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It had taken them five years. Five years of tears. Five years of hiding. Five years of pretending. But now, now it was over. They could be free.
The only question left was how were they going to come out.
“That is so corny, I hate it, next idea?”
Louis and Harry had been discussing different ways of coming out as a couple. One would think that in the five years of hiding their love they would have concocted a way to come out to the public but no. Neither of them had a clue on how they could do it. They didn’t want it to be through a simple tweet or Instagram post. They also didn’t want it to be a big deal (“But it is a big deal! It’s the biggest deal in the fucking world!” “Niall shut up please.”) .
“Okay but what if-”
“No Harold we aren’t going to hire out a couple of billboards in Times Square to show our faces on it in order to come out.”
“How, how did you know I was going to say that?”
“I just know you that well, darling.”
Harry lets out a sigh of exasperation, clearly just wanting to come out then and there, but also wanting to make it special. Across from him Louis had his eyebrows furrowed, eyes squeezed shut as he tried to will away the incoming headache that was slowly starting to surface. Shaking his head, Harry moves himself to sit on the couch beside Louis, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as Louis automatically sinks into his touch. Hearing the rustle of keys and a door opening they both look over to the front door, realising it was Niall back again with a case of beers. Thank god for Niall.
“So have you lads decided then?” They both shake their head at Niall as he hands them a bottle each. Niall rolls his eyes at them sitting down where Harry was once sitting, taking his shoes off and crossing his legs.
“Okay lay all your ideas out for me,”
“We have no ideas,”
“Well we could always hire ou-”
“No Harry, you are not going to hire out billboards, I’m sure Louis already dismissed that idea.”
“Oh for fuck sa-”
“No.”
Louis lifts his head from where it was resting on Harry’s shoulder and raises his hands to his eyes to rub them, at this point he is just frustrated and wants to come out. He has wanted to come out ever since the start, they both have, and now that the opportunity is there, neither of them know what to do. What a predicament.
Louis sighs as he rubs his eyes, puffing his cheeks out as he presses his palms over his eyes. Looking over at Harry he sees him it pretty much the same position, hunched forward and eyes shut as he lets out shaky breathes. Niall sitting across from them looking between the two before pulling out his phone and most likely messaging the other two boys who were not there with them.
Louis leans back, racking his brain for ideas of ways to come out without being too dramatic.
He stills remembers falling in love.
He still remembers Harry and his cherub rosy cheeks as he flushed from embarrassment when they first met. He remembers Harry and his beautiful green eyes as they looked at him for the first time, almost shocking him into silence as he stared in awe at the sixteen year old boy in front of him. Never in his whole life did he once think he would be in the position that he was in now. Where he would be sitting next to a boy whom he met at the fresh age of nineteen in an X-factor restroom, in the world’s biggest boyband, trying to figure out how to come out.
Louis always thought it was going to be easier than this, he never thought he would have to hide his love for someone for five years. For one thousand eight hundred and twenty five days.
See he always knew he was attracted to men, or at least he knew that he was attracted to both men and women. Over the years he had dated quite a few people. Though none of them ever seeming to be the right fit for him, that was until he met Harry of course. Sounds cliche, sounds cheesy, but it’s true and he wouldn’t have it any other way, as he’s sure Harry would agree.
“What if we literally just posted something.”
“Please, neither of you ever really ever post on social media,”
“Which is why it would be a great way to come out, come on, we’ve been at this for hours.”
Harry stares intently at Louis, both eyes mirroring the tiredness in the others. Louis tilts his head to the left in a questioning manner, looking like a little kid trying to convince his mum to let him stay up later than usual. Harry lets out a puff of air, a soft smile coming over his features the longer he stares at his significant other, which is no different from any other time they’ve stared at each other.
“Lads if you don’t come to a conclusion soon I will grab both of your phones and post something myself.” Niall says rolling his eyes, taking a swig of beer as he gets more comfortable in the seat. Leaning back he observes the two who still seem to be in their own little bubble, having a silent conversation.
“Guys!”
“Yes Niall we heard you give us a min-”
“You’ve been given plenty of minutes I’m begging you.” Niall wipes a hand over his face in fake exasperation, the pair know he’s joking. He would give them all the time in the world as long as he knew two of his best mates would be happy.
“Okay, we’ll post.”
“But… what?”
Niall throws his head back to let out a laugh, chuckling to himself as he watches them scramble on their phone to find the perfect photos to post. It was a big decision after all. He quickly snaps a photo of the couple, huddle together scrolling through their camera rolls with smiles on their faces, obviously reminiscing in the memories of whatever photos they were showing each other.
“What if we just post photos of each other?” Harry says with a slight shrug to his shoulders, Louis replies by whispering that it was a good idea now looking through his camera roll for the perfect photo of Harry (though if you asked him, he would say every photo of Harry was perfect).
Louis pauses, his eyes lighting up as he his thumb settles over one particular photo of Harry. It was nothing special, per se. The picture was (obviously) of Harry, it was a photo Louis took around a year ago, Harry was looking at him, his left hand resting on his hip as his right reached towards the direction of the camera, a smile took over his face with the light from the sun illuminating his face just right.
Louis faces his phone towards Harry showing him the picture, he in return smiles and shows him his own phone.
It was near the beginning of their relationship, a young Louis was on the screen all snuggled up in blankets on the couch of their first shared apartment. His face almost but not entirely hidden by the amount of blankets piled around him. It was easy enough to tell who the picture was of.
They both took to Instagram, trying to think of the perfect caption to their perfect photos.
They look up at Niall once they caption the photos, almost asking for approval. Niall just shakes his head and tells the two of them to click post before he fell asleep. The couple letting out a small laugh as they both click post. And that was it. It was done.
@louist91: Always in my heart…
@harry_styles: Yours sincerely xx