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“Harry are you sure you don’t want to come,” Zayn asks one more time.
Harry sighs at the hopeful and desperate tone in Zayn’s voice but he shakes his head nonetheless. “I’m okay Zayn, thanks. I’m just going to head to the library for a bit and then come home I think.”
Zayn nods. “You know, I’m going to get you to come out with us one day instead of staying inside surrounded by all your books.
“Good luck with that, mate,” Harry mutters.
Zayn sniggers and comes over to Harry, playfully punching him in the shoulder after kissing his cheek. He walks out the door with a final goodbye and a fond ‘love you bro’.
Harry stands up and heads to his closet, carefully taking out his coat from where it is hanging on one of his hangers. He starts to think about putting on some jeans but almost instantly decides against it. Most students are going to be at the game either way so Harry doesn’t have to worry about the judgmental eyes he usually gets.
He slips on his old running shoes before putting on his coat. Checking the contents of his book bag a final time, just to assure he has his books and laptop in there, he heads out into the chilly, winter air.
He searches his pockets for his headphones, pulling them out once he finds them. It’s a bit of a mission to untangle them but once he finally does, he connects them to his phone and slips it back into his pocket. He presses play and smiles when he hears a familiar song come on, loving how great the slow yet pop feel of the song fits in with the winter atmosphere.
‘Hold me close to you, never let me go down this road I’ve been walking on’
++
Harry is startled awake when he feels a kick against his leg.
“Shit,” he hears whispered in front of him, “fuck mate I am so sorry. My phone just vibrated against my leg and startled me. Didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Harry stares at the guy sitting in front of him, who is none other than Louis Tomlinson, utterly dumbfounded. He registers what he just said but still somehow manages to just mutter, “What are you doing?”
Louis raises an eyebrow but Harry can still make out the sheepish smile he gives and the way his fingers curl around his hands shyly. “Sorry but I came in to work on my paper and when I looked over I saw you had a textbook with you. I was going to ask if I can see it but I didn’t want to wake you either so I decided to just sit here and look at it until you woke up.” He gives Harry time to answer and when he doesn’t he stutters out a quiet, “um was that not okay?”
“You had a game today.”
Louis lets out a startled chuckle, quickly looking around to apologize but then notices no one is else is there around them. “Yeah I did. We won, by the way.”
“How do you know I wasn’t there?”
“Kind of doubt it seeing as you’ve been snoring it up since I got here straight after the game.” Harry blushes but doesn’t answer back, unsure of a cheeky answer he could possibly give. “Is it okay that I borrowed your book without asking then? Or are you totally going to beat me up now?”
Now it’s Harry’s turn to raise an eyebrow to Louis. “You’re scared of me beating you up? You do remember you are the athlete here right?”
Louis leans back against his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. He gives Harry a slow once over and shrugs. “I don’t know mate, I’ve seen you at the gym once or twice. You seem pretty in shape.”
Harry blushes once again and knows that Louis can see it when he hears him snicker. “It’s okay. You, um, borrowing my book. Sorry I fell asleep, I guess time just flew by.”
Louis nods. “Yeah I get it, it’s cool. It’s pretty deserted here anyways so no need to worry about anything being stolen or something.”
“It is pretty lonely tonight, actually. Usually there is at least a couple others lingering around.”
“They’re probably at the celebratory party being thrown after the game.”
“Oh,” Harry says. “Shouldn’t you be there? I don’t know technicalities of the game but you seem pretty important to the whole thing.”
“Don’t think you need to know the technicalities to know the team captain is important to a team,” Louis teases. “But yeah, I should probably be there.”
“You mind me asking why you aren’t,” Harry asks quietly, scared he is stepping some kind of boundaries with Louis. But luckily Louis doesn’t seem offended.
“Not at all. I just wasn’t in too much of a party mood to be honest. We also have that paper due next week and I need to start on it now so I can get the professor to look it over for me.”
Harry makes a bit of a surprised sound, causing Louis looks at him curiously. “Sorry, I just thought I was the only one who did that kind of thing.”
Louis shakes his head. “Sorry to ruin your uniqueness bud but I’ve always done it.”
Harry nods again and decides to go back to his halfway done paper, trying to limit the chances he can possibly embarrass himself in front of Louis Tomlinson, feeling as he has already done it a bit too much for his liking. Luckily, Louis doesn’t seem offended by it and also goes back to working on his paper until about a half an hour later when his phone starts to vibrate.
He takes his phone out of his pocket and sighs. He looks over to Harry, who quickly diverts his eyes from where they were already on Louis.
Louis quirks a smile but doesn’t mention it, though he’s a bit tempted to just to see Harry blush again. “Sorry Harry, but I got to go pick up a friend. Thanks for letting me use your book, mate.”
Harry looks up, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Oh, yeah, no problem.” He watches Louis pack up his things silently and gives him a small wave when Louis says goodbye. He waits for Louis to walk past the aisle before he drops his head against his textbook, exasperated.
++
“Harry, you need to calm down mate.”
“Yeah, Harry. I’m sure you are just overthinking everything and it all went fine.”
Harry looks at Zayn and Liam, giving them an incredulous look. “I’m sorry but have you guys met me? I can barely manage full sentences without stuttering like an idiot.”
Zayn shrugs. “You managed two right now just fine.” Liam laughs and knocks his shoulder against Zayn’s, whispering a quiet ‘good one, babe’, while Harry rolls his eyes.
Harry has had three years. Three full years to get used to Louis Tomlinson, and he is still struggling. In those three years, Harry has managed to keep his stares at Louis in class to a minimal glance per minute and only mentions him to Liam and Zayn once a day. - Though, to be fair, that last one was only because they refused to listen to anymore after Harry mentioned him in every single conversation they had. – And in turn, Louis has managed to join the football team, become captain, which made him one of the most popular kids around campus, and still keep up his good student reputation all the while.
Harry was honestly surprised he even knew Harry’s name.
“Of course he knows your bloody name, Harry.” Liam answered him when Harry had made than comment. “You guys are studying the same major and minor. You’ve had every single class with him since you started university. He’s not oblivious.”
But when Harry thinks back to the way Louis had seemed so comfortable to simply be around Harry, he kind of thinks it would be best for his own health if Louis was.
++
Harry walks into class, half-arsed and ready to leave already. He takes his regular seat and plumps down, letting his head fall down as well. He must've dozed off because he wakes up again to someone kicking him, this time on the side of his leg. He raises his head and turns, his eyes widening in their sockets.
"Harry, hi, I'm sorry I swear I don't have some kind of kicking fetish," Louis scrambles to say.
Harry just stares as he talks. He looks around the room, feeling like everyone's eyes are on them yet the only pair is the one of Jonah, the guy whose seat Louis took. When Harry meets Jonah's eyes, Jonah gives Harry a questioning look but Harry just shrugs before turning his attention back to Louis.
"Um," he starts to answer when he realizes Louis is still waiting on an answer, "it's okay, L-Louis." Louis lets out a sigh and gives Harry a smile. "What are you doing?" Louis smile grows and it takes Harry a second to realize why. He blushes and clears his throat. "I mean like, here - in this seat. If you don't mind me asking."
"Just walked in and saw the seat was empty. I hope you don't mind me sitting here with you?"
"No!" Harry blushes once again, shuttering at the desperation in his voice and using the hand on his thigh to pinch himself. "It's cool- you know, you sitting here and all. It's cool. You're cool. It's all cool."
Harry turns to face the front of the classroom and lays his head back down on the desk, praying to every God he can think of. His prayers are answered when Professor DeLeon walks in and starts talking, saving Harry from whatever comments Louis was going to make. Probably about how dumb and socially awkward Harry is.
“So class, as you know your book reviews are due next week. Everyone should follow the examples of Styles and Tomlinson over there,” everyone turns to a blushing Harry and a grinning Louis, “who have already finished their papers and turn them in for me to review. If you do that I can give them back to you with some feedback and then you can fix it for a better grade by the time next week roles around.” The students hum and Harry hears some snickers from behind him of ‘what a nerd’ and Harry knows they are talking about him and not Louis.
“Today I am going to give you some free time to work on your papers so hopefully I get more early essays on my desk.” He waits for people to start taking out their computers and other necessities before calling over Harry and Louis to his desk. “Bring your things too, please,” he adds.
They grab their things and make their way over to his desk. When they reached it, he smiles at them and hands them their papers. “You two never fell to impress me, I swear. Both you have some things to fix but they are really minor and even if you weren’t to fix them, you would still gets A’s.” Both Louis and Harry smile at him, thanking him. “It’s always a pleasure to help deserving students. The reason I called you guys over actually is because I have decided to give the students the rest of the week to work on their papers. Some of them need a lot more help and I want to get as many high grades as possible. Seeing as you two have already finished, I am giving you the chance to skip my class for the rest of week. In return however, I would really appreciate it if you would both be willing to help out some of the students with their papers? Just going over them with the students and giving them some helpful tips. What do you guys say?”
Louis looks over at Harry, who nods in return. Louis turns to the professor and smiles. “We’d love to help out, sir. Mind if we do it as a team?” Harry is about to protest, tell Louis he doesn’t have to spend more unwanted time with him, but the professor beats him to it.
“Not at all. I would actually prefer it that way I think.”
“Great,” Louis says. He places a hand on the small of Harry’s back, making him jump slightly. “How about we give you our numbers? You can give them out to the students and when one of them wants to meet up they can text us and we will meet them up.”
“That’s a great idea, Louis,” Professor DeLeon beams. “I’ll do just that. You can leave now and expect people to contact you both starting tonight or tomorrow. You probably will only get a couple of students who are actually going to bother to come to you so I think you can handle it. And if you need any help just let me know.”
Harry and Louis nod. They give Professor DeLeon their numbers and walk out, Louis’ hand still on Harry’s back as they make their way out of the classroom and into the hallway. Harry tries to come up with something to say but can’t think of anything that won’t make him sound silly so he decides to keep his mouth shut until Louis talks. Louis on the other hand seems completely comfortable with the silence and doesn’t actually talk to Harry until they reach the end of the concrete walk where Harry has to turn right to go back to his dorm room.
“I have practice,” Louis says.
“Oh,” Harry answers, “sounds fun?”
Louis cracks a smile at that. “It is actually. You should come to a game to see how fun it actually is.”
“How do you know I don’t go to all of your games?”
“What color are our uniforms?”
Harry gives the first answer he can think of. “Blue.” And he does not think about the fact that he thought of the same shade as Louis’ eyes specifically.
Louis nods. “I’ll text you once I get out and we can work out what days work best for both of us so we can accommodate with the people who want our help.” He leans in and hugs Harry, pulling away before Harry can gain movement in his limbs to hug him back. At the last moment however, Louis pulls back in to place his mouth against Harry’s ear. “We wear white by the way.” He places a faint kiss on Harry’s cheek and turns away so Harry can’t see the rosy pink color adorning his cheeks.
++
Harry starts pacing back and forth in his room, throwing looks at his closet in hopes that something will just pop out and hit him in the face but alas, everything stays neatly on his hangers.
“Harry, just pick something will ya.”
Harry makes his way to his bed and picks up his pillow, aiming it carefully at Zayn and yet still manages to miss, the pillow landing a couple feet away. Zayn raises a sassy eyebrow and Harry groans, landing face first into his bed. “Pretend that hit you, will you?”
Zayn snorts. “Sure. Ow Harry, that hurt. Better?” Harry nods. He hears Zayn sigh and hears his bed creek. He can hear Zayn dragging his feet against the carpeted floor and after a couple of minutes he feels a weight drop on him. He looks up and gives the clothes now laying on him a careful once over. He turns back to Zayn, who stands there staring at him expectantly. “Well come one now, put that on.”
Harry thinks about it but then decides to just do it, seeing as him picking out his own clothes wasn’t going any better anyways. He puts on the jeans Zayn threw at him and pulls on the warm, dark green turtleneck sweater he bought last year. He ruffles his hair and looks over to Zayn. “Good enough for me?”
Zayn snorts. “Good enough for anyone, mate.”
Harry blushes, going to the bathroom to mess with his hair. He ruffles it back, spraying it with some water and a bit of gel in hopes it’ll stay out of his eyes for the night. He puts his glasses on and curses himself for not going to get new contacts last week when he saw he was running low. He hears a knock on the door and lets out a heavy breath.
He carefully walks out and peeks a careful head out of the bathroom to cast a look at the door.
“Lou, mate, c’mon in.”
Louis smiles, coming in and patting Zayn’s shoulder. “Thanks Zayn. Is Harry ready?”
Zayn turns to the bathroom and Louis follows his eyesight, sucking in a small breath when he catches Harry shyly standing there. He knows Zayn heard him and ignores the snicker that was thrown his way to stare at the way the sweater Harry’s wearing – the one that he remembers talking about to Niall and Zayn for about a month straight – hugs his lean torso. Harry smiles and sends him a small wave before ducking his head embarrassingly and grabbing the coat draped over his bed.
He walks over to Zayn and Louis. “I’m ready. I’ll see you later, Zee?”
Zayn nods. “Sounds good. Text me when you get back. I might be at Li’s.”
Harry nods. He leans down and presses a friendly kiss to Zayn’s cheek and Louis tries his best to hold down the jealous tinge that hits him. He knows Zayn and Harry are just friends, and knows that Zayn wants Harry and Louis to get together almost as much as Louis does but he can’t help but be a bit jealous at the level of comfortable Harry seems to be with Zayn.
Meanwhile, as they walk down the hall and into the winter air, Harry can’t help but cast side looks at Louis, who is wearing a pair of tight trousers and a tan sweater, showing through his unbuttoned green jacket. They walk in comfortable silence down the street, getting to the café where they agreed to meet up with Sarah to talk about her paper.
They walk in and are given a wave from Niall, a guy Harry remembers from Liam’s marine biology class last semester and who is Louis roommate. Louis leads Harry to an empty table towards the side of the café. He pulls out Harry’s seat, smiling widely at the blush that tints his cheeks in response, though Harry stammers something about the cold weather.
“I’m going to go order us something. What would you like,” Louis asks, reaching over to curl a loose strand of Harry’s hair around his finger before placing it behind his ear.
“Um,” Harry stammers, “whatever you are getting is cool.” Louis beams down at him and nods, making his way over to stand in line. Harry urges himself to calm down, going over the fact that this is not a date, no matter how much Louis argued with him about picking him up and ‘no I will not let you meet me there, Curly, I am going to pick you up like a gentleman and make sure you don’t get run over on your way there.’
He is taking his coat off when he feels someone’s presence next to him. He looks up and meets Sarah’s narrowed eyes.
“Hi, Sarah, nice to –“
“Where’s Louis,” she interrupts him.
“Oh,” Harry says, being taken aback, “he’s getting food for us actually. Would you like anything?”
Sarah ignores his question. “I texted Louis for his help and don’t remember mentioning you.”
“Right, um, see Professor DeLeon asked we review people together so that is why I am here now, actually.” He lets out a shallow chuckle but looks away when Sarah keeps sending him cold glares.
“Oh, hi, great to see you. Sarah I assume?” Louis comes over to their table, placing down one of the cups he was carrying in front of Harry and the other in front of himself.
“Yes, hi Louis,” Sarah says, a bit too cheerfully to be honest. “Thank you so much for meeting with me. When Prof D told us we could meet up with you for some help I jumped at the opportunity. My writing skills aren’t the best and I really would be honored to get some of your help.”
Louis smiles. “Thanks Sarah, glad we can help.”
“I was just telling Harry actually, that I don’t mind working with you so if he wants to go he is more than welcome to. I’m sure he’s got other homework to catch up to or something.” Harry shifts uncomfortably in his seat, staring at the steam coming out of his delicious smelling drink.
“Nonsense,” Louis says, his lips a bit tight when Harry looks at him, “we both want to help out. We are a team and that’s how we are offering our services, right Harry?”
Harry nods, mumbling a quiet sound of agreement. He feels Sarah sigh from where she is standing next to him but she takes the empty seat anyway, though she scoots it closer to Louis.
“Right, thanks. Well Professor DeLeon told me to print out my paper so far and let you read over it, making any corrections along the way, and then once you finish, we can talk a bit about the things seen that I can improve on. I only have one copy though,” she says, sliding it towards Louis. “Sorry, mate.” She doesn’t even give Harry a glimpse and he feels the apology go straight over him.
Louis beams at the Sarah however, standing from his seat and motion her over. “That’s fine, no worries. You just sit over here and I’ll take your seat.” They change seats, much to Sarah and Harry’s confusion, and Louis scoots his new seat all the way next to Harry. “Harry and I will just share, won’t we babe?”
Harry blushes again and nods, jumping slightly when he feels a sharp kick against his leg. He can tell by the sour look Sarah is throwing at the table it wasn’t Louis this time.
Louis takes out two red pens from his pocket, handing one to Harry, who gives him a thankful smile.
He thinks Louis can tell what it’s really for by the rub he gives Harry’s thigh, where his hand somehow managed to get. He keeps it there as they read Sarah’s paper and surprisingly, Harry manages to ignore it for the most part, though that’s mostly because of the utter bullshit he can feel Sarah put into her paper. Judging by the way Louis’ grip on his pen gets tighter and tighter, he agrees.
It takes them a short amount of time to read over the entire paper, afterwards spending about double that time going over the paper once again and writing down some feedback where they deem it necessary.
“So,” Louis says after he sees Harry cap his pen, “I think we are about done.”
Sarah beams at him, flipping her hair back. “How was it? I know I need some pointers here and there but overall, what did you think?”
Louis seems to mull over the correct phrasing and Harry takes a long drink of coffee to hide the smile that overtakes his lips. He places the cup back down and with a surge of confidence, places his hand against Louis’ on his leg. He pinches his skin, causing Louis to jump and move his attention back to Sarah, who is still waiting for an answer.
“I think you have some good ideas. You give good reasoning as to why you thought the book was a good book and why you would recommend it but it’s all very basic. You need to go into more detail or not it sounds like you are simply trying to skirt around the actual topic, does that make sense?” Sarah nods, trying to seem concentrated though it’s pretty obvious she was only staring at Louis the entire time.
Louis turns his hand over and curls it around Harry’s, giving it a tight and needy squeeze.
“I think,” Harry says, giving a small smile when he feels Louis deflate against him, “you just need to add more on the connection between the book’s goals and criminal law. There are a lot of connections and parallels but you have to mention them and explain how the author was able to use them to connect to his targeted audience of young teens.”
“How do you think I should do that?” Harry opens his mouth to answer but closes it almost immediately when he gets a strong glare. “Louis, how you do you think I could do that?”
“Well,” Louis answers, scooting closer to Harry and away from her foot that had started rubbing against his leg. “I think Harry’s feedback throughout your paper gives some really good advice; elaborate more on your points and add evidence to back you up. You have this book you read so make sure you use it, okay?”
Sarah nods. “I will, I promise. Thank you so much for your help, Louis. I truly appreciate it. Who knew you were as smart as you are good at football. When’s your next game by the way?”
“Oh, Friday actually.”
“I’ll make sure to stop by. Maybe I can say hi to you before the game starts.”
Louis cringes at the flutter of eyelashes she sends him but hides it with a blinding smile. He, unwillingly, disentangles his hand from Harry’s so he can bring his arm up and wrap it around Harry’s shoulders, pulling him against Louis. “That sounds great. Make sure to look for Harry there to say hi, too. I’ll be with him most of the free time anyways.”
Sarah’s smile falters. “Right, yeah- I’ll do that. Thanks again, I have to go now.” She quickly grabs her things and heads out the door, ignoring the goodbyes Louis sends her.
Louis turns back to Harry and gives him a sheepish smile. “Well that was something, right? What a –“
“I should head back,” Harry says, standing up from his seat and pulling his coat on. “She was right, I have other homework and studying to do and you probably have football practice or something. Thanks for getting me coffee, it was delicious.” He sends Louis a sad smile and starts walking away.
He barely makes it out the door when he feels a hand wrap around his wrist.
“Hold up, curly, let me walk you back.”
“You don’t have to.”
Louis smiles, letting his hand fall so he can awkwardly hold Harry’s hand. He gives it a gentle squeeze before dropping his hand down and stuffing them in his pocket, unsure on whether he’ll be able to control himself around Harry. “Nonsense, I want to.”
++
The walk back to the dorms is quiet once again, though this time Harry can feel an underlining hint of tension. He and Louis make a bit of small talk on the way. Harry tries to pay attention to Louis’ questions but he knows the awkward silences are mostly thanks to his one-word answers.
When they finally make it back to Harry’s dorm room, Harry turns to face Louis. “Thanks for, um, walking me home. And thanks for the coffee again.”
Louis nods. “It was no problem at all mate.” They stare at each other for a breath before Louis sighs, a bit desperately. “Look Harry, don’t take the things Sarah did personally. She was rude and it was all uncalled for.”
Harry shrugs. “It happens.”
“Well it shouldn’t.” Harry bites his lip, unsure on what an appropriate answer he could give would be. “I would really like it if you came to the game on Friday though.” Harry looks up meets Louis’ eyes. “Maybe afterwards we could head to the pizza parlor that opened down the street?”
Harry’s eyes widen, almost comically, and it eases the nervous butterflies that set in Louis’ stomach. “Like-like a d-,”
Louis rises up on his toes, pressing a kiss to the corner of Harry’s mouth. He takes in Harry’s startled gasp and saves it for the future. “I hope to see you there curly.”
++
“It’s a date,” Zayn cheers.
“It’s not a date.”
++
“It’s a date,” Liam chants.
“It’s not a date.”
++
“For fucks sakes mate, of course it’s a date - he’s only been wanting to ask you on one for a year now,” Niall yells, chucking his bitten up pencil at Harry.
++
“What the hell do I wear on a date,” Harry screams.
++
Louis comes out of the showers in a hurry, giving quick smiles and high fives to all the guys in the locker room. He sends rushed thanks to all of the ‘good job out there, captain’ and ‘thanks for the win, bro’ and definitely ignores the ‘did you put on fucking cologne?’
He gets back out to the field and looks around the stands, quickly looking over the last couple of lingering faces. When he can’t find the one he wanted to see, he sighs. He spends the walk to his car cursing himself for how stupid he is.
He doesn’t realize he is doing it out loud until he reaches his car and hears a voice.
“You can’t talk to yourself, that’s what I do.”
Louis’s head whips up and he meets a pair of green eyes, looking at him shyly. Harry is standing there in a pair of jeans, his chipped oxfords on his feet, and a tan vest peeking out from underneath his coat. He pushes his glasses up his nose from where they started to slip. He bites his lip and that’s all it takes for Louis to drop his things next to his car and walk up until he is standing in front of Harry, their toes touching.
“Sorry to ruin your uniqueness bud but I’ve always done it.”
Harry laughs loudly, covering his mouth with his hand to try and keep his volume down. Louis smiles and chuckles too, moving closer to wrap his arms around Harry’s neck. The immediate contact quiets Harry and Louis can feel Harry’s breath quicken.
He rises on his tiptoes and leans in until his face is right in front of Harry’s. He stays there, waiting for Harry to make the move. He doesn’t want Harry to feel forced or confused by Louis’ intentions. He needs to know that Harry feels the same way as Louis.
“C-Can I,” Harry stutters, lowering his gaze to Louis’ lips. Louis smiles and nods, his nose rubbing against Harry’s as he does so. Harry gulps but nods, carefully placing his hands on Louis’ hips. He leans in and closes the distance between them, connecting his lips slowly and languidly with Louis’. Harry waits a couple of beats before he starts to move his lips against Louis’, following Louis when he starts to take over the kiss.
They kiss and kiss until they can’t anymore, and Louis almost says fuck it to the date just so he can keep kissing Harry but instead he pulls back. He steps out of Harry’s reach, but tangles their fingers together, bringing Harry’s right hand up so he can place a sweet kiss on it.
“Date now?”
Harry beams, nodding excitedly. “Yeah, a date sounds great.”
++
The next day Harry shows up to class with Louis’ football jacket on and Louis hand in his, and he thinks to himself, ‘yeah, the kicking was worth it’.