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When he wakes it takes several moments for him to realize that Harry should not still be in bed with him. He rolls over, blinking several times at a blurry Harry.
“Isn’t it Thursday?”
“Good morning to you, too,” Harry says, smiling down at him.
Louis just waits, not ready to force conversation without coffee.
“Erm, wanted to spend the day with you,” Harry admits finally.
Not that Louis isn’t pleased but,
“We spent most of yesterday together.” He makes the decision to sit up then, stretching and shoving some wayward hair off his forehead impatiently. “What’s up?”
He could prod at the bond for a better idea but all of that is still new and he’d rather Harry tell him.
Harry sighs, tucking some hair behind his ear.
“About yesterday-”
Louis rushes to cut him off –
“You were so amazing-”
“I’m sorry-”
They take a moment to blink at each other before Louis lays a hand on Harry’s arm.
“What?”
“I don’t know what being an omega is like,” Harry adds. “And he’d just gotten done with a heat. I didn’t have to act like a dickhead about Liam.”
Louis is momentarily stunned silent.
“What?” he repeats. “Harry, you were amazing. Sure, you’re not an omega but that doesn’t make you a shitty person. And I love Zayn to death but he probably needed to hear it. He’s never given anyone a chance, you know? Plus, you listened to both of us. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else there with me.”
“Yeah?” Harry asks, his voice barely more than a whisper.
Louis feels his lips curl in response but rather than say anything he squints at Harry, thinking yes as hard as he can.
Harry squints back at him before his eyes go wide and his lips drop open slightly.
“Y-You just…how?”
“You heard me?” Louis demands, not knowing what to do with the happiness threatening to overwhelm him.
“Were you thinking yes?”
Louis nods, laughing as Harry surges down, knocking him back onto the bed and kissing him deeply.
“Can I show you something today?” Harry asks, between even more kisses.
“Sure,” Louis agrees breathlessly. “Wait, is it your dick? Can it be your dick?”
Harry giggles before tapping a fingertip to the tip of Louis’s nose.
“Maybe later.”
Well – that makes it easier for Louis to let him go. Marginally.
Harry makes them a quick breakfast before guiding Louis to his Range Rover for an unknown destination.
“Are you really not gonna tell me where we’re going?” Louis demands again.
“It’s a surprise,” Harry remarks mildly. “That would ruin it.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
Harry doesn’t argue but Louis can see his smirk from where he’s sitting.
He crosses his arms over his chest and looks deliberately out the window.
Nearly twenty minutes later, Harry pulls into a parking garage, using a card from his coat pocket to raise the gate.
Louis doesn’t ask, but his heart is now beating painfully fast.
Harry parks in a spot painted C12 and turns to look at him.
“Come on.”
“Harry…”
Harry shoots him a quick smile.
“Come on,” he repeats.
As if he has another choice.
Louis bites the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something scathing that he doesn’t really mean.
Harry takes his hand at the back of the car and guides him to the stairwell. The touch only soothes Louis for a moment.
At least the stairwell is plain, that’s a relief. If it had wood paneling or marble floors or something else of that sort Louis isn’t sure what he would have done.
Because, it’s not like Harry’s brought him here to kill him. There’s only one reasonable explanation for this –
Louis doesn’t dare think it. Stupid as it may be – he doesn’t want to jinx it.
He’ll wait for Harry’s reveal.
On the third floor, Harry holds the door for him. As they make their way down the hall Louis can hear keys jingling.
“It’s not quite finished yet,” he says, “but…”
Louis waits expectantly as Harry unlocks the door also labeled C12.
His nerves are rioting under his skin but he thinks he’s never been this happy to be nervous.
Because he knows, all the way down to the soles of his feet, that this is for them. This is for their future.
Still, it’s another thing entirely to see it.
“Oh my god,” Louis exhales.
From where he’s standing he can see straight into the flat - to a new couch, some plastic sheeting, and a rolled up rug leaning against the wall.
“Are you nesting?”
Harry laughs, scratching at the back of his neck as his cheeks dust pink.
“I’m not nesting,” Louis can hear the air quotes. “Not yet.”
“There’s the honesty I was waiting for.”
Louis turns enough to pinch Harry’s side before bolting into the flat and jumping on the couch.
“I just wanted us to have a place for us. Somewhere quiet.”
“For heat?”
Harry closes the door, looking very much like he’s trying not to growl.
“Zayn is okay…isn’t he?” Harry says haltingly.
“Subtle, Love,” Louis chuckles.
He can’t help but preen as Harry settles on the couch behind him, one arm looping around Louis’s waist.
“It’s your choice, of course. But – I’m open to it.”
Louis snickers.
“Subtle, Love,” he says again.
“In all seriousness,” Harry presses a kiss to the back of his neck. “Only when you’re ready. Only when you want to.”
“Is there a bed?”
“How can I be nesting if there’s not a bed?”
Louis turns enough to look at his mate, his fingertips sneaking under Harry’s sleeve to wrap around his wrist.
“So…there is a bed?”
Harry just smiles at him, covering Louis’s mouth with his own.
…
“He nearly took my head off about those paintings tonight,” Louis says conversationally when they get home from Zayn’s show.
“I thought they’d look nice in the flat,” Harry says.
It’s nearly an apology.
“You didn’t have to…”
“Hey,” Harry says, catching both of Louis’s wrists in his hands and turning Louis to face him gently. “I wanted to. Zayn’s part of our life.”
Louis blinks a few times quickly. Stupid Harry. Always making his heart melt.
Louis sighs, taking half a step forward to wrap his arms around Harry.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Harry nuzzles his temple briefly before pressing a kiss there. “Plus, the paintings are good.”
“I know that,” Louis sniffs, poking between Harry’s ribs and using the element of surprise to duck out of his arms and run toward the bathroom.
Harry forces his way into through the door, both of them giggling like idiots by the time it shuts behind him.
Louis finds himself seated on the counter but rather than poking or tickling him, Harry kisses him.
It takes everything in Louis not to melt into a puddle right there. There’s a fire starting beneath his skin and he groans into Harry’s mouth.
“Alright?”
“Mmhm,” Louis answers immediately.
“Warm.”
“Mmhm.”
“Mm-Lou?”
Louis tries not to whine as Harry leans back, separating them. He mostly succeeds.
“Did you stop taking your pills?”
“Maybe.”
Harry grips his hips hard enough that Louis thinks there will be bruises tomorrow.
“Yeah?”
Any leftover worry Louis might have had is obliterated by the searing want pouring into their bond.
“Love you.”
“Love you more,” Louis counters, wrapping his arms around Harry’s neck.
Harry bites at his jaw gently before kissing the corner of his mouth.
“Impossible.”
Disappointingly, Harry does not fuck him on the bathroom counter. Rather he bundles him into an almost cold shower.
‘We need to save our energy, Lou.’
‘It’ll be a few more days, at least!’
That hadn’t worked either. Harry merely shushed him before stripping him out of his clothes.
Louis has a mind to be irritated over this well into the next day, but his anger doesn’t last. Harry washes his hair, his back, and then he just holds Louis under the lukewarm spray. He rocks them both gently side to side while humming a tune Louis isn’t familiar with.
“What is that?” he asks finally. “What are you humming?”
“Just something I’m working on,” Harry tells him.
He resumes humming and this – well, Louis supposes this isn’t too bad either.