling up and down restlessly, picking at his nails and studying them closely.

“Hi.”

Louis stood up so quickly the chair fell over backwards with a huge clang. He winced. “Oops.”

“You okay out there boys?” Came a shout from the kitchen.

“We’re fine,” Harry shouted back, smile obvious in his voice. “It was just a chair.”

Louis hurried to right the chair with a nervous smile. “Sorry.”

Harry walked over with a small chuckle. “It’s okay.”

“I’ve never done this before,” Louis confessed.

Harry shrugged, feeling like he could fly. “Me neither, so I guess we’re even, right?”

“Yeah.” Louis’s eyes crinkled again. “Shall we?” He gestured towards the exit and Harry nodded and followed him outside.

“So…” Louis broke the silence while they were both standing hesitantly outside the display window.

“Where were we?” Harry continued with a smirk, imitating Louis. He shuffled slightly closer.

Louis swallowed and his eyes darted down to Harry’s lips. “Can I?” He asked nervously.

Harry took a deep shuddery breath, heart rabbiting, hands restless. He nodded anyway.

Louis gently brought a hand to his cheek, caressing it as he went to bury it in his hair. Harry’s eyes slipped shut at the sensation. He felt Louis’s breath on his lips as he whispered, “Thank you.” And then Louis’s lips were gently pressing against his.

The butterflies in his stomach practically went haywire – and then proceeded to throw what felt like a giant salsa party as Louis didn’t break away, but started gently moving his soft lips.

Harry gripped the first thing available in order to hold on to something. That happened to be Louis’s hips. He quite liked the way his hands felt there and decided to never move them. As he started kissing back properly, carefully, he could feel Louis smile against his lips. Harry couldn’t help answering it with his own smile.

The kiss broke and they both chuckled. Louis rested his forehead against Harry’s and Harry met his gaze instantly as his eyes flickered open again. Wait, since when was Louis’s other hand resting on his chest?

“So,” Louis grinned. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“Kissing you,” Harry blurted and was immediately mortified as Louis leaned his head back in a loud laugh.

“That could be arranged,” Louis replied, hand gently running through Harry’s hair. Harry’s eyes almost flickered shut again. “But you have to come have ice cream with me.” Louis took his hand out of his hair and gently pulled on a curl, watching it bounce back in place. Harry pouted, already missing the feeling.

“Don’t you think we’ve imposed on Cal enough this week?”

“But that wasn’t a date, so it’s different,” Louis pointed out.

Harry felt like he should have reached his daily smile quota by now, but he really didn’t care. “A date?”

“Yeah, Curly. A date. Will you do me the honour of going on a date with me this afternoon?”

Harry felt his blush return. “You don’t need to be so formal about it.”

“Well,” Louis mumbled and looked away, “I wanna do right by you. Also, you haven’t said yes yet.”

“Yes, you idiot.”

Harry used his grip on Louis’s hips to pull him back into another kiss.

-|-

Fate smirked. Another job well done.

Then she proceeded to ready the tables with new chopsticks.