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This isn't really much of a surprise, seeing as he's always late, but this time it matters because his plane leaves in twenty minutes and he's still going through the drag of security and passport checks and really, all he wants to do is get back to England for the holidays. He's passing his classes, he's actually going to work when he's scheduled to, so he deserves this one thing to go right for once. 

He huffs and crosses his arms as the line moves slowly, making sure he has his boarding pass and passport out. There's some bratty kid behind him that's yelling about some stupid toy he forgot at home, the old woman at the front of the line is taking far too long to get her id out of her and he thinks he's going to breakdown out of frustration any minute now.

But he stays calm throughout the wait, finally making it through security with only ten minutes to get to his flight before it leaves without him. This is dumb, airports in America are dumb. This is all fucking Zayn's fault for convincing him to take that internship in America. He's never taking Zayn's advice ever again. 

"Hey- Hi, yeah, Louis Tomlinson?" He says quickly when he gets to the ticket counter, handing them his boarding pass and drumming his fingers nervously on the counter. He sighs in relief when they let him through, hurrying onto the plane and searching the aisles for his seat. He maneuvers his wait all the way to the back when he finds it, looking down and frowning when he sees someone else is already in his seat. "Mate, I think you're in my seat," He tells them, showing the guy his boarding pass with that seat number on it.

The man takes his boarding pass out of his bag, showing it with the same seat number printed. Louis blinks a couple of times and looks between both tickets and sighing. This is really fucking great. 

A flight attendant comes up to him, probably asking him to sit down. Which he would, but you know, someone's in his fucking seat so there's a little bit of a setback. "Sir, if you could just find a seat-"

Louis crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there are none," He says, annoyance filled in his voice. The attendant seems slightly taken back by his tone, but quickly composes herself and gestures for him to follow her. He sighs, making his way all the way to the front of the plane with the attendant and complaining in his head. Of course this stupid fucking flight couldn't go right, when does anything ever go right for him?

"Unfortunately we've overbooked all of the economy seats for this flight," She says to him. Louis opens his mouth to complain, but she quickly begins to speak again. "We do have seats left in first class, if you're willing to-"

"Yes," He answers immediately, pushing past her and entering the first class cabin. He can feel her roll her eyes behind him, but to be honest he really doesn't give a shit. He's probably delayed this plane by at least ten minutes now and he didn't want to waste any more time waiting for things to go wrong. 

He lifts his carry on to slide it into the overhead bin, losing his footing and accidentally stumbling into one of the rows. Getting up as fast as he can manage, he turns around and looks at the person who's lap he had fallen into. "I'm so sorry, today's really not my day and my roommate woke up an hour late, I couldn't get all of my sisters' gifts into my suitcase and now this-"

The guy laughs and Louis actually takes a minute to really look at him. He looks familiar and Louis feels like he should know who this is, but his mind is drawing a completely blank on him right now. This guy definitely has to be famous somehow, though, he's got the looks for it. Pretty green eyes, long, dark brown hair and really nice lips that Louis has a strong urge to kiss at the moment. He doesn't do that, though. He doesn't want to make this whole thing ever more awkward than it already is.

"S'alright mate, no worries," The guy says, giving Louis a kind smile. Louis nods slowly, a little bit mesmerized with the guy's looks and how nice his voice sounds before looking behind him and closing the overhead bin. He sits down in the empty seat right across from attractive - and probably famous - guy and smiles sheepishly.

"M'Louis," He says, holding his hand out. "I'm not usually that clumsy," He adds. Cute guy laughs again and reaches his hand out, shaking Louis's.

"Harry." Ah, so now cute guy has a name. Except Louis still can't figure out where he's seen him before and it's kind of killing him. He's searching his brain for any attractive blokes named Harry with English accents that he may know, but none are ringing a bell. God fucking dammit. "And it's alright, not every day that a fit lad literally falls into your lap." Harry winks when he says it and shit, Louis's heart is racing and he can't tell if that's because he almost just died or if it's because an extremely attractive guy just called him fit. This is flirting, this is definitely fucking flirting and okay. Louis is almost twenty three years old, he knows how to flirt.

"Also not every day that you get to literally fall into a fit stranger's lap," He replies with a grin, silently praising himself for making that come out as smooth as he had planned it to. 

Harry smiles - he has fucking dimples - and shrugs, sitting back in his seat and taking his phone out. Louis stares at him for another few seconds before it starts getting creepy. He looks down quickly, seeing a name tag on Harry's bag and squinting to see he can read the name on it. 

Harry Styles. 

Still doesn't ring any bells. He takes his phone out and googles the name before the attendants start instructing everyone to put their phones on airplane mode. The page just loads when the same attendant that made him move makes sure his phone is on airplane mode. He tries to glance at the page, but the attendant just gives him a look until he exits out of the browser and puts his phone on airplane. That flight attendant wouldn't be getting a good review from him, that's for sure.

He sighs and puts his own headphones in, silently reminding himself to look up Harry's name later and try and figure out who he is.

"Where did you say you were from?" Louis asks Harry in the middle of their conversation. They're seven hours into their flight and they've only been talking for about thirty minutes of it, both of them flirting with each other the entire time. He's managed to make it though the entire conversation without jumping out of his seat to make out with him, so that's a bit of an accomplishment there. He should tell Zayn when he lands.

"Holmes Chapel," Harry says. "Cheshire."

Louis nods and smiles. "I'm a Yorkshire lad meself," He tells him. "Doncaster."

"Ah, a Donny soldier, then," Harry replies. Louis laughs and nods. "Except I'm pretty sure soldiers are supposed to be quick on their feet..." 

Louis rolls his eyes, crossing his arms and feigning annoyance. Although, a grin pokes at the corners of his mouth and gives it away, earning an amused glance from Harry. "Is that all I'm going to be known as to you? Guy who fell on you on the plane?" He asks, his tone joking. Harry chuckles and shrugs, pulling his phone out of his pocket and holding his hand out.

"Let me see your phone," Harry says and Louis quickly hands it over to him. Right, well, hopefully that didn't seem as desperate as he thought it did. 

He's gonna go ahead and assume it didn't, because Harry just takes his phone and messes with it for a few minutes before handing it back. He shows Louis the screen of his own phone, with Louis's number in his contacts as 'cute guy that fell into my lap on the plane'. Louis shakes his head, but smiles. His name just got programmed into a fit guy's phone and he didn't really want to do anything to ruin that moment. Granted Harry could possibly be a stalker or mass murderer, but he'll take his chances.

"So," Louis starts. "What do you do for a living?" He asks, leaning his arm on the armrest and resting his head in his hands. Someone that looks like Harry has gotta be a model or something. He's definitely pretty enough for it, if Louis had any say. Even if he wasn't a model, there had to be some way this guy was known to the rest of the world. 

Harry shrugs. "I sing a bit," He answers. Louis almost laughs out loud at that one. A bit. That's funny. 

He raises an eyebrow and puts his phone back into his backpack under the seat. "You fancy yourself a singer, then?" Harry laughs, taking a drink of his soda and smiling. 

"Yeah, yeah I do." Louis bites the inside of his lip when Harry answers, smiling softly and nodding slowly. He can sing, then. Maybe that's what he knows him from. Maybe he's a really famous singer and Louis just doesn't recognized him. He thinks about it for a minute before shaking his head and getting rid of the thought. Doubt it. "Auditioned for X-Factor once."

"Did you?" He asks, sounding impressed. "Get far?" Harry shakes his head and all Louis has wanted to do this entire flight is tell Harry to meet him in the bathroom in five minutes. That's not what he does, though. He just leans forward in his seat more and fixes his fringe. "I reckon I should get your autograph, then. Just in case you do get famous. Can tell everyone I knew you when you were just starting out." That's a lie, but it's also the only pick up line he can think of that would fit into this conversation, so he'll go with it. 

He expects Harry to laugh or shake his head, but the other boy just scribbles something quickly on a napkin and hands it to Louis. "I'd write my number on there, but I've already got yours so it's not much of a pick up, is it?" Harry grins.

Louis stares between Harry and the paper, looking at his signature for a little longer before returning the smile and putting the napkin in a safe place in his bag. "Oh, so this is you trying to hit on me, then?"

"Did you not notice it before?" Harry replies with a smirk. Louis purses his lips and shrugs. Of course he noticed it before, who wouldn't notice it honestly. "What are you doing over the holidays, then?"

"Going to see my mum and siblings, spend some time with my mates in London, the usual," Louis says, shrugging nonchalantly. "How about you, then? Any wild plans?"

Harry shakes his head and leans back in his seat. "V'got time off from work, for the most part. Probably gonna spend it at parties, to be quite honest." Parties, Louis wants to go to parties. He'll probably drag Zayn with him to a bunch of them until both of them are hungover the entire week and can barely remember their own names. "Actually, you know what? I'm gonna be staying in London for the time I have off. Should tell me when you're around there." Okay. That was definitely Harry asking him on a date. 

"Well I would, but I haven't got your number," Louis says cheekily. Harry smiles and shrugs.

"Guess you'll just have to wait until I text you, then." Harry winks and Louis scoffs, sitting back in his seat and rolling his eyes. Smooth fucker. 

Louis finds himself thinking about Harry even hours after he's left the airport and is sitting in his old bedroom at home. He spent a good twenty minutes bragging to Lottie about the fit guy on the plane that was definitely flirting with him and even got his number. Unfortunately, he never did convince Harry to give him his number, but he should get it eventually when Harry texts him, right? 

He opens his suitcase, looking down at it with a frown before taking out the gifts he had and hiding them under the bed. They're poorly wrapped enough that his sisters won't question what they are. 

Staring down at his mess of clothes for a couple more minutes, he shrugs and shuts his suitcase, sitting back on is bed with his laptop. He bites his lip, remembering that he had meant to look up Harry when he had gotten off the plane, but he had been in such a rush that he had barely had any time to do it. Opening a new tab, he quickly Googles Harry's name, being distracted by a knock on his door and pressing the wrong letters for the name.

He sighs, looking up from his laptop. "It's open!" He calls, narrowing his eyes at Lottie when she enters his room. "Why are you here," He says, going back to his searching. "I'm doing important research."

"What, about the fit plane guy you were talking about?" She asks, sitting next to him on the bed. Louis shakes his head and retypes the name. She peeks over at his laptop and raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's his name?"

Louis nods, looking at her. "Yeah, why?" He asks, watching as the page loads. He skims over the page quickly, widening his eyes when he sees the results, turning to Lottie.

"That's why," She says, pointing to the information on the screen. "That's Harry Styles, as in, that sixteen year old kid that won X-Factor four years ago," She explains. Louis thinks back to four years ago, cursing to himself when he realizes this is the same kid that Stan and Zayn always made fun of him for backing on X-Factor. Shit, then. Puberty did wonders for him. "That's not the same guy on the plane, was it?"

Louis nods slowly, clicking on images. "That's him. It's definitely him." 

"How did you not recognize him?" She asks, grabbing his laptop from him and opening Youtube. He frowns, reaching over to grab it back, but she swats his hands away and types Harry's name into the search bar. She clicks on a video, sitting back and pointing to the screen. Louis sighs, leaning forward and watching the video. "Weren't you like, in love with him when he was on?"

He sits up straight and glares at her. "No. I just thought he was talented, s'all," He defends crossing his arms and looking back at the video. He recognizes this song, he's heard it on the radio all the time. Niall plays it every single second of the fucking day to the point where Louis has to take his phone from him and demand he doesn't play it anymore. Not that it's a bad song, but you really don't want to listen to the same one over and over again.

Lottie rolls her eyes and hands him his laptop back when the video's over. "I have his posters all over my wall you know- Oh my god, when you get married can I be your maid of honor?"

Louis furrows his brows, shaking his head and shutting his laptop. "We're not getting married. And he probably won't text me back."

"Of course he's gonna text you back, he got your number for a reason," She points out. Louis thinks about it and shrugs, leaning back onto his pillow and messing around with his phone. "Tell me when he does." She gives him a look and gets of the bed, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her. Louis sighs and shakes his head, checking his messages and tossing his phone to the side. Harry was most definitely not going to text him.

His birthday and Christmas both go by without a message from Harry, just as he assumed. Lottie tried to convince him that he was probably just busy over the holidays with his family, but Louis decides against that theory. Maybe Harry just took his number to seem nice or something. He seems like the kind of person that would do something dumb like that.

When he tells Zayn on the ride home from the train station, Zayn doesn't believe him. Which is actually kind of bullshit, because he has the napkin with Harry's signature on it and if Harry would just text him, then he'd have even more proof of it all. But, no. Zayn has just picked him up from the train station, he has explained the entire situation and Zayn is calling him a liar. Zayn's a dick.

"Why would I lie about that?!" Louis exclaims, shoving the napkin in Zayn's face. Which, alright, there is a valid reason to lie about meeting a celebrity on a plane, but Louis isn't lying. This time. "I fell into his lap when I was putting away my carry on. Zayn, please."

"Sure you did, Lou. Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination?" Zayn asks, pushing the napkin away and carrying Louis's bags up the stairs to his building. "You do that sometimes." Louis scoffs, getting out the car when Zayn park outside his flat and grabbing his carry-on bag while Zayn grabs his suitcase from the trunk

"First of all, that was once and I'm still convinced that was David Beckham," Louis argues, slinging his bag over his shoulder and following Zayn inside. 

Zayn nods aimlessly, opening the door to his flat and tossing Louis's bags to the side. "Sure. Anyways, when are you heading back to the states?" Zayn asks, ignoring anything else Louis has to say on the subject of Harry and the plane incident. Whatever, he'll Skype Niall later and tell him everything that happened. Niall would believe him, just like he believed him when he was ninety nine percent sure that the guy at Tescos was David Beckham. 

"After New Years. So about two weeks or so," Louis tells him, putting his backpack down and sitting on the sofa. "But watch, Harry's gonna text me any minute now and you're gonna have to apologize to me for calling me crazy and delusional."

"I will never apologize for calling you crazy and delusional," Zayn says, sitting down beside Louis and grabbing his laptop from the floor.

"Fair enough," Louis responds, leaning back and sliding his phone out of his pocket. He quickly checks his messages to make sure he doesn't have anything from an unknown number, but to no avail. He sighs, tossing his phone to the side and glancing over at Zayn, who's sat down beside him. "Take me somewhere, Zayn." He demands, leaning on his best friend's shoulder and sighing loudly. "I'm bored."

Zayn rolls his eyes and pushes Louis off of him. "Take yourself somewhere. You can use my car if you want. Keys are on the counters." Louis frowns, but stands up and grabs his phone, taking Zayn's keys off the counter and walking towards the exit. This wasn't what friends were for. He's going to replace Zayn one day, he's sure of it.

"I'll be back never," Louis says, opening the door.

"Right. See you in a bit, babe," Zayn calls after him. Louis shakes his head and flips him off before leaving the flat and closing the door.

He walks around London aimlessly for an hour, having stopped into a Starbucks for a hot chocolate and cookie before venturing out in the winter streets. It's colder than it could be, he thinks, but it's still a bit too cold for his liking.

He sips on his hot chocolate, glancing around and looking over at a shop window. He raises an eyebrow when he sees a poster covering it, with a picture of a guy that looks a lot like the Harry he had met on the plane. He walks over to it to take a closer look, reading the info on the poster and laughing softly when he sees the name written on it. Harry Styles. He really should've known all of this when he had seen Harry on the plane.

He takes a picture of the poster, sending it to Lottie and then stares at it for a few minutes longer before his phone beeps with a message. He looks down at it and smiles when he sees it's an unknown number signed off with '-Harry xx'. Then he remembers the poster and looks back up at it before reading the message on his phone.

hope you haven't fallen into anyone else the few hours we've been away from each other. -Harry xx

Louis laughs, shaking his head and sending back a response.

nope. just walking around london. which, im in, by the way. since you seemed to want to know :)

He turns the ringer on his phone and shoves it in his coat pocket, going into the store and browsing over the cds. He finds the section that has all of Harry's and he bites his lip, picking one up and looking over it. After a few good minutes of debating, he picks up one of each album, going to the register and placing them on the counter. He might at well, right? He flirted with the guy on the plane and he has his number, so he should be able to listen to his music. If that one song was enough to go by, then he definitely would.

His phone goes off as he's handing the guy his credit card and he takes it out and reads through the message, forgetting about the fact that this is the same guy that he's buying the albums of.

are you? where at?

He contemplates whether he should tell him that he's in a music store buying his albums, but he decides against being that specific. Might not wanna be that forward about knowing who he is yet.

music shop. right around topshop and starbucks. dunno if thats too vague.

nah, i know where that is. mind if i meet you there?

Louis pauses, not knowing how to respond. He doesn't really have anywhere to hide the albums and he's really not sure if he's gonna react well to seeing Harry after knowing that this same guy is actually a multi-millionaire popstar.

sure

He doesn't know why he typed what he did, but he presses send anyways and he's still in shock when the cashier hands back his card and gives him the bag with the cds. He still hasn't figured out what he's even gonna do with those, so he's kind of sort of screwed just about. 

Sighing, he smiles softly at the cashier and stands outside the shop waiting for Harry. The other boy didn't give him a specific time or anything, but he'd rather just sit and wait than have to come all the way back to meet him.

Louis's stood out in the cold for twenty minutes when he decides to send Harry a quick text. His hot chocolate is long gone and now he doesn't have anything to keep his hands warm, seeing as he left his gloves at Zayn's and is too stubborn to go to a shop and buy another pair. Maybe he types fast enough on his phine, his hands won't freeze to death.

"Louis?" He looks up from his phone, putting it away and smiling when he sees Harry walking towards him. "S'been a while, hasn't it?" Harry jokes, grinning. Louis laughs, nodding.

"Definitely. The last couple of weeks have been torture without you and your shitty knock knock jokes," Louis tells him, playfully nudging his side with his elbow. Harry scoffs, pretending to seem offended. "V'got a question for you," He says when they start walking down the streets of London. He might as well find out, seeing as there seems to be posters of Harry on every shop window and he can't seem to avoid them. 

"Shoot," Harry says, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Louis looks up at him and for the first time realizes that Harry's a good three or four inches taller than him. He looks down at his own short legs and frowns quickly, then shakes his head and goes back to what he was about to ask Harry.

He bites his lip and looks up at the taller boy. "When you said you auditioned for X-Factor..." He trails off, taking one of the cds out of his back and handing it to Harry. They both stop walking while Harry grabs the cd from him and gives Louis a sheepish grin. "So...You didn't get far?"

"Right, about that," Harry says, handing the cd back to Louis. They both start walking again and Louis puts the cd back in the bag, biting his lip and waiting for an explanation from Harry. "I kind of won? It was like, four years ago and I was sixteen. Got signed and well, here I am four albums later."

Louis stays quiet for a minute, trying to reel in the fact that he's walking right along side a popstar as if it's an every day activity. How did he get here? "So what you're saying is that not only are you hot, but you're hot, talented and rich?" Louis asks jokingly and Harry scoffs, playfully shoving Louis's shoulder. He grins and shoves Harry back, stuffing his hands in his hands back into his coat pockets.

"Sorry for not telling you right away. Or well, not planning on telling you. It was nice not having you treat me differently because of who I was," Harry explains and yeah, okay, Louis can see where he's coming from. Not that it really mattered, because he wouldn't treat Harry any different than he did on the plane just because of this. Maybe he would have to up his flirting technique a little bit to come out on top of everyone else trying to get to Harry, but that should be easy.

"I have known you for an eight hour flight and these past ten minutes we've been talking. You have really shitty jokes and nothing you say makes sense half the time. I promise i won't treat you differently," Louis says, smiling brightly. "Although if you ever need a plus one to some parties, I wouldn't mind," He adds, laughing along with Harry and taking his phone out of his pocket. "But okay, I told Zayn about you - Zayn is my best friend - and he didn't believe me when I said there was a really fit guy on the plane next to me - Nevertheless that you're the guy I had a crush on that season of X-Factor - so I'm gonna need a selfie for proof that you are who I said you are."

Harry furrows his eyebrows before nodding and grabbing the phone from Louis. They both stop in their tracks once again, Harry holding the phone up and both of them smiling while Harry takes the picture. "There, tell him I'm real."

Louis grins and sends the picture to Zayn with the caption 'fit lad from the plane, told u he's real jackass'. He puts his phone away and starts walking with Harry again, looking down at his shoes and humming softly. "No plans today?"

"Nope. I had plans with friends, but they bailed. So now, I get to hang out with you." Harry smiles and wraps an arm around Louis's shoulder. "So, you had a crush on me when I was on X-Factor?"

Louis opens his mouth to say something, but stops. Shit, he did let that slip didn't he? "Well- I mean, yeah-"

Harry laughs, shaking his head. "Do you still have that crush on me, then?" He asks, taking his arm away from Louis and sliding them back into his pockets. Louis smiles sheepishly and shrugs.

"Dunno. Maybe, maybe not," He answers. He looks up at Harry, who's got an offended expression. Louis laughs and grins, nodding. "Yeah- Yeah, v'still got a crush on you."

"Oh good, now this can be an official date," Harry says with a smile. Louis blinks a couple times in shock, then smiles again and grabs Harry's hand, running and pulling him down the side walk. Harry's taken off guard, but follows him, both of them laughing as they run.

Harry leaves Louis in bed on Louis's last day in London. Not actually leaves him, but Louis wakes up to a half empty bed and a sticky on Harry's pillow that says he had an early radio interview at nine. He glances over at the clock and sees that it's only five minutes until then, so he grabs his laptop - Because it's only been two weeks of them dating, but he practically living there now - and searches for the radio stream link.

He listens to the songs as they play, grabbing his phone and waiting for the interview to start. When it does, he can't contain the amount of fond on his face when he hears Harry speaking. He's so in deep and it's only been two weeks. Shit.

It gets to the part where people call in to ask questions and Louis quickly dials the number for the station, waiting patiently while it rings and frowning when it doesn't go through. He sighs and dials again while listening to some teenage girl go on about how much she loves him and ask him some really stupid question that's probably been asked a million times before. 

The amount of girls that get through before he does is ridiculous and he's sat through fifteen minutes of hysteria before his phone finally goes through to the station. He sighs in relief, then grins, remembering what he's about to do. 

"Hello?" He hears Harry say and he smiles even wider, then coughs and tries to lower his voice to sound different.

"Hi- Hey, Harry?" He says, trying to stop himself from laughing. "My name's...John, I'm a big fan of yours," He makes a face at himself, mentally swearing for thinking of such a dumb name. He should be better at this, especially with all the times he pretend to be his parent to call out of school. 

"Hiiii," Harry drawls and Louis smiles. "How have you been?"

"Been alright," Louis says in the same voice. "How about yourself?"

"A bit tired, but great besides that." Louis does his best not to imagine Harry in the morning with messy hair and tired eyes and a soft smile, but he ends up thinking about it anyways and he giggles a little bit before covering his mouth to stifle it. "Have you got a question?" Harry asks, his voice still gravely from being tired. Louis fawns over it for a few seconds, then clears his throat to speak again.

"Yeah...Do you have your eye on anyone special?" He asks, biting his lip and nervously awaiting Harry's answer.

The line is quiet for a few minutes, then Louis hears Harry clear his throat and answer. "Yeah- Definitely. Actually, had to leave them in bed this morning for this interview." That's when Louis wants to cry. But he doesn't and he stays composed, only freaking out on the inside and trying his hardest to keep his breathing steady. For fucks sake, he thought he left all of this giddy stuff in high school.

Louis starts to say something, but the interviewer cuts him off and says that's all the time they have with Harry. He frowns, silently glaring at his laptop in hopes the the interviewer can feel it through the screen. Probably not.

"Bye, Lou." Louis hears before the interview is cut off and he widens his eyes, mouth open in shock. Does that mean...Shit, Harry knew it was him. He throws his phone to the side of the bed and shuts his laptop, laying back down and hiding himself in the bed sheets. That's embarrassing. He could've sworn he had him fooled, shit.

He panics when he hears the front door open a half an hour later, turning over and shutting his eyes. Harry comes into the room five minutes later, sitting on the bed and leaning over. "I know it was you on the radio this morning, Lou," He says quietly, but Louis can hear the fondness in his voice. He rolls over and squints his eyes open, smiling lazily at Harry. The other boy pushes Louis's fringe out of his eyes and leans down, catching his lips in a quick kiss and smiling. 

"Could've told me that you had an interview this morning, twat," Louis pretends to complain, but the smile on his face gives him away. "You sound nice on the radio."

"I meant to!" Harry exclaims, grinning. "You distracted me," 

Louis scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Flattery gets you no where."

"Mm, it gets me everywhere with you," Harry says, leaning back down and kissing Louis quickly. "When do you leave tomorrow?" Louis pouts when Harry pulls away, sitting up in bed and leaning against the headboard.

"Morning," He says sadly. Harry frowns, running his fingers through Louis's hair and kissing his cheek. "I tried to see if there was anywhere I could get a position at here, but I couldn't find anything. Everything's full." He sighs, laying his head on Harry's shoulder. Him and Zayn had been looking for a teaching job for him for months. Louis was getting tired of being in the states and he wanted to be back home now. And now with....Whatever this thing with Harry was, he had even more of a reason to stay.

"I'm gonna miss you," Harry says, kissing the top of Louis's head. Louis sighs and plays with his fingers. 

"I'm gonna miss you, too." He glances over at his suitcase and laughs to himself when he realizes how attached he's gotten to Harry in only a span of about fourteen days. He should be fine when he gets back to the states. Maybe.

Six months later

"You ready, Lou?" Zayn asks, looking over at his best mate. Louis looks out the car window and nods, opening the door and getting out. "Good luck. He missed you." He takes a deep breath and nods, smiling and walking to Harry's front door. Hesitating for a minute, he presses the doorbell and waits. 

He steps back when the door opens a minute later and he's certain he stops breathing when he sees Harry on the other side. No amount of phone calls, skyping and texts could have prepared him for this moment right here. 

"Louis," Harry says, his eyes wide and tone filled with shock. Louis smiles, stepping forward and accidentally tripping on on of his laces. Harry catches him before he falls, laughing softly and shaking his head. "Oops," He teases and Louis looks up at him, smiling sheepishly.

"Hi," He replies, standing up straight and fixing his fringe. "So I guess us meeting like this is gonna be a thing?" He jokes. Harry nods and hugs him tightly, kissing his hair and grinning. 

"I missed you so much," He mumbles, pulling away and leaning down, pressing his lips to Louis's and kissing him gently. Louis kisses him back, wrapping his arms around his neck while Harry places his hands on his waist. They both pull away from each other after a few seconds, looking at each other and smiling softly. "Definitely missed that. Can't really do it over the phone."

Louis grins and kisses him again, pulling away and resting his head on Harry's shoulder. "I love you," He whispers into Harry's neck, shutting his eyes and closing all the space between them.

"I love you, too," Harry says. They said it to each other the first time last month over Skype, but now it's all real and in person and it sounds so amazing. "How long are you here for?" He asks quickly, looking down at Louis and raising an eyebrow.

"That's the thing," Louis starts pulling away and looking up at him. "I'm staying."

Harry pauses, blinking a few times. "Are you serious?" Louis nods and smiles brightly. Harry hugs him tightly again and grins. "Oh my god, that's amazing! Where are you staying? Did you get a job here?"

"With Zayn and yeah. Teacher's assistant position. It's not much, but it's something and if I do well enough, I could get my own teaching position," He says excitedly, hugging Harry back. "I'm here to stay."

"M'so glad, Lou," Harry says, pressing kisses all over Louis's face and causing the older boy to giggle. "I love you and now you're staying. I can hold your hand and everyone can know how hot my boyfriend really is." 

"Mine is hotter," Louis tells him, pushing his hair back and sticking his tongue out at him. "Definitely."

Harry ignores that and pulls Louis in closer by his hips. "I'm gonna post so many pictures of you on instagram that everyone's gonna get annoyed. Then I'm gonna kiss you so much that you'll get annoyed." Louis laughs at that and leans into Harry's chest. He thinks about how different their relationship is gonna be now that they're actually together and smiles. 

It's a nice thought.